Introduction to Digital Publishing
1.) Do you feel Brand Journalism is as honest as regular journalism? Meaning, do you feel that it tells more of a story or a life?
2.) How do you come up with the idea and format for each of your articles?
3.) Do you feel more journalist will gravitate towards your approach of Brand Journalism?
1.) I experienced wild Bison in their natural plains interacting with each other and the camera. Seeing a herd of an animal I have never seen before was very eye opening. It gives me a better sense of their purity and natural awe.
2.) I feel that VR will allow powerful stories to be experienced first hand. This will allow for stories of war, disaster, and trauma to be better appreciated and experienced, opening the eyes of the world and hopefully allowing for a better sense of the world climate.
3.) I do believe VR can evolve empathy. By seeing, as if you are almost there, it leaves a lasting impression on the viewer. Being able to evoke emotion and teach a lesson that print or standard 2D video cannot is what will being others to feel empathetic to those suffering
[This is a video of a volunteer talking about sewing and her experiences with working at AWE]
[This is a video of a volunteer talking about her experiences and skills working with AWE]
[This is a video of the executive director discussing the importance of AWE and volunteers]
Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE) is always looking for volunteers and individuals to help and get involved. These stories are just a small glimpse on the touching stories at AWE. Online donations are always welcomed, yet the experiences you get from hands-on help carry with you forever. AWE accepts all kinds of volunteers ranging from clothing closet assistant, a community connector, community activity leader, garden caretaker, guest speaker, lunch chef’s, pantry coordinator, teachers for english and skills, and much more. For more information go to our volunteer/donate page.
The author of this source is a volunteer at the Refugee Support center and it is his retelling of how two immigrants emotionally touched him. The author is not credible in the sense that he is using only his first name, but the content of his story speaks for itself. Bea’s clam is that through meeting two refugees, Ahmed and Farres, that he has a better appreciation for life, even though his overall interactions with them were very minimal. The primary audience would be individuals looking to get involved and looking to see how others have helped or been affected by those being helped. A secondary audience would be donators looking to see how the organization is doing and how the volunteers are contributing.
A bias of this site is that it is all told from a limited point of view of the author. He knows very little about the individuals that he has assisted and can only tell a story from that limited information. The author is also of Syrian decent, so he would tend to write about the individuals in a positive light. A weakness is rooted in the bias that was just stated, only a little information is given. A strength is that this story is exactly what I would want the text and the experience to be formatted for the AWE workers. This greatly supports my project giving me an idea of how to tell the AWE workers stories from their point of view and how to not only focus on just questions but the experiences of them. This is highly relevant to my project.
There is no singular author for this source, instead it is a collective of various stories told by refugees compiled on the site. The site itself, UNHCR is a highly known and very well regarded United Nations affiliate tasked with the protection and betterment of refugee and asylee status individuals. The page that I am using as the source for this site does not make any direct claims or state a thesis, instead it uses the power of stories and videos of refugees and their struggles to demonstrate the higher need for more assistance for them, in the United States and all around the world. The authors intended audience would be those who are looking to become affiliated with and help in assisting the UNHCR. A secondary audience would be those individuals who are not necessarily getting involved but want to know what kind of lives a refugee lived/has lived to one day get involved.
A potential bias that could be seen in the article can be that It tells the stories of refugees around the world and from different time frames. There are current stories, but some go back as far as the 1940’s. Since there are stories from all around the world and are refugees and asylee’s combined, there is a lot of varying and mixed information. The weakness that I can see is that there is no direct source. There are loads of stories but they are from many different authors. A strength is the design, this is close to how I wanted the page for AWE to look and the kind of idea I was thinking about. Also, the stories themselves are very strong and emotional and gives me an idea of what I would do. This helps supports the project I am doing. It gives me a very nice and detailed design of how to format the page and how to draft the stories of the AWE volunteers. This material is highly relevant for the project because of its format, design, and presentation.
For this source there is no singular author, more so it is a collection of refugee, immigrants, and staff testimonials. This source is an organization that is from Washington D.C, they focus heavily on the international and domestic assistance for refugees and immigrants who need to be resettled. The sole thesis stated at the top of the page is in regards to the stories of the refuges and how they have went from a negative to a positive. The intended audience would be those individuals who are looking to get away and escape from their current situations. This page alone tells the dramatic stories of those who fled and how much better their lives have become. A secondary audience would be any individual looking to get more involved with this organization.
There really is no bias in the article besides the fact that all the stories are lives that have gone from worse to better. Not every refugee or immigrants lives would become better and the site does not include any negative stories. A weakness, as can be expected for any stories page, is that there is multiple authors of the stories and they do not all come from one source. Each story is different and unique, making it hard to set an expectation or standard. This greatly supports my project, as I have a better idea of questions to ask the AWE volunteers about their experiences with the AWE seekers and how their lives have changed for the better. Also, the formatting and the use of thumbnail videos help as well in the overall idea of the design for the page. The stories themselves make this article critical for my project as it gives me a wide variety of questions to ask the volunteers and how to phrase them.
Asylum seekers, asylees, and refugees who escaped the blight of their countries, come to America in hopes of a better life but, sadly experience more persecution by many. Yet, through the persecution, some find their way to individuals much like Asylee Womens Enterprise (AWE). With the change coming to the AWE website, the main focus should be on the stories of the volunteers with supplemental pictures relating to the stories they tell. The intended audience of the website should focus on those who are looking to get involved and either help or donate. By the main focus of the new site honing in on the touching story of those individuals, this approach will not only light a fire in those who are contemplating donating, but will call those individuals to action by their transformational stories of how touching working with the individuals at AWE. Many successful websites like refugues.org dedicate a large portion of their site to the transformational stories of those whom they have helped. Refuge.org takes this approach though layering the webpage with photo links that allow you to not only to read the stories but to see the individuals who the stories are related (Refugee.org). By taking this approach, AWE can use videos and testimonials of these volunteers and workers and turn them into a direct connection with the viewer. Testimonials from staff will show individuals how transformational donations and working in AWE can be. By taking this approach, the intended audience, those who are trying to be recruited for donations or volunteering, they will feel a kind of personal attachment to those in who AWE are helping. Connecting individuals on this technological level allows a connection to be formed immediately and creates as deeper passion. We can ask Tiffany to send over testimonials and interview videos for us to edit and format. Potential questions can range from “How has working at AWE changed your perspective on Asylees?”, “Expand upon your most emotional experience you have had through AWE?”, and other related questions.
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Refugees.org, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
Letter Press Write-Up
Going into the letterpress workshop, I was very ignorant of what it was and the entire process of. Listening to the background of the letterpress history, it did bring into light a better appreciation of the entire English language and older texts. Learning what points meant (before, I thought that point was just a term that had no significant meaning) and that many of the terms we use in digital writing derive from this older form.
After working with the press and seeing how it operates, I found that there is a lot more thought and precision needed than I believed would be. I had no clue about leading, the points needed, the spacing, placing things backwards so they come out proper oriented, just to name a few. Adding color (or modifying the color) was something that I found very interesting. Instead of using a lot of color in the center, it required only a tiny amount to modify the color and there were multiple ways to apply the color.
After leaving the workshop, I have a better appreciation not only for written language, but for the whole writing process. Similar to thinking about what words should come next in a paper and which font size to use, individuals who work with these press have an ample amount of patience, skill, and desire for their work, as a single mistake would cause whatever was being worked on to need to be restarted
Heifer International is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and bettering the lives of those who live in an ill-poverished and under-developed nations. The primary audience for this webpage would be those who are interested in donating either supplies or livestock to those under-privileged or under-developed towns, cities, or even areas. This organizations webpage, as soon as it loads, asks about how frequent of a donator you are to create a more customized experience. A secondary audience may be those who are suppliers of the donated livestock or items. They suppliers would want to know the statistics of the donations and how much, or how little, individuals are donating for a certain livestock or necessity in question. For example, if a water buffalo goes for $230 of donations and they raise enough to donate seven water buffalo but a goat goes for $50 but they only raise enough for three goats, the livestock donator would want to know why individuals are choosing one over the other and work with Heifer to determine better marketing or awareness for the necessity of individual livestock. A tertiary audience would include other donation website administrators, as well as individuals looking to find a cause to join but who are not looking to immediately donate or join. Other administrators may be looking for ways to better their sites and by looking at the website markets and at individual differences in-between sites, others can better their websites. Also, other administrators may also be looking for a partnership or a joint-action and may look the site over to see what each can bring to the partnership.
The overall intention for the creation of this text media is to not only show the reasons why donation is important, but to organize the text and graphic sources in such a way that it is appealing and welcoming to new users and keeps the attention of frequent users. There is a mediated balance of text to accompany various graphics and it is created in such a way that invokes the user/viewer to look more into what the organization stands for, how their donations help, and gives current updates from the areas in which the donations go. A secondary intention for this site may also be to show how even though an area may be under-developed or lacking resources, that area is not miserable. A vast majority of the graphics used are of happy and smiling families and towns. Many donation or call to action sites show images of sad or damaged areas and children or family’s. Heifer goes against the norm and instead showcases how these areas manage to adapt and get by without the luxury’s or necessities that we oftentimes forget are not enjoyed by everyone else. The donations are meant to help improve the lives and standards of living that these individuals have, not meant to better them into a way of happiness.
(Heifer International.com)
The media for this given source is a website, as it is the best possible way to reach individuals around the globe. Using a website, the author allows a wider audience to view and observe their donation source. Using the web over print media also allows for on the spot donations and allows individuals to view and donate anywhere they feel comfortable. I found the text due to this course; however, If I found this site on my own I would still be interested. At this time, the best possible source to use is web media. It is the most up to date and modern type of media we have currently available.
(Heifer International.com)
The author is a collective of the group Heifer. I do trust the source as they not only cite and credit others, but they have up to date and modern source information. The authors are genuine and authentic and their message comes across as trying to spread the cause about their donations. Having a collective group of members develop and craft the website, I feel, creates a more dynamic site, as the more individuals who contribute the more aspects of the site can be modified and looked at from different perspectives.
The genre of this text would be informational organization. The source material wants to spread knowledge and information about their source. By using the .org option opposed to using .com, it is more genuine in its cause.
There is a wide variety of fonts within the subjects of the pages. The gift catalog text is a different from a majority of the other text styles on the page to draw attention. The explanation text starts off with a larger text size then it becomes slightly smaller as to allow the viewer get a grasp of the topics. Having a variety of fonts offered to the viewers helps to defeat the problem of the pages looking boring and the viewer potentially losing interest.
(Reference 1) (Heifer International.com)
(Heifer International.com)
The information of the site is organized in a way that it starts with a main topic (See Reference 1) and then breaks into sub topics; the information is simplified to the viewer by breaking the sub topics into pictures to allow the viewer to see what the next page of information would be. This style of organization allows a vast amount of information to be presented at once without over loading and deterring the viewer. The information is also very straight forward and leads the viewer to where they want to go.
(Heifer International.com)
As the viewer navigates the information on each page, the next page slowly becomes less and less clustered with more links. The pages become more information based as the viewer goes deeper through the site, narrowing down on what the page is meant to convey.
(Heifer International.com)
This style of information architecture and organization is very helpful and easy to navigate for viewers. By breaking the information up this way, a viewer can easily navigate through a lot of information without feeling over encumbered or even realizing the true breadth of information given to them. The viewer can take in the information at their leisure.
The colors of the website are simple; however, the few colors used can draw in and attract attention of the viewer. The main color scheme is composed of blue, white, and light/dark yellow. Using these three colors allows the viewer to recognize easily what color to look for when navigation the top ribbon. Making the gift catalog a different color, than the rest of the ribbon, on that is more dynamic and a different hue, draws the attention of the viewer and compels the viewer to click on it and donate.
(Heifer International.com)
(Heifer International.com)
The call to action button is a vibrant darkish red color. This color is the most predominant color on all the pages, as it wants to be remembered and imbedded in the viewer. The gift catalog and all to action button are dynamic and dark as to imbue the viewer with a sense to donate.
(Heifer International.com)
(Heifer International.com)
The user experience for the site is incredibly easy. The tabs and sidebars allow the user to viewer the page at their pace and reminding the viewer about the information presented on the page. The previous three sections all culminate to the user experience. The user, as the pages are navigated, is presented with diagrams, charts, figures, and more. The examples given to the viewer are presented in a simplified and colorful way as to not be over looked by the viewer. The overall navigation of the site is easy and able to be understood by viewers. There is no confusion of the pages. The pages are easily navigable and do not over-encumber the viewer.
(Heifer International.com)
(Heifer International.com)
(Heifer International.com)
(Heifer Intenrational.com)
This website is very well put together and is very easy to navigate. A first time user can go through the pages at their own leisure and not get too overwhelmed. The animations are an interesting touch as they are more of a “childish” style but fit the site nicely. The information itself is very well organized and put together and offers many various options to the viewer.
Using Jing to screen capture images was incredibly easy. Jing allows for annotations, arrows, highlighting and emphasis of text. This ease of access made relating my images back to the topic at hand relatively simple.
This project overall was very enjoyable and I learned a lot more about a website than I thought there was. The amount of thought, direction, and purpose for sites such as this to hone in on an audience is amazing.
Work Cited
“Heifer International | Charity Ending Hunger And Poverty.” Heifer International | Charity Ending Hunger And Poverty. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.