on1 – Introduction to Digital Publishing

GSR Social Media

The platform that I chose to use was Instagram. Instagram is a great option because it combines both images and text which can get the interest of different people. Personally, I am on the platform a lot and know that is very popular for college students. With the target audience of the Green Spring Review being current students, prospective students, and parents, I think that Instagram is the best way to reach the current and prospective students. Not only can the pieces be viewed on the GSR Instagram, people can link it to their Instagram stories of the piece which can get more people to view it.

Greenspring Review Submission

Bright lights, street performers, gambling, partying, and huge crowds of people coming to one place for the time of their life; because “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” My spring break was all you could ever hope for – filled with love and excitement. This was my first major trip with a boyfriend, staying in a king suite of Mandalay Bay with a view overlooking the Las Vegas strip. Antonio and I were taking the trip of a lifetime.

We arrived in Las Vegas in the morning and were immediately ready to start the fun. Upon arriving at the hotel and checking in, we ran straight into the casino. The room was huge and seemed to go on for miles because we heard people cheering for joy and they were nowhere to be seen. We went straight to the black jack table and put down 100$. The dealer placed down two cards in front of me, a 7 and a 3. I nervously tapped the green felt table, and down landed an Ace, and just like that with beginners luck, I hit 21! I doubled my money on my first play.

We decided not to push our luck and get out to continue exploring, we were instantly captivated by the Mandalay Bay Aquarium. We bought tickets to feed the sea turtles too. Not only did we feed 300 pound sea turtles, but we also got a behind-the-scenes look at the shark tanks too. We spent the rest of our day wondering the aquarium seeing all of the aquatic life they had to offer. We called it an early night due to the jetlag we were beginning to feel after our long day of traveling from Maryland.

The next morning Antonio woke up before sunrise and placed a call into room service. I woke up to the smell of breakfast and freshly brewed coffee which filled the room. Antonio handed me a soft fluffy robe and slippers and told me to wake up so we could watch the sunrise and have breakfast in bed. It was like something out of a movie.

We spend the rest of our day by exploring what felt like the entire world. We went to the New York hotel and saw the Statue of Liberty and rode a roller coaster around the city. Rode in gondolas around Italy at the Venetian hotel. Stopped in Paris and kissed at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Landed in Egypt and saw a sphinx at The Luxor. This whirlwind experience was too good to be true! I started thinking to myself, this really was too good to be true… just like that I woke up to a phone call from the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, “Hello is this Cynthia Marquez? I’d like to call and inform you that your upcoming reservation is being cancelled due to COVID-19” and just like that my dream spring break was over!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KvoCbm2z0AIUNBYXppnvDbf7TMMQq1fIAFE8844gp88/edit?usp=sharing

GSR Submission

Covid-19: A personal Timeline

January 11^th, 2020,

I have seen on the news something about a virus in China. I don’t care. It’s probably sensational journalism to get more “clicks.” One or two people have died but these people had underlying health issues I am sure. In a few days, it will all be forgotten.

January 30^th, 2020,

I read today on Reddit that the WHO declared the virus a global health emergency. An exaggeration. They’re just trying to be safe. Some are saying this is going to be really bad, but I don’t believe it. They just want to be fearmongers. Bad things only happen to other people, not me.

February 26^th, 2020,

They quarantined a ship in Japan. Again, my naïve mind believes this is just another fad. Little did I know more than 700 people on that ship would test positive for the virus.

My school sent me an email about the virus, and that they’re following the situation closely. Is it really that bad? I’m just keeping calm and carrying on with my routine. People are just scared. Wash your hands, don’t cough into your hand and don’t touch other people and you will be fine.

February 29^th, 2020,

It is Saturday and I have to go to work. Working at a busy restaurant is very nice on Saturdays because I’ll leave with a lot of cash in my pocket.

It is 6:30pm and I eagerly await my first table. It has been two hours. Where is everyone? I leave my job at 7:00pm with $30 in my pockets. All in a day’s worth.

I open my car door, I sit down, close it and take a deep breath. For the first time it hit me, this is not fine. I shrug it off again because I’m young and bad things only happen to other people.

March 1^st, 2020,

My trip to California has officially been cancelled. I am still optimistic that everything will go back to normal soon. We know it won’t last. People are nervous but it will all go away like everything else.

Death tolls in China are going through the roof. Health care in china isn’t the best from what I’ve read so I believe all this death is due to negligence rather than a deadly virus.

March 5^th, 2020,

I have been laid-off from my job. I have worked since I was 18 and never have I ever been laid-off. I have enough money for one last tuition payment, but I won’t be able to pay my car or insurance. I’ll go back to work in a few days, and I’ll pay it all off.

March 8^th, 2020,

My state is in lockdown. I can no longer leave my house unless I’m doing something essential like grocery shopping or going for a run. This is historical, I think to myself.

Today I went grocery shopping and I was afraid. Afraid of touching the cart, afraid of touching doorknobs, I’m afraid of everything because we have lost control. Everyone has face coverings and I feel like I’m in the middle of a “biological fallout.” I keep scolding my dad because he touches everything he sees. “-Stop doing it. We don’t know if we are asymptomatic” I don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death.

March 9^th, 2020,

I called my Mom today. She offered to buy me a plane ticket so I can go back home and “wait it out.” “-Mom, I can’t travel right now” “-Yes, mom I’m good on money, don’t worry.” I can’t possibly make my mom give me any money after everything they spent on those leukemia treatments. Everyone is struggling. I have been washing windows and managed to make a couple hundred bucks. Should be good for another couple of weeks.

March 10^th, 2020,

My stepmom and dad’s boss has requested that our family move into her house to minimize risk of infection. Selfish. We have no choice. We either do it or risk losing our only two sources of income. I pack very little clothes, and my laptop. We won’t be there for long.

This virus is slowly taking away all good things from my life. I am away from my girlfriend, my bed, my home.

Most of the time, I don’t know what day it is. Feeling like Kurt Ville;

“But it was a Monday, no, a Tuesday
No, a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Then Saturday came around, and I said
“Who’s this stupid clown blocking the bathroom sink?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=659pppwniXA

March 11^th, 2020,

I wake up and chuckle. I find it amusing that I am now in lockdown in a multimillion-dollar mansion, but I only have about 53 cents in my bank account. At least I can cry about in the sauna. These hard times are marked by irony. I am a prisoner of the virus I once called dramatic.

March 25^th, 2020,

The first dreaded email comes in,

“Dear Renato,

I have not received your assignment. Hope you are doing well. Please submit soon.”

I don’t know what’s going on with me. I am having trouble developing a routine in this house. I’m working weird hours. I am afraid of opening blackboard because I know how much I have neglected my student life. I just can’t do it.

March 28^th,2020,

My mom calls me. She always waits for me to call her. Something is wrong.

I cannot believe this is happening. Bad things do happen to me. He died from the virus. I wasn’t even close to him so am I so hysterical? I cannot even fly home to the funeral. Is there even a funeral?

I could feel the optimism I have so proudly carried with me throughout the years seep away.

April 10th, 2020,

I have moved again, and I am back home. I couldn’t handle it over there anymore. I am isolated but I am okay.

I just want good things to happen to me again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=659pppwniXA – Ville, Kurt. “Pretty Pimpin” “b’lieve i’m goin down..”

GSR Social Media Remix

In my mockup of a social media post, I chose Instagram as the main form of social media for the Greenspring Review. Instagram is a social network filled with over 120 million users and most of those being young people. Instagram caters to the youth and college-age students who look to social media for information. The Greenspring Review wants and needs to reach its students at Stevenson and looking to enroll in Stevenson; this is the platform that the audience looks first for the latest information and things about school. I think another important audience is parents. Parents of Greenspring Review writers want to see their child’s published work and probably show it off to their co-workers. This can be done through the Facebook platform. The post on this platform would be more formal and straight to the point of promoting new talent and student work. While the Instagram Post would be more causal as a way to get students interested and aware of programs being put on and how to enter their own work onto the Greenspring Review.

On Instagram, there are many factors that make it the best choice for the Greenspring Review. Once a page is on public, any person can have the ability to direct message (DM) the Greenspring view for questions or comments within minutes to stay in contact with the magazine. On Instagram, there can also be private and public stories that give an interesting aspect of exclusivity for the site to relate messages to certain people, for example, possibly a secret poetry reading late at night and only the people who like this post get to be in the private story for the location. Another good thing about this platform is that the comments amount is pretty much unlimited versus a platform like Twitter that only allows a certain number of characters per post. Emojis are always a good way to capture a follower and keep them interested in the caption attached to the picture. And speaking of photographs, these can be anything from a picture to a flyer to a video or a gif to make the post whatever we want it to be. All forms of mixed media work and mixing up the different media per post is a creative way to keep followers on their toes. Posting frequently, once a day of 3-4 times a week is good for any organization or club because this means they appear on someone’s timeline more often and that is the best way to get your page out there. Ultimately, I believe Instagram is the best platform to promote and use social media for the Greenspring Review.

GSR

Dear self,

This sucks. Everything you knew as normal got taken away in second. But, maybe it was for the better.

As much has you hate school, you miss sitting in class and hearing a professor go on and on for 75 minutes. As much as you love going to lacrosse, you miss the run test.

Take this time to work on you. Find new things that make you happy. Read a book, finish a puzzle, play board games with family, write in a journal, do a face mask, or take a bath.

Enjoy the little things in life, because in the end, you could have it much worse.

Think of the people who are fighting for their lives. Think of the people who are fighting for other people’s lives. Thank the people who are working tireless, around the clock to slow this down.

Because in the end, you wake up every morning in a bed, with a roof over your head, and are healthy.

So yes, it sucks. But maybe, just maybe, it is for the better.

Social Media Remix

I think Twitter would be the most effective platform for my submission for the GSR. Twitter is my favorite social media platform and it is used by many college students. Although my primary audience is college students at Stevenson University, my secondary audience could be frequent beachgoers since my story takes place at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. When I was creating my social media post, I was debating between Twitter and Instagram. I decided to choose Twitter because of the type of content on the two platforms. When college students are scrolling through Instagram, they only want to see pictures. Usually, people go through Instagram much faster than other social media sites since they do not read much. Meanwhile, Twitter is full of all types of media, so people are more likely to read posts or click on a link that opens a new window with your writing. Another good feature of Twitter is that other users can retweet your post, which increases the number of people that will interact with my tweet.

There is no character or space limit for Twitter. However, no one wants to read a super lengthy tweet, so I think it is best to keep it short. Twitter allows you to include a picture or GIF along with a text caption. I think I should use an attention catching picture with a two sentence caption. The image will catch their attention, and then I will really draw them in with a personal question as a hook. Although you are not able to manipulate the font or color, I do not think it is necessary because I want to keep it simple. Furthermore, I think emojis may decrease my credibility, so I want to keep everything short, simple, and professional.

I think an image with a caption will work best. If I only used text, then I think it would get overlooked since there are so many tweets with just text on Twitter. If I used a video, then that would give away the plot of my story, which I do not want to do because I want people to read my story and be surprised. I think a professional photograph of a man next to a shark is the perfect image because it captures the viewer’s attention without spoiling the story. If I were to use a GIF, then I do not think that would capture their attention as much as a photograph.

I would post around 9 am on a Saturday morning. Many college students wake up and scroll through Twitter like it is the morning newspaper. I think I would get the most likes and comments by posting it on a Saturday morning since that is when many college students are active on Twitter. I do not want to post it on a weekday since most people still have online classes, which leads to a wide range of possible viewing times. I feel like Saturday morning is a safe time since everyone should be home to read their Twitter feed. With Twitter, you are also able to retweet your own post. Therefore, I could retweet it the following week around noon, which would be the second best posting time. This is because people usually have a lunch break around noon, so they are able to check their social media platforms. The last thing I would do is “pin” the tweet to my profile. This means that if someone views my profile, the tweet will always appear at the top. By doing this, I will increase my views even more.