Thus far, this blog has been dedicated to documenting the experiences and thought-vomit produced by the closing chapter of my college career. There is a lot of reminiscence, a lot of introspection, and drabbles of experiences here and there of the big events of this semester.
In this special post, I will explain a few elements of my blog put into context with social media theories, incorporating topics that this blog has covered. I will make examples of past works pertaining to Tandaan and music, all in the interest of further explaining the most significant piece of this final project, which I will refer to as #DearFroshSelf14.
It is the culmination of this blog, and is intended as a glance back to reassess lessons learned before we move forward and end "The Final Act" of our college careers.
I just want you to notice me </3
In “The Wealth of Networks,” Yochai Benkler discusses the nature of the web, and the structure behind the types of sites that populate it.
He differentiates between “networked” architecture and “hub-and-spoke” architecture. Networked model includes multi-directional connections between different websites, while the hub-and-spoke model is intended to have a one-way link between the website and viewers, allowing for less interaction.
Examples of networked architecture are sites like Facebook where there are links and interaction up the wazoo, or even a blog that engages audience in discussion and provides links to other relevant sites (hence the multi-directional thing).
I’d say my website falls in line with hub-and-spoke architecture. While some of the blogposts definitely relate to the audience, can engage them, and benefit and interest them in some way (like my “motivational” posts), a lot if it is my stream of consciousness and I speaking into the web. This poses a problem for spreadibility and sharable…ness.
When everyone can speak, the central point of failure becomes the capacity to be heard—who listens to whom, and how that question is decided. Speaking in a medium that no one will actually hear with any reasonable likelihood may be psychologically satisfying, but it is not a move in a political conversation. - Yonchai Benkler
In hindsight, I could have made this blog a more interactive experience by saturating it with memes, and advice on graduating/college. Even a few tweaks to old posts that appear to be thought-vomit could make the site more spreadable and sharable. It is worth considering a larger audience beyond my narrow, immediate network, as much of my content is general and relatable to those that I am not just regionally close to.
Then what exactly is spreadable? In Spreadable Media, Jenkins discusses how those who succeed in creating spreadable media listen to and aim to speak to the needs and wants of their audiences. And, of course, one who spreads media has certain goals.
People who spread media texts ultimately seek to:
Define Themselves: Material spreads when it helps people speak their own identity.
Strengthen Their Social Ties: A tweet to a friend about a clip from The Colbert Report is not just a comment about the show but also a reminder of a continued relationship, perhaps to follow up on an ongoing argument. Of course, given the public/private nature of many social network platforms, recommendations people make for their friends are likely seen by others.
Increase Their Notoriety: Content is more spreadable when it allows audience members to say something to their audience [...]
Build Community: Media texts often serve as a central resource for audiences to use in creating a social movement or gathering, whether fan communities who spread these works to bolster their collective enthusiasm or a group of protesters who circulate material to drive support behind a key social issue.
My primary audience/network consists of friends and colleagues in the GW/DMV College Asian Community, and many of my posts have been geared towards that audience in particular, as they can relate.
So below, you can see how my creation of the “Tandaan: A Legacy” cover campaign was used to promote the cultural show that I have been promoting/stressing about throughout the past few posts of this blog (Tandaan XIV). I focused on a few factors that Jenkins deemed relevant in making something sharable and spreadable, such as nostalgia, easy reusability, humor and making it relevant to multiple audiences.
Several seniors that have participated in Tandaan had their own cover photos made, featuring pictures of them taken during past Tandaans since freshman year, covering the nostalgia and reusability factor. It appealed to our target audiences and networks, inciting interest, and legitimizing a show, in a way.
Humor and reusability: few friends actually made a parody of the ads using a stuffed animal (Nigel the Hippo, if you were wondering) and props from the show. The humor factor came about because of the reusability of the campaign, and it became a meme of sorts for a while.
As I've mentioned before, this blog has had a limited, and narrow audience. However, in broadening the content and make it more spreadable and sharable so that it is not wittled down to being applicable only to a certain community (like the Tandaan: A Legacy campaign), one could appeal to a broader audience when taking Jenkins' insight into account.
With the spreadable content created, it is interesting to consider to whom this is all spreading. Danah Boyd discusses networked publics, differentiating between a mediated and unmediated public (which both act as networked publics). An unmediated public refers to a space where "visual and auditory information is limited by physics." She uses the example of falling in public - the unmediated public includes only who was there to witness it. Think physical. A mediated public refers to a space where the network mediates interactions between members of the public - technology such as television, radio, newsprint, and the internet can act as mediating technologies. Think metaphysical.
Mediated publics open the possibility for spreading media through to a much wider audience, with the following four properties making them prime for this purpose:
Persistence: Content spread through mediated technologies persists, whereas interactions that take place in unmediated spaces do not.
Searchability: What is put into the web is searchable with a few keystrokes.
Replicability: Literally copying and spreading to other places (like the sharing of links) works in spreading media.
Invisible audiences: A larger number of people can come across your interactions across mediated spaces - for example, when Facebook shows you what your friends posted on their friend's wall. You are apart of the invisible audience.
Take a past music cover I did for instance.
This cover is here to stay (persistent), can be found upon a search of the covers of the song (searchable), the link has been shared (replicability), and when people posted it to Facebook, its reach extended to their friends, who I do not know (invisible audiences).
It's the fifth cover down when "let me love you ne yo cover slow" is searched. Using keywords is important, as this does not populated immediately when "let me love you ne yo cover" is searched, which is more preferable. Perhaps using "acoustic" would have helped and made it more searchable.
The money part of this post is this project.
My blog's theme, as stated in the introduction, is about the final chapter in my college career, and that's obviously something a lot of us nationwide, and worldwide, are going through right now.
With that in mind, I made a short video in which I answer the following question I pose, aimed at soon-to-be graduates.
The question is: If you could talk to your soon-to-be college freshman self, what would you say?
This video, as a project, aims to get people talking about their college experiences, and lessons they have learned that they wish they would have been able to impart onto their Freshman selves.
In regards to Benkler, one could answer the posed question across several social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vine, Instagram, anything. All one would have to use is the hashtag to identify with the topic. Thus, it would coincide with networked architecture model of the internet.
Through this video/project, the aim resonates with what Jenkins considers spreadable. The aim is indeed to define myself and my own experiences, it's to strengthen social ties amongst graduates to be, or really anyone that wishes they could go back and speak with their freshman self, perhaps this will increase notoriety, and it will hopefully supplement the Class of 2014 community we have going on already.
Alongside that, it has the nostalgia factor and it's easily reusable through the simple hashtag #DearFroshSelf14. It's open ended so everyone can make a response to it too, and it appeals to a wide audience.
Lastly, Boyd's Networked Publics Also relates, as the mediated public will be the focus audience, that gets the opportunity to interact through mediated technologies.
This video was a little short, but purposefully so, as we know how short the audience's attention span is. So the important info is in the "about," and in the first second of the video too.
Depending on how much traction this gets, I could even develop this into more videos, or even a blog dedicated to messages people have for their college freshman selves. The multimedia possibilities are endless.