Melbourne

As having completed my blog, it is time to write an analysis on it. To begin my blog I created a poem to introduce what I was going to talk about; Egypt. Egypt is my home country and I envy it with all my heart. I have an Egyptian background and both my parents were born in Egypt; my mother in Esmalia and my father in Cairo. I have visited there only twice however I desire to go there again.

I chose to create my blog on Egypt because I felt I would be able to emotionally connect to it. Not only was I learning more about my own country but also informing others of my background place. I found it very hard to commit to my blog posting and balancing it out with my other assessments however I managed to create my most important blogs to the best of my ability.

My main target audience for my blog does not have a particular age however I believe it would be most effective for viewers over the age of 15. As I was not targeting a certain age group, I was thinking about those who like to travel and those who like to explore cultures other than their own. Personally I love to learn about other cultures. I have a pure interest in visiting different places, trying different foods, listening to cultural music and meeting people of different ethnicities to myself. This is also what influenced me into targeting such viewers.

All though I wanted my blog posts to be informative, I did not want them to bore out the viewers. I did have a fair amount of text however I divided the text into little paragraphs with the use of images. I find that images attract more attention than the actual text and one the viewer is captivated by the images they want to read about it.

In connecting with my viewers, I do not believe I was 100% effective as I did not update them on a regular basis. However I believe that when I did update them, I allowed them to gain more knowledge about Egypt. I do however believe that I was able to consider what would most intrigue my viewers. Diversity

I trust that my three best posts are linked below in no specific order:

- http://itsacountry.tumblr.com/post/49363898389/religion-in-egypt

- http://itsacountry.tumblr.com/post/49837718422/10-top-tourist-attractions-in-egypt

Final Post - Rationale (meta-post)

I created this blog called ‘Teenage Problems’, simply to analyse and discuss the matters and life of a teenager. I wanted to explore and evaluate the problems that an average teenager would experience during their teenage life. Its target audience are both females and males between the ages of 13 through to 18.

Teens today face a wide variety of challenges, making them vulnerable to stress and emotional overload. By learning how to manage stress and deal with uncomfortable or overwhelming emotions can help make their teens years easier and fun for them. As a blogger I wanted to draw out the main issues that a teen would come across during their life. These include; underage drinking, teen pregnancy and cyber bullying. They are one of the most important topics that are being discussed till today.

It’s not easy being a teenager in today’s world. From depression and eating disorders to bullying and cutting, teens grapple with a wide range of issues as they grow and develop.

Problems that teenagers are faced with today can take so many forms. Even in stable, solid family units, teenagers will face confusion and uncertainty with themselves and life. But in today’s world of divorce, broken homes, unsafe sex and alcohol abuse, teenagers face issues that show themselves in different ways to different individuals.

In creating this blog, I wanted people of all ages to know the factors and problems that our teenage kids face during their teen life. It made to tackle and help prevent these issues from occurring to kids. Teenagers need to be aware of these issues and ways to overcome it.

I believe that this blog is effective to its target audience, because it delivers important issues for teens to learn more about and help them, help themselves. The three main blogs I choose for assessing tackles the main problems or issues that an average teenager would face during their teens. The weakness this blog might have would be its lack of variety in topic issues. Due to lack of time committed towards this blog, this might be its weakness.

Overall Teenage Problems is an effective and useful blog for a mass audience. It’s simply made for people to be aware of these teenage issues and to help those caught up in those problems. 

  Three Blog Post:

1. http://teenagepro.tumblr.com/post/50081723755/kids-and-alcohol-do-not-mix

2. http://teenagepro.tumblr.com/post/49835157228/fight-the-virus-you-can-bring-an-end-to-it

Underage drinking is a risk that attracts many developing adolescents and teens. When young people try alcohol, they often don’t realize the damaging effects drinking can have on their own lives, their families, and their communities.

Aside from being illegal, underage drinking is a widespread public health problem that poses many risks. 

Teenagers, who are immune to alcohol at a very young age, tend to drink more once they get older. By age 15, half these individuals have had at least one or two drinks. By the age of 18, more than 70% of teens have had had at least one drink. Drinking alcohol begins as a social or tends for most teenagers. This slowly becomes a habit for most kids, which leads to them becoming ‘alcoholics’. Young people drink less often than adults, but when they do drink, they drink more than adults. According to sources, young people have about 5 drinks on a single occasion, which can be considered ‘binge drinking’.

Underage drinking also has its risk, they include:

·         Death– 5,000 people under age 21 die each year from alcohol-related car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning, and other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning.

·         Serious injuries– More than 190,000 people under age 21 visited an emergency room for alcohol-related injuries in 2008 alone.

·         Impaired judgment– Drinking can cause kids to make poor decisions, which can then result in risky behaviour like drinking and driving, sexual activity, or violence.

·         Increased risk for physical and sexual assault – Youth who drink are more likely to carry out or be the victim of a physical or sexual assault.

·         Brain development problems – Research shows that brain development continues well into a person’s twenties. Alcohol can affect this development, and contribute to a range of problems.

Is this our culture? Is underage drinking apart of us? Let’s face it, we know many individuals who disobey the law and continue to consume alcohol even though they are not of age. What if the penalty for this law was enforced? Would this curb the amount of drinking? Even though I am not aware of what the penalty is, all underage punishment is usually weak. It has nothing to do with imprisonment.

Before commencing the Networked Media Production unit I had no prior experience of using HTML and CSS. Consequently, the first few weeks were a steep learning curve for me as I attempted to gain a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. Determined to learn these two coding languages I spent time going through the tutorials on http://htmldog.com and http://www.w3schools.com to supplement what I was learning in the tutorials and lectures (I found the lecture HTML and how it works really helpful). When I felt more comfortable with what I could do with the two languages I began to sketch out ideas for my blog layout in my visual diary. I then used Adobe Dreamweaver to start developing my blog layout.  The development process was long and tedious.

I faced a number of challenges in the development process due to my lack of experience with HTML, CSS and website design in general. For example, I didn’t understand the profound effect that screen resolution has on the appearance of a website. So I had naively designed my first concepts for a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200px. When these first concepts were viewed on devices using lower resolutions the content didn’t fit in the browser window.  To overcome this I had to reduce the width of the body container to 1000px, and adjust the content accordingly. With this small change my final blog design became more versatile, and can now be viewed more easily on a greater number of devices.

Another challenge I faced was figuring out a way to create a semi-transparent background. When I tried adjusting the CSS opacity attribute, the text was also affected. I then had the epiphany to use an image instead. However, it proved difficult to find a website to host a semi-transparent PNG image. Eventually, I discovered that Skydrive would host a PNG image without converting it to JPEG. This meant I could keep my intended design, which relies heavily on the aesthetics of semi-transparent objects.

I also faced the challenge of how to incorporate widgets that added functionality but weren’t distracting. I ended up incorporating an unobtrusive Facebook widget at the bottom of the home page that allows viewers to either like or visit my Facebook page. I also added Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest widgets at the bottom of post pages to allow people to share my content.

The final challenge that I had to overcome was adding the necessary script that would allow me to make posts from my dashboard: instead of having to manually manage the home page using HTML. I was able to achieve this with the support of a friend.

When I had finished designing the layout for my blog I focused my attention on the content. My early ideas included writing a blog about collector pins, travel and photography. However, after a few weeks I decided to focus my attention on photography. I set myself the task of taking a new series of photographs every couple of weeks to upload onto my blog. In the alternate weeks I would upload a photography tutorial.  I also got in contact with professional photographer Adam McGrath, who was kind enough to allow me to publish his work on my blog and also answer a few questions about photography that I used in one of my posts. This was something way out of my comfort zone, but I believe asking Adam McGrath (who I have never met in person before) really added to the quality of my blog. 

After listening to the lecture Social Media - more than gossipI endeavoured to create strong connections between my Tumblr blog and Fulton Graphic Design and Photography Facebook page. As a result of adding links throughout my blog to my Facebook page, and vice versa, I have gained followers that I wouldn’t have otherwise had on each respective site.

On two occasions I explicitly asked my page followers on Facebook to have a look at my tumblr site. This resulted in significant increases in page views, in the vicinity of 250-300 views, on the same day that I made the comment. This ‘test’ demonstrates the effectiveness of trafficking between social media sites.

By the end of the semester I had made 34 posts, generated 176 notes (people reblogging or liking my content) and had a tumblr account following of 99 users.

Adding the Google analytics code further allowed me to monitor the effectiveness of my blog. The data collected has shown me that over the semester my blog attracted 73 unique viewers and generated 797 visits and 2,474 page views. The average visit duration was 4:44 minutes, which indicates that the viewers were engaged in the blog’s content.  Another indication that viewers are engaging in my blog is the fact that 91.6% of visits are made by returning visitors.  However, page visits did fluctuate significantly over the course of the semester as shown in the image below.

I believe this is the result of a number of factors. Firstly, page visits noticeable increased on days that I made a post (predominately Wednesdays). Contrastingly, page visits were generally at their lowest on the weekends, because this was between weekly posts. Secondly, I believe the tumblr dashboard format does not promote users to visit blogs. I say this because a post I made recently had total of 106 notes, however my page views did not reflect the popularity of this post.

Though the following three posts were not my most popular, in terms of being liked and reblogged, I believe they were my best.

http://pinphoto.tumblr.com/post/47248431961/portraiture-tutorial

http://pinphoto.tumblr.com/post/46404330809/q-a-with-adam-mcgrath

  http://pinphoto.tumblr.com/post/44128457417/diy-splash-photography-tutorial

  Overall I am really pleased with my blog. The time that I spent developing and maintaining it really paid off as I learnt a considerable amount about HTML, CSS and social media. Plus it even made the first page of google!

Yes, Egypt is famous for its ancient monuments, culture and revolution, but it is also famous for its great food. I listed the top 10 main attractions in Egypt, next is the top 10 delicious flavors of the Middle East. Only this time, number 10 is the most popular. Which one sounds like your favorite? Take your pick!

#10: Kushari 

~~ This is the most popular dish in Egypt. It consists of pasta and tomato sauce, among other items, including rice, lentils, caramelized onions, garlic and chickpeas. As it has four sources of carbohydrates, kushari is the most popular lunch item in most common food outlets in Egypt for over 100 years. My mother always makes this dish at home, and it is actually one of my favorites. ~~

#9: Ful Medames 

~~ Ful Medames consists of lava beans served with oil, garlic and lemon juice. Ful Medames can be traced to Pharaonic roots, and quantities have been found in the Twelfth dynasty. The word “Medames” is Coptic for “buried” which refers to the way it was initially cooked: in a pot buried in hot coal or sand. It can be served with many flourishes however the most traditional method is to eat it plain and salted in an Egyptian bread bun. My family and I eat this dish most when we are fasting for our religion (vegan for a certain period of time). ~~

#8: Fatta 

~~ This meal is one of my favorites as well however my mum generally only makes it twice a year; Easter and Christmas after we have completed our major fasts. It consists of layers of rice and fried bread, covered in a garlic and vinegar meat soup. Large chunks of stewed beef and deep-fried poached eggs are usually served along with the rice and bread base. They state that “Fatta is a really fattening dish, with an extremely high calorific value; it is rarely eaten during the year, except after a major religious fast such as the 50 days before Easter for Coptic Christians, or the month of Ramadan before Eid-Al-Futr.” ~~

#7: Mulukhiya 

~~ This is another popular meal in my household however I personally do not prefer to eat it. Mulukhiya is made from the leaves of jute and corchorus plants that grow in east and north Africa. In Egypt, Mulukhiya is prepared by chopping the leaves with garlic and coriander and cooking it in an animal stock such as chicken, beef or rabbit, and served with Egyptian bread or rice. ~~  

#6: Feseekh 

~~ This is a really popular dish however one that nor my family or myself like. It consists of fermented, salted and dried gray mullet. To prepare this dish it involves drying the fish in the sun then salting it, is usually prepared by a specialized person called a fasakhani. It is then stored in thick glass jars that are firmly closed, as it has a very strong smell. ~~ 

#5: Taro/ Colcasia Soup 

~~ This meal is not made often. It is cooked during the Coptic Christian celebrations of Epiphany and the method of which it is prepared is supposed to resemble the baptism of Jesus. It is known as Qilqas in Egypt. Taro is a Southeast Asia native plant that was introduced to the Mediterranean parts of Egypt in ancient times and is generally prepared in a broth with lemon juice, garlic and coriander. ~~  

#4: Halawa 

~~ My parents love to eat Halawa. It is made from sesame paste and is available in all shapes and forms: blocks, hair Halawa, energy bars and spreads. It is sometimes infused with other types of food to add to its flavor, these include: pistachios, pine nuts and almonds. It is considered only a snack, not a meal. Halawa is one of the few foods that can tolerate the hot Egyptian weather without going bad. ~~

 #3: Dukkah

~~ Dukkah consists of a mixture of herbs, nuts and spices such as mint, salt, sesame, coriander and cumin. It is an Egyptian food commonly used as a dip and eaten along with Egyptian flatbread or raw vegetables, such as tomatoes or cucumber, as an hors d’oeuvre or side dish. The name “Dukkah” is derived from the Arabic word “to pound” referring to how all the spices are pounded together to prepare the dish. ~~   

#2: Konafah 

~~ I absolutely adore this dish, my mum does not make it often as it takes a lot of effort but we all enjoy eating this sweet. Konafah is an Egyptian sweet made of a very thin noodle-like pastry. It is baked and presented with a fruit syrup on top.~~

#1: Gibna Domiati

~~ Last but certainly not least is the Gibna Domiati. It is a white soft cheese made in the city of Damietta, in the north of Egypt. It is the most common cheese found in Egypt and is incorporated into a lot of dishes, such as sambousak (fried thin pastry stuffed with cheese) or mesh (a tomato and cheese dip). Gibna Domiati is aged for a period of 1-3 years in large tin cans, before being eaten. ~~