Week 9 Blog: Multimedia

How does multimedia enhance our messaging? Are certain multimedia techniques more effective than others? Provide examples using multimedia tools and post the links to the blog to support your thinking.For additional details, please refer to the Blog Rubric document in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubrics section of the course.

Multimedia Blog:

http://www.duckrabbit.info/blog/

Multimedia Site:

http://www.latimes.com/world/drug-war/#/its-a-war

Multimedia enhances our messaging because it turns reading ordinary words on a screen into an experience.  Much like how movies evolved and IMAX was created with 3D viewing, messaging has evolved as well and multimedia tools such as audio, video, and graphics help to deliver the message of the creator.  As described in SNHU (2014), “A website without multimedia is like a cupcake without icing: Functional but lacking” (para, 1).  Multimedia engages the audience and delivers a message through several senses which triggers certain emotions from the reader (SNHU, 2014). 

Another reason multimedia enhances the message is because everyone learns a different way, some people are visual learners and some are verbal so having a website that appeals to everyone’s learning technique will benefit each individual reader (SNHU, 2014). 

A writer’s role is to hold the attention of the reader and by including multimedia in their site; they are more likely to do so.  In general, there is not one technique that is better than the other as it depends on what kind of blog or website you are trying to create and what kind of effect you want to have on the audience (SNHU, 2014).  If you want to emotionally engage your audience then creating audio and video will help enhance the message.  There is technology now that allows the reader to actually feel like they are in the setting of the story, the multimedia tool is turned on by the reader scrolling so at certain parts of the story, certain tools are activated which keeps the reader interested and engaged.

Reference:

SNHU (2014) Module 9 – Overview: Multimedia Authorship COM 510-X1509

Analzying Functions and Substance of Blogs

Choose a blog and analyze the functions and substance of the blog as a form of writing and information delivery. In your opinion, what are the “best practices” when creating a blog to ensure appropriate form, function, and substance? Provide a link when responding to classmates and post your opinion along with your rationale.

Link to Blog:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manoj-jain-md-mph/ebola-quarantine_b_6009176.html

The blog I choose to write about is, Rethinking the 21-Day Quarantine for Ebola Contacts, written by Manoj Jain, MD MPH.  Manoj Jain is one of the contributors that posts blogs for the Huffington Post.  In this piece, he is discussing how we should be rethinking the amount of time that Ebola patients are quarantined because 21 days may not be enough time.  He states that a few weeks ago, their infectious disease physician group was notified of a patient who had returned from Liberia and was vomiting, this patient had also had several family members die of Ebola (Jain, 2014).  Although they were panic stricken at first, it turns out the patient had returned from Africa three months earlier, so Jain’s team felt comfortable telling the ER Physician that the patient’s risk for Ebola was almost zero (Jain, 2014).  His point though, is that if the patient arrived 23 days ago, would they have let the patient go home just because it was outside the 21 day window?  Because there is so little known about Ebola, Manoj Jain states that it would be beneficial to extend the quarantine time.  The CDC is already under a lot of scrutiny and has lost a lot of trust with the public, if someone presents symptoms after 23 days of exposure, then public fear may increase (Jain, 2014).

This type of blog is genre and media specific.  The target audience is for readers of the Huffington Post Healthy Living blogs.  To have a reader return to a blog, a bond between reader and writer must exist (SNHU, 2014).  The writer has to keep in mind who will be reading their work and how it can affect them; following ethical codes should be part of their criteria in creating a blog.  In my opinion, Manoj Jain used many reliable sources; he provided a picture of a strain of the Ebola virus and included at least six links to other sites. Adding these things keeps the readers interested and shows that they are a credible writer.  At the bottom of his blog, he provides contact information so readers can follow him on Twitter as well.  Jain did a good job of providing his knowledge to the public; he presented his opinions backed by credible sources of information.

The first step in creating a successful blog that provides appropriate form, function, and substance is to figure out why someone would be reading a blog, what information are they looking for, and how will your blog help in providing that information (SNHU, 2014).  By anticipating the need of the reader and being one step ahead while providing up to date information, you will build a trust over time if this is repeated (SNHU, 2014).  The next step should be the design of your blog, make sure it is visually appealing and delivers information that is either hard to find elsewhere, or is easier or more fun to read on your blog (SNHU, 2014).  Something else to remember while creating your blog is to make sure you are following ethical guidelines.  There have been many defamation suits as well as threats and other legal issues due to writers not following a code of ethics (SNHU, 2014).  If you cannot take responsibility for what you write, then think twice before publishing.  Commitment-Phobs need not apply to be blog writers, as creating one takes time, commitment, and care to maintain the relationship with your readers.

References:

Jain, M., (2014). Rethinking the 21-day quarantine for ebola contacts. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/manoj-jain-md-mph/ebola-quarantine_b_6009176.html

SNHU (2014) Module 8 – Overview: The Blog COM 510-X1509

Joe Paterno Press Release and Facebook Update

By Katie Haepers October 15, 2014, 11:30 AM ET

Tags http://www.biography.com/people/joe-paterno-9434584#synopsis

LONGTIME PENN STATE FOOTBALL COACH, JOE PATERNO, DEAD AT 85

Joe Paterno : Photo retrieved from www.chicagonow.com

 

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Joe Paterno, one of the most successful college football coaches in history, has died at the age of 85, surrounded by family members at Mount Nittany Medical Center (Schlabach, 2012).  Paterno’s cause of death was confirmed as a spreading lung cancer, metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung (Schlabach, 2012).  Paterno’s son initially stated that his father, Joe, was diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer during a visit for a bronchial illness in 2011(Schlabach, 2012).  However, two months after the diagnosis, he lost his battle with the disease.  Joe Paterno leaves behind his wife, five children, 17 grandchildren, and the Penn State family (Bio, 2014).  The family of Paterno is requesting privacy at this time but released a statement Sunday morning announcing his death:

“His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled.  He died as he lived.  He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been…He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community” (Schlabach, 2012). 

Joe Paterno was born December 21, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York.  He attended college at Brown University, where he was the star quarterback, leading his team to an 8-1 season, his senior year.  Paterno joined his college coach at Penn State University, serving as the assistant coach and eventually became head coach in 1966.  In 46 seasons, Paterno led his team to 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins and in 2011 he set a record with 409 career wins, the most for any Division 1 coach (Bio, 2014).

During his time as head coach, Joe Paterno became a beloved figure at Penn State and received the nickname, “JoePa.”  He coined the mantra, “Success with honor” but his reputation could be forever tarnished when he came under fire during the Sandusky scandal.  Paterno supposedly knew of an attack that had occurred in 2002 but did little to follow up on the allegation, creating a firestorm from the media that he had not done enough to address the situation (Bio, 2014).  

“Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good.”

—Joe Paterno

Although his later years were scarred by scandal, Paterno believed that success was not just measured on the field, but off the field as well.  Under his reign, The Nittany Lions consistently ranked as the best in the Big Ten for graduating players (Schlabach, 2012).  Joe Paterno leaves behind a legacy of social, academic, and athletic greatness marred by controvery.

Contact: Katie Haepers at khaepers@gmail.com

References:

         Joseph Vincent Paterno. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:21, Oct 14, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/joe-paterno-9434584.

         Schlaback, M., (2012).  Joe Paterno, 85, dies in state college.  Retrieved from  www.espn.go.com: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7489238/joe-paterno-ex-penn-state-nittany-lions-coach-dies-85-2-month-cancer-fight

Facebook Status Update:

SNHU News

October 15, 2014

“Controversial Ex Football Coach, Joe Paterno, dies at age 85 in State College Pa.”

6-2 Blog: Social Media Tools

Choose three of the Social Media Tools presented on this website to try. Post links to your attempts. Share your thoughts about which new social media tools will reach audiences most effectively. Explain your rationale.

          

 In order for a writer to be successful within social media outlets, it is beneficial to follow the “Dragonfly Method”(SNHU, 2014).  This method allows for a writer to target a message to a certain audience.  There are four principles that are involved with this method: focus, grab attention, engage, and act (SNHU, 2014). 

Since I am writing this assignment in a blog, I found it fitting to make my first tool, well, a blog.  Blogs are typically written in an informal tone and updated on a daily or weekly basis (Aids, 2013).  I like blogs because of the conversations that can arise from them and a lot of information can be passed back and forth.   Blogs can be written by just about anyone.  One type of blog I love to read is from people’s travels.  They provide a firsthand account of different places and can offer good advice on where to stay, eat, and explore.   Here is a link to a blog that has a lot of worldwide travel information: http://www.hotelswelove.com/blog/ .  They break that blog up into three sections, Think, Play, and Sleep making it easy for readers to follow.  This tool has great potential to reach sizable audiences.  By using some common sites such as Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, posts can be tagged, liked, followed, and searched (Aids, 2013).  The amount of blogs worldwide has risen by 145 million from 2006 to 2011 (Aids, 2013).  The one downside I can see in blogs is that it is very user specific.  People will typically only view them if they are interested in the topic, so it is important for the reader to have a good relationship with the writer to keep them engaged. 

          Another great tool to reach a wide audience base is Twitter.  Twitter is great to follow the news, sports, celebrities, and products.  By having consumers retweeting products or stories, agencies basically have low cost advertisement, while reaching a large amount of people.  Users of Twitter can connect to people by posting a maximum of a 140 character posts, which is unique in the world of social media and in a way I think it makes messages a lot quicker and easier to read.  With 177 million tweets sent daily worldwide (Aids, 2013), messages are sure to spread quickly.  https://twitter.com/AIDSinfo is a link to a twitter account that provides a lot of great information on Aids treatment, prevention, knowledge, and research. 

          Photo sharing sites are a great way to connect with each other by tagging, sharing, uploading, storing, and editing pictures (Aids, 2013).  People can leave comments and by using hash tags, it can link your photos to others using the same tag.  This is a different way to enhance information delivery because it is mostly done through imagery, rather than text.  Sometimes pictures speak louder than words.  Some of the most popular sites include Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, and Flickr (Aids, 2013).  Out of all of the sites on any social network, Pinterest showed the most growth from 2011 to 2012 (Aids, 2013).  http://instagram.com/egpaf is a link to an amazing Instagram account for egpaf, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation (Aids, 2014).  This site has 1, 615 followers and has 513 posts, a great way to spread awareness.

          I cannot say that one tool is more effective than the other because in the end it depends on what type of information writers are looking to share and it also depends on what audiences are looking for.  If someone is looking to share a specific topic then writing blogs might work best for that audience base.  If one is looking to spread quick information to a large audience then Twitter might work best for that.  If someone feels that imagery will enhance their message then photo sharing will work best for them.  Overall, it all depends on the audience base and what type of message the writer or photographer wants to share.

References:

Aids.Gov (2013). New media tools. Retrieved from: www.aids.gov: http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/index.html#tool-bookmarkingNew

Aids.Gov (2013).  Photo sharing sites. Retrieved from: http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/photo-sharing-sites/  http://instagram.com/egpaf

Aids.Gov (2013).  Twitter. Retrieved from: http://aids.gov/using-new-media/tools/twitter/index.html https://twitter.com/AIDSinfo

http://www.hotelswelove.com/blog/

SNHU (2014) Module 6 - Overview. COM 510-X1509