In my Feature article I did not change much because I thought for the set up it made sense to keep it the way it was written and formatted. I chose to bold the “questions” or the bullet points that I am responding to so that they stood out more. I also condensed the wording from “people who will be reading the content” to “audience”. I thought that it was saying the same thing, but with less words. I also took out the extra “I think” in the sentence “I think the content that I think I would focus on..” this just helped the sentence flow.
For my Analysis Draft I also really liked how it came out. I thought that my graphics and pictures went really well with what I was writing about. I think that I did a good job including bullet points and external links throughout the blog. When I go through the strengths and weaknesses through this page, I feel like these are really important parts of the website. I did add a cover photo and I think that it really flows it into the blog and gives it a good tease into what the audience is about to read.
For my Long-form Article, I chose to break up the paragraphs a little bit more so that it would be easier to read. I also felt like doing this would be more inviting to readers to look at. I also added a photo of parents covering their children’s eyes to protect them from seeing stuff which is what my blog talks about.
I took a lot out of this class. I really learned more about the internet platform and now have a better understanding of blogs and different online platforms. I will be able to use this knowledge that I learned in my future as a reporter, using social media and the online platform for my stories. I am really happy that I took this class, throughout the readings, forums and blog post I learned a lot from my professor as well as my classmates. I liked how throughout this semester we actually made blog posts and did writing assignments. I think that actually doing it helped me a lot, and really helped me get better as a writer.
Students this week were helping out homeless shelters in the local area, if you would like to participate or help with packing the donations please see Lisa Elmand. Email her at lisae@elmbrookschools.org
If you would like to donate, we are looking for can goods, anything that is non perishable such as rice, instant mash potatoes, can corn.
Speaking of donations, Christmas is right around the corner! We will be doing Toys for Tots again this year. If you would like to donate or help with this event on Friday 12/13 in the Cafe of Brookfield Central please reach out to Stacy Latoy at her email: Latoys@elmbrookschools.org
Come support all of our teams here at Brookfield Central! We have a packed week of home games this week during the holidays, so come support and show your spirt for the school!
This weeks last thoughts:
I hope everyone has a great holiday and safe travels during this crazy time! Please let me know if there are any announcement that you would like me to add in the next weekly post! crystals@elmbrookschools.org
As another reminder! EARLY PICKUP ON TUESDAY(11/26) @ 12 PM!
Have a great Holiday weekend, and we will be back next week for the final week of classes!
Provide the name or title of the publication/organization
The organization that I chose to “create content” for was for Brookfield Central High School
Provide a brief audience profile:
The audience that I create would be parents, students, local community members. I grew up in this area and went to this high school, so I know how a lot of community reacts to certain events and news. I know that they are really involved with the community and the school produces a lot of content about how they volunteer and how parents like to be in touch with their students’ lives. Parents are always wanting to know what their teenagers are up to, so having this content would help keep parents in the loop.
Provide a brief description of the online content you will create for the publication
Briefly, I think the content that I would focus on and create would be content that is mainly towards parents to let them know whats going on at the school, classes, or even events going on outside of school for them to be involved in. I think that this content would help bring the parents and families together. I would probably do a blog type articles and a separate website for parents but also incorporate social media posts as well.
Describe what the typical content of that website/organization looks like (how long are the articles?
The website right now, is just small articles of events that are happening around the school. It hasn’t been updated in a few days and I think that it should be updated everyday just because different things are constantly happening. There are sub headers with “announcements” and “upcoming events” which are good places I could put my content. They have some social media but no areas of engagement so I think that I would want to add something for parents to be able to give feedback. I think that my website would be a good fit to add on this site, or even my content that I create would be a good addition to their page.
When putting together my Wakelet, I chose items based on the important points of the article. I first chose the cover to be the TikTok logo and me through a gradient grey background behind it to keep it simple. I then titled my Wakelet “How TikTok is making teenagers famous” because that is the main topic. I added a description of it as well under the title.
After that, I went through and rearranged all my pieces. The first thing was the original article. This is where the topic came about and I felt like this should be put first. Next, I put Haley Sharpe’s TikTok account because she was the main teenager in the article and I felt like it was a good reference point. After that, I added text to explain how ads are encouraging teens to use the app and become famous. I then found youtube videos, articles, and ads that showed how you can become “TikTok Famous”.
After all of those pieces, I added an infographic of the number of downloads of the TikTok app n 2018 to represent how popular it has become. I then went through and added another article about becoming famous and started adding tweets to show how much people are talking about the app. I, unfortunately, I do not have a twitter and every time I would copy and paste a tweet it would not let me. So I screenshot the tweets and their captions and added my own captions underneath the tweet to give it more context and what the purpose of them was for.
I then added another section of text that talked about parent’s concern for safety because, at the end of the original article, the mom talks about how she worries if her daughter is safe being on TikTok. I then found an article about “What parents need to know” about TikTok and the safety of their children.
After this, I wrapped it up with some more text and tweets about how important TIkTok is to kids now, and how time-consuming it is in their lives. I enjoyed doing this type of assignment because it was different than writing a blog, it put all your pieces of media in one place and have a great time finding articles and pictures putting it together.
The article that I read and chose to dig deeper on was the article
called “The not-so-secret life of a TikTok-famous teen”. The two questions that
I had after reading this article were, who is the primary audience for TikTok? How
safe is it for teenagers to be on TikTok?
For my first question, about the primary audience I was able to find two great sources to help me understand some of the demographics and statistics of TikTok. My first source that I found was called “13 TikTok statistics marketers need to know: TikTok demographics and key data”. This article explained in depth who is using TikTok, statistics and analytics behind the app. Something that I did not know before reading this article was that as of 2018 TikTok had more likes and downloads than “Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and snapchat in monthly app stores.” TikTok had been downloaded more than 660 Million times in 2018, being a 407% increase from 2017. More than 500 people around the world use TikTok monthly. Another fact that I found on the website was that “66% of users worldwide are younger than 30 years old” which means that more than half is a younger generation on the app. In the US, “60% of the apps monthly active users are 16-24 years old”. The average time according to this webpage is 52 minutes is the average daily time spent on the app per day. Which puts TikTok up high with the other social media apps. All this information I found was new to me gave me a great insight to this app and a little bit more about the statistics behind it.
My second source for this question was “What is TikTok, Who uses it, and should brands care about it”. This article had a very interesting view on the app and the layout of the website was nice because it gave a lot of background information about the app that I never knew about. Something that I learned from this article was that “TikTok is valued at $75 billion, which has surpassed Uber to become the world’s more valuable start-up”. Another thing that was interesting was how TikTok shows what they think you would like in your feed, based on your likes overtime. “In china, 75% of their users between 18 and 35 years old are unsurprisingly also happen to be the most active on the app.”. This fact I thought was interesting because although I feel like this app is popular in the United States, it’s even more popular in China. Overall after reading both of these sources for my first question I got my answer from my first question about who is the primary audience for TikTok. I also learned a lot of information that surprised me from these sources as well.
For my second question I wanted to understand the safety of TikTok and how parents are going about making sure their kids are safe on the app. The first source that I found was called “Is TikTok safe for kids?” on a website called “The cyber safety lady”. The first thing that popped out to me while reading this article was that TikTok was being fined because they “they did not adhere to the law in protecting users under the age of 13+”.
According to this research TikTok did not ask for age verifications until 2017, “they did not respond to parents requests to delete under age user videos and personal information. They also exposed children to predatory behaviors on the app and up until 2016 exposed users privacy giving their location within a 80k radius.”.
Since this has happened they have changed their restrictions and laws to use the app.
Some of the reasons that this article states that the app is unsafe were “Adult content, sexualized children, bullying, self-harm, young users, in-app purchases and adult predators.” All of these are reasons that parents should be cautious while letting their children on this app. When it comes to sexualized children, it gives an example of how some of the songs that children are mimicking could have inappropriate language as well as sexual behaviors to them. Bullying and self-harm are two big issues on the app, because anyone can comment on a post or message a user on the app. Bullying is easy for people to do behind a computer screen and is easy for others to humiliate and tease some users. It also is a space where people can encourage other users to commit self-harm as well as post videos about loneliness or depression. Although there are a lot of negatives to the apps, there are also some positives that the app has added to help parents keep their children safe. On the TikTok app, there is a setting that allows parents to set a limit to the time allowed spent on the app. Once the children exceed their time limit, the app will ask for the parent’s pin code. This has helped children from spending too much time of the app as well as helped parents monitor their usage better.
The second source I found was called “TikTok app safety- what parents need to know”. From a website called Internet Matters. Something that was interesting to me that I found out while reading this article was that the TikTok app is available in more than 34 languages with over 150 million active users. This article talked about what parents are saying about app and what they see with their children using the app. Some of the examples the author talked about were parents “seeing inappropriate content, and contact from strangers”. Some of the language that is used throughout the videos were seen as “less suitable” for younger children, especially since the app’s requirement to be on the app is at a young age. Parents have also noticed that their children will sometimes be contacted by random users on the app and has been a big concern. A very important point that this article made about safety is that some of the children are going to be willing to take more risks on the app in order to get “TikTok famous”. Parents should be concerned about their children’s safety in the app, who they are connecting to, as well as speak with their children about how far they are willing to go for likes.
Overall, there are a lot of resources out there that helped me find out
some of the answers to my questions but the research is constantly changing as
well as the opinions of the people who write the blogs. I got to understand the
app itself better, as well as its users and safety.
The article I chose to read and do my research on was called “The not-so-secret life of a TikTok- famous teen”. Overall this article is about a teenage girl, 16 years old named Haley Sharpe from Huntsville, Alabama.
The article talks about how Sharpe posted a video on TikTok and soon began to get likes and followers. As she continued to post videos on TikTok she gained followers and likes and soon was a known name and person in her community. This new type of famous is called “TikTok Stars”.
Today Sharpe has more than 100,000 followers. Even with her 100,000 followers that still doesn’t even put her on the “Top 50 TikTok accounts”, which means that there are others who are even more “famous”. Throughout the article, it speaks about how teenagers are using the TikTok app and more and more are becoming “famous”.
After reading the article, I was curious about a few points throughout the article. Such as first off, what is the draw to this app? I personally have not understood the reasoning behind the popularity behind the app.
Another thing that was interesting to me was a quote in the article that said “It’s cool, but it’s also weird to think I’m sitting here and somebody out there- more than somebody- is watching my videos right now. Constantly somebody is watching one. That’s so weird for me.”. I think that this quote is interesting because that is a weird thought to have. Someone is constantly watching your videos and that is how you are becoming “famous”.
Another saying that was in the article was a mom that spoke about how she worries about her daughter’s safety. She worried that someone who is watching her videos could see into her room and find her. I think that this should be a concern because all videos are out there for the public and could potentially put teenagers in danger.
The article was interesting and brought a different perspective on the app and teenagers using the app. It makes me wonder about the safety of teens? How far will this craze go? I would like to know more about the safety and popularity of the app.
The websites purpose (agoodmovietowatch) is to bring awareness of “highly-rated yet little known movies or shows”. The creators of the website get this information from other people, they do not use algorithms like most websites do. The website tells you the most popular movies or shows right now, best films as well as let you pick based on genre and mood. You can even filter the results based on the subscriptions you own, such as Netflix, Amazon prime and Hulu.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Only one main headline that states the title of the website. I think that they are clear and straight to the point.
Navigation bar clearly and the terms are simple such as “Genre”, “Mood”. Even the filter section is clearly distinctive on the left hand side of the screen with the different subscriptions options.
The way they list the movies are using thumbnails of the trailer and a short description.
All the paragraphs are short and to the point.
The readability test on this websites “About” page and it got a grade level of about 9, and understood by 14-15 year olds.
There are a lot of visuals on this website and I think that it strengthens the website because all of the visual are paired up with a description of the shows and movies.
The layout of the website follows the “F” pattern. The navigation tab is in the top left hand quadrant, and continues through the top of the right side of the web page.
Overall, this website has a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses. Some of these strengths can help increase their audience and views. The website is simple for the most part and has a basic layout.
Suggestions
for the website:
Add more paragraphs throughout the website to explain the content better
Make the navigation section easier to access at the top left hand corner
Change some of the wording on the “about us” page so that the grade level is between 6-8.
Similar Website:
A website that would be similar to this website would be “Rotten Tomatoes”
I think what makes them more successful is that people get a
chance to vote on the tv show or movies and you get to see the percentages for
each of them.
It is also easy to navigate because the top of the screen is the
navigation bar. So trying to find your way around the website could help the
audience find more of what they are looking for faster.
Also have quick and to the point paragraphs, if any on the
website.
The case study that I choose to do was “The 45-minute Mystery of Freddie Gray’s Death”. This website has a lot of layer throughout the piece. The layers made it extremely easy to navigate the story. On each section there was a map, a video and an option to continue forward with the story or go back. Each of those layers were all built into that page, so it was easy to stay on the page you were on.
It also had a lot of multimedia on the pages. The background of the writing was a page of the scene of the incident. This multimedia allows for audience members that just skim through the story to see something to keep their interest. The videos are also a strength on their website as well because it allows for the audience members to interact with the story and actually pay attention. Adding video could also help tell the story because some people would rather watch and listen to a video than read the actual post on the website.
The combination of these strategies strengthens this website.
I think that it allows for the website to be engaging and interactive for all
of the readers and audience members. The videos, multimedia, hyperlinks, maps
and photography allows for readers to keep focused for a short period of time
and get their story across. Few audience members are going to read long
articles, and this website does a great job at layering this website.
Now that I have the thick description from my last blog
post, I will analyze the content and format for strengths and weaknesses. Some
of the criteria that I will go off of is from the readings and lectures we have
done in class.
Starting with the headlines on this website, there are not
many on the first page except for the main headline that states the title of the
website. I think that they could have used more headlines to help navigate if
it was a movie or a television show. I think that they are clear and straight
to the point.
Looking on the home screen, you can see the navigation bar clearly and the terms are simple such as “Genre”, “Mood”. Even the filter section is clearly distinctive on the left hand side of the screen with the different subscriptions options. I think that this is well done and neat on the screen and is helpful for users to easily navigate the page.
The way they list the movies are using thumbnails of the
trailer and a short description. I think this is helpful because it makes the
movies and television shows easy to hover over and to choose from.
Throughout this website, the only paragraphs that we see are
on the “about” page. All the paragraphs are short and to the point. Myself
personally, I think that they did a good job at writing keeping the words
simple and the paragraphs are kept down to two to three sentences per
paragraph.
I used the readability test on this website and got a grade
level of about 9, and understood by 14-15 year olds. So that means that it is a
little too advanced for the “typical” general audience. This could cause
audiences to turn away from this website, because it is too complex to
understand. A silver lining is that this page that I tested is the about page
and is not a popular page such as the homepage or one of the other pages on the
website.
There are a lot of visuals on this website and I think that
it strengthens the website because all of the visual are paired up with a
description of the shows and movies. I think that this helps because a lot of
people judge things based on what they look like before they even decide to
watch a movie or television show.
The layout of the website follows the “F” pattern. The navigation tab is in the top left hand quadrant, and continues through the top of the right side of the web page. There is nothing on the bottom right hand corner of the page which follows the layout because that is where the least important information is.
Overall, this website has a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses. Some of these strengths can help increase their audience and views. The website is simple for the most part and has a basic layout. Some of their weaknesses such as the “about” page and the readability, could cause audience members to not read the page or keeps the audience’s attention. Overall I think that the website has a lot of successes and to me is a successful website
The website that I chose was https://agoodmovietowatch.com. The
websites purpose is to bring awareness of “highly-rated yet little known movies
or shows”. The creators of the website get this information from other people,
they do not use algorithms like most websites do. The website tells you the
most popular movies or shows right now, best films as well as let you pick
based on genre and mood. You can even filter the results based on the
subscriptions you own, such as Netflix, Amazon prime and Hulu.
A guy named Bilal created this website a few years ago. He
also is helped with a few other writers and editors. On their website they
stated that they do run on a low budget so they take donations, or premium
subscribers to the newsletter to help pay for their services on this website.
I think people who would visit this website are people who
are looking for something new to watch. When searching for a good movie online
to watch this website would be one of the tops on there just with the search
being so close to the website name. People who are trying to find new shows and
movies that are on subscription based television.
What the audience needs from this site are good recommendations for shows and movies, that is what they are trying to get out of this site. This site provides many variations of shows and movies that could help people be more aware of little-known movies or shows.
When you first go to the home page, you see right away videos and different movie titles. On the left hand side there are different filters you can add based on the subscription television you subscribe too. On the top right hand corner there is a navigation bar to different pages including “Most Popular. The Latest, Best Film, Genre, and Mood”. All of these go to separate pages on the website. After selecting a movie or show title it gives you a little description of the selected title right underneath a trailer of the movie or show.
Without doing any scrolling on the Homepage I see clearly
the navigations to other pages on the website. I see a few movie titles and videos
connected to them. I see the ratings of the videos and comments on them. I also
see right away on the homepage a little blurb of what their purpose is. It says
“Discover amazing movies and shows. Agoodmovietowatch is home to highly-rated
yet little known movies and shows. Curated by humans, not algorithms.” So right
away you understand what the websites purpose is.
The site is organized by having the filtering option on the
left hand side of the screen, as well as in the top left hand corner it has a
pull down button that you can click on to see “About, Pricacy Policy, Terms of Use,
Sign in.” On the top right hand corner of the screen is where you can go to
other pages within the website that are “most popular” or “best film”.
The layout of the website is consistent throughout the
website on all the pages.
My developed model user for this website:
Kelly Smith
21
Female
College Student
Single
Reading books, Watching movies are some hobbies
Retail Associate is her job in college
Average knowledge about Technology
Her Expectations of the site is to help her find a new show
or movie to watch on Netflix in between her classes.
Crystal Sicard 