Web Journalism log and evaluation
Personal Blog- ‘Hot Cocoa’
Over the Easter break I had been thinking about what I was going to do for my individual project for this module. Initially, I had thought about doing a photographic slideshow, focusing on artistic images. But then I found out that for the group projects, there was going to be a group website project focused on arts both old and contemporary, and it was then that I decided to drop the idea. That was the only topic that I could see working for me if I had to do a slideshow and so the idea had to be put aside. It was then I decided to do a form of social journalism blog called ‘Hot Cocoa’. Though with a peculiar sounding name, I chose it for the sole reason of it being catchy and pretty easy for people to remember. I chose to use the blog host Typepad, because the domain name ‘Hot Cocoa’ already existed on WordPress even though WordPress was the blog space I had intended to use.
Being that it was going to be a blog tackling social issues and bringing people towards a sense of social awakening and consciousness, I chose to write about topics like interracial relationships, politics and how mental illness is viewed in today’s society. Topics that will get people talking and debating, supporting and disagreeing at the same time. Before starting the blog, I went on to Facebook and created a fan page for the blog, inviting all my contacts and encouraging them to tell their contacts to join and check the blog out too. In the first week, I got about thirty two people joining up which was pleasing because it meant people were interested in knowing more about what the blog was about. However when I wrote my first post about interracial relationships and linked it on to the blog, I tried to spark up debates by asking questions but only three people responded out of all the forty-three people that had now joined the blog. That sort of upset me and although I had consulted with you, Jim and then Ben Gilbert, I took heed of your advice asking me to be more informal in terms of trying to strike up debates and I did this but there was no improvement. So what I devised was to go round the university and outside of it, asking people questions concerning this topic and leaving them the blog URL on pieces of paper so they can check it out, which I doubt they ever did, if not they should have been able to leave comments or some sort of feedback. Overall I did not enjoy doing this blog because it turned out to be an utter failure for me, in terms of what I had been expecting to get out of it, which is getting people to debate about serious yet interesting social issues and I am going to discontinue doing it even though it was still interesting typing up the posts.
Group Project Website- ‘The Protégé’
It was interesting being a part of this project. First of all I liked how we were all given the chance to have a say in making decisions for the project. For instance when the website was being designed and a logo was being created for the blog, the editor, Kaltrina called us and asked for our opinions about it. I liked the overall co-operation within the project but obviously there were some setbacks within the group such as some individuals not attending group meetings and putting their all into making the project a success. This has not really had a setback on the website per say because those of us that were present made sure we put our weight into contributing and seeing the website coming to light. In terms of my contribution to the group, I had to write two features. The first was about a sketch artist and painter from London called Adebanji Alade, and then the next was supposed to be an interview with an independent filmmaker, Nikyatu Jusu from New York but she did not get back to me in time so I had to use another interview I did with the visual artist Brianna McCarthy who is based in Trinidad and Tobago. It was not difficult writing the features, because according to what Kaltrina had said, she said she wanted our stories to be quite informal and creative in terms of how it is laid out. This I tried to achieve via the writing and I think it was a success proven with the feedback I got back from Kaltrina. The site seems to work because we try to go with the trend of magazines forming some sort of space online, and making the writings succinct and punchy, whilst elaborating on it with the use of images to help illustrate what is being written about. Another thing to note is that the website seems to work because they are not many art websites out there, and the ones that exist all seem to have a clichéd feel to it in terms of stories and images, they usually focus on avant garde forms of arts and a way that The Protégé is different is that it mixes all forms of art, old, new, famous, not famous, abstract and literal. Finally the website is targeted at young people interested in art and it was also intended to be some sort of platform for both established and wannabe artists, filmmakers, photographers and other creative people to be able to exhibit their work to the public. We hope to carry on with this website, as we seem to find it interesting and innovative enough for it to become a success even after it has been marked.
Newsday
For the newsday exercise, I was part of the first newsday and I decided to work with the television group . I had to post updates on to the Westminster News wordpress blog. I posted information about the latest on the final leader’s debates on the blog. I had to go round the internet looking for information on what the newspapers were saying about the debate, and I put up information I collected from The Guardian, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail. I also interlinked the stories back to the websites of the newspapers so that people interested in the news stories can go on to read more about it on the sites. At a point during the newsday exercise, everything was so disorganised with the television group not being able to update the blog in time with Naomi’s announcement of the news bulletin. But we, the online lot worked to schedule with the time. In terms of what I learned from the experience, I did not learn that much because it was all quite disorganised with the television group failing to meet up to time and really the newsday was like a waste of time for me. Perhaps because I had been expecting it to be challenging and stressful as Jim had predicted it to be, and I was sort of prepared for that but unfortunately I did not see that challenge and overall it did not give me that much experience in terms of a cross media experience.
