Relay Audio Commentary

For the final assignment in Advertising and Imagery, we were asked to split into groups to work on an advertising campaign that could possibly be used for next year's relay for life. I am part of the audio group, and I am in charge of a possible superhero theme. The final product of my work is a superhero-related radio spot that raises awareness and advertises Relay.

In the Public Service Advertising reading, it is mentioned that in order for a PSA to be sponsored by the Ad Council, the issue must be about health and safety, education, or community. Technically, Relay for Life meets the criteria of being about health, so our individual advertisements could too. In addition, the Relay advertisements and radio spots also serve a similar value to the campaigns sponsored by the Ad Council. For example, Bill Clinton is quoted to have spoken highly of how the Ad Council helped with speaking to children about gun safety and drug usage. In a similar manner, our own advertisements also speak to viewers in a similar way and help raise awareness about the Relay event, while encouraging people to join in.

I would say that the main strength of the finished superhero radio spot is definitely the message and presentation of the message. Plenty of work went into writing and re-writing the scripts in order to create and improve the message being sent. I mentioned the presentation of the message because I recorded my own voice in a way that sounds sort of like a super-hero announcer and put in background audio that reminded me of superheroes.

At the same time, I feel that the main weakness of the finished product was the fact that I had to record it with my own voice. I believe that a voice actor or even someone more popular than I would attract more attention to the listeners. However, I used superhero-sounding background music to help attract listeners.

Capstone Research / Progress (2nd Week of April)

This week I just focused on audio editing all of the sound effects and recordings together to create my final podcasts. I also did some research on the technical aspects of creating a podcast, since I have not actually done it before. It took a long time for me to figure it out, but I finally found a website that allows for audio and video posting and gives a rss feed that can easily be used by iTunes.

I did not do any heavy research this week. Really, it seemed unnecessary since I already have prior experience with audio editing. All of the work was hands-on. However, this does not mean that prior research failed to drive through my mind while in the process of doing the work. For example, the whole time while in the editing process, I continuously thought back to all of the podcasts that I listened to at the beginning of the semester. They all had their differences. Some had background music most of the time, while others had just speaking. Also, some used many sound effects to create a scene, and others failed to do that. However, I feel that my podcasts are somewhere in between. They utilize useful and entertaining sound effects and music, while also using plain speech and many interview sound bytes. Overall, I feel that I have reached my goal of creating relevant news-based podcasts for a mostly student audience that can be played alongside many other podcasts.

Capstone Research / Progress (1st week of April)

I have set this week and next week aside just for editing purposes. At the end of last week, I re-recorded my audio to make it sound more like how a normal person would speak, instead of like an English paper. In doing so, I feel that I have finally created quality recordings that are capable of used in a podcast. Many of the edits that I did were to make myself sound less "robotic" and a little less scholarly (which some people may see as being "snobby").

In addition, I am attempting to follow the suggestions from Jonathan Kern's book Sound Reporting as closely as possible. One thing that is helping me conform to audio broadcast standards from Sound Reporting is a section that explains not using "confusing identifications" and "unidentified actualities" (109). In order to avoid confusion with my sound bytes, I have clear identifications set just before the sections that I plan on adding the sound bytes to, and I never mention another name right after a sound byte from someone else. In a way, an identification for everything may seem a little formal, but it is necessary for avoiding confusion.

At the same time, I have been encouraged to be a little more experimental with some of my sound bytes. I am thinking about doing so, but, in a way, I am also trying to weigh that suggestion against my research and my opinion on whether or not an average listener would understand what was going on the first time. The last thing that I want to do is suddenly create something that could be potentially confusing, especially since I have already followed so much advice on not making a confusing audio broadcast. However, during the editing process, I do plan on experimenting some just to see if I can make the suggestion work.

One other thing that I completed last week and early this week was the creation of sound effects. I now have a definite theme song for the podcast and some sound effects to help stimulate the minds of the viewers. Hopefully, the sound effects work to attract the attention of the audience and strengthen the stories. From this point on, I just have to focus on the proper usage and placement of sound.

Capstone Research / Progress (5th week of March)

This week's focus will mostly be just on recording. For research, I have been reading articles on sounding conversational, although, I will go ahead and state that I do not believe I have ever successfully sounded as conversational as I could with audio recording. Hopefully though, the research will help me with this task.

According to Jonathan Kern, the author of Sound Reporting, in order to write successfully for the radio, the statements must be easy to follow (25). Basically, this means that more simple statements are a plus. Huge complex sentences generally do not work, but this also depends on how the sentences sound. When writing for the radio or any kind of audio broadcast (in my case podcast), one must read the information out loud and be able to judge whether or not it sounds good and works when spoken. Too much information at once can cause an audience to not "catch" it all, and since this is audio, they cannot go back and reread the statements (Sound Reporting 26).

It is also good to be able to write the way that you speak (Sound Reporting 27). This is the section that gets me because I often have problems articulating my thoughts out loud already. Normally when I write for an audio recording, it sounds unnatural because I often do not speak in a clear articulatory manner. I have always been better at articulating thoughts in writing, for example, than in person. However, I plan on doing the best that I can to not sound too unnatural and unlike myself, while speaking intelligibly. Also, it is best to make audio sound as though the communication is between the reporter and a single listener instead of a large group of listeners (Sound Reporting 27). So, basically, my biggest challenge will be finding a balance between speaking like myself and being intelligible, while trying to sound like I am speaking to a single archetypal listener.




Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Controversy: The Dove "Real Beauty" Campaign

The Dove Real Beauty campaign is a good thought. Basically, Dove decided to feature models who were not exactly flawless in their appearance to model in their advertising campaign. The problem is that the company Unilever, which owns Dove, became very two-faced in appearance because of their advertising used in Axe campaigns that do use models who are touched up to an unrealistic and virtually unachievable version of beauty. Also, the Axe ads use female sexuality to market to younger men, which does not make the company look good when comparing it to the Real Beauty campaign in which they attempt to prove that real beauty can be found in anyone.

Dove's Real Beauty campaign would also be much more effective if they did not "touch up" the models as much. It also may have gone too far when they allowed votes to be cast by campaign viewers by allowing them two choices to vote on to describe the model in the particular Dove ad. A thin line may exist when allowing a viewer to vote a model as "fat" or "fab." This is especially the case when the Western concept of beauty is so deeply rooted in our society that the negative choice prevails.

The image above is from Dove's Real Beauty campaign. One signifier is the woman's gray hair. Gray hair can signify experience and wisdom. However, it can also signify being elderly and, in cases when the gray hair is beginning prematurely, it can signify stress. In the case of this ad though, it seems to signify being elderly more than anything.

I believe that the Real Beauty campaign would be more successful without allowing people to vote. In addition, Unilever would look better and the whole campaign would be less controversial if they did not advertise beauty and sexuality in Axe campaigns. Perhaps if Unilever cared about Dove's Real Beauty campaign and what it stands for, they would use the same view that beauty can be found anywhere with all of their products.

Capstone Research / Progress (4th Week of March)

This week I have been focusing on editing and recording. I have completed the editing I planned on doing for all of the interview sound bytes. Now I am beginning the processes of recording myself (by the end of this week or start of next week), finding/creating and editing sounds for audio scenes, and further editing my scripts. Because of beginning the new process, I have done some additional reading on writing news stories that I feel will assist in any editing and that has already assisted in some of the writing that I have done.

As far as the script editing goes, I have read an article on media college.com that states many different aspects that assist in the creation of news stories. These aspects are similar to what I have read before from other sources. Basically, the article says that the creation of a news story deals with stating the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" within the story. Now this article is based more for print journalism, but that is also an important aspect for audio news stories too. I checked through my scripts and each one answers all of those questions without being too blatant.

Some other things on this article about news stories that caught my eye were: 

• news is "all about the people" 
• news should be objective
• quotes should be included 
• language should not be "too flowery."

The parts about quotes being included and news being about the people seem to go together well. I have sections within my scripts that relate the news stories to people through some short examples including sound effects and even through quotes about the issues from various students and faculty. In addition, I have also maintained a more neutral disposition by limiting any of my own opinions. However, through advice given to me from other sources, I will admit to having added a few statements that lean more towards the side of students than others. Also, I did limit the more "flowery" language to a minimal, but I tried to use some descriptive language occasionally so that the audio broadcast (podcast) could also create an image for listeners. Overall, I believe that I have followed this advice (which is similar to other advice I have been working on reading through) fairly closely.




Wavelength Media. "How to Write News Stories." Media College - Video, Audio and Multimedia Resources. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/news/write-stories.html>.

Semiotics Interpretation for Hummer Ad

In class, we were asked to choose an advertisement to perform a semiotic analysis on. For my and Hans Merten's advertisement, we decided to use a simple Hummer H3 advertisement. The five different significations that I came up with are:

• The camera angle of the Hummer in this advertisement is a signifier. The effect caused by the angle signifies that the vehicle is large and capable of being used in rugged terrain.

• Another signifier is the orange background around the hummer and the tear. This color of orange reminds me of a rocky or even desert-like terrain and seems to signify adventure and the fact that the Hummer H3 can handle any kind of outing.

• The text that says "brace yourself for the next big thing" is also a signifier. In this case, the text seems to signify that the new Hummer H3 is going to be popular. However, it also could signify that the Hummer itself is large, even though the Hummer H3 is smaller than other Hummers. In this case, the signified is more of a joke.

• The Hummer's pristine condition even after having ripped through the background could also be considered a signifier. It signifies that this vehicle is solid enough to resist damage from obstacles. Pristine condition on an automobile also typically signifies that the vehicle is new (or newer).

• In addition, the centered composition of the advertisement is also a signifier. The composition signifies that the Hummer in the advertisement is the center of attention. In this case, the signified could also be that the vehicle is popular because no other vehicles are like it.

Capstone Research / Progress (2nd Week of March)

This week I have begun on starting the story writing and editing process. Personally, I believe this is one of the most difficult parts of the entire podcast assignment for me because I have to listen through and find possible sound bytes that can be used in the podcast and structure a story around those bytes. However, I have done some reading on the process which could assist me.

In the intro of Creating Powerful Radio by Valerie Geller and Turi Ryder, it is mentioned that before anything goes on air one should ask themselves the following:

• Is it relevant?
• Does it matter?
• Do you care?
• Do your listeners care? (2).

Basically, stories that are being planned should be thought of ahead of time in this way. This is a part of the original decision that I made on what stories that I should cover for my podcasts. In a way, this part came naturally, but I believe that a simple reevaluation would be beneficial.

[ I also found a section with additional guidelines on choosing radio programming, and the one tip that seemed to compliment with the four questions above was to "use your own life as a show resource and always answer the questions: why is this on air? and why should someone listen to this?" (4). ]


Story Structure Basics: (this info is from Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern).

• The Intro: Typically this is done by a host (but in my case I am the sole person working on the    project). It is considered one of the most important part of a radio story (Sound Reporting 102). The intro is created to explain why a story is worth listening to and it also sets the scene or mood of the upcoming report (Sound Reporting 102). Intros also lead into the first voice track of the reporter (Sound Reporting 103).

• The First Track: One problem that occurs during this is that an echo may occur if the intro mentions similar facts (and it often does) that are to be mentioned right away in the story. Getting around this problem can be as easy as starting the section with sound (Sound Reporting 105). Other methods include starting with an actuality or a voice track, but no matter how the first track starts the reporter should read as though they heard the intro (Sound Reporting 106). However, no actual recipe exists for creating an intro or first track (Sound Reporting 108).

Geller, Valerie, and Turi Ryder. Creating Powerful Radio: Getting, Keeping, and Growing Audiences for News, Talk, Information, and Personality. Amsterdam: Focal, 2007. Print.

Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Capstone Research / Progress (1st Week of March)

This week I am continuing my interviews. I have one that is rescheduled for this Tuesday along with student interviews to do still. So far, I have listened through my audio interviews and written down certain time sections and notes about what was said during those sections. I also have a few possible sound bytes marked in my notes.

As far as research goes, I have been looking over some tips in Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production (by Jonathan Kern) that deal with interviewing. I actually wish I had read this section prior to my interview with  Robert Spiker about the internet here at Shepherd, but I did actually do what the advice in the book says. Kern mentions that in some cases an interviewee may use technical language or jargon and assume that the listener knows what they are speaking about. However, this is not the case and too much technical language and explanation that goes on for too long can ruin a potentially good sound byte (this is spoken from prior experience). To help avoid this, it is sometimes "necessary for a reporter to play dumb" (Kern 52). According to Kern, some reporters request that their guest act as though they are speaking to smart high school student who is easily distracted (52). Some reporters also just hint at their interviewees that they do not want so much technical language (52). In my interview, I played dumb at a couple of spots because I really didn't know what some of the technical language meant. This helped to get an easier explanation.

Although I did not read this section (and more so skimmed over it at first), I believe that, in a way, I did follow the advice because I wasn't afraid to re-ask questions or have answers restated to me in a different way. I will have to remember this for the future, especially if I ever do get into reporting somehow (although it is not my first career choice). The advice and tips that I have been finding in Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production have all been useful.



Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Capstone Research / Progress (4th Week of February)

So far, I have one interview completed with the Director of Facilities Management, Dan Yanna. However, a snow day on Tuesday, February 24th, forced me to reschedule my interviews with Tom Segar, Shelli Dronsfield, and Alan Perdue. In the mean time, I have been looking up some interviewing information.

According to Valerie Geller and Turi Ryder, authors of the book Creating Powerful Radio, a good interviewer knows that the interviewee must feel comfortable during the interview (88). In addition many other useful tips are also mentioned by Geller and Ryder such as:

• Having a short greeting and going straight to the point (91).
• Ask how or why questions instead of all simple "yes" and "no" questions (91).
• Don't be afraid to ask a question again if the answer was insufficient (91).
• Focus on the solutions to problems as well as the problems (92).

Other tips were mentioned as well, but I believe these to be the best of them. I plan on keeping these tips in mind while doing my interviews, although I find it easy to "blank out" as far as creating questions on the spot goes (which is why I often have a list of potential questions). Interviewing is actually something I am not so accustomed to, and I actually have only done this two or three times before. However, I believe that with the tips and a little bit of prior knowledge about the subject, I can do a series of successful interviews.



Geller, Valerie, and Turi Ryder. Creating Powerful Radio: Getting, Keeping, and Growing Audiences for News, Talk, Information, and Personality. Amsterdam: Focal, 2007. Print.

Capstone Research (3rd Week of Feb.)

Photo by Melodie Mesiano
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For this week, I have mostly been attempting to set up interviews rather than doing much research. However, I did read a few ethical tips and practices out of Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern. These ethical practices include fairness, being unbiased, and being accurate.

• Fairness: This involves the presentation of all important views on a particular subject (Kern 9).

• Unbiased: Our own personal opinions and views on matters should be separated from the subjects that are being covered (Kern 9). I actually question the thought that something can be completely unbiased. However, I am striving to be as unbiased as possible even though I am looking at the issues that I am covering from an ethological perspective of the students.

• Accuracy: Facts should be completely accurate and presented in the correct context (Kern 9). Assertions of fact and implied facts as a basis for opinion must be correct (Kern 9). Omission should not occur because incomplete information can mislead (Kern 9).

Besides this, I also found a section of the book on podcasting. This section mentions that, even though there isn't a time slot with podcasting such as there is with radio, the time should still be relatively consistent (Kern 327). For example, a podcast that lasts 10-15 minutes on average should not suddenly turn into a one hour segment. Subscribers become used to a certain time for podcasts. These bits of information are some of what I have read this week.



Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Ad Campaign Fixes!

In class we discussed how each of our ads could be improved to create a better advertising campaign. None of the advertisements were perfect, including the ones that Hans and I created, but that is, of course, part of the learning experience. The following images are our ads:

The biggest thing that they really have going for them is the consistency from one to the next. One suggestion that was made for us was that the black border lines should be changed to a more contrasting color to the backgrounds to make them more appealing to tweens. Also, a half-and-half decision seemed to be made to change the woman musician on the bottom one to someone dressed even more ridiculously for the comical effect. However, that suggestion does seem a little more objective, although I will look into finding someone a little more ridiculous (if possible of course). I guess we will have to see what creative commons has to offer.

Continuing Capstone Research (2nd Week of Feb.)

Photo by Adam Smith
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerblokey/3242039102/

This week I have been reading through an article on ethnography called "Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnology" by Michael Agar. I have never really studied ethnography prior to this, but I have a basic understanding of it now. For example, many people tend to believe that hypothesis-testing methods are the best ways of doing research, but Agar believes (as do I because it makes sense) that ethnography is best because it involves understanding the human group being studied and doing hypothesis-testing. Those against ethnology claim that the involvement and association within a group can cause the researcher to become biased on particular issues. However, it also allows for a more thorough understanding, and it gives the researcher the knowledge of whether or not any hypothesis he/she already had prior to joining the group would actually hold up well.

Basics of Ethnological Research:

1. Researcher has direct personal involvement with the researched community (Agar 69).
2. Ethnographers are commonly known as "children" or "students" because they learn how to behave within the group that they are studying (Agar 69).
3. Ethnographic relationships are normally long-term and can take a while to successfully create (Agar 69).

The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography (9780120444700): Michael H. Agar: Books. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.

Online Identity and Internet "Citizenship"

Photo by Daniel O' Connor
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clockwerx/9267076/sizes/m/in/photostream/

I have always been warned that not everyone on the internet is exactly the "truthful" type, especially whenever it comes to revealing their true identities. However, the articles "A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbell and "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me" by Bonnie Goldstein managed to put those warnings into perspective. In fact, after reading the articles, I feel a little more wary about trusting online identity presentation.

Fake online identities could be used anywhere, especially in social networking mediums such as Facebook, MySpace, and Match.com.  In the case of finding someone new online altogether, another account like the one mentioned in "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me" could occur in which a fake persona could be created to harass someone. Also, a fake persona or someone who causes trouble online can be deleted, but a new IP address can be acquired, which would allow the person who was banned or deleted to return as a new user and return to their old ways again like in the case of "A Rape in Cyberspace" when Mr. Bungle was "toaded" (deleted) and returned as Dr. Jest (who acted in a similar manner).

Those who act in similar negative ways online like the above mentioned cases are not being ideal "online citizens." To me, an "online citizen" entitles others to have the same rights as they have in person in an online medium. Those who create fake accounts or manipulate online systems for gain are very much equivalent to citizens in reality who break the law, and can be punished by law in some areas like in the case of Lori Drew in "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me." (Drew was not actually punished by law in the case, but a resolution was created that made "cyberstalking" a misdemeanor in the city limits where this occurred.)



A recent report on fake Facebook accounts.






Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace." (1998): n. pag. Web. 8 Feb 2011. <http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/>.

Goldstein, Bonnie. "The Sock Puppet Who Loved Me." (2007): n. pag. Web. 8 Feb 2011. <http://www.slate.com/id/2178820/entry/2178821/>.

Continuing Capstone Research (1st week of Feb.)

Photo by Andy White
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedoctorpod/5376222581/

This week I have been doing some research out of the book Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production by Jonathan Kern. I have been focusing on sections of the book involving the difference between writing for newspaper and writing for audio broadcast, reporting tips, and story editing. Interesting and useful information I have found includes the following:

•  Newspaper writings are not "written for the ear" (Kern 25), and they often state information faster and in a more elaborate way than anyone anyone could absorb it (Kern 25). Often, when a listener misses a fact or has trouble understanding the message they do not tune in long.

•  Proper audio broadcast writing is more simplistic in sentence structure, and some of the sentences even overlap a little so the listeners can understand more easily (Kern 26-27).

•  "Yes" or "no" questions typically do not yield good actualities (Kern 54). Asking "how" questions avoids the "yes" or "no" problem.

• " Either" and "or" questions should also be avoided because it "boxes in the interviewee" and limits their answers and responses (Kern 54-55).

•  Attempting to get interviewees to use analogies normally leads to entertaining and understandable results (Kern 55).

• When story editing, watch out for echoes [telling people the same thing in different ways twice], unidentified actualities [always add an ID to make the audio bytes less confusing], confusing IDs between two speakers, etc (Kern 108-09).

Kern, Jonathan. Sound Reporting: the NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. Print.

Gender Inequality in Music Video

Image by Florbela
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I feel that the video we watched in class on January 26th that dealt with gender inequality in music video was spot on. Almost every music video seems to have women viewed more as objects than human beings, and many of the videos are based on a masculine view. However, I do not feel that the usage of women in such a way is right. Music videos should be intended for just about any audience, but it seems as though they are always made for the enjoyment of heterosexual males. More gender-equal music videos would, more than likely, improve society by presenting a world of equality. Instead, the gender-biased videos that are put out today (especially by rap and hip-hop artists) harm society because they cause certain societal members to think in the same manner as the made-up world within the video. Also, the comparison made between the portrayal African-American's in rap/hip-hop music videos today and D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation was actually pretty accurate, which is sad.

Continuing Research (Week of January 23rd)

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So far, I have been looking into various audio news stories and documentaries to find the "proper" way of formatting a script for my own news stories. In addition, I read an article from the "Nieman Reports" site titled "What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?." This particular article relates to my project because I plan on doing 3 to 4 news stories/"documentaries" about living on campus. Unlike a typical documentary I do not plan on having audio scenes that play out a particular story. Instead, I plan on having sound bytes from interviews and possibly having appropriate sound bytes of effects, if necessary, playing alongside my own narration. I have not had much practice with doing news stories other than two years ago in Studio Production, but I have done a couple of small ones before and hope to use that experience on this project.

Possible Research Sources for my "News Stories" Idea

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I have decided to work with my "News Stories" idea for the Capstone. My plan is to create audio news segments that could possibly be ready to air on radio and that could make a good short podcast series. I was just recently introduced to the idea of doing this as a podcast, so I plan on doing some research about various podcasts and their forms of structure. Most of this research will be done by simply listening to several different podcast programs. I have also found some websites with tutorials on creating podcasts such as this one simply titled "How to Podcast."In addition, I am also planning on getting a few books on the subject of radio journalism and trying to find information and templates that have proper script format. 

PowerPoint (It All Depends on How it's Used).

Photo by Matt Hurst
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I believe that some of the statements made by Edward Tufte, writer of "PowerPoint is Evil," are overly dramatic and ridiculous. According to Tufte, PowerPoint presentations "degrade quality and credibility of communication." He also compares PowerPoint to an expensive prescription drug that does more harm than good. However, I am not so certain that his description is always the case (or even ever the case in the way in which I have seen them used).

Meanwhile, David Byrne, writer of "Learning to Love PowerPoint," argues that PowerPoint is an useful artistic medium. He mentions that, at the beginning, he created presentations with little content. However, he soon learned that he could add short videos, photos, music, and scanned images to the presentations. He also learned that the presentations could be run on a timer so that no one was required. Byrne seems to realize what a convenience that PowerPoint is both as an art form and as a form of business presentation.

When I think of PowerPoint, it is mostly thoughts of presenting scholarly or business related material to a crowd. I do not see it as an artistic medium as much, but I also do not see it as a degradation of speech when used effectively. Effective use for me includes: showing visuals and speaking about them, adding sound when necessary for a particular topic, keeping animation on a down-low to avoid distraction, and as a way of showing lists or reading notes. My version of effective use, for the most part, involves the PowerPoint being a visual while I attempt to do the speaking. I believe that my vision of PowerPoint differs from the vision of both of the writers', because my vision simply involves providing an entertaining visual to accompany a speech instead of using PowerPoint for art or just using it without an accompanying speech. A PowerPoint presentation does not (and should not) just give itself in a business or class setting.

Forbes Best Social Media Campaigns

Man Checking Twitter
Photo by Steve Garfield.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2715/4247757731_8f94338cdd.jpg

The Forbes article actually brought back many memories for me because I had long forgotten about some of the campaigns mentioned. I now remember some effective social media campaigns such as the Blair Witch Project one when they tried to make the movie look real and the Burger King one with the chicken online taking orders. The success of campaigns such as the Burger King Chicken, Blair Witch Project, and Old Spice Isaiah Mustafa seems to rely on the fact that the target audience is more engaged. People could find updated information on the products by visiting websites, posting questions, or, in the case of the Blair Witch project, by finding updated false articles about the investigation of the missing teens.

Recently, I have been kind of locked away from many social media outlets because of not watching much television to get the information and the fact that I never pay attention to Facebook or Twitter style sites anymore. However, I do remember friends of mine looking up the Blair Witch reports, which affected me because they got me into the idea of looking up the reports too. It seems that I am being forced back into the social media realm now that I am back to Shepherd, so I will have to start paying attention to the ways in which particular ads are geared toward the social media.

Even today people question the Blair Witch authenticity. Click here for a Yahoo Answers question about it posted in 2009.

What I Hope To Accomplish / Learn About in Comm 406.

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I am hoping that I will learn effective advertising strategies and how to target specific audiences. Just so you know, I am not so certain that I would want a career in advertising. However, with as much work as I have done with photoshop the last couple of years, I should be prepared to use the software to create ads anyway. I would also like to know how ads affect me because I figure that they do more than I think.

Senior Capstone Ideas

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I have many possible ideas that need to be narrowed down some upon discussion with my director. First, I thought about possibly finding and recording potential news stories involving Shepherdstown or the University. This would include finding topics and potential people to interview who are affected by the topic, followed by sound editing the interview to fit within a specific time. Second, I thought about the possibility of writing articles and reviews on select band cds or electric guitars and brands. Maybe, in this case, I could compile all of the reviews on a blog or website. Third, I could do sort of an experimental short film depicting some sort of “drug trip” or similar experience that makes use of repeated imagery and focuses more emphasis on sound. I mentioned an emphasis on sound because I like sound editing a little more than video editing. Fourth (and last idea so far),  I thought about the possibility of taking funny phrases from youtube videos and creating entertaining songs out of them. An example of this would be the “Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife” song inspired by Antoine Dodson.

Photo by Heather Vescent 
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/290718491_8fc09bcfb6.jpg

One other idea I came up with involved the use of stock footage and making use of soundtrack pro and recorded audio (along with library audio) to mix a video much like what I did in Sound Design. It would include both video and audio editing, and the project would, more than likely, help me improve on my audio/video editing skills. Just an extra thought that I decided to include.

Favorite Ad Campaign

Photo by Orin Zebest

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/194/493014354_5e607099a5.jpg

My current favorite advertising campaign is the one that Snickers is doing when the "hunger" transforms people into other people (usually celebrities). I believe that the slogan is "you're not you when you're hungry, Snickers satisfies." I like these commercials mostly because they are funny and exaggerated to an extreme level. Any commercial exaggerated as much as these captures my attention. These commercials work well because of the use of known celebrities, types of people, and comedy. Using Betty White and Aretha Franklin as "hunger transformations" in a commercial is pretty much an ingenious strategy (especially since the people turning into them are also guys). Betty White is used to show that the guy playing football is doing a poor job while hungry, and Aretha Franklin in the newest one is used because "divas" are known to be whiny and the guy is whining due to hunger. Then, of course, a Snickers bar enters the scene and the celebrity eats it and changes into the guy who was hungry.

Here is a link to the "diva" Snickers commercial on youtube.

Website Project Ideas

So far I have two possible ideas for my website.

Photo by Catsper
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/72303090_ff71dcf440.jpg 

1st. I could create one that deals with electric guitars and their history, famous artists who played them, the different brands, sponsoring, local and larger named shops, personal overall reviews of the brands, etc.

Photo by Kaakati 
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/336497304_14ff5a350b.jpg

2nd. I thought about creating a website that has information on coffee such as the different types, their origins, reasons for or against drinking, history of US coffee trade, processing and production, etc.



Currently, I am not certain which idea to go for. I am just trying to pick a topic that I am interested in and that has plenty of information for me to use in the creation of a decent sized website. Any other possible options will be taken into my consideration too as I come up with more ideas or as I am suggested ideas.