The existence of social media has brought a sense of democracy to the internet. Never before has there been a place where we can be seen as an equal, where a university student can talk directly to celebrities and corporations. This democratic dialogue has become twisted, and in places such as Myanmar what was being used for just a tweeted complaint from a consumer to a company has turned into state actors inciting violence through social media posts. This democratic dialogue that existed in the first place, was born out of widespread access to social media. John Suler writes on the online disinhibition effect, and how it presents itself in…
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Week 7 Process Post: My Struggle with Monetization
After discussion from tutorial, whether or not to monetize is on my mind. I am torn between whether or not I should run ads on my blog. On one hand, a little extra money never hurt anyone. I remember from my short stint on YouTube how satisfying it was to earn the 10 cents that I did (I have never received a cheque though, you need to make at least a dollar for that). I am a Starbucks barista and I live in one of the most expensive places to live in the world. As someone who consumed other blogs for years, I reaped the benefits of the blogs that I read did…
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Peer Review #2: Grace in Adulting: True Tales of a Clueless Adult
Grace in Adulting follows Grace Mavko, the blog’s creator as she stumbles through the beginning of adulthood. In Tara Chittenden’s Digital Dressing Up: Modelling Female Teen Identity in the Discursive Spaces of the Fashion Blogosphere, she refers to blogs as, “online diaries.” From looking through and reading Grace’s blog it reads like I am receiving insight into what she would write in a diary. I love the persona she has built, how she is open about her struggles, and who she is on such a public platform. This second peer review is geared toward design choices though, so I will depart from talking about content. In terms of Grace’s themes and customization,…
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Week 6 Process Post: My Imagined Audience
This week’s prompt asks us to discuss our imagined audience… I want this blog to be a resource for all readers of NA. It does not matter if you are new to the genre or have been reading it for decades, there is something gain from reading my reviews. I have geared my design towards showcasing my Goodreads as I view my audience as dedicated readers who will have accounts on such a site. I have also geared my design towards helping authors with promotion, which is a huge element of NA blogging, through my contact information and my qualifications from working with Netgalley and InkSlingerPR being very clear on…
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Week 5 Process Post: Evaluating Design Elements
This week’s prompt has us critiquing the design elements of a site we frequent. I thought I would examine the blog that inspired me to start my own… Aestas Book Blog Mauve Pagé highlighted the basic design principles as Balance, Rhythm, Proportion/Scale, Contrast/Point of Focus, and Unity. Balance: Aestas’ blog is very symmetrical, as the middle menu bar featuring specific book covers is even, three on each side. Her title/logo is also centred. This symmetry is very pleasing to me, I really like that feature of the design. Rhythm: Aestas uses consistent typefaces throughout her blog. She has the colour palette of black, white, and beige that she doesn’t stray from. She cannot have a more colour…
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If You Liked This YA Book… You Will Love This NA Book (and Mini Assignment #3)
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Peer Review #1: Explore: An Industry Voice
Explore: An Industry Voice is a blog that reviews hotels. Doug, the blog’s content creator has a few years of experience working in the hotel industry and through this blog is applying his expertise in the reviews he is pending. Central to this first peer review is the creation of Online Self. Doug’s about section can be found in the menu bar and is quite simple. In order to build an online self, I really think Doug would benefit from updating his about section. Either, if you plan to keep it short and sweet build it into the home page instead, I would suggest also adding social media handles somewhere…
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Week 4 Process Post: Are Genres Created?
This past week’s lecture made me think more about genres. The question “are genres created?” was posed to the class. It got me thinking about my process of categorizing books into genres. I have always been the type of reader who would rather classify something under a specific sub-genre than use the broad main genre terms. I barely ever refer to a book as a fantasy novel. I stress whether that book is urban fantasy or high fantasy because both sub-genres are such different and distinct reading experiences. Another case that comes up for me is actually putting certain books into a genre was so difficult I started calling them an amalgamation of…
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Week 3 Process Post: Variations of the Online Self
These past few weeks from talking to a stranger and from reading John Suler’s The Online Disinhibition Effect, I have thought more about the variations within myself in public and online. Out of everything discussed in the article I found the concept of Minimizing Authority the most prevalent to my online self. Here’s why… July 10th, 2012 was the first time I interacted with a favourite author on a social platform (in this case Twitter). Since then I have had authors like, favourite, retweet, and follow me on Twitter. On Instagram, I have received likes from them too. If you were to check my Goodreads friends list you would also see…
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Author Spotlight on Krista and Becca Ritchie (and Mini Assignment #2)
In author spotlight, I want to write dedicated posts to highlight an author (or authors) that I believe deserve more attention both in and out of the NA literature fandom. For this next installment, I am focusing on the sister duo, Krista and Becca Ritchie. Well, I won’t be focusing on them, a special guest will be. Hello, my name is Pietro Maximoff (or Quicksilver) and I have been informed by the Fizzle Force (the fans of these Authors) that I play a significant part in the author’s works. The main character’s of Krista and Becca Ritchie’s most popular series are huge Marvel, specifically X-Men fans, to the point that they named…
