The digital communication breakdown that I chose to explore is the Wells Fargo campaign for their 2016 Teen Financial Education Day. The ad that they posted (pictured below) features an image of a girl in a lab with the caption “A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today”. This is paired with a photo of a boy in a lab with the caption “An actor yesterday. A botanist today”. Each photo is then tagged with the slogan for the campaign, “Let’s get them ready for tomorrow”. Clearly, the marketing team behind this ad believed that they were encouraging students who viewed the ad to follow their dreams for their career. While Wells Fargo’s purpose with this ad was to draw attention to celebrating students’ future careers, it struck a chord within the arts community. Actor Andy Mientus tweeted in response how important he finds art education to be and advises his audience not to listen to Wells Fargo. This tweet received over 3,000 interactions and was enough for Wells Fargo to issue an apology/explanation. They apologized for their ads and posted a text photo that explained their initial intention for the ad, as well as stating that their company values “embracing diversity and inclusion” as well as support for the arts. While the general response to this apology was positive and praising the company for acting so quickly, of course there were plenty of people still frustrated that no one saw the flaw in the ad campaign from the start. Overall, I think that Wells Fargo did a fantastic job acknowledging the flaws in the campaign and vowing to do better in the future with the campaign. That said, I agree with the notion that the team behind this ad should have considered how it would be perceived from those who are in the artistic careers these students were “yesterday”. Arts programs in schools are just as important as science and math programs, although they are rarely treated as such, and this is something that Wells Fargo should have been aware of when promoting this ad. Given their actions taken and that there have been no complaints or controversies regarding their ads since, it seems as though communication and understanding were restored to the situation and there isn’t much left to be done on their part. The story that this most reminds me of from “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” is from chapter 4 about Justine Sacco tweets that were made in poor taste. The same idea presented in this story is shown in the situation with Wells Fargo: lack of thought. One must think through the way their words will be perceived when releasing anything out onto the internet, especially a platform as harsh as Twitter. While Sacco’s tweets were also in poor taste, it’s clear that she did not consider the different perspectives of others that would be reading them – just as Wells Fargo did not consider the perspective of those in the arts when promoting their Teen Financial Day ads. What anyone can learn from both of these stories is to simply be more careful and aware of the diverse audiences that can and will be digesting the content that one puts out.
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My design for the website is simple but sleek, a step above minimalism. The black header background draws your attention immediately to the title and the logo. My logo is the classic skull but with the title, Hamlet, included dripping from the teeth. I think this logo is also relatively simple but draws the eyes straight to it due to its bright color. Other titles and elements on the page could also be highlighted red to tie the whole thing together. Underneath the header we have the navigation bar, written in clear font and a white background to be easy to read. To the left of the content area below the navigation, we’ll have a little welcome message that explains the site’s purpose and what can be found around the site. To accompany this will be an array of photos that demonstrate all the different aspects that the site covers. I think this website design draws the reader’s attention to the right aspects and doesn’t distract from the information with its layout. I chose to have a top menu bar rather than Organizationally, all the items one would need to get to can be accessed from anywhere on the site. For each page, the content layout may be slightly different given the mediums they choose to take advantage of, but overall, I imagine each page to be simple and very much to the point. This website is obviously going to be accessed by those looking to learn about this Hamlet production and because of this, I don’t want the layout to distract from any of the awesome work within the performance. Having a simple layout means that the HTML won’t take long to put together and it will be easier to code in all the information, images, and videos that we will be using. The goal of this website is to let the content speak for itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr5CMldRnnw&feature=youtu.be
I made my site using a simple template that I found online. After changing the colors, font, sizes, and some other cosmetic features I was finally happy with the setup. The biggest challenge I faced was getting text to align with my pictures in a way that I liked the look of but was also capable of setting up in html. The second biggest challenge I faced was changing out the header image to one I created on photoshop. It was difficult to get it to fit exactly where I wanted using just coding, but after many google searches and a lot of trial-and-error I managed to get it right. With more knowledge of code and likely years of experience, ideally the site would have maybe a more interesting navigation system and be slightly more interactive for the viewer. I really like the color scheme and overall layout of the site, but I would have loved to make the details a bit more interesting and fun. I used many different modes in creating my site. Primarily, the visual mode played the biggest part in the site design. I chose a layout that was simple and easily digestible for any viewer and chose a complimenting color scheme that I thought was nice on the eyes while also representing me well. I didn’t want the site to take up the whole screen, so I chose one that was a little bit smaller so all the information was located in the same area without overwhelming the viewer. Also, using the linguistic mode, I wrote my about pages to seem personable and easy for people to connect to. The written parts very much reflect my sense of humor and voice in writing which was my intended goal. I wanted to write in a way that I find to be entertaining, in hopes to connect to either those who want to learn more about those aspects of myself, or someone with similar humor. As for the spatial mode, I wanted each page to be able to navigate to the other pages while still being unique in their content. The simple layout made the site easy to keep organized while the personalized color scheme and content gave it more of a personal flair. My design choices were very much focused in keeping the site organized while making it personal and fun. I put emphasis on the headings of each page so the reader knows exactly what part of the site that they’re on. I chose pink as the color scheme primarily because my hair is currently pink and I think it’s a color that I feel represents me well at the moment. I also chose pink because I feel like it’s a playful and inviting color, making the reader feel welcomed into the site when they arrive. Another design choice I made was on the alignment of photos and text. On the page dedicated to my pets, I chose to put their pictures on opposite sides of the page with text in line with their photo. I thought this was an unique way to organize the page and the alignment of it made it clear which paragraph belonged to which animal while making it interesting to read. Link to Template: http://www.oswd.org/design/information/id/2684/
The Routledge Performance Archive brings together all aspects of life performance – theatre, dance, performance – in an easily digestible format so that all these aspects have their own spotlight while demonstrating how they fit together to create something incredible. Complete with a section for commentary, the reader is able to access all facets of performance with a window to see performance through somebody else’s expert eyes. This archive is designed for an audience of all different kinds. Due to how much information is stored within this archive, there is truly something here for casual theatre fans, dedicated theatre fans, directors, historians, or those just looking for a deeper perspective in all aspects of performance. The context of the archive is placing all of this available information in one easily accessible location, that the audience can pull up even on their cell phone to find what they need. The layout of the archive is easy to navigate due to the separation of different sections that are all easy to access in more detail from the homepage. Breaking the website up in so many different ways makes it easy for the audience to easily find whatever genre, play, or even actor that they were looking for. Along with a section dedicated to the different commentators, there is a section for practitioners including actors, directors, all the way down to historical figures for the world of theatre. The whole site is also keyword searchable, so it is as convenient as possible to find exactly what you’re looking for. There is also a page called “What’s New”, allowing the audience to easily read up on new performance or any other current happenings. The organization of this archive gives me a general idea of how I want our archive to be set up for efficient browsing. I like how it is easy as possible for the audience to find exactly what they are looking for, while also giving them the opportunity to find a deeper understanding of performance that they may not have had before visiting the site. If there’s anything I would change about the layout, it would be to make all the items a little bit smaller, so it is less overwhelming on the eyes. There is little to no negative space, which is understandable given how much content the site has, but that does make it a bit more difficult for the audience to take the page in as a whole and takes away from the sleekness of the design. I also think that having a commentary section filled with reviews and content from leading scholars and critics is a very unique way to present this archive because it allows those who may not be as educated in the area to gain a deeper appreciation for the details that only an expert could pick out and articulate. There is no better way to learn about anything than from the experts who clearly have a passion and an eye for what they are talking about. Overall, I think this archive accomplishes its goal of providing a new depth to the coverage of performance while also presenting it in a fresh, new way. This perfectly organized and in depth approach makes the site accessible for theatre lovers of all levels – expert to casual - and may even help somebody bridge the gap between the two. Link to Archive: https://www.routledgeperformancearchive.com Thoughts on Digital Curation
I’ve had social media accounts since I got my first iPod Touch in the 6th grade. At twelve years old, I dove into the social media worlds of Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and probably more that I don’t even remember anymore. Looking back, this was probably too much freedom for anyone that young, but I do recall believing I was being very smart about the way I ran my accounts. My mom did stress to me the importance of being safe online, protecting my identity, and that anything I put online could be found by my future college/employer. Because of these lessons, and the fact that I knew my mom was always carefully watching, I’ve always been cautious and careful about what I choose to post online. Many of my social media accounts were created to begin to market myself as an artist, and although that is no longer the case, for the most part I still follow the same mental rules about what I post. My Twitter (although locked at the moment because I made it too young for twitter’s guidelines – I digress) would easily be considered PG rated, minus the occasional vulgar funny tweet from a comedian I wanted to share or political arguments that were better said than I could put together myself. Twitter, for me, is a platform that is mostly used to repost content that I enjoy or agree with rather than post my own thoughts and ideas. This isn’t for any particular reason besides that I think there are a lot of people much funnier, smarter, and more qualified to make many of the statements I support. My other social medias are less “strict” for no particular reason. My Instagram has some pictures from parties or other similar contexts, but they’re more or less PG rated for the content itself. Primarily, it consists of several pictures of my face on days I thought I looked pretty good and wanted to share. My Facebook is pretty scarce these days besides quarterly photo dumps to let up some of my phone storage. My lack of Facebook content could also be linked to the public nature of the site and my numerous family members who diligently keep an eye on my account. Overall, I do my best to keep my social medias rather clean while also making sure some of my spunky personality and unique tastes shine through. This can sometimes be a challenge when my personality calls for more explicit language or aggression, but I do my best to maintain a balance that says “I’m cool, calm, and collected, but there’s more to the story here”. I like to think that an employer would be perfectly pleased with my social media accounts (because my mom is), but there’s always a concern that I stepped over the line here, one time when I was 16, or there, one time when somebody argued with me about feminism my freshman year – an argument I cannot resist. All in all, the content that I choose and curate for my social media accounts is still thoroughly considered before I post. But it is a goal of mine to possibly loosen up a bit – not because I think my practices aren’t good, but because I want to feel more like I can express my authentic self across the platforms that are designed to represent just that. |
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