Medium Specificity

Facebook- Video
Facebook- picture compilation
Facebook- Picture promo

What I created is a series of advertisements for my upcoming production. I used Facebook as the media platform because I wanted to reach an audience that is bigger than the one I can reach with work of mouth advertising. What I created functions as a celebration of the platform I chose. In Facebook, it is common to see images, words, emojies, and video clips- and so I used all of these forms in my communication.

Along with being a celebration of Facebook,
my work is a slight commentary on the platform as a whole. Because I am using social media as an advertising platform I am limited- by the copyright issues connected with the work I'm producing, and by the platform itself. Because the work I am producing doesn't have the copyright necessary to advertise broadly I cannot state the name of the show I am working on nor can I state the body of work that it is based off of. Another way that I am limited is in the length of the video I can present to Facebook. It would be impractical to post an entire 40 min video of the production on Facebook for several reasons, two of which being:
1. buffering time constraints

2. user attention spans.  

So, overall- I'd say Facebook is a good place to do this kind of advertising- IF you know how, and IF you follow the copyright rules so as to not get in trouble!
:D

- Digital and Social Media Adaptation

Ode to an Orange-1
Ode to an orange 2
Ode to an Orange 3
Ode to and Orange 4

The adaptation of this assignment in my theatre classroom would be interesting. Most of the texts we interact with in a drama classroom are meant for theatrical representation- and so they would easily lend themselves to a social media platform.
I can see a complex twitter feed being devoted to Crucible, or some sort of video blog about the music man. The interesting thing would be to try to reverse the process and take something presented on social media and then translate it onto the stage. I think about that one commercial-

Where we have classically trained actors performing newsfeed updates, and texts.

If the end goal for this project of turning a text (poem, image, story, etc.) into a social media post- would be to then take a social media post and transform it to the theatre I would super get behind this exercise.

I would also LOVE to apply this technique to my history classroom. Taking historic records and texts and translating them (while maintaining their integrity) to modern social media would be a fun way to engage with history.

This seems to be a project mostly geared to English education but, I would like to see it adapted to theatre. Taking, for example, a performance as our original text and then translate it to social media would be a great way for students to synthesize and analyze the important elements of a production.

Overall I see this as a beneficial project.  I look forward to including this in my future curriculum.

Thinking and Writing about Digital Media

The Digital media that I create is mostly limited to two platforms: Instagram/Facebook, and Youtube. During the month of October I activate my Instagram page and add to my 31daysofbarkerhalloween posts. My wife and I both dress up in halloween costumes for everyday of October- and we share those costumes with our friends and followers. My other creations live in Youtube. My brother-in-law creates videos and I act in them! The example in the link is one of my favorite comedy sketches we put together.

My Digital media consumption also gravitates around these platforms- but it also includes Pinterest. I enjoy a dank meme or a cooking recipe as much as the next person! I spend my time with these media providers because they make me feel connected to friends, they provide me with entertainment, and they update me on breaking news which I then verify with news media providers.

My personal guidelines for navigating media available is simple: if it is gross-I don't want it. That is mostly applicable to Youtube, and Pinterest. I align myself pretty close to the Gospel view of media- if it is of good report, virtuous, or lovely- funny, creative, clever, or inspiring- I seek after those things. I end up unfollowing people from time to time, and I have a filter engaged in my google searches- so I don't end up getting stuff I don't want: try searching x-men pictures without a decent web-filter installed. It gets pretty dicey.

Digital media is unlike any other kind of media for a couple specific reasons:
1. You can access it so quickly (provided you have an internet connection)
2. There is a record of you viewing it.

When I view art in a gallery- I have to go way out of my normal travel route to see art, and even when I'm there there is no record of what I saw, and/or how long I was looking at a particular piece.
With Digital media- BOOM! there it is!

And so I try my darnedest to avoid pages, and media providers that have inappropriate content.

As a teacher I can see the media I participate in being a crucial part of connecting with my students. I often will use a meme or two in my power-points during lessons- and videos are always a nice way to break up lectures.

I feel that presenting Digital media in the classroom is helpful for my students. I shows them that I am approachable, and relatable - but it also models appropriate media consumption. If my students are going to search out Youtube videos it would be nice for them to have a standard that they can follow- or an example to exemplify.

I know when I am searching for media I rely on the example of others to help me cut through the crap.