Over the course of this semester, I have a learned a lot more about how to write using research and still incorporating my own opinion and writing style. The hypertext essays that we did in this class were useful for exploring more in depth into things that involve race, gender, and media. They also helped to propose ideas for solving the gaps found in all of these areas.
With my first hypertext essay, I tried to stay a bit more facts driven with my work which to me made it a little boring. My main goal of this website was to focus on a purpose, which in this case was to prove that the lack of diversity across all media industries has a negative impact on modern society. The whole format of a hypertext essay is to make an interactive website and an engaging piece of writing. I think as I started reading and editing my first essay which I entitled Defining Us, I think my writing style started to shine through more towards the end of the essay to the point where you could get a clear understanding of my voice. Overall though, with a few more tweaks that I might add before class ends on Monday, I think that my first essay was a successful introduction to what kind of work I could produce for this class.
After I completed my first project, I think it was pretty easy for me to come up with the topic for my video ethnography project. I knew I was going to do something that focused solely on black culture, but I also wanted to keep it fresh and not restricted to the everyday news that we hear about African Americans and their communities on a day-to-day basis. The great thing about this project is that I learned to respond to the needs of different audiences by having to make a 10 minute video and supporting my video with pages of written work. I chose to do my video ethnography on #BlackTwitter because I know how prominent it has gotten and I also am a very avid user of it. I know that the kinds of people who participate in #BlackTwitter use it for entertainment, but they also use it to express frustrations whether it be in their schools, neighbor hoods, media representation, or they entertainers that they choose to support. Black people hold each other to such a high standard that sometimes we come off too harsh when people "fall." As a group of people, blacks in America are always told that they have to work twice as hard just to get something accomplished compared to their white counterparts and in a way you can see that frustration come through on #BlackTwitter. I know that my actual video seemed to be lacking a few things but that is because I was trying to get more of subjects thoughts and opinions on the topic versus my ow but I made up for that with the writing pieces that can be found on my website called Black Twitter Exists. Overall, I think this second project went better than the first.
For this last hypertext essay that I am producing for this class, I think this may be the best project that I will produce for this class. I plan on using it as a basis for the website I want to make for the non-profit organization I'm working on with my parents. This project will be my best work because it is the most personal to me. My last website is called Mentally Sane and its purpose is to explore how exactly we can use activism to inform and fight for people who don't always feel they have a voice if they are suffering with mental illnesses. What I like the most about this project is that it helped me adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality for the audience that I am trying to reach. The first part of my website gives a lot of background on why the subject is important to me and it gives pure facts about what depression and anxiety are and why they are problems. The second half of my essay will continue on with more facts but it will also explore the current issues that those who already have organizations in place are lacking at when it comes to truly helping with this issue. I find that most of the people who are bold enough to say they are dealing with mental illness are white, like what we've talked about in this class countless of times. White people are not the only people in the world. Within the past year I have heard about, met, and seen first hand plenty of minorities who are dealing with depression, anxiety, substance abuse, cutting, and so much more because our culture always told us that we need to be strong. I mean I can't tell you how many times my own father has said, "Suck it up. You are strong. You stand on the backs of many people who risked their lives for you to have what you have today. We are a strong group of people." And do you know how that makes you feel? It makes you feel worse off than you were before because you feel wrong for feeling emotional in the first place. I don't want to give away too much from my website, but I plan to delve more into this ideal. Activism starts with a group of people who are willing to see a problem and act on it, and I want Mentally Sane to point out the problems in current forms of activism and propose ways to fix them.
With all of that being said, I think that my work has been consistent and has shown growth in making my writing style more concrete and my voice more prominent. It's also taught me ho to sight things in ways I never exactly thought of and helped me to learn how to writing more reader friendly work. I'm always thinking about how can I make my site more user friendly and I think this class taught us, that as media changes, the way school and education works has to change too. That starts with learning how to do make work more accessible online and engaging the reader in all aspects of your work. Sometimes adding in some personal narrative to a research type of paper makes a paper stand out and I'm starting to realize that. Getting a sense of my voice in all my work is very important.
With my first hypertext essay, I tried to stay a bit more facts driven with my work which to me made it a little boring. My main goal of this website was to focus on a purpose, which in this case was to prove that the lack of diversity across all media industries has a negative impact on modern society. The whole format of a hypertext essay is to make an interactive website and an engaging piece of writing. I think as I started reading and editing my first essay which I entitled Defining Us, I think my writing style started to shine through more towards the end of the essay to the point where you could get a clear understanding of my voice. Overall though, with a few more tweaks that I might add before class ends on Monday, I think that my first essay was a successful introduction to what kind of work I could produce for this class.
After I completed my first project, I think it was pretty easy for me to come up with the topic for my video ethnography project. I knew I was going to do something that focused solely on black culture, but I also wanted to keep it fresh and not restricted to the everyday news that we hear about African Americans and their communities on a day-to-day basis. The great thing about this project is that I learned to respond to the needs of different audiences by having to make a 10 minute video and supporting my video with pages of written work. I chose to do my video ethnography on #BlackTwitter because I know how prominent it has gotten and I also am a very avid user of it. I know that the kinds of people who participate in #BlackTwitter use it for entertainment, but they also use it to express frustrations whether it be in their schools, neighbor hoods, media representation, or they entertainers that they choose to support. Black people hold each other to such a high standard that sometimes we come off too harsh when people "fall." As a group of people, blacks in America are always told that they have to work twice as hard just to get something accomplished compared to their white counterparts and in a way you can see that frustration come through on #BlackTwitter. I know that my actual video seemed to be lacking a few things but that is because I was trying to get more of subjects thoughts and opinions on the topic versus my ow but I made up for that with the writing pieces that can be found on my website called Black Twitter Exists. Overall, I think this second project went better than the first.
For this last hypertext essay that I am producing for this class, I think this may be the best project that I will produce for this class. I plan on using it as a basis for the website I want to make for the non-profit organization I'm working on with my parents. This project will be my best work because it is the most personal to me. My last website is called Mentally Sane and its purpose is to explore how exactly we can use activism to inform and fight for people who don't always feel they have a voice if they are suffering with mental illnesses. What I like the most about this project is that it helped me adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality for the audience that I am trying to reach. The first part of my website gives a lot of background on why the subject is important to me and it gives pure facts about what depression and anxiety are and why they are problems. The second half of my essay will continue on with more facts but it will also explore the current issues that those who already have organizations in place are lacking at when it comes to truly helping with this issue. I find that most of the people who are bold enough to say they are dealing with mental illness are white, like what we've talked about in this class countless of times. White people are not the only people in the world. Within the past year I have heard about, met, and seen first hand plenty of minorities who are dealing with depression, anxiety, substance abuse, cutting, and so much more because our culture always told us that we need to be strong. I mean I can't tell you how many times my own father has said, "Suck it up. You are strong. You stand on the backs of many people who risked their lives for you to have what you have today. We are a strong group of people." And do you know how that makes you feel? It makes you feel worse off than you were before because you feel wrong for feeling emotional in the first place. I don't want to give away too much from my website, but I plan to delve more into this ideal. Activism starts with a group of people who are willing to see a problem and act on it, and I want Mentally Sane to point out the problems in current forms of activism and propose ways to fix them.
With all of that being said, I think that my work has been consistent and has shown growth in making my writing style more concrete and my voice more prominent. It's also taught me ho to sight things in ways I never exactly thought of and helped me to learn how to writing more reader friendly work. I'm always thinking about how can I make my site more user friendly and I think this class taught us, that as media changes, the way school and education works has to change too. That starts with learning how to do make work more accessible online and engaging the reader in all aspects of your work. Sometimes adding in some personal narrative to a research type of paper makes a paper stand out and I'm starting to realize that. Getting a sense of my voice in all my work is very important.