In Elizabeth Drescher’s article, “Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion,” it came as no surprise that social media has slowly but surely trickled its way down to affecting religion.  Though some may view social media integration in religion to perhaps be a “sin,” (according to Drescher’s article, a Google search for “social media guidelines for churches” yields more than twenty-seven million results,) Drescher shares in her articles some of the benefits of social media’s presence in religion.

The two most intriguing trends of social media that I personally thought was quite interesting in Drescher’s article is the presence of religious apps now available to those with Adroids, iPhones, and other smart phones.  As a Christian, I currently have a “Bible app” on my phone that offers me access to an online version of the Bible.  When I need to look up a verse, it is so convenient to use the app.  All I have to do is open the app, type in the Bible verse, and voila, in less than ten seconds, I have the full Bible verse on my phone screen.

As I was interested in exploring what other apps are related to religion, I took it upon myself to do some research at the App Store.  I typed in “religion,” and got a few interesting hits.  Some included an app for religion books, Bible promises, iRosary, encyclopedia of religion, children’s Bible, Bibles in different languages, hymns, Bible trivia, Muslim Pro, etc.  I had never seen so many apps for religion!  It truly astounded me to see how much technology has integrated religion to allow smartphone users to have access to such apps.  As each app had approximately one hundred to two hundred ratings, I was shocked to see how many individuals had actually downloaded, used, and rated these apps.  Moreover, what was interesting was that many of these apps are free.  This observation showed me that the accessibility of these apps are definitely making it easier for this social media trend to spread.

Another interesting trend that Drescher talked about was “ministers-on-the-go.”  In the article, Drescher talks about how some ministers will “check-in” to places that they go to (through Foursquare) so that the individuals who see that the minister is around their area, will have access to him and his ministry.  I thought that this was such a creative idea as I never really saw the point in checking-in somewhere.  Even on Facebook, which recently included the option to check-in to places, I personally thought was pointless.  I thought, “Who cares if you’re at KFC?  Or who cares if you went to Starbucks?”  For some reasons I could understand, if one was at the mall by chance and wanted to see if anyone else wanted to hang out, or to show off that one was at a fancy restaurant with their friends.  But other than reasons such as those, I thought it was absolutely pointless to check-in anywhere (especially since it’s a bit creepy because people could be stalking you).

But after reading Drescher’s article, and reading the point of the minister and his reasons for checking-in, I have to admit that that is one of the best reasons that I think one should check in, and actually tried thinking of other justifications to check-in somewhere.  Moreover, this minister reminded me of my own pastor at my church who also utilizes Facebook and other social media sites in order to stay on track with those who attend his church.  Creating a Facebook page for his Bible study group is one way my pastor utilizes social media in order to further his ministry among those at his church.  In this way, I saw a real life example of Drescher’s article applied in my life!

Overall, I think that Drescher makes an excellent point about social media and its effects on religion.  After reading her article, I pondered what other trends I could add to her list, and more so thought of what the next social media tool will affect religion.

Elizabeth Drescher

As I was never good with technology (and still am not), looking up podcasting tips and tutorials will be good for me because I need all the help I can get with making my podcast project.

While exploring the web, I came across a site that offered some before, during, and after tips about recording a podcast.  There were some tips that I already knew (i.e. select a location to record instead of just randomly picking a place,) to some that I was like, “That’s a great tip!  I really should include that when I record.”  For example, one tip that was helpful included making sure that the recording device is on.  Making sure to do a test is always good as it would be absolutely terrible if at the end of recording the podcast, (especially if it includes interviews with other people,) one finds out that the recording device was not on the entire time.  Other tips included following the legal procedures when it came to recording.  Even though this is a small detail, one should always be aware that they need to receive permission if they are going to record music, or record an interview with an individual.

Some of the technical tips about podcasting that I found included tips such as using a “pop filter,” also known as a “pop screen.”  Using this in front of the microphone will eliminate the popping noise that comes with words that include the letters, “p,” “b,” and “f.”  Other tips included when recording, to make sure that the levels do not go over the 0-decibel mark on the DB meter.  If this does happen, the high end of the recording will be clipped off, and the sound will have very poor quality.  Moreover, other tips included using fade-in and fade-out effects at the beginning of the podcast to make it sound a bit more professional, and to use background music in order to make the sound more dynamic.

Some of my own experiencing with using and editing audio or video for podcasts is close to none.  I am currently taking the Communication 30 class, Intro to Digital Filmmaking, and have been using programs with Avid.  Other than that, I have not really used audio or video for podcasts.  I have however, used a digital recorder for interviews!  Hopefully, that will help me at least on getting started with my interviews for my podcast.

The California Legacy Project, started in Spring 2000, is a project designed to bring awareness for contemporary readers in California who think we have a dead culture.  This project is meant to prove that we do in fact have a “diverse and lively literary and historical heritage.”  As a result of wanting the same goal, Santa Clara University has teamed up with Heyday and has created the California Legacy Series.  These series, which now have more than forty printed books each strive towards the same goal of raising “public awareness and appreciation for our state’s cultural legacy and to encourage faculty and students in their creative and scholarly interest in Californian culture.”  Throughout the years, the project has also gone as far as to include public radio programs, a website, and new partnerships on top of continuing to print books.   This project firmly believes in bringing awareness and striving towards a “California Legacy for a digital age.”

 
The project as a whole is remarkable!  It includes media galleries, projects such as radio production, and even “The Big Read,” which offers communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate American and world literature.  This project also includes connections to the SCU English Department, the SCU College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for California Studies, the Center for Sierra Nevada Studies, the Inlandia Institute, and KAZU 90.3 FM radio.

 
While exploring the website, I listened to a few of their “radio scripts” (podcasts) on books that captured the culture of California.  One radio script I listened to talked about Gelett Burgess’ book, “A Gage of Youth.”  While listening to this radio script, (which actually read a bit differently than what was written on the site,) I found it was interesting to hear the introduction for “Ballad of the Hyde Street Grip.”  In the beginning, there was a portion that was read by Terry Beers, the Director and Series Editor of the project.  In the background was some fun and lighthearted music, while he briefly introduced the book.  After that, there was an excerpt from the book which was read by another individual, Kevin Hearle.  At the end of the excerpt, the lighthearted background music started up again, and Beers finished the radio script with a last bit of information about the author, and finally concluded with giving a citation and reference to the California Legacy Project and SCU.

 
After listening to that radio script, I listened to a few more and was definitely interested not only in the references to the books (which weaved and painted pictures of my head of the fantastic beauty of the California culture, molded by cable cars and whimsical three-eyed “Goops,”) but was especially interested in the format of how the podcast was made.  I was interested in looking into examples of the format of podcasts so that I can integrate some of what these examples do in their podcasts, to my own.  Other radio scripts that I listened to while exploring the site included “Purple Cows” (from “The Burgess Nonsense Book,) and “Table Manners and Window-Smoochers” (from “The Goops and How to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants Inculcating Many Juvenile Virtues Both by Precept and Example, with Ninety Drawings”).  Similarly to the format of the radio script for the “Ballad of the Hyde Street Grip,”  these two radio scripts also featured a short introduction with lighthearted music playing in the background (all by Terry Beers), and then an excerpt read by a reader (Jessica Teeter for both “Purple Cows” and “Table Manners and Window-Smoochers), as well as a short ending with background music again by Beers.

 
From these radio scripts, I not only learned more about the California Legacy Project and more about California’s intricate and amazing culture, but I have also gained some insight into how I plan to possibly integrate some background music, an introduction, and ending to my podcast.

With the popularity of social media/networking, the speed of the Internet, and the integration of innovative smart phone technology, the world is becoming connected, updated, and informed no longer solely through journalistic media, but that of social media.

Speaking from personal experiences, when Michael Jackson passed away in June 2009, I did not initially hear it from the television news, or reading it in the newspaper.  Instead, I saw multiple Facebook posts and statuses that read “RIP Michael Jackson.”  After realizing that so many of my friends were writing these posts, I realized that the King of Pop had passed away.  I then saw multiple wallposts of links to news sites that were covering in live what was happening at the hospital in downtown Los Angeles.

As sites such as Facebook and Twitter can offer a smaller world and live feed, it is not surprising to learn that during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian revolution, there were snapshots and information that was consistently uploaded, viewed, and shared among all those in the Twitter world.  In Lotan et. al’s article, researchers study the two broad phases of research, which includes how journalists work within formal news organizations, and the second, the more innovative body of literature, includes how news is presented from networked individuals that include any type of professional and organizational background.

Defining and breaking down the categories of actors that were tweeting about information of the live feed of the revolution, researchers investigated the kind of individuals that posted and reposted content about the revolution as well as the content coming from journalists.  Seeing a trend in information flows, it was interesting to see that researchers saw that there was a low flow of information initiated by organizations compared to that of individuals.  Also finding that there was balanced distribution across organization and individuals in relation to flow size, the researchers concluded that “influencing audiences to participate on Twitter might be, in part, derived from individual personality, balancing out raw follower count in the flow size data.”

Ultimately, the researchers of this article concluded that their findings suggest that the news reports on Twitter, in particular during this revolution, individuals such as bloggers and activists constructed and co-constructed (through reposting) news alongside the journalists.  As a result, Twitter has become and created a kind of conversation among these actors and during this revolution, and had indeed played a role in the passing of information as it was one of the news sources that the researchers called a type of “hybrid and dynamic information network.”  Moreover, researchers also concluded that during monumental events such as the Tunisian and Egyptian revolution in 2011, Twitter did play an important role as “revolutions were, indeed, tweeted.”

In my opinion, this article can definitely be taken a step further asking the question of, “So, what’s next?”  This question refers not only to what the next historical event will be covered on Twitter, and what technology will be after Twitter that will also help different actors cover news stories, but also begs the question of what is Twitter going to be used for next?

As my personal hypertext page is about Hawaii, I thought it would be “appropriate” to listen to podcasts about surfing.  Though I do not personally surf, (I have a deep inset phobia of sharks,) about seventy-five percent of the people that I meet ask me if I surf when I tell them that I am from Hawaii.  Hence, this podcast is not only for our English 138 class, but is dedicated to all those who are interested in surfing and the people who wished that I could tell epic stories about surfing back home (haha).

The first podcast that I listened to included the podcast of the Rip Curl Bells Beach 2011: Episode One.  This particular podcast was about the fifty-year celebration of surfing at Bells in Australia.  During this anniversary celebration, which was held during the Easter weekend of 2011, all of the world’s best surfers came out to surf in this competition.  This podcast featured a live broadcast (that was recorded) of what was going on throughout the competition.  I also thought it was also hilarious that the announcer talked about the legendary parties and pubs along the coast that were also participating in the festivities of the competition.

It was interesting to hear all that was going on.  In the beginning, the announcer talks about how many people there are, and how there were spectators watching from the cliffs.  He also talked about how there were past champions and competitors watching as well.  I thought that this was great to include because it painted me a visual picture of what the scene looked like.  The announced also named a number of sponsors; in particular, he presented Ford (cars).

In this podcast, the announcer included a live feed about what was happening in the competition.  There were thirty-four of the best male surfers who were competing.  Defending Bells champ and legendary pro-surfer Kelly Slater was one of the surfers who attended.  Other competitors included a Rip Curl Wildcard surfer (one who was picked at random), as well as a local Victoria Wildcard (another surfer who was picked at random) from the Championship Moves Trials.

I also listened to two other podcasts about the Bells competition.  The second and third podcast included the highlights of round one, two, and three of the competition.  These rounds included live feedback of the competition, and talked about the high swells.  Kelly Slater was definitely one of the highlights of the rounds as announcers raved about his achievements, awards, and talked about how his performance in the second round will likely get him a top spot in the competition.  Other surfers included Australian surfers Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Jordy Smith, Dane Reynolds, and Owen Wright.

The podcast was really interesting to listen to because I realized that creating a podcast is not like having a conversation.  Podcasts are supposed to be instructive and in this case of the Rip Curl competition, supposed to be visual, so that the individuals listening can see what is going on by just listening.  I thought that these pod casts were awesome and exciting, and cannot wait to continue the Rip Curl surfing podcast series!

“Guys, Facebook just told me that they found a site that ‘I may like.’  How did they know that I love strappy black pumps?!”

Websites often feature advertisements to its users with the intention of luring them in to buy their products.  However, as there are various types of users all over the web, advertisers have found ways in which to target their audiences through extracting information about users through monitoring a user’s presence on social media.

With so many individuals carrying around smartphones, one article that I found talks about how Google and Android smartphones often submit information back to the databases about information through tracking a user’s history.  As this raises a multitude of privacy concerns for many, John Sileo wrote an article called, “iPhone and Droid Want To Be Your Big Brother” in which he writes about how “the Wall Street Journal found through research by security analyst Samy Kamkar, the HTC Android phone collected its location every few seconds and transmitted the data to Google at least several times an hour. It transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby WiFi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier.”

As this is a high concern for many who believe that their privacy is at risk, some of have gone through drastic measures as to boycott smartphones altogether.

The fourth proposition of nine towards a cultural theory of YouTube primarily states that “YouTube’s value depends heavily upon its deployment via other social networking sites–with content gaining much greater visibility and circulation when promoted via blogs, Live Journal, MySpace, and the like.”

Today, YouTube does indeed fulfill that proposition, but also goes beyond it.  Many individuals, bloggers, musical artists, comedians, companies, etc., all promote themselves through YouTube as well as other forms of social networking, blogs, and websites.  YouTube goes beyond the fourth proposition because presently, bloggers, musical artists, comedians, companies and individuals alike primary utilize YouTube as the main factor in gaining greater visibility and circulation because YouTube is entertaining and interactive.

For example, YouTube sensation artists such as Karmin, and comedians such as RayWilliamJohnson primary started off their circulation through YouTube, and then utilized social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as a means to continue developing themselves.  As a result, YouTube has become more valuable than most social networking sites as their content is readily available (viewers on YouTube do not necessarily need to sign up for an account to view its content), entertaining, and has become the primary platform for many.

In these ways, YouTube has fulfilled and has even gone beyond its primary proposition, as it has become the most valuable site as it has become the primary promotional foundation for greater visibility and circulation.

Karmin’s cover on Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khCokQt–l4

If one looks at the description under this and all of Karmin’s YouTube videos, they promote themselves on Facebook and Twitter as supplementary sites under their primary source (YouTube) when promoting themselves.

The Webby Awards site and the Six Revisions site are incredible resources to reference successful, professional, and downright amazing sites for tips and examples on website design.

The Webby Awards site offers seventy categories for websites, some of which include websites centered upon topics of art, aesthetic visual design, celebrities and fans, health, music, news, personal blogs and websites, sports, and much more.  The category that intrigued me most was the “personal blog/websites” category.  Under this category, the blog that intrigued me the most was the personal blog titled, “What I made.”  Curious, I decided to check out the website, and found a website that was decked out with fun, funky colors and fonts that featured photographs of random cool items that adults have made.

With the website description being “What I made…why being an adult doesn’t mean you can’t play with crayons (an illustrated guide),” this blog’s website design corresponds to its website description as there are illustrations and cartoon drawings in the background.  The font too, is something different all the letters are in a 3-D type block lettering.  What I really like about this particular blog is that the blog’s theme can be seen through the entire website.  From the colors, to the font, to the photographs, everything ties back to the website’s main theme.  For my own website, I plan to do the same so that my personal blog’s theme can correspond through all aspects of the blog.

The Six Revisions site is also very beneficial and can ultimately aid me in my English 138 personal hypertext project.  This website is amazing because it offers tutorials such as “How to Create a Grunge Web Design Using Photoshop,” and “How to Build a Vibrant Professional HTML5 Web Design.”  Through this site, I conveniently have access to tutorials that provide me with clear step-by-step instructions that can help me improve my website’s design as well as the technical aspects of the project.  What is also great about using this site is the fact that it also shows pictures of each step so that I have a visual aid to help me when the instructions get complex.

Overall, these two websites are interesting and amazing on their own, but will definitely aid me in inspiring and helping me with improving my project.  Looking through the websites, I have already gained some insight into what I should integrate into my project, and have found tips and tricks that I can refer back to, to ultimately aid me in displaying my theme as a whole through my project.

In Danah Boyd’s research, Boyd discovered through a young, white, fourteen year old student named Kate that there was a kind of segregation between MySpace and Facebook.  Not wanting to be “racist,” Kate is embarrassed and hesitant to tell Boyd about the separation that she sees between the social backgrounds of those who have  MySpace or Facebook.

At one point, Kate explains how having MySpace is considered “ghetto.”  In her research, Boyd finds out that the segregation that Kate and her classmates experience is not only a social networking separation at Kate’s school, but is actually a segregation happening among teenagers nationally.  Through Boyd’s research, she discovers that what Kate had informed her about the segregation between the “ghetto” students who have MySpace, and the affluent white students who have Facebook, is valid.

Boyd specifies that the students who are found on Facebook generally tend to be White and Asian, while those who have MySpace accounts are generally Black and Latino.  Boyd tracks back the reasons as to this separation stating that friendships and friendship networks helped in the transition.  However, Boyd ultimately concludes that though some students may argue that the transition  from MySpace to Facebook are simply for the reasons of it being more current and aesthetic, there still lies the inevitable contributing factor that the change of social networks trace back to race, ethnicity, class, and background.

Though it is unfortunate to discover that Facebook was at one point the “classier” social network, it is definitely safe to say that individuals from all social backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and classes have overcome that period of segregation as Facebook is currently the top social network site.

In Andrew Keen’s book, The Cult of the Amateur, his main argument revolves around his criticism against the Internet and how companies are losing money because of websites that provide free advertising and free information.  He makes an excellent point that though the information that Internet users find on the web are free, e.g. Wikipedia, that means that it is costing money and losing business for the websites that make money from users trying to advertise and find information.  With the Internet making every so easily accessible and expense-free, Keen argues that it is costing users nothing, but is costing some companies millions of dollars.

At one point in the book, Keen brings up how the Internet has made users become “parasites,” feeding off the information of others instead of creating original works.  He utilized the example of Walt Disney, and how Disney’s creations are purely extracted from his own genius mind instead of being a cartoon that he happened to stumble upon while surfing the world wide web.

Similarly to Keen, Lashinsky also brings up Disney in his argument on “How Apple is Organized Like a Terrorist Cell.”  However, his about Disney was in relation to the death of Steve Jobs.  Lashinsky says, “There is no blue print for how a company can thrive without its visionary when that person is the single most important person.”  Lashinsky’s and Keen’s argument parallel when discussing the importance of originality.  For example, as stated earlier, Keen praises those who are not “parasites,” but individuals who create come up with their own original ideas.  Lashinsky too praises this idea of originality as he argues that Disney, similarly to Steve Jobs, was the driving force and visionary of their respective companies. It is through their original ideas and works that made them brilliant and successful.