I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot more than I thought I was going to…not because it was going to be a bad class but because I thought that I pretty much knew everything already! The wikipedia paper/project was really interesting because I didn’t know just how much work went into each entry. I didn’t think it was organized at all and only used it for stupid facts. But, actually there are people who fix any edits that are incorrect. Dr. Markman even brought up the wiki page of the haymarket riots…i think?…and how there was this giant debate about a guy who posted about there actually was evidence against the people charged or something? I just thought that was interesting.  I chose The Big Bang Theory and there are so many references and people discussing what information should be used and what shouldn’t.

With our media projects and starting a blog…it was a lot harder than I thought. It pretty much took me 2 seconds to set up a tumblr account, set up a theme, post some entries, and find other accounts to follow that were either very relevant to mine or just things I liked. However, I didn’t really think it would be that hard to promote it…boy was I wrong. We learned about how with the cheap tools, like a computer that can record, edit, and post,  being used today it’s very easy for regular people to become producers. Even people who create blogs can gain a lot of followers and become semi-famous, like kerry and her I love memphis blog. But it is actually really hard to get people to look at what you create! It is pretty exciting however when people “like” your stuff or reblog it. It really makes you feel good that there are people who like or have at least looked at something that you care about and are working hard on. This kind of ties into all the stuff we learned that we tied into our artist profile paper. Sometimes people’s blogs or whatever do get looked at because of luck but there is actually a lot of self-promoting through other mediums.

The main reason I liked this class, besides the wonderful Dr. Markman, was how everything we learned is relevant to what is going on now. Unlike a history class where you learn about some person who did this one little thing that doesn’t really resonate to today, we encounter everything we talked about and examined like wikipedia, people’s blogs, the idea of an increase in streaming videos and less actual tv watching, etc. It was such an interesting class!

Before this class, I didn’t really realize how all the things I do and the decisions I make on how I create and consume media content has evolved very quickly over the past 15 to 20 years. The Long Tail tail is very interesting in that the niche culture has really made the amount of content produced and available to us seemingly unlimited.  The tools of production and distribution are available to everyone and has really benefited us as a consumer in that we can make our own decisions of what to be fans of and what to watch, listen to, and get our information from.

Convergence culture is also a very interesting part of this class.  I really like the idea of collective intelligence and the participatory culture, and the idea of us all sharing our knowledge and experiences to make the information that is available better to us.  Another aspect of the convergence culture is media convergence, and this is something that is very  applicable to my life.  I never realized how fragmented the platforms where I consume media were.

The future of the long tail and the convergence culture are unknown, but I am very excited to see where they may go.  I am very glad I know have a better understanding of how we consume our media and the different things going into our media.

Niche Culture, Tools of Distribution, Media Convergence, Participatory Culture Collective Intelligence, and Tools of Production are only a few things I learned this semester in this Media 2.0 class. I would have never thought that Wikipedia could actually be a great source for information, I also found out that if the information is incorrect actions will be taken in order to make sure the information on the site is as accurate as possible. I learned that independent artists in any field who are in the niche category of The Long Tail can survive and succeed due to the growth of technology, social media, and youtube. This class to my surprised has given me the tools I need in order to expand my music career. It is a fact that today I am a niche rap/hip-hop artist, but if I just remember the importance of the true fans and their loyalty, constantloy promote myself on facebook, tweet about what’s going on, post pictures of my performances on Instagram, and post vidoes of my performances on youtube, then maybe one day the right person will notice and I could end up in the Hits portion of The Long Tail for as long as the world gets tired of what I can bring to the music industry. I have also learned that is good to have more the one option, so if they ever get tired of my music; or if I do, I can just do movies or something. Thank you Ms. Markman for a great semester and being ever so patient with me. Your The Best!!!! I will never forget Niche Culture, Tools of Distribution, Media Convergence, Participatory Culture Collective Intelligence, and Tools of Production are my keys to success.

I really enjoyed this class this semester. We discussed things from The Long Tail, Wikipedia to discussing how blogs are effective and meeting Kerry Williams. The main thing that stood out the most to me was the wikipedia project and how niche artist fits into the Long Tail. The Wikipedia started off as a website that most people would call unresourceful. But, after doing this project and reviewing changes within in my article, I learned that Wikipedia is just as resourceful as an encyclopedia. I was amazed with the corrections that were made and how most articles are locked so there couldnt be any changes made. Also, the artist profile was a learning experience because I really had to apply all those reading we discussed into the paper. It made me dig deep into the artist I chose to see how they use the Long tail to be successful. I learned about the 1,000 true fans and the power of merchandise and having links.

The blogs were another thing that was helpful throughout the class because I bascially used the blogs to show what I learned and to see other people points of view. The day we did the online class was the most memorable because I never had an online class of that type. I really enjoyed this class and how revelant it is to whats going on around us. The internet is the future and probably be around for a long time so everything we learned will be useful. Everybody that read this article should check out this short film called Plurality. It’s crazy to see how technology has evolved.

Prior to this class I was always told not to use Wikapedia because it’s sources are unrealiable because any one can write the information.  However, after attempting to create a page have found that it is a very reliable source.  The information is verified. If the information is false the page will be deleted.

Last year I attempted to start a blog.  I found that I was too busy to do so. I’m still too busy to keep up but it has helped me create the blog that I said that  I wanted to a year ago.  It has been a learning experience. Right now I don’t now if I want to keep it up. I guess I will see.  If I do a good job at promoting it I will probably continue it.

I had a class a few semesters ago that used the Jenkins and the Levinson books.  I can say that this class  was more interesting.  The class I had previously talked about globalization and media. This class has  really helped to put me on a different path for my graduate research.

The Long Tail was a very interesting book and it has also given me ideas for my project.  Prior to reading this book I never really paid attention to the various Internet artists.  There are so many of them that have found a niche and are trying to get their 1000, true fans.

This class has helped me to be come familar with  audience fragmentation, collaborative production, and the pro-am generation.  I have also become familiar with a few TV shows and documentaries that I will look  at over the break on Netflix.

Technology has changed drastically over the years. It will continue to do so.  I find it funny that I am taking a class that allows me to surf the net and i can honestly say that I am not procrastinating but doing homework.

This class is one of my favorite classes I have taken. Before this class i started thinking about the growing phenomena that is the long tail as my big fan of indie films and music. However this class I did not know how to go about explaining it. I also learn the insides if wikipedia and what it takes to moderate and be a contributor to an collective knowledge. Before this class i would just use wikipedia for quick information, but now i find myself analyzing the articles I search for. As I was writing my Artist profile paper and started to plug in the terms discusses in class, I learned that independent artist do not just get lucky there is a strategy to making a notable presence in the long tail. Before this class i have always wanted to start a blog, this class has forced me to start one for the final project. It was alot harder than expected. Getting people to follow me on twitter and actually read the blog has been challenging.

I loved this class because it is so relevant and will remain relevant because the internet and its uses are only growing.  Like I have stated in previous blogs, I believe that Wikipedia is growing and becoming more helpful and useful.  It was at first seen as a joke because anybody could edit any article.  This is only half true now because a lot of articles are locked down from being edited.  Also Wikipedia has just about the same error record as the actual encyclopedias.  I have learned how to more effectively utilize Wikipedia as well as the sources used to create it.  This has also been a semester of blogs for me.  I have a blog in this class, my Persuasion class, and my Argumentation class.  Before this semester, I thought of blogging as something useless and boring.  Now I see it as a very useful tool for anyone trying to make a career through the internet, or as just a way to express one’s interests and opinions.  Needless to say with three different class blogs, I think I have got the hang of it.

In regards to the blog for the final project, it is very difficult to promote it because not many people I know have a Tumblr, so posting a link to it on Facebook and Twitter is virtually useless.  The blog was not even the biggest part of the work I am doing for the project, but I will have something of my own personal work to add to it by the time I need to present it, perfect or not.  This project has been a good learning experience in and of itself with me learning how to edit videos by myself.

I also loved this class, with our last session online in particular, because we talked about subjects I am already so interested in such as Harry Potter, The Matrix, and The Walking Dead.  I have also learned a lot about the work that is put into making an indie video game as well as transmedia, fan culture, and of course, the long tail.  The Long Tail is probably the most important because of how much it applies to everything in media from music, to movies, to book, etc.  All in all, I was probably most engaged in this class this semester.  It was very interesting, and it definitely sparked a lot for me.

Before this class, I could have cared less about editing a Wikipedia article or writing a blog. But today, I see the value in both.

For one thing, I’ve always been thankful that Wikipedia exists. Without it, I would probably have no clue where to start with my research papers, and I would be lost if I had to look something up quickly on my smartphone. But being a content creator and editor of an article (a produser) is a completely different thing. I felt massive responsibility to provide accurate, unbiased, and complete information about my topic. However, I knew that anyone could easily come into my article and alter it for better or for worse. I have yet to see any major changes to my article, which leaves me feeling a little weird about the whole foundation of Wikipedia. Obviously, it works on a large scale, but maybe for smaller subjects, it doesn’t really get the job done in regards to building a collective intelligence. Nevertheless, I do understand how important and valuable a website like this can be. I think we read it earlier in the semester, but Clay Shirky’s idea of cognitive surplus being used for good via social media really made this entire concept stand out for me.

As for writing a blog, I have openly admitted that I have been the owner of a few blogs in the past that I tended to neglect and at some point in time left hanging in the middle of cyberspace. Blogs are another creation of the Internet that I am thankful for, but I just personally haven’t been motivated to take advantage of. That’s why I opted to create two blogs this semester– one for this class and one for my social media theory class. The two blogs are completely different, and I think that has helped me find different voices for each of them and really focus on branding, positioning, and targeting specific audiences. I actually feel pretty good about my Media 2.0 blog at this stage. I’ve been more successful than I thought I could be. Though my numbers aren’t very high, I have been engaging with a lot of people especially on Facebook, which turned out to be the best avenue for attracting viewers. I haven’t had very much success with Twitter, but I am continuing to work on it. One problem that I still have though is feeling like what I’m writing is just a lot of hot air. I want my content to be great if it has my name on it, so I limited the number of posts I made to ones that I thought would be valuable to my audience. I plan on keeping this blog up as long as I still receive interest from what appears to be a thriving community on Facebook.

Last but not least, my favorite topic in this class has been the long tail. As I said before, this whole concept was one of those things where we all knew it existed, but we didn’t know what it was called. This really put a name on it, and I think this is going to play a pivotal role in the development of new businesses from now on. I actually took a class in entrepreneurial journalism last semester, and this concept would have been great to know in order to back up our chosen business model.

So as of now, I think I am pretty familiar with media 2.0 as discussed in this class, including peer production, open source software, the creative commons, 1,000 true fans, pro-ams, etc. This was a great course, and I have definitely learned a lot from it. Thank you!

Here is my Media 2.0 project blog. http://jekillmardanceinspiration.tumblr.com/ If you have a Tumblr, it’d be really cool if you could follow this. Thanks a lot.

-John

Before learning about transmedia storytelling…I never really thought about it as a form of furthering the storytelling, I just thought of it as fun stuff to do. There are many pros and cons for both the audience and the people that are creating and distributing the content. A pro for the audience is that they get to enjoy the story that they are interested in and learn more about it. With Harry Potter (yes I’m referencing it again because I love it!), there are 7 main books, 8 movies, 8 video games for multiple consoles, and books that further explain aspects of the world of harry potter like the harry potter prequel short story, quidditch through the ages, and fantastic beasts and where to find them. This allows a fan to dig past the surface of the basic storyline. Other movies and shows have webisodes and graphic novels. Like I said in our discussion, I think that transmedia content is only really successful with sci-fi/fantasy stories like HP, Trueblood, Walking Dead, etc. I think that these stories are so vivid and complex that there is enough information that can spread across different mediums. Dexter is kind of the exception to this…however he does have visions of a dead person so I guess this is kind of in between the stories I just listed and shows like law and order or csi. Since this kind of stuff can kind of be considered a niche culture and some people think that the fans that get too far into it are nerdy, weird, and turning an interest into an obsession…I wonder if like 20-30 years in the future if the people who simply watch a tv show and don’t use transmedia storytelling will be considered niche and lazy for just watching a show and not using other content.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!