Hey Boswell (The Zone Project)

glad to see that you have been carrying on your DA this semester, from the pitch it seemed like it was a concept you were both passionate about as well as having a lot of fun doing, Minecraft has a way of creating addictive fun, id know.

Its great to see the progress between your pitch and beta, the clear growth of the discord in both members and overall layout shows that what you are doing seems to be working. It is great to see that you have an active and engaged ‘audience’ even though I would almost argue they have become more like your friends and server partners rather than a traditional audience where there is little interaction between the ‘creator’ and the people they are communicating to, I think this is one of the best aspects of your DA, the ability to interact so directly is cool to see.

In terms of the public facing content, I checked out the Instagram page and I think it has some great content on there, showing of the builds on the server is a very cool way to show the players skills off in a public forum and I wish there was more to look at. A critique I would have would be the inconsistency of the posts, I am sure you are busy managing the server and the discord channel, but potentially taking a couple of hours each week to plan out some content to post on the Instagram to create a consistent flow of content may keep users there more engaged, I know myself the more consistent posts I see from a page the more likely I am to remember them and engage.

I also wonder if you could take some of your Twitch content and reuse in on either the Instagram page or a new Tik Tok page (I couldn’t find one it if it already exists, sorry), this will not only give the players a better chance to know you, but it may also help reach a broader audience as people seem to relate better with video content. I don’t even play Minecraft anymore and I come across a number of Minecraft videos on my Tik Tok ‘for you page’, so I think recycling some of your stream highlights there may be a good exposure point to new potential players.

I think overall you have done a great job so far with your DA and there are clear signs of your ability to ideate and adapt as you have received feedback. I am excited to see what you can produce in the rest of this semester and how you will grow this community even after the DA assignment is due, good luck mate!

Hey Casey (How to BCM)

its great to see you have continued with this DA as it really is a good, trendy, and useful piece of media which I think has quite a bit of scope for future use.

Firstly I’d like to commend you on being consistent with your content, from what I’ve seen you have posted pretty close to weekly for the majority of the semester firstly with the Instagram page then incorporating the Twitter page, I think that being consistent is a key factor I’ve found through producing digital artefacts which helps lead to user retention and engagement, I know personally that the more I see a certain page or account on my timeline the more I will remember them and engage with the content. You addressed your concerns with your consistently of post with lack of time and just forgetfulness, one option to help would be to sit down for a couple of hours and create a bunch of content all at once, maybe even one or two weeks’ worth, this way your ahead of the game and instead of worrying about the rush of producing content you could use this time to research deeper into the analytics available to you as well as experiment with different hashtags and captions maybe.

It is unfortunate to hear that your interactions haven’t carried over onto Twitter as it seems like the logical place to post BCM content. What I have noticed about your content on Twitter is that the formatting doesn’t suit it quite as well as Instagram does, the way Twitter displays multiple images just doesn’t allow for the same kind of ‘vibes’ that the ability to scroll and swipe between posts on Instagram does. One option could be to post the first ‘how to’ image as an individual tweet and then post the informative posts in the comments of the original, this may allow for a greater presence of the ‘how to’ beginning image, I am far from twitter technology savvy so this may not work very well either, worth a test however.

I also wonder if the concept would translate well on Tik Tok, I can see from your pitch and beta videos that you have some good video editing skills and I wonder if the concept of your DA would be able to translate over to Tik Tok, if not even videos that do along with your Instagram and Twitter posts.

Overall, I really like how you have developed your DA and have been able to adapt through feedback, I think that the BCM Twitter space is an area to try and develop based on all students having their own Twitter account, and potential experiments with short form videos could be of benefit. Congratulations on what you have produced so far and I’m keen to see what you develop for the rest of the semester.

Going into the semester I knew I wanted to produce a digital artefact that I would not only be proud of, but one which would show the knowledge and skills I have acquired during my degree, a culmination which when put together would show potential future employers the type of areas I would be an asset.

To refresh you on what my DA aim is, I wish to produce a portfolio piece demonstrating my skills and knowledge in digital marketing with a centralised focus around developing a future media marketing strategy for the NRL and rugby league broadcast channels as a whole.

Through the development of my DA, I have wanted to base the content and methods I developed on research rather than opinion, this way I had all the available info at my disposal when thinking of concepts to represent creatively. This has unfortunately taken far more time and effort than initially anticipated, the necessary research step has improved my concepts but also hindered the complete finishing of my DA during this semester, however it has also allowed me to cut back some of the sections within the portfolio with a number of intended sections being able to form into one, this positively will allow me to develop the real core section being the media concepts and strategies moving into the final weeks of the semester.

This issue of time-consuming research and lack of content was addressed during my nominated week to present to the class, where we discussed how I could start to make some additional content to further reach an audience whilst developing the portfolio. With this I chose to use and existing NRL centric Tik Tok account I had been playing around with prior to starting this DA, through this I wanted to test out some of the ideas and concepts I was thinking about, whilst also dumbing it down for Tik Tok and creating a rather simple post in an attempt to get some engagement and back and forth discussion with the NRL Tik Tok community, one which is relatively active from my own personal experiences.

Unfortunately, when I produced my Tik Toks based off my portfolio research and ideas I saw very little engagement with no community comments (the only comments are from myself and one of my supportive mates). This lack of engagement was a little disappointing, I tried differentiating my captions, hashtags, and video style between each Tik Tok and saw similar results, with the most engagement coming from a little edit of fan favourite player Benji Marshall and whilst it was nice to see the likes and engagement improve from previous videos this edit did not communicate any of the media concepts and strategies I wished to present to the fans in exchange for feedback.

Going into the final weeks of the semester I have conceded that I won’t be able finish the NRL marketing portfolio at least in its fullest and current structure, as I have said I have space to be able to merge sections and make an overall smaller piece of work which still highlights the key areas. My aim now is to finish the concepts and strategies section of the portfolio, I think that this is the real meat of the portfolio and will give me the opportunity to showcase my knowledge and skills in a creative way, the development of this section will also give me more content to options to engage with fans on Tik Tok with the hope of creating some form of feedback loop which will allow to refine my own ideas and concepts through the opinions of not only one (myself) but many across an active community.

Staying motivated through this semester has been tough at times, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel and I’m keen to produce a DA piece to be proud of.

(The video is slighty laggy, however the audio is fine)

Time is of the essence, with the semester creeping past the halfway mark time management is of the upmost importance when it comes to balancing assessment across several subjects. Some assignments require more of a commitment than others, especially when completing them on your own, these are becoming more and more apparent to me as I attempt to complete my DA and have it in a reasonable state to present to an online audience.

With a basic style and template established many weeks ago I was ready to begin my research stage of my online portfolio, this would then allow me to base my methods and creative ideas off of real world data, this is a crucial step I believe as it is all well and good to show concepts and methods, but if they are not based and curated of data to support your methods it is unable to have a lasting impact. For this reason, I have been spending a lot of time on the research stage of this portfolio, this is an area I really need to get a move on with however it is such an essential section that I don’t want to rush it, nor do I want it to wrongly affect the future sections of this portfolio.

The upcoming midsession break is going to be a crucial stage for my DA, by the end of this time I want to have all my research and majority of creative concepts finalised and visualised. This will then give me the ability to display these concepts on a far greater public forum than just my blog, utilising my already created rugby league themed TikTok account which currently only has one video and a very small following, this shift along with my blog will both document and demonstrate the portfolio process as well as some of the concepts I am able to develop as a result of my research.

Below is what a completed section will roughly look like and a basic style that will remain relatively consistent at least until all content are filled out.

I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew, or maybe I’m not focusing my time in the right places. All I know is that I am determined to complete this to a high standard and give it opportunity to reach an online audience who may become invested and supportive of the project. Lots of work to do.

After much consideration and taking on board feedback I have decided to produce a marketing portfolio as my DA this semester, with the subject matter and direction I intend to go with it honestly making this the most exciting DA I think I have produced during my years at university.

What I enjoy most in life is football (rugby league), from playing the game itself, to the theatre of the professionals, as well as watching, listening, and reading all the content produced around the game not only by the NRL and their associated broadcast partners, but also the fan produced content which has advanced so far in the last couple of years and is the envy of many Australian sporting communities. Not good enough to make it professionally I always wanted to work in or around the game in some capacity, and when picking my university course, I kept this in mind with an intention to one day work in the media and marketing side of the game.

With this in mind and with careful consideration I chose to base my DA portfolio around the NRL and attempt to best show off my skills developed throughout my degree, this is where I settled on a ‘National Rugby League Media Marketing Strategy’ comprised of interchangeable and developing sections of:

1. The concept
2. Situation analysis
3. Market research
4. Audience research
5. Media concepts
6. Media strategy
7. Clients
8. Future ventures
9. Conclusion  

This was based on portfolio research and my own brainstorm of ideas to wanted to communicate, this is certainly not final, and I may need to add, remove, or merge sections as I progress.

Regarding process of my DA, I have completed a rough framework and layout for the physical pages, with colour coded sections and particular page layouts which I think will make it both easy to navigate for the reader as well as being aesthetically on brand, communicating my ideas and messages in a clear and clean way. This too is far from final, and pages, sections, and design are all up for ideation.

The next stage I now move onto is main research, this is the most crucial part of the process and will certainly take the longest. With the base research undertaken I can then transform this knowledge and mix it with my own creative ideas to show my proposed content for the NRL. This is both the most exciting and daunting part, but I am keen to learn.

Hey Boswell, (The Zone Project)

I have checked out your DA pitch and I must say I am very impressed with how much you have already produced, from the server itself to the discord, Instagram, and your twitch streams, you’ve already got a plethora of content already out there for users to interact with.

Firstly, the concept of your DA is such a good idea, and it is awesome that it ties in so well with something you obviously really enjoy, I too was quite the Minecraft player back in the day but haven’t touched it in a while. Having a centralised community with sparling mediums to connect with both the existing player base as well as new potential players is your real key aim for this DA, attempting to expand upon your already existing and impressive community. I think your DA has a lot of utility for Minecraft players who are not only passionate about the game but also want to be apart of a new, exciting, and friendly group, with the mindset of moving those who play alone to joining and playing along with you and the rest of the.

I think that your methodology is currently really good, connecting the existing community on discord and Instagram, but also using Twitch and Instagram as a way to attract new users is smart. I think that your streams on Twitch could be very beneficial, with the potential for new users to stumble across your stream, or even get raided by a bigger stream (that is the extent of my Twitch knowledge unfortunately). The quality of your content also seems to be at a very respectable level, with both you Twitch, and Instagram content being very well produced.

My suggestions regarding your project are essentially to build off what you are doing now, you’re certainly going in the right direction. With the Instagram page you could possibly try and post content more frequently and ask more of your audience, get them to send you their new buildings, cool Minecraft videos they found on YouTube, tutorial for other members, group server event, anything that could make the page livelier and more interactive. Regarding Twitch you could try and collaborate with other members of the group, or even reach out to some bigger local creators and see if they would do a stream with you, something to bring new viewers to your own streams.

Finally, I thought that the quality of your pitch was really good, well written and edited, your message was clear, and I finished wanting to learn more. Hope this was a helpful evaluation and I can’t wait to see how you develop your DA throughout the semester.

https://boswellsbrain.home.blog/2021/08/15/the-zone/comment-page-1/#comment-114

Hey Casey, (How to BCM)

I have checked out the blog and Instagram page for your DA pitch, and I must say I am amused, impressed, and interested all at the same time. I think that your DA idea is really original, not only in its concept but also its execution.

Firstly, I think the concept for your DA is quite genius, you have clearly thought of your target audience (and the teachers marking the DA) and incorporated the thing everyone loves, memes. Combining the humour with the informative posts is a rally good way to connect with first year students, as it is quite scary coming into your first year of uni, not knowing what you can and can’t do, what’s expected of you, and this can be compounding especially for those who have moved away for uni or are attending without having any friends upon arrival. The utility of your DA is really valuable to uni students young and old, with the humour side taking the edge on what can be a stressful situation. The style and look of the Instagram posts are excellent, the colours and design of the individual posts show uniqueness from the others, whilst also keeping a consistent theme per post, I think you could also develop this aesthetic further by utilising some video or gif content.

Regarding content, one of my suggestions would be to try and use some video and gif content as not only do I think it will be funny, but it may also entice new audiences to check out your page. Another suggestion I have would be to try and upload more consistently, possibly a new post 2-3 times a week, and this could be ramped up at the beginning of semesters to try and reach the real desired audience when they are looking for help.

Overall, I thought your DA pitch and the content you have produced so far is excellent, it is high quality and quite humorous. I hope this feedback helped and I am keen to see where you can take your DA and am ready for some tips on how to not develop a crush on my tutor.

https://caseyonline823145293.wordpress.com/2021/08/15/how-to-bcm-pitch/comment-page-1/#comment-717

Throughout my communications and media degree I have done a couple of DA’s, where I have both researched and curated content, as well as attempt to create an online store and experiment with paid advertisement. As I looked at my final DA, in my final semester of university, I wanted to produce something that I would be proud to show potential employers, showcasing my skills in both the digital media space as well as my marketing and content creation skills.

My first initial ideas were research into an experimnental (dodgy) ai marketing scheme, the other was to create rugby league content, post it on dedicated social channels (Instagram, Facebook, and particularly TikTok) and then ty use marketing methods to gain a respectable number of followers before the semesters end. I was pretty set on this idea, combing my love of the footy with my knowledge and skills in the digital marketing and content creation spaces, until one day, laying in bed scrolling through TikTok, I found a video of a university student from England posting about how she was able to land her first marketing job through the use of a portfolio she completed as her final major project.

I immediately researched her journey further, scrolling through her TikTok and YouTube channel to find out more information not only about her journey, but also what is really required in the creation of a portfolio. What I found was great insight and inspiration to do a project similar, allowing myself to produce a DA which not only lets me develop my skills but can also be a good tool for future employment.

The project I am taking inspiration from was a hypothetical brand build for digital media, and I am currently trying to decide if I want to do similar or something different, some ideas and suggestions I have taken from researching this project include:

• Develop a creative campaign for your dream client.
• Create a rebrand concept for an existing business.
• Develop your own business or marketing strategy.
• Build your own personal brand.
• Plan a hypothetical event in your field of interest.

Regarding portraying this project as an always online digital artefact for users to engage with I currently have a couple ideas. The option I think would work best is a series of blogs highlighting progress and changes along the journey, with video run-throughs of how far along the project is, or alternately publishing the portfolio progress weekly as a sharable folder to show progress and allow users to interact and view at their own pace (as a pdf, or possible a google doc).

I am quite excited about what this DA can be, and if done correctly, can lead to in the future. I will need to quickly decide which of the above content ideas I pursue, and what is the best method to create an interactive and engaging DA online.

I communicate with my friends every day, we talk about footy, send funny videos, and keep up with to date with each other’s lives, all while being tens or even hundreds of kilometres away from each other, this is further true in a workplace setting, with communication of companies around the globe taking place in an instant through words on a screen, a sole voice to hear, or a face made of pixels.

Through the Covid pandemic we all became reliant on these systems to communicate with one another, however as we come to the other side of this once in a lifetime event the question must be asked, has technology killed our ability to have a face-to-face conversation? Researching more into conversation avoidance through the Moodle material and what I could find online the question struck me, thinking about the year that was 2020 and how we had little to no face to face human interactions for certain parts of the year, combined with the plethora of options to be able to speak with someone remotely, it makes me wonder if the kids of today who have known nothing but online communication will have the ability to hold a face to face conversation in the future, “no longer do we need to talk with shop assistants, receptionists, bus drivers or even co-workers, we simply engage with a screen to communicate whatever it is we want to say” (Chan, 2020).

I began to think of a relevant research question and landed on “Is communication avoidance affecting our face-to-face conversations?”, I believe with this research question I will be able to cover different aspects of communication avoidance and determine whether it is a factor affecting the way we communicate in a real life, face-to-face setting. The question is also one which I found super interesting moving into the future, as children born after about 2010 have been exposed to online communication for their whole lives, whereas generations before adopted the technology much later in their developmental years, I hope to find an answer as to prevalent this issue may become in the future.

Initial research:

Doing some initial research online it is clear to see many people are worried about communication avoidance in in-person situations, with the ease of technological communication being one of the main causes of concern. According to Michael Rich of the Boston Children’s Hospital young people in particular “have more connectivity than ever – and far less connectedness to others and to the world” (Rich, 2015), and I tend to agree with this as we now have so much ability to connect to everyone, instantly, no matter where they are in the world, but these are only pixels on a screen and voices through speakers, to have a connection with someone in a person is a special thing that cannot be developed to the truest extent over the internet.

Some examples of effects conversation avoidance can have on all people, but especially young people who have not been exposed from a young age can include,

Eye contact: “Many youth do not look others in the eye when they are talking to them. Instead, they look down, not because they are embarrassed or ashamed, but because they are accustomed to communicating through the screen held there” (Rich, 2015). This aspect is very relatable to me as I used to lack the ability to make eye contact with people while they were speaking to me, this point will be interesting to take a deeper dive into.

Body language: With less people having face-to-face human interaction some can struggle to find their place in a room or setting, as well as things such as posture and hand position, “digitally connected youth can lose their sense of personal space and awareness of where people are physically. They may stand at awkward distances from each other or bump into others while walking and texting” (Rich, 2015).

Focus: “Multitasking between devices or between devices and real-life results in skipping from one input or thought to another as rapidly as possible, splitting attention between experiences. Less attention is paid to each experience and the richness of each interaction declines” (Rich, 2015). This can also encompass attention span, as whilst face-to-face conversations are instant, people must stay in the moment to show respect and get the most out of it, rather with online communication where it is rapid and can be through multiple channels at a time.

Conversations: “conducted in constantly shifting subgroups of those whose heads are up while others are looking down at their phones” (Rich, 2015). The art of in person conversations is the aspect I want to focus most on I regards to communication avoidance and how it is going to shape our future.

I found the topic of communication avoidance very interesting moving into the future and believe my research question “Is communication avoidance affecting our face-to-face conversations?”, will give me the opportunity to research and uncover what positive and negative effects communication avoidance is currently having, as well as how it is going to shape how the next generation is going to build relationships in areal world setting.

References / Initial research readings

Chan, M, 2020, ‘Has technology killed our ability to talk face-to-face?’, Irelands National Public Service Media (RTE), viewed 24,03,2021,

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1025/1085565-has-technology-killed-our-ability-to-talk-face-to-face/

Rich, M, 2015, ‘Is technology decreasing kids’ ability to communicate face-to-face?’, Boston Children’s Hospital, viewed 24,03,2021,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2018/11/14/has-technology-killed-face-to-face-communication/

https://www.creativetaxrecruitment.com/blog/2015/01/are-we-losing-the-art-of-face-to-face-communication

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alex-hunte/are-we-losing-the-art-of-_b_13514074.html

Images:

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