Group Task Report 5

It’s the Easter holidays and although I have already completely the requirements for my group blog, I’m going to add some extra posts.

In previous weeks I have been focusing on primary sources, using my own material and pictures.

This week I have used videos and polls in my post.

I had already created a group you tube channel in order to update a video we made as a group for a previous post.

I uploaded my video that related to the subject matter in my post and found that this gave great appeal to my readers. In less than 24 hours I had already received two like on my post.

I also added a poll. I love this feature because you can gain user generated content and involve your audience.

Together with this I did you one short post wishes our readers a happy Easter. With this I uploaded pictures of all my Easter eggs! What’s a food blog without chocolate at Easter?

I’m very pleased with my progress and the progress of my group in this project.

All ready we have over 1000 hits!!

I’m going to definitely try to keep up with the blog and will be sad to see this module end!

Group task reflection 4

This week’s session we were commended on the Leeds met journalism Facebook group for being one of the best blogs. I found this inspiring and it gave me a push to want to do more.

We have also being focusing on trying to make our post as primary as possible. We do this by using our own material.

We have also been making videos ourselves and ensuring most pictures we use are our own where possible.

Together with this we have set up our own twitter page for eyes on the pies which we have linked to our page.

I’m also finding were getting a lot of views. I know some of the other girls in the group and myself have received feedback from visitors on our posts. One of mine said ‘ if I’m not a famous blogger now I will be in the future’!

One difficulty I am finding though now is getting the time to put ll my effort into producing three good posts a week as well as keeping up with all my other work.

Apart from that were all still getting along very well, our pieces tend to complement each other and most importantly were having a laugh whilst we doing it which is making the experience more enjoyable.

Group task reflection 3

We now have a fifth member of our group. Sam Iicia an American exchange student who is lovely.

Only problem is we now need to think of MORE ideas to write about.

We’re aiming for 3 posts each a week, so that now a total of 15 posts per week. Because of this we have decided to change our demographics. Instead of just writing based around the west Yorkshire area, we’re now including our home towns/cities and everywhere else.

So far I have written posts on Betty’s tea shop Harrogate, pizza express offers, Get baked Facebook take aways, Starbucks free latte, Crazy Wendy’s, Le Cruset kitchen ware and a piece on links to red meat consumption and increased mortality rates.

I feel I have a good variety of reviews, news, features and events. I’m really happy with how the blog is going, and if it carry’s on this way I will be tempted to continue the blog in my spare time.

We have also decided to use more multimedia sources in our posts, such as polls and videos and pictures.

Group Task reflection 2

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to this week’s session but I caught up with the girl in my group after.

It was only Aimee and Camilla that were available, so they filled me in on what had been done.

Over the past week in other module lectures we had decided we were going to stick with the idea of the food blog.

Although we didn’t have to money to dedicate to dining out together all the time for our blog, we could however just write about our day-to-day experiences with food. Meals out with family, friends and boyfriends, successful/unsuccessful recipes we tried at home and just blog about deals and promotions we find out about.

Our only concern was that these topics may not be news worthy enough, this is something we would have to come back to as we all began to blog.

Aimee and Camilla came up with the name for our blog being ‘ Eyes on the Pies’ which we all immediately LOVED!

Our target demographic would be non-students, between the ages of 18-30 and live in the west Yorkshire area.

We were ready to start!

Group task reflection 1

This week’s session we discussed ideas for our group blog.

In our group would be Camilla Andrews, Aimee Johnstone, Sarah Newlove and Myself.

We had already played around with the idea of a food blog and decided this was a common interest we all shared…we all like eating lots of food!

With us being students we were unsure how we would get around the fact that none of us have the money to gallivant around Leeds dinning in its finest restaurants, nor did we have critic status that would let us trial the food for free. This something we would need to think about further!

We hadn’t even begun, but we were already excited to start blogging! (and about the food).

We had ideas of every week baking cookies and excuse to eat out together…but it soon became apparent, this wasn’t  the reality of the task.

We went away and decided to rethink!

Formative Assessment reflection

Today we had our formative assessment.

This is where Karl (my tutor) and I sat down to assess my personal blog so far and how successful it is.

I was actually pretty nervous!

Karl looked at elements of my blog such as the layout, aesthetics and my content, and told me ways in which I could improve.

The positive points that were picked up on included my presentation. Although my paragraphs were short and punchy and my posts were broken up with headings and pictures, I still needed to improve on this.

I would do this by rearranging my posts so my picture came higher up in the post after my first paragraph or so.

Another element of my blog that needed corrected was my spelling and grammar. This is just something I can go back on before the hand in date, but we also discussed I might be better drafting my posts in a word document and copying and pasting the content into word press. This will make it easier because Word will pick up on spelling and Grammar mistakes and most likely correct them automatically.

This session has definitely helped me, and will also steer me in the right direction for the group task.

Shhh! The Artist wins BIG at the Oscars.

The Black and white silent film, ‘The Artist’ swept up at the Oscars, winning 5 awards.

Tie breaker

The silent movie tied with ‘Hugo’ winning five awards, although The Artist won the most high-profile awards.

Nominations

The film was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 5 at this years ceremony, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best directing’.

Jean Dujardin won ‘Best actor’, modestly accepting the award with ‘I love your country!’.

Kony 2012

It was the internet sensation that attracted over 74 million viewers focusing on the capture of Ugandan war lord Joseph Kony. The video raced across social media sites and had #StopKony trending almost imediately after its release – @stop___kony.

But now, according to the Mail Online, the chariety behind the grand scheme – ‘Invisable Children’ are under serious scrunteny, after the groups intentions are called into question by sceptical critics.

Outrage

Critics have focus their attention on a 2008 photo of the Invisible Children founders holding two assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as they pose with members of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army during stalled peace talks with Kony.

3 Invisable Children founders pose with assault riffles and grenade launcher in 2008 on Sudan-Congo border.

Togethwer witgh this, strong links to the financial dealings between Invisible Children and the National Christian Foundation, as well as two California activists who campaigned actively against the proposition to allow same-sex marriage.

Defence

Invisable children have been forced to today release a new video defending there organisation. CLick to see the video here.

206 dead in Congo Explosion

Around 200 people were killed on Sunday when an arms dump exploded in Brazzaville, ripping apart a nearby neighbourhood in the Congo Republic’s capital, medical and local authorities said, According to Reuters.

This morning the ‘Mail Online’ published, ‘a series of blasts at a weapons depot rocked the capital of the Republic of Congo today killing at least 206 people and trapping countless others underneath collapsed buildings. Those in the capital Brazzavil described the scene, telling of twisted sheets of metal, previously used for roofs and housing, littered the streets, fumes of smoke, feeling buildings shake and the blast having such an impact it threw open doors and windows in the city centre.’

As well as this, patients were said to be crowding into hospitals with injuries from the blast. some with torn clothes, and some suffering from shock. Medics struggled as they attempted to treat people strewn across the floor with injuries.

Associated press publish pictures of the scenes around Brazzavil where the disaster happen.

Wounded: An injured man is treated by health workers at a hospital, after multiple explosions occurred at a munitions depot, in Brazzaville

According to these secondary sources, the exact course of the explosion is yet to be released.

Reflection

I learnt a lot from this weeks session, I was very unaware as the copyright laws and ‘Fair Distribution’.
However, I like how we could attribute our work to the primary source, as with pieces like this regarding the Congo, I wouldn’t be able to give a Primary source report without going there myself.
I found websites such as Reuters and Associated press helpful, and I hadn’t actually come across these websites before, although I had heard of them, I hadn’t used them.

With regards to the RRS feed and Google reader, this tool is definitely something I am impressed with. I had no idea you could create something like this tailored to you specific wants.

Even when you access new sites like The Mail Online, I find myself sifting through the articles I want and don’t want to read, with Google reader,  its does this for me as I have already specified my interests. I think this will come in very handy for our group work.

GRAMMYS 2012

…And the GRAMMY’s went to, Adele!

Our girl stole the show, bringing home SIX GRAMMY awards including:

•  Album of the Year – 21
• Best Record – ‘Rolling in the Deep’
• Best Solo Performance – ‘Someone Like You’
• Best Pop Vocal Honors

Adele equaled Beyoncé’s record for the most GRAMMY’s won by single female in one night AND  took the late Amy Winehouse’s record for most awards won by a British female artist in one night.

…And the Most Contraversal Award goes too, Chris Brown?

Chris Brown took ‘Best RnB Album’ – ‘F.A.M.E’ who thanked‘God for this Award’

Brown went on to perform twice at the GRAMMY’s, sparking a twitter war with Folk singer Miranda Lambert.

Lambert spoke out about her song ‘gunpowder and lead’ which focus’ on domestic violence and a young girl standing up to her abuser .

The folk singer directed this at Chris Brown, following allegations of his assault against Rihanna saying: ‘ not cool we act like that didn’t happen’ following his performance.

Brown tweeted the reply: ‘ HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY NOW! That’s the ultimate [explicit] OFF!’

The ‘TWITWAR’ goes on.

More victories…

The Foo Fighters took:

‘Best Rock Album’ – ‘Wasting Lines’

‘Best Rock Performance’ – ‘Walk’

Quoting:‘We made this record in our garage with a few mics and a tape machine’

Bon Iver took:

‘Best new artist’ – Telling the audience ‘It was so hard to accept this award’

Reflection

After writing this post, I feel I am beginning to really understand the differences between the online format and print, and so far, i think I prefer the online format.
I feel it’s a lot more informal, and easy to express yourself, with shorter sentences and frequent headings. I feel writing this way, it easier to get across my personality, as well as clearly and concisely conveying my point.
I’m also enjoying adding pictures to my posts, and I’m proud of my blog, I feel its beginning to come together and look a bit more like the professional blogs I visit.