Example of Innovation

Hello Readers,

This time I’d like to highlight an innovative new show that I watched last week on Comedy Central, “My Secret Girlfriend“.  I know that this is a bit off topic, but I promise I’ll tie it in to our subject matter by the end of this post, ahh the circle of life

 

My Secret Girlfriend

Basically, this show is innovative because it is one of the first television programs experimenting with new ways of interacting with the audience.  This interaction is created with the intention of increasing viewer interest and satisfaction with the program.  

The entire show is filmed from the first person viewpoint.  In other words, the camera represents the viewers in the audience, making you the “star”.  ”You” are a young, attractive guy getting into random shenanigans with your buddies and hooking up with girls constantly.  Obviously, this show is probably geared toward a young male audience that is already watching Comedy Central, and who would probably enjoy getting to be the “cool guy” on the show.  

Even with this being one of the first things I noticed, I still couldn’t help enjoying the show.  The main character checks text messages, looks at video mail, and rolls around with lots women at various interesting angles.  Characters address you directly, and yes, you even have a “secret” girlfriend that seems to be a continuing love interest.  

All in all, for me anyway, the show was unique and eye-catching enough for me to tune in again this week.  And as far as innovation in the media is concerned, at the very least this is a great spark for further conversation about new possible methods of connecting with the audience.  So, if you are bored some time, I’d recommend giving it a chance.

-Tyler

Resource: Kuler & GettyImages

Hello…

… And welcome back to another exciting edition of Textually Active.  Today I’d like to take a look at a couple really useful resources for online journalists and creative minds alike.  

First, lets check out Kuler.  Kuler is a website created by Adobe that provides a unique service.  Basically, you can create your own custom color schemes and download them to use however you see fit in your documents.  Using a basic color wheel as well as advanced tweaking options, it is possible to make limitless themes.  You can also post your finished color schemes and share them with the many other avid users of the site.  Here’s what it looks like:

 

Screenshot of Kuler color wheel

 

Another example of a website with a lot to offer is gettyimages.  This is like a stock photography database that is constantly updating and adding new content and users.  You can download high quality pictures, videos and music.  Many companies use sites like this one to acquire materials for their advertisements, media and other needs.  Most of the images on the site must be paid for in order to download them, and the rights of use are clearly posted and explained.  Although much of the work is copyrighted, gettyimages and other sites like it do have sections that are for creative use and have less restrictions.

Sooooo get out there and create!  You know you want to…

-Tyler

Resource: Lynda.com

Greetings from Southeast Ohio,

This week at The Athens NEWS, I found myself training one of my co-workers on InDesign and it got me thinking about when I first started using the program.  During my undergraduate degree, I took a class called Intro to Publication Design that focused on page design using Adobe‘s software package, Creative Suite 4, where I picked up many of the basic skills that I continue to use to this day.  I also completed a design internship 2 summers ago with Ohio University’s Communication and Marketing department, where I discovered Lynda tutorials.  

Lynda.com is a website created by well-renowned graphic designer Lynda Weinman.  It has very high quality video tutorials for just about every software program you can think of, including all of CS4.  I found the site to be very useful, and it even has many tutorials available for free!

Below is an introductory video for a Dreamweaver CS4 tutorial:

I hope that this information has helped to quell some of your worries about diving into any of these software programs.  From what I’ve heard, its best to just have a solid foundation of journalism principles.  You don’t HAVE to spend hours upon hours learning coding, programming, and specific software.  These videos can teach you the basics you need to hit the ground running and learn as you go.

-Tyler

Resource: Lulu

 

Cover art for my literary magazine, Appalachia Anew

 

 

Hi Everyone,

Today I’d like to share a great resource with you, Lulu.  Lulu.com is an online vanity press.  In other words, you can become your own publisher and skip a lot of the hassles and money issues that you would normally have to go through in order to see your product in print.  

Last spring, during my undergrad, I took a course entitled Literary Editing and Publishing.  Our instructor was a well established visiting professor by the name of Dinty Moore.  He is known for his views and writing on academic journals.  He also helps edit the New Ohio Review, which is based at Ohio University.  Another interesting undertaking of his is Brevity.  Brevity is basically an online literary magazine that he runs and edits himself.  If you have time, I would recommend checking it out for some interesting short stories and poetry by various known and unknown authors.

At the end of the course our final project was to create our own literary magazine.  He steered us toward Lulu because it is a simple, easy to use website that allows you to design everything about your magazine from cover art to paper quality and binding to font type.  We gathered poetry and stories from wherever we could around campus (with authors permissions) then uploaded our word document online after we had it formatted correctly (as far as margins, order, etc…).  After uploading all you have to do is order however many copies of your magazine you would like.  A few weeks later and bingo, you have your work in print right in front of you!

I hope that this will become an interesting and helpful resource for all of you, just as it was for me!

-Tyler

My First Publication!

pic of my article as it appeared in The Athens NEWS

Hey Everyone,

More profiles and information on the ever-changing culture of online journalism are on their way later this week, but today I’d like to share my first publication with you. 

Since last spring, I have been working as the special projects assisstant at The Athens NEWS.  I was very excited to get the job in the first place, just because it was an opportunity to get my foot in the door at a real newspaper.  I do things like ad sales comparisons of our competing newspapers around town, page design for posters and other materials, testimonials for local businesses, and promotional materials for our advertising representatives. 

Learning the inner workings of a newspaper has been a great experience.  Now, I also have parlayed my easy access to the newsroom into an opportunity to freelance for the paper.  Basically, whenever I have an idea for an article I can run it by the editors and type it up, submit it, and hopefully it gets published.  Last Monday, September 21st, my article “student recalls rental problems, solutions” was published as the featured article for our rental guide section.

Another great aspect of this that relates more to online journalism is that my work is also published on the newspaper’s website.  So now, theoretically, people all over the world can read what I have written and gain insight from the information I have gathered.  It all happened so fast that I didn’t really get to grasp all of the possibilities and implications of such and achievement.  Now, I am even more motivated to continue writing and working on my skills to better myself, as well as the general pool of knowledge available online. 

Perhaps I’m being long-winded, but I really can’t hide how excited I am about this.  In this day in age, information is at our fingertips, and you never know when opportunity might come knocking.  Hopefully, we journalists will be able to adapt to changing mediums and open those doorways.

-Tyler

Profile: Garrison Keillor

 

The cover for Keillor's book, Good Poems for Hard Times

 Hi Everyone,

As Promised, I will be profiling one of my favorite poets today, Garrison Keillor.  I first came across his work last spring in my Creative Writing: Poetry class for my English minor. One of the required textbooks was Good Poems for Hard Times.  Its basically a collection of poems by various authors selected by Keillor to, you guessed it, get you through the hard times.  

Keillor is probably best known as the creator of A Prairie Home Companion.  This was a radio broadcast that first started in Saint Paul in 1974.  It included poetry and short story readings, as well as other creative work.  After changing from various locations, including New York, until it settled in back in Minnesota in 1992.  Now it is broadcast to many different states and countries and is heard worldwide.  

Now, Keillor has moved his operation online.  A Prairie Home Companion features free public radio broadcasts from various writers/authors, as well as many other interesting links and content.  Another thing that really turned me on to Garrison Keillor is his other website, The Writer’s Almanac.  It includes a featured poem of the day, audio recordings of authors/poets reading their own work or being read by Keillor.  It also has an “On this day” section with various important events in writing that happened on that particular day of the year.  Some links and a newsletter are there as well.

I chose Keillor to do a profile on because I feel like he is a perfect example of how the industry is changing.  Before the internet, you would have to sift through academic journals or poetry books at the library in order to find new writing or old classics.  Now, poets like Keillor can provide a great service that is accessible 24 hours a day and you can actually hear the poems being read.

Keillor will be coming to Ohio University on April 13th to read at the Performing Arts Series, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Life, links, and vampires oh my!

Hello again from Athens, Ohio!

Busy week here at OU, but grad school is going smooth so far.  Before I see what sort of mischief I can get myself into this weekend, I thought I might share with you all some of my most visited sites, just so you could get a feel for where I’ve been surfing the net lately.  

First off, two of my favorite sports blogs out there, Truehoop and Ball Don’t Lie.  Being a huge Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I got bored over the summer and started snooping around the the web for something to tide me over, and found these.

Next, I guess I should list some of the usual suspects in a college student’s browser history, Facebook, Youtube, and Hulu.  Most people have heard of Facebook and Youtube by now, but if you haven’t checked out Hulu yet, its totally worth a visit.  You can watch free episodes of popular TV shows as well as stream free, LEGAL movies straight to your desktop.  

Finally, why not a couple cool local sites to get you more familiar with the area, like Soul of Athens or Athensi.  Soul of Athens is maintained by Ohio University VisCom students and faculty, and really shows off some of that college’s talent.  It has features on interesting local people and places, as well as really cool web design and photography. Athensi.com is basically a site with a bunch of links to other helpful websites and newsfeeds dedicated to the Athens area.  

So…where do vampires fit in to all of this?  Nowhere….but yesterday I watched my favorite vampire movie (Interview with the Vampire) and can’t get it out of my head.  If you haven’t seen it yet please drop everything you are doing and sprint to the nearest video rental store, or just que it up on Netflix if you’re cool like that.  

 

Gotta love it

 

 

That’s all for now, next time I’ll be doing a profile on one of my favorite poets, and show you what he’s been up to on the web.

-Tyler

I suppose some introductions are in order…

Hello World,

My name is Tyler.  I’m a 23 year old grad student at Ohio University, going for my masters degree in journalism.  

I am starting this blog with a certain theme in mind….so what exactly does it mean to be textually active, you ask?  Well, for me it represents anyone who is involved in writing, whether it be newfangled online journalists, bloggers or even old-school authors and poets.  The format may have changed, but the spirit remains the same.  We’re all just trying to connect to an exciting and interesting community of like-minded people who have an itch to know what else is out there.  

So think of this blog as a backscratcher….for whenever you have an itch for a good read.  Topics such as the varying ways news is delivered, soft news stories/features, and profiles of successful individuals with a variety of jobs in the industry will be here waiting for you.  I hope that this blog will manifest into a helpful service for me as well others who might be starting out in this textually active world.

-Tyler