COMM11007; Week Six: Practical

This exercise was completed using Storify. Please follow the provided link to view it:

https://storify.com/anthonyjnorris/a-day-in-the-life

COMM11007; Week Eight: Inquiry

In this week’s class, we were split into groups to view and discuss social media networking sites. As assigned, I reviewed the increasingly popular site Houzz, viewable here: (http://www.houzz.com.au/?m_refid=au-sem-brand-v2_main&kw=houzz&pos=1t1&device=c&nw=g&gclid=CJqV79b5iMECFYUJvAod8m8A1Q)

As a first time user of Houzz, I found it to be a very useful tool for those interested in new housing or renovation. Although I by no means fit their targeted demographic, I certainly would recommend it to those that are looking to engage in such projects.

Houzz is similar to other platforms in that it allows users to collate ideas and establish a foundation of the users interests. The site also allows its users to their collective works on other social media/networking sites.

The main draw card to the sites popularity comes from the site allowing users to connect with designers and photographers that have shown their work publicly. Houzz’s impeccable presentation and ease of use for people lacking technology savvy only adds to this.

From the research done in class, my partner and I developed the following powerpoint presentation viewable here:

Week 8 – Writing for social media

COMM11007; Week Two: Practical

This was not specified to be written about.

The task was carried out successfully and viewed via the link attached:

Tweets by anthonyjnorris

COMM11007; Week Twelve: Practical

This was not specified to be written about.

The task was carried out successfully.

COMM11007; Week One: Quiz

This was not specified to be written about.

Let’s just say that it was easy.

COMM11007; Week Twelve: Inquiry

I can not stress the point that this course has completely changed the way I look at media enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I still hate the media presented to us daily. I just now have a better understanding of all its intricacies and restored faith in my own writing abilities.

If one of my fellow students has taken nothing from this course I can only assume that they failed or were already writing at a high standard of journalism. Both seem rather unlikely.

I think punctuation would have probably been my weakest point coming into this course. I have a tendency to abuse ellipses in everyday text talk as I feel they allow me to emphasize a point and are aesthetically pleasing. Just me I guess?

Again, big thanks to Course Coordinator, Dr. Kate Ames! I look forward to further courses under her tutelage.

COMM11007; Week Twelve: Technical

My beloved quizzes have come to a conclusion. (Insert generic sad face emoticon here.)

Week one left me feeling like this would be a walk in the park after reading how others had not achieved 100%. I was of the mind my fellow students couldn’t spell their own name without having their hand held and uni would be a breeze.

For the first few weeks my scores were nothing to be proud of. As the course and my understanding progressed though as did my results.

Some of the questions mentioned in my quiz reflections though; slightly dubious, let’s be fair.

Truthfully, I dreaded each and every one of these things. Following on from the relative ease of week one, time and time again they would defeat me. No standouts, no highlights.

Sincerely though, I wouldn’t be near the level of writing standard I am at today if it were not for them. Credit to Kate for creating them and a massive thank you for giving me the push I needed to stick with tertiary study.

COMM11007; Week Seven: Practical

The amount of content learnt throughout the duration of this course has been immense in comparison to the other courses I have undertaken in this, my first term of study. Throughout the duration of this course I have made a conscious effort to keep my punctuation in check.

Even after a review in this week’s exercise, I have no doubt that there will have been errors made that I have overlooked.

I think it goes without saying that punctuation errors in a journalism based course will impact the final result achieved. If someone has argued this point I would be very interested to read their argument as to why?

Even following a final review before submission, I have little doubt my favorite English Nazi of a lecturer (sorry Kate) will pull me up on some errors. In saying that however, I must thank her for this. 

COMM11007 has been much of an eye opener and has greatly impacted the way I write, giving me confidence to put my thoughts, feelings and experiences to paper in the next chapter of my life following university.

COMM11007; Week Ten: Practical

After reviewing my blog here and my Storify account, (https://storify.com/anthonyjnorris) I quite like the way the two have turned out.

Neither are spectacularly colorful, just clean, simple and easy to digest. With the exception of quiz reflections where subject matter never really changed, I feel an appropriate amount of paragraphing and white space was used. (Kate has often stressed she gets bored easily when reading long paragraphs. Perhaps I just did it to annoy her.)

I feel have made use of source referencing where appropriate to give the reader a chance to view links if they seem fit. Similarly, images have been used and inserted where needed to clarify talking points and where instructed to do so. (Evernote’s Skitch is my new bestfriend – http://evernote.com/skitch/?utm_source=interspire.)

I only hope that these personal views are shared.

COMM11007; Week Ten: Inquiry

Whether I like to consider it or not, the fact is, I am a visual consumer.

For this week’s exercise I have decided to conduct a review on the news and documentary website, VICE.(http://www.vice.com/en_au)

This news organisation consciously and consistently deliver hard hitting news and documentaries that other news divisions simply will not touch. VICE are a modern group of individuals, with modern ideologies and this is clearly displayed in their approach.

The first step taken by VICE is their edgy logo mounted in the top corner of the screen, this is justified to the left as this is the way are eyes are trained to view. Upon opening the homepage to the site, a clearly labelled taskbar heads the page listing all the sub-branches of their news covered.

Scrolling down, news articles are clearly defined with easily distinguishable titles in a simple bold font. An appropriate amount of white space is used to make these stories stand out without leaving the screen looking blank.

The main colors used by VICE are white, black and grey. It is my belief from being a long time viewer and reader of VICE that this was done so intentionally as the world is not just black and white, there are grey areas.

Text used by VICE is a simple and easy to read font, similar to sans serif. With each heading and article accompanied by appropriate and often stunning or shocking images to attract the readers interest.

VICE – Five Stars.