USC Hybrid High School Communications Essay

Assignment: Story Making – Story PlatformsObjectives: to let you Practice using the techniques of storytelling and Appreciate how platforms differ in
what they allow storytellers do, sometimes called the “affordances” they offer.
For this assignment, you will tell a story or stories across three different platforms and reflect on the reaction
you get to it. You can tell the same story or different stories across all three content platforms. When you
describe the process, talk about how you formed your ideas and what were your feelings about posting them
for the world to read. Also describe the reactions you get.
Directions: Use the story creation tools covered in the attachments. Imagine a story, outline it, and begin
working on your pages.
1. Create a story on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
2. Create a story or the image and put the text of the stories or the image into a Word document. Then post
the story into your three platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter).
3. After that, continue in the same Word doc and write a one-page summary, describing your experience of
the story creation process.
Your story does not need to be poignant, deeply meaningful, brilliant, or award-winning fiction. It can be
something from your real life. For example, you might post a story about something that happened to you
this week. Your child or your dog did something hilarious or naughty. Write something about it in a way that
makes you feel comfortable. You do not have to make uncomfortable personal revelations! If you took
photos or videos of it, post those, too.
Story length: That really depends on the story. For Twitter, consider 10 to 20 tweets. But…depending on
your story, it could 5 or 6.
About photos, music, and video: My advice is to use your own photos or videos, but if you retweet or
repost something that is OK. Just make sure it is clear to everyone that you did not claim to have created
something that someone else created.
You can probably claim Fair Use, based on the following four factors (nonprofit, educational, personal, and
scholarship):
· You can find royalty-free material. For pictures (although they sometimes have citation requirements) look
in the Commons on Wikipedia. Two other good sites are www.morguefile.com and www.pixabay.com.
· If you want royalty-free music, go to www.bensound.com It’s pretty standard, boring, background music.
· Be careful using pictures from Flickr, Picasa, Google Images, etc. They are often copyright protected, and
there could be a large fine copyright infringement ($200 to $150,000 per use).
Whatever you do, just think about your use of anything that you did not create.
How to be Creative
Two creative
paths:
•
Relaxation =
Chill – go to the
beach, see a movie
•
Grit = Stay focused,
nose to the
grindstone
Source: Jonah Lehrer. (2012). How
Creativity Works.
BUT…how do I know
which path to take?
•
•
I feel if I keep
working, I will
get somewhere:
Slog on.
OR
I feel like I’m
just not going
to get
anywhere:
Relax.
Meme
•
•
The basic unit of culture
Meme is to society as a gene is to an
individual
Memes
• Distributed via media, mainly social media
and memes websites
• Memes are to society (social being) as genes
are to individuals.
• Serious memes: religious, political, national
• Pop culture memes: short skirts (fashion)
Mohawk hair
Affordances and Media
•
Definition: Aspects of a technology that provide the means
for action.
•
Example 1: A telephone “affords” two-way
conversations with others, in real time.
•
Example 2: An iPod affords a tiny, portable way for
users to listen to audio files.
Affordances and Media
•
Definition of affordance:
Aspect of a technology that provides
the means for action. (Note that
“action” can apply to both the sender and
the receiver of a media message.)
•
•
Example 1: Broadcast TV affords a message
sender to the opportunity to reach millions of
people simultaneously.
Example 2: The Internet affords users the ability
to choose their own “programming” quickly and
easily. (So does the TV remote.)
Affordances:
Media Platforms
Television
One-way moving images, audio
Lean back, emotional
content
Radio
One-way audio
Mobility
Landline telephones
Real-time two-way audio
Voice communication
Mobile telephones
Real-time two-way audio
Mobile voice
communication
Newspapers
Text, B&W still images
Dense information
Magazines
Text, color images
Dense info, long form
Internet
Text, moving and still images, audio
Lean forward, active
choice, communication
Facebook
Text, images, URLs, user-generated
content
Rich media
communication
Twitter/text
140-character text messages
Immed. Presence: Real
time
Affordances: Media
Film
One-way moving images, audio
Dreamscapes
Video
One-way moving images, audio
Realityscapes
Photos
A single point in time
Examination of images
Drawings
Interpreted images
Examination of images
Audio-voice
Human and computer-generated
Personal testimony
Audio-music
Acoustic and electronic
Emotional response
Audio-effects
Acoustic and electronic
Verisimilitude: fidelity
(like reality)
Print
Text
Dense information
Online
Universal conduit, interactive
Power to users
Twitter/text
Addressable text
Personal, immediate
information
Table 1. Comparison of modalities of communication flow.
Communication Flow: Interpersonal
Message flow
One to one
One to few
Few to few
Control
Shared
Knowledge of audience
Audience segmentation
Detailed
Personal, direct knowledge or indirectly
through personal contacts
Interactivity
Feedback
Yes
Immediate, reciprocal, direct feedback
Asynchronicity
Emotional vs Task-related content
Privacy
No
Both
Yes
Communication Flow: Mass Media
Message flow
Control
Knowledge of audience
Mass Media
One to many
Few to many
Source
Scant
Audience segmentation
• Demographics
• Psychographics\Lifestyle
• Behavioral
Interactivity
Feedback
No
Delayed, receiver to source, inferential
feedback
Yes, with DVR
Emotional
Yes
Asynchronicity
Emotional vs Task-content
Privacy
Communication Flow: Online
of modalities of communication flow.
Message flow
All directions: One to one, one to few, one to
many, few to one, few to few, few to many,
many to many
Control
Knowledge of audience
Audience segmentation
Receiver
Detailed, targeted
Demographics, psychographics\ Lifestyle
Behavioral, Person-provided (opt-in)
Micro-segmentation via multiple databases
Interactivity
Feedback
Yes
Immediate, reciprocal, direct or inferential
Asynchronicity
Yes
Emotional vs Task-related content Both
Privacy
No
Interactive Platform: Facebook
Affordances for users:
– Stay in touch and engage with
family, friends, interests in a relaxed,
informal venue
– Personal self-expression with
multimedia posts
Affordances for influencers:
– Reach target, plus social network
– Present product, service, idea, or position in a
relaxed, informal venue (personify and humanize)
– Reach and enlist passionate followers and fans with
Multimedia messaging
– Understand motivation, needs, etc.: a free focus
group
Interactive Platform: Twitter/text Pl
• Affordances for users:
– Send and receive Instant, real-time
text-only messages to computers,
mobile phones, and tablets
• Affordances for influencers:
– Reach and engage passionate fans and followers
with immediate text-only updates and breaking news
– Follow and understand conversations around the
brand or idea – a free focus group
Interactive Platform: Blogs Pl
Affordances for users:
• Flexible, multimedia
self-expression
Affordances for influencers:
• Individual, small organizations, and celebrities are
better influencers able to exploit this medium than
large corporations and large-scale marketers
• Opportunity to reach and enlist passionate
followers and fans with multimedia messages
The Problem with Affordances
Potentially huge set of affordances
• Format mode (print, audio, etc.)
• Venue or Setting of use (home, work, mobile,
crowd/private, lean back/lean forward?, etc.)
• User skills required? (TV-use remote; PC-type,
etc.)
• Emotional appeals effective?
• Cognitive activity enhanced?
• Sensory involvement (sight, sound, taste, touch,
etc.)
• Information-carrying capacity of medium)
Interactive Process:
Social Bookmarking (Digg, Reddit,
delicio.us, Pinterest) Pl
Affordances for users:
– My vote counts
– Track trends
– Receive opinions of wide variety of
other users
Affordances for influencers:
– Encourages them to put
engaging, valuable content on pages and sites
because they are rewarded by recommends
– Good sources of information and companies that serve
customers well are rewarded
Interactive Process: Crowdsourcing
Affordances for users:
• Be part of something
bigger than themselves
• Learn more than they
could on their own
• Raise money from many
sources
Affordances for influencers
• Generate many ideas fast.
• Reach people they don’t already know…or know of the
influencer.
• Develop an opportunity to bring new people into the
circle.
Story Creation Tools
•
How to Tell a Story https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-tell-a-goodstory
•
How to Tell a Good Story https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-inprogress/2013/12/11/how-to-tell-a-good-story/?sh=6bb1ed5b584c
•
Eldrbarry’s Storytelling Page https://www.eldrbarry.net/
•
Power of Storytelling https://www.health.org.uk/newsletter-feature/power-ofstorytelling
•
A Case for Web Storytelling https://alistapart.com/article/storytelling/
•
The Future is in Interactive Storytelling https://theconversation.com/the-future-is-ininteractive-storytelling-76772
•
13 tips for Successful Interactive Storytelling http://view.ceros.com/cerosmarketing/13-tips-interactive-storytelling/p/1
•
45 Engaging Examples of Interactive Storytelling in Content Marketing
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/interactive-content-examples