Nice. This chapter showed me a lot of what I'm doing right and wrong and how to improve in both aspects. I liked that it could make sense for a small or large scale of a student paper and also points out some things that the Setonian can work on.

Being an editor is actually easier than I thought it would be last year when I took on the position, but there are always times that I know I'm not at my best just because I'm a student before I'm an editor and that comes in to play during some production weeks. (Like the one that is going on now.)

Anyway the point is, for our reading out of The Elements of Online Journalism the part that struck me the most was the part about advertisements

"Ads should not take over the content of your page. Banner ads should be placed either on top, bottom, or the right side of the screen."

I don't really see this as becoming that big of a problem with the Setonian Online, but I think that is one thing the print version is terrible at. I have to admit I despise a half page ad, no matter who it is from and where it is in the paper. I understand the need for them, but I hate them. Umm, I'm done ranting.

My feelings:

This website was very interesting; the way that Shelley Jackson wrote made me want to keep clicking and keep learning about her. I liked that the stories didn't go in order of how they happened in her life, which it would have had to if it were a novel. Hypertext makes writing raw, I like it. (When I'm older and bolder I might think of doing something like this as well.)

Close Reading:

In Shelley Jackson's "The Body" she is able to show people a sense of self-acceptance through discovering her own body, instead of comparing her body to those of models and actresses that teenage girls are so often told to emulate.

With the use of hypertext, Jackson is able to let the reader take the first step in where the journey of her body will begin. (I chose the tattoo.) Through reading about that chosen section of her body, the reader is then led to chose another part through the words that seemingly describe a different section of the body, and are led throughout, not only Jackson's changing body, but also through her childhood to womanhood. (Just to note: I hate the word womanhood, lame word, I couldn't think of another word that fit.)

Unlike any other form of writing about the changes that a girl goes through while growing up, Jackson is able to show her readers a way to travel to the different areas of her body and her life by linking to different parts of the body, to let the reader choose their own path. In this way, the reader is able to experience Jackson's experiences as they come, instead of in chronological order.

As the reader is led through Jackson's body and life, they are able to see into a different set of eyes on the issue of how a teenage girl and ultimately how women should look, according to the public's eye. These days, girls are told they have to look and be a certain way and as the reader is on Jackson's journey, those limitations for girls are destroyed by one woman's view of her own body. Through Jackson's ability to accept her shoulders, arms,leg hair, and her lack of hips, along with the rest of her body's unique aspects, she is able to show girls going through the "not pretty enough" struggle that image shouldn't matter. 

My feelings:

I always want to be the one in the class that figures this stuff out, so I literally followed it through until I had clicked on all of the links. It got me nowhere. The University of Yellow Wallpaper confused me like no other. (I did skim though some of the pages though, so that could be a factor too.) Needless to say, I was led in circles for a good while.

Reading this reminded me of those mystery books where at the bottom of each page it says "continue reading or go to page (insert # here)" and the story is able to pick up either way and it makes sense in whichever way you take it. Though this didn't make complete sense, it reminded me of that because you choose where you go and which story path you are taking.

Close Reading:

Caroline E. White, author of The University of Yellow Wallpaper, puts hypertext to work in her book online, allowing the reader to take their own course through the book and the site as they chose which phrases to click on and which paths to take through hypertext.

Though readers will fall upon some of the pages more than once, the story is able to continue through the use of different hypertext that is shown on most of the pages of text. A main theme that reoccurs throughout the reading is the present time, and the present time being a gift to those who notice it.

Through the use of hypertext and linking to certain pages, White is able to show her readers the present time more than once and target that point home while the reader again and again stumbles upon it.

PS - bonus points for the first person to say who sang the words of my title. 

• words with complex, or multiple meanings
• the elements of persuasion
• how to be persuasive
• legitimate appeals
• propaganda
• analyzing other websites

I liked this chapter because it brought up all the types of things that people do not usually want to talk about. I really appreciate that Kilian is not afraid to tell his reader's what they really need to know. I enjoy it a lot when a writer is not afraid of what they know and what they want to say and just let it out there in their work, so that it makes them more credible and their readers more informed.

Kilian does this through out the text but especially in chapter eight, he brings up the "non-fluffy issues" that not all writers would immediately bring up. Well done, sir.

So before writing my own blog and before even reading the text; I read Andy's entry about Chapter 7 in Writing for the Web 3.0 first. In his entry he came up with the idea of a Blender Blog, which is a mixture of all of the categories of blogs that Kilian writes about in his book.

Andy's idea was that we as students do not always fit into one specific category of blogging because our blogs are a mixture of different things as they are and need to be categorized in that way. (Kind of like throwing all of the categories into a blender and getting our blogs when you're done mixing all of those categories together.)

I like this idea a lot, so I'm stealing it. (But note that I give credit where credit is due...Andy.) Moving on, I think my blog fits into each of these categories in different ways, here is how:

The Personal Blog

• Kilian writes that a personal blog could be written either introverted or extroverted. And like I am in person, I think my blog is as well. I tend to be more extroverted, but often I am introverted as well, without really meaning to be. I feel that my blog is like that as well. Sometimes I'm all about letting whoever my reader is, come into my world, my life and other times I'm doing something as an assignment and I don't put my face, or my life experiences into it.
• I like to make my class blogs grab the reader, also making my blog altogether my personalized.

Job Blogs

• Kilian writes that a job blog is a focus on events at work. I can take this in two ways.
• Currently I'm a full-time student, so my homework is my job. So my blog could go under this category because of that.
• Also, I am now a writing/web design intern for the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education that is on campus and for them I do a lot of blogging under my own name, so since that is also part of my "job" my blog can fall under this category.

Specialist Blogs

• In Kilian's book, he says that this category is a "community of interest," and I took that meaning the same way Andy did; as in our current class.
• So my blog is in this category because sometimes I am blogging for EL236 - a community (class) that is interested in Writing for the Internet and also for EL200 - a community (class) that is interesting in the New Media Journalism major, and my blogging is based on the current interests that are developed in each of those classes.

News Blogs

• "A news blog may be part of the online service of a print newspaper or a broadcaster's website," (127).
• Though I do not directly put my work onto the Setonian Online, you will see that I have contributed to that blogging site through my work with the paper version of the Setonian.

Advocacy Blogs

• Kilian writes that advocacy blogging is arguing a case for a group, movement or philosophy.
• Though I do not feel like I am arguing while doing so, when I blog for the Admissions Blog for Student Ambassadors, I am advocating to prospective students why to come to Seton Hill and what I like and what I go through day to day here at SHU.

So sorry, Kilian, but like most things I don't fit into one select category. 

Through the moving up into a new class this year, I can see that I have easily changed roles. Last year, I was the do what everyone needs freshman, now I am the help the paper as best as possible sophomore. Through this I have gained some "buddies" with new students that want my help and upperclassmen that know they can count on me.

Also, through my first year at SHU I tried to became as involved as possible and the Setonian has helped me to do that networking a lot easier. Through the Setonian I am able to interview people and get to know about different things on campus, before they happen, or in depth that other people that don't even know about. This has really helped because I can take what I'm doing in clubs and make those into story pitches and also, get to know more people so story ideas come easier to me because I know more about my campus through them. Which is a great feeling.

In Media Lab this time around we are using a grea book, The Student Newspaper Survival Guide, and even though some of it is old news to most of us, because we've been in this program for awhile now, it is a great tool to have and use for the Setonian. I wish that in EL227 - Newswriting we had this book, because it would have been much more helpful then, with that class being focused on the introduction to Journalism, but it is still useful now because it can give us tips and pointers that we might be over looking.

Now I feel like the paper version of the Setonian is under control and we all know where we fit in and what we can do to make it better. I think that now we need to focus on revamping the Setonian Online to be just as good as the print version.

Chapter 6 - The Lifestyle pages

• "...more than any other second, the lifestyle pages in a student newspaper should be relevant, edgy and fresh." Though the Setonian does not have a set aside section for the "lifestyle pages" I think that the entire paper can serve as this purpose and that every page in it should be relevant, edge and fresh.
• Confessions of a sex columnist. This would be an interesting column in the Setonian, a Catholic University's newspaper. I think it would certainly bring in more readers, but I don't know if that's all we're looking for. And even though when my roommates and I took the Facebook "Which Sex and the City Character Are You?" quiz, I ended up with Carrie...I don't think I could sanely hold this position down.
• "Finally, read, read, read. Read The New York Times. Read The Washington Post. Read Smithsonian magazine. Read People. Read everything." I think this is a great quote from Josie Roberts and something we always have to remember.

Chapter 7 - Sportswriting

• "Good sports stories not only inform and entertain, they help build a sense of community on campus." I like this quote because it makes me feel like my current position on the paper isn't worthless. Sometimes I feel like Sports Editor of the Setonian means nothing because a good chunk of the staff doesn't really care about sports or the section. But this quote makes it feel like it's all worth it, because sporting events make community, we report that and make a better community.
• Sports Profiles. I just did my first sports profile on one of the football captains, Andrew Demase, whom I've actually known for quite awhile. I really enjoyed writing the profile because it showed not only whoever picks up the paper a different side of him, but it even showed me a different side of him.
• "...post game stories on your newspaper's Web site. Brief reports on games and with photos..." Why didn't I think of this before? I think this would be a great idea, especially because the Setonian does not come out that often. Not only would this be good for the Sports Section, but it could also be helpful for the Setonian Online.

Chapter 8 - Arts and Entertainment Writing

• "If your arts and entertainment section is any good, the savvy students will depend on your paper to find out what's hot and what's not." I think the Setonian has this covered.
• This section of the book was relatively short and I really think that the Setonian has this section down to an art. (Ha, lame pun.)

Chapter 9 - Opinion Pages

• Like the Arts and Entertainment section, I think the Setonian has enough opinion section to go around as well. We've got this covered.
• Writing an Editorial. "It's easy to have an opinion; it takes hard work to have a reasoned opinion." "Before you site down to write an editorial, gather your facts." I think this is helpful to any opinion or editorial writer, it's not as easy at it seems. I'm sure that we don't have that big of a problem with this in the Setonian, but it's always good to keep this in mind when writing.

The end.

"There are two levels of a multimedia story: Basic and advanced. The basic level includes a headline, text, picture, graphic, and related links. The more advanced level carries the following added features: audio, video, slide shows, animation, interactive features, and interactive games."

Right now I feel like the Setonian Online is in the basic stage, but I think that very soon we can move that to become at the advanced level. Currently, there is little "life" on the online version of the paper, which makes it, to me, just the paper online. I think that the idea is to get it to be something extra, like an added bonus onto what we already have. Though Jeremy has done a great job of updating the online version, it still needs something.

The paper version of the Setonian is pretty damn good, if I say so myself and I know we have the talent and the right students to bring the online version to be just as good.

However, Kilian writes in chapter six, "A corporate site should reach a wide range of readers without trying to be all things to all people," (115). Finally, they match! Though I think this section is more for the PR person in me than the truth finder, it's coming from a book that is brought to a Journalism class.

I like this idea because, just like in everyday life, you cannot be everything to everyone, so you cannot expect your website to do so either.

We do this in the Setonian and I never really understood it until this year. I always thought we were wasting paper printing out the articles when we do everything else on the computer, but it really works because its harder to read on a computer screen than it is when it's in your hand and you can mark the mistakes right on it.

Yesterday, former Sate Senator Allen Kukovich spoke to students at Seton Hill about the need to be registered to vote. This seems like a typical thing to be talking to college students around this time about because we are getting into our first official election that we can vote for, and I know I'm not like many students when I say this, but I cannot wait to fill out my first ballot. Voting has been something I pay more attention to than I probably should, ever since I can remember.

Elections in general are very interesting to me, I remember watching the Presidential Election unfolding in 1997 on the small TV my kitchen with my dad when I was about seven years old, and I remember being in my living room, doing some homework when the recount was going on in the election Bush vs. Gore; and though I was young and I don't remember all of the details I do know that during those times I was excited about the election process and couldn't wait to get my chance to vote. (I find it ironic that last Saturday was the first time I have ever been to Washington DC.)

Anyway, while Sen. Kukovich was speaking, I must admit that most of the information he was saying went over my head because all I was thinking was, "why wouldn't someone want to vote?" I know that my mom was never registered to vote until recently and I know that I bugged her about it often because I was jealous that she had the ability to vote and wasn't while I was just a kid sitting on the sidelines waiting to turn 18. (I mean my dad always came home with a cool "I Voted" sticker, that's worth it if you ask me.) But honestly, I never understood it.

But it never really bothered me knowing that back then my mom wasn't voting; it BOTHERS me to an extreme extent to know that my some of my peers simply do not care enough to vote. It BOTHERS me that they give these excuses as to why they are not voting and yet still want change and still want social security and healthcare when we'll need it. It BOTHERS me that my generation is waiting on the world to change, instead of just changing it themselves.

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm pretty passionate about this country. Maybe because my birthday is so close to the official birthday of America. But, I'm very interested in its ups and downs and I want to see it succeed in this messed up world, but I can't see that happen if I sit back and wait for someone else to get stuff done for me.

What I don't understand is that, my peers especially, hate when other people make decisions for them and hate when adults tell them what to do, because they feel like they are adults. Well, dear friends, I'm sorry to put this bluntly, but if you don't want another decision made for you, go vote on which decisions you agree with. And if you don't want another adult telling you what to do, then go vote for the candidate that you like better. And if you want people to treat you like an adult, then be one. Technically you're an adult when you turn 18 and you can register to vote when you turn 18...I'm guessing it's that way for a reason.

Actually I'm not sorry for being blunt. I feel like that's what our country needs to get turned around here, and you're not helping if you're standing by, waiting for something to happen. You're not helping if you choose not to vote because you think that's a way of "sticking it to the man," as Andy so eloquently put it in his blog. This election is already re-writing history books. No matter who wins, this is the first election when a black man or a woman has gotten as far as Obama or Clinton did and this is only the second election where there was a candidate with a woman for a running-mate; make it another first by voting for the first time...re-write your own history book.

I don't care who you vote for, just make an informed decision when you do. November 4th is quickly approaching, so you'll need to get on that soon. Like one of my favorite men once said, "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." 

But what I like most about it is that it's straight forward. These two quotes from chapter 3 are what stood out most for me.

"..the front page of your site should orient your readers by telling them - what the site is about, how it is organized and how to navigate it." (page 20) 

"So put yourself in your readers' shoes: If you were a stranger arriving at you own site, would you feel as if the site's creator had made a special effort to make life easy for you?" (page 24)

I like these two quotes because even though they are both like, "duh" moments, it's the kind of thing that I think writers forget about the most. Which is weird because they are both about the reader, and shouldn't the writer always have the reader in the front of their mind? I would think so, but I like that the author puts that out there.

It is clear that the author of this book is doing just what he is telling us to do and that is to always keep the reader in mind first, so that everything is understandable and clear to them.  

"We used to call it the World Wide Wait, because the primitive dial-up systems of the 1990s were so slow to load pages. Many users in those days would set their browsers to ignore the graphics, since these are always the slowest items to load.

That impatience is still with us. But now we're impatient to get right to the material we came looking for, and we're likely to hit the Back button if the page doesn't come up right that instant." (page 7)

I know that I always got in trouble because I'd click and click and click until the screen I wanted came up. (I know probably making the problem worse.) And now I instantly click the Back button to find a different page if something doesn't show up within one second. Oy vay, computers do make us impatient. This could cause a problem.

Alright, enough tacky introduction to get people to pay attention to my blog...let's get down to business. In this portfolio I will show some of my "best work" that I have done for this class. (EL236: Writing for the Internet) The categories are; coverage, timeliness, interaction, depth and discussion. Now let's bring out the winners...

Coverage - This category is supposed to show that I've done all the blogging. I did that, so instead of just showing you a long list of links to every entry, you can just browse through yourself. I think that I've been doing well with coverage this year, compared to last year. I know before that I wasn't into the blogging thing very much and slacked off a bit here and there, but this year I have turned over a new leaf. I blog, and I do so often.

Timeliness - Along with getting the assignments done, I have been able to get them done and in with great timing. Though my mom always said that I'll be late to my own funeral, which this still probably holds true, at least my blog will be up to date. Some examples of when I proved that statement...

• Internet Co-Creator
• IDK, my BFF Jill?
• Teachers Gone Wild
• Recall on Trolls 
• New to the pot

Interaction - Well, I cannot take all the credit for people giving me comments, I mean there has to be some other reason besides my good looks and charm that bring people wandering to my site (considering you cannot see me while reading my entries) Maybe it's the cute sayings I put on the course website or maybe it's the clever titles of my blogs.(But those would fall under my charm I think.) Hmm...maybe it is just me. ;) Here are some entries where people came over to visit...

• IDK, my BFF Jill?, (Jill came over too) 
• What the $#@! (swearing gets attention) 
• Teachers Gone Wild (naughty minds came lurking) 
• New to the pot (apparently people like toilets)

Depth - I don't think I ever do depth very well. I never actually think, 'oh I need a deep entry soon, I'm going to have a blogging portfolio due soon.' So if I get into depth, it's by pure accident, but I guess that sometimes that's where the best work comes from.

• Teachers Gone Wild
• New to the pot
• Why so serious?
• Poor little Smiley
• Email hacked by college student 

Discussion - As well as depth, I think that I could be doing better in this section as well. Because just like the depth thing, this doesn't happen on purpose either. I don't go out searching for good entries by classmates, I go out looking for something to actually comment on, without feeling redundant.

• Jackie's Balancing Act (I didn't start it, but I left a lengthy comment)
• Maddie's Gnomes (Started, finished and made it a long one)
• Dani's Beginning (Started short and sweet, but another followed)

Hmm...not too bad for the first blogging portfolio of the year.