Live tweet assignment: Battle the Culture of Busy presentation by Ashley Janssen

Below is a summary on students from a Social Media class learning how to live tweet. The topic of the presentation was about time management and students were asked to capture the tools an tips from the presenter.

Falling into Twitter Fiction

I chose to do my storify on Twitter Fiction as explored in Module 5. My goal was to explore the different types of super short stories found on Twitter - not specific genres so much as the different formats these stories could take. (Whether they're single tweet fictions, shared stories on a common hashtag, or a string of tweets following a real life adventure.)

I found the various elements by searching twitter and google for relevant links, accounts, and examples, using search terms such as "twitter genres" and "shared hashtag stories." Inspiration also came from the article Consider Twitter Fiction by Anthony Santulli as found on The Review Review. I also took some inspiration from my own twitter's timeline!

This storify does not portray the full story, as its goal is to highlight different types of storytelling on twitter as opposed to delving deep into any particular one. However, this could absolutely be used as the starting point for a more in-depth paper as each type of twitter storytelling technique could be explored further.

-- Meagan

Storify Assignment B: Electronic Literature the New Future - Diana Rhodes

Electronic Literature, what is it? 

Assignment B, By Diana Rhodes

My topic for inspiration came from Module 1: What is literature? I wanted to describe what Electronic Literature is, since when I explain to friends and family about our class - they had no idea of what I am learning. 

I had a hard time selecting a topic and how I should create something on storify. I am not much of a writer. I was having difficulty getting all my thoughts and searches on telling my story; from what I've learned these past weeks. Until, I saw the motivational tweet from our instructor: "Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it." So here is my heart filled attempt to this assignment.

• How did you approach finding the different elements that you included in your Storify post?

I started in the beginning and wanted to answer the question "what is electronic literature?" from our readings in Module 1. I wanted to make my storify educational and short. My goal was to use graphics and videos to share my ideas on what this type of literature is and why it can never be in book form. Also, literature can be use various platforms to communicate with anyone with text, games, social media and graphics. The reader can do more than just read on electronic literature - they can interact.

• What keywords, hashtags, or other methods did you use to narrow or expand your search?

I searched with keywords: Electronic Literature, Interactive Fiction, Born Digital Fiction, Born Digital Text, Graphics, Music, video games, Inanimate Alice and Twitter fiction.  

To grabbed all the images from Google, Twitter, Gify, Flickr and web searches. I wanted to include tweets and animation to tell my story. I expanded my search to include books, brochures, stories to help with my storify.

I searched for the video on Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl. A Digital Fiction classic that I learned about in one of our readings.

• Why did you decide to include the elements you did?

I tried to select elements that are short and to the point. I didn't want to lose the readers attention with my storify, since from our past readings "Is Google is making us Stupid?" people are not reading, thier power browsing. I tried to put text in very short form to not get too fussy.

• What were the criteria you used in order to decide an element was worth including?

I wanted to answer the What, When, Where, Who, Why and How in my storify: 

1. The what - is describing Electronic Literature and what it can do to tell the story. I used images with graphics and video.
2. The when - a brief segment on Patchwork Girl and that it's started when internet became household. I added the video of Shelley Jackson.
3. The where - Some countries are using this in their educational curriculum. 
4. The who - can be accessed by anyone and that anybody can become an author if they like. They can contribute to Twitter Fiction. 
5. The why - by explaining the uses for educational and entertainment purposes. 
6. Lastly, how - by using elements like sound to set the mood, touch by interaction with the game, and visually by changing the text style and graphics.

Example is on my use of music and text in my post. How can you capture music? Could I have found musical notes? Maybe, instead I found a picture with records. Classic like literature, but cool like a DJ and just like an author, the DJ will try to get you to dance or feel something. With the text portion of my post, I found a post with design - I wanted to show text can be graphic and used in the design of the story.

• Do you think your post gives a "full picture" of your issue? Why or why not?

No, not really. I wanted to emphasize the future, the hybrid usage, how it all started and what it can be used for. There was so many search items, so many posts and pictures - I found it became a tad overwhelming. 

Electronic Literature is new and can be so vast, that it became frustrating at times to find what would best describe what it is all about. Hard to put it all in a "full picture", since it can be used in many areas and interpreted differently.

• Do you think you could use your Storify post as a starting point for writing a longer academic essay? If so, how? If not, why not?

Yes, I'm hoping my post could be a starting point on this subject. I actually removed other texts and pictures to try and keep it streamlined and not too lengthy. I could have emphasized more on educational benefits, accessibility for people with disabilities or reading difficulties, and on how organizations can use digital literature to tell their stories. I only briefly touched the topic of what it is Electronic Literature. There is so much more. 

How to write (well) for social media

If you search "writing for social media" in Google, you'll get around 314 million results (yes, million). With such a huge number of potential resources at your hands, how does one narrow these results down to a more manageable number?

The goal of my Storify post was to explore the issue of writing for social media, so I quickly needed to decide how best to wade through the 314 million website hits. I started with the EXSM3989 assigned readings on the topic and went from there. What keywords and topics were used most often in the posts? I then searched Google to bring up the most popular/viewed blog posts and searched the bloggers Twitter accounts for additional hashtags.

The elements included in my post were blog posts, videos, tweets and Facebook posts that I found both informative and engaging, while also being general enough for such a broad topic. The blog posts on writing for both Twitter and Facebook were similar in providing a great foundation for writing tweets and posts and reinforcing that good writing is good writing no matter the platform.

My post in no way gives a full picture of writing for social media, and I don't think that any one blog post or book out there provides a comprehensive how-to of writing for social media. If there was, would there really be 314 million Google results on the topic? What I've tried to do is present a very basic introduction to social media and why it's necessary, and then provided some excellent information on how to construct engaging tweets and posts and examples from companies who use Twitter and Facebook very well.

Writing for social media is an incredibly huge and diverse topic that can be examined from hundreds of angles. The below Storify post could easily be a starting point for a longer academic essay. Each social media platform has different purposes, as well as best practices and even demographics. An essay could easily be written on any number of the above mentioned topics.

I explored the "born digital fiction" topic through Storify.

I wanted to include the required "modes" (images, blog posts, video, etc.) in my post, but -- this being my first time out with Storify -- I also tried to experiment a bit with its capabilities.

I searched through each of the Storify tabs that were accessible to me, and found that Google, Getty images, and YouTube yielded most of the results.

I searched primarily for any permeation and combination of "born," "digital," and "fiction." While searching for a combination of the three terms turned up very little, results from searches for two terms could be misleading. Admittedly, I relied on Wikipedia for much of the information pertaining to the origins and development of the born digital fiction medium.

On Twitter, I tried to get a sense of what might be trending re: born digital fiction, and came up with #borndigital, where i found references to "Inanimate Alice" and tweets about a variety of digital creations.

In choosing what I included in the piece, I tried to reflect a variety of modes (tweets, a video, blog posts, an image, a link to a paper, etc.) while reviewing each for relevant content and alignment with the topic. I also tried to select a few modes that were visually interesting (the image and video) to capture the reader's attention.

My post provides a glimpse into born digital fiction, and perhaps a starting point for someone brand new to the concept. While born digital fiction is still relatively young, an abundance of stories have been told over the last few decades, and a single Storify post doesn't adequately paint a "full picture" of the medium. That said, the topic could translate easily (and interestingly) into an academic essay on the origins, current status, and future state of born digital fiction.

Storify Assignment - Jag

For my Storify assignment, I chose to focus on Twitter fiction, as I've been a follower of @VeryShortStory for a while now and felt that working on a story within the strict constraints of Twitter might help me become a more decisive, concise, and possibly even more creative writer.

Perhaps obviously, I started with the #TwitterFiction hashtag. I had never used or viewed Storify before this assignment but it's quite useful in the way it will help curate and compile a search item amongst many different social media sites. Much like when I would write essays for university, I looked to who I was citing was citing.One of the organizers of a Twitter Fiction festival had her own Storify on the event, which allows readers of my Storify to see other people engaged in this art-form. From there, I found an entire Twitter Fiction festival on YouTube and a visual essay providing some more general background on Twitter Fiction.

I approached my Storify as very much a newbie, and therefore - hoping I'm not the only one - designed my Storify as an introduction to Twitter Fiction for other newbies. The examples, videos and audio I used were all of a wide-scope of Twitter Fiction as a whole and not an attempt to deconstruct a particular facet or account within the broader movement.

My Storify does not give a "full picture" of Twitter Fiction. Although I do feel it serves as a nice introduction to the concept, my Storify does omit some of the criticisms of Twitter Fiction. These criticism include the inanity of stories so short, attacking them as lacking substance or importance, or that they are merely ephemeral and forgettable. It was by design that I took a more neutral and informative approach to the subject, I think it's important the newbie that is my intended audience find their own way to an opinion on Twitter Fiction. Like all art, it is subjective but if it has meaning to you, it can never be discounted.

Since my Storify is one long starting point to Twitter Fiction, I do a feel a longer form, more scholarly piece can grown from what I have done here. However, to give a longer essay value I would have to choose one element covered in my Storify and drill down into it for more detail and exploration. Perhaps the creation, organization and implementation of the Twitter Fiction Festival would be a worthwhile topic or even addressing the aforementioned rejections of Twitter fiction as a viable art-form would make an interesting read.