Originally posted at Dusti-PR pubs
In Chapter 7, Aarron Walter ends his book by discussing risks and rewards. Overall, I think this chapter concludes the book with the interesting topic of taking risks and sometimes gaining rewards in your job. After reading this chapter, I learned that this book truly taught me alot about public relations, that I had never realized before. For example, I learned about a few new types of social media tools. Additionally, I learned how although audience, content, and design are all different from each other, they are connected in a few ways.
I did not really disagree with anything in this chapter because I think it’s important to take risks to receive rewards in your job and throughout life. Taking risks teaches you the skills about going with your gut and opinion on what you think is right. I enjoyed the wrap up of this chapter and the conclusion of the book. I like how Walter reviews what he has talked about throughout the book and leaves us with this thought that designing with our personal style is essential. Overall, this was an interesting book and I think it should be used in years to come in PR Pubs classes.
Originally posted at Megan Young - Gaylord Student
I never thought I would get to this point, honestly.
This semester has not been easy, and this class has been the thorn in my side… But not necessarily in a bad way.
Publications has been a lot of work. I had to learn my way around a Mac. I had to learn multiple new programs. I had to learn how to create a website almost from scratch. I had to blog my progress to the world, which in itself was not necessarily difficult as much as it was weird. I just kind of took a comfort in knowing that the reach of my blog was probably not many people. Overall, however, I will take away a lot from this class, and it goes past all the bits and pieces we learned about design. I learned that it all starts with an idea. If you foster that idea, that idea will grow. At first that idea is not going to grow into what you had in mind, but, like many aspects of life, if you keep trying and persevere, some level of success will be achieved.
I do not know about the future of my blog past this class. I definitely want to play with my website more and see what else I can do with it. I still have a lot to learn, but the format of the class made learning really easy, to be honest. When you have a professor constantly there to answer all of your simple questions, it is comforting (especially to know that he started where I was at one point too). Knowing all of these things gives me hope in general! More classes should have this structure – independent work with a helpful guide close behind. Sometimes you have to learn with trial and error, and that is a lot of what I did.
If the circumstances of my semester were different, I think I would have gotten a lot more out of the class. However, I did learn an immense amount, and I do plan on continuing this type of work well after the final grades come out.
Originally posted at CK1
I like to say I danced before I walked. That’s what my family tells me, anyway. Whether or not that is true, I guess I’ll never know, but I remember every dance class I have ever taken. I remember every accomplishment, every milestone, every new technique I finally mastered. Being on stage and performing is like something from a dream. The hush that comes over a crowd before the music starts, the way your heart beats in the first few seconds of a routine, how a dance seems to go on forever but end in a blink at the same time… Everything about dance is everything to me.
The first time I won an award for my choreography I was elated. I thought for sure it was a fluke. My short legs never lent me to have perfect technique, but I went out on a limb and did a contemporary solo for competition anyway. Most people get help from their coaches, but I went at this all on my own. I designed my costume, did my hair and makeup, and choreographed it from beginning to end all by myself. Solos happened on Friday, and group routines happened on Saturday, so it was the middle of the day Saturday during competition craziness when the finalists lists were put up. I was only a Junior then, and when our coach announced someone from our team had made the cut, I did not even fathom that it was me. To this day hearing my name come out of her mouth feels like something from a distant dream. When I lined up at the end of the day, awaiting my award (if any, at this point I was only a finalist), none of it seemed real. That day I got second runner up from all of the solos preformed by all of the dancers from all of the high schools around Kansas.
I still thought it was a fluke going into competition the next year, my Senior year. I had choreographed a jazz routine and a hip hop routine for our team that year, so my solo was barely on my mind. I think I made up half of it the day of competition. I had let myself down… But I did not let the team down; both of the routines I choreographed won awards specifically for choreography. That was the day I realized none of it was a fluke. I was a dancer, and I had something to say.
The day I had to stop dancing because my body gave up on me was the worst day of my life. I had dedicated 13 years to dance, and it was over in just a flash. I still reminisce about old routines, look up clips on YouTube from the “glory days,” and flashback when I see old competition pictures. I have new aspirations and dreams now, but dance will forever be the one thing that shaped my life. I learned hard work, dedication, determination, and, above all, that anything worth doing is worth the blood, sweat, and tears you put into it.
Originally posted at CK1
In Chapter 6 on Forgiveness, Aarron Walter discusses the idea that in the public relations world, something might go wrong. For example, the story of the Flickr incident and how although the company looked like they were going down forever and would never be able to make it out of the slump, they’re still around today. In the past, I did a project on Flickr so I knew about the entire company. However, after researching their history, I did not realize that there was a storage failure in 2006. This was interesting to me and I’m surprised I didn’t know about this when researching it for my project.
One thing I don’t agree with in this chapter is how although Flickr reinvented itself, this made up for the storage failure. I think the reinvention definitely helped Flickr expand, but I don’t think this necessary made them a better form of social media. Sadly, Flickr is still not a very large part of social media, compared to its competitors like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. However, I do think Flickr is on the rise to becoming a more popular form of social media to use. I enjoyed this chapter because I liked reading the example about Flickr and how he connected this to forgiveness. Additionally, this chapter was short so it was easy to read.
Originally posted at Megan Young - Gaylord Student
For the final project for this course, our professor asked us to turn our blog into a five page portfolio site that includes a home page and four secondary pages. The pages had to include an about me section, a personal portfolio, our blogs, and a contact page. We were also required to design the logo for our site.
I really enjoyed the first part of this assignment. I loved creating the logo, and it actually came easy to me this time! Then, when it came time to fill the website with content, that was actually pretty simple too. We had free reign to create our website as we wanted, so knowing what I wanted on the front page, figuring out my “About Me” and putting together my portfolio came pretty easily… Then the real trouble started.
I found the actual formatting of the website, the web design part, to be extremely difficult. Even as I am writing this post I am still sorting out the kinks. The “Simplicity” theme seems pretty straightforward at first glance, but there are a lot of components that go into it. Understanding what each typography setting means, exploring fonts and sizes and colors, and discovering how to add background images has, to put it as a cliche, all been Greek to me! I have all the ideas in my head, but putting them down on webpage has proven to be a challenge. The more I work at it, the more things seem to click, but I still have a long way to go before I fully understand Word Press and all of its components – if I ever -fully- understand it, that is.
On a scale of 1-5, I would say this project has been a 4.5. Definitely the most challenging thus far. A worthy opponent for a semester of new things!
Originally posted at CK1
Originally posted at Dusti-PR pubs
Originally posted at Taylor Ashley's PR Pubs
Originally posted at Taylor Ashley's PR Pubs
I think a good assignment for my PR Publications class would be to make a magazine. I know that the other classes do a magazine, and I think it would be a cool way to showcase our talents even more. I think this would probably be a 4 on the scale of 1-5. It would just be extremely time consuming; however, I think t would be a great way for us to dig deeper into our passions. For example, I would probably try to make a men’s fitness and health magazine. I would include workouts, recipes, and other health related topics. I really liked doing the newsletter, and I feel like this would be similar. The main difference would be that we would not be writing for an organization.
Instructions:
Create a 5-page sample magazine over a topic you are passionate about. Include a catching cover with slogan and pictures. Include two feature stories, one instructional/advice and the one story over something in the news(pop culture, politics, business, etc.). There will be three weeks to finish the assignment.
Blog post: write one refection blog post.
Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney