As my twitter bio says, I am an analog guy in a digital world (note: I stole that from Californication). I have always been a good digital writer but never quite got the knack of tweeting. For those who have read my blog before, you might get the impression that confining a thought to 140 characters is hard for me. But I am proud to say that #SMPAsocial has rejuvenated my twitter presence and made me a better tweeter. This is what I look like when I use my phone:
But enough about my tech struggles, here are 5 of my favorite #SMPAsocial tweets (tweeted by me!).
1-B.J. Novak Started the Fire
When the fire alarm goes off (again) in District while you are writing your social media midterm #SMPAsocial pic.twitter.com/qUYGkhfbWJ
— Blake Kraus (@speakrofdakraus) October 25, 2016
I thought this tweet to be my most brilliant tweet for several reasons. First of all, the joke was multi-layered. The tweet was targeted at other members of our class that were writing the midterm which revolved around B.J. Novak’s app, li.st. B.J. Novak also played Ryan in The Office. In one episode he starts a fire by burning a piece of toast. The joke comes full circle as the fire alarm went off in my building while writing about an app by the actor that plays the guy that started the fire in this gif.
It also touches on some Jenkin’s ideas about spreadable media as well as several reasons why it is spreadable as outlined by Usher in a powerpoint presentation. It has to do with webs meaning around a common connection people share. In this case the common connection comes from the experience of writing the midterm, and the excessive amounts of fire alarms that occur each year here at GW. It is timely as it happened the day before the social media midterm was due and during a stretch of (I think) three fire alarms in three weeks at district house. It also makes reference to the popular show The Office.
2-Hillary Clinton on Google
Someone broke the internet #SMPAsocial pic.twitter.com/zxPdrngKVw
— Blake Kraus (@speakrofdakraus) October 31, 2016
First, I want to acknowledge for the sake of Professor Usher that one cannot break the internet. The internet cannot be broken by picture, tweet, Youtube video or Google search. But here I was using it as hyperbole, as a way of communicating the gravity of what had just happened. Someone found away to make it so that if you googled pathological lying, Hillary Clinton’s image appeared along with the definition of pathological lying.
This an example of the role the internet played in this election and the future role that it will play in politics. Benkler, in 2006, was very hopeful for the possibilities that the internet holds as expanding democracy, at having more democratizing capabilities than those of mass media. In one way this examplifies the democratizing features of the internet. This person joined in the election process in a way that could be seen my millions of people and attract attention with out having to be a traditional media elite.
But it also exemplifies a criticism of Benkler’s idea (that Benkler addresses) which is that the internet will cause polarization meaning that there will be so much information that no one will agree on anything. This has indeed happened. There is evidence on the internet that supports almost every viewpoint, regardless of if this evidence is true or not. Thus it has caused people to affirm their own opinions (aided by fake news) on truthless fact. Thus this tweet exemplifies where someone believes that Hillary Clinton is a pathological liar in spite of no real evidence of this but based on untrue affirmations of what this person already believed.
3-The incredible changing role of Twitter
On Thurs I watched my NY Jets via Twitter live stream. I’m only now realizing how strange that is. #smpasocial
— Blake Kraus (@speakrofdakraus) September 18, 2016
It did not take too long after this tweet for the Jets season to take a turn for the worse. Moreover, I was awed by the fact that I could watch my home team for free, on my phone, on Twitter.
Over time, Twitter has significantly expanded their features but no feature holds more possibility then live streaming. We saw the power of live streaming on Facebook when we watched the aftermath the shooting of Philando Castile, which sparked national outrage. I am attaching the video but be warned that it is disturbing:
Moreover, the live streaming of the NFL on Twitter is an example of what Jenkin’s calls convergence culture, meaning the way in which old media and new media come together. As Jenkin’s says, “We might now see them as participants who interact with each other according to a new set of rules that none of us fully understands.” This convergence thus forces an activity like watching a football game, which used to be passive, to become an active experience. When you are watching a Facebook live video, you watch at the bottom of the video likes and hearts and thumbs down scroll across the page, all reflecting the opinions of other people watching. There is an long list of comments that flood in as the video goes on. Where as before you would watch the Jets game by yourself (because all Jets fans are sad an lonely) you know interact with other sad Jets fans on Twitter as you watch the Jets on Twitter. You might even tweet about watching the Jets on Twitter.
After the previous video I attached, you all deserve to be cheered up by this:
4-CNN on Election Night
Overheard on CNN: “Don’t be afraid to touch the wall.” The touch screens are starting already #SMPAsocial
— Blake Kraus (@speakrofdakraus) November 8, 2016
I could not believe that by 11 a.m. on Election Day, CNN was already obsessed what those interactive touch screen walls that they have. Barely any data had come in and CNN was already using every interactive they had. I also thoroughly enjoyed the quote because it just exemplifies the ridiculousness of some of the ways that CNN covered the election.
This tweet again displays elements of spreadability because it was relevant at the time and related to a common experience shared by many. People were frustrated by CNN’s obsession with the touch screens, polling numbers, and polarizing commentary. What people wanted was analysis. They wanted to understand what was happening. Instead they got people from both sides fighting (including former campaign mangers from the ongoing campaigns) and the glories of the wall which we should not be afraid to touch. The tweet just sums up the ridiculousness of cable news, specifically CNN’s coverage of this election, into one silly quote.
5-How should the media cover Trump’s Tweets
This is the million dollar question #smpasocial
How should the media cover Trump’s tweets? https://t.co/IjrGiIgIm6— Blake Kraus (@speakrofdakraus) December 1, 2016
This has become one of the most important issues since the election, how do we cover the (soon to be) president’s tweets? Should each be covered because the president is saying it, just as if he was giving a speech or press conference or is tweeting something different? Considering the often inflammatory nature of his tweets, it leads to even more questions about in what way the tweets should be covered. The attached article digs into this issue.
Moreover, the fact that there might be a need to cover the president’s tweets as if they are official statements affirms Reingold’s idea of what the internet could be. It is the idea that the internet can be a place for everyone to interact with whomever they want no matter their status outside of the screen. A place where they can find people with similar interests with other people all over the world. Twitter allows Donald Trump to directly communicate with citizens while skipping the middle man of the media. It allows him to interact with people he would not ordinarily interact with, like when he retweeted a high schooler.
“@Don_Vito_08: “A picture is worth a thousand words” @realDonaldTrump #LyingTed #NeverCruz @MELANIATRUMP pic.twitter.com/5bvVEwMVF8“
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
The down side of this is that Trump can say whatever he wants on Twitter, whether it is true or not. The problem for the media becomes do they cover it with out commenting on whether or not the tweet is true, merely presenting it in a way that this is what the president said, or do they call him out for lying? The final option is do they not cover Twitter at all? It is certain that we will find out over the next four years.
An Analysis of My Own Blog:
From the beginning, I felt very comfortable writing for the web. My open, stream-of-consciousness style often lent itself well to the type of writing that I wanted to do for this blog. I wanted this blog to be more than a generic food blog, but something personal. I wanted readers to get to know me and be part of the adventure, not just tell readers where to eat. This is something I feel that I accomplished.
I started out with a simple post about a small pop-up called Republic Kolache. My first lines were:
“Growing up a nice Jewish boy on Long Island”
a trope I often repeated. I was not yet comfortable with formatting or using pictures but as time past I learned to incorporate all sorts of elements into my blog. I st
My second post was a list ranking the food trucks on GW’s campus. I discovered how I could best use memes and gifs and other funny images as a way of rating the places I ate at:
Overall:5/10 Philadelphia Eagles Wins (because that’s how many wins they will have this season).
I learned to better format pictures and use captions. For my post about the food in District house I learned to embed tweets, something I never really understood before. In my rating of Carnovore BBQ I learned how to best use a slide show. I worked hard to create memes about a German Luncheon, like this one:
I had the honor of making an infographic about pizza for my post about my trip to Chicago:
These things were the main challenges for me. The words come very easily to me but incorporating multi-media does not. Finding tweets to embed, creating gifs and memes, incorporating links, these are things that I struggled with. But as the semester went on, I improved and thinking in a multi-media way started to come more naturally for me.
My Favorite Blog Post:
The best blog post that I wrote was my discussion about the food (or lack of) in the basement of District house. I found it to be a mix of personal stories about the perils of living in District and an analysis of the food.
“One UPD officer came in the other day unannounced, sat down in the common room, and watched the NY Jets with us for a solid ten minutes. Not only was it uncomfortable for us but needless to say, he was disappointed by the NY Jets.”
I not only incorporated tweets but really fun and different images like this one:
I thought that this blog post pulled all my goals together. It was a personal experience but also an in-depth analysis of the food. It was relatable to many of my readers. It had unique graphics. Plus it generated many great comments from readers both on and off the blog. You can check it out at:
https://dcpopupsandtrucks.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/district-house-basement/
BEST OF SMPASOCIAL:
Here it is, the moment you have all been waiting for, the best of SMPA SOCIAL. These are the two blog posts I thought to be the best of the semester.
1-“A lot of Odds are Against People who Start Getting Older” by Lillianna Byington
This post blew me away. Lillianna traveled out to southeast DC to meet with Teressa Dorsey, a once homeless woman who found shelter in the Kuehner House, an affordable housing complex. She told Teressa’s story brilliantly and through Teressa’s story advocated for what was referred to as the “forgotten community,” older homeless people.
“The housing inventory for seniors is limited, what they do have is too expensive for us to move into, we really need more affordable housing for seniors,” Dorsey said.
This post (and blog overall) is special because it tells the story of people whose stories would not usually be told. It advocates for people who cannot afford advocates. It gives voice to the voiceless. When many people would be afraid to approach the homeless community, Lillianna was not. It reminded me of a homeless man that I got to know over the summer and made a connection with. This post brought me back to sitting and listening to his story and really struck a chord with me.
It might not have been the post with the best pictures or tweets embedded, but it was well written and told an important tale. We really understood what Lillianna was thinking as she was talking to Teressa and really get to know Teressa as a person. When so often the homeless are vilified, this post humanizes. It makes us remember the forgotten. Way to go Lillianna.
2-Elissa Nunez-“The Latino Vote in the 2016 Election”
This post is a very interesting analysis of the role of Latino voters in elections. Given the nature of comments toward Latinos made by certain candidates in this election cycle, this analysis is all the more important. She uses insights from several different reliable sources to explain how Latinos can impact an election. Her writing makes it easy to understand.
She addresses the shear number of eligible Latino voters, but also looks at why they tend to have low voter turnout.
“Latino voter turnout remains low. There’s hope about the “Trump effect” – the idea that the Republican nominee’s rise has roused Latinos to vote Democrat and block his reaching the Oval Office – that will make them turn out in record numbers. But recent polls show that even when faced with the threat of Trump, eligible Latino voters just might just not vote at all.”
What makes this post so great is the incredibly helpful infographic that she places at the end of the post. It summarizes all you need to know in a clear and easy to follow way.
I want to take this time now to thank everyone that has been following my blog for the past few months. I really enjoyed writing it and hope you all enjoyed reading it. I will leave you with this:
DC Pop Ups and Food Trucks 