Hypermedia Story Tree Narrative

Final four story outcomes

  • Failed out of uni
  • Got a dream internship
  • Went traveling
  • Working at Macca’s

Page 1: Stacy is moving into her flat. Classes start tomorrow at 8:30 a.m., and she isn’t very prepared. One of her new flatmates asks her if she wants to come to a party with her that night.

Short clip showing a messy dorm room, textbooks and stationery scattered in unorganised piles across her desk, bed and floor. Shot pans across the mess and ends at the kitchen, where Stacy is watching her housemate pull bottles/cans of beer out of the fridge. The housemate can be heard saying “come on, it’ll be fun!”

  • Option A: Stacy says no thanks and decides to stay in, prepare for her classes, and get her textbooks.
  • Shots of tidying up her room, organising her desk and books, and opening up her laptop to the RMIT homepage.
  • Shots of looking at books and stationary at the RMIT bookshop
    • The next morning, Stacy makes it to all of her classes on time. She makes some friends, who ask her to grab coffee with them. One of them mentions that she has a cute friend, and gives Stacy his number. The friend, Ben, asks Stacy on a date. They go out for dinner and have a great time. When he drops her home, he asks if she wants to do it again. But stacy is unsure if it’s a good idea.
  • Walking into class
  • Talking to housemate about how Ben asked her on a date and is going to go.
  • Shots with ben on the date (out eating dinner)
  • Shot of Ben dropping her home “I had a really great time, we should do this again” and then…. Turning to open the front door, where her house mate is anxiously waiting. “Tell me everything!”
  • – “He wants to go out again…” “Well are you going to??”
  • Meeting uni friends in class
  • Grabbing a coffee with uni friends
  • Uni friend saying “you know, I know this really cute guy.. You should go out with him!

 

      • Option C: Goes out with him again.
      • Stacy has a great time on the date, and she really likes Ben. However, another guy she met at a bar also asks her out, and she has to decide whether she wants to get exclusive with smart Ben or play the field.

– 3 different boys at the bar flirting with Stacy

– Stacy going over to Ben’s house where he’s cooked her dinner

– Stacy and Ben playing with Ben’s kittens

 

          • Option H: Go on other dates.
            • Stacy tells Ben she doesn’t want anything serious, and he loses interest. The other friends she surrounds herself with don’t encourage her to work hard, and she fails her exams and all of her courses for the semester. She gets kicked out of uni and must move back home with her parents, who are extremely disappointed with her. She doesn’t ever see her old party friends anymore, and she’s pretty depressed. Her parents tell her she must try to return to uni or get a job doing something else. Congratulations, you cost Stacy her friends, her grades, and her parent’s trust. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.

-Friends telling her not to go home

– Why, are you failing?

– Telling Ben she doesn’t want a serious relationship

– I’m sorry Jenny I have to move back home.

 

          • Option I: Commit to Ben.
            • Stacy and Ben become an academic power couple. At the end of the semester, they decide to use the break to go traveling together. Congratulations, you helped Stacy get it all – the boy and the books. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.

– Shots of Stacy and Ben doing a lot of fun things together and generally just getting along. I.E Bike riding, picnics, going out for food, study dates etc.

– Ben and Stacy flicking through Lonely Planets together

– Ben booking plane tickets online

– Packing to leave

– Shot of Ben’s face putting bags in the car “are you ready?”

      • Option D: Stacy can’t break focus this close to the project deadline. Say no to Ben.
        • Stacy struggles to focus on her project because she can’t keep her mind off of Ben. She nearly fails her project, and her tutor isn’t very impressed with her. Stacy’s friends tell her that Ben will be attending a party that night, but she has another exam coming up.

-”Look I really enjoyed our date but I have a lot going on at the moment and I just really need to focus on my studies”

-Saffron “Stacy come on it’s due in like 2 days.

– Ask Rosie or Luke to say “This is really not your best work, Stacy. I’m a little disappointed to be honest”

 

          • Option E (same as below): Stacy needs to stay in and study if she wants to redeem herself.
            • Stacy pulls an all-nighter and barely passes the exam. She loses her financial aid from the university. She gets a job at Macca’s to pay for uni, and doesn’t see her old party friends much anymore. Congratulations, you cost Stacy her friends, her grades, and her parent’s trust. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.
  • “Your financial aid was provided on the basis that you excelled in your subjects. I’m sorry but we can no longer offer you these payments.”
          • Option G: Go to the party.
            • Stacy is really nervous to talk to Ben. When she finally finds him, she explains that she really likes him. Ben offers to help her study for her exam, and they hit it off. Stacy and Ben become an academic power couple. At the end of the semester, they decide to use the break to go traveling together. Congratulations, you helped Stacy get it all – the boy and the books. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.

– Shots of Stacy and Ben doing a lot of fun things together and generally just getting along. I.E Bike riding, picnics, going out for food, study dates etc.

– Ben and Stacy flicking through Lonely Planets together

– Ben booking plane tickets online

– Packing to leave

– Shot of Ben’s face putting bags in the car “are you ready?”

  • Option B: Stacy decides to blow off preparing for classes and go to the bar with her flatmate.
    • Stacy has a great time, but doesn’t get home until 4 a.m. She accidentally sleeps through all of her classes, and misses introductions. Her tutors aren’t very happy with her. Stacy got off on the wrong foot, and it makes it hard to catch up. She has an exam coming up, but she recieves a text/call from her friend begging her to come out that night.
  • Saffron: Dude, have you been here all day? Did you miss all your classes?
  • Shots at pre’s
  • Shots of everyone having a good time at Bridies
  • Shot of her phone at 4am.
  • Stacy, what did we talk about last week? … We’re you here last week??
  • Shot recieving call/text
      • Option E: Stacy needs to stay in an study if she wants to redeem herself.
        • Stacy barely slides by on this project, and her academic advisor asks her to come in and discuss her academic progress. Her parents are concerned, and ask her to move back home for the rest of the semester. Stacy’s tutors tell her about a volunteering opportunity for a company in her field.
  • Stacy, this is quite serious. You’re failing most of your subjects.
  • Stacy” My academic advisor says she wants me to come in for a meeting.” “Are you failing?” “Pretty much”
  • “There’s an event coming up, its an information night for a company who operates in your chosen field… they’re looking for volunteers I think it would be very beneficial for you to participate.”
        • Option J: Skip the event.
            • Stacy stays in and watches TV instead of going to the networking event. A couple of weeks later, she has to pull an all-nighter and passes the exam. Her professors respect her a little more, but she loses her financial aid from the university. She gets a job at Macca’s to pay for uni, and doesn’t see her old party friends much anymore. Congratulations, you cost Stacy her friends, her grades, and her parent’s trust. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.
          • Option K: Go to the event.
            • Stacy goes to the event and meets a professional in her field. She talks with her for a while, and is so impressed with her, she offers Stacy her dream internship for next semester. Congratulations, you helped Stacy get on her way to landing an amazing job when she graduates from uni. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.
      • Option F: Who cares about the exam? It’s party time!
        • Stacy meets a boy named Ben out. He seems really smart and nice, but she isn’t sure if she has time in her life for boys right now. Her friends tell her she should go find Ben a few days later at another party.
          • Option G (same as above): Go to the party.
            • Stacy is really nervous to talk to Ben. When she finally finds him, she explains that she really likes him. Ben offers to help her study for her exam, and they hit it off. Stacy and Ben become an academic power couple. At the end of the semester, they decide to use the break to go traveling together. Congratulations, you helped Stacy get it all – the boy and the books. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.
          • Option M: Don’t worry about Ben, and stress about the exam instead.
            • Stacy fails her exam and all of her courses for the semester. She gets kicked out of uni and must move back home with her parents, who are extremely disappointed with her. She doesn’t ever see her old party friends anymore, and she’s pretty depressed. Her parents tell her she must try to return to uni or get a job doing something else. Congratulations, you cost Stacy her friends, her grades, and her parent’s trust. Play again to redo Stacy’s first semester in uni.

Assessment Three: Collaborative Hypermedia- Reflection

Hypermedia Story Link 

http://netmed2016.wix.com/story

Reflection 

To develop a successful hypermedia story the text must have an obvious element of ‘play’, using multimedia to entice audience interaction (Davison 2008). Andrew Colman in Game Theory and Experimental Games, notes in hypermedia stories that the notion of ‘play’ and gaming elements can deal with the logic of making multiple decision through interaction.

Through a series of options portrayed through multimedia elements in our hypermedia story, the audience make decisions in order to play out their fate within the narrative.

By clicking through a series of options that link to one another, the audience is taken on an adventure, encoring them to  “choose their own fate’. Multimedia is included to be less descriptive, encouraging the audience to ‘play’ through decision without being explicit as to what the options entitle. This allows development in their own path within a context in which the reader has impulsion to act (Davison 2008) [1].

“How we tell stories online”[2] week nine lecture was our inspirational starting point. As our story is an adventure we focused on developing a strong narrative, therefor it was uncanny to channel elements of Catharis and Flow within this (Bolter 2012). The narrative is evident of Catharis, featuring a “strong main character, with a rounded story”. Our Hypermedia story also draws from aspects of ‘Flow’ as it reconnects with no liner conclusion involving a “forgetting of identity”.

We wanted to focus on creating a relationships between the text and audience through our narrative. Visuals used are filmed in first person, allowing the audience to embody the role of the main character Stacy, enhancing the audience to create their own fate. The fate is created through a series of options in which the audience must interpret the meaning themselves.  Our story takes the audience through a series of pages where the theme and layout of the story is clearly presented.

A successful element of Hypermedia stories focuses on allowing the audience to develop their own story or fate. As options are already embedded into the game, the audiences’s flexibility to create their own narrative is minimised, however a ‘ hypermedia adventure’ must embody some elements of a story line. This could be perceived as a limitation within our story, however we argue the audience does choose elements of their fate through options, some options may conclude an ending but all manage to link back to the start if you keep clicking.

Elements of ‘creating their own story’ might be lacking however we believe our text has a strong enough loop and multi-storey lines to carry out successful elements of a hypermedia story.

Through our narrative we also drew from “novels without endings” (Douglas 1999) [3] as the text may never come to an ending if the right options are clicked. This link to our story tree shows the multiple narratives that intertwine https://camillemusicblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/hypermedia-story-tree-narrative/.  Although we have developed complexity in our storylines, overall aesthetics were limited due to the difficulty in filming story lines.

Overall the audience take on a strong element of ‘play’ and interaction with the text that continuously loop back to the start. The audience are able to choose their own fate through ambiguous options that are not specified through text however due to these options are unable to crete their own narrative.

References

  1. Davidson, D. (2008). Stories in between. [Pittsburgh, Pa.]: ETC Press.

2.   Bowtell, J. (2016). “How we tell stories online”

3.  Douglas, J. Yellowlees. “Books without Pages—Novels without Endings.” The end of books or books without end? : reading interactive narratives. University of Michigan Press ; University Presses Marketing, 1999. 11-36

Bibliography – 

Fraïssé, S. (1996). Hypermedia design. London: Springer.

Bernstein, Mark. “Delightful Vistas: Revisiting the Hypertext Garden.” Travels in Intermediality. Lebanon, US: Dartmouth, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 8 February 2016. 142-146

Bowtell, J. (2016). “Thinking about communities, commercialisation and governance online”

Douglas, J. Yellowlees. “Books without Pages—Novels without Endings.” The end of books or books without end? : reading interactive narratives. University of Michigan Press ; University Presses Marketing, 1999. 11-36

Oatway, Jay, Apr 26, 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109. ISBN: 9781119943457.

Colman, A. (n.d.). Game theory and experimental games.

Hanselman.com. (2016). Choose Your Own Adventure, HyperMedia, and the death of the permalink. – Scott Hanselman. [online] Available at: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ChooseYourOwnAdventureHyperMediaAndTheDeathOfThePermalink.aspx [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016].

Kothari, D. and Saxena, A. (2004). Hypermedia. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.

Assessment Two: Online Community

Finding My Community

“The bigger advantage is gained by network literacy; knowing how to conceptualise, access and benefit from the information flowing through your social network.(Hoffman 2012) A quote from the chairman of LinkedIn, Reid Hofman’s highlights advancement in network literacy and professional advancement of social networks. LinkedIn is an online environment used to build professional and industry relationships. The operation of LinkedIn allowed industry professionals to connect with one another, assisting with recruitment processes (Vermeiren 2009). LinkedIn is my chosen online community, mimicking the major theme of my blog being an online resume.By using notions of network literacy and an understanding of writing for a particular audience my online community contribution has been relatively successful.

Through story telling and language I have developed a voice for an intended audience whilst portraying a reality of myself through writing (Lanham 1992). My blog purpose being an online resume explores academic thoughts in relation to network media and industry experience, therefor LinkedIn is my best suited community. Included on my blog are social links“creating an element of interactivity for the user” (Peng, Tham, & Xiaoming, 1999) and to enhance my online presence and employment opportunities (Uys 2010). These tools also demonstrate the foundations of network literacy through engaging and connecting. (Miles 2007)

When developing my online community writing understanding I researched into Nicole Matejic’s book “Social Media Rules of engagement”. https://camillemusicblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/linked-in-my-online-community-and-inspiration-to-do-so/ This blog post and her book discusses  the importance of an online presence in assisting in your career, facilitating my community writing.

My community language and interaction of other pages effects the way the community operates as people can see when you have viewed their page and when you have connected with them. If my online language is not professional it will also effect the perception of my page. https://camillemusicblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/how-am-i-developing-my-community-language/.This blog post is a slide show and explanation of four point I have identified as being important to develop my language and become part of a “professional group” Oatway (2012). This shows through photos my success of contributing to my online community as I frequently update my page and engage with personal areas of interest. As a result I can see frequent jobs posted and companies will be abel to find my page if they search for certain skills.

Otway (2012) discusses the process of finding your online community, seeking multiple places in “where we might be hanging out”. These blog posts demonstrate the process of finding my most relevant online community as I explored and engaged with multiple until I found the right one.

https://camillemusicblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/online-community-contribution-2-o/ https://camillemusicblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/trip-advisor-online-community/. I’v chosen LinkedIn as I was unable to create the appropriate language and presence in other community

In conclusions LinkedIn is my chosen online community as I feel as though I have a strong level of cross connection, demonstrating network literacy and development of language to my online community audience. Although I believe my connection is successful, peers have only viewed my page rather than industry professionals. It order to enhance my presence in this professional group I must continue to connect and engage within my LinkedIn community.

References 

Uys, R. (2010). Because your online presence matters. Lexington, KY: Xlibris.

Loveless, D., Griffith, B., Bérci, M., Ortlieb, E. and Sullivan, P. (n.d.). Academic knowledge construction and multimodal curriculum development.p 401-405.

Oatway, J. (2012). Mastering story, community and influence. Finding You’r Community. (pp 97) Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.:

Matejic, N. (n.d.). Social media rules of engagement.

kerin, R. (2005). Book Review: New Literacies: Changing Knowledge and Classroom Learning, What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, Multimodal Literacy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 5(2), pp.175-184.

Miles, Adrian. “Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge.” Screen Education Autumn.45 (2007): 24-30.

Recruitingblogs.com. (2016). Lessons from Linkedin’s Reid Hoffman: The future’s in network literacy. [online] Available at: http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/lessons-from-linkedin-s-reid-hoffman-the-future-s-in-network [Accessed 8 May 2016].

Vermeiren, J. (2009). How to really use LinkedIn. [Charleston, SC.]: Booksurge

How am I developing my community language

In my previous blog post I have identified my online community being LinkedIn, however to attract people to your site you’ve got to include way above the bare minimum.

I think the most important aspect of LinkedIn is knowing how to talk the language. You have to know what photo to include as your profile picture and what experience to talk about – working at bakers delight when I was 15 is certainty not relevant.

In evaluation I feel as if my contribution to my online community has been fairly solid. Here are some points and tips for a successful language I have noted in the slide show below.

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Four main things I have noted.

  • Include an appropriate job title for what you are currently doing. Its easy for all al students to say “student” but as I am currently doing an internships I would include that title to enhance my professional credibility
  •  Adding dot points to make skills consisted and clear along with a reference attachment, making it easy for other industry professionals to see.
  • List your skills as sometimes when recruiting companies will search purply based on skills
  • Note what LinkedIn is suggesting you connect to and who you connect with. They recommend people and jobs based off your experience and work places. By connecting with an account executive at a previous internship.  I will be able to see what company she may move to or change in role if I am looking for a job within that area.

 

 

Linked in -My online community and inspiration to do so.

 

As mentioned in my very first blog post – this blog was created (apart from the reason of Network Media) but used to set up an online resume and platform where I can post academic thoughts and career based accomplishments. In my past few blog posts I have delved into other online communities I might have found of interest but when reflecting on where I spend most time on the internet and what doing, my online community focus changed. At this point in my life and what I am trying to achieve in the next six months (graduating and getting a job) my current community focus is LinkedIn.

My blog is a useful platform to post work experience, photos and academic thoughts in order to create my ‘Online CV’ – now I need to challenge that into my community. I found this interesting video so lick Here  to better explain whats currently going on it my online community.

Below is a video of one of my tutors from last year who has nailed her “online community”. Nicole is the soul reason why I’m a) on twitter b) know how to use it and c) given me the knowledge to develop my own personal twitter campaign used for an internship last year in Botswana.

Starting off doing crisis communications for the Australian Defence force Nicole Matejic has most recently published her own book called ‘Social media rules of engagement”. If there is somewhere to be present on the internet be in twitter, painters, own personal youtube channel and even soundcloud – she’s on it. I think it would be a bit ambiguous to aim to be like Nicole however her online community and linked in profile is a useful platform to base my own “online presence” off.

This is Nicole appearing on the project about social media and her experiences.

 

 

 

Online community contribution 2.o

When my friend just called to ask what I am doing I explained that I have just found myself watching Trump youtube clips for the last two hours.  Apparently according to her I am allowed to get side tracked off uni work if it has a political value.

So much so! that I have found myself winding up getting involved in a live streaming conversation of the New York premiers live coverage. Weather anyone is taking notice of my unsupportive Trump statements, I don’t know – regardless I’m enjoying sharing my opinion and am happy to slam on supporting ones.

Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 2.47.55 pm.png

Loving my screen name? Supercamillemusic

Current US President election

The current US president election isn’t only drawing controversy and attention in the US as its gaining attention all around the world. Through the use of online story telling, communities and social feeds everyone from around the globe is having their say.

From this link my thoughts are that Trump realises he is in danger or using some of the delegates in the races ahead. He has almost clenched the nomination but needs to develop a new media strategy to do so and that Trump’s way of channeling the general public has been different in the way of channeling the delegates.

From this I received the view that the majority of the american votes for not democratic and republican are on his side. If he doesn’t get the leadership vote it will be because of the delegates. If the delegates don’t agree then it will represent the notion of the government running the election campaign rather then the view of the american people. Personally, I am embarrassed that this may be an inherited view within America and from this clip.

I believe the more Trump is being attached the stronger he becomes and the mood in this election campaign is darkening. America is waking up to the shocking realisation that Trump might be their new president and for Trump supporters ridiculing his election status is extremely offensive.

As ABC projects that trump will win, to be honest its hard to gage what stories on the internet are supporting or opposing him. Anti immigrant trump supports and minority group that feels threatened, with anger you have a massive support to trump- the one who gets his security to throw out black people from rallies incase they are protestors.

Below is my view on Trump. The analysis’s in this short documentary seem like actual academics gauging the situation and telling the trust rather than a one sided opinion. Honestly its kind of scary.

Trip Advisor; online community.

Following up from one of my recent posts and theme to my overall blog (hence the over photo) one engagement in an online community I have participated in is Trip Advisor. Now, I know there is a lack of political views and academic engagement but the definitions of an online community is formed is it is from the same social value, people participate in a conversation and have a sense of shared experience. All of which trip advisor ticks the boxes in.

In this process of contributing to an online community I decided to give feedback on my recent trip to Oman. In all my travels I have given feedback twice, when something was exceptionally outstanding and of course when it when the other way being exceptionally horrific.

Although Trip advisor is a useful and an extremely popular online community for all experienced and new travellers there is a lack of conversation. Someone may not reply till a week later if your asking for advice or opinions posted might be completely wrong to those of your own. In saying that an important part of an online community is everyone being able to have their own personal expression of interest… which is exactly what I did

Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 12.21.07 pm.png

I have realised through this that I am consumer in the market place of the web. Engaging in consumer based communities and giving my consumers opinion.  Although I am now a blogger and a content creator my feed is made up by Facebook, twitter Instagram and google as we research where to go next and what to do.  Im not ashamed to admit i am 100% influenced by the commercial site of the internet. In saying that I did promise to make my blog, online literacy and community a mix of personal and academic content, focusing my next online community engagement on an academic source rather than consumer orientated.

Catharsis and Flow – Week 7 reading

Catharsis is conventionally black and white talking about a narrative featuring a characters a story and a conclusion. Something with a linear story line. Flow can draw from multiple film  meaning the rely on the views emotion to be provoked through a series of images, usually non linear and with no intention. Together with catharsis and flow they make up multiple online stories that gain support and popularity. It is sometimes hard to understand why a video such as Crush on Obama has been so popular as it has no linear narrative or meaning but continues to a broader audience for no reason.

Here are a few other examples like crush on Obama that have had huge success in online storytelling due to the use of  Catharsis and flow.

Its Friday

Dam Daniel

Condo-licious

Technological Determinism

What does this mean?

My favourite explanation of technological determinism is that we use the technology created without much room for movement. Since phone have been created we have all had to adapt to use them and since the creating of computers we have also adapted to use that. Since the creating of the car you don’t see anyone riding around in a horse and carriage.

‘Humans have no free will as they will adapt to the medium’

In use of the WWW technological determinism drives social change. Due to Facebook we are more connected with friends along with twitter allowing us to be informed on global affairs throughout the day- something that was previously just left up to print and then televisions.  Within evolution there is technological determinism as technology is created to make things go faster or move and life more.

Out of the the theories this is one of the easiest to understand as in its simplest form it is the theory of technology changing the world.

As I said I am explaining it in its simplest form so here is a blog post by Claire that explains this theory from her point of view.