Parting words and resolutions

My semester in Interpersonal Media has taught me a whole bunch about how I interact with the people in my life. I notice myself keeping track of how much I talk to my housemates face-to-face in relation to how much I communicate with them over EMC. Same with my parents, my boyfriend, even my professors. The class has provided me with some valuable skills related to managing groups of people, especially over the Internet. As someone who uses the Internet and google docs to communicate with people extensively (thank you, Pioneer Log...), it has been helpful to learn ways to get online communication to be more productive.

And so this is the last entry in my blog. I'll miss Blogger, I have to say! I've been pleasantly surprised by how much the interface has changed in the past decade. I plan on writing about this more in my portfolio, but the blog is one of the most valuable things I will take away from this class! On that note, I've come up with a few resolutions that I want to keep based on my experience in Interpersonal Media this semester.

1. Set up and adhere to a schedule for my music blog : Last summer, I created Whiskey Kiss: A Music Blog in the hopes of building up my clips and gaining a following in the Portland music scene. It went pretty well! I gained a ton of followers on Twitter and even heard feedback from bands and others who appreciated my posts. I resolve to apply what I've learned about blogging to my little music blog. I plan on creating a schedule (like, if I want to have two posts a week, I'll make sure I have a post every Wednesday and Saturday by 7am or something like that). I also plan on utilizing more links and connection my blog to other blogs and band websites and things like that.
2. Do a better job of branding myself : I feel that I already use Twitter at a high functioning level, but I'd love to see myself becoming more professional and marketable. I want to use my Twitter to attract people to my projects (my blog, the newspaper, etc), and connect with people in the fields that interest me.
3. Pay more attention to the way that I interact online : Specifically, through email and Facebook. My Facebook use has gotten pretty casual, and it is easy for me to forget that the things I say on there can have real-world repercussions. For example, I'm not just "Zibby Pillote" on Facebook, I'm "Zibby Pillote: Editor, daughter, employee, friend, student." I need to be more aware of the way I talk to people.

And with that, I'm off to start my life as a more informed internet user and overall communicator. Thank you for reading my blog all semester long! Cheers!

Just be yourself!

"No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Our discussions in class last week  had me thinking about one of my favorite quotes (stated above). Hawthorne may be an old guy who never could have possibly foreseen the depths of the Internet, but I think his quote about identity rings true about the way we split our lives between online and real life. The "multitude" in this situation would be the Internet--and the "self" would be our everyday life.

After playing Second Life in class the other day, I caught myself thinking about the game quite a bit afterward. It isn't something that I would want to include in my everyday life (just because I don't have the time) but it interested me that some people do just that. For the people that play Second Life often, wrapped up in an identity that is not their own, I wonder what it is like to re-enter the real world to participate in something like school or a job.

Though I've engaged in some online gaming platforms and have certainly maintained Internet personalities that not everyone in my real world life is aware of, I've never pretended to be someone I'm not or become so embroiled in an online identity that I had to switch back and forth with effort.

Yesterday I was scrolling through my tumblr dashboard and came across the following artwork by Johan Rosenmunthe. The works are part of a series called, "Off II," made in 2010, and I feel they relate very well to the concepts of identity that we've been talking about in class.

Rosenmunthe's artist statement reads: "Through digital communication like Facebook, Twitter, online dating and personal websites, the representation of our personality becomes more and more streamlined. We have the possibility to project an idea of how we are as a person into the world around us, but with the constant option of censoring information and invent fictional characteristics. Never have we had access to so much information about each other, and never has the information been so unreliable."

These are the concepts I feel our class finds a base.

He goes on to say the following (I have bolded parts I found interesting):

"In this project I have downloaded pictures of ‘friends’ that I only know through the Internet, and given them a new context. The persons are only visible through a digital representation, while the surroundings are as analog as possible. The sceneries are photographed places that invited to interaction – places that missed the company of human beings. The milieu adds a new meaning to the way the digital personas act, and gives their simplified characteristics meaning and personality again, by adding a setting to their digital components.

The project looks directly at the dichotomy of digital and analog processes, juxtaposing one against the other, and challenges viewers to make sense of what seems like a fractured image. The images themselves provide scenes of isolation and loneliness, as the characters within are so seemingly detached from their environment.

These images come to life when the viewer move in relation to them – seen up close, the people are blurred and the viewer has to step back to bring the motive into focus. At the same time, the scene in which the person is placed is blurred when viewed from a distance. So you have to move back and forth – between non-figurative colored squares and figurative representations of personality."

Rosenmunthe's art is trying to answer the question that I've been pondering--how do we move between two identities? It seems that he might say you can't. No matter what, one of the aspects of your self will be blurred, whether it is your online self (the image of the self) or the real world self (the image of the environment). 

Johan Rosenmunthe makes mixed media art. Check out his website for more, though this is his only project explicitly related to RHMS 270!

Connecting with comics

My boyfriend Christian has taught me a lot about comics in the past year. For instance, I now know what "microcomics" are and can almost maybe name a few comic book writers and what publishers they work for. In the past year I have been ushered in to a world of conventions, panels, and inking. And I'm really proud of Christian for all the work he does. Right now he's doing everything he can to get an internship related to comics, and he is always working on something in his sketch book.

For aspiring artist/writer types like Christian, I think the internet plays a huge role in getting your name out there. Many of the artists who submitted to Synergia just referred us to their websites and asked us to pick what we thought was best fit for our publication. By using his tumblr to showcase his art and writing, Christian is able to reach a wide audience, and can exhibit different media easily.

An example of Christian's work

Christian also uses Twitter to reach an audience. Though his Twitter is not completely devoted to his efforts with comic production, he uses it to promote himself. After going to Emerald City Comic Con in early March, Christian gained maybe 20 followers from Tweeting about the convention--all people who, theoretically, are important in his comic network. Twitter also allows him to access information about events like Portland's monthly Comics Underground, and connect with local artists and form bonds with them.

Christian inspires me to put my work out there more. For creative people, the internet is a really important tool in putting yourself out there, compiling your portfolio, and articulating your self image.

What do you do to "brand" yourself on the internet?

Listomaniac

One of my favorite blogs, Stereogum, uses the term "Listomania" to organize music they like that week--the term has also come to mean "annoying behavior at a music festival" (via Urbandictionary), but I like to think of the term as follows:

Listomania (n): The state of being consumed by lists.

The past few weeks, I have been what I would call a Listomaniac.  Aside from keeping all of my assignments, meetings, and dates organized by day in my paper notebook, I tend to break my days down into hourly regiments. For example, today looks like:

9:40 am - 1 pm: Class
2 pm - Meeting with Anna Gonzalez (canceled)
2-3 pm - Blood ch. 5, 6
3-4 pm - Gym
4:30 pm - FSU Coordinators Meeting
5 pm - Student Media Board meeting

And so on...

On busy days especially, it is helpful to break my day down like this just so I can see everything that I have to do; it is organized linearly so it is really easy to see what should come before and after. In stressful situations, it all comes down to planning for me. And to make this week before spring break go as smoothly as possible, I've been breaking things down quite a bit.

This past weekend, though, a new element was introduced into my obsession with keeping things organized. I downloaded a beautiful little app called "Wunderlist."

Given caption: "Wunderlist is here to help you get things done. Whether you're planning an overseas adventure, sharing a shopping list with a loved one or simply keeping track of your daily to-dos."

 Wunderlist is great because it takes all of my scraps of paper that have lists on them and puts them in the center of my universe--my smart phone. Normally, I am a huge proponent of everything paper, but it's nice to have something in my pocket reminding me what I need to do all of the time.

And the interface itself is pretty easy to use. You have a page that displays all of your lists, and then from there you can explore what you have to do based on how you categorize them. I've got lists for School, my "Private" life, The Pioneer Log, a Shopping list... etc.

They include some lists for you--I haven't had time to update "Movies to Watch."

Here's what my "Week" looks like (be assured there is much, much more):

Below, you'll see an example of a list within a list (a meta list?). My Mom is coming next week, so I've got to clean my house. As you can imagine, there's tons to do, so I've created a sublist with different tasks that I need to complete in order to "check off" "Clean the house!"

Sublist feature.

I don't take my Moleskine planner with my everywhere I go--but I do take my phone. And I've noticed with Wunderlist that it's harder for me to procrastinate. I wake up, check my phone, and see what I have to do. It is in my face and I can't ignore it! You can also set reminders and due dates, at which point your phone will "ding" and an icon will appear in the top left that let's you know you've got something due.

I'm still tooling around with the app, but I'm excited about the potential for me. I am currently working on a list of places I want to go in Seattle, which I'm going to send to my Mom before she gets here. I hope to make lists for specific classes instead of just a master, "School" list. Wunderlist also has an online feature, a browser extension, and an app you can download to your computer itself, all of which will sync to the app on your phone.

As someone who needs constant reminder of what I need to do, this app is perfect for me. While I do enjoy writing my assignments down and having written record of them, it is extremely helpful to have a reminder everywhere I go.

And I know what you're thinking--that this seems insane and that I should probably slow down and take time for myself but I do a lot. Keeping my activities organized is imperative for me to complete them in a quality and efficient way.  Which isn't strong suit...

Not quite the picture of efficiency.

While this app seems very inward, I think that it has the potential to foster community. The ability to share lists is awesome, and as I get deeper into the app, I may even try to convince people I work with to consider getting it so that we can share! I will slowly turn everyone I know into a Listmaniac--watch out y'all.

Student media swag

Being the Editor-in-Chief of The Pioneer Log has taught me a few things. First, that it takes a lot of tooth pulling to get people to actually read the newspaper. Second, that people love to look at the newspaper. And third, that Lewis & Clark is a great place filled with intellectual and talented people. As EIC, I have way too many responsibilities, and most of the time I end up writing the leftover articles that no one wants to write. I love writing, but it can get old to write about boring not-terribly-exciting stuff all the time.

Which is why I like to participate in all sorts of student media, specifically, Synergia. Synergia is Lewis & Clark's Literary Magazine for Gender and Sex Expression. I worked on the literary magazine in high school and I've always had a passion for judging people's art. And literary magazines are really fun because you don't have to write anything!

Tomorrow, Synergia will be released to the public. My co-editor and I have been working hard all year to collect content, lay out the book, and rush to get it ready by the Gender Studies Symposium. Tomorrow morning, our little publication will be in the hands of 200 lucky people--and that is a great feeling.

Cover art by Aaron Williard ('13)

For those who have never worked on putting together a magazine before, there's a lot of work involved. I'll give you the condensed version:

1. Beg for content. There's no magazine without content. It can be really hard to get your intelligent and talented peers to cough up their work for your publication. What people don't realize is that being published is a huge deal! This is some résumé material, ladies and gentlemen. We made posters, sent out blast emails through the Feminist Student Union listserv, Gender Studies listserv, Opporunities and Announcements, etc. And of course, begged our friends--who, lucky for us, are artist types.
2. Wield the red pen. Creative writing pieces don't normally need much editing, and neither do academic essays, but occasionally there is a misplaced period. Editing, for me, is tons of fun. It is a bit of a power trip. The worst part about editing anything though, is that sometimes you just have to reject people. My co-editor and I chose the most passive form of rejection, which is just to let the poor souls who didn't make the cut find out when the magazine comes out. Sorry!
3. Design, design, design. Laying out the book is the most laborious and time consuming process, but it is also really exciting. You get to pick where the pictures go, what pieces of writing match up best with what pieces of art, how big the titles should be, and what fonts to use. We used Adobe Creative Suite 6, utilizing Photoshop and InDesign. These programs are really cool and what's even better is that we have access to them FOR FREE (I highly recommend going to Powell's and buying Adobe CS for dummies. Teach yourself something)!
4. Send it away. Over the course of three weeks, the book is processed and edited by the printers. You receive drafts back (what's called the "proof") and accept them, and make stupid little changes that you didn't notice before, like moving titles up a quarter of an inch and other tedious awful nonsense.
5. Distribute! Finally, after weeks of compiling, composing, and orchestrating, the book is ready. I feel like a proud parent whose baby is finally going to prom... or something... I don't really know. Either way, our book looks badass and I can't wait to hand it out tomorrow.

I didn't mention everything. For example, you get to look through volumes and volumes of paper samples in search of the perfect card stock. We had to have a meeting with the printer about getting our title hammered with gold foil. There was a miscommunication about our printing date and it is really a miracle that this thing was produced in time. All in all, it is something that I'm proud of.

And even though it is work, it's a nice break from the fast-paced world of journalism. For the PioLog, I produce something every single week. I know that I should feel good about this. But I don't know, there is something so much more satisfying about sitting with something for a few months, making it absolutely perfect, and having it be a special occasion.

Pick up Synergia tomorrow at any of the information tables for the Symposium. If you can't find a copy, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I'll hook you up. And really, it's never too early to submit your work for next year! Email synergia@lclark.edu for more information.

Happy reading!

Here's why I love college journalism

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the Associated Collegiate Press Midwinter National College Journalism Conference in San Francisco, California. It was a somewhat stressful experience in that my co-editor and I were responsible for wrangling ten rowdy newspaper editors through the airport, onto the airplane, etc., but it was great. The whole staff learned a lot and are eager to implement changes.

The focus of the conference was "Media+," a theme that emphasizes social media and multimedia reporting in edition to print or digital reporting. Since The Pioneer Log is a print-first publication, I felt we had a lot to learn. While we do have a website and utilize Facebook and Twitter, our focus is mainly on our publication.

I am very proud of the front page of our March 1st issue!

While I do want to improve our online presence, we are still ironing out the kinks in our re-designed paper. A good suggestion we got from the conference to easily enhance our social media presence is to live tweet events. I think that this will work really well for sporting events, and maybe even next week's Gender Studies Symposium! As for Facebook, our Opinion section has started what they call "The Rhetorical Rampage" in which two people argue against each other on some topic. Readers are then encouraged to vote on Facebook for who won the debate.

Overall, the conference was a great opportunity for us to bond and learn about our craft. Since Lewis & Clark doesn't have any journalism classes, we really need conferences like this!

And it was amazing to see so many people just like me working hard at their newspapers. Even though "print is dead" and "anyone can be a journalist," there are many of us who are dedicated to learning everything we can about the field. It was inspiring to be around so many writers and editors. I love college journalism because none of us are jaded yet.

I hope that you notice changes to our paper, and give us feedback! We are your student newspaper!

My So-Called Academic Life

Last semester in Rhetorical Criticism, I wrote my final paper on the misrepresentation of female musicians in popular music journalism, specifically in Portland's own Willamette Week. I'm really proud of the title: "Nymphs, Waifs, and Little Sisters: The Misrepresentation of Non-male Musicians in Male-centric Music Journalism." My thesis was that the national trend of sexist reporting on female musicians was also a problem in this local publication. It was a fun paper for me to write because I like to think of myself as a "wannabe music journalist," and I have personal stakes in local media.

Willamette Week is one of two alternative news weeklies in Portland, and has been in operation since 1974

I worked on the paper for maybe two months, collecting sources and culling through the past six months of Willamette Week. What I found was surprising to me, but supported my thesis: hardly any women at all write for the paper, and more often than not, the depictions of female musicians were sexist. I developed a whole framework for analyzing the representations, went well over the page limit, and eventually developed this paper into another paper for my final Feminist Theory project.

I did well on the paper and moved on with my life, though I still think about it quite a lot. Right after we got back from winter break, however, Kundai (my Rhetorical Criticism professor) emailed me to let me know that he had met Mark Zusman (the Editor-in-Chief of WW) and told him about my paper (!!!) and that this Zusman guy was interested in reading it (!!!!!!). O.M.G. Right? After some laborious copy-editing and fine tuning, I emailed my paper to Zusman and held my breath.

Last night, just two weeks after I sent the paper, I received a reply from WW Music Editor Matthew Singer. He was really nice about the whole thing... I think my paper sort of ruffled his feathers, but I do tend to be a little heavy-handed on assertions when I write. He allowed me how he was extremely interested in remedying the problem of not having enough female writers, and that my paper had brought something to his attention that he would really like to work on changing. Oh, and the best part--he wants to meet in person some time to talk about it!

The weird/cool thing is, Singer started following me on twitter maybe two or three weeks before I sent my paper to Willamette Week. And he is still following!

I'm looking forward to meeting with him and talking about feminism and music journalism, but I'm mostly excited that something I worked really hard on last semester got some real-world acknowledgement! It feels great to have people read my work and actually respond to it. In all the things I do--writing for the Pioneer Log, blogging on my music blog, blogging here, Tweeting, etc., it always feels most rewarding when something comes of it.

I encourage all of you to work hard on things you're passionate about--at the very least I will probably get a free coffee out of this. And, who knows, I'm a woman who likes to write about music and Singer implied he needed more of those... ;)

If you're interested in reading (any version of) my paper, let me know! It will also be part of the poster show at the Gender Studies Symposium coming up on March 13th.