MM 3603 - Rhett Gentry

There are several students in the Directed Study 2 course who would serve as an excellent example of how to run a blog. As a part of my critique, I want to set forward this disclaimer that I did not choose a blog based upon whether I thought it was the best. I chose a blog that showed what a blog should look like and how one could excel through their use of proper design and great written pieces. Elizabeth Nalley's MM 3603 blog is certainly a great choice for how a blog should be run. Home Page Design Pictured above is the home page for Elizabeth's blog. First and foremost, I love the images that are associated with each post as well as the background. Each of these images shows the center focus of the subject and is cropped well into the blocks that contain them. While credit is due to google for giving many of the templates that we use to make our blogs, there is no doubt in my mind that Elizabeth went out of her way and spent countless hours tweaking each element an...

At the core of gaming, there are three major contenders for console sales. One contender is Microsoft, which released the Xbox One in November 2013. This console was marketed as a complete entertainment system and remains valid today. It is considered to be the best home entertainment system by many sources . On another side, we have Sony, which released the Play Station 4 just a week before the Xbox One. The Play Station 4 has sold over 106 million units since its release with the Xbox One sitting at just over 46 million in comparison. While larger sales don't always mean a better product, the PS4 is often highlighted as the greater of the two consoles because it also offers a larger player base for online games and more console exclusive games than the Xbox One. On the last side, we have Nintendo, which released the Nintendo Switch in March of 2017. The Switch has outsold the Xbox One with over 50 million sales and it has the largest number of console exclusive games. Nintend...

One of my largest struggles in the field of media is that I just really don't like television. It has become an issue when I discover TV content related memes on Reddit or Ifunny. The only reason I ended up watching the Mandalorian and the Witcher was because of all the memes associated with the two shows. Even though I may not watch much television, it's easy to know which shows are popular because of memes. Here's a look at some of the shows that I surveyed during this public health crisis Tiger King Tiger King is a true-crime documentary that details the life of zookeeper Joe Exotic. It focuses on the big cat conservationist community more than it does on the tigers themselves, with individuals like Carol Baskin who runs Big Cat Rescue and with collectors such as Joe Exotic. While Joe Exotic is a zany character, it is the memes about Carol Baskin that have made Tiger King a "must watch" show. There is a large belief that Carol Baskin murdered her hus...

If you didn't want to read about Covid-19 again today, you're not in luck. To be honest, Covid-19 has had the largest impact on social media than anything I have ever witnessed. Memes and content related to the virus come on a global scale. This isn't just limited to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - apps such as Ifunny, Reddit, and a large volume of videos on YouTube all have content either covering the virus or trying to remain light-hearted in this time of unease. First and foremost, I don't want to sound apathetic to anyone who is affected or has had love ones affected by the virus. I wouldn't have written about this topic as a Global Trend because of the fear of misrepresenting the subject, however, one article from Northeaster.edu put my fears at ease. That article is titled: " One way to predict the spread of Covid-19? Follow the memes ." Before continuing on, read the article because it brings up many encouraging points that can at least b...

"The body camera is not to actually punish cops, its to find out what actually happened."                                                                                                                                                                    - Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks In certain communities and groups of people, there seems to be a fear associated with police in the United States of America. It is a fear of maltreatment from law enforcement agents on a basis of race, nationality, gender, or any other discerning factor that would be considered a hate crime. On the a...

Most people who use YouTube have not purchased YouTube Premium or have an AdBlocker that removes advertisements on their videos. This means that the average user has to sit through ads at the beginning of the videos they stream and most likely during the videos they stream as well. There is a multitude of these ads, but it feels like I'm only receiving "Mike Bloomberg for President" advertisements on every video I watch. And of course, many of these advertisements are monetized to where the content creator will receive a small portion of the ads worth with YouTube taking the larger cut - but there is a form of advertisement where no money goes to YouTube. These videos have what is called "Paid Promotion". A video that has a paid promotion is where the content creator will advertise for a company that is not owned by the content creator in return for payment. There are many different ways that these companies will contact the content creators, but its usually...