The Impact of Concussions in Digital Form

While researching for a digital essay, I wanted to find something that related to my topic or healthcare in some way. I was lucky enough to find a short YouTube video that an individual created which focuses on concussion cases in football and what has been done to prevent further cases. The link below will share with you the montage this individual created:

 

This is a great model of a digital essay because the author included videos that were very impacting. The words he used were better supported with the inclusion of the NFL videos which showed how the athletes sustained their concussion. It is one thing to write out all of that information, but to include the actual footage was much more powerful. As the reader I grew emotional. I wanted to read and see more. The author seems to be targeting the general population because he kept the information simple and his approach seemed to be to raise awareness. A concussion is sometimes overlooked and it seems that this author was attempting to inform his audience of the seriousness of the situation. By including a news clip and videos of the athletes sustaining their concussion, it proved to the reader that this is actually a serious matter. This may target more of the athletic and healthcare population; however, I do not think the author has limited his audience just to those two types of people. Anyone could watch this clip and comprehend the severity of the situation at hand. The somber music contributed to the emotions I was feeling. The music choice was fitting because he discussed tragic events where athletes passed away after sustaining a serious brain injury.

I would like to borrow/extend the ideas of this author by trying to create the same emotions I felt while reading and watching his clip. After viewing this YouTube video I felt worried, anxious and concerned. That is what I want to recreate in my digital essay because I am going to discuss a serious topic that needs more attention. His choice in music and videos are what truly impacted me the most. I would like to include these type of elements in my digital essay as well because I feel that hearing and seeing can evoke stronger emotions than just reading alone. Sometimes having a visual and background music is enough to provide the reader with a solid image of what you are trying to convey.

 

What makes a exemplary digital essay?

The digital essay that I found is one done by the same author as some of the examples given by Ms. Hasler-Brroks. I found that Nicholas Blechman, the author of my example, does an excellent job balancing facts and enhancing them with digital effects. “Code name Parmigiano” is the name of the digital essay. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/06/opinion/food-chains-code-name-parmigiano.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A12%22%7D

I think that this is an example of an exemplary digital essay because of the balance between facts and words with animations and graphics. Through my search of trying to find an exemplary essay, I struggled to find something that had a good balance. I either encountered a prezi with mainly words and the presentation was very crowded and distracting, or I found that the essay didn’t have enough written words to get me through the piece and relied too much on animations. Although “Code name Parmigiano” does not have a lot of words, there was enough for me to understand what the author was trying to share. This balance kept the presentation clean looking and visually inviting.

The purpose of this essay was to inform and to tell a story about the making of parmigiano-reggiano cheese. The digital essay described the steps that are taken to make the famous cheese, and concluded with his own personal experience of finding, buying, and tasting the delicacy. The audience of this piece is probably geared towards people who have an interest in food and where they come from. I was personally intrigued by the piece because the kitchen is most certainly the heart of my family.

What I am going to borrow from this piece is the simplicity of the work. From my search to find an example of an exemplary piece, I found that simplicity may be the best way to portray your information with effects. Some essays had too much going on for me to focus on one thing at a time, and I think that with this understanding I will be able to create a digital essay that has a good balance between the written word and incorporating pictures, videos, and animations.

A Story: Told by Twitter

An exemplary digital essay must include the perfect balance between writing and different elements of media to enhance the entire picture of the essay. In searching for an exemplary example of this was challenging because of the imbalance of the use of different sources throughout the entire essay. As I’m currently on yet another short-term mission trip this summer I have found a digital essay written by someone on this trip with me about a story from a previous year that accurately represents a digital essay while encompassing the same topic that my Argument Contribution addressed.

https://storify.com/rcengelsman/july-2011

In this telling of a story, Rob Engelsman uses Twitter to reach a very large and varying population of people in order to spread the word about the mission trip we take and also to tell this story. He starts off by including some background information about the trip and also the island. He incorporates pictures of the work site and maps and other statistics to illustrate the setting that is present in the Bahamas. He tells the story about a conversation he had with one of the natives of the village and the time he spent in prison.

What I like about the way he presented his story is how he incorporated Twitter, a very popular form of social media that reaches a wide range in audience. He is able to bring an awareness about what he is writing about because of the large population that this story is reaching. It also allows interaction from the audience through favorites, retweets, and replies. It also gives the opportunity to add links, pictures, videos and other media that can be incorporated into the tweet. These are all qualities that I would like to be able to incorporate into my digital essay and am excited to be able to accomplish this.

Embracing The Digital Age.

Here is the link to my chosen digital essay: http://prezi.com/wxyivaj-4yoq/martin-luther-king-jr/

This digital essay is about the timeline of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Given the topic of the essay, the prezi is playfully constructed as a timeline. This is the very first exemplary aspect I noticed. To continue the creativity of this digital essay, the creator uses a technique of having slides within slides to show how the information bounces off of each other. This is a unique aspect to the digital essay that draws the audience in rather than a simple slide after slide presentation. I plan to use this technique in my own digital essay when I need to show how the information builds on itself.

The use of pictures in this presentation is also a crucial part. These pictures all have extreme relevance and were obviously picked to show off the main points of the digital essay. The creator of this digital essay relays the information very well because they start off slow with background information and then hit their audience with the bulk of their topic. This technique is proven to be very useful and capture the reader’s attention right off the bat.

Overall, this digital essay affectively captures the reader’s attention while playfully showing the topic. The most crucial part is the “slides with the slides” aspect, which i do plan on using in my own work.

Digital Essay

http://prezi.com/yilx-pipavc6/video-game-violence/

The exemplary digital essay I chose is a Prezi presentation about Video game violence. I chose this because it is related to the topic of my essay and I can use this as a reference when working on my digital essay.

First, there was music playing in the background and that caught my attention. This is an important element in digital essay to attract readers. Second, the background image is very colorful, filled with many characters from different games. This also attracted my attention as a reader and as a gamer. Other aspects of a digital essay are images and videos. The topic is about video game violence, so the presentation had images of game that has violent content. The most important in an argument is backing it up with facts. The presentation had statistics answering the question. Anther key element in an argument is the other side’s perspective. This help build an argument. In the presentation, there were descriptions of positive and negative effects of video game.

Personally, I think images and videos are easier to understand than full text. With the use of media, people can understand my topic easier or better.

Sensation and Perception: An Exemplary Digital Essay

Searching through the internet, I found one example of an exemplary digital essay that I found intriguing which also related to my major: Sensation and Perception (http://prezi.com/i8bufw5tmpyq/sensacion-y-percepcion-presentacion-de-procesos-psicologicos/)

Although this digital essay is in Spanish, it was easy enough to understand and I still got the full effect of what was being portrayed. This essay includes pictures to help grab and keep the viewer’s attention, charts which lay out the crucial information so the viewer knows exactly what they should know, and a switching of information screens which flows seamlessly. While scrolling through this digital essay, you know what the following slide will be about due to how the authors set it up, which made you ready to take in what was being said. In this essay, I really love the amount of information presented to us in each slide.

For my own digital essay, I would like to use Prezi, just like the authors from this essay. Prezi allows the author to present information in a whole new way, that is interesting and creative: something that can’t be done in a traditional essay. I love the way that Prezi allows the author to incorporate different media elements such as videos, charts, and pictures. I believe that Prezi will help me create visuals which will hook the viewer and make them want to keep reading my essay. When I create my digital essay, I would like to incorporate more videos. By including those videos, it will really drive home the point I am trying to make.

Times of Digital essay

 

http://http://www.classroom20.com/video/649749:Video:3589

Music, sound and images seem to be this powerful instrument/ tools both creators and producers use to get points across. have you ever noticed how most car commercials involve sound or music? Many people have because it’s usually something fun and catchy to get people’s attention. I would say that an exemplary digital essay includes sound and images that are used in order to prove a point to allow the audience to develop a certain emotion. my example of what digital essay is a video of a student titled “My American Dream.”

I chose this specifically because although i did not like the music in the background simply because it did not fit the purpose, however both the tone of the speaker and the images were great representation of what the essay was on. the speaker had a great tone that allowed me as the audience to focus and the images not only enhanced the point but greatly reflected what the speaker was saying. many of the images were very creative.  For example he used the image of an astronaut on the moon when he stated: “to boldly go where you want to go.” this essay was persuasive and informative. Persuasive on the sense that it wanted Americans to find their dream and informative on events that have occurred in the past.

I could use the idea of music however a music that may actually go well with my topic might work best.

 

 

Sleeping in Your Car

http://www.upworthy.com/she-wore-a-pretty-pink-halter-dress-to-graduation-but-it-didnt-look-the-same-the-next-day?c=ufb1

Videos are usually how I get my news. I don’t watch clips of CNN but rather upworthy posts surface to the top of my facebook feed. This video was of particular interest because it relied so heavily on a narrative. Most videos I see are interview-based or shot youtube personality style in front of a webcam.  But this video had a first person perspective of an issue and it was presented in an atypical fashion. It is an informative video about homeless youth that does not victimize its subject.

The purpose of this video is informative. It seems as if the video is trying to dissuade a certain stigma associated with homelessness. The video is a first person rap, the girl stares the camera down and does not ask for pity. This girl is not who I would imagine when confronted with the phrase homeless youth. And that is the point. She characterizes the issue in a way which confronts and directly addresses certain stereotypes. It also was made to promote WriteHome, an organization that “bring[s] art education to homeless youth”.

The video is obviously garnered towards youth. It mentions 2pac and is presented in a rap/slam poetry format. It was also posted on upwrothy which is a very youth centric site.

Its genre would probably be best described as a slam poetry video. It is such an interesting way to present information because it combines so many different art forms. It is a video. It is a poem. It also incorporates actual text. For my digital essay, my topic is centered around television so it would make a lot of sense to use video as part of my message. The way this video accented words with images was extremely powerful. I may try to mimic this approach to an extent.

Falling at the Speed of Sound

http://prezi.com/xef3h6wtr0da/red-bull-stratos/

Brandon Landsbergen and Lili Popper created a capturing and inviting presentation of Felix Baumgartner attempting the highest free falling record. Landsbergen and Popper used great visuals that grabbed the audiences attention. There were also some videos that were incorporated as well. The use of the motion in prezi was not too over done as in some of the presentation I saw while exploring. Popper ad Landsbergen make short jumps but large enough jumps so to not allow previous points to be overlapped and overwhelming.

The presentation is very informative. They provided some information about the suit that was going to be used. They also gave information of what Felix Baumgartner was potentially going to experience on his drop since this was before the actual event. However, I do wish they have explored more into the suit Felix used since it is interesting to see the technology used, whether being the electronics or the specific fabrics.

This digital essay gives me the motivation to provide visuals for the viewer, especially since I had difficulty giving a certain visualization in my previous essays. But now I have the opportunity to show with images and videos what my topic really is about along with the words. These visuals will help me paint that picture I had a hard time putting into words.

Digital Essay

The exemplary digital essay I found was a Prezi presentation titled Technology in Education.  Here is a copy of the link: http://prezi.com/ge7w28takrg2/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

This is considered an exemplary digital essay not just because it is a Prezi presentation with tons of photos and videos, but it includes organization and those photos and videos do all the talking that the paragraphs do in a typical written essay.  Along with the photos and videos doing all the talking and explaining for this digital essay, it is formatted and organized just as well as a normal essay to get the clear point across. Each section had one big piece, showing the main point, and several smaller pieces surrounding the big piece to show the subtopics and examples to what side the author is siding for.

One thing I liked seeing in both the beginning and end of the presentation was a slide that was devoted to the points trying to be made in the presentation to why technology helps children in all subject areas at school.  This slide told me the thesis that was said for the essay so I had an idea on what was going on.  I would definitely include a slide like this if I choose to make a Prezi for my digital essay for this showed great organization and got the authors side out loud and clear.  I also enjoyed seeing how there were was the organization of each point by showing the main point and then the examples surrounding that main point.  I would also include photos and videos to do most of the talking to showcase my point and what side I am on for my digital essay and have minimal words.  I feel the more words you have, the less it feels like a digital essay in the end.