Week 5: Creator/Audience Discussion for Next Week's Class

The goals of these first few weeks have been two-fold:

1. To get anyone who has not taken Guerrilla Marketing up to speed on current literature and practices for marketing their thesis (marketing being inextricably linked to distribution) 
2. To introduce each other to your projects, strategies for marketing, marketing materials, and where you are in the process currently. This gives us a better context for each others’ work, making our feedback (and my course materials) more effective.

From here, we will explore distribution options and you will be further compelled to research strategies and outlets for your exhibiting your work. 

But first, I’d like to meet and reflect on the issues that have been consistently raised through your blog entries the last few weeks. I think they are fundamental to all of our work and worth talking about! 

Before then, please take some time to reflect on the shifting digital media industry in a broader context. In his last post Andrew expounded on some specific reasons for why the social media myths were flawed or, in some cases, questionable advice. If you have not read his post yet, please scroll down and take a look. This is a great example of how to thoughtfully engage with materials, regardless of their perceived relevance to your work. The mixed feelings that Andrew addresses in his entry are what I’d like to get at in our discussion next week. 

Though many of you have shown similar perspectives to Andrew’s, I feel it’s important for us to more fully explore ideas about creator/audience relations in a shifting technological environment. 

FOR NEXT WEEK:

We will put aside whether or not Reiss and Candler have it right or wrong and why. The fact is we are using old/current models to progress to new ones. There is no avoiding the engagement with these materials. 

I’d like you to create for yourself (whether written down or in your mind) a kind of personal manifesto about (1.) Your role in society as a content-maker (2.) Your relationship to your audience/their relationship to you (3.) Sustainability of this relationship OR how you see yourself realistically continuing to make media post-graduate school.

I don’t expect you all to have figured everything out. If your manifesto raises more questions than answers, all the better! Think about where your ideas come from and what materials have influences your thoughts. 

Get creative and really explore some hypotheticals and possibilities of New Media. This is an opportunity to take a break from the nuts and bolts of your thesis and consider some big picture ideas about where media industries are headed and where you fit in! It is perhaps also an opportunity to flesh out your expectations for your own career.

Keep in mind that ideas don’t spring from nothing. Have some research or real-world examples to support your feelings and opinions - this will make for a much stronger discussion in class. 

If you would like to post your manifesto on the blog, feel free. It is not required. 

What IS required is that you come next week prepared to discuss these topics from a thoughtful, informed perspective. 

I greatly look forward to discussing these ideas with you! Please email me if you have questions about what we are doing and how to prepare.

We will meet in the downtown CEM building, in the conference room directly across from “The Bridge,” at 6pm. Please try your best to be on time. If you can’t make it, please let me know ahead of time.

In the meantime, I will finalize procedure for parking passes and building passes, for those of you that don’t have them yet.

Have a great week!