Coming soon!

I am using this blog post for my Multiplatform Journalism class. My blog post is coming soon!!

 

The Evolution of Forest Park

Forest Park has continuously evolved in its nearly 150-year history, and its ability to meet the changing needs of the region’s residents helps bolster its popularity today. Forest Park first saw a glimpse of fame when it hosted the 1904 World’s Fair. Since then the 1,300 acres have been opened to the public for exercise, social events, and relaxing. Each year Forest Park holds a variety of social events including, Shakespeare Festival, Fourth of July, and Zootoberfest. Annually, Forest Park captivates more than 12 million visitors. Annually over 12 million people visit Forest Park, making it the sixth most visited U.S. urban park. Throughout the years Forest Park has undergone improvements including the addition of trails, monuments, and athletic fields. The free park is home to five major cultural attractions in St. Louis: The History Museum, The MUNY, The  Zoo, The Art Museum, and The Science Center. Since the appeal of Forest Park is cross-generational, we centered our project around the different viewpoints and experiences from individuals from three different generations.

Traditionalist, Mary Boyce (79), has always enjoyed the unique atmosphere and attractions in Forest Park. Over her past 70 years, Boyce has seen the evolution of the park as well as the growth in popularity. She has many fond memories of taking her children to the Art Museum and then playing by the lake across from the MUNY.

Even though Forest Park has a variety of popular attractions, Boyce believes that either the MUNY or the Zoo is one of the most famous attractions at Forest Park. Not only is the Zoo world renown, but it is one of the few free Zoos in the U.S. Forest Park is also larger than Central Park in New York City by approximately 500 acres. However, Boyce considers the 1904 World’s Fair Pavilion to be the most well-known attractions in the park, due to the amount of visitors it attracted from around the world. Even though it has undergone renovation over the past years, it still remains of the oldest attractions in the park. Today, it is often used for wedding receptions and parties of various nature. Even though Boyce does not visit Forest Park as much as she used to, she says it still remains one of her favorite places to visit in Saint Louis. 

Forest Park has attracted visitors from different generations in a variety of ways. Kim Luongo (54), a St. Louis native and mother of three, shares how she utilizes the park.  Luongo states, “my main use for Forest Park now I would say would be for exercise. I love to go bike riding or even walking on the bike paths.” She and her family tend to go to the park more often in the summer since the weather is nice enough for outdoor exercise. Furthermore, Luongo also talks about her memories in the park. She discusses her experience visiting Art Hill as a child, and then later taking her own children to Art Hill. Art Hill hasn’t changed too much since her childhood or from when she would take her children there. It still remains a popular attraction where people can have picnics and sled in the winter time. Forest Park is a special place to Kim Luongo for multiple reasons and it’s intriguing to hear about how her generation views the infamous park. 

Today, Forest Park has grown from just popular attractions and has added in special events that people of all ages look forward to each year. Tricia Simon (21), Senior at Saint Louis University who is a majoring in Marketing, enjoys the convenience of Forest Park being right down the street from where she resides. Simon’s favorite park activities are the seasonal events that are offered. In the summer Forest Park hosts the Shakespeare Festival, movie nights on Art Hill, Loufest, and many more. In the winter, ice skating at Sternberg Skating Rink is always a popular attraction in the park. Forest Park attracts all crowds and Simon says, “I think it’s a lot of families and younger people that go there. I think people go there just on the weekends to have a good time and also just to relax.” 

Forest Park is always hosting events year round. Whether it’s concerts, events at the Zoo, MUNY shows and more, check out what exciting events are coming up for Forest Park in 2018. Forest Park is a special piece of history in St. Louis that continues to be cherished by all generations.

Innovative Website Designs

Digital Porfolio

Anthony Chiaravalle is a Marketing and Advertising specialist in New York City. His digital portfolio is extremely impressive from many different aspects. The work he has accomplished, the design and layout of his portfolio are all unique to his style. His digital portfolio is very easy to access. The website is very appealing and effective due to the organization of information.

There are 8 tabs at the top of his website: Home, About, Programs, Expertise, Portfolio, Speaking, Contact and Blog. There was just enough content on each page and the layout was very consistent.

• Consistent colors: black, white, grey and blue
• Each subheading had the same font text and coloring (all readable)
• Included images of himself as well as portfolio topics.
  • I liked how he had pictures of each topic and when you scroll your cursor over it, the title pops up and leads you to a link.

 

Nontraditional News Site

The Daily Beast is a nontraditional news site that covers topics such as:

• Science
• World News
• Politics
• Entertainment
• Arts and Culture
• S. News
• Technology
• Hunt for the Cure
• Cheat Sheet

Once you click on a subheading, there are a list of news stories that you can click on and read more about. Each story was a perfect snippet of information for someone to know the basics of the story. Each story had links within the story in case you wanted to know more information about a certain topic or issue.

Issues:

• The website was a little busy due to the amount of information on one page.
• I did not like the advertisements on each page- distracting

 

Creative Website

Lookbook is a personal stylist website/ fashion blog. I liked the layout and design of the website and thought that it was easy to use. I liked how there are a variety of topics listed on the right side with pictures underneath. The subheadings include:

• Spotlight
• Trending
• Styles
• Occasions
• Blog

Under each subheading there were a variety of categories listed. I like how each category had different fashion bloggers post their tips or advice. Gave a sense of variety within each category. The website was very appealing due to the layout and organization.

Evolution of Forest Park: Mary Boyce

I worked with Margot Mannion and Paige Jirsa for Project 1. We chose to do our project on the evolution of Forest Park according to three different generations. I interviewed Margot Mannion’s grandmother, Mary Boyce. Mary Boyce is a Saint Louis native who is in her mid 70’s. She has seen and experienced the evolution of the park over the years.

I asked Boyce a series of questions to help get a better understanding of a Saint Louis native’s view point of the park over the past 70 years. After asking her a series of questions, I went with Margot and Paige to film footage of Forest Park. We filmed several different places in the park that were discussed in each interview. I used the footage of the park for b-roll throughout the interview. I am proud of how the b-roll turned out throughout the video as Boyce answers the questions in the interview.

I faced a few challenges when filming. The first time I filmed Forest Park, the footage did not save on my SD card. I had to re film everything and the day I filmed was pretty cloudy. I still ended up getting pretty good footage because we drove around the park to look for people that were using the park for recreational uses. It could have looked better if it was a nicer day out due to the fact that there would have been more people and the lighting could have been better if it was sunny outside. The only thing I would change would be some of my interview questions. I feel that they could have gone into more depth, but overall I thought Boyce did an excellent job answering the questions.

Evolution of Forest Park featuring Mary Boyce

I chose to interview Mary Boyce on The Evolution of Forest Park for my small project. Boyce is a St. Louis native who is in her late 70’s. She has seen the evolution of the park over the years and has many great memories in the park with her kids and grandchildren. In the interview, Boyce was asked a series of six questions about the park.

Twitter Analytics Infographic

After looking at my Twitter analytics blog post, I found a more effective way to show how I was successful and unsuccessful when tweeting. I created an infographic using  my data from Twitter analytics. My goal is to have more successful tweets in the future and increase the number of followers and interactions on my account.

The Beauty of Infographics

Want to know who’s hacking? You can view the Web Hacking Incident Database through your Fusion Table data. This provides information for statistical analysis of website applications security occurrences. There are three visualizations that show Attacks, Weaknesses and Outcomes for all Vertical Markets from 1999-2011. Each visualization is in the form of a pie chart with each section being color-coded. When you scroll your cursor over the chart, a box pops up displaying the percentage along with the title of the issue according to the chart. The infographics displayed make it easy to learn and remember information about web hacking, fast and efficiently.

According to Canva,  “90% of the information transmitted to your brain is visual.” This is why infographics can be so powerful when getting a message across to your audience. They have been proven to help digital marketers when it comes to brand promotion and a variety of communication forms. Canva also states that, “Humans process visual scenes about 60,000 times faster than they do text.” By providing them with a visual representation of information, you are not only helping them process the information faster, but also increasing their chances of them remembering the information later on. Infographics help take important information and transform it into a visual piece of content. This explains why the Fusion Table infographics on Web Hacking that are shown above, are such “good” data visualization projects. They are a fast and efficient way to get important information across to any viewers.

 

 

 

5 Ways to Avoid Getting Sued When Posting Online

It is extremely important to understand what you can and cannot post online. It is easy to take someone else’s ideas or pictures and use them when posting online. It is also easy to use any information that you can find to support your ideas whether it is accurate or not. Since technology and media has rapidly advanced over the years and continues to do so, it has become easier for people to get sued for copyright. This is why it is important to understand the importance of this topic.

1. Understand copyright laws.

• There are copyright laws for a reason. If you do not understand these laws, you may find yourself getting into trouble. Copyright laws help protect your original work as well as others.

2. Take your own pictures.

• When it comes down to posting picture online, it is convenient to google the picture you are looking for instead of actually taking it. It is usually obvious when someone uses a picture that they did not take. It is important to take your own photos, unless you give credit to the person who took the photo that you are using.

3. Cite any ideas that are not yours.

• It is important to cite any ideas or facts that are not yours for several reasons. It is illegal to use someone else’s ideas, facts, opinions, pictures, etc. without giving them credit. By citing information that you are using, you are also showing viewers that you have done your research and are using credible information to support your own information.

4. Use quotation marks.

• Not only do you need to cite someone when using their information, but it is important to use quotation marks around any direct quotes that you use from them. Quotes are a crucial part when backing up or supporting information that you are posting.

5. Know where your getting your information from.

• It is easy to take any information that is convenient to access when trying to support any facts or ideas that you come up with. It is important to know where you got your information from and if it is a credible source or not.

Twitter Analytics

I created my Twitter account at the beginning of this semester. My first Tweet was on September 4^th so I did not have too much data to analyze. I analyzed data from September as well as the beginning of October. I noticed that my top 3 engagements and retweets were the exact same. In just about every section of my data, I noticed that my post about Jair Hernandez was the most popular. The reason for this is because this was one of my posts that I tweeted with a picture. I tagged his actual twitter account in my tweet which I believe helped me receive more likes than I did on my other tweets. Most all of my data relates to the SLU men’s soccer game that I live tweeted.

I currently do not have as many followers as I would like which is why I do not have that much interaction within my tweets. After analyzing my data, I definitely feel the need to step up my game. If I had more followers, I believe I would be getting more likes, retweets and responses to my tweets. In order to improve my Twitter interaction, I have set a few goals. I am going to follow more people as well as marketing and advertising companies, tweet more information that is relevant to my audience and tag people in any tweets that are pertinent to them. By tagging other users, I feel that I will help engage not only my current followers, but also other Twitter users which could result in an increase in my followers.

Lou’s News 4U

Digging through and reading the local news can be frustrating, disturbing, and most of all— boring. There’s always something happening in St. Louis, but how can one possibly keep up with it all? Lou’s News 4U has the solution! The team of three has put together their very first Spotify news playlist covering a week’s worth of the Lou’s news. Plug in your earbuds and have a listen!

1.Sorry pilots, drones are now no longer allowed to be flown on arch grounds. The Federal Aviation Administration has started to ban drone flights around other national monuments recently, including sites like the Statue of Liberty and the Hoover Dam. We chose to pair this story with “Movin’ out” by Billy Joel because drone enthusiasts will have to move their flights elsewhere.

2.Summer, a terrier mix puppy is Metro East Humane Societies pet of the week! She is super energetic and would love for someone to give her a new home. For more information, visit MEHS or fill out an application to adopt online. You’re listening to, “who let the dogs out”, because we still don’t know who will let this dog out!

3. South county resident Andrew Gudermuth, better known as Nacho Man, had his plate of nachos knocked out of his hand  by cubs shortstop Addison Russell as he flew into the standsfor a foul ball. Gudermuth was reimbursed with nachos from the Cardinals AND Cubs organizations. We went with “No problem” by Chance the Rapper on this one, considering that it is Addison Russell’s walk up song.

4. Science in Saint Louis will be at the Saint Louis County Library this Monday, October 2nd at 7pm. Be sure to stop by for food, refreshments, and to find out more about the scientific community in Saint Louis!

5. Six people were shot within four hours in St. Louis on Sunday. Three different incidents occurred and police stated that each victim gave a conflicting statement as to what had happened. We chose to pair this story with the song, “Everywhere” by Jurrivh because we felt that the somber instrumental music helps emphasize this incident.

6. St. Louis bakery offers a second chance to ex-cons. Kalen McAllister, former prison chaplain, founded “Laughing Bear Bakery”. He believes that it is important to give men and women a second chance after they are released from prison. We chose, “Second Chance” by Shinedown as a theme song for this story because we felt that the lyrics and tune of the song helped express the second chance that McAllister feels these men and women should have after getting out of prison.

7. Eye doctor, Harry Brady, has treated more than 10,000 patients for free. This 82-year-old doctor retired from his private practice, but says that he has always wanted to do mission work and this is his way of continuing to give back as long as he is able to. We paired this news story with “Forever Young” by Blake Shelton because the lyrics in this song relate back to not only describing Dr. Brady’s astounding personality, but also the people’s lives who have been changed forever after being taken care of by Dr. Brady.

8. Cody Hall, a Southwest Missouri man, perfectly executed his dream proposal Sunday afternoon with the help of a giraffe at the Dickerson Park Zoo.  Zookeepers attached the engagement ring to a lanyard which hung around the neck of a giraffe. The zoo staff gave the Hall’s girlfriend, Makayla Blakey, a branch to feed the gentle giant, and when it extended its neck out Hall got down on one knee and asked “Marry Me”?

9. St. Louis’ unemployment rate took a pulse upwards to 3.8%. The jobless rate of the metro area, as adjusted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, rose from 3.6% in July— the lowest it’s been in 17 years. However, as it stands at 3.8% the unemployment rate is still close to the lowermost points of the century. We included “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” to our playlist because though the unemployment rate took a small increase, the metro St. Louis area is below the national jobless rate of 4.4%, and has been for 28 straight months.

10. For the second year in a row, the St. Louis Cardinals were knocked from the postseason contention by the Chicago Cubs. Lenoys Martin sprang at the center-field fence to rob Paul DeJong of a home run that would have tied the game in the 11^th inning. This clenched a 2-1 W for the Chicago Cubs Thursday night.  Needless to say, the Cards said “Bye Bye Bye” to the playoffs again this year.

 

The Lou’s News 4U Team is composed of Ashley Steibel (@aSdx95), Danielle Luongo (journal_luongo), and Ryan Lefner (20_lef).

 

SLU Men’s Soccer Victory Against Stanford

I chose to attend the SLU men’s soccer game against Stanford on September 23rd for my live tweeting assignment. The purpose of this assignment was to test our live tweeting skills when attending an event. I enjoyed this assignment a lot more than I thought I would. It was a little stressful at times, but the game was very exciting and made it fun to tweet! At times, I found it difficult to keep up with the game because of the fast pace. Overall, this specific game made this assignment even more fun. SLU, ranked number 13 in the nation, beat Stanford, ranked 5th in the nation. This was a huge accomplishment for the Billikens as they worked hard to prepare for this game all year!