Misleading Maps

As discussed in The New Media Writer, texts that may seem simply "informational" must change depending on their audience, use, and purpose. As you might have already read, a driver on the interstate needs a different kind of map than a hiker in the woods, even though these maps might cover the same area.

Consider the discussion linked below of how common maps often significantly distort the relative size of Africa compared to other continents. In the clip from the TV show The West Wing, what do the cartographers state as some of the reasons for this distortion? Conduct your own research about how navigational maps have been designed over time, and how modern map makers make decisions about how to create new maps.

The TRUE Size of Africa – Have Our Maps Been Misleading For Over 500 Years?

Drinking Glasses Only

When shooting your own images or video, you have to sometimes be careful about where you shoot, if you need permission, and what you're shooting. For instance, you usually need permission when shooting video on private property, and some locations may ban photography or videography.

Recently, a woman wearing Google Glass in a San Francisco bar was confronted by other patrons when they realized she was wearing Glass and recording at times. Because of this altercation, the bar has banned anyone from using Google Glass when inside. Other bars have also adopted this policy.

However, they haven't banned the use of smartphones, which could just as easily be used to record in these locations. What do you think this ban on Google Glass says about our general adoption or comfort with new technologies? Can you find other writing/recording technologies that have been initially banned?

The full story is here:

Bars Banning Google Glass

Ten Funny Proofreading Mistakes

As discussed in Chapter 11 of The New Media Writer, editing is an important step in the writing process.

However, sometimes too much attention can be paid to the big picture of editing and revising, and not enough to the smaller errors that proofreading can find.

Here are some of the funniest proofreading errors in a variety of media. As a general practice, keep your own database of proofreading mistakes and share them with the class as you locate examples.

Top Ten Funniest Proofreading Mistakes

An $80,000 Tweet

As discussed in Chapter 6, new media writing requires increased attention to audiences and how audiences receive information. A tweet might be intended for just your followers, but those followers can retweet and quickly spread your message.

Such was the case for the daughter for former Gulliver Preparatory School head Patrick Snay. Snay was just awarded $80,000 in a settlement with Gulliver Prep for an age discrimination complaint. However, this agreement depended on confidentiality, that no one else would know about the settlement.

Enter Snay's daughter, who took to Twitter to voice her opinion on the confidential matter to her nearly 1200 Twitter followers:

Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.

The message quickly spread, and school officials found out about the confidentiality breach. As a result, the judge ruled the settlement could be cancelled, costing Snay the loss of the $80,000.

Read the whole story here:

Girl costs father $80,000 with 'SUCK IT' Facebook post

Narrating the Olympics

Chapter 9 of The New Media Writer discusses writing for different visual media, including dialogue and voice-over narration.

In the spirit of the Olympics, check out this curling match narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Notice how the narration doesn't just state what's obviously going on in the video, but how the narration compliments and adds value to watching the event.

You can read a more detailed post about the clip here:

Sir David Attenborough Narrates Women's Olympic Curling Event, And It Is Pure Gold

The Nonhuman Writers of Wikipedia

Chapter 5 of The New Media Writer discusses search engine robots and other web bots as potential audiences of your online writing. Wikipedia is just one of those sites to which you might contribute that uses bots to read its content. 

However, those bots also help write articles, or more specifically, edit them. 

Consider this recent article from MIT Technology Review that discusses work by Thomas Steiner that helps to pinpoint how much "writing" bots perform on Wikipedia (and Wikidata, a site that works in tandem with Wikipedia). Specifically: 

...at the time of writing, across all language version of Wikipedia there are 10,407 edits being carried out by Bots and 11,148 by human Wikipedians. So that’s a 49/51 split between bots and humans.

But a closer look at the data reveals some interesting variations. For example, only 5 percent of the edits to the English language version of Wikipedia are being done by bots right now. By contrast, 94 percent of the edits to the Vietnamese version are by bots.

Check out the full article. 

The Shadowy World of Wikipedia's Editing Bots

Tweeting and Job Searches

In a recent post on CNNMoney, Daniel Bortz reports that many job recruiters are now researching potential new employees on social media. As he writes:

"If you want to shine in a competitive workforce, take to Twitter. Nearly 95% of recruiters surveyed by software firm Jobvite used or planned to use social media to find and vet candidates last year."

Twitter allows you to quickly build a social media presence, since tweeting is often quicker than creating other social media content, such as lengthier blog posts.

However, as Bortz states, there are some best practices when using Twitter to build an online presence. Specifically, he lists the following:

• Perfect the profile
• Follow the right crowd
• Tweet with value
• Pay it forward

View the full article below to read more about how these practices can help you use Twitter to land your next position. 

Tweet yourself to a new job