Writing for New Media

So, it’s the end of the semester? It’s crazy how fast this semester has passed by. I could have sworn summer vacation just ended and I was preparing for classes to begin. Now it’s that time of year where everyone is rushing around to get things done, study and finish up odds and ends. However, looking back, it’s crazy to think of all the stuff and experiences I have accomplished over these three short months.

One thing that I am ecstatic about is having the opportunity to interview two well known bands: Blessthefall and Chiodos. Not to mention that they are probably two of my favorite bands. Since this is what I want to get into after I graduate, I am so fortunate to have my foot in the door so-to-speak.

Right from the beginning the whole process was a little nerve wracking for me. It’s the first impression so typing up those email to send had to say so much while saying as little as possible to get the point across. It was also important because not only is it a first impression, but I also wanted to build a solid relationship with the record label for future instances.

The whole ride there I was a nervous wreck. I kept going through all of the things I wanted to say over and over, while thinking I’m in over my head because I was there by myself and have no one to fall back on. And then there was doubt. Would my recorder not work properly? What if I thought I was recording, but when I played it back I actually recorded nothing? Did I make sure I charged both batteries on my camera just in case? I must have went over every worst case scenario.

As I neared the venue I decided it was time to focus on nothing, clear my mind and listen to the music playing in the background. Ironically enough I heard Chiodos’ new single “Caves” playing. I say ironic not because it was a song off the new album of one of the bands I would be interviewing shortly, but because the lyrics were the ones that inspired me to have the courage and actually do all of this in the first place. “When you’re afraid, when you’re afraid, take a chance, don’t let it weigh you down. You gotta get out. Stop hiding in the shadows.”

When I finally got to the venue I had my “game face” on and it was time for business. After I contacted the first tour manager, it was go time. No holding back now. No longer nervous, I went into auto-pilot and focused in on the task at hand. As soon as the band arrived I put on my best smile and just went with it. The interview went great. As soon as I was finished with the interview the band actually said that they thought my questions were really fun and they genuinely liked the questions because they weren’t the stereotypical questions they hear all the time.

The second interview went even better. Now that I had just finished one, I knew more of what to expect.  The greatest part of the second interview was the back and forth, so it wasn’t such a one sided interview. They even asked me a question to see how other people took in their new music video and if I got the twist at the end like everyone was supposed to get.

However, by far the best part of the whole experience was standing between the stage and the barricade. It was the best feeling standing there that close to the band with the adrenaline coursing through my veins. Would I get that one shot? Would I get pummeled by crowd surfers? With all of the rush and fear, I was living the dream. I also got to hang out with the one band after the show and talk a bit and I got a few business cards from everyone in the process.

The next day (and week for that matter), I was so excited to run through all of my tape and see what worked and what could be cut. The one thing I learned about myself: I use meaningless words way too often. Hey, I guess you have to learn the from mistakes right? At least I could edit most of them out.

After it was all said and done (and a handful of very long nights), I finally produced two podcasts: one for Blessthefall and the other for Chiodos. On top of finishing the two podcasts, I also made two videos (one of BTF and the other Chiodos) of the footage I took of each of the performances as well as making an album of all the pictures from the show (here and here).

Hell, even one of my pictures was even chosen by the one record label for their newsletter as the featured photo. My first show interviewing, and I kind of get published! I will say that if there is one thing that I could have done differently, I would have watermarked my name on that photograph because nowhere on the newsletter does it have my name.

Band interview aside, I also did a lot of class work. Balancing both though was rough because it wasn’t like I was getting paid to produce all of the work I did, but it was above and beyond my class work and took time away from other things. However, I just convinced myself that I am building a relationship with record labels and all of this work can be added to my portfolio.

I also did a lot of tweeting this semester. Not that that’s any different than any other semester, but I’d say I used it more as a communication tool than I have ever before. I also communicated a little bit with the one band through twitter which was very cool in my opinion because they actually liked some of my pictures.

And then there is facebook. The only productive thing that I have gained out of facebook is creating a page and keeping it updated for my radio show. It’s a place where I can post articles the people who want to learn more about the articles, as well as communicating with my followers. Other than that, it has been nothing but getting me into trouble. And when I mean trouble, I mean being my number one procrastinating tool.

Lastly, I produced three websites for the class requirements, the big one being my website for a local band Shotgun, No Blitz. I originally had high hopes and expectations for what I wanted to do with this website. I have always seen band sites and thought that they are amazing so I wanted to replicate that as much as possible. Unfortunately, the more I worked on the site, the more I realized that some stuff I just didn’t know how to do which was the annoyingly frustrating. I am proud of my final product and how the site turned out. I just wish I had more time and knowledge to do what I set out to do.

The other two sites are full of links. The first was a website that featured most of my favorite links. I liked how it turned out, but I was just disappointed how the colors turned out. When I was putting it all together the colors meshed much more than what it looks like now. It wasn’t terribly horrible, I just wish the colors stayed true.

The second site that I made I am proud to say that for the most part I coded all by myself. It took a lot of figuring out, but after a while I got the hang of it and the certain rules I had to follow. I am very glad how it turned out and further more, I think it is a great tool for me in the future to use for a portfolio!

I guess what this semester boils down to is experience and practice. Some of the things I did/ learned these past few months can only be perfected by the time you put into it and doing it over and over. You have to make mistakes and take chances because that is the only way you can learn to overcome them. Besides, who wants to be perfect anyways? It’s highly overrated.

For Chiodos, it all began for a handfull of high school kids in Michigan.

After touring across the United States and recording a few short albums, they were quickly signed on to equal vision records and released there first full length album All’s well that ends well. It was two years later until they unleashed Bone Palace Ballet unto the masses where it reached number five on the United States Billboard 200 charts.

Chiodos continued to tour across the states and just after playing Warped Tour in 2009, the band decided to part ways with their lead vocalist Craig.When asked on the band’s terms with Craig Owens, Bradley Bell boldly stated, “Who?” It seems as if everyone has moved on. “There’s no Communication really.

With Craig gone and the weight lifted, Chiodos could now move forward. In early February of two 2010, not only had they found someone to replace Craig, but the band also announced that they would be releasing a new record later in the year.

Finally on October 5^th, Chiodos released their third album Illuminaudio, with newcomer Brandon Bolmer at the wheel. “It caters to the old fans I think pretty well and adds a lot of new vibes to the band which I think are working pretty well.” said Bolmer.

Matt Goddard also mentioned that most of the recording was already done by the time Bolmer entered the scene, but it was a pretty long process nonetheless.

“It was fun though, the recording process.” Brandon Bell remarked. “Stressful and fun. But if it wasn’t stressful, then that means we weren’t working.”

As Chiodos begins a new chapter, not only are fans impatient about hearing new material but they may also question how the new record will differ from previously released records. “It’s more well thought,” said Goddard.

“We never spent that long writing a record so I feel like we were experimenting a lot and trying new things,” Bell thought. “Compared to Bone Palace, I’d say it has more energy.”

With the new album finished and released, Chiodos is now on the road to promote Illuminaudio. After the Congregation of the Damned tour,     the guys will have a well deserved break from touring  and then head on back on tour in the United Kingdom  with  Union Black. Iluminaudio is out now on Equal Vision Records and available now on iTunes.

With their fast paced riffs and even harder breakdowns, Blessthefall is anything but just another hardcore rock band. Shorty after forming and dozens of sold out shows, the Arizona based band was signed and recorded their first album His Last Walk.

Following the album’s huge success, the guys of Blessthefall decided to part ways with their lead vocalist Craig Mabbit. With a position available and very large shoes to fill, the rest of the band went on to find the perfect fit to fill the void.

Adding Beau Bokan as their new voice, Blessthefall were more eager than ever to prove to their loyal fans that they were back in the game, and they were not going anywhere anytime soon. After Beau’s addition to the lineup, the five guys were signed to fearless Records and released their sophomore album Witness. With a handful of trips overseas and nonstop touring this past year, Blessthefall has risen up and are ready to win over the hearts of music fans all over the world, one show at a time.

Because it has now been over a year since the release of Witness, many fans have been eager in anticipating some new material from the quintet. But fans don’t fret; a new album is in the works. “We’re working on songs. We have one completely done as a band. I have a lot of material up my sleeve, and Beau’s working on lyrics and melodies,” says guitarist Eric Lambert. “I think we’re all looking forward to writing.”

As for their finished song, both Eric and Beau believe the fans will be thoroughly stoked. Lambert couldn’t be happier with their new child. “The one song we have now is awesome.” “It shreds probably ten times harder than anything on our old record.”  added Bokan.

With the holiday season in full effect and tour winding down, the guys of Blessthefall will finally have a lull in their schedule. After the wrap up of the Congregation of the Damned tour, everyone will be able to enjoy a couple months before they are back on the road. Beginning at the end of February, Blessthefall will be on a short stint performing at Soundwave Festival in Australia.  Following Soundwave, the five will hit the studio and record their thirds album which has been featured by Alternative Press as one of 2011’s most anticipated albums. Witness is out now on Fearless Records.

After attending HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College) for two years, Shelby Meyerhoffer is now a student at Elizabethtown College. She is a Communications major with a concentration in New Media Studies and plans on graduating in December of 2011. After graduation, Shelby plans landing a job in the media side of the music industry.

During her college career at Elizabethtown College, Shelby has successfully run her own radio show program called The Mid Day Jams. As a DJ for the college’s radio station WWEC, she has interviewed a handful of bands including Shotgun, No Blitz, Blessthefall, and Chiodos. While Shelby’s not airing her radio show or doing schoolwork, she also works at Pacsun in The Outlets at Hershey.

Shelby was born March 31st 1989 and was raised by her Mother and Father in Jonestown, Pennsylvania. Years later she attended Northern Lebanon High School where she graduated Cum Laude in 2007. During her high school career, Shelby participated in track, softball, color guard and field hockey where she was recognized as a county academic all-star. She was also involved in her school’s Honor Society, Varsity Club, SADD, SHADE, and Vice-President for the Art Club.

Truncated Version:

Shelby Meyerhoffer is a senior at Elizabethtown College majoring in Communications. After graduation she hopes to work on the music industry. Since becoming a student, she has successfully run her own radio show on the college’s radio station and has even interviewed a few bands for her show. As a high school student at Northern Lebanon High School, Shelby excelled in field hockey and graduated Cum Laude in 2007.

Photo of the flood near "sally's"

Contrary to popular belief, Jonestown (also known as Jtown) was not founded by Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. Nor is it anywhere near Guyana. That being said, Jonestown’s first name was actually Williamsburg. The name had to be changed because everyone always got it confused with the historical Williamsburg in Virginia. The one in Pennsylvania… not so much.

When I moved to Jonestown, PA at the age of three, the town was just starting to boom. My house was one of the few to be built just before developers began their quest to cover every square inch in developments. I can’t lie and say that I hated all of the construction, because I had a ton of fun playing in ten those feet tall dirt piles!

The town itself is an interesting place to live. It’s such a little town, but at the same time, there is a lot of business. One place in particular kids of my generation remember most is this one building by the “Swati” (Swatara Creek) called Sally’s. It was the place to grab some ice cream after a baseball game or a hot summer night. Unfortunately when I was about 13 the place went out of business. There were a few restaurants that tried to survive from an Italian restaurant to another ice cream shop. There was even a gym! But no matter what moved in to that building, we all still called it Sally’s. I think the B.B.Q. place that’s been there for a year or two now is doing pretty well.

As for the rest of Jtown, there’s not much else to do. In fact… it’s pretty boring. There’s the Jonestown Elementary School where I went from K-6. There is also a post office that the neighboring town (Lickdale) shares with us. For some reason they never had one and now all the people from Lickdale have Jonestown addresses. It’s weird.

Anyways, we also have a bank called Jonestown Bank and Trust and it has been so successful there are about five or six different branches in the surrounding areas. Last but not least, there’s the BG’s Value Market. It used to be the “market” before they changed the name. However, to most Jonestownians, it’s still the market… or BG’s. It’s not quite a grocery store, but it looks like it tries real hard to be one.

To be honest, I also consider Elizabethtown my hometown just as much as Jonestown. My Mom’s family is from Elizabethtown and my grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins all still live there. When my brother and I were younger our parents always had to work on Sundays so we would spend Sundays (if not the whole weekend) at my aunts. Needless to say I have spent a lot of time in Etown.  And crazy as it sounds, I find it much more… alive and fun. I know most people from Etown think it’s boring, but compared to Jonestown, there’s so much to to.

At first the title of this course scared me…”Writing for New Media.”  The word “writing” was the key word.  But after browsing the syllabus, I was relieved.  The class turned into more about online creativity and design.  This ending up being something that I have a great interest in.

I have become a social media fiend over the passed two years.  From my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and foursquare accounts, I have become more connected to my iPhone.  Yes, I know people didn’t think this would be possible, but it has become more of an extension of my arm.  Analyzing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign to the creation of social media accounts are all important things to know when entering the current job market.  Since graduation is approaching fast, I feel that this class has certainly helped feed my social media bug.

It’s always interesting to receive input from other people.  With social media, it’s just that: input from human beings.  In class, it was great to see the approach each person took to his or her viral marketing plan.  Each person had different experience and was seeking different outcomes.  Personally, my viral marketing plan had a slight impact on the PA Breast Cancer Coalition, but wasn’t as successful as the outcome of the great Fimmano vs. Alleman Facebook battle.

For my personal website, I juggled with different approaches.  I started by wanting to create a blog to having an online portfolio to an online resume.  I finalized my current website to be an online resume with examples of my work.  I also have links to my social media websites to show my involvement.  In the future I plan on expanding my website to include more, but for now, it achieves my goal: assisting in the search for a full time job.

To all of the seniors, good luck on the job search!  To all of the underclassmen, good luck with the rest of your time at Etown!  And to Dr. Helb, thanks for always helping out even when it may have been a common-sense question!

My freshman year at Elizabethtown College, I never thought that I would be writing a blog post to officially close my college career, but now here I am, 4 years later.  Everyone told me when I was starting school to “Make the most of your 4 years in college, they go by so fast!”  As a freshman, I thought this statement was farfetched to say the least.  Now however, I realize just how true that statement was.  Here I sit, with the past 4 years in my rear view and graduation just a short week away…  Anyway, enough reminiscing.

This semester, I have a lot of fun in #etown315, and I’ve learned a few things too.  During the course of this semester, I have completely redesigned my website (which I am currently working on redesigning again…), launched a successful viral marketing campaign, learned a lot about using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as both fun social networking tools as well as potential ways to capture that illusive “real world” job.  I am eager to use the skills that I have learned and expanded upon in #etown315 to assist in building my portfolio and hopefully finding me a job shortly!

The major project of this class was working on creating a personal website and online portfolio.  While I did have an existing website, I was not happy with the layout or design of the site, and thought that overall it was extremely bland.  My current site is created on a Wordpress back-end, with a standard template with custom CSS edits that I performed to get it to look just the way I wanted.  As of right now (1:56am on May 14th), I am exploring the idea of changing themes to something more customizable.  In order to do that I just now switched from a site hosted by Wordpress to a Wordpress based site hosted by another provider.  This switch of hosting providers will allow me the flexibility to add custom themes and plugins for the site, in order to make it exactly what I want.  Look for the new(er) website to be complete in a few days.  For now, however, I am extremely happy with the way that the site currently looks.

My favorite assignment this semester was to create a viral marketing campaign for whatever we wanted.  I decided to use my current job at the Inc. Village of Port Jefferson as a spring board for my assignment.  By using the Village’s Facebook and Twitter pages, I encouraged people to visit Port Jefferson and snap photos of their family and friends and post the photos on our Facebook page.  Promotions for this “event” were done strictly sing Facebook and Twitter.  Overall, we received over 30 submissions.  Going into this project, I had no idea what to expect, and would have been happy with 10 responses.  Our initial post on Twitter was retweeted 12 times by both Port Jefferson residents and visitors!

So as the semester, and college as a whole, draws to an end, I am grateful for the education that I have gained from Elizabethtown College’s Department of Communications.  I was very excited to take Writing for New Media because it displays the fact that the department is moving in the direction of the future.  I hope that the department will continue in this direction in the future to serve the needs of the underclassmen and incoming first year students.

When starting this class I had no idea what to expect, and this made me nervous. But the fact that the Communications department was finally offering a class that was made for “keeping up with the times” rather than the standard Intro to Com or Public Speaking class. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a lot through the broad depth and variety of all the Com classes over the past four years. But I was thrilled to see that this course was being offered, and by someone who is younger, more hip, and can relate to the students in a Facebook/ Linkedin/ Twitter kind-of-way.

Throughout the course, we’ve learned the importance of these social networking sites, as well as how to create and manage our own sites. Twitter became a must have from day one. While I wasn’t a huge proponent of this site- mostly because I didn’t know the benefits of having an account, or really what it was- I have learned a lot about it over the course of the semester. We didn’t focus much time on Facebook (as we were threatened we’d fail for the day if we spent time on Facebook and our email rather than listening to Dr. Helb!) but we did spend a good bit of time developing our Linkedin pages. I already had an account prior to this class, but I learned some more benefits to this networking site and was able to develop my page.

When first starting our websites, I was completely lost. I couldn’t even log onto Dreamweaver to open my page, and finding my material was a whole other story. While I’m not the most proficient Mac user, I have gotten a general understanding for the system over my three years in the department. But this program felt like it was in another language. After taking a few steps back and really working on it piece by piece, I became much better with the program and less frustrated. And the feeling of having a complete website is really neat. I will definitely plan to go back to the site and update it from time to time.

During the class we also completed a viral marketing campaign. I worked closely with a classmate to create a Facebook fan page to raise money and awareness for a disease my partner’s father has. Facebook has been a very effective medium raising money in the past, so we decided this was the best route to travel. I believe the campaign is still in progress, as we will accept donations until the bike race held in June. Creating this campaign helped show me the importance of viral marketing. There are so many ways to reach an audience today, and the more interactive, the better. Just over the past three years so many different programs have appeared and grown in popularity. I’m very curious to see what the next few years will bring.

Overall, I took a lot away from this class. My only real complaint is with structure. If there isn’t structure in a class, my motivation level drops to an all-time low (and I swear that has nothing to do with me graduating in a week!) I’m the type of person that likes to know what the agenda is each day, and there really wasn’t much of that with this class. Besides that, I really enjoyed it. My favorite was probably learning how to create and implement a website. Seeing the final product is a great feeling of accomplishment. I also enjoyed learning about the perks and benefits of Youtube, Linkedin and Twitter. Finally, the blog we created and managed throughout the semester helped keep us on our toes. Dr. Helb was a great professor and it was nice having someone we could all relate to.

I had an interesting time in this class. When it started, I wasn’t too sure about it. I wasn’t a huge Twitter fan, and I didn’t really know too much other than the usual Facebook social networking sites.

I then grew to really really enjoy Twitter. I learned that not only could I be a creep and know what people are doing. (Yes, I know, sounds like a stalker, but who doesn’t go on Facebook and stalk people), I also am able to keep up with my favorite sports teams, get news updates from the New York Times, and just get to see what all of my favorite celebrities are doing. While my roommate does make fun of me for being an addict, I have gotten her to consider making one, because it is quite fun to have.

When it came to Facebook,  the only thing that changed was learning how I could use it to my advantage. When we started doing our viral marketing campaign, I was at a loss of what to do, until my roommate came to me with her situation, then I knew that Facebook would be the perfect tool to use.

I never knew what Linkedin was until we learned about it in class. I have found this to be very useful, and I also didn’t know how many people used it, or knew what it was until I created one. It is kind of like Twitter, either you know about it and use it, or you don’t. Linkedin has be helpful in making connections with people and getting myself out there.

Making my own website/online portfolio was a challenge for me. While I did run into some challenges while making the actual website (I am still working out the kinks), I think the biggest challenge for me was and still is working on my resume. I enjoyed being able to create a website and put it out there for everybody to see, but I still have to work on my resume and cut it down and fix it, as well as working on my portfolio.

Overall, I enjoyed this class, and I did learn a lot in it. I learned about how the internet has really changed how we get our information, as well as put ourselves out there. I also learned ways to use the internet to our advantage in getting ourselves in the market, and how to “keep up” with it.  I enjoyed everything that I learned in this class, and I had a great time.

For the most part, I had some prior knowledge of each of the subject areas we discussed in class.  Through the class I have expanded that knowledge:

On Twitter: I learned that it can be used to catch up on the news, find out events that are happening right now, and to follow celebrities.  I received a direct message from someone who is somewhat of a “YouTube celebrity” which makes me sound like a geek, but I was excited to hear from them. 

Also, I really enjoyed learning about the basics behind the creation of Twitter and learning that it was just a small team that was responsible for the site and they are highly accessible.  We talked about skyping them, but never got around to it.

On Facebook: I didn’t expand too much on Facebook, but I did end up creating a fan page for my viral marketing campaign and explored how to use that to its fullest extent (more on this later). 

On LinkedIn: I realized how much Linkedin can do for me in the business world.  I never knew all the aspects of the site which I would not have explored if we had not had to expand our profile past a certain percentage. 

And added accounts on Tumblr and Bebo which I found through the class but they were not part of the class.  There were other areas that I expanded my knowledge in:

In viral marketing:  With our viral marketing campaign I got a great response from family and friends and ‘friends of friends’.  I created a Facebook group called “Your Creative Spark” which gave a creative outlet for people to use on an everyday basis

In social networking: I knew before the class that social networking is important.  It is even more so now that I am graduating.  I want a way to stay in touch and also a way to get my ideas and plans set in motion.  Social networking is an outlet for me to stay in touch and bounce ideas off of everyone I know and then some.

In the creation of a personal website/online portfolio:  My personal website was the biggest challenge for me.  I had one class early in college where we worked on a website, but it was very basic and it was a completely different program.  In Com 315 I feel that I have expanded my knowledge of how the website process works.  For my second attempt ever at creating my own personal website, I think it is pretty nice.  A little rough around the edges, but it works.

I learned so much in this class and really enjoyed it.  It was a whole different field of study for me and I only wish I would have taken it sooner in my college career so that I could have taken more communications classes.  I really appreciated the one on one support and the help I received from my classmates as well even though I am not a communications major.  This was a great class to go out of college on and I feel as though I am a bit closer to being ready for the real world.