Media 1:

Where did you view or hear the media?

• I came across this first media while scrolling through my Instagram feed.

What is the genre and source of the media? (e.g. meme created by @gofindfun; advertisement in my feed)

• The genre is an advertisement  by Elite Blog Academy.

How did you encounter this media? (e.g. shared by @markywells; checking my news feed)

• I am not quite sure what I was looking at prior to seeing this advertisement. I believe I was looking at the different prices to upgrade my WordPress for this domain. After checking out the different prices and decided to wait on upgrading, I hopped on Instagram and came across this advertisement.

What was the purpose of the media?

• The purpose of the media was to catch the attention of people who are looking to set up a new blog and would like some guidance as to how to do so.

What was your initial reaction to the media? (laughed; clicked the link)

• I first stopped and took a closer look at the advertisement before following the link. What caught my attention was the “turn your passion into profit” part of the advertisement and wanted to see if they would elaborate on that idea.

Was your engagement with the media passive (scrolled past/didn’t view) or active (clicked the link/read or listened)? What motivated this type of engagement?

• My engagement with the media was active. I followed the link and tried to learn more about what this company had to offer. When I was on the website, the first thing that caught my attention was their “enrollment is currently closed” because I was curious to know if this website was one constantly used by anyone who was a new blogger since the enrollment was full. I was also curious to know how limited the space was. After getting into more of the information though, the company began to sound more and more sketchy to me.
• First off,  I found it hilarious that they said the course would be $997, “less than $1,000.” Wow! They’re really doing you a solid there. But beyond their killer price, I found it quite interesting that it said they only opened for enrollment once a year for five days. What business opens for just five days in a year? Well, if this is indeed a credible blogging course, then it must indeed be for the elite few who just so happen to run into this advertisement between March 4-8.

If your engagement was active, provide the rhetorical situation for the media (1 per week)

• Purpose: The purpose of this media was to lure in people interested in making a living off of being full-time bloggers into paying for this blogging course.
• Audience: The intended audience was either new bloggers or those who are interesting in starting up a blog. This does not seem like something an already established blogger would need.
• Genre: The medium used was Instagram, and the genre used was an advertisement.
• Context: This was being promoted and discussed by anyone who comes across it in their Instagram feed. I wish I would have taken the time to scroll through some of the comments to see what others were saying, but unfortunately I did not.
• Exigence: This media focused on helping new bloggers get the best out of their passion. It appeared as a way to help people get the best out of their blog. Whether the media is credible or not required further investigating/researching.
• Subject: The subject of this media was the promotion of ways to improve and monetizing a blog.

Media 2:

Where did you view or hear the media?

• I came across this second media while scrolling through my Facebook feed.

What is the genre and source of the media? (e.g. meme created by @gofindfun; advertisement in my feed)

• The original genre was an article written by Dave Copeland for Work and Money. On Facebook it was shared as a link to the original source.

How did you encounter this media? (e.g. shared by @markywells; checking my news feed)

• This link was shared on Facebook by Carlos.

What was the purpose of the media?

• The purpose of the media was to raise awareness about potentially poor career path choices.

What was your initial reaction to the media? (laughed; clicked the link)

• I honestly just wanted to make sure anything that I liked or aspired to be was not on that list, so I clicked the link and scrolled through the professions that are listed.

Was your engagement with the media passive (scrolled past/didn’t view) or active (clicked the link/read or listened)? What motivated this type of engagement?

• My engagement with the media was somewhat active. I did click on the link, but once I was at the source, I was somewhat more passive. I scrolled past careers I was not interested in, not really caring why those professions were “dying,” but I did stop at professions I found interesting and read what rationale Copeland had for the downfall in those professions.

Media 3:

Where did you view or hear the media?

• I came across this third media while scrolling through my Facebook feed.

What is the genre and source of the media? (e.g. meme created by @gofindfun; advertisement in my feed)

• The genre was an advertisement for a Udemy writing course.

How did you encounter this media? (e.g. shared by @markywells; checking my news feed)

• This was another writing course media advertisement that started to show up on my Facebook feed ever since I looked into the Masterclass course by Neil Gaiman for my first digital journal entry.

What was the purpose of the media?

• The purpose of the media was to draw in anyone who wanted to become a better writer into following the link and spending time looking through the different courses they had to offer.

What was your initial reaction to the media? (laughed; clicked the link)

• Like with Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass course, I stopped and followed the link for this course as well. Since I do want to look into taking more creative writing workshops and conferences post-graduate school, I wanted to see what all was out there.

Was your engagement with the media passive (scrolled past/didn’t view) or active (clicked the link/read or listened)? What motivated this type of engagement?

• My engagement with the media was somewhat active. I knew I was not going to sign up for anything at the moment given that I am still in graduate school, but I spent some time looking at the different courses they offer. I actually almost purchased one of courses just to see what it was about since there is apparently a sale where all courses are just $10.99, but I did not find one that I had to have.

Media 4:

Where did you view or hear the media?

• I came across this next media while scrolling through my Facebook feed.

What is the genre and source of the media? (e.g. meme created by @gofindfun; advertisement in my feed)

• The genre was a Facebook post that linked to a news story.

How did you encounter this media? (e.g. shared by @markywells; checking my news feed)

• I was not quite sure how I came about this media, which is why I wanted to share it. Apparently, someone that I am friends with on Facebook got mentioned in a comment for this news report, and for some reason, Facebook decided I should be aware. I do not generally pay much attention to my feed on Facebook and of who gets tagged or mentioned where, but I found it strange that I needed to know where someone that I do not even engage with on Facebook was mentioned.

What was the purpose of the media?

• The purpose of this media was to report on the president’s recent actions regarding the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

What was your initial reaction to the media? (laughed; clicked the link)

• When I came across this media, I stopped scrolling and read the information posted before following the link. Now, I did follow the link, but I honestly did not pay much attention reading the full story.

Was your engagement with the media passive (scrolled past/didn’t view) or active (clicked the link/read or listened)? What motivated this type of engagement?

• My engagement with the media was somewhat active. My engagement was active enough to stop and read what the post was about and to even follow the link. But I will admit that my engagement was not enough to actually read the full story and to do my own research regarding the topic covered in the story. I did not have the time to do so or else I would have.

Media 5:

Where did you view or hear the media?

• My fifth media is a video that I came across in my Facebook feed.

What is the genre and source of the media? (e.g. meme created by @gofindfun; advertisement in my feed)

• The genre for this media is a video. The original source of the video was created by Scrantonicity “The Office” Memes and More.

How did you encounter this media? (e.g. shared by @markywells; checking my news feed)

• This media was shared by Katherine on Facebook.

What was the purpose of the media?

• The purpose of the media was to entertain and show some of the backstage moments of The Office.

What was your initial reaction to the media? (laughed; clicked the link)

• I immediately clicked on it. I love blooper videos and could not pass this one up.

Was your engagement with the media passive (scrolled past/didn’t view) or active (clicked the link/read or listened)? What motivated this type of engagement?

• My engagement with the media was active. I first clicked on the video and watched the whole thing. I then scrolled through some of the comments to see what others had to say about the video.