Exegesis

AMANDA WONG WEN SZE

7E3A1878/17623821

WEB COMMUNICATION 101

ASSIGNMENT 3: EXEGESIS

The theme I centred my Web Presence around was myself as a TV Show Enthusiast. I chose this because I am honestly very enthusiastic about TV shows and my favourite ones really inspire me from day to day and I carry them into my interests every day. What I deviate from those television shows is what I try to carry into my web presence creation. It's what I'm passionate about and enjoy talking about and sharing with others.

The central node I chose is Blogger. Blogger is a website that hosts blogs, for users to open up their own blogs to express themselves. Users then become the authors of said blogs, the blog itself being a Web site that is simple to construct and easy to update (Richardson, 2010). Once the author has written what they wish to write, they can instantly publish this blog to the rest of the Internet, for the public to read and enjoy. However, there are options for the user to make it private and available to select audiences, as well. Blogger has made it possible for users to allow or disallow search engines the ability to find their blogs. By allowing them to, users can allow the Google Blog Search tool to display their blog on blog searches. When users select “No”, however, their blog will not be listed on any search engine listings (Blogger, 2014). My three contributing nodes are Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

To elaborate more about my blog, I shall first start with my choice of TV shows. The first TV show I decided to blog about was Hannibal (Fuller, 2013). Hannibal is a psychological thriller/horror series featured on NBC, an American channel, developed by director Bryan Fuller. This series is based on aspects and characters in a novel by author Thomas Harris, Red Dragon. It focuses on the most wicked aspects of human nature, such as mental illness, psychosis, and murder (Donahue, 2014). Because of the nature of this show, it hasn’t appealed to the masses as much as other television shows such as The Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, and so on have. Hannibal, much like the mind of its main character, is intricately woven, fast-paced and dark, and it leaves little room for viewers to keep up. On a sidenote, however, Hannibal is aesthetically pleasing. It is shot beautifully, with gorgeous camerawork and lighting, skilful actors – who are not displeasing to the eye, if you know what I mean – and provides little titbits of beautifully crafted shots for the pleasure of the viewer (for example, a close-up shot of pieces of a broken teacup slowly coming back together in Season 2).

The second TV show I chose was Adventure Time (Ward, 2010). Adventure Time is a cartoon show created by Pendleton Ward, to be featured on the channel Cartoon Network. The show is set in the post-apocalyptic land of Ooo, and follows two main characters, an adventurous and heroic boy named Finn, and his adoptive brother Jake, a talking dog with powers that enable him to stretch his body to abnormal lengths and also change his shape. Although it might seem odd that I chose a cartoon show to talk about on my blog which is basically an assignment at university level, as I talk about it in my blog, it can be seen that it is not your average cartoon. It deals with oddities such as mentally-challenged characters, characters with tortured pasts, a curious setting – skeletons and remains that seem like present-day objects such as school buses and ambulances can be seen littering the land of Ooo – and witty dialogues. It is a show that deals with absurdity and hilarity, but also includes intelligent comedy, emotional depth and witty dialogue (Pobjie, 2014).

The third TV show I feature on my blog is Grey’s Anatomy (Rhimes, 2005). It is a beautiful medical drama television series that keeps you hooked on its characters and its storyline, emphasis on the characters. Throughout the whole series, from Season 1 to Season 10 and ongoing, it brings you on an emotional journey, bonding you to its characters and their stories. With outstanding actors and exquisite scriptwriting, this show doesn’t fail to bring tears to your eyes, no matter tears of joy or sadness. Grey’s Anatomy deals with medical issues, surgical issues, emotional trauma in the lives of the characters, and so on. It’s such a rollercoaster, and you can’t help but be brought along for the ride!

Now, for the technicalities of my blog... I chose this theme for my blog, a simple backdrop of an old film reel. The background is simple as I don’t want the background to deviate from the contents of the blog itself. I wanted the identity of the blog to be its posts and content. A compilation of blog posts can collectively become the identity and exhibition of the thoughts and feelings of the author, effectively showcasing the individual connections the author might have to his/her blog and its posts (Price, 2007). I wanted the personality of the blog and of myself to be shown through what I write and express, therefore I did not dwell too long on the aesthetics of the blog and its layout. The exegesis, home page, about me and contributing nodes are easy to find, and nothing is left to be questioned.

My first contributing node is Facebook. I chose Facebook because Facebook has become the world’s biggest social network, with billions of users and tons of information flowing in and out every minute. Facebook links people from all over the world together, and by sharing my blog and tiny aspects of it on Facebook, I ensure that my web presence is publicised and shared with others. This is because user profiles on Facebook can be seen by anyone who has access to the internet, depending on the user’s preference of privacy and discretion while using the website (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).

The second contributing node I chose was Twitter. I use Twitter for musings and small comments about the aspects on my blog, the television shows I chose, and to post little pictures of the TV shows themselves. Twitter has a 140-character limit in tweets that are posted on the site, and this encourages users to post tweets that are short and simple but also clear and concise. This proves to be very useful for posting quick comments about a television show and also quick updates about the show and my blog itself. Twitter also has the option for using hashtags. Hashtags are put at the beginning of a appropriate keyword or phrase, and the hashtags help to categorise the said keyword or phrase to be seen again when searched for in Twitter Search (Twitter, 2014). Therefore, for example, if I tweet #Hannibal or #AdventureTime, this categorises my said tweet into anything else that anybody else tweeted with the same hashtag. This also helps to make my web presence known, as whoever that needs to find anyone else who tweets about said topics just has to search that hashtag, will find my tweet, and therefore find my Twitter account and everything I tweet, including my central node, the blog.

My last contributing node is Pinterest. Pinterest is a website that encourages users to find pictures and graphics of anything that interest them, which are posted by other users as well. After finding said graphics or pictures, users can Pin them to their boards which are on their profiles (Pinterest, 2014). This allows for compilation of data and pictures of interest, which will then form an identity of the user. This user’s boards and profile can be found by other users with the same interests, finding keywords to find other people with the same interests, and therefore links people together. They can choose to follow each other as well. By posting on this website and pinning pictures of Hannibal, Adventure Time and Grey’s Anatomy that interest me, I’m letting my web presence be known and also contributing to my central node.

In conclusion, Web 2.0 has really helped me with my central node and contributing nodes, with interactive usage kicking in to provide quick and easy access to the world and everyone in it. Now, not only can I blog to myself to talk to myself about something that interests me, but I can use other tools to share it with the world around me as well.

Reference List

Blogger. (2014). "Listing" and "let search engines find your blog" settings. Retrieved June 8, 2014, from Blogger Help: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41373?hl=en&ref_topic=3339303

Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , 210-230.

Donahue, A. T. (2014, May 2). If TV is having a moment, why is Hannibal floundering? Retrieved Jun 9, 2014, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2014/may/02/tv-horror-hannibal-walking-dead-nbc

Fuller, B. (Director). (2013). Hannibal [Motion Picture].

Pinterest. (2014). About Pinterest. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from Pinterest: http://about.pinterest.com

Pobjie, B. (2014, June). Adventure Time: Clever show appeals to adults too. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from The Sydney Morning Herald: Entertainment: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/adventure-time-clever-show-appeals-to-adults-too-20140608-39qz3.html

Price, A. (2007). Blogging And Identity. Florida: The Florida State University.

Rhimes, S. (Director). (2005). Grey's Anatomy [Motion Picture].

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools. California: Corwin.

Twitter. (2014). Using hashtags on Twitter. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from Twitter Help Center: https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter

Ward, P. (Director). (2010). Adventure Time [Motion Picture].