See you this week!

COMM3046 Syllabus Spr 12

The fight that is occurring between the two parties refuses to recognize the common worker and with $9 billion in revenue generated annually, the fight that is taking place is ultimately demoralizing to the rest of society. With my blog, I wish to establish followers that are employed through the NFL and those whose lives have been dealt a blow by the decisions of the two wealthy parties. By writing this blog and reaching out to these workers, I hope I can come in contact with them and allow for them to voice their reactions, concerns and opinions on the lockout.  As of today, May 5^th, people are still being left in limbo on whether there is a lockout or isn’t a lockout.  I know that if the lockout continues more and more people will find themselves in jeopardy of losing income.  As the season approaches, far more then the concession workers and ticket takers will be affected, it will soon be hotels, restaurants and all those who depend on the game.  I hope that my blog will continue to grow, yet at the same time, I wish for an immediate end to the lockout so those employed will no longer be faced with economic hardships.

To view my blog on the NFL lockout: http://myviewonnfl.blogspot.com/

Since October, I have been interning in Corporate Communications at a research-intensive pharmaceutical company. As an intern, I have learned the need to set yourself apart from others and have recently participated in interviews for a department coordinator. While interviewing potential candidates, I learned the importance of interviewing with a unique presentation in order to find placement in jobs that go beyond the office and far beyond each individual project. This experience made me look back at how I had interviewed for my internship, in an effort to enhance that presentation for future job interviews. I had brought my portfolio with me to the interview filled with the newspaper and other representations of my work. The major problem with this presentation even though I got the job: the presentation was made of paper materials and truthfully lacked innovation.

A digication site was not my initial idea for my semester project. I was going to write a blog about corporate life as both an intern and a student, but I was already doing something similar for an independent study and I wanted to do something different, where I could expand my technological skills and my professional presence. Digication was my outlet for this need, so I consulted with my academic advisor and mentor, Professor Zoffel. After consulting with him, I decided that I would get more out of this semester project if I created my own digication site from beginning to end using IWeb instead of creating a page using the Manhattanville digication system.

For my semester project, I created a digication site including the following pages: welcome, about, resume, publications, presentations, community, blog (entries and archive), and contact. This site will be launched onto the Internet using the domain name http://www.oliviaecker.com. I plan to use this digication site for future job interviews in order to present myself in a more unique manner for corporate positions within corporate communications than in the way that I interviewed for my first corporate intern position.

Welcome

My “welcome” page is the introduction to my digication site, which will be the first page of the site that viewers will see when their browser opens. This page is also the introduction to the concept mapping that I did to organize this digication site. The photos on the top of the page illustrate the sections of the site: publications, presentations, and community with a large photo of myself adding a visual to my written introduction.  My written introduction includes my education, my interests, my focus within communication, my corporate experience, and my invitation to viewers further explore my digication site. This page is the foundation, only to be expanded upon during the next pages of the entire site.

About

My “about” page is the second page of my digication site that focuses on giving viewers an opportunity to learn more about me, both personally and professionally. The photos on the page are still in the same order because this particular page is still focusing on me and the smaller photos are components of myself; publications, presentations, and community. The additional information that can be seen about me on this page includes my occupational information, favorite books/resources, and photos from my personal experiences. The main article for this page focuses on my journey putting “Theory to Practice” otherwise known as “Classroom to Corporate America,” which combines and explains the way in which I use my educational experiences within corporate.

Resume

My resume has been placed on the third page of my digication site and I have also placed a link on the top of the page where interested future employers can download a PDF of my resume. My resume includes the following sections: education, leadership activities, honors & awards, computer skills, presentations, and work experience. This page does not include any photos, which was a personal decision that I made throughout the concept mapping and design process.

Publications

“Publications” is  the first section of my three-section digication page. This page focuses on both corporate publications and academic publications that I have done since Fall 2008, when I began my college career at Manhattanville. The main photo on the page is a photo that I chose to use to represent publications, a large part of my past, present, and future communications career. The publications feature the Fall RegenOrator, the Winter RegenOrator, the Spring RegenOrator, 2011 Regeneron Annual Report, and multiple editions of Touchstone Newspaper. The articles that I have written for each of these publications are also featured on the page as well. All publications have been archived on this site and photos are included on the sidebar of the page.

Presentations

“Presentations” is the second section of my three-section digication page. This page focuses on both academic presentations and corporate presentations that I have done since Fall 2008, when I began my college career at Manhattanville and since I began my corporate internship in October 2011. The main photo on the page is a photo that I chose to use to represent presentations, a large part of my past, present, and future communications career. My presentations include the Regeneron Holiday Photo presentation, the RON Intranet Focus Group presentation, and the Regeneron Walking Initiative presentations, as well several academic presentations covering corporate and communication theory topics. All presentations have been archived on this site and photos are included on the sidebar of the page.

Community

“Community” is the third section of my three-section digication page. This page focuses on community organizations that I have worked in conjunction with that I have done since I began my corporate internship in October 2011. The main article is a overview of “what is community?” written from the view of my personal experiences. The main photo on the page is a photo that I chose to use to represent community, a large part of my past, present, and future communications career. My community relations include, but are not limited to, the American Heart Association, Kiwanis International, and Kids Discover Magazine. The photos included on the sidebar of this page are the logo distinctions for all community relationships that I have built and continue to maintain and improve connections with throughout my internship work.

Blog

• Entries (7)
• Archives
• Photos-Visual Image of Written Blog (1 photo per blog)

 http://oliviaecker.tumblr.com/-Click this link to view blog, which has been posted to tumblr until digication site is launched officially on the Internet. 

How I Learned to Love Corporate America

Organization Theater: Reflexivity, Crisis, & the Human Response within Organizational Settings

 “How I Learned to Love Corporate America” examines Corporate America, focusing on Organization Theater: Reflexivity, Crisis, & the Human Response within Organizational Settings. As a Communication Studies student, I have recently had the opportunity to begin working as a Corporate Communications Intern in Corporate America. This opportunity has allowed me to combine my academic coursework with my internship experiences to create an “applied world” experience.

Within the last couple of months, I have expanded my knowledge of communications, crisis, and life.  I have worked on a corporate newsletter, the launch of an online newsletter, the company website re-design, the company intranet re-design, attended several high profile company events, and served as the communications liaison for the community relations program.

Aside from communications, I have seen crisis communication front and center with the unexpected loss of a member of the senior management. But to me, crisis can be both large and small, and I have experienced several small crisis events that have taught be many things about life inside the corporate world and out.

“How I Learned to Love Corporate America” will allow you to follow my journey through the organization theater of Corporate America. There are sure to be positive and negative posts and posts that provoke intellectual thought, which will be accompanied by readings from several different textbooks focusing on Organizational Development. I encourage you to follow my journey through the development, crisis, and intellectual thought process of my personal experiences within Corporate America.

Contact

The contact page is the final page of my digication site giving viewers all of my contact information to allow for future inquiries including my name, my current internship corporation, my cell phone number, and my email address. The photos on this page include the initial photo collage representation that is at the top of each page of the digication site as well as additional photos that represent me in my transition from childhood to adulthood, where I eventually entered college and career.

Click to view slideshow.

In my paper I did a content analysis of one of the books of secrets complied by Frank Warren The Secret Live of Men and Women. In this content analysis, I looked at each postcard and put them into one of eight categories. Those categories being, relationships, introspection, marriage, silly/humor, family, sex, self-abuse, fears, career, aspirations, religion, and other. I chose the top five categories, those being relationships, introspection, marriage, family and sex, and took a sampling of secrets from those categories to make my video.

When I started the content analysis I wanted to find out what types of secrets most people keep and feel the need to disclose anonymously. This information will allow people to see what issues are least talked about in society, the issues that no one ever want to discuss. Finding out this information, will allow people to see how this new media is very beneficial. Being able to communicate in a computer mediated community, where no one can see them, no one knows who they are, is really helping people deal with some issues they may be carrying around.

The reason I created this video as my semester project was because I wanted to show the secrets that people are to scared to talk about. Instead of playing music to the video, I have people’s voices reading the secrets allowed. This shows that anonymity of the secrets and how you will never know who it is that sent each secret in. The reason that you hear the same voices repeat more than one secret, is because once people start reading the secrets, they realize that they to hold the secret that someone else had posted. It wasn’t until reading the PostSecret blog that they realized this. There is a lot one can learn about them selves form this blog.

Enjoy!!

My semester project has been to create a blog called “Choice of the Week”. The blog has, as it name states, been a place where I have posted my choice of what I have thought has been the best of the week, in different categories. The different categories on the blog has been as follows: song, quote, picture, and video. The different posts are presented and explained with my take on them. In my explanations I include why the picture, song, quote, etc. meant something to me and why I liked it.

I started of my blog with an explanation of why I was doing this blog and what I wanted it to include. I did also write in the blog that I wanted to e anonymous. This, because I felt like I would be more comfortable expressing my true opinions on the content I posted. I further point out that what I will be writing about are my opinions and that I hope people will not be offended by the content I write.

Why I decided to do a blog like this for my semester project is probably because I felt it was a good way to express some of the content that interests and inspires me. I have a great interest for music and other creative works like pictures. What my blog expresses is pretty much a description of me, and what I stand for, in terms of interests. Most of the music that I have posted is not a style that many people hare in the U.S can understand and appreciate, but to me, it gives me inspiration.

Because of the theme of the class, and the projects goal, my blog is completely divergent. I have not seen any blog like it and I think that the blog is kind of unique because of its variety. Then again, I am not very into the whole blog-world and I am not planning to get more involved then I already am.

The goal for this blog has not been to gat as many followers or viewers as possible. Yes, I have been asking some questions on the blog and referred to other blogs, but it has never been my intention to write this blog for other to read it. What I am posting on the blog are just my opinions and if people like what I write they are welcomed to read, but I am not going to promote my blog like there was I need for me to express my thoughts. Even though I have not been promoting the blog in any way (not even to class members or friends) I still have about 10 views a day. This feels weird and a little embarrassing and makes me a little uncomfortable. My plan right now is to continue with the blog for as long as I feel that I am gaining something from it. Right now it works as a way to express my thoughts and I hope that it will keep doing that. It has been a fun project and an interesting class. My research paper has really had an affect on me, and I guess that is somewhat the point when writing about something that really interests you.

Marcus

http://choiceoftheweek.blogspot.com/

Also, this page is somewhat of an informal marketing tool to allow the promotions of games.  One aspect of this page that has taken off on its own recently is current members invite other people on their Facebook friends’ list to join the group.  New members are able to view all up to date posts.  Members, if they play Playstation 3 online or Xbox live they can post their gamertag and invite other members to play a match on Halo Reach, for example.

This page is very liberal and depends on the participation of the members.  Without gamers this page would not exist.  It started out with my personal description of the page and a post about Bethesda’s Skyrim.  Certain members commented on it and then the page took off and began to take a life of it’s own.  I would, sometimes, not log onto the page for 2 or 3 days and find a handful of notifications of Gamer’s Lounge.  Some weeks were slower than others, but the common interest of the members is definitely what keeps the page alive and continuing to grow.

This started out as an experiment for the sake of this class’ project assignment.  Now, it is something that I am genuinely interested in and hope to see to continue growing more and more.  Video games continue to be released and the classics remain popular.  I have faith that this page has infinite potential.  The more members, the more up to date the page will likely be.

I’ve had a lot of fun doing the blog.  I’m probably going to keep doing it after class is over but maybe change the format a little bit so that I won’t be talking just about specific shows but also themes I’ve noticed over different shows.  I have about 16 people who follow the blog and there are more who read it, but don’t have a tumblr so they can’t follow me.  I’ve had a few people tell me they enjoy the blog and it’s kind of nice to hear that people are enjoying it because I love doing the posts.  If I continue to post after class, which I probably will, I hope that more people start to read it and suggest shows, comment on the posts, and other things like that so that the blog can become more interactive than me just telling people my opinion and them agreeing with it.