Oscar Grant's Case - Discussion Board Experience

I enjoyed my experience of discussing the Oscar Grant case on D2L. It was nice to what other people thought about the incident and how they reacted to it. I was surprised at how many people said they have never heard of the Oscar Grant shooting before this assignment. Also, it was interesting to see what everybody else said what they would have done in the situation, whether to record the incident for proof of injustice, or to get involved and try to help and save Grant.

After reading the article, I was shocked to learn about this incident, but seeing the actual footage made me agree even more with the fact that YouTube and citizen journalists are very important to society and to the things that can happen within them.  If it weren't for this actual footage, that cop probably wouldn't have gone to jail.    

Just like in the first video of this post, the actual footage of the shooting was very shocking. With professional news media telling the story and the facts of the situation, might have helped a person understand more of the circumstances if they have not already heard of the incident.

Social Media: Implications Re-visited

Shirky's presentation really made me consider more about how people are communicating and socializing with each other  through new media technology.  I guess lately I have not even realized how much I rely on new media technology such as Facebook, Twitter, and texting.  I think this is because I have grown up with it and it seems natural to use these technologies, I don't think twice when I contact friends or family through Facebook, but not too long ago it seems as if talking on the phone was the primary way of contacting people using technology.

I also really liked how Shirky said that there are more amateurs than professionals who communicate information to the world.  I feel like I have already understood this concept, but Shirky put it into words that make a lot of sense, he explained it very well.    

Henry Jenkins Video

I suppose I never realized that the biggest non-fiction success of transmedia story telling is the Obama campaign.   Obama became a huge mass media icon by becoming involved in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and even texting campaigns.  Now looking back, it was a brilliant idea to project his campaigns through those new media technologies since they are becoming a way of life for a huge number of people.

Henry Jenkins Interview Video

I really liked how Jenkins explained in detail the exact difference of two collective intelligences, Wikipedia and encyclopedias.  Wikipedia is the process of collected intelligences, and the quality of data and information comes along with time.  On the other hand, encyclopedias are products of expert systems.

Usability Test (mtv.com)

1.  Play the game "Jersey Shore Quiz" and share it with a friend.
2.  Watch the music video "Can't Be Friends" by Trey Songz.
3.  Watch the interview "What does Trey Songz look for in a Woman?" and share it to Facebook.
4.  Watch "16 and Pregnant" episode 216 and join the chat discussion with your Facebook account.
5.  Find the news article named "Call of Duty: Black Ops- Zombies Mode Survival Guide" and comment on it.
6.  Find the page where you can purchase the "MTV Heart Tank - Girls" and add it to your cart.


I had my boyfriend Kyle take my usability test on mtv.com.  He doesn't ever go on that site so it was a good one for him to actually work at.  He did pretty good navigating around the different pages without using the search bar.  The only thing he had a little trouble with was figuring out how to join in on the discussion chat about the 16 and Pregnant episode.  The easiness of finding how to join in the chat was really the only problem that mtv.com seemed to have from the test questions that I had.  They could improve that by making an obvious button to click that said "Join Chat" or something similar to that.  The overall site seemed really good and developed and user-friendly.  

Mockup of Website Project