(I apologize, I thought this was due by Tuesday at 9am.)

Subject and slant: What do you want to write about? What argument do you want to make about, or perspective do you want to bring to, this topic?

I want to write about the role of journalism in light of digital media, the Internet, and changing perceptions of what a journalist does and who can become a journalist. My perspective will be that of a student about to graduate college and enter journalism school in pursuit of a Master’s degree. Without fully researching the topic, I do not know what my slant will be, but I think now that though anyone has the capacity to become a journalist, that not everyone has the ability to become a journalist. The Internet has increased accessibility, allowing people to more easily publish their work, but I do not think that every blog post, video, or photograph on the Internet warrants the designation of journalism.

Format: What will be the final form of your work? (Tumblr site, Prezi, YouTube video, iBook Author, etc.) Why is this an apt format for the kind of text you want to produce?

Right now, I’m leaning toward using an iBook for my project. I’ve been working with iBook for my capstone project as well, so I’m familiar with the program. I’m not totally set on this however, I think I’ll let the material I gather influence the medium.

Materials: What sort of research will your essay be based on? (Personal experiences, field notes, interviews, other texts?) Try to list at least four or five texts, persons, or events you know you will draw on.

I think my research will based on numerous things including: personal experiences, interviews, articles and other texts, and compiled data. I wrote an essay for my journalism school app to Northwestern addressing this issue, which I am planning to expand in this essay. I will use those sources, other articles I have collected on the issue. I also plan to interview people currently working in journalism. I will take info from bloggers as well as newspapers and online news sources to provide opinions in the field on the future of journalism.

Questions: How can I help you at this point?

Umm, not that I can think of at the moment. If I have a question, I’ll be sure to ask.

Subject and Slant: For my digital essay I want to focus on Bruce Springsteen. My entire extended family is a group of Springsteen fanatics and I was constantly surrounded by the Boss’s music growing up. The summer before my senior year in high school, this obsession led me on adventure to Springsteen’s house which eventually became the basis of my college essay. I want to focus on the way in which Springsteen’s music has inspired and affected others like myself.

Format: I want to use YouTube as the format for my project. I think a YouTube video will work well because I will be including pictures, video clips and text. I have worked with iMovie before and originally wanted to use this as the format for my project but am not sure how much text I would be able to incorporate through iMovie. Ideally I would want to use a combination of iMovie and YouTube but this is something I will be working on

Materials: My uncle is close friends with the “B-Street Band” (a Springsteen cover band) and I want to interview some of the band to gain their perspective about what is so powerful about Springsteen’s music. I will also be going to a Springsteen concert on April 1^st in DC and will include video clips. I think it would be interesting to interview a variety of people and ask them what their favorite Springsteen song is and why. I also want to include pieces of my college essay and my own personal experience when I met the Boss himself.

Questions: I want to make sure that my “argument”/ approach on Springsteen is specific and doesn’t come off as a biographical piece.

 Subject and slant: In my time at Duke, one of the subjects outside of my major and minor that I spent a lot of time studying was Portuguese. It was really unique to be part of such a small program, with the same students enrolling in many of the same classes over a few semesters and a professor who single-handedly led the program. I want my essay to incorporate the Portuguese program at Duke, why the language is useful to learn, and tie in my experience in Rio de Janeiro as how one takes a language learned in a classroom and puts it into practice. I was thinking about talking to the professor, Magda, to see if it might be something she would want to use in the future.

Format: For the essay, I want to use iMovie to make a video, as I feel this is the easiest way to interweave still frames, moving frames, text in a linear fashion that tells a story. iMovie is probably one of the easiest ways to incorporate video interviews as more than just something to click on. Because so much of the essay will be visual, I hope that the iMovie format will allow the text to support the images and videos instead of vice versa.

 Materials: My essay will be based on my own personal experience, interviews with classmates and students in the program now, news articles on the importance of Brazil and the language, and official advertisements and commercials for the Olympics and World Cup that will be held in Rio de Janeiro. I’ve also requested permission from Magda to film a class session, as well as a “Bate-Papo Brazil” meeting, which is the unofficial club she holds every week.

Questions: I still need to put a little more thought into how I’m going to tie in all the subjects together. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Subject/Slant: A product of my current blog, my digital essay will examine the key changes of comics through the ages. I will not only define and explain the essential parts of each age, but I will also take a look at the issues each age addresses, the innovations in drawing and print, and the fluctuating focus from art to writing. The digital essay will show how cheap Boy’s Adventure Magazines that were used to clean windows or stoke a fire as often as–if not more than–they were read have become both a respected literary medium and a lucrative industry.

Format: Because my essay will survey the major periods in comic book history, I think a VuVox collage will work well for topic.

Materials: I aim to incorporate information from the few books on the historiography of comics, interviews from well-known creators such as Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Dwayne McDuffie, and Gail Simone, and short clips from animated and live action adaptations. Beyond the textual, my interactive focus will be the visual/video.

Questions: In my mind, my current blog and my essay are very different entities; however, I know I cannot truly explore the history of comics without acknowledging the presence (or lack thereof) of racial, social, sexual, and gender minorities. Aside from limiting the amount of space I give to these specific communities, what other ways can I make my essay different from my blog (aside from not writing about comics, although I am thinking I could do a similar essay about video games)?

Subject/Slant:  Horseback riding is one of the most important things in my life, but I often come across people who really don’t understand my sport one bit. A lot of them think it’s just a huge money drain, and why should I pay a trainer when all I have to do is sit on top of my horse looking pretty? I think people underestimate how gritty, challenging, and honest the equestrian sport can be. I want my essay to be a more genuine take on riding from someone who chooses to spend most of her time doing it – why it can be so hard, why it requires so much dedication, and the countless reasons most riders would never want to do anything else.

Format:  My essay might flow well as a VuVox collage, since – even though I originally wanted to do a Prezi – I think it’s going to end up being a pretty linear story, but I still want to incorporate some sense of movement through the text (meaning I don’t want to do a PowerPoint). I think it will be a little more poetic that way. I also know I want to use a lot of still photos, which is easy to do in VuVox.

Materials:  I plan on drawing mostly from personal experience, including images of (and ideas from) my horse, the barn where he is boarded, and my coach’s barn where the Duke team rides. Some of the riders on my team, including myself, are going to intercollegiate regionals next weekend, so I know there will be plenty of things going on there that I can use.

Questions:  Do you think this essay would be more interesting if it were more tailored to my personal experiences, or should it be more about the horse world at large?