Creativity & Genre

     In watching the Ted Talk with Duncan Wardle, I noticed that he compared work to an argument. This was contiguous to what happens in my life. I started to think about the comparisons and I came to some conclusions. First off, when you work, your mind is persistent at an objective; this is similar with an argument because you try to back up your evidence to convey a message. After deciding to do the article, I realize that when making an article you are conveying an argument. Reiterating, when an author creates an article, they drive their agenda of what they are writing about. For example, a journalist at New York Times is going to find the top stories in New York because that is what people in that city want to see. For my article, I plan on doing a general interest article to create numerous topics that highlight my creative-confidence. These general interest articles have many styles, tropes, and editing techniques. Magazines have the ability to create emotion through imagery. This can be how the images are taken, or how they are to be perceived. What really catches the eye is an impactful cover that will make you want to grab it. 

    Next, the class did the "New Introductions" activity. This really dug into my creative side. Out of the topics, I chose the bucket list because I knew I could write about more topics that are important to me. I talked about traveling, good experiences, adventures, and interest. Towards the end Ms. Gartland made us stop, but I was not finished yet. I felt like I should of had all of my goals on there but I found a deeper meaning. I am only 17, how am I to know exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life. This is like asking a 6 year old what they want to do when they grow up; It's always changing. In my case, I have switched what I want to do in the future 4 times, and I'm not even in college yet. There are probably cool occupations out there that I have never heard of. I concluded that the youth do not know exactly what they want to do, and it will most likely change anyways as creativity shifts as you age.

    Moreover, we took notes on movie tropes. These included all different kinds of genres and what trope signifies that genre. This is clearly pointed to a movie production, but implications of these tropes can be made in a magazine. Having a picture is half the battle, adding the text seals the deal. I can still achieve these tropes without a movie, because I can create the imagery that a reader will feel like they are actually in the scene. Action, drama, history, romance, can all be made through the beauty of a magazine article. With even the cover photo, I will be able to create a scene that will influence readers to want to read it.

    Furthermore, we also took notes on movie genres. These are more in depth imagery type qualities that a movie should, but it can still be shown through an article. When reading an article, they always tend to have some type of theme. This theme can tend to have a genre placement dependent upon what tropes are seen through the article. With my article, I plan on having a lot of tropes from a lot of different genres. I won't have a set genre, but I am going to convey the sense of drama, action, and adventure, everyone wants to see. 

    Also, we took notes on the magazine genres. This was important to me because I was able to decide what type of magazine I am going to write. I thought about how the general interest magazine is one that covers a broad range of topics. This was influential for me because my writing and creative-confidence doesn't follow a certain type of topic. This kind of magazine type gives me the creative ability to write about a plethora of different topics that appeal to many different readers. This is ultimately why I chose to to do the general interest magazine. 

    Lastly, we took notes on magazines and their editors. Since I chose to do a general interest magazine, I looked for popular magazines that have this trait. Firstly, I found Readers Digest. These magazines are made by Dewitt Wallace and wife Lila Teneson. They started the magazine of a cheap budget during a time of war. This was truly an older traditionally made magazine. At first, they were rejected by publishers. Now, they are one of leading articles for more traditionally read people. Wallace sought to make the magazine on a positive tone, but critics thought this was unoriginal. While this has that sense of creative freedom, this is not the target article I want to make. The other article I took notes on is Vanity Fair. This article has glossy cover photos with big creative texts, bolded to attract readers. It has undergone a multitude of different start ups, but the restart of 1914 has lasted till today. The new editor of the time, Conde Nast, introduced this new magazine during a time of chaos. It was made to spread the new age of culture defiance. This is exactly what I want to write about. My target audience is the younger, zoomer, future, generation. I want to exemplify the creative artistic features of the new age. I want to spark a new type of magazine that builds a strong audience of readers. 

To Team or Not to Team

     When it comes down the deciding what's best for an individual, you have to look at all the options and weigh the benefits and consequences. Firstly, what made me decide that I wanted to work alone, was trying to figure out how to do the Social Media Peer Account Assignment. It was all to confusing on an already confusing project. Out of all the people in the class, who was I supposed to chose to work on. I know a good amount of people from class, but looking over their social media got a little personal for a school assignment. After thorough research of my classmates social media, their was no real indication of desirable traits for collaboration. Although other classmates might have had a different outcome, it is pretty much assumed, being a user of social media, that most social media post have no correlation with showing off desirable group qualities. This has led me to conclude, through the Social Media Peer Account Assignment, that working with a group of people based off their social media is not beneficial to myself. 

    Also, we completed another team-building exercise called the Lost At Sea Assignment. Your goal for this was to come up with a grading of devices you would need if you were stranded at sea. We first picked our decisions then compared with other people. I didn't know anyone in my group, so it became apparent that awkward situations would pursue. I am generally a social butterfly, but when it comes to random group task I usually stay quiet. That was not the case in this situation. No one would talk, so I had to step in for the whole group. I would definitely say, and my group would agree, that I was the leader voice wise for the collaboration. As a group we determined together how we would rank as a team, and nobody took charge so most of the rankings were similar to mine. It was so bad that some people in the group barely talked at all. I wish they were more talkative, but you can't force someone to talk if they don't want to. In the end we all agreed on our rankings and then everyone went quiet until we were let back into class. If we were to do an assignment like that again, I would probably not collaborate with any of them. When working with other people, it is imperative to be a vocalizer to get things done. I realized that most people in my class aren't vocalizers. This is due mostly to the fact that they are all underclassman while I'm a upperclassman. So they probably expect me to do most of the talking, which seemed to be the case. From this experience, working in a bigger group was even more confusing than with a partner. 

    Overall, my experiences with these group assignments made me realize that not many people follow the five pillars that Becker discusses as "the five pillars of teamwork: trust, commitment, conflict, accountability, results." I received quite the contrary evidence of that statement. Cherry's,  "...Four Cs of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity" were not highlighted in any conversation that occurred during these task. If none of these actions come out from a team exercise, then they lack the team-building ability and would not be adequate partners.  On another note, Becker can even side with me because he says "trust has the biggest impact on a group" which means that if people don't show trust in collaboration, then the group will be impacted; if I work by myself, I will trust in myself, which the most important trait in a project. All of these ultimately made me decide to do the article by myself.