My idea for how we could visualize the Opportunity Project data is dividing into groups focused on data from the institutions in a specific geographic area. As I reflected on my own educational experiences as well as those of people I have grown up with in the Southeast, I wondered if geographical regions have a significant effect on mobility rates and low-income access to education.

The graph pictured above only represents the data for institutions in Alabama but as you can see at the bottom of the image, I have created data charts for all 10 states that the Association of American Geographers classify as “Southeastern” (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia).

I think it would be interesting to create similar charts for institutions in the West, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast and to compare how the data differs among institutions within the same region as well as how the data differs among the different regions in total.

While the writing courses I have taken throughout my education have certainly taught me about effective written rhetorical strategies, critical thinking, and research, this project was the first to force me how to apply these skills in a visual, aural, and oral manner. For traditional written essays, I complete the assignment within a day or two before the deadline in which I throw all of my arguments down in a chronological outline, fill in my own ideas and integration of relevant textual evidence, run the body of text through applications that check for poor grammar and plagiarism, and perhaps have my roommate give it a quick read through. When recording our ideas and supporting evidence for the podcast, however, this routine could not be replicated so easily. We had an outline, but as we aimed to keep our podcast sounding unrehearsed and conversational to make it more interesting for our audience, we chose to favor the rhythm of the discussion over following a set outline.

Similarly, recognizing our mistakes when playing the recording back was not as simple as pressing the backspace or cutting and pasting a sentence in a different position to enhance an argument. While the editing process was much more time-consuming, it was very helpful for recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in how I verbally express my arguments. I may not have completely kicked my habit of inserting “um”s and “like”s when trying to articulate a thought, but I have certainly reduced this usage of filler words as I have learned that it’s okay, and actually extremely helpful to simply take a pause and deep breath when searching for the right words.

In terms of visual rhetorical strategies, I surprisingly enjoyed creating the image that accompanied our episode. The use of bees as the background image for an episode about Buzzfeed was perhaps a little too “punny” for some, but I felt that the bees truly did symbolize the new media aspects of Buzzfeed that we discussed. Buzzfeed can be viewed as a new media “beehive” through its crowdsourcing and emphasis on a participatory culture of “worker bee” members that come in and out of the hive to bring in “pollen” or original ideas in order to produce “honey” or digital content.

Overall, I enjoyed how the production of our episode enhanced my collaboration skills while also challenging me to rethink how I can critically analyze a topic and effectively express my arguments in an entirely new medium.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/101295317@N06/

I chose a photo of a stamp-filled passport as my avatar as I feel it reflects not only my past but also my present and future. Growing up, I moved around a lot, which was of course difficult during the time but now I realize it has shaped me in so many important ways such as giving me a better sense of independence and adaptability. Just last semester I studied abroad in Prague and traveled each weekend to somewhere new, giving me a greater desire to increase my adaptability in a more global sense.

In the future, I hope I can travel to even more places outside of Europe, both for personal and professional reasons. Personally, traveling is a great source of inspiration for my passions in photography, film, and writing as well as a great way to meet new people and expand my worldview by speaking to people from different cultural backgrounds. Professionally, I believe expanding my worldview will also benefit my creative and business approaches in my career in the film industry

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