by Isabella Irwin, #32002475, Digital Media Class Monday 11:30am

The analysis of “Bear 71” and “Points of View” shows how moving images and interactivity can be used to engage a viewer with a real time study of bear conservation, and an insight on life with Palestinians living in Israel and Palestine. 

The website “Bear 71” uses a video which engages a human emotion into a clinical study of tagging bears for research and conservation through a process of anthropomorphising the bear. This is engagement with a viewer allows them to have an understanding about the research behind the conservation of bears, in which the narrative is provided through the moving visual image with short comments by the voice over. In this website, the viewer takes the perspective of a researcher and are in the story due to the way that it is filmed using close-up camera shots, which allows the viewer to feel as if they are there. This can considered an “Action” level of interactivity. After the video, it presents a map in which the viewer can track the bear and other animals, allowing them to become a character in the story as they follow the animals.

The website “Points of View” uses video in an attempt to bring emotion to justify a political view point. The videos give a first person account of life being delivered with a perspective to engage the viewer to see life in various cities in Israel and Palestine and to have the viewer see aspects of life that they would not normally see through normal media channels. The combination of the videos and the written statements provide a narrative for a viewer to understand about the lifestyle of the Palestinians. The website uses an observational style of interactivity for a viewer as they can watch the videos and read the statements without affecting the presentation of the website or the story itself. This is considered first level of interactivity.

Both websites use videos to engage a viewer, however the interactivity for both websites are different with one being Action based, and the other being observational.

•  National Film Board of Canada. “Bear 71.” 2012, Accessed August ,21, 2019. http://bear71.nfb.ca/#/bear71 
•  Zohar Kfir and Pierre Sébastien. “Points of View.” 2014, Accessed August ,21, 2019. http://points-of-view.net/en/ 
• Ryan, M.L (2011). ‘Peeling the interactive onion: Levels of user participation in the narrative text’. In Ruth Page and Bronwen Thomas (eds.) New Narratives: Theory and Practice (pp 35-62). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

Today we talked about the 4 levels of interactivity.