Peer Commentary

first comment

The first Beta I looked at was Lydia’s, which is a blog that talks about relevant news and updates on the environment. The main issue addressed is a lack of audience engagement.

Comment Summary:

• I suggested Lydia creates a separate blog for their DA, as they were using their BCM blog to post, and I thought it might be confusing for a reader to navigate
• They mentioned in their beta that they are considering promoting on Instagram, and I agreed that it would be helpful to promote on that platform, using relevant hashtags to find the right audience
• I then shared an article I found on promoting blogs, and something I specifically pulled from the article was guest-posting, as it could help with exposure

Lydia was reluctant to use Instagram, and I think I could have done further research to find ways to promote via WordPress, rather than suggesting they use a platform they weren’t really interested in.

SECOND COMMENT

Bronte’s project is a short film on the future of mental health, as well as an accompanying Instagram account and blog posts documenting the process.

Comment Summary:

• Bronte explained how they weren’t regularly updating their blog for lack of any news to update on, so I suggested turning the blog into a process journal instead, with a mix of media such as BTS footage, photos, etc…
• I also encouraged Bronte to refer to the cyberspace lecture, as a topic of the short film is mental health impacts from COVID, and the internet was a large part of that time, as well as a huge impacter of mental health

When encouraging Bronte to look at the Cyberspace lecture, I did not pull any references myself from the lecture or the extra material from that week. It might have been more helpful to specify which exact parts of the lecture they could use as inspiration.

THIRD COMMENT

Melanie’s DA is a blog that discusses future societies and technologies in sci-fi. Originally, they were going to focus on Black Mirror episodes, but switched to the weekly screenings for the class.

Comment Summary:

• I suggested to Melanie that writing about the screenings will give more options for places to find discussions, as they were only looking on a Black Mirror subreddit. However, the screenings give more options of the forums they can look to
• I also suggested looking at the sci-fi subreddit, as that would give more options of people who are interested in discussing these kinds of topics
• Melanie said they were struggling to produce content, so I suggested creating a writing and posting schedule in order to ensure they have enough time to write and post each week

I wasn’t sure what kind of resources I could provide to Melanie, as the main issues they addressed were pretty straightforward. However, I could have maybe provided links to certain forums with active discussions about the topics they are looking to address.

Overall, my comments could have had better research, but hopefully I addressed and provided some solutions to their problems before the final DA is due.