Infographic on Entreprenurial Journalism

This is an Infographic on Entrepreneurial Journalism. It was made as a part of a presentation my group had to give on the topic. I would like to extend credit to my group members, and add the link to their blogs.

Nadeen Alfy - Link to blog

Nermine Aboubasha - Link to blog

You can find more information on the topic in my previous post Entrepreneurial Journalism

The Evolution of Social Media 2004 - 2014

New media in itself is a huge step forward for all media outlets. The ways of communicating something to the masses are constantly growing and evolving. As a media student, it is important to stay up to date with the tools and their evolution.

With that said, social media is a rapid growing source for the entire global population to interact with. People have moved from just being members of the audience, to being senders as well. One of the biggest changes is the shift to having citizen journalism.

Here is the infographic on the “Evolution of Social Media” between the years 2004 – 2014. (I know, I’m getting a obsessive with my recent use of infographics)

In 10 years, Flickr managed to become one of the most used, and best-known photo-sharing websites to date. It offers advanced and powerful features for the users. The Flickr community is active and engaged by sharing and exploring images. Users on Flickr are able to share hundreds of their own photos without paying any fees.

In 2005 YouTube was launched, and now it’s the go to source for videos! More people are becoming famous through YouTube.

There have been 6 billion hours of video watched per month, and 100 hours of video uploaded per minute.

There are various different types of social media outlets that constantly keep popping up.

There are

·      Different blogging websites – Blogger

·      Different blogging publishing tools – Wordpress

·      Different micro-blogging websites – Twitter, Pinterest

Each of these new outlets give more and more ways for people to share their touch with the rest of the world while viewing other people’s output to the public.

I personally love Pinterest. At first, I wasn’t sure how to use it at all, and it confused me. A few years later, and I found that I had folders of images that I liked. That is basically what offers, an online folder system. Through pinterest, you choose to follow your interests and upload different images to categorized “boards”. These images are also linked to the website you found them on, which is an added plus in the Pinterest features.

For example, let’s say you have a recipe board on Pinterest. One day you’re browsing through the internet looking for recipes for whatever you’re planning on making one day. Then you find an awesome recipe for something you want to try. You could pin the image from that website to your recipe board. Then from anywhere, if you click on the image that you pinned on Pinterest, it will redirect you to the website with the recipe on it.

This works for all kinds of things, from shopping to fitness tips to quotes.  You can find anything on Pinterest. The images are also constantly increasing, adding more and more options as time continues.

In 2014 Pinterest had 40 million active users! Keep in mind it was launched in 2011 (check posted infographic). Gotta admit, that is pretty awesome.

But what’s really awesome is the evolution of Instagram! It was launched in 2012. In two years it had 200 million active users, 50 million photos posted per day, and 1.6 billion daily likes. That is insane!

Even finding jobs has evolved through social media. LinkedIn, for example, is a business-oriented social service. It helps employees search for employers and vice versa. You could even use it as a resume. Through LinkedIn you create business connections with all kinds of people.

So it’s definitely important to know what’s happening to the tools that people use when it comes to new media. Social Media is definitely something that we, as media students, should be working hard to stay up to date with.

As you can clearly see from the infographic, the numbers for these sites and new applications are booming!

Things you should know about caffeine

Here is an attempt at creating an infographic based on what we have been taking in class.
*Updated

Piktochart

An infographic is a visual representation of information. Infographics can be seen as charts or diagrams or a creative image meant to express information.

Data journalists make use of infographics as a tool to represent the story that they are trying to express.

In class we went over different websites that offer a way for people to create infographics for free.

The webite that I used was http://piktochart.com/

Piktochart offers a series of templates and options for users to pick from to create their free infographs. There is also the option to create an infograph from scratch on the website itself.

Personally, I created an infographic on PlayStation console launch prices. I was able to create a chart to show the prices of the different PlayStation consoles the year they came out and compare them the their prices in the year 2013.

The website let me choose different types of graphs. I was also able to customize the colors of the graph, the backgrounds, and the fonts for each block. There are also a series of fonts that you can choose from when creating your infographic.

Apart from the graph stating the prices of each PlayStation console, I also added a section focusing mainly on the PlayStation 4. There was an area that stated the overall number of ps4 consoles shipped worldwide within the first year. And there was a section for suggested launch prices in selected countries.

Piktochart gave me the option to select from a wide range of images. There is also a search bar when looking for an image that will select the closest picture to your search for you. There are also different types of images, from clipart to real pictures.

For the section that mentioned the number of consoles shipped worldwide, I added a clipart image of a controller. I was able to find this easily by searing “playstation” in the search bar.

In the other section – suggested launch prices in selected countries – I was able to find the flag of each of the countries I had selected.

Infographs in general are used to help the readers understand a large collection of data at an easier rate.

Infographics offer information in a more compressed form. If I were to type out each PlayStation console, the year it was created, the price of the console during that year, and the price of the console in 2013, it would take line after line to complete. But the infograph allowed me to give that information in a chart form – or a single image.

Viewers are able to understand the intended information easily in a smaller space.

Piktochart offers a series of possible charts, images, templates, and more that allow users to create a general infographic. One of the importance factors in creating a successful infograph is making something that is “catchy”. Piktochart offers a good selection, especially for beginners, in creating good infographics that are appealing to the eye.

It is important to select a combination of colors that go well together. The images should also flow easily with the rest of the infographic. There should be a sense of unity with the overall image.

Apart from that, the images used should be logical and relevant to the information being presented. There are people that are extremely visual, and the use of contradictory images could confuse them in the long run.

These are just a few of many different factors that people need to keep in mind when creating an infograph. Piktochart is a great website to start with. It also gives the option to share your infographs with other users and create a general network through the website itself.