Astroturfing

This project was a lot of fun to put together. I really enjoyed the creative freedom this project allowed us because we got to focus on whatever topic was most interesting to us. I also enjoyed this project because we got to work in whatever medium we wanted to. This meant that I got to make a video using Adobe Rush, which is a video editing software I am familiar with. I have used Rush a few times before, but I was excited for this opportunity to get to know more about the software and expand my knowledge. In also enjoyed working with Dana on this project. I knew Dana outside of this class, so it was easy to work together. The hardest part of this project was finding times to meet up and work together since we are both so busy.

Selecting a topic for this was a lot of fun since we had so much freedom to talk about whatever we wanted. We actually selected our medium before our topic. We decided to do a newscast style video because we thought that it would be a good medium to use. I have experience video editing, so it was convenient to edit, and we are both comfortable speaking in front of a camera. We decided to pick a topic that you might see on a news show.

We picked one specific example of astroturfing and wrote a news segment about it, including information about how to detect astroturfing. Focusing on one specific example made it seem more like a real news segment, and also made the topic easy to relate to.

I personally did not feel like there was a lot of deadline pressure in this assignment. Although there were a lot of steps that needed to be taken to ensure the project came out well, we were given ample time to work together and brainstorm ideas to make sure we created the best possible final product. Additionally, I feel that I work well under pressure, so I did not feel that this affected my work quality.

I was happy that Dana and I were able to collaborate in person for our project. While I am very used to it after over a year, I do not prefer zoom calls as a way of communicating. I much prefer to work in person with other people because I think it helps me be more creative. I also think that the style of media we chose to create would not have worked as well and would have been much more challenging to edit if we had filmed ourselves separately. Additionally, we wanted our video to feel like we were having a real conversation the way news anchors do on set. I think the conversation would have felt really forced if we had filmed separately.

Overall, I am proud of the outcome of our project. I enjoyed the process of working together with Dana and I think this project really helped me grow as a student. I was able to learn a new story about astroturfing and further explore video editing as well.