Topic

My podcast will be focusing on how sports are an important activity for families to enjoy together. The main topics of my audio story will be: bonding, learning, and memory making that occur because of the viewing of sports.

Plan

1. Story
   1. The importance of sports/ watching sports with family. My personal experience with sports in my family. 
2. Goal
   1. Inform the audience on the role of sports within a family. 
3. Angle
   1. There is a lot of emphasis placed on the role of playing sports in a child’s life, but not much focus on how watching sports can be beneficial for a family unit. 
4. Format
   1. Monologue
      1. Monologue because I can share my personal experience of my family watching sports. 
5. Research
   1. I would need to have specific support that shows that watching sports actually has evidence based benefits within a family.
      1. Meaningfulness of Watching Sports as a Family
      2. Benefits of Watching Sports with Family
6. Locations/ Subjects
   1. I will probably use my house as the location. My background noise is mostly going to be the sound of a football game on in the house and my family talking and joking during it.
7. Budget/ Equipment
   1. I plan on using things I have at home for this, such as my phone and the microphone on my wired headphones for recording, and then my laptop for editing. 
8. Time
   1. I think I should be able to tell this story in the allotted time. My script is very detailed and I plan on practicing beforehand to ensure that I am able to get my point across clearly and concisely in the time.

Outline

In order to create my outline, I first devised my plan for the podcast and then utilized Microsoft Copilot as a starting point for my outline. I then went more in depth and created a script.

title – there’s more to life than sports

intro (0:00-0:20)

– introduce myself and the topic 

“Hey guys, this is Alexa and today I’m going to share why I think that sports are a crucial bonding activity for families.”

– background of topic 

“I’m sure most people have heard the phrase, ‘there’s more to life than sports’ and I completely agree. There is more to life than sports, but sports provide a way for us to appreciate the most important thing: our families.”

– intro music 

point 1: connecting and bonding (0:20-0:50)

– background sounds of family talking and laughing together

– explain relevance 

“One of the most evident benefits of watching sports together is that it sets aside a specific time for families to gather together and relax. No matter the sport, as a family gathers together around the tv, they are talking and laughing, and spending important quality time together.”

– personal experience

“From as early as I can remember, my family has sat together and watched football on Sundays. Even though I don’t necessarily enjoy the sport itself, I always look forward to this time together. Football Sundays are a big deal in my family and are a tradition I plan to continue within my own family one day.”

point 2: learning (0:50-1:20)

– background sounds of game commentary

– explain relevance 

“Sports are an important part of any child’s life. There are many studies that show that sports are important for not only a child’s physical health, but also their mental well-being. This can also be the case with watching sports. Children can watch with their parents and learn the rules and the intricacies of the game.”

– personal experience

“As I mentioned earlier, I was never a big sports fan. I did not and still don’t enjoy playing sports, but while watching sports with my dad and brothers, I learned a lot about competition and sportsmanship. Growing up, the boys’ love for sports extended outside of the tv as well. On countless Sundays, there would be family football games in the front yard, where my brothers attempted to teach me specific routes. Learning about sports has led me to have a healthy amount of competitiveness and taught me a lot about the world.”

point 3: creating memories (1:20-1:50)

– background sounds of stadium cheering 

– explain relevance

“The memories a family makes while watching sports are numerous. From seeing your favorite team win the Superbowl, to attempting a new recipe for your family to try. These are the stories that will be passed down for generations to come.”

– personal experience

“For my dad’s birthday a couple years ago, my brothers and I took him to a Redskins game, which was my first football game ever and one of my favorite memories. Another core memory I have is all the baseball games my family would attend while I was younger. My dad loves to talk about his memories of watching football with his dad and his grandpa, which makes our time as a family now, even more special.” 

conclusion (1:50-2:00)

– summary of topic

“Long story short, grab your family, pick a sport, and enjoy the game. Because while you’re rooting for your favorite team, you’re learning that there’s more to life than sports.” 

– outro music 

My Sample Recording

As mentioned above, I recorded this sample in my bedroom, while using my phone and wired headphones for the microphone. My sample recording simply contains what I was planning to eat for breakfast this day.

Favicon

My Image & Why

I wanted my favicon to be simple, yet funky. I also felt that it stylistically matched my site theme. I’ve always had a love for abstract art and I feel that this unique favicon exemplifies my personality and creativity. I included the ‘A’ as a nod to my site name (amkincaid.net).

Header

My Image & Why

Once again, I wanted my header to be creative and reflect the site’s theme. I expanded upon the simple shapes I used in my favicon image, in order to ensure continuity throughout my creation process. I included ‘My Blog’ to serve as my site name, as well as including my name and the class that this blog is primarily used for.

Creation

Process and Software Used

I used Vectr to create this image. I went through a trial and error process of learning to use the website and what each of the tools did, but soon found my groove and really just went to town on my image. I first sketched a rough idea of what I envisioned and then let me creative side shine through in the digital reproduction of this image. I was sure to use high contrast wording, for example on my header, I used black text on a white background. This high contrast wording is crucial to obtaining attention and making it more accessible for those visual processing abnormalities.

File Type Chosen & Why

I downloaded my favicon file (512×512 pixel) and my header file (1920×1080 pixel) as JPEG images. JPEG images are typically raster graphics, meaning that each pixel on the image has a specific color that altogether create an image. This is not necessarily the best option, as the image can appear blurry once stretched out, but it is common for website building platforms to require these file types. I ultimately chose the JPEG for an admittedly silly reason: it was the default file type when downloading my creation off of Vectr. That being said, I ensured that I had the right pixel size before download to ensure my image would have the best quality possible when applying it to my site.

My Choice of Copyright Licensure

I chose to use the CC BY-ND 4.0 license (i.e. Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International). This license essentially states that an individual can redistribute my work, whether for commercial or non-commercial usage, so long as it remains unchanged and credit is given to me. I chose this license because I feel that everyone should have access to digital work, but obviously while giving credit. For me it was important that people had the ability to use my work, but I didn’t like the idea of it being changed, while still giving credit to me.

Using Other’s Work Ethically

Every creator of information has the right to determine how their work (i.e. intellectual property (IP)) may be used by others. The default protection is ‘All Rights Reserved.’ This type of protection means that one must ask before using the work. Owners can require attribution for their work or charge for a license. Ethically, regardless of copyright licensure, one should provide attribution for any work used. One type of work that should never be used is that that is protected in the form of watermarks or low resolution without payment. Any use of this work is considered unethical, as the owner obviously does not want it to be used. That being said, there are ethical ways to use someone’s work without having to credit the creator; public domain, creator’s choice, and fair use. Work in the public domain is work that is not protected by copyright for a number of reasons: expiration of copyright, the creator waived their rights, or the work is not eligible for protection. Creator’s choice speaks on the idea of those that waived their rights to protection. Fair use allows use of copyrighted work without permission of the creator. This one is a little iffy, as there are certain stipulations to what is considered as fair use. Some examples of fair use include parody, teaching, criticism, and more. Before using any kind of work, it is critical to ensure what copyright is being used, whether it be ‘All Rights Reserved’ or a specific license from Creative Commons. Copyright licenses are typically evident where the work is presented and can easily be researched to understand how one can use this work ethically. Overall, the best way to ensure ethical use of work is to determine what copyright is being used and what exactly the creator requires for their work, based on this licensure.

What is Online Identity?

Definition

Online identity is simply what it sounds like. Your identity online is how you present yourself digitally. The things you post, the pictures you share, and the people you interact with all impact your online identity.

Why is it Important?

It’s important to consider your online identity for many reasons; a couple being: what you post stays online forever and it is observed by potential employers. It is crucial to ensure that you are representing yourself as you truly are, while also keeping your online identity detached from you personally; essentially you don’t have to post your every thought online. This website shares the importance of maintaining your online identity and provides some tips for managing: Online Persona.

My Online Identity

Googling Myself

A good way to see your presence online is to simply Google your name. After Googling my name, I did not find anything that relates to myself. I found other people with the same name, but nothing for me personally. This is probably be attributed to the fact that aside from Facebook and Instagram, I don’t have much social media or online presence. Also, when creating usernames I tend to use simply my first initial and last name, which could lead to me not having much of a presence.

Searching Myself on Social Media

Since I couldn’t find myself on Google, I decided to take it a step further and search my name on social media, specifically Facebook and Instagram. When searching for myself on Facebook, I found my profile very quickly and found all of my pictures and posts, despite me having my account pretty private and directed towards ‘Friends Only.’ This led me to quickly alter my account to be unviewable by the public, aside from my profile photo, as online privacy is important to me. When searching for myself on Instagram, I couldn’t find my account. This is what I had assumed would happen, as my username is a nickname of mine, as opposed to my full name.

Why did I pick this Domain Name?

My domain name is pretty simple; I picked amkincaid.net. This is simply my first and middle initial, along with my last name. I didn’t really want my first and last name as the website name, since it seems less private, so I chose my initials as a way to ensure it’s more private. I also decided to include my middle initial, since four out of five people in my family are ‘A. Kincaid.’