Storify vs. ScoopIt Entry

I now have three stories on Storify and have used ScoopIt constantly since being introduced to it this semester.  Regarding the two content curation services, I have the following conclusions.

For Storify, I prefer this service for what it is to its name: to make stories.  I'm employing Storify in my Hillary Clinton Tracking project as a timeline which lends itself well.  Lining up links chronologically works better in Storify  than ScoopIt.  Storify is easy enough to use, but there was one glaring issue I had with it for my most recent story.  While it is great for getting content with links, it wouldn't let me upload anything original.  I wanted to share a single photo but since my Facebook profile is private and it's from my camera instead of my Instagram, Storify wouldn't let me use it.  That was a frustrating pitfall.

On the other hand, ScoopIt does let you upload and do original scoops.  This is definitely a plus.  While Storify is good for an event or a person for stories (as examples), ScoopIt is better for topics with themes.  Tracking for instance is better on ScoopIt; the layout is more visual and each box can get attention with the two panels instead of just the stream like Storify.

Both services do similar things with URL use and curation, but I use them in different ways.  If I were to pick one I think is generally more user friendly and effective, I would choose ScoopIt.

ScoopIt Entry

Content Analysis: USF, Sam, and Delaney ScoopIt accounts

            To begin, I was very impressed by the USF ScoopIt.  It is very up to date and had multiple stories on some days.  It also had a very good mix of sources, and the most surprising (and also refreshing) were local blogs.  I love SFist and the Bold Italic so it was very pleasant to see the university account posting articles from those sites.  Sometimes the way USF posts on other platforms (like its Twitter on occasion), is for a different audience than students: for example appearing a tad too promotional for my taste or something.  I understand that USF messaging and social media is created for many audiences, like parents, alumni, donors, etc., yet I believe prospective and current students should be the most targeted.  With that in mind, the USF ScoopIt account very much addressed students as the main audience, which I really enjoyed.  A lot of the content came from student work such as the Foghorn and instagrams.  The glaringly neglected student work I noticed though was USFtv: after seven pages I saw no videos from the station posted.  This obviously saddened me on a personal level.  Anyways, in general the content on the USF ScoopIt was intriguing. 

            Regarding the student accounts made by Sam and Delaney, both ScoopIts interested me in different ways.  For Sam’s, focusing on urban agriculture, he covered a topic that I know little about but would like to learn more on.  So his stories were very cool to read and his posts came from a lot of his experiences which was a lens I liked.  I could tell how much passion he has for farming and he had quite a lot of content.  It has since dropped activity but Sam’s account is great.  As for Delaney, she had three topics but one caught my attention the most: San Francisco Happenings.  I think this topic is relative to all USF students, or any city dweller for that matter.  Her account is outdated but the posts she did have on her ScoopIt were really fun.  Especially all the events in the city and articles on activities she found that were free, which she commented was her favorite price.  Mine too Delaney, mine too.     

Form Analysis: USF, Sam, and Delaney ScoopIt accounts

            Overall, I like the organization of ScoopIt.  The platform is very visual but I wasn’t overwhelmed.  It reminds me a lot of Tumblr’s and Pinterest’s setups; ScoopIt is sort of a hybrid between the two.  With Tumblr, there’s only one panel for content and you scroll down to the next post, and with Pinterest everything is presented like an online bulletin board (as per its name).  Yet with ScoopIt, it takes the best of both these platforms and creates a middle ground of content.  There are two panels and multiple stories that are easy to see and move on to.  Therefore, I find ScoopIt to be a visually better platform in comparison.  (As a side note for context, I do go on Tumblr but avoid Pinterest.  Pinterest is too busy for me and not very useful to what I like social media for).

            As a reader, having a variety of posts on a screen available and separated into pages (instead of never ending scrolling, like Google images for instance is the example that immediately came to mind) is nice.  For ScoopIt as a media for information, I mostly see benefits.  Posts can come from all over the internet or can be user generated.  Different media can be posted as well, such as articles or videos.  All in all, ScoopIt appears to be a quality platform as an audience member.  The three accounts I read off were all similar in these traits.

Reflection:

            After looking through those three accounts I definitely am eager to produce my own ScoopIt topic.  I had never heard of this platform before this class, so it’s a new media I now know about.  It’s also nice to see that USF has been using it for some time; there were over a hundred pages of content on its account.  The next fun step for my experience with ScoopIt is deciding what topic I want to make a thread on.  Delaney had a great one, as mentioned in my content analysis, so I may be somewhat inspired by her.

Curating:

            I now have used ScoopIt for a little while and have two topics I'm curating: Hillary Clinton Media and Intriguing News.  I keep track of these topics regularly through different sources so ScoopIt does really well in bringing them all together.  Having links, or for this platform "scoops", to articles from all over the internet is great.  And it allows you to add comments, which is a nice feature as well.  With Twitter I can retweet or reply to stories which is fine for quick interest, but with ScoopIt I can be more detailed and can more visibly see everything.  Twitter also only lets you have one thread of tweets and ScoopIt lets you organize by topic.  Curating has been a lovely addition to my daily media consumption.