About the AuthorDanielle Rose has lived in New Mexico her whole life. She has a B.A. in English from New Mexico State University and hopes to soon complete her B.S. in Technical Communication from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. She is looking forward to joining the work force. Contents |
Applications for VSMTechnical communicators work with a variety of information on a regular basis. The roles and work of a technical communicator can have a variety of applications. These roles allow for many ways of adapting and incorporating VSM. This may seem redundant, but video social media appeals because it is visual. It is about the delivery of information and the visual impact that a video has as a delivery mechanism. This section will present ideas for adapting VSM and harnessing the visual impact of VSM through discussion of three areas of focus for technical communicators: research, documentation, and presentation on a specific topic. a.) Research VSM can benefit technical communicators who are conducting research by creating a more open forum for the gathering of information. By taking the visual format which is the purpose of VSM sites, and through proper integration of VSM site features, a researcher can harness the “tacit knowledge” of the viewer (Nikolova-Houston 6). This goes back to the area of participatory design. Posted videos deliver information that the audience can easily respond to. The comment section of a video allows for quick feedback, and once the feedback has been incorporated, a technical communicator can link to a new video and reply to comments asking the audience for more feedback. This integrated system of response can build a participatory design loop. In some cases the type of information gathered through a VSM site will not help a researcher looking for statistics, but can be beneficial for a technical communicator looking for opinions of fellow technical communicators, or looking for input from a specific audience that is outside of the technical communication field. As another example, a VSM site could be used by a technical communicator to develop a questionnaire to research a future paper. Instead of the researcher sending the potential questions to peers through an email, or a message in a forum, the researcher could develop a video that presented the questions that are in consideration. The researcher could ask viewers to comment with more questions, concerns, or for clarification. The benefit of using a VSM site in this situation is, instead of several dialogues from a multitude of emails, the researcher has the information contained within the comments for a single video. Sending the video link to other technical communicators saves time and helps with organization. The audience can also link to other videos that might bring up different points that should be considered, and professionals who view the video can respond with their concerns and critiques within the comments. The researcher’s responses to comments are also collected. If the researcher needs clarification on a question or point, the researcher already has the grouped inquiries and suggestions within the video responses. The biggest concern when using VSM to conduct research is viewer response. There is no guarantee that a researcher will get the comments and responses they need in a timely manner. For a technical communicator to reduce the risk, they need to make sure that the video is linked in an appropriate forum or special interest group for the research. A technical communicator’s goal is connecting with their audience. The key to using VSM is harnessing the visual aspects and the ease of integration that VSM supplies, with what technical communicators do already. If the goal of research is to have the audience complete a survey, technical communicators should create a video that visually explains the information the survey is looking for. They should then post a link to the survey in the information section of the video or embed the video in a website dedicated to the research near a link to the survey. The link to this video can then be distributed in a variety of places, such as in forums, e-mails, text messages, or websites, which would allow the video to potentially reach a large audience. Technical communicators currently gain the attention of the audience they need for research by handing out surveys, sending links in emails, posting in forums, and asking for participants in other appropriate mediums (posters, flyers, advertising). The incorporation of VSM is not to replace the current methods of conducting research, but instead, technical communicators should use VSM to enhance the current methods. b.) Documentation A large portion of documentation, whether it be for technical manuals or user manuals, focuses on designing around the needs of the audience. Adream Blair-Early addresses the changing role of participatory design when dealing with a multicultural audience. Many of the products and applications that technical communicators are designing documentation for now have a multicultural audience, making the job of the documentation designer more challenging. “Design is a complex interplay of audience, information, [and] client and aesthetics. In addressing a multicultural audience, designers must consider both the audience's and their own cultural orientation” to successfully convey a message (Blair-Early 210-211). Designing documentation around a broader audience is something that VSM can help the technical communicator accomplish. VSM has the ability to reach across the globe. A video can display information where textual instructions may have difficulty. Figure 6, below, is an example of a video, found easily on YouTube, that harnesses VSM’s visual impact to create a documentation tutorial.  Figure 6: MLA Presentation As the reach of documentation is asked to stretch farther, technical communicators are asked to reach and work with a more global audience. Technical communicators are now “designers [who] must go deeper than mere appearance and style and address cultural and language differences in order to create effective design solutions” (Blair-Early 211). Documentation videos can help bridge the cultural language barrier. VSM sites make it easy to post a documentation video of a physical act, for example changing the settings for a printer. Technical communication documenters can post images of the documentation that they have created and ask for feedback. The act of changing the settings and the documentation for the act are visual and feedback can be left from viewers all across the globe. This particular use of VSM can show an action without needing words, avoids language and translation issues, and quickly reaches and receives feedback from the global audience. c.) Presentation on a Specific Topic With VSM, technical communicators have a global audience not just for documentation but for any other videos that they can find a use for. Students and professionals can use VSM to help present information on a specific topic. Using VSM in this way allows them to “have unprecedented access to information and international audiences for the purpose of research and critique” (Blair-Early 210). This access was “once reserved for overseas study” but is now available because of the ease of access VSM sites provide (Blair-Early 210). There is no guarantee that a video will get the comments and responses a technical communicator needs in a timely manner. To reduce the risk, make sure that the video is linked in an appropriate place, and try to build up a community of technical communicators that are dedicated to interacting with videos on VSM sites. Recording a presentation or putting together a short film and posting it on a VSM site are things that universities and other academic fields have made a regular practice. VSM is an easy-to-use medium that academic fields are taking advantage of again and again. “Universities are becoming increasingly international and multicultural through cheap and accessible technology like the Internet and social networking tools” (Blair-Early 210). By harnessing these tools, they are reaching a large, multicultural audience quickly, and they are more effectively interacting with their intended audience. This trend towards multicultural thinking is something that technical communicators will be focusing on in the future. It is already a concern with the incorporation of Facebook and Twitter. VSM sites have the ability to help technical communicators incorporate a new type of social media, at the same time as it helps them reach and interact with an international audience. VSM can help present information that would not normally have been seen. If a student or a practitioner has developed a presentation on a specific topic but the conference or forum they were to present at was canceled, the student or practitioner could still record the presentation and post it on a VSM website. A VSM presentation also allows a presentation to be viewed by a larger audience. The viewers are no longer required to sit together in a room; instead the presentation can be seen across the globe and reach farther than it would have as a live presentation The video of the presentation can also be formatted in a variety of ways. A specific topic presentation does not have to include visuals of the speaker. Instead the speaker’s voice can present, and slides or visuals from the presentation can be shown to the viewer. This form of presentation not only allows for the presenter to perfect the audio for the presentation, but it can be helpful for presenters who do not have a strong presence in front of an audience. |