#10- Wild Card

Imaginary Friend Society

The Imaginary Friend Society is a series of films created by the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation to help children who have been diagnosed with cancer. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation helps to research and find cures for brain tumors in children and provide support/resources for children and their families. According to the Imaginary Friend Society website, "the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is the world's largest nonprofit dedicated to families facing a brain cancer diagnosis." They accept donations from anyone who wants to help fund their research and support programs.

One of The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation's most popular support program is The Imaginary Friend Society. It is a series of short animated films that feature various "imaginary friends." The films are meant to educate children who have been diagnosed with cancer about the treatment they will be going through and what they can expect from being in the hospital. Each film features a new set of characters that look different from the characters in the film that was released before it. The Imaginary Friend Society currently has around 19 films that cover a variety of topics related to cancer. These topics include:

• Finding Out You Have Cancer
• Feeling Sad
• What is Cancer?
• What is an M.R.I.?
• Blood Transfusions
• Radiation
• Chemotherapy
• Losing Your Hair
• Why Am I Tired All The Time?
• Who Will Be Taking Care of Me?
• Feeling Angry
• How to Handle Shots
• Surgery
• Help for Brothers and Sisters
• Long Hospital Stays
• Being By Yourself
• Being Scared
• Returning to School
• Staying Friend with your Friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=3nvVe22hM9g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ6zYD01pM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZGB-EYxcK8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=82&v=4hGG0NcUUOQ

In addition to creating these films, The Imaginary Friend Society also accepts imaginary friend donations from the public. You can go to their website and donate a drawing of an imaginary friend that you created. The Imaginary Friend Society will select submissions and turn them into dolls, motivational posters, coloring books, journals, and more items for children who are fighting cancer.

I first saw an advertisement for these films when I was on Hulu and was immediately intrigued by the concept, rousing me to research more about The Imaginary Friend Society. It is a great concept and a wonderful thing for The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation to be doing for children who have cancer. In order to support children with cancer, it is important that you can find a way to explain the things they will be going through before, during, and after treatment. Young children will be able to bond with friendly characters in these short films, helping them to understand concepts they've never heard of before. These colorful, animated films are short enough that they don't drag on too long, but they will manage to catch the attention of a child. The films, paired with other Imaginary Friend items that this organization is creating, will be able to help many children have steadfast friends who will help them through their journey with cancer.

#9- Classmate Blog Critiques

Classmate Blog Critiques

For these critiques of my classmate's blogs, I will be looking at three that I have particularly enjoyed this semester. I have genuinely enjoyed seeing the topics that my all my classmates have been coming up with for their blog posts because they are always creative and true to their interests. The research and writing of these posts is very well-done, and these blogs honestly transcend beyond class assignments. I'm sure that if someone happened upon these blogs (and they were not aware that they meant for a class), they would be very impressed with the writing and analyses of the posts. I will only be looking at three blogs today because I don't want this blog post to be too long, but believe me, I am impressed by what everyone has done in this class this semester.

Jamia Evans (http://the12thcloud.blogspot.com/)

I'm going to start off with Jamia's blog because her work is exceptional. I really like the aesthetics of her blog: the coffee cup background, the sheer black background behind the text, the pink/white text, and the font style. It all ties together nicely and is fun without being too distracting. Jamia always comes up with unique topics to write about for her posts. She writes about topics that I wasn't aware of, and her writing is distinctly her's. Jamia always meets the length requirements, and sometimes goes over the requirements, which is a good thing because I can tell that the topics she writes about are interesting to her and that she wants to make her posts as interactive and thorough as possible.

Justice Seymour (http://seymourjusticeagain.blogspot.com/)

Another blog that I have enjoyed this semester is Justice's. I would like to say that I think he is exceptionally good at creating blogs. I remember enjoying his blog for Directed Study I, and I think that he is continuing to produce creative blog posts in this course. I like the rain backdrop on his blog; it's simple, yet interesting. As for Justice's writing, he always manages to weave humor into his analyses to make them fun to read. I can also tell that the topics he picks for his blog posts align with his interests, such as when writes about movies or TV shows. He is always very knowledge about the latest happenings in the entertainment industry, and it shows in his blog posts. Additionally, Justice incorporates a lot of interactivity (links, pictures, and videos) into his writing, which is helpful to the reader because it allows them to fully understand what he is writing about.

Lauren Estes (http://lsestes3603.blogspot.com/)

A blog that I also enjoyed following this semester was Lauren's. Her background is more vertical than horizontal, but I like how it takes up the whole page. She has her title in cursive font at the top of the blog with a greyish white background on top of a black divider. Her background is simple with a picture of photos, yet it adds to the aesthetic feel of the blog and doesn't take anything way. Lauren's writing is fun, interesting, and thorough. I feel like I can get a sense of her personality just by reading her posts. The interactivity of her posts is also very well done. I like that she weaves videos or pictures throughout her posts to reference things that she writes about. She doesn't just dump them in random places, but rather, places them where they will make the most sense to the readers and help them to follow her writing.

#8- Predictions

Future of TV (Streaming Services)

For the longest time, keeping up with you favorite television programs included paying monthly for television service provided by a cable or satellite network like DirectTV or Dish. In recent years, online streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, Sling, and Amazon, have provided people with the opportunity to cut cords with cable and satellite companies and pick and choose their favorite streaming services to subscribe to. Streaming services have allowed consumers to pay to watch TV series and movies that they actually want to watch instead of paying a monthly fee to cable and satellite companies to have an array of channels that they don't ever watch. 

With this surge in streaming service subscriptions, television networks may want to step up and create their own streaming service to keep up with the times. Network HBO has already started two streaming services, HBO NOW and HBO GO, where subscribers can HBO series, hit movies, documentaries, and more. Subscribers can use one of the services as part of their cable subscription or utilize an online only subscription for $14.99 a month. Entertainment mogul Disney has been planning to release its own exclusive streaming service in 2019 where subscribers can watch popular Disney movies and series and upcoming/original movies and series made just for the service.

Recently, a report by the The Diffusion Group, a US media research center, predicted that "the unbundling of cable TV packages will accelerate over the next five years, with all major TV networks launching standalone direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming services by 2022." Mike Berkley, a senior advisory from The Diffusion Group said that television networks are "consolidating, bulking up on originals, and marketing directly to consumers" which is, in turn, "driving their strategic direction."

Through the report, The Diffusion Group looked at the following areas in order to create "the industry’s first extensive analysis & forecast of TV Network direct-to-consumer strategies and thus a must-read for media companies, TV networks, digital video platforms, and technology vendors supporting the video streaming ecosystem." They are as follows:

• "Total TV Network DTC subscriptions
• TV Network DTC subscriptions per user household
• Annual growth rate of TV Network DTC subscriptions
• TV Network DTC subscriptions by network brand
• Average sales price of TV Network DTC subscription
• Annual TV Network DTC Revenue"

With this new a la carte approach to watch your favorite TV series and movies comes one big downside. According to a study by TiVo from June of last year, "the average price a U.S. consumer will pay for access to the top 20 channels is $28.31- a figure that's dropped by 14 percent over the past two quarters." Consumers are willing to pay what they have to for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, but when it comes to a la carte TV packages, it can be hard to find a decent price that a consumer will be willing to pay. Of course, a consumer could compare prices from multiple services to find the best one, but they might not be able to get every since channel they want in the package (particularly the more local broadcast channels). Consumers are still going to be paying for streaming services too, and depending on the number of services they pay for, the costs could add up if they subscribe to many of them. 

Sources

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tdg-all-major-tv-networks-will-offer-a-direct-to-consumer-streaming-service-by-2022-300613930.html

http://bgr.com/2018/03/19/best-streaming-service-vs-cable-2018/

https://order.hbonow.com/nowvsgo

http://deadline.com/2018/02/disney-streaming-service-launch-slate-star-wars-marvel-1202281846/

https://www.tdgresearch.com/what-we-do/syndicated-reports/future-direct-consumer-dtc-video-services-analysis-forecasts-2018-2028/
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/14/77-of-consumers-want-a-la-carte-tv-tivo-study-finds-but-price-theyre-willing-to-pay-drops/