Remediating for Short Form - Reflection

When attempting to cover Rugby League news stories in a microblogging format I found maintaining the balance of covering the whole topic while maintaining a character limit a difficult challenge. To overcome the limited character count, I aimed to use fewer words while still maintaining the core message of the stories. To best use my character count, I opted for engaging and exciting words to draw the attention of the viewer and potentially increase further engagement. My primary focus when writing the article summaries was the use of intriguing wording, as capturing readers attention on a platform possessing unlimited content to scroll through requires a compelling approach to stand out among the crowd.  

 

Due to the limited character count, including hashtags that would have the greatest reach and boost engagement was critical. Rather than having a series of hashtags that may clutter the post and detract from the character count, I opted to go for the more general ‘#NRL’ to reach a broad range of fans of the sport. As my posts were on issues of interest to anyone who follows NRL, I believe that this reach likely led to increased engagement and visibility for my content across my microblogging nodes. I also used commonly used expressions and buzzwords found in Rugby League reporting, such as the use of ‘enforcer’ when describing players in the Forward position.

 

While using Mastodon for microblogging in this assignment, I found the platform intuitive and has a simple and user-friendly layout. However, the community surrounding Rugby League is minimal and leaning towards non-existent. This significantly limits the interaction and engagement with posts on the platform. Platforms such as Twitter (X) have significantly larger Rugby League communities, with up-to-date and constant interactions with the latest news being discussed readily. While this negatively impacts engagement with my content, being one of the first on the platform provides me with the unique opportunity to begin forming a community on the platform. To boost engagement with my content, I have also created an X account, which mirrors the posts made on my Mastodon account. I have also linked this new platform to my website to boost the connection of my online presence. Immediately after making an X account, the amount of Rugby League content and discussion became apparent and solidified the platform as the better route for engagement. My posts on X saw engagement in the form of comments and likes, with comments sharing their opinions on the subject matter I had posted. This was not the case with posts on Mastodon, where the lack of community saw posts fail to reach audiences and gain traction on the platform. This can be attributed to the use of the NRL hashtag combined with the far greater size of the Rugby League community on X.

 

Microblogging is an effective tool for Rugby League journalism, particularly in driving engagement towards my central node. However, my two selected microblogging platforms, Mastodon and X, both present challenges in acquiring engagement. Mastodon’s lack of NRL-related content means those interested in the topic are likely not on the platform. While conversely, X’s abundance of content on the subject means that visibility amongst the crowd is not always easily attained. Short-form content also allows for effective and prompt engagement with the community. This form of communication reaches the target community in a far quicker and targeted manner than traditional blogging such as on my central node.