For my special missions assignment I chose to take a look at two instagram accounts, @thisdayinwwi and @greatwarpropoganda to inform myself more about world war I in a way that I knew to be engaging for me. As someone who is big into social media, I found these accounts easy to follow and understand as they were engaging, and informative. Both of these accounts showcase information about WWI both in forms of photo posts and reels, as well as the difference of @thisdayinwwi having story highlights. These different forms of posting changes the attitude one has to the post, as well as changes the level of engagement for a post. It is prevalent that the purpose here is to showcase what went on during WWI with factual recounting, sourcing credits, and photo documentary. As well as being engaging towards those who are interested in WWI in connection with an interest in social media. 

When it comes to using social media, specifically I feel that both accounts do a good job at getting their point across in an informational way that engages followers to learn about WWI. Alongside the informational aspects, these posts are lacking any humor or jokes when it comes to the war. This is something I was happy to see, since it is obvious that social media is the place for relentless humor and jokes that are taken too far. Yet, both of these instagram accounts do a good job at keeping any humor out of it, and are focused solely on the point of informing others. 

As well, using different post forms such as reels, photos or a story changes how someone views and engages with the post. For reels, it is dependent on the length of the video and how interested the viewer is in the information if they decide to watch it all the way through. On the other hand a photo post or story is quick, easy to read and understand.  

For the account @thisdayinwwi, it focused mostly on past events that happened on the day of posting in relation to WWI. This page had a variety of information, such as natural disasters, important creations and people who made a change on certain days. One aspect I really enjoyed of this page is the accessibility and accommodations it contributes. When it came to posting reels, the audio was written in the caption to follow along. Not only is this beneficial for those who are hard of hearing, but for people who struggle with auditory processing disorders, as well if you choose not to use your volume you can still get the information of the video. 

@thisdayinwwi provides a linktree that leads you to outside resources like their other social media accounts.  

As well, information even relates events to current well known characters such as Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. Whose story is said to have been based on a real cub who was purchased by a Canadian veterinary soldier and visited multiple times by A. A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin who soon went on to create an imaginary world for him. 

For @greatwarpropoganda, this was more focused on propaganda and art within the time of WWI. Off the bat I noticed this was less informational when it came to moments in history and more focused on presenting through art. Their posts were straight to the point with the captions either describing what the propaganda photo says or providing alt text for reels of photos, as well as crediting where their photos came from. 

This photo captioned “Wartime postcard showing Emperor Franz Josef and Kaiser Wilhelm II playing football with a globe, while different countries spectate. Below, the caption reads “Qué pequeño es el mundo” (“How small the world is”).” Although the caption properly depicts what is going on, it incorrectly informs us of the propaganda caption and incorrectly translates. 

The English translation is from a Spanish saying, while the propaganda has an Italian saying that translates more to mean something along the lines of “what the world has come to,” or “the world being what it is.” This inaccurate translation does reduce the credibility of this page slightly in my eyes. Without being able to accurately inform what the posts are saying, there is no way to know that the rest of the information is correct.

Together, both of the accounts showcase ways to engage those who have an interest in social media, WWI and art. Both accounts do a great job in providing interesting and engaging information whether it is the photos chosen, accommodations, or relevance of the information. In difference the @thisdayinwwi, seems to be more credible to me, as I enjoy the aspect of the voiced audio being in the text, and that the information given, if searched outside of instagram can be found. On the other hand with @greatwarpropoganda, the mistake in translation is something that would turn me away from a page like this.