Every Step You Take, Every Post You Make, They’ll Be Watching You

 

For my final BCM310 Project, I wanted to focus on a topic that has real relevance in everyone’s lives, specifically in the lives of my peers, and myself, as media students.

It is becoming increasingly common for potential employers to conduct social media screening when considering a candidate for a job. As media students we are expected to maintain high levels of interaction with online and social media, through the means of WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Taking influence from the topic ‘The Self’ I hoped to look into how we present ourselves online, and present an image of the current scape of job applications.

Films that Changed the World

It’s no secret that a good film can get millions of people talking. From the biggest block busters to smaller indie films, a movie with good talent and an important message can make its way around the world in seconds and be the biggest talking point for weeks.

Porn, Pimps and Poverty

You may not have heard of the term ‘poverty porn’, but it would be uncommon to come across a person within western society who ha not interacted with it. Poverty porn is of course images of intense suffering in order to elicit a response.

The Good, The Bad and the #Selfie

Googling the word ‘selfie’ will give you about 843,000,000 results in 0.55 seconds. From what was once just the simple task of taking a picture of yourself, to what is now being touted as a “global phenomenon” the humble selfie has grown to new heights.

But First, Lemme Take a Moment to Reflect.

Introduction

When coming to a topic for my digital story, I toyed with various different ideas. Looking back over the course content, I noticed that a lot of importance was placed on more traditional medias like television and cinemas, however I wanted to look into some of the more modern media we have and the ways that these interacted with some of the theories we have spoken about during the subject. This lead me to my decision to look into photo and video sharing apps and websites, focusing on Instagram and Snapchat.

These Damn Teens and their Snapgram and Instachat

I’m sure you didn’t really consider the space you inhabit or create when you posted your last Instagram or Snapchat photo. All you’re focused on is getting the perfect flat lay of your newest outfit, or finding the right filter to make the green in your avocado smash really pop. But when we use social media and content sharing apps or websites, just like Instagram or Snapchat, what we are doing is creating and sharing a media space with potentially hundreds, if not thousands, and maybe if you’re popular enough, millions of people. And this sharing of space goes much further than your humble geotag.

Utterly Offline

The other week I spoke to my grandma about her memories related to TV. This week, I spoke to her again, this time about her use of, or more lack thereof, the Internet.

My grandmother is in her 80s and has never used the Internet. She’s never owned a computer, she only recently got her first mobile phone and almost exclusively uses the wall-mounted landline in her lounge room to make and receive calls.

In short, my grandma Doris is not the most technologically advanced person.

Television Memories and Media Space

“All over the place, at electrical stores, they’d have a television set in the window showing TV, and there’d be a crowd standing outside on the footpath about 6 deep all gazing in at these television sets”

This week, I spoke to my grandmother, Doris Perry, about her early experiences with television. During our conversation, she painted a picture of the earliest years of Australian television, and of the house favourite TV shows with her young children.