Reflective Piece (Unit X)

I did my best to attend every lecture, seminar and cinema screening I could. I found the cinema trips useful; as I had something to write about, and enjoyable. I also felt the lectures on blogging, particularly the Noel Mellor lecture, was extremely useful as it helped shape the way I approached all my blog posts. By keeping a media diary, I was able to see what genres of program and which types of media I did not consume as often and this helped broaden the scope of my media consumption.

I noticed, through my media diary, that early on in my work I stuck almost exclusively to consuming limited media which inevitably influenced the content of my blog and discussions. I focused mainly on reviewing music and films. By reflecting on my media diary I noticed the limitations in my work. By the second week I made an active attempt to leave my comfort zone and engage in a wider variety of media. I began gaming and watching reality television and though I did not necessarily enjoy the latter, I found it far easier to write.

I usually communicated my ideas by talking directly, both in and outside of seminars, or text messaging my peers. I think the fact I did not use social media as a platform to do this demonstrates the limited nature of my engagement to certain types of media.

By attending the blogging lectures and researching and watching other bloggers and writers, I feel I have developed a more unique writing style. The unit has demonstrated to me the volume of opinions and thoughts about all types of media communicated through online mediums. The blogging element of the unit is something that interested me as I enjoy writing and hope to perhaps one day pursue a career in journalism.

Reflective Piece (Group Work)

During the group section of the Unit X project I worked with two other students to produce infographics. We would meet to discuss which infographics we would produce, meet again to share our own individual efforts and once more to perfect our final choice for submission. 

By dividing roles equally and attempting to create an individual piece each I found that the group was able to select the best qualities of each infographic and therefore amalgamate these aspects to come out with the best possible result. Though at first we all assigned roles based on producing parts of a single infographic, we soon found this an impractical way of producing an infographic; the contrast in style between our individual pieces made for poor and often messy looking infographic. By each producing an infographic each, we found the quality of our work to improve. 

Our initial attempts to assign roles garnered lower quality work. We found that sharing duties rather than attempting them alone to be more effective. We approached the infographics the same way, in so far as our method of work once we established an effective procedure did not change. We decided and selected our topics by looking at trending news items on various news websites as well as by viewing social media. When we had a conflict or disagreement on what to select we would observe what is more topical and relevant to the week.

Overall I was pleased with the collaboration. Group work is significantly different from individual work and, though it is not always your own ideas being used, being able to collaborate creatively created, in my mind, better work. Working in a group has left me able to develop ideas further with more effect which is a skill I acquired through regular discussions regarding our group work. Though I felt our group were successful in producing our infographics I felt that had we began sharing duties rather than attempt to work more individually we would have got off to a better and quicker start. The nature of the unit meant that I was engaging in lots of media, which helped my approach. However I do feel that diversifying my media consumption further would have helped.

Footballing Infograph

With The Premier League over, this infograph looks back at some of the biggest calamities and disasters of the 2013/14 season.

Banksy Infograph

Sign Of The Times

When the recession hit back in December 2007 many were hit hard by the banking failures. It wasn’t long before men and women were out of the job and businesses were struggling. Seven years later, the shadow of the recession still looms over Great Britain and has severely affected the job market. In fact, around 20% of young people (men and women between the age of 16 and 25) are unemployed. This is the highest rate of unemployment since 1997. With youth unemployment costing £4.7 billion a year, few could laugh at the situation... Few with the exception of BBC 3!

Invasion of the Job Snatchers is a six part series that chronicles unemployed young men and women competing for jobs in the town of Christchurch. In the current job market this seemed to me like a poor idea for television; on paper it seemed sure to irk and irritate as well as make light of what is honestly a dire situation in the United Kingdom.  The difference between a programme like Invasion of the job Snatchers and the X Factor is the latter programme deals in hopes and dreams. With the amount of TV talent shows on air these days it is arguable that we, as an audience, have become somewhat desensitised to the shattering of peoples hopes and dreams. A failure to achieve a dream does not shock. Invasion of the job Snatchers instead deals in people’s livelihoods and to see someone fail to achieve a job is truly worrying. When a Britain’s got talent or X Factor contestant is voted off or otherwise loses it is not the end of their job. Very rarely does a runner up or contestant fail to achieve some small musical or entertainment career, One Direction being a primer example of this. When the young people who took part in Invasion of the Job Snatchers left the show there was a strong sense that they would continue to struggle to find work. One contestant named Benny Cracknell, a flamboyant and eccentric but hard working employee, failed to get a job simply because there was not one available for him, a sad fact about today’s job market. Other contestants included Carl Owen, a young man with a criminal record who had lived on the streets as a homeless youth, and Adam Pike, who had been made redundant and could not find work due to his lack of qualifications.

I did however find that I enjoyed the programme. It was extremely cathartic to see contestants such as the single father Sean Blain succeed and gain his job in a garden centre. It was also easy to relate with some of the employer’s anger and irritation; for example the contestant Rachel was continuously late managed to cry her way into a job before throwing away the contract she was offered at the end of the programme. The programme did raise a few important issues however. The youth of today really did seem to have an issue with laziness, rudeness, and sense of entitlement. Though some candidates were obviously picked to juxtapose the conservative town of Christchurch and create a conflict, Britain's youth came across as utterly hopeless and unemployable for the most part. Perhaps BBC 3 didn’t create an entertainment show, but instead have present us with a cutting edge social study.

Same-sex Marriage Infograph

An info graph detailing the current status of Same-Sex Marriage and specifically in the United Kingdom.

Roger The Alien Infograph

American Dad Info graph

With American Dad moving to TBS in summer, this info graph provides all the information concerning the many disguises worn by Roger the Alien.