Critical Report

If I really do have to be honest, I have to say that when I did choose Advanced Online Media as a module I thought it was going to be all theory and a bunch of essays to write. Never have I been more wrong. It was actually filled with interesting information about the evolution of social media and how everything behind it actually works. I was really excited when I heard we were going to have to create an app as part of of one of our assignments, it totally changed my view on the module as a whole and opened my mind to the topic. Little did I know about how much work goes behind all of those Buzzfeed articles and quizzes I spend so much time on, yet when I had to recreate my own version of a Buzzfeed article I enjoyed every single second of it.

The mobile app development assignment was obviously my favourite part of the module, as from the first day I got way into it and even got to contacting friends of mine who happened to be computer experts to try and create an algorythm that would help me show what I wanted to do with my idea. However, I don’t think I actually realized how much of a computer expert you have to be, leading me to a big disadvantage when I had to re-organize all of my thoughts on what I could do based on what I already had. I also really enjoyed working on a Buzzfeed-like piece regarding Leo DiCaprio’s oscar nomination as I found it was a quite enjoyable piece that could be written in a relaxed way and could feature videos, memes and gifs, which are some of my favourite content on social media as I believe they attract attention, especially on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. I also started understanding a lot more how important social media sharing is when it comes to readership. However, seen as I’m not a huge fan of social media except for Instagram, I found it hard to keep up, especially when it came to live blogging. Another thing I discovered is very useful when it comes to live blogging and sharing news is Storify. Although it is incredibly easy to use and contains an amazing number of news, I just didn’t feel right working with it as it is not really my style.

As part of my individual project I decided to take a view on body shaming, a topic that I found not only particularly interesting and deserving of attention, but which was being talked about a lot following Kim Kardashian’s nude selfie and that I was writing another piece about for a lifestyle blog. I developed it as a multimedia package as I found it was the form that would get the best of each other form and would be the easiest for people to follow and understand. I looked at the topic from different points of view, starting from body shaming and self-love in today’s society, following with how it is treated and dealted with on social media platforms such as Instagram and finishing with body shaming in relation to today’s celebrities. Although I already had quite some personal knowledge about it, I thought it would be interesting and useful to read the different reactions to the topic not only on social media but also on magazines and journal studies. Overall I was happy with what I wrote but I do wish that I had integrated more graphs and maybe even created a survey for readers to answer, promoting it on social media through the use of trending hashtags. However, I must admit that this was the consequence of changing my mind not only about the topic I wanted to write about, but also on the type of media I wanted to do it with. At the beginning, I had thought starting a challenge where I would try the 10 best pizzas in London in a day and live blog the challenge with comments, pictures and reaction videos. However, I later realized that this wouldn’t work as it would have needed the audience to already be numerous from the beginning so that they could follow the challenge and react live. This idea would have probably worked had a celebrity been doing it and besides I also thought about the fact that the challenge could truthfully be carried out in a number of days and be reported as “live”.

As for the mobile app development assignment, I knew what I wanted to do since the beginning. About the time we were told of the assignment and what it consisted in, I had watched the 1995 movie Clueless once again and the idea immediately hit me: what if I could come up with an app that recreated the computer generated closet that Cher Horowitz has in the movie? At first I thought it was a long shot from something that could actually be done, but the more I researched the topic the more I found out that similar software had actually been invented and put on the market. Quite a number of brands had created softwares to run on online shopping websites where one inserts their measurements and it allows you to get a rough idea of how the clothes would fit on you in real life. I also had a look at the different apps on my phone that had a similar objective, trying to understand what this app would need to have in order to distinguish itself from all the other on the market. Conducting my own survey really helped to understand what kind of characteristics I absolutely wanted on the app, also helping me make my case to why the act would be a succeed. All in all, I was happy with my presentation, despite all of the problems that occurred right before it and that led me to present with the powerpoint in my hand. What I had tried to do in the days before the presentation was trying to get everything straight so that I would then be able to answer all of the questions I would be asked about it. While I did give considerable thought to budget, I must admit that I should have researched better the campaigning by celebrities and the costs it would take for them to become an ambassador for the app. I was happy with the information I put on my pitch document as I covered the history of the company I would be selling the app to and what made it different from others, plus integrating the results to my own survey in order to support my thesis that the app would be successful, especially within a young audience if it was available for free with pro features available at an additional price.

Overall, I wish I could have enjoyed the module more. I didn’t feel connected to many of the topics being discussed in class, leading to do some slacking during the course of the semester. However I must admit that it did help me understand what kind of articles I want to write was I to ever end up working for an online publication or a blog. Also, I really did enjoy working on the app development project and I am currently thinking of working on it for some more time in order to try and develop it in real life maybe.

Body Shaming – Celebrity Version

One of the things social media and tabloids have become exceptionally good at doing, is criticizing celebrities’ bodies. As Britney put it in her song Piece of Me, “I’m Mrs. she’s too big now she’s too thin”. Going from the standard weight loss/weight gain situation and baby watch, people have become incredibly blunt in expressing their opinion on another person’s body and criticizing it in any possible way they know. Let’s take Kim Kardashian for example. Her latest nude selfie has been stirring the crowds and creating mixed opinons. In response to some people calling her an attention seeker or a “slut”, Kim K posted yet another selfie, this time with actress and model Emily Ratajkowski.

When we’re like…we both have nothing to wear LOL @emrata

A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Mar 30, 2016 at 11:57am PDT

Putting aside the fact that this was another nude selfie, this picture is a demonstration of self love and how every woman is different yet beautiful in her own way. Here, we have two women with very different bodies: Ratajkowski is quite slim, fit and tall, opposite to Kardashian, whose voluptuous build is shown also by her short figure. However, they are both confident of their own bodies and are not afraid to show it.

Just a couple days ago, Glamour magazine got in trouble for re-running a previous interview they had done the year before with comedienne Amy Schumer, making her a part of their issue about plus size women who they consider inspiring, such as Adele and actress Melissa McCarthy. Schumer was infuriated, as she had not been told she was going to be featured, and felt highly judged by the magazine, vowing of not wanting to have anything to do with it if they considered her to be fat. She later posted a picture of the Glamour issue on Instagram and Twitter, with the following message as a caption:

I think there’s nothing wrong with being plus size. Beautiful healthy women. Plus size is considered size 16 in America. I go between a size 6 and an 8. @glamourmag put me in their plus size only issue without asking or letting me know and it doesn’t feel right to me. Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool glamour not glamourous

A photo posted by @amyschumer on Apr 5, 2016 at 8:18am PDT

 

Her message caused mixed feelings however, for while some people totally supported her message and complimented her on being brave for fighting the system, the Guardian reported that she was fuelling plus-size prejudice rather than fighting it and that her reaction was purely “self-regarding” and smacked with hypocrisy.  The comedienne later posted yet another video on Instagram, this time of her running on a beach in a bikini:

Thanks for your thoughts to the people who didn’t tell me how I “should feel” Bottom line seems to be that these labels are unnecessary and reserved for women #muchlove

A video posted by @amyschumer on Apr 5, 2016 at 11:17am PDT

Once again, the video sparked mixed feelings. Some women agreed with her, posting comments such as “As a size 10, I completely agree… I think it’s bs that anyone over a 0/2/4 is considered fat. Someone needs to go back in history and see how women looked back then. It was considered beautiful for a woman to have weight on her and have curves (like a woman should have). I grew my own breasts and made my own curves.. #igetitfrommymomma“.  However, Schumer’s message was not considered inspiring at all, as she only told people that she was not to be considered a plus size, and that only sizes over 16 should be considered that. She did not say anything about self love, or that no matter what their size, women are beautiful.

After all of these mixed feelings, the bottom line is that not only as women we should be empowering each other to feel good about ourselves above looking good, but that it’s our duty to teach new generations to love themselves no matter what their size, because what truly matters in on the inside.

Body Shaming and Instagram

While Facebook already had paved the way for body shaming through social media by allowing your “friends” to post whatever comments they wanted on your pictures, Instagram made it worse. Unless you have a private profile, Instagram allows users to view one’s pictures by researching them through the use of hashtags and keywords.

One of the latest trends is publishing before after pictures and fitpics, showing one’s progress in a period of time. This kind of progress could be weight loss or the steps to one’s journey to have a fit body. One blogger, Rebecca Norris, shared her own experience and thoughts on body shaming after posting a #FitPic on Instagram on the Huffington Post, saying: “So, yeah, on that Friday, I felt pretty damn good about the strides I’ve made with my body, mind and spirit. And posted a picture to celebrate that. And in return I received shame”. Norris also expresses her feelings on body shaming through her blog, Brazenfaced.

Rebecca Norris’ original #FitPic

This specific social media has also helped increase the popularity of detox teas, mostly known as “skinny teas”, that are meant to help you lose weight when accompanied by a healthy lifestyle. It gives young girls and boys the idea that there is a quick fix to a healthy lifestyle, something that will give you what you want without having to try too hard. One of them, Bootea, is largely popular and is sold all over the United Kingdom and United States. While it does encourage weight loss towards a healthy lifestyle by also posting progress pictures of people undergoing the detox, it does not promote self love, instead posting pictures showing what young girls should look like instead.

A photo posted by Bootea (@booteauk) on Mar 12, 2016 at 2:09pm PST

Self love has become a movement that people are slowly starting to follow and that is spread also thanks to some Instagram users such as Sophie Gray, mostly known as Way of Gray, who, as a holistic nutritionist and certified personal trainer, advises women all over the world to embark in this journey with her, where the goal isn’t being skinny, it’s about falling in love with your body by being kind to it and filling it with nutritious food.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sophie Gray (@sophiegray)

 

While people think that all that’s important is the number appearing on the scale or your measurements, it is essential that women start empowering each other, learning that what really matters is knowing that, as L’Oreal would put it, “we’re worth it!”.

Body Shaming and Self Love

Body shaming. Discriminating someone for their body type. Judging them. Making accusations.

In the last two decades, body shaming has seen an increase, spreading across young girls and boys and is linked to the increased risk of eating disorders, according to Psychology Today. The article points at bringing awareness to the ‘Healthy at Every Size’ movement, described as a ‘political movement that supports people in adopting health habits for the sake of health and well-being’.

Body shaming is a phenomenom that has been around way before social media however. Remember that kid everybody used to make fun of in school calling him fat? I thought so. What people don’t realize is that body shaming doesn’t only target “fat” people. It targets everyone, from the girl who is way too “skinny” to the girl who has what might appear as huge legs from all the training she does. In part, it’s not our fault, it’s what we’ve been taught from the beginning. As kids, we were given Barbie dolls, with perfect hair, tiny waist and a “thigh gap”. We were told that eating too much food will make you fat and then nobody will like you. We were told that the only thing that mattered was on the outside.

Barbie, but with the ‘average body shape’ for American women (Copyright Nikolay Lamm)

Truth is, there is no actual definition for “beauty”. According to one of the many definitions on the Urban Dictionary, beauty is ‘a corporate invention designed to promote the suffering and insecurity of the masses for the sake of the profit’. Every woman is beautiful in her own way, no matter what her body type. Because, believe it or not, the body is not the only thing we have. We are lucky enough to be the combination of all the different traits in our family history and yet be unique by what we have inside.

As a kid, I remember loads of girls at my school (myself included) being body shamed because we weren’t as thin as the ‘popular girls’. Today, those popular girls are being told “She’s too thin, she should eat something” or “with a body like that, she must be a slut”. With the rise of social media and celebrity culture, body shaming has reached a whole new level, with people attacking perfectly healthy women and making them feel insecure of their bodies.

Live Blogging

Nowadays, we live in a world where everybody feels the need to always know what is going on. For some people, it’s about what’s going on with their friends on Facebook, for others it might be what’s happening in the stock market or world politics.

Most of the time, important events taking place are summarized in long, detailed articles in the next few hours following them. However, even this has begun to change thanks to a phenomenon known as live blogging. Most of you might be familiar with it through the media coverage of the Paris attacks, where details of the incident were being delivered almost as they were happening.

Live blogging doesn’t only consist of short sentences or tweets, it can also be covered through the use of videos and photographs. During the Paris attacks, it was very common for people at the scene to share videos of what was happening.

Another example? Most of you might know that Fashion Week is currently taking place. Just like the previous years, some of the shows have been streamed live and photographs of the collections have been released following the show. However, these last two seasons, a new way to live blog has appeared: Snapchat. Known for posting pictures and videos that are available on one’s profile for up to 24 hours, journalists and models attending the shows now post media showing the behind the scenes and the show itself, giving the viewer an all new perspective.

 

Mobile App Development

I must admit, I live with my phone literally by my side. I wake up in the morning and check my Instagram feed, Facebook and Snapchat. Sometimes I feel as if I am living my life through a bunch of apps on my phone rather than by going out with friends. If you have an iPhone especially, almost everything is powered by apps. Never though, have I stopped to wonder about all of the work that goes behind them in order to make them what they are.

We see an app at the top of the charts on the App Store and decide to download it because everybody else is. Take Dubsmash for example: from one day to another, this new app was at the top of every chart and Facebook and Instagram feeds were filled up with videos of people dubbing their favourite movie or song. Nobody stood to wonder how it had been possible to create an app with such a big archive of sounds. Or how it had climbed to the top of the charts.

In order to create a new app, one must first come up with an idea, possibly one that will be fresh and new. Then, it is important to observe the market because who is going to buy an app that nobody else is interested in or doesn’t bring them any potential benefits? Of course, the market has to be observed for an extended period of time, as the charts change continuously. Take the new Kendall and Kylie app for example: just last week, it was on top of the charts for the free apps; today it is standing at 29th place.

I’ve personally always loved maths, so I was fascinated by all the work that goes into creating an algorithm so that the app may work. The number of hours that are dedicated to that process and the different requirements a person must have in order to make that happen is just astonishing. After first becoming interested about this, I am now incredibly excited to find out more!

Comment below if you have any information or are interested in this topic as well!

Leo DiCaprio and the missing Oscar

It’s that time of the year again: nominations have come out, people are rushing to the cinema and actors are picking out their best look. What am I talking about? The Oscars of course! It was no surprise to find a very old friends of ours in the nominees for Best Actor in Leading Role, Leonardo DiCaprio. His latest movie, The Revenant, received the incredible number of 12 nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Tom Hardy and Best Picture.

After an incredible number of losses throughout the years, this movie might be the proof that Leonardo DiCaprio will do pretty much anything to win the Oscar this year. While he keeps insisting prizes aren’t important to him, it’s all about the love for the job

I think anyone would rather say “Oh have you seen the Oscar I won for Best Actor?” (I know I would!). It only took a couple of days before the Internet burst into articles about the incredibly crazy stuff DiCaprio has done in his latest movie, including eating RAW BISON LIVER. Is it even humanly possible to eat that without feeling sick to the stomach? I’m guessing it wasn’t just for the sake of the art…

I mean, sleeping in animal carcasses? OVER MY DEAD BODY. This obviously paved the way for what we all knew would come.. New Leonardo DiCaprio Oscar memes!

Could this finally be the year that all of Leo’s dreams come true? Maybe not. The actor also received the Golden Globe Award for his performance in The Revenant and, according to the press, it was only a way to soften him up to the news that that beautiful golden statue is nowhere in sight for him. Highlights from the evening also included Leo and Lady Gaga’s encounter as she was on her way to the stage after winning the Golden Globe for her performance in American Horror Story: Hotel.

https://vine.co/v/iMAHYTw00bH/embed/simple

His face is everything.

Fans on the Internet also started criticizing his work in The Revenant, saying that if he had to win an Oscar, it would have been for either The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street or (guess what?) Titanic. Because let’s face it, after Jack Dawson, it can only be a downwoard spiral.

 

 

Video Feature – Short Documentary on Animation

As I am a lover of films and as a child I had always wondered how Disney movies were made, I chose to base my short documentary on the creation of animation. As inspiration for my documentary, I chose these two videos:

The first video is shows the work behind the 1991 Disney cartoon Beauty and the Beast, one of my favourite movies. I found this video accidentally while looking for clips from the movie, and found it incredibly interesting. The second video instead contains never-seen-before footage from the making of another great cartoon: How to Train your Dragon. While the first one follows the typical style of animation, consisting of drawings, the second one is made using 3D animation through a computer.

From these two videos I got the inspiration to make a short documentary about the basic steps to animation and what the different types of animation are. Since I have quite a few friends in art school who study animation as part of their curriculum, I decided to interview one of them to show me what are the basics of animation and how it is brought to life.

This is my final video:

Although it does not talk about wars or anything that would be on the news, I thought this would be very educative and interesting to those individuals who are passionate about art and would like to engage a career in animation. Thank you to Francesca Sagramoso, an art student at the University of the Arts London (UAL) who contributed to this video illustrating the process of animation and her own work towards her portfolio.

My video mainly consists of the art student talking about animation except for those part where examples of animation is being shown. At the beginning of the video and at the very end, the instrumental of the song “Top of the World” by American band Imagine is used. It is a very well-known song with quite good rhythm which I think leads the viewer to keep watching the video even after the music is over.

The footage consists of videos I took with my iPhone, examples of animated movies and videos that have been produced by the student in the video. I was quite unsure if to take the video with my camera or with my phone, but in the end I decided to use my iPhone as it was much easier. To use by myself, the camera was quite heavy and the usage of the microphone as well would have been very complicated. Instead, I used the microphone in my headphones as a microphone for the video and hid it quite well within the speaker’s hair so that one wouldn’t see it.

Since the videos were taken with an iPhone, I reckon they turned out pretty well with a good sound. The videos were taken in an empty work room in the UAL halls, although some streets noises can be heard since the room is right next to a street.
When putting the video together on Final Cut Pro, I tried to make it similar to the ones I always see in TV, with short quick images at the beginning and catchy music. I had previously used iMovie for the editing of all my videos, therefore Final Cut proved itself to be a little more challenging since it had a lot more features and was a lot more professional.
When uploading the video to YouTube, it took me quite a long time for I couldn’t quite figure out which one was the right format to upload.

I must say I wasn’t too new to the editing videos part, as I often enjoy making birthday videos for my friends that involve putting together music, pictures and videos of them. However, I was quite new to the interviewing part and footage. It is very simple to have someone speak during a video, but the really tricky part which differs a pro from an amateur is being able to distinguish good footage that can be used from useless footage. Of course, if you want people to keep watching the video you will need the interviewees to say interesting things that are actually relevant to the topic.

Gender Inequality – What can we do about it?

As of today, gender inequality is one of the most talked about topics by women. However, men seem to pay little attention to it and in the end nobody seems to do anything about it. However, celebrity empowered women such as Emma Watson (who made an inspiring speech at the UN in September 2014) are taking a stand against such injustice and are trying to raise people’s awareness. Actress Patricia Arquette tried doing the same thing during her 2015 Oscars acceptance speech, discussing how unfair it is that in the United States female actresses still get paid less than male actors when making a movie. In the video below, students from the University of Westminster, London share their thoughts on Arquette’s speech and what they think should be done to reach gender equality.

Although her words were great, let’s just admit it, THIS was the best part of the whole speech:

Because Meryl Streep is just that cool.

Critical Evaluation on Radio Feature

I will be very honest, I have never liked the sound of my voice on tape, actually I hate it. I would do anything not to hear the echo of my voice when I’m on the phone or listen to a voice message I have sent on Whatsapp. Funny thing is, I LOVE TO TALK. Apparently it’s a family thing and, once you get me going, there’s no stopping me. Also, ever since deciding I would go into Journalism, I knew I did definitely not want to go in radio.

I love listening to the radio when I’m in the car, I just find it so relaxing. However, I just cannot see myself doing that. So let’s just say I started this module in a very bad mood, which only worsened when I learnt I was going to have to listen to my voice all the time. I think it’s probably my reluctance towards spending time doing something I just didn’t enjoy that made my participation towards this module something I’m not proud of. We all go through stuff that is not what we love the most, we just have to understand what we can still learn from it.

For example, I learnt that the sound of my own voice is not as bad as I thought when recorded by a professional recorder that hides all of the muffling. Also, I have the tendency of speaking quickly as if anyone could understand me. I had to learn how to control that because let’s face it, who wants to listen to a podcast where the speaker just rushes through everything?

Adobe Audition was something completely new to me, although I must say I picked it up quite easily, probably because I had some previous experience with GarageBand. I had previously used GarageBand to record tracks of me singing songs I had written and they sounded so terrible. But now that I know how things change when you use the right software, I have downloaded a trial version of Adobe Audition so that I can use it for my personal project.

I must say I am quite satisfied with both my podcast and newspaper feature. In the newspaper feature, I was talking about something that is going on in the world right now and that is very close to my heart. Therefore, my voice on the audio sounds interested in the topic, a goal I really wanted to achieve. On my podcast, I talk about something I wish I had known before starting university.

Although the editing took a lot of my time, strength and effort, I must say the feeling I got when I was down with it was incredibly rewarding. Just listening to a track that runs smoothly through your ears, with the background music well-doing its designated job, is satisfactory in a way that just cannot be described.

Although I wish I had done things differently since the beginning, I still have learnt a lot. Although I now know that my voice does not sound horrible, that I am capable of editing a track, using sound fx and adjusting the volume of voices, I am still quite convinced that radio is just not my thing. See, I love talking and all, but it’s through writing that people actually are able to catch a glimpse of what I’m all about.

Lastly, I must say that if I admired people working on the radio before, now I admire them even more, because I realized how hard it actually is for them to be live and not make any mistakes when talking, for much time and effort goes into recording a 30 second segment.