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Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Word Count: 2220 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................. 3 BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS ............................................ 4 OBJECTIVES AND FRAMEWORK ......................................... 5 Double Diamond Model ....................................................... 5 DESIGN AND MARKET RESEARCH ...................................... 6 Emerging Media.................................................................... 6 Global Climate Strike ........................................................... 7 Social Media.......................................................................... 7 Humans of New York ........................................................... 8 CRITICAL ANALYSYS OF PROS AND CONS ....................... 8 TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT AND REQUIRED TECHNOLOGY ....................................................................... 10 Technical Development ..................................................... 10 TIMELINES, WORKLOAD AND MILESTONES .................... 11 Initialising Project .............................................................. 12 Defining Project .................................................................. 13 Project Development.......................................................... 13 Delivery ............................................................................... 13 Workload ............................................................................. 14 CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................... 15 APPENDICES ......................................................................... 16 2 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS ABSTRACT "You are never too small to make a difference" – Greta Thunberg There is clear indication that Climate Change is increasingly becoming a worldwide problem. As of now, there are severe bush fires in South Australia, Venice, Italy has major floods, and glaciers are melting in Iceland (and worldwide). So, how can I make an impact? I hope to create a platform that will bring more awareness to the topical issue through the means of ‘Emerging Media’, a I will go into further depth later in this essay. My hopes are to create further awareness about the issue as well as remove the negative connotations that transmit from protests. After all, I believe without protesters the issue will not be resolved. I hope to give the general public a story behind the people who protest and remove any negative connotations they might have towards them. In this essay I will provide a clear outline of the proposed project with details on my research, plan and the process with a given timeline. This proposal will not only give you a solid understanding of what I hope to achieve but it will also aid me during the project process. 3 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS While most climate protests have a positive impact through bringing attention to the issue of global warming there is often backlash especially when it disrupts the public. My hopes are to bring light to why these protestors might be disruptive by giving these individuals a platform and reasoning behind their protests. Not only will this project bring more attention to the issue at hand but also bring it down to a more humane level which we can all relate to. Despite my previous experience in content producing and social media I hope to push myself further and expand my website creating skillset as well as a tackle area that I know that I can improve upon, such as project management skills. In effect this will make me more employable in the future and broaden my already developed skillset. This can also be a testament in my current abilities. The aim of this project is to create a visual based platform that gives the public a better understanding about why people protest and what they hope to achieve by doing so. The website will feature a series of portrait photographs and when hovered over will give more insight into the person being photographed, their name, age, and description on why they are protesting will be shown. Similarly, on social media there will be a portrait photograph accompanied with the same descriptions as mentioned before. Broadly speaking the target audience could be anyone given the subject area that affects all of us. As mentioned, before I also want to target the climate deniers and people who give protesters a negative light. This is crucial as the negativity can have bad effect on those who are vocal for the future of our planet as they might stop taking action. Without their voice our governments and big corporations will not take act upon improving our livelihood and our future. 4 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS OBJECTIVES AND FRAMEWORK Program Skills Expand design software skills – Adobe Xd, WordPress, Semplice Market Research Research into subject area and the key audience Website Trends Research into similar websites as well as looking at current trends Brand Identity Acknowledge and create a brand identity for the project Blueprints Write out a list of features and content for website and social media platforms Wireframing Wireframe the website as well as creating storyboards for social media posts Setup Platforms Setting up social media platforms prior to creating website Creating Content Photograph people and interview them at protests Content Planning Plan out how I want to feature content on all platforms Develop Website Developing website and finalising social media platforms Scheduling Content Scheduling content on all platforms Delivery Researching into future ideas beyond digital Beyond Digital Beyond the project, creating other means of media; books, gallery etc Figure 1: Framework Double Diamond Model The ‘Double Diamond Model’ is also important to note as it has influenced my process. The model will help me throughout the process and especially so when creating my website. The model is also apparent while looking at my Gantt chart below as the model helped me scope out the chart. (See Figure 2) 5 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 2: Double Diamond Theory – The Design Council 2019 DESIGN AND MARKET RESEARCH Emerging Media While the term ‘Emerging Media’ can be broad and often hard to define I believe that the term derived from ‘New Media’ which W. Russel Neuman listed as the following; ® Alter the influence of distance ® Increase the volume and speed of communications ® Enable interactive communications ® Permit the merging of media forms I believe that Neuman comes to the same conclusion as me, the key to emerging media is communication which can feature in wide variety of media. I plan on using this definition as a way to stay on track with my project. 6 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Emerging Media has been categorised into many different categories. The ones that correlate most to my project are; ‘New But Now Media’, ‘Transmedia Storytelling’ and ‘Ephemeral Media’ which will be seen through the means of social media. But the one that sticks out the most is ‘Collaborative Design and Social Art Practice’. This category refers to the idea of using a number of people creating a project together as explained in the article referenced. Relating this to my project I will be working in conjunction with protesters and activists creating a visual art form through photographs and stories. I think this category fits the best to my project and can be seen through the themes tackled. Global Climate Strike For this project to work I need to attend a Climate Change protest. With over 300,000 people in the UK taking their stance during the September Strike with over 200 events being held nationwide there are plenty of subjects to photograph. The next ‘Global Climate Strike’ is being held on November the 29th 2019 and I will be attending in aid of this project. Social Media With an estimated of 2.82 billion active users on social media I feel that the social media aspect of this project is just as important (see Figure 3 below). By having this project on its own platform as well as social media I am broadening my potential reach and growth while also using social media as a marketing tool. The project will be hosted on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as those are the most popular platforms that work with my content. (See Figure 7) 7 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 3: Number of social network users – eMarketer / Statista Humans of New York The biggest influence for my project is the Blog called ‘Humans of New York’. Today it is hosted on social media channels and its own website. I love the simplicity of the format. The blog entails photographs of people from New York (and now worldwide) with little stories from each person photographed. This is effectively the same premise as I want to achieve for my project with the main difference being the subject matter. I feel that this style and format are excellent, and I want to extend it onto my project with a few differences when it comes to style and photography style. CRITICAL ANALYSYS OF PROS AND CONS The pros and cons of this project can be seen below in Figure 4. To give you a bit more detail I will now explain the notable points below. I believe a great project should have more pros to cons and that is something I have fulfilled here. The pros are mostly self-explanatory in reference to the last point, this project can be extended to other types of protest beyond climate change protests such as other political protests and the like. 8 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 4: Pros and Cons Chart of the project Now onto the cons, GDPR is key point due to the additional workload but I will go into further detail. The United Kingdom took a stance on online privacy with the introduction of GDPR May 2018. This means that I will need to require additional permissions beyond a verbal agreement when taking peoples photographs with consent forms. I will also make sure that I am transparent of the purpose of the project and where the photos will feature. The project itself could be a hard to market, it might not be able to get the reach that I hope for and therefore will not have as much of an impact. I hope to tackle this by using a range of tactics both on my website and social media. I will use search engine optimisation through keywords for my website to show up while searching the web for the subject of climate change. I also plan on optimising my social media posts with appropriate hashtags and posting at peak times for the given platforms. Lastly the format of this project is can be argued is quite limited and could become stale however I believe this will not be the case for example mentioned before ‘Humans of New York’ (See Figure 8) is a continually striving social media page with over 9.6 million followers on Instagram and h been going since 2010. Furthermore, an innovative way to create something more out of this project would be setting up art gallery with the photos and their captions in hopes create further awareness. 9 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT AND REQUIRED TECHNOLOGY Technical Development When it comes to the design of the website it will be quite simple however I hope to utilise some current trends. The ones that come to mind are; minimalism, animations and transitions and big bold text. I hope to also experiment with the use of single page, lack of colour (B&W) and Serif font. I feel that these trends will make my website stand and out give it its own unique look. When it comes to the style of the photographs, I will be using my skillset to add a deeper meaning into the portraits. I will be using my own Canon DSLR camera with a low aperture lens which will give me the capabilities to create a look and feel that I desire. As these photos are quite personal, I will be taking each photograph at a low aperture of F1.8 giving me a shallow depth of field isolating the subject. This will be consistent throughout each photograph giving it a stylised look. This brings attention to the subject making the viewer feel a closer connection to the subject. Figure 5: Required Software 10 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Adobe Lightroom will be used not only to edit and adjust my photographs it will also be a program used to sort through and organised the photos, flagging and tagging photos I plan on using. Adobe Photoshop will only be used if I required further editing that cannot be done in Lightroom. Adobe Xd will be used to plan out my website into a prototype making the website process a lot easier. The website will be hosted on ‘WordPress’ and created on the application theme called ‘Semplice’. Semplice is a tool which is a add on to WordPress which will allow me to create a modern website with endless possibilities without the need to code. TIMELINES, WORKLOAD AND MILESTONES From previous experience I acknowledge now that a good plan and staying organised is the key to a successful project. With that in mind I have created a range of things to keep me on track which is crucial when working with multiple projects at once. With that said I have created a scheduled timeline in the form of a Gantt chart as seen below. This chart will help me stay on schedule as well as keep me on track of progression and deadlines. Furthermore, I also created a weekly work schedule which will keep focused throughout the process. (See figure 11) 11 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Emerging Media: Stories Behind Protestors - Gantt Chart Progress/Milestones Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Initialising Project Discovering Area of Interest Initial ideas Defining Project Refining Concepts Market Research Initial Ideas Feedback Brand Identity Story Boarding / Wireframing Emerging Media Proposal Plan Further Feedback Project Development Setting Up Social Media and Website London Photoshoot(s) Post Processing and Organising Photos Schedule Content for Social Media Finalising Social Media and Website Delivery Final Feedback Final Adjustments Project Completion Project Delivery Reflective Process Report Key Initialising Project Figure 6: Gantt Chart Defining Project Project Development Delivery I have sub categorised the chart into four categories: ® Initialising Project ® Defining Project ® Project Development ® Delivery Initialising Project At the start of this process I started mind mapping ideas based on my interests. I had a bunch of ideas however there were a few that stood out including a collaborative Travel Film, a collaborative climate change film and this project idea, ‘Stories Behind Protestors’. 12 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Defining Project Going forward with those few ideas I began to refine those concepts during week two including appropriate research into each subject area of each idea going into week 3 and 4. Ongoing I also created a presentation with each of three ideas where which I presented in week 5. This was crucial in going forward as from the feedback I got reassurance on what idea to go for. (See Figure 9 and 10) Lastly this brings me to the current date, week 7. From here on I will be finalising my proposal ready for submission in week 9. I will also be starting to wireframe my website as well as plan out what I want to post to ‘Instagram Stories’ through storyboarding. Once the proposal is finished, I hope to gather further feedback from peers prior to the development stage. Project Development While ongoing the previous stage I will also be starting to setup social media pages as well as starting the website development. During week 10 I will go to London for a crucial photoshoot and this is where I hope to photograph and interview as many people as I can and use that for the content of my project. With the content I hope to schedule and finalise both the website and my social media pages going into week 12. Delivery Lastly the delivery period starts in week 11 giving myself plenty of time and with room for tutorials and further feedback. I hope to have the project complete in week 14 which gives me extra time to complete other projects and to be ready for submission in week 15. 13 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Workload Moving from the Gantt chart. This project is a collaborative effort and therefore I will be working alongside people. I will be the project manager, photographer, editor and website developer. I will be working with protesters and that will be my biggest collaboration, working alongside like minding people creating awareness for something we both believe in. Other work such as social media scheduling or website assistance will come from my cohort. CONCLUSION In conclusion I hope to create a visual based platform in the form of a website and social media that will bring further attention to the issue of global warming through the means of Emerging Media. Despite the scope of global warming being way out of my control I hope to make at least some impact whether that be big or small. Throughout the process I hope to expand my skillset in website building. I also hope to improve one of my weaker points, project management skills. I hope to tackle this through improvement upon time management by scheduling accordingly and improving my people managing and team leadership skills through experiencing it hands on. To conclude this project will be an excellent testament to show my abilities and improve my skillset. This project will look great for future employers and will make me stand out from the crowd. 14 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS BIBLIOGRAPHY BBC News. (2019). Australia fires: 'Catastrophic' alerts in South Australia and Victoria. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia- 50483410 [Accessed 20 Nov. 2019]. Bruno, L. (2019). Flooded Venice urgently needs tourists. [online] CNN Travel. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/visiting-venice-after- floods/index.html [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019]. Campaign against Climate Change. (2019). September's Climate Strikes bring out 7 million across the world: UK round up. [online] Available at: https://www.campaigncc.org/20_Sept_climate_strike [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019]. Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W. (2003). Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences. 3rd ed. California: Pine Forge Press, p.322. Design Council. (2019). What is the framework for innovation? Design Council's evolved Double Diamond. [online] Available at: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/what-framework-innovation- design-councils-evolved-double-diamond [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019]. Making a New Reality. (2017). Categories of Emerging Media. [online] Available at: https://makinganewreality.org/categories-of-emerging-media- ab120b65ee5c#2d7 [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019]. Morelle, R. (2019). Images reveal Iceland's glacier melt. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50160039 [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019]. Ridder, L. (2019). 10 innovative web design trends for 2019. [online] 99designs. Available at: https://99designs.co.uk/blog/trends/web-design-trends-2019/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019]. Thunberg, G. (2018). In: COP24 United Nations Climate Change Conference. [online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/312281568 [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019]. 15 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Turner, A. (2019). 10 exciting web design trends you can't hide from in 2019. [online] The Next Web. Available at: https://thenextweb.com/creative/2018/12/19/10- exciting-web-design-trends-you-2019/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2019]. APPENDICES Figure 7: Most popular social media networks – Statista 2019 Figure 8: Humans of New York Instagram page 16 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 9: First slide of Figure 10: Second slide of feedback session feedback session presentation – presentation – first idea other ideas including this one on the left Weekly Work Schedule Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 08:00 Work: All Iceland 09:00 09.00-10.00 Work: All Iceland Work: All Iceland Optional Workshop: Work: All Iceland Work: All Iceland Work: All Iceland Work: All Iceland 10:00 10.00-11.00 10.00-11.00 Design 10.00-12.30 10.00-11.00 10.00-11.00 10.00-11.00 10.00-11.00 Prepare for Lecture: Prepare for Lecture: Optional Workshop: 11:00 DMP and DP EM Design 10.00-12.30 Lecture: DMP 12.30- Optional Workshop: Uni Work: Reading Uni Work: Reading 12:00 Uni Work: DP Uni Work: EM 15.30 Design 10.00-12.30 and make notes and make notes Lecture: DMP 12.30- Uni Work: Reading Uni Work: Reading 13:00 Uni Work: DP Uni Work: EM 15.30 and make notes and make notes Lecture: DMP 12.30- Optional Workshop: Uni Work: Reading Uni Work: Reading 14:00 Uni Work: DP Uni Work: EM 15.30 Web 14.00-16.30 and make notes and make notes Lecture: DP 15.30- Lecture: EM 15.30- Optional Workshop: Uni Work: Reading Uni Work: Reading 15:00 Uni Work: DP Uni Work: EM 17.30 17.30 Web 14.00-16.30 and make notes and make notes Lecture: DP 15.30- Lecture: EM 15.30- Optional Workshop: 16:00 17.30 17.30 Web 14.00-16.30 Lecture: DP 15.30- Lecture: EM 15.30- 17:00 17.30 17.30 18:00 Uni Work: DMP 19:00 Uni Work: DMP Uni Work: Write Uni Work: Write 20:00 Uni Work: DMP Uni Work: Any Module Uni Work: Any Module Uni Work: Any Module Uni Work: Any Module Lecture Notes DP Lecture Notes EM Uni Work: Write Uni Work: Write 21:00 Uni Work: DMP Uni Work: Any Module Uni Work: Any Module Uni Work: Any Module Uni Work: Any Module Lecture Notes DMP Lecture Notes EM Figure 11: Weekly Work Schedule 17 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 12: Wireframes 1. On the left is the front page. On the front page the title is at the top with the portraits displayed below. When hovered on each photo the captions are revealed. Top left is the navigation. When clicking on a photo it enlarges the photo as seen on the right screen. 18 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 13: Wireframe 2. The left shows the navigational bar. When clicked on each heading brings you to a new page as seen on the right – the about section. 19 Emerging Media: Collaborative Project Proposal – STORIES BEHIND PROTESTORS Figure 14: Wireframe 3. The left screen shows about me page. The right shows the news section where it features news about climate protests as well as recent portraits. 20