IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?By Jodie O’Neill

Press the speaker to listen to the evaluation

WHAT MEDIA PLATFORM I HAVE USED TO PRESENT VIDEO AND ANCILLARY TEXTS

I presented my video in an expository inspired documentary. This platform helped to portray the message of the documentary, which is how and why online culture has effected society and it certainly raised more questions that could be discussed in an follow-up episode.

My media product certainly adheres to the expository tone, as it demonstrates a clear argument to both positive and negative attitudes towards Tumblr.

The documentary highlights exactly what is occurring on the site and exposes the problems of obsessive social networking and cultures.

WHAT MEDIA PLATFORM I HAVE USED TO PRESENT VIDEO AND ANCILLARY TEXTS... CONTINUED

For my first ancillary task, I decided to create a radio advert to help gain publicity for the documentary. I chose radio as a media platform as it is a traditional format that has proven to be very successful in capturing public attention for decades.

This particular media enabled my creative side to flourish, as I had complete control of how to make the advert exciting and original, while sticking to the typical conventions of radio documentary adverts, which are:

Discussing the nature and content of the product Including snippets from the product in order for the

audience to understand exactly what the tone is Stating bold phrases and questions, making the

audience want to learn more.

WHAT ARE THE GENRE CONVENTIONS? The genre conventions for my documentary can be split into two

segments: the traditional documentary conventions and the modern documentary conventions.

Traditional expository methods - The documentary clearly co-insides with the aims of exposing controversial subjects. The documentarian declares the argument but remain subjective throughout and does not side with one side of the argument, whereas, some of the other figures may do, for example, Mr Preston agrees that online cultures can become obsessive.

Another traditional method is the documentarian directly speaking to the audience and declaring what is going to happen next. Modern documentaries tend to have a “hands-on” documentarian who gets involved with the interviewees, such as Louis Theroux in his “Weird Weekend” documentaries and Billie JD Porter in her “Venezuela’s King of Beauty” Documentary. However, my documentary has a style in which the documentarian takes a step back and allows the debate to naturally develop.

The documentarian remains in third person throughout, with exception to when I am moving to different locations. The documentarian does drive the documentary but through subtle means. The questions may be asked to gain a specific reaction, for example, when I asked Anna if she was part of any fandom's and she answered yes. This shows the my documentary exposed areas of online cultures through traditional means.

MODERN CONVENTIONS

My documentary does have modern aspects in relation to the expository genre. Modern documentaries nearly always include the hash tag phrase at the bottom of the screen, which is included in order to keep the debate alive online, as well as continuing to increase the viewer numbers. It was extremely important to include this convention in the documentary as it is a demanded convention in which the audience except it to be included.

Modern documentaries now usually include voxpops that are fast-faced, short-duration interviews that ask multiple interviewees the same questions and answer the questions immediately. This helps to speed up the interview process and to clearly demonstrate different side of the arguments.

My documentary includes voxpops in the middle sector, where a group of teenagers where asked about how long they have used the site and what do they use it for. This convention contrasts to the traditional convention of interviews that have been demonstrated in both the Kira and Mr Preston interview which last for a longer duration and pace.

The online screenshots capture specific Tumblr blog examples, which are another modern convention that directly shows the events that occur on online communities. This helps to highlight the nature of the documentary and what it is exposing.

WHAT ARE THE GENRE CONVENTIONS

Internet Culture Online Hysteria vs. The Anti-Social Network

I decided to research into existing media products that are similar to my own documentary. The anti-social network that was aired on BBC Three and shares a lot of similarities to my own documentary. The first similarity is that both documentaries are aired by the same channel, which shows that they have a similar target audience and contain the same expository conventions that deemed required by BBC Three. Both documentaries share a similar topic, in that society is being effect by social groups, however, the Anti-Social network specifically focuses on trolls, whereas my documentary focuses on fandoms.

The Anti-Social Network has a similar synopsis to Internet Culture – Online Hysteria. The next slide shows a brief blurb created by BBC Three for The Anti-Social Network documentary.

THE ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORK SYNOPSIS

The duration is the same as my documentary. This gives the documentary enough time to debate both sides of the argument.

Another similarity in the content of the documentary.

However, this aspect is different as my documentarian does not have a personal motif

Both documentaries have the same target audience.

DID I CHALLENGE ANY FORMS AND CONVENTIONS?

I did challenge forms of documentary, in terms of endorsing both website and documentary platforms. I included screen shots of Tumblr blogs and voice-over on these shots, explaining the statistics and figures surrounding Tumblr. This challenged normal forms of documentary as a whole but is similar to surrounding online culture documentaries, such as the Anti-Social Network.

Again, I challenged typical conventions by including the modern hash tag, including voxpop interviews and presenting blogs while the Kira interview was playing.

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS IN MY ANCILLARY TASKS Radio Advert – I did include typical forms and conventions. I stated

the time and date of the documentary, what it is about and snippets from the documentary. However, I challenged traditional forms and conventions by having the documentarian drive the radio advert, while including various features from the documentary.

Magazine Article – My magazine article is the only piece that strictly adheres to traditional forms and conventions. The article layout is traditional, in which the columns are clear and the required details are included. The channel is mentioned and the logo of the magazine is placed at the top of the page. The only challenging form is that screen-grabs from the documentary have been included but on the other hand, this modern convention is becoming increasingly common.

I believe that all the conventions and forms included in all my media platforms have proved successful as there is a good relationship between the traditional and modern features that compliment the expository style. The hash tag could be developed into an on-going blog by the Tumblr interviewees, in order to gain more publicity.

HOW I MADE MY MEDIA PLATFORMS SUCCESSFUL

Radio Advert – I made the radio advert by myself. I had to research into using the Audacity programme, as I had never used it before. This programme allowed me to control the tone of the radio advert, which is to make the documentary sound exciting and ground breaking. I endorsed both my own voice, music and snippets from the documentary to produce an effective and appealing radio advert.

Magazine Article – I also produced the magazine article by myself. Firstly, I researched into existing magazine articles to see the common conventions and the necessary details, which I have displayed earlier on in my blog. The tone of the article is third person and I attempted to write the article in a manner where the journalist has no relation to the documentary itself to conclude a subjective account of the documentary.

Documentary – My contribution to the documentary was to research into the statistics and figures surrounding Tumblr and to discover ways in which to make the interviews more interesting. I decided to included the voxpop interviews to create a variation in the styles of the interviews. I also contributed to the documentary by volunteering myself to be the documentarian. I wrote the scripts for the documentarian, Kira’s interview and to Mr. Preston’s interview. The voxpop interview questions where also created by me, but the responses where naturally from the interviewees themselves.