In my podcast, I had originally planned to talk about the constant social media gaffes of Australia’s politicians: Scott Morrison talking about the cricket while the country is on fire, *that* picture of George Christensen, Andrew Laming’s whole online presence and so on. However, Donald Trump’s recent feud with Twitter sent me in a completely different direction.

Instead, I found myself writing about the rise of Trump, from failed businessman, successful conman, and middling reality TV host to the most powerful office in the United States. His weaponisation of Twitter against his political enemies, and anyone who dares dispute anything he says. In talking about this, I hoped to reflect on how powerful a tool social media can be in politics, as Trump almost certainly could not have gotten into power without it.

Primarily this podcast was informed by my own observations over the long five to six years since Trump surged into prominence again, with his second attempt at the Presidency this century. I have seen with my own eyes the effect social media has had on his electability. I remember coverage during the lead-up to the 2012 election, when he was seriously considered as a candidate to run in the Republican primary against Mitt Romney, was treated as a joke, and was not put on the ballot. With Twitter becoming near-ubiquitous in the mean time, Trump’s position changed ‘bigly’. Over that time I have read countless articles, and seen hundreds of videos about his rise, and about his use of social media. While it is near-impossible to find the exact pieces that informed my already-present knowledge, it wasn’t hard to find pieces that confirmed the same details. Donald Trump’s Twitter presence has been analysed a hundred thousand times, and will be analysed a hundred thousand times more by the end of his second term.

Given my background in writing, it was very easy for me to put together a coherent script to follow, in a more personal style than the more academic pieces I’ve been writing lately. This was a very nice change, and let me show some personality. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite able to disguise the fact that I’m reading from my script in the recording. It took multiple takes of several of the sections for me to get it sounding halfway natural. I’ve used Kevin Macleod’s music in a number of other assignments where Creative Commons music was needed, so it was just a matter of combing his database to find something I liked for my intro/outro music.

I recorded on my phone, though I had hoped to get use my mother-in-law’s high-end equipment, with the COVID restrictions, it wasn’t possible for us to coordinate a convenient time. With my late topic change, it was a struggle to get something together in time, as is obvious as this is a day late, but honestly the content I had written for my initial topic choice was weak. I’ve learned that I should better manage my time, and if I was to pursue podcasting further, I would probably buy my own equipment.

Reference List:

Clarke I & Grieve J 2019, ‘Stylistic variation on the Donald Trump Twitter account: A linguistic analysis of tweets posted between 2009 and 2018.’, PloS one, Vol 14, Issue 9,  

Fishkin R (2018). We Analyzed Every Twitter Account Following Donald Trump: 61% Are Bots, Spam, Inactive, or Propaganda. [online] SparkToro. Available at: https://sparktoro.com/blog/we-analyzed-every-twitter-account-following-donald-trump-61-are-bots-spam-inactive-or-propaganda/ [Accessed 30 May 2020]. 

Grynbaum, M (2016), ‘If Trump Tweets It, Is It News? A Quandary for the News Media’, New York Times, November 29, Retrieved 30^th May 2020, <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/business/media/if-trump-tweets-it-is-it-news-a-quandary-for-the-news-media.html> 

Pham V 2015, ‘Our Foreign President Barack Obama: The Racial Logics of Birther Discourses.’ Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, Vol. 8, Issue 2, p86-107 

Trackalytics (n.d.). Donald J. Trump | Twitter Statistics / Analytics. [online] Trackalytics. Available at: https://www.trackalytics.com/twitter/profile/realdonaldtrump/. 

Trump, D 2012, ‘Read this–@BarackObama‘s birth certificate “cannot survive judicial scrutiny” because of “phantom numbers”’, realDonaldTrump, Twitter, July 24, retrieved 30^th May 2020, <https:..twitter.com/realDonaldTrump> 

Trump, D 2012, ‘An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.’, realDonaldTrump, Twitter, August 7, retrieved 30^th May 2020, <https:..twitter.com/realDonaldTrump> 

Trump, D 2020, ‘There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone…..’, realDonaldTrump, Twitter, May 26, retrieved 30^th May 2020, <https:..twitter.com/realDonaldTrump> 

Trump, D 2020, ‘….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!’, realDonaldTrump, Twitter, May 29, retrieved 30^th May 2020, <https:..twitter.com/realDonaldTrump> 

Trump vs. Truth: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) 2017, YouTube, LastWeekTonight, 12 February, Retrieved 30 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE> 

West S 2018, ‘Presidential Attacks on the Press’, Missouri Law Review, Vol. 83, Issue 4, p915 

Intro/Outro Music Licensing Statement: 

Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod 

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5759-blippy-trance 

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&nbsp;

For this video project, I have again chosen to focus on the digital divide, by choosing the topic “Digital media has seen new divides form and old divides grow wider, but can also be used to diminish the divides that separate”. I am exploring the ways that vulnerable people in society use smartphones to bridge the digital divide and keep up with the rest of us. I have found articles and studies to support the argument that the digital divide is shrinking among more developed nations, and the correlation to access to smart phones. I built upon research I did in my previous video, going more in depth this time, and honing my focus.
I chose to film the talking head portions of my video in a ‘selfie’ style, rather than a set shot with a tripod. This was in order to drive home the point that mobile phones are essential to everyday life, that our window to the world is literally in our hands. I also chose this style to imitate the way many people communicate with their phones, either through Facetime, or Snapchat, Instagram etc. By having a more hands-on approach, I found it much easier to frame my shot than I did in the previous video, where I was constantly back and forward between camera and backdrop, trying to get the framing where I wanted it. I took into account feedback about my audio quality from the previous two videos, and opted to use my phone to record all audio this time, instead of my laptop’s onboard microphone. This resulted in much clearer audio than previously, thanks to a superior, more portable microphone. I copied the common news and current affairs technique of showing generic footage of people in a city walking, with a voice over, to represent our society, and the busy modern world. While talking more specifically about refugees and homeless people, I used footage of those people who are less fortunate to reflect exactly how hard their lives are in comparison to the viewer’s. I also used generic footage of mobile phones etc to fill in gaps to break up the monotony of my talking head, or to patch up holes where I’ve cut footage. Like last time, I used YouTube to find Creative Commons licensed video, casting a critical eye towards the uploader, ensuring they were in fact the real owner of the footage. I also reused some footage I found for my previous video. The combination of talking heads and overlay B-roll footage allowed me to add a personal touch to the video, hopefully gaining the trust of my audience. I opted this time to not use graphics and sound effects, as they felt a little forced, and didn’t quite fit the general tone of the video. I again decided to relegate background music to the credits, as I couldn’t find anything I found appropriate to overlay on the story as a whole. I took on board advice and selected different music that was a closer fit to the video’s content.
The biggest problem I found was self-imposed, which is time constraints. I left starting my assignment too late, and with other assignments due at the same time, I found time management to be of paramount importance. By doing everything but the filming and editting while I was at work, I managed to fix this problem with little trouble, thanks to lax policing of my workplace’s acceptable use policy. My time constraint did lead to another problem, in this week I have developed a bit of a cold, meaning I had a stuffy nose and persistent coughing and sneezing. This made recording difficult, with a lot of stop starting, and made my voice overs a little on the dull side. I just worked through it, and chalked it up as a lesson learned. The weeks between assignments meant my editing skills were a little rusty, but I had the hang of cutting the clips together pretty quickly, and the various lessons of the previous assignment made it much easier to produce this time. Most importantly, save and backup everything, every chance you get. By combining techniques, I also managed to cut down the amount of editting required: longer clips, with sound still attached meant less editing in the long run, even with a longer video. Unfortunately, the microphone on my phone produced wildly different audio quality from clip to clip, with no apparent reasoning, and there was only so much that could be done with editing.

Sources:

Voiceover/Talking Heads: Cameron Brogden

All other media used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Music:

“Intrepid” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

Video:

“Footage of People Walking” by Greenlight Stock Footage
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NBwbKMyzEE)

“Woman Using Social Media” by Free HD Stock Footage
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b46KcSgHJfY)

“Tired Homeless Man Sleeping On The Street” by Chhoun Chan Rasmey
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-DqCySDl4U)

“Lonely Homeless Man Sitting On The Street” by Chhoun Chan Rasmey
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP7SNcpWoho)

“Homeless In New York City” by HDFreeFootage
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RggqxjypsxE)

“Syrian Refugee Camp” by Direct Relief
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SPNW0Qefus)

”Rohingya Refugees Enter Bangladesh by Boat” by Mithanzzzz
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkmZ36kH4as)

“Girl on Phone Free Stock Video Footage” by Videvo Free Stock Footage
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBEFdc6Naxs)

“Making Z” by Critics Company
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrbN7WxiNdk)

“Man Waiting On The Street In Italy” Free HD Stock Footage
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBOm5LwSpYc)

“Texting on a iPhone 6” by Creative Commons Footage
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg4LOcvdawI)

Quoted Texts:

The Digital Divide : Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth?, edited by Benjamin M. Compaine, MIT Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/deakin/detail.action?docID=3338879.

Fairlie, R. 2017 Sep 1. Have we finally bridged the digital divide? Smart phone and Internet use patterns by race and ethnicity. First Monday. [Online] 

UNHCR. 2018. How Smartphones and Social Media have Revolutionized Refugee Migration. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/blogs/smartphones-revolutionized-refugee-migration/. [Accessed 2 September 2019]

Other Resources:

Internet World Stats. 2019. World Internet Users Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. [Accessed 2 September 2019]

Humphrey, J., 2014. Homeless and Connected: Mobile phones and mobile internet in the lives of families and young people experiencing homelessness. 1st ed. Sydney: Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

In this video, I hoped to convey the hope that technology can bring. It was my goal to present the ways in which society is fixing the digital divides created by already-extant inequality. To show that technology is as much a tool for good as it is for ill.

This time, I took a much more planned approach. I spent the weeks preceding searching for useful sources, both for media and information. I scripted my entire voice over, rather than taking the bullet-point approach of my previous entry. I decided where to place the images, where transitions were needed more than other places, the lone video I wasn’t going to edit the sound from. I stopped short of storyboarding, as there were so few ‘shots’ to plan out, it seemed unnecessary. I came across some source material totally by accident, case in point, the Nigerian boys who went viral were on the front page of Reddit a few days before I began working on the assignment. My lone source for videos was a heavily filtered YouTube search, specifying only Creative Commons licensed videos, and while I had some idea of what I wanted the content of those videos to be, I was a little more vague on what I was going to get. But with so many non-profit organisations uploading footage of homeless people and refugees, it wasn’t hard to find good-quality footage to use. I briefly considered running background music through the entire video, but struggled to find Creative Commons music that fit the tone and theme of the video, and instead opted for music over the credits. And of course that recording of a dial-up modem.

During this process, I learned that Youtube is actually a great source of Creative Commons works, though a critical eye is needed, as anyone can upload a video and say it’s Creative Commons. In searching for footage of Steve Jobs presenting the iPhone for the first time, I came across thousands of official videos, but once that Creative Commons filter was turned on, it was down to some random German channel, and another guy with seventy followers. So I opted for an image from Wikimedia Commons instead. My biggest problem in this assignment was the highly unintuitive interface of Lightworks. My knowledge of video editing was until now limited to some basic knowledge of iMovie from my Year Eleven Media class, some fifteen years ago. Of course, as with all things, Google can tell all, so every step of the way, I had a different YouTube video, or entry on the Lightworks forum instructing me how to speed up the credits so the video was under three minutes, or how to cut clips down in the first place.

All in all, jumping into a video project head first has been the quickest learning experience of my life, and I look forward to using what I know, and learning even more on the project.

Sources:

Voiceover: Cameron Brogden

All other media used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Music: “Sneaky Snitch” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

Video:

“3D LED EARTH GLOBE” by Pigment Ajans

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E-eqE7-ZV8)

“The Hellish Sound of A Dialup Modem Connecting to the Internet” by Lucinda Lewis

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og592KWBR2o)

“Smart Monkey Using A Smartphone” by Shitty Tube

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj921mNdRIw)

“Salesforce helps The Big Issue start-up a Sydney Call Centre” by Salesforce.org

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LYnmzTG1Ew)

“A Look at Syrian Refugees, March 2015” by Doctors Without Borders

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqcJDYijKQ)

Images:

“Steve Jobs WWDC 07” by Acaben

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Jobs_WWDC07.jpg)

“Phone iPhones” by Free photo on UkrMedia

(https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukrmedia/47490500422/)

Sources:

Internet World Stats. 2019. World Internet Users Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. [Accessed 2 September 2019]

Humphrey, J., 2014. Homeless and Connected: Mobile phones and mobile internet in the lives of families and young people experiencing homelessness. 1st ed. Sydney: Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

UNHCR. 2018. How Smartphones and Social Media have Revolutionized Refugee Migration. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/blogs/smartphones-revolutionized-refugee-migration/. [Accessed 2 September 2019]

Africa News. 2019. Nigerian Teens Make Sci Fi Films With Smartphones. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.africanews.com/2019/08/14/nigerian-teens-make-sci-fi-films-with-smartphones//. [Accessed 2 September 2019]

In this video, I hoped to convey an idealised version of myself, with just enough of my own flaws showing to preserve authenticity. Presenting someone looking to make a change in the world, but contrasting it with a self-deprecating image of what people around me tend to see. This is specifically related to my intention to use my eventual Bachelor of Communications to work towards public relations for a non-profit, or a political organisation that aligns with my views. While the audience of this video is obviously actually limited to the person marking it, the intended audience is more my peer group. University students sharing their education and career aspirations, as part of a greater discussion. The one thing we all have in common is plans for the future, no matter how much these vary. This, combined with some facts about my hobbies and interests for a ‘humanising’ element, hopefully reflecting some close parallels with my peers, but nonetheless granting some kind of a look into who I am as a person, or at least a version thereof that I feel comfortable sharing.

My initial intention, and the one I ultimately decided on, was to frame the shot with me off center, on the vertical third, with my eyeline somewhere around the top horizontal third line. This firstly gives me some head room and lead room, but also doesn’t frame me at the center of the shot, which would give more of a “person giving a lecture to a captive audience” vibe than my intended, more standard, “person talking to camera” vibe. I played around with a few different versions of this framing, and tried out a few others briefly: the aforementioned centered shot, a much closer shot and so on, but settled on more or less my original idea. The background borrowed from a lot of current vloggers, including a number of videos from our own Unit Chair Adam Brown, by vlogging in front of a bookshelf. In this case it’s my comics providing an interesting backdrop that give insight to my personality and interests. It also helps to present something of a view into my home, and a feeling of welcome to the viewers, which would not be conveyed by a plain white wall or grey curtain. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to do with my audio, but after a few less successful attempts, I figured out to turn off all the heating and get everyone in the house to be quiet for a few minutes. Hopefully I’ll have an external mic next time.

I encountered a few problems in the recording of this video. Firstly, I sound wooden if I am more or less reciting lines I’ve written previously, and work much better if given a set of topics to riff on. So my script writing quickly turned to dot points. Again, the audio wasn’t ideal, but with the heating turned off, and everyone in the house being quiet, I was able to record useable audio. I would have liked to have more options as to the lighting, but everything I tried either cast weird shadows, or blinded me. I will take the time to acquire softer lights, or record during different times of the day to allow the option of natural lighting.

1. With the rise of social media, everyone has a voice. Whether it’s 280 characters screaming into the void (and four followers), or a massive blogpost, there’s a lot of text. But text, and maybe an avatar could be literally anyone. By putting your presence in a video, you’re putting more than just a name and a picture to it. You’re placing yourself in the message. I imagine that the moral panic is that there are people out there who are taking these messages more seriously than those of loved ones, simply due to format and presentation. It’s harder to ignore. It’s easier to digest. It’s accessible anywhere. And sometimes a parent or guardian can’t control your viewing.
2. Many years ago, I watched some of the granddaddies of todays vloggers. At one point, Natalie Tran of communitychannel was the highest-earning Australian on YouTube, just doing what basically amounts to standup comedy with a skit-acting element. And at the other end of the spectrum was Phillip DeFranco, of The Philly D Show, in the early stages of his online media empire. And by “early stages”, I mean his YouTube videos had already bought him a house with a pool and a view, but he hadn’t started SourceFed yet.
   Nowadays I’m not much of one for vloggers. I guess Dael Kingsmill and Matt Colville count, I watch their channels for advice on improving my Dungeons and Dragons game. Most of my YouTube intake is polished news-style videos, top ten lists and other things produced by studios.
   Anyway, to actually answer the question, I guess now I’m more about content than I am about the personality. So long as there is some animation to the presentation, and the host is vaguely likeable, I’ll watch anything if the topic interests me.
3. At first glance, Dael Kingsmill and Matt Colville have very similar video compositions. Person speaking directly to camera, background full of nerdy signifiers. But on closer inspection, you see a difference. Colville’s background consists primarily of projects he has worked on. He is centered, though not to closely. He is giving a lecture at the computer from his seat in his office. Kingsmill is standing to one side, using rule of thirds, she is standing on a background of board games. Often she will have her notes visible. Kingsmill is sharing with peers, her presentation is much more laid back, though she almost certainly has put more effort into it, since she has a film/media background.
4. Planning is what stops a project from blowing way out of scope. It makes sure all expectations are clear and everything is ready. It stops time wastage. You probably shouldn’t lock things in place, as no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Even the most experienced creator is going to have some unforeseen circumstances, and will need to adapt their existing plans.
5. You need to consider if there even is an audience for the video. You need to make your content interesting, and present in a succinct way that isn’t going to lose attention. You need to offer something new in an increasingly flooded marketplace.

1. By communicating via video, the communicator accesses a wider audience. It doesn’t depend on getting the recipient to read blocks of text. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video at 24 fps is worth twenty-four thousand words a second. Plus whatever you can get out in the audio at the same time.
2. YouTube has made the short video profitable. Both by providing a central hub with free hosting, networking and so forth, and by monetizing videos, YouTube has allowed content to flourish, without making any of its own.
3. I’m strictly a viewer on YouTube. I subscribe to a number of channels, and it’s probably ahead of Netflix for hours watched per week. As for rivals, Instagram seems to be pretty video-heavy lately, TikTok, Vimeo, Vine (RIP)… It’s a thriving medium, but there’s still one juggernaut.
4. There’s no doubt it’s cutting attention spans. Why read a paragraph when you can watch five seconds of video? Nobody reads news articles, they read headlines. They read Tweets. Content creators need to be concise, and they need to draw readers in. Getting people to click onto a new website, or heaven forbid, read something, is getting harder and harder.
5. I’m hoping this unit will supplement my PR major, by providing me with the skills needed to use video as a medium to connect with people. I’m a little nervous, but the introduction video helped.