Graduate catch you say?

Dear Scott,

Having recently graduated my bachelor’s in Mass Communication ( ahem, with distinction) at QUT and finished a contract at Queensland Museum as Online Engagement Officer for the “What do you collect?” community engagement project, I am totally ready to take on the next great opportunity. World’s my oyster you say?

Well this might be your great opportunity too Scott! Over the last three years I have worked diligently completing my degree while working in the field of marketing, web content management, public relations and community engagement. If you like the What do you collect? website, check out this one for Contact Inc that I commissioned, and co-developed for my role prior to the Queensland Museum as Marketing Support Officer for Contact Inc.  http://contact.org.au/.

During my time at Queensland Museum I also achieved several articles in print and online, including a feature in the Courier Mail’s U on Sunday, and here is one for an event we hosted called “Vintage Fair in the Whale Mall” http://www.eventfinder.com.au/2012/vintage-fair/brisbane.

So a little personal stuff about me. I am looking for a creative, supportive, and collaborative team to work with in an environment that will nurture my goals and use my talents for all they are worth. Yep use ’em. If  you get the opportunity to work with me, you will find I am a  team player, a great communicator both verbally and in writing, always work to the best of my ability, and well, am nice to be around.

I sincerely hope you will consider my expression of interest and hope to hear from you soon.

Katie

katheryn.gemzik@gmail.com

Working in new media, the glamorous life….?

                                                                                    http://tinyurl.com/3wuo4ja

Long hours (9-5…are you kidding?), schmoozing and networking whenever and wherever possible, inconsistent financial stability, loneliness and isolation while cultivating your craft, yep sign me up!

I recognise that some of these factors may be uninviting to some considering entering the field. In Katherine Kirkwood’s blog she questions if a career in new media is right for her calling herself “a creature of consistency” , and that the above mentioned factors make her uncomfortable (Kirkwood 2011).

I would describe myself as a creature of fluidity. I have grown up on two sides of the world, seen a lot of it in between, experienced times of uncertainty, but always I’m trying to look around the corner to see what’s next. To me, that’s life.

The fluid and ever changing and evolving world of new media is fascinating. I recognise that working in this field there are times of plenty and times of want, but isn’t that the same with most creative industries? What artist or musician has had consistent succuss since the beginning of their practice?

The ones who have truly made it have had a passion for their work, a fresh idea and fearlessness. Let’s face it, the ones who will continue to pioneer the field of new media must have these traits. Scared of not getting a full pay check next week, having a few late nights? Go work in a bank.

Gill, Rosalind. 2007. “Informality is the New Black.” In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43. Accessed May 1 2011 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal

Kirkwood, Katherine. 2011.Week 7 Post: Is a Career in New Media really for me?, Katherine’s New Media Blog. April 28 2011. Accessed May 1 2011 from.http://katkirkwood.blogspot.com/

Million Doller Monpreneur.Working With Bloggers: Million Dollar Mompreneur. April 10 2010 Accessed May 1 2011 from: http://milliondollarmompreneur.com/2011/04/10/working-with-bloggers/

Is Doctor Google replacing your GP?

Aside from endless social networks and funny pictures of cats the internet provides a plethora of information regarding personal health and well-being.

Admittedly I have often engaged in my own research when addressing my own (minor) health issues online.  Sometimes one is too busy, too broke or too embarrassed to seek professional medical consultation with legitimate health professionals right away.

So what do we do? We go online to “self-diagnose” our health problem. Online we can browse thousands of forums and websites the provide information about every kind of health issue under the sun, but how credible is the information that we are given? As said by Wyatt et.al (2008) “Do these sources actually provide helpful and accurate information?”.

All this information spawns what Lewis (2006) describes as “cyberchondria” or even worse “cyber-quackery”. Patients are sure that they are able to diagnose what ails them better than a doctor.

How are medical professionals responding to this new age of “e-patients”? Surely a doctor who has gone through 7 years of study doesn’t appreciate being questioned by a patient after 7 minutes of browsing the internet?

Like the outcome of other custodial roles in society a doctor is no longer “god like” due to mass communication through new media.

However in my view I would rather put my health in the hands of a professional, than a search engine.

http://tinyurl.com/3lvn65p

References

Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539.

Olsen, B. (2010). Paging Dr. Google. Retrieved 11 April 2011 from: http://www.wxerfm.com/blogs/post/bolson/2010/nov/18/paging-dr-google/

Wyatt, S., Harris, R. and Wathen, N. (2008). The Go-Betweens: Health, Technology and Info(r)mediation. In Mediating Health Information: The Go-Betweens in a Changing Socio-Technical Landscape. Sally Wyatt, Nadine Wathen and Roma Harris (eds), pp. 1-12. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Mediapolis, life in the even bigger apple

I’m hooked, no…I’m worse than that, and I’m dependant. Actually, I can’t live without it. In fact I literally think that there is no way I could exist and not be a part of it.

It sounds a bit dramatic, but I’m talking about mine and others’ engagement with the media. I got to thinking that pretty much everything I do, has some kind of interaction with new media platforms.

I realise that the tangible world, the one I’m physically present in, and the world of media do not exist on a parallel level. Our lives are so saturated by the presence of media, that we no longer live with the media, we live in the media.

This world is what Roger Silverstone (2007), Alex de Jong and Marc Schuilenburg (2006), and Sam Inkinen (1998) label a ‘mediapolis’: a comprehensively mediated public space where media underpin and overarch the experiences and expressions of everyday life (cited in Deuze 2011).

I think of my online presence and constant narrative on social media websites. I wonder if in the west if anyone, can escape the media as it is so ingrained into our lives. Even if you were to reject using modern technologies and go live in the woods, information, photos and other artefacts would be found online about you.

No matter what you do you can’t escape the media, but then its’ not such a bad place to live…

http://tinyurl.com/3zyvta6

Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148

Mother Board City (2011) Retrieved April 04 2011 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/7913918@N02/5421433772/

The Power of Social Media, changing the world one tweet at a time.

These are not the most pleasant times that we are living in today. All over the world there is war and conflict.

Much of this unrest has been sparked by civilians desperate for political change. Never before has there been a time when so many have revolted against corrupt governments from a civilian stand point.

What has empowered these people to be able to gather, co-ordinate on a mass scale and tell the rest of the world? I would say that access to technology and in particular social media has driven this rapid change.

As said by Shirky (2011)“Social media have become coordinating tools for nearly all of the world’s political movements”.

People now not only have access to a wealth of information at the click of a mouse, they also have the ability to engage in dialogue with others and as a result ignite change through mass communication.

Some powers that be have tried to suppress this communication by shutting down channels during times of unrest. However completely stopping dialogue online would be like putting toothpaste back into a tube.

http://www.sexysocialmedia.com

 

Shirky, C. (2011). The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change in Foreign Affairs. Volume 90, Issue 1;  pg. 28,

Would I judge a man by his playlist?

The answer is yes…yes I would judge a man by his playlist.

Think of this scenario: You see a handsome (or pretty) stranger on bus on the way to work. MP3 player in hand scrolling through their library, ear buds in. As you move closer to grab the next available seat, what’s the one thing you steal a furtive glance at? The screen on their iPod…

What we see next can make or break the spell the object of our fascination has upon us. Will he be playing Aphex Twin or Amon Tobin, telling me he has esoteric taste? Or a tasteful jazz album by Miles Davies, communicating he is intelligent and worldly? Will he be playing Lady GaGa…well then he is most likely gay.

With the ubiquity of portable MP3 players our private music collection is now on display for everyone to see. When we see that someone is listening to something we like, we instantly feel some kind of connection with them. As said by Levy “by some accounts a really good playlist can even generate an aphrodisiac effect” (Levy 2006 p.23). I think this is certainly true to some degree.

Then once the initial seduction has happened how to know if it will last? Don’t raid his closet to dig up some dirt, just raid his iTunes.

References

Levy, S. (2006). The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 21-41.

Polyvore. 2008. “AWWW IPOD LOVE”. Image accessed March 21, 2011 http://www.polyvore.com/awww_ipod_love/set?id=2307425

My online profile vs. my life

I exist in two worlds. There is the physical world around me, things I can touch and feel and “me” in body. There are days in the “real world” that I feel sad or sick or withdrawn. There are times when my life is really not glamorous or even charming…its boring.

There is also another world just as complex as the physical world I exist in and that I have just as much presence in. However in that realm I never reveal the unflattering sides of my appearance, conduct or bad habits. Social platforms or rather “stages” that I choose to construct an ideal version of the life I lead in the real world.

It’s not as though what I’m publishing online about myself is a lie. It’s just a more palatable narrative of what’s going on in my life. In the world of social networks you are always doing something fun on the weekend, going to exciting travel destinations and kicking goals at work.

Our profiles are filled with intimate details of who we are and what we do. We invite others to come into our space and have a good look around. The “glass bedroom” where others are able to view our “private” lives (Nardi sited in Pearson 2009) However there are no skeletons in the closet in this place.

References

Sweet Home Decorating. accessed 14/03/2011. http://tiny.cc/kxx93

Pearson, E. (2009).    All the World Wide Web’s a stage: the Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks . First Monday, volume 14, Number 3.

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