First class news ;)

Because I’m all overexcited and HAPPY, I wanted to announce on my blog (because I’ve already tweeted, Facebooked, called and text everyone I know!) thaaat:

Today I found out I passed my degree in Communication and Media with a 2:1 – yay!

I’m so pleased with this achievement but I’m even more pleased with the FIRST I got for my dissertation.

All the time, stress, tears and sleepless nights were worth it, then! =D

Anyway… it’s time to celebrate!!

Dissertations, presentations, interactive narratives, birthdays & Christmases!

… Okay just one Christmas, but still… Phew!

Final year is BUSY! It’s all been a bit crazy recently with ever-growing to do lists, but take away the stress and it’s all pretty interesting and exciting!

I’m currently blogging in between working on a creative piece for our New Media Narrative unit and meeting with group members to sort the finishing touches to our assessed presentation and report for the PR unit!

Then it’s just tackling some dissertation before the end of term and MY 21st BIRTHDAY! Yay

Anyway, short and sweet because I do have lots to do!

Depending on how proud I am with the finished product, expect a link to my interactive narrative piece soon! Over Christmas I also hope to be adding some bits  & bobs to the ‘Portfolio’ page on here, too!

Back to the grind… back to the blog

I realise I have been a very poor communications and social media -loving person recently for completely neglecting this blog for such a long time.

In case I have been missed, I was blogging over at Whizzkid’s Words as a part of my work placement. It’s a kind of daily diary during my time there, with links to articles I’d written and various other bits I was involved with.

Anyway, I’ve now well and truly begun the last step of this stage of my life – the dreaded Final Year. And it’s hit. Hard.

Sooo, of course I need something to procrastinate with… Hiiii! That’s why I’m here! (Just… half… kidding!)

But really, I’m actually finding the units I’ve chosen to take really interesting, so definitely expect me to share some gems here! I’m also researching a lot about social media and it’s use for public relations – this is the main subject area of The Dreaded ‘D’ Word (dissertation for all you stress-free types) I will shortly be beginning to write.

I think that blogging about some of my interesting findings (and I promise they’ll be interesting… to someone…) may help me with my own thought process and taking it all in – it feels a lot less like ‘work’!

Right.. back to reading for me! (:

Hello summer ‘break’

What a week!

Sun, camping, drinking, live music, dancing… As well as long queues, disgustingly disgusting toilets and general dirtiness – All part of my amazing first festival experience, Beach Break Live!

As well as enjoying music I already knew well, I found some new loves both on the main stage (such as dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip) and smaller, lesser known bands (I loved Free Peace). I love the buzz I get from watching and listening to pretty much any live music, whether I’m in the center of the crowd singing and dancing or sitting on the grass in the sun watching with a cider!

Next year I would love to go bigger but Beach Break was a great experience – and not so overpriced being a predominantly student festival!

Anyway, it’s Father’s Day tomorrow, and seeing as I’ve managed to drain my bank accounts dry (and that’s the student overdraft, not even real money!), my dad’s taking me for dinner… I feel awful but I’ve always said I’ll treat my family loads when the years of being a skint student pays off & I finally have some decent income!

Monday I start a six-week work placement at Cre8ive Wisdom. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into, being able to put in what I’ve learnt from my first two years of BA (Hons) Communication and Media into practise in the real world!

During this time I need to make a start in researching for next year’s dissertation (big eek!), for which I’m hoping I can gather some useful information/case studies from the placement.

As well as all this, my boyfriend and I are in the process of flat hunting ready to move out of the student shared house before the end of July. Finding time (and money!) for this is proving difficult and stressful, but it is exciting looking for our first own ‘home’ together!

Soo, it’s all busy busy busy but fun and exciting at the same time!   : )

Shall keep y’all posted throughout my placement, etc.

Bournemouth Uni knows how to have a ball!

All assignments handed in, exams done and dusted. My second year of Communication and Media is over.

It doesn’t feel that long ago I was out meeting new people during ‘Freshers Fortnight’. And it only feels like last month I was saying goodbye to my first year by running from tent to tent in a field, hiding from torrential rain, dressed as a green crayon.

Bournemouth Uni’s Summer Ball is very different to the traditional ball. Favouring fancy dress and the mini festival vibe – I think it wins hands down compared to frocks and tuxedos.

Housemate and friend Sophie and I decided to go together as the Queens from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. After HOURS of shopping, sewing and facepainting, the results weren’t half bad (even if I say so myself).

The work!

The Queens found a Mad Hatter!

Another Mad Hatter & an Alice!

A very good night, the best way to finish the year ready for summer and work placement…

Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Welcome to Stressville!

It’s that time of year again.

Students buried in books and notes. Reading, writing, re-reading, re-writing… It feels like nothing is ever going to stick in your head – and if any bits and pieces do get wedged in there it’s bound to explode soon, anyway.

Time management is key, and unfortunately for me that all seems to go out the window when the big, bad stress monster appears (pictured below).

Anyway, I think this post is some kind of cry for de-stress or revision tips, motivation or just a plain kick up the backside. More likely, though, it’s just a bit of procrastination – something a little nicer to look at than the unorganised pile of notes and books surrounding me…

As everyone keeps telling me, though, I’ll get there… I always do!

Feature article: Discover to rediscover

For the Professional Writing unit of BA (Hons) Communication and Media, I was asked to write a magazine feature about Bournemouth. I then created a double page spread for it using Photoshop and Adobe InDesign.

Magazine Layout, completed using Adobe InDesign

Being fairly new to Bournemouth, I haven’t really taken much time out to explore the area. Obviously I’ve been to the wonderful sandy beach (a massive upgrade to the stony seafront of my hometown, Bognor Regis) and experienced the array of pubs, clubs and restaurants, but it’s probably about time I acquainted myself with more than just the face of the town. Rather than only visiting the usual, in-your-face tourist attractions, I want to become a Bournemouth resident and see the places that far too many forget about, and newcomers or holiday-goers may not even know about.

I’m a fairly typical student, one such trait being that I am overly lazy. If I don’t have to leave the house during the day, then I’ll pretty much always be found dossing around the house in my finest monkey-covered fleece pyjamas. Being lazy is fine, now and again. But I recently found myself actually longing for some fresh air and exercise.

I dragged myself and the boyfriend out of bed on one of our rare days off together, to see what else Bournemouth could offer. It wasn’t particularly the best day to be out and about; in fact it got pretty awful as the day went on. April showers decided to show up slightly early, and in the form of constant heavy downpours. Being someone who tends to shy away from wet weather, I don’t really own much in the form of waterproof attire, but I wasn’t going to let the weather get in the way of my exploring! I had a browse on Google Maps for some greenery amongst the gloomy grey of buildings, roads and car parks, and off we went.

… To read the rest of the article click here…

…Or click here for the pdf…

Usability analysis: Freud Communications

It is important that a website fulfills the need to complete tasks by the target user. There are many elements that must be considered in order to create and sustain a successful and beneficial website. Freud Communications is a large public relations company with large, world famous clients such as Nike and Pepsi.

Assuming the main purpose of their website is to provide information to potential clients, the usability and effectiveness of the site has been analysed.

The Freud Communications homepage

Searchability

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means maximising the use of key terms the target user of the website is likely to enter in a search engine.
• Searching ‘Freud Communications’ in Google produces the website as the first result, ‘Freud public relations’ and ‘Freud London’ shows the website third. This proves successful in SEO for users searching for the particular company.
• Similar searches with more information regarding the type of company, but without the word ‘Freud’ gathered no results on the first page.
• SEO is only present for users already knowing the name of the company, not for potential new clients looking for public relations and marketing companies.
• Most of the text on the website is displayed as images, meaning there is less opportunity for keywords to be picked up by search engines.

Navigation

• Information is easy to find under a straightforward list of links: ‘Our Services’, ‘Our Clients’, ‘Our Beliefs’, ‘Our People’, ‘Contact Us’. All links work well and take the user to the anticipated section of the site.
• Sections are colour coded which may help in increasing memorability
• The whole website is on one page, with the links changing the text and image on that same page rather than directing to a new one. This causes problems with the way that people are used to moving around the web – the browser’s ‘back’ and ‘forward’ buttons to not function within the site.

Design

• The Freud Communications website is attractive and looks sophisticated, mainly due to the simplicity of it. The light colours on the black background enable the site to stand out from the majority of other pages on the web.
• Most of the text on the site is clear, although some sections contain grey, red, purple and green text on the black background which is more difficult to read.
• A good feature of the site is that it uses a “liquid layout” where the frame and the text size changes according to the size of the window.

Content

• Web-users aim to complete a task as quickly as possible, meaning pages are more likely to be scanned for keywords rather than read.
• Text on the Freud site is minimal and words are sometimes highlighted using size and colour. However, it can sometimes be difficult to tell what is aimed to be highlighted when the text on a page is in three different colours.
• There is little information about current or previous clients. The homepages of some major competitors to Freud Communications PHA Media, Splendid and Shine Communications highlight recent news and events – Freud would benefit from including this. Video and audio examples of work would also benefit the company.

Interactivity/User Generated Content (UGC)

• The website offers no UGC or opportunities for users to interact with the company or other visitors. The only way to communicate with the company is the provided telephone number or email address (which is only found under ‘Job Opportunities’).
• Another way companies successfully use interactivity and UGC is through social media. Freud Communications currently do not have active Twitter or Facebook accounts (the Twitter account is protected and has zero following and followers).

To read the full, essay version click here.

Timeline: General Elections 2010

It’s official that we now have a hung parliament. I’m still not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, or even completely sure what it means, the only certainty is that we still don’t know what’s going on, and it may well be a while.

Here’s a look back at some key, and interesting, events in the run up to polling day.

6 April 2010 - The Queen agrees to the dissolution of parliament. Brown announces there is to be a general election on May 6 2010. The race begins.

8 April 2010 - Both Labour and Tory accused of infringing copyright by using a picture from Ashes to Ashes on their campaign posters.

9 April 2010 - Labour candidate Stuart McLennan forced to stand down after posting offensive comments on Twitter.

12 April 2010 - Labour launch their manifesto.

Jeremy Paxman interviewed Nick Clegg (so far, unsuprisingly, neither Brown or Cameron agreed to be interviewed by Paxman).

This is when my personal interest in Clegg and Liberal Democrats began, after being impressed with his ability to give somewhat straight answers under Paxman’s interrogation – an ability that politicians usually lack.

13 April 2010 - Conservative and Liberal Democrats launch their manifestos.

The leaders battle it out on live television

Richard Hughes of Keane was unimpressed with the Tories playing their song at the launch.

15 April 2010 - The first leader’s debate makes history as the first time UK party leaders have gone head to head in front of a television audience.

It was this debate that saw the beginning of ‘Cleggmania’ – various opinion polls showed that Clegg ‘won’ the debate. ‘I agree with Nick’ (#iagreewithnick) became a popular phrase after both Cameron and Brown’s use of the phrase.

21 April 2010 - David Cameron gets an egg thrown at him by a 16-year-old in Cornwall. The yolk unfortunately stained his fresh shirt.

22 April 2010 - The people of Twitter decided to blame pretty much everything on Nick Clegg, adopting the hashtag #nickcleggsfault. This fights back at newspaper bias of stories in the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Express and the Sun.

The hashtag #nickcleggsfault used across the world

The second leaders’ television debate. Brown and Cameron didn’t agree with Clegg as much – perhaps recognising him as a slight threat now.

Marmite threatened to take legal action when the product is shown in a BNP broadcast.

23 April 2010 - Jeremy Paxman interviews David Cameron. Cameron states he wouldn’t join forces with Clegg in the event of a hung parliament.

27 April 2010 - Conservative candidate Philip Lardner is suspended after claiming on his website that homosexuality is ‘not normal behaviour’.

28 April 2010 - ‘BigotGate’, or ‘Gordon’s Gaffe’. The press goes crazy after a microphone was left on and recorded Brown in his car calling a bigotted woman, well, a bigot. He is later followed by a crowd of reporters to her house to apologise.

Gordon Brown talking to Mrs Duffy, who he later brands a 'bigot'

29 April 2010 - The third leaders’ debate in which, according to opinion polls, David Cameron seemed to be the favourite.

30 April 2010 - Controversially, the Guardian announces it back the Liberal Democrats. It differs, at least, from Murdoch’s famous Tory-backing empire, but again raising the issue as to whether or not newspapers should be impartial.

Jeremy Paxman interviews Gordon Brown, quizzing him about the economy, the expenses scandal, immigration and ‘BigotGate’

Voters queuing at local polling station

2 May 2010 - Another homophobic strike for Conservative when it comes out that Tory MP Philipa Stroud ran prayer sessions to ‘cure’ gay people.

4 May 2010 - Labour candidate Manish Sood states that “Gordon Brown has been the worst Prime Minister we have had in this country.”

6 May 2010 - Polling day – the talk of the night being that thousands of people across the country were turned away at 10pm and not allowed to vote – even after some had been queueing since 7pm.

I stayed up to watch Channel 4′s Alternative Election Night. This way I felt cultured without being bored half to death. No matter how interested in politics I’ve become over the past month – waiting for 650-odd constituencies to count some papers is never going to be that exciting! Comedy is a godsend

7 May 2010 - Results show that there is officially a hung parliament. The wait begins!

Group dynamics on the Red Dwarf

One unit of my Communication and Media course at Bournemouth University is named Groups, Teams and Organisations. An assignment for this unit involved observing a fictional group, as a group.

Working with Geo Willis, Jess Gatford and Kay Tang, we put together an essay examining many different elements of group interaction in the three-part Red Dwarf special Back to Earth.

This observation looked at the three parts of the Red Dwarf special, Back to Earth, in order to provide the required amount of group interaction. Content analysis of this material will be discussed with reference to the following aspects: group dynamics, effective communication and discussion, roles, leadership, decision-making, passivity and assertiveness, listening, stress and motivation. The size of the group is important regarding communication. Brilhart & Galanes (1998) suggest that smaller groups are able to achieve effective communication, as larger groups can complicate discussion and hinder task performance. The group that will be analysed consists of four members of a space crew, Lister, Kryten, Rimmer and Cat. All members are from very different backgrounds and bring different characteristics and qualities to the group. It should be noted that their dysfunctionality, used for comedic effect, and their status as an emergent (rather than an appointed) group often means that their behaviour as a group is atypical. This will be taken into account where theory is applied, as it may not be directly relatable to a fictional, comedic group, but is still relevant to the analysis of the group interaction.

Read the full essay here