Comment: Apparently it Does Matter if You’re Black or White

(Edited version of my competition entry. Click image to view layout on ISSUU.)

Racism is something we’re all aware; we hear about it constantly in society, in football and in our everyday lives, but what about in film?

It’s likely that you would have heard stories about directors, writers and producers typecasting characters and it’s not uncommon to see particular actors play the same racial stereotype all of the time. What is a rarity, however, is an audience’s reaction when they don’t agree with the race of a character cast in a certain role.

Interview: CEO Gregory Galant Discusses The Shorty Awards

(Click image to view layout on ISSUU.)

With this year’s ceremony coming to an end, Charlie Derry talks to Gregory Galant, the co-creator of The Shorty Awards, about how getting recognised for using social media can advance your career, and why it is important to keep your social media profiles up to date in today’s society.

Set up in 2008 by New York technology start-up company Sawhorse Media, The Shorty Awards honour the best producers of short content on the web, recognising people and industries using the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, FourSquare, and the rest of the social internet.

How has Stranger Collective adapted to survive as a small, independent business as the role of Journalism itself is changing?

(Published on Liquid News Room)

For my BA(Hons) Journalism course at University College Falmouth, I am undergoing a three-week work placement at Stranger Collective, a creative service and copywriting agency based in Penryn, Cornwall. Starting out as a bimonthly lifestyle publication titled ‘Stranger’ that launched in September 2004, the magazine offered a flavour of life in Britain today, shining the spotlight on the talent of young people in Cornwall, focusing on the creative side of Cornwall’s culture with a mix of music, film, environment, current affairs, surf, skate and fashion. The last printed edition of the magazine was published in August 2007 after 16 issues; Stranger now continues through Stranger Collective, publishing features, reviews and news on their website, and creating one-off print projects, such as zines, produced to coincide with local events and festivals.

The Importance of Social Networking

(Published in my student newspaper Flex, on Page 11.)

I’d like to say that we’re not all obsessed with social networking sites, but I think it’s more accurate to say that we are.

It started off on Bebo when we were 10, before switching to Myspace when we started wearing skinny jeans. Now the place to be is Facebook, and for those who feel their opinions are worthy to more than just their university friends, there’s Twitter. So why are our lives so heavily focused around these sites? And why, as university students, do we find them so useful?

In what ways is the practise of journalism influenced and affected by objectivity?

Objectivity is an important aspect which needs to be considered in the practise of journalism. It is seen as a professional ideal which has become a troubling debate in modern journalism, leading to many questions. Does objectivity undermine the press as being the eyes and ears of the public? Or is it better serving the public to offer a variety of views? These questions only lead to a more complex one. Is objectivity even possible? The influence of objectivity needs to be explored closely to identify whether its effects on journalism are positive or negative and to conclude whether journalism can truly be objective.