At 12:30pm today, I was going to seeking to reflect on how The Big Agency has developed as a Level 5 unit at Manchester Metropolitan University. There appears to be an issue with browser access for other participants, so we have re-arranged for 10th May 2017.
I’m looking forward to hearing from others, queries as to what might/might not have worked, and suggestions for other options to try:
Read more on the event info on my site, and the TLC Webinar site.
Wednesday 10th of May April 2017 12:30-13:30 (UK Time) *Moved from 26th April, as browser issues in universities
Find The Big Agency: Blog : Twitter : Facebook
The Big Agency is a second year university unit at Manchester Metropolitan University that I’ve been reworking to meet the following description:
Creative agencies today are not just looking for creativity; they’re looking for employability. In the agency world, skills such as communication, team working, client relationship building, strategic thinking, project management and customer-centric research, all play an important role in understanding and answering the client brief.
The Big Agency unit will give you the chance to work on a brief provided by one of our industry partners, pitching for the client you want to work on. It will help you build your practical agency skills through a range of account management, research and creative-related tasks, whilst helping you develop your personal skills through the process of self-reflection and personal development planning. Big Agency will help bring to life theories, concepts and models of PR, marketing, branding, advertising and self-development and show how you can apply them.
This unit is assessed on an evidence-based portfolio of work to demonstrate your approach and response to a client’s creative brief and your own personal development: a) in the form of an end-of-year video documenting your work, and b) in the form of self-reflective essays and blogs evaluating your personal and professional goals and achievements.
With great help from my teaching team this year – it’s largely working, although there are more tweaks to be made, and feedback from students has been both encouraging, and the negative feedback has largely been things we had already picked up on this year. It’ll be a fairly informal discussion talking through how The Big Agency worked last year (with lectures/seminars), to a more employability focused unit drawing upon real life projects, and as we seek to encourage students to think creatively for themselves, have the courage of their convictions for some, and face the realities of working life for others.
You’ll be able to check out the webinar here… Slidedeck: http://bit.ly/MMUBigAg17
So, I’ve used cultural theorists, especially Foucault, and I’ve been engaged in studying digital culture for quite some years, but never had a chance to read a solid overview of the field, and consider some of the other options. SAGE sent me this book as a possible textbook for one of my courses, and, no, I’ve not read it all, but I’ve read enough to know that this a really helpful text to use to give a ‘magisterial overview’, as I believe one of the commentators said. It’s the fifth edition, so not surprising that it’s so solid .. and ‘digital media culture’ has its own section (chapter 11), which I read first.
As digital media have become embedded in our daily lives, we have to consider the big claims that are made about the potential and the pitfalls of digital media – utopias and dystopias, consider whether pre-existing theory is enough to cope with it, and consider new ways of studying and theorising about the internet and social media platforms. Readers are encouraged to bring their own expertise and case studies to the book, throughout a number of exercises that encourage students to THINK!
There’s the question of whether it’s actually a ‘revolution’, the notions of produser or prosumer, the terminology and whether it means the same to all, the characteristics of interconnectivity, interactivity and information accessibility, the increasing corporate and state surveillance, whether the online spaces offer opportunities for democratisation, the notion that ‘online’ is somehow ‘beyond’ the everyday – offering a virtual utopian space, how the very ordinariness of the internet offers a challenge in researching it because we ‘don’t see’ what is normal to us, the question of digital divides/access, power dynamics online and their reference to offline, participation in the digital economy, how online engagement is “intrinsically multivocal, both assuming and requiring an active reader.” The chapter looks at the question of ‘public spaces’ and how the digital is part of these, and how these are managed/require conflict:
The chapter looks at questions of whether ‘slacktivism’ is a problem, the place of activism more widely, the use of memes, the illusion of participation in a shape that is shaped by traditional power, visual promotion which relies on emotion rather than argument, issues around intellectual property and how Creative Commons seeks to manage this, China, hate groups, echo chambers, information overload, search culture, whether the internet is making us stupid, the right to be forgotten, the issue of filter bubbles, the dark web, whether mass surveillance should be used, convergence, mobile culture, the corporatisation of online spaces, the environment, the internet of things.
The rest of the book demonstrates where the digital fits in with the longer development of cultural studies, which has been visible since the 1950s onwards. Plenty of useful information, exercises, and a solid overview of what can be a difficult, wide-ranging and contested field.
Buy the book (Amazon)
This afternoon, I was trying to explain a bit about copyright and the legal use of images to my students, as they are using publicly available blogs, and otherwise default to using results from Google Image search … which could lead to legal issues (see help with image attribution with this JISC tool). This blogpost from StinkyInkShop explains copyright, fair use and Creative Commons pretty well, whilst this infographic explains Creative Commons a little more! Visuals are important, especially in contemporary digital – in all cases, it’s always good to credit the originating source.
Note that royalty free doesn’t necessarily mean free to use – check the licensing agreements – and don’t be surprised if a ‘free’ site suddenly takes you to a paid site – it’s often a marketing tactic!
Remember also that you can always use your own photos – and use free software such as PicMonkey to edit, add text, etc.
What sites do you use? What sites have I missed?
After several years working on faith-based content, here’s some sites that specifically cater to that need.