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toughgirlchallenges · 1 year ago

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Arati Kumar-Rao - From National Geographic Explorer to Environmental Chronicler, documenting the slow violence of ecological degradation, inspiring us all to take a closer look at our changing world. Author of Marginlands: Indian Landscapes On The Brink.

Arati Kumar-Rao is an exceptional National Geographic Explorer, independent environmental photographer, writer, and artist dedicated to documenting the slow violence of ecological degradation. With unwavering passion, she traverses the South Asian subcontinent, embarking on captivating journeys that span seasons and sometimes years. Through her profound storytelling, Arati chronicles the ever-changing landscapes, climate, and their profound impact on livelihoods and biodiversity in South Asia.

Arati's profound impact is not confined to her lens or pen; she employs a multidimensional approach, utilising the power of photos, long form narratives, and art to communicate her insights. Recently, she unveiled her debut book, "Marginlands: Indian Landscapes On The Brink," a poignant exploration now available in bookstores across India and on Amazon.

Currently, Arati is engaged in a significant undertaking as she explores forced human migration in India, supported by a prestigious National Geographic grant. Her remarkable body of work has garnered recognition and has been featured in esteemed publications such as The National Geographic Magazine, Emergence Magazine, The Hindu, #Dysturb, The Guardian, BBC Outside Source, Hindustan Times, Mint, and other reputable outlets. Additionally, her artistic endeavours have been exhibited both in India and internationally, leaving an indelible mark on the global stage.

When not immersed in her assignments, Arati finds solace and inspiration in the Western Ghats and Bangalore, where she cherishes being a loving mother to three rescued cats.

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Show notes

Who is Arati?

Being based in Bangalore when not travelling

Her role as an environmental chronicler

Being a slow journalist or a slow storyteller

The types of story she tells

Her passion for photography and art

The tools she uses to tell the story

Working in the corporate world and making the decision to leave her job (2013) and start telling environmental stories

Her early years growing up and spending time in nature

Being inspired by the National Geographic Magazine

Wanting to tell stories of the land by walking

Making the transition from the corporate world to following her passion for storytelling

The practical steps involved

2 pivotal moments in her life

Studying for a Masters in Physical and working in a lab and deciding it wasn’t the right job for her

Having to choose between the Arts and the Sciences

Moving back to India and working with Intel doing Market Research

Falling ill with Typhoid in her 30s and starting to reflect on her life and thinking about what she really wanted to do

Needing to make new connections and build new networks

Slowly starting to find her way and the power of social media to publish stories

Slow story telling verses the speed of the internet

Needing to upskill in photography, writing and art

Taking out personal loads and writing for grants

Getting the grant from National Geographic to study forced Human Migration across India due to environmental degradation

Doing a transect walk from the most easterly point of India to the most Westerly point.

Planning and starting a story - what that looks like

Following the threads and seeing where it leads

Knowing when you are on the right path?

Not finding any path to be wrong - there is always something to learn

Taking a pause to reflect on the information that’s been gathered

Dealing with dead ends and moving on

Her first time in Bangladesh

New book: Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink

The speed and impact of climate change

Why it’s important to listen to the local geography’s

Sounds in storytelling - Soundscapes

Recording a sound signature throughout the journey

Paul Salopek’s - Out of Eden Walk

Art as part of the storytelling

Wanting to train herself to pay attention to detail

How to connect with Arati on the social media platforms

Final words of advice for other women to follow their passions

Why it’s important for women to speak up

The stories that are in your backyard

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” ~ Mary Oliver.

Social Media

Website: www.aratikumarrao.com

Instagram: @aratikumarrao

Twitter: @aratikumarrao

Facebook: @aratikumarrao

Book: Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink

Check out this episode!

#podcast #women #sports #health #motivation #challenges #change #adventure #active #wellness #explore #grow #support #encourage #running #swimming #triathlon #exercise #weights

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jtk1009-772-blog · 5 years ago

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Australia’s Current and Prior Political and Social Landscape Overview

What is the system of government in Australia?

The system of government in Australia is a combination of three well-known systems; Federation, Constitutional Monarchy, and Parliamentary Democracy (The Museum of Australian Democracy). This section will be broken up into each system of government, to explain what the system means, and how it applies to Australia.

Federation:

A Federation is often described as “a political system in which at least two territorial levels of government share sovereign constitutional authority over their respective division and joint share of law-making powers” (O’Leary). This definition of Federation applies to Australia because the country has six states, each with its own government and, for the most part, their own Governor (The Museum of Australian Democracy). Each state has a two-chambered parliament, which is a branch of the government that is used to help the state government and the federal government work cooperatively (The Museum of Australian Democracy). The states make their own decisions in regards to laws and the federal government cannot override the decisions of the state unless it goes against the ideas of their Constitution (The Museum of Australian Democracy). It is clear to see the Federation aspect of Australia's government.

Constitutional Monarchy:

A Constitutional Monarchy is often described as a “system of government in which a king or queen is head of state, but laws are made and put into effect by a legislature, or a country that has this system of government” (Cambridge). The definition of a Constitutional Monarchy applies to Australia because Australia is in fact an independent nation, in shares a Monarchy with the United Kingdom (The Museum of Australian Democracy). Furthermore, Australia has a Governor-General, who is currently Governor-General Scott Morrison (BBC), and he is appointed by Queen Elizabeth II (BBC). The Governor-General oversees the six states and acts as head of the federal government (The Museum of Australian Democracy). For the reasons previously listed, it is clear that Australia can be applied to the Constitutional Monarchy system of government.

Parliamentary Democracy:

A Parliamentary Democracy is often described as “a form of representative democracy in which political power is vested in an elected legislature, but the executive and legislative branches are not separate” (Roots Of American Government). Additionally, “The elected legislature (parliament) chooses the chief executive (prime minister)” (Roots Of American Government). This type of government can be applied to Australia because Australia has a Senate and a House of Representatives, which is overseen by the Governor-General, who, as previously stated, is appointed by the Queen (The Museum of Australian Democracy). Due to these facts, it is clear that the Parliamentary Democracy does in fact apply to Australia.

Federation, Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy create the Westminster System:

The combination of these three systems of government together is often described as the Westminster System. The definition of the Westminster System can be explained as “a democratic parliamentary system of government modeled after that of the United Kingdom system, as used in the Palace of Westminster, the location of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature. It is also used or was once used, in most Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth nations, beginning with the Canadian provinces in the mid-19th century. It is also used in Australia, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malta” (Westminster System).

What are the most significant changes in the political system over time?

Within Australia, there have been changes in the political system that are important to note. To begin, the political power in the 20th century shifted between three main political parties; The Australian Labor Party, The Liberal Party and The National Party (Fact Monster). One specific instance of this power struggle between the three parties occurred on March 1996, when the Liberal Party and The National Party came together and won the national elections (Fact Monster). There are two main reasons why this change was and still is significant. The first reason is that the Australian Labor Party was controlling Australian politics for a long thirteen years (Fact Monster). The second reason the shift is important is that the National Party and the Liberal Party won the national election by great margins (Fact Monster). This possibly suggests the dissatisfaction of the voters in regards to The Australian Labor Party.

What does Populism look like in your country?

Currently, in Australia, Queensland, one of the six states, has been the center of Populist ideas, and the reason being is because some of the most well-known Populist leaning figures come from this state (Kaltwasser, 2017, 123). Additionally, Queensland has had the best electoral support in regards to Populist ideologies (Kaltwasser, 2017, 123). The reason why some believe this is true is because of the low levels of education found in this area, as well as the low number of non-English speaking migrants, which in turn creates an environment where Populism often thrives (Kaltwasser, 2017, 123).

The most well-known Populist, Pauline Hanson, who is from the state of Queensland, is the leader of One Nation, a political party that gained momentum in the late 1990s (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). Hanson is known for her controversial statements and the fact that she believes she is close to “the people” because she grew up in a fish and chip town (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). While Hanson and her One Nation political party had a good start in the late 1990s, Hanson began to plummet politically due to her “out there” personality and her media attacks (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). Although she was unsuccessfully politically at this time, she stayed in the public's eye (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). In 2016, she surprised the country by being elected to the Senate (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124).

Another well-known Populist, Bob Katter, has been a prominent figure in Australian Populism for decades (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). He served in the Queensland Parliament in 1974, and then made his way to the Federal Parliament in 1993 where he remains (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). Katter ideologies connect with economic protectionism and social conservatism (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). Additionally, he is known for his politically incorrect outbursts against various social groups (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124).

The most recent Populist figure to enter Australian politics is Clive Palmer (Kaltwasser, 2017, 125). Palmer founded the Palmer United Party (PUP) in 2013, which differs from the anti-immigration based One Nation party by being anti-major party-driven instead (Kaltwasser, 2017, 125). Palmer claimed that the politicians in Australia were too busy arguing with each other, and his party would unite the country as one again (Kaltwasser, 2017, 125). As people accused Palmer of having his ideologies all over the place, he failed in the 2013 election, and the Palmer United Party has been in disarray ever since (Kaltwasser, 2017, 125).

The fact of the matter is that all these politicians who have adopted and applied Populist ideologies in Australian politics have not been successfully electorally overall (Kaltwasser, 2017, 126). Due to this fact, it is clear that there is no widespread Populist movement in Australia, but rather small political parties that have made minuscule impact in the grand scheme of things (Kaltwasser, 2017, 127). A good way to describe Populism in Australia is that “populism is a style rather than an institutional movement” (Kaltwasser, 2017, 127).

Civil Rights in Australia

Currently, in Australia, there have been many instances of brutality and inequality in regards to children, indigenous people, and other civil rights groups. To start, indigenous children are 25 times more likely to be thrown into prison compared to children that were born in Australia (Amnesty). Within these prisons, footage has been leaked of abuse towards these children, including tear gas, choking, and solitary confinement (Amnesty). Along with abuse inside prisons, there has been footage of abuse inside youth detention centers as well (Amnesty). On the other hand, indigenous adults were 15 times more likely to be thrown into prison compared to adults born in Australia (Amnesty).

As of recently, Australia has been implementing policies that have been returning refugees back to their home countries. It has been reported that since 2013, 30 boats have been sent back to the countries in which they had departed (Amnesty). In 2017, the same policies were implemented and more and more boats were sent back to the country in which they hoped to escape (Amnesty). Additionally, in Australia, if you arrive by plane without a visa, you are jailed (Amnesty).

Although same-sex marriage is legal in Australia (Amnesty), there have been instances of inappropriate political incorrectness from politicians towards lesbian and gays, including Bob Katter, who once claimed there were no homosexuals in his electorate (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124). Additionally, he has made racial remarks about Asians, calling them “little slanty-eyed” people who were trying to persecute everyday Australians (Kaltwasser, 2017, 125). Katter is not the only Australian Populist who has made comments about Asians in Australia. Pauline Hanson once made a claim about immigration, saying that Australia is “swamped by Asians” (Kaltwasser, 2017, 124).

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oceansofparadise · 7 years ago

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Amy had an interview with dontboreus.com.au

Evanescence will be hitting the east coast of Australia in February with their Synthesis – Live With Orchestra tour. We were lucky enough to chat with frontwoman Amy Lee ahead of the tour.

Performing with an orchestra that you can’t have multiple rehearsals with is no simple feat- what’s behind the decision to tour the upcoming album with local orchestras in each city?

It’s an incredible and intimidating thing. With 28 musicians being added to the band, I can’t really imagine how we would take them all on the road with us! Before we began the tour I was more than a little curious as to how well it would work, but it’s been working beautifully. We owe a lot of that to Susie Seiter, our touring conductor. She spends 2 hours with the orchestra every day going over the whole show and working through the hard parts, teaching them the music. We actually only get 30 minutes with band and orchestra together every day before the show that night, so most of our performance is being done for the very first time as a group in front of the audience. It creates this very raw energy during the show that I love.

David Campbell contributed to what is arguably your biggest commercial single (Bring Me To Life) – what was it like working with him in a more involved capacity on Synthesis?

Yes, David arranged all the strings for all 3 of our albums, so it was really essential to the whole idea of this project that we do it together. It was a homecoming, a reinvention, and a moment of full realization for the two of us to be able to do fully what we’d been tapping at for years. We always wanted to collaborate on a more intricate level and this album was us finally seizing that.

What’s the new music industry landscape like for an established career artist like yourself?

Everyone’s experience is different. There is more music out there available to everyone than ever before, and we all have much more independently and uniquely customized feeds into or consciousness- that is awesome but also potentially limiting and isolating. If you only listen to one type of music, you will keep being fed similar music based on the machines reading what you’ve liked previously. So we’re all sort of in these little customized bubbles. There are artists out there you may never hear of with millions of followers just because it doesn’t fit into the format of what you’ve liked so far. But my taste has changed constantly throughout my life- depending on what I’m going through, what I’m moved by. And we are also complex. We have aspects to ourselves that take many formats, genres, media, forms of expression, to touch. I don’t miss radio stations only playing 40 songs on repeat being all most people knew about, but there is something awesome about great curation. I wish there was a PURE, un-buyable platform for music that we were all plugged into.

Synthesis will be taking a look at and reimagining a whole lot of fan-favourite songs. What is behind that decision?

I just followed a craving in my heart until it snowballed into one of my biggest challenges yet. Truth is, if I’m not being challenged, I’m not inspired. And sometimes less really is more. At some point you have to take something away to hear more of the raw power of a song, to expose its fragile but courageous heart. The decision on what songs we would redo wasn’t too much about the fans, it was more about what I wanted. I wanted to re-record The End of the Dream in a way that exposed the completely post traumatic healing of a survivor- taking the time to focus on the pain, and then look up and past it, gathering the strength to live on, better. Stronger. With a new understanding of the beauty of pain and the heartbreak of real life, not fly away from it, but carry it. Carry it all and feel grateful for it. Even proud.

Synthesis is said to merge orchestral elements and electronic elements- what is the weirdest instrument/ object that you used in the reimagining of the tracks?

Will was using a vintage Roland vocoder (SVC- 350) for some beat processing and it accidentally began picking up some distorted and very otherworldly sounding Mexican radio station’s frequency at the end of “Your Star”. It added a subtle level of authentic creepiness to the song that we couldn’t have if we had been trying to. Some mistakes are my favourite parts.

Which artists were you listening to around the time of writing Imperfection?

Needed Me – Rihanna, I Am Dust – Gary Numan, Blood In The Cut – K. Flay, Apply-Glasser, An Echo, A Stain – Bjork, Head Like A Hole – Nine Inch Nails

There’s a huge, beautiful piano intro in the video- why was that cut from the single version?

I see it as an intro into the song, but also as a segway between two songs. It never really mattered too much to me where people identified the beginnings and endings to be, since i hear the whole album as one piece flowing together. Naturally when you service a song to radio, if you want to to have any chance of getting played, it makes sense to leave out the 2 minutes of piano solo before the vocal comes in. I think this song belongs on the radio. Whether it’s universally perceived that way or not, who knows. But i can totally visualize it. So if that means making an edit that only gets most of the vision across, to help that possibility, ill do it. It would still be a major victory for music that’s so far outside the mainstream box.

You’ve had a lot of intense experiences with fans- what is the most intense experience you’ve had with a fan?

I met someone recently, who told us her story of being a victim of a home invasion when she was young. The intruders killed her husband and brother, but she and her baby survived. Her life’s path after that was marked with different points all along the way that were represented by our songs. The pain, the healing, the life beyond… and we were able to celebrate their lives together as mother and daughter (who’s now a teenager), lifelong Evanescence fans, who were there to attend their first show that night.

You became a role model very early on in life- was that a lot of pressure?

Yes. But I felt somewhat prepared for the job because I was the eldest of 4 siblings and was always trying to help guide my little sisters and bro down the right path. I loved them so much, I didn’t see it as pressure with them- so I guess I carried over the same feelings to my audience of youth. The pressure comes when you feel like you can’t be yourself, or that there’s a side of you that no one can ever know. I don’t want to act. I want to be the real me. And I’m not perfect, and I have to be brutally honest in my writing. So that true self can be uncontrollable. She can say things I don’t really want to admit. She could also open us all to a deeper honesty. That I would be proud of.

[x]

#Amy Lee #Evanescence #Interview #Synthesis #dontboreus #oop post

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anthemnz · 5 years ago

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What business leaders want from agency partners in their greatest time of need

Six years ago, the dream of having my own business came to fruition with the birth of Anthem. In the most surreal of weeks, Carolyn, my business partner, and I have stuck to our guns to progress the succession plan we put in place at Anthem’s outset. For Caro to take up the mantle as managing director and for me to move into the chair role. Bizarrely it seemed like just the right time as we need to focus our skills on what each of us does best.

I’ve used the past few weeks to take stock of Anthem’s journey in six years, in order to continue planning for the agency’s future in what will be a vastly different New Zealand.

At the outset, Anthem was shaped from my learnings as a partner and shareholder in several previous agencies, along with insights from some of New Zealand’s C-suite leaders on what they were looking from their communications partners. I then went back to more than 30 business leaders last year to canvass them for their views on the future of agencies.

As I reflect on this research and how we’ve applied it to Anthem’s evolution, many of the insights hold true for us as we hone how we can best meet client needs in this forever-changed world.

In 2014, business leaders reinforced much of what I’d long believed about our profession, for example that it was time for senior PR practitioners to lead as we’re often privileged to have a wide purview across disciplines within a business.

Executives wanted to see agencies investing in understanding client strategy and business goals, and bringing insight and connections to assist in delivering those goals. They were looking for communications partners to be connected at a senior business and Board level.

In our original research, C-suite executives listed an understanding of Asia as mandatory for agencies supporting businesses. This holds especially true today as we look to how New Zealand’s future trade partners will change. We’ll be looking to strengthen our links with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea – nations who have so far managed to contain Covid-19. As part of Anthem’s agile team, we have partners with deep knowledge of trade in key Asian countries and we’ll be looking to build on these as the economic ramifications of the pandemic continue to unfold.

From Day One of Anthem, we’ve given the Advisory part of our agency equal weighting to the Agency component. Our Advisory model allows us to co-create strategy with C-suite members and connect them with stakeholders they should know, which then flows into working communications strategies. The Agency team Caro and I have built comprises exceptional Anthemites who deliver end-to-end account service excellence.

As Anthem has evolved as an agency, key elements remain unchanged – our team is comprised of storytellers and strategists across the corporate and marketing aspects of our clients’ businesses, and discipline labels have become less relevant as we work across the board to build trusted brands and stellar reputations.

When I again talked with business leaders last year to garner their views on the future of agencies, I was ever grateful for the time, insights and connections they were so generous to share with me.

Executives also told me, “small is beautiful” and we’re already seeing this hold true as marketing spend contracts and businesses look for smart, cost-effective solutions that support on point strategy. Anthem is an example of a new breed of agency – independent, nimble, smaller and filling a gap between agencies and strategic consultancies. Now is the time for small, independent agencies to hold their own, pivot their service offer regularly and help businesses navigate through a long stretch of rough, unchartered waters.

Business leaders are looking for partnerships where client and agency win together, where pain and gain is shared, and where different charging models, free of unnecessary overheads, are devised. This has really hit home in the past couple of weeks as we hunker down with clients facing their most challenging time, while ensuring our own team is well cared for.

As I continue to explore future opportunities for Anthem to best serve our clients, there are two fundamental elements of our agency DNA that will never change: our connection to clients’ top table and our agility to flex with speed to co-create communications and marketing solutions to business challenges and opportunities.

As a momentary segue, while our nimble model and size has allowed us to transition easily into remote working during this lockdown, we are very much missing being in the same physical space as our team and feeling the buzz of their individual and collective energy. We’re working on ways to keep our special culture at the forefront and will be sharing these with anyone looking for ideas for their own businesses.

Covid-19 will have a permanent impact on New Zealand’s already shrinking media landscape and marketing and communications budgets, which will lead to newsrooms and brands becoming even more reliant on each other for native advertising and branded journalism. On our client roster, we no longer have any clients who rely on us solely for traditional earned media relations. All of our client solutions feature multi-channel, highly-targeted approaches.

With uncertainty at an all-time high, more than ever, New Zealanders need business leaders to communicate effectively for their own people and for customers. Anthem has an established executive communications programme, which involves auditing and coaching, and the preparation we’ve done for a number of clients equips them to be communicating with confidence and empathy as they look to guide their people and share information with customers and stakeholders.

Caro and I are incredibly proud of how Anthem’s offering and our talent pool has broadened to meet the needs of our clients, but we also recognise we can’t be everything to everyone. This is one of the fundamental reasons we planned for our leadership change, Caro stepping into the managing director role frees up bandwidth for me to focus on providing strategic input to our clients, governance oversight to the agency and continuing to innovate our offer.

I’m already immensely proud of how Caro’s superb leadership skills have been demonstrated in the last few weeks to nurture our team culture and provide clients with wise counsel. She empowers our high performance team, enabling Anthemites to thrive. Caro is 100% focused on our vision to develop and reinvent a world-class, leading-edge integrated communications and marketing agency. She’s courageous, compassionate and catalyses our team to be their best.

And finally, if I look back to how we came to be ‘Anthem’.

Anthems are unifying, a collection of moving words sung in unison. Groups, communities, football teams and nations rally around their anthems, which can be an extraordinary collective experience. Never has our team felt a greater responsibility to help clients to find their own unifying words and to use their most powerful voice.

If you’re currently grappling with a business challenge or are in need of communications support, please feel free to get in a touch for a confidential discussion. We’d be happy to take on any suggestions or ideas on how we flex and adapt our services to better serve you during these trying times.

#opinion

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garp19-jennicornall-blog · 6 years ago

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Research proposal statement

Why do we tell stories to children? The importance of children’s books and how to keep them relevant.

I have always loved books ever since I can remember. I have so many memories of my parents reading to me and putting on silly voices. The beautiful illustrations transported me to a different world allowing me to believe that I could be or do whatever I wanted. A world where animals wear waistcoats, twits played tricks, shooting stars, Scottish landscapes, naughty siblings and families with weird and wonderful pet animals. I learnt so much from these stories, they helped me get through bad times and made me learn about myself and the world around me. For instance, books from the likes of Beatrix Potter, Mairi Hedderwick, Julia Donaldson, Raymond Briggs. I have been interested in the children book industry for a while and thought this would be a perfect opportunity for me to learn more about it. Looking at the children book industry will help my personal practice, informing me how it works, and how it can relate to the position I am in. I will be looking into the origin of reading and children’s books by looking into folklore and how it shaped the industry that is today from the likes of Vladimir Propp. I will be looking at why its important children read and how we can encourage reading to be a part of a child’s routine. I will be going to local independent children’s bookshops to see how they encourage children to read and to look at their displays and workshops. I will look at the publishing industry and their policy on ethics over profits. I will also be looking at trends in books, to see what people are buying and why. I think this would be interesting to see the variety of books that exist and how it is evolving. For example for International Women’s Day the increase in books about strong female leads. Have they been there all the time or hidden at the back of the shelves? I also will be looking at illustrators and how children’s illustrations have changed with the use of digital illustration alongside traditional. This will be of interest to teachers, parents and people who want to get into the industry. This will help them understand how books and illustrations are still important and how they can be kept that way. They can see modern books that are on offer that can teach their children about our growing world and promoting equality.

Children are introduced to new worlds with books, they can meet new people from the present and past and they can really affect their lives. It sparks their imagination, develops thought provoking and critical thinking and helps them develop empathy. Reading allows children to have skills they will need for their future to help them thrive at school, work and life. (Cowell, 2018) Reading for pleasure is also important for mental health as well as economic success research states. ‘One in eight disadvantaged children in the UK do not own a single book of their own, and primary school libraries have closed across the nation.’ Another factor for why children are not reading is because of parents not having time to read with their child. ‘19% of parents struggle to find energy at the end of the day’ also 16% said their child prefers to do other things. Another struggle some parents find is not feeling comfortable in bookshops, with feeling overwhelmed by the variety of books. However, 61% of parents are concerned about how much screen time children are having. (Flood, 2018)

An interview between Quentin Blake and Lauren Child shows the way they draw and write for both adults and children. Child says how she treasures Blake’s comment about how young children can read a book even if they can’t actually read. ‘Whether I’m doing an adult book for The Folio Society or a book for a five- year old, it’s the same job and you should take it equally seriously.’ Child wants to address a similar method by speaking to both adults and children. ‘I think there is a misunderstanding about writers and illustrator for children. As if they don’t take their work as seriously as those who write and illustrate for adults. When actually it’s the same, the same thought process and integrity. It’s easy to feel you are there to be some kind of children’s entertainer at festivals for example.’ (Williams, 2017) The world of picture books owes much to John Burningham. His ‘visual poetry’ pushed boundaries of how much can be left unsaid. ‘He always treated the reader’s imagination with the utmost respect, whatever the reader’s age might be.’ He was able to communicate to children in their language ‘and in his understand of the mutually exclusive worlds of childhood and adulthood. (Salisbury, 2019)

During my research I am planning to look at themes in children’s books, looking at trends in books and why. I have broadly looked into how children’s books help and teach children about ‘difficult issues.’ Difficult meaning the effort to be able to deal and understand. (Dictionary, 2019) I have investigated why books like this need to exist for children and how it can help them. ‘All children deserve to be listened to: to have the chance to talk about their worst fears, their hopes and their dreams. (Edge, 2015) I have also explored what is suitable for children. How far can children’s books push the boundaries of what children should know and in what way. (Styles, 2012) I then started to investigate different topics that could be considered as ‘difficult’ or ‘taboo’; Such as equality, LGBT, death, illness, elderly, family and love.

In the lead up to international women’s day, I found lots of displays and books about women. I started to do research into equality, and how it’s presented in children’s books. Still in todays modern world, when an author reveals the gender of a creature it was 73% more likely to be male than female. Male creatures are also more likely to be shown as strong and dangerous and compared to animals like tigers and dragons. Whereas women are shown as more small and sensitive creatures such as birds and butterflies. Although there are new picture books with strong female characters, they didn’t make the bestseller list. However, illustrators and authors understand the importance of equality and it is slowly changing. However, parents are still buying books they know and trust from their childhood. Which aren’t perhaps promoting equality. (Ferguson, 2018)

I found a project called ‘No Outsiders’ in which UK primary schoolteachers looked at ways of addressing sexual equality in primary schools. It’s important to get the balance into how to educate children about sexuality for them to understand that everyone is different. The idea of the project was to prevent homophobia. In order to do this it would require talking about gender, sexuality and diversity openly in school. However, there was parents who protested against this causing a school to temporarily withdraw from the project. The aim of this project was to reduce bullying, which parents (Love, 2019) supported. However they were saying ‘our child is coming home and talking about same- sex relationships when we haven’t even talked about heterosexual relationships with them yet.’ A woman said that her 10 year old daughter came home from school after reading a couple of these books and said ‘We can’t have these books in the house, people might think we’re gay or something.’ The woman then stated how she realized in that moment that her daughter was already being ‘bombarded with peer pressure.’ ‘She had already realized and made her mind up that gay is bad and we can’t go there. If at this age they’re already saying that we can’t accept people for their life choices, then we have to start educating them earlier.’ A project teacher gave her own interpretation of homosexuality and did a story called ‘If I had 100 mummies.’ A girl responded by putting her hand up and said she had two mummies. ‘We framed it that she is the luckiest one to have two mummies, because we’d all like 100 kisses at bedtime and 100 ice creams if we went out to play.’ This empowered the child’s parents, as they came in and said how pleased they were that this was being addressed and their situation being framed as the norm. (DePalma, 2016)

Another aspect I have researched is about illustrators and how they are treated in the industry. This is something I want to look more into especially for children’s illustrators. An illustrator surveyed 1261 illustrators about their pay, workload and contracts. He found that most illustrators are based at home while only 11% share studios. Illustrators found that the most work they got was from the publishing industry with 24% and editorial work with 19%, closely followed by prints and exhibitions at 18% and 16% from advertising. Most of their work came from self-promotion 33% and repeat clients 30%. Social media is a big impact with it helping 21% of the illustrators, agents however only bringing 9%. Instagram was the most important social media source for those surveyed. It is an easy way for illustrators to get their work out there and for a large amount of people to see at a click of a finger. However there is still some way to go. 69% felt they could not earn a suitable amount to live sustainably just from illustration and have had to have side jobs. (Brewer, 2018)

The children book industry is a big area to research. I want to find out things that are going to be relevant to my practice and potential future in the industry. I want to look at illustrators and how they’ve entered the industry. I will be doing research into whether they have an agent or if they are freelance. Comparing this to international illustrators such as Sweden and Norway who have wages whereas many illustrators in the UK tend to work freelance. Why is this? How do freelance illustrators find work? I want to look into whether having an agent is needed and look at well-known illustrators and their journey in children’s books. I am planning to look at different agents and their clients seeing how successful they have been. Has social media been a big impact on the illustration industry? How has it helped illustrators and impacted their lives mentally. I also would like to look into techniques illustrators use. Looking at traditional illustration such as Beatrix Potter compared to digital illustration such as Jim Field who uses digital techniques in his work. Is the change with advanced technology good for the industry or bad? Why do people choose to draw digitally and does it have the same effect as using traditional methods.

Another area to look into would be in the publishing industry. Looking at the type of books they sell and what they promote, for example around international women’s day there were displays in every bookshop and in chains such as Waterstones. Yet where are these books on a normal day? I want to look further into who decides the market focus is right and how can it be changed to promote equality and issues such as LGBT, race, diversity and so on. Another research point would be to look at certain publishing houses such as Penguin, reviewing the books they have on offer for children, I want to see the trends in books they sell and doing an analysis on what’s popular and why. It might also be interesting looking at the type of books children read at school and how they involve books in education. Another area I want to look in is the increase in EBooks and Audio books. With the increase in young children using tablets are they likely to use these than read an actual book or be read to. What is this doing to children, what are the benefits?

I have found some books that I feel will be helpful for my research and the understanding of the children book industry. For instance How to be an Illustrator by Darrel Rees. I have already read some of this book before but I think it will give me a good insight into the illustration industry. Other books I am planning on reading are: Illustration: What’s the point? By Mouni Feddag and Becoming a Successful Illustrator by Derek Brazell. Books that are more specific to the children’s book industry are: How to Write a Children’s Picture Book and Get it Published by Andrea Shavick; Illustrating Children’s Books- Creating Pictures for Publication by Martin Salinsbury; Drawn from the Archive: Hidden Histories of Illustration by Seven stories Press; Little Big Books: Illustration for Children's Picture Books by Robert Klanten and 100 Great Children's Picture books by Martin Salisbury and Illustrating Children's books by Martin Ursell.

I am planning on doing some primary research over the holidays. I have a few ideas of what I could possibly do, but this will likely change once I have done more research on my subject. Also the type of questions and focus may change slightly with more knowledge and understanding of my subject. One idea I had would be doing an interview with an independent children’s bookshop owner. I am planning to visit some over the summer and there is a few local book shops dedicated to just children’s novels. I would want to ask the owner about their opinion on the industry, to find out are people still buying books like they used to. Do they hold any workshops, book readings/ signings, if so do many people attend? I would ask about their ethics over profits and the type of books they sell and why. Another possibility would be to do an online questionnaire asking friends and family about their experience with children’s books. Over the summer I want to visit as many independent book shops as I can. While doing some research I discovered some local ones The Childrens Bookshop in Hay- On- Wye and Booka Bookshop in Oswestry. I am also hoping to go to London and bookshops I would like to go to are Chiltern Bookshops in Gerrad’s Cross, Foyes in Charing Cross, The Owl Bookshop Kentish Town, Kew Bookshop, London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury and Daunt Books in Marylebone. I would also like to go in some museums and galleries such as The Cartoon Museum, The House of Illustration, House of MinaLima, Chris Beetles Gallery and Marianne North Gallery in Kew gardens.

References

Ben_the_illustrator. (2018/2019) Illustrator's Survey [online] Available at: https://bentheillustrator.com/illustrators-survey [Accessed: 15/04/19]

Brewer, J. (2018) This illustrator surveyed 1261 illustrators about pay, workload, clients, contracts and more [online] Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/ben-the-illustrator-illustration-survey-2017-160118 [Accessed: 19/04/19]

Briggs, R. (1994) The Bear [online] Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/299935/the-bear/9780141374079.html [Accessed: 25/04/19]

Cowell, C. (2018) If we want our children to thrive, teaching them to read is not enough – they must learn to enjoy it. [online], Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/children-reading-for-pleasure-learning-to-read-a8666611.html [Accessed: 16/02/18]

DePalma, R. (2016) Gay Penguins, Sissy Ducklings ... and Beyond? Exploring Gender and Sexuality Diversity through Children's Literature. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37 (6), 828-845.

Dictionary, O. (2019) Difficult [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/difficult [Accessed: 01/04/19]

Edge, C. (2015) How Can Stories Help Children Explore Difficult Subjects? [online] Available at: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/blog/teachers-librarians/2015/11/how-can-stories-help-children-explore-difficult-subjects [Accessed: 25/02/19]

Ferguson, D. (2018) Must monsters always be male? Huge gender bias revealed in children’s books. [online], Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/21/childrens-books-sexism-monster-in-your-kids-book-is-male [Accessed: 07/03/19]

Flood, A. (2018) Only half of pre-school children being read to daily, UK study finds. [online], Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/21/only-half-of-pre-school-children-being-read-to-daily-study-finds [Accessed: 18/04/19]

Hedderwick, M. (1986) Katie Morag And The Tiresome Ted [online] Available at: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1000937/katie-morag-and-the-tiresome-ted/9781849410953.html

Love, J. (2019) Julián Is a Mermaid [online] Available at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567578/julian-is-a-mermaid-by-jessica-love/9780763690458/ [Accessed: 26/03/19]

McKee, D. (1968) Elmer [online] Available at: https://www.waterstones.com/book/elmer/david-mckee/9781842707319 [Accessed: 25/04/19]

Potter, B. About Beatrix Potter [online] Available at: https://www.peterrabbit.com/about-beatrix-potter/ [Accessed: 25/04/19]

Salisbury, M. (2019) John Burningham Obituary [online], Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/john-burningham-obituary [Accessed: 18/04/19]

Sethi, A. (2018) Browse a bookshop: Moon Lane Books, south London. [online], Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/07/browse-a-bookshop-moon-lane-books-london [Accessed: 20/04/19]

Styles, M.S.a.M. (2012) Children's Picturebooks The art of visual storytelling. London: Laurence King.

Williams, S. (2017) 'Drawing is the most important thing there is': Quentin Blake talks to Lauren Child. [online], Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/drawing-important-thing-quentin-blake-talks-lauren-child/ [Accessed: 18/02/19]

Youtube. (2011) Ladybird Classic Me Books App | Interactive Picture Book [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1EYwDg8lU [Accessed: 15/04/19]

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laurelkrugerr · 4 years ago

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A Monthly Update On All Things Smashing

About The Author

Juggling between three languages on a daily basis, Iris is known for her love of linguistics, arts, web design and typography, as well as her goldmine of … More about Iris …

Every month, we present an overview of things the Smashing team has been working on — all in one place. The past few weeks have been quite challenging: COVID-19 crisis, #BlackLivesMatter, and so many other ongoing issues taking place all over the world. Here’s what’s been happening on our end in the meantime.

The entire Smashing team has been doing its very best to bring you live sessions with real experts — people with practical experience who love to share what they have learned throughout their careers. We organized Smashing Meets on three days — events that were open to everyone in the web community. With sessions on performance, CSS, GraphQL, and creative courage, we made sure to leave plenty of time for Q&A, networking, competitions and prizes.

We’re overwhelmed with the feedback we’ve received since then; many of you seemed to mostly enjoy spending time with speakers, and asking questions directly. A huge thank you again to everyone who joined in — it was such an incredible experience to have shared with you all!

Henri Helvetica, Yiying Lu and Vitaly Friedman live on screen at the recent Smashing Meets event. (Image credit: Yiying Lu)

Smashing Meets Schedule Overview (May & June)

Smashing Online Workshops: Coming Up Next

Mark your calendars! We’ll be organizing even more online events in the next weeks. Whether the spotlight shines on CSS, accessibility, performance or UX, we want to help you boost your skills and learn practical, actionable insights from experts in the industry.

The previous workshops have been incredibly popular with many becoming sold out, so do check the details and save your spot as soon as you can.

Staying up to date can be so difficult. It’s a jungle out there, but we have you covered! See online events →

One last thing. In case you find yourself thinking twice about joining in a Smashing workshops just because you think your manager could need just a little bit more persuasion, then we’ve got your back with a neat lil’ template: Convince Your Boss. Good luck!

Our Latest Addition To The Smashing Books: Shipping Now

We’re so proud to have officially released Paul Boag’s book, “Click! How To Encourage Clicks Without Shady Tricks”. It is a detailed guide on how to increase conversion and boost business KPIs without alienating customers along the way, and we’re sure you’ll find it tremendously useful.

Quality hardcover. Free worldwide shipping. 100 days money-back-guarantee. Tell me more →

Smashing Podcast: Tune In!

18 episodes in, the Smashing Podcast has been better than we had ever expected! Every two weeks, Drew McLellan speaks to folks from different backgrounds, and there’s always so much to learn and share! You’re always welcome to tune in and share your questions and thoughts with us anytime.

Trending Topics On Smashing Magazine

We publish a new article every day on various topics that are current in the web industry. Here are some that our readers seemed to enjoy the most and have recommended further:

Best Picks From Our Newsletter

Interested in sponsoring? Feel free to check out our partnership options and get in touch with the team anytime — they’ll be sure to get back to you right away.

P.S. A huge thank you to Cosima Mielke for writing and preparing these posts!

Modern CSS Solutions For Old CSS Problems

Illustrations For Everyone

Learn Flexbox With Code Tidbits

Global Website Speed Profiler

Sleek Browser Frames For Your Screenshots

SVG Path Data Syntax Explored

The Future Is Here

Black Illustrations

See Easing Curves In Action

Insights Into How Developers Work Today

CSS Art In A Single Div

What can you do in a single div? Lynn Fisher has a lot of creative answers to this question, as her CSS drawing project A Single Div shows.

A Magic Notebook For Exploring Data

(cm, vf, ra)

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/a-monthly-update-on-all-things-smashing/

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hub-pub-bub · 5 years ago

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Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Adriana Herrera was always a voracious reader, tearing through books from all different genres. But when her mother gave her a box set of romance novels about an Austrian princess that had been translated into Spanish, Herrera discovered a genre that, decades later, still provides "a particular type of comfort read".

She tore through young adult romance novels in her teens and came back to romance stories in her late 20s while serving as an aid worker in Latin America and Africa.

"It always was a great place of self-care for me to read stories that I knew would have a happy ending and where there was a real focus on the heroine and her happiness and the things that were important to her, and the hero trying to be better so they could get a happy ending," Herrera told Al Jazeera.

Armed with a "craving to see characters that centered on my experience and that could resonate with my particular likes," Herrera, 40, decided to write her own books. The result is a four-part collection called Dreamers, and the second installment of that series - a book called American Fairytale - was released on May 20.

Three of Herrera's books are queer romances, and the fourth focuses on a heterosexual relationship. Herrera's writing falls into a literary genre known as Own Voices. Coined by young adult author Corinne Duyvis on Twitter in 2015, this term refers to works in which the "protagonist and the author share a marginalised identity".

Romance novelist Adriana Herrera's writing falls within the 'Own Voices' genre of book publishing [Adriana Herrera]

Resonating with readers

Romance novelist Adriana Herrera's writing falls within the 'Own Voices' genre of book publishing [Adriana Herrera]

A number of #OwnVoices books have skyrocketed to fame recently, especially in the young adult and middle-grade genres.

Author Angie Thomas has two books on The New York Times' young adult bestseller list. One of them - The Hate U Give - is about an African-American teen who watches a police officer shoot her childhood friend. It has spent 116 weeks on the list, and there, it was recently joined by other Own Voices titles including Elizabeth Acevedo's With the Fire on High and Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone.

Readers hungry for Own Voices stories have compiled lists of them on Goodreads, a social website for book enthusiasts. And they've used social media to call on the publishing industry to produce more titles.

The industry is taking notice. The lineup for BookExpo America, a major publishing industry trade event taking place in New York City this week, features a number of panels focusing on diversity.

But publishing companies have generally been slow to catch up to demand, in part due to a lack of diversity within the industry itself.

'We know those voices need to be heard'

In 2015, Lee & Low Books, an independent, minority-owned children's book publisher in the United States, surveyed more than 13,000 employees at 35 publishing companies and eight review journals as part of its first Diversity Baseline Survey.

The survey, which looked at race, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability, found that the publishing industry was overwhelmingly white, straight and non-disabled.

That lack of diversity may explain why works by talented writers of colour and authors from other marginalised communities have failed to find significant traction with mainstream publishing companies or have failed to be widely promoted.

Herrera has seen that reality firsthand. When she started writing her books in 2017, "there was only a certain amount of traditional publishing that you could even get a contract with, because gay romance wasn't something that could be quote-unquote mainstream," she said. "That in and of itself is a problem, because it's kind of the unwritten rule that queer stories don't have a place in the general mainstream market or sitting on the bookshelves next to the historicals."

“...it's kind of the unwritten rule that queer stories don't have a place in the general mainstream market...” – ADRIANA HERRERA, ROMANCE NOVELIST

In response to the lack of diversity in traditional publishing houses, some smaller, independent companies have cropped up to fill the void. Katie Rose Guest Pryal and Lauren Faulkenberry founded Blue Crow Publishing in Chapel Hill, North Carolina three years ago and publish between five and six titles per year. They said their company "actively seeks out" Own Voices stories - and three of the seven authors they have published so far have fallen into that category.

"When we founded Blue Crow, we wrote a mission statement with five principles to guide our work. One of the principles goes like this: 'We believe that all authors deserve a voice, especially those whose writing the publishing world has so often turned its back on,'" Pryal and Faulkenberry told Al Jazeera. "We feel that mainstream publishing has historically marginalised a lot of voices out there, and we know those voices need to be heard."

But it isn't enough to just put that message on Blue Crow's website and wait, they said.

"If a publisher does not actively seek them, then you will not find them. If you do not reach out to organisations of writers of colour, for example, or disabled writers, then you will not see submissions by marginalised writers," Pryal and Faulkenberry explained. "It isn't enough to simply have your door open. You have to show that you are receptive, that you will actually give those manuscripts a fair read. Marginalised authors are gun-shy, and for good reason."

'A lot of barriers to certain stories'

Herrera said she and her agent ultimately went for a digital-first publication with Harlequin, a major romance-novel publisher that is now part of HarperCollins, but "the conversation didn't even go to a place where like, sure, we could get a print deal, we could get an advance or anything like that".

“...mainstream publishing has historically marginalised a lot of voices out there, and we know those voices need to be heard.” – KATIE ROSE GUEST PRYAL AND LAUREN FAULKENBERRY, FOUNDERS, BLUE CROW PUBLISHING

"It was kind of like, this is what it is, you just know that if you have written this kind of romance, you just won't get a bigger deal," she added. "Things are changing, but I feel like there are still a lot of barriers to certain stories."

Those barriers definitely exist in the romance genre: in its more than 30-year history, no black author has ever been awarded a RITA, the top honour from the Romance Writers of America. And young adult readers accustomed to that genre's wide Own Voices landscape will be disappointed with the selection when they graduate to the romance genre, Herrera said.

"Young adult is leaps and bounds ahead of us," she explained. "When they come into adult romance, they are not going to find stories that are organic to their lived experience. They are not going to find stories that are about being queer, about being gender-fluid, about being a person who is living at the intersection of marginalised identities."

Herrera's books give voice to just those sort of characters, featuring "four childhood friends who are all Afro-Latinx from the Caribbean and grew up together in the South Bronx," she said. All four titles explore the immigrant experience, something Herrera has lived since coming to the United States in 2002 at the age of 23 for graduate school.

"When I started writing the books it was 2017, and the narrative around the place of immigrants in the US was beginning to feel really hard, so I just wanted to write stories that didn't necessarily present a story of toil. I wanted to write [about] people that were thriving and people that were striving," Herrera explained, adding that she feels characters of colour in fiction seem to have to "earn their happily ever after through brokenness, and I really wanted to pull that out of the narrative and present people that were striving to be best."

Herrera said that as a bisexual woman who came of age during the AIDS epidemic, discovering LGBTQ romance novels was powerful for her. "To see LGBTQ stories that weren't about people dying a horrible death or horrible things happening to queer people was something really, really impactful for me," she said.

'Write past those barriers'

Lee & Low is currently collecting data for its second Diversity Baseline Survey this year to see if if the publishing industry has moved the needle on staff diversity.

But the industry conversation surrounding Own Voices is not without contention. A broader debate is taking place over whether it is necessary for authors to share the identities of their protagonists in order to produce compelling stories.

For their part, Pryal and Faulkenberry believe it is a mistake to view Own Voices as excluding mainstream authors.

"What Own Voices does, rather than limiting writers who want to write stories of people whose experiences are unfamiliar to them, is encourage writers who have been barred from writing about their own life experiences. These writers have been barred by traditional publishing gatekeepers, but with Own Voices, they have a chance, even if it is a small chance, to write past those barriers," they said.

"Without the Own Voices movement, marginalised writers might otherwise have avoided writing about their marginalised experiences," they added. "After all, mainstream publishing is still very white, straight, normate, what have you - from editors to agents to authors. And they prefer stories with main characters who look like them."

#diversity #inclusivity #lgbtqia #books

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snkret-photography · 6 years ago

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It's Not The Same

I’ve always been a firm believer that to accomplish your goals and dreams, you have to be willing to prove that you want it. You have to prove your dedication to your desires through hard work, sacrifice and tenacity. That when it sucked, that was the breakthrough. That when you wanted to quit, it was right on the other side, just 5 more minutes and then it was here. And for pretty much all of college, I ran myself thin on the “5 more minute” module. Just gotta keep going long enough to see results and then I can breathe and get ready for the next wave. I always think back to how I was freshman year:

Wake up between 4:30-5:45am

Do some light stretches and go wash up

Go for a 25-45 minute run

Drink protein shake and watch the sun rise

Shower and get ready for my day

Class with a break in between to grab some food

Work where I typically went to grab some food

2nd workout of P90x or yoga or T25 (whichever I was doing at the time)

Go drinking

Crash around 2am

Do over

If I tried to do that routine now, I would kill over and die not to mention just the idea of being productive the day after drinking and oh Lord, FUCK SEEING THE SUN IN THE MORNING. I want to see the pitch black of my eyelids and the darkness of my room to lull me back to sleep when I’ve been interrupted. And I mean I’ve tried implementing different portions of this back into my life, namely the waking up before 5:00am to get myself together and then head to the gym when it opens at 5:00am. This has proved a more futile effort in recent history than I have known it to be throughout the course of my entire fitness journey. And as I spent countless 7:00am, second-snoozed alarm clocks dragging myself for being up later than I originally planned to be, I had to take the moments to ask an important question: why is it so hard for you to get up when you used to do it so easily? But to answer that question, I had to also figure out what was the goal of repeating things I’ve done. Sure, it’s great to be able to survive on 2 hours of sleep and have this kick-ass day where I accomplished everything and felt well-rounded. But that’s not my life anymore. Shit, that wasn’t my life after freshman year. As a matter of fact, if we deep dive into that list, we can cross a few things off where I just don’t do these things or at least not in the same capacity:

I prefer yoga to either begin my day or end it

I avoid protein shakes and most synthetic food group; my whole diet has changed and I only really eat once a day

Exercise programs annoy the fuck out of me

I’m not in school anymore

My friends can’t hangout with me at work and my work day is now about 11 hours total on a good day

I barely drink

My body hates the idea of me drinking

My body sends me out of commission when I drink; it’s not happening on a weeknight without adequate planning

So when looking at the two lists and realizing that all I wanted out of my freshman year life was the ability to wake up and exercise without feeling like I’m betraying my bed to go lift a bunch of metal or fuck up my knees, I had to figure out why I couldn’t enter that same frame of mind now. This one took a while and it wasn’t really until I was having a conversation about the people I’m surrounded by in which the factors of why I’m acting contrary to my desires made more sense. (Allow me to digress for a bit to bring in the educational segment of my ramblings.) The idea of behavioral or social contagion defined as the social transmission, by contact, of sociocultural artefacts or states. More readily, the idea in which we as individuals are subjective to the energies of those around us both from a physical and psychological perspective. Broken down a little further and to something we can all recollect from psychology class and the basis in which I’m using this argument from: groupthink theory. While both theories are completely independent of one another, there is a due overlap in which to draw upon. The idea of influence (promise I’m going to resist my rant on social media, namely because it’s too easy) in both of these situations of people being affected by the people around them was one I associated with Darwinism and the dominating personality of others. That strong leaders and personalities could warp those of lesser minds and by staying the course of example in which they set, they dictated the way in which the group thought and the manners in which those around them responded. Not completely off basis but not necessarily right. And the turning point in the conversation and subsequently my frame of thinking about this, was the idea of how leaders speak and some of the more profound advice in which leaders tend to give. Almost always, they speak of their influences and their models but most importantly, of their circle. They talk about how being surrounded by specific types of people allows them to operate in the manner in which they do and that deviations from that are either removed from their lives or have brought them down at some point. So then it clicked:

I am surrounded by the types of people who are contrary to my desires.

And this is not a blanket judgement or an assessment of quality of other people. I have actually done deep discussion with most people who make up the large basis of my day-to-day surroundings and none of the ways in which they think are aligned with the ways in which I typically think. Back in MD, a lot of us shared the same goals of going to college, getting these degrees and either giving back or doing some major town shit. That was my mentality entering freshman year and a lot of the friends in which I picked up were closer to graduating and tended to be of similar mindsets since they were in that transition phase to the “real-world”. Fast forward to today and most of those friends weren’t even from here (here being New York as a populous and Staten Island as a specific). So I’m not around these people and for one reason or another, the communication isn’t as consistent as it could be. But then transitioning to the turning point of looking to the outside and understanding how those people thought was very uninspiring. So much so I was overtaken with a frisson of fear after assessing the collection. From an immediate setting of daily encounters, there was a strong lack of ambition. Just people who were fine with how things went, one way or another, low drive to struggle or achieve, low functionality in desire to accomplish things daily and on a grand scale, and oddly enough, high levels of anxiety when faced with things I would other wise consider simplistic and pragmatic. On the work end, everyone was miserable and depressed. Like that just sums it up right there. In one group, you have the people who are gaining tenure on the offset that it will lead to something better and provide them with the life that they think will make them happy yet have subjugated themselves to a dreary existence in the interim off of pure hope of the unknown and the accounts of others. On the other end are the people who go through the cycle of feeling unfulfilled and run down yet have enough small segments of peace along with ignorance of other options that they go into a system of rationalization to support their complacency with the idea that they could want more or better but what they have is good enough.

So three principles at work here: complacency, lack of motivation/ambition, misery. And while misery loves company, I always thought the other were individual drives. But have you ever had someone start to validate their assessment of your worth to you? Have you believed them? Has that molded the way in which you both actually value yourself and communicate that value to others? In the realm of social contagion, being in a like environment as others who hold a valuation of themselves AND comfort in that valuation can influence one to take up similar valuations. If you’re in a room full of people who hate their job yet aren’t looking for opportunities to rectify that, what is going to incline you to like your job and pursue other endeavors? It’s good enough for everyone else, should be good enough for you, right? If the person next you has less than you and is just as complacent, what’s to say that you really need more? When you think you deserve a raise at work and your boss asks you why, is your first thought the list of shit that equates to a hire monetary value, your knowledge of how others in equal or lesser positions are paid in relevance to you, or do you sit and ask yourself why do you deserve a raise? Anything outside of the first option has more to do with your valuation of yourself based around the valuation of those in your surroundings and it’s projection on you rather than any intrinsic value you may hold about yourself. But more often than not, the latter perspectives are the ones most heavily invoked in a conversation of output to compensation. The matters of what is everyone else doing and how are they relevant to me. Now I’m not knocking the concepts of competition and relativity nor the boundaries of fairness and comparative landscapes. As a matter of fact, as you’re reading this, I can assume you’re thinking I’m going to take this in one of two directions: (1) that people need to focus on themselves and their values in order to operate at whatever level they think is best regardless of those around them or (2) that people should curate their surroundings and the people in them to more closely align with what they desire.

Both of those are great arguments and may someday make great posts. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. If you jump back a couple of paragraphs, I started this on the basis of me not being able to get up at 4:00am and go to the gym to have this otherworldly productive day. Bled in the concept of social contagion to discuss the matters in which the mindset and habits of those around you can greatly influence your own. Bred that into a look at value placed from an internal place and an external valuation. But all in all, and specifically the way in which I wrote this post, these subject serve as standalone pieces and are only hints of conversations surrounding my little epiphany.

I had nothing to look forward to in the day and was working towards nothing in life.

Really. It was the same rut in and out. Wake up, go to a job I hated and everyone around me shared the sentiment, come home after hours to an apartment not in the state I want yet resisting the urge to spend what little of my evening I have to fix it because it’ll just be ruined by the next evening, shower, make dinner, watch something or do a creative project, clean up, go to bed. That was Monday-Friday without fail, without change, without pause. The 4:00am alarm goes off, I turn it off, rolled over and waited for the 6:15am alarm to sound at which point I toss and turn until the last possible moment I need to shower and be out of the house in time to be on time for work. The constant thought of “ugh I don’t want to go in today” just constantly ringing in my head until the thought of “well we have to now” took over. Never mind that 5:00am is when the gym opens and to be on schedule, have to be back by 6:30am at the latest. The highlight of my day was either when I knew it was slow enough that I could work on some screenplays or (and more commonly) that I would get to go home, eat, watch rich people make a fool of themselves (thank you Mona Scott & Andy Cohen) and then lay in my bed. I looked forward to ending my day before it started.The only goal on my mind was figuring shit out and surviving. None of the things that brought me joy were taking place. I wasn’t collaborating on projects and getting to watch someone become more comfortable with themselves in front of a camera. I wasn’t executing any of the visions or projects in my head for people to consume. I wasn’t having dialogue about life outside of myself or others in a manner that took a world view and invoked a philosophical debate. There wasn’t conversations surrounding budgeting or financials or the economic landscape of America nor the fact that Notre Dame Cathedral goes up in flame and in less than 24 hours, it has millions of dollars pledged to fix it yet Flint ain’t got water and college is still highway robbery. There was no fulfillment and because life was good enough for everyone around me, who was I to go against the current. Well, if you know me well, you’d know I’d very much be me.

It really sunk in upon that conversation. The idea that I could easily be susceptible to my surroundings and the emotions of others. How I could become remolded to fit in with my surroundings instead of making a new landscape or obstructing the one already present. I thought that took copious hours and dedication to work under the worst circumstances. I thought that required having a vision and sticking to it no matter the obstacle. In some realm, that still holds true but, given more recent experiences, I’d argue it requires rest. Sure you can run yourself thin on 2 hours of sleep a night, grinding and working towards some ultimate purpose but then you get there and you’re tired. It’s not as enjoyable and if you’re anything like myself, you’re just going to want something else, something more, something bigger. It’s not even the greed of the matter. It’s simply that once you accomplished something your heart once desired, you have come upon new things in which you desire and are proven that you can attain. Think more so like this, at your current age, at this current juncture in your life, do you desire the same things you did 6 months ago, a year ago, 3 years ago, or 5 years ago? Usually at each bridge, the overall goal may be the same but you might adjust your approach or the timeline or add intermediate goals or more long-term goals. There is usually a shift somewhere. And that doesn’t come from being tenacious and wearing yourself out, it comes from rest and reflection. If you’re squatting in the gym and have an injury, the next time you’re squatting you might still have the goal of getting up to 300lbs but you might take the step back and start working higher reps over weight or giving more attention to your form. When you have relationship goals, you might go into it saying I want to be married with kids by 27 and you’re knocking on 26 but if the guy or girl you were planning on having those goals with stops being the person that you want to share that experience with, you might adjust your timeline to recognize the importance in quality of person you’re going to share marriage and kids with rather than the acts of being married with kids. In work, you might have a certain title that you want to reach with a specified compensation level but sometimes your dream jobs aren’t as perfect on the inside or to get to the title you have to take a step back in compensation and work up to it. A lot of the times, the question isn’t “how do I get over this” but rather “how do I get through this?” And the latter question only carries the nuance of being bother reactionary and proactive rather than just reactionary. It is taking the time to ride out the currents with adjustments to reach the ultimate goal. In all of the examples I gave, there is a goal with some type of self-imposed deadline which offers the great perk of being self-adjustable. A lot of times people talk of their goals and desires but don’t flesh out the finer details of how to get there and what could go wrong and in the event that it does, what are the options and most appropriate reactions. People just set goals, make a plan and execute hoping that everything just stays in line. Think about when people are cutting weight and they hit a stall, no one plans for a stall when they’re cutting their calories and already starving. Yet, the usual response is cut more or stay the course and let your body do it’s thing. I personally prefer to just go back up to maintenance for a weekend and then I tend to be good. However, different strokes for different folks and in that, everything doesn’t work for everyone so sometimes you have to be experimental to find what works best for you and your situation. You have to adjust to the circumstances and revamp the plan realizing that you might not make weight by a specified date or you’re not going to be married by 27 or 300lbs isn’t being squatted this month or that the job you wanted may not be everything you wanted.

We all are constantly growing, accomplishing goals and reevaluating what we want but sometimes we have to be careful not to burn ourselves out for the grind. The grind should have some level of enjoyment and when it doesn’t, you need to reevaluate if you’re grinding towards the right thing. Take that time. Keep a purpose. Realize that comparisons are for metrics, you can compare yourself to others or compare yourself to previous iterations but it’s not the same, the stories are made up of different details.

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zeroviraluniverse-blog · 7 years ago

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Real stories fuel a 'golden age' of documentaries

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Real stories fuel a 'golden age' of documentaries

You’re on the couch. It’s been a long day. The remote control is in your hand. What can you watch?

There’s that new CNN documentary series on the pope. Or maybe you’re more in the mood for some sinners in “Girls Incarcerated” on Netflix? There are cute critters on Hulu’s “March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step” or you could watch former slugger David Ortiz as he figures out his next career step on Fusion.

Keep scrolling? Sure. What about a new three-part documentary about Silicon Valley on Science? Or the series about gangsters on Reelz? How about the A&E series on adults returning to high school in “Undercover High”? What about some David Bowie or Elvis on HBO?

If you’re looking for documentaries these days, they’re hard to miss. Once considered more medicinal than entertaining and consigned to high-brow places like PBS and art house theaters, documentaries are scattered across the film and TV spectrum, as well as online portals like Facebook Watch or YouTube Red and on video streaming apps like go90. Even mighty NBC is getting in on the act with a documentary on Martin Luther King Jr. airing Saturday night.

“It feels like the golden age of documentary right now,” says Josh Koury, a professor at Pratt Institute and a documentary filmmaker. “It’s an amazing time to be making documentary stories.”

Starz, which last fall began offering new documentaries for the first time, has doubled down by adding four original docuseries to its summer schedule, exploring everything from the criminal justice system to the legacy of hip-hop.

Jeffrey Hirsch, chief operating officer for Starz, says the boom owes a large part to technology, which has allowed filmmakers access to relatively inexpensive high-quality cameras and editing equipment. What has emerged for content-hungry platforms is often a cheaper alternative to scripted films and series.

“The cost of creating these stories has come down, I think. The ability to travel and to actually be your own investigative journalist has become possible. And the world has gotten smaller through technology,” he said. “So I think the opportunity to relive or retell some of these stories has become a lot more accessible.”

Showtime also has increased its output of documentaries, said Vinnie Malhotra, head of documentary programming for the network. He marvels at how much the landscape has changed from 15 years ago when docs were independently financed and had limited releases.

“There are more outlets for documentary than there ever have been before,” he said. “There’s a lot of money being fueled into the documentary industry from newer platforms that have emerged with interest in the form of storytelling — places like Netflix, places like Amazon, other streaming and tech companies.”

No wonder recent documentaries have lately found themselves at the center of popular culture, including Ava DuVernay’s “13” on the American prison system, the Oscar-winning “O.J.: Made in America,” ”The Jinx” about Robert Durst, and “Blackfish,” for treatment of orcas. Netflix scored its first Oscar this year with the documentary “Icarus.”

Award-winning filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has been lured to the genre, executive producing National Geographic’s 10-episode “One Strange Rock” about planet Earth — and he’s brought Will Smith along to narrate.

The lure of documentary-making has also recently attracted Judd Apatow, known for scripted comedies like “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Said Apatow: “I’ve probably wanted to make one for a very long time but didn’t know how to approach it.”

In 2016, he teamed up with Michael Bonfiglio on “Doc & Darryl” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series and last year’s “May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers” on HBO. This month he’s on his own with a four-hour HBO documentary about Garry Shandling.

“I’m endlessly fascinated by how we all deal with this life. Sometimes it’s fun to write about it but lately I seem much more interested in trying to capture how different people have chosen to live,” Apatow said.

“We’re in an amazing environment where, as a result of all these streaming services and cable stations, they desperately want great documentaries,” he added. “Now we’re getting incredible documentaries. I couldn’t be happier about it.”

Many thank Sheila Nevins for bringing documentaries into mainstream popular culture during her 38-year tenure at HBO. It was Nevins, president of HBO Documentary Films from 2004 until this year, who shook up the staid format — usually nature shows or archive footage explained by experts — with such lurid shows as “Taxicab Confessions” and “Real Sex.”

“When I arrived at HBO, docs were considered a high-brow thing. That never interested me. I didn’t care about the life of the university professor. I care about his doorman,” she says.

Under Nevins’ watch, HBO pumped out more than 1,200 documentaries, most recently with such films as the Scientology investigation “Going Clear” and the Oscar-winning “Citizenfour,” about Edward Snowden. HBO once tried to hide its offerings as “docutainment.” Now it proudly has a documentary tab on its home page.

Nevins credits the new interest to technology but also reality TV shows like “Big Brother” for championing the lives of non-celebrities. “It’s the democratization of documentaries, the spotlight is on regular people and the struggles everyone faces,” she says.

What’s clear is that documentaries have come a long way since their dusty, formulaic and educational ancestors. Malhotra of Showtime credits today’s documentary-makers with being bolder, innovative and more cinematic.

“As we’ve broadened our horizons in terms of what works in a documentary, I think that the filmmakers themselves have also evolved quite a bit. I think even they’re bored of the headshot-archive-headshot-archive type of style,” he said. “We want people shaking up the format.”

One of those is filmmaker Sabaah Folayan, whose debut film “Whose Streets?” exposes the gap between mainstream media coverage of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and what was happening at the grassroots. It’s a documentary that’s urgent, angry, visceral — and timely, using cellphone video and tweets to tell its story.

“We’re having a kind of crisis of logic and a crisis of language where it feels like words don’t mean things anymore and nothing has to make sense,” she said. “People are more thirsty for this content. People are recognizing that they need to know about others and this is the way to do it.”

———

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

#age #documentaries #fuel #Golden #Real #stories #Entertainment #News

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robertrluc85 · 7 years ago

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What are the SEO benefits of social media?

How does using social media benefit your efforts with SEO?

Back in 2008, Search Engine Watch published the article ‘Social Media and SEO – Friends with Benefits‘, and I’d highly recommend reading it back now for a stark reminder of how far the digital world has progressed in the last nine years.

Some of the key statistics and points featured in the article (although contemporary at the time) may seem somewhat archaic in 2017:

Facebook having 140 million active users (when they are now over 2 billion)

LinkedIn having 30 million users (less than 10% of their current user base)

Popularity of now defunct social platforms like Digg (which sold for just $500,000 back in 2012)

MySpace being mentioned in the same breath as Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and Twitter (ha!)

Use of ‘SEO friendly’ anchor text when linking from social profiles (ahem… ‘money keywords’)

Nobody could have guessed what social media would become in such a short amount of time. Nearly a decade later and Facebook is nothing short of a social media superpower, Instagram has grown from zero to over 700 million users in the space of just seven years, MySpace has fallen out of popularity into the depths of dated pop-culture references, and using ‘SEO friendly’ anchor text is a very dangerous game to play in light of Google’s almighty Penguin updates.

It’s safe to say that everything is very different now, and as the social media landscape changes so too does its relationship with search engines and SEO practices. But what exactly is this relationship in 2017?

Social media and SEO: It’s complicated

In the past, Google have made contradictory statements regarding the role of social media in their ranking algorithm. On the one hand, they have stated that social media pages are indexed in the same manner as other web pages, and that social links therefore count as links.

But on the other, they have stated that social metrics do not constitute direct ranking factors. Over at Microsoft, the guys behind Bing have said that they too consider the authority of social media profiles (e.g. Twitter profile metrics) and mentions across numerous social platforms in their search engine.

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As per usual, Google keeps their cards close to their chest. Research from the likes of Neil Patel show what Matt Cutts referred to in 2014 as a correlation but not necessarily a causation.

All very confusing indeed.

Can we 100% say that social metrics have a direct impact on search engine rankings? Probably not. However, if we look at the potential of social media’s influence on search engine rankings the story is different.

My personal opinion is that we should not be worried about whether links from social media platforms are valued in the same way as a link from a high quality and highly relevant website. Instead we should look at the benefits of utilizing social media to help boost ranking signals that we know search engines care about.

We should also bear in mind the impact of social media on the landscape of the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Focusing on any one particular ‘SEO metric’ is as old school as MySpace. SEO has evolved into far more than just keywords and links. Great SEO acts as a core function to any holistic, integrated digital marketing campaign.

We should consign the days of marketing departments operating independently to the history books and focus on the often significant benefits of integrated campaigns. Having said that, there are a few SEO metric-specific boosters that social media can provide.

Link earning

The holy grail of any link-building campaign. Link earning has the power to gain multiple links from a single piece of content compared with the individual links gained from more one at a time traditional guest posting tactics.

It is link-building on steroids, but unless your website’s content has a large amount of visitors or subscribers your link earning potential is significantly reduced.

Enter stage left: social media.

The great thing about social media in 2017? Almost everyone you know will have a profile, most likely with hundreds of connections. This provides a platform through which promotion of content can not only be distributed instantly to hundreds of people, but the more people engage and interact with your content, the more people outside of your direct network see your content.

Viral. How I hate that word. It sets often unrealistic expectations. Viral to me means millions of views, akin to the hard to grasp concept of Gangnam Style’s frankly insane popularity and near 3 billion views on Youtube.

It’s great if your content does go viral, but you don’t need millions of views and tens of thousands of shares on social for social media to have an impact on search rankings. Quality over quantity, my dear.

If you have even tens or hundreds of people engage with your post and content via a platform such as LinkedIn you can bet that the quality of those engagements is pretty high. If done correctly, those views of your content on social media will result in other content creators citing your content in their articles. Your content has just earned links, which has a direct impact on search rankings.

Front of mind: Co-citation and co-occurrence

As a brief follow-on to link earning, your dissemination of content via social will provide touch points with your brand across multiple platforms. To use another word that falls into my dislike category, your brand remains ‘front of mind’.

In turn, this can lead to mentions across the web in what is likely to be highly relevant content, therefore increasing your co-citation and co-occurrence metrics.

Brand authority and CTR

Social can be utilised to build not only awareness but also brand authority. Sure people are more wary about fake information and news on social media compared with a few years ago but that does not mean that engaging in a well thought out, high quality social media campaign will not develop your brand in the eyes of the public.

Guess what? When they go to search for a product they may even search directly for your brand name or associated search terms which are directly related to your brand. Failing that, if your brand name is the one result that they know within the search results, it can increase your click-through rates from search.

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Social media in search results

Social media profiles are delivered within the SERPs, along with tweets due to Twitter’s provision for Google to access their “firehose” of real-time tweets. As a result, your social media presence does have an impact on your SERP presence.

Admittedly, the majority of social links within the SERPs appear for branded search terms, but this should not be discounted. If we are in fact looking at marketing as a more holistic practice in the digital age, then we have to ensure that your branded search terms result in high click-through rates from search.

Ever been freaked out by a company or individual’s lack of social presence? This can be especially poignant for newer businesses or non-household names. In today’s society where follower numbers, likes and shares have a real impact on authority, the fact that social media results appear in branded searches should not be underestimated, not only in click-through rates from SERPs but also future conversions.

Will social metrics ever be a direct ranking factor?

From our research, it is clear that there are some pretty large problems associated with search engines using social metrics as a direct ranking factor. These include limited access for robots to crawl the platforms and therefore understand social authority, and the prevalence of fake profiles or ‘bought likes’ which are likely to be viewed in the same light as paid links.

In short, there is currently too much provision for manipulation of these metrics for search engines to bank on them. Will this change in the future?

Considering that Google and Facebook are two of the largest companies in the world, vying for the attention of us all, we don’t see them joining hands, opening their doors and singing Kumbaya around a campfire together any time soon.

Social media has its own benefits

Whether or not Google or Bing count social metrics as direct ranking factors is somewhat of a moot point. Social media and SEO should be working together, sharing content or utilizing engagement metrics as data for future content creation.

Lest we forget, businesses can benefit from revenue generated directly from social media regardless of its influence on search rankings. Social media campaigns should be focused primarily on generating their own success, with SEO considerations as a secondary (but still important) consideration.

Simon Ensor is the Managing Director of Yellowball, a London-based digital marketing agency, and a specialist in SEO and social media.

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