Does Facebook Activism Work?

For no real reason that I can come up with, I found myself thinking this morning about the effectiveness of Facebook Activism.

Is it a credible, useful and above all else, effective way of raising awareness of social and/or political causes?

A few weeks ago, the British media ran reports of various Facebook groups publicising confidential information relating to the Baby P scandal.

Facebook shut down such pages as soon as they were made aware of them, making sure that they were not breaking court orders which stated that the names of those involved could not be revealed.

Of course, given the sheer size of social networking, it wouldn't surprise this writer if further groups developed under the authorities' radar.

Debating my own question, I'm sceptical as to the impact of such campaigns.

One of the groups in the aforementioned scandal ran under the title of 'Torture the Bitch who Killed Baby P'. Whilst it's probably admirable that such people find themselves emotionally involved in such issues, a title like this lends less credibility to the cause than perhaps a more subtle campaign would.

And, for me at least, credibility should always play a deciding factor in the success of any campaign, socio-political or otherwise.

I specifically remember a group that did the rounds late last year campaigning for the killers of toddler Jamie Bulger to be sent back to prison.

The title of this group, if memory serves correct, was 'Send Jon Venables and Robert Thompson Back to Prison or Execute Them'. Again, this was another very emotionally loaded call-to-arms, but that wasn't the only thing wrong with this group.

Ignoring the fact that this campaign came about years after the crime itself, and even several years after the two were released, this was a group riddled with inaccuracies, from details of the methods of punishment Venables and Thompson used, to the location (many reported the crime taking place in Liverpool, NY, rather than Liverpool, England) to eyewitness descriptions.

Now, if you can't be bothered to get your facts straight, why should anybody bother to join in your campaign?

Interestingly, a Facebook group opposing the site's Jamie Bulger campaigns exists too. You can see this at: http://es.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20937942616&ref=share

There's more to consider here. What happens once people sign up to your group? How do you encourage them to bring about socio-political justice?

I think I may need to indulge in much more research on this one. I'll post more in the near future.

New Generation, New Media,New Challenge! Conference

I got back from London last night after attending the previously mentioned conference about engaging young people in Social Media, organised by charity, 4 Children and voluntary organisation, Opportunity Links.

Despite having my wallet stolen at Euston, I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

I learned some interesting stats and facts, but most importantly, I came away absolutely bursting with ideas and inspiration, and eager to get back to work, setting myself new challenges and tasks.

Some of the presentations were a bit hit and miss in their relevancy to my own work, though I'm sure some attendees would have found them useful.

Linda Brooks, of the Department for Children, Schools and Familes, gave an overview of policies relating to positive activities information for young people which either repeated things I already knew, or otherwise stated things which I'll probably never need to know.

Similiarly, a speech by John Craig of Innovation Exchange failed to really grab my interest.

On the flipside, a few speakers/workshop leaders really did engage my enthusiasm and inspire.

Of particular note, Tim Davies, a Practical Participation consultant, was both highly informative and entertaining in his presentation, and later workshop, around social networking sites and their roles in engaging and communicating with young people.

As was DK of MediaSnackers in his fantastic masterclass on various social media tools. Humerous and entertaining in his delivery, inspiring in his content, DK's workshop was a particular highlight through which I learned of a few very cool sites which I'm hoping to start using in my various projects asap.

What kind of sites? Well, Animoto for starters. I'm both too busy and too tired to go into more detail about this site right now, but all I will say is that I used to make this funky thing:

Mithered by Media

As I look forward to attending a conference on Thursday about engaging young people in social media, I've been thinking about my own media consumption. Especially compared to the media habbits of my lady wife.

There's a perhaps somewhat stereotypical view that whilst young people are all multi-tasking, multi-media consuming whizkids who manage to text, watch TV, post on social network sites and do their homework all at the same, adults are a bit technologically niave, using the net mainly as a means of business and research. (there's much to this view than that brief statement, but it's too long to go into)

My wife and I are both 24 years-old (though I'm five months older), adults in every sense, yet still classed as 'young people' depending on which survey or government policy you read, and our media habbits probably couldn't be more different.

Every morning morning, I'll wake up and flick on Radio 1 in the kitchen as I get myself going. I do this mainly because Chris Moyles makes me laugh, but also because Radio 1 are supposed to target the same audience that I do in my day-to-day work; young people with an interest in music and entertainment.

Meanwhile, she'll say in bed with GMTV on in the background whilst waiting for me to bring up her breakfast in bed (I know, I'm an awesome husband!).

When I finally get to a computer, I'll spend the first half an hour or so with a cup of coffe, reading the BBC News website and that of Wigan's local rag. Again, I do have a personal interest in this as I like to know what's going on in the world but more importantly, I'm checking for any stories relating to young people that could potentially form the basis of a feature article.

Then I knuckle down to work as a writer and web editor, and spend half the day on the internet; sending and responding to e-mails, researching articles and looking for information and posting a good chunk of what I write online.

My wife gets to work as a Purchase Ledger Clerk and though I don't know what she does all day, I do know that she'll occasionaly browse the internet of a lunchtime and that, especially towards the end of her previous job (the company decided to outsource and thus she was left little to do), she'll text me three or four times a day to tell me that she's bored, or frustrated, or happy.

She'll also use her mobile to keep reminders to herself, to-do lists and sundry other bits of information, and to occasionally call and text her family.

Meanwhile, I use my phone mostly to ask her if we need milk whilst I'm at the shop and to play tetris whilst waiting for the train. I despise mobile phones, I hate the way that anyone can bother me at any time of the day when I have this thing on me.

Work ends and I'll probably spend, at most, half an hour of indulging in some personal time on the net. Usually I'll check up on what's happening in pro wrestling (yeah, I'm a nerd) and feed my addiction to finding out cool stuff on Wikipedia, and then log off.

Even when I post in this blog, I'm doing it partly to let people out there know that I exist and to help take people to my website, where they'll hopefuly be impressed enough to pay me to do some work for them,

My wife gets home, and within half an hour of walking through the door, she gets on Facebook and watches TV. She'll do this most nights up until half an hour before bed, and often combines it with speaking to her sister or parents on the phone at the same time.

Meanwhile, whilst I may vacantly stare at the box when I'm too tired to do anything else, I'll probably be sprawled on the floor, writing, or tidying up. I rarely use Facebook either, except when I need to.

For example, when I need to tell the lads from Social Icons about a gig getting cancelled or, preferably, one getting booked, it's much easier and cheaper to log on to Facebook and use the IM function to send them one message at the same time, than to text or copy them into an e-mail.

The same goes with my Myspace account. I only ever use this when I need something, such as contacting a band or a promoter.

Don't get me wrong, I think that social media, all media in fact, can be really wonderful and useful, but I mainly use it to get things done. I'm all for posting a feed to my blog on my Facebook page, using my Twitter account to alert people that another site has been updated or showing off my photography on Flickr, but I have no interest in poking people on Facebook or nattering away on MSN.

What I think it comes down to, for me, is that social media allows everyone you know to mither you whenever they like, and Lord knows I hate being mithered.

My Forays into Filmmaking

Posting the Without Motive video yesterday got me thinking about my own endevours in the world of filmmaking.

In the past, I've written several screenplays, directed, edited and produced a documentary with a £6000 budget on the social and economical impacts of skateparks, acted as a music consultant of sorts of projects of a similiar type, and even managed to turn my disasterous attempt at producing a low-budget feature film into a well-received (if, admittedly, crudely edited) documentary about the pit-falls of attempting such a thing, though by far my favourite ever film project is a three-and-a-half minute music video shot on a hands held video camera around Manchester and edited on, of all things, Windows Media Player.

I could reminisce all day about how much fun I had shooting The Randoms as they wondered around various pubs and bars in the city, and how thrilled the band seemed to be when they first saw it in the bedroom of one of the members, but instead, I figured I'd just let you watch it.

Before I do though, a couple of cautionary words; a disclaimer, if you like, just in case you watch it and think it sucks...

Though the grainy effect is supposed to be part of the package, I'm sure Youtube has lessened the quality of the video itself.
Also, the website of mine mentioned at the end obviously doesn't exist any more. That was way before I took the plunge to put something official together.

Anyway, enjoy.

Maybe if I ever get the time, I'll dig out the masterfile and re-edit that video to include my new site and a few other things. I may also cut some trailers of my other film projects to share.

The Day of the Crystal King Video

Feeling as though I kind of owe one to the Without Motive boys after the Wigan gig I arranged for them got cancelled, I figured I'd share their new video instead.

Have a butchers, and if you like what you see, check them out at www.freewebs.com/withoutmotive or www.myspace.com/withoutfuckinmotive

Another Website Re-Design On The Way

About a month ago, I decided that I really wasn't fond of the way both my website and blog looked.

With the former, I built a new one from scratch. With the latter, I nicked another template off the 'net.

For weeks later, and once again I'm unimpressed with my own online presence, especialy after making the Without Motive site which, despite being on Freewebs, is actually one of my favourite designs so far.

I'll be busy over the next fortnight working in London and getting back up to speed with things now that The LINC is done, but rest assured, I'll be revamping everything again soon.

Search Engine Optimisation

I have a love-hate relationship with Search Engine Optimisation.

From a web standpoint, I can understand why it can be a useful exercise to undertake, and it's even something I've considered doing for my own websites in the past.

Yet from a writer's point of view (and that's what I'd consider myself to be above all else), I find it clunky, sludgy and awkward. SEO content just doesn't flow, and that's why I've never gone ahead and implemented it myself.

Recently, I found a good example of all this on the website of the Holiday Inn, Kensington Forum.

I'll be heading there in a few days, mainly to attend a conference on young people and social media, and figured I'd better check the place out to get an idea of where I'm going.

On landing at the site, I was immediately struck by their written content.

Whilst their frequent mentions of London accommodation, London guest lodgings, Kensington hotels et al will probably help them out with Google, it just doesn't read well for my liking.

Around 60% of my own work ends up online, and you'd probably think I'd be more open to embracing such methods of traffic-driving.

In a way, I am. I've undertaken the odd bit of freelance work for websites who don't necessarily care about having perfect prose on their pages as long as it helps increase sales and traffic, and I'll continue to do so.

On the flip-side however, I'd much rather tell a great story and engage people with what I'm saying than simply string a bunch of key-words together.

I think they call it taking pride in your work or something.

Without Motive...or a Gig for That Matter!

Nigh on 18 months ago, back when Social Icons were still Testosterone, the boyfriend of my soon-to-be Sister in Law sorted them out with a gig in Preston on the same bill as his own band, metal outfit, Without Motive.

At the time, I promised to return the favour by hooking him and his bandmates up with a gig on the same bill as the 'Icons in Wigan.

This took longer than planned, mainly because much more pressing matters jumped into my life and I had to take a backseat to promoting gigs and managing bands and the like.

Eventually however, I finally managed to return the favour by getting the Preston clan on with Social Icons and indie group, Tiredness Kills, at The Waiting Room in Wigan.

Billed as a Rock vs Metal vs Indie night, it was set to be a great gig and I quickly set about trying to promote Without Motive to a new crowd in Wigan.

Having already done a bit of this by reviewing their gigs and EPs through The LINC's website, I had the advantage of being able to go on further and put them in the magazine.

This brought about it's own challenges. Obviously, I wanted to to direct people to find out more about the band online yet since their Myspace url has a big explitive in it, it's not the sort of thing I can publish and get away with.

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I made them a website.

There was more promo to come for the gig in general, but this was plenty of work as it was.

So you can imagine how annoyed and dissapointed I was to see The Waiting Room advertising an earlier gig as their 'Last One Ever'.

That's right, the venue were no longer running live music nights, including ours, and I had to find out through an advertisement on Myspace.

A quick phonecall, e-mail, or even an I.M through Myspace to say 'hey guys, sorry about this but the gig's been cancelled' would have not only been more useful to me (what would've happened had I not seen this ad?), but simply polite.

Promoters annoy me at the best of times, but this one was just beyond belief.

Designing The LINC

So, the copy has been proof-read to death, the images have snapped, sharpened and saved, and now it's time to head to Standish and enjoy the wonders of Quark as we design the winter edition of The LINC magazine.

I'm genuinely thrilled with this edition, partly because it's the first time I've had to take the lead on the thing, but mostly because it's just a darn good issue.

The content is at least as good as anything we've put out before but equally as important, it's looking fantastic.

I usually find myself somewhat underwhelmed by the look of our little publication, though I'm convinced that this is just because I'm so close to the thing that by the time it's all laid out and ready to go, I'm sick to death of it.

The funniest thing about it is that this edish' features a photograph of my own parents. It's a story too long-winded to explain fully, but basically, we have an article about parents which needed an accompanying photograph. Given that the only people I have access to who could pass-off as parents are my own mother and father, I found myself snapping them and slapping them on the page.

Every time I look at that page it feels slightly surreal, as it does with the rest of the magazine due to knowing that for once, I'm completely happy with the design of our wonderful little magazine.

Sir Ian McKellen and the Cover Crisis.

As I mentioned previously, I was recently interviewed Lord of the Rings and X-Men star, Sir Ian McKellen.

Now, given that we've previously featured ill-fated Wigan Athletic manager, Chris Hutchings on our cover, you'd assume that we'd be going all out to feature Sir Ian's mug on the front of the magazine and make as big a deal out of this as possible.

You'd assume it, but you'd be wrong.

You see, in a case of terribly-bad timing, a few days before got the very last-minute go ahead to chat with Magneto, we'd already paid money for a bespoke illustration to adorn our cover and promote another theme within the mag, and it was really too late to do anything about it.

Now don't get me wrong, the illustration looks fantastic and it'll certainly make for a good front cover, but as would a big picture of Sir Ian McKellen.

As it is, the biggest interview I've bagged to date finds itself modestly sat on page 5 with no fanfare whatsoever.

Ah well.

Bagging The Big One: Sir Ian McKellen

If there's one common occurance in course of my work, it's that things often happen at the last minute. There's been numerous occasion where colleagues have been asked to put together ellaborate webpages or marketing materials with only a brief period of time before the occasion they're promoting takes place.

Personally, I often find that copy, required information and certainly interview confirmations come in at the last possible moment. Take the interview I did with Saint Etienne front-woman, Sarah Craknell.

In this case, I was out of the office when her PR people e-mailed to say that she'd be available for interview the following morning, but that I'd have to reply ASAP.

The next day, I replied saying that whilst I realised I'd missed the call for interview, I'd still have a review of their now-postponed greatest hits compilation running in the near future. In an instance, I got a reply to say that some other journalist had pulled out and that the spot was mine if I wanted it. So I took it, with less than five minutes to go before my allocated time.

I such little time to prepare for that one that I was literally writing my questions whilst waiting for her to pick up the phone and ended up winging a good part of it.

Thankfully, I had a little more time to prepare for the biggest scoop I've grabbed to date, with Lord of the Rings star, Sir. Ian McKellen.

Not much though.

I'd tried in vain to grab a few minutes with Gandalf before, but never with any success. This time however, after recieving an e-mail from his press folk about his upcoming two-man show with Patrick Stewart in Waiting for Godot, I sent out another request.

And this time, it was granted, with fifteen minutes to go before I had to get on the blower. Fortunately, this was actually plenty of time. Having wanting to bag this one since 2005, I'd already formed a good idea of what I wanted to quiz the X-Men actor about. It was just a case of writing it down.

The funny thing is, I was actually less nervous about interviewing Sir Ian than I was when I interviewed TV magician, Paul Daniels.

I know it sounds weird, but there's a good reason for it. With Daniels, I was in the middle of a completely different assignment when he showed up, and had to psych myself up to walk over to him, ask him for a quick chat and improvise the whole thing. I spent a good hour convincing myself that this was an opportunity that I needed to seize and that I was brave enough to go and talk to him.

With Sir Ian McKellen, I literally had a quarter of an hour from getting the go-ahead to saying my first 'Hello'. There wasn't time to be nervious or doubt myself, I just had to get the job done.

Which goes to prove that, sometimes, things coming in at the last minute can be a blessing in disguise.

Without Motive, With a Website

Without Motive are due to play in Wigan later this month along with my boys from Social Icons and indie band, Tiredness Kills.

In order to promote the Preston-based heavy metal band to a Wigan audience, I've made sure to include a short blurb about them in the next edition of The LINC magazine. Yet since I can't publish their Myspace address due to it's profanity, I took it upon myself to build them a new website.

It's only pretty basic so far, and hosted on Freewebs (man, it's been a long time since I used that site), but take a look and let me know what you think.

www.freewebs.com/withoutmotive

Stop Being Pre-Prepared. Start Making Sense.

Perhaps it's because I'm fully immersed in editing the copy for the upcoming edition of The LINC magazine, or maybe it's just because I'm growing more cynical as of late, but I find myself becoming more and more annoyed by people using terrible, thrown-together words and phrases.

I won't bother discussing why I dislike the word guestimate. My wife has sufficiently argued a convincing case for such an irritating portmanteau.

Besides, there's another horrible word that grinds my gears even more.

Pre-prepared.

I've come across this several times in both print and conversation recently, and it's just meaningless.

The whole point of preparation is that you make sure you're ready before whatever it is you need to be prepared for. Why else include the term 'pre' within the word?

When I conduct an interview I do my research, bash out a list of questions, check my Dictaphone is working and that I have the correct interview time prior to interrogating my subject. This is me being prepared.

Do those people who say that they have pre-prepared something occasionally prepare as they go along?

That ain't preparation at all folks, that's what we call winging it.

An update on The New House

Just a quick one for those who've asked me in person about our recent move to Preston.

The New House is still nowhere near complete, but we're getting there slowly.

We're still surrounded by boxes and various items from The Old House that we haven't quite found a place for yet and it's a bit frustrating.

On the plus side however, I recently decorated the guest bedroom; a pretty easy task as all it needed was a coat of paint.

Of course, the wife thought I was mad. With our bedroom stripped bare and just ready to decorated, it would, of course, have made much more sense to do that room first rather than empty the spare room and tackle that one instead.

But there's a method in my madness, which is this:

As I've explained, the guest room only needed a coat of paint (well, two if you include the base-coat), whereas our bedroom needs all the woodwork painting, wallpapering and painting, not to mention the laying down of a new carpet.

So whilst that may take a while, I figured it would be much easier to get the guest room sorted before embarking on that epic task so that, whilst we are doing, we at least have somewhere nice to sleep.