#ssit

My choice of topic for my media content is going to be about highlighting the different cultures in and around London. My first decision was to photograph key areas in London that are known for specific cultures. For example, Southall is a dominantly Asian area, whereas Brixton is predominantly known for its ‘Black’ culture.

After deciding this, I realised that this approach could be seen as very subjective and portraying those areas to be accepting of only one specific culture. Taking this into consideration, I think that it would be best if I have interviews with civilians in each area and ask them how diverse it is. I think that this would be a more objective approach to this topic. I was planning to compile all of my images onto a blog so with the added content of interviews, it changes my photo journalistic blog into a multi-media blog.

This idea is related to the themes and issues explored during the module because we had previously discussed the power of photos and how they can change a person’s mind, thoughts, opinions etc. My work will inform and educate people who have or have not got prior knowledge of London of all the different cultures and sub-cultures. Showing how diverse and accepting as a whole it is.

I think that this is a very creative idea because it will incorporate all of the generic codes and conventions of a photo journalistic piece. The aim is to inform/show my audience something they may not have already known about London whilst retaining an objective viewpoint.

My blog will incorporate conventions similar to those of a multi-media blog entitled, The Places We Live. The Places we Live is a blog pinpointing slums in the Third World, showing how dilapidated the living conditions are. The blog uses interactive panoramic images of people’s homes so that the user can get a full view of what they look like. There is also a voice-over of a person from that ‘household’ explaining their living conditions and the size of their family. To me, this blog focuses on targeting your emotions to provoke sadness and sympathy. My blog will not be doing this. There is no specific emotion I want to entice. It will be more of a thought0provoking piece, it will show people who don’t know much about London – possibly new international students – that London is a culturally diverse place which offers something for everyone. In an easy to digest format.

Whilst taking photographs I came across a few problems with getting interviews, many people weren’t willing to be interviewed which hindered my whole idea of having interviews alongside my photographs. Although, I was able to get an interview with a couple of people, but none from the areas that I had visited. The interviews I do have for this work are from peers, some have visited these areas, and others are just well accustomed to seeing a lot of diversity in London in general.

I was struggling to decide whether or not these interviews would be deemed useful now as they have not done what I had intended for them to do. I was hoping I would get interviews from key areas so that they could speak about that specific area so as to avoid my overall being seen as subjective and having an ulterior motive. I want to maintain my objective viewpoint so by using interviews from peers it could be seen as bias and my intentions for this blog may be misconstrued. Bearing all of this in mind, I have decided not to use the interviews and to just focus on the letting the photographs ‘speak for themselves’.