Week 6: Project 2 Proposal

Introduction
The concept of the video will be the notion of hyper-surveillance, with a specific focus on the issue of privacy. Other areas of discussion will include references to Legislation, the Bill of Rights, and the current-day similarities to George Orwell's 1984.

Concept
The video podcast will focus on how privacy is infringed upon in many areas of one's daily life and activities. Throughout the course of our research for this podcast, as well as in the presentation of the podcast itself, we intend to answer the following question regarding surveillance and breaches of privacy: How far is too far? Our intention is to convey the concerns and precautions that one must take when it comes to their personal privacy, not only online, but with any technologically related medium. An important issue is that in today's surveillance society, one is constantly being watched, but if we are doing nothing wrong, then should there be a reason to worry? Nearly all of the technologies in today’s society consequently also have methods of surveillance. Cellular phone conversations can be overheard, instant messaging conversations are routinely archived, and built in webcams on personal laptop computers can be controlled remotely. The methods by which our actions can be recorded are endless, and it is our goal through the video podcast to bring attention to these methods.

Also, corporations such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft often take great lengths to obtain our personal information, but what guarantees do we have that this information is dealt with accordingly? It may be possible that Facebook sells our information (such as who we talk to, our relationship status, etc) to advertising companies. Google always crawls the web to capture any information it can, but just how powerful are their web crawlers? Microsoft requires personal information for most installations, and with the introduction of ActiveX, are there any more barriers to that information? These topics as well will be covered by our video podcast.

Research Approach
The basis of our research will involve a combination of field research and a variety of conventional research to further support our arguments. We will include live interviews with random subjects and incorporate supporting evidence from scholarly journals and other personal blogs or video podcasts to show opposing views about the issue. Some of the video podcast we will be using will be taken from www.current.com. One of the main articles that we will focus on is “public surveillance functions of private security” by Alison Wakefield. We would also be looking at different articles on the infringement of privacy involving internet. Lastly, we would also assess different major corporations and their methods of gathering data.

Treatment
The podcast will incorporate a hit television show ‘24’ type theme, where multiple segments of events are happening at once during a specific duration. The camera will play a neutral roll, capturing our interaction with each other. Many shots will be filmed from the shoulder to not only capture dramatics, but also carry good audio quality. The type of atmosphere we are trying to generate would be action pact and adventurous to draw the attention of the audience as well as keeping it formal to come off as factual.

Our footage would contain research that will be placed in dialogue, which is backed up by visual aids. Interviews of individuals as well as other extended metaphors will be placed to further emphasis our story. Much effort will be placed on ‘what makes a good blog’ by including comic relief and emotion.

Week 5: The A-Team

Team name: The A-Team
Team members: Clarianne Asuncion, James Purdy, Mark Shannon, Victoria Wighton

The initial concept for our video podcast is regarding Google and its relation to privacy in the online world. Features such as Google Analytics and Googlebots pry into the darkest corners of a website, and quite possibly, password protected information such as bank accounts and secure web sites.

Also, we will speak about privacy in regard to other applications which have yet to be determined, but may include cell phone conversations and ATMs.

Week 4: A little bit of Fashion Sense?

H&M Video Blog

Fashion. Where is it heading and what is considered hot? Your answers can possibly be found watching H&M’s video podcast. Yes, I know it’s a sponsored podcast that probably employs some scheme to convince us to buy their products. What makes this interesting is it goes around the world interviewing individuals what they think would be the next step in fashion, what would they want to wear, and what is hot now in fashion.

A lot of companies are trying to sponsor media, so they can data mine and gain valuable information on consumer trends. However, this podcast pertains difference perspectives on fashion around the world. To me this is very interesting because, metaphorically, I live in a box. I do not travel, nor talk to anyone outside the GTA. If I could finance traveling, then I could experience this first hand. Well, with my reality check in place, this isn’t happening any time soon so I would like to appraise H&M for bringing the world closer to my finger tips.

Asides from bringing awareness through another set of eyes, what makes this podcast good and exciting to watch is how it is edited. Fast paced music which reasonably quick shots make it interesting enough to follow without having to track back and recap the action. It is professionally done. The only weak point about this podcast is, yes, there is an H&M advertisement in the middle that is incredibly long. Overall, this podcast is a good form of entertainment and enlightens me by showing different cultures in regards to fashion.