For this video that forms part of my university assessment requirements, I decided to focus on the way that crowdfunding in combination with low-cost media production such as podcasting allows for the creation of democratized media that caters to voices that are underrepresented in mass-marketed media. I decided to highlight two podcasts that are successfully covering their costs using Patreon as a crowdfunding model. In order to identify these podcasts, I put a message out on a podcaster forum and asked if anyone hosting a podcast that prioritizes discourse surrounding representation was successfully crowdfunding. I received several affirmative replies, but due to time constraints, I decided to choose two that demonstrated different approaches to representation and who have had slightly different funding models. They are also two podcasts that I listen to so I was pretty sure that the content they were providing was illustrative of my point.

I then organized and practised filming and delivering my script at a local wildlife reserve, but in the end, I was too self-conscious to use much of that footage. I had always planned to use slide images as a mode of delivering key points so that wasn’t going to change, but I needed to come up with a new way of conveying the bulk of the information. I ended up filming a bit of footage at home that I am not particularly happy with, but I’m pretty uncomfortable with video as a format so I’m not sure how I could have overcome this particular challenge.

I used the free music archive as it is a database of music that I am relatively comfortable navigating. I tried to find something a bit more upbeat but I’m happy with my music choice as it is appropriate and I think fits the video. I was unclear as to whether fading a track in or out constitutes modifying the track so I passed on some of the other music I liked as it was strictly no alterations. The track I settled on Impossibly by Small Tall Order was available to use under an Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike license. I contemplated using creative commons images but instead, I thought I would try to create the content myself, on reflection if I had of incorporated some creative commons images earlier on it may have made the video more professional.

As I began to focus my essay on the democratization of media due to crowdfunding I realized that I was skewing towards online activism so I thought that I should probably do my due diligence and incorporate some scholarly research about the need for media representation. As a result, my scholarly resources cover different elements of the video. Markham (2012) explores podcast motivations and allowed me to assert the relevance of the medium for representational discourse. Erlick (2018) shows how crowdfunding can foster trans positive discourse and Carstensen (2009) argues for the need for continued representational discourse. In a longer form, I would have liked to unpacked these scholarly sources and their implications a bit better, but I really wanted to include illustrative examples, so I sacrificed the scholarly discourse in order to make the content more accessible. I’m not sure that I succeeded.

I have definitely learnt my limitations when it comes to visual media. I am definitely not comfortable with being in videos and if I need to do this in future I will need to overcome that anxiety. Personally, though I think I will stick to audio mediums, because, as the expression goes; I have a face for radio.

 

Credits

Music is Impossibly by Small Tall Order is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License and has been modified for use as the intro and outro

Featured Podcasts

Your Fave is Problematic

Vocal Fries

Script, video and editing by Morgan Pinder

With additional video and technical support from Brent Scott

   Crowdfunding models cited:

Patreon

Indiegogo

Kickstarter

Drip

Once of Donations

 

 

References

• Carstensen, T 2009. ‘Gender Trouble in Web 2.0. Gender perspectives on social network sites, wikis and weblogs.’ International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, vol. 1, no.1, retrieved 5th May 2018,

<http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/18&gt;.

• Erlick, E 2018. ‘Trans Youth Activism on the Internet.’ Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 39, no. 1, retrieved 5th May 2018,

<https://muse.jhu.edu/article/690810/summary&gt;.

• Markman, KM 2012,’Doing radio, making friends, and having fun: Exploring the motivations of independent audio podcasters.’ New Media & Society, vol. 14, no. 4, retrieved 17th May 2018,

<http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444811420848&gt;.