Activity 1

What is a personal media profile?
A personal media profile is a personalised account this allows us to constantly adapt our profile. We can use it to portray our self digitally, it can help us remove the boundary of connecting our real life personnel to social media, or potential job applications. In addition, we can use this in a print format, this can allow us to portray our work, and for example a portfolio can be beneficial as it allows us to give tangible evidence of your work and personal account.

Discuss the uses of each of these types of personal media profiles and their individual purpose?

Showreel: 
A showreel’s purpose is to give a brief visualised summary on what previous work you have done, it should be no longer than 1 minute long as this retains attention but still doesn’t compromise on a lack of depth in showing what skills you have. It’s used predominately when you are applying for a job in the visual arts sector, it works in conjunction to a CV in the essence of you portraying your skills to a recipient, it gives them the ability to create a qualitative opinion on your previous work, this therefore gives the employer the ability to have quantitative factual evidence on you (qualifications) and also a qualitative approach (Showreel)

Physical portfolio: 
A physical portfolio is a file which includes a combination of all your creative work, this can consist of art work, assignments or essays you wish to visually demonstrate to them. The use of this is that it allows a person to portray their work in a professional scenario for example a job application. It allows the ability to synergies with digital formats like a blog to give yourself a strong personal image with this conjunction of visually showing your creations.

Website (LinkedIn): 
LinkedIn is a digital website used to connect employers to employee’s, it allows employees to advertise jobs, job seekers to filter specific searches. It allows you to follow your career pathway throughout your life, allowing employees to digitally reference your past employments. The purpose of this website is to create this connection between job seekers and employers, it allows users to upload CV’s, statements and create a personal page. This can be adapted via cross-media outlets including website or the app.

Blog: 
The purpose of a blog is to provide a regularly updated website, typically this is run by individuals or small groups of people. It can range in many focuses, from daily life, adventures or hot topics. It is written in an informal context normally therefore it engages the audience to have a desire to read more. It has a very loyal fan base the thrives on the engagement from consumers over a prolonged period of time, this target audience will have a direct interest in this topic of the blog, therefore the use of this in the essence of the usage and gratifications theory is to inform and entertain the reader. This is dependent on the context of the blog, a formal context will need to inform this demographic but a more relaxed blog like ‘WearTheFoxHat’ which focuses on telling life experiences has a purpose to entertain the consumer. It can be a great way to digitally portray your personality, opinions or life experiences to a mass audience. The purpose of it is to give the reader a sense of belonging to a blogger, they will be intrigued by the bloggers stories or opinions and as a result will be engaged to return to this blog. In the contrary, the purpose for the blogger is to give them a platform to present their opinions or stories and in conjunction to this gain a following and an interest in yourself.

Digital/physical CV: 
The purpose of a curriculum vitae is to tell a potential employer about you, your skill set and previous experience. It facilitates in an employer’s ability to quickly understand essential factors about candidates, this means that your CV should be punctual and quick to the point. This has many uses, digitally it allows us to save it to storage that is cross-compatible for example on iCloud, desktop or Airdrop, this means that the accessibility to a digital CV is high. It can also be used in a synergising notion with online applications, with simple attachments of files therefore this allows us to effectively apply to a job digitally. On the other hand, a print copy of a CV has a purpose, it gives the option to provide a physical copy for someone to read, and this means that we can comply our applications dependant on the receiver. For example, local and small business like a café may not have the facilities to create an online application process therefore we can use a print CV to facilitate our application.

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each of these types of personal media profiles:

Website:
I will use LinkedIn as a reference to a website, firstly a downside to this digital personal media profile is that information confidentiality, this is due to the notion that your most personal information will be stored externally on LinkedIn’s data cloud therefore there is always a threat of hackers gaining this vital information to your life. Secondly, website individually prevent scams by implementing schemes to combat scammers however LinkedIn notoriously have a moderate restrictions on this therefore these websites as a personal media profile can make it hard for the user to prevent scams and viruses. On the contrary, a benefit to using a website as a personal media profile is that it gives you a mass platform designated to bridging the gap between employer and job seekers therefore displaying your personal information directly impacts you as it will increase your chances of having a job offering. I’m addition, you can promote your personal media profile to the specific sector of work you desire this means that private information will stay within a professional scenario, as a result of this we decrease the chances of breach of personal data.

Blog:
A blog allows a user to create a personalised website to display debates, opinions and experiences, this is most likely to be free without any subscription payments. Furthermore, they are digitally promoted therefore widening the potential viewership to the most extreme mass audience, the internet. On the other hand, there isn’t many significant drawbacks but some consist of time consuming, creating a successful personal media profile via a blog takes a lot of time due to the consistency required to constantly create blogs for your audience. I’m addition, psychological impacts of blogging for example, blogs focused around yourself may influence potential haters and cyber bully’s to criticise your work or opinions. Overall, I believe a blog is a beneficial way to create your personal media profile if you have dedication towards it, it will gain mass interest.

Digital/physical CV:
A CV is incredibly powerful in quickly portraying yourself to a employer, it allows you to summarise your personal and professional career, it allows you to constantly update your progress through your career so you can portray yourself to you maximum. A digital CV will allow you to save it to external files like the cloud, therefore you can access this personal media profile anywhere with internet access; this allows for easy access to this profile. In addition, you can convert a digital CV into a physical CV easily this allows you to promote this personal media to profile to an extreme mass audience by choosing based of the receiver weather a physical or digital CV will be most suitable. On the other hand a CV can be hard to effectively present yourself to employers, this is due to CV’s having to be quick to the point to reduce tedium from the employers when reading though the applications.

Showreel:
A showreel allows someone within the production sector to visually demonstrate their work. This can be uploaded as a personal media profile on broadcasting accounts like YouTube, this allows for a potential of mass audience viewership, subsequently from this your personal image will increase due to the ability to broadcast a showreel on many platforms. On the other hand, a showreel follows a informal nature in the essence of including behind the scenes shots to thoroughly portray your personal, this is a benefit but comes at the limiting factor of weather a production company will supply you with the footage. Without this you will not be able to create a showreel demonstrating your inclusion in the production, therefore potentially other personal media profiles are more beneficial.

Physical portfolio:
This personal media profile allows you to effectively portray your work, it can be accessed and edited concurrently to your progression in your career therefore you can constantly add your experiences to increase your personal image. On the other hand, it will require you to carry it around, this can be hard and tedious and a portfolio can become very large.