Our project is a black comedy about a young woman named Emily, who represents the wider problem of young and inexperienced people who become obsessed with online validation and superficial gratification through their naivety and desire to be recognised and accepted.

As the digital age is new, it’s effect on young people and their development is unknown, and we are currently finding out as the generation born into the digital age are now adolescents and will soon become adults. Emily is representative of this group of people. She is an emphasised version (for comedic purposes and also to aid the story and themes), though not an unrealistic one considering some real world examples of teenagers who have gone to extreme lengths for online validation and fame.

The plot has been written, we know what will unfold over the three week period in which the story will take place and be published over three media platforms. However, we still have to write and create the media that will be published, the elements which will actually tell the story. These will be blog post diary entries on Tumblr, images and video on Instagram, and question/answer type text through Qoohmee. The three platforms are especially interesting because the audience can actually interact with Emily through these platforms, by commenting on or liking her posts, or by asking questions through Tumblr and Qoohme. If people interact with our protagonist we will respond in character.

Another interesting quality of our project is that it is both linear and nonlinear, depending on how and when it is experienced. If people follow along during the three weeks that the actual plot will take place and when we will be publishing in ‘real time’ it will be a linear narrative. After that, it will exist online as a database narrative that the audience can traverse at their own leisure. In this form it will work in any order that the audience chooses to consume the media within it.

So far we have all contributed equally, and we discuss and make all decisions about the story together (rather than assigning roles), through discussion and co-operative brainstorming and problem solving. In some circumstances this would not be my preferred style of group work, but as we work well as a team and are all equal contributors it works efficiently and fairly and I think we’ll continue to work this way in future, until the completion of the project. When it comes to the actual actions of having to post the pieces of the story, we will assign different parts to different people, but we will be writing and creating the elements of media together.

I’m excited to spend several hours writing and creating the media that will tell the story of Emily. The next major steps of our project are to create the Tumblr, Instagram and Qoohme content in line with the plot we have already constructed, and then create a schedule of events determining when it will be posted and by whom.