You may not know this, or if you have read my about page, than you might actually know this, but I am a giant fan of the band Good Charlotte and Joel Madden is my idol. So obviously, I am a fan of the tv show The Voice Australia, and yes, you guess it, I am #TeamJoel 🙂

So anyways, a bunch of my friends and I have been going to the pre recordings of this season, and the talent is truly amazing this year. The singers are incredible! But whats more real for me, is that being in The Voice audience so many times over the past three years, has made me even more excited to be studying media and be aiming to work in this kind of industry. Watching all the crew work and film and produce and just get it all done, is really cool! And then yes, there is the fact that my biggest idol in the whole world sits metres away from me every time we are in the audience, that helps make the experience even greater 🙂 I love going to The Voice, it reminds me that inspiration is everywhere, and that we can make our dreams come true if we work hard enough for them.

The new season of The Voice starts on Channel 9 after Easter, here’s the latest sneak preview:

Seth Keen is my tutor for Integrated Media this semester and his blog right here has a heap of resources and links to information on Korsakow! These resources will definitely be used by me throughout my work with Korsakow. Thanks Seth!  http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/2014/03/25/korsakow-resources/

As one of the discussion points for this weeks Symposium was about Technique and Technology, this piece by Evandro Agazzi, form The University of Fribourg (Switzerland), is a nice introduction to the concepts. From Technique to Technology.

A main theme from this weeks symposium was that of control – How much control do authors have over their audience? and whether or not an author can control how their work is interpreted. Sitting in this lecture and taking in the different ideas being debated, I feel like I agree to some extent with each of the opinions that were put forward.

When reading a book, or watching a film or listening to a conversation, it is easy for us to make our own interpretations and assumptions on what we think to be the intent of the author or speaker. We can take in the ideas we want to, and omit those we find no use for. Our minds seem to take in such works, and view them in our own way. However, in saying this, I do strongly believe that an author can definitely have some control over the way  their work/writing is interpreted. I believe that it is a process that goes both ways, with the author setting the mark of thoughts, feelings and ideas, from which the audience can stick to or run off with. An authors work gets read, or viewed, by a varied audience. Within this audience there are people who will interpret what they observe in different ways, some being lead by the authors work and proving that an author can control the outcome of their intent on a reader, and others taking the authors work and finding their own meaning and intent.

I have to say that I do agree with both sides to the debate, and think that an author cannot have complete control over the way an audience interprets their work, however, to some extent they can get across their intended meaning, thoughts, or feelings in their writing, filming, editing, lyrics, or whatever it may be. I feel like having control in this context is not always black and white, but made up of grey areas also, where interpretation is controlled on both ends.

So I’ve just had a week off for mid-semester break, and to be honest, it doesn’t feel like I’ve had a break at all. Ironic right. But true. I’ve done lots of uni work this past week, but posting on this blog is something I’ve kind of been lazy with. But no fear, we get back in action starting Monday morning… which is actually in a few hours so I should get to sleep!

I’m going to see one of my favourite bands, All Time Low (USA), play tonight in Melbourne, with a bunch of friends that I haven’t caught up with in what feels like forever. So yeah, I’m excited! 🙂

In todays day ‘n’ age, social media plays a large role in many peoples lives. There is mixed debate over whether it is a positive thing or not, but there is no debating that it is something that most people in the Western World take part in on a daily basis. Including myself. Social media is something that I use for hours, each day – I am an avid user of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These sites help me to stay connected with the people in my life, and they help me share my experiences with the world.

Still to this day, one of the best decisions of my life so far has been making my twitter…. and I’m about to tell you why!

To be honest, I started a twitter account back in 2010 called @Team_JoelMadden. I was 15 at the time, and Good Charlotte were (and still very much are) my favourite band in the world. I was (and still am. not ashamed!) in love with their music and their story as good, hard working people.

In terms of Joel Madden, since I was 10 years old (I’m now 19, so kinda a long time…) I have looked up to and held a huge amount of respect for him as a musician and as a person. He was, and still is, my idol. So anyways, I made a twitter back in 2010 dedicated to my love for Joel Madden. And hey, haters will laugh about it, but It’s all good. making that twitter has given me some of the best memories of my life so far.

When I made my twitter I just made it so I could tweet about Good Charlotte and Joel Madden all the time, it was before Team Joel was a The Voice Australia thing, and it was back when Joel wasn’t a household name in Australia.

Within a few months of having my twitter, things that I never imagined happening, started happening. The Joel Madden, the guy I look up to so much, started replying to my tweets. Just imagine a 16 year old me, getting my first ever tweet from my hero, and then jumping around the house and crying to my mum because I was so happy. yep. That is actually what happened. And then as the months went on, I started getting more tweets from Joel. I mean, come on, who would ever imagine actually being able to talk to their idol, who lives on the other side of the world? It was crazy. To this day, If I counted correctly, I can say that Joel Madden has tweeted me a total of 18 times. Which is still crazy to me!!

But that’s not all, this twitter has seriously impacted my life so much.

When The Voice Australia was announced a Channel 9 show, and Joel Madden was announced a coach, everyone on twitter just assumed my account was affiliated with the show. So, when The Voice season 1 began on TV, I went from 2,000 followers, to about 6 and a half thousand. I was amazed. The Voice Australia’s twitter also started talking to me a lot, and then because of that I made friends with the great guy that is Channel 9’s head of Social Media. Because of this, for my 18th birthday present (back in 2012), The Voice Australia and Joel Madden filmed a short video for me, where Joel basically said Hi to me, and thanked me for all the support I give to him. CRAZY RIGHT?!

and that’s still not even all…

Because of how well known my twitter became, when I met Joel for the first time ever in February 2012, he KNEW who I was. My idol actually knew who I was because of a social network! And to this day, whenever I am in the presence of Joel Madden, he ALWAYS comes over to me and makes sure he says hi, gives me a hug, and asks me how I am. Because of my twitter account, I have friends all over the world, I even met some of my best friends on it, and I am more than just a faceless fan to my idol. Joel follows me on twitter, and so many important people in my life know who I am because of it. The power of social media actually amazes me. Still to this day!

However, one of the most craziest things to happen because of my twitter account, was when Vodafone Australia invited me via twitter to Joel Madden’s Housewarming party, where they flew a friend and I up to Sydney, put us up in a hotel, and took us to Joel’s party. The competition was only for Vodafone users, AND I’M WITH TELSTRA! It was literally the shock of my life when they tweeted me the invitation, and the trip to Sydney, and Joel’s party, was one of the best weekends of my life. They invited me because of my twitter (and my friends keep saying Joel told them to invite me, which I’m neither going to confirm or deny, because I didn’t ask haha).

So, basically I’m trying to say that, social media has had a giant impact on the way we live our lives, the way we interact with our friends, and the way we interact with famous people that we may or may not look up to. I still use my twitter account daily, and Joel still follows me on it. In my life, social media has been a blessing, and I am always thankful for it. It’s definitely part of my every day life, and I actually cannot imagine my life without it.

And there you have it, that’s my story. Twitter is rad. And Social Media has definitely changed the way people in the Western world interact and operate.

Here’s some pictures –

so I just created my first ifttt.com recipe. My personal Instagram and my personal Tumblr are now in sync! Thanks for the tip Elliot.