Once celebrated for being authentic reviewers of products, influencers have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years with regard to their reliance on paid promotions. More often than not it seems that influencers are promoting items they have little interest in, and it’s easy to understand why when the influencer marketing industry is set to…
Fashion
Instagram’s commercial priorities: what has the app become?
Picture this: it’s 2011. You’ve just downloaded a new app called Instagram. You post a vignette-filtered picture of a sunset and get 7 likes: you are happy. Instagram still is, by and large, a photo and video sharing social network, but a recent update has shown users what Instagram has been slowly integrating for the…
Features
I Lost My Best Friend Over a Text Message
COVID-19 has put a magnifying glass over a lot of relationships during the summer lockdown; people were finding new information about people every day because they had no workplace, school or social activity to depart to in the daily rhythm of life. Social distancing has allowed me to develop a much stronger appreciation for my…
#BLM, Books, Venue
In an age of social media, how useful are books when practising activism?
In his song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Gil Scott-Heron declares that “you will not be able to stay at home, brother … you will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out”. The recent international focus on Black Lives Matter protests has brought to attention the urgency of issues such…
News
‘Blackout Tuesday’ circles social media in support of protests
Social media came to a halt on Tuesday in memory of George Floyd, murdered on the 25th of May in Minneapolis, USA. Named “Blackout Tuesday”, it was initially kickstarted to show solidarity with the fight against racism and support for the black community, which plays an essential role in the music world. The initiative, created…
#BLM, Comment
Social media activism: the dos and don’ts
Before I address the problematic use of social media in light of the most recent wave of the #BlackLivesMatter protest, I would like to acknowledge my own background. I am a white woman and I recognise that I come from a place of privilege. A year ago, before I came to university, I would not…
Sport
The current state of UEA sports
The shutdown of universities all across the country has put an unsurprising chokehold on the activities of university sports teams, and UEA is no exception. There were so many events we were looking forward to that sadly can no longer happen, such as UEA’s Strictly Come Dancing, the Norwich Senior Cup Final, BUCS, and, for…
Features
The rise of self-publishing
We are coming to the end of the decade, and one thing that has changed over the past ten years is the process of publishing written work. Authors are becoming more comfortable, and more likely, to self-publish their work rather than follow traditional publishing routes, as online resources make this easier to do. However, I…
Comment
‘The argument over the rainbow poppy is so juvenile’
Surrounding the date of Remembrance Day, another controversy popped up on Twitter. A screenshot of a glittery, rainbow poppy being sold on eBay caused outrage amongst people, arguing that LGBTQ+ people were trying to hijack Remembrance Day. There were multiple dividing opinions, with people stating that many LGBTQ+ people would have died in the war…
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