I presented my research surrounding my chosen news story using PowerPoint slides. I found it easier this way. I also experiemted with presenting my research in a more visual way as well as this quite simple way. Below are the screen shots from the presentation:
I then thought of ways that I could present my research in a visual way. I wanted to tackle the issue of mockery that is associated with trolling. In the case of the Queen, the trolling was malicious and disgusting but at the same time witty, playful and harmless. For example, the user that Tweeted 'F**k off and die' was completely out of order, and the press actually gave him way more publicity that he deserved, which is ultimately what a troll wants. Other tweets were less spiteful and were intended as jokes. For example an existing parody account for the Queen (@QueenUK) wrote: 'Can't believe someone's started a sodding parody account' Trolling can be light hearted, but in most cases its upsetting.
Something that came to mind straight away was the iconic album artwork created for the Sex Pistols in the 1970s for their single 'God Save the Queen'. In late 1970's England, the Sex Pistols lead the blossoming
punk rebellion. Artist Jamie Reid created many images for the band, including
this one, the cover art for the Pistol's first single God Save The Queen.
Released in 1977 to coincide with the Queen's Silver Jubilee Celebrations...
the single was considered so shocking that it was officially banned from the
English airwaves, yet despite this open censorship it became the number one
song in Great Britain and helped launch the international punk rock movement.
In 2001, an English panel of judges composed of editors and
artists gave their highest honour to the controversial artwork of Jamie Reid,
calling it the "best record cover ever produced." The outrageous
anti-monarchist image from the Pistols were intended to mock the Queen at the time, way before trolling began. The imagery is blatantly disrespectful but that was the point.The artwork is iconic for many reasons the main for me is how aesthetically brilliant it is to look at.
I really like the subtle the graphic elements of this artwork. The Queen's face has become depersonalised as her eyes and mouth have been torn away and replaced with crude typography. The imagery is violent and shocking. When presenting my research I wanted to take quite a tongue and cheek approach so this is why the album artwork provided me with great inspiration.
The term trolling is an Internet slang term used to describe any Internet user behaviour that is meant to intentionally anger or frustrate someone else, though not to be confused with cyberbullying a form of online harassment targeting a specific individual or group in a deliberate and hostile manner, or pranking, which similarly involves playing jokes on strangers for one’s amusement, but typically implies more coordination and intent.
Trolling memes are graphics used to portray emotions and facial expressions surrounding acts of trolling. Below are a selection of various 'troll face' memes.
Trollface is a black and white drawing of a face with a large mischievous grin that is meant to portray the expression someone makes while trolling. Posting a Trollface image into a forum thread is often used to claim that someone was being fooled or intentionally angered. The original drawing was created by deviantArt user Whynne on September 19th, 2008 to illustrate the pointless nature of trolling on an online message board.
Drawing influences from the designs for the Sex Pistols, I combined two concepts by manipulating the 'troll face' to make it relevant to my research. I used Photoshop to create the graphics below. I experimented with a range of typefaces both Serif and Sans Serif. I also played around with adding textures, resembling the Pistols design even further
Final design idea: I did some research into the typefaces used on the original design for the pistols. Jamie Reid, the designer, used newspaper cuttings and assembled them together in a ransom note fashion. I went to fontspace.com and found a brilliant font named 'Got Heroin?'. I typed in the words I needed and it generated them. I then overlaid the type onto two strips covering the troll faces' mouth and eyes.
Below is an example of a leaflet design presenting my research. Its very rough and would need a lot of things changing but as an initial idea I like it.
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