When starting out this digital artefact I had very little experience in video production besides the occasional 3-minute video I would be assigned in high school to create as part of an assessment. However the thought of creating a YouTube channel for a digital artefact seemed so intriguing to me that I decided to purchase a mic, make a few test videos to figure out iMovie’s functions and start up food4thought.

Prior to the creation of the channel and as part of the weekly readings, I viewed MonarchsFactory “How to YouTube” video, a short yet detailed guide on how to start up a YouTube channel with a few tips on how to utilise a schedule and shoot videos. This was an incredibly useful introduction to the medium that carried a lot of useful tips that I took away from the video including the importance of implementing shorter videos as opposed to ones that exceed the 15 minute mark in order to keep viewer interest and make use of the YouTube algorithm.

Having some background knowledge on the tedious copyright system that YouTube has in place was crucial in the use of YouTube as a DA as a copyright strike was the last thing I needed, a text by Pawan Deshpande titled Content Curation: Copyright, Ethics & Fair Use was useful in gaining further background information in regards to the matter. The most important piece of information I learnt from this source was what is considered fair use in four points, those being;

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work.

An idea that was discussed heavily by Teodor Mitew in several lectures was the use of a mood board to encapsulate the essence of the digital artefact that is being created. This was a creation that I didn’t do as I personally didn’t believe that this would benefit me as I was creating a YouTube channel with a very broad idea of what content I would be creating at first as well as the fact that I therefore already had my idea of a mood board already mentally prepared.

I did however utilise the “Starter Pack” idea that was touched on the idea of portraying the audience of the digital artefact in a couple images. This was useful as leading up to the first video I released for my Digital Artefact I had a vague idea of my audience but no solidified foundation of who the videos would be targeted towards, this therefore was of great benefit in deciphering this. 

Later in the process when the digital artefact needed to be promoted an article titled by Hannah Williams titled ‘How Often Should You Post on Social Media?’ was useful in gaining insight in how often I should be posting in order to promote my Digital Artefact on the multitude of platforms I was using. The source brought forth new ideas regarding the exposure posts receive such as the notion that the lifetime of the average tweet is 18 minutes. It was information like this from the article that allowed me to shift the strategies I was using to promote the channel and utilise twitter and other platforms as a means to gain feedback.

So in conclusion, there was a plethora of sources and study materials that provided many useful ideas in creating my digital artefact and even promoting it whilst still having some study materials that proved to be less useful in context to my own journey in creating a digital artefact as well as my own experiences with it.

References

• Content Curation Marketing. 2020. Content Curation: Copyright, Ethics & Fair Use – Content Curation Marketing. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.contentcurationmarketing.com/content-curation-copyright-ethics-fair-use/. [Accessed 30 October 2020].
• Meltwater. 2020. How Often Should You Post on Social Media?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.meltwater.com/en/blog/how-often-should-you-post-on-social-media?redirected-path=%2Fuk%2Fblog%2Fhow-often-should-you-post-on-social-media. [Accessed 30 October 2020].
• Mitew, T 2020, Digital Artefacts, Observing, lecture, Making Media BCM114, University of Wollongong, delivered 24th August 2020.
• YouTube. 2020. How To YouTube || A Beginner’s Guide to Get You Started – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ecTVlC7m4. [Accessed 30 October 2020].