Camosun Sociology students Orieanna Hartley, Adam Jenkins, and Linda Derkacz united in November to embark on a project they had been inspired to take on right here in the classrooms of the college. Struck by the degree to which they felt that certain societal issues went insufficiently examined, the young academics decided to create an online web show, The Social Matters, to create a forum where such concerns could be addressed and discussed openly and frankly.
“It all started with being in our Sociology 100 class,” says Hartley. “Our teacher always said, ‘The social matters,’ and we want to let everyone know that what happens in society actually does matter to us. We care, and we want to help people and educate people on what’s going on. The first [episode] was just for a project to get some bonus marks, and the episodes we’re doing now are because we really enjoy what we’re working on. We’ve been getting some really positive feedback.”
Topics covered so far include perceptions of physical appearance and mandated dress code, and the effect of self-mutilation within intimate relationships. Hartley and her companions view the series as a way in which to educate a wide audience—both within the college and off campus—on issues that go unnoticed by the public at large, due to their ubiquity as elements in everyday life. Hartley says it’s important to recognize problems that easily go unnoticed.
“People are really blinded to social problems because they don’t realize that they are problems, or they just don’t have enough education,” says Hartley. “So we just wanted to educate people on this.”
The Social Matters has come into being amidst a growing international culture of online intellectual exchange, where an ever-rising number of individuals choose to express themselves via YouTube and other similar video-sharing platforms. Hartley points out that the contemporary world is “very social media-driven.”
“I think it’s a really good way to publicize yourself nowadays,” she says. “We also wanted our viewers to feel that they could just come and watch us, and not feel obligated to go somewhere else to talk about it.”
Despite its beginnings as a class project, The Social Matters quickly evolved to concern itself not merely with examples of social injustice or evolution on the Camosun campuses, but with the larger psychosocial and sociopolitical elements that drive them both here and elsewhere.
“When we first started, we just wanted to aim it toward the college, but now we’re getting more of the public in, and we want to expand it,” says Hartley. “It’s more from larger society; we’re very macro in it. We just want to cover a wide range.”
Hartley also makes clear that the gender balance represented within the show in the form of Jenkins’ and Derkacz’s contrasting views was a conscious decision.
“We really just wanted to have both points of view and give an equal opportunity,” she says. “We also want to get more people involved, maybe have guests to talk about what their experience is with something, get a broader expanse.”
Moving forward, the series is intended to become a jumping-off point for discussion and mutual acceptance for all students interested in making a difference.
“If they ever feel unclear about something, we’re here for them,” says Hartley. “We care about social issues. The social does matter.”