Communicator of the Week: Jennifer Lawrence

It used to be that, if you were so inclined to look at pornography, an individual had to walk into a newsagent and be tall enough to reach the top shelf before choosing to buy that publication.

It follows that those who appeared in these magazines had made their choice and so were paid by that magazine to allow others to look at them naked.

Then came the internet. With it came hacking. Then sexting arrived as a thing. Then the cloud. Then selfies which, soon after, became nude selfies. It didn't take long after that for things to go wrong.

Over the last few years web based businesses or cloud computing firms have hit the headlines as it emerges their files have been hacked with the personal details of customers made available online or to the highest bidder.

More recently it isn't just our data or passwords that are at risk. It is the cheeky nude selfie taken one drunken night too.

Possibly the most high profile victim of this has been Oscar winning actress Jennifer Lawrence. Images she took were leaked to US websites, along with those of nearly 100 other celebrities, and shared via social media.

At the time of the leak Lawrence, who has subsequently said the images were taken for a long-distance boyfriend, remained relatively calm calling it a "flagrant violation of privacy" but preferring to speak via her publicist. This week Lawrence has gone on the offensive.

Choosing to speak to a globally significant media title in Vanity Fair, Lawrence has taken the gloves off with a direct, robust and headline grabbing attack on those who hacked the pictures as well as those who have looked at them.

"Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame," she said.

Adding, "It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime."

This interview has subsequently led the news around the world.

There is a misunderstanding that because people choose to be actors or in the public eye then they are also public property. Lawrence in her interview also explained this well, "It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world."

While people profit from the hacking of images like this then the hacking will continue. What Jennifer Lawrence did this week was shed some light on what it is like to have your images hacked and began to personalise the images that people choose to search for on the internet or share on social media. The way she did it was gutsy and as in your face as this internet age demands which is why she is my Communicator of the Week.

Communicator of the Week is written by Ed Staite.