Amber Madden

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Melbourne Adventures!

The most amazing vintage store ever, RetroStar.

Graffiti on Flinders Lane.

High Tea room in Block Arcade.

To be honest, I didn't attend this week's lecture as I am currently in Melbourne. I also found that hotel Wi-Fi is not exactly the best when trying to download a lecture recording. So in the end I had to settle for reviewing the Powerpoint.

Following on from last week's lecture on commercial media, this week's lecture covered public media. In contrast to commercial media, public media are government funded companies. Their ultimate goal is to serve the public.

Major players in Australian public media include:

· ABC

· ABC 2

· ABC 3

· ABC News 24

· ABC Radio

· SBS

· SBS Two

· SBS Radio

· Triple J

The main role of public media is to show media that is in support of public and democratic processes. The are still able to make a profit; SBS is considered a 'hybrid' channel but is still able to be known as a public media channel. ABC is a conventional public media channel.

Public media should have public value. The Powerpoint outlined public value as:

1. Embedding a 'public service ethos'

2. Value for licence fee money

3. 'Weighing public value against market impact'

4. Public consultation

Public media broadcasting should also involve:

· Geographical universality - available to the whole population

· Universality of appeal - cater to all tastes and interests

· Special provision for minorities

· Special relationship to the sense of national identity and community

· Distance from all vested interests

· Universality of payment

· Competition in good programming rather than competition for numbers

· Liberate rather than restrict broadcasters

Judging from this lecture, I would rather work for a public media company than a commercial media company. I like the public service aspect of their broadcasting, and would rather be dedicated to fair and just media than competing for advertisers and generating profit.

Week 6 Lecture

“Advertisers are the real customers of a commercial media organisation, not its readers, viewers or listeners.”

This week’s lecture was about Commercial Media. Commercial media organisations are non-government funded organisations that aim to make a profit through selling advertising to their audience.

Major players in the commercial media arena include:

· News Limited

· Fairfax Media

· APN News & Media

· Southern Cross Broadcasting

· WIN Corporation

· Seven West Media

· Ten

· Nine Entertainment Co.

These companies produce a range of different media, such as television, newspapers, films, books, sports, advertising, magazines, and cable television. The commercial media industry is basically a competition - who can bring in the most advertisers? This brings up the point; can these companies be trusted to accurately and fairly portray news and other events, when their main goal is to make a profit?

In answer to the above question, commercial media companies have to meet certain legal requirements, formal state requirements and are overseen by the state to make sure everything is kosher.

But despite these requirements, commercial media players still manage to do the wrong thing. For example, Rupert Murdoch’s 2011 phone hacking scandal, in which it was revealed that the phones of the British Royal Family, celebrities, politicians were hacked and accessed by News of the World employees. Public outcry ensued when it was unearthed that employees had also hacked the phones of a murdered schoolgirl, deceased soldiers and victims of the London Bombings. The following video shows Rupert and James Murdoch giving a statement about the scandal:

Murdoch's defence for the hackings was that News of the World accounts for less than 1% of his company and that he employs many other ethical people. This shows that commercial media companies' only aim is to gain the biggest audience in order to profit from their true customers ... advertisers.

Sunday, 1 April 2012

Week 5 Lecture

"Radio is the theatre of the mind, television is the theatre of the mindless" - Steve Allen

This week's lecture was a half hour audio recording about telling stories for radio. I procrastinated listening to it as I didn't think I had the attention span to simply sit at my computer and listen to audio for a whole thirty minutes. My intention was to just play the audio and surf the internet simultaneously. However once the recording had started I found it hard to concentrate on anything except the voices of these two men, whose opinions on radio broadcasting were so very interesting...

Radio presenters Steve Austin (left) and
Richard Fidler (right)

The first guest was Richard Fidler, who hosts a radio show on ABC called 'Conversations'. The show is about ordinary people who have done or are doing amazing things. A few of the key points Richard made included:

TV and Radio are completely different mediums and are not interchangeable; this makes for "bad TV and dull radio."
Radio is a more intimate medium than TV - people watch TV from a distance, whereas radio makes listeners feel as if they are included in a conversation. As a radio presenter, you are a facilitator of conversation.
You are more convincing as a presenter if you are genuinely interested in what your interviewee is talking about.
A successful radio show is all about pre-production - pre-interviews with guests makes them feel more relaxed and trusting.
You should always make guests feel safe - Richard prefers to avoid a prosecutorial style of interviewing as this will most likely cause your interviewee to clam up.
Try to keep your mouth shut - allow guests to take and explain themselves. It is a privilege to be part of their recollections.
Richard feels that public radio is thriving - it has remained unscathed through the 'deaths' of other old media by utilising new technologies and blending into new platforms such as podcasts and Twitter.
Richard wants to be of use to listeners and give them something, the 'public service' aspect of radio keeps him energetic and happy.

Richard's pearls of wisdom to young Journalism students were: worldliness is good, read the paper, keep asking questions, be open minded, and most importantly, to expose yourself to different currents of thought.

The second guest was Steve Austin, who hosted ABC 612 Evening for nearly three years. This year Steve took over hosting for ABC 612 Mornings. Steve shared a lot of the same views as Richard, as well as some other wisdom:

When on air, being yourself is important, but so is proper enunciation - people have to understand you.
Like Richard, Steve also tries to avoid the prosecutorial style of interviewing. However if you want to pursue some information, find different ways of asking questions.
On radio, it is very easy for people to tell whether you are lying or being fake. Unlike TV, there is no visual distraction.
A good radio story involves being human - searching and exploring for emotion, not just facts and data. People are driven by emotional responses and life experiences.
As Richard also mentioned, Steve encourages radio presenters to talk less, and listen more.
Steve believes radio is popular because these days people are very time-poor. Radio also forges a human connection, and is more real.

Steve's sole piece of advice for those pursuing a career in radio was to 'never give up.' Pursue your goals and never give up on them, even when people tell you otherwise.

Let's just reflect back to the quote at the beginning of my post, "Radio is the theatre of the mind, television is the theatre of the mindless." Radio presenting is almost an art; you have to forge real human connections, include listeners in a conversation for which they are not present, and most importantly, you have to make pictures with words.

Thursday, 29 March 2012

JOUR1111 Assessment

Personal Media Use & Production Diary

With the recent explosion in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger, the correlation between social media and journalism has become much more apparent. These days, people are able to receive news from these social media sites. This has caused the so-called 'death of journalism'. It would, however, be more appropriate to call it the 'death of old media'. Out with the old, in with the new (media), I say!

The JOUR1111 cohort was given the task of logging their personal media use over the course of ten days. Results of this log were then able to be compared with results of a cohort-wide survey undertaken by Dr Bruce Redman.

The following dossier will analyse my personal media use over the ten day period and determine my relationship with journalism and social media. It will also show how I compare with the rest of the JOUR1111 students' preferred use of media. Lastly the dossier will explain the relationship between today's journalism and social media.

Table 1 - Personal Media Use

This table shows my use of media over ten days (March 12th - March 21st). Please note that all times given are an approximation.

Graph A - Percentage of Total Media Use

This graph is a visual representation of my media use. It shows my preferred use of media in percentages of the total 62.35 hours that I spent using said media.

The graph reveals that Facebook was my preferred use of media, taking up 32.47% of my total media use. The next largest use of media was Skype, which was 21.92% of my media usage. Surprisingly, my third most popular use of media was watching News Programs, which was 16.23% of my total media use.

Table C - JOUR1111 Survey Results

This table illustrates the use of the same media that I utilised over the ten day period by the cohort of the JOUR1111 course. The results of the survey are mostly consistent with the findings of my ten day media use log; Facebook is the preferred use of media, along with Blogging and Skype. The difference between my media use and that of JOUR1111 was that they seemed to view a lot more Online News than myself.

Analysis

Should people be worried that a group of journalism students prefer to use Facebook than read Online News? I don't believe that this is necessarily a bad thing, considering most journalists have either a Facebook page or a Twitter account. The latter even allows them to constantly update audiences with breaking news in under 140 characters. The internet permits instant feedback from audiences for journalists, something that was impossible with 'old media' such as newspapers and magazines. Journalists also use social media as a tool to gather information' they can get the first scoop on a story if they come across a 'status' or a 'tweet' that is posted immediately as the event happens.

As for my personal use of media, this log has really opened my eyes as to how much time I actually spend social networking. In the future I intend to cut down on my Facebook addiction and use the time to read more Online News, much like the cohort of JOUR1111.

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Lecture Reflecture!

Note: Yes I am aware that 'reflecture' is not a word.

Being the scatterbrain that I am, I had no idea that the main purpose of this blog was to reflect on my JOUR1111 lectures. I thought that it was just an open target for my 'thought bullets'. So this post is a frantic catch up of the past FOUR lectures.

Warning: This could be long and boring...

Lecture 1 - 27th February 2012

To be honest, this lecture is a vague memory. It took place on my first day at UQ, which mainly consisted of me having a breakdown trying to find anything (parking space, toilets, buildings, Co-op bookshop, the list goes on). By some miracle I actually arrived at Schonell Theatre just in time for my first JOUR1111 lecture. I grabbed a course profile and took a seat next to my friend Brittany. Dr Bruce Redman then began the lecture. It opened with a very appropriate quote by journalist and social critic H.L. Mencken:

"I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter."

Being young, and (somewhat) energetic, this quote got my attention instantly. I suddenly envisioned myself in foreign countries with a camera and a microphone. This was strange for two reasons; firstly because I am interested mainly in print (text) journalism, and secondly because I was getting a bit ahead of myself... it was only my first lecture of a four year Bachelor after all.

The rest of the lecture covered everything in the course profile, such as lectures and tutorials, who to contact in times of stress, assessment, etc. Dr Redman also asked "what is Journalism/Communication?" To me journalism is an investigation, uncovering things and revealing them to the public. Maybe I fancy myself as the female Julian Assange (without the sexual assault charges), I dont know.

The lecture concluded with a slide saying 'You are the journalist.'

Lecture 2 - 5th March 2012

This week's lecture was entitled 'New News.' Firstly Dr Redman reminded everyone to complete the media use survey. I made a mental note to do that as soon as I got home, as I had forgotten (typical).

The lecture began with Dr Redman talking about Web Iterations. I learnt that there are four Web Iterations:

1. "Old Media" - This is basically the 'traditional/heritage' media, such as newspapers, radio, television and magazines.

2. "Web 1.0" - Described as 'very advertising friendly', Web 1.0 is the first stage of the World Wide Web.

3. "Web 2.0" - This is the social web that we are all familiar with; Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube, etc.

4. "Web 3.0" - The Semantic Web, Web 3.0 is something that will be coming very soon. It involves the computer making sense of information using meta-tags.

I have always relied on Web 2.0 to get my fill of news and current affairs. However, with many companies going behind the 'paywall', soon it may become more difficult - and expensive - to access what has always been free online news sites. The paywall system will require people to suscribe and pay to access online newspapers. To compete with free news sites, paying subscribers are given extra privileges as an incentive.

In all honesty, I prefer heritage media.

Lecture 3 - 12th March 2012

Skye Doherty was the guest speaker for this week's lecture, called 'What is Text?' Text in media has evolved with technology; from newspapers to internet. Skye discussed the importance of text in the media for both journalists and readers.

Text is:

Fast
Flexible
Complete control
Portable
Searchable
Dominates online

The focus of the lecture was on the inverted pyramid, which means listing the most important information of a story first, and the least important last. A catchy headline is a must. The 5W's and H must be listed in the first paragraph to keep readers interested. The 'body' of the story then follows. This is basically the recipe to write any news story.

Skye then touched on the use of text in all types of media. Most print stories use the inverted pyramid style, whereas online text gets way more complex. 'Hypertext' is used in online text. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks that lead the reader to other texts, allowing the reader to experience the story from multiple angles and perspectives. Hypertext is an easy way to share information on the Web.

This lecture opened my eyes to a whole new world of text media; it's not just for newspapers anymore.

Lecture 4 - 19th March 2012

Week 4 already! This weeks lecture was titled 'Picture Stories.' Everyone has heard the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words.' Cliche I know, but over time it has proved to be very true. Pictures say things that words sometimes can't, they provide a visual representation of the story we are reading. Pictures in today's journalism are very important, they capture a moment in time, sometimes unbelievable and powerful moments.

However the development of Photoshop has had both its praises and criticisms. It is a very controversial topic, the ability to dramatically change one's appearance with a few clicks of a button has its pros and cons. Overuse of Photoshop provides society with a gross misrepresentation of image. For example, magazines that show celebrities and models with flawless skin, hair and figures. This is especially damaging to young audiences, who grow up believing that it is possible to look like that, and therefore have self-esteem issues because of their exposure to over-Photoshopped pictures.