So long, farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen

Year 1 Semester 1, Complete!

While I still have exams to go it is exciting to say that I have finished my first ever semester of university. I started university not quite sure what to expect, not quite sure what I want to do. While I now know what uni is all about I am still not quite sure what I want to do. However this semester has got me closer to finding out.

JOUR1111 has definitely taught me a lot. It has given me an insight into the world of journalism, of writing and listening and has made me see that it isn’t quite the world for me. While I still plan on writing and taking photos wherever I go, I have decided that this will be my hobby, not my career.  That isn’t to say I might change my mind, I am only 19 after all.

But for now, it is time for me to follow a different path.

Till Next Time… (whenever that may be).

Lecture 12: Professional Blogger?

In celebration of our final JOUR1111 Lecture, Steve Molkington joined us as a guest lecturer. As a professional blogger, ‘Molk’ gave us an insight into what blogging can actually do.

There is always so much pressure on guest lecturers to live up to the high expectation placed on them. It is fair to say we were not disappointed. There were three things that I took out of this lecture.

1.       Social media, like twitter and Facebook, is and will remain a vital part of journalism. The connection that can be made with the public, the press and potential subjects is immediate and simple. (On the note of twitter, I thought it was interesting to see that @DrBruceRedman managed to tweet 4 times within 5 minutes during the lecture).

2.       Our brand, who we are, has started well before now and it is important that we construct it into what we want it to look like (sounds a lot like life doesn’t it).

3.       Finally Blogging. Blogging now gives us the power to say what we want and have it heard. We ‘are no longer locked behind what the media machine tells us’.

Listening to the lecture you realise how much you have learnt over the course of the semester and how practical the information we are learning about really is in the world of Journalism. While new media might not have seemed that interesting back in lecture 2, it is actually a vital part of how journalism is being shaped. The message is that the next generation of journalist really have to understand this.

Till Next Time…

Lecture 11: Fly on the wall

Maybe it is just me, but when I hear a word like investigative my mind suddenly goes all 007. While I don’t quite see myself decked out in a traditional Sherlock Holmes getup, I still see myself acting very ‘sleuthily’ (not a real word) and trying to be a fly on the wall. To my dismay I found out that investigative journalism isn’t quite as ‘spyish’ as I had imagined.

When thinking of the meaning of investigative journalism Ross Coulthart brings up a good point “Isn’t all journalism meant to involve questioning investigation of facts and opinions presented to us?” So I think the best way to answer that question is to do an investigation on what is investigative journalism.

Investigative journalism is made up of 5 ‘ins’:

·         Intelligent

·         Informed

·         Intuitive

·         Inside

·         Invest

‘If your mother says she loves you, check it out’

This old journalism saying is perhaps the key aspect of investigative journalism. No, it isn’t related to your mother’s love, it is all about checking your facts. Assume nothing!

How you go about getting your facts well that pretty much depends on you. From interviewing, observing or analysing documents there are heaps of ways investigative journos go about their business.

The important thing is that they are getting the facts right.

Till Next Time…

The Power of Editing

I recently came across a few photos that instantly took me back to our fourth lecture of photo journalism. The ability to manipulate a photo can result in either an amazing or a horrible picture. The issue that is often raised with photo editing is that it makes the photo unrealistic. But sometimes it isn’t such a bad thing. Nathan Spotts is a photographer who ‘wanted to create images of scenes that are not-quite real, but that almost could be.’


I thought I would share a few of them with you.

 
There are some pretty amazing scenes so if you want to see more, go check them out. (http://www.photographyserved.com/gallery/Unrealistic-Scenes/872302)

Till Next Time…

Lecture 10: A Hidden Agenda?

So what’s your agenda?

When looking at the theory of agenda settings from a journalism perspective there are four main types. Luckily for us, Bruce explained that the theory itself is fairly straight-forward and obvious.

The four agendas are:

1. Public Agenda - a set of topics that members of the public perceive as important
2. Policy Agenda - issues that decision makers think are salient (i.e. legislators)
3. Corporate Agenda - issues that big businesses and corporations consider important
4. Media Agenda - issues discussed in the media

Media agenda setting is defined as the process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that larger segments of the public come to perceive those issues as more important than others. Simply put, the more coverage an issue receives, the more important it is to people.

But what does this mean? Well, we all have images in our head. When someone mentions a news story it seems that most people picture the same thing. Look at 9/11. Whenever it is brought up most people immediately have that shocking picture of the plane flying into the tower in their mind.

But why? It is simply because this picture was shown time and time again when the media reported on the tragedy. The media influenced how we saw the issue by the amount of exposure it received.

But showing a story in the news isn’t the only way the media can shape our opinion. The agenda setting ‘family’ explains different tools that can be used to manipulate the publics view.

Agenda Setting 'Family'

1.       Media Gatekeeping

·         the exposure of an issues

·         what the media chooses to reveal to the public

2.       Media Advocacy

·         the purposive promotion of a message through the media

3.       Agenda Cutting

·         most of the truth or reality that is going on in the world isn't represented

4.       Agenda Surfing/ "Bandwagon" Effect

·         the media follows the crowd and trends

·         "Bandwagon" effects: how the existing public opinion influences others towards that opinion

5.       Diffusion of News

·         the process through which an important event is communicated to the public

·         how, where, when news is released

·         Who decides?

6.       Portrayal of an Issue

·         the way an issue is portrayed will often influence how it is perceived by the public

7.       Media Dependence

·         the more dependent a person is on the media for information, the more susceptible that person is to media agenda setting

With all these hidden agendas of the media, the question for us, as the public, is how do we develop our own opinions on issues?

Till Next Time…