Cows say moo, Journalists say Tweet!

(Week Twelve “New Media”)

This week, the final week of our journalism lectures, was the one and only lecture I have been unable to attend. Being in Australia for the first time for my cousin’s birthday, I prioritised build-a-bear and cake and don’t regret it as the lecture, when I listened to it on lectopia meant more to me than it would have had I attended the lecture myself.

This is because the lecture focused on the importance of new media in the availability of news and the easy access of information via the internet and I was accessing the lecture only days later and I was already able to see it online, both the lecture slides and the audio. The guest lecturer, a blogger, emphasised the importance of tweeting and new media, the type of media we, even as students, can access just like professionals. We are so privileged, in this generation of journalism to be able to present our journalism in the same medium as professionals and have a large audience assess our work. The opportunities blogging presents me with, the opportunities I have not yet taken, shame me on a good day.

This lecture has been an eye opener, and I am more motivated to work on my personal blog which I have been running since I lived in Hawai’i but have been neglecting in favour of my studies. This lecture on new media has reminded me that taking the time and working on my blog will actually help me in my studies as I will be building up my portfolio and trafficking a bigger audience.

PI or Journalism

(Week Eleven “Investigative Journalism”)
                PI: the word often comes to mind accompanied by the Pink Panther theme song, some sneaky movements and definitely some beady eyes. To investigate a story, one has got to become a detective based on the five “in’s” of investigation (much like the five w’s of lead writing). These are:

Intelligent: Research

Informed: Be Knowledgeable

Intuitive: Know what to do

Inside: Get involved, be trusted, be intimate

Invest: Take Risks

Instead of thinking, “That sounds like hard work,” I was confused. Should not all journalism then be investigative journalism? What sets it apart? According to the words of Ross Coulhart, there is not apparent distinction. He claims that “All good journalism should be investigative journalism,” and I must agree. With any story, although the need for in-depth research may be unnecessary, the five in’s must be observed to make sure that the story is being represented accurately. To leave any of these in’s out would be discrediting not only to the story but to the journalist telling the story too. The idea of Investigative journalism offers a critique on modern day media and commercial journalism as when I compare the articles on the depth and the interesting angles presented in investigative journalism like the Global Mail and compare that to the Age or another commercial media,  I am astounded at the remarkable difference where there really should be none.

Because They Can

(Week Ten "Agenda Setting")

As our lecturer quite aptly put, the media sets agendas "because they can" (Redman, 2012). Considering that the media influence not only what the audience is thinking about, on the first level of influence, but also how they should be thinking about it too, on a second level.
Concerning the media setting family, it is actually frightening the amount of control the media has over the minds of the audience. With media gate keeping, the choices of what the media chooses to expose, and with media cutting, the choices of what is not represented in the media, the media has the power to purposefully promote a message, otherwise known as media advocacy.
Which is basically another word for propaganda.
I'm noticing now that an awful lot of how the media is portrayed contributes to propaganda in some way or another. Not everything can be revealed in the media and not every thing hidden, so under what criteria is there a selection on what the audience need to know and what they don't as the power to make these decisions is the power to control the decisions consequently made by the audience.
As a journalist, or anybody responsible for media and communication, the necessity to remain neutral and not become propaganda is a responsibility that must be upheld for the liberal values in democracy to be expressed.
I still cannot see myself being able to make these decisions but for better or for worse, I will have to and hopefully I will make the right choice.
At least, most of the time.

Annotated Bibliography

Journal Article:

Johansson, S. (2008). Gossip, sport and pretty girls. Journalism Practise, 2(3), 402-413. doi: 10.1080/17512780802281131

This document is a journal article which challenges the traditional perspective that tabloids and the simplification of media trivialise journalism by analysing the readership of trivial media and its political and cultural values through interviews with fifty five regular readers of two British tabloids, both female and male. This journal argues that tabloids provide an interlude from day to day struggles by providing entertainment and also serve as an attack on power elites whilst also bringing together the community through the building of common interests. The values of journalism that this journal presents tabloids to employ are the values of human interest and of celebrity, sport and power elite – which are seen as trivial but are ingrained into the public agenda and therefore in demand especially for commercial media as the larger viewership they get, the better business they become. The value of this journal is that it considers a new angle to the tabloidization of media and calls on legitimate sources such as the readers of the media to draw conclusions. However, as it only considers tabloids from the angle that it furthers public interest; the impression upon the reader is bias.

Podcast:

Scarlett Johansson Nude Photos Leaked. (2011, September 15).Podcast404. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqXRj_upLvM

This document is an audio podcast by a citizen journalist through youtube on the Scarlet Johansson nude photograph leak scandal. Although seemingly unprofessional, the story highlights the celebrity angle of the scandal, referring to other cases where a similar incident has occurred. The reporter also gives context to Scarlet Johansson as an actress and a partial description of the photographs in question. However, the crude content and the some of the vulgar language used when describing the photographs in the report undermine the journalistic ethics in this story. As the reporter does not provide a name or references, the content and research of the information is questionable and cannot be relied upon. The news values upheld in this story are celebrity and bad news, spun from the angle that being a celebrity means that such bad incidents happen. The reporter interestingly invites audience participation at the end of the podcast asking for their opinion on the matter, thereby increasing the interest for the listeners through interactivity. Overall, although the podcast was not very credible and the source could not be relied on, the information was clear and relevant to the listeners.

Television:

Holt, D. (Performer) (2011). Tmz : Scarlett johansson private photos leaked [Television series episode]. In Holt, D. (Executive Producer), TMZ. Rhode Island: FOX Providence. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUcqdtz4slY

This document is part of a clip of video from Fox Providence, reported by Dax Holt who is also the producer, which covers scandal of Scarlett Johansson’s nude photograph leakage from the angle of the involvement of the lawyers and the containment of the issue at the time of the incident in 2011. The reporter places emphasis on the gravity of the scandal, mentioning the unusually strong reaction of websites that usually ignore lawyers and referring to this incident as one part in a larger social problem for celebrities, listing various incidents where celebrities have been hacked and had their content leaked onto the internet. Although the content of the story is scandalous, the focus of this report was not the nude photos but on the lawyers and their involvement in keeping the damage minimal. The journalistic ethics of this story are in good taste, although by the focus being on less scandalous topics, the story is sacrificing some viewership. However, the news value of celebrity and powerful people, combined with the credibility of a known television company, namely FOX, make this story a source of public interest and the presentation of this issue as one of many similar cases of celebrity hacking magnifies the problem and therefore the story so there is still potential for large audience interest.

  

Online Article:

Smart, G. (2012, May 20). Scarlett Johansson’s naked pics jitters. The Sun. Retrieved from http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/4327429/Avengers-Assemble-star-Scarlett-Johansson-still-fears-that-people-have-seen-her-naked.html

This document is an online text article from the British tabloid newspaper ‘The Sun’. It is a brief superficial article containing one quote from the Scarlett Johansson about her on going distress over her nude photographs being leaked to the media by a hacker on her phone and the scandal that ensued from the year before, 2011. The angle this story appears to sympathise with Scarlett Johansson’s plight whilst being a follow up story of the scandal from a year earlier and serving as a reminder to the readers of the scandal which is in contradiction to the values presented in the article and leads the reader to re-examine the journalistic agenda of the article. There is only one apparent source for this story, which is the single quote from Scarlett Johansson. The lack of depth suggests that the article may be an example of churnalism where the press release has been used with no backup to create an article to stir public interest. The focus on celebrities, the new and upcoming movie, and scandalous content, featuring a description of the nude photos, stir interest in a larger group of readers through the values of tabloidization. This brings into consideration the journalistic ethics of this article, which are questionable as it can be seen that this articles churns and old story, exploiting the celebrity and a past scandal for the sake of traffic and commercial gain.  

Intercollege Rugby Finals Leo's and Kings

My first on the location reporting for JOUR1112.
Please enjoy and give me feedback!

The Journalistic War

(Week Nine "News Values")
There is a war in journalism, a war between values and reality.
News values are what sit upon the top of the inverted pyramid. It is what makes a piece of news worthy of being a piece of news. In 2002 Judy McGregor composed a criteria for news values: visualness, conflict, emotion and celebration of the journalist.
This criteria is a very realistic approach to news values, however I do not agree that the celebration of the journalist adds value to the news story at all. In fact, it might even take about from the worthiness of the news if the journalists are actively trying to celebrate themselves. The selfless desire to let the world know the news around the world is a true mark of a journalist, the idealist in me believes. However, I face the reality that the values that journalism upholds and the values that are evident are not always in tune with each other.
As I become a journalist, I want to make sure that I at least uphold the values that I believe make a worthy story and inspire others with my attitude.
Hopefully, I can live up to my own ideals.

Keep your pants on Australia!

(Week Eight "Ethics")
In the past year, I've had the opportunity to reside in three different cities, in three different countries, in three very different continents: Tokyo, Hawai'i and Brisbane.
Living on campus at a college, I hadn't much exposure to the Australian advertising industry - it is like living in a bubble- and was more than mildly confronted when in our lecture we were shown many examples of what I would consider inappropriate advertising.
I noticed this myself on the 428 bus ride towards Indooroopilly from Chancellors place when I saw a billboard advertising a podiatrist - it may have been Dr. Foot - depicting the bottom half of a feminine looking figure lying sideways so that the nude portrait was visible without showing any genitals, however evidently naked.
This was within the first few weeks of moving here and I was horrified. Never had an advertisement I had laid eyes upon in America or Japan or Brunei been so crude.
In our lecture about ethics, we considered levels of appropriateness and tastefulness in advertising. It was interesting to note from the discussion that what I had believed unbelievably in bad taste and confronting, others thought tasteful and appropriate. The ethics of advertising that I had grown up with in other, more conservative countries had sculpted my view of the ethics in media is such a way that I felt that the advertising in Australia was unethical whereas somebody who had grown up in Australia would surely feel differently.
This gap in cultural and social ethics which does not translate between countries show just how malleable ethics is and how culturally defined it is. This topic leads us down the road of some very philosophical questions such as "What are ethics?" or "Do ethics or standards of ethics exist when they are no ground rules of ethics?".
As I am interested in international relations and working whilst traveling in the future, these are important considerations - questions I need to be asking myself and formulating a personal response to. Obviously I could not apply the ethics of Australian advertising - using the foot billboard advertisement as an example - in a conservative culture such as Japan because it would be confronting and in bad taste, or in an Islamic country like Brunei where it would be offensive to their religion and values. Judging the ethics of a country and evaluating the appropriateness of media that can be used in those cultures is a skill set that I will need to develop in any field of work I intend to pursue as these problems of ethics are transferable between problems from big such as between countries and small, between communities of people.  
 

A Story of a Girl

For my 'Introduction to Journalism and Communications' factual storytelling assessment, I created a multimedia production on my friend in Utah who is 18 and engaged to be married, about her uncertainties and future ambitions.
As it was my first video piece I have ever done, and every software and equipment I used as new to me, I am pleased with the way it has turned out.
I enjoyed making this and am looking forward to doing more assignments in multi-media or video form.

PLEASE LISTEN WITH THE VOLUME UP. The voice over would not get any louder than this.

A Story of a Girl

Bite the Hand that Feeds You

(Week Seven "Public Media")

Where should our loyalties lie?
That is the question public media must ask. Of course, the obvious answer would be 'the public', but is it really?  Being government funded must count for something - when loyalty to the government that funds it clashes with the interest of the public, who should public media represent?
When you bite the hand that feeds you, the hands stops feeding you, this much is true. Consequently, this should mean that public media is bias towards the government because the government keeps it running. However, that would basically make public media propaganda.
There is a fine line between bias and propaganda. And propaganda can lead to some truly 1984-ish stuff. Yes, I shudder to think of this too.
So, I wondered, if there was an alternative, a bridge- so to speak - between public and commercial media, what would it be and would this hybridization produce the best media outcome possible?
As discussed in our last lecture, media should be:
 1. Truthful and comprehensive
 2. Exchange comment and criticism
 3. Project a representative picture.
Considering the criteria above, media ought to have the public interest first and foremost in their minds. In order for this to be a feasible option they must not be obliged to give privilege to who funds it and therefore should generate it's own funds. This is where the two media should collide.
Could not media run by advertisements be profit oriented (commercial media) whilst keeping public interest in mind (public media)? I believe that in the future, near future hopefully, the difference between the two will capsize, making commercial media the media of the public, eliminating the need for public media at all. Media will then not have to bite any hand that feeds it as it will be feeding itself.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

(Week Six "Commercial Media")

via Oxford Dictionaries

Stalin. Dictatorship. Hardship. Lies. Duplicity. Influence. Manipulation. Communism. Fascism. Blackshirt. War. Conflict. Art. Words. Terror. Silence. Misleading. Oppression. Emancipation.
These are the thought my brain conjures up when I think of the word "Propaganda"; not Journalism.

We were introduced to commercial media today in our lecture, as opposed to public media, which we will be covering next. Commercial media is, in a term, profit oriented media, more business than journalism, relying on advertising to make money. Being so, we recognized a few challenges this media brings about, one of these being whether it could balance both profit and public trust. Now I wonder, could it?
This worries me, deeply penetrating beneath the skin of the part of me that shudders for the world. Our lecturer mentioned the word 'propaganda' and I know I had a miniature freak-out. If commercial media is so strongly profit driven that it could cross the line between being informative and becoming propaganda, I am not sure I want to be a participant as a contributor. I know my pre-WWII history well enough to know how strongly propaganda can influence a crowd into accepting radical ideas and destroying the fine harmony that can be called peace in a nation state such as Australia.
What power journalists hold, what responsibilities they bear.
It is more than a basic morality that should prompt journalists to uncover and report the truth as unbiased and possible, it is a duty. They are the collective justice league of the world, keeping nations harmonious and as corruption free as possible, keeping tainted hands from tainting minds. They are responsible for giving the public the power to think and make decisions for themselves.
Am I ready to take on such a calling?
Wait, and we'll see.

Personal Media Use and Production Diary

My Media usage during the course of ten days

Raw Data:

From first glance at the table and graph above (Table One and Figure One), it is evident that my youtube minutes are the most frequent, regular and long. On the other hand, there is a distinct lack of magazines in my media usage and almost no newspapers and radio.

Old Media/Traditional Media

In comparing old and new media usage and production in table two and figure two, my media consumption is plainly skewed towards new media and nowhere near as much usage of old media. However, there is a surge in my old media use between days 6 and 9 although my usage and production of new media stays relatively the same.

Weekend/Weekday

Contrary to the outcome expected, the figures 3 and 4 indicate that there is not a great difference within my media usage and production between weekends and week days. However, this brings into question whether my living environment effects my media usage.

At College/At my Grandparents house

I was at the college for Days 1-5 and 10, and at my Grandparent’s house through the Days 6-9. 

According to figures 5 and 6, it can be observed that there is a significant change in my media usage and production in terms of old and new media depending on my living conditions and environment.

Audio/Print/Visual

Here, also, contrarily to my previous predictions, it appears that I have a much higher usage of audio media, rather than print media, of which I have 29% in and visual media which I have only 5% in. This is probably brought about by the fact that audio media does not require as much concentration as the other two forms of media, for me anyways, and therefore can be multitasked to. For example, when I read the newspaper, I generally just read the newspaper, but when I listen to the radio, it is going to and from somewhere.

Formal Analysis:

Within my own personal media usage, there is a significant abundance of the use of new media to produce media through social networking than the intake of media through the old media. With the new media, Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, there are significantly more opportunities for being creative in media production for non-professional people like myself. However, this media usage was influenced mildly by the weekend of weekday question, but heavily by the environmental living conditions I was in. I usually live at a college on campus with 200 other girls my age with whom I interact every day. In this environment, I definitely use more new media than old media (see figures 5), however with my grandparents who were brought up in a generation in which they only had access to old media, I still use new media but interact much more than I normally would with old media – which I enjoy. There is less access to old media at college unless it is in a public place, such as the common room which houses the television and newspapers. I also discovered that I use a larger amount of audio media compared to visual and print media, but this is due to the fact that I can listen to media through youtube or the radio without having to concentrate too much, but cannot do this with the other forms of media. Therefore, I listen to audio media whilst doing other tasks and accumulate more time for the media use there. Also, with convenient audio and visual media in youtube and other such sites on the internet, it is much easier to choose what we as an audience want to hear or learn about and design our own form of communication, rather than the traditional rigid structure of radio and television, where you can only watch or listen to what is chosen to be shown to you. However, this is not always a positive development as I, personally, learn more from the journalism in traditional media especially because I cannot choose what I want to learn about, and as a result learn a lot about everything. And so although the new media such as youtube can be a brilliantly convenient way to reorganise communication and journalism, it cannot replace the traditional media as there is so much to be gained by having professionals judge what you should and should not need to know.

In comparison to other journalism students, I am in the majority for most of the categories, starting with the basics: an 18year old female in a Bachelor of Journalism and Arts as a domestic student. I spend roughly about 2-3 hours a day on the internet which is the same amount of time 29.6% of the people in my course spend on the internet. As with most other students, I create media through social networking with new media. I watch less than one hour on average of television a day and the same for radio, which puts me with roughly 15% of the class. The reason for this could be that most students answered that they listen to radio most in the car, and as I live in a college and have just moved to Australia, do not have access to one. As I also have limited access to television, I fall under the 67.8% of the students who get their news from online sources rather than the majority which was via the internet.

Conclusion:

I am a sheep within a herd within media usage and production. I fit under the majority of the students in journalism, using mostly social networking and new media, producing media myself rather than absorbing journalism and communication though old media. However, this media usage and production is heavily influenced by factors such as environmental change, and I cannot disregard old media despite the new age because traditional media offers a wider range of journalism and information on more issues, whereas new media allows for us to pick-and-choose the information we want to know. In this way, I have to have a balance between these two forms of media, old and new, so that I take the greatest advantage of the media available to me and gain better access to journalism and communication.  

Story Pitches

So here is my draft for my three story pitches for my first project for JOUR1112. AGHSGJ. 

News Story:

Kony 2012 Cover the night

I am going to write a story about the current “Kony 2012” craze by covering  the “Cover the Night Brisbane” on the 20^th of April in Queen St. I will interview a random sample of people participating about why they are there, how they found out about this project and what they plan to do after this night, and at least one organiser of the event to see whether the two groups of people’s objectives align as well as consulting the official website. As this story has spread through social networking like an epidemic, the audience will be familiar with the story and relate to it, especially as I will be taking it to a local level.

Information Story:

Live Below the Line

My information story will inform the audience about the “Live Below the Line - May 7^th to the 11^th” project by the Oaktree foundation where people all around the world will be living on 2 dollars a day for 5 days to raise money for charity and to increase awareness about the extreme poverty line. I will read the official website for background knowledge and interview a girl at my college, Aislinn Teixeira, who is part of this foundation. I have also organised an interview with the Queensland LBL Campaign Manager for insights into the organisation and what the audience can do to participate.

Human Interest Story:

Local Brisbane Writers

My human interest piece will celebrate local writers, in anticipation of the “Brisbane Writers Festival 2012” from September 7^th to the 11th. I will write about the national and global achievements of local Brisbane writers and talk to the literature department at the University of Queensland for insight into what makes Brisbane writers successful and interview the organizers of this future event to get some inside information for members of the audience interested in local literature and in going to the event to find out more. 

Word Count: 326

Let Them do the Talking

(Week Five "Audio Lecture")
Interestingly, our lecture today was solely an audio lecture. At first the mp3 file wouldn't play on my computer so I was having a miniature heart attack but thankfully in this day and age, my smartphone was able to download it and play it instantly.

Living in Tokyo for the past 9 years of my formal education, ad not having very much reason to access the radio at all, I found the radio podcasts very interesting. When I made the move to Hawai'i in July of last year, I moved from my public world of subways and into the private world of cars, and in doing so changed my transportation occupation from reading novels to listening to the radio. That is not to say that people in Japan don;t listen to radio that much, because they do, my mother and my grandfather both listen to it regularly. My mother when attending to things around the house and, in fact, my Ojiisan (grandfather) only bought his television set a couple of years ago. Until then he had always access the media via his little black radio. It always mystified me when I visited him in Nagoya every few years. My Ojiisan would sit under his kotatsu with his eyes closed from early in the morning, just immersing himself in the news. Then he would get up and start moving all around the house, doing things here and there, still listening to the news. I thought, if he could listen to it while doing other things, why did he sit there with his eyes closed so early in the morning doing nothing else? 

Well, these podcasts sure cleared that question up.The first interviewee mentioned that radio was much more intimate with the audience, they felt as if the voice was resounding within their own head. I think that was what my Ojiisan was feeling, closing his eyes, letting himself drown in the events unfolding around the world. But then, as the man said, radio also is something that people can multitask to, because it is very straight forward, void of most flowery language, giving us facts rather than analysis. This our minds can pick up without thinking too much and we can do other hands-on tasks as well and be productive. However, I think that anything more complicated that everyday duties would be difficult with the radio on, having to concentrate on more than just the words in your mind. 

The most interesting thing about these two podcasts were that the two people, in two different interviews on the same topic, agreed on two major factors in radio journalism that I had never thought about before. These are at the interviewer should never dominate the conversation. They should  be able to distance themselves and let their interviewee do the talking. The other thing was that, when the former happens, usually the most interesting points would come up. I had previously been under the impression that the most interesting points happen when the interviewer know the right questions and probe it out of the guest, however, this podcast made me realize that the most interesting events happen when the interviewed is feeling comfortable and is able to give themselves over to points they may not have discussed otherwise. 

I cannot wait to listen to more radio from now on and listen, really listen, to how people conduct interviews and see whether these two epiphanies differentiate the "bad" interviews from the "good". In fact I cannot wait to start listening to more radio full stop. 

And I think it worth mentioning that although my Ojiisan did succumb to the modern tradition of television, his go-to media is and always will be his little black radio. 

I LOVE RM

I'm sure everybody has their reasons for being where they are today, some deeper, seemingly more profound then others. Me, my reason can be summed up in two names: Rick Mereki and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Today I'm going to have a little rant about Mereki.

When I saw Rick Mereki's short films Eat, Move and Learn half a year ago, I was moved. I first saw it when somebody reblogged Move on tumblr, without a source or link, or any information even what I knew how to trace to find out what the video was. It was only last month that I stumbled across the video again through vimeo and found the source.

Having traveled and lived a nomadic existence since, well, since I came into existence eighteen years ago, this film helped to give me a new outlook on my life. There have been times where I have wanted to be grounded to one home, to have friends for more than a couple years at a time, to know the city I was in better then the back of my hand. 

But this video reminded me that I wouldn't exchange the experiences I have had for anything in the world, and this realization pushed me into the world of international journalism I am exploring now, and to move to yet another country for the third time within a year: Australia. 

Let me get to my point: For our third journalism assignment, the factual storytelling project, I would like to write a story on him. His contact details conveniently happen to be on his vimeo page and though I know this assignment is due in May, I wanted to get a head start with getting permission for an interview and such and learning as much about him as I possibly could without actually talking to him first. It doesn't help that I am currently on my third draft for the email I was going to send asking whether I could interview him and a member of his crew, and in what form. 

I almost wish I had chosen to write about someone who had not had such a personal impact on me and my life, but I feel now as if that would be running from what I really want to do; hiding in my comfort zone. 

Join me now in re watching his videos for the millionth time. 

Picture This!

(Week Four "Factual Stories with Pictures")
"A picture has no meaning at all if it can't tell a story," to borrow the words of a famous photojournalist. This week, our lecturer held our hands as we dipped our toes into the vast world of photojournalism, rich with subtleties, subtext and intuition. 

(Eetu Sillanpaa, 2008)

We were introduced to a few great examples of photojournalism today, though none had as great an impact on me as the photograph above. The composition of the figures in a pyramid formation, combined with the skewed stance in accordance with the rule of thirds lead the viewers eyes to see and linger upon each the faces and see the mixture of emotions these children are expressing. Ominous clouds in the background juxtaposed with the image of innocence that come through with the vivid colours of the subjects clothes give the image a hyper-real feel, as if it was too much to have actually happened, reflecting the confusion on the children's faces; grounded however by the presence of the serious looking adults in the background. Every element to this image just adds to the power of of the message it conveys. It draws you in and makes you feel. Trust me, I could go on and on about hat makes this image absolutely fantastic to me but I shall rein my inner IB art student for the time being.  

What I'd like to make a special shout out to is the Rule of Thirds. 

I wanted to see exactly how pronounced an impact this technique has on an image and so at Max Brenna's I decided to put it into practice and capture the chocolately delight of the hug-mug hot chocolate. 

What do you think?

I love that journalism is a whole mixture of the arts, of writing, visual arts, sound that come together to create a practical something that can do a whole spectrum of things, from educating people, to entertaining people. 

Oscar Wilde once said, "All art is quite useless." As much as I love and respect this man, I strongly disagree with this statement and journalism is the living proof that art can be and is useful. 

Video Games + A Dash of Journalism

(Week Three Lecture "What is Text?")
Today we welcomed an amazing guest lecturer, Skye Doherty, and explored the world of the written word. She emphasized that text was essentially the "backbone of journalism". Much of what she taught us was technical, useful information that will help me all throughout my journalism career. However, what most interested me about her lecture was about a new form of journalism that Ms. Doherty was exploring at the moment which I had never heard of or even imagined before: Gaming Journalism.
My first reaction was basically "what?". I understood that there was basic interaction involved but that was all I thought there could be to it, until she actually showed us one.
We played an online journalism game called Cutthroat Capitalism where a journalist had condensed his research into the economics of Somalian pirates into a game to make the content more accessible to the viewer.     I was profoundly moved by this idea that journalism was now responding to so many of the needs of the audience, presenting information in ways beyond the set traditions of journalism in order to reach out to as many people as possible.
Even I who had never played a video game in my life found interest in this sort of journalism, imagine the reaction of all those gamers out there?

The Jelly Bean Phenomena

(Week Two Lecture "New News")
So today we were introduced to what I would like henceforth to call: "The Jelly Bean Phenomena".
In line with what we talked about last week, we looked further into types of media and journalism and the effect they have on each other during our second lecture. With traditional media (television, newspaper, radio, magazines) people had to pay to access their journalism, but with the advances in media and the development in new media (Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0), our audience gets access to their journalism for free. The Jelly Bean Phenomena is precisely what happens when we try to take this free journalism away from people.
What it all comes down to is entitlement.
Our lecturer, Mr. Bruce, gave us all a small packet of jelly beans.
He told us to take from it and eat.
We did.
Then he took our jelly beans away.
 We had possessed these jelly beans, held them in our warm sweaty hands, tasted their sickly sweet flavour, only to have them taken away. The one thought that tinted our minds collectively the same colour was the feeling that something we had a right to had been taken away from us. He had given us the jelly beans, had he not? What right had he to take that way?
Basically the Jelly Bean Phenomena was tasty way of explaining the problems with charging people for news that was once paid for and had become free. The question is, will people pay? Will the quality of journalism have to skyrocket for people to pay for it again? With audiences expectations rising and feelings of entitlement growing stronger, the future of journalism is covered in mist.
Will these jelly beans be the end of journalism as we know it? Stay tuned.

Dare-devil Spider, You

Ever since this morning, there has been a dangling spider along the hall somewhere. I have yet to formulate a suitable name for the darling thing, but I can tell that it is not quite a child but neither is it adult yet from the size of it. I reckon it must be a teenager. 

This morning it was just hanging precariously outside the door to my bedroom about 50cm from the roof from a flimsy little string. This is about head height for me some of my awkward dance moves to get in and out without a.) smashing into it and b.) moving the air around where it was floating so as not to send it spinning uncontrollably. Throughout the day, little spidy moved from place to place, hanging around recklessly, perhaps testing the view, before settling down near the fire alarm near the kitchen.

This dangling teenage spider reminded me of an article I read in The National Geographic a few months back called “The New Science of the Teenage Brain”. Now, this being said, it was an article about human teenagers, not spiders, but hey, how different can we be really? The article put forward a few scientific reasons for why teenagers do some crazy, seemingly senseless things, and concluded that it was a matter a evolution. Teenagers were crazy because they had to leave the comfort zone of their house and become adaptable to new situations.

This dangling teenage gypsy of a spider. Is it tragically self-centered to have thought to myself that it was merely placed there before my eyes today by the universe to remind me that a spider with a much much smaller brain than me was more adventurous: a truer human teenager than I?

I wish I was as reckless as my darling teenage gypsy spider.

What, or whom, is a Journalist?

(Week One Lecture: "Telling Factual Stories")
Is it rather a bit late to be asking this question, I wonder.
I love to write - this I knew. Armed with this highly intellectual thought, I took the leap to into the vast and complex world that is university life.  I walked into my first lecture JOUR1111 at 2pm on a Monday having chosen  to take a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts for the sole purpose of having some form of a career in mind for when I graduate from this degree, because, really, I had no idea what to do with my life. In fact, that has yet to really change.
Picture me now in your head, nervous as can be, walking into my first lecture thinking "at least this will probably get me a job", and then hearing within the first few minutes that journalism is facing a serious threat to the industry in the form of social media and citizen journalists.
Bloody citizen journalists. And there I was thinking I would actually get paid for writing. In actuality, I simply had not yet grasped the concept of user generated content at all. I was sitting there thinking, how am I supposed to try and get a job, when people out there are doing the same thing, if not even better, for free.
The thought shocked me back into reality and I realized I had chosen this degree for all the wrong reasons, thinking about jobs was all well and good, but the reason I came out of my first lecture happy as a lamb was not because I was going to get paid for writing one day but because I really enjoyed the lecture. I realized I had not considered the vital question yet; what it meant to be a journalist in the big wide world, and maybe, it's too early to be pondering such big questions.
What I need to do for now is keep on writing - it is the one thing my head and my heart agree upon, and maybe, just maybe, somewhere along the way I'll discover what it really means to be a journalist.

But alas, I cannot blog

Or so I thought. The mindless minutes I have spent over this past week attempting to create a blog have not gone unrewarded, and here we have the beginnings of what is to become my humble abode; a place to lay out my head; where my coffee stained hours of sleep will have rendered my mind helpless; for my thoughts to finally trickle out of ears and though my fingers onto the internet where they always belonged. Bear with me as I wonder from place to place, from time to time, and ultimately from thought to thought to discover just a fraction of who I am and whom I might become.
Though the road may be long, god forbid it be dreary!