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.