I've really enjoyed posting on here and I have loved JOUR1111. It was such a nice way to start uni, I really loved the course. If any future uni students are reading this, definitely enrol in JOUR1111!
Although this semester is almost over, and my blog is due in a few hours, this is not the end of this blog. I am going to continue posting on here and expressing my opinions and thoughts on here. This course has really inspired me to get involved with journalism now. Maybe one day this blog could end up like Mia's if I'm really lucky!!
Thank you so much to Bruce and Carmel for this semester.
Thursday, 14 June 2012
Lecture 13: Steve Molk
Our lecture this week was run by guest speaker Steve Molk, who decided he wanted to be a journalist a few years after completing an undergraduate course in Chemistry.
He had a lot of interesting things to say, in particular he mentioned that actually having a real passion for journalism and showing an employer that you are geniunely interested and not just there for the job is essential within journalism.
Blogging is becoming more and more prominent as a way of obtaining news. Blogging is a way of interacting with others with similar interests, simply at a click of a mouse. For example, Steve told us about Mia Freedman, former editor of Cleo magazine. She started up a blog 5 years ago to write about different topics and share her opinions. Nowadays, 520,000 people read Mia Freedman's blog every MONTH. That's 520, 000 individual people. That is incredible! I never knew how powerful blogging could be in that respect!!!
He also talked about the importance of Twitter, how we can obtain news in less than 140 characters, but also share our stories, what we're doing, our opinions etc.. We can also connect and talk with famous people, people in power and of course, other journalists! He really opened my eyes to the potential of social networking and how we can communicate through it.
His story was very inspiring, because even after 20 years in IT he is still following his dream and his passion through journalism, and has made great progress over the past 2 years active as a journalist. I think that's great that even after probably developing an expertise in a certain area, he has still recognised his true careerpath. Many people would think it's too late, but not Steve.
I think what I took away from this lecture was to start now. Start tweeting more, blogging more and even just writing down thoughts and ideas now. There is no harm expressing how you feel and what your opinions entail, and online is a great way to do that. I'm excited now!
He had a lot of interesting things to say, in particular he mentioned that actually having a real passion for journalism and showing an employer that you are geniunely interested and not just there for the job is essential within journalism.
Blogging is becoming more and more prominent as a way of obtaining news. Blogging is a way of interacting with others with similar interests, simply at a click of a mouse. For example, Steve told us about Mia Freedman, former editor of Cleo magazine. She started up a blog 5 years ago to write about different topics and share her opinions. Nowadays, 520,000 people read Mia Freedman's blog every MONTH. That's 520, 000 individual people. That is incredible! I never knew how powerful blogging could be in that respect!!!
He also talked about the importance of Twitter, how we can obtain news in less than 140 characters, but also share our stories, what we're doing, our opinions etc.. We can also connect and talk with famous people, people in power and of course, other journalists! He really opened my eyes to the potential of social networking and how we can communicate through it.
His story was very inspiring, because even after 20 years in IT he is still following his dream and his passion through journalism, and has made great progress over the past 2 years active as a journalist. I think that's great that even after probably developing an expertise in a certain area, he has still recognised his true careerpath. Many people would think it's too late, but not Steve.
I think what I took away from this lecture was to start now. Start tweeting more, blogging more and even just writing down thoughts and ideas now. There is no harm expressing how you feel and what your opinions entail, and online is a great way to do that. I'm excited now!
Lecture 11 (21/05/2012) "Investigative Journalism"
Investigative journalism! (I was actually really excited for this lecture.)
Investigative journalism's purposes:
1. Critical and thorough journalism
2. Custodians of conscience
3. Holds the powerful accountable, gives a voice to those with less power
4. Fourth branch, fourth estate, watchdog
These concepts explored in a little more detail:
Critical and thorough journalism:
- journalist is an active participant
- "active intervention"
- journalist makes a substantial effort
Custodians of conscience:
- "Exposure"
- 'civic vice' - exposed for society to respond to
Holds the powerful accountable, gives a voice to those with less power
- social justice
- public interest
Fourth estate: journalists represent those with less power to balance against the government
Fourth branch of government: journalists ensure free flow of information
Watchdog: journalists make accountable social personalities
"It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the messages and myths that surround it."
- John Pilger
Investigative journalism exists everywhere. It exists locally, in our community, there are journalists who are actively investigating other people's stories and experiences (such as Australian story) or simply investigating issues that concern us living in our community.
There are many types of investigation interaction, which include observations, interviews, documents, theft, trespass and leaks.
Methods of investigating:
1. Interviewing
2. Observing
3. Analysing documents
And of course.. the threats:
ONLINE NEWS! Simple equation:
Less Money + Less journalists + Less time = Less investigative journalism
Journalism vs. PR
PR's choices of facts to persuade public opinion
Journalism's verification of facts to the public
Again: growth in PR = shrinkage of journalism
The future?
YouTube has launched a service dedicated to investigative journalism in order to reduce the "churnalism" and false stories that are placed in the media.
This is a fantastic incentive because so many people use YouTube every single day. This new service is something I didn't know and am keen to follow up on!
Investigative journalism's purposes:
1. Critical and thorough journalism
2. Custodians of conscience
3. Holds the powerful accountable, gives a voice to those with less power
4. Fourth branch, fourth estate, watchdog
These concepts explored in a little more detail:
Critical and thorough journalism:
- journalist is an active participant
- "active intervention"
- journalist makes a substantial effort
Custodians of conscience:
- "Exposure"
- 'civic vice' - exposed for society to respond to
Holds the powerful accountable, gives a voice to those with less power
- social justice
- public interest
Fourth estate: journalists represent those with less power to balance against the government
Fourth branch of government: journalists ensure free flow of information
Watchdog: journalists make accountable social personalities
"It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the messages and myths that surround it."
- John Pilger
Investigative journalism exists everywhere. It exists locally, in our community, there are journalists who are actively investigating other people's stories and experiences (such as Australian story) or simply investigating issues that concern us living in our community.
There are many types of investigation interaction, which include observations, interviews, documents, theft, trespass and leaks.
Methods of investigating:
1. Interviewing
2. Observing
3. Analysing documents
And of course.. the threats:
ONLINE NEWS! Simple equation:
Less Money + Less journalists + Less time = Less investigative journalism
Journalism vs. PR
PR's choices of facts to persuade public opinion
Journalism's verification of facts to the public
Again: growth in PR = shrinkage of journalism
The future?
YouTube has launched a service dedicated to investigative journalism in order to reduce the "churnalism" and false stories that are placed in the media.
This is a fantastic incentive because so many people use YouTube every single day. This new service is something I didn't know and am keen to follow up on!
Lecture 10 (14/05/2012) "Agenda Setting"
Dr Bruce Redman defines agenda setting as "a theory, but like all good theories, is a bit obvious really!"
Social construction of reality:
- one's perception of reality is constructed through a process of communication using shared language
- reality exists and the way in which we understand it is mediated through social life
- the media play a significant role in constructing social reality
There are four, interrelated agendas:
1. Public agenda: what members of the public regard as important
2. Policy agenda: issues that decision makers think are salient
3. Corporate agenda: issues that large corporations regard as important
4. Media agenda: issues that are discussed in the media
So the media don't just report news, they shape it. And because of this, whichever issue is most concentrated on is then seen by the public as the 'most important.'
Harold Lasswell said the media injects influence into their audiences. Hypodermic needle model. Lovely. But very true in many circumstances. Impressive Harold, this model was created in the 1920s!
Another star from the 1920s, Walter Lippman said that mass media create images in our minds of events. Lippman also said that people are very reliant on what is told to them rather than actually thinking about something and making their own judgments.
And of course, throughout history we have seen this happen in our society. The power of words and the power of images, and how they can shape our perceptions of events and what is deemed as 'important news.' Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw proved this in 1968, evaluating that mass media have a profound influence on what we see as important and what is considered newsworthy.
There are two main types of agenda setting theory:
1. First level agenda setting theory: emphasises major issues and the "transfer of salience of those issues." What the media focuses on.
2. Second level agenda setting theory: how the media focuses our attention on certain attributes of issues
(It's actually really nice to see two theories that do not have ridiculously complex/hard to remember/hard to pronounce names.)
Anyway! Agenda setting does many things. It transfers issue salience from the media to the public. It transfers issue salience for both issues and other objects. And elite media set the agenda for other types of media.
Agenda setting also has a family:
1. Media gatekeeping: what the media chooses to reveal to the public
2. Media advocacy: purporseful promotion of an issue
3. Agenda cutting: truth in the world not being represented
4. Agenda surfing: media follows trends and crowds (that seems kind of scary)
5. Diffusion of news: who decides when a media report is released, ie. correct timing
6. Portrayal of an issue: self explanatory. But also how the issue may influence the public
7. Media dependence: the more dependent an individual is on media, the more susceptible to media agenda setting
Perhaps "diffusion of news" may become a little outdated in time? We are already questioning whether or not there really is a prime time for news anymore, especially due to news being accessible to us any time of the day. Interesting.
Like anything, media agenda setting has both strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: explanatory power, predictive power, can be proven false, organising power, can influence further researce
Weaknesses: Dependent on people (may not have interest in news, not well-informed.. etc), people are set in their ways, news cannot create and conceal problems.
So there we have it, agenda setting!
Social construction of reality:
- one's perception of reality is constructed through a process of communication using shared language
- reality exists and the way in which we understand it is mediated through social life
- the media play a significant role in constructing social reality
There are four, interrelated agendas:
1. Public agenda: what members of the public regard as important
2. Policy agenda: issues that decision makers think are salient
3. Corporate agenda: issues that large corporations regard as important
4. Media agenda: issues that are discussed in the media
So the media don't just report news, they shape it. And because of this, whichever issue is most concentrated on is then seen by the public as the 'most important.'
Harold Lasswell said the media injects influence into their audiences. Hypodermic needle model. Lovely. But very true in many circumstances. Impressive Harold, this model was created in the 1920s!
Another star from the 1920s, Walter Lippman said that mass media create images in our minds of events. Lippman also said that people are very reliant on what is told to them rather than actually thinking about something and making their own judgments.
And of course, throughout history we have seen this happen in our society. The power of words and the power of images, and how they can shape our perceptions of events and what is deemed as 'important news.' Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw proved this in 1968, evaluating that mass media have a profound influence on what we see as important and what is considered newsworthy.
There are two main types of agenda setting theory:
1. First level agenda setting theory: emphasises major issues and the "transfer of salience of those issues." What the media focuses on.
2. Second level agenda setting theory: how the media focuses our attention on certain attributes of issues
(It's actually really nice to see two theories that do not have ridiculously complex/hard to remember/hard to pronounce names.)
Anyway! Agenda setting does many things. It transfers issue salience from the media to the public. It transfers issue salience for both issues and other objects. And elite media set the agenda for other types of media.
Agenda setting also has a family:
1. Media gatekeeping: what the media chooses to reveal to the public
2. Media advocacy: purporseful promotion of an issue
3. Agenda cutting: truth in the world not being represented
4. Agenda surfing: media follows trends and crowds (that seems kind of scary)
5. Diffusion of news: who decides when a media report is released, ie. correct timing
6. Portrayal of an issue: self explanatory. But also how the issue may influence the public
7. Media dependence: the more dependent an individual is on media, the more susceptible to media agenda setting
Perhaps "diffusion of news" may become a little outdated in time? We are already questioning whether or not there really is a prime time for news anymore, especially due to news being accessible to us any time of the day. Interesting.
Like anything, media agenda setting has both strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: explanatory power, predictive power, can be proven false, organising power, can influence further researce
Weaknesses: Dependent on people (may not have interest in news, not well-informed.. etc), people are set in their ways, news cannot create and conceal problems.
So there we have it, agenda setting!
Best motivation
I'm never going to complain about going to the gym ever again. Proof you can do anything if you put your mind to it.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Lecture 9 (30/04/2012) "News Values"
"News values are one of the most opaque structures of meaning in modern society ... Journalists speak of "the news" as if events select themselves ... Yet of the millions of events which occur daily in the world, only a tiny proportion ever become visible as 'potential news stories': and of this proportion, only a small fraction are actually produced as the day's news ... "
-- Stuart Hall, 1973
I liked that quote. ^
Anyway, today's lecture was about news values, I concept I was quite keen to learn about. I knew it had something to do with what goes into a story, which stories are chosen over others and why, and of course I knew about the infamous line 'if it bleeds it leads.'
For example, (just going off on a tangent here) I moved to Brisbane about 4 months ago from Sydney, a place I adore. I have lived in Sydney since I was 10 and honestly, it is one of the best places in the world and very much home to me. In Brisbane, I work at a local supermarket, and they have their own radio station, so I am able to hear the news from both in Queensland and outside of Queensland. When I listen to the hourly update of news, there is ALWAYS something that happened in Sydney featured, without fail. It's always about drink driving, shootings, underage drinking... and plenty of other criminal offences, all of which have taken place in Sydney. There is no doubt in my mind that these sorts of things happen where I'm from, but I just find it interesting that these stories are featured more than others, especially since there are a lot of positive and happy things that happen in Sydney every single day. Just something I've observed and found interesting!
So back to the lecture, sorry if that was a really boring paragraph and sorry if you wasted 5 minutes of your life reading it.
News values. There are 4 concepts that shape news values:
1. Impact
2. Audience Identification
3. Pragmatics
4. Source Influence
Briefly:
If it's local, it leads! <- also very true
So what exactly do these two phrases mean?
"If it bleeds, it leads" means that if a story has any kind of death, injury, violence or crime within it, it is usually more popular and read by people from a wide community. The reason for this is that it is intriguing, people are itching to know what happened, who was involved, why it happened... Some even form conspiracy theories and of course their own opinions about what actually happened.
"If it's local, it leads" means that if a story that contains the same elements as addressed above, but happened within an individual's community, it becomes very popular and read by many people. The reason for this is the same as above, people are intrigued by something that is happening within their community.
An example that fits both of these is the disappearance of Maddy McCann. Even though Maddy disappeared 5 years ago, her story is still very relevant in the news spectrum today.
-- Stuart Hall, 1973
I liked that quote. ^
Anyway, today's lecture was about news values, I concept I was quite keen to learn about. I knew it had something to do with what goes into a story, which stories are chosen over others and why, and of course I knew about the infamous line 'if it bleeds it leads.'
For example, (just going off on a tangent here) I moved to Brisbane about 4 months ago from Sydney, a place I adore. I have lived in Sydney since I was 10 and honestly, it is one of the best places in the world and very much home to me. In Brisbane, I work at a local supermarket, and they have their own radio station, so I am able to hear the news from both in Queensland and outside of Queensland. When I listen to the hourly update of news, there is ALWAYS something that happened in Sydney featured, without fail. It's always about drink driving, shootings, underage drinking... and plenty of other criminal offences, all of which have taken place in Sydney. There is no doubt in my mind that these sorts of things happen where I'm from, but I just find it interesting that these stories are featured more than others, especially since there are a lot of positive and happy things that happen in Sydney every single day. Just something I've observed and found interesting!
So back to the lecture, sorry if that was a really boring paragraph and sorry if you wasted 5 minutes of your life reading it.
News values. There are 4 concepts that shape news values:
1. Impact
2. Audience Identification
3. Pragmatics
4. Source Influence
Briefly:
- Impact: so any news that shocks or surprises the reader
- Audience Identification: relevance in regards to the interests of targeted audience
- Pragmatics: ethics, current affairs, availability (24/7 news), ongoing stories, updates
- Source Influence: how the story is effected by where it came from
If it's local, it leads! <- also very true
So what exactly do these two phrases mean?
"If it bleeds, it leads" means that if a story has any kind of death, injury, violence or crime within it, it is usually more popular and read by people from a wide community. The reason for this is that it is intriguing, people are itching to know what happened, who was involved, why it happened... Some even form conspiracy theories and of course their own opinions about what actually happened.
"If it's local, it leads" means that if a story that contains the same elements as addressed above, but happened within an individual's community, it becomes very popular and read by many people. The reason for this is the same as above, people are intrigued by something that is happening within their community.
An example that fits both of these is the disappearance of Maddy McCann. Even though Maddy disappeared 5 years ago, her story is still very relevant in the news spectrum today.
There are many different news values that have been simplified and re-analysed by many people over time. Here are a few examples of people who have compiled a list of what they consider to be news values. A few areas overlap in some places, but in others new concepts are introduced...
Galtung & Ruge (1965) said there were twelve:
- Negativity
- Closeness to home
- Recency
- Currency
- Continuity
- Uniqueness
- Simplicity
- Personality
- Expectedness
- Elite nations or people
- Exclusivity
- Size
Galtung & Ruge also came up with 3 hypotheses in regards to newsworthiness:
- Additivity: the more factors an event in the news meets, the more publicity it will receive
- Complementarity: the factors that tend to exclude each other
- Exclusion: the factors that satisfy no factor will not become news
Judy MacGregor reduced Galtung & Ruge to 4 factors including that of visualness (their appeal to TV, online audience or advertising), conflict (a true news value), emotion (something that appeals to human interest) and celebrification of the journalist .... interesting. Personally I think G&R covered more areas than MacGregor.
Golding & Elliot (1979): Personalities, Size, Proximity, Negativity, Brevity, Importance, Entertainment, Visual attractiveness, Drama, Recencies & Elites. (Quite similar to G&R)
O'Neill & Harcup: (A review of Galtung & Ruge)
- Power elite: so stories that involve powerful members of society, e.g. politicians
- Celebrities: stories that involve famous people, e.g. movie stars, singers, sportspeople
- Entertainment: drama, gossip, wit, humour e.g. scandals or an ongoing drama
- Surprise: stories that shock the audience e.g. the unexpected result of an ongoing drama
- Bad news: stories that have negative undertones e.g. a plane crash or violent crimes
- Good news: stories that positive overtones e.g. cure for a disease, a successful rescue, a discovery
- Magnitude: stories that are significant in size e.g. closeness to home, amount of people involved
- Follow up: an update of a story alreading circling in the media e.g. a result of a crime investigation
- Newspaper agenda: stories that set or represent a company's own agenda
Murray Masterton: (Big 6): Significance, Proximity, Conflict, Human interest, Novelty, Prominence.
So of course, there are tensions that threaten newsworthiness, and they include the influence of public relations in journalism, reality of being a journalist (constant pressure to produce stories, results in potentially lazy or incompetent journalism) and the commercialisation of media and social life.
Gathering news unethically (such as the News of the World scandal), tactics of public relations companies in order for their stories to sell to the journalists, untrustworthy and false representations of news... all of these factors have implications for newsworthiness.
Here is where the audience comes in. In this lecture, Dr BR was saying that the audience is potentially losing faith in their journalism, which is a huge threat to newsworthiness. What happens if the audience simply stop reading, watching or listening to news because of the fear that it is untrustworthy or fake? That would also significantly impact journalism as a practise too...
And what about the different interpretations of what is newsworthy? We all have different interests, so what happens if people simply ignore news because it doesn't meet their standards or affect their interests directly.
Journalists have a huge responsibility to live up to. Althought I already had some idea of this, this lecture really opened my eyes to the reality of becoming a journalist, and what they have to do every day in order to deliver news to us. Although I have so much more to learn, this lecture was a great introduction to what could potentially lie ahead of me in my life!
Very interesting stuff.
Monday, 4 June 2012
Venus Palermo
So the other day I was browsing through some articles online, and I came across one that both shocked and intrigued me. Venus Palermo, a young girl who is only 15, is dressing and acting like a doll from a Japanese anime comic. I can't quite decide if I find her creepy or cute...
Anyway, apparently on YouTube she has inspired many other young girls to do the same, and to act, speak and dress just like a doll. This usually wouldn't be my cup of tea newswise, and I don't really consider it to be big news, but nevertheless the fact that she is influencing other young girls to make themselves into plastic dolls is quite incredible.
In my opinion, it is quite an unhealthy habit for girls to want to become 'dolls', as aspiring for perfection and beauty often leads to a downward spiral of depression and anxiety. I'm not sure of an 'innocent habit' (as many of her fans have described her of having) is so good for a little girl's wellbeing in the long run.
Anyway, just thought it was interesting.
Full story: http://ph.omg.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore-showbiz/meet-venus-15-old-living-doll-083519178.html
Anyway, apparently on YouTube she has inspired many other young girls to do the same, and to act, speak and dress just like a doll. This usually wouldn't be my cup of tea newswise, and I don't really consider it to be big news, but nevertheless the fact that she is influencing other young girls to make themselves into plastic dolls is quite incredible.
In my opinion, it is quite an unhealthy habit for girls to want to become 'dolls', as aspiring for perfection and beauty often leads to a downward spiral of depression and anxiety. I'm not sure of an 'innocent habit' (as many of her fans have described her of having) is so good for a little girl's wellbeing in the long run.
Anyway, just thought it was interesting.
Full story: http://ph.omg.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore-showbiz/meet-venus-15-old-living-doll-083519178.html
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