on a totally unrelated note..

there are actually no words in the english language to adequately describe just quite how much i love hillary clinton. 

I mean, just, wow. 

This photo is on my bedroom wall, and if I'm ever in a situation, I just think to myself "what would the calm, collected, goddess-like hillary do?" 

So few women have her confidence, her grace, her resilience and her composure. 

But I stumbled across a quotation of hers which made me smile, and laugh at the frivolity of some tabloids. 

"If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle."

She's such an incredible woman and THAT'S what earns her a front page? Sometimes I really don't understand the media. 

Oh Hillary, what are you doing right now? I'd love to meet you someday. 

Personal Media Use Diary

Media is an undeniably imperative facet of our daily lives. Daily, our media dependence increases, making us more reliant on modern technologies. Addiction to social media mediums is becoming more socially prominent, as these are becoming a common and crucial vessel for communication, photo and news sharing and event planning. Another social phenomenon,  ‘micro-blogging’, instills in us traits of self-entitlement and egotism. Twitter is an example of this, more than happy to enable such exploits of sanctimoniousness.

On an interpersonal level, my main media usage lies with that of a social media variety (see pie graph below). I unashamedly love Facebook; I don’t know a 17 year old who doesn’t. It’s not that I don’t have a social life, I do, and I promise not all of it’s online. But it’s also a news outlet. Whenever a significant event occurs, people share articles and links and also disguise their personal opinions as ‘status updates’. I find this a brilliant form of citizen journalism and that reading other people’s opinions on a certain matter gives me a balanced view. 

Considering 40% of my daily media usage is using Skype and Facebook, it is possible that I may be a little addicted. However, my JOUR1111 cohort is likeminded, with 97.3% of us social-media junkies having at least one Facebook account.

Whilst I do spend an undeniably large amount of time checking my Facebook newsfeed, there is a subtle underlying current in my thought process of increasing my knowledge of global issues. 48.4% of JOUR1111 students use Facebook as a news site too. 

Twitter is an online media channel. Personally, I follow the New York Times, CNN and Brisbane Times, which keep me up-to-date with breaking news. Concurrently, I also ‘follow’ my favorite reporters: Isabella Robinson (Channel 10), Christiane Amanpour (CNN) and Rosie Garthwaite (Middle Eastern reporter). I don’t ‘tweet’ much, but it facilitates my being kept ‘in the loop’ on a local and international level. I love news and social connectivity. I read the paper (The Australian) every day, but even by 9am there is more and more happening in the world, and I cannot bear to be left in the lurch. I am a self-confessed journalism addict, even if I must live vicariously through those much more experienced than myself.

Without JOUR1111 I wouldn’t have become such an active member of the Twitter community (I did previously have an account but barely ever logged in). It does make me feel a little famous too; 220 odd followers, #hashtags and feeling like my opinion and posts actually have a purpose (if not, I have that “but it’s for assessment, I’m not doing this to increase my self-esteem” excuse). Before JOUR1111, only 29.2% of us has a twitter account, but now i'd say it's close to 100%. I think most of us would concur that it's for the better!

 Twitter adds value to the media community. Having such accessible and sometimes informal news platforms is a social privilege. Our formal platforms are still in existence (television news, newspapers and magazines) but so are these informal social platforms, which are more appealing and accessible to the everyday person.

Whilst Skype does appear to consume a large portion of my daily media usage, I am sorry to report that this is for no journalistic reason. It does, however, prove something about our global interconnectivity and communication advances. I spend, on average, 1 to 3 hours per night Skyping my boyfriend. He is my only Skype contact, however embarrassing that may be to admit, but Skype allows us to call and video chat with each other for free, on the one proviso that our internet speed and connection is reasonable. Thankyou internet. 

Under the communication umbrella, email has had a similar effect. I receive about 10 emails a day (related to university and personal use) to each of my 3 operational accounts. I use these solely for communication purposes because they’re free and convenient. We no longer need to write letters, pick up the phone or send carrier pigeons; everything is done through our smartphones and laptops. Communication is becoming easier, cheaper and practically faultless.

Of the JOUR1111 cohort, only 23% do not have a smartphone of some brand.

My iPhone, love of my life, is glued to my hand. With it, I can access Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr anywhere, anytime. Seems like my cohort likes these capabilities too (see below). 

In terms of Internet usage, I spend an average of 7.8 hours a day online, or using other forms of media (that’s actually quite a lot, I had no idea until now!). My anomalies, however, are in terms of radio and television usage. Shown below, I watch no television nor listen to any radio, whereas majority of my cohort use both mediums daily.

 I know I am addicted to media and communication but as budding journalists, it’s required of us. Facebook is a social network but it is undeniably a news platform, one that facilitates news sharing and user interest. Whilst it may not be as formal and reputable as other platforms, it still exists and operates within society. Depending on who you follow, Twitter is also a news website, allowing us to post links, photos and personal opinions. Using Twitter as a part of this course has really opened my eyes to how convenient and effective it is. 

As I sit here in the Great Court, I just overhead one girl say to another “hang on what’s your name? I’ll add you on Facebook!” Primarily, Facebook and Skype have unquestionably reinvented online communication and news sharing, in the same way that blogs (including Twitter, Blogger and Tumblr) have revitalised the news industry. News, by nature, is instantaneous and the internet is a platform which can facilitate this. 

STATEELECTIONOHMYGOD

WELL. 

STATE ELECTION DAY.

Wasn't it brilliant? 

It began with campaigning. In Clayfield. In a blue shirt. Okay, I think I've been obvious enough. Handing out flyers for the lovely man on the left. Treasurer and such.  

Congratulations Campbell. I hope you get Queensland back on track. 

 I am sorry for the darling Anna and beautiful Kate though. I hope they're happy. 

Seems like everyone celebrated Saturday night. The LNP parties would have been rather wild. 

As for me? I was at a jungle-themed 18th birthday for one of my best friends. Safe to say,  Saturday night I partied hard. But I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one. 

xoxo

untitled - much like my life

Today, on our 'audio lecture' Richard Fydler (ABC Radio) was talking about radio and how as a medium, it's completely different from television. He says that it's a much more intimate medium than television - and keeping people engaged is a constant challenge. 

'Conversations' is a program which is an hour-long interview with one person (or occasionally two), which focuses on open questions to keep the listener interested. On reflection, one of his favourite moments was when cricketer Adam Gilchrist reflected on his 'out of body experience'. What he said here was that when interviewees are reminiscing on a certain life event, knowing what to say can be a challenging and arduous task. 

His advice? "Never be afraid of silence, silence is really powerful in radio."

The second part of this audio was from Mornings, also part of the ABC Radio family. Journalist Steve austin says that being genuine is one of the most important things in radio. When you're fake, people can 'smell it a mile away' and nothing is more important than maintaining listener respect. 

In the words of Austin, "radio is the theatre of the mind," and it is a fantastic platform for story telling. 

I'm not a big radio fan. Actually no, I don't listen to radio at all. I love pop music, but cannot stand the talking and the constant advertisements on stations like B105 and NOVA. Alternatively, I cannot stand classic music and radio stations like the ABC and 4BC really don't appeal to my ignorant, fussy 17-year-old ears. Sorry. It's not that I don't respect it as a news platform, it's just not for me. 

To conclude for today, journalism can be completely uncertain. Where you're going, what you're going to end up doing and the geographic location that you'll be reporting from. 

When Carmel Rooney asked Richard Fidler a question, it summed up journalism perfectly.

Carmel asks, on air, "how did you get here?" to which Richard replies, completely unperplexed and confidently, "accidentally." 

election excitement

I am such a little politics nerd. I am actually going to be glued to the television waiting for the results on saturday night. Super keen for the showdown. 

Anna went to our friends' cafe at Camp Hill today. Perhaps that's what is getting me so excited, all this political uncertainty in the air. Here's Anna at Soho: 

Channel 10 was all over it. Nothing like a good 'Prem grabs a coffee story' to end up on the 5pm news. Love it. 

You know where I'll be Saturday night. xoxo

Snapshots of History

Cameras amaze me. I don’t understand how one click of a button can capture a moment in time. It’s rather phenomenal actually, and although I actually don’t quite understand how they work, I will forever me marveled by their capabilities.

In the 1860s, newspapers were simply illustrated with line drawings. Not a whole lot of depth and explanation in those. I cannot imagine current papers without colour photographs. 

Original line drawings that graced the covers of newspapers

The photos, for me anyway, attract my attention and trigger my interest in a story. The saying ‘a picture says a thousand words’ is completely true. The photograph has to sum up the content of the story. If not, it’s a photojournalistic failure.

A colour photograph wasn’t published in a newspaper until 1936, in the Scottish Daily Record and Mail. In the scheme of things, it really wasn't that long ago. I imagine that moment would have been similar to that moment in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy lands in Munchkinland, and the movie transitions from its beautiful, simplistic sepia tones to an abundant on-screen colour explosion. 

But all of these photographic advancements have come at a price. Photoshop is one of the biggest problems in modern day society, filling girls' minds with the fact that they're not meeting the social requirements of 'thin' and 'beautiful'.

I know it to be true, because I'm one of those girls. I have pictures of 'perfect' celebrities up on my bedroom walls, constantly making me feel ugly, fat and inadequate. In ever photo, they look faultless. Is this how they really look? We don't know. We'll never know, because that is how they constantly appear.  

In one magazine article, the non-shopped photo of Kim 'wheissheevenfamousanyway' Kardashian was released accidentally instead of the edited alternative. Now in this example, there isn't a huge amount of difference. It's still enough to show a real woman, with flaws, an existent ass and cellulite as opposed to a tiny-waisted, perfectly toned goddess.

Infamous Kimmy K

The media can warp photos to not even resemble themselves. Check out the video below: no wonder our perceptions of beauty are distorted. What we view as real beauty is completely fake. It's tragic isn't it. We can't even look at ourselves and be happy anymore. Unless, that is, the mirror is airbrushed and we see ourselves through rose-coloured glasses. 


Reality has no place when it comes to body image. Only the reality of being too fat and too ugly. 


http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-women/2009/03/16/negative-body-image-blame-photoshop

"universities are not the place to train journalists"

^this was the title of an article in The Australian on Tuesday. 


Intriguing? Very.  


Geoffrey Luck writes that 60 years ago, when he trained as an ABC reporter, university was part-time. But that today, training has been 'turned on its head' and that 'the soft life of theories and critical-thinking tutorials has replaced practical newsroom slog'. 


Apparently, 'journalism is not a profession that works alongside politicians and social reformers reshaping the nation. It is a craft based on truth, objectivity and and independence, and deviance from those principles will destroy it.' 


Can journalism be taught? My opinion is that journalists need to be taught by professionals - to learn the appropriate skills. What cannot be taught, however, is the passion for writing. 


Mary Weeks writes in too. Her opinion? 


"In Hitch22, Christopher Hitchens, on his first visit to the US, describes his amazement at a someone being listed as a professor of journalism. 'Surely this was a mistake...Journalism wasn't the sort of thing that could be taught, or in which one should get an academic qualification.'"


I see the truth in this too - it's not something like science or economics, in which one needs a degree in order to work within the profession. However, university journalism allows us to expand on the skills we already have and ensure our future success. 

“If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament,” Kathleen Parker, The Australian, 13th March, 2012.

I read this over my cappuccino at Merlo this morning and was marvelled by its simplicity and its truth. I don't mean to sound sexist, but Parker's 10 words encapsulate modern day society. Perfectly. 

Anyway, I just had to share that with y'all. Goodnight xoxo

the values of news

News values are a pivotal part of the journalism industry. However, this afternoon got me questioning how far is too far to go for a story? Now as I’ve said previously, I want to be a war correspondent. So my perception of going to extreme, extenuating lengths for a story may be a little different to your average seventeen-year-old.

The problem is, when a journalist sacrifices his/her news values to get to the core of an issue, that story becomes ridiculously popular, whether through general interest from the greater public of because of the controversy it creates. The journalists who successfully bend the rules of freedom of information and privacy undoubtedly deliver the best scoop. It’s too coincidental for the two to be mutually exclusive.

With our internet-based news-platform, we’re only seeing more and more violations of the ethics of journalism. Is this a problem? Probably. When we see other violations of individual rights, we think to ourselves ‘their in the public eye, they had it coming. This was self inflicted.’ Do we ever stop to ask ourselves how we’d react if that were us in bold print on page two?

I believe that if it were, we’d have issues with our private lives becoming someone else’s morning entertainment. Constant contradictions and double-standards.

There has to be a line of how far is too far for a scoop, preferably one that prevents situations such as the News of the World scandal. The problem is, the moral barrier is so faint that sometimes we become so caught up that we forget to look before we fall. And we end up flat on our faces.

It’s not intentional that journalists pry – it’s in the nature of the job.

You lose all consideration for everything else around you and live in the story: one which now has a rather tragic ending. Potential unemployment. 

the web-olution of the INSTAnet

"I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter." - H.L.Mencken, Ameircan journalist. 

There is no denying that the internet has revolutionized the journalism industry. However, what is deniable is whether this revolution has had positive effects on the institution of journalism and newswriting.

Instantaneous publishing of material, macro and micro blogging, news websites and entertainment news are all result of the ‘web-olution’. Increasingly, we’re seeing citizen journalists publish their own material online – with a new blog being published on the ‘world-wide-web’ every half a second. Wow. 

Writer Rebecca Blood says that “blogs are a cult of personality.” It’s so true. From reading one page of someone’s blog, you’ll know a brief character synopsis and their stance on certain issues. Potentially, you may also know their daily routine, depending on how much free time they have on their hands and how much they value sharing their daily antics with a bunch of strangers online.

The incomplete nature of blogging is another benefit for the journalist. No story is ever complete; issues continually arise and there is always SOMETHING else to say. This ‘incompleteness’ of a story is perfectly paired with an ‘incomplete’ platform, such as a blog.

Progressively, we’re seeing one twitter post become the basis of a story’s content. Using the example of Clive Palmer, one neagtive ‘tweet’ about the FFA and journalists around the country, both citizen and professional, flee to their phones like ants to a honey pot.

Personally, I believe that the benefits of the internet far outweigh the costs. News is instant; as is the internet. In fact, it should really be called the INSTAnet because of the frequency at which it is updated. Having an instant platform to air breaking news is probably the best thing we’ve ever had going for us.

I love newspapers – and they’re not dead yet – but the internet is a far more effective platform for the 21^st century and reaching people around the world.  

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history," Philip Graham, Publisher - The Washington Post. 

it was a sad sunday morning

I have wanted to be a war correspondent since I was 10 years old. 

Why, you may ask? Why would someone who loves pink, Miley Cyrus and dressing up want to work in a war torn area, risking her life? Because i hate the 'barbie' stigma. 

Journalism, as an art form, is deteriorating. Certain television shows and prints paint the journalism industry in a bad light, making it seem trashy and dishonest. A story on 'which laundry powder can brighten your clothes the most' is not journalism; it's trashy television.

It's extreme, i know, but i want to be a part of something real. I want to report on current, breaking news -right from the scene of an afghan war field.

Anyway, every day hundreds of journalists put their lives on the line trying to deliver the news that others take for granted over their morning muffin and caffe lattte. Speaking of which, the legendary Marie Colvin (chief correspondent for 'The Times') died in a Syrian government raid of a media coverage centre in Homs.She even appeared on CNN only a few hours before she was killed. Eerie, i know. 

Colvin was in the middle of Syria - reporting on the topics that everyone wanted to read about, yet she received minimal coverage in the 'world' section of the australian. 

Now, how I know this is that my mother put the article on my pillow. It's ever mothers worst nightmare that her only child wants to work in the middle of a war zone. So I continually wake up to articles on foreign correspondents who have been killed/held hostage/raped. You get the picture. 

I just wish Colvin had received the praise in our papers that she deserved. At least my beloved Christiane paid tribute to her on her twitter, posting a photo of them together in Tripoli in 2011. Miss Colvin, you will be dearly missed.   

further reading: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113875/Marie-Colvin-funeral-Journalist-killed-Syria-laid-rest-Long-Island-childhood-home.html#ixzz1oweCID4v