JOUR1111-Lecture 6

The topic of this week's lecture was commercial media. This was one of the more interesting lectures for me personally because of the large role that commercial media plays in my overall opinion of media today. Commercial media is the primary discourse of media that I associate with. Aside from sources of social media, commercial media is the most widely used and viewed form of media. Due to this I think that evaluating its uses, purposes and effects is of paramount importance to any aspiring journalist wishing to understand the world of modern media. 

The main purpose of commercial media is to generate audiences. In doing this they make themselves viable options for advertising companies to invest in. They charge premium prices for the privilege of advertising on their media sources and as such turn a large profit. 

Commercial Media:

Not government funded.

Profit driven.

Its main agenda is creating an audience.

Profits from selling access to this audience to advertisers. 

The main players in commercial media. 

The realm of social media is dominated by several large corporations. These are the people that choose how media is presented to us and therefore have a large role is shaping society.

These are just a few of the main players in current commercial media.\

 7 West Media

Nine Entertainment Co.

Fairfax Media

News Limited

  This is one of the issues I take with commercial media. Commercial media places profit as a higher priority than social responsibility. It is for this reason that I cannot condone commercial media. It is within their power to control media and as such should be their responsibility to place to good of society at a higher priority in their business mission. 

This was an interesting lecture that has lead me more than ever to believe that commercial media is detrimental to society through prioritising profit over audience awareness.

Family

I've always lived rather far away from my family. I'm British, so is my entire family. I've never lived in England, or Europe, no I was born in Hong Kong. I've been in Australia since the age of seven. I still don't quite understand the full story of how my Sri Lanka born, yet somehow still of British nationality, mother and English father managed to meet in Hong Kong but go figure. I've never missed the fact that my entire extended family lives dotted around the world. It hasn't ever been an issue, or even a talking point. That was until we had a family reunion of sorts. We all brought ourselves together for Christmas. Flew from wherever the rest of the family happened to be around the world and met at my aunt's for Christmas, in Dubai. Yes, Christmas in an Islamic country, yet again, go figure.

The saying of " you don't know what your missing until you've tried it" comes to mind when I think of family now. Never have I found myself among such like-minded people. The whole nature vs nurture argument comes to mind when I try to describe it. Perhaps its genetic, perhaps we were all just raised similarly, regardless it was the most enjoyable Christmas I've ever had ( which is big call because my family loves christmas more than Mr Cringle himself). I found myself talking to cousins who I haven't seen in 13 years like it was only yesterday that we'd last spoken. A strange and joyous experience.

Now we are back in Australia. My small sector of the Hilton family is back being segregated from the rest. I'm starting to see now why Mum feels so detached. Family is important, regardless of how well you can function without them, regardless of how you get on with them they are always there for you, hopefully at least. I don't necessarily think home is where family is. Home is where I am happy. If that happens to be where family is then so be it.

The point of this post is that although I was completely fine and happy without family around. It was that much more special finally getting to know them, and now that life is back the way it was, life is completely different.

Worth a read

Shantaram

It's a book that took me several years to truly get through. No, not because it is overly profound or so " heavy" that I couldn't handle its content. Simply because it is a gargantuan read and I lost the first two copies of it that I attempted to read while travelling, a mind numbingly frustrating experience when your really engaged in a book.

Now that I have read the book however I can say it is a phenomenal read. I've read more than my fair share of books and for some reason this one has stuck with me. Thats why it warrants a blog post and the others don't. The story is based upon fact and then heavily, wondrously embellished. I think this is great because the truth is always less exciting then what we imagine it could be.

It details a period of the life of its author, Gregory David Roberts. A convicted felon who illegally immigrated to India and led an extremely colorful life from there on. I won't go on to explain the story as it would be an absolute essay to give the specifics of the thousand page behemoth of a story. Rest assured however that it is an extremely accessible read and although can be philosophical, stays grounded enough to be a good story.

I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who has far more spare time than anyone these days should, such as an arts student like myself.

Election Times

The UQ Union election has finally ended. Well at least the tumultuous and interesting parts have. Right now its down to the voting booths where we can all feel like either spectators or Fresh supporters and not much else. Unless your one of the protesters of course, but so far that seems neither effective nor fun.

Before I start to paint my picture of the situation I need to make it clear that politically I'm a step below a fence sitter. I'm one of those guys who just wants things to continue how they are. Following an election for me isn't picking a side, its spectating as two teams who I really care nothing for go at it and attempt to break each other. Its riveting.

How I see it:
I'm not going to name anybody here, partly because I can't quite recall who exactly did what and partly because there is far to much tension and dissent around for me to go pointing fingers. I personally have no problem with the current state of play in the election. That is Fresh has dominated the election through some careful manoeuvring of by-laws and some rather impressive politics from their president. All of which I can merely speculate upon and have no real expertise in.

From where I stand, and what I've heard, from my extremely biased friends, Fresh hasn't actually broken any laws or the student constitution. From what I personally see, I cannot imagine the current president of Fresh making such an audacious move as to prohibit the other candidates from running for UQ Union without completely covering himself. From the various tribunals and third party investigations and their lack of  incriminating evidence, it appears that in this observation I am correct.

Ethically, I think it is wrong. Simple as that. In the sense of fair play all the possible candidates should have had a fair run. Without smear campaigns and on friendly terms. If only the world were so perfect. That was never going to happen. Ethics and politics are two very different things. I cannot endorse the actions of Fresh but I can commend them for being extremely good at what counts in this situation, winning. Another, often overlooked point is that the opposing candidates are just as cut throat as Fresh has been. There was always going to be ethical foul play, it just so happens that Fresh managed to get there first.

It may have been harsh, it may have caused an uproar, but it worked. As far as I'm concerned, well played by them.

Blogging and Me

 So I'm extremely new to blogging. I have good reason for that, I'll be honest I have a bad opinion of blogging in general. In the past the blogs that I have read consist of a collection of seemingly useless and random musings from random people. Theres a reason that I procrastinated so heavily with even creating this blog; I didn't want to be a part of the blogger group.

Hindsight is a powerful thing. I realise that what I write is just as random, disconnected, and seemingly unimportant as any other blog one could find on the internet but somehow I still find myself enjoying doing it. Its a good way to vent, a way to put my thoughts out on the internet with a total disregard for who reads it and who cares what I have to say.

Blogging seems to be an introspective activity. Its an interesting way for me to consolidate and work out my actual opinions on matters. So far, its been a bit of an experience.

On another ,slightly less introverted, note blogging is surprisingly difficult. Simply writing thoughts and opinions doesn't actually make such an interesting read. I think I need more to keep my hopefully existent readers entertained.

Anyhow, there are improvements to be made, but so far I think I could get used to writing a blog. It is a strange and enjoyable experience to have near free rein on what and how I can write. Exactly why this post came about.

JOUR1111- Lecture 5

Stained Glass window depicting baptism

The phrase " a picture tells a thousand words" is more than just a phrase to a photojournalist. It is an embodiment of their profession and a testament to the effectiveness of images in journalism.

Within this lecture, although its entirety was relevant, there were a few points that seemed particularly pertinent to me.

The lecture chose to further iterate the idea that all pictures are stories. While I was already well aware that a picture could tell a story, I now realise I was often failing to see the underlying messages in many images. By taking the approach that all pictures tell a story I can approach images with a much more analytic and open mind. An interesting fact from the lecture was regarding stained glass windows inside churches. I was previously under the impression that these were simply decorative however I now know that they were to help illiterate people understand the stories of the bible. A real world example of pictures telling stories that are often overlooked.

Pictures are an integral part of telling a story in my opinion. In the words of war reporter Robert Capa, " If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." These words show how a picture tells a story for what it actually is, or at least until it is altered, which brings me to the second part of the lecture. 

I previously thought all the whining about body image in media and unrealistic goals of appearance being set were simply puffery.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U 

This video proves me to be completely mistaken. It may be ethically incorrect to think this but I'm a guy, this is my blog and my place to say what I think. So here it is. Honestly this disappoints me. Not because of the high standards of appearance set by todays media. No, quite to the contrary. I couldn't care less if magazines make people feel unattractive in comparison to popular models. Models are meant to be good looking after all. Don't feel down that they put the rest of us to shame.  Digital modification of photos upsets me because of its implications. It means that perhaps there isn't quite as many flawlessly good looking people in the world today. I feel deceived and cheated. I really think its a bit of a deflating revelation to find out the extent of what a photoshop wizard can do these days. 

This lecture was an enlightening insight into an aspect of journalism that I am rather unfamiliar with. At this rate I feel I will come away from this course with a broad, if not completely in depth, knowledge of the varied elements and types of journalism. 

JOUR1111- Lecture 4

This weeks lecture was the sound lecture, taking the form of a series of radio interviews it successfully showed me not only the strengths of sound only journalism but the drawbacks that plague it as well.

As far as JOUR1111 lectures go, this has to be my least interesting so far. That isn't to say the quality of the lecture was anything but excellent. On the contrary the content of the lecture was engaging and the rapport of  good radio conversation can be very engaging. The issue I found was that I am a visual learner. At the very least I would like to see who I am being spoken to by. If I can't identify with the voice I'm hearing  all of the assumptions I make about the speaker and their motivations is lost and as such much of my attentiveness goes with it.

Regardless, those are simply my issues with the format of the lecture, the content was another story and here are the points I took from it:

Radio and television are completely different mediums: Radio is not television without the visual element and vice versa. The style of speech is completely different and the way that information is communicated must be changed. Compared to television, radio must constantly be introducing new topics of conversation so as to not bore the listener.

The listener is dominant: Radio presenting diminishes the power of the speaker over the listener. It is so easy to become disengaged from communication, a problem I often suffer from. The onus lies with the speaker to maintain the attention of the listener through the way they speak. I think it is the rare presenter who can truly manage to do this with someone as inattentive and easily distracted as myself.

Be sincere: When your on radio people can tell far more easily when your being " fake". Be sincere and genuine and the listeners will respond to this. I think this ties in with what Richard Fidler said about relaxing during the interview. When you have won the favour of the listener, when you know they are willing to not only listen but to allow themselves to imagine the story you depict for them. That is when you can relax and when sincerity rewards the speaker.  Even when the listener instils this trust in the speaker there is no point in which the speaker can admit to having won their attention. The second the speaker seems to be attempting to curry favour the listener is alienated irrecoverably.

For me personally I don't have much care for radio. As a listener I find myself disengaged and often sceptical of who I am listening to and why I should listen to them. I need to see the speaker to connect with them and their story. As a speaker I am someone who relies on body language, facial expressions and other para lingual methods of communication. Without these things I doubt my ability to sound anything other than stilted and disconnected.

Regardless of my negative disposition regarding radio, the lecture expanded my knowledge regarding sound as a primary means of communication. I am thankful for that but look forward to another face to face lecture next week !

JOUR1111- Lecture 3

Todays lecture was another testament to the varied and engaging nature that has made JOUR1111 my favourite subject so far this semester.  The lecture was presented by Skye Doherty. She is an extremely accomplished journalist with a long list of reputable experience behind her. I won't go into the specifics of just what this experience in the journalism field entails but rest assured she gave an extremely comprehensive lecture.

Text is the foundation of journalism.

Despite the growing use of visuals in advertising text still plays an irreplaceable role in the communication of information. While a message can be conveyed through an image, that same image is categorised, analysed and searched for through the use of text. Text underpins all communication.

The main diagrammatic element of this lecture was the inverted pyramid news model. It is succinct and logical and makes me question why on earth this was never covered during school, it would have made many a report an absolute breeze.

Skye explained that in an article it is of utmost importance to convey the key facts of the story as fast as possible. This is because statistically people will often read the first part of an article and cease reading. While this is a rather depressing fact as a journalist it is a harsh truth. Another reason for the inverted pyramid structure is that apparently when an editor wishes to shorten a story they will simply remove the excess and cut it from the bottom up. For me this is unnerving and reiterates the point that I must be concise with my writing.

The next concept Skye approached was that of news values. The reason that we don't see the local school fete taking up the front page the same way we do a brutal murder. The news values conflict, power, control, sex, money and death in its correlation of stories. This is because it is what we, as a society, have proven ourselves to be concerned with. I find this a sad fact of life. I myself must admit to falling into the norm of society and being concerned with news values. I think in a way however this is a good thing. As a journalist I do not wish to change these values but to profit from them, so holding the values as my own interests could serve me extremely well.

I found Skye's lecture to be far more resonant with my personal interests than the last. It seemed that it was really addressing the specific details of journalistic writing and as such I found it to be very engaging.

JOUR1111- Lecture 2

New News, Down to business!

At the risk of sounding clichéd, corny and like a brown nose all at once, this lecture quite literally brightened my day. I awoke at 8 am ready for my 9 am lecture, only to realise that this was semester two and my Mondays now commenced at 4 pm with my engaging and brief JOUR1111 lecture ! Such are the joys of choosing the right subjects for once.

The topics of this lecture were:

Web iterations
News under Web 3.0
and the challenges presented by online news.

"Old Media " was the first type of media that we discussed. It encompassed the pre-web period of newspapers, tv, magazines and radio. It's currently being overtaken and shut out by the dominance of new media. I feel that there is a certain degree of melancholy to this situation. That the traditional appeal of a broad leaf newspaper or the routine of sitting in front of the television every evening to watch the news is being foregone for the ease of a few mouse clicks on their online alternatives.

We then covered how the web and its uses have changed through its three distinct periods;
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
Web 3.0

What I gleaned from this lecture was that web 1.0 was primarily just information. It was mass media aimed at the general population. Not targeted nor refined it was primarily focused on companies. It was an extension of old media, an online information source surrounded by advertisements and and comparable experience regardless of the user. So at this point the web hadn't yet totally killed old media. Well done to the web, still possessing some integrity. So far no instagram pictures of peoples breakfasts.

And so things progressed, web 2.0 was born.

Web 2.0 is all about interactiveness. It is the result of the over obsession with the all encompassing social knowledge that we now desire. There is no longer a clear line between the producer and the consumer of information. The term "produser" is coined. I think this is where we began to descend towards the terrible stage of irreversibly pointless contributions to the internet. People tweeting" Good morning everybody" became an acceptable piece of information to be on the worldwide web. I think this is where we lost the plot.

So we finally reach the point we are at now. The semantic web. Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is the web of the individual. The process of meta-tagging is introduced. This is a html tag that can tell what you individually search for and do on the internet. The web tailors its advertising for your personal interests. You no longer experience what others do on the internet because the web is tailored to your needs. Cool right? Wrong. At least in my opinion. I use the internet to expand my knowledge, to browse and be confronted by new interests and news sources. I don't want to be shut into a bubble of what the web decides  I would like to look at. The semantic web is in my opinion a breeding ground for gross ignorance and hyperlocalisation of news.

Imagine this, the web realises from my facebook friends, and my web searches and my use of google maps that I, reside in Brisbane. It then decides that I don't need to know about the earthquake in Japan, that is on the other side of the world after all. Is it up to the web to decide that? No . This is just my opinion of course, but then its my blog, so there.

What would our old media predecessors have thought?

JOUR1111- Lecture 1

My first lecture of JOUR1111. I’ll admit I had an inkling of what to expect from the reports of friends who had completed the course in the first semester of this year however I was still happily surprised by the laidback and conversational nature of the lecture. Dr Redman avoided spending a large amount of time discussing the mundane administrative details of course profiles and tutorial times as some of my other lectures would have. For me this was a great advantage as this is the first subject in which I don’t have a two hour lecture, and the fifty minute period seems as if it’s finished in no time at all.

I stumbled my way into taking a journalism course as is unfortunately often the case amongst arts students. I regret to say that I am not one of the lucky few, those born with the knowledge of where they wish their future to take them. I decided upon journalism as it seems to be the perfect place to make use of my ability to write at a reasonable level, and my unfortunate inability to do most other academically oriented activities, especially mathematics.

The first lecture of this course connected with me. It was and remains to be my first university lecture that was actually what I was hoping to receive from the course.  Dr Redman opened the lecture in his laidback manner, he introduced us to the idea of taking a journalism course with the words, “ You are the journalist”. This idea made me feel as if I wasn’t just taking a university course, I was taking an internship into a career that I wish to pursue.  Words like this legitimise the course and help me motivate myself to do my best and as someone who often lacks motivation, I am extremely thankful for that. This lecture continued to motivate us through further quotes such as “ Journalism is the first rough draft of history”. As if I wouldn’t want to be a part of creating history ! The concept of both studying and of doing journalism appealed to me immensely. I have already worried that my time at university would be simply discussing things I wished to be part of. Dr Redman managed to lay my concerns to rest immediately. The remainder of the lecture was a quick walkthrough of how to use blackboard and the course profile, sadly a tedious necessity.

I came out of this lecture anxious and excited for a second semester at university. After a relatively misguided first semester in which I couldn’t settle on what I wanted to do, I felt that I have truly found my niche of tertiary study.

I look forward to another hopefully engaging lecture next week. Let’s hope it continues like this !

10 Day Media Use Diary

10 Day Media Use Diary

The use of media is a significant factor in the average day of most Australians. There has been a shift from the simplistic producer and consumer roles within the the realm of media. I have recorded and de-constructed my current media use over a period of ten days. The results show the accessibility and functionality of modern media outlets as well as reflect the nature of my college accommodation and its influence upon availability of certain media outlets.

10 Day media use graph( In Days and Minutes)

Media use is dictated by the lifestyle a person leads. As is seen in the above graph my personal use of television is comparatively low compared to other forms of media. This is due to the college environment in which I live which gives me limited access to television and a large amount of access to on-line sources of media.

I have recorded my online media use in three separate categories. Internet browsing, in which I categorised recreational use of the internet to browse miscellaneous websites. Internet research contains all online media use that is related to university assessment and research. Social media use records the use of Facebook, Twitter and blogging, my only currently used social media outlets.

The result of my large access to online, "new" media sources is an elevated amount of internet browsing, internet research and social media use. The correlation between the use of these three media sources reflects the level of multitasking that I generally have when using the internet. On days 4 and 5 when I was working on an assignment my level of internet research was expectedly elevated. As an unexpected by-product both my social media use and my internet browsing were proportionately raised. This indicates that various forms of online media supplement each other to produce an overall media experience.

I placed phone use as a form of media use due to the fact that a modern smartphone provides access to far more than traditional telecommunication. My phone use, although small compared to my previously recorded internet use, is heavily weighted towards the use of social media applications and their monitoring.

Radio is the final form of media, and the second of the "old" media that I use. Due to living at college I avoid a commute to university. Consequently this means that I spend minimal time in the car and rarely have opportunity to listen to the radio. On  days 3 and 5 I travelled home to the Gold Coast which explains the spike in minutes spent listening to the radio on those days.

"Old" Vs "New" Media use Graph( In Days and Minutes)

My personal use of media is heavily slanted towards new media, as is indicated by the above graph. Old media is increasingly subverted my the encompassing nature of new media. The results of the course survey are evidence of the overwhelming disparity between new and old media use. Question 28 of the survey has 39.4 percent of surveyed students using an online newspaper as their most common source of news compared to 3.6% using paper newspaper.

My media usage over the recorded period strongly reflects and characterises the modern dominance of new media usage over old. I used a smartphone and heavily relied upon the internet, foregoing old media alternatives. The strong correlation between my use of online resources shows that new media is often used as a collective source of information, rather than individually. My media use is atypical due to my college environment and as such is not indicative of current media use trends.