JOUR1111- Week 8

Ethics

This lecture was delivered by Donna Meikeljohn . I found it addressed on of the ongoing questions that I have had in relation to journalism. That is the formation, application and the use of an ethical code.

While the term “ethical” is often thrown around and used to describe the appropriateness of media and actions, I have never actually been able to define what ethics are in depth, nor have I ever been able to decide why certain material is deemed to be ethical or unethical.

Donna first showed us some supposedly ethically questionable advertisement. I found none of these to be remotely offensive as I thought the humorous intentions behind the adverts was more than enough to rectify any possible offensiveness.

The most interesting points that I gleaned from this lecture were the paradigms of determining ethical value that Donna presented.  These paradigms encompass all ethical codes that could possibly exist. They are as such:

Deontology: These are the underlying rules and codes that we base our social behaviour around. All ethical codes make use of these base assumptions of appropriateness. As a result of this all ethical codes can be considered as deontological.

Consequentialism: This paradigm can be viewed as results focused. Ethical actions are judged by the consequential results of the actions. The phrases “the end justify the means” and “the greatest good for the greatest number” embody the rationale of consequentialist thinking.

Virtue: This paradigm of ethical thought judges actions by a code of virtues. Actions are ethical if they are in accordance with a moral code. These virtues are not set but are created by the individual. They are often virtues such as courage, honesty, temperance and prudence.

Despite this lecture clearly illustrating the paradigms of ethical behaviour and showing samples of ethically dubious material, I still find it impossible to clearly determine the exact characteristics that make me personally think something is unethical.

The most important point that I learned from this lecture was regarding public interest. The lecture taught that journalist’s actions should always be in the public’s interest.  I find that public interest should be the defining aspect of determining ethics. 

Racism, Apparently

Racism, Apparently

The start of a new semester has arrived, the ruckus of the Union elections may have eased but once again Cromwell has managed to launch itself into the limelight of controversy.  

Cromwell College has a multitude of traditions; interesting, arcane, sometimes irrelevant, they all have a firm place in the Cromwell calendar.  One of the smaller and less socially consequential traditions is the annual international dinner.

The procedure for the evening goes as such. Each individual corridor nominates a nationality. They then dress themselves up as accurately as possible to replicate the appearance of this nationality. All well and good in theory right? Just a bit of fun, Mexicans in sombreros, Chinese in straw hats, the usual cultural debacle.  Apparently not this year. No, this year it all hit the proverbial fan. One ill-fated female corridor decided to dress as Indigenous Australians.

I personally didn’t see too much of an issue. Perhaps a bit distasteful but they weren’t attempting to play at any stereotypes or to paint indigenous Australians in a negative manner. While their attire wasn’t necessarily the most politically correct, I didn’t see the potential for any harm to be done and therefore I was not expecting the huge backlash that followed.

The entirety of the college was informed that, one week after the dinner, journalists for a variety of newspapers, including the Brisbane Times and the Sydney Morning Herald had taken a very negative interest in the portrayal of aboriginals by the college.

Naturally the photos of the night were first discovered by journalists on Facebook. Classic example of social media destroying reputations. Fortunately the issue has now been resolved, but only through extensive apologies and promises of cultural awareness programs that shall soon be installed into the college.

According the various sources of outraged discussion that have been circulating the web throughout the aftermath of the incident, the main issue taken was the use of “ Blackface”. I have come to realise the cultural significance and the various negative connotations associated with the use of such costuming, I cannot however understand how previously allocated associations with a costuming method can supersede the context of an event in deciding the cultural relevance of behaviour.  There was no malice, racism or even humour associated with the dress of the corridor at the dinner. They were simply attempting to replicate the appearance of Indigenous Australians.  That was the purpose of using blackface makeup at the event, not any other preconceived representations. While there are no full aboriginals in attendance to the college, there are many students of varying degrees of Aboriginal heritage.  While their opinions of course do not represent the greater Aboriginal community, it should be noted that none of them took offense to the attire of the girls due to the fact that they understood the context of the international dinner; a tribute to the variety of cultures we embrace at Cromwell College. This fact is what I think was lost upon the general public and as such the appropriateness of the dinner was brought into question.

This incident has been resolved, the way it was handled I am not criticising in the slightest. Despite the backlash and negative media representations I still firmly believe that context is an important part of cultural awareness. The fact that we at Cromwell have offended so many harks back to the issues of a hyper connected society. We are so integrated through the use of social media, the internet and other forms of connectivity that the privacy which allowed such traditions as international dinner to exist seems to be null and void.

JOUR1111- Week 7

Public Media:

This weeks lecture introduced the concept of public media, the form of media that thankfully operates in stark contrast to the topic of last week's lecture, commercial media.

Public media serves to inform and engage the public through reporting on issues that hold significant public value. Public media is not profit driven and while it may turn a profit the proceeds must be recycled into the furthering of future public media. It is these values that I believe allow public media to provide a far more beneficial and purposeful influence upon democratic society. It aims to support the needs of the public rather than the wants adhered to by the often vapid and trivial reporting of commercial media. 

The lecture covered a variety of elements and issues surrounding public media however there were a few defining points which I found particularly resonant. 

The defining principle of public media is the concept of "Public Value". This concept underpins all public media institutions. 

To have public value media must:

Have an embedded "public service ethos".

Employ value for licence fee money.

Weigh the public value of media against its market impact.

Allow for public consultation. 

The guidelines laid in 1985 by the Broadcasting Research Unit show a further variety of characteristics central to public media. 

Geographical universality - everyone in Australia should have access to programmes, i.e; Preschool.

Universality - content should cater for all tastes and interests.

Special provisions for minorities.Have a special relationship to the sense of national identity and community.Distanced from all vested interests.Universality of payment.Competition in good programming rather than competition for numbers.Guidelines should liberate rather than restrict.

Of these guidelines I find a few of them truly embody the differences that I notice between commercial and public media.

First and fore-mostly I notice the distancing from vested interests and the way this differentiates public media from the specifically financially driven programming of commercial media. 

The second prominent indicator of public media to me personally is the association with national identity and heritage. While commercial media is aimed on an international scale that doesn't seek to address concerns and interests of a national community, public media differs from this. It associates itself with a distinctive national identity and caters its programming to address Australian culture. 

Without public media the world of journalism would be devoid of any long form investigative journalism. It is public media that investigates and uncovers various incidents that are of a concerning nature or are beneficial to the national community to be reported upon. The competition in public media is primarily based upon quality of reporting rather than viewer ratings. This results in a far more meaningful and nationally pertinent programming. 

One of the main issues faced by public media is the issue of financing while remaining unbiased and unattached to any vested interests. Due to the majority of public media broadcasters sourcing their funding directly from the government, it is financially irresponsible for them to remain politically independent The phrase” to bite the hand that feeds” can be used to describe the tentative nature that public media must take when investigating politically oriented stories. Despite this clearly significant challenge, public media remains the most nationally concerned and beneficial source of media.

Public media, while not necessarily the oligopoly run cash crop that commercial media has become, is still refuses to abandon its core principles and remains a driving force for the cause of investigative journalism. 

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Journalism is the reporting of events and issues with the purpose of informing and educating a broad audience. This annotated bibliography will analyse the different sources of media and the various ways that they can analyse and report upon an event. The event that these articles will report upon is the current dispute between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal. The sources of media used are a Chinese national tabloid, an American online magazine and an International newspaper, all of which show both contrasting opinions and similar information traits.

De Burgh, H. (2010). Chinese Journalism and the Academy: the politics and pedagogy of the media.Journalism Studies, 1 (4), pp.549-558.

Hugo De Burgh is a British media theorist and the Director of the China Media Centre at the University of Westminster. He has specialised in the area of analysing investigative journalism in contrasting political cultures, such as that of China. This article evaluates the effect of the changing cultural climate in China upon the role of journalism in Chinese society. Chinese journalism has traditionally been viewed as an extension of the state’s ruling power. There has been a constant demand for media rights to be granted to journalists so that they may criticize contrast and report on current events according to a standardised journalistic code. This culminated in the Tianmen incident.  Since this incident Chinese journalism has shifted to be a more open medium which encourages the use of the free market and entrepreneurialism. This shift however does not indicate the lack of government influence over the media. Mr Gong Xueping, both the Dean of the Fudan University Journalism School and the Vice General Secretary of the Shanghai Chinese Communist Party, informed journalism students that while they had a right to report on anything they may see fit, there was little point in criticising the government system and that they should instead target the manifestations of the systems failures. This use of Chinese journalism can be seen in the vastly contrasting portrayal of the Chinese-Philippines island dispute in the Chinese media compared to western media.

Le, Z. (2012). Manila seeks to ‘lay claim’ over Huangyan with new name. Gobal Times, [online] 07 May 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/708105/Manila-seeks-to-lay-claim-over-Huangyan-with-new-name.aspx [Accessed: 19 Oct 2012].

The Global Times is a daily Chinese tabloid under the ownership of the Chinese Communist Party. Despite this ownership its claims that is does not necessarily voice government policy. The article reports on the current dispute between China and the Philippines over the ownership of Huangyan Island. The article attempts to position its audience to strongly favour the Chinese. It quotes Victor N Arches a supposedly Filipino man, whose credentials, if any, are not mentioned. He allegedly says “the Scarborough Shoal does belong to China which discovered it and drew it in a map as early as 1279 while the official maps the Philippines used to claim the area were dated 541 years later.” ( Zou, 2012).  This statement of course positions the audience to side with the Chinese argument however it cannot be considered a credible source as it remains completely unsupported by any tangible evidence. The article describes the initiation of the dispute between nations as the result of the Filipino navy attempting to capture Chinese fishermen. This article describes a very one sided version of the events that are involved in the dispute. As such it can be likened to propaganda rather than unbiased journalism. The result of this is that it cannot be viewed as a credible source to use for insight on the conflict between nations.

Carpenter, T. (2012) The Roiling South China Sea Dispute. The National Interest, [online] 10 July. Available at: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-roiling-south-china-sea-dispute-7178 [Accessed: 19 October].

The National interest is a monthly online magazine published in the United States. It focuses on the US involvement in international affairs and as such takes a vastly different approach to the Scarborough shoal dispute than the article by the Global Times. The article criticises the actions of President Obama at an Economic Summit in Bali during November of 2011.  During the summit he aligned the US with the Philippines and promised to strengthen relations. The article describes these comments as implying level of involvement from the United States in the current dispute between the China and the Philippines. The article claims that the dispute must be resolved in favour of the Chinese to avoid an overwhelming hold being held over the South East Asia region by china. It warns however against the involvement of the United States in such a dispute because it could result in the aggression of the Chinese being spread upon both the Philippines and the United States. This article does not discuss the individual incidents in the dispute. This is because the National Interest is primarily concerned with the involvement of the United States in foreign affairs and as such is unconcerned with a dispute that does not involve them.

Mogato, M. (2012). Philippines, U.S. stage war games in face of China warning . Reuters, [online] 25 April. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/us-southchinasea-idUSBRE83O06220120425 [Accessed: 19 October].

This article is written by Manuel Mogato of Reuters. Reuters is an international newspaper renowned for its strict policy regarding journalistic objectivity. As such its article regarding the effect of the Philippine-U.S. war games on the dispute between China and the Philippines concerning ownership of the Scarborough Shoal takes an objective view of the conflict. The article gives details of the war games that were conducted by the Philippines and the US, despite warning from the Chinese that going forth with the games would increase the risk of conflict in the dispute. The article evaluates both Chinese and Filipino opinions as well as those of US representatives. It reports on the incident however does not at any point give an opinion nor a subjective insight into the events being reported upon. This reflects the distanced, international nature of Reuters. The inherent unbiased writing style makes this article the most credible source regarding the dispute.  It does not attempt to position its audience as does the article by the Global Times yet neither does it concern itself with the interests of a single involved nation.

References

Carpenter, T. (2012) The Roiling South China Sea Dispute. The National Interest, [online] 10 July. Available at: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-roiling-south-china-sea-dispute-7178 [Accessed: 19 October].

De Burgh, H. (2010). Chinese Journalism and the Academy: the politics and pedagogy of the media.Journalism Studies, 1 (4), pp.549-558.

Le, Z. (2012). Manila seeks to ‘lay claim’ over Huangyan with new name. Gobal Times, [online] 07 May 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/708105/Manila-seeks-to-lay-claim-over-Huangyan-with-new-name.aspx [Accessed: 19 Oct 2012].

Mogato, M. (2012). Philippines, U.S. stage war games in face of China warning . Reuters, [online] 25 April. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/us-southchinasea-idUSBRE83O06220120425 [Accessed: 19 October].

JOUR1111- Factual Storytelling Excercise

The Rehab Lesson

Rehabilitation is a term often thrown loosely upon solutions to society’s problems. Is it really so easy to change a person’s character?  To alter habits that has become integral to a person’s life.

For 21 year old Jake Brown and his budding addiction to prescription painkillers, rehabilitation may have served its purpose, but perhaps not in the way it was intended. His time in a drug rehabilitation centre in July of 2012 may have yielded the right results, but perhaps in the wrong manner.

Jake had recently moved to Michigan to live and work with his uncle, the manager of a Holiday Inn. His father lived overseas and his mother in his hometown of Fontana, California.

In April 2012 Jake began taking prescription pain medication for back pain. Vicodin; One of the most widely abused opiate analgesics in the United States. Over 2 million adults across the country suffer from Vicodin addiction. Jake, like so many before him, found himself increasingly dependent on the euphoric high produced by the drug.

Each day he would consume his prescribed dosage, and then some. It started small, just one or two more than he should, just to relax. Then it became more, he would have to fill two prescriptions, he couldn’t feel one or two anymore, it became five or six pills at a time, his tolerance steadily growing. Before he realised the scope of the problem he was hooked, not like a stereotyped drug addict, he wasn’t undergoing withdrawal, but he had become reliant on the drugs to allow him happiness.

He didn’t consider the liver damage, vision problems and mental conditions that long term abuse of his drug of choice could cause.  By his own admittance Jake said, “I was taking far more than was prescribed to me”. Fortunately for him his habit was abruptly halted when he found himself caught red handed.

While at work Jake was caught purchasing Vicodin pills off of a co-worker, the result of his prescription having run out. When it came to the attention of his uncle, who was also his manager, he found himself without a job or a place to stay.

His world fell apart. His reliable job that paid for his habit had been taken away, his carefully planned operation halted in its tracks. He couldn’t understand the outrage, the disappointment that was felt for him.

When his father was informed of the situation he felt he had no choice but to admit Jake into a drug rehabilitation centre, a choice that Jake was not enthused with.

“It wasn’t effecting how I functioned in day to day life, If I hadn’t been caught nobody would’ve had to know” said Jake, however his father Dan saw the issue in a very different light. “There was a serious problem that needed to be stopped before it progressed and damaged Jakes future.” Jakes Father.

Jake was admitted into a drug rehabilitation clinic for a one month stay. It was during this time that he would be turned off recreational drug use, for all the wrong reasons.

“I felt like I’d been written off, I was surrounded by addicts of the worst kind and I didn’t belong”, Jake Brown.

Jake was immersed in an environment of experienced drug users, people whom he felt no association or similarities with. He was marginalised, categorised with the worst of recreational drug users. With his world shattered Jake had no choice but to engage himself in his rehabilitation.

“It wasn’t like I couldn’t have stopped using while I was at home” said Jake, The rehabilitation centre put Jake in an environment where he was surrounded by more drug references and users than anywhere else could have provided. “I wanted to leave, if only to avoid being in a place where I didn’t belong”.

He felt as if he’d been ostracised. Like his family had written him off as the worst of society. Wrongly accused and downtrodden he couldn’t bring himself to fight the unsaid allegations he felt were being thrown at him. He resigned himself to simply doing whatever necessary to return his life to how it was.

While Jake was successfully rehabilitated and ceased using Vicodin it wasn’t because he had been shown the consequences of his previous drug use but because he wished to avoid any extension of his stay in rehab. “Rehab was like a punishment, I just wanted to do whatever it took to get out of there”. So Jake followed the instructions of his doctors and was discharged from the clinic one month from the day he was admitted.

The process of rehabilitation attempts to not only halt detrimental behaviour but to alter the mindset that caused it to begin with. Rehabilitation failed with Jake. His use of medication may have been stopped but his mindset was merely warped by the ordeal. “I feel like the consequences of my drug use were a huge over-reaction, nothing has changed for me”. Jake remains the same person he was before rehabilitation, he beat his addiction for all the wrong reasons.

Rehabilitation is a powerful term that has become a staple of the modern judicial system. In Jake’s case, rehabilitation proved to be more of a punishment than a cure. His experience and rehabilitation can only be deemed a success if it is only the immediate future that is of concern. Were he to have been placed in rehabilitation with people who were experiencing similar drug dependency issues rather than vastly disproportionate ones, his mindset may have been changed. Unfortunately it wasn’t. “The rehabilitation centre and its treatment were unnecessary and irrelevant to my problems”.

He resumed his day to day life; he was given his old job back and moved back in with his uncle. He was still the same man however, regardless of what his family thought, nothing had really changed. He worked hard, loved and supported his family, studied well and changed his ways. He learned his lesson at rehab, a valuable one that he would not soon forget; not to get caught.

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.