Laurens 21st-Trip Down Memory Lane

So this weekend was my sister's 21st birthday. I don't know if any of you are siblings but when one turns 21, it's a big thing. My sister is my best friend. You should know that my family struggle at public speaking. All 4 of us can't speak in front of an audience to save our lives.
Therefore I made this video to show everyone at the party. And I wanted to share it with you all! Yay!

We have about 50 people at our house for her party, with 40 of them staying the night. It was messy. Because I had to work the next day, I didn't drink (much) so I was on looking after the drunks duty. And believe me, that is not something you want to be.
But at least now at my 21st I can be the messy drunk one and she'll have to look after all my friends!
This may be a pointless blog, but at least you get an insight into my life!
Well a little bit anyway...

Solves Cases...Not A Cop - LectureTwelve

When I first heard the words ‘investigative journalism’, I automatically thought of the television show ‘Castle’. You know the one, where the main character is an author and he follows around a detective to get awesome stories. After the lecture I realised that I had no idea what was going on. Investigative journalism wasn’t about following around crime and putting yourself in dangerous situations to get awesome stories, it was about getting the correct facts for a story. It was about making sure the truth gets out there so the public knows what was going on.

The lecture demonstrated that there are three investigative methods that journalists use to check their story is right. Firstly there is interviewing. This is interviewing numerous on-record sources, as well as anonymous sources, to determine if all the information matches up and to hear different accounts of the same story. Secondly, there is observation. This involves investigating technical issues, the examination of government and business practices and what effect this has, as well as research into social and legal issues. Thirdly, analysing documents is vital for validating a story. Looking at law suits, legal documents, freedom of information material and so on usually present the clear hard facts without variation.

After investigating all of these, you then have to ask “Does what you were told, what you saw and what was recorded line up?”

Sure it’s no ‘Castle’ investigation, but hearing about this made me realise the significance of having to correct facts, and a combination of these methods would definitely improve the credibility of you as the author.

Why Is Your Story More Important Than Mine - Lecture Eleven

Like most things in this course, I hadn't heard of agenda setting before I stepped in to the lecture theatre on one faithful Monday afternoon. It was simply another aspect of journalism that I never thought about. To everyone out there like myself who doesn't know what agenda setting is, let me enlighten you. Agenda setting is when the media presents issues frequently to the audience that results in large numbers of the public perceiving those issues are more important that other ones. Within this, there are two assumptions of media agenda. Firstly, mass media don’t reflect and respect, they filter and shape it. Secondly, media concentrates on few issues and this leads to the public perceiving those issues as more important that the other issues.

Throughout the lecture I began to form a problem with agenda setting. I thought about the story that I had chosen to do for my annotated bibliography, a suicide from a nineteen year old girl who was a victim of bullying. Her story was publicised all over the news for weeks when it had happened, however there are many similar cases that don’t even get a mention in the newspapers. Does media agenda decide that person is not important? Or why is one case of this happening more important than the other? The news chooses an agenda when it hasn’t been publicised for a while. That way it is fresh, new and interesting to the reader, attracting their attention. However as soon as a similar event takes place, the news is not so quick to publish it because the audience may see it as ‘another suicide story’.

Fighting a Losing Battle - Lecture Nine

News values were the topic of this week’s lecture. What makes an article? What engages the audience? Why is it good enough to be in the public interest?

The main concepts I got from Bruce this week was the newsworthiness hypothesis. There are three hypothesis used that help people determine how worthy the news is and if it will attract the audience. They are:

1.       The additivity hypothesis. This states that more factors the news article satisfies, the higher probability it becomes news.

2.       Complementarity hypothesis. This states that factors tend to exclude each other.

3.       The exclusion hypothesis. This states that events that satisfy none or few factors will usually not become news.

To be honest, when I try and think of news that is engaging and draws me in, I can’t determine factors that make it interesting. What I read every day depends on how I’m feeling. If I need life advice, I’ll go to the horoscope. If I’m in a bad mood, I’ll look at the latest tragedies. If I’m in a good mood, I’ll look at celebrity gossip. I don’t know if I quite grasped the meaning of today’s lecture, but I came out pondering about how each person finds different pieces of information engaging and interesting. No one can really determine what is going to engage an audience, because some people are always going to be left out. For example, I really like rocks. Laugh all you want, but earthquakes, lava, volcanoes, and the types of rocks that they all form really interest me. However I rarely see articles about them in the paper.

What I am getting at here is, no matter how hard you try to please everyone and try and analyse what everyone is viewing, someone is always going to miss out. Determining if the news report will be read is hit and miss. People change what they want to read on a daily basis.

So good luck to everyone out there trying to make a people pleasing article. You just can’t win.

Today's picture shows a young boy fighting a losing battle. I thought I'd better explain it, just in case one of you didn't pick up on it and thought I was putting seedy pictures on here...

Am I Wrong For Doing What's Right? - Lecture Eight

Right or wrong. Ultimately, this is what the lecture was about. How do we know when something is right or wrong? Where is the line between ethical and unethical? To be completely honest, my thoughts in the lecture were not focused on our guest speaker, but rather I had a moral debate with myself to try and justify whether I thought made-up situations were unethical or not. I ran different scenarios in my head and tried to determine what I would do if I was in that dilemma. I sound crazy right? Wrong. Although it might be an odd tactic, it really did help me clarify my personal values and form the line in which I would begin to regret what I was doing.

Let me run you through one of the scenarios that I would establish in my head. I had a thought about what I would do in a situation where someone had leaked me information that had the potential to be a breaking news story. As in, big enough to make a career. To be my big break in the journalist world. However, this information would result in the dismissal of a person and possibly result in their inability to get future employment. Morally, I decided I could not do anything with the information. The source may pass it onto someone else; however I could never personally destroy someone’s livelihood. It would be against everything I stand for; every value that I was taught when I was raised would be compromised.

So would that make me a bad journalist then? I would be choosing not to publish information in the public interest. Sure there are other directions in journalism, but you will be forever faced with these ethical issues at one stage or another. Now I suppose I just have to figure out how to deal with them when they arise. And decide if I want to be in a field where my personal values are constantly negotiated.

Lecture Seven - Hear No, See No, Speak No.

To me, public media can do no wrong. When I think of commercial media and public media, my mind always wonders over to the stereotypical hero and villain movie, with justice always being served in the end and the bad guy always ending up in jail or falling off the side of a high rise building. The lecture discussed the characteristics of public media in great detail, but what really stood out to me was what public media aimed to achieve. I would like to recite this to the values that I thought were the most important.

-To produce quality. Without quality, what is the report really worth? In my experience, people want to know directly what is happening, without all the fluff and bullshit that is added to the story from commercial media.

-To make themselves relevant. This may be one of my favourites. I’ve noticed over all my years that public media know what’s going on in the world and place a high emphasis on the important details. Although commercial media report the story, they usually place a just as high emphasis on irrelevant stories such as Miley Cyrus’ haircut.

-And the most important one I believe: To always show both sides of the story. For many years I have been forced to watch A Current Affair with my parents and each time I do, my blood boils. Commercial media like ACA only show one side of the story and manipulate it so much that personally, I usually lose track of what the story is about. It’s hard to know what to think when you’re only seeing one side of the story. That is why public media is excellent. It is unbiased and shows both sides of the story. It allows us to make up our own mind.

Thus, to conclude the blog, I will just reinforce the statement that public media can do no wrong. I have chosen to ignore any cons and focus on the pros. 

Annotated Bibliography.

Journal Article.

Goff, W. (2011). The Shades of Grey of Cyber bullying in Australian Schools. Australian Journal of Education, 55 (2), PP 176-181.

The Journal Article that was posted in the Australian Journal of Education highlights bullying, which is an increasing problem in Australian schools. The article analyses the sharp rise in cyber bullying and the detrimental effects it has of those who are in their adolescent years, potentially leading to self-harm and suicide. The role of schools and teachers are questioned and discussed while referring to particular incidents in which bullying had occurred to children in school. It was argued whether schools have the ability to control the internet and the way in which students use it. The article was composed by Wendy Goff, a highly achieving academic whom has a number of qualifications, including a bachelor’s degree in education, masters of education, a graduate diploma in psychology and a diploma in early childhood services. Furthermore, the article was written in the Australian Journal of Education, a peer reviewed journal which has a reputation of being highly credible and reputable among the journalist society. The piece considers various interoperations of events; such as the schools views on the matter, as well as the parents, and the local government, therefore eliminating bias, as well as the article topic has a large public interest.

Television Broadcast.

Stewart, J. (Executive Producer). (2012, Jul. 17 ). [Television broadcast]. Melbourne, Victoria: ABC-Lateline.

The story was presented by Emma Alberici on 'Lateline', the ABC's late night news television station, engaging the audience in the unfortunate circumstances that resulted in the suicide of a nineteen year old girl. Workplace bullying that included verbal abuse as well as physical, such as pinned down to the ground and spat on by her co-workers, sparked for the introduction of anti-bullying laws into Victoria called ‘Brodie’s Law’. Since this incident, there has been a push to introduce anti-bullying laws into every state. The author was John Stewart, a long serving reporter for the ABC, previously uncovering many critical stories and winning a Logie for his efforts. The story was published by the ABC, a public media source that has been highly reputable throughout media over numerous years. Furthermore, the article presents only facts and is unbiased, which is evident due to the laws and regulations that are placed on ABC by the government, allowing for a more reliable source. In comparison to commercial media and social media, the ABC news reports are highly credible as its news articles are aimed to get the correct facts across to the audience, rather than to produce revenue by creating a bias opinion.

Newspaper.

Gardiner, A. (2012, Aug 9 ). Anti-bullying laws put into place after Brodie Panlock's death are put to the test for first time. The Herald Sun.

This written news article that was published in the Herald Sun creates an emphasis around the introduction of anti-bullying laws into society, ‘Brodie’s Law’. The document surrounds the suicide of Brodie Panlock, a nineteen year old girl who took her life after being bullied at the workplace. The reporter explored how bullying affects individuals and how it can escalate in a variety of ways.  An emphasis is then created on the laws that were put forward as a result of the tragedy and it was highlighted that these laws have already positively helped others in similar situations. The article was written by Ashley Gardiner, a state politics reporter for the Herald Sun, however the credibility of the article is questionable. Although the Herald Sun is a newspaper, it is commercial media and therefore has the intent to please the audience rather than focus more on the facts. Thus, the story is open to bias from the writer as the authors aim is to sell newspapers and make money, rather than presenting all the facts correctly and fairly. In comparison, the Herald Sun printed article lacks credibility and quality is compromised as its main aim is for profit and to entertain the audience, compared to public media such as ABC who pride themselves on credibility and reliability of the unbiased facts they present to the audience.

Blog Post.

Anonymous,. (2012, Apr. 14 ). In Watching the Spectrum. Retrieved Oct. 11, 2012, from http://watchingthespectrum.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/bullying-is-a-crime/

The blog post was an expression of personal opinion regarding the death of Brodie Panlock, a nineteen year old girl from Melbourne who commits suicide after being the victim of bullying in the workplace. The author expresses their feelings towards the laws that are now in place against these forms of crime, while using figures such as the amount of money the family was paid in compensation, to emphasise the point to the audience. Furthermore, emotive and harsh language is used when speaking about bullies in these workplace environments to appeal to the emotions of the reader.  The source has minimal, if any credibility as it was written and published online by an English Literature student who does not give away their identity. Using this form of media results in no restrictions on what they can write, and the text is extremely biased and extensively uses emotional words to convey their opinion to the audience. In comparison to other media sources, this is the least credible and reliable as the author’s motive is to simply express their thoughts to the audience, without needing to ensure the information presented is valid.