Lecture 6 - Commercial Media

Money money money!!!  Commercial media is everywhere and its main focus is churning up the big bucks to keep the top dogs driving Bentley's and cruising their yachts on the Riviera.  Commercial media is seen as a platform for advertisers to reach the biggest scope of users/viewers/listeners possible.  It is passionately argued that corporations such as FairFax, News Limited, Nine and APN sacrifice quality for profit when they whack a huge chunk of ads in between your favourite show.  For this reason, I hardly ever watch TV.  I can't stand ads!  I especially hate how the volume mysteriously turns itself up when it's time for an ad break.  I much prefer to watch my favourite show online.  That way, you only have to endure one or two ads.  

Success in commercial media is not measured by the quality or social importance of the content, but sadly on the amount of profit generated.  With commercial media ruling so much of what we see and hear, the issue is raised on the dumbing down of society.  In the future we can expect to have what we see and hear so tailored to our needs and interests that we could perhaps miss a lot of other relevant information.  This hyperlocalisation can have an alarming brainwash effect on the way people vote, believe, and form opinions.  

We then have the public media sphere which consists of ABC TV and radio and SBS.  These are government funded and therefore have a much higher regard to the interest and wellbeing of the public.  

We can only hope that the majority of society is educated enough to know what commercial media is all about.

Professor Michael Bromley sums it up perfectly.  "...One thing stands out above all others - the view that the very nature of the commercial equates to a corruption of the social.  In other words, as media become more commercial, they do so at the expense of their social function.  This is seen as a zero-sum game.  Profits come before quality."

Food for thought.

Lily x

The Sapphires

Possibly one of my favourite films this year, The Sapphires was effervescent, exciting and emotional.  Set in the 60's, three sisters and their cousin from outback Australia are desperate for fame.  Their chance comes when they enter a talent quest where they meet their future manager, Dave, a boozy irishman.  They come across a classified ad calling for wartime entertainers and in no time Dave has secured the girls an audition in Melbourne.  Before they know it they're performing for troops all over Vietnam.  Their tale of self discovery, triumph and success is heartwarming and powerful.  Not to mention the fabulous soul music.  The Sapphires will have you tapping your feet and humming to your favourite blues beats.

Lily x

Lecture 5 - Picture Stories

"A picture has no meaning at all if it can't tell a story." - Eetu Silanpaa

The idea of journalism without pictures is fairly bleak.  I don't think for a second I would be as interested in this field if it wasn't for the pictures.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing, but the visual aspect is very significant for me. 

Photos have an ability to move people, to evoke emotions and to really have an effect in a way that words don't quite have.  Technology has evolved at an astonishing pace and given us as citizens the ability to capture anything at anytime with our pocket sized cameras.  Not all photos tell a story though.  Framing (the rule of thirds), exposure, focus, angle, point of view and timing are all crucial elements that need to be considered when capturing that great shot.  A great photographer captures a moment with a story behind it.  

Throughout history, pictures have always been a vital communicative tool when people couldn't read of write.  From ancient Egypt to the bible, using photos to convey meaning and express emotion has been paramount.  

As our world has evolved, this concept is still very relevant.  In modern society a picture can literally 'tell a thousand words' and we can do all of this so easily at anytime of the day.  Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that all pictures are works of art...those gifted people out there who know what they're doing are the ones who hold the key.  We can only learn from them and hope we can emulate the brilliance they have been creating all this time.  

While I can't claim to be as good as these talented people, here's my attempt anyway.  My favourite subject in the world to capture...my dog.

Lily x

Summer goal

Whenever I tell people I grew up on the Gold Coast most people immediately assume I'm a pro surfer, a ripping skateboarder and generally just an all round beach babe.  Mmmm - couldn't be further from the truth.  So this summer I have a plan.  I am going to learn to surf and skate so I can live up to my prescribed stereotype!  There are plenty of people to teach me so there's really no excuse!  

Lily x

Mt Warning

Last Sunday I decided to do something different.  Instead of waking up with the usual hangover, I wanted to make the most of my day.  I recruited a friend and we woke up early to drive to Mt Warning in Northern NSW.  We're both fairly competitive and neither of us wanted to 'stroll' so we took on the climb with a fair bit of pace.  The return journey is predicted to take 4-5 hours but we smashed it in 2.5 hours.  Mind you, I'm aching now.  I highly recommend it to any adventure seekers out there.  It's a beautiful walk and when you're nearly at the top you have to climb a vertical rock wall (with a chain to help).  You're then rewarded with breathtaking views of NSW.  Don't forget your water bottle though...it's thirsty work!

Lily x

Sunday Funday

I've got a new addiction!  For the past few sundays, my friends and I have been heading down to Burleigh beach to enjoy the sunset and play around on skateboards and dabble with fire twirling.  Then last week, one of the guys brought down a slack line.  It's basically a really long, elastic line about 10cms wide and you tie it to two trees and walk across it.  Sounds easy right? That's what I thought.  Then I hopped on and fell straight back off!  It's like walking on a tight rope.  It's such a good ab workout and great for your balance!  We spend the afternoon trying to walk from one end to the other without falling off.  I'm a far cry from these guys, but check them out...

Lily x

Lecture 4 - Sound

Richard Fidler

Richard's 'telling stories with sound' radio show was very much focussed on how different the three main journalistic mediums are.  Television, radio and print are so unique in their own rights and he really emphasised the fact that the content isn't simply interchangeable.  He mentioned that you can't just get tv and stick it on radio, nor can you get radio and stick it on tv.  It just doesn't work.  In my view, radio is the most difficult of all three.  You only have your voice.  The listener doesn't have any visual stimulus to compliment the story so how you present successfully on radio can be a very niche skill to hone.  Enunciation is somewhat of a touchy topic for him.  He reiterated how crucial it was speak clearly and articulately in radio or the listeners won't engage with the content.  Richard also believes that audience participation and involvement is essential in engaging an audience.  This is why he breaks his show into three segments: talk back, entertainment and intimacy.  This ensures a diversity throughout his show which he has found successful in keeping his listeners entertained.
I found it so interesting how Richard 'fell into' radio.  He didn't have a degree, he didn't plan on being a radio presenter...it just happened.  Richard says that the most important components of a good radio story are being human and searching or exploring for the full gamut of human experience.

Lily x

Lecture 3 - Text

Hypertext - why isn't it being exploited?  

We all know that print is plain and simple...whether you're reading the paper of a morning with your usual cup of tea or cramped like a sardine on the train struggling to find a way to fold The Australian so it doesn't get in the way, text is linear.  In contrast, online news can offer a myriad of experiences and interactive ways to share news stories and to enhance them by combining other relevant material.  

Bolter described it well.  "Where printed genres are linear or hierarchical, hypertext is multiple and associative.  Where a printed text is static, a hypertext responds to the reader's touch" (2001).  Today's guest lecturer, Skye Doherty, believes that hypertext, multimedia and interactivity isn't being exploited like it should in online journalism.  She believes it significantly limits and restricts content to the same site, which results in lack of depth and limited views.  

I agree with Skye.  In such a digital age, why aren't we expanding our online journalism to contain a plethora of information rather than what can just be read in a traditional old newspaper?  Getting your news online is so convenient so it only makes sense to accompany a story with hypertexts, multimedia and tags, not only to increase the search engine optimisation but to enhance journalism and its readers.  

         

                    Vs

Lily x

Lecture 2 - New News

This week we went back to the beginning.  The evolution of the web.  What it used to be and what it has become.  

Back in the good old days, mass communication consisted of newspapers, television, radio and magazines.  This old or tradition media was created and developed in the late 19th century and targeted large aggregated audiences.  We have now moved into a technologically dominant world where New Media has been introduced.  Divided into three categories, new media consists of: 

Web 1.0 - Information web
The information web was a way companies could advertise and market themselves and their products to the masses.  Possibly the most straightfoward, it was structured in a way that there was a provider of information and an audience to receive it.

Web 2.0 - New media
The advent of social networking meant we were given an entirely new purpose.  Social networking sites gave us the opportunity to speak to the world and not let the world just speak to us.  Social groups were formed and the web became an entirely unique platform.  We have become 'produsers' where we, (the users) produce the content we use.


Web 3.0 - Semantic web
Is tailored to the individual.  It can be hyperlocalised so we can have news narrowed to specific categories and receive it specific to our location.  Advertising will be specific to our needs.  A downside of web 3.0 is that general information isn't delivered to the masses, so people might become ignorant to the wider world.

We then moved on to the paywall.  The simple fact that we might have to start paying for online news shocks most people.  For years we have been happy paying for newspapers and magazines but for some reason most of us think that if we access the same information online it should be free.  Everything is moving from paper to the web.  Gumtree and Ebay has suffocated the classified the same as free online news and entertainment is suffocating newspapers.  How do people expect the creators of the news are supposed to make any money?  Something to think about.  I wonder if a paywall is introduced, will people stop caring about the news because they simply don't want to pay for it online?

Lily x

Lecture 1 - Telling Factual Stories

After frantically searching for the lecture theatre for some time and stressing about being five minutes late, I was relieved to be greeted by a very enthusiastic and welcoming Dr Bruce Redman.  I knew straight away I would enjoy myself here.  I had just sat down when Bruce was discussing the essence of journalism.  This was when I heard Philip Graham's words, "Journalism is the first rough draft of history."  It struck a chord with me and left me wondering how vital our future as Journalist's is.  

Unlike in other subjects, I felt a really strong, interested and passionate vibe amongst my peers.  As I looked around the room, it seemed as though they were really keen to get stuck into it.  The lecture was an introduction to get our creative juices flowing and to meet Bruce.  He went through the assessment and my initial reaction wasn't so good.  When I heard we had to 'blog' I broke out in a cold sweat.  After severely procrastinating about it, I had a firm talking to myself in the mirror and here I am.  "Telling Factual Stories" was the essence of Bruce's lecture and it got me to thinking about my future role as an aspiring Journalist.  Hunting for the truth and stopping at nothing until I find it.  After all, "I am the Journalist".

Lily x

Media Use Diary

I'll be honest, when we were delegated this assignment, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what my media use would look like mapped out in a table or a graph.  I expected to use the internet a lot more than I should, clock a decent amount of hours in front of the TV and not read nearly enough as I should.  After scrupulously making sure I logged all my hours correctly, I was shocked to find that my initial assumption couldn’t have been more wrong!  
We were asked to log our media use over the course of 10 days.  I chose to focus on the five main mediums I use regularly.  Firstly, the use of my phone.  This includes texts, emails, web browsing, social networking, applications and music.  Secondly, using my laptop for web browsing, social networking, academic use and entertainment.  Followed by TV, print and radio. 

One of the first things I noticed was that I don't really consume/produce as much media as I originally thought.  As shown in figure 1, my computer usage is fairly standard, if not lower than average.  Maybe I'm not studying enough!  Comparatively, my television consumption was stock standard, if not a little lower than the majority of students. I think a reason for this could be the fact that I'm very social.  I don't enjoy sitting at home very much and I find any opportunity I can to hang out with my friends.  

My radio consumption, similar to my peers, was mainly from listening in my car and I noticed spikes in my consumption on days I drove to the Gold Coast to visit my family.  Surprisingly, in this current age, I do use a substantial amount of print media.  However, as much as I would like to say that I'm reading newspapers, it's actually time spent reading '50 Shades of Grey.'  Oops.

The hours I spent on my phone, however, was quite alarming!  Massive spikes in phone consumption occurred on Friday and Saturday (obviously).  If I was to get rid of my phone, I would have an extra 35 hours in a 10 day period.  Oh, the things I could achieve...then again, I'd probably need my phone to achieve them!  

I want to focus the attention now on the two main forms of media I consume.  Figure 2 shows that the bulk of what I do on my phone is production in the form of social networking (more commonly referred to as stalking).  Seriously though, in this regard I'm quite similar to the rest of my Journalism cohort because we all seem to have our phones glued to our hand at all times.  Something quite atypical of my data in comparison to the rest of the cohort is that I don't have an Instagram account.  I was shocked to see that a staggering 43% of the group have one.  SMS closely follows my social network production which indicates that I produce more than I consume.

Figure 3 shows what I spend my time doing on my computer.  As expected and similar to my peers, social networking takes the cake.  The group data showed that YouTube was the second biggest hit but I rarely use YouTube so again, I was atypical in that respect.  

The ten day period in which I collected data happened to be quite a social time in my life and I would say that during that time, my phone usage was above average while my tv/computer consumption was below average.  This took me by surprise, especially considering the olympics was on.  Having thought of it, I used the 'London 2012' app on my iPhone to get most of my olympic updates.

My media consumption is heavily weighted upon outside influences and my plans on any specific day.  Before I started this course, I didn't blog nor did I tweet.  After ripping off the bandaid I can honestly say that I quite enjoy blogging so I can only predict that my media production is going to skyrocket in the coming months.  Stay tuned.

Lily x

The awkward bit...

I'm not going to lie, I have been putting this off for a while now but it's finally time to break the ice. My name is Olivia Pollard but I'm better known as Lily.  I'm in my second year of applied science at UQ...so it might seem a little bit random that I'm taking a journalism course but let me explain.  I have always been fascinated by the media and once dreamed of being a tv presenter (cliche, I know)!  

I have a few passions and often wish I could live more than one life so I can follow through with them all.  Animals are my number one and I have applied to get into Veterinary Science starting in 2013.  The performing arts comes a very close second so If my Vet career falls through, NIDA here I come!

I love Channing Tatum, green tree frogs, my dog Chester and crunchy apples.

Until next time,

Lily x