Introduced to Journalism?

Do I feel like I've been introduced to journalism? I can confidently say that this course is appropriately named. The difference between the girl who attended lecture 1 and lecture 14 is uncanny. To be honest,  I didn't know what to expect from this course. I chose to study journalism because in high school I seemed fairly good at english and I enjoy writing. At the beginning of the course, the lecturer said: "Anyone who chose journalism because you like writing, your doing the  wrong degree". A quick glance around the lecture theatre and it was obvious that like me, many people suffered a mini anxiety attack at that very moment. However, many weeks later, I understand what the lecturer was getting at. It all really depends on what area of journalism you want to make your mark in. I have never aspired to be a hard core print journalist with stringent deadlines and shrinking word counts, like many I'm sure, the feature writing, in depth and influential aspects of journalism have been my attraction. This course has made me realise both the difficulty involved in entering the journalism world, but has also revealed the potentials this "brave new world" brings into the journalism profession. As we keep getting told, now is an exciting time for journalism, despite the deathly outlooks for traditional media, so I guess you could say for now I'm just going to go with the flow, try my best to keep blogging, perhaps even start a new blog, be active in the twitter world, and just write and write and be the journalist our lecturer always told me I was. 

Euro Gap Year

The long awaited Hamish & Andy's Euro gap year finally arrived to our TV screens, brightening up the gloom of prime time Thursday night television. I must admit I've never really been a Hamish & Andy fanatic, but now I know thats only because I didn't know the extent of their comical value. Running a muck in Europe, the two best friends take on everything from death defying bridge jumps, drag racing taxi drivers through the streets of England and participate in the serious sport of rabbit jumping in Stockholm. While watching this program, laughs aside, I couldn't help but feel the decision to work full time in my home town during my gap year was a massive mistake. Besides paying off my car, and surviving the first semester of university unemployed I can't help but feel i've missed out. I might sound a tad dramatic, as I'm only 19 and have got my whole life ahead of me, but I just feel so under travelled. I guess for now all I can do is dream of lands far far away and hope that one day I'll be lucky enough to get there. I've just realised this has turned into a deep life reflection instead of a light and fluffy tv program overview, oh well, below is the trailer for the series have a look! 

Fashion Blogosphere

Fashion Blogger: It's something I've always want to do. I've dreamed of doing it as soon as I found out about this strange new thing called blogging. I don't consider myself a fashionista of any degree, I just like the thought of being able to express how I feel through what I wear, pushing beyond the materialistic qualities of fashion. In light of our last lecture in JOUR1111, blogging has become more and more appealing to me. The latest marketing creation from Toni&Guy "Blogged and Bound"explores the intertwining relationship between hair and wardrobe. Twenty influential bloggers from Australia's fashion blogosphere were chosen by Toni&Guy to join the "blogged and bound" campaign, including two of my favourites Oracle Fox and Sabo Skirt. While viewing the campaign I was captivated, the style of the writing, the photos, the stories, they all excited me. Here's a quote from the campaign's home page that really sums up what I was trying to get at up there ^ 


"Fashion is not defined by fabric or thread, but by ideas, life, people and places. It’s the elusive fibre that intertwines mass culture and individuality. Fashion is how the world talks 
to you, but your interpretation of fashion is how you talk back." 


I was going to try and write about what the campaign had to say about each individual blogger, but I just can't compete with the creativeness and just pure goodness of the writing. All I can say is if your interested in the wonderful world of fashion, hair and beauty this is a must see! You can flick through the campaign here

The dingo did eat her baby

Lindy Chamberlain is a famous name in Australia for all the wrong reasons. I wasn't even born when this case first came into to public scrutiny, but I've always thought that Lindy was innocent and a dingo did in fact take her 9 week old baby Azaria Chamberlain all those many years ago. While watching Sunrise this morning, the question was raised whether Lindy and her family deserve an apology from Australia. In my opinion, an apology doesn't quite cut it. Not only did Lindy serve years in jail for a crime she did not commit, but this tragedy has shaped their family and the way they go about their lives.  The fact that 32 years later, the court ruled Lindy Chamberlain and her family innocent, is an ultimate display of persistence, determination and courage.  After four inquests, a murder trial and a judicial inquiry, Lindy and her family have fought for justice like no one ever has. After the coroner broke down offering her deepest sympathy for the family, not a dry eye was seen in the courtroom. The awaiting press applauded them as they walked out of the courtroom proudly displaying Azaria Chamberlain's death certificate. I can't help but feel that the Australian public, Australian government and specifically N.T's government owe this family something more then they could ever possibly give. 

The End; The Last Lecture

What a way to restore our faith in our perspective journalism careers. For our final lecture to our introduction to journalism, the chemistry graduate turned media writer Steve Molk covered the art and potential of blogging, twitter, and anything-social media.

Suffering a mid life crisis, the IT professional decided he wanted to write. He described himself as a lazy person who likes to sit on his arse and watch a lot of TV, I’m not proud of it but this is something that I can relate to ( I don’t know how but the morning show sometimes has the power to make me stay in my pj’s right up until the midday movie comes on, then I give myself a reality check and start my day.) Steve’s take on the new media platform of blogging really motivated me. Although it’s relatively new on the media scene, it’s very powerful. Blogs provide you with an escape from mainstream media; I found it very interesting that some countries like China and Korea ban some social media sites at the fear of people finding out information that the government doesn’t want them to know. Another point Steve mentioned that appealed to me is that blogging gives you ultimate freedom to express your view, when you want, how you want and from whichever angle you desire. This is something that your not able to do when you work for a media organisation, you have sub editors and editors telling you what to do and how to do it.

Steve talked about journalist Mia Freedman. I didn’t know it before this lecture but since Mia has become my career idol. At the age of 19 she did work experience for Cleo magazine, and as I’m sure just like any other 19 year old girl this to would be my dream come true. Just 5 short years later, she became the editor of Cleo, the moved on to be the editor in chief of Cleo, Cosmo and Dolly. After leaving the magazine world behind and working on the Channel Nine Network, Mia decided to leave traditional media behind and join the new media revolution. This saw the birth of Mamamia, a blog that you could say is extremely popular, covering everything from current affairs to fashion and pop culture. I’d better stop here other wise this post will become a bio rather then a lecture review, but she really is living my ideal life.

Before I leave the subject of blogging, I’d like to share some of my current favourite blogs.

Oracle Fox: Fashion Blogger, photographer and visual artist  

What Katie Ate: A clever foodie photography blog

Face Hunter: A fancy fashion blog

Steve then went on to talk about the wonders of twitter. Until this course I had never imagined my self using twitter, as a girl of many words I find 140 characters to restricting, but its not all about the posting of the amazing sandwich you just ate. The ability to connect and communicate with journalists, entertainment figures and politicians is something we thought would never be possible without going through media agents, PR people and personal assistants, but alas! Twitter has done it.

So I’m going to wrap it up here, I must say I’m appreciative of this lecture. It was certainly an eye opener, motivational and encouraging. I now realise that my journalism career has started in my first semester at university and that as budding journalists the online world really is our oyster.

Fun Fact: I only like oysters Kilpatrick

Investigative Journalism

My second last lecture in this course turned out to be the most compelling and you could say inspiring lecture. Throughout the lectures this semester, I began to deeply question my chosen career path of journalism. Churning out hard news stories and living my life by meeting deadline after deadline didn’t seem like my idea of living at all. So it was a welcome relief when my initial, unclouded and somewhat novice perception of journalism made itself apparent when Dr Redman covered investigative journalism. In a way its ironic, because you would expect anything you read that has been written by someone in the journalism profession to be well researched, thought out and planned. However, as I mentioned earlier a little thing called deadlines and of course money stop this from happening. Investigative journalism is the stuff that has the potential to change the world, and if that doesn’t inspire me then I don’t know what would.

These are the characteristics of investigative journalism that hit home with me:

Active intervention: the journalist doesn’t spend their days sipping skinny latte’s behind their desk; they’re out their getting involved with their story. The time spent on the story should almost make the journalist go insane, their sources should be well researched and thorough, just like the facts.

Exposure: appropriately titled Custodians of Conscience on the lecture slide, (Ettema and Glasser) investigation takes what the society considers normal and moral and identifies any breaches that may appear and brings them into public scrutiny. News of the world scandal anyone?

Public Interest: I like this one; it’s the idea of giving a voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless. In a sense it delivers social justice.

Fourth estate/Watchdog: In a way journalists are democracy detectives. Through interrogating the judiciary and government they ensure the free flow of information necessary to maintain a democratic society.

Dr Redman then went through and discussed the historical and honourable achievements of investigative journalism. The two trail blazers that stood out to me and are still fresh in my mind many weeks after this lecture are:

-       W.T. Stead and & The Salvos (William Booth); The maiden tribute of the modern Babylon. These journalists exposed in graphic detail the abduction, entrapment and sale of young girls to British brothels in the nineteenth century. Their investigation lead to the age of consent being increased from 13 to 16.

-       Although its not as awe-inspiring as the other trail blazers and it didn’t really change the world, the fact that student reporters from UQ uncovered something extremely news worthy and as a result the story was published seems pretty commendable to me.

The lecture then covered how to get an interview and what to do when you’re actually interviewing. Then of course, then inevitable threats to investigative journalism were covered, ranging from shrinking newsrooms to the rise of PR.

All in all, I consider this lecture to be the most interesting and captivating. It left me thinking that maybe even amongst all this gloom and deathly outlooks for journalism, investigative journalism is so powerful that surely it wont be resting in peace any time soon. 

Rookie Reporting

So there I was in the VIP room at Noosa Food and Wine Festival. I look to my right and I see Matt Preston and Matt Moran jovially chatting away, no doubt critiquing the food samples they were devouring. I look to my left and I see camera lenses longer than I thought possible, news crews and reputable reporters. Although the badge pinned to my dress says “press” I cant help but feel slightly scared, overwhelmed and powerless. Then I thought, hey, I’m never going to get anywhere in life if I let fancy cameras and people wearing channel 7 hats get in the way of me getting my story. So with all my non-existent experience in approaching famous/recognized people for an interview, I went on up to Master Chef winners Julie Goodwin and Adam Liaw and somehow, I got an interview. It turns out they were both very lovely people, I explained I was a journalism student reporting on Noosa Food and Wine Festival and they were more then happy to have a chat to me. Julie even asked me all about my degree and what I wanted to do! And yes, this was for an assessment, my final task for my reporting course. I’m not going to post the final video here, only because I find my piece to camera far to cringe worthy, but here’s a few happy snaps J