News Values - Lecture 10

I have to be honest. When I saw the next few topics including this lecture I thought to myself. Please, No. Being a third year in a course made up of predominately first years already makes me feel old and sometimes a bit stupid. I put of all my journalism classes to get through all my political science ones first which is why I am starting this now.

When you get to your third year you start to hear repeats of certain topics in different courses. I remember at one point in time all my POLS classes having the exact same topic around the same time in one semester. I have done a similar course to this called Politics and the Media and we went through a lot of media works and sociology of news. So of course I am here thinking, I know all this already. I got over my big fat head and decided to just go to the lecture.

News Values = The amount of importance a story is given by a media outlet and the amount of attention an audience gives.

News values are:

• Impact
• Audience Identification
• Interesting
• Relates to what is happening around you
• Relevant to your cultural audience 
• Pragmatics
• Ethics
• Facticity
• Practice
• Everyday (24/7)
• Source Influence
• Media PR
• News and PR have a love to hate relationship
• News is incapable without PR

Dr. Redman also went into detail about News Worthiness and what factors control the worth of a story to a particular audience. The Galtung & Ruge 12+ factors were too long to state every factor so everyone car look back to their lecture slides. 

Here is a reduced list of 4 basic values (Judy McGregor 2002):

• Visualness
• Appeal to audiences
• Conflict
• A tried & true news value
• Emotion
• Tied up with human interest
• Celebrification of the journalist

"IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS."

Ethics Lecture 8

I am not sure if I was the only one who thought this lecture was going to be exceedingly boring, then again I think any lecture is going to be exceedingly boring. I know, I am so happy to be learning. Lets just say sitting in a class is not my most delightful hour. However, this hour seemed to be quite the brightened one.

I did spend most of my time looking at the handout that was appointed during this lecture and tried making sure I was super neat and doing exactly right. I think I was convinced that this was going to be secretly marked on the sly and I had to make a good impression.

This lecture was taken by Dr. John Harrison. Nice Guy.

I obviously was not expecting all the photographs in this lecture. I was expecting a hand out with 100 dot points on things not to do in Journalism. So I was quite easily entertained once my low expectations had been squashed.

While there was entertainment there also was theory.

Ethical Theories:

• Deontology 
• Rules
• Principles
• Duties
• Consequentialism
• It's getting a "good" or "right" outcome that matters
• Never mind how you got there
• The end may justify the means (a saying I know too well being a POLS student)
• Virtue Ethics
• Habits and character create virtues such as
• courage
• justice
• temperance
• prudence

My personal favourite billboard that was shown during the lecture was the Air Asia.

In case you missed it.

I remember seeing this near my house and just thinking. Clever. 

Annotated Bibliography - Politicians and Late-Night Comedy.

Baym, G. 2007. ‘Crafting New Communicative Models in the Televisual Sphere: Political Interviews on The Daily Show.’ The Communication Review 10(2): 93-115.

Geoffrey Baym, writes an intriguing journal article exploring the rise in the use of Daily shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a means of political communication. Being a peer reviewed journal article in a credible journal, The Communication Review, Geffory Baym also actively teaches in the Department of Media at the University of North Carolina, which offers credible insight and knowledge in to the workings of media and communication. In the lead up to the 2004 presidential elections in the US there was a massive embracement of using late-night comedy shows as a platform for political discussion. Baym uses The Daily Show as his primary example and strives to examine the way TDS uses rules from both ‘public affairs and celebrity chat’ as a form of interaction. Baym largely commits this article to the argument that while there may be no legislative drive behind it the use of interviews used through TDS offers a much-needed change to the political communication. The conclusion of the argument suggests that The Daily Show offers an example of a communication that ‘constructs argument and demands accountability’. The three other media sources that will be annotated allow support to the article and show the increase of politicians using platforms of entertainment as ways to communicate. While this journal article was published in 2007 and may hinder the accurate account of current political communication it certainly has credible argument towards the increase of political use through entertainment based television shows. 

Ross, M. 2004. ‘Younger Americans get news from a new place’. MSNBC.com. Accessed on May 25 2012. Available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5520569/ns/politics/t/younger-americans-get-news-new-place/#.T78X7mj7I20

Reporter and News Editor for MSNBC.com, Michael E. Ross, has a standing reputation for reporting on trends in politics, culture and race in America. His long resume includes The New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News and many other news channels. While the credibility of MSNBC may have declined over the recent years Ross’s work and long line of credible experience allows this article to be reliable. The article addresses the January report from the pew regarding young Americans that get their election news from late-night comedy shows. The report found that 21% of young Americans from the ages 18-29 were accessing their election news from shows that were mentioned in the journal article text such as The Daily Show. The article seems to take a biased view towards using comedy shows as political news. Ross uses a Syracuse University Academic, Robert J Thompson, who argues that using these avenues, as a source of news is ‘a bad thing, pure and simple’. This article fits well with the text by Graham Baym and shows support to the argument that there is an increase in the use of daily shows as a platform for political communication.

Gray, M. 2007. ‘Campaigning in Late Night’. Time.com. Accessed May 25 2012. Available at http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1657421,00.html

Time.com Producer and Writer, Madison Gray has an impressive backing of experience behind her. Like Michael Ross from one of the other texts of this annotated bibliography, Gray, also has experience with large and credible news organizations such as The New York Times. As well as Internet news experience she also has had a hand at a weekly podcast and a radio consultant in Ghana. As with the other two texts, Gray highlights the growing use of comedy late night shows for political communication. This text now looks at an event in which Hilary Clinton appears –for the seventh time- on the Late Night With David Letterman show and notes how she has become a regular interviewee and has even used the Letterman show to announce her candidacy for the U.S Senate in 2000. Like the previous text by Ross, Gray addresses the Pew Center study that suggests a large majority of voters get their political information from these shows. However this text takes into account an alternative view that allows the premise that this stimulates political participation and offers a personal side to the political leaders that traditional news would perhaps not show. It is becoming an obvious trend that the proliferation of political communication through these channels is a notable change throughout the evolution of politics and communication. 

Burkeman, O. 2009. ‘Obama sells economic plan on Leno show.’ The Guardian. Accessed May 24 2012. Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/20/barack-obama-economic-recovery-plan

British Journalist, Oliver Burkeman is a writer for the world-known newspaper The Guardian. Burkeman is perhaps one of the most praised out of the journalists used in other texts receiving Foreign Press Association’s Young Journalist of the Year as well as being shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. Burkemans achievements along with his notable job create a credible source for this text.  The article explores President Obama and his appearance on another late-night comedy show, Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Obama surprisingly used his time on the show to pitch his plan for economic recovery. While the other three texts may have expressed an argument towards using these platforms to show a more personal side of politicians, Burkeman used press spokesman, Robert Gibbs, who noted that this appearance was not a humorous visit but rather a policy building towards Obama’s economic plan. This last text is a more recent event that shows the way that political leaders such as President Obama still use the platform of a comedy talk show as way to interact and address the public. While the other three text may have become a bit out dated this texts offers a still standing argument towards the increasing use of talk shows. 

Factual Story Telling Assessment

Project Faith in Action.

Public Media. Lecture 7.

Ahh Public Media. Something I can be more fond of rather than its opposite, Commercial media. The Public Media can be dramatically described as the media for the people. Rather than relying on the money value the public media is clearly used to serve citizens. It can be noted however that Public Media can also be for profit as long as its main objective is to serve the public and not the profit. Within Australia the avenues that we can access the Public Media is predominantly through the SBS and the ABC.

In the lecture it was shown that the Public media should have 'Public Value'. That 'Public Value' has been described by the BBC as:

• Embedding a 'public service ethos'
• Value for license fee money
• Weighing public Value against market impact
• Public consultation

The prime functions of the Public Media include

• Nation Building
• National Heritage
• National Identity 
• National Conversations

For me the Public Media that is predominately accessed is the News. This is also one of the key mechanisms for the Public Media. The only time I ever watch television I always have it switched to the ABC and am either watching Q&A or ABC worldwide. In the lecture interesting facts were shown that came as a surprise the two that stood out were:

1. 41% of Australians get their news format he ABC
2. Each week 12.6 million Australians watch ABC TV

This brings a warmth to my soul knowing that we are not all about the trash and some of us Australians are getting a decent education even if it just through the News. 

The Public Media do however face challenges and these challenges included:

• To produce quality
• To make themselves relevant
• To engage with the democratic process
• To inform the public
• To be independent

The realisation of how big of a job the Public Media have for themselves in ensuring this To-Do list gets done makes me want to tip my hat to them even more. 

Commercial Schmercial. Lecture 6.

Commerical media has a wide range of avenues, free-to-air tv, paid tv, newspapers, radio stations and magazines. This type of media is essentially profit driven. It is not government funded or license funded. The profit stream comes from the use of advertising and using the audiences gained to respond to advertisement used. The greater the audience the greater exposure of advertisements.

Within Australia there is many actors within commercial media these include:

• Nine Entertainment Co. 
• News Limited
• Fairfax Media
• APN News & Media
• WIN corporation
• Southern Cross Broadcasting
• Seven West Media
• Ten

Alike many of my peers the surprise revelation of companies owning what we the public see as competing media. For example, News Limited - The Australian and The Courier Mail. This aligns nicely to the conclusion that Commerical Media is essentially just for the MONEY. 

A question was posed during the lecture asking, "Can commercial media deliver on both commercial (profit) and social (public trust) functions? (or is it really just about the almighty $ dollar?)". My answer to this question would be a straight No and Yes, it is all about the almighty dollar. An example of this came about not that too long ago. I was sitting at home surprisingly watching the television (that is rare for me) and for about 5 whole seconds a breaking news reel came across the screen stating "Breaking News: 8.7 earthquake off Indonesia. Tsunami Warning". I have never shared my story but my parents are missionaries and my Mother could possibly be in Indonesia (I didn't know which one at the time since I had not heard from her in a week and she moves too fast for me to catch up). For me this message is alarming, I expected the next advertising break to at least have a news update on exactly what had happened considering there was a 'Breaking News' reel shown. This did not happen. The advertisements started and all it showed were those annoying back to back insurance advertisements. I remember thinking right at that moment "Damn you, Commerical Media!". 

Now the quote by John McManus from the lecture springs to mind, 'Commercial = corrupt; lack of quality; profit over-rides social responsibility'. I highly agree with this quote and am disappointed that this is the reality of commercial media. 

PICTURES and STORIES. Picture Stories! Lecture 4.

PICTURE STORIES is definitely my kind of story. Or rather my kind of lecture. By now I am sure you have a gathered I love visuals. Old or new a photo or a drawing sparks joy within my soul if I am able to relate or be moved. 

Dr. Redman showed us what I assume is his favourite youtube clip of the Dove transformation advert

Before this lecture I had never actually seen this before and I found it quite cool. Growing up around this kind of 'picture' journalism I have never been oblivious to the fact that this activity happens. At the moment I am reading Tina Fey's very funny book, Bossypants. In the book she talks about photoshop being used on her photos and takes a different argument on the subject. Unlike most arguments that fight for the right of self-esteem and natural beauty if you will, Tina Fey tells it straight in her book stating "Give it up. Retouching is here to stay. Technology doesn't move backwards". She also argues, "At least with photoshop you don't really have to alter your body. It's better than all these disgusting injectables and implants". I for one agree with Tina and not just because she is awesome. A lot of people do it at home on their own pictures for Facebook or twitter anyway. Natural beauty is great but people always want something they can't have at least not without surgery therefore Photoshop is the easy way out.

The Jonathon Thurston case study was an interesting hands way to show at how different pictures depict the same story in very different views. I was very interested in other peoples picks of which photo made it as everyone thinks differently. Also learning that the photo used was taken on an iPhone is great and shows that everyone is able to take a great photo without having to be 'professional'. This adds confidence to knowing 'I am a Journalist'.

Text and Journalism...who knew? Lecture 3

To be honest I was a little late to this lecture as my European Political Issues lecturer went way over the time limit. I was also confused as to why there was a woman talking as I did not know there was going to be a guest speaker. This speaker was, Skye Doherty. I did make it for the end of the slide on the inverted pyramid. I love that little guy, I remember back in the day in English at High School he was my best friend. I used it for so many different assessments and also in Legal Studies. I was very surprised to hear from people around me that this is the first time they have ever encountered the Inverted Pyramid.

The one thing I drew from this lecture is the 'Poynter Eyetrack' slide. Being a very visual person especially when it comes to pictures rather than text I found it quite surprising that pictures are not the entry point to the homepage. I tested this on myself and a few others in my family and I came to the conclusion that without viewing the text first, the pictures on the page become more or less of a 'nothing' to you. Either that or the pictures loaded after the text popped up first inevitably making it the first thing you are drawn to.

The keywords as text also struck a chord within. I had never processed the fact that keywords and metadata  would play a huge part in online newspapers. Keywords for any type of journalism on the internet would be an extremely important factor in order to gain audiences and traffic. Revelation!

Media Use Diary

Ten Day Log

Break down of media usage.

Overview of Media Use.

This graph does not include the use of, Skype, Texts and Calls

Internet (Facebook, Email, Twitter, Blog, News and Studying)

Facebook

Alike many of my peers and basically the rest of the world, Facebook plays a huge part of my life. Whether it be that I am procrastinating from studying, constantly checking my phone for updates just because the phone is in the palm of my hand or just actually keeping up to date with friends and family. In comparison to the rest of the JOUR1111 cohort there is no surprise that I am not the only one in the Facebook boat.

I am a bit skeptical at how accurate these results are from the survey about media usage completed by all the JOUR1111 students. I am very surprised that 12 people out of the 436 who answered the question do not have a Facebook. I applaud you to whoever you may be, for being the 2.8%. 

As you can tell from the internet usage graph, Facebook, takes up a majority of my internet usage time, I have calculated this time from throughout the day and the majority of time I do spend on Facebook is when I am on the train commuting to and from University. This is because I travel from the Gold Coast to UQ and an hour sitting/standing can seem like a very long time when I am not occupied with anything to do.

The time spent on Facebook I use for a majority of different things,

Connecting with family and friends 

Stating my opinions publicly 

  and 'like'-ing Celebrities, Musicians, Politicians, and News organisations.

I do use my Facebook time connecting with news and current affairs, as well as interacting with commentary about such events and issues with the wider internet community. 

Blogging

Before JOUR1111 and the requirement to blog being forced upon us all I did have a blog and therefore have nothing to really complain about. I used to use blogger previously but grew out of that blog and into Tumblr. Unlike a lot of other fellow Tumblr friends I don't use pictures as my main source of blogging but rather music. I do include text, however it is on rare occasion that it is just text without a source of music being provided. Apart from JOUR1111 and the use of blogging for journalism purposes I have not interacted with many journalism blogs. As addressed in the first tutorial in JOUR1111, the question 'what is journalism and is blogging a form of journalism?' (not exact wording used but close enough) was brought up. I have not as yet come to a conclusion in my own mind about whether it is or isn't, I do find justifications for both answers but am yet to choose a side.

Twitter

This will be a short and sweet paragraph. My use of twitter is still very scarce, I am finding it difficult to get into and have not yet trained myself to keep checking it. My first twitter account I have signed up to is for the use of JOUR1111 and my effort to use it I know is quite appalling. I still am yet to understand the 'hashtag' and the '@'-ing (I know, slap me). In the 10 days of doing the media use diary I did make an effort to attempt to spend time on twitter and increase my usage but as you can see in my log no more than 15 minutes was ever spent on it in one day. 

News and Studying

My main interaction with journalism and communication is definitely through online news platforms. I am currently subscribed to the International Herald Tribune which, is costing me a lot more than I would want to pay for my news. I did subscribe in effort to encourage myself to engage in world news on a daily basis and to broaden my horizon on subject matter as well as information that would be useful to me in my Political Science major and now Journalism. As you can see I do use online news sources more than televised news or reading a newspaper. Apart from the International Herald Tribune I do also make a point to interact with local and national news and since starting JOUR1111 I have started making it a point to check up the brisbanetimes.com on a daily basis. 

Television and Audio (Music, Radio, and Podcasts)

Television 

My usage and interaction with the television is little to none. I have never been able to watch television for long periods of time and hardly, if ever, find interest in watching it at all. In the off chance that I do however watch television most times it is to watch a documentary that I can hear my family watch from upstairs or am interested in a particular event that I would like to watch live. On day 9 of the media usage log I did watch a whole 60 minutes of the television. If no one has guessed yet what this was for, it was to watch the progress of the state-elections on Saturday 24 March 2012. I only dedicated 60 minutes of my time towards the televised event due to the major upset that the LNP created for the ALP in securing the majority of the seats so fast. Therefore after the LNP had secured the majority I stopped watching and decided to follow the rest of the election online.

In comparison to the rest of my cohort I could be placed within the second major category, less than one hour. Although if it weren't for the QLD state election most weeks I would more likely to be placed in the Zero hour category. My observation of this survey has led me to the assumption that there really is a rise in the use of 'New' media and am now starting to realise why the television is placed within the 'old' media spectrum. 

Radio, Music, and Podcasts

Like the television, Radio, is far from my prominent media usage. Although it is still used, I only ever listen to it in the car on my drive too and from the train station to come to university. I choose to use Triple J as my main station when it comes to the radio due to music choices as well as the their news segment. Compared to the local stations offered on the Gold Coast, Triple J, I have found delivers listenable, interesting and relevant news to what I am interested in. I do also like the Hack program broadcasted by Triple J on weekday afternoons from 5pm-6pm, although I do rarely get to listen as I am usually on the train. 

Not surprisingly, I do fall into the majority of the categories for the amount of radio I listen to on a daily basis. I am surprised at the large amount of the JOUR1111 cohort do fall into the less than one hour category. I am also saddened by this factor and will after this realisation perhaps take into account using this source of media more and more often.

Music and Podcasts is a major usage for me as I find music very relaxing and a great medium for me to exert my down time towards. Podcasts is also something I frequently delve into as I like to listen to new podcasts on the train to and from University. The podcasts I listen to is Kevin Smith's Smodcast and Hollywood Babble On segments. They are based around satire and humour and although they re not news related podcasts, I would still consider them related to journalism and communication as they frequently bring up current news and issues that have arisen throughout the week.

Reading

Newspapers

My usage of the 'Old' media, newspapers, is still quite high I thought before comparing it to the survey produced by JOUR1111. 

Although I am not surprised by the results produced for TV and Online News, I am happy to see that Newspapers is still of some prominence for the JOUR1111 cohort, especially due to the large amount of first-years in this subject. 

As well as online news, newspapers, is also a major source of news and current affairs that I use. I usually read the newspaper in the morning whilst drinking coffee or while waiting for the train at the train station. I rarely finish it or read it extensively but I do use it as a platform of information for local and especially state news. 

Conclusion

The media usage diary has definitely brought to light many new observations to my interaction with journalism and communication. I will take away from this analysis the realisation that the use of 'new' and 'old' media is becoming exactly as their titles suggest. While I will not sort to increase my usage of television, I will use radio to experiment and try increase my interaction with journalism. 

In other news...

I was searching around random websites the other day when I came across job openings to become a writer for online magazine, PRIMO. One of the requirements was that you had to have actually read the magazine... fancy that. I then became interested in what this magazine entailed and read their about page that stated,

"Formed in the hopes of bringing the coolest things on the planet to you in one convenient place, PRIMO! magazine happened. With writers, and contributors alike covering topics from music reviews, up-and-coming clothing releases, kicks, and some retrospective views on the cool shit from the past, PRIMO! is everything you ever wanted, all in the one website.

                                               Favoritize, Bookmark, and memorize it. 

PRIMO! magazine; Cooler than high-5's and rocket ships."

After reading this I was very intrigued at how cool this magazine really was and came across this article that made me laugh just a little, okay maybe a lot. So in juxtaposition to my last post, here is an example of journalism I do not find life changing or rather simply just 'eye rolling'. 

Read article here.

Epiphany.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an event that is definitely a top ten finalist on my bucket list. What else is on this bucket list... I have no idea. But I do know that SXSW is on it. This last week has been a blogging and journalism journey that I only just realised within the last 5 minutes. I have read close to a hundred different blogs from both amateur and professional journalists all related to the giant conference, SXSW, located in Austin, Texas.

Music is a major part of my life. I am not going to say it is my life because that is not true. I do not walk around with headphones in my ears 24/7 and many other sources of 'communication', if you will, get me through tough situations. My point here is, I love music. Like many others my taste in music is quite acquired and to spark my interest every box in my imaginary checklist must be ticked. When I find that special sound that resonates with me I feel like it is my duty to share it to the world. Apart from this blog I have one other that deals purely with music. To be able to use blogging as an avenue to enjoy music further through sharing and reliving the experience through text (and not just text) has lead me to appreciate the art of journalism. I would not have been able to experience life from SXSW from the comfort of my home if it wasn't for the involvement of journalism and communication. I have JOUR1111 to thank for that because I now see a never ending view into the future and opportunities that I was perhaps blind to before starting this course. I always knew that the evolution of journalism and communication into the internet was there, I just never really appreciated it fully until now.

Nakedness within Lectures 1 & 2

Shalom. Thought I may as well get this on the ball as soon as I can so I don't continue to put it off. Yeah that did not happen, this post sat in my drafts for four more days. Oh well. Obviously this is awkward for a lot of people, including myself. I already have a somewhat blog so I am not entirely new to this but the thought that 400+ other students that will walk past you knowing you but not knowing it's you (if that makes sense) is incredibly daunting.

Please wait patiently whilst I decide what I am going to write and how I am going to write it...

Okay.

Being my third year at university going into the first lecture was just another day in life. After the assessment was discussed I became afraid of this course. I have only done politics classes before this semester. The realisation that I do not have to think about tutorial presentations for copious amounts of readings and extensive essays makes me feel uneasy. Some people may be thinking, why would you be afraid? The reason is because I am so used to extensive amounts of research and stress related to my assessments that trying to relax to write a blog is actually stressing me out. I know. I'm stupid. This is my sixth or seventh attempt at writing a first blog and I will most probably be moving onto my eighth very soon.

The second lecture was a completely new experience in my university life. I have never received jellybeans for the sake of an illustration before which was a much welcomed experience. Learning about 'paywalls' and the changing face of news websites to make you subscribe to view content is not a new experience for me. Whilst I was listening I realised, I am already paying for my news content. Yes, I am already subscribed to the International Herald Tribune - New York Times. My subscription costs me around $6.50 a week and now that I think about it, I feel a little ripped off. Being a political science and public policy major I need to be on top of my game. I like to know everything about foreign affairs and political campaigns and my subscription encourages me to do so because I pay for it. I am now confused and stuck on the question, 'Should I pay for something that I perviously had the right to for free?' Ironically since the second lecture I have only read about one article with my subscription. An article I could get for free if I would just take the 20 free articles a week they allow you to have. Great.

Hopefully as the semester progresses I become more confident in my blogging and less stressed about writing it. I also hope I come up with a reasonable answer the question I posed above. Join me on my journey. Or don't.