Factual Storytelling Exercise

Click on the link below to listen to my factual story: 

Story Recording

Information given in the recording was found from these sources:

1) FAQS. (n.d.). Preeclampsia Foundation. Retrieved April 26, 2012, from http://www.preeclampsia.org/health-information/faq

2) Pipkin, F. B. (2001). Risk Factors for Preeclampsia. The New England Journal of Medicine, 344, 925-926.

Week 7: Public Media

"The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens." Nigel Milan.

This is the quote that opened our 8th week of JOUR1111 classes. Evidently, after looking at commercial media last week in class, the natural progression was to public media.

Last week we learnt that commercial media is profit-driven media production and fails or succeeds on business success.

Public media is a completely different ball game. One definition of public media is:
"In general, a media whose mission is to serve or engage a public... Increasingly the term "public media" is less associated with taxpayer supported media; it may be for profit as long as its ultimate aim is to serve the public and not to turn a profit." WGBH Educational Foundation Conference.

This is a very suitable and clear definition and I've included it because it is relevant and modern.

As I said in my last post-lecture blog, I think there is a place in the landscape of Australian media for both commercial and public media. Commercial media may be profit driven but that means that it must attract a large amount of viewers to be successful, public media is not profit driven and thus has different goals for the media it produces.

Public media must have 'public value', which makes it an important form of media for the public.
Public value', according to the BBC, is defined as:
1. Embedding a public service ethos
2. Value for license fee money
3. 'Weighing public value against market value'
4. Public consultation

This public value ensures that public media is conveying information that means something or should mean something to the public. It also means the public has a say in what they view which is an important feature of public media (although public consultation is likely not limited to just public media).

Finally, I really appreciated the advantages and disadvantages that were raised towards the end of the lecture because I hadn't considered all of them before.

Advantages for public media included:
- serious
- broadcast style
- importance over interest
- considered (not quick or unchecked)

Thus, when watching public media we know that they are giving us information that is important and considered relevant to society at that point in time. They're not going to be talking about who punched the paparazzi or which 'celeb' is getting a face-lift. Also, their information is thoroughly checked before it is published/broadcasted and most of the time this means the information is more accurate and reliable. Additionally, public media could also be said to have more connections through government sponsors and thus can often access information that commercial media cannot.

The disadvantages of public media were listed as:
- boring
- elitist
- of limited interest
- poorly presented
- out of touch

The other side of having a serious, broadcasting style is that it can be considered boring. Personally, I often get bored when watching public media. Also, although I know the information being discussed is of public interest, it often doesn't interest me. The 'out of touch' comment is interesting to me. I can see how this could be argued since the information that is presented is said to be due to importance rather than interest but I think this means that the information (whilst of limited interest to certain individuals) is not out of touch. Rather it is in touch with what is relevant to Australian audiences at the time but they're simply not interested in those particular topics or they want more flashy stories to read about.

It may be hard for public media to stay true to it's traditional form since now commercial media is also producing news, but I think it's important that it tries to. Otherwise we will not have enough variety in our media which is always important.

Finally, the last point I'd like to discuss is the effectiveness of public media being a government watchdog. The slide read "There is a tension between being a watchdog of the government while being allocated funds by the government. It has to 'bite the hand that feeds it'."

This point is of upmost importance. It's hard to imagine that public media can be totally unbiased when it is receiving financial support from the government. Public media is considered to be a fair, reliable source of uncensored (within reason) media but it's hard to believe that it can be totally impartial when it is discussing it's sponsors.

I learnt a lot from this lecture because it opened my eyes to the 'behind the scenes' of public media and made me realize that public media has is drawbacks too.

How Much is Too Much? The Case of Wikileaks

WikiLeaks has seemingly dropped off the radar compared to just a short while ago (around the end of 2010/beginning of 2011) when the media couldn't go a day without an update about WikiLeaks or it's founder Julian Assange.

WikiLeaks was highly controversial from the moment it went public. Personally, I thought that it was very dangerous and somewhat foolish even revealing so much private government information and communications to the public. In Australia, we enjoy the right of the "five fundamental freedoms" and we have access to a lot of information from our government that citizens of other nations do not. However, it is my personal belief that there are some things that should be kept within the government for our own safety/protection. Our government is already quite transparent (although I know people will argue against me on that point), but after having lived in a communist nation, I know this to be true comparatively.

It is definitely true that if you do something wrong, you must be held accountable for your actions - and potentially WikiLeaks could be used as a responsible watchdog. But it is also true that sometimes confidential information is confidential for a reason.

No matter what your view is on the subject (whether you support things like WikiLeaks or not) knowing how much to disclose is something for all journalists to consider when they write and publish stories of a highly revealing, sensitive and uncensored nature.

So Wonderful!

Just wanted to share this gem! Glasbergen definitely summed up today's style of communication and relationships. 

Current Thoughts...

I have been thinking long and hard about how to present my factual story - it's much more difficult than I thought!

I finally found my story. I knew I wanted something that was very interesting and emotional at the same time. Both my father and grandmother almost died during my dad's birth due to a condition that is very preventable nowadays. When I was discussing the project with my family, my dad gave me the idea and I'm glad that I chose it. Having a great story to tell has made me much more motivated to do the best I can possibly do, but as a result, this assignment is all I can think about. Eeek!

After listening to the sound lecture, I'm really interested in using a voice recording to present my story. The sound lecture gave me some really great ideas about how to be personal and curious and educational. I listen to quite a bit of radio from time to time and I think it's a great way to tell a story but I wouldn't know whether to do it in an interview style or just have the person who's story it is tell the story or tell the story myself. It's tricky to decide which would be the most appropriate format.

I gave some thought to presenting it in a photo gallery accompanied by voice recordings but there are not enough photos from that time to present it properly. We are also able to do a video recording but since my father lives in a different country, I wouldn't be able to film it myself, so that is no longer an option.

I would love to be able to sound since I haven't worked much with sound in the past - I've mainly focused on text and video based media so I think it would be a great opportunity to try something new. I'm in the brainstorming process right now and I hope to have a plan ASAP :)

In other news, I have also been using my twitter account a bit more so I'm happy with myself for that since it was one of my aims after doing the media usage/production diary. It's actually been a lot of fun and I'm happy with the people who I'm following at the moment - I've got a great mix between obviously my JOUR1111 classmates, comedians, actors, news presenters, news sources, etc. So there's always something interesting to read.

I've also been having a great time over the holidays because I'm finally able to catch up on what's going on around the world. I love having the time to read more than one news story a day.

One story that caught my eye was the story about how many miners are quitting their jobs due to the brutal conditions they face whilst working. The link to the story was "Miners: We fly in, we fly out... We quit." I think since mining is becoming such a huge industry in Australia at the moment, we really need to be taking care of our miners and making sure their mental health is well looked after. According to the story, written by Anthony Deceglie, six figure salaries are not enough to stop one in three miners from quitting within a year. Problems such as binge drinking and drug usage have also been affecting workers at the mines. I think this statistic is very worrying. I have friends who are doing mining in university and whilst they may be doing more of the office work they are still on site and thus susceptible to these problems also. I hope the mining companies find a way to balance work and play for these miners in a healthy manner. I think it's good for the public to have awareness about this issue  because then the mining companies will be questioned and forced to review the situation and find a solution.

Read more of the story here: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/fly-in-fly-out-workers-quitting-hard-life/story-e6frg12c-1226326651683

Week 6: Commercial Media

From what I learnt this week, I think there is a need for both commercial and public media. The big question we looked at was "Can commercial media deliver on both commercial (profit) and social ('public trust') functions? (Or is it really just about the might $$$?)" 

Since we have controls in place such as: formal state requirements, legal prescription and state oversight, I think it is possible for commercial media to deliver on both commercial and social functions. Of course, the motivation is primarily for profit but there are many great commercial media sources. 

We also learnt about the future of commercial media. While I think trying to put paywalls is a questionable move, I definitely agree with greater competition, better quality and moving existing customers to digital. 

Social responsibility of The Media in a Democracy:

1. a truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent

account of the day’s events in a context which

gives them meaning;

2. a forum for the exchange of comment and

criticism;

3. the projection of a representative picture of the

constituent groups in the society;

4. the presentation and clarification of the goals

and values of the society;

5. full access to the day’s intelligence.

(Hutchins Commission 1947) 

I was very interested by the Hutchins Commission because although it was written a long time ago it still is very applicable and relevant to the producers of today's media. I think as budding journalists we all have a responsibility to pay attention to the ethics behind the media we produce and make sure that we are fulfilling the responsibilities of the media in a democracy. 

Week 5: Sound Lecture

This week's sound lecture touched upon many aspects of radio and media.

Richard Fidler really impressed me when he said that he thought that the most important thing was the he was fully interested in what he and his guest were talking about, which I really liked :) It's great to hear from someone who is passionate about his work.

Another thing I appreciated that he said was that he likes to let the people talk and enable them to feel comfortable enough to keep going by not interrupting too much. I think more radio presenters could learn from him in this regard.

A few key points from both interviews I got were:
- If you work with media, it helps to be versatile
- Good TV does not translate to good radio
- TV is a high impact media
- The key to a good interview is to create a safe and comfortable environment for your guest
- Different styles of interviewing work with different guests - e.g. a TV presenter may need to be more normal so crack a few jokes, or if you want someone to talk freely don't fire questions at them
- Show your guest respect by listening to them
- Silence in radio is very powerful, it is both truthful and revealing
- Keep asking questions + reading the paper
- Think about what the audience wants/needs not what you want to talk about
- Radio is the 'theatre of the mind'
- Be human and go for the human experience
- Don't ask what they ask you not to ask
- Don't give up even if you're not naturally talented

Steve Austin was also a very interesting person. I liked most what he said about not giving up on something just because you're not naturally talented at it. Since I am also a person who is not naturally talented at many things but is willing to work at them, I was relieved to hear someone who has succeeded due to hard work and not due to natural abilities.

I really enjoyed the sound lecture. It was a great example of how you can get a look into someone's life without even seeing them. Everything they both said about getting to know the person despite only hearing them talk really hit home because after I finished listening to the two interviews I felt like I had been in the conversation as well, it was very well done. It has also given me ideas about our upcoming factual storytelling exercise assignment. Perhaps I should follow the wise words of my tutor (Ms. Carmel Rooney), who said that we should use this assignment to broaden our experience with different forms of media, and give a sound piece a go? It's a medium that I would like to become more experienced with and this would be a good opportunity to try.

It's definitely something for me to ponder. We shall see...