Something exciting...

About a week and a half ago, I put a photo on the "I am UniQue" facebook page to try to win a camera.

This photo to be exact:

This photo was taken as a part of the photoshoot my school organised for my graduating class. This is on the Great Wall of China (no we didn't fly all the way there, I graduated from high school in Beijing).


Well, it didn't happen. HOWEVER, I was selected as a person that would take part in a photoshoot and give a short interview, which was equally cool :)

So today, I had a very busyyy morning. I then trudged across campus, after jumping in the shower, to the Joyce Ackroyd Building. Little did I know it was about to pour with rain so I did not bring an umbrella. BIG MISTAKE. However, I did use my lecture notebook, for a completely useless class that I'm taking (not JOUR1111, I promise), so I was only partially soaked through. When I turned up for the interview, shoes in hand, book over head and dripping (3 minutes late as well - very sorry about that guys), I probably looked like something the cat wouldn't bother to drag in. However, everybody was very welcoming and soon I was standing on a pedestal "working it" in front of the camera.

It was so much fun! I had met both Matthew & Allie before from doing the free JACS workshops in photography, and Ms. Rooney was my tutor for JOUR1111 so I was lucky to be working with people I already had met, though I am positive that they would have made anyone feel relaxed because of their encouraging and friendly manner. This is something I noticed and appreciated, and I would like to imitate in the future when I am interviewing people because it was very effective in enabling me (as the subject) to open up and feel comfortable.

The photoshoot was somewhat awkward for me but since my father is an avid photographer I'm quite used to it so it wasn't too bad. And hey, who doesn't like to be told that they look great and are photogenic? (Although, since I was looking like I'd just fallen in a pond, I'm sure they were just being kind). The interview was also good fun!

Though this activity, I was exposed to what interviewing is like so I was really lucky and grateful to have this experience. It was an amazing chance for me to see what these things take to be produced and what it's like 'behind the scenes'. I think that it will be helpful when it's my turn to start producing things for my journalism career :) THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE INVOLVED & JACS!

Week 9: News Values

This week we discussed News Values.

This was probably one of my favorite lectures thus far in the course and this is why: RELEVANCE!

We basically looked at what news values are according to many many different sources. Essentially, news values determines the 'newsworthiness' of a story. Thus, the level of prominence a news sources gives a particular story and (as Dr. Redman put it) the attention that the audience pays to the story as a result.

I was so intrigued by this lecture because once we started to look at all the different news values determined by various people such as Galtung & Ruge and Golding & Elliott, I started to see how this can be applied to all major news stories.

For example: news values as defined by Galtung and Ruge (1965) were...
1) Negativity
2) Proximity
3) Recency
4) Currency
5) Continuity
6) Uniqueness
7) Simplicity
8) Personality
9) Expectedness
10) Elite Nations or People
11) Exclusivity
12) Size

Hence, when I tried to apply relevant news values to a current 'hot' story I saw how many corresponded with the level of prominence of the story.

I.e. The Story of Missing Mother - Allison Baden-Clay
What news values apply to this story?
1) Negativity - it is bad news (tragedy, possible death, etc)
2) Proximity - it occurred in Queensland and thus is close to home - audiences supposedly relate more to stories that are close to them geographically
3) Recency - the news broke soon after she was reported missing
5) Continuity - there is a big likelihood that this story will have a continuing impact as the search for her body continues
12) Size - the bigger impact a story has, the more people it affects, the more money/resources it involves, the higher it's value... a lot of people were affected by the story and involved in the search (which also required resources and people) and thus it was a story that had a high 'threshold'

So we can see that many popular news stories can be seen to relate to these prescribed news values.

Additionally, I feel that the three 'newsworthiness' hypotheses (as deemed by Galtung & Ruge) can be easily applied.
1) The additivity hypothesis that the more factors an event satisfies, the higher the probability that it becomes news.
2) The complementary hypothesis that the factors will tend to exclude each other.
3) The exclusion hypothesis that events that satisfy none or very few factors will usually not become news.

Particularly, the additivity hypothesis is seen as applicable to this story because it became such a popular news story and it satisfied many of the factors listed above.

The exclusion hypothesis is also important because when I was trying to apply news values on my preferred online news source I could see that none of them didn't satisfy any of the news value factors. So, clearly if the story doesn't satisfy enough of the factors, it simply isn't considered newsworthy.

Reiterating why I enjoyed this lecture so much and why I thought it was relevant is because I could actually apply this theory to real life journalism and when I looked at this theory in practice I could see it influencing the stories that were published on many news sites. Being able to understand how theory influences practice enables me to appreciate the theory more and better understand how to apply it.

In future, if I had to, I feel I would be able to better predict what sort of stories would be popular since I now know what sort of factors affect the newsworthiness of a story.

I think there are differences between what news values we hold dear today vs. the past. For example, as discussed in our tutorial, we seem to value stories and information regarding our health much more than the past. Health and wellness appears to be a 'trending' story in the media nowadays. In terms of what are tomorrow's news values... It's very hard to predict but since the news values determined by Galtung and Ruge were written in 1965 and they are still pertinent today then I believe they will remain determinant factors of newsworthiness well into the future.

Finally, what do I think  is newsworthy? I think anything that informs or educates the public, raises awareness about something that the public should know about (regardless of whether they find it interesting) and, finally - though perhaps this is of less importance, things that people find entertaining as well.

Annotated Bibliography

Word Count: 899




Reuters - Online News

Slosson, M. (2012, May 20). Status update: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg gets married. Reuters.com. Retrieved May 24, 2012, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/20/us-usa-facebook-marriage-idUSBRE84J01I20120520

This story, written by Mary Slosson and published by well-respected news provider; Reuters, is effectively split into two parts. The first is a description of the happenings during the wedding with details such as Chan’s dress and the wedding dinner. The second half illustrates why Zuckerberg’s marriage is newsworthy by stating that he was Times magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ in 2010 and that he is worth over $20 billion. The details Slosson provides in the story correlate with many of the accepted news values such as; celebrity, good news, simplicity, relevance, personality and continuity, thus conveying why this story is of public interest.  Slosson gives details from other sources such as ‘People’ magazine and ‘tweets’ from Tim Carvell of ‘The Daily Show’, giving a well-rounded response to the news, which makes the article a credible source. Although ‘People’ magazine may not be the type of news provider that Reuters would usually source information from, because it is celebrity news means that it is acceptable to use information from a source that specializes in this. The article is written in a clear and concise manner and though just 496 words long, includes all the important information, such as the marriage announcement and such. It also includes a small and superfluous photo gallery containing one picture from the wedding and two paparazzi shots from their recent holiday to Shanghai. Slosson concludes, in typical short story reporting style; that the couple hadn’t responded for comment.

Good Morning America - News Video

Harris, Dan (Anchor). (2012, May 21). Good Morning America [Television Broadcast].  New York, U.S.A.: ABC News.

Dan Harris of ABC news tells the story in a light-hearted fashion but gives a good overall description of the event as well as hints at what might have happened despite the secrecy that shrouded the event. The story appears quite credible as ABC supports the story with pictures/video, enabled by the medium. The fact that he is a celebrity and has an intriguingly private personality, makes this story more fascinating. Similarly to the Reuters story, it focuses on giving details that draw a parallel to the news values of the piece such as his net worth and company. The video includes a clip from Gizmodo’s Editor-in-chief Joe Brown about the style of the wedding announcement and opinions from legal experts that the timing of the wedding will make it more difficult for his new wife to legally claim any ownership on the company. Outsourcing for expertise provides the video with a more educated tone. The video medium allows the presenters to include photos of the venue, potential performers of the wedding, the attendees as they arrived, the caterers and more, thus allowing more details than the Reuters print story. Considering that this piece was shown on a morning show (generally after the time most people leave for work), it makes sense for the style of the piece to be very jocular, as it is not targeting people who are looking for the most important news stories.

Media, Culture & Society - Journal Article

Gorin, V., & Dubied, A. (2011). Desirable people: Identifying social values through celebrity news. Media, Culture & Society, 33(4), 599-618.

This journal article is especially well written because it introduces the terms and develops the argument very clearly. It starts out with defining ‘celebrity news’ and highlighting its relationship to news values. Gorin and Dubied also explained the public interest in celebrity behaviour. This article is well researched with many sources from French and Western journals giving an international perspective on the issue. The charts and subsequent analyses shed light on topics such as the categories that rep­resent the main themes composing the events involving celebrities. It is interesting to note how many of these categories relates to the news of Zuckerberg’s nuptials including; relationships, love life, lifestyle, professional life and personality. The research in the article is consistent with the aforementioned reasons why the Zuckerberg story was treated with a high level of importance and is because the general values of celebrity news, and primary news values in general, correlate with the main aspects of the story. Moreover, we learn that whilst it is common for bad news to attract high levels of media attention, it is true that good news also has a weighty level of news worthiness in celebrity news. This article gives an interesting and encompassing perspective on celebrity news which analyses, in an in-depth manner, the interest and intrigue surrounding celebrity news and how it constitutes as news.

Sarah & Vinnie – Radio Podcast

Sarah (presenter), Vinnie (presenter). (2012, May 21). Sarah & Vinnie [Radio series episode]. San Francisco, U.S.A.: CBS Local.

This form of media is a locally produced radio podcast. It contrasted the other forms of media because it was much more informal and less detail oriented, which could be attributed to the fact that they don’t have access to the same level of information as more reputable news operators. The program is hosted by CBS local media, which is a division of CBS Radio Inc. They discussed his marriage, the ring, his company going public, whether they signed a pre-nuptial agreement and if he will move out of his current home which is rather modest. Despite not being highly factual, the medium allows the presenters to give their opinion on the subject, which is not encouraged in more traditional media outlets such as; Reuters for example. They avoided giving specific information unlike the Reuters article and the ABC News video. Keeping with the casual approach, there is no formal conclusion. This source does not appear to be the most credible of news sources but it does provide an alternative, entertaining style of presentation.

Reference List:

Gorin, V., & Dubied, A. (2011). Desirable people: Identifying social values through celebrity news. Media, Culture & Society, 33(4), 599-618.

Harris, Dan (Anchor). (2012, May 21). Good Morning America [Television Broadcast].  New York, U.S.A.: ABC News.

Slosson, M. (2012, May 20). Status update: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg gets married. Reuters.com. Retrieved May 24, 2012, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/20/us-usa-facebook-marriage-idUSBRE84J01I20120520

Sarah (presenter), Vinnie (presenter). (2012, May 21). Sarah & Vinnie [Radio series episode]. San Francisco, U.S.A.: CBS Local.

Week 8: News Ethics

Taken by Kevin Carter, 1993.

This week we talked extensively in our tutorials about the image above. This photo was taken by Kevin Carter in 1993 and he won the Pulitzer prize for it in 1994. There was much backlash and uproar after the photo was published and this unfortunately played a contributing role in Kevin Carter's subsequent suicide. 

Whilst there was much controversy surrounding the photo and Kevin Carter's ethics in the taking of the photo, I think it is very unfortunate that this happened. Many many people would have reacted without knowing the full story. Even when I was talking about this photo with a few friends at dinner (by total coincidence) prior to starting JOUR1111, my friends expressed their disgust at him not having helped the child... They were clearly unaware that he was under strict instructions to leave the child alone. Thus, it is obvious how easily people can be misinformed and how dangerous misleading information can be... 

Ethics is obvious a very important yet vague aspect of Journalism. I think that ethics are often very subjective. We looked at advertising primarily in the lecture because, as the lecturer stated, the regulations and principles of advertising are applicable to journalism and PR. Many of the images that we looked at in the lecture were quite tacky or 'in bad taste', but I didn't think many were unethical. However, even though it could be argued that they were 'in bad taste' I thought that the tackiness may have actually added to the effectiveness of the advertisement. For example, the image below which is a quit smoking campaign:

I think the 'naughty' aspect of the billboard would actually help people to remember the message and therefore do it's job more effectively. 

We then moved onto Australia's "Where the bloody hell are you?" tourism campaign. While I don't think it was unethical, I agree that it was perhaps in poor taste. However, whilst researching for a tourism subject I am taking at the moment, I found that despite it being in poor enough taste to be banned from British television, it was still watched by over 100,000 people in the UK online before it was released on television. So, bad taste or not, it was still rather successful and this is, perhaps, attributed to the controversial nature of the ad. 

In conclusion, I believe that risque things are sometimes a good way to grab the readers' attention but I also think that if journalists find themselves aiming for the 'shock factor' then perhaps they need to review their content to see if it is worthy of the attention they seek without the sensationalism. If it isn't, then they need to find better stories.