Journalism-Lecture 7- Public Media

This week's topic for our journalism lecture was Public Media. Some of the topics which were discussed were what is public media, what is it's role in a democratic society, who are the major players, the various functions and challenges media producers may face and some functions of public media.

The definition of public media is essentially to provide media which will serve or engage the public without the intentions of creating a profit. One of the quotes used in the lecture, which I thought creatively summed up the difference between commercial media and public media is by Nigel Milan, the former managing director of the SBS. He states, "the difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens". I really liked this quote because it highlights the difference between the aims of commercial and media broadcasting. The major distributors of public media in Australia are ABC and SBS and their various digital programs and radio programs. 

Both broadcasters are on free-to-air television, radio and online so they are on a multi-platform level. In terms of financial aid, both companies are funded by the Australian Government.  However, the SBS is partially financed by advertisers and sponsorships. In particular, the ABC is operated within a charter which ensures that the ABC remains independent, unbiased and most importantly, representative of Australia. 

Furthermore, the ABC aims to show and share a multiplicity of views. Whereas, the SBS focuses on reflecting the diversity of Australia through a multiplicity of voices. 

There are also examples of public media all over the world for example BBC in England. Basically we learned that every country has their own public and commercial media companies. 

When discussing the role of public media in a democratic society, it aims to broadcast media which is in support of the public and democratic processes. 

One of the things that I was surprised to hear was that the ABC have no resources and barely any extra money so they have to copy the news from the other broadcasters and present it as their own. This is because they simply do not have the funds to report the news properly. 

The ABC was founded in 1929 and was dubbed the 'nation building project'. Ever since then, it has always been a well respected corporation in Australia. It creates shows such as Angry Boys from Chris Lilley, the Australian Story and Hungry Beast. 

On the other hand, SBS was launched in 1980 as a multicultural channel which aimed to reflect the changing nature of Australia. In modern times, SBS has since changed from no advertisements to having about 20% of their funds coming from advertising. Some of their programs include world news and Insight.

I found the challenges that Public Media face on a daily basis really interesting. These include, to produce quality programs worth watching, to make themselves relevant to a large audience, to engage with the democratic process with relation to political opinions, to inform the public of current issues in Australia and finally, to be independent. 

Some of the functions of public media which were mentioned in the lecture were nation building, national heritage, national identity and national conversations. 

I enjoyed this lecture because I was able to see how much the public media relies on funding from either the government or from advertisers. I also really respect ABC and SBS for continuing for this many years producing authentic Australian programs which the nation as a whole can enjoy. Furthermore, I found learning about the history of ABC and SBS and seeing all the programs they produce really insightful. 

I really hope they are able to keep broadcasting programs and keep Australian media genuine and true to our Australian ethos. 

Easter Break Media Viewing

Over my Easter Break I was watching the 60 minutes program on channel 9 on Sunday's at 7:30pm-8:30pm. This program is one which I love to watch and try to view the stories almost every week if I can.
This past week's program had two very interesting stories aired and they both were focused around topics which receive very little media awareness.
The first story was about crimes committed on cruise ships and how the cruise companies solve them. The answer? They don't! I was absolutely astounded and horrified to discover that if a crime is committed on a cruise ship... there is no investigations or convictions but rather it is just swept under the rug. I was also surprised to hear that so many crimes have occurred and nobody has heard about them and the poor families have to live without knowing the answers to the disappearances of their loved ones.
Below is the link to the 60 minutes website and the video and transcript it available to view. The story is called, "Ships of Shame".

http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8447235

Moving on to the second segment on the program, a story titled, "The Fat Gene". This story was very interesting because it showcased some studies and opinions which had never before been heard. The point of the story was that if you are overweight, and after diet and exercise you lose weight, your body will just put the weight back on because it wants to be bigger. This study was done by the University of Melbourne and it gives a lot of overweight people answers as to why they just gain the weight back on again. I thought it was an insightful viewpoint and study because it highlights a reason for our obesity epidemic in Australia. However, there is a contrasting study from America which concludes the age-old prophecy that you just need to exercise more.
Below is the video and story transcript to the segment.

http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8447228


I really enjoyed this week's 60 minutes and I think it is a great program for delivering really interesting stories in a mature and sensible way.

I hope everyone is having a relaxing Easter break!

Journalism-Lecture 6- Commercial Media

Today's lecture was around the topic of Commercial Media.
 I thought this lecture was one of the most interesting ones yet. We firstly focused on the question, why does commercial media exist?
 Well essentially so advertisers can get their message out and seen to as many people as possible. Furthermore, when commercial media is defined it means profit driven media production which is not funded by the government. It is so production companies can create audiences to sell advertisements to and thereby creating a profit for them.

The major players in this industry are News Limited, Fairfax Media, APN, Nine Entertainment co etc. We then broke down the different companies into what forms of media they produce e.g film, television, newspapers and then which publications each ones own.

 I learnt things through this because I didn't know that some publications belonged to certain companies and that some are linked together.

The form of commercial media is organised into three groups; subscription eg. Foxtel, sponsored e.g Nine network, and subsidised e.g by the government.

The function of commercial media is mainly for social and propaganda purposes.

We then were asked what is commercial media's role in a democratic society?

 To which the answer on the screen read, "can commercial media deliver on both commercial(profit) and social ('public trust') functions? (or is it really just about the mighty $ dollar?)

Some opinions of what the social responsibility of the media in a democracy are "a truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day's events in a content which gives them meaning; a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism, the projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in the society, the presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society, full access to the day's intelligence".

We then talked about the policing of the functions of commercial media and various quotes were shown making insightful points on how the media should be a government-free zone. 

If control were to be placed over commercial media, it would be in forms of the government agency regulating the content, state press subsidies and licensed journalism.
In terms of the style of journalism, many critique claiming it has little quality or substance which  may be true in some cases. Thus, results of the style of commercial media is the dumbing down of news on programs such as today tonight and a current affair and the tabloidisation of programs. 

There are many challenges that journalism and in particular commercial media are currently facing for example the advertising revenue is decreasing steadily and if that decreases the amount of money available for television will decrease. 

I really enjoyed this lecture because I learnt a lot about the different media companies and how much they really own and how many different forms of media they have access to. In a way it scares me how much control Rupert Murdoch etc have over today's media because he is able to manipulate the way the media is depicted and what is held back and what is not.
I also was surprised to hear that the advertising revenue is decreasing and as a result the television productions will fall. I think it is very sad and some things need to be put in place to ensure our television programs are able to keep producing to the public.

JOUR1111- Personal Media Use and Production Diary

My name is Jemma and I am a 17-year-old studying a Bachelor of Arts degree. I decided to study journalism because I have always been interested in the always-transforming nature of the industry. The various different facets of the profession fascinate me and I hope to learn the basic skills of a journalist.

Media Usage Log 

Days	16/03	17/03	18/03	19/03	20/03	21/03	22/03	23/03	24/03	25/03	Total
Facebook	128	30	40	30	45	50	30	50	60	50	513
Online News	15	15	5	5	10	15	10	10	5	5	95
Blogs	3	5	3	2	2	4	5	5	2	2	33
Tumblr	2	2	3	2	5	3	2	1	0	1	21
University	0	0	0	260	120	150	160	120	120	120	1050
Television	180	0	60	180	90	40	50	200	50	60	910
iPhone music & Apps	30	10	20	15	15	15	20	20	10	20	175
Magazines	10	0	0	10	0	10	0	10	10	0	50
Book	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	0	0	30
Online TV shows	0	0	0	0	40	0	0	0	43	43	126
Online shopping	10	0	0	0	0	10	10	0	0	0	20
YouTube	10	9	10	12	4	3	4	3	18	4	77
Total	388	71	141	516	331	300	291	449	318	325	3130

Figure 1

Figure 2

After completing a media usage survey for ten days, I have gathered together all of the media outlets I interact with on a daily basis. I learnt a lot about my media usage habits from this task. For example, I was very surprised at the amount of time I spend on Facebook and watching television. These statistics are depicted in Figures 1 and 2. After completing the log, I was astounded because I always thought these types of New Media were a minority in my life. Furthermore, I discovered that I am a student who spends a lot of time on types of New Media and barely any on Old Media. Examples of the difference between are shown in the image below.

Source: http://larunadhir.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/old-vs-new-in-media-melange.html

In my opinion, the survey that the entire cohort completed was extremely useful for this task. The results in comparison to my results were not surprising. Most students were 17-18 years old, female, had a Facebook account and an Internet-enabled smart phone. My three main contributors of media usage were Facebook, Television and University work. These areas were also extremely common in the survey of the JOUR1111 cohort. My usage of Facebook as a percentage across the ten days was 34% as shown in Figure 2, however it was not the activity I spent the most time doing. Compared with the students who spend 91.9% of their time online on Facebook, my percentage is different. My average time spent watching television per day is 91 minutes. When comparing this statistic with the common figure of the cohort’s usage of 1-2 hours per day, my usage is almost exactly aligned with it. However, the biggest consumer of my time is University work with an average of 105 minutes per day. This statistic differs from the cohort’s score as only 49.5% of students spend most of their time online studying or researching.

After seeing the results from my personal log, I think I use Facebook to excess. I study full time and according to my personal log, I am on Facebook for approximately 8.5 hours over a period of ten days. I have an iPhone and this enables me to be on the Facebook app when I am travelling without a computer. I was really surprised when I saw exactly how much time I was spending on the networking site daily. Primarily because it is a natural instinct to visit Facebook when I open my computer or turn on my phone. 

In light of the past couple lectures, I think my total of 513 minutes on Facebook in ten days reflects the significance of the Semantic Web. It shows that teenagers are constantly online. However, in comparison to my peers, the time I spend on Facebook is average.

Following this media log, I have discovered that my consumption of Television is fairly high. I watched TV a total of 910 minutes in ten days, which is equal to approximately 15 hours. According to Figure 2, television takes up 29% of my time. In my daily routine, I watch television whilst I am eating my breakfast before university. As can be seen from the log, on the weekends I watch a lot because I find it relaxes me. In relation to journalism, this evidence confirms that I have maximum exposure to TV journalism, text and advertising on daily basis. In comparison to the survey taken by my peers, my statistic of around 1.5 hours of television every day falls in the most common category of 1-2 hours for most students.

With reference to the media usage log and the corresponding graphs, university and anything related is the main consumer of my time. The category included lecture and tutorial time and extra study. I study full time so this statistic is not surprising. At the end of every day I study in the afternoons and evenings and also to do some on the weekend to keep up to date with the workload. With university I am exposed to several types of media such as PowerPoint’s and news outlets. My relationship with journalism is strengthened through this routine, as not only am I immersed in media studies, but also my daily life is filled with real-life examples of the industry. In comparison to my fellow peers, 49.5% spend most of their time studying or researching online. Thus, my statistic is a little lower at 34% but is similar in the way that the majority of time is spent on university work.

Overall, I was very surprised at the extent I rely on New Media, in particular social networking. I think this exercise enabled me to see the amount of time I spend on media without thinking and I thoroughly recommend trying it yourselves.

Journalism-Lecture 5 Reflection

The blog post below entails all the notes from the radio excerpt we were given as a sound lecture this week. I would just like to reflect on the lecture in this post.
I thought the concept of the sound lecture was really interesting and I loved hearing the radio interview excerpts because it is very rare that I listen to radio. Moreover I really enjoyed hearing about the various thinking and what the radio hosts have to do in order for an interview to run smoothly. I didn't think about the live aspect and how the host must always think of his feet and adapt to the guest.
I also learnt a lot from the advice both guests said, such as  "worldliness is good, read the paper, keep reading, keep asking questions, be open minded, expose yourself to thoughts of ideas of people you don’t agree with and you will know who you are better , expose yourself different currents of thoughts, expand world view as much as possible". I thought this advice was crucial for journalists who aspire to be in broadcasting and it really helped me to find some clarity in my career path.

Journalism-Lecture 5- Radio excerpts

This week's lecture was structured a little differently to the past weeks, it was an online sound lecture and it was two excerpts from radio programs. I have taken as many notes possible so I will post them for the readers of my blog! Below is essentially all of the main points mentioned in the radio interviews.

The first speaker was Richard Fidler from 'Conversations' program on ABC local radio.
The general topic for the interview was telling stories for radio.
 Richard was saying that what he needed to learn was that radio is very different medium to TV.
For example you can't say what you will say on radio on TV and you can't put a camera in a radio station. It will just make for bad radio and dull TV.
Radio is more intimate than TV. TV you can watch from a distance because it is a high impact medium, it comes at you.
Whereas, when listening to radio, the listener is multitasking and doing other things like driving or walking the dog.
Radio sort of feels like the Voice sort of comes from inside your head.
The listener should feel included in the conversation you are having on air. Richard was saying that sometimes a really interesting guest can come on and it can become a closed conversation.
An important lesson is to keep the listener involved in the conversation. In relation to Richard's program, "Conversations", it is an hour long with a guest.
Usually biographical in nature, and the guest is well known but it is better if the  guest is someone you have never heard of before.
The conversation is also about ideas as well as biography on a good day.
 In order for the story to be able to sustain for an hour, Richard has to be genuinely interested and need enthusiasm.
 Furthermore, he states that he is confident it will work before because of the pre-production crew.
A lot of pre-preparation has been done before guest has been in the studio, the guest is prepped and relaxed and know what direction the interview is going in.
Richard says that the key to a good interview is for the subject to feel safe and in a trustworthy environment where they can share their story.
The style of interview cannot be too invasive, sometimes you can tease the talent so they can laugh.
 If they are an experienced media personality they often go into a mode and then you have to take a different approach and use humour and be like a normal human being.

The times when guests are the most memorable is when they remember things for the first time. It is always very interesting. Richard says he loves moments where people surprise themselves and they have trust in the program to open up.
It also is a privilege to be part of the recollection when moments like that happen.
He says that he doesn't say that much and he gives the guest a lot of time to explain themselves.
The times where interference is necessary is if the guest they lose themselves or go off track.
 Giving the guest the time to pause and reflect is also disguised as a prompt and a technique.
It is the gateway for subtle body language indicating to the guest that they can take their time. Moreover, silence is powerful on radio.
With relation to Richard's listening habits, he says that ABC radio is thriving in new environment. Radio is the  Oldest electronic media. It is unscathed in the sense that it gets new technology and is able to effortlessly blend in to new environments.
The interviewer then asks Richard that when in the studio by yourself, how do you maintain the warmth for someone you cannot see?
 Richard says that he imagines his listeners typically as someone who needs local radio to keep informed on what’s funny and weird etc in the world or  someone who needs a break or laugh from the pressure of daily life.
The target listener can be aged from 20-60 who want to know what’s current in life and remain contemporary. He also says that the sense of public service gives an energetic feeling.

Finally, Richard's advice for students of journalism is that worldliness is good, read the newspaper, keep asking questions, be open minded, expose yourself to thoughts of ideas of people you don’t agree with you, expose yourself different currents of thoughts, because you will know who you are better and expand your world view as much as possible.

I really enjoyed this interview, I thought Richard was very insightful and easy to listen to. I also related with his pieces of advice for budding journalists. I thought the different parts were crucial and thoughtful for students of young age studying journalism.

The radio interview then switched to a different presenter. His name was Steve Austin from ABC local radio Queensland.
He said that the first thing he learnt was that in radio your voice has to be annunciated whilst still being yourself.
The aim is to try and communicate and bring down the barriers between the listener and you. One of the quotes used in this interview was that "radio is the theatre of the mind".
I liked it because it enables you think about radio in a different way.
 Steve says that the best thing to do is to reflect who you are speaking with and to not think about yourself and think about what does the audience want or need?
 Some challenges that he has faced depends on the time slot and what he knows about the talent. Steve said that if he wants to know something he will pursue it.
  Furthermore, he mentioned that the average listener is good in that the human voice and ear have a perfect marital relationship.
He said that people can tell when someone is lying on radio rather than TV because on TV there are distractions by visuals where as people can tell if someone is being fake on radio.
Steve says that his tips are that to observe the talent's body language, reward their trust and give them space to reveal themselves.
Another nice quote was "As it is in life, as it is on radio". Which basically means that if you wouldn’t do it in life, don’t do it on radio.
 With posing questions to listeners, Steve said that he is blunt and will say a simple question such as 'do you agree?'
He found that the less complicated the question the faster they respond. Making it easier on the listener is beneficial.
Some components of a good interview is to search for human experiences, look for emotional responses of things that come from a deep place. Human beings are emotional and driven by life experience which is very broad.
 Another interesting point which was raised was that there has been several changes in the way people consume media. For example, radio has continued and is becoming bigger all over the world.  Radio is good for the people who are time poor and also it is nice for a human to connect with another human subconsciously. Over time radio has gotten better and become more real.

Some tips that Steve gave was that if you are not naturally talented then do not give up and if you really want it then go after that. Don’t give up because you may become a more interesting person if you have knockbacks. The best moments he said is when a guest reveals something personal and forgotten they were on radio, they have told their story and became quite open.


Overall, I thought this lecture was really helpful to understand what the life of a radio presenter is like and the importance of radio and how different it is to TV.
In year 12, I was lucky enough to talk on ABC radio on behalf of my school. I was able to interview fashion designer, Leigh Buchanan which was a great experience. I was able to relate to what the guests were saying because I had already experienced being in a studio live.

The Apple effect

After reading through some Economist magazines I came across this article, "An iPopping phenomenon" and I thought it was worthy to share.
I thought this piece on Apple was interesting primarily because it ties in both my fascination with economic markets and well written articles.
It was a bonus that the article was about the rise and rise of Apple in the stock markets. This topic I am always intrigued with. I too have the iPhone 4 and a MacBook Pro and my family are a 'Apple family'. I agree that Apple has completely revolutionised mobiles and internet accessing for this generation. The article also ties in with topics of past lectures such as photo-journalism and picture stories, text and the new World Wide Web.
http://www.economist.com/node/21551058