Week Nine

This weeks topic surrounded the concept of News Values. News values being, to steal a quote from the slides, "The degree of prominence 

a media outlet gives to a 

story, and the attention that 

is paid by an audience."

To elaborate upon this quote, I'll add another by Kurt Loder, also from the slides: 

‘news is anything that's interesting, that relates 

to what's happening in the world, what's 

happening in areas of the culture that would be 

of interest to your audience.’

As I've probably said in previous entries, I believe News Values are becoming quite inverse. By that I mean superfluous tabloid type information is becoming the most read information. This is linked to Loder's quote as it inexplicitly says that we as a culture are becoming increasingly self centred and superficial and thus so is our news. This of course isn't entirely true as there are still very much watched stations such as ABC News and SBS World News, though I do think it is true enough to be worth thinking about and how we can reverse this. 

Assessment Four: Annotated Bibliography

Reference List


ABC. (2012, May 19). Facebook takes Wall Street roller-coaster ride. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from ABC News : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-19/facebook-takes-wall-street-roller-coaster-ride/4021064

Johnson, S., & Owens, J. C. (2012, May 19). A tame debut for Facebook shares. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/a-tame-debut-for-facebook-shares-20120519-1ywx8.html

Kawamoto, K. (2003). Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism . In K. Kawamoto, Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism (pp. 1 -12). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc. .

Moore, M. J., Spears, L., & MacMillan, D. (2012, May 23). Facebook IPO Debacle Triggers Legal Debate. Retrieved May 24, 2012, from Bloomberg: Business Weekly: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-23/facebook-ipo-debacle-triggers-legal-debate

Academic Article: Book Section - Digital Journalism


Kawamoto, K. (2003). Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism . In K. Kawamoto, Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism (pp. 1 -12). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc. .

Kevin Kawamoto is an associate professor in the School of Communications and teaches journalism and communication courses. His Ph.D. in communications and M.S.W. (clinical/contextual with a specialization in multigenerational social work) are from the University of Washington (Seattle), thus making him an educated and reliable source. In Kawamoto’s book “Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism”, he describes the purpose of Journalism as to “inform and enlighten the public”, and thus he explains that since the public is becoming increasingly computer literate, so too should the methods of informing and enlightenment, using the expression an ‘old practice in a new context’. This particular book chapter defines the characteristics of digital journalism, such as; hypertextuality, interactivity, nonlinearity, multimedia, convergence and customization and personalisation. The author then goes on to identify digital journalism as a ‘moving target’ as changes in technology, concept and institution make the definition of digital media quite ambiguous. It also gives a detailed outline of the history of journalism and how, from it, evolved digital journalism. This book chapter offers an insight into digital journalism, an exciting and rather scary new concept to revolutionise the world of Journalism, and it does this from an educated and reliable point of view, offering many opinions and facts with structured and articulate language.

Recent disappointing Facebook stock market Launch

ABC. (2012, May 19). Facebook takes Wall Street roller-coaster ride. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from ABC News : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-19/facebook-takes-wall-street-roller-coaster-ride/4021064

This three minute video was produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The ABC was founded in 1929 and is funded and owned by the Australian government, however remains editorially independent. The corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia and is known to only employ the very best of Australian Journalist’s, thus making it a very credible and reliable source. This particular video takes a look at the concept of Facebook, its use as an advertisement tool, its financial worth and also its recent stock market launch. Its use of statistics and educated quotes adds to the credibility and the fact that the ABC has packed so much information into only three minutes of video in a clear and concise manner makes this video a very good source for information regarding the social media site and its recent antics. What’s more is that the video images that has been included in this piece is both relevant to what the overlaying voice is saying and also adds interest and stimulation to the story. Unlike the following references, this video was made in order to give a brief overview of the social media site, Facebook, by not going into great depth or analysis; however it serves as a great starting point for those wishing to research the recent events surrounding it.

Johnson, S., & Owens, J. C. (2012, May 19). A tame debut for Facebook shares. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/a-tame-debut-for-facebook-shares-20120519-1ywx8.html

This news article concerning Facebook was produced by Journalist’s Steve Johnson and Jeremy C. Owens for the newspaper, The Age. This article, unlike the ABC’s three minute video piece, focuses entirely on Facebook’s recent stock market launch. It is of great depth and analysis and includes many statistics and educated quotes from the likes of Max Wolff, an analyst with Greencrest Capital in New York, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia and Bruce Aust, an executive vice president at the Nasdaq exchange – all offering their professional opinions regarding the reason behind the disappointing reaction from Facebook’s much anticipated IPO (Initial Public Offering), shares dropping by 16% since initial sale. The authors of this piece offer inside information into both the antics of Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook and also the complicated ins and outs of the stock market, however they do this without bias and in a clear and uncomplicated manner. Not only was this article  used by The Age, one of the newspaper giants which has been published in Melbourne  since 1854,  but also by the Sydney Morning Herald, The Republic, The Columbian and many more reliable newspapers all around the world, making this text a very credible information source.

Moore, M. J., Spears, L., & MacMillan, D. (2012, May 23). Facebook IPO Debacle Triggers Legal Debate. Retrieved May 24, 2012, from Bloomberg: Business Weekly: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-23/facebook-ipo-debacle-triggers-legal-debate

Unlike the previous two pieces the authors of this piece, Michael J. Moore, Lee Spears and Douglas MacMillan, comment on the legal debate surrounding Facebook’s recent IPO disappointment in the distinguished Business magazine, Business Weekly. As said, this particular article focuses on the legal perspective of the Facebook IPO, the authors proposing that Facebook’s initial public offering, of which fell short of its anticipated value, has triggered allegations that the social network selectively disclosed crucial information to investors. However it also proposes that the law surrounding such accusations is unclear and the authors have included several interview quotes from legal Professors such as Tamar Frankel, a professor at Boston University School of Law, commenting on the ambiguity surrounding this, Frankel regarding it to be “a gray area” within the legal system. To add further to the credibility of the source, the magazine, Business Weekly, is run by Bloomberg L.P, a very prestigious American multinational mass media corporation based in New York City and of which makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market. All in all this piece of writing offers a different perspective on a very recent and much anticipated issue in a reliable and coherent way.

Lecture Eight

This lecture surrounded the subject of ethics. Here we learnt that something can be technically "good ethics" but portrayed in bad taste and vice versa, whereas I just believed that bad taste meant bad ethics. This was then elaborated in terms of Ethical Theories: Deontology, Consequentialism, Virtue. After hearing these, I personally believe in the virtuous theory of ethics, such as courage, justice, temperance, prudence - habits of character. However since, unfortunately, not every journalist, such as not every person in general, possesses these caricatures, the Deontological guidelines enforced upon the journalism world do ensure, for the most part, some sort of virtue. Alas in saying that there is still many a journalist out there with a consequentialistic stance on ethics.

Assessment Three: Factual Story-Telling

Imogen Myatt

Imogen Myatt was a twin; she was beautiful, talented, hilarious and kind - glowing with youth. Her twin sister, she and I had worked together for some 3 or 4 years, previous to that, we had been a primary school trio, the three musketeers. Everyone who knew Imogen loved her; she just had that raw and honest personality that you couldn’t resist, bubbly, sarcastic and full of life. My heart lifted every time I saw our names together on the roster and too many times to remember we would just sit in the backroom at work with chocolate milk “borrowed” from the store room and talk and laugh. It was here that we decided to live together with another friend in Brisbane this year.

We were both going to UQ, I was to study Journalism and she was to study sports psychology, resonant of her pure sporting talent – I swear she had a toe in nearly every sport there was. We all went house shopping and fell in love with a house situated within the bowels of St Lucia. The rent was $190 a week, rather high, and Imogen’s family, having to put three girls through university, was on a tight budget. But she shrugged it off and said it would be fine. So instead of placing any more stress on her family’s tight financial girth, Imogen worked full days every day, burdening every shift she physically could. We secured the house, signing form upon form - laughing and joking about inviting our real estate agent to our house warming party, the smiles on our faces huge and disbelieving. We were finally going to escape Toowoomba, it would be a fresh start, a new life, independent big city girls. The moving date was set, the 21^st of January, and though the date crept ever closer, it still felt surreal. We ceremoniously quit our jobs, 4 years of making sandwiches finally coming to a close, and we began to pack. We discussed ridiculous contributions we could make to the house, which room we wanted, food budgets, how incredibly poor and happy we were going to be. Imogen had a week long science camp at Bribey Island just before we moved in and would be driving back early on the 21^st, a Saturday.

Our friend and I arrived at the house around lunch time on the Saturday. There was no power in the house as all three of us, being quite ignorant of the moving process, had not realized you had to sort the power out yourself. We found this quite funny and thought it would be fine living in darkness for a few days, a sort of induction into Brisbane life. Imogen had said she would be a little late as she still had a few things to pack and I texted her about the power situation, jokingly saying that it was a great start to the year. However she didn’t text back and we began to get a little concerned as it started to approach mid afternoon. We found her dad’s number and called, it rang out, her home phone also rang out, even her twin sister didn’t reply. We suggested possibilities, half joking, half serious – I mean, nothing bad could happen to us, this was the beginning of our lives, we were young, invincible. If dark thoughts tried to creep in we would brush them off with a laugh, bad things only happened to other people.

Evening dawned and Imogen didn’t arrive, we reassured each other that she’s probably just tired from her camp and would be here bright and early tomorrow morning. We ate cereal for dinner as it was the only thing in our cupboard that didn’t require power and laughed at how funny Imogen would find this.  At ten that night, a friend called me and between thick sobs I was told that Imogen had been in a car accident on the way back to Toowoomba that morning, that she had died on the scene and her father was on life support, that he wasn’t going to wake up. It wasn’t real, how could it be. It was merely a very bad dream. She was so young, so excited, so much to offer the world. And so we sat surrounded by darkness in the house we had all chosen together and we cried, eventually crying ourselves into silence.

Days strung together without break, we relied on routine to get us through; get up, try not to think too much, go to bed, embrace sleep. We closed the door to the room that was supposed to be hers and cringed at the thought of looking for another house mate, but we had to, we couldn't afford not to. There was no one to comfort us and Brisbane now seemed so alien, so big and cold. I was never one to cry easily but for a while even a rude customer at a supermarket could bring me to tears. We visited Imogen’s twin at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, where her father was still on life support. Upon seeing her we ran and collapsed into one another, not letting go. Sitting on the hospital floor, we talked for hours about Imogen and were finally able to laugh again as we remembered all the great times we’d had with her. I still think about Imogen everyday and I miss her terribly, she has helped me realise my own mortality and I have her to thank as I now try and live everyday too its full potential, as it could so easily be my last.

     

      

Voting With no Confidence in Egypt

http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/voting-with-no-confidence-in-egypt/201/
An interesting article from the Global Mail on the political uproar currently taking place in Egypt and the much anticipated presidential election.

1/2 : TANTAWI/MUBARAK — SAME STORY?

Graffiti in Cairo’s Tahrir Square joins the face of deposed president Hosni Mubarak with that of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is currently leading Egypt.

Photo by Jess Hill




“We are the minority,” muttered one activist, shaking her head.

Lecture Seven

This lecture was on Public Media or 'media whose mission is to serve or engage a public'. Coming from a family whom watched little but public media, I certainly recognise its value and purpose. Such as it's need for geographical universality, universality of appeal, special provision for minorities ect ect. I personally feel that the quality of television produced by the likes of ABC and SBS, is highly superior to that of commercial television and a whole lot more... intellectually stimulating and thought provoking. Whilst commercial media seems rather shallow and superficial in comparison.

‘The difference between 
commercial broadcasting and 
public broadcasting is the 
difference between consumers
and citizens’ 
– Nigel Milan (former Managing Director of SBS)


I like this quote as it epitomises the embedded ethics of public media, that it is made for and owned by us, the citizens, and that television is not just the space between adverts but a powerful medium able to influence, inform and entertain. I very much hope that the challenges faced by public media, such as funding and independence, don't hinder this moral.

Lecture Six

This weeks lecture surrounded the topic of Commercial Media, why it exists, what is its role in democratic society, whom are the commercial media giants and what do they produce. I personally don't really watch/read/listen to a lot of commercial media as I find it quite sensationalised and, frankly, a little bit desperate. Flicking through the channels yesterday Current Affair flashed up, warning me about the danger of false expiry dates on food. The preview was equipped with dark threatening music more suited to a JAWS film and I admired the hosts for being able to hold such a solemn, concerned demeanour despite the utter ridiculousness of their report content. This is more a comment on News Values, however this seems to be an ever present issue within Commercial Media. And what's worse, as elaborated on in the reading this week, people are more likely to engage in tabloid type reports - for example the recent Shock and Awe news spectacle: "My Son was Stuck in a Vending Machine" as opposed to important news of the world, news that actually may affect them. After checking out The Global Mail though, I do still hold a small remnant of hope for commercial media, as it seems quite legitimate, with respectable journos and relevant content.