The end of an era

Whilst this has only been a short era, it's become apart of my weekly routine. I begin the week with the lecture, where I am taught knowledge from a man who has first hand experience and knowledge about what he is teaching. Not only this, but he is sincerely passionate about what he talks about, and when that 50 minutes is up, I don't jump out of my seat, relieved that it is over, like some of my other lectures... but instead I am left with a million thoughts and as I walk out of the building, I am generally thinking about what I was just taught because it was actually interesting and something that may involve my everyday life, that I may not have even considered before such as the news.

During the long drive home, I still often find myself pondering on either the content that was learned, or perhaps thinking and brainstorming about the different pieces of upcoming journalism assessment. That was one of the standout aspects of JOUR1111, the assignments were interesting, practical and hands on. It challenged us, and our creativity, and once I had finished it, I felt accomplished. The feeling of being a journalist was becoming more real.

Over the semester, I have learnt a colossal amount of lessons and tips about life. It has allowed me to question, and to be skeptical about the things I am told, not just accept them from whatever source delivers it to me. Not only do I question the source, but I now question the motive, the target audience, the position that source has taken, the lengths to which has been taken in order to get that information and the reliability of that source. It has broadened my knowledge about the world, because it challenges me to interact with different news sources, different types of media, and to switch the social commercial station, to the public media one. My entire idea of what journalism is, and the work involved has completely changed through partaking this course. Even if I don't go on to become a journalist, I will no longer just envision them as those pesky people who bug famous people with a pen and a note pad. But instead I will envision them as hardworking, sacrificing, patient, clever, sourceful and hopefully moral people. There is so much more that goes into delivering a news story, or a photo, or an entertainment piece then what people assume. The journalists have to go out and capture the moment, to interpret the moment, and to successfully convey that moment to it's audience. They are risking everything, risking ridicule, their career, their relationships and even their lives to deliver the stories to us.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the fortnightly tutorials where we further deconstruct and expand on the previous lectures. But most of all, I enjoy the news sharing time. This is a chance to find out the latest stories that I may not have heard about. My tutor, Ali, made tutorials extremely interesting with her bubbly and friendly personality.  But most of all, the essence that made her such an effective tutor, was her understanding of where we are at, as students, what we're going through and the way she talked to us as equals, as opposed to talking down to us. She was always very easy to approach, and she spoke clear and always backed up what she was saying with clips or visual aids for our better understand. She allowed us to have a voice, to give our own opinions, and often there would be an almost-debate as we discussed topics such as the photographer, Kevin Carter's famous photograph of the vulture, watches over the starving girl. This discussion in particular spiked many different opinions within our class as Ali asked us what we would have done in the situation. It was good that it was such an environment, where we can voice our thoughts, without fear of scrutiny or judgement. After just being shown the photograph, and a discussion, we were then exposed to the finer details behind the photograph, such as that the photographs were instructed not to touch anyone, or that they only had an extremely limited time to take snapshots and then leave. This changed some people's views however re-enforced others original view. It was a great tutorial, probably one of my favorites.

Something to ponder on after you've finished reading this.
If you were in Kevin Carter's, as a photographer, what would you do?

I have no idea what career I will gain, but this course certainly taught me a lot that will be handy not only if I pursue journalism, but lessons that I can take with me in other careers. For future students, I highly recommend this course. You get to express your inner thoughts and opinions, in a different way to other subjects. Whilst there are obvious limitations in what we post, we were in a sense free to become the journalists we wanted to be. We could post what inspired us, what interested us, and the stories we felt were news worthy, and we were marked on it. It was fantastic and a good way to explore our journalist side.


This has been fun. But as they say, all good things must end.

Goodbye, and thank you for your time.


I'll leave you with some of my favorite photos:

Real life Gossip Girl? Journalism in the wrong hands.

We often think of Journalism as a powerful thing. It gives a voice to the voiceless, it allows people to understand other people, events and the information they are given. Journalism allows people to voice their opinions which is made even easier on social networking sites. The additional benefit of social media is one's ability to voice their opinion with an added choice to be anonymous. This allows them to be whomever them want to be, free of judgement and ridicule and its give them a whole new level of freedom as they -in a sense- become irresponsible for the things they publish for the world to see. To be frank, Journalism is a wonderful thing, however when it's power is in the hands of someone with bad moral and intentions, it can be an extremely dangerous and devastating tool. That is when Journalism is a curse.

I have first-hand witnessed bad journalism at it's finest. At some point in your life, I'm sure you have cross paths with the popular teen drama TV series 'Gossip Girl'. A quick overview of the series "Narrated by the omniscient blogger "Gossip Girl",  the series revolves around the lives of privileged young adults on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City.  The series is largely based around a person who's viral blogging of the secrets and scandals of these people causes havoc, destroying people, relationships, job opportunities and entire lives.

Needless to say, this Gossip Girl claims to be helping the people, by providing information on the elite in order to keep their audience well informed of the events happening around them. This show seems to be having quite an impact on it's viewers, as just recently there has been a creation of a Sunshine Coast Gossip girl.

"Gossip Girl here, your one and only source on Sunshine Coast's elite. XOXO"

This site is purely dedicated to posting the secrets, events and 'scandals' occurring around the Sunshine Coast. The flaws of this type of journalism is already clear, however the fact that this Sunshine Coast Gossip Girl is posting whatever things people send into her is absurd. There is no checking of the reliability of the sources, or even cross checking that these 'facts' are true, but skips this process and publishes these hurtful things about people -that 90% prove to be untrue- with little consideration as to the fact that they are posting these lies to the big wide world. The implications of such are limitless. Not only are they tainting someone's life with rumors, creating a bad reputation for that person but furthermore is publishing some of people most deep down heartbreaking secrets for all to see, friends and enemies. What might seem as harmless fun, can haunt these people for a long time.

My point is that whilst Journalism is an incredible thing, and is essential for the world today, it can also be a dangerous thing when the power within is abused. Gossip Girl uses a popular form of social media, blogging, which we are all now familiar with, but uses it to destroy people rather than help them. So the moral of this story is to be careful how you use the power. Use it to help, rather than destroy. The power is yours.

What brand will you have? Final Lecture

It's sad to say that JOUR1111 Lectures have come to an end. From the first lecture until this one, I have have learnt an incredible load of information that will be useful in my future if I choose to go down the Journalism path, or whatever path I choose to go down. There were many valuable lessons about media which will forever change the relationship I have with it. No longer will I accept the news delivered to me, but instead I will be skeptical and research further to better understand the events around me.

In this last lesson, Bruce Redman summed up this semesters teachings and than introduced us to a man who has thrived in the industry.

This man is Steve Molks.

The interesting thing about this man's story is how he got to this point in life. He began doing chemistry and only later in life discovered his passion for Journalism, consequently resulting in him being in the four top entertainment journalists. 

Steve Molks was quite the character who never was at a loss for words. He made some extremely relevant and inspiring points as he spurted his knowledge upon us.

The stand out points that I gained from his words were the following:

- We each have a Brand, a style, a way in which we do things, how you control your brand, starts now. This brand will be carried with you throughout your career, this is what draws people into your work.

- What else can you add to the story- your opinion, your interpretation or perhaps a new light to the story that others may not have considered. Be bold and brave in all that you do.

- In Australia, we are lucky, because we can say what we want, how we want. We have a fair bit of freedom when it comes to our opinion

- We have access to all sorts of people, we have the ability to access and connect straight to the source via social media

- It's all about new media, creating more opportunities and making it easier to connect to the audience through the different types of media. 

- Lots of opportunities in journalism- but each takes the hard yards!

- People will be interested in what we write because of our unique opinion

-  Times are changing, the way that we understand how the information is presented to us,  whether its ratings, how things are communicated to us through news and news media, the way we interpret the information given to us, will impact the kind of writers we become, the kind of journalists we become

- There are lots of different directions we can go in journalism 

This was an extremely insightful lecture and was a helpful way to conclude the course! 

There is no place like home - Or is there?

Traveling- we all aim to do it at least sometime in our lives but where, who with, for how long and the motivation behind it will all vary on each individual. Australia is such a small part of this world, and only one, of the vast amount of cultures, available for us to experience. It is all about stepping out of one's comfort zone to explore and discover the unknown in the big wide world. I, personally, haven't done much traveling yet, the furthest I've gone would be Fiji, and it was absolutely amazing. However through traveling there I discovered something truly concerning...



More and more places are being overrun by tourism, that when people are visiting all these foreign places, they aren't in fact experiencing the uniqueness of that place, but are being met with a superficial and business-motivated atmosphere. Take Fiji for example, as I went there with my school, we went around visiting all of the traditional villages, where the locals would show us around to the most important places to them. We bathed in rivers, traveled on window-less buses, ate their style of food, slept in whatever they could offer us, we hiked 7 hours up to what is considered to be an extremely sacred Fijian place, we experienced their churches, we played games with the children in the street, we respected their beliefs, and wore skirts that fell past our knees, and proper modest T-shirts. We experienced the traditional Fijian lifestyle in all its glory. But then on the last couple of days, the teachers treated us to a boat ride to an Island which would be more touristic. I think it's safe to say we were very shocked. As we drove to this part of Fiji, where all the tourists came, it was a completely different world. People could wear what they wanted, they had all of the shops they were used to, even McDonalds, and there was not even a glimpse of the traditional side of Fiji. It had been lost to what the big businessman believe people want to experience when they go to Fiji. They clearly don't want the foreign, but instead create an atmosphere of familiarity. It felt very fake, and if we had spent the 2 weeks in this part of Fiji, my experience wouldn't have been anywhere near as memorable and special. The purpose of traveling to these places is lost, if we don't get out of our comfort zones to experience a different culture in its original atmosphere. We need to sleep in run down places, eat food that could possibly make us sick, go without the materialistic 'essentials' and to really experience what the culture has to offer - good and bad! It worries me that a place as culture-driven and traditional as Fiji has become to touristic, what all of the other amazing places will be like. I don't want to travel the world to be greeted with atmospheres that replicate my own, but I want to go out and see other peoples cultures, how the local people would experience it to be. 


So when you go traveling, don't just aim for the superficial experience, go out and experience all that culture has to offer. The good, the bad, and the unfamiliar. Those moments will be the ones you remember!

The $uperficial idealistic 'experience' VS The real experience   :

THE SUPERFICIAL AND MATERIALISTIC EXPERIENCE: 

 

 

THE REAL FIJIAN EXPERIENCE