JOUR1111 Lecture 6 Reflection - Commercial Media

In today’s lecture we looked at commercial media. What it is, its function, the big players in commercial media, what they produce and commercial media’s future.

Commercial media is non-government funded media that relies on advertisers as its real customers rather than its audience. Commercial media’s success is based on its business success. In Australia, commercial media’s biggest players are Fairfax media, News Limited, APN News Media, Nine Entertainment, WIN, Southern Cross Entertainment, Seven West Media and Channel Ten. They produce a range of different media platforms such as free to air TV channels, cable TV, radio stations, magazines and newspapers as well as play a part in companies such as Ticketek and ADSHEL. 

What I found particularly interesting about the lecture was when we were discussing the future of commercial media. Basically, unless changes are made to it, commercial media, especially radio, doesn’t have much of a future at all. People are sick of hearing ad after ad, the same one playing four times an hour. Because of this, they prefer public media like ABC and SBS, because what their viewing or listening to is interrupted by an advertisement. I found this a little surprising because usually we associate a future of a company with the amount of money people are able to invest in it, and advertisers do put a lot of money into commercial media. We think money is power, and that because of the money commercial media receives from advertisers, they will continue to run as they are and smoothly for many years to come while public media that doesn’t receive such large investments will struggle in the future. I found this to be pleasantly surprising, like the “voice” of the people, the audiences, does actually matter and we get to have a say in what we want in our media.

Overall, I found today’s lecture interesting, I certainly learnt a lot of new things about how something like advertising can be the reason a media company survives or fails.

-Laura

27/08/2012

JOUR1111 Lecture 5 Reflection - "Vision"

In this week’s lecture we followed the theme of “Vision”, looking into picture stories, photo journalism, digital manipulation, digital publishing and what makes a great photo or video. 

Picture stories are all around us, constantly, every single day. They can be anything from something on TV or a video game to Aboriginal artworks on a cave wall or stained glass windows in historical buildings and churches. These picture stories are an integral part of journalism today, they can be the images associated with stories in a newspaper or magazine to the film used in a documentary. Since the Web 2.0 revolution and wave of social networking sites, anyone can be a part of photo journalism, documenting their lives on Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, DeviantArt etc. for the rest of the world to see. This makes photo journalism something universal and so simple to share globally, a big change from something like the newspapers that were illustrated with line drawings in the 1860s. 

A major advancement in photo journalism that I really felt necessary to discuss is digital manipulation. It is something that is debated about constantly, is it good or evil? It can certainly allow photographers and photo editors to create their ideal image, whether it is of a person or a landscape that really doesn’t matter. However, I can think of a lot of situations where a digital manipulation of a photograph can cause more harm than good. It doesn’t take any special education or training to know that the airbrushing and thinning techniques used on modals and celebrities, especially in gossip and fashion magazines, is causing harm to a lot of people worldwide. This digitally created perfection is now what people strive for, thin, flawless physiques causing low self-esteem, depression or eating disorders in some. Really we have to ask ourselves whether this digital manipulation is doing more harm than good to the world’s population. Has this advancement in photo journalism caused more problems than solutions? 

I think the Dove ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ is really onto something here. It shows that people, no matter what age, skin colour or body shape, are beautiful. I think it’s a really important message that the world needs to see. Digital perfection is digital, not realistic. It isn’t real beauty.

Dove’s ‘Pro-Age Campaign, click here

The History of Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty', click here

 

Another development in photo journalism is digital publishing. Digital photography now allows us to gain access to photos instantly. Every day we find ourselves using digital technology combined with social networking to share photos from our lives. Because everyone can access this now, journalists are expected to be one step ahead, bringing us the news through live streaming and instant updates through sites such as Twitter. This also means that just general members of the public can have their “15 minutes of fame” as some of the biggest news stories have been captured and posted online by civilians who happen to be on scene.

In photography people need to consider several things to take a picture that really “captures the moment”. 

Some of the things to consider are:

• Framing - How is the subject is enclosed in the shot? 
• Timing (shutter speed) – Do you want the subject frozen in time? Blurred with movement?
•  Focus - What is in and what is blurred? 
• Angle and Point of View - From what angle is the subject being viewed? 

What makes a great video is very similar to that of a still photograph, incorporating:

• Framing
• Focus
• Angle and Point of View
• Exposure (light)

However one needs to consider these points as well: 

• Timing
• Editing
• The scene the camera man wants to capture

I found this week’s lecture really interesting, I have a friend with a hobby in photography and have heard her discussing things like framing and focus when she talks about her own photos, I find it is great that I now have a further understanding of what she means and why people can be so passionate about photography, videos or vlogs (video blogs).

-Laura

25/08/12

JOUR1111 Lecture 4 Reflection - Sound

This week’s lecture (number 4) was set out differently to our usual ones we were listened to a sound recording. The audio was of a radio interview on ABC Local Radio, Queensland, speaking with Richard Fiddler about his experiences of in radio.  

Richard Fiddler is the host of two radio shows, Conversations and Afternoons, which have different time slots, purposes and target audiences. Despite the differences in the shows, Richard Fiddler draws some common points in both, relating them to all radio shows in general.

“Radio is completely different medium…a much more intimate medium than television…” - Richard Fiddler (from interview)

Conversations goes against the norms of the short interviews and instead speaks with guests for around an hour. Richard Fiddler discusses elements that need to be considered when taking on this kind of format.

The main questions: Can a story continue to be sustained for an hour?

Stories that aren’t compelling won’t hold an audience’s interest. Because of this, pre-production is needed and used. Interviewees are prepared for the show so that they feel it is a trustworthy place where they can express their opinions freely. This means the interactions between interviewer and interviewee flow.

Some points Richard Fiddler makes about making sure the format of Conversations works:

• Interest in the story is required

• Making sure interviewees experienced in media can share their story in an interesting way. Playfully interacting with an interviewee can help take a different approach, make them seem like a “normal human being”.

• Silence can be good in storytelling

• Asking yourself if you are “keeping the listener in the program”

 Richard Fiddler’s second show, Afternoons, is also discussed in the radio interview. It is a radio show that is slotted in after the morning news stories and it encourages participation from the audience to provide entertainment as well as learning what news stories look like from other people’s differing perspectives. 

Because Afternoons is a talk-back format show, Richard Fiddler says that the challenge is drawing out the listener and getting them to call in. To do this, the host needs to be friendly and be a facilitator for conversation. The host needs to be able to welcome them, make them feel comfortable on air, introduce them to the public audience listening and draw conversation out of them.

One of the final comments Richard Fiddler made to encourage journalism students that I really liked was his advice to not just spend time getting news stories from the internet. Instead he said to “expose yourself to different currents of thought”, I’m going to try this, listen to the radio more often than I do, which is only an hour or two each week. I think this will broaden my knowledge on journalism as well as taking in the views of others.

-Laura

17/08/2012

JOUR1111 Lecture 3 Reflection - Text

Inverted Pyramid of Journalism

In the 3^rd lecture of the semester we looked at text and why it is so important in telling a story. Text is used throughout journalism whether it is in the actual story, the headlines, hyperlinks or tags because it is fast, searchable and allows the reporter complete control over what their audiences gather from a story.

Before I go into too much detail about the lecture though I thought I might just discuss something that was also introduced in the lecture that I’m now going to try and follow religiously when practicing in writing my own news stories in the future. It’s called the Inverted Pyramid of Journalism (you can see it bellow) and it is basically a hierarchy that is so simple to use and follow, and from just looking at it, you can see it’s a formula that basically every journalist and editor use.  I thought I would just share it here online, I found it really useful.

 I found that while we were discussing the importance of text throughout the lecture, I was starting to think about how influential text can really be. In novels, it creates a new, creative world where the reader can get lost in. If it is a well written book, the reader finds themselves sucked in and being influenced to feel certain emotions. You can connect to a story or a character and become attached to them. A perfect example of this would be how J.K Rowling has made people worldwide connect with Harry Potter, there is such a large fan base for the book that it is now known as the “Harry Potter Generation”, a group of people, mostly teenagers, who have grown up alongside Harry and have been with him throughout his journey. They are emotionally attached to a fictional character and this is because J.K Rowling created a boy and an adventure that her audience can connect with and love.

Text can be so important, the best protest signs, which actually evoke emotions and demand people to take action are ones that usually have a few simple words that are put together in a way that people can’t forget. Successfully putting together text in a way that makes your audience fully focus their attention on what you have to say through your words could even be considered an art form. It can take years to achieve it and when you do, you can mold your audience, influencing them in thoughts and feelings. 

In this technologically driven 21^st century hypertext is a big part of journalism, blogging and social networking. Because of the way we now access news through online newspapers on an almost daily basis, it was surprising to hear in the lecture that journalism hasn’t effectively used hypertext, multimedia or interactivity online very well. The lack of links to primary sources and other links, like to related videos on Youtube, in online news stories has had an affected on the news. Because of the lacking in successful, effective hypertext online it has resulted in lack of depth in the news and limited views. 

Because of how ineffectively online journalism has been using hypertext, I do have to wonder what online news would be like if journalists started using linking to its full potential. It would make such a huge difference in how we view and share news. Would traditional print text disappear completely if things were to change from how they are now?

-Laura

12/08/2012