Week 12

Inquiry

What have you learned this term?

I have learned a lot from this course this term from how to properly structure articles, where and when it is relevant to use different types of reports, how to make a post for social media. how to write for broadcast media. the skills i learned in this course will be extremely helpful in everyday life as well as professionally

What did you find most beneficial about the course?

I struggled with humanities subjects and wasn’t looking forward to participating in this course, so after doing it for 12 weeks, i can say that very much benefited from everything that was involved

What was most challenging?

Just like above, i’m not great at writing and structuring reports and articles so i found a lot of this course challenging but am glad i participated as it gave me a good understanding of how media works

Has the course changed the way you practice or think about media writing?

Yes, i always just assumed it was get the relevant information and some quotes and just put them all into a story, this course has helped me realise how much planning and thought has to go into everything to be the most effective it can be.

Practical

The feedback i received on my draft assessment included attention to grammar and punctuation, an emphasis to referencing and using the course theory in relation to the weekly activities. i have addressed this by proof reading everything before publishing and using Microsoft word to spell and grammar check, i have also referenced course readings and the prescribed textbook to relate back to what we have been learning

I have also given feedback on other students blogs and written about my experience with the course quizzes

Week 11

Inquiry

What are the problems with the article “Woman stuck under train at Eagle Junction Train Station, Brisbane”

the article follows the 5 W’s except for the why, however this can be difficult to include if the story was rushed as it most probably was as with out getting the woman to comment would mean this would be hard.

it includes names and numbers for places which can help if your depressed or intend to self harm and it doesn’t include any photos or the name of the woman.

Does it meet the guidelines for reporting self-harm?

Yes. they have supplied relevant information to places where people can go if they are thinking about self harm or are having emotional difficulties or experiencing depression, it also protects the woman identity by not releasing photos or personal information

Practical

Brisbane woman stuck under train

A WOMAN has taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital after becoming stuck under a train at the eagle junction train station in Brisbane.

Emergency services freed the woman at 12:55pm after being stuck under the train for just under an hour.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the woman was conscious throughout the ordeal and sustained leg injuries as four fire crews worked to get the woman out.

the effects of the delayed trains have been felt all over brisbane with trains being delayed up to 40 minutes and reports of train fulls of people sitting stationary at platforms.

Police said they are treating the incident as one of self-harm.

For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14

For help with depression, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36

The SANE Helpline is 1800 18 SANE (7263)

Technical

I found this quiz rather difficult as it was to do with specific styles of writing which I feel can be open to interpretation which is what really throws me off.

Week 9

Inquiry

What Kind of stories are in the newsletter

the stories in this newsletter are ones concerned with conservation and biology relating to saltwater crocodiles, it talks about the ecology and natural history of the animal as well as the endangered status and the management of keeping the crocodiles thriving. it also talks about the habitats it lives in and how land clearing can affect the crocodiles.

How do these target the organisation’s audience?

these types of newsletter don’t necessarily have to go out of there way to target a specific audience as it is a specialized article, anyone who is reading it would likely have been referred there or already know about it due to it being a scientific action plan paper.

in saying that, they are very well written and use lots of detail which would be useful for anyone studying in this area.

If you were a science journalist, is there anything you might be interested in following up as a story, and why?

Some interesting things in this article include population management which might be interesting to the general public as well as scientist, this is because animal rights and welfare have taken major strides forward and a lot of people care about these things.

What do you think is effective or otherwise about this newsletter?

the newsletter is effective in its use of statistics straight facts, all the information is relevant to what the article is about. the downfalls of it however are the fact that it is mainly just one big wall of text with only a few pictures, it uses small font so it would be hard to get someone who isn’t interest to actually read it.

Technical

Although it took me three goes to get this 100% i didn’t find it all that difficult as it was mainly finding punctuation errors and the only reason i got 9/10 on the second go is because i accidentally skipped a question

References

Click to access 18%20–8088e67a.pdf

Week 8

Practical

Media Release

3/6/2016 For Immediate Release

FAKECOMICCON INVESTIGATES INCIDENT

Yesterday, the second of June 2016 a knife fight broke out between 40 cos players at out annual FakeComicCon event at the Brisbane convention center.

The fight broke out between a group of storm troopers and wolverines and start as a play fight but quickly took a turn ending with 12 injuries, with eight taken to Royal Brisbane Hospital of which two were in critical condition and placed in intensive care.

FakeComicCon CEO Casey Smith stated that one of the aims of FakeComicCon is to be a safe place for like minded people to come, play and meet.

He added that he “would like to tell the public how concerned we are for those involved, and how sad we are that something like this has happened at our event.

FakeComicCon is currently investigating the incident and cant release any specific details but will provide specifics as they become available

FakeComicCon wants to reiterate that our thoughts are with those who have been injured and will continue to work with relevant authorities to investigate this incident and to ensure it is not repeated.

For further information

Jenna Jones, Communication Manager, FakeComicCon

0400 000 000

Jenna@FCC.com

Technical

I found this quiz rather hard as obvious in my first attempt getting 4/10

this weeks quiz was to do with how numbers, percentages and fractions are represented in print, which is something i struggle with.

Week 7

Inquiry

Media Writing (Whitaker, Ramsey & Smith) Chapter 11 key points

The key points include (in no particular order)

Applying the inverted pyramid structure
Broadcast writing should be written conversationally such as when talking to a friend
try to avoid hard to pronounce words and if they are required, put in the script how it is pronounced as if the reader mispronounces the word it can make them lose credibility
avoid past tense
punctuation is used differently in scripts to imply pauses or exaggerate words
A broadcast script needs to flow rhythmically to the story
Use the active voice
make the broadcast interesting for the audience

What are the key differences between writing for broadcast and print based media.

journalism began as a print based media and stay that way until the introduction of radio and television. journalism that utilizes television and radio as well as the internet is called broadcast journalism and is different to print media in the fact that it must tell the story in a limited time where the broadcaster acts as the eyes of the listener but needs to be written for the eye. broadcast media needs to be short and succinct to keep the listener interested where as print media can go into more detail as the reader can go at there own pace.

Practical

This is how i converted my week for story into a broadcast script

TAKE V/O

Close friends Christopher Rosenkranz and Liam Douglas discussed what was most important to them today. They each agreed that while there were lots of things they cared about, there respective partners meant the most to each of them.

TAKE SOT

Chris Rosenkranz SOT

RUNS=

OUTQ….

TAKE SOT

“I just love spending time with her doing nothing or catching up on our favorite TV series such as Game of Thrones or Vikings.”

TAKE V/O

Chris, working full time and living with his partner, a full time university student also joked about how if he had of said his true love was actually his computer he would be sleeping on the couch. while Liam, who lives with his girlfriend on the university campus talked about how they find time for each other around there busy schedules.

TAKE SOT

Liam Douglas

RUNS=

OUTQ….

TAKE SOT

“you’d think we’d get sick of each other but the amount of time we spend in class as well when we’re with friends, it works perfectly. We always have dinner together though”.

TAKE V/O

he then went on to add how they support each other

TAKE SOT

Liam Douglas

RUNS=

OUTQ….

TAKE SOT

”I play a lot of sport so she always comes and watches and cheers, and its really great to feel the love”.

Technical

this weeks quiz involved finding the correct answer between a few options which had slight syntax differences, this wasn’t all that difficult as i got 7/10 originally but there were a few that stumped me.

References

Ramsey, J., Smith, R. and Whitaker, W. (2016). Mediawriting: Print, Broadcast, and Public Relations. 4th ed. Routledge, p.Chapter 11.

Storify article

#ImportantThings

In Creating my Storify article i discovered how easy and efficient it is to use. the hardest part of this activity was finding good quotes that hadn’t already been used, after that all i really had to do was search the hashtag I used and drag and drop them onto the Storify interface. After that I added a little bit of extra narration so some of the out of context quotes made sense.

Continue reading →

Storify

Storify, in my experience was simply to set up and use effectively without being dumb. it had an easy to understand interface that looked great, it wasn’t crowded and it was easy to go through each page without feeling overwhelmed. one account I viewed was the ABC new’s account. I thought it was kind of fitting, a highly respected very formal news corporation getting with the times and using media that millennials would likely see.

The social media network i decided to review was Instagram. As a primarily photo sharing site, it’s used a lot by celebrities and people who want to be famous. it is full, like all new media, of cute animals and pretty girls, its also used to advertise fairly successfully and can really shoot somebody or something into celebrity status.

I believe it could be beneficial to use both personally and professionally. Personally because it is is to use and requires very little maintenance to keep it running as well as in a professional context as it can be used in conjunction with other media to sell stories and products.

Things most important

In two quick interviews, it was discovered that my friends have very similar Ideas of what the most important thing to them is.

Liam Douglas and Chris Rosenkranz each answered (both with their girlfriends in earshot) that the most important thing to them was there partners.

“I just love spending time with her doing nothing or catching up on our favorite TV series such as Game of Thrones or Vikings.” Said Chris.

he then went on to say, after his girlfriend left for work that “I also love my computer just as much, but don’t tell her [his girlfriend] i said that or ill be sleeping on the couch for a week.” he laughed.

Liam, A full time uni student living on campus with his girlfriend said “you’d think we’d get sick of each other but the amount of time we spend in class as well when we’re with friends, it works perfectly. We always have dinner together though”.

he added,”I play a lot of sport so she always comes and watches and cheers, and its really great to feel the love”.

just as Chris said and Liam alluded to here they are with there other loves.

Continue reading →

Preparing for my Media Coverage

The possible events I plan on covering are either the Longreach Cup or the Longreach Yellow Belly Fishing Classic.

the Longreach Cup is an annual horse racing meet during September, it is generally the largest meet in the Longreach shire which in includes Isisford and Ilfracombe as well as Longreach. As well as horse racing the event will feature fashions on the field as well entertainment from popular country musician Mick Lindsay. This day will be popular for punters and bookies alike, I plan to try and talk to local punters about what the day means to them as well as the Bookies and found out how the local races impact them. as well as some horse trainers to get an insight into what it is they do.

the Longreach Yellow Belly Fishing Classic is also an annual event, it occurs during August and runs for an entire weekend. It draws many people to the region with the hopes to catch the biggest Yellow belly in the Thompson River. Many people dedicate the entire week leading up to the event to finding the perfect spot on the river and camping there for the week to ensure they don’t lose it. Run by the local Opposite Lock I plan to interview someone from the company to find out how successful the event is as well as trying to get some words from some locals camping out.

The three main points from the Why you need a plan video are:

Time waits for no one, Scheduling and Accreditation.

Olympics on Twitter

with the Olympics on at the time of writing this, it was easy to predict what stories and hashtags would be trending. after defeating Lithuania in the quarter finals of the men’s basketball at Rio, some popular hashtags included #PattyMills #Boomers #OneTeam and #FreeChisGoulding. Its easy to see why these hashtags have risen to the top, with Australia assuming team sports such as water polo and hockey being a sure thing for Australia to win medals in, rather than falling out at the qualifying stages, Australia has rallied behind the last team standing.

You can see examples of tweets and hashtags being used by the ABC as well as Fox Sports.

ABC Grandstand

Fox Sports

Along with this, popular satire website The Betoota Advocate has also written articles about the #boomers. with satire and parody being something that is only relevant in the moment, having a satire article featuring the boomers shows how much they are trending.

Betoota Advocate