Abort mission, abort mission

Figure 1: War, Disaster and Trauma Reporting

"You never feel more alive than when you're possibly about to die" (Ayres, as cited in Tumber & Webster, 2006, p. 142).

This lecture (week 8) discussed the confronting challengers journalists must deal with while covering stories of war, disaster and trauma. These challenges involving heartache, compelling interviews and daunting sights are a side of journalism very rarely discussed in the media. Throughout the lecture, a heated debate argued how journalist handled compelling stories overseas. Personally, if I was asked to report on a story in a developing country I would have to decline. I know that I couldn't discuss certain topics without my eyes watering, my heart opening up to families and young children and most of all take photographs of horrific and graphic scenes. In addition, it is not only how you personally take the story, but how safe you are in dangers places.  

A non-for profit organisation known as Reporters Without Boarders (RSF) charter journalists safety while reporting in war and dangerous areas. Marie explained eight principles for the RSF:

1. Commitment
2. Free Will
3. Experience
4. Preparation
5. Equipment
6. Insurance
7. Psychological Counselling
8. Legal Protection

Journalist Michael Holmes was interviewed with Brooke Baldwin from CNN about his experiences reporting in war zones. Holmes has completed 11 reporting rotations in a row, covering conflicts since 1986. He explains that all journalists understand the circumstances, dangers and challengers of the case we are putting ourselves into. He has witnessed his friends and fellow employees in flipped cars with smears of their blood as well as sitting next to his cameraman who was shot in the head, still here to tell the tale. Holmes greatest fear was being kidnapped and has a great sense of compassion.

Beyond war reporting however, our class discussed the traumatic issues and events of reporting on natural disasters, crimes, epidemics, terrorist attaches and car crashes. When reporting on such issues, it is vital to be ready for the unexpected, you never know what is going to happen. Such journalists must have the emotional strength to complete the task and to know when enough is enough.  All issues must be death with compassion and a caring attitude toward individuals involved within the case, especially a loss of whatever sort. I have the greatest respect for journalist that can take on such a huge ask, to work, live and breathe in dangerous areas. If only it could always be a happy ending.

References

Tumber, H. & Webster, F. (2006). Journalists under fire. Information War and Journalistic Practices (pp. 142-153). London, England: Sage Publications

Who decides what's newsworthy?

Within this week's lecture (week 5) the topic was Agenda Setting. The notions of last week's news values and agenda setting are very closely related to each other. Agenda setting was developed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972 (Lamb, 2012). Spring (2002) defines agenda setting as "the process whereby the mass media determine what we think and worry about".

Lamb (2012) also explains the Hypodermic Needle Model in the video below. An example of the hypodermic needle was the 2005 'Grand Theft Auto' Led Teen to Kill which introduced a negative perspective of television and video games toward children. 

There are two main types of Agenda Setting Theory, (1) first level agenda setting theory and (2) second level agenda setting theory. The first level suggests what the public should focus on through coverage, whilst the second level suggests how people should think about an issue. There are seven parts to the Agenda Setting 'Family':

1. Media Gate keeping
2. media Advocacy
3. Agenda Cutting
4. Agenda Surfing
5. The Diffusion of News
6. Portrayal of an Issue
7. Media Dependence

It is known that the media don't tell you what to think, but they do tell you what to think about. Examples of current newsworthy topics include crime, politics, poverty, welfare, entertainment and scandal, all of which impact either health, heart and the pocket. The stories are told in a way that tent to influence the audience's opinion, subtly or not. Through agenda setting, we are presented with a version of reality that reinforces: stereotypes, values and privileges. Does this mean that we as the public decide what is newsworthy?

Reference List

Lamb, B. [Brett Lamb]. (2012, August 21). The Hypodermic Needle Theory [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5MjBlvGcY

Lamb, B. [Brett Lamb]. (2012, September 6). The Agenda Setting Function Theory [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7qf9gQpoF4

Spring, M. (2002). Agenda Setting. Retrieved from http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~johnca/spch100/7-4-agenda.htm

The freedom writers: The feelings of Brandy Ross

For this weeks blog (week 10), I thought I might do something a little different. The Freedom Writers is a movie I loved during my high school years. I thought it would be interesting to create and expand on the motivations and feelings of Brandy Ross, a character within the film. This interior monologue takes place before the movie. Enjoy!! :)

-

What happened that night …. all comes back to me as a horrible dream. The screaming … the violence …. the tears.

Vivid images of my mother being bashed are all I can think of. It was always the same old story. That night, like every other one, the yelling began and I went into shut-down mode; taking my two younger siblings into the sanctuary of my bedroom and sang to them to hide the screaming. I was awoken by a loud noise and called out to mum… but HE just told me to go back to sleep.

The next day... I tried to wake her for work. I tried and tried to rouse... her but she just lay there... dead... lifeless. She and the man she forced me to call ‘dad’ didn’t get along.  They were always screaming at each other and... he was such a violent man. I have the scars and bruises to prove it. As did mum... large red handprints encircling  her neck that I could clearly see each individual fingermark. For so long I feared something tragic would happen to her. How could he have done this. I was fearful, tormented and frightened. How had we endured such a creep. Why did mum stay with him. She had always been lucky in the beauty department... although her lack in self-confidence affected her security and personal protection. I hate him; I hate what he has done to us, to my mum, our life. The questions of Why me? Why my mum? Why now? are questions I want answers for.

I had tried several times to leave while mum was alive... but threatened every time. The words he called me struck me to my inner core... what he said he would do to me... I was terrified. I remember the night before he killed my mum... they were fighting in the kitchen. I could hear the crashing of plates and cutlery and the terror in my mother's quivering voice... the alcohol-fuelled words he called her. I could tell she was scared... but trying to stay strong. I knew getting involved was not a though I had to think twice about... and mum wouldn't approve. I wanted to run…run as far as I could to escape from his cruelty, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave mum or Latoya or Jackson. So instead I remained.

That night I sat and tried to focus on what Mrs Gruwell would have done... restraining my urge to stop the pain and suffering of my mum, Mrs Gruwell would have encouraged me to leave… be in a safer environment… secure from all the aggression that my siblings and I have had suffered. But what's logical is not always possible... I simply didn't have the strength and family was my responsibility. I couldn’t leave mother to defend for herself… she needed me… she needed my help. I knew I shouldn’t just hide and pretend nothing was happening in the room beside but I didn't know what I could do.

Hiding in my room was like Anne Frank hiding from the Nazi soldiers. We were much the same age, Anne and I, both similar in so many ways, we'd seen to much horror and despair in our lives. Anne had died but I had a choice despite the fact that the one person who had raised me had died after being abused by a ghastly man . I am going to do what Mrs Gruwell had suggested. Start school… get an education… a life. Bring my siblings up the way mum would have wanted.  Miep Gies rescued Anne and Mrs Gruwell is rescuing me. I am so thankful for all that Mrs Gruwell has done for me… she listens… understands. She has given me the power to be free.

If it bleeds, it leads!

News values can be defined as general guidelines or criteria used by media outlets, such as newspapers or broadcast media, to determine how much prominence to give to a story. A good example of this is September 11. All over the newspapers, news shows and internet forums, everyone was reporting on the tragedy that had occurred and what was going to happen afterwards. This is because a lot of people were affected by this and many more were still in danger.

1. Impact

• Threshold: The bigger impact the story has, the more people it affects, the more extreme the effect or the more money or resources it involves, the better its chances of hitting the newsstands.
• Frequency: Events, such as motorway pile-ups, murders and plane crashes, which occur suddenly and fit well with the newspaper or news broadcast's schedule are more readily reported than those which occur gradually or at inconvenient times of day or night. Long-term trends are unlikely to receive much coverage.
• Negativity: Bad news is more exciting than good news.
• Unexpectedness: If an event is out of the ordinary it will be more likely to make it into the news than an everyday occurrence would.

2. Audience Identification

• Personalisation: People are interested in people. News stories that centre on a particular person, and are presented from a human interest angle, are likely to make the front page, particularly if they involve a well-known person.
• Meaningfulness: This relates to cultural proximity and the extent to which the audience identifies with the topic.
• Reference to elite nations: Stories concerned with global powers receive more attention than those dealing with less influential nations.
• Reference to elite persons: The media pay attention to the rich, powerful, famous and infamous.

3. Pragmatics

• Consonance: Stories which match the media's expectations receive more coverage than those which contradict them. 
• Continuity: A story which is already in the news gathers a kind of momentum – the running story.
• Composition: Stories must compete with one another for space in the media.

4. Source Influence

All of these other news values are valid points, and all can be applied to news today. Like Galtung and Ruge suggest, the more news values a story fits – the better. However, as journalists we do not own the audience so we cannot actually solely decide what is relevant news for our audience. We must be careful to be a mere channel from which information can flow through to our audience. We must not let our own (personal or commercial) bias influence this.

In order to ensure that we as journalists remain relevant we need to maintain high standards of journalism. Our news values need to remain high. Our accountability, reliability, fact checking, in-depth research and accuracy need to be constantly vigilant, otherwise we risk destroying our own media world and careers.  We must avoid bias at all costs. Otherwise the journalist in todays’ world of new media may not survive.

References

Spencer-Thomas, O. (2013). News values. Retrieved from http://www.owenspencer-thomas.com/journalism/newsvalues

Hansel and Gretel

Week 6 
News Story - Fairytale
Hansel and Gretel


Once upon a time, two young children were held captive and strangled to death by a seven-stone, 14-foot African rock python. Gretel seven years old and brother Hansel five years old were having a sleepover with a friend before they were found by Jean-Claude Savoie (a family friend), on their living room floor above a Reptile Ocean shop in New Brunswick.

Mr Savoie said "my body is in shock. I don't know what to think. I feel like they're my kids". His own son was sleeping in a different room and was unharmed, he said.

Savoie, is Hansel and Gretel's evil step mothers best friend who lived nearby. He frequently hosted them at his flat with his own child. The evil step-mother kept sending Hansel and Gretel away into the forest, further and further away so they could no longer remember how to get back home.

The children were oblivious about what they were in for, however in this story there was no happy ending. 

The insurer from hell

On Saturday April 12, Category 1 Cyclone Ita hit Townsville and caused some damage at UNI.

At the Seagulls Resort, at approximately 9.00am after enjoying breakfast with my family, I received a text. "Owners of two white cars: a yaris (805-TKC) and a Rav 4 (EIL-95) in top car park, please message me, a tree has fallen down last night and has caused some damage" - I burst into tears. Lucky for me however, my parents hadn't left Townsville yet and I had insurance!! 

After the 15 minute drive back to UNI (which should have taken 30), we saw what was left of my poor baby Ruby. My back window was smashed (glass throughout the car, even on the floor of the driver and passenger), tyre cover cracked, light above back number plate smashed, guard holding the number plate broken, back right light full of water, left side mirror gone and roof severely dented. All in all, my car was in very bad state. Mum was on the phone to the insurer, dad was driving around trying to find somewhere open so he could buy a tarp to stop water from going into my back window, my brother on his phone and me, well... crying while my roommate comfort me. Me of all people, it just had to happen to me. The car parked behind me however, evident within the image above, took the punch and was clearly a write off. After dealing with UNI security, who may I add was INCREDIBLY RUDE, we finally managed to get the tree off (3 hours after calling them constantly). It was then time for Ruby to be towed away for assessment. 

Days had passed and we still hadn't heard anything back from the insurance. My mother started calling the insurance company everyday in hope that they would speed up the assessment. After two weeks of waiting, we finally received the call. Ruby wasn't a write off, she was to be fixed. $11,000 worth of damages and 4 weeks of parts to be shipped to Japan. I was told I wouldn't get my car back until mid June, which in insurance terms means July!! I was so angry as I have work commitments and have had to get time off. However, I am lucky to have amazing parents that will be lending me one of their cars for the duration of the two month wait. Home this Wednesday to drive mum's Toyota Aurion back up. 

When my baby finally comes back, she will be as good as new. Ruby 2.0! June cannot come quick enough!! :)

The hills hoist: A beloved Australian icon

Life wasn’t always simple when it came to hanging out the washing.

Today it’s so easy to hang out the washing, just wind up the clothesline and rotate.Up until about 60 years ago, washing time was a very different story; it was never such an effortless task. In fact it was quite labour intensive, tiring and back breaking; overall, a difficult mission. These days however, drying clothes is a breeze thanks to a beloved Australian invention that is cheap, easy and effective, the all new and improved, Hills Hoist, which has become a beloved Australian cultural icon.

The Hills story began in the Adelaide backyard of Lance Hill in 1945 where he developed a rotary clothes hoist out of scrap metal following his return from war. Hill created this ingenious rotary clothes hoist invention after his wife, Sherry complained that the fruit trees were competing for space with the ‘prop’ line.

Although, Hill was not the first to create a rotary clothes hoist, he was the first to attach a handle which enabled the hoist to raise and lower as well as a new way of attaching the lines to the central post. The line was made of a single steel pole from which metal ribs spread out from the centre. Between the ribs he strung rust-proof wire from which the clothes would hang. The raising and lowering of the hoist enabled the clothing to be dried more effectively in the great Australian sunlight.

It took only a year for Lance Hill’s invention to become well known and in 1946 Hill and his brother-in-law Harold Ling, established a business making the famous ‘Hills Rotary Clothes Hoist.’ Back then, a hoist cost only 10.10 shillings and an extra 1.5 shillings for installation. Lance Hill revolutionized the way we all do our washing today with the Hills Hoist now being exported overseas after celebrating the sale of their 5 millionth Hills Hoist in 1994.

Today the Hills Hoist has become part our everyday life for all Australians after 60 years the popularity has increased drastically. We are presented with many remaining ads from magazine advertisements to homemade songs. The Hills Hoist has become a symbol of our nation and reflects the life of all Australians as a beloved cultural icon as shown in this 1960’s print advertisement.

The Hills Hoist is a great symbol of Australian culture and taps into a feeling of nostalgia for the simplicity of suburban Australian life. It truly is a timeless classic. From the beginning Hills Industries have been promoting their products to appeal to the Australian consumer. This 1960s Women’s Weekly magazine advertisement is directed towards a female audience which reveals the attitudes to domestic chores during this time.

Within this era women were the ones to stay home look after the kids and cook and clean. The representation of the Hills Hoist in this advertisement is of a product being promoted as the best Mother’s Day present. The message is that a gift of a Hills Hoist on Mother’s Day will not only solve mother’s wash-day exhaustion but, produce a complete transformation in mother’s lifestyle being affordable and beneficial to all Australian families.

In the advertisement, a shining Hills Hoist replaces the original line and suddenly, the worn-out mats, weak weatherboard house and the unenclosed backyard have also vanished. Mother is now smiling, her trim figure set off by a full-skirted dress, white apron with a stylish bow and high heels, and she hangs up her washing against a backdrop of a brick house, trim lawn and paved path.

The pictures in this advertisement are positioned to show progression, starting with a women being exhausted after hanging her washing on the ‘prop’ line to loving her Hills Hoist in a happy and relaxed atmosphere.

The Hills Hoists is an established Aussie household name and therefore the company does not need to advertise extensively. In the 1960s however, there was a TV commercial released in the late 60s featuring an Adelaide singer, Bev Harrell, promoting the famous Hills Hoist as a symbol of Australian innovation.

This commercial advertises the strength and endurance of the Hills Hoist by attaching a washing machine to either side. The commercial also privileges that the Hills Hoist is spacious and can fit in Australia’s large ¼ acre blocks. Bev is smiling as she sings ‘ease up, ease up, easy so easy with Hills,’ explaining just how simple and effortless it really is to hang your washing. As shown earlier in the print advertisement, a woman is promoting the Hills Hoist suggesting that washing is a domestic daily chore for females and privileges the inventiveness of Australians, wanting to make life and an everyday chore easier. The Hills Hoist gained popularity from this time on and today they are a familiar sight in many Australian backyards.

In the early 1950s, a musician named Kathy Wehr visited Australia and was inspired to develop a song about the Hills Hoist by her friends who told her stories about their memories as a child and how important the Hills Hoist was to them and all Australians. Kathy thought it was amazing as she had never before dried her clothes outside. Within the song, the Hills Hoist isn’t only promoted as a way to hang your clothes but for enjoyment purposes. I’m sure many of you have great memories of times spent swinging around on a Hills Hoist until it broke or you were found out. As a child we would hanging the hose over to play games and at birthday parties our piñata would hang proudly from the wires. Even our beloved family pet enjoyed being swung around it in a towel hammock. All Australians recall the Hills Hoist as a treasure that holds our most beloved childhood memories. As Kathy says, ‘it’s like a bloom in every back garden,’ and she realises that Australians ‘take pride in the land down under.’ And our all Australian invention as we don’t try and hide it like some other countries; we want everyone to have our symbol of national pride. By repeating the phrase, ‘I’m gonna need a Hills Hoist, Hills Hoist,’ it clearly explains how much of a necessity the Hills Hoist is in our everyday life. This song by Kathy is recognition of how many Australians respect the treasured and iconic Hills Hoist.

The Hills Hoist is a beloved Australian cultural icon that has many stories associated with it. Even if your idea of a Hills Hoist is not to hang your washed clothes from but for enjoyment purposes, the Hills Hoist will never be forgotten as it is undoubtedly a symbol of being truly Australian.