Types of Presenters

Charlie Brooker on types of presenters:

An amusing news blooper resulting from incorrect punctuation:

Lecture Five

Hey there :)
Today was my fifth lecture and for a change it was an audio lecture. The first part was my tutor, Carmel Rooney, interviewing Richard Fidler from Conversations on ABC local radio. See here:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/sites/conversations/

http://www.davidreneke.com/dave-on-radio/

I found this be a very easy-to-listen-to lecture, because it wasn't the standard kind of lecture. I didn't lose interest and I liked how it was personal and conversational.
It was an example of what Richard Fidler was saying, that radio is a more intimate medium than television and that you have to make sure the listeners feel included in the conversation. He also said tha you have to bear in mind that people are often multi-tasking when they listen to the radio, e.g. driving or making dinner. He also said not to be afraid of moments of silence on radio, because silence can be very powerful.


Richard's tips were:
- Read the paper
- Ask questions
- Remember that wordliness is good
- Expand your worldview and don't live in an ideological ghetto

The second part was an interview from Mornings, also on ABC radio. See: http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/programs/612_morning/

http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/programs/612_morning/

Steve Austin said that when you're doing radio, you need to enunciate properly, not talk like you would at uni, because you are trying to communicate to a wide range of different people. He also said that people can tell much better if someone is lying on radio because there is less visual distraction. When interviewing someone he says getting them to trust you is important because they will be more open. When doing talkback radio, the best way to get callers, he said, was to put out a question bluntly and simply, asking whether or not people agreed. Steve said that the components of a good radio story are those which are related to the human experience.

Steve's tip:
- If you aren't naturally talented but you really wanted to work in radio, don't give up, because plnty of successful people were told they'd never make it.You might become a more interesting person after some knockbacks too.


I have to admit that I rarely listen to the radio, but after this lecture I think I may make more of an effort to listen when I'm not as busy. I like hearing about interesting people's experiences and views, so a programme like Conversations might be where I start.

A Follow Up on Body Image

This is another good Dove clip:

It's ridiculous how much they altered these photos. Here are some before and after photoshop pictures:

http://www.chilloutpoint.com/misc/celebrities-before-and-after-photoshop.html

http://10steps.sg/inspirations/artworks/40-cool-before-and-after-photo-retouching-photos/



http://allieiswired.com/archives/2010/04/britney-spears-candies-before-after-photoshop/

http://allieiswired.com/archives/2010/04/britney-spears-candies-before-after-photoshop/

Lecture Four

"A picture has no meaning at all if it can't tell a story."
Eetu Sillanpaa

School Shooting Aftermath - Finland - Eetu Sillanpaa

Yesterday I had my fourth journalism lecture and it was about "Picture Stories". People have used pictures to tell stories for tens of thousands of years, from cave paintings right up until the present day. Pictures are still highly relevant in journalism. The early 1860s newspapers used line drawings to illustrate their stories and the first halftone photo published in a newspaper was in 1879 in New York's "The Daily Graphic". Today we have photographs, cartoons, diagrams, moving footage etc in journalism. Since technology has become more widespread, citizen journalists have become more common. Citizen journalism can take forms such as the mobile phone footage in the news from the London Bombings or more recently the amateur footage from the Arab Spring.

"Gun Play" by William Klein and "The Louisville Flood" by Margaret Bourke White

Jodi Beiber's photograph of Bibi Aisha and Steve McCurry's photo "The Afghan Girl"/"Afghan Mona Lisa"

Still Pictures:

- Framing

- Focus

- Angle and Point of View

- Exposure/Lighting

- Timing/Shutter Speed

- Capturing "The Moment"

"Black Saturday" - Alex Coppel

Moving Pictures:

- Framing

- Focus

- Angle and Point of View

- Exposure

- Timing and Editing

- Capturing "The Scene"

- Inclusion of Sound Dimension

Since photography has become digital, manipulation of photos has become widespread in the media, particularly in advertising and magazines. Here are two photoshop examples. Personally I think Taylor Swift looks a lot better (and a lot more human) in the original picture.

We were also shown this short Youtube clip made by Dove showing the transformation of a model with make up, hair styling, lighting and most crucially: photoshop. As it says, "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted."

I really enjoyed this lecture because I'm interested in photography (making no pretence to be anything but amateur) and also because of the fact that it touched upon the digital manipulation of images.
As you can see from my other blog posts, I'm also interested in fashion, so I see plenty of retouched images and models who are too thin if I'm reading magazines or browsing fashion websites. Even though I know that images of models are Photoshopped, I do forget just how much of a difference it can make. I definitely think that your perception of what is normal can be seriously warped if you are being bombarded with images of women who are ranked in the top fifty supermodels in the world, not to mention all the make up and Photoshop.

"If it makes you laugh,

if it makes you cry,

if it rips out your heart,

it's a good picture."

Eddie Adams, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in photojournalism

"Burst of Joy" - Slava Veder

Some Quotes

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.”
A.A. Milne

“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”
Winston Churchill

"If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf."
Lemony Snicket, aka Daniel Handler

Yellow



http://lookbook.nu/look/2980733-Canary



http://lookbook.nu/look/3022413-the-road



http://lookbook.nu/look/3180261-Yellow

Waldo: The Movie

Spoof "Where's Wally?" trailer. "This summer, Waldo finds YOU!"

Fashion



http://lookbook.nu/look/3033095-Slits



http://lookbook.nu/look/3049813-Young-Wild-Free



http://lookbook.nu/look/3140523-Film-Noir



http://lookbook.nu/look/3162935-CATERPILLAR



http://lookbook.nu/look/3088781-scallop

How to Report News

Charlie Brooker's amusing "How to Report News".

Lecture Three

Hello again!
Skye Doherty was our lecturer this week. This is a link to her website: http://skyedoherty.com/
The lecture was about "Text" - how it can be used in different ways, how it dominates online etc.

See the difference below in the printed and online headlines for the Gbagbo story. Online stories need to be easily found by search engines and catch people's eyes with more directness.

News stories are set out in an inverted pyramid format with the most important things first.

Interesting information about the way people read news.

Online news games were also also discussed as a way of presenting news differently and taking full advantage of the new mediums made available by technology. Games could be used for some news stories to explain them in an alternative way, not to replace print or online news. An example we were shown a news game about Somali pirates taking hostages. I would give the link here but I can't find it in the powerpoint presentation or on Google.

It's an interesting concept and I'm sure some people like news games, but I guess I'm more old-fashioned when it comes to personally reading the news. I like to read the news and I usually read it in printed versions for the more in-depth stories and look more briefly at online news. But it's still very interesting to see and learn about all the new ways news can be conveyed. This is also the first blog I've written and I'm finding it very easy and enjoyable.

I'll finish by putting a link to this website about news values:

http://www.btinternet.com/~owenst/NewsValues.html

Lecture Two

Hello! The second lecture was about web iterations and the challenges of online news. I wasn't actually aware that there were the classifications of Web 1.0 (information web, "brochure ware"), Web 2.0 (the social web) and Web 3.0 (semantic web). I definitely use Web 2.0 more often, e.g. for things like facebook.

These slides are particularly pertinent as it certainly will be difficult to get the majority of people to pay for online news.

Our lecturer used jelly beans in an analogy of the entitlement people feel about getting news for free by giving us all jelly beans and then making us give them back after we'd eaten just one (we got them in the end once the point was explained though!). People now feel they are entitled to free online news because they have become accustomed to it. However, what does that mean for the future of good quality journalism, especially investigative journalism? If news sources aren't generating enough revenue they cannot afford to emply as many journalists to cover as many stories properly.

The fact that we got jelly beans was a definite plus this lecture, but my favourite part was the inclusion of the Friendface clip from The IT Crowd because I love that show. Here is the Friendface scene:

 Another excellent IT Crowd moment:

Lecture One

This is my first post for my Journalism and Communication blog! I'll start by giving my thoughts on the first lecture. It seems like this will be an interesting course, especially because journalism is changing with technology and there are things like online news, blogs, twitter etc. I particularly liked the quote in the lecture about journalism being the first rough draft of history. I have included that slide, as well as a couple of others from the lecture.

Pic from: http://www.mediaspy.org/report/2011/03/14/us-online-news-marches-on-as-prints-decline-continues/

I also found another good quote about journalism:

"Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them."
Aldai E. Stevenson

In addition to posting about every lecture I will also be posting various other things that I find interesting.

Pic from: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/81145/20101112/fairfax-gears-up-to-cash-it-on-popular-news-sites-smh-the-age.htm

"People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true."

Lewis H. Lapham, Editor of Harper's Magazine 

Pic from: http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/business-old/newspapers-show-their-true-political-colours/story-e6frg2qu-1225907646590

"I know of no human being who has a better time than an energetic young reporter."

 H.L. Mencken, Journalist and Social Critic