Clasic ALP

For the next couple of weeks of lectures I'm going through all my extensive notes to blog! (a bit late :) No lectures for week 9 and 10.





Week 13!
Whats in it for me?


My last lecture for Jour1111! How saddening! I have loved this course so much it has inspired me to take a dual degree in journalism arts next semester. We had a guest lecturer this week, Steve Molk an entertainment journalist, who owns "MolksTVTalk" which is an entertainment blog about Australian television.

The lecture was run like a question and answer type program where we had the chance to pick Mr Molk's brain about his experiences as a journalist. I learnt a lot about his life and he gave great advice about getting to be a paid journalist after uni. A perfect lecture to end the course

Week 12!
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM


Love, love, loved this week! I'm really keen to take this subject next semester wahoo. Slighty devastated though because the lecture this week was meant to be on politics which is my life. Some big investigative journalism stories which i have studied during high school were Watergate and Wikileaks.  


We learnt about investigative journalism by understanding the five 'ins'. 


Informed


I as a journalist must understand all of the facts and background of the story - whose involved, when did it happen etc. 

Intelligent

Before going 'full scale investigative' you need to make sure the story is good enough to be intruding and invading peoples homes and personal lives

Inside

Journalist needs to get intimate with the story and people involved.

Intuitive

With a lot of experience a journalist will be able to rely on their instincts to decide if a situation is dangerous.I

Invest

A journalist must be willing to invest a lot of blood, sweat and tears into a story.

Week 11!
AGENDA SETTING

This weeks lecture was all about Agenda Setting. I came into this lecture having no real idea about the concept or what the content of the seminar would be, but as always it was a super informative lecture! Our reading for this week  was by Renita Coleman and titled 'Agenda Setting' (how relevant!). Coleman explained agenda setting as the 'process of the mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that large segments of the public come to perceive those issues as more important than others' so in short, news which is privileged consistently and often is seen by the public as being of greater importance than stories covered once. The ability for media to contort priorities of newsworthy items means they are shaping the public perception of reality, rather than simply reflecting upon it. 

We learnt about four different types of Agenda's; Public, Policy, Cooperate and Media. Climate Change is an example of Agenda Setting, and relates to all four aspects.

Public Agenda - Are issues which the general public perceive as important

Policy Agenda - Aspects of society which politicians see as being of high importance or of particular interest to the public 

Corporate Agenda - Issues that large business and corporations consider important.

Media Agenda - Stories discussed in the media

There are two apparent theories in regards to Agenda Setting, the first level is when emphasis is placed on major issues (e.g covered numerous times) and media is therefore suggesting focus be placed on the said issues. Second level is when the media drills in certain attributes of an issue ( how people should think about the issue) 

Week 8!
ETHICS


When i heard todays lecture was going to be about ethics..i very nearly didn't come! I did some ethics study at school and found it incredibly dull. However this weeks lecture given by Mr John Harrison was surprisingly interesting, funny and informative. The lecture began with an engaging exercise, where we as the 'audience' had to view commercials and decide if they were unethical, ethical or in bad taste. In todays society where everything is regulated and political correctness is heavily monitored, i was surprised that some of the advertisements i deemed to be unethical where accepted. 


Following on from this, we learnt about the Three Paradigms of Ehtics (three completely alien topics to me). The paradigms ( Deontology, Consequentialism, Virtue ) are the tools viewers use to decide if the material they view is ethical or not. 

Deontological Ethics

Is the ethical position which assess the morality of material based on it's ability to abide by rules. It is often referred to as 'obligation' ethics. In journalism deontological ethics could refer to individuals obeying by the code to provide material which is accurate, fair and balanced. 

Consequentialism 

Is another class of ethics which is often contrasted against deontology, due to the fact that deontology comes from the rightness or wrongness  from the behaviour of the individual itself rather than the outcomes of the conduct. Consequentialism however believes that the consequences of ones actions is the main basis for judgment on the rightness or wrongness of conduct. In journalism, misconduct is justified by consequentialism as it doesn't matter how the information is obtained, as long as it has been obtained. 

Virtue

 Virtue Ethics describes the' character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behaviour,' rather than rules or consequences of the action. Dr Harrison explained that virtue ethics is all about 'intrinsic values' and a person who hold those values (hardworking, courageous, patient, honest) are better than journalist who follow ethical rules or only look at the consequences. 

Abbott can almost taste victory

At this stage of the game, the only hope - and it is a very slim hope - for Gillard is that the gloss wears off some of the Coalition states before the election

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/abbott-can-almost-taste-victory-20120613-20a7u.html#ixzz1xibVjJg0