Reflections

After all that this semester have brought about, it has gotten me thinking of the direction I want to take when it comes to journalism and communication. I don't say journalism specifically because I'm not doing a journalism degree but instead, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication. Thus, this, as my last post for JOUR1111, shall be a reflective one.

bibliophilia

I figured this would be the last book review I'll be doing before ending this blog for the semester.

In wake of the upcoming Fathers' Day, I've decided to do a book review on Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown. Saw a photo online about this book and I've been hell bent on getting in ever since and it finally came in the post last week! :) Seeing as how I'm a Star Wars nut, it was an absolute must-have as well!

Jeffrey Brown - Darth Vader and Son

LAST LECTURE REVIEW: BRAND

“Create a BRAND for yourself.”

Steve Molks came in to do the last lecture of JOUR1111. He talked about creating a brand for ourselves as writers. How are we supposed to present ourselves as individuals?

This is especially important if we were to undertake the mammoth task of blogging. First and foremost, what is our style? Style here doesn’t mean fashion, of course. It refers to the way we write. If we carefully read blogs that we frequent, we should be able to tell two different bloggers apart. Firstly, in the writing style, this could encompass the tone, vocabulary, forms of expressions etc. Next, for every blog, it is clear that there is a certain demographic, or audience, that is targeted. This can be a general audience, or a very specific audience. For example, one can be writing for all women, or only for women between the ages of 20 – 30.

Of course, before blogging, we have to establish a platform – do I want to do video blogging? How about pure text posts? What mode or hosting site should I use? All these questions have to be answered before anything else. And from there, we start publishing our own stuff.

You see, the good thing about owning your own blog is that YOU are the publisher, the editor and the writer. YOU control your own blog. And of course, that is the downside as well but hey, truthfully? It’s all worth it.

Steve mentioned that when we have our own blog, we have to write constantly. This refers to the frequency of our posts, and also the topics we write about, for example, fashion, television or arts and crafts. This is to establish a rapport with your audience and also, it helps to make an impression in the “blogosphere”. Let’s be honest here, nobody wants to read a blog about nothing in particular that is updated like, what, once a month? No, people want a theme; they want to keep coming back because it is something they can relate to. Also, by updating regularly, this will promote a healthy flow of traffic to your site, and it helps that people are less likely to forget about your blog.

Lastly, in the lecture, Steve talked about sources. We have to verify our sources, who are they and what authority do they have. Also, words taken or quoted directly from a source is more powerful then the words written by the writer / journalist. That is, people will be more inclined to a direct quote as a quote paraphrased by the writer.

In short, you, as a writer,

WHAT IS YOUR BRAND?

LECTURE 11 REVIEW: INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

“An investigative journalist … to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available.”

~ Hugo de Burgh, 2000

Investigative journalism comprises of 5 “INs” – IN-telligent; IN-formed; IN-tuitive; IN-side (or IN-timacy); and IN-vest. Of course, it is also about the main “IN” – IN-vestigate. To do investigative journalism, one must know the facts beforehand and not just go barging right in. You have to develop a keen sense of intuition and learn to attain trust from people on the inside. Naturally, you have to be prepared to invest a lot of time, money, resources and even, relationships. You have to be prepared to take risks. No one ever said investigative journalism was going to be easy.

What is investigative journalism, and what is its purpose?

1. Critical and thorough journalism
   The key idea is ACTIVE INTERVENTION. Journalists must be active participants and make substantial effort when undertaking investigative journalism.
2. Custodians of conscience
   The key idea is EXPOSURE. The investigation journalists do must expose “civic vices” for the society to react to.
3. To provide a voice for those without one and to hold the powerful to account
   The key idea is PUBLIC INTEREST. Social justice is the main aim for investigative journalism.
4. Fourth Estate / Fourth branch of the government / “Watchdog”
   The power of the government has to be balanced and journalists represent these interests of those without power, journalism takes checks on the other branches of government, the judiciary, executive and legislature, to ensure transparency and lastly, journalists have a duty to hold people and institutions in power accountable for actions that impact the society.

“Be sceptical, not cynical.” – this is what investigative journalism is about. It is not about slamming or criticising everything but being sceptical, taking things with a pinch of salt and if there are indeed suspicious business going about, expose it. Everything is not to be taken for granted and journalists have to stand back and observe the big picture.

“It is not enough for journalist to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and myths that surround it.”

~ John Pilger

As an old journalism saying goes, “if your mother says she loves you check it out.” Journalists have to always check their facts, and check it again. We should never assume anything. We can do this by interviewing and observing, analysing documents and of course, triangulation. Does everything up to that point – what you were told, what you saw, what you recorded etc., all line up? Check, check, and check again.

Of course, investigative journalism in modern times is facing threats. The most prominent one is definitely the lack of resources. Online news is primarily the cause of this. Due to online news, less revenue and money are made by news organisations. This, in turn, means less journalists and less time are available to do reporting and thus, less investigative journalism is done.

Secondly, public relations (PR) is also another menace to investigative journalism. PR is all about propaganda as a tool of selective use of ‘facts’ to present a case to the general public, and usually a very persuasive tool. On the other hand, journalism needs to verify the ‘facts in the public interest’. With the growth of PR out there constantly feeding selected facts to the public (and the media), there is a shrinkage in journalism.

So, what lies in store for investigative journalism? Youtube recently launched a channel “tailored to investigative journalism” but I’ve checked that out and truth be told, the whole thing seems a little dodgy.

However, there is The Daily Mail, which does investigative journalism. For the moment it is going strong but really, what will happen if resources run out for it? But, let’s try to see on the bright side, if it is out there long enough and people start taking notice, that might just be the boost we need to get the ball rolling on investigative journalism again.

I enjoy reading.

Hey people, here's another book review seeing as how I'm still procratinating!

 This book is Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk.

Chuck Palahniuk - Survivor

LECTURE 10 REVIEW: AGENDA SETTING

Agenda setting – now this is one hot topic in journalism studies.

“Agenda setting is 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. Simply put, the more coverage an issue receives, the more important it is to people.”

~ Coleman, McCombs, Shaw & Weaver (2008)

People’s idea of reality is influenced by external factors. These factors can be society and the media. The way we perceive reality is mediated through our social life and the media. There are four agendas when it comes to agenda setting – the public agenda, policy agenda, corporate agenda, and media agenda. These four agendas are interrelated.

The “original” reality directly influences the “media reality” and the “public reality”. Reality can originate from the society, the economy, the political and so on. These issues are transmitted to the media via Public Relations (PR) and direct influence. Through selection processes and inter-media agenda setting, the media transmits the information they want to the general public. The public form their own construct of reality via direct impressions and daily social interactions and of course, from what they gather from the media.

There are 2 basic assumptions of media agenda setting – mass media filter ad shape reality, and media concentration affects the perception of importance of certain issues. Walter Lippman states that propaganda (through the media) is a tool that shape images in the minds of people in support of enterprises, groups and ideas. The hypodermic needle model definitely supports that statement. It is said that mass media is like a needle, “injecting” influences in the minds of audience to form certain images. Lippman argued that people should think critically for themselves rather than form judgments based on images the media feed us.

“The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”

~ Bernard Cohen, 1963

Agenda setting theory can be broken down into two levels. Level one is where the media suggest WHAT we should focus on. Level two is where the media suggest HOW we should think. What agenda setting does is to transfer the importance of certain issues from mass media to the public. Also, elite media often have influence over what other media publish. As Dr Redman said, the media set the agenda simply because they can.

Agenda setting comprises of 7 components.

1. Media gatekeeping is about how and what the media chooses to report to the public.
2. Media advocacy is the use of the media to promote certain messages to the public.
3. Agenda cutting refers to the fact that though there are so many issues in the world to report on, the media only reports on some. Thus, certain important issues lose their significance because they are overshadowed by other shallow news.
4. Agenda surfing is simply the media jumping on the bandwagon by following what the current trends and reporting on what the general public wants.
5. The diffusion of news is about how, when, where news are released. Are certain news released immediately after they happen? Or do we wait a few days before announcing it to the public?
6. Portrayal of an issue encompasses the fact that the way issues are portrayed by the media affects the way the public perceive them.
7. Media dependence is critical because a person is more susceptible to media agenda setting if he is very dependent on the media for information.

The current focus on agenda setting nowadays is the 24hours new cycle. With the internet and cable news (especially with 24hour news channels), who influences who when it comes to agenda setting? In the old days, newspapers set the agenda of the day. They were printed and distributed in the morning, and that affected the other news outlets like radio. Nowadays, with the various outlets of news like social networks, how can we be sure who influences who?

The bottom-line of agenda setting can be reduced to one simple question, which I will leave you with. The main point of agenda setting is:

“WHAT’S BIG AT THE MOMENT?”

A worm through my books

I'm currently procrastinating about the past few JOUR1111 lecture reviews so I thought that it'd be nice to do a book review as well, I love books. 

The book I'm going to review is Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami.

Ryu Murakami - Coin Locker Babies