Adios, Amigos!

I was going to add this little bit onto my last post, but since my lecture posts aren't always exactly riveting I know most of you just skim over them (don't deny it!).
This is my last post! I was tossing up whether or not to continue after JOUR1111 came to an end, but if you've read any of my posts this semester you'll know I'm horrible at time management and probably wouldn't post anything for another month or so.
Thank you to all the people who read my blog. Thanks to you, I managed to achieve my goal of reaching over 1000 views, which is a great accomplishment for someone who's only just starting out.
I wish you all well (including those people from Russia who make up a lot of my views... I don't know who you are but thanks for reading!) and I shall see you all around!

Adios/Ciao/Au revoir/Tschuess/Aloha?/Auf wiedersehen/Goodbye!
Leila

The Last Lecture

Lecture 11
From the moment I read the title of our last JOUR1111 lecture, I knew it was going to be some speech on how this course offers so much and we can go so far in our careers if we really have the motivation. But to be completely honest, there's only so many times we can hear "it opens so many doors" without rolling our eyes. To the person marking my blog: we have been learning all semester to share our opinions and that is what I'm trying to do now. Don't be mad!
The lecture was presented by Steve Molk, who we were told was one of the top four entertainment bloggers in Australia, and his career through blogging. Hearing how this guy went from being an IT professional to an entertainment blogger that interviews people like Will Anderson is great,  but nothing new. Because of the generally good consistency of our previous lectures, I expected the last one to be... more. Don't get me wrong, I know we are here to learn and our lectures aren't purely for entertainment purposes, but this was by far the least enjoyable lecture of the semester. I felt like this was the first lecture where I walked out without having learnt anything new.
Steve talked about how important what we choose to publish is right now, because it's helping to build our brand for the future. He talked about blogging, the easiness that comes with new media, how the internet is killing magazines and how important it is to write freely now before we have guidelines. We've heard it week after week, it has been completely drilled into our heads and I just wanted to stand up and say "we get it!" (but unfortunately I'm only opinionated when I'm sitting behind a computer screen).

All in all though, I have to say that JOUR1111 is a fantastic subject to take. I know a few people reading this will think I'm just sucking up to the marker, but I genuinely enjoyed the course. So thank you, Bruce, for making my first semester of uni much less torturous than I thought it would be.

One-time-only Rant

Please note: I realize I'm contradicting myself by writing this post. I just want to get it off my chest this one time and then I swear to never speak of such horrors again.

People who are famous for doing idiotic things annoy me. For me, people who are famous are people who've been recognized by the public as having accomplished something. Those people that do one really stupid move that gets them in the papers and then just won't budge from the spotlight? They deserve nothing. I'm talking about the Schapelle Corbys and Corey Worthingtons of the world.

Every time I read something new about Schapelle, I just feel like ripping the newspaper to shreds. So she brought a mother-load of drugs into another country? Let her deal with the consequences without making her famous! Every single newspaper I've picked up int he past week has had a story about her 'imminent' release. She has a book written about her! This girl deserves nothing from us and I think it's disgusting that there are all these pitying articles describing how bad she's doing behind bars. 

Because I don't want to swear on here, I'm going to shut up now. I know I haven't explained myself and I'm sorry, but I feel that if I get started I may go on for a couple thousand words.

Rant over.

Crowned Coolest Hamster on the Planet

After my brief attempt at posting a YouTube video each day completely failed, I kind of gave up on the idea of posting videos. But after watching this video about 10 times everyday, I figured I was under obligation to post it on here. Be prepared to witness the most adorable thing since the Sneezing Panda:

Love the description: "No hamsters were hurt in the making of this video". Priceless.

Myth-o-Maniac?

Everybody who knows me knows about my slight *ahem* fascination with mythology. I take a course on it at uni, I spout random facts about it to people who now think I'm completely crazy and I read about 3 books each week somewhat revolving around it. But never within the two years that I've been scrambling for information about mythology have I read a book as riveting, as tense, as good as 'Starcrossed' (and its sequel 'Dreamless') by Josephine Angelini.
I told myself, when I started this blog, that I wouldn't post reviews on books or movies on here, merely because my taste in entertainment in sometimes questionable at best (and I'll be the first to tell you that). But now, I've come across a book that makes me want to buy a million copies just so I can give it to everyone I cross and have them share in the pure awesomeness that it contains.
Yes, there are romantic themes in 'Starcrossed' and 'Dreamless', but that isn't the reason I love it so much. There's a kick-ass central character who isn't overly-anything. Some authors tend to make their central characters either overly-timid or overly-charismatic, but Josephine Angelini managed to find the perfect balance and have an actually likeable main character.
'Starcrossed' was released last year, and the reason I'm bringing up this series is because its sequel 'Dreamless' was published only a matter of days ago. I bought it and read it within a day. I almost, almost, posted something on Josephine Angelini's Facebook page accusing her of being a scion (descendant of one blessed by the gods) with the power to mesmerize people with her words but I thought I might come off a little crazy so I held myself back (up until now, that is).
I'm not going to say what it's about. If I try and describe the storyline, I know that everyone will that it lame and probably not read it so all I'm going to say is trust me!

And this book isn't the only one incorporating mythology in one way or another. I've seen countless books within the past 6 or so months trying the retell certain stories in a modern way (and as someone who loves to say they discovered something first, I'd like to mention here that I liked mythology way before it was cool) but some of them, to put it bluntly, are either completely confusing or fail abysmally. Last week, I read the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep and, while decently entertaining, it mixed Greek mythology with Norse religion with a few Romans mixed into the storyline just to cover the major bases. The plot had major flaws and you weren't always cheering for the right characters. I don't know how to explain the frustration I had with this series (which is why I don't think I could be a good book reviewer) but suffice to say Estep is no Angelini.

Check out this article about YA books incorporating mythology, it made me smile :)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-parkin/interview-with-josephine-_b_1588387.html?utm_hp_ref=books

Investigative Journalism

Lecture 10
Second last lecture! At least I think so. There may or may not be a lecture next week. We'll see right?
So this week we discussed (I say discussed, but really it was just Bruce talking and us trying to follow) investigative journalism.
When I first signed up for my courses at the start of the year, I noticed that one our subjects for semester two was investigative journalism. At first, I thought it was SO cool.  I thought we were going to go all 21 Jump Street on Brisbane and become undercover journalists or something. But then... uni started.
Don't get me wrong, I love journalism. Definately no doubt in my mind that I will be doing some form of writer as my official 'profession'. However, I do find having to call people I don't know (and asking them a bunch of personal questions) intimidating. Before I spent a year overseas, I was painfully shy. And that isn't an exaggeration, either, because my stomach would literally hurt whenever people outside of my small friend circle made contact with me. Even though I've definately overcome that, it came from a need for survival, not a need to know everything.
So yes, I'm a little daunted by the thought of journalistic investigation and let's just say; this lecture did not help me overcome my fears one single bit.
The following is what I learnt from my lecture (cue everyone exiting this browser...):

• it's aim is to uncover the truth and identify lapses from it
• the best stories are always the ones people want to supress
• it provides a voice for people who don't have one in society
• it takes nothing for granted (be sceptical, not cynical!)
• always check facts!
• assume nothing!
• expect whistleblowers to be/go crazy!
• interview, observe, search documents, go to briefings, check for leaks and (depending on your level of morality) sometimes trespass and steal evidence. Hey, I'm just saying what they told us.
• ask yourself this: does everything line up?

And then you have a story! Easy peasy. Maybe.
We were shown a few examples of investigative journalists who changed the world and, I'll admit, I was definately curious. I looked up "investigave journalism" and had a look at what popped up on good ol' Google. This is an example I found:

"Anna Politkovskaya's reporting in Chechnya and the Russian treatment of the Chechen people led to many investigative reports published in Novaya Gazeta, such as the poisoning of children. Her work was widely recognized by international organizations before she was murdered in 2006. Today an award in her name honors other women who report under circumstances of great danger."

Thanks, Wikipedia. I now know which job I definately won't be chasing.

On the plus side, here's a video of a sheep pushing a fisherman into a lake:
http://www.break.com/index/sheep-attacks-unsuspecting-fisherman-2327209

Until next time,
Leila

Annotated Bibliography

Racism in the Media: Hurricane Katrina

Coleman, R. 2003, "Race and ethical reasoning: The importance of race to journalistic decision making", Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 295-310. 

The author, Renita Coleman, is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas' School of Journalism with a B.A., M.S. and Ph.D. in Journalism (Coleman, R. 2012). Her academic achievements assures credibility in regards to the importance of ethical reasoning to journalistic decision making. In the article, Coleman gives possible explanations behind ethical reasoning, focusing principally on the prejudice against African Americans. Citing the schema theory as the main reason behind race perceptions, the article describes an experiment conducted in which participants were judged on their ethical reasoning (Coleman, R. 2003). Coleman's hypothesis revolves around the theory that a journalist's racial schemes will lead them to make poorer ethical decisions when African Americans are involved, as opposed to Caucasians. The participants, made up of journalist majors at a prominent university, were to judge whether a photo should be released based on content and social issues presented. The race of the subjects in the photographs were altered using technology in order to test Coleman's hypothesis (Coleman, R. 2003). The results were displayed in a table format at the conclusion of the article. Coleman deducted that the study supported her hypothesis as participants showed lower standards of ethical reasoning when the subjects were African American.

Solnit, R. 2009. Four years on, Katrina remains cursed by rumour, cliche, lies and racism, The Guardian. Retrieved from: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/26/katrina-racism-us-media>

Rebecca Solnit, the writer of this article, has published 13 non-fiction books and prides herself in being an activist and cultural historian. As an editor for Harper's and a frequent writer for political website Tomdispatch.com, Solnit has gained a reputation as hard and just and was named a 'visionary' by Utne Reader Magazine (Solnit, R. 2012). She opens the article with the current racial issue surrounding President Barack Obama's birthplace, but quickly moves on to the issue of racism during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She describes the racist representation of African American in the media, giving the example that they were often presented as criminals (Solnit, R. 2009). Solnit then goes on to describe the impact this media representation had on the worldwide perception of New Orleans, explaining that it was seen as a prison city and hostile land. This leads us to believe that a lower level of ethical reasoning was used in the writing of this article. The main point expressed throughout the article is that Hurricane Katrina transitioned into a social catastrophe as bad decisions were made by the people in power and rumours were spread by the media. After quick examples of racial prosecution and a summary of the violence during the hurricane (Solnit, R. 2009), Solnit concludes the piece with warnings of natural disasters to come and a question as to how man will act when those storms come.

Jones, V. 2005. Black People "Loot" Food … White People "Find" Food. Huffington Post. Retrieved from: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/black-people-loot-food-wh_b_6614.html>

The author of this short article, Van Jones, has been named by Times Magazine as one of the top 100 influential people in the world. He is the founding president of Rebuild the Dream, as well as being the co-founder of three other successful organizations, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (Jones, V. 2012). These attribute lead him to be a very credible source. Jones begins by stating that Hurricane Katrina has brought out the worst in the media, referring to black people being presented as looters as an example. He compares the way the media has portrayed white people as opposed to black people, specifically saying that white people are seen in a more positive light and displayed as "survivors" whereas black people, who have a very negative image, are branded "criminals" (Jones, V. 2005). The main focus of the article revolves around two separate pictures from yahoo.com with similar actions being presented. One photo, showing white people, is positive, while the other, the focus of this picture being black people, is negative. These photos are a clear example of poor ethical reasoning in relation to race. In his conclusion, he links the bias of these representations to the reason why countries are often divided (Jones, V. 2005).

Rubio, T. 2005. Katrina Uncovers: Activism, Racism and Environmental Justice. National Radio Project. Retrieved from: <http://www.radioproject.org/2005/09/katrina-uncovers-activism-racism-and-environmental-justice/>

International Media Project, the organization behind this radio broadcast, is known for its commitment to journalistic investigation and in-depth analysis. They have been recognized as excellent journalists around the world and have received many different awards for this reason (Law, P. 2012). This leads them to be a credible source for information and a positive light in the media industry. The 29-minute segment starts with a description of the situation in New Orleans after the hurricane, in particular the mistreatment of survivors by the people in power. The first person interviewed in Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Center, who expresses his hope for immediate charitable and political action. He discusses human contact and briefly touches on the subject of ethnic groups in the area (Rubio, T. 2005). The second interviewee, Curtis Muhammad, the Director for Community Labor United, briefly discusses plans on redeveloping the city before delving into the topic of racism at 15:54. He expresses anger towards the government and their lack of support, using the comparison of the World Trade Center, and the immediate aid they received, to boost his argument (Rubio, T. 2005). The last speaker, Dr Craig Colten, is a professor at Louisiana State University. He discusses environmental justice and the rebuilding of New Orleans before presenting his concerns for the misconceptions in media coverage in regards to Hurricane Katrina at 24:40. He cites the notion that certain ethnic groups are unwilling to move as incorrect and states that other ethnic groups, giving the examples of Asians and Hispanics, have been ignored by the media throughout the ordeal (Rubio, T. 2005). The prejudice presented by the media in this fashion leads us to believe a lower level of ethical reasoning was used on people of these races. To conclude the piece, the song "George Bush doesn't care about black people" by The Legendary K.O. is played.

Reference List:

• Coleman, R. 2003, "Race and ethical reasoning: The importance of race to journalistic decision making", Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 295-310. 
• Coleman, R. 2012, Renita Coleman, School of Journalism, The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from: <http://journalism.utexas.edu/faculty/renita-coleman>
• Jones, V. 2005. Black People "Loot" Food … White People "Find" Food. Huffington Post. Retrieved from: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/black-people-loot-food-wh_b_6614.html>
• Jones, V. 2012. Van Jones. Huffington Post. Retrieved from: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones>
• Law, P. 2012. About Us, National Radio Project. Retrieved from: <http://www.radioproject.org/aboutus/>
• Rubio, T. 2005. Katrina Uncovers: Activism, Racism and Environmental Justice. National Radio Project. Retrieved from: <http://www.radioproject.org/2005/09/katrina-uncovers-activism-racism-and-environmental-justice/>
• Solnit, R. 2012. Bio, Rebecca Solnit. Retrieved from: <http://www.rebeccasolnit.com/bio>
• Solnit, R. 2009. Four years on, Katrina remains cursed by rumour, cliche, lies and racism, The Guardian. Retrieved from: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/26/katrina-racism-us-media>