The World Through the Eyes of a Woman

A Factual Story

Perceptions of the world are woven from wisdom, knowledge and experience, gathered from the friends, acquaintances and associates we meet along the way.  Each of us gazes at the world from a different angle, through an alternative lens, leaving no two views identical.

My Aunt Julia has a gift. She finds profound beauty in every human, yet she is not afraid to examine aspects of our world, away from which many avert their eyes. I have been close with her my whole life, and have found Julia’s view to be constructively critical. The inherent goodness Julia sees in every person, leads her to work for those whose voices are drowned in society’s undercurrent.

Julia is a social worker who assists sexual assault and violence ‘survivors,’ as she chillingly calls them.  Before this she worked in women’s prisons. Julia’s perspective on our society really began to define itself when she studied structural social work at university. This was because it recognised that, despite how far we have come, there are distinctions and rifts in our society that differentiate people. These are usually social expectations remnant of historical roles.  

With the courage to point out room for change in our society where others show indifference, Julia is what I would term, a progressive feminist. She is not dogmatic or dictatorial about her beliefs, but nor is she weak. For Julia, feminism is another way of examining the overarching umbrella surrounding gender, race, and religious disparity. This is why, when choosing organisations to work for, she looks at their methods of social analysis. For Julia, awareness of the reasons her job exists, acts as the key to becoming to an open minded, supportive worker, with a genuine understanding and desire to help. Social analysis helps her understand the reasons behind her clients’ adversities.

While Julia is very different to anyone I’ve met, there are certain categories of ‘difference’. Of course, we are all individual, but in Julia’s view, sometimes the social and economic differences are not to be celebrated. “We live in this system, which by its very nature says we all have to be different. It’s all about seeing if you can become wealthy, about lifting your status. But ‘rich’ is a relative term. If you’re rich, somebody must be poorer,” she says. Julia has also witnessed the inherent tendency for us to judge others based on these ‘differences’. A young, pregnant, homeless, uneducated woman already has multiple social stigmas attached: ‘She must be promiscuous, she mustn’t use protection, a young mother cannot care for a child’. In the multitude of voices, all asserting what is best for her, the woman’s voice will not be heard.

Julia’s clients are predominantly victims of sexual violence, assault and rape. It is not uncommon for Julia to meet people who are traumatised, depressed and suicidal on a day to day basis. But Julia has a deep respect for her clients. “I realise the incredible position I’m in.” She says. “Women tell me, a complete stranger, these intimate, difficult, and what they often see as shameful things about themselves. They trust me with this information. I don’t know these women. I don’t go and ‘hang out’ with them. We come together because I’m employed and have an obligation to do it. Yet they still trust me.” When described as brave, Julia shakes her head. “No,” she says, “I am not brave. It is the women who come to me who have the real courage.” Often, after someone is sexually assaulted this becomes their defining characteristic in others’ eyes. Julia makes a point of recognising her clients’ as profound and multilayered humans. On coming to her, women are often guilty, regretting the decisions they made or wishing they had done something more – something which could have changed the devastating outcome. Julia brings to light the positive steps and the action they took during the experience, not dwelling on supposed mistakes. “The fact that a woman walks through the door, says to me that she already has some strength. It is a very brave thing, to leave yourself emotionally vulnerable to a complete stranger” she says.  

Julia counts herself lucky among social workers that no one she has worked with has ever succeeded in taking their own life. But they have tried. A few years ago a period in Julia’s life was marred by tragedy as the emotional barrier she could usually maintain became difficult to preserve. A woman lit herself alight in the car park of the office Julia worked at. The woman died. Julia didn’t know the woman, but the death hung over her workplace. Not long afterwards, a homeless woman, tired of seeking financial assistance, lit herself on fire with the same goal. She had been a client of Julia’s and had worked closely with her. The woman failed to kill herself, but was badly injured. While this was a devastating experience, and Julia was deeply affected, it was not in the way she expected. A long struggle of recovery, countless visits to the hospital and counselling sessions began. Julia was deeply a part of the woman’s emotional and physical journey. When the woman was recovered, and ready to move on, it was difficult to accept the loss of someone whose life Julia had been strongly a part of for a long time.

Surrounded by unfinished stories and loose ends, closure is a rare luxury. If she is lucky, Julia might briefly hear of a client’s progress once they move on. “You just want to call them and ask how they’re going” she says. But being part of the bigger picture, the greater process of recovery and healing, Julia is the worker, not the friend. “The barrier between friendship and associate is a tough one, but it is also important.” says Julia. Emotional involvement in any client’s misfortune is not good for either party.  

With a belief that her perspectives of the world and life’s work should be closely intertwined, Julia spreads her message with open minded passion. “I think there needs to be a shift in views if there is going to be change for those marginalised in our society” says Julia. “The women I work with are no different to me. The only factor separating us is our varying types of experience and knowledge”. Julia knows change will not happen quickly - probably not in her lifetime, as social traditions are forged over centuries - but she will never stop working for it.

Relevance over Revenue

Lecture 7 explored

• What is Public Media?
• What is Public Media's role in a democratic society?
• Who are the major players?
• What do they make?
• The various functions of Public Media
• Challenges for Public Media
• The Future of Public Media

As the first slide said, 

“the difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens” 

(Nigal Milan, Former managing director of SBS).

In essence, Public media is for the citizens of the country in which it is broadcast, not solely for those who create it. Although in the past, public media was taxpayer supported media, this is becoming less and less so. Media may be deemed a public media so long as any profits are put back into its own production processes.

Predominantly the ABC and SBS are the public medias in Australia. Because their success does not rely on targeting viewers for advertising, most public media stations actually consider the importance, relevance and authenticity of the shows and news reports they feature. The objective the ABC news shows differs from commercial media news, as they present what they believe is most important for the viewers, not exclusively what the viewers want.

The BBC (Britain), (similar to the ABC), places public value over market impact in their public service ethos. Similarly, the ABC functions on a national level, ensuring its services are accessible everywhere in Australia, including remote areas. It caters for all ages with special provision for ethnic and other minorities. SBS, though formerly purely public media, now includes some adds. It is intended to cater for Australia's multicultural society.

Despite efforts to cater for all groups in Australia, public media is sometimes described as too serious, boring and of limited interest to the majority of the public. However I particularly liked Robert Richter's quote which rebuts this view, describing public media as the 'last bastion of long-form investigative journalism',

"... a special vehicle for voices to be heard... for visions and viewpoints... ignored by commercial media" 

(Robert Richter)

Despite not being owned by the government, legislations still regulate the actions of Public Media to a large extent. Funding is given only for certain, specific programs, and the more funding a public media outlet has, it can be perceived as less politically independent, highly undesirable in a democratic society. The view of public media as 'ideological' and slightly left leaning provides a great incentive for companies to be politically independent.

Overall, it seems the future of public media yields a media even more 'citizen' focused, and with the use of web 2.0 public media can be for the public, created by the public.

“All we want is money. You can Trust Us”

Commercial Media landscape in Australia

•           Why commercial media exists
•           What is it
•           Major players
•           Form function
•           Challenges
•           Possible future

Lecture 6 explored the media landscape in Australia, highlighting the functions and failures of commercial media, as well as the major players.

As derived from the term, the main function of commercial media is to allow advertisers access to an audience. The maintenance of commercial media all rests on business success. Thus, it is profit-driven media production, existing only for the purpose of revenue. While we may watch television believing we are the ‘patron’, in a sense, realistically it is the companies behind all the advertisements. The advertisers are the real customers. Not a particularly avid TV-watcher myself, the only use I see in the advertisements is a reason to leave the room for a few minutes. But I suppose without government funding, commercial media needs mechanisms to stay on their feet, and advertising is the simplest method.

While this is so, there is an ethical wall between commercial and social responsibilities of commercial media, described by Bruce, to be ‘a little like the separation of church and state’. There is a sort of inversely proportional relationship between the two; while commercialisation is the main mode of survival, they also have social responsibilities to the viewers. The more they focus on the commercial aspect, the more this can detriment the social side. Thus it seems the key is to achieve a balance. A good example given was of channel ten, which somewhat branched away from 7 and nine to target a younger audience, showing programs appealing to teenagers and young adults. As a result, it could sell the channel to advertisers pursuing a youthful audience. The social side of commercial media is based around trust. There must be a certain level of trust for viewers to watch and accept news on a channel. This is why, (especially channels 7 and nine), commercial media is always asking us to trust it. Part of this trust, however, means targeting viewer interest, as opposed to national interest. 

The ‘dumbing down’ of commercial media, the tabloidization and sexualisation of news, and 'Mickey Mouse' news were used to describe the way commercial media is simply looking to give viewers what they want to see, not what is important or relevant. Bruce explained that the number of clicks online news reports receive can now be tallied, and it was startling to hear that Scarlett Johansson’s breasts received more interest than 40, 000 deaths in Somalia.

The reading for the lecture was an excerpt from a book exploring 7's sunrise program, and the reasons behind its success when compared to nine's morning show. It explained that nine is now seen as somewhat archaic in the way of attracting audience, as well as levels of innovation. Sunrise is always running stories perceived as 'interesting', avoiding politics and affairs outside Australia unless highly interesting or unavoidable. In the annual data collected it was evident that when stories were run on topics surrounding countries outside Australia, which had no effect on anyone in or from Australia, it was most common then, for people to change channels. The overarching aim for commercial channels was to hold audience attention, and minimize channel changes. This was done by running the stories deemed most interesting to the majority of viewers, not the most important or relevant. Another aspect of sunrise's possible success was their cheerful, positive attitude towards all the stories. Their journalism was taken more as a performance than reporting, so overall, sunrise is more of a show than a news report.

Among the ‘Mickey Mouse’ news programs, Bruce mentioned A Current Affair, which reminds me of a program I saw recently on the show. It was an overdramatised ‘report’ on a man who had been harassing his neighbour, calling out rude words, and threats. It consisted mostly of dramatic music, repeated, slow-motion shots of the man heatedly shaking his wire fence and a journalist relentlessly confronting him outside his house, then being outraged at his belligerence.

Amidst the current challenges facing public media, there is a growing decline in advertising. Less advertising means less revenue, hence less money to pay for quality shows, hence less quality shows, hence, a rise in US sitcoms and reality TV, hence less viewers, hence even less advertising. The downward spiral continues, hence smaller stations, especially in radio, are constantly fading into nonexistence. As a solution to decline, some newspapers or stations are purchased by the government, not an ideal scenario for a democratic society. As it is, the Australian government regulates all media content and the Film Censorship board, rates and evaluates all films to be brought into the country. Government control of commercial media can lead to ‘State Press’ and propaganda (eg. Fox News in US). It can also, in an extreme, lead to the necessity of licensed Journalism. Do we really want State selected and regulated access to information?

Almost half the lecture was taken up by an extensive list of all the ‘major players’, the world’s huge corporations who simultaneously own and control multiple media outlets. One I found particularly amusing was when Bruce mentioned that despite B105 and Triple M’s feigned rivalry, they are actually both owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting, so essentially their revenue ends up in the same place.

Here is a sample of the list of major players on Australia’s and the World’s commercial media scene.

News Limited & News Corporation : newspapers Cable TV no Free to air, film mags, books, sports; Fox sports, Foxtel, Sky news, 20^th Century Fox, MRL, Courier Mail, the Australian, Quest, Harper Collins.

Fairfax: Newspaper and digital media; Sydney Moring Herald, the age, financial review, Brisbane times, domain, my career, RSVP

APN: regional newspapers, digital media, radio, outdoor advertising; Gympie Times, 97.3 fm, 4KQ, Adshell, Find a.

Nine Entertainment Co: (Formerly CVC), nine, go, gem, Extra, ninemsn, Women’s Weekly, Cleo, Cosmo, zoo, street machines. Ticketek, Acer Arena.

WIN: free to air TV, radio, sport, Tele-communications; WIN television, Ten , fm stations in outback Australia, St George Illawarra, TPG

Southern Cross Broadcasting: free to air TV Radio; Southern Cross, B105, triple M

Seven West Media: Free to air TV, newspaper, magazines, digital media; 7, 7two, 7 mate, Sky News, West Australian, Yahoo7, Pacific Magazines; Who etc.

Ten: free to air TV; ten, oneHD, 11. Channel ten decided to pursue a young audience – carefully selected shows to try and specify audiences so they could sell that, and the companies who wanted young market, would pay them for advertising.

Telstra: phones, telecommunications; bigpond

A Visit to The School of St Jude

In December of last year, along with 29 other young Australians, I ventured across the globe to Tanzania, home to the School of St Jude. Some may have seen this much talked of school on Australian Story. It was founded by Jemma Sissia, a young woman from a sheep farm in northern New South Wales, for the purpose of educating only the brightest, but poorest children from all over Tanzania.The school is remarkable in its own right, and it is run totally on donations and sponsors from around the world, receiving absolutely no government funding.

 

The School of St Jude's Progress To Date

 There are currently three campuses in separate locations around Arusha, a town near Mt Kiliminjaro, the roof of Africa. The rigorous process of selection aims to accept only the poorest, yet most intelligent students. There is a whole list of criteria they must fulfil with regards to socioeconomic standards (or lack thereof). Their houses (if existent) must have dirt floors, no electricity and no running water.

The Primary School Playground

Primary School yard

If we had only visited the school of St Jude I would have no concept of the astounding relative difference between this school and other schools in Tanzania. After our stay at St Jude’s we continued on to Moshi, a township at the foot of Mount Kiliminjaro the roof of Africa (my relationship with this mountain will be explored in another blog post). Here in Moshi, we were divided between 3 schools, for the purpose of teaching the children and organising the only interschool sports carnival that exists in Tanzania. While at St Jude’s, school begins and ends at the same time each day, roles are marked and teachers are present. However at these independent schools, no time defines the beginning or end of the day, nor break times, students come when they come - not regularly, and occasionally the teachers simply don’t turn up. The startling difference between these schools and St Jude’s was inescapable. While the school oval at Kallileni, (the school I was teaching at) resembled a dusty plain, St Jude’s was full of grassy fields and colourful playground equipment. Though the classroom interiors were a lot simpler to those found in Australia, it was easy to tell the school was a supportive, and nurturing learning environment. Just speaking to the children you learned of their high aspirations (most of them want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers), and witnessed such passion, brought into existence through education. I think the fact that the School of St Jude exercises standards and expectations of all parties associated with it, plays a large part in its success.

Playing with the Children

Before school

The majority of our time at St Jude’s was spent talking with the children and observing the functioning of the school. Despite being run by an Australian, a truly beautiful part of the school is that it preserves the African culture while educating students at the same time.  We had the opportunity to learn African dance, taught by the school dance instructor, and we also were part of the audience on Parent Day at the upper primary school, a day when all the parents come to the school and the children give them a show of African dance and song. We were given a tour of the Ylead boarding house at the primary school, which our fundraising money had been contributed to.

At the Parents' Day Ceremony

After the parents' day ceremony, we were given a tour of the surrounding villages by some of the children. We were shown the kinds of places in which they live. As we walked through the muddy, dirt back streets, which were definitely not wide enough for any cars, I talked with the school captain of the upper primary. At once, I knew he must be from a Massai Tribe. The Massai rule stands that nothing but the best is good enough. Massai warriors fight to the death because death is a happier alternative to being second best. Although ‘dying’ is rather dramatic for a school situation, this boy told me that he was only second in maths. After my own enthusiastic exclamations, he sadly said his parents were very disappointed. Such is the strict nature of the Massai culture. 

While in Arusha, we were also fortunate enough to visit a Massai village. After an hour's bus trip through a sparse, roadless desert landscape dotted with clusters of tiny mud huts, and children chasing the bus from all directions, we arrived at the village. All the men from the village were away at their Initiation-into-Adulthood ceremony, so only the women were there. We presented our gifts - a goat and a bag of grain, then were given a tribal thank-you dance. We were shown inside a hut, and Felix, from the school of St Jude (as seen in the video), who is part of a Massai tribe, told us about the culture and practices. It was fascinating to realize that people live so traditionally and isolated from the rest of the world. It is absolutely impossible to compare my own life to that of someone living in a Massai village. For more information on the Massai culture, beliefs and practices, visit http://www.maasai-association.org/welcome.html 

Children running to catch a glimpse of our bus

The children ran from the small villages we passed to wave at our bus

The Village

It is truly inspirational to see such success from donations and sponsorship alone. The School of St Jude will not only kick start the lives of each student in attendance, but it is clear there is a much wider circle of influence, both educationally and economically. With further support, it will only continue to expand, rendering a very bright future for its students and their families. As Gemma explained to us, she is determined that they should all attend university in Tanzania or Kenya, because that way, they will continue the advancement of education and development within their own country.

The Rewards of Being a Radio Presenter

Lecture 5 was a sound lecture, in the form of interview with Richard Fidler and Steve Austin. It was fascinating listening to these two highly successful journalist’s perspectives on their own medium, and I realised the differing skills and techniques required between journalistic mediums. Richard Fidler described the way his background in television was of little use to him when he moved to radio, as there was a whole new set of skills to learn. He described radio as a much more intimate medium than television, as you make the listeners feel included in the conversations, not as though they are simply observing. Fidler’s show, Conversations, features up to hour long interviews with varying, somewhat unknown people of interest. 
He stressed the importance of his own personal interest in order to keep the interview authentic. To me, a job such as this would be an amazing, humanizing experience, connecting so closely with people as they relive some of their most life changing moments and ideas. 


I remember hearing this interview with Lyn Beazley on the radio recently, and found it fascinating.
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/brisbane/conversations/201204/r920829_9560247.mp3


I found both men's stories highly interesting, Fidler having started his career in television and moved to radio, and Austin having relentlessly searched for a job for five years before having any success. 
Despite being the oldest news medium, neither expressed any fear that radio was dying, unlike newspapers and other old medias. Overall, I now have a new respect for radio and those that present it. I understand the extensive and specialized skills required for radio alone and appreciate the challenges but also rewards for those who work in the area. 

Stories You Can See

Art by Alex Hamilton: http://www.alex-hamilton.com/drawings/newspaper/index.html

It seemed only fitting that the topic of the lecture following text was images, especially since they go hand in hand when it comes to the media. Lecture 4 explained the absolute necessity of visuals in journalism, both for effectiveness and appeal. An article without an enticing visual to catch the readers’ attention will have considerably less reads than one with a dramatic and eye-catching photograph, usually suggestive of some news value.

When choosing a visual to accompany a story, the key factor to remember, is that it must tell a story, even if you don’t know what the story is. While it is inevitably pre emptive of the article, it must, to some extent tell the story, despite the reader’s ignorance of the story’s content. For example, a story may have many aspects, and at the site of the event, many photos may have been taken, however a single photo incorporating several aspects of the story will be a lot more effective than many photos, each giving one aspect. As we learned in lecture 4, framing, focus, angle and point of view are immediate factors towards an effective photograph. Then there is lighting, exposure, timing, shutter speed, and most importantly, the precise instant you press the button to capture the moment.

It was fascinating hearing of the history of picture stories, which basically began as dust pictures drawn with sticks and mud paintings on cave walls, then progressing to line drawings in the first news papers. Picture stories have certainly evolved and developed over time, but they have always been used for the same purpose. They are just as relevant and useful today as they were in the stone age. 

Aboriginal Cave Art: http://www.cairns-australia.com/tour-aboriginal-rock-art.html

Line Drawing in an Early Newspaper Genius of Universal Emancipation from: 

http://www.theliberatorfiles.com/liberator-photo-gallery/

First Published Photograph in the New York Daily Graphic: 

https://learn-usu.uen.org/courses/23678/wiki/printing-technology/revisions/11560483

This photo, of 17 year old, Jan Rose Kasmir, in the midst of an anti war protest is highly effective. The photo, by freelance photojournalist Marc Ribaud, was taken outside the Pentagon during a demonstration against US involvement in the Vietnam war.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/49927517@N03/4584232849/

Apart from the specifics of ‘which war’ the protest is against and ‘which country’ the photo is taken in, it really tells the whole story. Soldiers and guns versus a girl with a flower. Peaceful protest yet at the same time unwavering courage. Just by glancing at the photograph, you know the majority of the story and concepts surrounding it. I found this interview with Marc Ribaud, in which he gives in depth information about his personal photography techniques and his own beliefs on what makes a good photo. 

Another photo that comes to mind, on the topic of the Vietnam war is the one shown below. This is possibly one of the most famous war photographs, and a perfect example of how photojournalism can tell a story, acting to raise awareness, and to some extent, end a war. The photo shows 9 year old Kim Phuc fleeing her town with third degree burns after a US napalm bombing. 

Photo by Nick Ut on June 8, 1972: http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0008/ng2.htm

Overall, in an age of digital photography, where photos can be shared with the world seconds after they are taken, photography and visual support remain vital aspects of journalism. 

Annexed Text

Our third lecture was conducted by Skye Doherty, an experienced journalist who casually explained her past in Fleet Street, much to our amazement.

Text was the topic of lecture 3 in JOUR1111, and what a multifaceted media platform it is. To think, 26 letters, plus a few other symbols, constitutes the complete basis of all media today. Aside from the basic necessity of text for communication and expression, text entwines the cyber world linking it together. We search, copy, create, edit, mould, move and control text. It is the blood and bones of media’s existence; in fact, I am finding it difficult to express in plain text, just how important this medium is.

Along with text, we learned about the writing technique called the inverted pyramid, which is actually an upside down triangle. The most important part of the story comes first, which must include who, what, when, where, why and how. Then come the extra details, followed by the most irrelevant facts. As we were shown, the purpose of this is not only to catch reader’s attention and hold it as long as possible, but to allow the text to physically fit a variety of media platforms. For example, a newspaper can support a long, detailed story and there is room for lots of text. However websites need to show the story in a much smaller space. Thus, rather than rewriting the whole story, the desired amount of sentences can be cut off the end until it fits the required area. In this way, a single story written according to the inverted pyramid structure is suitable for a whole range of mediums. Headlines, on the other hand must be changed according to the media type they are presented in. A newspaper headline, can be sarcastic, satirical, pun-ridden and ­metaphorical, whereas a website headline must be literal and to the point, usually only a few words. Yet again, a tweet is limited to approximately three, yet expected to be equally as effective. I now realise the depth of word mastery and manipulation required of journalists in this age of new media.

Online hypertexts are another example of online articles, however these are made almost entirely of links to other information. The story may consist of a headline, by line and visual, then a list of links to other sources, news reports and matters of interest surrounding the one story. We were shown an interesting example of this, a story following the banks in the US during the global financial crisis, entitled Bank Street. It is simply an animation of a person walking down a city street, while bank logos are on each building. Each logo acts as a hyperlink to a more detailed explanation of the bank’s journey through the crisis.

At the end of the lecture, we came to discussing new means of journalism outside the boundaries of plain reporting. Skye introduced us to the idea of news games, which report events, simultaneously allowing user interaction with the story line. The example she showed us was Cutthroat Capitalism, a game based on the economic tactics of pirates off the coast of Somalia. The game is played from the point of view of a pirate, with the overall aim being to negotiate as high a ransom as possible by attacking ships. I found it fascinating that a game such as this can help instil understanding of a realistic concept.

After learning that all may not be lost in the future of journalism, my mind has been opened to the many possibilities that exist for new journalistic mediums. With the arrival of web 3.0, and the shifting focus from old to new media, I am now aware that journalism of the future of journalism does not have to be defined by current mediums. Despite a changing future, text remains the basis of all journalism and the ability to utilise it effectively is vital.