Remarkable Music

A little over a year ago, I decided to attend a viewing of a documentary entitled 'Call + Response'.


See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS-0CHXfyIk

This documentary was fascinating, as not only did it uncover a thriving world of slavery and human trafficking that goes unnoticed by many across all continents, but it advocated action through the talents of critically acclaimed music artists. Music is a wonderful way to make people listen and hear a message, and this is exactly what the film did.

A particular artist who was featured I found extremely interesting. Matisyahu is a Jewish Reggae singer, and after watching his segment in the film, I looked him up, then bought some of his songs.

Matisyahu's Performance in the Call + Response Film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zU1JP4_qOE

He is the only, truly unique artist I have come across, whose music spreads valuable messages and stories. It is music truly worthwhile, unlike a lot of music in today's industry. Also, though it may sound strange, the music gives me this overwhelming feeling of happiness every time I listen to it. The wisdom of the messages and beautifully composed lyrics in every song, are a credit to Matisyahu's talent as an artist.

Matisyahu's Website: http://matisyahuworld.com/home/

Call + Response now as an organization, offers multiple opportunities to donate, and assist with the discovery and recovery of human slavery. The website gives more information: http://www.callandresponse.com/

Shaping the Future

For our final lecture we were given a talk from Steve Molk. It was fascinating to hear his perspectives on journalism today. He started out doing a chemistry undergraduate degree, then worked in IT for several years before beginning a blog where he reviews television shows; Molk’s TV Talk

The most  interesting message he gave us was, whatever you are interested in, whether it be seemingly mundane, if you consistently and intentionally stick to it, you‘ll find that you will connect with the subculture over the internet and people will interact with you to find out more about it. We have access to professionals over the internet. We can ask questions via twitter. We have the ability to communicate and connect directly with the source and then take the information and create stories on it, all via new media.

Steve pointed out the many opportunities that exist today, whether it is moving into traditional journalism, print or moving into PR, all of the aspects will involve creating and controlling the story. There will be guidelines around what we write, there will be editors and sub editors, but starting now we have the opportunity to pitch our own stories in any direction we wish. Steve encouraged us to start now, to begin writing articles, investigating our interests, forming our own opinions and seeing where it leads us. And this is exactly what I plan to do!

The Private Eye of Journalism

Investigative journalism is extremely interesting, in that it seems to be the noblest of endeavours, (depending on what it investigates). This type of journalism is critical and thorough, as the journalist actively participates in gaining and of course investigating the information. Rather than simply sitting in the office, making phone calls and researching on the internet, an investigative journalist must go out, chase people up, consult sources and witness events first hand. It is all about thorough and accurate exploration of an issue. For effective investigation, conducting interviews, taking observations, going through documents and briefings must be done.

Basically, the internet – wikepedia and google did not always exist so they are by no means completely necessary to creating a good story.

There are several roles that investigative journalists aim to fulfil;

Custodians of conscience – the journalist exposes ‘civic vice’ for society to respond to in any way they wish.

Provide a voice for those without one and to hold the powerful to account – this is about social justice and bringing the responsible to account.

The fourth estate – journalists balance the powers of government, representing the interests of those without power. Other terms include the ‘fourth branch of government’, where journalists make sure information concerning the functioning of democracy are given to the public, and ‘watchdog’, where journalists make public personalities and institutions accountable when their actions impact public life.

Another name for investigative journalism is Shoe leather journalism, a US term, whereby you wear out your shoe leather, travelling and moving around and ‘actively investigating’. Scepticism and slight suspicions are important, however cynicism can result in pessimism, and ultimately create a lot of trouble. .

It seems that investigative journalism is somewhat the opposite, yet at the same time, quite similar to agenda setting. By this, I mean that the topics of investigative journalism can still be carefully selected, the only difference being that they are thoroughly investigated. Threats to investigative journalism, include PR and the selective use of facts. This can mean that only topics of interest to the public are being investigated, rather than the journalist verifying the facts in the public interest.

Great examples of investigative journalism are the Global Mail, and Australian story (local investigative journalism).

The Global Mail 

Australian Story 

The Media's Clouded Mirror

Agenda setting is a theory but like all good, solid theories is all a bit obvious really (Bruce).

When you really think about it, most of our perceptions of parts of the world we have never seen, our mental images and the way we believe them to be run, are a result of the media’s representation. In many cases, our discernment of reality is socially constructed through the media’s communication. So the media’s role in structuring and mediating the social world is immense.

Four main agendas in the agenda setting theory were defined.

1.       Public agenda – what the public perceives as important

2.       Policy agenda – issues of political prominence for decision makers

3.       Corporate agenda – Issues that corporations and business deem important eg. Coal seam gas.

4.       Media agenda – issues discussed in the media

Each of these four agendas are closely interrelated.

This diagram is interesting as it shows that much of the information we receive is first filtered through the media and through the media’s agenda.

There are two main assumptions of the agenda setting theory. Firstly, the media’s concentration on a few issues, leads the public to believe that these are more important that other issues. An example of this is AIDS. Because it is rarely explored by the media, it is rarely thought about by those unaffected by it. Secondly, the mass media do not merely reflect the reality of these few issues for the public. They filter and shape it, possibly making it more interesting or deciding which aspects of it to focus on. This is where news values come in.

An interesting model for the way in which the media influences our perceptions was the ‘hypodermic needle model’, suggesting the media is injecting their ideas, and constructions of reality into our brains!!! . However, for this hypodermic needle model to be accurate it would assume everyone was uniform in actually believing the information they are given, and perceived it in the same way – which of course would not happen.

According to Walter Lippman, the mass media creates or leaves certain images in our heads. Think of the famous 9/11 image of the plane about to crash into the second tower. This, or something similar is most likely the image that comes to mind when we think of 9/11. I also think that other images such as ‘a man in a turban’, often associated with, but not actually depicting the event, can add to fuel prejudices in society. Nazi propaganda as well as US communism propaganda are great examples of this, for example,  Leni Riefenstahl’s film ‘Triumph of the Will’, commissioned by Joseph Goebbels. 

 Left: anti-Semitic propaganda

Right: Anti communist propaganda

A great quote from Lippman was “in truly effective thinking, the prime necessity is to liquidate judgements, regain an innocent eye, disentangle feelings, be curious and open hearted”.

Finally, we were introduced to the Agenda setting family. 

Media gate keeping – how individual journalists control the flow of information to the public. What they choose to allow the public to see.

Media advocacy – purpose for the media’s promotion of a message.

Agenda cutting – issues not in the media do not receive as much attention or focus.

Agenda surfing or bandwagon effect – the media follows trends of what is popular at the moment, reporting the most popular stories.

The diffusion of news – the process of events being communicated to public. How where and when they are released.

Portrayal of an issue – the media can portray issues or groups in negative or positive lights. 

Media dependence – the constant need for us to check facebook and twitter every few minutes and our reliance on the agenda setting of the media.

The Benefits of Blood

Lecture 9 was on news values - how we prioritise news and decide what will make a story. As journalists, how do we know what is worth writing about amidst the multitude of events across our globe? The lecture explored the meaning behind news values, the simplicity of news values, factors that define it, and threats to newsworthiness.

It turns out that conflict, tragedy and scandal are the constituents for captivating readers, which is quickly becoming the aim of news, rather than simply reporting a version of events. Definitions such as “If it bleeds it leads” are highly popular and well known as a basis for news values on an international level. The lecture explored the impact, audience identification, pragmatics, and source influence in news values.

We were shown lists of news values devised by a variety of academics, all with different specific values, but essentially the same goal. The links to each are below.

Galtung & Ruge 

Golding and Elliot 

O'Neill and Harcup

Often lists of news values when grouped together tend to complement each other, and as a result, can exclude each other. The first definition given to us, described news values as “the degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story, and the attention that is paid by an audience.” Obviously news values themselves are considered before the pieces are assembled however the reader/viewer response is just as important in determining what kind of stories consumers are after and find most interesting.

For news to be considered ‘interesting’, it must have some sort of relevance and connection to the audience. It is this reader response aspect that I found interesting, along with the fact that Public Relations and journalism are becoming increasingly integrated.

We were also introduced to a different concept that news stations such as nine, seven and ten apply. “If it’s local it leads” is the phrase referring to our desire for personally relevant and news that is in close proximity to us, affecting us or someone we may know personally. Applying this, the 22 people who died in the Queensland floods had more prominence than over 500 who died in the Brazilian floods at the same time, and an Australian injured in a natural disaster overseas than possibly the disaster itself.

Threats to newsworthiness include ethics, proximity (greater distances), immediacy (requirement for haste in reporting), political influence in news outlets (restrictions), and PR. Three tensions of newsworthiness were defined; the commercialization of media and social life, public relations and journalism’s ideas versus reality. There are tensions between ideals of journalism, its honourable aims etc, and the reality of journalism.

Books on journalism from the past few years have explored the decline and decay of journalism, such as ‘junk news’, and an interesting concept; ‘churnalism’. ‘Churnalism’ is repurposing things like video news releases (which are made through secondary sources to the journalist, where footage and interviews are taken, then sold to news companies – for the purpose of editing) and press releases, using them directly as news stories. It is churning out news without revision or fixing. With less time, and more stories to be written, it is forever tempting for journalists to spit out pre prepared stories, without checking the facts. With the arrival of social media and ‘interwebs’, this is being counteracted, as readers can interact with each other, analyse the information themselves and search for the truth without simply being ‘force fed’.

While defining lists of news values can be helpful, in reality choosing what to include and what not to, is instinctual and dependent on who news is for, and the time and place it appears etc. As a science student, I spotted a strange parallel between news values and the concept of natural selection in populations throughout evolution. Natural selection is completely environmental dependant. Organisms select mates based on their social and physical needs at the time, their current condition and the selection is relevant to their own, and their offspring’s survival. This is, to some extent, the same for journalists and news companies. They select the stories they believe are most relevant to the audience, dependent on - and ultimately for the survival of the news source. So overall, news values vary between news services, cultures and countries. There may be common interests but they are certainly varying. 

Questions and Quandaries

Lecture eight explored the ethics of journalism, a topic I found particularly interesting and of course highly relevant to journalism as a practise and a career. Our lecture began with being shown a series of pictures of advertising billboards. We were given a piece of paper with a set of axis on a sort of grid. We had to mark the square we felt best fitted the advert in terms of good or bad taste and being ethical or unethical along a scale of one to five.

The scale we were given

I soon came to realise that ‘taste’ and ‘ethicalness’ were two very different categories, depending on what imagery the add contained, what it was actually promoting and what connotations were in the text. Adds could be highly ethical but bad taste, or vice versa. 

3 paradigms were offered to us as a means of separating the good and bad from the tacky or tastefulness. Amazingly, they are supposed to encapsulate every possible ethical theory ‘on the planet’. The first was deontology, which uses rules and laws to distinguish right from wrong. Second was consequentialism, which is all about the outcome. The final result is all that matters and the path taken to get there is irrelevant. The third was virtue ethics, where goodness comes from virtues which are the ‘golden mean’. 

Example of Aristotle's Golden Mean

I found virtue ethics the most interesting, because it works in the middle ground between two undesirable outcomes to achieve a desirable outcome. The example given was cowardice and rashness, two undesirable qualities, while the middle ground is courage. I feel that this can be applied to a lot of examples today, where balance is important - even things such as your diet, or  running a cross country race where you need to pace yourself. This concept, I feel, can be applied to many aspects of today's life; not simply qualities. 

So there are multiple things to take into account when deciding the ethicalness and the tastefulness of advertisements. Despite these two considerations being separate, I believe they are somewhat linked. Tastefulness can be complimented or somewhat excused if the advertisement is ethical, yet if the advertisement is unethical, it is less justifiable. An example we were given was this anti smoking add. While it is advocating a good cause, it is not done in the best taste. 

Anti smoking add

An interesting example we studied in the tutorials was that of the journalist Kevin Carter and the ethical dilemma he faced in taking the photograph entitled ‘Vulture Stalking a Child’. Though he won the Pulitzer Prize for taking the photo, Carter was faced with the dilemma of whether to help the girl, disobey his orders and interfere, or to sit and watch the Vulture draw nearer, then snap the perfect photo. We had a lengthy discussion on this in the tute, and were asked to say what we think he should have done. Of course in the comfort and safety of the classroom, we would like to think we would do the most ethical thing – whatever that may be – however I think it is difficult to predict what you would actually do in a situation such as that until you are faced with the same dilemma. Despite the fact that Carter chose not to help the girl, this photo most likely raised a lot of awareness and sparked renewed curiosity about the development and conditions in southern Sudan. 

Kevin Carter's famous photograph

As a side note, I remember once reading about the ethical dilemmas faced by Jewish doctors in concentration camps during the holocaust. Many doctors were faced with the dilemma of either giving their patients morphine and killing them painlessly and quickly, or allowing them to be tortured, and possibly experimented on before inevitable death. 

Overall, in ethics usually a dilemma occurs when either outcome is bad, and you have to decide which outcome is 'worse'. Ethics in journalism is of the utmost importance for the sake of journalists themselves, but also those they write about. At the end of the lecture we were shown multiple ethical codes to help us and hopefully begin to learn and implement in our future careers.