Wearing What's You, Not What's In

As a follow on to the numerous entries I made about clothes for this summer, I think it should be noted that it’s particularly important to dress in what makes one feel comfortable. I will never wear hot pants or booty shorts, because I doubt I will ever be comfortable wearing them. I think an imperative part in deciding what to wear goes beyond how you look but how you feel.

Many people think that young women, often in their late teens and early twenties, dress to impress men. While that is true to an extent, who does not want the admiration of someone, from the young women I have asked it is more likely that we dress to impress other women. Females are inherently bitchy, while it may fade after high school finishes it is not uncommon for one to subconsciously think, wow, she wore that out of the house?! Or on the other hand to think, shit every other female in this room looks better than me. I am not saying that every female feels this way; many don’t care what others think of them, and will not look down on someone due to what they are wearing. However, I believe that possibly every women has at some stage after graduating high school judged someone due to their choice of clothing.

The point I am trying to make is not that someone somewhere will be negative about your attire choices but that as society we need to distance ourselves from taking offence. I understand the irony of this, I want to work in the fashion industry, but I am saying don’t pay attention to what those that decide what is stylish say. That is not what I am saying; rather follow the trends that suit you. Just because someone famous wears it, or because it was the favourite on the Channel runway does not mean it will a, suit you, or b, that you will be comfortable wearing it. More so, it is not ideal to max a credit card in one purchase for the sake of fashion when you can’t afford it. It is most likely that a careful scouring of second hand stores, online shops and everything in-between will result in something similar to what you want. Alternatively, just find a pattern and give making it yourself a go.

This Summer: Dresses

I think dresses are a huge category clothing wise. If you go onto an online shopping site there always seems to been more dresses that shirts or shorts. Due to my height I steer very clear of maxi dresses, they give either the illusion I am off to a formal or trying to hide a weight problem. This season I will be purchasing a few shift dresses, they seem to work similarly to a jumpsuit and can be worn as a day or night outfit. They are also very flattering, due the little shape they have, it is possible to eat or drink as much as one wants and not worry about how you look as no one will be the wiser. One trend that seems to be sticking around this season is dresses with a nipped in waist, generally with a form fitting top half and slightly fuller skirt. These are very flattering provided the colour and style suits the wearer, but when it does the look is timeless.

Overall, summer is a fun season, so have fun with your clothes! Trying new things is always a great source of entertainment, and its possible while exploring you might find your favourite thing to wear for the next decade. 

Lecture 12: Investigative Journalism

“Isn’t all journalism meant to involve questioning investigation of the facts and opinions presented to us?”

Ross Coulthart

            Ross Coulthart is right, all journalism should be investigative. I recently watched an episode of ‘The Newsroom’ in which a gossip columnist compared herself to news anchor Will McAvoy, by calling them both journalists. As Will did, I have to disagree, tabloids and gossip writers are not journalists, they merely trash or glorify celebrities for no particular reason. Investigative journalism incorporates five ‘in’s, intelligence, informed, intuitive, inside and investment.

Investigative journalism can be split into four parts. It is important to keep in mind that an investigative journalist should be sceptical but not cynical.

1)      It is critical and thorough journalism with active participants and active intervention, and must make a substantial effort

2)      The responsibility of being a custodian of conscience, the responsibility to expose ‘civic vice’ to the pubic

3)      To provide a voice for those without one and to hold the powerful to account

4)      To be a fourth estate/a fourth branch of the government/ a ‘watchdog’

a.       Represent those without power to balance the power of the government

b.      Ensure the free flow of information necessary for a functioning democracy

c.       Make accountable public personalities and institutions who impact social and political life

Investigative journalism needs to be able to ‘cut through the agenda’ that was spoken about in last weeks lecture. An investigation report should involve facts that the public needs to know, placed into terms they can understand but without the bias of a funder pushing for a certain view on a story. As John Pilger said, “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.”

In the lecture, we looked at the trailblazers that contributed to investigations that changed the world. We explored Edward Hall Smith’s 1826 article in The Sydney Monitor about the mistreatment of convicts, W.T. Stead’s investigation into the prostitution of 12 year old girls, Chris Masters, Phil Dickie and Shaun Joyts ‘The Moonlight Sate’ about police and government corruption in Queensland during the 1980s, and ended with the current even of Julian Assange’s website WikiLeaks. As Dr Redman was talking about these people and their outcomes, all of them, asides from those involved in the making of ‘The Moonlight Sate’ were imprisoned. Assange is the most current debacle, a man who merely published documents governments would have never wanted leaking but referring to things the public has a right to know. However, as a result of this Assange is hidden in the Ecuadorian embassy fearing imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay for ‘treason’ crimes. This struck me as peculiar, that people who expose huge problems within society are paying for it rather than the perpetrators.

Lecture 11: Agenda Setting

Agenda setting in journalism is reality constructed, or mediated, by social life. The four areas are public, policy, corporate and media. Public refers to topics the public place importance on, policy is the issues decision makers think are important, issues big businesses and corporations believe are important come under corporate and media relates to the issues discussed in the media. These four areas are all integrated.

The mass media not only report events, but also filters and shapes it to fit a particular mould. Through media concentration on a few issues, the public perceives these issues as having a higher importance than they possibly do. For example, the media frenzy over Alan Jones’ comments, instead of perhaps focusing on the more important issues that are happening in the Middle East. The idea of agenda setting has been around for a while; in the 1920s, there was the concept of a ‘Magic Bullet’ that injected direct influence into the audience. Adolf Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl successfully used images to manipulate German perception of Hitler as a great leader and in 1968 during the US presidential campaign it was researched that an undecided voter could be persuaded by the mass medias emphasis on certain topics.

The agenda setting family has seven parts, these are media gate keeping, media advocacy, agenda cutting, agenda setting ‘bandwagon’, the diffusion of news, portray of an issue and media dependence.

1)      Media gate keeping: “How individuals control the flow of messages through a communication channel.” For example in the US Fox is more of a right wing station and thus is more likely to promote Mitt Romney in this years presidential campaign

2)      Media advocacy: the purposeful promotion of a message through the media, e.g. health issues like smoking, obesity, binge drinking

3)      Agenda cutting: a lot of the truth of reality that is going on th the world isn’t represented, for example, AIDS is on the increase but this huge issues has taken a backseat to other news events as it is not desirable to the public and not as enticing to the majority of society than Justin Beiber’s haircut

4)      Agenda setting ‘bandwagon’: when the media follows the current trend or ‘surfs’ the wave of topics bought up in different media spheres. Two such events this year are the Kony 2012 campaign and more recently the PSY ‘Gangnam Style’ song and dance

5)      Diffusion of news: the process through which an important event is communicated to the public i.e., how, where and when news is released

6)      Portray of an issue: the way an issue is portrayed is often how the public, or the uneducated part of the public, perceives it

7)      Media dependence: the more dependant a person is on media for information the more susceptible that person becomes.

 

One example of agenda setting is the prevalence of climate change in the news over the past 25 years. Referred to as the “Greenhouse Effect” in 1988 by The Age the same concept is now know as climate change, and is still an issue that is often raised in the media.

This Summer: Shirts and Jumpsuits

It looks like cropped shirts are going to be a big trend this summer, which I love, a loose cropped shirt is perfect when paired with cute high waisted pants. The one problem with crops, as with many pieces of clothing, is that just because it looks great on lots of people does not mean it will look great on everyone! It is always best to be selective about what you wear. Along with crops, I really like the look of loose singlets tucked into cute pants. I find that its best to use cheap boys shirts, as you can cut them to better suit a female body, but without lookling like you can't choose a size that fits you. Also, male shirts have more interesting images than female shirts, but please steer clear of the tacky naked women prints! In my opinion it looks better mixing a males singlet with cute shorts, rather than looking like a floral pattern projectile vomited all over your clothes.
 

My favourite summer outfit is the jumpsuit; it takes all the difficulty out of matching shirts and pants and can be dressed up or down. Unfortunately, I haven’t found many jumpsuits out yet but I am hoping that is only because we are in early spring. The main jumpsuit that I want this season is all black with a singlet top and long pants, nipped in at the waist and tailored around the crotch, as no one really wants to look like MC Hammer. The only downfall of jumpsuits is the potential of going overboard with a print that is too bold, it’s possible your outfit may just assault the eyes of anyone that sees you. I find that block colours or prints with minimal print, eg the middle two images below, work best.

Lecture 9: News Values

The definition of news values is “the degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story and the attention that is paid by an audience.” But does news have value to the audience? Arthur Evelyn Waugh said, “News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read. And its only news until he's read it. After that it’s dead.” Although I do not totally agree with Waugh’s point of view, it sometimes seems to me that many news outlets record events that those that do not care about much will read.

When deciding on what news stories take precedence three main areas come into practice. Firstly, the impact, will the audience be absorbed by the story. Secondly, audience, a sports program on a local channel will most likely broadcast the sources of local teams. Thirdly, identification, events and stories in areas of culture of interest to the audience. The other to areas that are important to news values are pragmatics, and source influence. It is important to note that news values will not be the same across different countries and cultures as the audience’s interests will change.



Galtung's 12 Factors

Professor Johan Galtung came up with the twelve factors of newsworthiness. From these factors, he hypothesised that the more factors and event satisfied the higher the probiblity of it becoming news. Over time Galtung’s factors have slightly changed, or been made more concise but the same hypothesis stands. As Bruce mentioned in the lecture the current factors that often secure a place on the news are terrorism, the Global Financial Crisis, health, fitness and diet and the environment. 

Galtung's 12 Factors

One phrase Dr Redman bought up was ‘if it bleeds it leads.’ I recently read that crime in Queensland and Australia wide is decreasing, but if the news was anything to go by it could be assumed that it was on the rise. This could partly be attributed to the for mentioned phrase. While I think it is important to publicise crime, and crime rates as to keep the public aware, it is unnecessary to create a public dominated by fear, similar to that in America.

Lecture 8: Ethics in Communication

Lecturer and former TV reporter Donna Meiklejohn presented the ‘Ethics in Communication’ lecture, which I found interesting. Donna showed a series of advertisements at the beginning of the lecture, and asked whether anyone found them offensive. I personally did not think any of the ads were offensive, but it is possible to see that quite a few would have been off putting for other groups in society. I found some very clever, such as Air Asia’s “Cheap enough to say, Phuket I’ll go.” I thought the Jim Bean, “The Girlfriend” ad, was unappealing, as with many alcohol related advertisements it reinforced the male/female stereotypes, but it lacked wit and thus came across slightly stupid in my opinion.

We then examined what contributes to a journalist making decisions about the ethical or unethicalness of a story or task. Donna told a story of her first ‘death knock’, and said that although she was very apologetic to the family over the years a journalist tends to distance themselves emotionally from situations, which is something that has be bought up previously this semester.

I found the ethics theory part of the lecture interesting, the difference and the overlapping of areas such as deontology, consequentialism and virtue. I found the consequentialism theory slightly strange, as I find it hard to believe in some situations the end could justify the means.

In response to the question, do ethics codes fail, Donna explained that many of the organisations that fund the groups that enforce ethics codes are major media groups, and thus it is often unlikely that their ethics will come into question. This is a point that has been raised many times this semester, that major mass media organisations broadcast what they believe, which results in the huge problem of society only absorbing a particular perspective on issues, which will continue to eventuate the close mindedness of society.

Carter's photograph

Finally, we looked at three news stories and how ethical it was for them to be published. The first was Kevin Carter’s image of the young girl and vulture. It is my belief that it was not an unethical photograph, in the situation Carter was in it would have been near impossible to help every starving child before or after taking a photo. Furthermore, helping one child to food would not have made much impact to the overall situation, but publication of a photograph such as this spreads awareness and can create a bigger impart on society resulting in contribution for the people in situations such as this.

The second story was a group of nude images of Pauline Hanson. The photographs were from the 1970s, so released approximately 35 years after they had been taken and upon examination were revealed to not even be of Hanson. Sunday Herald Sun columnist Robin Riley wrote “Public people are public property, whether they like it or not.” While this statement is true, I would assume that the Australian news would have higher priorities regarding Pauline Hanson’s policies than publishing tabloid worthy images.

The third image was of a naked Lara Bingle. As I have no interest in her, it was useful Donna explained the situation. From my point of view the images, while probably inappropriate, were Lara Bingles fault, and more likely a publicity stunt for her upcoming reality show than an invasion of her privacy.