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.

This Summer: Shorts

Over my next few posts I will be exploring what I think will look good this summer, and what I want to be wearing. I am a very firm believer in maintaining clothing choices that work for the wearer. While fashions change, very regularly at that, I feel that it is best to buy items of clothing that will be timeless, or as your personal style evolves, timeless during that period. This entry is not going to preach what’s in this summer, and therefore must be worn, because lets face it, some trends are ugly, but rather what trends I think will be suit me this summer.

Let’s face it; summer provides lots of fun options when it comes to clothes. Between shorts, singlets, jumpsuits and dresses, plus more, there is always something new to do with what you wear, unlike winter were the main priority is to aviod catching hypothermia. While summer is hot, it is only appropriate to wear very little clothes in few situations, the beach or pool, some festivals because lets face it, there is a lot of slimily bodies packed into a small space so fewer clothes help, to an extent, with the heat. The one rule I think applies everywhere though is it is only appropriate to display legs OR chest, if you do both don’t be offended if people offer you money for sex.

Short wise this summer I will be sticking with denim, but not the slashed style that was so popular last summer. While I still love my denim cut-offs I unfortunately loved them more before they turned into tiny pieces of fabric. I can say I indeed have got more than my moneys worth from them, and will continue to sneakily wear them around the house but they are not fit for public anymore. Due to this I think high waisted denim cut-offs will still be a great purchase, just ones that are intact. Along with denim, I will be wearing both loose and tight-ish high waisted shorts in an array of fabrics. As a short person I find high waisted, or semi high waisted, pants help make my legs look a tiny bit longer, which I will have to be happy with. I think nice soft colours such as peach, and pale pink and green will look fantastic for a block colour effect and bold prints will be great when paired with a plain shirt, particularly for a different look when going out.

Lecture 7: Public Media

This week’s lecture covered public media, the opposite of what was explored last week in the commercial media lecture. I found Nigel Milan’s, former Managing Director of SBS, quote explaining the difference between commercial and public media to be exceptionally eloquent. “The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens.” Thus, the ultimate purpose of public media is a polar opposite of commercial media; it is to serve the public without making a profit. In Australia, the only public media outlets we have are SBS and the ABC, plus their digital TV and radio programs. Public media on an international scale includes organisations such as the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, NPR and arte.

The role of public media in a democratic society is to support the public and democratic process, and should have ‘public value.’ The BBC identifies ‘public values’ as embedding a ‘public service ethos’ in programs, personal value for the licence fee, weighting public value against market impact and public consultation. The Broadcasting Research Unit outlined in 1985 that public media should have a geographical universality, special provision for minorities, universality of appeal, distanced from all vested interested and universality of payment.

The key mechanism of public media is the news. It is often viewed as unbiased, or less biased that commercial news, as there is ‘no one paying the bills.’ 41% of Australians get their news from the ABC; this can be attributed to the fact that is the main source of lengthy interviews with politicians, national leaders and other prominent figures. It is often regarded as serious news as it places importance over interest. As independence producer Robert Richter put it, public media “is such a special vehicle for voices to be heard… [for] visions and viewpoints…ignored by commercial media.”

Prior to the lecture on public and commercial media, I had always preferred the news on either SBS or ABC. This is mainly due to my lack of interest in national and local affairs that commercial media outlets publicise. Important aspects of Australian news are reported by SBS and the ABC, but only if they are in fact important. My main problem with the news on commercial media channels is that it feels like I am watching a trivial exposé or witnessing the latest scare story, like ‘what your butcher actually puts in his meat’ or ‘can you really trust your neighbours’. While I understand, and appreciate, the importance of being informed, and not tuning out aspects of the news, as they often can be intimidating or threatening, I do not want to become afraid of my own shadow due to the tabloidization of commercial news programs.

Lecture 6: Commercial Media

Prior to the lecture in week 6 I already understood that there was a difference between some TV channels based on government and nongovernment funding, but that was the full extent of my understanding. Due to this, I found the lecture on commercial media quite interesting. As a profit driven media production, that is nongovernment funded, commercial media survives or fails on business success. Channels 9, 7 and 10; the digital channels such as GO! Gem, 7TWO and 7MATE, and then Foxtel and Austar are all examples of commercial media, along with various radio programs and newspapers.

Three of commercial media's major players are News Limited, Fairfax Media and APN. News Limited, headed by Rupert Murdoch, involves itself in a huge variety of media such as newspapers, cable TV, film, magazines, books and sports. They are in control of business including The Courier Mail, The Australian, Fox, Sky News, Harper Collins Publishing and 20^th Century Fox. Fairfax controls mainly newspapers and digital media such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Financial Review Brisbane Times, domain.com and dating site RSVP. APN is involved with regional newspapers, digital media, radio and outdoor advertising. Some of these are radio station 97.3 fm, finda and AD Shell.

In my opinion, one of the largest negative results of commercial media is the dumbing down of society. By being able to be selective about what news one is exposed to, and what entertainment one is exposed to, educational value is lost as the demand for it lessens.

Some of the questions raised in the lecture about the future of commercial media were, how would it continue to make profits if advertising revenue is declining? How will it continue to server the advertisers, audience and the public good? What kind of audience can it expect to gain/maintain? What cumulative effect will it have on the practice of journalism and public communication?

Assessment Four: Annotated Bibliography

Sackville, Ronald. (2009). Let truth and falsehood grapple: Milton as a dubious guide to some questions about free speech. Australian Journalism Review, 31(1), 107-120.

This article is the text of Justice Ronald Sackville’s, a Judge of Appeal in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, address given at the Freedom of Speech Conference, plus some additions. This article surrounds the topic of freedom of speech, John Milton’s writings regarding this topic and the legal side of freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Sackville refers to the ethical side of journalism, claiming that it is not often that ethics are taken into primary considerate before an article is published. He then includes a postscript in which he refers to The Australian’s criticism of part of his address that regarded an article he mentioned in his address. Sackville concludes that often phrases such as ‘freedom of speech’ and the ‘right to know’ simplify “the nature of issues requiring informed debate.” (Sackville, 2009) As Sackville’s article draws from a wide range of sources, and an in depth analysis of the relationship between the legal system and the media it can be deemed a reliable source. Although it may not be helpful as a whole if arguing for or against freedom of speech from a journalistic point of view, Sackville makes many points that would be useful to an argument of this nature.

 

McCullagh, Declan. (September 26 2012). Julian Assange lashes out at ‘neo-McCarthyist fervor’ in U.S. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57521057-38/julian-assange-lashes-out-at-neo-mccarthyist-fervor-in-u.s/

This news report written by Declan McCullagh for the CNet website explores the ongoing Julian Assange fiasco. This particular article covers the legal action the United States of America is taking regarding Assange’s website WikiLeaks’ sources. The document summarises the persecution of Assange and one possible informer, Bradley Manning, who may face the death penalty if convicted of the charges he faces. This article supports some of Sackville’s points, commenting that if Assange is charged under the American Espionage Act it could be a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of the freedom of the press. As CNet is a product of the American CBS channel, it is not entirely helpful or reliable. CBS is a form of commercial media and thus driven by profit and not the requirement to give the public an unbiased opinion. In the case of McCullagh’s article, he avoids most bias and delivers a largely factual account of this topic. Unfortunately, McCullagh’s article lacks a depth of sophisticated inquiry and thus is at risk of complying with what Sackville noted as omissions of the press.

Dorling, Phillip. (September 27 2012). US calls Assange ‘enemy of state’. Retrieved from http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/us-calls-assange-enemy-of-state-20120927-26m7s.html

Phillip Dorling’s article, published on the Brisbane Times website, is very similar to the for mentioned article by Declan McCullagh. Dorling claims the US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States, and deems supporters of the site that provide Assange with documents may be charged with communicating with the enemy, and as McCullagh stated, the maximum sentence for this is death. Dorling’s article differs from McCullagh’s as it includes more information and therefore more depth. Not only does he include more of a context than McCullagh does, briefly summarising why Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and also including why the US government wants him extradited. Dorling’s article expands on why Assange’s potential charges are invalid, but without portraying obvious bias. Assange purely leaked documents from government agencies and officials, something that many journalists have done in the past and have not had to face a possible death penalty. Sackville’s speech supports this; the press has a right to publish what it does, as long as it does not incite violence, include defamatory content and does not omit facts to alter the reader’s judgment. The Brisbane Times is part of the Fairfax Media company, which is a commercial media company like CBS. Although it cannot be deemed reliable as a whole, from the analysis it can be deemed a source that would be helpful when coupled with Sackville’s document.

 

ABC News. (September 27 2012). Assange addresses UN on human rights. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-27/assange-un-address/4283354

The ABC News website’s article on Julian Assange’s address to the United Nations uses some of the same information that McCullagh and Dorling articles did. Unfortunately, it does not go into much depth, as a result of being an internet article, but captures the main element the previous two documents did. It also includes parts of Assange’s speech to the UN in which he condemned Barack Obama’s policies regarding Assange’s WikiLeaks site and claimed Obama contradicts himself, as he has made many statements regarding freedom of speech. The ABC includes that Bradley Manning, a figure mentioned in McCullagh and Dorling’s articles, has been held in custody for 856 days, and been psychologically tortured and abused due to his involvement with WikiLeaks. This article, although small, explicitly illustrates the obvious issue of freedom of the press, as Assange has a right to publish the documents Manning provided, given they were not of a defamatory nature and did not omit important elements of the nature of the situation. In comparison to McCullagh and Dorling’s articles in relation to Sackville’s speech, the ABC article is the most successful in addressing the issues Sackville mentions. Given the ABC is a public broadcasting network; it does not face the same possibly compromising issues of CNet and the Brisbane Times, and thus can be deemed the most reliable of the three.

 

 

Assessment Three: Factual Story

"A Grand Bond"

 



Death, or the knowledge of imminent death, rarely coincides with thoughts of joy, happiness or fondness. As macabre as it sounds, over the past four months I have witnessed the simple way in which death allows these emotions to shine through the bleakest of times.



In June of this year, my roommate, Georgia, found out that her grandfather, 79-year-old George Anderson, had developed a lump in his neck. Unfortunately, it was close to two and a half months after approaching a doctor that a biopsy was taken of the lump. During this time, the lump had continued to grow at an extraordinary rate. The results of the biopsy revealed to the family that the lump was in fact an extremely aggressive melanoma. During the course of deliberation over what plan to take, to remove the melanoma, George was hospitalised due to the alarming and rapid growth of the melanoma. The doctors performed a tracheostomy, as it was near impossible for George to execute simple everyday tasks that many take for granted, such as eating, swallowing, breathing and conversing. Radiation was a possibility but as Georgia explained to me, “it was becoming more and more obvious that he didn’t have much time and there’s no point in wasting that time being sick.” George was then provided with a feeding tube as he could not eat solids, but as that was only a temporary solution the tube has been removed now. In the last week and a half, he has decided to stop all hydration he had been receiving.

The purpose of this story is not to paint a depressing portrait of an elderly man dying in hospital; it is to illustrate the beautiful bond between a granddaughter and her grandfather. Furthermore, it demonstrates a family bond is not based on shared DNA, as George is Georgia’s grandmother’s second husband, and therefore her step grandfather.

The first bond Georgia recalls her and her grandfather share is a love for coin collections. “I was always really inquisitive about everything, so when Pop said oh I have a coin collection he [would]…show me and tell me this is from this country…and I guess because I love Pop so much I wanted to have that common ground so I've been collecting coins for as long as I can remember as well.” She then tells me about some of George’s coins, and on previous occasions has proudly shown off various coins she has acquired for her coin collection. She once explained, at work she would exchange Federation coins customers gave her for her own so she could further expand her collection.

 

Coin collecting is not the only common interest Georgia and George share. George is a member of the Masonic Lodge, and has been so for more than fifty years. The Lodge is a freemason group, which not only helps its members but also contributes to various charities work. Georgia tells me that The Lodge provided an electrician, free of charge, to help with some problems around her grandparent’s home while George has been in hospital. She goes on to say, “Apart form all the other stuff Pop and I had in common it was my freakishness of wanting to know about The Lodge. I couldn’t tell you the first time I ever found out about it, I just don’t remember… for as long as I can remember I’ve been obsessed with it.” For a web design project in TAFE Georgia choose The Lodge as the topic to centre her website on, a small example of her obsession with this captivating group. She relays one website she came across while researching which claimed to reveal the secrets and inner workings of this society. Georgia explains that she could have sat there and found out everything she had always craved to know but the only way she wants find out the secret movements of The Lodge is if George tells her. “It’s something that I can never be part of, so talking to my Pop about it not only gave us good conversation and good time together but I was so intrigued and I’m so nosey that it was something we’ve always be able to sit down for hours [and talk] about,” she says.

Even in George’s illness, the bond between granddaughter and grandfather has not faulted. After a previous surgery in 2010, while Georgia’s grandmother was on a trip that had been booked prior to the surgery, Georgia took George to his follow up appointments, and helped him with household tasks such as mowing the lawn. She explains, “even though it doesn’t sound like it, it was good time together, I felt really good that I was at that age where I could help him.”

Newborn Georgia with proud grandfather George

It is not a common occurrence in today’s society that a 19-year-old young woman and a 79-year-old man could share such a strong bond, and a lifetime filled with so many joyous memories. Georgia tells me “Pop and I have just always been really good friends, like best friends,” and I do not doubt it. Even prior to his illness Georgia often spoken of her grandfather with the highest praise and with such tenderness that would make any grandparent envious. The story of George and Georgia illustrates that while death is not beautiful, life is, and in death it is the beautiful relationships and life a person has lived we should remember.

Georgia concluded with a poignant sentence, “people that have just met him [George] admire him and people that know him adore him.”

 

 

 

 

N.B: the image included was provided by George's family for the purpose of this assignment

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival



MBFF 2012: Molly and Polly Swimwear

In my previous blog ‘What Next?’ I talked about working at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Well now I am more than half way though, in fact, I only have two shifts left and I could not have wished for a better last 5 days. It has truly been an amazing, eye opening experience. Although to my disappointment, it has only given me more ideas about a career choice than narrowing them down.



In the past 5 days, I have managed guest’s questions regarding a problem prior to the opening show, which lead to the evacuation of the marquee. I have been surrounded by many established and up and coming designers. I have also witnessed enough fashion shows to make almost any girl happy, but most importantly I have met an amazing group of young ambitious people searching for careers in a wide array of fields.

Even though my main aim this week was to narrow down and make a career choice, which I possibly will not do for a while, I am certain, if it is possible to be any more certain than I already was, that fashion is where I want to be. I love everything about it, the clothes, the makeup, the hair, the models, the press and even the guests. It is something I seriously believe I will never grow tired of. The tasks I have been given this week have in on way been glamorous or ‘fashionable’ but I have enjoyed every second of it. I would almost rather do this every day than go back to work or even university.

I have no interest in managing events but there are so many jobs and fields I never knew about that appeal to me that I would love to experience. I didn’t have the opportunity to do any back of house work, such as dressing the models and organising the clothes, but that is something I would love to try, not only this, but working with guests and designers would also be a wonderful opportunity that would be great to participate in during future years.

MBFF 2012: Paul Hunt

Lecture 5: Picture Stories

William Klein's 1955 "Gun Play"

The ‘Picture Stories’ lecture was the third part of the text, sound and image focus of the last three weeks. Although it may not seem like it picture stories are everywhere they really are. Not only in the obvious things such as newspapers, magazines, television and movies, but in less obvious places such as social media and networking sites like Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and memes.  The most surprising thing Bruce mentioned where picture stories are located for me was graffiti. I would have never considered graffiti as a picture story, as their technique is not as straightforward as a picture or movie, but in the case of artists such as Banksy the meaning is conveyed just as simply.

The first part of the lecture focused on the history of picture stories, such as French cave paintings from 15000-10000 BC, Aboriginal cave drawings, holy books and stained glass windows. From this we examined the history of news in regards to pictures. Amongst the examples mentioned was the move from line illustrations in newspapers to the first images relating to a news story, Henry J. Newton’s “Shanty Town”, to the first colour image printed in a newspaper in 1936 and ending with the first photo posted on the internet in 1990. My favourite part of the first half of the lecture was the facts presented at the end chronicling how many photos are uploaded to Instagram a second, 60, the total number of photos on Facebook, approximately 190 billion, and how many photos are uploaded to Flickr daily, 4.5 million. We then explored the way photo journalism is changing due to technology, such as being able to capture an image and immediately send it to a newspaper or editor, the ease with which photographs can be manipulated and is this a good or a bad thing and how through digital newspapers a photo journalist is able to create a gallery of images taken at an event compared to only one or two that would be published in a newspaper.

From this we looked at cinematography, beginning in France in 1895, to Australia’s federation film in 1901, and Sergi Eisenstein, the father of montage. This was then narrowed down in relation to news, how news was first shown in cinemas, various propaganda films, most memorable I would claim are Hitler’s, how television news was first read straight to the camera without any footage of the event, like a radio but with pictures, occasionally even being read from a newspaper. All this has evolved into what we have now, 24/7 news, amateur and eyewitness images and film, which particularly took off after the 2005 London bombings, and the new career of a VJ, a video journalist, one person who films and reports, like a one maned reported crew.

Lecture 4: Telling Stories with Sound

As this is my blog, I might as well be honest, and cross my fingers that we are not marked on our opinions of the lectures. Its not that the ‘Telling Stories with Sound’ lecture was bad, radio just does not hold any interest with me. Whether that’s because I hate the sound of my own voice being played back to me or because the only radio I can remember listening to was the tacky popular stations, although before I got my first iPod I loved them, or being made to listen to ABC as Dad drove us to school. In year 11 and 12, I warmed up more to the AM show on the ABC, probably because it was more ‘hard, world’ news rather than the local fluff pieces. Radio holds no interest for me, not in the technical side, not in the manipulation of words and sound, it really just does not appeal to me. That said, I did not hate the lecture, I just did not find it particularly stimulating.

The lecture was two interviews with two radio hosts, Richard Fidler and Steve Austin. Richard talked about his two programs, ‘Conversations’ and ‘Afternoon.’ I really liked the point he made about a radio host needing to be more personal that the host of a TV show, as the viewer is more removed when watching TV compared to listening to radio, which Fidler claimed is like a voice “that comes from your head.” He also raised a good point that when interviewing or speaking to a guest the conversation needs to be kept open, as the listener may feel unwelcome or excluded to an extent. Fidler mentioned that he had interviewed Adam Gilchrist and Gough Whitlam, which really impressed me, more so about Whitlam as it would be a fascinating interview to host. He also mentioned the successfulness of podcasts in creating a larger and more accessible base for radio shows. My favourite part of Fidler’s interview was his advice to “expose yourself to the thoughts and ideas of people you don’t agree with” as this is such a valuable tool to be able to create stimulating conversation.

Steve Austin talked about the “radio being the theatre of the mind” as the host has to create images with words, similar to an author creating a picture with text. The most interesting point I think Austin made was the claim that listeners can tell when someone is lying on radio better than on the TV, as the visuals of television are too distracting. While I do not entirely share this belief, I think body language tells the viewer a lot, its interesting to think that one could examine a person through only there tone and language.

Both men said that one of the best moments in their jobs is when someone reveals or remembers something and shares that with the host and the listeners, almost as if they are revealing a part of their soul, which would be an amazing moment to witness and be part of.

What next?

The 'photographer' stage

As I mentioned in my first blog entry I am interested in the area of fashion journalism. Although I am uncertain of how much I will continue to want to do journalism, I know fashion is something I really want to pursue. I'm sure this just sounds like the typical teenage girl career choice like the rest, there was that stage where everyone wanted to be a lawyer, or a vet or a teacher/nurse/doctor, or at least my friends and I did but my interest in fashion goes deeper that just reading Total Girl when I was young. At about 13 I went through the fashion designer phase, I was certain that my best friend in the whole world and myself were going to make it big. Unfortunately our designs, if you could actually call them that, were more Supre than Sass and Bide, and like many young dreams, eventually fell apart. After a string of spontaneous career choices that various adults often shot down, or I realised were not going to be as glamorous as I’d hoped, I decided I was going to be a fashion photographer. It fit the criteria of glamorous, it looked exciting, beautiful, fun, and involved fashion, which I still loved to read and explore, only at this stage it was Vogue and Harpers Bazaar that the previously mentioned Total Girl.



Another from the 'photographer' stage

I studied photography at school, and while I loved it and did really well, I knew I would not make it. It might have been mum that ruined this dream, or maybe she just reinforced my own thoughts, but I just remember her telling me either I would have to work as one of those Kmart baby portrait photographers, or that is where I would end up. That single thought alone shattered my hopes of being the female version of Mario Testino.

Now I have resolved that even if I change my mind about doing fashion journalism I have to at least get a foot in the door. There is no point hoping and dreaming of fashion shows or having my own by-line unless I do whatever I can about getting into whatever position they will let me have to build up some kind of leg for myself to stand on. This is what has bought me to this point, the slightly stressed but eager and apprehensive feeling I know will only grow in the coming days. I didn’t actually think that I would be successful in gaining a volunteer position at this year's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, but somehow I have. I'm hoping this will be my foot in the door, or at least the make or break in my current ideal career choice. However, if it does ruin my hopes of becoming a famous fashion journalist I know that it will not ruin the rest of this course for me.

Fashion Week in Paris

Lecture 3: Text

Week Three’s lecture revolved around ‘text’, hosted by print journalist Skye Doherty. Thinking about text and journalism together seems upfront right? Well apparently not. I have a vague recollection that at some point in my schooling we looked at journalism and newspapers, I have a feeling it was primary school as all I remember was being told an article in a newspaper had to have a headline, the authors name and the story. Of course, before Skye’s lecture I know the ‘authors name’ part of an article is called the by-line and all those other things you somehow just learn as you get older. I knew the news was ever expanding, but I did not understand the various processes that go into producing a story that will be able to cross all the new ways of accessing newspaper articles.

The basic techniques outlined were Poynter eye track, where in print journalism a picture is more likely to draw in a reader compared to online journalism in which it is the text that appeals to the reader. Skye also covered the inverted triangle in relation to how a story should be written, with the most important aspects at the beginning and slowly filtering down to the ‘fluff’ at the end. Although these were both new to me, they were not eye opening; it is merely a matter of common sense, to an extent. It was the concept of creating a layout that can be transferred with ease to all different kinds of mediums that made me realise just how much more effort and thought process must be required now than 20 years ago in this field. Not only is a different layout required for print journalism in newspapers and online news, but different layouts for smart phones, tablets and social media.

The most important part of this lecture for me was about hypertext. Skye quoted Ted Nelson who defined hypertext as “a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented of represent on paper” or now the internet. The reason why this was my favourite part was the interesting point made that journalism has not yet exploited hypertext or multimedia and interactivity. The idea that there is so much that could be done through this is astounding. Skye identified through hypertext various articles could link to primary source, thus giving them more depth. She also raised the point that instead of just adjusting print to digital; shouldn’t we be asking what else could digital media offer us?

Vogue Australia magazine cover, left , Vogue Australia homepage, right