News Post on James Cameron

James Cameron was already a man I would've invited to a dinner party but after reading this I want to meet him so much more!

http://www.news.com.au/technology/avatar-and-titanic-director-james-cameron-reaches-oceans-deepest-point-on-record-breaking-trip/story-e6frfro0-1226309967863

Record breaking is the best!

Lecture 5

I listened to radio a lot when I was in primary school and still a significant amount through high school. I was so interested throughout these years that I did work experience at my local FM station, Gladstone 93.5 Hot FM! Definitely wasn’t the type of station where you’d find the likes of Fidler or Austin but it was good enough for me to get my first taste of the industry. I wrote a small amount of content for the announcers to use and even got little bits of air time myself now and again. Being a commercial station, I was of course used for radio ‘stunts’. The lowly work experience girl was always the first option haha. After my time there though I have nothing but shining praise from the wonderful experience and knowledge they showed me.

Listening to this week’s lecture revealed to me a much more intimate side of radio. Where I was used to, as Richard said, seven minute interviews, both men in the lecture recording are capable of capturing audiences for an hour at a time with one subject. The amount of learned skill or natural ability it would take to master that absolutely astonishes me.

Both Richard Fidler and Steve Austin make reference to the fact that in order to get as fulfilling an interview as possible you must make your subject comfortable and give them the respect of listening to what they have to say. Talk less and you should receive more. To hear these major players in the business offer such direct advice was so exciting! Just sitting alone in room, furiously scribbling notes into my book I felt a little foolish as I realised I could listen to these gems of wisdom as many times as I pleased.

Another point of interest from the lecture was how well radio is merging with the new platforms of social media. Broadcastings are becoming so much easier to access at any time and from all around the world via podcasts. If I wanted to listen to something on the radio I would probably just look something up straight away on a podcast (even the old episodes of Hamish and Andy are good for a laugh). I don’t have a clock radio at college so it’s pretty much my only option. But this is definitely a good thing as without podcasts I would be completely shut off from the radio world. Reference was also made to Twitter and the speed of news flow it now allows. I only made a Twitter account through this class but after ‘following’ a majority of news outlets I can definitely recognise the value this new medium possesses.

Finally, I’d like to reflect on what Austin said towards the end of his interview. The fact that humans are emotional creatures and in order to get a good radio story you MUST be human and search to the fullest extent of human experiences. This is something I hope I am one day able to master, the ability to take others on a journey and fully captivate them using sound, and sound alone.

Ba-Zynga

News Post!
http://www.news.com.au/technology/zynga-buys-social-game-maker-omgpop/story-e6frfro0-1226306822782

I don't have an iPhone. And let me tell you it sucked the first week of uni when everyone else was staring at theirs using UQNav and I just had to wing it with a good old map. But there are SO many other things I seem to be missing out on by not having one. Now I've seen people playing Draw Something for a good few weeks now, and I think it looks like a great app! Simple, visually appealling and it contains the all important element of social networking.

After reading the above article, it's crazy to see how much money is involved in a market that didn't even exist 15 years ago. By the looks of it share prices just seem to be going up, up and up. Now, of course, if you even want a look in at this type of Application success you have got to be on the cutting edge of innovation to capture the attention and imagination of App users. They're not going to be spending their $1.99 on just any App! Anyway, I found this news story interesting and thought it worth sharing but now I gotta get on my way to a lecture.

Kazza ooooout.

Photo! Faux-to! (LECCY 4)

P.I.C.T.U.R.E.S! They have always been one of my favourite things!

Listening to Dr Redman discuss the way stories have been told via pictures in the past completely captured my attention. I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen Indigenous cave paintings in real life and let me just say that they truly are a must see. You can sense the history that hangs in the air simply by being in their presence.

Another version of picture stories I’ve always been surrounded by my whole life and I feel have never appreciated fully are stained glass windows. Being brought up in a Catholic home, mass was a regular thing every Sunday and they just seemed to blend into the look of a church for me. But look at the beauty of the light as it shines through:

Hitting the 1860s, pictures began to make their way into newspapers and started “telling a thousand words”. Black and white photos then made appearances about 20 years later with colour photos making their debut in 1936. Since these times the ease in which photos can be taken and uploaded for use in news is crazy! I mean photos from iPhones are winning photography competitions (well-deserved I might add). I guess the quality of phone cameras now allow even day to day citizens to be a part of and capture moments that may never have been recorded without this rapid improvement in technology.

With good however comes unmistakable evil! Enter into the ring…photoshop and the hammering effect it has on society’s self confidence. Admittedly even my own at one stage. As I’ve matured though I realise these things aren’t real and even though I’m pretty sure I was aware of that at the time I didn’t recognise it as fully as I do now.

(http://thegloss.com/beauty/the-beauty-of-photoshop-faith-hill/)

Also discussed in today’s lecture were the points of what makes a great photo:

• Framing
• Focus
• Angle and POV
• Timing
• Capturing ‘the moment'

I don’t have a lot of experience with photography but while on ski trip with my school last year I’m pretty sure my friend had a full grasp of the concept of framing!

 Completely moving focus now though- as was told to us today, a picture has no meaning if it can’t tell a story and a good picture is one that makes you laugh, cry or rips your heart out. Hearing this took me back to when I was just about move down for uni and tragedy struck my hometown. Hayden Currie, a friend and fellow student, was struck and killed by a car on his way home from a party. Only 17 years old. Watching the photo montage at his funeral ripped every single person’s heart out. I think average photos have the ability to become great photos if placed in a particular context. Two weeks previous, people would have flicked through his Facebook albums without much thought. With the story surrounding Currie’s photos they were completely encapsulating, heart-breaking and beautiful.

 Moving Pictures

Much the same qualities are present in good motion picture as is present in good still pictures:

• Framing
• Focus
• Angle and POV
• Exposure
• Timing and Editing
• Capturing ‘the scene’
• Sound

I think I get much more swept up in the magic of still photography. It allows you to inspect the one shot, the one frame and delve into as much as you please with your imagination.

Fresheeeeer

As I sit in my room on a Monday night eating the staple college food, toast, I find myself once again pondering this term blogging. Anyone can do it, right? Which means there's no wrong way to write blogs only right ways to write it, right? I have a feeling I'm overthinking it.

So..my impressions of college life thus far...I LOVE IT! And I don't even drink alcohol which seems to be a central theme to college events. Since I began my post (I am not kidding as I write this, when I did a quick check over my blog entry I had written toast instead of post just there) with the mention of college food I think I may elaborate. Food is a huge deal here. People (I) plan their (my) day around mealtimes and try to make sure they're (I'm) always in the queue for food 15mins before the dining hall is opened. Food is piled treacherously high on plates and plates are balanced ever so carefully on arms (any place looking for a waitress, I am now skilled up to be your gal).

The amount of food I eat here is ridiculous which actually reminds me of a vital term of first year life. The dreaded 'fresher spread'. Fresher spread is defined as the general 5-10kgs that almost every fresher gains in the first year on campus. I haven't heard this happening as much to your average first year as they will have to fork out the dosh each time to buy the food whereas at college every meal is pretty much all you can eat. And oh boy can I eat. Going through 3/4 loaf of bread as snack food over a day is not an uncommon occurrence since my arrival here. And my breakfast is 3 times as much as I ate at home!

Have a looky at what I just found! Haha!
The Brain Food Binge
It may not be a freshly published story but it is definitely still relevant. :)

I'll let you know if the fresher spread takes its toll on me!

Maybe a college blog?

Along with all the assessment and requirements for JOUR1111, I thought this blog would be a fab way to show what it's like to be a college kid now and again. You know..no money but maximum good times! Coming from a small town and now living in Brisbane there are ridiculous amounts of things to do and being in college makes it that much more fun. Since moving here in late Feb, I've had an insanely fun O week, gotten lost around UQ, experienced what lectures and tutes are like, eaten ridiculous amounts of food and been busy non-stop!
I went to Max Brenner for the first time the other night and oooh my goodness it was SO good. Tutti-Fruiti waffles have a big recommendation from me.

I'm not sure exactly where this blog is heading, but if I keep doing my little compilations hopefully I'll have something I look back fondly on when this semester/my uni degree is over.

Lecture 3 and a little extra ;)

I was expecting quite a full on theory lecture today after doing the set reading which focused so heavily on the inverted pyramid. I was impressed by the level of experience of the guest lecturer, Skye Doherty. She has worked at the paper in my small town before – woo Gladstone!


What Skye told us about telling factual stories using text was as follows...
It's a great medium because it is fast and flexible. News can be put out to the public so very quickly!  The journalist has complete control over what they write, it's portable and searchable. I think out of all the different mediums of journalism this would be the one I'd focus on. 

I’d like to have learnt a bit more about news values though, because I’m completely new to journalism and am not sure what constitutes a ‘news value’, if that’s even the right context to use it in. I think I can grasp the main gist of it though (death, scandal, etc.).

I didn’t realise the level of difference that goes into making text suitable for online use or print use! I guess I should have realised that being easily accessible by google search is important because online success is all measured by traffic. Adjustments and additional information must be included to make it have the biggest readership possible. This was actually a major factor of Skye's talk, all about hypertext and how people jump from one story to another using links. 


I can definitely say I do it. Take for example when I have a browse on News.com.au, I'm forever reading the little side notes and clicking on the links embedded throughout the text. This opens up the journalist to have more exposure to a wider audience or at least get more of their (or colleague's) work read. 

I still haven’t had a tutorial yet! I don’t know if I’m even on the right track with all my blogging yet. But I start tomorrow so I might leave it til then. BYEEEE J

PS. I went to an intro to photography session and was shown this picture:

I just thought it was one of the best examples of photojournalism I've ever seen. It's so powerful not only from the brilliance of the photographer in framing the shot but also reminds you that a photojournalist HAS to be on the scene. They can't gather information from a range of sources, they actually have to be there amongst conflicts, dramas and danger. This photo really hammers that message home. Completely unrelated to text journalism I know, but how could I not include it!