Golden moment from the Games

The world's biggest sporting event is over for another 4 years. I would like to share my pick for one of the funniest moments from London 2012. US Olympic champion, Aly Raisman, was the one competing but watch her parents reaction as she competes on the uneven bars. Enjoy :)

Lecture Four: ‘Sounds’ good to me

I’ll be honest, I was pretty happy that the fourth lecture was an online sound clip. After two weeks of waking at dawn to cheer on the world’s best athletes, I was grateful for the opportunity to catch up on sleep. I trudged down to the computer in my pyjamas and did my best to listen without getting distracted.

I did retain some information. It turns out the sound or radio medium is completely different to television and far more intimate. T.V you can watch from a distance whereas radio is often combined with eating or driving. Including the listener in the conversation is the key to a successful radio program. You can’t just talk to the person you’re interviewing without thinking of the listeners. Apparently it’s not that difficult to get listeners to ring up and voice their opinion either. All it takes is a simple open ended question which they can easily respond.

For the interviewee it is important that they feel comfortable. Pre-interviews are ideal and will hopefully help them open up more. There’s nothing worse than someone who tells a story they’ve told 10 million times and avoids answering truthfully. Throw in a couple of teasing remarks to the interviewee and you’ll probably be fine. Remember this is their arena and you should allow them space and time to explain themselves. Sometimes it pays to shut up.

Radio is not as simple as you might first think. There’s a real art to an interesting interview . There are no visuals to distract the listener, it’s what you say that draws them in. Contrary to what certain pop songs may say, there is still hope for the radio star. In fact, thanks to today’s time poor society, you’ll find that radio just keeps building its audience.

 

Lecture Three: Text: The Story Behind the Words

When reading a news story, whether it is online or in the paper, the words in front of you are just thrown on the page, right? Wrong, actually. As I learned in our third lecture the process of putting a story in to a hard copy is very complex. The difference between print and online stories is also significant.

Text, I was told, is indeed a beautiful thing. The majority of content online these days is text, in case you hadn’t already noticed!! In fact, apparently our eyes are more driven towards words rather than images, according to the Poynter eye track study.

I also discovered that as a prospective journalist I will need to choose my words carefully (easier said than done). As the law of the inverted pyramid states, a story should be ordered from most important information at the start to the least at the tail end. The info at the end is technically called ‘fluff’ and can be cut if need be, without ruining the story.

Online text appears very intricate to say the least. There are emails, blogs, tweets, facebook, comments and forums as well as the online news. The word metadata was thrown into the mix and my mind was officially blown. Hypertext is a huge part of online journalism and is simply the headline of the article linked to the whole story. If people are drawn in by the headline (which is its main purpose) the reader clicks on it to read more. Online articles can potentially attract thousands of views, but only if the headline’s key words are easily searchable in Google.

I was slightly confused with some of the online terminology

Obviously there are many differences in the production of online and print journalism. As of right now, online sounds pretty damn complex (partly because the words are technical sounding) but I’m definitely intrigued to learn more. After all, that’s where the future of journalism is headed.             

Lecture Two: You seriously expect me to pay for that?

It’s comforting to know that some things never change, isn’t it? As I drag myself out of bed each morning the two things that get me going are my cup of coffee and the chance to scour the newspaper. Many a person my age has delighted in telling me how lame this is, but I really don’t care. There’s just something about unravelling the day’s news into my hot little hands that I love. Unfortunately, as I learned in our second lecture, this ritual I have come to adore so much could soon be a thing of the past. It seems that, like most things these days, the news is becoming more and more of an online phenomenon.

Old media (newspapers, magazines, radio and T.V.) has changed in to new media, meaning more people are typing in the w’s to get their fix of the news. If it’s online then I should be allowed to read it free of charge, right? Well, maybe not. We’ve become a culture of self-entitled news readers and the hot shots leading the media charge have had enough. The journalists writing the online stories aren’t just doing so out of the goodness of their hearts. They have families to feed and Rupert Murdoch and the gang have found the solution. It’s time to pay for our online news!!!! Oh the outrage, the unfairness of it all!!! The crowd is not going wild for this idea but realistically, it kind of makes sense. I couldn’t imagine walking in to a newsagent and snatching up the first newspaper in sight ‘just coz it’s there.’  

Evidently, journalism mediums are changing with the 21^st century into more of an Internet stage. I believe print journalism will never be killed off, but probably become less in demand as more and more people snatch up the magic of technology. If this is the case (and I’m usually right) then it’s only too fair that online journalists are paid for their work. Nothing in life is ever free you know.        

Lecture One: Entering the Unknown

As an ex-business student only just embarking on her journalism journey this semester, I had no idea what my first lecture would bring. After a semester of trying to convince myself that I actually enjoyed business I decided to get a reality check, enrol in a course that I was somewhat passionate about and see if journalism was for me.

Upon arrival at JOUR1111’s first lecture I’ll admit I was nervous. Would I be ‘clock-watching’ for the entire lecture? Will I have the life drained from my soul by an ancient professor? What if I’ve chosen the wrong course, yet again? You can imagine my shock when our lively professor walked in and I found myself actually engaging in the lecture. What was this madness?

I soon learned that journalism is either regarded as the important first step in exposing the world to history, or, less favourably, as a world of egos and gossip. If I was to become a journalist it was not going to be all sunshine and lollipops. More challenges surrounding my prospective profession were listed: the possible death of newspapers, social media, staff shedding and increase in “citizen journalists” to name a few. Needless to say my nerves started to kick in again.

We turned over to the next slide and what should be there but an entire list of reasons why studying journalism was not such a bad idea. We use it every day; it is pervasive, readily available and has a way of reflecting back the values of society as a whole. I would also gain a better understanding of the world around me. Things started to look up again.

All in all I felt a sense of relief as I walked out of the first lecture. There were plenty of reasons why journalism could be the right choice for me. Of course I’m not delusional to the fact that this profession has its challenges. But that’s not unlike any other profession. I also hadn’t fallen into a boredom induced coma during the lecture. Perhaps my decision to study journalism was not such a ridiculous idea after all.