Capturing The Moment

“If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips your heart out, then that’s a good picture”

Eddie Adams

This week's lecture particularly grabbed my attention, being a keen photographer myself it was exciting to start learning about how to effectively capture moment's that "tell a story." Bruce took us on a journey that visited the foundations of photojournalism, touching on ancient cave paintings in Australia and France, to the first colour photograph in a Newspaper, finally arriving at what photography has advanced to today - digital capture, digital manipulation and digital publishing. 

Just one example of the progression of photo images - the new apple iPad - New iPad

We then discussed what makes a great photo, the elements of which are

• ·      Framing
• ·      Focus
• ·      Angle and point of view
• ·      Exposure (or light) – the way light falls on someone’s face
• ·      Timing (shutter speed)
• ·      Capturing “The Moment”
• ·      the rule of thirds (golden mean)
• ·      inclusion of sound dimension

hThis in mind I couldn't help thinking back to an essay I produced in high school art, discussing Dorothea Lange's photograph "Migrant Mother," which depicts a poverty stricken pea farmer in South America surrounded by her children, this photo for me really sums up what bruce said about a picture only having a meaning if it tells a story.

Textual Delights

The wise words of Skye Doherty guided us through today's lecture as we learnt about the importance and uses of text in the world of journalism. We learnt that text is

• fast,
• flexible, 
• portable, 
• searchable, 
• dominates online, 
• and has complete control over the media

The most important form of text in traditional journalism is the headline, grabbing the reader's attention in a simple yet effective few words can make or break your news story. Then comes the intro, Skye suggested that a good journalist should be able to get the essential message of their article across in about seventeen words - that's the typical 'who, what where, when, why, how?' 

We discussed the classic inverted pyramid in constructing a story, wherein the most informative and important information is presented first, continuing on to information that is still important but perhaps isn't vital to the news story. Which hopefully will be a great form of guidance in "telling factual stories."

On a side note, as a Law/Journalism student I found Skye's comment's on the House of Lord's Inquiry into Investigative Journalism very intriguing.  I did a bit of research into it and I can now really appreciate how fine the line is between providing factual stories and invading privacy...The News of the World scandal being a prime example. I read a comment from Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, that discusses the decision making involved for journalists in breaking the law in favour of public interest, he says,

"The first bar is to consider the harm of what is going to be done. So if you are going to do things—all journalism has an impact—what is the harm going to be that results from what you do? The second is: what is the good that is going to result from what you do; what is the public good that you are trying to achieve? The third is proportionality. Are the methods that you are thinking of using proportional to the aims that you are trying to achieve, and could they be achieved in another way? The fourth is a kind of audit trail. It says, ‘We need proper authority’ and that was obviously apparently missing within the News of the World, that nobody knew anything about it. You have to show some evidence that people have thought about it and discussed it and that people have approved it. The fifth is to do with fishing expeditions. You cannot justify a mass trawl of the information in the hope that something will turn up."

Having just written a paper on the quandary of Investigative Journalism versus public privacy, this is a very topical issue - launching an Australian Law Reform Commission Inquiry into the pertinency of Australian Privacy Laws.

Webolution ( web-evolution )

The Webolution - the evolution of the web, is what Bruce spoke about this week. Think Charles Darwin's Theory but a little more technological. The lecture began with a discussion of the phrase "Old Media" which are traditionally more orthodox, everyday types of news such as radio, newspapers, magazines and television which are also known as mass forms of communications. The discussion then furthered to the movement of media and technology - stepping away from the broadsheet and onto the desktop! Web 1.0 or 'The Information Web' was basically this same information adapted for the internet, which is evident in online news and online advertising. Then making like an Apple product came the user generated Web 2.0, also coined 'The Social Web,' this had a predominant focus on social networking which we are familiar with as part of  Generation Z through sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, Youtube, Instagram and Flickr. 

In 2012 we see the advance of Web 3.0. Whenever I see 3.0 next to something I am immediately filled with dread at the possibility of the fate that often succeeds the sequel of a sequel, kind of like the Shrek Movies. However the ‘Semantic Web’ shows rapid progression in the field of online news and networking as well as a more pinpointed concentration on the individual. Bruce spoke about meta-tags – which are machine readable HTML tags that provide information about the webpage and the content. Coincidently after this lecture I have become more and more aware of how Web 3.0 affects my own media usage, logging on to Facebook I noticed that the adds that appear on the side panels of the page seemingly mirror my recent searches or interests – it’s amazing to see this concept of personalized news at work!

As journalism students in a constantly evolving world of technology and breaking news, the burgeoning phenomenon of Web 3.0 is both exciting in terms of technological advancement but concerning in the possibilities of employment. Whilst media moguls such as the infamous Rupert Murdoch maintain a vehement support of print media – the increase of online news for a generation that relies on information being instantaneous is on the rise. Whilst the introduction of hard and soft paywall’s protect the revenue of newspapers there has been significant criticism of the quality of reporting, often coined ‘The Death of Journalism.” In a recent statement, David Donavan the managing editor of The Independent Australian commented that “The growth of independent media challenging the mainstream is massively overstated — in fact, more of our information than ever is coming from mainstream sources which, due to the decline of journalism, is almost entirely coming from the PR industry.”  Which mirrors a seemingly prevalent attitude that online mass media is becoming too ‘mainstream’ and lacking in efficient and sophisticated reporting. For example an online 2011 article from The Guardian newspaper, intended to detail the catastrophe of the Christchurch Earthquake received heavy criticism for it’s lack of actual reporting, with readers complaining of a page filled with Twitter Tweet’s and hypertext.

All in all it will be exciting, as journalism students to see where this all leads!

Initiation Goes Too Far

Headlining my online page for the Sydney Morning Herald this morning is a story that hits close to home. A University of Sydney student at St Johns College was hospitalised after being coerced into drinking games by older students as part of the infamous orientation week initiation traditions - thus raising debate over not only the brutal events that culminate o week at colleges across Australia but the rife drinking culture within Australian Universities. I'm eighteen and I've just finished thirteen years of schooling, I'm living away from home and in a college environment - I'm not about to be the morality police on this but I do find it a little bit fucked that students of such amazing intellect that are likely to play a part in the future of Australia are spending their formative years with a warped sense of reality in which drinking is the key to socialising, sexist and discriminatory behaviour is applauded and any type of healthy activity such as college sport is succeeded by a roaring "piss up." On the other hand though I have to admit, being a student at St Johns at UQ a majority of my fellow students are studying degrees such as Law or Medicine so for them I suppose the reality is that college is "their time" so to speak. Once they graduate and begin practicing the drinking and partying lifestyle comes to a halt to uphold professionalism and public appearance - perhaps that's why students let loose at college.

I can't speak for every college student as our experiences are subjective but whilst my own recent O week experience doesn't sound as intense as the Sydney student's - there are parallels - the initiation games and authority of the older students or as we called them - The Executive, were certainly present. The article mentions that the girl attempted to object to the drinking game by stating an alcohol allergy but was coerced none the less. This is the point that strikes me the most about O week. College and University are meant to be about independence, finding yourself and creating a world view that welcomes a multitude of opinions whilst within my own college environment I can already see the beginnings of girls losing their self esteem in efforts to gain the approval of males and likewise traditions that encourage males to objectify women, not to mention constant efforts from older students to encourage the freshers to do things in "the college way." Not exactly great preparation for adult life.

I'm aware that reading back through this it seems like I have a very negative view of college, which I don't, college is beginning to be one of the greatest experiences of my adult life and I can tell that the friends I have made in these first few weeks I will keep my entire life. However I do disagree with O week and the excessive drinking culture - which are outdated and not concurrent with reality in the 21st century. I guess what rings true the most from this article is the age old saying - "it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt."

Sydney Morning Herald

Planting Seeds

One of the first readings on blogging that Bruce set us told us to just start writing, so, being the amateur aspiring journalist/artist/legal type thing that I aim to be one day, that's what I have tried to do with my blog. So to start my name is Imogene, I used to live in a town near the beach called Burleigh Heads, which I loved but now I live in St Lucia and am studying a dual degree in Journalism/Laws at UQ which I'm beginning to love, I enjoy reading, painting, good conversations and exercise. I also have an infatuation with honey and almonds. The recent relocation to the city has made me realise how uncontrollably I miss home and the ocean, it's odd living in a place where my constant complexion is not cracked with drying sea salt and my hair isn't knotted from surfing all morning. It's also strange to think that I can't just ride my bike down to the local store to grab a few groceries, it now takes planning and the ever so pleasant thrills of public transport! Alas I'm sure I will warm to city living in no time.

Having a mother who is a florist, most of my childhood was spent in a house constantly full of blossoms and wedding bouquets and thinking back most of my studying throughout school and the many conversations I had with friends and family took place at my family table that always centred some sort of floral arrangement. After beginning my journalism course and learning about forms of new media like web 2.0 and the budding emergence of web 3.0 I thought that using flowers or plants as a theme for my blog would be a good analogy for the rapid and abundant spread of media in the twenty-first century and the many new species of technology that are being created.

This blog or My Garden as I have decided to call it will mainly contain my thinkings on what I see, hear and read as well as my studies in Journalism and the Laws in a way that I hope will flower into a space which you will find both intriguing and insightful. It will also more than likely meander down the garden paths of my love for art and perhaps a few current affairs and political proceedings and maybe a tune here and there. So although I am a little hesitant of starting off as the amateur I am, I hope this can be a place for me to get some experience with writing and hopefully My Garden will flourish into an eclectic cornucopia of thoughts and writings. Enjoy!

'Teenage Wasteland'  and 'By the Lake' - Photography by Fredrick Akrum