Mitchell’s Room

 

Seventeen year old Mitchell Fisher has a somewhat distinct connection to his bedroom, after all he does spend up to six hours a night in there. He has the ultimate set up to keep a young man occupied for hours on end. Three guitars, two amplifiers and a record player is more than enough musical equipment to encourage inspiration. As is evident from the audio clip, Mitchell uses his room as a training ground to hone his musical skills, and allow his creativity to flourish. Mitchell’s room allows him to escape the everyday monotony of daily life.

Student Interviews

 

Are we really hearing the truth? Do our reporters report real stories, or just make them up. 

Its a hard choice, deciding what we want to do for the rest of our lives, some instinctively already have their lives planned out others take a little more motivation.

For us journalism students we know what our goal is,  to report the news and deliver information to the general public.  With so many fields within the media industry, job aspiration are endless.  I interviewed a number of my fellow classmates to discover what their aspirations in life are and where they see themselves in the future, we also touched on issues within the media today such as if we should trust the news that we are being told. I began my interviews by asking ‘Why did you want to get into journalism’ the simple question which provided great feedback from aspiring journalists. ‘ I decided to major in journalism because I love to write about experiences and just life in general. To me journalism is about voicing  your opinions and adventures, or lending your voice to tell the stories of others, I wanted to be apart of that’ says Jess,  a first year university student who aspires to work as a feature writer for the ABC.  The people who I interviewed had very different goals they wanted to achieve in the media industry. David Atherton hopes to become a sports correspondent and report on issues surrounding soccer. ‘ Soccer is my sport of choice and I would love to be able to report on it, and get paid at the same time’, whilst Elise dreams of becoming a TV presenter ‘ I would love to report the news on television, SBS or ABC would be the best channels to work for because I feel they are the most legitimate’. As you can see the diverse range of professions these students strive for are endless.

Truth in the media  is a big deal considering the amount of news we hear in our lives. It seems that more and more media outlets are resorting to telling fake news to bump up their viewership. Magazines such as Women ‘s Day and Entertainment Tonight purposely alter their content so they can reach a bigger profit, But is this happening with the news. ‘ Most of the news we hear today is partially true. All sources have their respective bias and perspective on each story, so the story will naturally be different from each source’ says Harry. Most news out their today is respectively ‘good news’ and as it should be. The news is there for the sole purpose to inform the reader not to spread bias materials around the nation. Others think that mainstream channels such as Nine and Seven are particularly bias compared to others. Elise believes that not all  channels tell truthful news ‘ Some of the news are just a few facts and the rest is made up, SBS and ABC are the only reliable ones I think’.

Its a subject that sparks much debate between different people, with my variety of sources I can gather a better knowledge of the news through the people I interviewed, they all seemed to provide good explanations to back up their opinion and allowed me to strong content to write about.

Profile: Harry Barker

Poised and focused Harry taking some time out of his hectic lifestyle to fashion a smile.  

 

Whilst chatting to Harry about University life and the ever more exciting subject of future prospects, it dawned on me how little I knew about  his interests and life outside of University.

This Ballambi local who has a strong passion for video gaming and basketball,  enjoys nothing more than gathering with his mates to play a game. ‘ We play basketball a couple times a week on the public courts, just me and a couple of friends’. He sits there thinking for a little ‘ It gets very competitive though, we usually break out into a fight or leave the court angry at each other but  we always turn up at the same time next week’.  He is a fan of his own sport, he doesn’t play competitively anymore which reflects his commitment to the game, pure enjoyment is the only reason he keeps coming back to the court every week. Although living by the sea, it seems he has other interests than going down to the beach alike most people around him. ‘I go to the beach a couple times in summer but that’s about it, I tried surfing once but just never really enjoyed it’. Harry enjoys different things compared to others who enjoy going to the beach everyday.  ‘I really enjoy first person shooting games, games like Halo, Call Of Duty and Battlefield, they bring me endless hours of enjoyment’.

I decided it was time to change the conversation a little and talk about what he gets up to most nights. Apart from studying, I know for a fact that he loves to go into Wollongong whenever he gets the chance. Hotel Illawara seems to be the pub of choice, now I only go into Wollongong once every three months and every time i’m there Ill see Harry. ‘ I probably go to Hotel Illawarra twice a week’  he chuckles  ‘ its just an easy place to go and have a good time, not to far from home yet still far enough away’.  I ask him why he frequents the same spot all the time.  ‘Well I met an off duty bartender there and we became good friends, he started buying me drinks and introducing me to all his colleagues. So really its a place for me to go and get free drinks’.  He seems to like the same spot so much its a wonder he ever leaves. ‘ I did get offered a job there as a bartender but its a place i’d rather go for fun, not for work’.

The interview was over and we began to pack up our things, we were walking towards the bus station at uni until we went our separate ways. Harry had another class and I was heading home, he slapped my hand and called me the usual insult before turning around and heading back building 19 to continue on with his studies.

 

 

 

 

 

Making The Choice!

It has been well documented in  history that a defining factor that can help win elections is the media.  The media has such a broad range of connecting with people it can literally make the  difference  between winning and losing. There are multiple ways to to provide information to such a wide audience and journalists have taken advantage of this and are posting content to social media.  Politicians have also realized the wide audience that they can  reach by using social media. A classic example of this would be Barack Obama’s rise to presidency. He was the first U.S president to realize he can gather more votes using the social web sphere, this action as a result made history when he was announced as the first African American President of the United States.

In Australia however it seems to have taken a step in a different direction.  The 2013 election between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott  was notably filled with slanderous content against the labor party.  This is an example of bad journalism and news broadcasting.  Rupert Murdoch filled his papers with anti labor content throughout the country. The front page spread of The Daily Telegraph with its slogan ‘Kick this mob out’  caused massive controversy throughout the country,  with many labor supporters arguing against The Daily Telegraph for not having a single mention of Tony Abbott and the Liberal party. This sparked  multiple retaliation videos and social media posts towards Rupert Murdoch. Get  Up  a response video telling Mr Murdoch that we can choose our own government was a huge success throughout Australia with 779 thousand views on YouTube.  It tells that the slanderous work of Mr Murdoch shouldn’t decide the votes for Australian people and they should vote for what they believe.

This example just shows the power that media moguls have over the media. They can alter the media to abide with their opinions and in the end that is not good journalism.

 

 

The Public’s Confidence In The Media.

It’s no doubt that the quality of today’s news has been on the decline in regards to the public’s opinion. More and more people are starting to realise that the news is not a trusted source of information, but a way to exploit the public  to gather more revenue.  This recent way of presenting the news has people questioning the news’s credibility. Recently in America there has been a huge drop in in the public’s opinion on what is considered to be good news, 36 percent  believe news organizations get the facts straight, compared with 54 percent in mid-1989. That is a dramatic drop in the past 25 years considering how long the media industry has been operating for.

So what went wrong? It appears in the past 70 years the news industry has gone from being a single trusted form of communication to slanderous information gathered by the media moguls who own them. The public have now started to realise the mistakes that are left uncorrected within the newspapers. Spelling mistakes, grammar and poor quality of writing has evidently been the downfall of the news, why would people trust something that doesn’t have the correct spelling.  The problem seems to lie with the journalist’s themselves.  The ‘deadline rush’ appears to be the major fault concerning the journalists. Overworked and understaffed they admit that a few faults are going to pass through into the final edit. Not to mention  inexperience.

The news is now moving into a different era of media broadcasting. It seems technology is taking over the news game,  newspaper sales are now on the recline and most quality news  story’s  seem to be online,  but will this boost the credibility of the news and bring back the public’s trust? As long as the news goes back to broadcasting the truth  and proving that it is once again credible, I believe the public will follow.

 

“Current Problems In The Media.” Daily Source. Global Social Justice News, 18 May 2014. Web. 28 May 2014.

 

Edited Interview

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meQ9qrvuPBw&feature=youtu.be

His easy going attitude and chilled out responses made for quite the interview with Harry Barker. After knowing Harry for a better a better part of a year now he and I could have relaxed conversations in interviewing format due to our previous friendship. It was hard to condense the interview down to 2 minutes after just having a ten minute interview but I feel as though I have captured the footage that really shows how Harry is coping with university life. He mentioned that sport was an under lining factor that helps him cope with the stresses of University I sensed that he was very passionate about his sport and it played a big part in his life.

Journalism Vox Pops!

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BuQqzekd-c

Imagine having abilities beyond the human capabilities, just think of how life would be different. Imagine if you had the ability to fly or jump or even climb our very lives would belong to a different type of species other than humans. Humans have always had that thought of ‘what if’. We think about it every time we see a bird fly by or a monkey climbing in the trees. We always ponder how good our lives would be if we had this abilities. What animal would you be and why? is the question that I asked a number of University students their responses are in the link above take a look.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDqoBZJaINQ&feature=youtu.be

There are certain things you hate and there are certain things you love. Everybody has a different opinion on the matter, weather they prefer savoury or sweet, salty or sour food is a defining factor that captures every single one of us. Food provides us with so many pleasures, as humans we can’t get enough of it, just think back of the time when you ate something so good you could not put them down until they were all gone. Well Ive asked a number of people what their favourite foods are and the results you will see in the clip.

University Life

 

The one photo that disturbs every single University student. This is the the start of a student day, driving into university and trying to find a place to park their cars, the University is known for having very limited parking spots and you would be lucky to get one if you sleep in. This photo is the carpooling parking area where the majority of free spaces are. I have only used this parking area a couple of times but it really is an aspect of University life, people have long distance to travel just to go to uni and carpooling is the way in which to get down to your classes.

 

Possibly the one thing we do the most of at University. Walking in between classes is the task that every student must to to complete their course at Wollongong University.  This photo shows shows students proceeding to walk towards the Mckinnon building possibly for their next lecture of tutorial. I think this photo really captures the true aspect of University life because it shows students in a relaxed manner, having a laugh with friends whilst enjoying the perks of University life, such as the park next to them and the big trees overshadowing the pathway. I believe that University is a chilled out sort of place and i think this photo really captures that aspect.