Jour1111: Assessment 3 Factual Storytelling Exercise

Living in a Nightmare:

The month is October, the year 2005 and you’ve begun to notice some irregularities. You’re feeling incredibly tired, even after long hours of sleep. Your energy levels are the lowest they’ve been since your last pregnancy and you’re feet and hands are tingling for hours on end. You’re starting to get concerned, very concerned. You talk to your husband, but again he’s no help, too concerned with his own world to even bother with someone else. With the encouragement of some friends, you take the journey to the doctors, hoping for the best, but trepidation and fear sour your thoughts.

After months of tests, MRI’s and CAT scans, the news isn’t good. It’s not the worse thing that could have happened, your son is quick to remind you, but there’s no other way to feel about it; you’ve been diagnosed with MS, multiple sclerosis and you’re devastated. A feeling of helplessness and fear courses over you, what will this mean for me? I have 4 young sons and a husband who works full time, how am I going to survive? Who’s going to help? What the hell am I going to DO!

Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, you’re shuffled off to hospital almost immediately. There you are administered steroids to help suppress your ailing immune system, hopefully preventing further damage to the nervous system. As unpleasant as the situation is, the knowledge that this is the best thing for your children is what keeps you going, even if your husband has yet to make a meaningful attempt to visit you yet.

Finally, the day has come and you are released from hospital, not felling rejuvenated as such, but the knowledge that you can finally see the kids today has you impatiently on edge and encourages  you to at least attempt feeling better. As you arrive at mums to pick up the kids, you’re greeted by tears rather than smiles, sad faces welcoming you to the devastating revelation that your grandmother has had a heart attack and is currently in hospital. To think, last year she and you picked out a burial plot as a joke, thinking back on this has you bursting with tears.

Christmas and New Years blur together, neither important nor relevant, all you can think about is grandma and how you can’t go and see her because of this stupid MS. As you sit anxious in your home, you’re greeted by some good news, grandma’s surgery was successful and she is expected to make a full recovery. Words cannot express your gratitude, but tears of happiness say everything. These tears of joy, soon turn to sorrow, pneumonia has claimed the life of your grandma and you couldn’t say goodbye.

As the grief sets in, the months fly bye, the struggle of coping with it all at once is difficult, but thanks to the kids, you’re able to find some sense of worth and meaning. Your husband on the other hand is becoming worse, spending more time by himself and widening the gap between you both, hostility replacing his usual passive demeanor. This comes to a head close to Christmas, when he and you orally spar in a crowded car ride home, culminating in him promising to never be considerate or compassionate again to you and your family, though it’s hard to remember when he was ever like this.

As 2007 begins, your husband quits work, claiming his previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder prevents him from working, though these sporadic acts are becoming less surprising. As the year stretches on, you find yourself learning to cope with your MS sufficiently, though your husband has become unresponsive, lying on his mattress on the floor, never straying to far, never accomplishing anything. As your patience grows thin with the increasingly sedentary monster he is becoming, you confront him about his behavior, begging him to try to at least accomplish something, anything. As he flies into a blinding rage, he storms from the home, screaming and ranting, right in front of two of your children.

Moments later, the phone rings, it’s him and he’s threatening suicide. As you and the children sob and beg for him to reconsider, he hangs up, leaving you all stuck, hopelessly trapped by fear and guilt. Have I caused this, is this my fault? He later calls back, admitting that he could not go through with it, but the trauma has been set and yet again, all he can think of is himself. As he leaves to go to hospital, you cannot help but feel emotionally empty, drained by the awful events that have occurred.

After this incident, you both decide that you cannot be together anymore. You feel guilty, as if you’re abandoning him, but this is for the children not him and is truly the best course of action. As 2008 goes by, you try living life on your own, attempting to date and just trying to move on. While not exactly working, you start to feel better, your ex-husband is paying monthly support and you feel as if you can move on, finally moving to a better place after years of hardship. This good fortune however, does not last into the new year, as your ex-husband has become incredibly possessive, finding out you attempted dating, with your realizing he never moved on.

In demonic fury, he removes funds completely and vacates to a new home, leaving you with nothing to sustain you or your family of 5 on. These horrible events scar you and the children, forcing you into the workforce, forcing you to sell the home and causing you to fall below the poverty line, while he hides away, still expecting sympathy. As the overwhelming sadness sets in, you are comforted by the knowledge that you still have your children, giving you the strength to continue fighting.

As this story comes to a close, I would like to reveal that the women in the story was my mother and all the events that happened are true. Thanks to my mother throughout these event, my brothers and I have always had a stable and loving base, keeping us happy when times were glum and giving us the best role model possible for our lives. Though what happened was horrible, our lives have improved over the years and the events of the past are nothing but memory. While the past was tragic, the future brings new hope and great pleasure and I look forward to embracing it with open arms and an untroubled mind. 

Caden Reid: s4264905

In the Public Eye: Lecture 7

Public Media, how are you, I know we haven’t spent much time with one another lately, but you know I love you right? Come on you could never stay mad at me, we’ve had such great times together, remember Summer Heights High, Gruen Transfer? Remember all those sleepless nights spent together, just laughing and watching well made documentaries? I knew you couldn’t stay mad at me forever, come over here you. Hilarious introductions aside, this week during lecture 7, the topic of Public media was discussed, rounding off the little two piece lecture of media types. 

Now as can be deduced from my overlong love letter, I love Public Media and always have. Looking back on my youth, I’ve always held a particular fondness for public media, the shows always had this different feel to them, like they were made for the love of television or radio, not for the money, the news especially. I remember being little watching the 7:30 report before bed and always wondering why channel 9 or 10 didn’t seem to have the same amount of info, that same feeling of definite knowledge about the topic. The shows were also very unique, there wasn’t the usual cavalcade of cheap nock offs, each one had it’s own unique flavor and shape to it, something that distinguished it from the others. Admittedly though, not all of these shows were Australia, however when you consider that many of them were imports from the BBC, my fondness still remains.

Though the world of public media has given me my far share of great memories, I’ll also say it has given me many a sad one too. A great (though sad) example of this would be the ABC’s News24 channel. Unlike Sky News, which obtains substantial funding for its news, News24 gets no extra funding at all and has to survive on the good will of others. This isn’t bad in the sense that the quality has gone down, though that does suffer, it’s bad because it emphasizes the general publics feelings toward public media. Here is a group of people trying to provide good quality round the clock news, for free, yet the government won’t invest an extra cent, far more concerned with the troubles of boat people and elections that are still years away. The public wont even ask the government to do such a thing either, far to concerned with the trivial problems of popstars and celebrities. This in my mind, is the typical approach given to much of Australia’s public media and it’s a real shame, because I believe with a little extra money and attention, we could have a truly great channel on our hands.

One problem that is becoming more prevalent as well, is that public media is starting to see an increase in commercialization. For example channels like TVNZ in New Zealand (I know, I thought it was The Czech Republic too) begun having the occasional ad spliced in between programs, as a way of creating extra revenue. As the ads begun to show more frequently and the money begun flocking in, it was only a matter of time before TVNZ became a fully fledged commercial media enterprise. This was a bad move in my mind, as similarly to what I said in my early blog about commercial media, they are eventually going to have to start thinking solely about the money, not about the quality and eventually they’ll become like every other commercial studio around, providing boring comedy and cliched drama. 

Finally I would like to talk about the style of news in Public media as compared to commercial media. While commercial media blurts out news whenever it can, regardless of the facts or authenticity, the ABC (SBS to some extent), take a very labored approach, not releasing any information until they are certain the facts are 100% true. This has led to the ABC consistently providing a high level of news over the years compared to it’s fellow competitors. This might be seen as a miss step in today’s society, with the majority of people wanting their news hard and fast, but it’s good to remember that this slow deliberate news style has payed dividends in the past for the ABC and then some. 

Public Media to me, is something that I’ve always aspired to be a part of. While others have fallen for the glitz and glamour of commercial media, I’ve always seen public media as something entirely different, a bastion for the free thinkers and a realm of solitude for those hungry for more. Dr. Redman really did provide an exceptional lecture this week with regards to public media and it has personally heightened my desire to be apart of it.

Show me the Money (Lecture 6)

So just prior to the break, we started what I like to consider a two piece lecture, dealing with the spheres of media, commercial and public. We begun by discussing the field of Commercial media, which in all honesty was actually quite bland, not because of Dr. Redman, but rather because I think commercial media is painfully boring. I’m not getting into Journalism to learn about the mysteries of the business world (though that is semi-important to all fields) and in all honesty that’s all commercial media is to me. 

Commercial media, is any media that is owned and operated by corporations, i.e. for the money and the investors. It is a strange form of media in my opinion, because the main focus, at lest from where I stand appears to be on making businesses money rather than providing the customer with quality. Now don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of quality radio and television coming out of the Commercial Media sector, but it all just seems a little compromised, especially when you consider digital free to air channels like TV4Me and Extra, are being designed with the sole purpose of marketing crap to gullible fools. That last comment was a bit vindictive, but in all honesty, there is never anything of quality advertised in those 20 minutes aneurysm tests and those who go out buying any of it  and expecting high quality items should be slapped 3 or 4 times in the face with an abnormally large tuna.

Commercial media also survives and dies based on the success of their business practices. This is probably the most dangerous aspect of all commercial media in my mind and explains why businesses involved with it often have multiple ventures. For example, News Limited, which owns many major newspapers in Australia (like the courier mail, the Australian) also owns Twentieth Century Fox and the NRL in Australia, both financially successful business ventures. The money from this can than be repurposed back into less profitable sectors, while still providing the business with a net profit higher than its losses. This highlights just how significantly these business depend on multiple ventures. However this particular model really does unnerve and irritate me, because the focus isn’t on whether something is a good idea, but rather on whether it will make money.

Now in all fairness, going through the function and form of commercial media would just be an insult to the intelligence of you, my loyal readers, so I’ll just say that the entire process  infuriates me. Though something mentioned in the lecture has made me truly mad, the fact that the National government invested billions of dollars in these channels to encourage them to go digital. Now I’m not going to call myself an expert on the subject, but I find it particularly insulting that the government would just invest all this money into what is effectively the businesses stocks, while neglecting the ABC yet again. 

These channels are not owned by the government and they certainly weren’t suffering under any significant financial stress, yet Stephen Conroy just flung money at them like it was infected with the ebola virus. This is particularly frustrating when you consider that the ABC had not had anything even remotely close given to it in years, but still had to find a way to switch to digital and publish multiple new channels as well, ABC news24 suffering particularly. If you ask me, I’m surprised there wasn’t more significant uproar from the general public when this occurred, I mean this is our money that they spent, money that should have gone to the ABC or SBS, the channels owned and operated by the government, channels that we are taxed to pay for.

Today, the state of commercial media is almost laughable. Where shows like A Current Affair use to be tasked with finding hard hitting news stories and tackling genuinely troubling events, they are now only concerned with ways to prevent weight gain and stopping those naughty police with their traffic cameras. Where news was once inclined to put out stories because they thought that the public needed to know, they now release stories pertaining to Actors without make up and the various affairs of drug induced celebrities. In my honest opinion, I could very much see a world without commercial media being a better one for all of us, especially when considering the ABC can produce higher quality news and a better standard of comedy, drama and documentary on half the budget.

Lecture 5: Radio

Radio, the ancestor of today’s Mass Media, the perennial juggernaut still maintaining a sizeable audience well past it youth. It is encouraging to say the least that radio is still a heavy hitter in today’s media saturated society, and fills me with endless glee just thinking that one day I might have a show to call my own. Yes as you may have guessed, week 5’s lecture was on the topic of Radio and presented to us through the medium of sound, an mp3 download. Before I begin, I would like to say that having it as a downloadable file in my mind, was the best move for something like radio and makes my attempt to write about it seem strange in comparison. The lecture was sectioned into two halves, one consisting of an interview with Richard Fidler of Conversations fame and one with Steve Austin the host of mornings. Considering the first half dealt with Richard, I feel it would be fitting to begin with him.

Richard Fidler is a literal jack of all trades, stumbling blindly through life opportunity to life opportunity, going from busker on the streets, to a recognisable face in the world of sound. This journey has left its mark too and has provided Richard with a wealth of experience in the world of radio, some of which he was willing to disclose to us, the very lucky listeners. Some of his words of wisdom were fairly straight forward, but on recollection, it’s amazing how easily they are overlooked. 

Certain advise like being enthusiastic and interested in the topic may sound like  obvious information, but it is a trap to think that you can get away with it, because the audience is unlikely to invest themselves if the host is about as interested as a vegetarian at pork sampling convention. This particular advise stands out, as it highlights what makes radio unique, the voice. The key, as was stated by Richard, is that when on radio you cannot simply act as you would on television, radio as a form of media is intimate, it lives within the mind of the listener and this intimacy has to be captured through thoughtful questions, astute retorts and a genuine attitude that can only be described as trustworthy. The host needs to use his/her voice to paint a picture, describing the beauty of a sun drenched flower or conveying the tremendous solemn sadness of a car crash. 

Another significant piece of information, was that silence is sometimes the best response. As was said in the interview, silence can often be a subtle hint to the interviewee that we want to here more, that what they are saying can and should be continued at length. This is something I think more interviewers should adopt, because it appears to give (based on what Richard said) the interviewee a chance to really reveal something they haven’t thought about in years and create this aura of empathy and trust between them and the interviewer, something the audience will love and feed on. If I had to provide any advise of my own, it would be that Fidler needs to perform these interviews more often, because the advise on offer in this short interview was exceptional and it would be highly beneficial to here it provided more often.

The story of Steve Austin was a rather different tale, instead of a man of the world, we have a man without guidance, a man lost in the world. Steve Austin had little idea of where he was going, he had no tertiary education, he hadn’t even finished high school, yet while on a prolonged motorcycle ride it hit him, he was destined for radio. Starting out at the bottom of the bottom, Steve clamoured his way through the ranks, his resolve his only companion. Eventually through true spunk and determination, Mr. Austin emerged the victor and is now a well know (at least in Queensland) host of the ABC program mornings, as well as various others.

While that introduction did drag on for a bit, it does actually hold a purpose and that is to highlight what we should all aspire to be like. As Steve said during the interview, not all of us are born to be successes right out of the gate. For some of us, it’s a struggle just to get into the business let alone progress beyond that. If we truly want to be successful in this world, it is going to take more than a can-do attitude, it will require, neigh demand that we put our all into it, that we strive to attain our goals with the fervour an aptitude of a renaissance man and never let failure prevent us from obtaining our dreams. Only then, after all our energy has been spent, that all we can give has been given, will truly obtain whatever glory is waiting for us. This part really stuck out for me in Steve’s interview and it is some of the best advise I’ve been given.

So far, this has been one of my favourite lectures yet, with the quality of the interviewees and questions the real highlight. It has made me really look forward to my future and were I to accidentally stumble my way into radio, well I can’t say I’d be unhappy. 

Lecture 2: A Review in Hindsight part 2

So to finish off this 2 piece extravaganza, well not extravaganza exactly, more series of recaps, I would like to discuss what my experience of the Lecture 2 was like. Lecture 2 was an interesting lecture, throwing us into the deep end of Journalism by introducing us to the future of Journalism and the news. The topic in question was New News, with the main point of discussion revolving around the possible avenues that News will take in the future and what we, as journalism students can look forward to as the possible environment we could all be working in eventually.

Briefly though, the topic of old news was discussed. For the unenlightened among us, old news generally refers to three prominent forms of news media, newspaper, television and radio, with magazines in my opinion be grouped with other text based forms of news. I find it kind of strange referring to these things as old news, I mean there are still some people alive who were born before television, though compared to the various forms of media available today, it is basically a grandparent/great-grandparent. I do agree with Dr. Redman though, in that these forms appeal more to the mass community, trying to reach the most sizable audience possible, while keeping things broad and general. Going by this, it is no surprise that it is referred to as old media, as today’s media is getting substantially more localized. 

For arguments sake, look at the various iterations of channel 10 news. Not only are there  local group specifically for all the major cities across Australia, when I visit my family in central Queensland, the news is further localized still with news generally consisting of the Central Highlands region and Rockhampton. It seems these days that what people want more than anything is news on their own community, rather than the assumed stereotype of the average Australia.

After the prolonged conversation on Old Media, it was time that the lecture begun talking about New Media, mainly the Web. The topic started off on Web 1.0, the information web. Now considering my father loved to use the web, I was introduced at a young age and have fond memories of this old version of the web. Well actually, to recall them as fond would be a bit of a lie, I mainly recall them as boring and fairly trivial, mainly because the focus wasn’t on the user, but on the corporation. Everywhere you looked, there was one add supporting bill’s will, another for tim’s bins and many of the hilarious adds for adult themed websites. Yes as was stated in the lecture and as will be paraphrased here, Web 1.0 was less interested in letting you have a good time and chatting with friends and more inclined to let shops and businesses advertise. In my opinion, that still happens, but there are more distractions that allow you to avoid paying attention, which is a 100% success in my books.

The topic then shifted to Web 2.0, which is basically the current phase that we are at, called New Media in the Lecture. I found this to be a fairly straight forward topic, considering I’m living with Web 2.0, but viewing it as a progression, it is fairly interesting the Web has actually advanced to this stage. The reason being, is that during the mid 90’s early 00’s, there was this almost apocalyptic idea amongst early computer users, that computers would be a way for humans to escape from their various rat races, embracing the comfort of the computer without the need to constantly socialize with others or rely on their contact to sustain us. But humans, being the social creatures we are, just can’t seem to get away from one another and low and behold, Web 2.0, the social net. Yes rather than finding little need for one another, we seem to have found in insatiable hunger to never be without them. It seems that all people seem to do on the internet these days is spend their time muling over old photos, reminiscing about experiences that occurred ten minutes ago and generally being in constant contact. In my opinion this isn’t a bad thing, social interaction is part of the human experience, however I do think a little restraint is good every now and then, Mozart didn’t need the constant company of family and friends poking him and shouting 140 character sentences to write his masterpieces, to be sure.

The final topic with regards to “New News”, was Web 3.0 the Semantic Web (dun dun dun). The Semantic web at this moment is more of an idea, an aspiration for those techno savvy among us, with the idea being that the internet will actually learn from what we do. Basically, it means that the various programs we use on the internet will share information about us among themselves and work out our pattern of behavior and begin to adjust itself to suit us better. For example, say your a music nut, you’ve got over 300 bands liked on Facebook, regularly looking for chances to meet these people and spending an obscenely large amount of time gushing to others about it. These various programs would them compile a database on all these activities, using that information to inform you about new concerts, setting dates in your calendar to inform you when news bands are set to arrive and providing you with regular music suggestions based on what you listen to and how often you listen. Obviously we aren’t here yet, but it’s getting pretty clear that this isn’t far off either, itunes and Facebook being great examples of how it will look in the future, though it will be an internet wide thing, rather than application based. It also means, that things will begin to become more highly localized, as the need to cater to a persons immediate surroundings will outshine their need to know about the world.

This information poses a serious question for all budding journalists then as to what their place will be in this new world of ours. Now I know that comment was fairly overdramatic, but the topic was discussed in the lecture and I though it was worth the retread. With the Semantic Web ushering a new age of news, one of hyper-localization and a more centralized state, what can be the expected outcome for those among us who specialize in foreign affairs or are interested in global politics, the answer, was not given in the lecture, however I have an idea on what might happen. I think honestly, there is a significant minority of people still fixated on the world outside their own (me to a degree) and what’s likely going to happen is that it will form its own little niche. That’s just my opinion, but I honestly have no issues with this occurring, as it’s almost a niche now.

The final topic of the Lecture, was basically a look into the future (again) of Internet News, specifically whether entitlement will kill the business. For those of you in the lecture you’ll recall this as the part where we were given jellybeans, but to those of you not at the lecture, it was basically discussing the topic of payed internet news and whether the general public would likely protest and riot (possibly) this new change. This was an interesting section of the lecture and one where both sides have significant and altogether justified responses. Now I cannot begin to go into this argument, it’s likely I’ll write a separate blog on the topic later, but I definitely thought it was one worth discussing. The one section I will call on, was that Rupert Murdoch is one of the patriarchal figures in the movement to introduce it, which cause so many problems. It would seem, that there would be significant public dissent if any such move by our good buddy uncle Rupert was behind it, causing a significant blow to it ever being widely accepted by the public, at least that’s what I think would happen.

Having spent some time writing this out, it is quite interesting to think back on and realize just how important this lecture was. It’s provided me with a lot to think about and the inspiration to write a certain article for you all later.

Just an Update

Hello to the very few, just a brief announcement, I would like to officially inform all that I have purchased a new computer, please the applause aren't necessary, it is as much a gift to me as it is to you. I will admit though, that I am still learning the ropes, it being a completely new operating system and the appearance of my blogs my look a little off. Recently the Lecture 4 and recap of Lecture 1 were posted and they both look slightly off (In my opinion, but I do care what the rest of you think), but not to worry because I will have fixed it all by the end of my next post, which should be up shortly. Thank you to the very few here reading this, you are much appreciated.

Lecture 1: A Review in Hindsight part 1

So, it has been a while since those very first weeks of university hasn’t it? It seems like only yesterday we were all just star eyed youngsters walking into our first University lecture (not me specifically, I tried my hand at psychology first, but I have memories too damnit), gawking at the size of the projector and the impersonality of it all, the lecturer didn’t know my name, and he wasn’t waiting for anyone. Yet as I entered with trepidation into Jour1111 for that first time, the atmosphere was rather peaceful, like some sort of zen experience. The lecturer, Dr. Bruce Redman was very enthusiastic about what he was saying and there was a genuine aura of excitement radiating from him, like the very presence of so many students was just the most glorious thing to behold.

Now as first lectures go, there wasn’t much in the way of content here, but that isn’t something completely unusual with regards to first times, overloading such young supple minds is hardly the way to make friends and the vibe I got for Dr. Redman was very much, your here and I’m going to tell you why you should stay. Throughout the lecture, the impression that I felt, was really along the lines of respect and admiration, from my peers and Dr. Redman, a sort of mutual trust that by participating and really putting ourselves out there, we were going to learn something truly beneficial. 

While light on content, one thing was said during this lecture that did stick with me, a rarity to be sure, That I am the Journalist (I apologize for the possible paraphrasing) one of the very first things Dr. Redman said. On its own, the statement is fairly unassuming, but when viewed after a bit of time and with a bit of hindsight, the comment is far more apt. 

For you see, the idea, the very essence of the course, is that we are coming to learn what it takes to be a Journalist. While that statement sounds redundant, the point it’s trying to make, is that Journalism is not like science or psychology, it is an art form, something that needs to be worked on, refined and in time, perfected. Being a Journalist is more than just taking the various pieces of  daily information and regurgitating them on your preferred medium, it’s about molding those bits and pieces of the day and turning them into something worth reading, watching or hearing, it’s about making stories, not stories you find in a book, or stories you find in a video game, but stories endemic to journalism, news stories! 

By being the Journalist, we are taking on this responsibility of writing or recording these pieces of art and it is up to us how they will be seen by the world. Whether we end up in sports, investigative, gardening or science, it is up to us to make the best of these environments and be the Journalist.

Picture This: Lecture 4

So recently, well not entirely recently but fairly recently, the topic of pictures telling stories came up in week 4’s lecture. Speaking for myself and most likely a significant portion of the populace, it can be difficult to imagine life without pictures. They’re everywhere, for the massive billboards that litter the roads, to minute banner ads that litter the internet, they are a literal part of most westerner’s life and we wouldn’t have it any other way. But there was a time when pictures were relegated to the lead story of the daily newspaper, or relegated to a more supporting role in textbooks. Yes it wasn’t that long ago that the idea of even telling a complete tale with pictures was seen as unfeasible, yet here we are today, with TV, film and the humble paper doing just that.

I must admit, delving into the history of pictures was an intriguing one, especially the topic of stain glass windows. In all honesty I had no idea why churches had them, but learning that they were there to support and in some cases tell their own stories was very interesting, I’d always thought of them as things designed to make churches feel more welcoming, but it made a lot of sense that they were there to tell stories. I’m not sure how old Dr. Redman is, but I’m almost certain that when the topic of picture taking in its infancy was brought up, a subtle jab was aimed at the cohort and I that we shouldn’t take our pictures for granted and cherish the little tykes for as long as we have them. It must have been a shock to pick up a copy of the Daily Graphic one day and for the first time ever, seeing an image printed in all its black and white glory. I can only imagine what it must have been like later on in Scotland to go and pick up the daily copy of the Scottish Daily Mail and see, instead of the traditional black and white photo, a full colour shot nearly leaping off the front page, haggis would have been flying that day, to be sure.

What was interesting as well was that the lecture itself was not limited solely to stationary pictures, but broadens itself to include those treasured of all items moving pictures or movies. I found it a bit nostalgic to be reminded that not only were movies a great step forward for us as means of telling stories, but also a viable option for providing news to the populace. While going through the old films on the screen, I couldn’t help but think back to stories my grandparents had told me of weekend showcases, where news and films were show together in unison, providing the viewer with a good dose of international news and entertainment. However as is the tale of our modern technological age, this was not to last, and television soon became both the home of news and the prime medium for the telling of stories.

Yes since its inception, the television has been the prime location for the telling and relaying of news, the first broadcast in Australia being a news broadcast. It was fascinating to see the early images of how weather was initially broadcast as opposed to today’s green screen madness. What I did like though, was seeing that things such as 24hour news channels are actually growing in popularity. I don’t know about you, but this thirst for news is just beautiful words to the ears of the budding journalist such as myself, and honestly I could see myself going into something very similar when I graduate. 

All in all, I’ll say that I never really considered the grand effect that pictures have had on the world of news and storytelling. I’ll be sure to pay much more attention to these under or over appreciated gems in the future and never neglect them again, because if we do, they may go the way of myspace and no one deserves that.