With warm smile and infectious humor, Dr Redman amicably welcomed us to JOUR1111 as he handed out the course profile that he had specially prepared for us as most of the students are freshmen and are still unfamiliar with the system. “This is a good place to be,” said Dr Redman, “in this course I want you to think and act like you are a journalist. Journalism is all about telling factual stories.” Followed by a few more jokes that warm up the atmosphere, he then opened the door toward the world of Journalism and communication for us as he gave us an overview of what journalism is, why it is important and the current challenges that journalism is facing today.
l What and why Journalism?
According to Oxford dictionary 2011, Journalism is “about news and current affairs in a range of media including print, television, radio, and the internet.” And this statement is what people generally suppose what Journalism is. However, According to Dr Redman, Journalism is an area that is much more dynamic and challenging than this brief definition. He stated that the main thing in journalism is about telling factual stories and introduced us to the deeper layers of journalism by explaining few quotes that gives us a bit of taste of what journalism might be.
“Journalism can never be silent... It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”
Henry Anatole Grunwald, Journalist/ editor/ diplomat
Dr Redman pointed out that the working of journalism as a mechanism that intends to instantly report event before people can analysis it is because people out there wants to know what is going on as soon as possible. I think this is because we as human all have an endowment of curiosity towards each other and the world we live in. Also, I think this is because by knowing the information more, we feel like that we can have more control over our lives. This is because the event that happens in our world, be it news about the locals, national politics or wars in the third world countries, they all reflect what we as a body of human’s values and relation to the world. For example, far away in Asia, there is a huge scandal in a small island called Taiwan, about a parvenu who drugged more than 60 local actresses in pubs to have sex with him. Even though where it happened is far away from Australia, it reveals the dark side of humanity that any human should be aware of. Also, any news in the world is all somewhat link to us due to globalization that can create chain reaction and butterfly effect. For example, As the Greek economics goes down, the entire EU goes down, and therefore the global economics goes down as well. As a result, as journalism and communication help us to gain knowledge about the situation that we are in, we are left with more knowledge that enables us to deal and react to the changing world.
(Chinese media’s report on Li ZhunRei’s crime of drugging and rapping actresses)
tw.twent.chinayes.com
(Greek economics crushed affects the whole Europe then the world)
stockmarketview.com
“It is there.”-Dr Brue Redman, Lecturer in University of Queensland
Dr Redman also talks about the way we gain our understandings of the world in the current environment of journalism and communication. Alongside with the growth of technology and ideology, Dr Redman characterized that we can encounter news everyday as it is now always readily there and that e are part of the media as well through viewing, content and technology use. I agree with Dr Redman’s perspective as this is what I observed in my daily life as well. Nowadays, as people can get internet easily, they can always have access to online news and go to search engine as Google or Yahoo for information. For example, I know that all my friends and family can all get internet from UQ, home or offices etc. Moreover, with social network such as Tweeter and Facebook, we can now receive news, recreate it and pass it on. Besides, the rate of doing this for me is at least once a day, and for some of my friends, they can even stay on Facebook for whole day doing this. As a result, I think as communication is now so accessible and being practiced so often, it is now inseparable from our social life. Therefore, it is vitally important for us to know what is its role in our lives and how does it influences us.
tadwen.net
“It can tell us about ourselves.”
Dr Brue Redman, Lecturer in University of Queensland
Dr Redman goes on to addresses the major ways of how journalism and communication affect our social world. He identifies that the way news is presented can reflect to our own and other’s values and indicates the various ways that people understand the world. Additionally, he accounts that such context of knowledge, influence and legitimacy that journalism holds is also competing with other social institutions (family, government, education, religion etc). I think this point is rather truthful and profound as depending on the type of information we get will influence how our decision on our behavior and reaction. For example, in regard to the event of 911, Americans and the Western world media presented it as an ‘evil’ terrorist attack and deciding that sending Army to the Middle East is justified. However, the way that news is presented in some areas in Middle East may see the terrorists as ‘freedom fighter’ and regard foreign troops’ arrival as oppression. Such understandings between the Western world and the Middle East is also contributed from how the media on both sides presented each other differently previously. And as we can see, it is really scary that such differences in media representation can cost social discrimination, blood and people’s lives.
(The Western world described 911 as ‘Infamy’)
shaneross.blogspot.com
(An illustration of terrorists as ‘freedom fighter)
“Journalism is the first rough draft of the history.”
-Philip Graham, Publisher, The Washington Post
Moreover, just in the way that news coverage about 911 that is made ten years ago serves us as a reference today, Dr Redman reveals that the news that we are reading now may be an important record of history in 40 or 50 years time. I think this is rather true as journalism intends to cover the event immediately after it happened, they probably will be able accounts the event while it is still fresh or haven’t change a lot, so the record of it will be more truthfully and accurately. For example, it is hard for the younger generations now to imagine WW1 and WW2, but if we go and read the news paper back in that period, we would be able to gain a vivid understanding of it as the news can present the world right on the instant whereas the event happened. As a result, journalism may produce valuable history records.
(Newspapers from WW2 period are now valuable historical record)
germanmilitariacollectibles.com
“I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world.”
- Henry R. Luce, American Publisher & Editor
Nonetheless, as for the journalists themselves, Dr Redman finds that journalists can have the privilege to get into other people’s life from his own experiences in the industry. “It is extraordinary to walk into people’s lives just because you [are a journalist]…they let you into their kitchen to sit down with them. I remember when Bill Hayden first became government general, we went up to his place at 6:00 in the morning, knock on his door, and he was in his dressing gown…He said com in and have a cup of tea, so we went in and sat with the new government general.” Dr Redman described such incident as the “beauty of journalism”, because journalists are enabled to get into people’s lives and hearts. I agree with Dr Redman that it would be exciting and cool to get to know other people, but I think it is sometimes dangerous as well. Because for journalists who need to investigate sensitive issues or crime, when you collect more information and know more things, you might discovere something that is unspeakable. Hence, you might get involved in the scandal that put yourself in a dangerous position. For example, journalists who write things that uncovered national scandal might get ‘silenced’ secretly.
(Real life story on journalist Irma Flaquer, who has been silenced and missing since the 1980s)
tower.com
l Current Challenges
In addition, Dr Redman also told us that this is a “very interesting time” while we are entering the world of journalism, because the industry is changing along with this fast spinning world.
News as Entertainment
Dr Redman reveals that people want news to be both true and entertaining, and in this time of journalism, the demand for entertainment is increasingly enlarged, and this is especially the case in online journalism. “Now we can actually count mouse clicks…the things that people are reading is scary…it isn’t about important things to do with politics, it’s about Justin Bibber’s hair cut,” said Dr Redman. He had made a point that even though people do want to get informed about news, they are more appealed to the one that is entertaining. Dr Redman characterized such phenomenon as a possible decline in terms of news value. As people are that is consuming the news does only wants news that entertain them instead of getting the news with quality, media may start to pandering the public’s taste instead of getting the news that may influence the society out there. For example, during the Olympics week, all the news and headlines are about this ceremony and games, and international news about the conflict in Syria that greatly hurts the establishment of human right only get a small, lower corner on the online news website. Sadly, I think I am one of those people who go for entertaining news as well. Even though I do care and want to know about the world event, as I already have to face pressure from study and work in my daily life, when I finally have time to sit down and read news, I want something that is light and can make me relax. Hence, it is normal for me to seek entertainment from news. However, I agree that if we only views entertaining news, we might lose track of the important things that goes on in the world; and therefore, lose some control over our lives.
huffingtonpost.com
Technology + User Generator Content = Citizen Journos = Journalism Industry↓!?
As internet and social networks prevails and many people do have internet enabled devices such as smart phone with them all the time, almost anyone can break news at anytime in a speed that may be much faster than media institutions. For example, during the massacre in the cinema that plays the Bet man film, people first get the news from Facebook or Tweeter from the people who might have been in the cinema instead of from the TV or newspaper. As news can now be break by normal people, so-called “citizen journos”, the stance for an occupation as journalist is in question as well. Nonetheless, Dr Redman also points out that even though some people who are in the event might break the news first, they might not have the skills to present news as professional and proper as a journalist can do. So it’s like anyone can film things with their iphone, but not anyone can be a film maker. Moreover, as the newspaper cannot break news as fast as new media and broadcasting media, and it cost money to buy when it cost nothing to read it online, there is a concern of ‘the death of newspaper.’ However, Dr Redman says the way that the industry deal with this issue, is to put up online newspaper and make people pay if they want to read it.
For example, now The Australians and Melbourne Sun had all gone behind the ‘paywall’. According to Dr Redman, this means the industry is changing its traditional form, and this is resulting in stuff shedding in companies such as Fairfax and News Ltd. However, Dr Redman says it may just means that job as a journalist may occupy in a new model instead of its traditional way, and he reassure us with his expertise that “there will always be journalism and always be communication as in PR.” But he also says that, “the future is up to you guys”-to me, this is super scary, because for me, I think he is saying that “no one has a solution yet, solve it yourself.”
l “You are the Journalist.”
After the rundown of the features of journalism and communication, Dr Redman asked us to be like a journalist in this course. I think this lecture has definitely give me a better understanding of what journalism is like, that may be helpful for my role play as a journalist. I now know that journalism can impact our social life greatly and be aware of the ethics concern in my practice of journalism. Even though I don’t think that I am on top of the job as a journalist yet, but I feel like I am getting to know it and is looking forward to the next lecture.
technobuffalo.com
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[ Great academic resources from scholarly publications, including peer-review ]
l Holtz, Andrew S. (01.03.2010). "Journalism". Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) (1044-3983), 21 (2), p. 267
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