The following is the areas and practice I had in revising subject content for JN1001.
Week 2 - The Print Revolution
The
Printing Press was a device made for applying pressure to any kind of surface using a movable handset of block letters acting as a way to transfer the image. The printing press had replaceable and movable letters and the invention remained largely unchanged for almost 300 years.
The device was invented in
1450 by a German goldsmith, Johann Gutenberg. Prior to this printing was carried out using a carved woodblock. By
1500 there were presses established in 250 places in Europe as well as 13m books in circulation.
Double sided printing started occurring during the 1800s.
The power of news was grasped in wars such as the Civil War 1642 when news was used as propaganda. The press became used to bolster support for the political cause.
What is the significance of the Print Revolution?
The print revolution led to several effects enabling for the mass distribution of ideas and the development of languages within countries for all classes of people. The mass distribution of papers from the press was threatening as information was able to be conveyed to so many.
What are the printing presses that have existed throughout history?
The German Goldsmith's printing Press by Johann Gutenberg known as the
Gutenberg Press -
Invented in 1450. Prior to this Japan and China used wooden blocks.
1833 The Rotary Press - Allowed for millions of copies on a page in a single day.
1883 - The Linotype machine allowed for much faster printing of many more papers.
What were the effects of shifting from oral to print culture?
The shift from an oral to print culture affected the nature of human consciousness in that print represented an abstraction of thought. It also gave precedence to linearity.
The printing press meant governments and organisations needed to enforce
censorship. The Catholic Church had an index of Prohibited Books that were forbidden to be read while in
1515 Sultan Selim I issed a decree punishing printing with the death penality.
What changed in the 1850s? Literate class & railway network... What was this effect?
The literacy rate among those in the 1850s had risen greatly for the working-class. The growth of the railway network also meant that papers could be distributed faster to regional locations often reaching their destination the same day of printing.
Was it an agent or catalyst?
The technology shift from the manuscript to the printing press increased literacy by reducing the expense of publishing books and making the process less time and labour intensive. Printing press technology altered education by making available books that provide a new visual aid to learning. Additionally the printing press served as a catalyst for many world movements and events by providing an effective way to disseminate political and religious views. Today our society is in the midst of another technology shift that is transforming education. Five hundred years after its invention, the printing press can help us understand the growth and impact the Internet on literacy, knowledge and democracy.
Broadcast
The earliest broadcast occured in the 1800s when Maxwell theorised the existence of electromagnetic waves as "luminous ether."
Sound was then transmitted in 1877 and Hertz was formed as the sector which verifies the existence of EM waves.
Orson Well’s take on Radio when interviewed in the 70s
“Back then, radio was really big. It was a big piece of furniture in our living rooms, like TV today, and it occupied a big piece of our lives. Radio in those days, before the tube and the transistor, wasn’t just a noise in somebody’s pocket. It was a voice of authority, too much so…at least I thought so. I figured it was time to take the mickey out of some of that authority.”
1930 - 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” became enormously successful and attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows during the "Golden Age of Radio." (The Great Depression)
AM was the first radio signal while the popular frequency today, FM started increasing in popularity during the 70s. In April
1961 FCC approved the Zenith-GE standards for FM broadcasting.
1980s - New forms of radio started emerging such as talk back and music countdowns.
What is the history of the radio? It's investors Tesla & Marconi.
Nikola Tesla was the father of radio who researched and developed a means to reliably produce radio frequencies and demonstrated this by sending signals over great distances. Guglielmo Marconi invented radio by setting up his first radio company in London in 1897.
What is the History of the Television? I.e. Electromagnetisim via the cathode ray tube, Baird's television (the transmission of imaged over the wires)
The study of electromagnetism was done by Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday which led to Abbe Giovana and Caselli's discovery of transmitting still-frame images over telegraph wires.
In Australia television began in Melbourne during 1929 and later expanded to Brisbane who experimented with transmissions by amateur station VK4CM.
By 1960 70 per cent of homes in Sydney and Melbourne had a TV set. Colour TV came to Australia in March 1975. While the SBS launched in October 1980.
Week 3 - The Public Sphere
What is the definition of The Public Sphere?
An area in social life where people can get together and freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
What is the history of public sphere in Ancient Greece and Rome?
The public sphere existing throughout ancient Greece and Roman times existed in a literal place for exampe the 6th century BC forum in Rome and the Agora in Greece. In was in these places that discussions occurred.
What is the evolutionary changes leading to change in the public sphere e.g. monarchy (absolute ruler) to democratic elections?
The public sphere helped ordinary citizens to become involved in public discussions about common issues allowing for the power of the absolute ruler to move towards 'the people.'
What is Jurgen Habermas famous for?
He is perhaps best known for his theory of the 'public sphere'. His work focused on the foundations of social theory the analysis of societies and democracy.
The Frankfurt School?
A group of thinkers who became disillusioned with the narrow way Marxism was interpreted (eg orthodox Communist party intepretations)Re-applied Marxism to help clarify social conditions that Marx would never have been aware of.
The public sphere as a political space?
Allowed for the promotion of political debate and enabled democracy. Habermas believed it should only involve ‘rational debate’ and engage with ‘serious issues’ so excluding entertainment, emotion and ‘soft’ news.
What were some of Habermas' idealistic views?
- Disregarded status and political beliefs.
- The church and the state still maintained dominance over issues of ‘common concern’
- Inclusivity - if it only represented a certain type of ‘public’ but claimed to act as the public’s mouthpiece, it was not representative.
What has the media sphere enlarged too today?
www, virtual spaces, virtual communities on the net, social aggregation that emerges from the Net. Webs of personal relationships.
Media Sphere - Mediasphere is a space where ideas can be negotiated exchanged and discussed so it plays an important role in the public sphere.
The media sphere has enlarged to news being manufactured by people and institutions with money, moral clout, or other forms of power. Mass media play out a double roll here, both as the vehicle for competitive spectacles and as the source of news.
What is the new public sphere a blend of?
The new public sphere has emerged to a blend of webs of media all talking back and forth to each other with a dialogic relationship between the different media forms. Cross-Promotional opportunities have risen while voting on mobile phones has become a popular way for interactive responses from an audience.
The post-modern public sphere is seen in politics where humour is used to make a political poin.
The
mediasphere has legitimated private issues as being worthy of public
discussion.It
provides us with a way of ‘working through’ ideas and issues.
Week Four - The Sixties
A Journalists' role in social, political and cultural upheaval in the 60s during significant wars such as the Cold War, Cuban missile crisis and the vietnam war. What effects did this have on those generations the 'baby boomers'.
'New' Journalism - Was a phrase thought up in the sixties that summed up the new forms of journalism including; literary journalism, narrative journalism, literary realism and 'Gonzo' journalism.
Some history...
TV – (most important source of news) capturing events such as counterculture - ‘the Hippies’, the Vietnam War.
Immersion - During the sixties Journalists challenged the notion of objectivity in reporting were the journalists was seen as becoming part of the story aka gonzo journalism.
New Journalism – Tom Wolfe describes it as ‘an introduction of detailed realism into English literature in the 18th century was like the introduction of electricity into machine technology’
What was the relationship between journalism and literature?
Journalists were able to discover the techniques which gave a novel it's flare and used within news which gave power to immediacy, concrete reality and emotional involvement.
What were the literacy techniques used by journalists to cover journalistic subjects?
Newspaper stories were using literary techniques to set the tone and mood of a story. These news items were made up of scenes and characters were developed throughout often seen throughout narrative journalism which must contain veracity (truth).
How was the time spent with subjects greater in the sixties compared with today?
The sixties was a time where journalists were being immersed in their news. This was seen when during 1966 journalists had permission to go into battle with solider in Vietnam. Other placed journalists have been allowed to go into include training with professional footballers and riding with the Hell's Angels.
Hunter S. Thompson on Gonzo…
Believed in the right of a journalist to be ‘subjective’.
"Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.” Hunter S. Thompson on covering politics.
Week Five - Photojournalism
During this period media became enlightened to the effectiveness images have in telling stories. The press grasped the power of photojournalism which in many senses created a deeper meaning that what words on paper could portray.
Throughout some of the best photo journalism images photographers have used controlling techniques to manipulate lighting, composition, angle, perspective and many more creative flares.
Even before it is linked to words, the press photograph produces meaning, constitutes a text, a discourse about the event it represents.
Henri Cartier Bresson, ‘the decisive moment’ - ordinary photographs, especially when uprooted from their practical functions, contain a wealth of unintended, unpredictable meanings. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.
"There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment"
Eddie Adams, Magnum photographers 1947 - aimed to use photography in the service of humanity, and provided arresting, widely viewed images.
Living Room War - Kent State University - Four students shot and killed by Ohio National Guard, others wounded, at a Vietnam War protest on 4 May 1970.
Executing Nguyen Van Lem, a Viet Cong Officer - The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world.
How has the media been manipulated throughout wars such as the Gulf War or Iraq War? (Gulf War - Saddam Hussein of Iraq occupying neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990)
Week Six - Journalism Under Fire
Disasters are played out in the media through continuous coverage that saturates our news. This has been seen with events such as CNN, the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, The first Golf War. The coverage drives policy makers to have a position on what is occurring.
How is war covered in war zones? (Objectivity, compassion fatigue, suffering v. infotainment, framing war stories v. victim/rescuer, patriotism of 9/11)
CNN practice "saturation coverage" where the even is covered almost instantaneously which helps to drive policymakers to have a position, i.e. the coverage of the Golf War, the Bali Bombings etc.
Each generation has its own increasingly complicated interpretation of the war’s meaning and mysteries, its heroes and villains, and more than 50 years later it retains the power to shock and surprise.
The stereotypical journalists that objectifies stories are not generally trained to know how to deal with trauma, though the image exists that journalists covering disasters have 'armour' that leaves them unaffected when this is not the case.
"objectivity is an illusion - journalists should embrace passionate, moral journalism instead of standing back watching people suffer in the name of objectivity." ~ Martin Bell, BBC Journalist.
Objectivity - Within a journalist is a position of detachment rather than neutrality from the subject. Suggests the absence of subjectivity, personalized involvement and judgement - neutral.
“Pictures don’t tell us the answers. They tell us why the questions are important.” Richard Lacyo Time magazine
The question of how much to show is risen as compassion fatigue can occur causing those interested to switch off to the disaster. A balance is required - this acts as a constraint on the media.
When covering a tragedy it is often written as a human interest story; focus on the how and why rather than simply answering the who, what, where and when.
Week Seven - The Rise of Spin
The rise of spin occurred when many government agencies and large firms started forming public relation units. Theses units or parts of the organisation set a strategic sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between their organisation and the public.
Promotional Culture - Using news to promote products and other competing influences. The typical talk show of a morning where free advertising is done through publicity of special event and merchandising etc.
Promotional Culture manufactures publicity, gaining advertising space without paying and being news, it gives the company more credibility.
Chequebook Journalism where 'exclusive interviews' take place to promote something that other media than take up.
Cross Promotion of news occurs such as Foxtel promotes publishers HarperCollins/NewsCorp (one of the 3 largest international media groups)
How advertises can infiltrate the news - via AAP etc... It is easy for businesses to gain a news story with sites such as AAP MediaNet and PR Newswire offering press release distribution which is picked by my many journalists as checking the wires is apart of the daily routine.
“Accessing the wire service is a routine part of the daily hunt for stories and a service we regularly draw upon in our presentation of news.” ~ Commercial radio talkback producer.
A Decline in number of resources used in newsrooms has made it more affordable to re-write a press release and accept TV footage. In the space of eight years a quarter of newsroom jobs no-longer exist.
Who sets the Agenda? The agenda is often set by PR. 80 percent of stories in the daily news paper are the result of PR companies or PR individuals while 20 per cent are thought up by the newsroom.
Proactive Marketing such as Police TV shows and Boarder Patrol that aim at increasing the public image of what the public think of various different government agenices.
"public relations is anti-conflict and journalism is pro-conflict" ~ Simons M. The Content Makers p262.
Week Seven - The Rise of Promotional Culture
Promotional Culture is the critical reflection of the impact of advertising on the shaping of contemporary news culture.
Advertising is the form of communication intended to persuade an audience to purchase or support a cause. As seen recently with the Carbon Tax TV ads that talk of payments but leave out critical information in-order to persuade the target market.
Promotional Culture has affected celebrities, reality TV and documentaries - mockumentaries.
News is actually a narrative - The different events are put together within a narrative. By, i.e. taking the disturbances of the world and presenting them in a way which is reassuring/entertaining.
Publicity is the 'free editorial or free coverage of television, radio, the papers and magazines," Kerry O'Brien.
Infotainment is "information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers..
Journalism is moving into a form that conveys serious information about issues to a form of entertainment.
Documentaries... Mockumentaries... Do they show or construct the truth? No, but they have an agenda set before the story is created to help with direction. The convey the truth but it is a constructed truth often thought of to exploit their subject.
Week Eight - Journalism and 9/11
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Week Ten - Media Control
The news is a product not only of deliberate manipulation, but of ideological and economic conditions under which the media operate.
What drives the news: commercial imperative? Fourth estate?
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Newspapers are driven by circulation, TV by their ratings... (maybe compare to how the Townsville Bulletin is now flat-wrapped)
Newspapers are ran as two separate businesses; one sells content the other advertising space. The first area makes a loss while the second makes enough profit to support the first.
The news is a product of manipulation of the ideological and economic conditions under which media operate. Media organisations are heavily influenced by owners, governments and businesses of interest which causes stories to be framed in a way that features some angles but downplays others.
Media Bias is the coverage of a political campaign in such a way to favour the vilify corporate interests.
Media Barons - Those with significant control of a public company in the mass media may also be called "media moguls", "tycoons", "barons", or "bosses"
The Australian and The Daily Telegraph are seen as the daily news agenda setters in Australia.(ABA report 2001)
NEWS LTD has been in trouble for the alleged bias coverage of the debate over the stolen generation and the US invasion of Iraq.
What is Media Bias? Corporate Bias (Political campaigns)
Ownership of media in Australia and globally? Fairfax Media, News Media, SC Media, Seven Network Holdings, News Corp, APN, Pay TV Ltd.
Mining and media baron Gina Rinehard owns the largest amount of shares in Fairfax and Network Ten.
Week Eleven – New Media
What is new media? Digital media are forms of media content that combine and integrate data, text, sound and images stored in digital forms and distributed through broadband fibre-optic cables.
The flow of news has reversed from the typical media > news audience to audience > news > media/audience.
Participation/Citizen Journalism - Is when citizens exercise their right to blog. Can be done by anyone!
Big Media have treated the news as a lecture. We told you what the news was. You bought it, or you didn't. (Dan Gillmor former San Jose Mercury News reporter turned blogger)
Tomorrow's news reporting will be more of a conversation (Dan Gillmor)
The digital journalist might say "That's some of what we did our best to find out today.”(source Andrew Heyward President of CBS News)
There are hundreds of millions of blogs setup around the world.
Personal blogs comment on public issues (this is the way it originally started) after 9/11 bloggers started writing the news.
Murdock's speech on the Role of Newspapers in the digital age in 2005.
"They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it…”They want news that speaks to them personally, that affects their lives." ~ R. Murdoch.
The difference between blogs and mainstream media is transparency, the ethics of the conversation, ethics of correction and the ethics of immediacy.
Blogging today within the media has seen news organisations adopt blogging with news.com.au containing close to 50 blogs for their journalists and Fairfax papers containing around 40 blogs.
Mainstream journalists also blog in their spare time to!
Blogs, Twitter and Social Networking has given news more urgency. With some events being found out through online networks rather than via phone or email.
- Blogging
- Participant – citizen journalism
- History of blogging
- Murdoch and blogging
- Blogs as News – solider blogs and milblogs
- Bloggers breaking news – Osama Bin Laden death
- Construction of social subjectivity – judgement of journalist more honestly acknowledged
- Bloggers and profitability
- Bloggers and censorship
What is the history of new media? Development of the www and types of new media? Blogs started surfacing when web 2.0 was born. Blogs have increase in popularity since 2000 with US statistics showing there to be at least 156 million blogs worldwide. The development of the web with increased interactivity via social network and other websites have given news an urgency to be published almost as soon as it is heard about.
What is the idea of a networked society? shift from industrial (depending on new energy sources) to informational mode of development (knowledge & creativity)
What are trends seen with online news? Online news has grown from just one story a day to stories being published almost immediately. Online news has grown to include the story, pictures and in many cases video and audio as well. Online news sites still hold the largest audience at around 60% while blogs as a news source are used around 30% of the time.
Changing patterns of news - news on demand, i.e. Mobile phones... Increased connectivity has meant news organisations need to be aware of what mediums their news is being accessed from, source specific mobile sites are developed to enrich their user experience in order to get return visitors.
Week Twelve - Creative Industries
Definition: ‘those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have the potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.’
Welcome to the Conceptual Age - "The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathisers, pattern recognisersand meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will reap society’s richest rewards." ~ Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind in Nightingale V. New Media Worlds.
Industries exist today that didn't exist 10 years ago because of creativity! Creative Industries have been fueled by the relationship between information, knowledge and creativity.
The Digital-Age has enabled audiences to play a bigger role in content creation. This has been seen through sites like Youtube, Flickr etc.
Demand for creativity has grown around. This has been complimented by better animation tools and cross-platform compatibility.
The rise of creativity is a key factor in our economy and society. The ABC has taken hold of creativity with ABC Open being setup purposely to help fuel those creating digital stories.
The Government has seen the power of creative industries in the economy and in-order for it to grow faster the government has rolled out programs like the NBN.
"National Broadband network rollout will mean creative enterprises will be able to take local businesses from a local to a global market."
The QLD Government has proposed a national strategy for developing the digital content industry.
Creative Industires affects Journalists... When stories are produced now it is delivered in a variety of forms; radio, tv, web, twitter, etc.
News on Demand - Like other mediums, the new interactive user can get their news when they like.
The Multi-Media Journalist tells their story differently throughout narrative storytelling while a reporting approach is sometimes sidelined depending upon the story.
The Multi-Medis Journalists establishes a strong post-production environment, ensures they have efficient editing techniques, archives and compresses and works in a team.
User-generated content (UGC) and their applications are by far the largest type of online content, both now and in any foreseeable future.
CHALLENGES - Australia's laws have not kept up with the technological evolution or with the changes in the diverse modes of media production and consumption. (Crawford & Lumby APO)
The Information age - Conceptual age? Identification of creativity as a key driver of growth and innovation in a knowledge-based economy
The Information Age - The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to information that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously.
The Conceptual Age - In the Conceptual Age, we can count on the commoditization of pretty much anything and everything out there. No matter how innovative a product may be, it’s almost a guarantee that someone else will either copy it or improve on it to grab a share of your market. That is why “design” is such a talked about concept these days.
The rise of creative industries? ‘Those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have the potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.’
