Finally!
After much stress and waiting I am finally back on the CNews – Channel 31, 8pm and 10pm Monday nights…check it out!
I tried posting my recording from last week but I’m a blogging newby and have no idea how. I wasn’t overly excited about it anyway as it was my first week back after 5 months so i was a little rusty but hopefully we can see some improvement over the coming weeks!
My Great Day…
OK so this isn’t specifically uni related, but now that I’m a hard core blogger I wanted to write about my day yesterday. You see, last year I wrote a thesis that sought to answer the question – To what extent have public relations degrees improved the professionalism and ethical conduct of the PR industry and what can be done to further these improvements?
Later in December it turned out I won an award from the PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia) for the best student research of 2007. All I got was an email from the head of my course, so to me this seemed like some minor little award…yay big deal.
Then I get told that I have to attend this ‘Women in PR’ luncheon at the RACV Club and thought little about it until the actual day. It seems that the uni didn’t really tell me how big a deal this award was! Not only was there a whole section in the program about me and my research, but I had to go up on stage and they talked all about me! I got a big framed certificate and a bottle of Chandon…mmmm.
On my table all these people were congratulating me and then all these professionals started asking me to email them my thesis! What a grand old day in the world of professional networking!
The best part of the day was when Tracy Curro from 60 Minutes quoted me in the panel discussion! Tracy Curro quoted me! Well maybe I’m the only one who cares but she’s a pretty big role model for me and it was a great ‘in’ for me to go and talk to her about my career in TV journalism. Yahtzee!
Writing Essays…
I had to have a laugh today as I quite easily finished my comm rev essay. It seems that every time I have an essay that I’m not comfortable with I kick and scream through the whole process and then suddenly…there it is~! A finished document! This is sort of how it goes…
“aaahhh I can’t do this!!!”
“Nations of the extent to which print has affected civilisation …………”
“Ohhhh the humanity it’s all too hard!”
“blah blah blah”
And then I come out the other end having really not struggled that much at all (OK so I struggled…but at least it is done now!)
Updating my topic…
After much research and discussions with various supervisors, my thesis topic has been narrowed down, which has created a better scope for the project and a much more manageable timeline.
Rather than looking at the relationship between emergency services and the media, i will simply be analysing the effectiveness of the ABC in their role as victorian emergency broadcaster. This will include things such as looking at the actual policy and working with the ABC to create key objectives with which to analyse. I will also still be looking into the best forms of communication during a bushfire, which will help benefit the key stakeholders and affected residents during bushfires.
I am really looking forward to completing my case study in East Gippsland, but I really need to get a start on organising contacts and writing articles for the local newspapers to encourage people to come to foucs groups.
I have also decided to cancel my online survey methodology as now it has become apparent that I need quality research rather than quantity of research.
Generation ZZZZZZZZ
Our course Transient Spaces covers all kinds of communication and the transition between the real and the online. I wanted to write a blog about my concerns for the future: CHILDHOOD OBESITY.
It seems that these days there is so much going on online that children are spending longer and longer in their dark bedrooms on computers - whether it be on Second Life, playing online war games, or simply playing on YouTube. Either way, it is a dire situation we are getting our children into by allowing them to play games and not be outside socialising and playing real games.
As the obesity epidemic gets worse and worse in Australia, we can look at the internet as one of the causes. I grew up on a small farm and never did we stay inside playing on computers on weekends, we were out riding horses and throwing cow poo at each other! Granted this was the time of games such as ‘Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?’ and Grand theft auto (the 90s kind not now).
What kind of life are these children going to look back on when they are obese 40 year olds with no friends and have bought a wife from some Asian country becuase they no longer know how to socialise?????
It truly worries me the the amount of online gaming that is done. I think second Life and war games are creepy at best and let me tell you right now, internet friends ARE NOT REAL. This is a dangerous road we are heading down both from a health aspect and a social aspect. For me, the future is not online, particularly not at home. My kids will have happy healthy lives outside. Not creating war in some imaginary land with imaginary online friends from Slovakia.
Generation Z must be saved!!!!
Upper Beaconsfield Association
After reading my last post I know you’ll all be so enthralled with my home town that you’ll want to see for yourself! You should check out this website for Upper Beac, the photo on the home page is from the top of my road – - I don’t need to tell you how Beautiful it is!
Defining a Community…Transient Spaces
This semester I am undertaking an elective called Transient Spaces. It’s all about the big ol’ world of the world wide web and the way communication is being transformed. For our major assignment we are required to develop a 16 page online documentary around the theme of ‘community’.
It has taken me a long time to come up with my theme, however now that I think about it, it should have always been my first choice. When the word community even comes into my head the only place I think of is my home town, Upper Beaconsfield.
Now, most people have heard of UB, however until you live there you cannot truly understand the concept of community. It is the most amazing place to bring up children and I would have no doubts of buying my parents property and moving back there when I have a family.
If you can picture a 20 acre property, just an hour from Melbourne, rolling green hills that were really never effected too much by the drought. Horses, cows, sheep you name it we have it. I’m not pretending I grew up in the outback with jackeroos and thousands of acres, but this to me was enough. Now this is not what I mean when I’m referring to the community. It is the people of Upper Beaconsfield. When I was growing up the town had only around 2000 residents, now I would presume it would have more, but everyone used to know everyone. They always say that harship brings communities together, and that is certainly what the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 did to my town. There are support networks, community groups, all kinds of things that people can be involved in. In fact, my Dad is part of the founders of the Community Care Group, which help local residents in times of need.
So i’ll be developing a website all about the Upper Beaconsfield community, the people, the clubs and the all round community spirit!
Public to be quizzed over bushfire media coverage – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Don’t you hate it (or secretly love it as it means someone might be able to help you) when you get a completely original idea for your thesis, start researching…and someone else has done the exact same thing? Check this out…it’s my idea! Done and dusted…
Public to be quizzed over bushfire media coverage – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
ABC wins approval for Wednesday’s storm!
Jess Noske-Turner experienced first hand the way ABC radio handled their role as official emergency broadcaster on Wednesday and had some interesting things to say about it in her blog so go and check it out!
Jess raised a couple of issues that are significant in the discussion of the role of the ABC during emergencies. Firstly, the tool of ‘talkback’ radio. While for many people not directly affected, talkback radio brings an interesting and unique perspective on the situation, it can also often give assistance to people such as when Jess texted in to find out the situation with Connex. Problems arise when the talkback callers are misinformed and spread information that could potentially be fatal. Not that the information on Jess’ train could have been, but certainly in bushfires.
Take for example a talkback caller who is distressed and in the midst of a bushfire. He frantically calls up ABC radio and tells all the listeners that the fire is out of control and anyone in the Licola district should flee because there isn’t much time left. What this man is seeing is one perspective, and one small geographical area. After this, three families flee their homes and lose everything, only to find that they could have easily stayed and been quite safe.
Talkback radio is a great tool for interesting comment and discussion, but where does the onus lie when giving false or misleading information?
The second issue raised in Jess’ blog to do with the ABC, not that I was able to hear it, but Jess mentioned that they were pretty much in emergency mode on the station, which leads me to think they had started one of the key parts of the agreement with the emergency services, whereby in the event of an emergency, certain members of the CFA have the power to call up and override any radio programming to distribute information. I think this is an extremely important and beneficial aspect of the agreement and one which I hope to see continue.
Well I think it is really interesting the way that the ABC handled the programming on Wednesday during the storm in Melbourne, did anyone else hear it and want to comment?
