Category Archives: University

Literary Prize culture: Men vs. Women.

Posted on by under JRNL301, Uncategorized, University

In case you couldn’t tell- that was satire.

If my research taught me anything, it’s that there’s a clear gender bias in mainstream literary prize culture. I established this by looking at the winners and nominees from the Man Booker Prize, The Nobel Prize in Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction between 1977 and 2016.

I found that the vast majority of the prizes were won by men.

graph (5)

Although there has been some slight improvement in the regularity of women winning the prizes, as you can see by the trend lines in the diagram below:

graph (8)

Is this a problem isolated to literary prize culture, or can it be seen in other areas of the publishing industry? Have a listen to the podcast below where I discuss sexism and gender bias in the publishing industry, and whether or not improvements are being made.

 

For further reading on the topic:

 

-Amy McCann

 

 

 

False eyelashes and fast cars: Snapchat selfies and controversy.

Posted on by under BCM310, Uncategorized, University

Selfies are everywhere and we take them for a myriad of reasons; to commemorate special occasions or an especially good winger eyeliner, to document emotions or to prove, yes, you did, in fact meet Ed Sheeran on a particularly windy day.

Snapchat selfies

Snapchat Snapchat is a social app built for sharing selfies. It was created in 2011 by two Stanford University fraternity brothers and allows people to send photos, video, and text, which disappear after being viewed by the receiver. The sender determines how long the receiver can view the photo or video. Imagine the howlers from Harry Potter, except probably with less screaming.

ron_weasley27s_howler

(Source: Harry Potter Wiki  )

The app is currently used by more than 158 Million people daily (Benner 2016), and some of its features have been the *ahem* inspiration for some recent updates on other popular apps such as the addition of stories to Instagram, or Facebook profile filters.

Snapchat profiles can be public or private. High profile celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and have public Snapchat profiles, but according to a 2015 study, said that most user surveyed reserved Snapchat for close personal relationships rather than strangers (Vaterlaus et al., p.598). Certainly, the concept of the app does lend itself to a more private, personal form of communication.

Furthermore, most of the filters users can choose from can only be accessed through facial recognition, for the purpose of producing altered selfies. Most filters are recurring, but some filters are released for special occasions. I would attribute much of the popularity of the platform to these filters, which are used on photos that are shared on every other platform. However, some of these filters have caused quite a bit of controversy.

 

Need for speed

In January of this year, a court dismissed claims that Snapchat’s speed filter was to blame for a highway crash. Both Snapchat and the driver, Christal McGee, were sued over claims McGee was attempting to reach 100mp/h using the Snapchat filter and hit a couple in another car in 2015. Perhaps comically, Ms. McGee posted a selfie was the caption ‘Lucky to be alive’ from the back of the ambulance immediately after the incident

ccqda__weaad4mcmcgee-ambulance-snap-resized

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Left: The Snapchat speed filter. Source: Cherkokees Chill, Right: Christal McGee’s ambulance selfie. Source: Snapchat via. CBSNews)

Snapchat Attorney Mark Trigg wrote in a statement to the Associated Press:

“A loss for Snapchat would have been dangerous, opening a floodgate of lawsuits for everyone from cell phone manufacturers to billboard advertisers to makeup brands — virtually anyone that can potentially cause a distraction from driving. Snapchat’s win instead diverts blame from these companies and requires responsible use of these technologies by the driver.”

Blackface and the scientific smoky-eye

But Snapchat selfies haven’t only been controversial because of the potential danger they might cause, but also because of the dangerous messages they might send. Snapchat was accused of promoting blackface early last year with a Bob Marley filter.  

Just this week, filters for International Women’s Day have put Snapchat under scrutiny once more. Snapchat released three filters in honor of the day, each celebrating a diverse and accomplished woman; Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks and Marie Curie.

grid-cell-2114-1489010066-4grid-cell-2114-1489010068-9grid-cell-2114-1489010070-14

(From left to right: The Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks and Marie Curie Snapchat filters for International Women’s Day. Source: Buzzfeed. Images by Caroline Kee via Snapchat)

These filters were generally well-received, but it was the latter of the three which caused a stir. Users criticised the alterations it makes to the face of the selfie-taker; face slimming, skin perfecting ‘foundation’, smokey eye-makeup and flase eyelashes.

Snapchat users took to social media to express their disdain, one user summing up their arguments quite succinctly:

The reason this is so distressing is to users may be because:

“By repeatedly performing gender roles, selfie takers produce new social norms and rituals”-Williams & Marquez 2015, p.1777

That is, users are concerned that by placing emphasis on makeup and physical appearance in the Marie Curie filter, users or observers of the filter may inadvertently come to believe (or already believe )that conformity to traditional concepts of female beauty is linked to success as both a woman and a female scientist.

Selfies are everywhere, and it so begs the question: should we be more conscious of the impact the selfies we share may have? Are we moving into a new era of politically and socially conscious selfie-taking? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or tag me (@AmyByTheWindow) in your selfies on Twitter or Instagram.

-Amy

References:

The Associated Press, 2017, ‘Judge rules Snapchat immune from distracted driver claim’, The Seattle Times, 23 January, viewed 9 March, <http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/georgia-court-dismisses-car-crash-lawsuit-against-snapchat/?utm_source=RSS&gt;.

Benner, K 2016, How Snapchat Is Shaping Social Media, The New York Times, weblog post, 30 November, viewed 9 March 2017, <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/technology/how-snapchat-works.html?partner=rss&_r=0&gt;

CBS, 2017, ‘A win for Snapchat in crash lawsuit tied to speed filter’, CBS News, 23 January, viewed 9 March 2017, <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/snapchat-speed-filter-accident-lawsuit-claim-dismissed/&gt;.

Kee, C 2017, ‘People Are Rolling Their Eyes At This Snapchat Filter For International Women’s Day’, Buzzfeed News, 9 March, viewed 9 March 2017, <https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolinekee/people-are-mad-about-snapchat-marie-curie-filter?utm_term=.rh2rDAEel#.yyAbWXDmB&gt;

taliacalandra 2017, ‘I met Ed Sheeran today…’, 8 March, Twitter post, viewed 9 March 2016, < https://twitter.com/taliacalandra/status/839709521152978945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&gt;.

Vaterlaus, J, Barnett, K, Roche, C, & Young, J 2016, ‘“Snapchat is more personal”: an exploratory study on Snapchat behaviors and young adult interpersonal relationships’, Computers In Human Behavior, 62, pp. 594-601, Inspec, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 March 2017.

WILLIAMS, A, & MARQUEZ, B 2015, ‘The Lonely Selfie King: Selfies and the Conspicuous Prosumption of Gender and Race’, International Journal Of Communication (19328036), 9, pp. 1775-1787, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 March 2017.

 

The cost of live-tweeting?

Posted on by under BCM240, Uncategorized, University

I like to think I’m an excellent multi-tasker. I can walk and read, and perform a one-woman show whilst I drive. I can watch The Bachelor and switch between Facebook conversations, whilst simultaneously keeping an eye on the Twitter hashtag. I’ve been known to play Sudoku in lectures, or live-tweet if anything, so I don’t distract myself with other text-based media. I like to think I’ve trained my whole life for this, and it probably started when I would read under the covers whilst keeping and ear out for my parents’ footsteps on the stairs.

But apparently, I’m not as good as it as thought. Or rather, I’m good at multi-tasking, but at the cost of the tasks themselves.

In class, we watched the video above, and smugly, having seen it when I was thirteen, I was able to spot what was off about it straight away, whilst I was also checking the twitter BCM240 hashtag. But then, that night, I was scrolling through Facebook, and completely missed the big kiss in the show I was watching (and I can’t even remember what show it was). Lots of the time, I’ll be watching something, and talking to my mother, and then finish the conversation not remembering what it is she had told me. But I’m not alone! Studies have shown that multitasking is incredibly ineffective, and can actually be a waste of time, costing you up to 40% of your productivity (Weinschenk 2012)!

This week I was tasked with creating a test to examine someone’s attention in the presence of multiple devices. So my test was as follows:

  1. Get my brother to play Sudoku once on my mobile and record the time it takes to complete it and how many mistakes are made
  2. Get my brother to complete a Sudoku whilst watching a YouTube video and record the time it takes to complete it and how many mistakes are made
  3. Get my brother to complete a Sudoku whilst watching a YouTube video and with the television on in from of him and record the time it takes him to complete it and how many mistakes are made

I used the first round of Sudoku as a control. He may otherwise have found it easier to complete the Sudoku in each subsequent game, but this is an informal test, so I wasn’t too concerned about how this may have affected the results. The results were pretty interesting:

  1. 8 min 37 sec, 2 mistakes
  2. 10 min 52 sec, 3 mistakes
  3. 11 min 57 sec, 5 mistakes

It took him longer to complete each subsequent Sudoku, which were all at the same level of difficulty. Perhaps he was getting tired, because it was the end of the day, but it’s still a dramatic increase in how long it took him.

Whilst completing the test, I observed that his eyes would flick from one screen to the other, to the other. When his eyes weren’t on the screen with the Sudoku, he wasn’t making any effort to complete it. By concentrating on , or getting distracted by other screens it not only took him longer, but he also didn’t complete the puzzles as effectively.

In future, I meant reconsider playing Sudoku in lectures (but I don’t think my Bachelor group-chats are going anywhere)! And I’ll definitely think twice before live-tweeting an event!

References:

Weinschenk, S 2012, The True Cost Of Multi-Tasking, Psychology Today, weblog post, 18 September, viewed 16 September, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pxetnwQh40>

Vlogging and place: is anybody ever present?

Posted on by under BCM240, Uncategorized, University

I frequently (read: daily) find myself watching more hours of YouTube videos than I care to admit. I watch mostly BookTube , fashion and makeup videos and I’m especially partial to vlogs. There’s something inexplicably fascinating about watching a ten minute summary of somebody’s every day life.

For a short while, I get to see a snapshot of what it’s like to walk in their shoes. More often than not, I think to myself: “Why is this interesting”.

For starters, I mainly watch British vloggers like Jim Chapman, Tanya Burr, Zoella , etc. They live in a completely different part of the world to me, and part of the fascination is that I’ve always wanted to live in England. But part of it is the same reason Keeping Up With the Kardashians is such a hit: they’re celebrities, we admire them, and we want to see how they live. The difference is, vloggers generally aren’t afraid to show their flaws.

Anna Gillies from Forge Press calls this ‘everyday voyeurism’ (2014). She too, likens it to reality television where “the lines between reality and fiction became blurred as real people’s lives were broadcast for us all to view” (2014). We are transported into an informal, yet highly curated online representation of their life. Certainly vloggers are aware of this as they go about their days, but I’m curious, do they think about their online audience spatially?

By this I mean, do they go about their day constantly living and working in a space outside their physical location. Or do they think of it as bringing the audience into their space? Do they jump from one space, to another, to another as they switch between social media platforms? Or do they think of it as one big space?

For my final assessment in BCM240: Media, Audience, Place, I hope to test this out. And what better way to do that than on a vlog? I’ve had a YouTube Channel for almost two years now (although it’s been a little neglected in recent months), so I think, with my existing audience, this will be a great opportunity to invest some time in that. But I also want to utilize other platforms such as snapchat, instagram and twitter.

So what’s the brief? The assessment requires a me to produce a “digital storytelling project that looks at media audience practices from the perspective of a specific person and/or place.” Evidently my YouTube vlog/s will cover the ‘digital’ aspect and I’ll be telling the ‘story’ of my every day life, from my perspective. In the vlog/s I’ll discuss how my use of social media, and the intrusion of the camera, and thus the audience, is impacting on my spatial consciousness. By this I mean, how aware am I of the audience and which spaces do I feel I’m operating in?

I haven’t yet decided whether my experimental vlogging life will occur over a day, a weekend, or a whole week. I aim to complete the vlog/s in week eleven. The vlog/s will be edited and posted to my YouTube channel  the day immediately following, and I will be curating and online prescence on my Twitter, Instagram  and Snapchat. Whilst the vlog will feature both my every day life, and my thoughts and findings on the spatial nature of this media audience practice, the other social media element will emulate typical content from other vloggers.

I’m hesitant that this is a big project to take on, and is going to take absolute focus on the task at hand, so maintaining that relaxed ‘this is just my everyday life’ persona is going to be a challenge! I’ve tried vlogging once before (as you’ll see below) and it wasn’t easy!

References:

Gillies, A 2014, Everyday Voyeurism, and why we are so drawn in by YouTube vlogs, Forge Press, weblog post, 22 November, viewed 7 September, <http://forgetoday.com/press/everyday-voyeurism-and-why-we-are-so-drawn-in-by-youtube-vlogs/&gt;.

 

The ethics of photgraphing millennials on their damn phones

Posted on by under BCM240, Photography, Uncategorized, University, UOW

I’ve often wondered how many times my photo has been taken without my knowledge or permission. I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of surveillance images of me floating around. But what a wonder about the most is how many times have I been captured in the background. How many times have I unsuccessfully achieved the duck-and-walk-away-quickly and ended up as the background to someone else’s memento?

This week in my class for Media, Audience Place, I was tasked with taking a photograph of someone using a mobile device in public on my university campus. My first reaction was dread. ‘Oh no,’ I thought, ‘I’ll have to be sneaky.’

In my mind, it meant that the person had to be unaware they were being photographed. I think that’s because, in my mind, mobile devices are very private things. You wouldn’t want someone to be able to record what you were doing on your mobile. But this also contradicts the purpose for which most people use their mobile devices, which is for sharing and consuming information on public platforms.

So I was left conflicted. I needed to photograph someone in a public space, on a private device, which was likely being used to access a public space online. Was it okay to photograph someone without their permission in this context? It’s not technically outside of my rights as a street photographer to photograph someone in a public space, but is it ethical? photo-1

This photo was the result. I chose to photograph this person from behind, to obscure their identity and protect their privacy by shielding the view of their screens. However, what I also did through this discretion was obscure the fact that she was using multiple devices. The photo is blurry, and poorly framed. It never occurred to me that I could ask her permission. I didn’t extend the same care for her as I did to my friend Rianna from Aesthetic Narrative. I asked, and not only is the photo below of a better quality, but I also enjoyed photographing her, rather than feeling guilty.

photo-2

After this exercise I did some reading on street photography ethics, and something that struck me in this article by photographer Nicholas Goodden was his emphasis on empathy. He explains that asking the question “How would I feel in this person’s shoes?” is the most important rule he has and tries to make sure he isn’t taking photographs of people who are vulnerable. He used the example of photographing the elderly; they have not always been this way, and may not be happy being represented as frail or weak. I’ve never thought about considering how people want to be represented. Whilst it may not be helpful for ethnographic purposes, it’s something I’ll keep in mind for my photography in the future.

That being said, the task was really helpful in examining how people use mobile devices in public spaces. I found that people sitting or moving alone were almost always using their phone. However, people in groups didn’t seem to be using theirs at all. If they were, it was to share something with other member of the group. I think it’s interesting to see this because it contradicts the seemingly common-held belief that millennials (who make up a significant portion of the population on campus) are always on their phones, even when they’re sitting right next to each other.

 

This video raises similar ideas about representation. If a photograph accurately represents someone in a public space, is it ethical to publish? I think it depends on you purpose and conscience. What do you think?

Harry Potter and the very bad, no good, absolutely devastating cinema experience​.

Posted on by under BCM240, Uncategorized, University

Have you ever had a really, truly awful cinema experience?

I was nine years old, and convinced I was going to Hogwarts (I’m still waiting for that letter). I’d just caught up on all of the Harry Potter books, the walls of my bedroom were papered with Emma Watson’s face and I was wearing a Gryffindor cloak over my school uniform.

This was it. This was the day I was finally going to see my favourite book come to life. In just a few minutes I was going to be seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on it’s opening day.

It hadn’t been straight forward journey to the cinema seat. First of all, we were late. Trying to coordinate two children under ten, to meet in exactly the same spot after school,  is no easy feat. Parking was also difficult, so we were well past the minimum twenty-minute wait required if you want to get good seats in a theatre with no reserved seating.

As it turned out, the session was sold out, and the line went out the door and around the corner. Thank goodness my mother had bought our $6.50 tickets earlier in the day.

But we didn’t yet have our food- I wanted this day to be perfect. I wanted my box of Malteasers and the large popcorn to share with my brother.

There was only one solution- my mother went to line up at the confectionary counter, whilst I stood dutifully in line, nervously pushing up my Harry Potter glasses. I tried to look much older than I was, afraid that the ticket checker wouldn’t let me in to see this M-rated movie if my mum didn’t return in time.

In the end, I got my Malteasers and my brother held the popcorn (and didn’t eat any, because you’re not allowed to touch the popcorn before the lights go down). The session was sold-out, so we were forced to sit right in the front row (my neck still hurts just thinking about it). Despite all this, I was ready for the best cinema experience of my life.

And it was great.

Until Hermione’s face melted off.

Somehow, the film had caught fire, and terrified screams tore through the room as her face distorted and burned, mid-scene. The lights went on. The attendants came in and apologized. Twenty minutes later, the film started off again from the next scene.

I love that movie, but that was truly a horrible cinema experience.

It’s not all that surprising really, that some cinema experiences are good, and some are irreparably awful. Like with any travel or movement, Torsten Hagerstrand’s three human constraints apply. in many ways, you can think of your cinema experience in relation to time. For this reason, I think it’s simpler to think of going to the cinema as being like catching a train.

Capability: You have to get there, in the first place, before you can ‘go’ anywhere else. Parking was our major barrier on that day- we couldn’t go inside without first finding a park.

Coupling: You have to get there on time. We did not, because of the aforementioned difficulties, especially organising two small and terribly forgetful children to meet in one place.

Authority: You have to be allowed. You can’t just walk onto a train without paying your fare, and you can’t walk into an M-rated movie at the age of nine without parental supervision.

As you can see, it can sometimes take a lot of coordinated effort to go to the movies. You have to make active decisions: When will I leave? Who am I going with? What will I eat? How will I sit? Will I talk during the movie?

My experience of the film was probably very different to the adult sitting behind me, the technicians up in the projector room, and even my own mother. To see us as a group with a uniform experience, would diminish it, because “Time has a critical importance when it comes to fitting people and things together” (Hӓgerstrand, 1970) and we all had different experiences of time.

-Amy.

 

 

Do university students read for leisure?

Posted on by under BCM210, Uncategorized

As you can probably discern from the rest of my blog, I am particularly passionate about reading. For me, reading is all about curiosity – what’s between those covers? What happens next? Where will this one take me? So naturally, I began to research reading in relation to university students, partially in the hope of finding out whether my obsession in normal or not.

From what I can tell, there has been a lot of research conducted on the benefits of leisure reading on and that these include a strong correlation between reading for pleasure and academic success, although most research appears to be focused on adolescents (Krashen, 2004). However, during my preliminary research, I couldn’t find much information on whether or not university students are actually participating in recreational reading. Although, some do note the percentage of research participants that do take part in pleasure reading (Owusu-Acheaw, 2014). However I think this should be considered as being important, especially in light of the implications on academic success and has become the motivation for my BCM210 research assignment

To me, it seems that reading for pleasure isn’t common among my peers. Largely, my research thus far has been conflicting. For example, Parlette and Howard identify pleasure reading as being a “well-established habit amongst many first-year undergraduate students” (2010, p.53). This is supported by Gilbert and Fister who suggest that recreational reading amongst college students is more common that it is widely perceived to be (2011, p.490). However Kelly and Kneipp claim that leisure reading is decreasing amongst university students (2009) , a claim which is supported by Brook and Salter’s assertion that there is a lower demand for recreational reading materials in the university setting (2007). Although the limitations of my assignment mean I can’t measure the growth or decay of demand for reading materials or the prevalence of pleasure reading amongst university students, I do hope I will be able to clarify the proportion of students that participate in leisure reading.

As a result, I was initially drawn to question “What are the reading habits of university students?” I am interested in how and what students are reading, whether they believe this has evolved since childhood or secondary school and their attitudes towards leisure reading. There is also a lack of examination of the reading habits of university students, especially within Australia (about which there has been very little research conducted). So, for the sake of specificity, I have narrowed my question to “Examine the habits and attitudes of Communication and Media Studies Students at The University of Wollongong in relation to leisure reading.” My reading has led me down one of those “rabbit-holes” my lecturer Kate Bowles always refers to- each article has sparked some new curiosity, and I think I’ll find it difficult to narrow down my research objectives.

So, in order to obtain this information I plan on conducting a series of questionnaires with students within the Communication and Media Studies degree at The University of Wollongong. Questions will examine the amount of leisure reading (time spent, number of books/materials read), the purposes of the leisure reading, the types of leisure reading (including media types and genres) and some perceptions (such as “are you reading for pleasure more or less than when you were in high school”) in a quantitative way. Attitudes will also be examined in qualitatively through open-ended questions such as what the perceived benefits of reading are. I believe this would be a feasible, achievable and effective manner of gathering information, considering the timeline for this assignment.

I believe the results of this research could have significant relevance to both academics and the publishing industry and fill a gap in the research about recreational reading. Findings could indicate whether Lecturers, Tutors and perhaps academic libraries should be doing more to encourage reading for pleasure amongst their students in consideration of the apparent academic benefits. It may also indicate to publishers where and how their marketing efforts should be directed in consideration of this demographic. This may have particular relevance to the marketing of books in the Young Adult genre. An article I came across in the Sydney Morning Herald by Susan Wyndham, their literary editor, identifies the Young adult Genre as being the fastest growing literary genre (2016).

Hopefully my passion for this topic continues to motivate me throughout the duration of the project and beyond, I’m excited to get into it!

-Amy

References:

Krashen, SD 2004, The Power Of Reading : Insights From The Research, Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 27 March 2016.

Owusu-Acheaw, M 2014, ‘Reading Habits Among Students and its Effect on Academic Performance: A Study of Students of Koforidua Polytechnic’, Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), viewed 20 March 2016, <http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2908&context=libphilprac>-

Howard, V &Parlette, M 2010, ‘Personal Growth, Habits and Understanding: Pleasure Reading Among First-Year University Students.’, Evidence Based Library & Information Practice , Vol. 5 Issue 4, p53-69.

Gilbert, J, & Fister, B 2011, ‘Reading, Risk, and Reality: College Students and Reading for Pleasure’, College & Research Libraries, 72, 5, pp. 474-495, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 March 2016.

Kelly, KB 2009, ‘READING FOR PLEASURE AND CREATIVITY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS’, College Student Journal, 43, 4, pp. 1137-1144, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 March 2016.

Salter, A, & Brook, J 2007, ‘Are We Becoming an Aliterate Society? The Demand for Recreational Reading Among Undergraduates at Two Universities’, College & Undergraduate Libraries, 14, 3, pp. 27-43, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 March 2016.

Wyndham, S 2016, ‘Young adult books on the rise thanks to adult readers (and their kids) ,The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March, viewed 23 March, < http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/young-adult-books-on-the-rise-thanks-to-adult-readers-and-their-kids-20160316-gnjt2q.html >.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Posted on by under BCM210, Uncategorized

 

Or so they say. Fortunately this isn’t a story about an dramatic feline-related death.  I couldn’t think of a single incident with curiosity to discuss for this week because, in my experience, it has been a life-long affair. For myself (unlike the proverbial cat) curiosity has been nothing less than an enriching experience.

From a very young age, I have loved reading. So, at the age of four I tried to teach myself how. I recall I tried to remember the words my mother read to me out of my favourite book (The Bear Who Went To The Ballet, if anyone is curious) and later attempted to match them up with the words on the page. This was largely unsuccessful, but it was the earliest manifestation of my curiosity-a love of reading.

There is something mysterious about a book cover, and something enchanting about words. This has driven me to read more, consume more, learn more about the world through the window presented to me on a page. This passion has since easily transferred into learning, and a love of it.

To me, curiosity is the gripping desire to know more, feel more and see what happens next. It is curiosity that causes me to crave a good book on a rainy day, and it’s the same curiosity that has brought me to tertiary study.

-Amy

Sexism: the hazard of being a female journalist.

Posted on by under JRNL101, University, UOW

Emma Alberici and Leigh Sales’ interview techniques have come under criticism from Malcolm Turnbull. In an Interview on Channel 10’s The Bolt Report the Communications Minister labeled them as being “very aggressive”.

Sales, who hosts ABC’s 7.30 Report, and Alberici, who hosts ABC’s Latline, have both responded to the accusations. Sales conceded that “He’s free to have an opinion,” but remains determined that it won’t change the way she does interviews; “If people aren’t answering the question then I push them to answer it because that’s what I’m paid to do.”

Alberici on the other hand, was quick to point out the underlying sexism of the comments: “People are far quicker to attack a woman in public than they would a man,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald, “When I do a tough interview I will be called an ‘aggressive bitch’ but when Tony Jones does a similar interview he is just tough. “

This is only reinforces by the sexism demonstrated by the unfortunate trend of female reporters in the United States being verbally attacked live on air by interviewees with the phrase “F**k her right in the pussy” and the sexist letter received BBC Radio reporter Emma Barnett . The letter was received after she criticised the level of coverage and sponsorship given to women’s sports, and read “No one wants to watch women’s sport love, it’s a joke, pony tails swaying, tits bouncing, come on on get serious. Put em back in the kitchen where they belong and leave sport to the warriors of the species not the dykes.”

All circumstances have received great levels of criticism both on social media and by journalists, and yet remain as evidence of how female journalists are continually undermined and disempowered by the sexism evident in contemporary societies.

-Amy

For more information read Jane Singleton’s article for the SMH.

The journalism industry is evolving rather than decaying, according to university students.

Posted on by under JRNL101, University, UOW

SAM_0745 really edited

For students going into journalism, the phrase “It’s a dying business, maybe you should try something more reliable,” is a common one to hear. However, despite this, The University of Wollongong’s Journalism students Stephanie Bailey, Tom McGill, Cassandra Norris, Abbey Conquest, and Tayla Bosley, remain optimistic about their employment prospects. They all agree that the increase in citizen journalism is having both negative and positive affects upon professional journalism and recognise that, like any career, it will just be a matter of starting from the bottom and working hard.

According to crikey.com.au, a website for independent journalism in Australia, the number of students enrolled in Journalism courses at Australian Universities has increased since 2007, whereas the number of journalists working in print media has decreased by 13%. Evidently, journalism students are not concerned about changes to the industry; “Everyone sounds like a broken record!” remarked Conquest, “ ’Oh, there’s no jobs in journalism at the moment’ – which might be the complete opposite in 4 years when we graduate!”

However, they concede that citizen journalism is having a dramatic impact upon the industry. Those interviewed were concerned that the lack of accountability yielded by citizen journalists means that the truth of events is sometimes difficult to find. “Anybody has a voice, and that can often lead to unfiltered opinions being released without any of the traditional editorial responsibilities,” observed McGill. By cutting out professional journalists, who have developed a special skill set and work with a code of ethics, the students are concerned that information isn’t always reliable: “People say things are ‘journalism’ but they actually lack integrity,” said Bailey.

Despite this, the students were largely grateful for the affordances of citizen journalism. They appreciate the power given to witnesses to upload content such as videos or photographs; “The personal ‘voice’ that comes with citizen journalism is often important in this regard,” noted McGill. Students also recognised that citizen journalism may also provide a solution for the gaps or potential political or economic biases evident within legacy media; “If they’re writing their own news stories, that can serve as an indication of what professional journalists are missing or leaving out,” said Bosley.

Ultimately, these young journalists are excited about the evolution of the Industry; “It may encourage journalists to become more in tune with the community or more engaging in their content in order to maintain their readership,” Said Bosley. Bailey noted, “It’s more important for them to exist because you have to filter through all this content and all this stuff that people said that doesn’t actually have a basis of truth.” Thus, journalism is fast becoming an important tool for the clarification of information and the authentication of truth, rather than the primary source.

As young Journalists, they recognise that the path to the front page won’t be easy, but will be enjoyable and worthwhile nonetheless; “I know I’m going to have to start from the bottom and work my way up,” said Norris, “That’s just how it works in journalism and I’m okay with that.”

-Amy