Greetings, my readers! If I even have any... when was the last time I updated this blog? I don't even know.
I always think about doing it, I really enjoy writing but I have so many ideas of things to write about that when I actually try I can't choose one thing and so I just give up all together. It's a little embarrassing actually...
HOWEVER, I am writing an entry now. Yay!
So, this year, I started uni as a mature age student, which I'm glad I did because I feel like I'm much more mature now than when I was in year 12 and that having time off education has let me think about what it is I really want to do. What is that you may ask? Well, the title of this post probably leads you to believe that it's a Journalist, however not technically. I am studying, Sustainability Management. Anyone who's read my post about Carbon Tax probably won't be surprised. So yes, I am studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Sustainability Managment.
But, this year I am actually doing a Journalism class! GASP.
Because, yasee, I have always enjoyed writing and I have been interested in doing Journalism. So I thought, I have a spare unit, why not fill it up with a Journalism class? If I like it, maybe I can minor in it or co-major in it or something. Yay!
I still haven't decided what I want to do on that level but then again it's only the second week.
SO, what is this blog entry actually about? WELL. Since I started my Journalism course, I have become even more interested in the media and their doings (or wrong doings as I will later discuss) than I previously was.
As part of my class my lecturer suggested we watch the ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for anyone who may not know) Media Watch, which is on Monday nights at 9:20pm. (They also have their own ABC website where you can watch the episodes which is what I have just finished doing.) Now in case you haven't heard of Media Watch, which I hadn't until now, basically it's a show that points out mistakes and false accusations the media has made. (From TV to papers to online news). As my lecturer said it "holds the media accountable" for their actions.
In our last Journalism lecture the discussion was basically about the duties that Journalists have to the public that stems from their position of power as both a representative of the general public and the person with access to all the sources and knowledge. Basically we were discussing the ethics of Journalism.
Well, after watching Media Watch I've gone from disliking a few news media outlets to quite a few more.
I 'spose a lot of people already think that most journalists are slimey or sketchy kinds of people who are only interested in a good story, regardless of how true it is. But since I was young I've felt like the definition of a Journalist should be someone who is a dedicated to presenting facts and providing the general public with the truth in an honest and professional way. Often Journalist were people I looked up to.
However, lately I feel like when I read a lot of news stories there is some kind of bias behind it or something is missing I guess. I look through the paper and I wouldn't even consider half the stories in their to be real news. (Then again, I'm not their only audience so I guess that's not for me to decide)
And then there's those current affairs shows like Today Tonight and A Current Affair where every day is a slow news day.
I find it amazing that people as a whole settle for so many crappy news outlets. DOES NOBODY CARE ABOUT THE NEWS ANYMORE?
Due to lack of readers The Age has turned into a tabloid paper. *shudder* They're trying to get more readers by compacting their paper. I sincerely hope they don't reduce the quality of their news as well. The Age used to be my favourite paper and now I'm not sure what I think. I definitely wouldn't consider myself a fan of the new layout but I also love The Age and I don't want to stop supporting it. But people just don't want big news papers any more. Their attention span isn't long enough or something? I don't know.
It feels like to me that in this age of pretty much instant publishing and social media that so many news publishers are too concerned with being the first to the story rather than actually having a story that's correct. But surely more people are less concerned about how fast they get the story and more concerned about the facts within it?
Obviously their are some exceptions I mean, nobody wants a breaking news story about a hurricane in their home town the day after it's already happened. That's just retarded.
But being first to the finish line in a swimming race is no good if... - I didn't completely think this metaphor through... I was going for sharks and.. being eaten or something? NEVERMIND. The point is that there's no point getting your story out first if you give the wrong story or leave out integral facts anyway.
What frustrates me more than publishers with unreliable news or pretend news is that people seem to just take it all as gospel. "Hm, that seems ridiculously melodramatic. But oh well, must be true!" Really everyone? But I suppose that comes back to what I said earlier that people rely on journalists to bring them truthful, honest, factual news. So really, I think it's everyone involved's fault. Certain journalists for scraping up whatever random crap and serving it as news and certain people for accepting the terrible crap as news without question. Everyone needs to raise their standards.
In many ways I want to give news publishers the benefit of the doubt. I like to think of journalists as intelligent individuals. Maybe all their mistakes are honest mistakes. (Except you, Today Tonight and A Current Affair. You should be ashamed of yourselves.) I mean, hopefully it's just a matter of them finding a balance between fast publication and fact checking. I'm sure most news publishers find it excessively embarrassing when they find out a story they published was incorrect, I know I would.
I wouldn't just disregard a news publisher as a bad source of reliable news if they make one mistake. Everyone makes mistakes.
But some mistakes I've seen on Media Watch or discussed generally around the Internet (such as on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook etc.) could have easily been avoided with one simple phone call or email or any single act of minor investigation. Instead of not checking anything before deciding a story must be true because it would make such good news.
You know, this isn't originally what I was going to talk about. I was just going to briefly mention Media Watch and how interesting it is and then go on to talk about how Journalism is changing and the discussion we had in our lecture about who these days could actually be considered a Journalist. But, I kind of got stuck on this one topic... and paragraphs later realised this is probably enough as a single topic for this blog entry. So I suppose that my next post can be about who Journalists are. - Unless I think of something more interesting to write about.
Also, I feel like I was switching a lot between talking about the publishing of news as text and the presentation of news on TV. So just to clarify when I say "publishing" I mean both video and text.
That's the end of my rant about news and what have you so you can leave now if you haven't already.
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