Advice from Steve Molkington, Reflections and a Summary of Journalism This Semester (week 13)

“You have the opportunity to connect with bum-scratchers around the world”

- Steve Molkingon, 2012

In my final week as a student of journalism, I had the pleasure of listening to Steve ‘Molko’ Molkington –television blogger and master couch potato. Steve described himself as egomaniacal, with aspirations for “world domination”; “an opinionated kind of guy who likes to sit on his arse and watch television.” I found both his personality and personal experience entertaining. Listening to the advice and anecdotes that came from establishing his successful blogger ‘brand’ in just two years was of great use. Above this, though, it nicely summarised everything we have coved this semester regarding the baffling, ludicrous and wonderful world of journalism.

Hearing about a man who simply writes about things that he is passionate about came as refreshing change to the topics we covered in recent weeks, which focused on journalism as a vulgar and largely unethical career with few redeeming factors.

The discussion that he started initially focused on the importance of experience in writing for online platforms like microblogs (Twitter), and the advantages that this has. For me, one of my biggest milestones in this course was creating a Twitter account. I had always avoided Twitter as if it were some kind of disease; I couldn’t understand the reason or the use for reading one hundred and forty character statuses describing what various people were doing in their mundane lives. Meaningless glib like “It’s breakfast time, how about some cereal LOL” was what I imagined the Twitterverse to be filled with. Much to my delight, however, I discovered its real beauty once I actually started using it. I like Mr Molkingon’s description of twitter as “loud” – it is purely about communication, and being forced to use a limited number of characters makes you think and care about what you’re writing. As pretentious as this is going to sound, writing on twitter is similar to poetry in this way. As Stephen Fry (my favourite person in the whole universe ever) once pointed out, when you are forced to follow a limiting structure, writing about a specific idea becomes like filling out a crossword. This is, of course, in stark contrast to the word-vomit that constitutes blogs like this one.

Importantly, Twitter can be used to talk directly to any other user (assuming they want to respond to you), which includes some of the most influential people in the world.  A perfect example of this is Molko’s anecdote describing how he organised an interview with Will Anderson – simply by directly asking “are you free for an interview today?”

Following the discussion on Twitter, I found Molko’s  most interesting point to be the fact that blogs promote a connectedness within a global online community. It allows those who are passionate about a subject, topic or idea to appreciate the opinions of others out there. He used the example of ‘bum-scratchers’ which is an online community that I dread to imagine. This very blog is testimony to Steve’s point, though – it is just one biological science-related blog out of thousands scattered throughout the internet. Some of my favourites are listed here:

http://scienceisbeauty.tumblr.com/

http://science.tumblr.com/

http://fuckyeahbiology.tumblr.com/

http://ecologyforoutcomes.wordpress.com/

http://geneticist.tumblr.com/  

With access to the remarkable work of others who share my passion for science, the internet establishes an international community of like-minded people, and I think that is a powerful thing.

Steve also emphasised the importance of using blogging experience as a tool for future employment. While this blog might not be a Muma mia media empire, and while I’m no Brian Stelter, it has certainly been a worthwhile experience. I look back on this blog as if it is a loved child. Granted, I’ll probably read this in a decade or so and cringe in the same way that I presently cringe reading middle-school feature articles that I wrote. For the moment, though, I am proud of my baby; I, prince of the technologically and socially challenged, have made a whole blog. I deserve a gold star or something. It still amazes me that some people actually read this (or at least look at this page) without being forced to do so. The weird but wonderful world of journalism has been a pleasure to be part of, I have learned a lot. 

THE END. 

Economy vs Ecology: Thoughts on the Proposed Network of Marine Parks in Australia

Politics is something that I am rarely, if ever, interested in, though watching the ABC news this evening was a rare change. The federal government is proposing the establishment of the world’s largest network of marine parks – the size of India - protecting endangered reef ecosystems and, in particular, the rapidly-vanishing Great Barrier Reef. Nationwide costs are expected to be in the hundreds of millions, as the government will be buying out businesses affected by the plans. State governments are still analysing the plans before they make their positions clear. 

The proposed network of national reserves within the ocean

As you might expect from an ecology student, I have absolute support for this project. I am quite impressed that Australia will be a world leader in marine conservation – something that we are usually pretty ordinary at as a nation. The network will extend protection in the Coral Sea and Western Australia, and will limit the gas and oil exploration and fisheries industries:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-14/marine-reserves-a-nightmare-for-fishing-industry/4071366

I want to emphasise that just because I am interested in environmental science, it does not mean that I run naked through forests and strap myself to trees. I am approaching this issue from an entirely non-emotional perspective, I can justify my argument with logic and scientific evidence, and I certainly take into account the industries, businesses and families that would be affected.

The network of Australian reefs, and particularly the barrier reef – the world’s largest reef system - is a biological treasure to be protected. To put it in perspective, reefs make up just 0.25% of the ocean, and yet they constitute 12% of the entire ocean’s biodiversity; they produce the most biomass per unit area of any biological system on Earth. Six of the seven known sea turtle species can found in the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef: a natural wonder

Ten per cent of the world’s reef systems have been destroyed completely due to human activity. The stability of Australian reef ecosystems are being dramatically affected by over-fishing. Because of the interconnected nature of these systems, removing grazing fish species is essentially the same as removing the reef altogether.

The consequences of losing the Great Barrier Reef are far more serious than the issue of biodiversity, though. The Queensland tourism industry is worth billions of dollars, far more than the worth of the fishing businesses that operate out of the Coral Sea. Additionally, because coral skeletons consist largely of calcium carbonate, reefs are can hold up to 60, 000 times more CO₂ than the atmosphere. When coral reefs are destroyed, this CO₂ is released into the air. Imagine the impact on climate change when we are dealing with a reef system so big that it is visible from space.

Regardless of the inevitable bickering that this will generate in the parliament, and assuming that the businesses affected by these changes are dealt with carefully and respectfully, I can guarantee that this is a big step in the right direction.

He's coming to Brisbane!

Sir David Attenborough, yet another member of my pantheon of inspirational scientists, needs no introduction. He will visit Brisbane to give a speech on both his life and the life of everything on Earth this August as part of his tour of the country.

http://www.qpac.com.au/event/David_Attenborough_12.aspx

The Fourth Estate (week 12)

“In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever.”
– Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891).

After weeks of looking at different ways that journalism can be used to manipulate reality and churn out shocking, meaningless half-truths, we come at last to the noble and sophisticated end of the journalistic profession – investigative journalism.

Ross Coulthart argues that all good journalism involves “questioning investigation of facts and opinions presented to us.” This ‘good’ side to journalism is now a rare art form, and a profession that has sadly suffered throughout the transition into the new media. Nonetheless, it is still practiced in news media institutions that can afford such luxuries, and its role in a democracy is still as important as ever.

So how can we spot this sophisticated and prudent form of journalism amongst the hordes of vulgar, ignoble churnalists that make up today’s largely-commercial media landscape? Dr Redman characterises investigative journalism according to the five “ins”; intelligent, informed, intuitive, inside and an investment (of the journalists’ blood, sweat, money, time and tears) – all for the pursuit of truth. The five “ins” essentially mean that the investigative breed of journalists become part of the story they are reporting through substantive investigation and the consultation of sources. In this way, investigative journalism is both critical and thorough.

Perhaps the most defining feature of investigative journalism is that it is focused on public interest, not tainted by the majority of the media’s news values. As a result, it is generally associated with topics regarding social justice. Due to this, investigative journalism has a adopted a role in modern democracy as the ‘fourth estate’ – an institution above society, the state and the capital, holding the latter two to account and exposing hidden truths. 

While this role as the ‘custodians of concience’ (Ettema and Glasser) seems romantic and imagined, it is evidenced in The Moonlight State, an investigation by Four Corners in 1987 which resulted in the exposure of mass-corruption in the Queensland police force and the consequent retirement of the chief commissioner. The Moonlight State was largely a result of the efforts of Chris Masters, Phil Dickie and Shaun Hoyt. 

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/08/08/3288495.htm

Other examples of great investigative journalists range from W. T. Stead, whose 19^th century investigation into the white slave trade resulted in the age of consent being raised to sixteen (from the previous twelve) across the Commonwealth, to Bernstein and Woodward, responsible for exposition of the Watergate scandal. The common feature of all these people and their work is the fact that they ultimately changed the world.

Sadly, though, investigative journalism has suffered throughout the transition into the new media. Naturally this long-form journalism involves a huge commitment in terms of time and money. These are two things that newspapers no longer have, and two things that commercial television stations have no intention of giving up for the sake of social justice. Sir Harold Evans, former editor of the The Sunday Times in the UK, explained the situation in an interview last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TL1vEzzBRY

Thankfully, there is hope yet for investigative journalism. Firstly, websites like www.theglobalmail.org see the decline in investigative journalism as a hole in the market for an educated audience, reviving the profession.  Secondly, institutions like the ABC will continue to be reserves for the endangered investigative reporter thanks to their own legislation:

“The ABC cannot simply report; its legislation clearly implies that it should also work within the best traditions of investigative journalism … systematically to pursue issues of public concern through innovative and reliable journalism…” (ABC, 1985).

The last custodians of Conscience: shows like Four Corners and the youth-focused Hungry Beast continue to deliver thorough investigations, ensuring at least some of the fourth state remains intact and active. 

While investigative journalism has taken a big hit with the recent dramatic changes in the media landscape, it is still active and as powerful as ever. So long as there is a viable market and the public media to protect it, investigative journalism will continue to expose the truth and hold the separate three estates to account.

Constructing Reality (week 11)

“Agenda Setting is a theory, but like all good, solid theories is all a bit obvious really” exclaimed Dr Redman at today’s lecture. While news values is the degree of prominence that the news media put on certain stories, agenda setting is the way that these stories construct what is actually happening in the world for the audience. Maxwell McCombs describes the theory as the news media’s “ability to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda.” This essentially means that the frequency and prominence of the media’s coverage of an event dictates how important the audience deems the issue to be.

In an apparent paradox, news media organisations base the nature of their output on what they believe an audience will find interesting and important in accordance with the their news values, while, according to the theory of agenda setting, the nature of their output dictates what the audience perceives as being important and of interest.

The paradox of agenda setting: if news values are indeed based on what audiences see as important, then the nature of what information is reported to the audience flows in a continuous circle.

According to Miller (2007), there are four agendas that underlie agenda setting. The public agenda (what the public sees as being important), the policy agenda (issues that legislators and politicians see as salient) and the Corporate Agenda (issues that major businesses consider important) all filter through the media, who add their own agenda – the Media Agenda, before all this highly-processed information reaches the public.

A Complex Filtration System: in reality the apparent paradox is broken by factoring in the influences of PR and the media’s own agenda. By the time the ‘truth’ reaches the audience, it has been processed so heavily that it rarely reflects what the audience truly consider important.

With this understanding, we see the three key parts of the agenda setting theory. First, reality does not pass unaltered through the nebulous matrix that is the media. Secondly, the media concentrates on a few issues and subjects according to the four agendas, producing the ‘Media Reality’. Finally, the concentration on these issues leads the public to perceive these issues and subjects as of more importance than other issues, unless they happen to experience other issues first hand through direct impressions or discussion.

The Media Reality changes through time in the same way that fashion trends do, irrespective of what is actually happening in the world. The situation in Uganda was largely unknown until the KONY2012 Campaign spread throughout the media. 

If agenda setting acts to construct a distorted reality, than it can be seen that propaganda is simply an extreme example of agenda setting. When influences on the media are thrown out of balance by extreme social conditions – war, for example – a concoction of information that bears little resemblance to reality can be distributed to the public in a ‘hypodermic needle’ model.

Nobody knew the power of propaganda as much as Leni Riefenstahl, master of propaganda for the Third Reich, director of the disturbing ‘Triumph of the Will’ and personal friend of Adolf Hitler.

 Walter Lippman describes propaganda as “a tool to help shape images in the minds of human beings in support of an enterprise, idea or group. Propaganda can be used to substitute one social pattern for another.”

This emphasises the importance of minimal political and corporate influence on the media. I’m not suggesting a conspiracy theory suggesting that the media today is some kind of evil mind-control machine that sub-consciously dictates our blind-folded perception of reality, but rather that the media is a tool that has in the past been used in some terrible ways.

The media today is more a circus than a war machine, but agenda setting is still something that should always be kept in mind by the audience nonetheless; “the press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about” (Bernard Cohen,1963). 

It should be a legal requirement for all children to watch this

Here is the first episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, a documentary that is as much on philosophy as on physics. He was one of my greatest heroes and a pioneer of science communication.

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_cosmos_episode_1_the_shores_of_the_cosmic_ocean

Value and Worth in the News: All the News that’s Fit to Print (week 9)

This week we focused on News Values; a concept defined as the degree of prominence an outlet gives to a particular story. By this definition, the important thing to consider is that the audience’s ‘attention’ is essentially dictated by the degree of prominence given by the outlet.

However, before news values can be discussed, we need to know exactly what news is. The word itself derives from a plural of ‘new’ – first attested in the late 14^th century to mean “new things.” Still today the word retains this meaning, at least from the perspective of news outlets; Arthur Evelyn Waugh described news as “what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead.”

So if ‘news’ exists as stories of what has happened recently, how do journalists, in a society where the events of the entire world are known, sift through the unimaginably huge amount of events that take place each day to present to an audience? This depends on the socio-cultural context of news outlet, and is decided by the news values that they hold.

According to Dr Redman, four factors influence an outlet’s News Values: impact, audience identification, pragmatics and source influence.

Impact refers to the media’s (and thus the journalist’s) dual role: to inform and to entertain; news shocks and generates interest, whether it be through obscurity, disgust or appreciation. Audience identification is imperative; in the calamity of the day’s events world-wide, an audience places value on what is been happening in their immediate geographical, cultural or social context, as these stories are more likely to affect their lives directly. Pragmatics refers to the practical side of telling news; the news that is both ethical and easy to report. Source influence plays a major role due to the paradoxical roles of journalism and public relations. “Journalism loves to hate PR, whether for spinning, controlling access, approving copy, or protecting clients at the expense of the truth” says UK PR executive Julia Hobsbawm, “yet journalism has never needed public relations more, and PR has never done a better job for the media.”

Newsworthiness

The news values of an outlet inform what is known as ‘newsworthiness’ – the value placed on different types of news stories. Newsworthiness is illustrated in the inverted pyramid structure, where information is presented in decreasing order of worth. Because news values inform newsworthiness, the factors of Impact and Audience Identification are demonstrated. This is how we get terms like “if it bleeds it leads” and “if it’s local it leads.” The role of an editor is to have a deep understanding of their respective institution’s news values, and to identify newsworthiness by acting as “human sieves of the torrent of news” (Harold Evans - The Sunday Times editor, 1967-1981). This role can only be adopted through experience in the newsroom – what Evans eloquently refers to as the “college of osmosis.”

Both editors and journalists rely on experience and instinct rather than logic when defining news values, and because of this role newsworthiness exists in an entirely informal manner. Never written down, news values are passed on socially and verbally through the generations of journalists that pass through the newsroom, espoused by the editors as if they are elders passing on some ancient story.

While different news outlets are all different in their own way, there are some inherent factors that influence a sense of newsworthiness. A number of core factor lists have been compiled, each different in length depending on how much depth is being considered. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Galtung & Ruge’s (1965) twelve factors:

•        Negativity                                         
• ·         Proximity (closeness to home)
• ·         Recency
• ·         Currency
• ·         Continuity
• ·         Uniqueness
• ·         Simplicity
• ·         Personality (i.e celebrity)
• ·         Expectedness (predictability)
• ·         Elite Nations or People
• ·         Exclusivity
•        Size 

From these factors, Galtung & Ruge proposed three rather obvious theories (the hypotheses of additively, complementarity and exclusion), which basically explain that more of these values equals more newsworthiness. These factors reflect have been re-interpreted, re-written and shortened many times in many lists since 1965, but all of these emphasise the importance of emotion (i.e shock or interest), locality (‘if it’s local, it leads’), practicality (whether is it suitable for TV/radio/online and the length of time that journalists can milk the story) and the tendency to value the stories of certain people or nations over others (i.e we rarely hear of the three thousand African children who die of malaria every day, but quite a lot about shopping-centre shootings on the Gold Coast).   

A dark future for News Values: Churnalism, Parasitic PR and the Mass Media Merge

·        Yes, that’s right folks; it’s time for Grim Future Mondays! Three major threats concerning news values lurk in the future.

Firstly, the commercialisation of journalism is impeding upon news values and therefore the output of many media institutions. Intense commercial competition has led to the need for rapid news cycles, and with it a universal change in news values aimed at being the first to report a story. The result is incomplete and untrustworthy news.

Furthermore, inadequate training and general laziness on behalf of the journalist and editor has led to an epidemic rise in PR power; incompetent journalists are undergoing less analysis of press releases, instead simply reusing and publishing. As such, the journalist’s (possibly imagined ) noble role as the guardian of truth with sworn loyalty to the public is being degraded as irresponsible, untrustworthy and biased news is being permitted publication under a new definition of new values. 

Finally, the media is beginning to merge into a single entity. The key problem with this is that this ‘media cartel’ (I imagine a group of elderly men in suits with eye patches smoking cigars, laughing hysterically) will control almost all the stories that reach the public. The issues associated with an information dictatorship are easy to imagine.

Thankfully, salvation may come with the new media. The brilliant Jay Rosen explains to the increasingly commercialised and lazy media cartel that 

“you don’t own the eyeballs. You don’t own the press, which is now divided into pro and amateur zones. You don’t control production on the new platform, which isn’t one-way. There’s a new  balance of power between you and us. The people formerly known as the  audience are simply the public made  realer, less fictional, more able, less  predictable. You should welcome that,  media people. But whether you do or not we want you to know we’re here.” (2005). 

However, even if the truth can be accessed by the public, the threats to news values still exist. Whether or not the vast majority of news corporations retain their credibility depends on how well the news values that they rely upon are upheld. 

Exploring the Ethics of Privacy: An Annotated Bibliography

Sanders, K., (2003). Ethics and Journalism. London: Sage Publications

In chapter seven of this academic text, Dr Karen Sanders, a prominent author on ethics in professional communication, attempts to define privacy, our right to privacy, how this concerns the condition of celebrity and the ethics of dealing with privacy in journalism. Her authoritative position and extensive references to other reliable sources establish the text’s credibility.

Sanders refines the definition of privacy to three aspects; physical privacy, mental or communicational privacy and informational privacy. The latter concerns journalists, and is breached when personal information is made public. She emphasises the importance of privacy to anyone’s ability to function in a society. Hence she posits a journalist’s ethical obligation to protect the privacy of others, regardless of the news values that may be conflicting.  Although there is no legal right to privacy in Australia (Solove, 2008), Sanders argues that it is an inherent human right, citing the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She explains that this ethical obligation to protect privacy has influenced all media codes of practice.

Moreover, Sanders argues that all humans have the right to privacy regardless of power or fame. However, she suggests that there is a trade-off between fame and the sacrifice of privacy; some obtain fame at the cost of privacy and some fall out of celebrity status by withholding their right to privacy.  These theoretical concepts are demonstrated in Star’s Secret Affair (King, 2012), The Shameless Airing of an Un-current Affair (Holmes, 2012) and Trial and Error (Doyle & McDermott, 2011).

King, M. (Writer). (2012, April 23). A Current Affair [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Nine Network. 

Star’s Secret Affair, an episode of Chanel Nine’s television programme A Current Affair, investigated Leanne Edelston’s scandalous relationship with married author Clive James. A Current Affair is a somewhat reliable source of information; the facts that it reports are supported by direct interviews, though it does not withhold a reputable position in the Australian media (Moody, 2009) due the one-sidedness of its largely biased investigations. This nature of this text brings into question the ethical obligation of journalists to protect privacy, even when this contradicts an institution’s news values.

It relates to Ethics and Journalism (Sanders, 2003) in that it demonstrates both Sanders’ definition of privacy and her discussion on how this relates to the celebrity condition. While Ms Edelston was happy to reveal intimate personal information (photographs and emails) regarding her affair, Mr and Ms James clearly were not. Regardless of Ms Edelston’s permission, private information regarding Mr James’ life was made public without his permission. It was therefore, according to Sanders’ definition (2003), an invasion of privacy, albeit an indirect one. Further, this demonstrates the trade-off between fame and privacy that Sanders (2003) discusses. At the expense of private information, Ms Edelston adopted a quasi-celebrity status.

This only occurred due to Chanel Nine’s news values, which are focused on entertainment and generating shock through scandal. This starkly contrasts the news values of the ABC (balance, ethics and the responsibility to inform) (Harrington, 2008), as demonstrated in Four Corners’ episode Trial and Error (Doyle & McDermott, 2011) and Media Watch’s Shameless Airing of an Un-current Affair (Holmes, 2012).

Holmes, J. (Writer). (2012, April 30). Media Watch [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 

The ABC’s Media Watch is hosted by revered journalist Jonathan Holmes, and acts to critique the Australian media. Mr Holmes’ esteemed position adds credibility to the opinions put forward by the programme, and these opinions are frequently backed up by reliable legal and academic sources.

The episode ‘The shameless airing of an un-current affair’ (Holmes, 2012) relates to ‘Star’s secret affair’ (King, 2012) in in a number of ways. The most obvious comparison is that both programmes are written for the medium of television with a short time available for broadcasting, and thus are presented using a similar generic short-form style, providing concise analysis and minimal investigation due to time constraints (Turner, 2005).

Most significantly, this episode of Media Watch is a critique of ‘Star’s secret affair.’ Holmes makes two key criticisms; firstly that the investigation was executed in poor taste and secondly that in its failure to protect the privacy of Mr James and his wife was unethical. Sanders’ (2003) definition of privacy is used to justify this argument. Furthermore, Holmes supports this by referencing the Commercial Television Code of Practice, suggesting that there was no identifiable public interest reason for the information to be broadcasted.

The ABC’s news values are focused on public information over entertainment and credibility over attention (Harrington, 2008), and this represents the link between this episode and Four Corners’ ‘Trial and Error’ (2011). This also contributes to the formal tone of both programmes.

Doyle, M & McDermott, Q. (Writers). (2011, November 3). Four Corners [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The ABC’s Four Corners focuses on current affairs issues through investigative journalism. The episode ‘Trial and Error’ (Doyle & McDermott, 2011) investigates the conviction of Gordon Wood, sentenced to seventeen years in prison for the murder of Caroline Byrne. Four Corners is well-regarded for its investigative journalism (Hanson & Stuart, 2001), which implies the information it presents has clearly been thoroughly researched. Its credibility is established by interviews with many parties involved in the story, providing a balanced and justified perspective.

‘Trial and Error’ contrasts A Current Affair’s ‘Star’s secret affair’ (2012) in a number of ways. This is evidenced by the nature of the private information, and the means by which the information became public.  The content of ‘Trial and Error’ (2011) came largely from direct interviews given willingly by both parties involved in the case, providing ballance. In stark contrast, ‘Star’s secret affair’ (2012) exclusively investigated Ms Edelston’s rendition of events, and only contacted Mr James by ambushing him as he left his house, producing a one-sided story based on private information that Mr James did not give permission to be released.

The structure of Tiral and Error (Doyle & McDermott, 2011) is contrasted by the structure of both Star’s Secret Affair (King, 2012) and The Shamless airing of an un-current affair (Holmes, 2012). While Four Corners uses a long-form structure for deep analysis and extensive investigation into its feature stories (forty-five minute episodes), both A Current Affair and Media Watch use a shorter form (fifteen-minute episodes) (Turner, 2005).

APA Reference List 

Doyle, M & McDermott, Q. (Writers). (2011, November 3). Four Corners [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Hanson, D. and Stuart, H., (2001). Failing the Reputation Management Test: The Case of BHP, the Big Australian. Corporate Reputation Review, 4(2), pp. 128-143

Harrington, S., (2008). Popular news in the 21st century: Time for a new critical approach? Sage Journals: Journalsim, 9(3), pp 266-284.

Holmes, J. (Writer). (2012, April 30). Media Watch [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

King, M. (Writer). (2012, April 23). A Current Affair [Television broadcast]. Sydney, NSW: Nine Network. 

Moody, K., (2009). Media scepticism, media diets and media landscapes: A consideration of US versus Australian political information environments. Presented at Proceedings of Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference. Brisbane, QLD:  Queensland University of Technology Press.

Sanders, K., (2003). Ethics and Journalism. London: Sage Publications

Solve, D., (2008). Understanding Privacy. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

Turner, G., (2005). Ending the Affair: The Decline of Television Current Affairs in Australia. Sydney, NSW: University of New South Whales Press. 

Taste vs Ethics (week 8)

This week we focused on differentiating between taste and ethics in the media. To the untrained eye, the difference between these is hazy. To those who inform the public, whether it be through either advertising or news, the ability to tell the difference is crucial.

Taste, by definition, is subjective and thus one cannot judge an aspect of the media on these grounds. An advertisement should therefore be judged in terms of ethics. Now we are getting philosophical; what is good and what is bad? 

There are three approaches to this. First there is deontology. Basically, this ethical paradigm defines ‘goodness’ as following the rules. This can easily be applied to the media; if it breaks the rules of advertising set in place then it is bad, and if not then it is fine. In my experience, philosophy has never been so simple. The codes regarding the ethics of media output include the MEAA (Media, Entertainment and Arts) code, the PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia) code and the AFA (Advertising Federation of Australia) code.

Perhaps the most famous approach to ethics is consequentialism; the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Personally I find that consequentialism’s flaws lie in the fact that the end always justifies the means, and that the concept of the ‘greatest good’ can easily be used to disempower minority groups.

The final approach is virtue ethics, which espouses the idea that ‘goodness’ (i.e happiness) comes from displaying certain virtues. These virtues consist of courage, justice, temperance and prudence.

Taste as a Tool of Marketing Enterprise 

The subjective nature of ‘taste’ makes it a versatile tool to be exploited at the discretion of advertisers. Many marketeers aim for the cusp between the realms of ‘bad taste’ and ‘unethical’. This generates just enough outrage for programs like A Current Affair to come running, mouths drawling, like hyenas to a carcass, consequently maximising the value of the advertisement. This manoeuvre is usually executed by employing a tactless innuendo or two.

 A tasteless tactic: even by adding these images to this blog, I am contributing to the mammoth value of these premeditatedly poor-taste ads. 

Evaluating Ethics

Ethics can sometimes be easy to assess. The above example could not be made any simpler; it advertises a genuinely unethical concept.  Taste doesn’t even enter into the equation; no matter what ethical paradigm you employ, displaying this ad is quite simply immoral.  It is rarely this easy, though.

Crossing the line between taste and ethics does not necessarily need to come from the subject matter. A perfectly legitimate product or service can be advertised in an unethical way:

Life insurance: unethical or just plain bad taste?, Vogue: unethically in good taste or ethically poor taste? Animal rights: a reasonable and ethical message or a tasteless and insensitive analogy? 

When a complex issue of ethics comes into question, it comes down to personality. Some will be offended by the above advertisements, and some will be perfectly fine with them. Taking a consequentialist perspective, what really needs to be considered is if the majority of viewers will be offended.

 In the above situation, I would say a significant number of views would indeed be offended. Our society has no ethical problem with life insurance, Vogue magazine or animal rights activists. The ethical conundrum in these ads comes from the way the ideas are portrayed. People probably won’t be too offended by the odd sexual innuendo, but describing a parent’s death as a family’s  ‘prince charming’, embodying feminine beauty and perfection as a malnourished model and likening my sausage sandwich to Hitler’s terrible acts of genocide is a different question entirely.   

Evaluating taste against ethics is a challenging but important skill for anyone who contributes to the media. It can mean the difference between a risqué and humorous innuendo in an effective advertisement, and a message that offends an audience of thousands that deserve the right to enjoy the media without such confrontation.  

Chub from Uki

Everyone has a story to tell. A lifetime is such a complex thing that you cannot possibly go through it without having a tale to tell at the end. Some stories are told, some are never told, and some are not told until years after the lifetime that they concern has come to an end. This is the story of my great uncle Eric Sweetnam - or uncle Chub as I always knew him. To anyone else, Chub would seem to be any ordinary bloke. He lived and worked on his dairy farm in Uki, just outside of the town of Murwillumbah, with his wife Margaret. To those who were lucky enough to know him, though, he was far more than ordinary.

I lived on the Gold Coast during my childhood so visiting the Sweetnam farm was a rare treat. The land was endowed with deep rockpools that I have never swam to the bottom of, and rolling hills dotted with cows that stared mindlessly at you as you walked past. Like his land, Chub seemed timeless. He was a third-generation farmer, and was as much married to his farm as he was to Margaret.

He once told me of the time he was bitten by a king brown snake; he sucked the venom out himself, killed the snake, put it in a lunch-box so the doctors could identify the venom and made it to the hospital with moments to spare. It is stories like this, combined with his kind nature, that made me respect him so much as a child. To me as a boy, he was like the intersection between Chuck Norris and Santa Claus. He passed away in November last year, but I only came to know the most interesting side to Chub’s life very recently. When I contacted Margret to talk over information for this story, she gave me a recount of Chub’s time at war - something that I never heard him talk about. Understanding what he went through gave a whole new context to his attitude toward life.

Chub was too young to be a soldier. He lied about his age so that he could travel the world with the military, fighting the enemy and having a jolly good time in the process. This was appealing to a country boy who had never even set foot on a train before. However, even on his first day of basic training in Tamworth he realised that the idea of the war portrayed by the propaganda was far from reality. I can only begin to imagine the torturous process of turning a teenager into a soldier; it was enough for Chub to vow never to step foot in Tamworth again, and he was a man of his word.

From Tamworth he went to Perth, and from there he travelled by sea to the Middle East on an old Cruise ship that had been stripped bare to fit thousands of soldiers. In the mayhem of boarding the colossal Queen Mary he was separated from some of his friends from Murwoolambah. These friends missed the boat by just minutes and would be sent to a different battle on a different boat, ultimately to their death. I suspect it is tragedies like this that made Chub so reluctant to speak of his time overseas. He fought in the battle of El Alamein, in which more than thirteen-thousand men died. The supplies given to Chub’s battalion by local Egyptians ensured their survival throughout the gruesome fight.

This would not be the end of Chub’s experience in the war, though. From the hot sands of the battle for Europe in the Middle-East, he was sent to the tropics to defend Australia. As the Japanese advanced upon southern Asia, Chub’s battalion touched down in Papua New Guinea. Once again his life was saved by the kindness of strangers. The ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’ (a group of local Papua New Guineans) risked their lives to bring food and medical supplies to the Australian soldiers trapped on a hillside, subject to heavy shelling from the Japanese. Margaret emphasised Chub’s respect for these brave men.

It was in this battle that Chub was shot in the chest. The bullet travelled through his arm in the direction of his heart, only to be stopped by the metallic shaving mirror that he kept in his left pocket. Yet again, by chance or fate, he was saved; shortly after he was taken from Papua New Guinea to a medical station in Borneo, the remainder of his platoon were captured and made prisoners of war until the Japanese surrendered years later. Chub recovered despite the disease-ridden tropical conditions, and went on to earn seven medals in combat. After many long years, he returned home to the comfort of the Sweetnam Farm, and to Margret.

Despite his admirable bravery, he was never proud of being part of the war. His medals were hidden away, only to see be worn on ANZAC day each year. Even then they meant little to him. His one prize was a short letter that his Commander had sent to Chub’s mother at some point: “Eric is doing a fine job and you should be proud of him.” He carried this note in his pocket whenever he left the farm.

Literally up until the day he died -at the remarkable age of ninety-one - he got up early each morning to ride the tractor and heard the cattle in. After almost a century he was still active and witty as ever. He now lies in the Murwillumbah cemetery with the three generations of Sweetnams above him. He witnessed the brunt of mankind’s greed take the lives of his friends, but still held faith in humanity after witnessing the kindness of the locals who risked their lives to save him. The remarkable thing about Chub was that he had the strength of character to go through the depths of hell and ultimately come out with an optimistic view of the world.

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Five Inspirational Scientists

The progression of science can be measured by the input of several remarkable human beings. Here are five of them; a small collection of my favourites. Some are remarkable for the way they thought, some for the things that they discovered and some for the way they communicated science and made others love it as much as they did.

Carl Sagan 

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

The first time I read Carl Sagan’s name, it was underneath this quote. I forget where I read it, but it stayed with me. The concept was simple but brilliant. After some research into Sagan’s eventful life I came across his television series ‘Cosmos: A Personal Voyage’ – something that I would encourage anyone to watch. Sagan’s most important and fascinating research involved the science behind the possibility of extra-terrestrial life, demonstrating how amino acids can be synthesised from inorganic chemicals through radiation. His greatest significance, though, was his ability to connect and inspire others to appreciate the wonderment of the natural world. 

Albert Einstein

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

I couldn’t resist putting good old Albert on the list. My knowledge of physics is limited to say the least, and I find it hard to comprehend most of Einstein’s major scientific findings. My physics friends tell me they are rather important. The thing that I find inspirational bout Einstein is the way he though. He proved that creativity is just as important to science as it is to art, and that a fast recall of knowledge is by no means required in good science. He taught us that scientific concepts are, in essence, very simple and that people should never consider themselves ‘too dumb’ for science. After all, Einstein himself failed his first university entry exams. 

Sir David Attenborough

“I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.”

This man needs to introduction; we all know him by his warm voice and bewildering knowledge of the natural world. I grew up watching David Attenborough’s films, every one of which is nothing short of amazing. He created a sense of exploration and wonder by looking closely at some of the most apparently bland forms of life. Attenborough is one of the key reasons that I study science and strive to appreciate the natural world for what it is. 

Brian Cox

“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”

Yet another physicist whose research I struggle to understand; nonetheless it's interesting. Cox spent a large portion of his life as a keyboard player in the band D:ream, undoubtedly one of the most terrible music groups ever to form. Thankfully, he spent the remainder of his life focusing on high energy particle physics. Like Sagan, Cox’s influence came in his incredible ability to communicate science, generating fascination and interest. 

Richard Dawkins

“The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that makes life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.”

I came across this man only two weeks ago when he featured on Q&A . Upon further research, I found many interesting books that he published – some of which had major influences in the field of evolutionary biology. Dawkins was Oxford University’s Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008 and is most famous for his controversial book ‘The God Delusion.’ His attitude toward science and the pursuit of truth is truly  inspiring.