Tutorial #3

 
During this week's tutorial we were required to work in groups and explain how we would use convergence to improve a particular journalism story that we found in a newspaper. My group, consisting of two other members, chose a small story about a rottweiler dog who attacked a man. We decided (although I have altered some) on the convergence as follows:

Internet
The web page would have several pictures of rottweilers, both looking vicious and innocent. This allows the reader to identify which dog breed it is. There would also be pictures of the injuries that resulted from the attack. Links from other dog attack stories would also be provided. In the actual text, we would include an interview with the victim, or if that is unavailable, a victim of a separate yet similar dog attack.

Radio
The introduction to the story would be the sound of dogs barking and/or growling. After an explanation of the story, the presenter would invite listeners to call in about their experiences with dog attacks and ask their opinions on what should be done about the dogs. Once the calls run out, the presenter can share his view on the subject before the section finishes with the song, "Who Let The Dogs Out."

Television
On television, the reporter would begin by introducing the story, while pictures of rottweilers and dog attack injuries flash in the background. If there were any eye witnesses, there would be an interview with both them and the victim (separately) to have both and inside and outside perspective on the attack. A video would also be shown of police dogs being trained to attack, to show the ferocity that the animals can possess.

Twitter
While not much can be said on Twitter with a one hundred and forty character limit, the story can still be presented efficiently. The title, "Dog Attack," followed by, "Man's Best Friend?" would certainly catch the attention of Tweeters. A picture of a growling or barking rottweiler would also be included along with a link to the web page that the story is published.

Facebook
The story on Facebook would be similar to the story on Twitter. The headline, "Dog Attack" followed by "Man's Best Friend?" would still capture the attention of Facebookers. Once again a picture of a ferocious looking rottweiler will certainly enhance the impact of the story. What will differ from the Twitter story, however, will be that the whole story would be published along with some quotes.

This use of convergence, I believe, greatly improves the story from the simple news article found by the group.

Red Riding Hood

Red Riding in “Da Hood”

A Good Deed Paid in Bad Blood

Wednesday, 4^th March, 2013 

THE Heart Disease bike ride has made news all around the world for over a month now, with people from many different countries hopping on their bikes and travelling through neighbourhoods collecting money for those who have the terrible sickness. These riders can be identified by the red clothes that they wear, commonly cloaks and jackets.

One of these charity riders, however, got more than they bargained for on Monday when they were attacked. Luckily for them, a passer-by saw what had happened and came to the rescue.

Christine Spencer, 19, was participating in the ride in honour of her sick grandmother, who has been suffering from heart disease for almost a year. Spencer found herself in an unknown part of town and came face to face with what has been nicknamed as “Da Hood” to the local townsfolk.

Although it is well known that criminal acts and public disturbances are a regular theme in “Da Hood,” Spencer, who is new to the town, did not realise the danger she was in. Recognising that she was lost, she did not hesitate when a man who introduced himself as Blaine Wolfe assisted in giving her directions.

Many would recognise the name “Blaine Wolfe” as the man convicted of the rape and murder of two women ten years ago. Wolfe was granted bail after showing good behaviour and has been back among the public for only three weeks.

Spencer recalls the moment, “He seemed really nice, and I was comfortable taking directions from him.” However, the directions given led Spencer into a blind alley, where he attacked her, holding her down and beating her.

Luckily for the victim, a nearby builder who was working on a burned down home, saw Spencer being followed by Wolfe and pulled the attacker off her. Wood Carter comments, “I saw him walk into the alley after her, and I knew something wasn’t right. He looked familiar, like I’d seen him somewhere before. Then after a few moments I remembered reading about him in the papers, and I knew I had to do something.”

Carter pulled the attacker off of Spencer and they allegedly brawled until Wolfe fell unconscious to the floor. Carter called both the police and an ambulance before attempting to revive Spencer.

Blaine Wolfe has been arrested and is facing another fifteen years in prison. After emerging from the courtroom, he refused to make any comment other than several cuss words towards reporters.

Christine Spencer has suffered severe bruising to her head and body but is expected to make a full recovery. Her grandmother flew into town last night to keep her company by her bedside. Mrs Spencer said, “I am honoured that my granddaughter has gone through so much to help people like myself. I am very sorry that she had to go through something so terrible, of course, but she is a proud girl and will hold her head high for having risked so much for such a cause.”

Spencer and her grandmother also thanked Wood Carter for his assistance. Carter will be given a medal of honour during a ceremony this Friday to acknowledge his bravery and chivalry.

Modern Music - Shuddering to Dubstep and Nicki Minaj

One thing I cannot stand about living in this modern age is that musicians are running out of ideas, the songs are getting ridiculous, lyrics either make no sense or are laughable and the actual music is becoming rubbish as techno and dubstep are taking over, meaning almost any noise can be considered part of a song. It is for this reason that many people have recorded their own "dubstep," as a collection of noise, mostly created with their mouths, this, in my opinion, comes close to the real thing. These videos can be found all over YouTube. Of course, these spoofs are all in good humour, but they reflect what is going wrong in today's music industry

Another major problem is the quality of artists. Modern music has discovered figures such as Nicki Minaj, a girl with a talented singing voice but who sings rarely. Nicki Minaj is the most well known female rapper of modern music. This can be seen as a problem as anyone who has heard any of her songs can tell that not only is her voice the epitome of annoying, but her lyrics are stupid and/or disgusting. Take her song "Stupid Hoe" for example. In the first verse, she talks herself up about how she's so "kick ass", then suddenly, her "kitchen good." Not to mention the large amount of repetitiveness of "You a stupid hoe" in an annoying voice that makes "hoe" sounds like "whore."

Last but not least, I must talk about an artist who is running out of ideas. Justin Timberlake is a very talented artist who has some very good songs to his name. His latest hit has personally made me cringe. The chorus of "Suit & Tie" is absolutely fine and I don't really have a problem with it. However, the verses make me think that Justin Timberlake might need the help of a better lyricist. Lyrics as corny as "hot like an oven" are enough to make me laugh. And I don't even know about "now I know why they call it a fatty." The lyrics just don't make much sense to me, they don't cut it. The song itself is good, it's catchy and his voice is as good as ever, I just feel as though the lyrics could be improved.

Tutorial #2

Unfortunately I have recently been ill and as a result of this lack of energy and muddled brain activity, although I did attend this week's tutorial, I was unable to concentrate very much on what was happening around me. However, I can write a short while about what the rest of the class was doing, or at least what I think they were doing.
The task was to find a story on the internet which caught our eye. I was able to search up a story and found two which interested me; one which featured a lion mauling a worker, and the other about Syrian rebels who had captured UN peacekeepers. I chose the latter, although I did no more than scan through the text.
We then had to find the same story, but from a different program or website, and compare the two stories with each other. I did indeed find the same story on a different website, but could not concentrate to read through it thoroughly enough to develop any opinion on the differences between the two articles. However, I do recall one of my classmates, although couldn't say exactly who, pointing out differences in their stories. They said that the first story had a title that ought to be changed to something that would catch the reader's attention. The first story also didn't have any quotes or evidence in the text. This person's second story, which I think was on the ABC website, was a different story and had a catchy title, quotes and even pictures to go with the article.
Then, just before the tutorial ended, the class was given another task which is to be handed in next tutorial or lecture (I cannot remember which). This task is to write a news-type story about a well known tale, such as a fairytale or well known movie. For this task I have decided to base my story on Red Riding Hood. I will be posting that story once I have completed it.

Dougie Poynter

As my first "Choice Post" I have decided to write about Dougie Poynter. Some of you may recognise him as the guy who won "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" It is true, Dougie Poynter stuck it out through one of the most difficult game shows to reach television. This isn't because of difficult questions or suspense in the lead up to a million dollars, but is because of the hardships, both gross and stressful, that multiple English celebrities, including Dougie Poynter" had to endure. However, through cockroaches and snakes, Dougie pulled through and won the title of "King of the Jungle." His nominated charity was also donated to thoroughly throughout the series as part of a payment for appearing on the show. Dougie Poynter, along with the other celebrities, were also paid for any loss of income during the show.
Of course, to appear on the series, Dougie Poynter must already be a celebrity. At the age of fifteen, he auditioned as a bassist for Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, who were also looking for a drummer, and found Harry Judd. As the youngest member of the band, Dougie Poynter meant that McFly took the record of the youngest band to have a number one hit single from the Beatles. Now, ten years on, McFly is becoming more and more popular and well known. Their most recent song, reaching Australian popular radio, is Love is easy. In the official video, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones are the main vocalists.

However, my personal favourite version of this song is when Dougie Poynter, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones create an acoustic version with Dougie Poynter taking the lead vocals with Tom Fletcher
As much as Dougie Poynter appears to be an extremely happy person, his past is darkened by drugs, depression and attempted suicide. Addicted to both alcohol and drugs due to his depression and break up with previous girlfriend, Frankie Sandford, Dougie Poynter attempted to end his life by gassing himself in his own car. However, this attempt failed and as he sobered up, Dougie Poynter decided to seek help. He entered rehab and has been clean and sober ever since.

Tutorial #1

So this week in my Journalism class we each created a blog for our assignment. Personally, as a blogger, I thought this idea was fantastic. I spend every night blogging, so I thought this would be a piece of cake. But the number of times I have opened up this page and thought, "What should I type," I've been coming up blank. We were told by the lecturer, Ms Marie M'Balla-Ndi, to write about our tutorials, but our first tutorial was just creating this blog and a Twitter account, so I guess I shall talk about those
Blogging, as you would be able to tell, is the sharing of information from one user, to many other users. With this particular blog I am required to post one post about our tutorials and one post about something of our own choice. As for my choices for posts, you are likely to see lots of art, music, and maybe a few posts about Dougie Poynter here and there. The great thing about blogging is that it isn't just a load of text, there is also a visual appeal involved. If I wanted to I could post a picture and/or a video with just a click of a button, so that it isn't just a whole lot of reading
Twitter, as some of you may know, is a site where a user posts a few sentences, or maybe even just a few words, about whatever they want. These posts are called Tweets. The users gain followers (people who wish to see these Tweets) and in turn follow others. Personally, my opinion of Twitter is not a very high one. I believe it to be a boring place where people have nothing better to do than read little snippets of celebrity gossip and/or bitching. However, for the purpose of this class, I feel as though it will be very useful. I will not be following any celebrities or friends, and nor will I be reading bits of gossip from the latest scandal. I will be part of a Twitter community of journalism. I have followed news programs, journalists and fellow classmates, who also follow me. Together we will be able to communicate with each other about our class and journalism in general
Conveying and receiving information is an integral part of both journalism and blogging/Twitter. It is for this reason that creating a blog and a Twitter each will greatly help with this class.