So you want to be a journalist?: unplugged

So you want to be a Journalist? Unplugged is a fully revised guide to the world of journalism. This new edition of Bruce Grundy's guide for journalists takes us through new media's impact on the structure and practice of journalism today, with its 24-hour news cycle of multi-platform, interactive media audiences. The book contains instructions on writing for news media as well as practical advice on all facets of reporting. Skills involved in finding information, interviewing, writing news and features, research and investigation, basic subbing, layout and design are covered, along with the essentials of grammar, the law, and practical tips on ethical and professional behaviour. New to the second edition: • online journalism incorporated throughout the text • vignettes and case studies that bring the text to life • examples from Australian, New Zealand and international media • extended section on ethics • extensively updated research section, to help students recognise quality internet research • extensive companion website including further writing practice

Multimedia journalism: putting it all together

A combination of sound, image, text, and interactivity-hereafter referred to as multimedia journalism-gives media practitioners a new way to tell stories, using the strengths of each medium to produce a more compelling package. From the outset, a multimedia journalist must appreciate the potential and power of each medium and capitalize on those strengths. In doing so the multimedia reporter produces journalism that is well beyond what a single medium can do. The multimedia reporter needs to know how to use a variety of digital tools, but the essential requirement is a multimedia mind-set. Loosely articulated, this mind-set requires the ability to conceive of stories that go beyond a single medium when it is appropriate to use more than one medium. Sometimes one medium is sufficient to provide what audiences need. Implicit in this statement is an understanding of audiences (note the plural form) and an acceptance that the fundamental role of journalism remains constant, which is to inform, educate, and entertain.

The role of the print media in informing the community about safety in public hospitals in Victoria, Australia: the case of `golden staph`

Objective. In this article the authors explore how the print media contribute to information and education of the community on issues of safety and quality in the health services, since this is an important avenue of such information and education for many members of the community. Study design. The authors undertook a qualitative study of a random sample of articles in the Australian print press between 1996 and 2004 where ‘golden staph’ was presented as a major issue of risk to the safety of consumers of health services. The content of each article was examined with reference to several criteria including title, the source of the article, and the metaphorical language employed by the journalist.
Results. Results show that while the articles are substantially accurate as sources of information on concrete events, they do not serve as sources of education on issues of safety, typically apportioning blame and serving to maintain the status quo.
Conclusion. The authors conclude that print media are not a good source of community education in areas of safety and quality and do not assist members of the community to participate in addressing issues of safety in health services.

Reporting in a multimedia world

The breathless pace of change in the news media renders many traditional "how to" journalism guides out of date. Here's an up-to-date essential starter kit for aspiring journalists. All the basics about the power of words and the potency of numbers. Useful tips about internet use, technology, video journalism and photography. The career path, a neglected topic, will be invaluable for those who want to know where and how to start. Reporting in a Multimedia World is highly recommended.Professor Judy McGregor, Head of Department of Communication and Journalism, Massey University, New Zealand.Every journalist must be able to conduct an interview and write snappy copy. But now journalists need broader skills as well. No matter what field they are working in many now need to be able to wield a digital recorder or take photographs, talk to camera convincingly, and create content for online delivery. Reporting in a Multimedia World offers a thorough overview of the core skills journalists need for the 21st century. The authors show how to generate story ideas, handle interviews, write for different audiences, and edit your own copy. They explain the basics of news photography and broadcast media, as well as the requirements of Internet journalism. They also look at professional issues and career strategies. Written in a lively style and with case studies and tips from experienced journalists Reporting in a Multimedia World is an ideal introduction to an exciting and demanding profession.

Current affairs in audit

Current Affairs in Audit highlights and discusses developments in auditing. The Current Affairs in Audit are prepared monthly by Rod Johnson, lecturer in the School of Accounting and Finance at Deakin University. Tom Ravlic, Financial Journalist, is also contributing articles.

Online newsgathering : research and reporting for journalism

If you are a journalist of any kind, you now realize that you need to know how to find the information you need online. This book shows you how to find declassified governmental files and statistics of all kinds, outlines the use of simple and complex search engines for small and large data gathering, and provides directories of subject experts. This book is for the many journalists around the world who didn't attend a formal journalism school before going to work, those who were educated before online research became mainstream, and for any student studying journalism today. It will teach you how to use the Internet wisely, efficiently, and comprehensively so that you will always have your facts straight and fast.

Play it again, Sam : How journalists cashed in on Youtube's favourite koala

The world was captivated when footage of a badly burnt koala drinking water from a Victorian firefighter's bottle was uploaded to You Tube in February 2009. When the story of "Sam the Koala" was adopted by the mainstream media, recombinant themes were used to construct her story - from heroism and patriotism to villain vs victim and romance. While scholars have examined the changing role of the journalist in a converged world and the rise of "soft" news, this paper focuses on the way journalists create disjointed narratives around You Tube footage to extend a story s lifespan. We call these new narrative forms "fractured fairy tale news" to describe this emerging phenomenon of convergence culture. Further, we suggest that news media exploit the YouTube community for their own commercial gain and conclude that the fractured fairy tale style is a poor vehicle for the future of news.

Clarifying creative nonfiction through the personal essay

In a recent issue of TEXT, Matthew Ricketson sought to clarify the ‘boundaries between fiction and nonfiction’. In his capacity as a teacher of the creative nonfiction form he writes, ‘I have lost count of the number of times, in classes and in submitted work, that students have described a piece of nonfiction as a novel’. The confusion thus highlighted is not restricted to Ricketson’s journalism students. In our own university’s creative writing cohort, students also struggle with difficulties in melding the research methodology of the journalist with the language and form of creative writing required to produce nonfiction stories for a 21st century readership.
Currently in Australia creative nonfiction is enthusiastically embraced by publishers and teaching institutions. Works of memoir proliferate in the lists of mainstream publishers, as do anthologies of the essay form. During a time of increasing competition and desire for differentiation between institutions, when graduate outcomes form a basis for marketing university degrees, it is hardly surprising that, increasingly, tertiary writing teachers focus on this genre in their writing programs.
A second tension has arisen in higher education more generally, which affects our writing students’ approaches to tertiary study. The student writers of the 21st century emerge from a digitally literate and socially collaborative generation: the NetGen(eration). From a learner-centric viewpoint, they could be described as time-poor, and motivated by work-integrated learning with its perceived close links to workplace contexts and to writing genres. They seek just-in-time learning to meet their immediate employment needs, which inhibits the development of their capacity to adapt their researching and writing to various genres and audiences.
This article examines issues related to moving these NetGen student writers into the demanding and rapidly expanding creative nonfiction market. It is form rather than genre that denotes creative nonfiction and, we argue, it is the unique features of the personal essay, based as it is on doubt, discovery and the writer’s personal voice that can be instrumental in teaching creative nonfiction writing to our digitally and socially literate cohort of students.

Lobbying defined and observed

The critical and most obvious component of lobbying is the interaction an entity has with government. The executive, parliament and bureaucracy are the key players in the field. On the opposing side, to extend a sporting analogy, are the lobbyists – who are identified or labelled, singularly or plurally, by a variety of names: pressure groups, policy consultants, tariff consultants, public relations consultants, interest groups, special interest groups, industrial and professional associations, government relations managers, public affairs managers and Lloyd’s qualified term, the ‘political lobbyist’ .
All these nomenclatures require further explanation – some are used interchangeably, others are now an historical term only, some fall from the common language only to reappear at a later date. Of all, the oldest and most widely recognised is lobbyist and lobbying. Lloyd (1989) states that the term ‘lobby agent’ was first used in Westminster in the mid-17th century. In the United States Schriftgiesser (1951) writes that the famous American journalist H L Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore, traced the first use of the word lobby, as we currently understand it, to Washington DC in 1829. At that time the term lobby-agent was in use but it was shortened, by journalists, to lobbyist by 1832.
It has been suggested that the concept of lobbying – of seeking influence among the powerful – is as old as government e itself. Lloyd (1989) cites examples of lobbying from the Old and New testaments – the most famous pressure group being those who petitioned Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus Christ!
In the US the activities of lobbying were recognised before the term was coined when, according to Schriftgeisser (1951), ‘a little gang of painted –up merchants (who) pushed British tea into the salt water of Boston harbor’ (p4).
So the pedigree of lobbying activities is long and colourful. As the western form of parliamentary democracy has evolved and expanded among nations it seems that lobbying has been ever present on this journey. It is by its activities, its parts, that we can define and recognise lobbying most clearly and view the changes.

Changing newsrooms : a survey of journalists in Victoria, Australia

Anecdotal evidence suggests Australian journalism is changing. This study borrows from earlier studies carried out in the United States and Australia to gain a picture ofthe contemporQ/Y Australian journalist. This paper is based on a study carried out in the Australian state of Victoria in late 2007 and early 2008.