Agenda Setting Reflection

Does society influence the media or does the media influence society? I personally think that both society and the media influence each other. This doesn't change the fact that media can be used to manipulate. The all great and powerful Bruce Redman established that reality, as we know it, is a social construct.

I found this lecture surprisingly interesting. The content was stellar and detailed; I learned quite more than I thought I would. I've always been interested in mass psychology and social movement. The lecture opened my eyes as to how important agenda setting is, within the field of journalism.

Agenda setting can efficiently disseminate information to the public, but also manipulate the public. Agenda setting is simply emphasising certain issues for the purpose of making the public perceive it as more important. This means that the media, rather than reflect reality, mould and present it to the public. Agenda setting was utilised during to the Nazi movement to sway public opinion in favour of the Nazi party. Today, mass media sets agenda's on topics such as terrorism, climate change and the global financial crisis. Agenda setting is also the reason why celebrities gets as much or more attention than global issues such as lack of aid in third world countries, civil conflicts, advancements in science and global politics.

I could talk about how agenda setting is immoral; but who am I to decide what's right or wrong when writing about the notion of perception. Overall, agenda setting, to me, is very important. I'm going to spend the rest of my life making my perception of reality as close to reality as possible.

Public Media Reflection

I've always had a soft spot for public media. When I sit down in my living room, which is hardly ever, it's usually the ABC or SBS that shines from my magic moving pictures box. I actually relate to their programming, while commercial isolate me and other groups in society by solely catering to a specific demographic. I find that public media is engaging, informative and unbiased. It has it's utterly boring and confusing moments, but overall it manages to keep me coming back.

Public media normally has a charter or agenda that becomes a guide for everything the company does, from brainstorming original content to releasing it to the public. It's place within society is to offer content that major media networks won't.

Overall, they have a commitment to serving the public; they attempt to inform, educate and engage citizens while still entertaining. They're not required to not be commercially funded, however they usually are funded from taxpayer's dollars. I believe this is because funding from anywhere but the government could possibly lead to biased content. Even then, public media still has to keep politically neutral in order to maintain its credibility.

I watch and listen to public media for a variety of reasons: I specifically watch ABC for shows like Spicks and Specks, the Gruen Transfer, At The Movies, and international television shows; SBS for documentaries, foreign film and occasionally a large international sporting event; and I listen to Triple J for new and independent music.

I believe that public media is essential to Australian society. It's nature and purpose gives way to social inclusion. It caters for every demographic and manages to represent both domestic and international culture respectfully. Public media entertains and informs with limited funds and resources. It also has to be original in both it's content and publishing to stay ahead of commercial media.

Journalism is Hard

I've got three assignments due this week which are really getting in the way of spending my non-existant money on some really good games that have come out recently. I'm going to try and organise my thoughts while making another blog post at the same time. I've got two lectures to reflect on, I have to pitch three stories and I have to make and present a media diary. "Pitching the three stories" stands out to me the most. I'm going to be building on top of the assessment next month by writing three different types of stories. These story types are news, information and human interest. I've been emailing my tutor about how to exactly approach this assignments, so now I think I've got some ideas.

First off, the news story is the easiest. I decided that I would try and cover Supanova this year at the Gold Coast. I've never attended it, but my friends attest to how amazing it is. It's basically a geek subculture exhibition catering to those who enjoy anime, science fiction, comic books, videogames, cosplaying and anything geeky. The people behind it manage to bring together fans and the industry folk. I emailed the publicity organiser about getting journalistic privileges and possibly even an interview. However, I haven't heard back from them yet. If I were allowed to attend as a journalist, that would be amazing. Even more so since it would be the first time I've ever attended Supanova. I plan on attending anyway this year to check out everything that's got to do with videogames and my favorite tv shows. I might even enter a Magic: The Gathering tournament if I'm brave enough.

The next story I've put thought into is the information story. I only remembered today that soon the Australian senate is going to be looking at a bill essentially allowing an R18+ classification for videogames. It's surprising that for so long Australia has gone without an adult rating for videogames. For years games have either been refused classification and simply not been sold within Australia or have been altered to receive an MA15+ rating. I personally believe that censorship like this is completely ridiculous when compared to other forms of media. Today, I contacted two creators of websites that support an R18+ classification for videogames; Somebody think of the children and R18 Games. Hopefully, they'll get back to me soon and I can get the ball rolling.

The media use and production diary is starting to catch up on me. I've logged my media use and I'm ready to start but I don't know what I can do besides just presenting a graph and a pie chart of my media use. I don't know what to analyze besides just how much media I use compared to other students. I guess I'll just have to start it and see how I go. 

That's all I thought I would write about. I'll update the blog if theres any advances in my assignments.