The Grande Finale

The final lecture. What a journey it has been this semester going through the aspects of journalism for this introduction course. To mark this final lecture we had guest lecturer Steve Molk, the creator of MolksTVTalk.com.

To me, it seemed like an unprepared, prepared lecture - basically it felt so laid back that it seemed like Steve was just chatting to us, but really he imparted some good info to advise us what was happening in relation to social media and other new media methods.

So, let’s look at some of the interesting stuff he said…. Firstly his comment on Channel 7 and 9 and their reports on Kevin Rudd’s leadership challenge; one said it was just gossip, the other said it would happen. Well kudos to the latter, you got it right! Interesting though, this is a great example of the underlying biases and agendas behind the news stations. Assumingly both got the same information, and both broadcast at the same 6pm timeslot, so the denial and promotion of the challenge really just came down to the editors in the news room – agenda setting if I ever saw it!

The majority of what Steve talked about was the rising social media. You only have to look at the influence that social media had in the Libyan revolution to see the impact that it has today. And of course, what about Kony? While it lasted, social media promoted the story to millions of people who before were oblivious to the actions of Kony towards children and other Ugandans. Even though the campaign became a bit of a flop in the end, the point I’m making is that people knew about it.

Steve said you can basically write about anything when you’re online – be it crap or specialised (or perhaps even specialised crap, who knows!). Unsurprising, this media form is taking over traditional media. The downside, however, is the deterioration of facts and legitimate sources. Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to speculate and post your ideas online than it ever was to post in a newspaper, magazine, TV or even say on the radio.

When it comes down to it, the blogs that we’re doing for assessments really aren’t that different to the blogs that people get paid for… perhaps just more freedom to write about what you want and putting in your own opinions, and not those of whom you are working for. Let’s look at the example Steve presented to us of Mia Freedman. Her blog is called Momma Mia, and this, along with another site, has 900,000 views per month. Imagine the advertising opportunities from that! Of course it didn’t just happen overnight, this took about five years to reach the audience it does, but that kind of market well exceeds that of TV influence or newspaper… plus it has a target audience, not just random distribution.

There are upsides and downsides to online news. For one, it doesn’t have a word limit, which means bloggers and other online communication outlets can be as long and in detail as need be. This also means people like me can waffle on about lecture content in great depth and bore those who are reading it (doing alright there Bruce? Not bored yet are you?). Alternatively, if you’re on Twitter you’ve got a character limit making it difficult to get your point across if you don’t put links to other pages in your tweets. What this also means though, is that you’ve got easy access to follow future employers or contacts/sources. This makes networking so much easier… even allowing the old saying of “it’s not what you know, but who you know” to be achieved so much easier.

It’s interesting to see, also, the use of Twitter from celebrities. Michael Clarke posted his wedding announcements and photos on Twitter rather than selling it to the media. Journalists no longer get exclusives and need sources “close to the family” to confirm the event. No, all you need to do is follow your celebrities and influential people and wait for them to Tweet or Facebook what you want to know (or maybe even Instagram a photo!).

All I can say now is that I’m looking forward to getting a career from journalism. Just the way Steve was talking about Tweeting people like Will Anderson and getting an hour interview as a result is incredible. He does what he loves and gets paid for - I hope I can do the same!