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!
