During the semester we were tasked with creating media across text, video and distributing the created content across a network specifically created for this unit. Working to deadlines was something I am used to and comfortable with, but coming from a writing background, and to a lesser extent a photography background, working with video particularly on-screen had me out of my comfort zone. I have some experience editing video, and I would say I am competent but by no means an expert. In this sense, I am glad that I partnered with James for the video projects as his editing expertise was handy, and we bounced ideas well off each other. However, after the conclusion of this semester I can say that I prefer individual work.

Looking back at the first assignment, I have mixed feelings. The subject matter in the stories were interesting to me, and I was very glad that I was able to convey that through the writing and voicing and received positive feedback from that, particularly as this was my first-time doing voice work in this fashion. I was lucky with the soundbite as my interviewee showed emotion and made a logical and clear statement that was the ideal length of time. However, in hindsight I made a few crucial mistakes that highlighted my inexperience in this area. I failed to incorporate an adequate introduction, I was slightly short of the 90s mark and my script was not formatted correctly whatsoever. With the benefit of hindsight, I could have simply extended the introduction, added in a short sport story and read some radio scripts to solve these issues. I also failed to add profile pictures to my blog, which was rectified as soon as I received the feedback.

The second assignment was rather interesting. James and I had already established a plan to work together early on in the semester, and we already knew what we wanted to do with the Western Sydney University Solar Car Team. As he worked with the team, we had direct access and were fortunate enough to meet and interview several of the team members including team lead Max. Personally, I enjoyed my time there as I’m a big racing fan and I spent most of my time speaking to the lead aero designer before actually interviewing Max. This was fantastic as it gave me further insight into the team and it helped guide my questioning towards Max for the interview itself. I had trouble doing the stand-up, as I’ve never been good at improvising and I’m terrible at remembering lines. Unfortunately, we also recorded in a tiny room that had a bit too much echo. I wrote the majority of the script myself in the correct format, which suited my voiceover style. Although I had trouble with some of James’ suggestions I was happy with the results.

The third assignment was all about the stand-up for me. We shot in front of hundreds of people in the middle of Parramatta City Centre outside a busy polling place, and given my inexperience and difficulty improvising it was essentially a nightmare. I had something written that ended up being about 7s too short. I am a reasonably calm person, but I was severely out of my depth and I was nervous trying to come up with things to say. You can tell this by how much I’m blinking in the stand-up. Fortunately, I ended up getting my best stand-up done despite that, with a slight stutter that James edited out. I write the overview for the script, and James added to it and edited it. The outcome was satisfactory, however I spent so much time focusing on the video I believe I failed to live up to my writing ability with the required posts.

Considering how uncomfortable I was on-screen; I believe I improved throughout the semester and I understand delivering content on several platforms in a way that I couldn’t have imagined six months ago. That said, I still have a heavy preference towards writing. It also showed me how particular a speaker can be with their words, and how if you were writing a speech for someone you do indeed need to tailor it to them and their strengths. I am grateful for the experience and exposure to the broadcast and video content production side of content creation, and I believe it has helped me become a better communicator throughout multiple platforms, and I can clearly see the difficulties faced with focusing on a story, and how it might get developed more for one platform and that generates a requirement for adaptation.

With their fantastic reputation, numerous connections complimented with a diverse and accomplished alumni, Western Sydney University is fortunate that it can hold new and interesting lectures and experiences for its current students that help them make important contacts for their network to utilise after university. In addition, these guest lectures can help show the students the pathways and opportunities that their current work will eventually afford them.

One such experience was granted to Bachelor of Communication’s Journalism students when Kumi Taguchi, a journalist currently working for ABC and ABC News who hosts Compass, stopped by to give a story on her life to the eager students as well as inform them of the opportunities that hard work and dedication, as well as following one’s passion can achieve. Taguchi also fielded questions from the students towards the end of the event.

Detailing the start of her college career, Taguchi spoke about how she was initially interested in music but ultimately decided it wasn’t for her. She spoke about the disappointment and guilt she faced when it came to wasting time and money afforded to a student, a feeling that may resonate with current students that have had to change their units or degrees because of various factors. The cost and loss of time can leave one feeling like they’ve been set back in life, and to overcome this is the first lesson she offers in her presentation, although it’s a mere footnote as she continues with her story. Clearly, the journalist is comfortable speaking to a crowd and has learned in her many years working in her field to make the most of her time. Continuing on with her focus on college, she revealed that she actually didn’t have too much of a focus on journalism which meant that as she worked through the field, she had to learn various aspects of the profession. However, by her own admission she didn’t think this necessarily set her back as she could progress with her opportunities regardless.

Although the entire presentation is too long to recap in this short report, the next half an hour saw stories of life as well as how she overcame specific limitations put in front of her in order to get where she currently is today. Interestingly, she pointed out that the pathway after university where you move on from your internship into a working position and work your way up the ladder is not necessarily realistic or representative of how things work in the real world, and it’s this real world experience that these kind of encounters provide to students that allow for them to prepare adequately for life after university. The presentation was helped by her obvious comfort and ease with which she speaks in front of a camera and was well-received by her audience who appeared to hang on to every word as she regaled them with life stories and first-hand experiences of professional life as a journalist.

You can find Kumi Taguchi hosting Compass on the ABC network at various times. Please check your local guide.

The Darwin shooting was a tragic event that occurred on the 4^th of June, 2019. Although Australia is typically not a country that entertains horrific events such as mass shootings, the presence of illegal firearms and violence still poses a relevant and significant threat to the stability and wellbeing of our society. This particular tragedy occurred when a 45-year-old man that was apparently well known to police opened fire in Darwin’s city centre in search of a particular individual. The man was recently released from prison, apparently an associate of a motorcycle gang and was not licensed for firearms. Indeed, the sawn-off shotgun he was alleged to have used is illegal in Australia.

This tragedy was covered differently from different publications. To compare fairly, two articles have been selected for analysis that were published on the 5^th of June, three hours apart.

The first is from The Guardian, “Four people shot dead in Darwin as police reveal suspect was on parole” posted at 7:28 AM. This article is rather direct with its facts and is purely a report of the situation, with no added bias or opinions. It includes a recap of the situation in addition to a few short statements made by local police, in addition to firsthand accounts of what they witnessed. The article itself is detailed with relatively little to no fluff and is a superb example of what a news article should look like.

While the former article focused on factual reporting of the situation and recaps of official source statements along with accounts from relevant parties, the latter article that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald at 10:24 AM on the same morning was titled “Did gun laws fail in the Northern Territory?” which featured interviews and quotes from relevant parties once again, but this time with a focus on establishing a conversation about firearm laws and whether they were successful or not in this shooting. There is a clear tone of agenda, regardless of the conclusion and contents that the article came to the tone reflected an article that was produced to please the beliefs of the readership and indeed, the newspaper itself. The entire article was based off the comments of one source, an associate professor who oversees a group that monitors gun legislation across the world. As opposed to the previous article which featured different accounts and sources, this clearly was minimal effort established to give one individual a greater voice with no counterargument heard or even suggested in the article.

 Meanwhile, on social media in the same time period there was a significant amount of misinformation spread in the first 24 hours after the shooting was reported. False facts about the laws broken, false identification of potential suspects and witch hunts led the way on public forums such as Reddit with some users advising caution against jumping to conclusions. All social media platforms observed shared an outpour of sympathy for the city and those involved, however Americans used the shooting to justify their own lax firearms laws by comparing massacres in Australia in America, and suggesting that they still occur in Australia despite some of the strictest firearm regulations in the world.

News in a digital setting is something that is ever changing and always being received, and that is how the Sydney Morning Herald’s news site has been set-up. This site in particular is unique to others in that it auto-refreshes every minute or so with the latest news stories and headlines in a seamless fashion. This ensures that the digital version of the newspaper is always connected to its audience and it succeeds in keeping them updated on the weather, sport, political and other news and current affairs.

It is presented in a clear and succinct format, with top stories and breaking news formatted to the left of the page while the main headlines are featured centre in a double column format. The main headline usually takes up both columns and is the focus of the eye in the page. It looks extremely professional and focuses on the news with no ads or any other auxiliary components. It is complimented by a header that is clean and elegant, featuring the date, the stylised title of the newspaper and their slogan along with a subscribe button. This is a very well done and attractive format that appeals to the eye.

While it is attractive, the news values can be seen as a negative due to the large number of competitor magazines that are also owned by Nine Entertainment, formerly Fairfax. This means that, along with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp there is not a wide variety of news angles coming from these newspapers. Indeed, often they are competing and conflicting in an attempt to compete with each other and drive their agendas. This is especially true regarding political stories, and around election time. While the Sydney Morning Herald is arguably more reputable than a Murdoch paper, it is still highly advised for the average reader to seek independent news sources for additional perspectives especially when researching for an election or vote. Having said that, their breaking news reporting such as the breaking news reports surrounding the tragic Darwin shooting have been exemplary and are an example of the high quality of journalism this newspaper exhibits.

The major headlines stay visible on the page for an extended period of time before being replaced, allowing a wide range of potential readers to be informed and easily view the current headlines. For those seeking information on these headlines once it has been replaced, it is located in convenient fashion underneath the current headline in the double-row of news headlines. These headlines tend to be dramatic, lengthy to the extent of almost being a full sentence, and heavily depend on an ethos orientated wording in order to elicit a response of interest from potential readers. While the articles tend to argue views that align to that of the greater newspaper and their owners, they are often logos based and fact driven. However, they tend not to link to references or quote sources. They do, however, link to other Sydney Morning Herald articles in an attempt to generate more views and traffic throughout the digital network of the newspaper.

The voice of young people across Australia is about to be heard as they prepare to vote in the upcoming federal election. A record has been set for the highest number of young people ever registered to vote, with the youth vote focused on highly debated issues such as climate change and the high turnover rate of party leaders. With the instability in the government and the damage that the youth believe is being done to our environment, it seems to have spurred a substantial response in young voters.

To find out why these young voters feel so strongly regarding the upcoming election, we spoke to some students of Western Sydney University many of whom were first-time voters. Their responses were varied and highlighted a pattern of climate concern and instability in the government as the driving force behind their votes. For these students, it offers a revealing insight into the rationale behind this voting movement and why 2019 is a record-breaking year for political engagement.

As you can see in our story, we attended an early polling station in Parramatta City Centre and to no surprise there were numerous young people and first-time voters at the scene. This drive to vote evidently is not limited to just the educated and university students, with youth voters throughout Australia answering the call to vote.

Time will tell if the vote is as impactful as it appears to be, but one thing is certain. The young voters of Australia have found their voice and when it is time for the federal election, whatever their party preference they will be exercising their right to use it.

Western Sydney University’s Solar Team Project has developed into a racing team that has conquered America and soon, the world.

We visited their workshop recently where development of the new car is well underway. There’s an air of excitement around the team thanks to the possibilities that have opened for them thanks to victory at the American Solar Challenge. Waiting for us in the workshop was a beautiful arrangement of the Australian flag, Unlimited 2.0 and the trophy from the ASC. If you’re a fan of the team or racing in general, make sure to support them as they fly the flag for Western Sydney and Australia!

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party taking control of the west, and more! Tune in to our morning bulletin!