An RMIT media student reflecting and blogging on her experiences at uni, on making and learning.

RMIT Library Website – Subject guides/Media & communication/Media/

• News sources/Factiva etc

Catalogue advanced search – what we have access to at RMIT

Quick search is good for Journal Titles (to see if we have access)

Databases – find by subject.

Search it –  searches across the databases (need library barcode to login)

Factiva (love it!)

Kinda leading on a little from the media regulation talks we were having, we have now decided to look at the concept of Open Journalism  - what is it exactly, how it is being utilised in Australia compared to traditional media and what kind of future it has. A successful case study to look at would be the Guardian, who have used it to great effect. As for local examples we can examine, there are sites such as Crikey and New Matilda, both of whom provide good opportunities for primary resources.

Personally, when I think of ‘open journalism’ I think back to the changing relationship between producer and consumer. The way the local news media operates right now is still very traditional, and one directional – not to mention a lot of the news media ownership is very concentrated. People have been turning to alternate sources, so why don’t the big news companies embrace the open journalism model?

EXPERIENCES – COLLABORATING WITH THE CROWD (MARK ELLIOTT – founder/director of @Collabforge. Strategic use of social media)

• collabforge – collaboration strategy. Works with State Government mostly.
• http://collabforge.com/
• Mark Elliott was interested in exploring the idea of whether you could make collaboration on the internet happen on purpose , rather than letting it happen organically (ie. wikipedia)

• Social media – user generated, two way conversation, or rather, multi-path(a frame work), an ongoing relationship (identity associated with content).
• Governments struggle with the ongoing relationship/conversation aspect.
• You can cultivate your very own audience
• GOVERNMENT 2.0 – governments using web 2.0?
• Helping clients get into social media (I wonder, is this the problem newspapers are having?

• There is no general theory of collaboration in the world, so there is no definitive answer/method.
• Future Melbourne – city planners collaborating with the public. Treat the website as any other kind of social space.

• Theme – Innovation

Also relevant. This final report was tabled on March 1st, 2012. The recommendations are summarised near the beginning of the report. According to the Executive Summary, it is the first review of Censorship and Classification since 1991. One of the problems identified with people was that the current framework ‘does not deal adequately with the challenges of media convergence and the volume of media content now available to Austrlaians’.  So this report takes into account that in this age of convergence of media technologies, more media is being accessed by the public through high-speed broadband networks.

“While a convergent media environment presents major new challenges, there continues to be a community expectation that certain media content will be accompanied by classification information based on decisions that reflect community standards”

Key points (and please do correct me if I’ve misunderstood):

• A new National Classification Scheme should be enacted, based on a new act (to be called the Classification of Media Content Act), which should define what types of media should be classified, who does the classifying, a single set of classification categories applicable to all media, and enforcement of the scheme amongst other things.
• A single body, ‘The Regulator‘, should be responsible for the regulation of media under the scheme.
• ‘Content providers’ (and these include commercial, non-commercial and online content providers) are obliged to apply these classifications and restrictions to any content they release to the public.
• Though ‘content provider’ includes ‘online content providers’ and platforms that control how content is generated, uploaded or displayed, it does not include intermediaries, such as host providers, service providers and internet access providers.
• Obligations in Prohibited content apply to content providers and internet intermediaries.
• Obligations to classify or restrict access to online content applies to any online content with an appropriate Australian link, including hosted in Australia, directed towards an Australian audience or controlled by an Australian content provider.
• Definitions of ‘Feature Film’ and ‘Television Programmes’ and ‘Computer Games’ in the Act should be platform neutral. The Act should proved the computers games are likely to be MA 15+ or higher, have a high Australian audience and are likely to be distributed on a commercial basis.
• A definition of ‘exempt content’ needs to be provided. It should capture traditional exempt content such as news and current affairs
• ‘Refused classification’ content should be called ‘Prohibited’.

There is also a great deal in there about what the powers of the ‘Regulator’ should be.

That point in bold is something that caught my attention – if traditional news media is exempt from classification, does this mean that online news media should also be exempt?

THE CONTEXT OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE

The report identifies the developments in this convergent media environment, including:

• increased access to high speed broadband in homes and businesses
• media products and services being digitised (iTunes, Youtube and other such platforms)
• convergence of media platforms and services for new and established media (I take this to mean media such as news reporting?)
• Globilisation
• The rise of user created content (shift between producers and consumers and the blurring of those lines)
• The greater diversity in media content and platforms leading to user choice and empowerment.
• The blurring of lines between public and private consumption.

PLATFORM NEUTRAL REGULATION is a term that comes up again and again.

This is something to unpack more and more in class and within the group.

The transcript and video can be found here on the ABC’s website. Malcolm Turnbull, former Liberal leader (and communications spokesperson now – something I just found out) speaking against the recommendation in the Finkelstein report that suggests the formation of a ‘government funded super regulator’ because it would suppress ‘freedom of speech’.

Direct quote: “We have a very lively media scene in Australia. We have some of our media – the broadcast licensed media of course has a degree of regulation – but the print media and of course the media on the internet, which is the most fast- fastest growing area of news media, is not regulated in the way broadcasters are and nor should they be. We don’t see the need for that.”

I feel like someone out there has read our minds – they knew we had decided to look at Media Regulation (particularly in regards to online journalism) and went to interview Turnbull about it.

I quite like what he says here: “We should trust competition and a diversity of voices – and in that diversity of voice is getting more diverse all the time – to have the competition of ideas and the freedom that that brings to ensure that people can make up their own minds.”

Diversity is such a lovely word, and something that I love to hear in relation to the media industry.

So in class today, after everyone had presented what their interests lay in the media industry and what they thought the future of the industry would look like, we separated into little groups based on broad topics that we each had an interest in. I found myself with three other students, and we found ourselves talking about regulation in this new world of ‘online journalism’ and how that should be accomplished. Should it be regulated? Would that cut into freedom of speech – do we even have that (technically no, not in Australia)? If we had it should freedom of speech be regulated? Government vs. self-regulation came up, new vs. heritage media…we talked about Andrew Bolt and how he was recently reprimanded, and about the concentration of media ownership. Much more than I can really remember, but what is promising is that we had so much to talk about. If we can find our research question (and we might have, but I won’t put it up here until it’s absolutely certain) then maybe we’ve got a really good topic on our hands!

So….when some people set out to write a paper, the research process itself, before they even start writing, can take MONTHS AND MONTHS – something we have to do in the space of one semester. Eeep!

Deep breath, and continue.

Pieces of advice I took from the lecture – don’t fall in love with a topic. You don’t want to get hung up on something that might be too difficult or will never work, especially considering the context we are researching in. Avoid being trivial. And don’t bite off more than we can chew. Good advice – I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that last one. Biting off more than I can chew is always at the top of my worry list.

Having said all that, researching and absorbing information is something I very much enjoy, even though sometimes I feel like I can be over-saturated with information.  We were also given tips today for evaluating a reference of source of information, and reminded of the tools that we have at our disposal. At the moment it’s very much about finding the ‘right question’.

(Sounds kinda like that I, Robot movie)

James Cromwell knows when you are asking the right questions.

First ‘task sheet’ – an exercise designed to help us discover what we think matters to us in the media industry, and why. The first question was simple enough – what about the media sector is the most interesting thing you have been exposed to in the course?

I answered the issues of classification and censorship. I’ve always been intrigued by these issues, whether it be the debate on R rated games or films being banned, and even did a presentation on the classification board early in second year for one of the communications courses.

What three things do we think will categorise the media sector in 2022? Well, obviously we can only speculate, and the media industry is a fickle thing. It’s hard for anyone to predict (didn’t someone once say TV would be a passing fad?) but the way things are currently, it’s possible that we’ll see an even higher concentration of media ownership than we currently have. This isn’t a good thing. Having our media content owned and regulated by only a select view is a recipe for disaster. On a lighter side, I think it’s also possible that our classification system will be more ‘reasonable’ or reflective of the views of the public (I mean, no R rating for video games? Really?) and media outlets will be making greater use of transmedia technologies (still waiting for other networks to catch on to what ABC have done so well with iView).

We were also asked to identify what we thought were some challenges to the Australian and/or International media industry? My main one was adapting to new media technologies as they emerge. Looking at how the music industry tripped over their own feet when people began sharing and downloading music online, when similar innovations come along in terms of film or TV, we need to embrace them! Citing the example of ABC iView again – people can catch up with programmes they missed or want to see again. If you want to watch an episode of In Gordon St. Tonight or Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (to name two current ABC shows), you don’t have to organise your life around the TV schedule anymore. You can watch it in your own time, when you have time.

There were a couple of other questions on there, but I’ll save them for class. I’m looking forward to seeing what other students have to say.

When I saw new(ish) theme, I mean that it was on of three themes I had already uploaded, but chose not to use before now. I also find this blog platform slightly difficult to work with, and installing a different theme was too much of a headache. This will do. A new semester means getting back into the routine of blogging – I say routine, because as I learnt when I first began blogging, if you haven’t found your voice, or a field that interests you to blog about then it’s hard to find the initiative to really set down and bash out a post. It took me a little while to figure that out on my other, non-uni blog, but once I found my interest and my voice, it has become a joy and something I look forward to doing. Thankfully, this semester in Media Industries, we are being encouraged to research and ‘become experts’ only on topics and areas of the media industry that we find interesting and relevant. Blogging should be easy done, right?

We’ll see. I do intend to make an effort.

So this semester we’ll be publishing online a group report on an issue/aspect of the media industry that we find interesting, but the first couple of weeks will be spent discovering what it is that exactly captures our interest, getting together with other students that have a similar interest, and finding the right question to frame our research. We’ll be undertaking primary research – meeting and interviewing people relevant to our eventual topic – in conducting this research. I find that a little scary, because it’s a bit different to casting actors in a short film or even finding subjects/interviewees for a documentary. This is where I’m thankful the group aspect comes in.

We have twelve weeks to come up finish this. Research is fun. I did a research assignment last semester for Australian Cinema. I like reading and travelling along this path and going off on tangents before being drawn back to a previous point or coming full circle. Organising our information and findings into a coherent report? Slightly more difficult….