Tabloid Image Manipulation

Original Ashton and Demi Moore image

Original Emilia Clarke Image

Tabloids are great at manipulating images and then constructing a story around them. In this picture I’ve used Photoshop to remove a picture of his ex-wife Demi Moore and replaced it with an image of Emilia Clarke. Then I inserted the picture into Indesign and created a story that Ashton was dating Emilia.The story is deliberately vague as a tabloid news article will never name people or where the event took place.  This allows them to fabricate information and not be responsible for the accuracy of the story.Read the tabloid story I created about Ashton Kutcher and see how language is used in tabloid articles and the general tone of the piece. Then write your own tabloid story using the Ashton Kutcher image and that of Emilia Clarke or some other celebrity.
ashtontabloid

Image after it has been manipulated

Media Ethics Essay

In class today we discussed regulation and self regulation of the media industry in Australia.  This was taken from Chapter 6 Australian Media Institutions pages 111 to 113. We then discussed the media ethics essay which is attached.

codeofethicsessay

When Social Media Goes Wrong

Journalists are encouraged to use social media. The death of Michael Jackson and Whitney Housten were tweeted before any major news organisation was able to get to the story. If a news organisation is slow to respond to breaking news then they will become obsolete. However, the use of social media for profressional journalists working for a news organisation is somewhat murky.

Catherine Deveney, a former columnist for The Age, lost her job after she sent a series of tweets during a Logie awards night in 2010. Whilst tweeting during the awards is considered part of the job, the comedian Will Anderson used Twitter to joke about the awards ceremony, Catherine Deveney’s tweets were considered offensive. The Age received many complaints about the content of the tweets and she lost her job.

1/ Read the tweets sent by Deveney and discuss whether you believe her use of Twitter was inappropriate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Deveny#Twitter_comments_controversy
2/ Did she break the journalism code of ethics, if so, which one?
3/What standards should be established for journalists using Twitter or any other form of social media?

New Website

I have created a new website at http://istudymedia.com that now has all your stories uploaded. As you continue to work throughout the year on more news stories and articles I will be able to place them on the site.

The new website at istudymedia.com

The story with legs

As I mentioned before the Whitney Housten story just keeps running. It is three months since her death in the bathtub and the newspapers are still reporting the grisly details from every angle. In the Age online today they just released an audio file of the 911 call after Whitney was found floating in her bath.

http://media.theage.com.au/life-and-style/life/whitney-houston-911-shes-not-breathing-3214159.html

Plenty to Think About Over the Holidays

Plenty to think about in the media this year and to follow over the holidays. Some of the highlights include:

• Gina Reinhardt and Control of Fairfax
• Julian Assange Wikileaks appeal and running for the Australian Senate
• Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and corruption scandal (Just keeps Going)
• The increasing influence of social media and its affect on old media
• Entrepreneurial Journalism (finding a niche and beating established media at their game)

Rupert Murdoch and Wendy Deng

Holiday Assignment

During the Easter break you are to write another news story. This time the story will not be focused around the school but in your local community.  Or if you are going away the story could be about something that happened. You will need to get some quotes, whether it is a family member or a friend or someone else that the story involves.

The news report should be between 350 and 500 words and cover the Who, What, Where, Why and How.

Stories could include:

• Weather Events
• Community Activities
• General human interest stories (i.e. chook raffles)

Using Social Media to Revive Labour Fortune

The Ken and Barbie social media campaign shows how the use of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Google can revive the fortunes of companies and products. In this task you are to use a social media campaign to revive the fortunes of Federal Labour for the next election.

Things to consider

• How to make Julia Gillard more appealing to voters (currently she is sitting at 27%)
• How to promote her achievements and that of the Government (you will need to research this – whethering the GFC is one of them)
• How to make the government appear exciting, fresh and forward thinkers.
• Could Kevin Rudd be included?

This assessment task requires you to plan out a social media campaign.

• What is the best use of Twitter?
• How will you use Facebook?
•  Is there some sort of video that can be released virally?
• How do you monitor the success of the campaign?
• How can you use a blog?

You are to work in pairs to complete this assessment task. You will have today’s class time to do this and present your work to the class tommorow.

Update: An article about the student campaign

Social Media

Read through the document on the How Barbie & Ken Were Reunited by Social Media campaign and answer the following questions. The full URL to watch the videos is here: http://mashable.com/2011/05/05/barbie-ken-social-media/

• How was social media used in this campaign
• How effective was this campaign reaching its target audience
• Do you think it is a clever use of social media
• How could online newspapers use social media to attract a bigger audience

Evaluate Online Newspaper

When you have completed your online newspaper you need to evaluate the process of creating a print compared to an online newspaper.  Consider the following:
How can an online newspaper attract a broader age group (from teenagers to seniors)
If you were hired by Fairfax newspapers to redesign the content what would you suggest?
Newspapers are also trying to develop platforms on all mobile devices. If you were hired as a mobile producer, what products/platforms would you concentrate upon?
What if newspapers offered a game a week? Would that attract a younger audience?
What about prizes, competitions, giveaways?
Compare The Age with the Daily Beast. What do you think is more appealing?

Write your answers up in your blog.

Read this article regarding the death of newsrooms Chris Hedges_ Gone With the Papers – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.