This was a very appealing storify report to read. The author of this report obviously put in sufficient effort to make the piece visually appealing to the reader. The composition of the report all together on a visual level works well, contributing to the engagement of the piece.
ALso, the report evidently incorporated appropriate and relevant links to other media articles in order to affirm arguments made throughout. They were also sourced from various platforms, providing diversity and interest to the reader.
It is also appropriate to recognise the standard of writing used throughout. The writing is obviously of high academic standard, adopting language that is sophiscated yet easy to understand and read.
This source is an interesting piece both for informed audiences on this issue, but also for a demographic that do not have much previous knowledge on the matter.
From taking a look at these journalists and their activity on Twitter, it was seen that this social media is a platform that is commonly used by these journalists.
Twitter evidently gave these journalists a platform to showcase their work, there are many tweets on their profiles dedicated to work that they have written, with links included for viewers to click onto. In this degree, the platform is used as a means for these professionals to promote their work. However, it was also evident that their Twitter accounts were used in order to share and ‘retweet’ stories that are relevant to their field of interest. Angela Priestly for instance, commonly re tweets stories regarding gender equality and feminism. In turn, these journalists have created a social networking feed that not only promotes their professional work, but their journalistic interests. By developing their feeds, these journalists have been able to appeal to larger demographics and earn more followers who are too interested in their field of study.
I really enjoyed this piece. The composition of ambient sound, music and narration really helped to capture the peaceful nature of the place. In doing this, the piece was able to convey to the audience what this place mean’t to the narrator, offering a her a peaceful sanctuary.
The narration was smooth and flowy, contributing to the smooth composition of the piece. There were no abrupt stops or awkward pauses, allowing for the listener to keep interest the whole way through.
The music used especially contributed to the artistic genre of the narrators story. She describes how the studio/garden is a place where she works, where “positive transfers into art”. The music piece chosen reiterates this, an artistic piano composition ties in nicely with the theme.
Making reference to the adaption to Australian life was also nice to incorporate, as the listener can hear the accent in her voice throughout the piece. It provided more context to the character and her story, explaining why this place may be of much importance to her.
Through my project, I hope to communicate how the kitchen in someone’s home can bring about feelings of comfort. The sounds incorporated will be composed in a manner that will allow the piece to be soothing, familiar and gentle. Sounds of family talk in the background will assist in portraying the family oriented nature of the kitchen. The emotion in the interviewee will express her passion for cooking, how it became her hobby and will look into the positive consequences cooking brought for a troubled childhood.
To add interest to the story, the piece will begin with an insight into how cooking was a release from the stress and grieving of a young girl, how she could help her family. The end of the piece will then juxtapose this with the happiness that cooking brings for a mother and her family now. It is a hobby that is done out of interest and love, rather than an escape from grievances
Using the Hindenburg tutorials and the material from the workshop, stitch together the three sample audio recordings you made last week in your Week 2 web module
Take care with your
Sound levels,
audio transitions (ensuring the fade-ins-and-outs are as smooth as possible) and
consider how the different sounds might be layered to create an audio montage.
Upload your edited audio file to Soundcloud with one of your images.
Write a brief reflection (up to 200 words) about the place you are focusing on and the challenge of portraying it through sound.
Publish both an embedded Sound image from souncloud together with the written reflection on your blog
Share on facebook and tweet using #jrnl102 #soundimage
Ever since she had to take family responsibilities when her mother got sick as a child, Kerrie’s favourite part of the house has been the kitchen. Offering a place on her own to showcase her talent with recipes, taste and presentation a typical night for this mum of four is preparing a home cooked meal for her family.
“The incidence of skin cancer is one of the highest in the world, two to three times the rates in Canada, the US and the UK.”
– Cancer Council Australia
As is typical for many Australians, summer is the time for heading to the beach, enjoying the warm weather and working on a tan. Beaches along the Australian coastline are popular attractions during the summertime, so much in fact that it can often be hard to find a spot in the parking lot and on the beach itself.
With this norm being a core element of Australian culture for decades, it is hard to imagine a typical summer without the routine of tanning. Having tan skin is ideal for many Australians, as it is perceived that darker skin tones make persons look healthier, skinnier and more attractive. This piece investigates this idea, exploring the attitudes and ideas that four teenagers have in relation to tanning.
Cronulla’s beaches in the Sutherland Shire are predominantly busy in the summer, and as is obvious, was an appropriate setting for the piece. Having stumbled upon four teenagers whom were spending an average warm afternoon on the sand, the subjects (aged between 18 and 20) were approached for this task since they were thought to be apart of the typical age group that would regularly tan to achieve an ideal ‘healthy glow’.
Although the perception of a tan looking healthy and attractive is still common among diverse age groups, education and knowledge regarding skin cancer is becoming more prevalent in Australian society.
What’s hidden beneath a tan we are taught, is a life threatening disease. Stemming from prolonged exposure to the sun and it’s UV rays, skin cancer is one of the most deadliest diseases in Australia today.
2 in 3 Australians will be diagnosed with melanoma each year, which could tragically result in death.
Despite the warnings that are received from the Australian public concerning skin cancer and prevention of the disease, chances are you will still see many Australian’s heading to the beach ready to lay in the sun for hours on end.
Today due to skin cancer awareness, it is not neccessarily ambiguous as to what consequences tanning can have. Despite our awareness and education on the issue, it is still a common pastime for many.
This piece explores the addictive nature of tanning despite what’s hidden beneath a ‘healthy glow’.
Studying abroad one can imagine, would come with its challenges. Ensuring that one is successful in academic areas of Uni life can be a hard enough alone. Yet, despite the challenges that most Uni students encounter throughout their study; (handing in assignments, being consistent with study etc.) international students may experience further difficulties that come with being an Australian Uni student. Typically, international students are being thrown into a completely different environment than to what they are originally accustomed too. An environment with different people, behaviours and cultural norms that they (like it or not) have to adjust to.
Kell & Vogl (2007) suggest that most international students are eager to immerse themselves in Australian culture, as found through results obtained through many methodologies conducted with international students who have studied in Australia. If international students are to achieve this, assimilation with fellow Australian students can be critical, since they would have the ability to assist them in adjusting to the unfamiliar Australian social and cultural environment. Kell & Vogl’s idea that international students are eager to interact with domestic students, also concurs with Marginson’s (2012) argument as he underlines that an incredible extent of international students are ‘prepared to take risks’ to adapt to Australian culture, however acknowledges that domestic students are typically “not interested” in forging relationships with foreign students.
He further expresses how this dilemma is unfortunate, as it is restricting international education from being the ‘rich intercultural experience it could be'(Marginson 2012).
Assistance from domestic students could significantly benefit international students finding their place within Australian culture. For instance, assistance from a domestic student could be significantly beneficial when international students are attempting to understand the often used colloquialisms and abbreviations adopted in casual conversation among Australians. Australia has been deemed a nation that has adopted a language of it’s own, being tentative toward abbreviation and colloquialism; which has seen English in Australia being difficult for international students to pickup and adopt in conversation.
Even a simple ‘doin this’arv?’ could potentially leave international students in bewilderment, unable to converse with domestic students despite spending many years studying English prior to their exchange (Kell & Vogl 2007).
Kell & Vogl (2007) underline that adopting informal English is ‘key to initiating and maintaining social interaction within and outside the academy’. It is such social interaction that can be vital in adjusting to the social context of an unfamiliar environment, and since these scholars too discuss how such interaction can be vitally important in reducing ‘alienation, loneliness and homesickness’ for international students; their argument expresses how critical it is for domestic students to assist in this process.
However, a tendency appears among domestic students to ignore or even avoid foreign students. Which calls into question the ethnocentrism of Australians. Are we a nation high strung on xenophobia? Unwilling to welcome visitors from around the globe into ‘our’ home? Perhaps our laziness in assisting international students assimilation is leading to an unfortunate portrayal of our country. Marginson (2012) is one to agree, expressing how ‘Australians are often too parochial, trapped within an Australian-centred view of a diverse and complex world’.
Perhaps awareness on this matter will encourage international students to be better welcomed by domestic students. Perhaps, improved flexibility, empathy and understanding of divergent points of view will achieve successful assimilation.
If Australia wants to uphold its reputation as a Land of a Fair Go, isn’t it fair to provide our international students with an enriching, fulfilled international exchange experience?
For now, International students? I leave you with a quick YouTube video to catch you up to speed on some Aussie slang! Enjoy!
REFERENCES:
Kell, P and Vogl, G (2007) ‘International Students: Negotiating life and study in Australia through Australian Englishes’, Everyday Multiculturalism Conference Proceedings,Macquarie University, 28 Aug – 3rd Sep
Marginson, S (2012) ‘International education as self-formation: Morphing a profit-making business into an intercultural experience’
In modern cinema, transnationalism is a dominant feature within many films. Incorporating a blend of different elements from many nations, transnational films can not be easily defined as belonging to one nation alone.
From early days, film was recognised as a purposeful means to promote the interests of a nation.However, the emergence of transnational film has challenged this concept and consequently made it seemingly difficult to assign a fixed national identity to much cinema (Ezra 2006).
In turn, transnational films allow us to recognise the hybridity of much cinema and how such films are transforming the ways people throughout the world are making and watching films.
However, there is much incongruity in determining whether transnational cinema is good or bad. Is it an effective way to understand elements of various cultures outside our personal experience? Are we enriched with different cultures and given the opportunity to experience them through film? Or are they as (Lee, 2008) suggests, so bland and nonspecific they stop addressing any community?
Despite whether transnational film is arguably a positive or negative concept, its existence only continues to increase worldwide. Karan and Schaefer (2010) particularly address this idea, as they discuss the apparent hybridity embedded in many popular films today. In a bid to overthrow the hegemony of American Hollywood, Karan and Schaefer (2010) illustrate attempts made by other nations (particularly India and China) to appeal to a wider range of audiences by incorporating transnational concepts into their films.
“Within cinematic public spheres, filmmakers act as bricoleurs mixing both global and local elements to appeal to audience tastes and trends” (Karan and Schaefer 2010)
The western demographic is one such particular audience that Hindi films have evidently attempted to appeal to. A content analysis methodology conducted by Karan and Schaefer (2010) recognised how of the 61 highest-grossing Hindi films for each year between 1947 and 2007, there are “significant increases in the levels of Western (86%–92%) and modern (83%–89%) content in popular Hindi films, accompanied by highly significant decreases in levels of Eastern/India (91%–85%) and traditional (43%–29%) content.”
Slumdog Millionaire: A transnational film containing Bollywood and Westernised influences.
This evidence provides insight into the apparent ‘Westernised shift’ that Hindi films are experiencing, and how transnational influences may be incorporated to appeal to a wider demographic.
Karan and Schaefer (2010) also recognise North American interests in ‘Bollywood’ and Indian culture, as shown through the highest-grossing film of all time –Avatar, which was seen to have incorporated significant Hindu inspired elements throughout it’s plot.
In a bid to gain supremacy among audiences, national film industries appear to be adopting elements of various cultures in their cinema. Karan and Schaefer (2010) express that as this hybridized content spreads, “the boundaries between the modern and the traditional, the high and low culture, and the national and the global culture are significantly blurred.” Which indeed calls into question the effects of hybridized content.
Are modern films at risk of becoming increasingly bland and at risk of homogenisation? Is it becoming less likely for national audiences to find films that truly evoke their culture and national interests precisely? As an Australian audience member who has not seen a ‘true blue Aussie film’ in a long while, I would tend to think so. What ever happened to classic Aussie films like Gregor Jordan’s Two Hands?
In a bid to overthrow the hegemony of American Hollywood, Karan and Schaefer (2010) illustrate attempts made by other nations (particularly India and China) to appeal to a wider range of audiences by incorporating transnational concepts into their films.
georgettebarling 