Philosophy of Journalism Statement

Before this semester had begun, I thought I was aware of the full extent of the extremely dynamic nature of journalism as a profession. In our first year of the course we had learnt about the number of different styles of journalism, such as news, opinion, and feature articles covering a broad array of topics from politics and war, to national and local news as well as sport and entertainment.

The Convergent Journalism subject we have studied this semester has illustrated to me that we only touched the tip of the iceberg last year. Journalism is even far more dynamic then I first imagined. I have come to learn that not only does journalism have a myriad of different writing formats and topics, but there are also a variety of mediums through which journalism and news stories can be portrayed.

The first assessment of the subject involved creating an audio story and editing it using Pro Tools. As a class we were told the importance of making sure the audio was of a high quality, clear and easily audible. This required us to use equipment that was a little more high tech than your average journalists personal voice recorder. It also presented us with extra considerations such as microphone levels and background noise.

My initial story idea of a report on the Macarthur Heat State League Basketball team had to be scrapped after I’d lost the audio of interviews I’d done by not saving it to my computer properly. This demonstrated to me the importance of modern journalists to be able to understand and use technology. This lesson stood me in good stead for the remainder of the subject as I was always extremely cautious and careful to follow the correct procedures when using programs such as Pro Tools, Photoshop and Soundslides and I didn’t encounter any major problems from that point on.

As a result of me losing the audio files for my original story idea, I was left with no work done only 3 days before the assignment was due. Time management was now a serious issue for me, just as it is for journalists in the real world. I decided on covering a Socceroos World Cup Qualifier I was attending and doing a vox pop of fans at the match. Learning to vox pop was an interesting experience, but I believe that the voice of the people is a crucial ingredient for journalists to consider when they are putting stories together; after all, it is the general public who journalists write for. Conducting a vox pop definitely improved my interviewing skills. At first it was daunting approaching total strangers but as I grew in confidence, I found I was able to get the kind of quotes I was after, short, sharp and straight to the point.

At the time I decided to include my own voice in my audio story as I felt I needed it to put the quotes and story in context, however in hindsight it wasn’t really necessary and it actually detracted from the vibe of the story, not to mention the fact that I cringe every time I hear a recorded version of my own voice.

The second assessment required me to test my photography skills and I did this by capturing the emotions of a number of different ANZAC Day services in my local area. Before I had started this subject I had felt that taking photos was the job of photographers, not journalists. I can now see that convergent journalism requires journalist to be capable of a number of different skills such as writing, interviewing, speaking and in this case photography as well. It wasn’t long before I saw how photos have the ability to tell stories in themselves.

On a personal note, I struggled with the photography aspects of Convergent Journalism, from the technical aspects such as adjusting to different lighting and shooting fast moving objects to choosing interesting subject matter. I found it difficult to take the personal, emotional and individual photos that are required to tell an interesting story because I felt as though I was invading the subjects personal space. Instead I found myself taking a number of boring generic shots that were too similar to each other.

The third assessment combined the work we had done in the first two in a true test of our Convergent Journalism skills. My chosen topic was based on a mentoring program for delinquent teens being run by the Dragons NRL club. My vox pop experiences from the first assessment allowed me to feel much more comfortable conducting interviews this time around. Despite the fact that I was interviewing professional Rugby League players I felt calm and confident and I got the grabs I had hoped. While my technical skills hadn’t improved much in regards to my photography, I found myself taking more intriguing shots, as well as making two separate trips to the program to get a better variety of photographs. This also illustrated I had learnt to manage my time better. I also found with this assignment that I embraced the mantra that ‘less is more’. I kept my audio grabs relatively short and did not include my own voice, but only that of the subjects. I also used a small number of photos, only a few more than the minimum required because I felt I had overdone it in the previous assignment.

Studying Convergent Journalism has broadened my perspective of journalism and shown me the need for modern journalists to be multi-skilled and able to adapt to changing times and emerging technologies. Modern journalists need to be able to recognise the best medium in which to publish a particular story. Whether it be on the web, television, radio, newspaper, magazine – or more likely, several of the above, any story can only fulfil its potential through the right media channel.

St George Illawarra Dragons Mentoring Program

Dragons players Jason Nightingale and Chase Stanley attend a weekly mentoring program to help troubled teens in St George and it's surrounding areas. The program is held in conjunction with the St George PCYC in Rockdale and preaches the importance of healthy lifestyle choices to its participants.