The Rise and Fall and Re-Birth of My Major Project

Well, the last week in the Journalism course has certainly been an interesting one, and not because of presentations.  Rather, it has to do with my major project.  This certainly made me feel a little uneasy, as since starting my Tertiary Education at TAFE in 2008, I have never had to completely change my idea.  I suppose there's always a first time though.

To start with, I had absolutely no idea what was going to occur in our Week 10 Tutorial.  I assumed we were going to be undertaking some kind of class activity though, so I turned up.  However, there were so few of us there, that even if this was going to happen beforehand, it certainly was not going to happen then.  Not to worry though, I had a chance to do some research for my novel, which, although was completely unproductive, made me feel somewhat better, as the books basically stated the same information I had obtained from the government and travel websites on historical cities,

At the front of the room, I could hear Christina (my tutor) talking to some of the others who had turned up about their projects while I was doing this.  Not having anywhere else to go, I stayed, and she eventually reached me.  This is everything started to spiral out of control.  I started to explain my idea, which was to explain "The Advantages and Disadvantages of Citizen Journalism and How News Organisations are combating it via an audio story.  I had done some research on this the night before, and found that many American newspapers had collapsed.  Thus, I explained all of this, and told her what I had already done.  This being the fact that I had two grabs from journalists at the Newcastle Herald.  Suddenly, I was told this was not going to work.  To paraphrase the quote Christina said to me, "regional journalists don't know much about citizen journalism; they are steadfast in they ways, and want nothing to do with it."  And, of course, my topic was too broad.  So, although I understood what I was being told, I was worried about it.  Also, I had originally planned to target the audience that listens to one of the Current Affairs programs on ABC Radio.  I was quickly told that they don't usually run stories of five minutes and that I should target Hack, and virtually say what citizen journalism is, how to use certain elements etc.  I was advised to find somebody to interview from The Walkley Foundation, or MEAA.  This is when I left, with plenty of thoughts running through my head.

It was during the walk back to the station that a new angle hit me, that of "The Rise of Citizen Journalism, and it's Effect on the Australian Media Landscape.  I also decided I wanted to do a ten minute interview instead.  This seemed all well and good, and it was pushed to the back of my mind during the journey home.

However, finding somebody to interview became a problem.  After Emailing the Walkey Foundation that night (Wednesday), I waited and waited and waited for a response.  None was forthcoming though.  I was extremely worried by this stage, and decided to Email a fellow student via Facebook on the Friday to see if she knew anybody.  The same thing happened though, and by Monday, I was really stressed.  Of course, I had managed to find experts, but they were linked to other universities, which didn't help me at all.  However, I had found a former News Ltd Journalist and ABC Radio Producer through searching for "citizen journalism experts on the Central Coast" on Sunday.  By early afternoon Monday, I decided enough was enough, and emailed him.  Nothing came for hours.  I then decided to Email MEAA.  They have so far not replied, much like the Walkley Foundation.

Funnily enough though, by late afternoon, Greg had replied, saying he was happy to help. Subsequently, we have spoken about the topic, which I have now changed again to "What is the future of Quality Journalism," which came up towards the end of our discussion.  This has now been approved by Christina, and I have also found a radio programme to place it on, that of FutureTense on Radio National.  As an added bonus, he has provided me with information to search through, as well as sending me information on how to get this blog out into the public domain.  It is my goal to use this blog to post stories about events happening in the world, including local cricket coverage, which I brought up during our discussion.  Although I said I was going to do it, it was Greg who really brought it home for me.  He basically said that somebody will be happy to see it and read it.

Of course, now I feel much more relaxed about this final project, and although I have a lot of research ahead of me tomorrow, I'm looking forward to doing the interview next Thursday.

So, definitely an interesting week and one I don't think I'll forget for quite some time.