JOUR602 Reflective Blog

Auckland Town Hall Organ Concert Series Returns For 2023   The Auckland Town Hall Annual Organ Concert Series is returning for its 13th year in 2023 and will feature many amazing performances of classical music. Kerry Stevens, the Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust Chairman, says she is "thrilled" to announce the annual free concerts in partnership with Auckland Live. Two of three concerts are still to come later in the year, one of which is an organ and violin duo featuring Yuka Eguchi on the violin, and Kemp English playing the organ. Kemp, who has performed at the Auckland Town Hall three times already, says he is "really excited about this concert at the Auckland Town Hall".  The annual Auckland Town Hall Organ Concert Series is back for 2023, with two of three concerts still to come later in the year.  The annual Sunday concerts have become a local favourite since they began in 2010, drawing a crowd of up to 1000 music lovers from all over Tāmaki Makaurau.  Kerry S...

  This week in class we discussed the relationship between journalism and social media. Journalists use social media platforms as a source for finding many of their stories. I think there are pros and cons to using social media for news gathering. A pro is that social media is good for finding up-to-date news that is in the public interest, however, it is important to make sure you report on a social media story accurately and fairly, and also take care not to take the side of whoever wrote the social media post. 

  This week in class we discussed the relationship between journalists and PR practitioners, and how journalists can use PR to their advantage by applying journalistic principles. Johnston and Rowney (2019) describe the core functions of media relations as "developing and maintaining positive and ethical relationships with the news media" (pp. 6). This also means gaining access to the news agenda to deliver messages and news stories. I think, while the job descriptions of journalists and PR practitioners are entirely different, it is important that they work together to publish information that serves the public interest, as they both build the foundation of trustworthy news.  Johnson, J., Rowney, K. (2019). Media Strategies: Managing Content, Platforms and Relationships 

  This week in class we continued the audio component of the course. We discussed mobile journalism, otherwise known as Mojo. Mojo is an innovative form of reporting where people only use a cell phone to create and file stories (Burum & Quinn, 2015). This week we were given two pre-recorded interviews and asked to choose one to edit into an audio news piece. I chose an interview with someone who found an orca whale washed up on Mission Bay Beach. After editing the interview, we were asked to write an intro to the interview. I found this task pretty straightforward, as it was quite a simple writing task. Burum, I. & Quinn, S. (2015). MOJO: The Mobile Journalism Handbook: How to Make Broadcast Videos with an iPhone or iPad  

This week in class we started the audio component of the course. Audio is a very valuable form of media communication. Many people get their news from radio and it is a platform that allows for more creative forms of storytelling than print news. Our class task was to record and edit an interview of one of our classmates. The interviewee was asked to share a moment when they thought they were really "done for". Me and Matt interviewed each other, then we edited down each other's interviews and wrote a small intro to the edited audio clip. 

  This week I was not in class as I was working on an assignment, but the focus of the tutorial was continuing the previous week’s module on photojournalism. This week was about captions. There are two types of captions - atelic captions, which describe an ongoing process in a general way, without invoking its possible goal, end point or culmination; and stative captions which evoke conditions rather than activities for example, “Names are etched on a wall” or “the building towers over the skyline”.