Maybe it wasn't News Limited, it was us?

Well since my post a few weeks ago we now have the Hamster Wheel! The show is a refreshing critique of Australia's media and politicians and boy do we need it. It is often harsh, but it is fair.

In its latest episode the show they even forgive the media's coverage of the Carbon Tax over the past few months despite its ridiculousness at times because those involved were in fact, ridiculous. Which brings up an interesting point.

People seem to be disliking News Limited and other journalism outlets which style themselves similarly to Rupert Murdoch's organisations because of how they cater to the lowest common denominator. What is interesting in this case is although the topic has serious implications the people involved in the story (the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader for example) are saying and acting silly. How is a journalism organisation to report serious matters if the people in power can't talk about them seriously?


Or of course the journalists just need to think a bit more outside the box...

BIFFDOCS adds new dimension to Brisbane film festival season

The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) celebrating its 20th year running by hosting the new BIFFDOCS competition.

BIFFDOCS awards $25,000 to one of 19 documentaries making their Australian premiere at the Brisbane festival.

Screen Queensland head of screen culture and BIFF director Richard Moore said BIFFDOCs is an opportunity for audiences to see documentaries they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see.

“The qualities we are looking for are documentaries that will shock, entertain and engage,” Mr Moore said.

“People are in love with docos and film festivals are the place to see them.”

Queensland Minister for Arts Rachel Nolan said the documentaries premiering at the festival are a remarkable collection from around the world.

“It’s worth travelling to attend the festival just for this collection alone, which has attracted films that are both surprising, entertaining and thought provoking,” Ms Nolan said.

The diversity of the documentaries includes imprisoned Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi’s film “This Is Not A Film” known for being shot on an iPhone and smuggled out of Iran inside a cake.

Detained Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi 

Festival director Moore said the documentaries also include local and entertaining issues ranging from the “schism” in the Brisbane Catholic Church to the story of the Kings of Leon in “Talihina Sky”.

“We’re premiering that [Talihina Sky] two days before they [Kings of Leon] play in Brisbane and ... the Kings of Leon are going to come along to the screening,” Mr Moore said.

Band Kings of Leon in Talihina Sky

Cinesparks brings film diversity to youth

Cinesparks is another program starting next week in the lead up to BIFF showing films and short productions aimed primarily at school students.

Former BIFF volunteer and Cinesparks participant Robert Hughes said the programs bring diversity and culture the city wouldn’t normally have.

“I think it’s one of the most important cultural events in not only Brisbane theatre but Australian theatre,’ Mr Hughes said.

“It’s important for young people to get involved with arts and creative experiences.”

The films are played during school hours designed for field trips and cost $5 each for students.

Among Wolves (Ages 14+) playing during Cinesparks

Tribal Theatre to be sold

Despite being one of the main venues for BIFF the Tribal Theatre is to be sold after the BIFF program finishes despite being open less than two years. 

Former BIFF volunteer Mr Hughes said the closing is incredibly disappointing.

“It’s been one of the most consistently innovative and interesting cinemas we’ve had in Brisbane,” Mr Hughes said.

BIFF director Richard Moore said he has no problem selling tickets to films like those shown at the Tribal Theatre.

“The problem with the actual cinema scene here in Brisbane is really one of capacity,” Mr Moore said.

The locations for BIFF in 2011 are the Tribal Theatre and Palace Cinemas at Barracks and Centro.

BIFF 2011 Locations Enlarge Here

The full BIFF program of films outside of the BIFFDOCS program will be announced on Monday October 10.

BIFF runs from November 3 to 13 and the Cinesparks program begins Monday next week running until Friday October 14. 

Economic stories

So it's back. The economy is heading back towards a recession. We're once again "entering a dangerous place" and are in a "danger zone".

It's as if we've learnt nothing, and the media must have a role in all of this. So many news stories on the state of the economy come from the reserve bank and institutions very similar to it. All are partially responsible for it, and somehow we expect to find out the truth and maybe even some blame?

After the 2008 collapse and woeful 2009 the only US source I know actually pressing people involved was Jon Stewart, particularly going after CNBC for their coverage of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. You know, the part where they said you should buy their stock.

I can't help but notice in so much of the coverage we are finding out how much the stock market dropped that day, but not many reasons why...

We need decent satire!

Oh dear, it's from the controversial scene.
Now I didn't watch this particular scene from 'At Home With Julia' but I can say I did try and watch the episode. I'd say it was about 3 minutes or so before I turned it off. Honestly, it wasn't a very good show... although I did like the idea of Wayne Swan frantically searching through receipts.

Australia deserves better than this, where did shows like Frontline go? Or the old Shaun Micallef programme. At least we have the Chaser, but then again that's every few years. I'm not just saying this because I'd like to be entertained more by local content, but because I really believe gripping and compelling satire can sometimes provide better commentary on the news than any columnist ever could. Although not definitive for sure, a 2009 poll had Jon Stewart as the most trusted name in US news, to be competitive is surely saying something.

In Australia we are always up to date with national news, there is always some commentary for what you agree with, but I think we are lacking people's positions being scrutinised indiscriminately. And this can help further the nation's discourse and even provoke questions and investigations from journalists which might not have ever been thought of without satire.

I haven't warmed to Twitter

The title sums it up really. I understand how it is important for journalists and news organisations, but only for after a news story and it really only fills a headline. But for me, I see it as Facebook's status update feature and not much else. Most of the Twitter updates I've ever seen are generally whatever that person is thinking at that point in time, often not very enlightening, and to be honest I doubt anything I would say would be either.

Don't get me wrong, I still think this picture is the greatest thing to ever come from Twitter. Within minutes of the plane's crash it was on Twitter for the world to see, pretty fantastic.

US Airways Flight 1549 pictured on Twitter

The only time I can think of when I could have provided these kind of updates was this years flood when it washed through my suburb of Graceville. And well I did on Facebook. But until I'm an employed journalist I think Twitter can wait. If I even want to be a journalist!

Blogs I understand more, but then I find huge problems of how to be objective and that's a whole other story.

Twitter, blogs, Facebook and all the others provide all new outlets for Journalists but pose serious questions about their usage which I don't believe have been answered yet.

Anyway, for now I think I might skip the 160 character world...

How to make a story fill a narrative

Every year we seem to have common themes in the news about the reality of the society we live in. This ranges from sports stars private lives to politicians to the economy. This year in Australia one of the main narratives for the economy is that retailers are struggling and are in need of help. A result of this is the Australian Retailers Association recommending retail shop employees take a 10% pay cut and reduced hours (those minimum wagers have had a free ride too long).

But then last week one of Australia's biggest retailers, Myer, posted a net $159.7 million profit. Not bad. Especially considering they're doing it tough despite it being 138% increase on the previous year's profit. ABC did a good job here, these facts are impressive, though it would have been nice if they could have gotten Myer to elaborate why retailers were doing so badly...
(Note: this was on the front page just in the top stories section with no images)

On the other hand Ninemsn seemed determined to actually go along with the belief that retailers are doing bad and therefore Myer must be too. It's story was featured much lower on their homepage and was titled "Myer expects profit dip of up to 10%". Up to 10% lower after a 138% increase, emphasis on "up to". The actual story reads similarly to the ABC one but the set up, in particular the video, make it seem much worse for Myer.

Please watch the video in the Ninemsn link for a bit more context, unfortunately they don't appear to allow it to be embedded on here.

Let's see how the media inquiry goes

This week the Federal Government announced it will be holding an inquiry into the nation's print and online media organisations. Of course the coalition and News Limited were not pleased with this (a coincidence, just like all the other times they agree I'm sure).

Personally I hate the idea of the government investigating the way the media works. Theoretically it should be the other way around. But how can people really get the facts when 70% of newspapers are owned by a single company in this country. This would have been a bigger problem 10 years ago because they were more prominent before internet news took off... wait, why wasn't this a problem of public interest?

Unfortunately I find online news in this country may also have significant issues with reporting the news so maybe the inquiry might help a little bit. The media organisations probably aren't too worried anyway, News Limited has until the end of February to come up with a reason why the whole thing was useless to discredit it.

At the end of all this it seems like it won't be a thorough inquiry, despite it being needed. I'm sure that before the phone hacking scandal in the UK became realised no one thought it was possible or even happening. I can't help but wonder what is happening here.