Exchange Student Blog post number 6! (UQ Abroad website)

I present to you…*drumroll*…the List of Random Things I Have Learned On Exchange, part II! At this point I need to thank my dear friend Simone for the inspiration for this list. She gave me a little journal as a goodbye present when I left for Australia, to write down what I’ve learned and with the goal of me somehow becoming a normal, functioning grown-up during my exchange;-). I am working hard to not disappoint her when I return home (haha not really. I am totally going to see Lion King in 3D at the movies tomorrow…and I’m excited about this like a 5 year-old.). So here goes:

I have learned that…

…it is possible to go to bed at midnight and sleep until 4pm

…if you then wake up and confusedly drink coffee on the front porch, your host family’s friends that are invited for a dinner you didn’t know about, might rock up in just that moment

…in Australia, it is socially acceptable to join you host parents’ dinner party while wearing your pyjamas

…it is also acceptable to then have multiple glasses of champagne (you know, as a substantial breakfast after 14hrs of sleep!) and get happily drunk with everyone else on the table and make friends in the process

…my host dad should be on Masterchef

…you can probably save about a bazillion dollars by not having lunch in the UQ food court (yeah…only took me like 3 months to notice that, wow I’m fast!). Instead, I now cook dinner every night and take the left overs to uni. That probably sounds normal to most people but to the people who know me: I’m not even kidding you. Cooking! With, like, pans and stuff. And for the most part, it’s edible (and no instant soup is involved)

…making awesome travel plans for after the exams is really motivating (In theory. In reality it just means I spend more time procrastinating by looking at different flights, hostels, bushwalks, you name it!). We’re going to go to Sydney (hopefully we’ll have time to go hike in the Blue Mountains) and Melbourne, hence my money-saving attempts mentioned above

…if you’re going on exchange: TAKE EASY COURSES if you can, it makes your life a lot more relaxed and you can actually get good grades without putting in too much effort (if they count for your home degree, that’s a WIN:-)

…to be continued…

xoxo Manuela

Lecture 11 - Investigative Journalism

"What passes for investigative journalism is finding somebody with their pants down - literally or otherwise." Robert Scheer

What is investigative journalism? What are the types and methods of investigative journalism? These are just a few questions that we talked about in today's lecture.

There are a few nice quotes which all try to define what investigative journalism is - the one above is a very nice example.

Investigative journalism has to be...

...intelligent

...informed

...intuitive

...inside

...and the journalist has to invest something of himself (mentally, physically).

As the deeper definitions and purpose of investigative journalism we identified the following:

- critical and thorough journalism

- custodians of conscience -> exposure!

- to provide a voice for those without one and to hold the powerful to account -> public interest!

- Fourth estate/Fourth branch of govt/"watchdog" -> especially important in QLD, since we do not have an upper house ("house of review") in parliament

We then talked about some remarkable historic examples of investigative journalism, for example W. T. Stead and his "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" Campaign (1885).

To the paramount question "WHAT do we investigate?" the answer is pretty short: everything, and, most importantly, always check your facts, assume nothing and expect whistleblowers to be crazy.

Different investigation types include conventional ones such as observations and interviews but also slightly more questionable ones like trespass or theft. Investigation methods can be summarised into interviewing, observing and analysing documents.

The biggest threat to investigative journalism is, without a doubt, online journalism.

Less money = less journalists + less time = less investigative journalism

But also a growth in PR is threatening investigative journalism since more PR = less journalism.

However, there are some glimpses of hope for investigative journalism, especially the possibility of paywalls in online journalism and outlets like youtube (who considers launching a special service dedicated to investigative journalism).

Lecture 1 - Introduction

The first JOUR1111 lecture was very exciting for me - partly because it was my very first lecture at UQ! But also because I normally have to take pretty dry business and economics courses and this journalism course is the elective I had been looking forward to because it's different, it's creative and I get to write. To even increase my excitement, the first lecture basically consisted of an introduction to the course, illustrated by awesome quotes about journalism that made you feel very good about having chosen a journalism course....

"I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter." (H. L. Mencken)

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history." (Philip Graham)

and

"I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world." (Henry R. Luce)

are just some of my favourites.

Exchange Student Blog post number 5! :) (UQ Abroad website)

Um…it’s October and there’s only a little more than 3 weeks of uni left until the end of the semester?! What? When did that happen? I have come to the obvious conclusion that Australia must be part of a conspiracy aiming at robbing exchange students’ precious time overseas and selling it to some evil time-eater. That’s why an Australian month seems more like a week elsewhere. Although, I have been very busy doing awesome stuff for the past few weeks and time just seemed to fly by - so that might be another possible explanation ;).
Rather than boring you with my conspiracy theories I should probably tell you about the fun things I have been up to! The last week of September was the mid-semester break (well, technically, 3/4-semester break) aaaaand I had big plans. But first I had to finish all my assignments in advance since I was not going to get much done during the break. So yeah, that was a pain in the..uh..you know. But it was totally worth it!
7 awesome exchange student friends and I went on a road trip up north to Airlie Beach, where we went on a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsundays. And yes, it was as awesome as it sounds, and yes, I am going to attempt to make you jealous by showing you pretty pictures in just a second.
We were driving up there in two campervans which went very well (apart from that one time when both cars ran out of gas…at the same time, in the middle of pretty much nowhere, and we just barely made it to some dodgy petrol station where we bought very expensive gas…).

We stopped at a few beautiful places on the way up, taking in as many beaches as possible and of course the Bundaberg Rum Destillery.
When we first discussed how to get to Airlie Beach and someone proposed campervans, I thought to myself “Uhhhh camping? In Australia?! SNAKES! SPIDERS! SCORPIONS!” but I calmed myself down by remembering that I still hadn’t seen any of these creatures since I’ve been in Australia…so how bad could it be?
I am glad to tell you that my clear record of seeing dangerous animals has been kept clear during the entire trip. BUT I now know for sure that I owe this is at least partly to my horrible, horrible eyesight. When someone yelled out that there were spiders on the ceiling of our BBQ place one night, I did not see them. When we were snorkelling and someone said there was a small shark swimming around us, I did not even see it (yeah…my eyes and a snorkelling mask equal something close to blindness. I basically had to stick my face up an anemone to see the fish. But I did end up seeing a Nemo and other pretty fish so it was still very awesome). When the others saw a sea snake (”Don’t worry it’s not dangerous. It’s not aggressive!..But if it bites you you’ll be dead in 20 minutes”) I did not see it (because I was still sleeping (duhhh)). But I’m not complaining; I haven’t died from either animal poison/shark attack or a hysteric screaming fit (the latter being much more likely) so for me, this is working out ;).




I could go on and on and tell you all about every single thing we did on our trip but I don’t want to be like your annoying relatives who show you a 4hr slide show of their holidays in Boringtown and bore the heck out of you. So…all I’m going to say is that I loved the sailing part of the trip the most, and by far! The Whitsundays are so gorgeous, to me, that’s as close to paradise as it gets.
Sailing and living on a boat for a few days I loved as well (apart from the first night when I was the only one who got seasick…but hey, I’m from a land-locked mountain country, what did I expect?!). To anyone who is visiting/going on exchange in Australia: Go there! It is totally worth it. And if you can travel there with a group of amazing people like I did, even better.
The next few weeks will be filled with uni work, trying to save some money for travelling after the exams (I’m thinking Sydney, Blue Mountains, and/or Melbourne:), a few beach trips and hopefully more than a few fun parties and most importantly, trying to make the most of the remaining 7 weeks (what the….! I can’t get over how fast…ok, I’m going to shut up now but you get the point).
xoxo Manuela

Amanda Knox Acquitted

Last week was the first time I heard about the pending Amanda Knox trial in Italy - I wonder why, because the media seem to have been covering it pretty heavily. If it bleeds, it leads - and apparently, if a young, attractive exchange student is involved and charged with murder, it leads even more.

Photo: Reuters

I have not followed the media coverage for a long time but even in this short time that I have, I have noticed how much of an influence the media seem to have had on public perception of the trial. Some media outlets apparently had branded Knox as a "She-Devil" and called her "Foxy Knoxy", which to me seems very attention-grabbing. While I, like probably no one, do not really know who is guilty or to what extent, I would have liked to see more factual, unbiased reporting on the issue.

Lecture 10 - News Values

In today's lecture, we looked at news values - "The degree of prominence a media outlet gives to a story, and the attention that is paid by an audience" - which is closely related to last lecture's topic of agenda setting.

Definitions may be nice and fancy-sounding, but really, what are news values? They are measured by their

1) Impact -> what is important to the reader? what is of interest to the audience?
2) Audience Identification -> the audience has to be able to relate with the news
3) Pragmatics -> ethics, facticity, practice - practical, current affairs, everyday
4) Source Influence -> Journalism vs PR?

News values are about "newsworthiness", which obviously differs in different media outlets and different cultures or countries. But still, a few general rules about what gets covered often and has a high news value could be identified:

"If it bleeds it leads" and its more modern little brother "If it's local it leads".

But rather than sticking to rules in determining what has news value, a journalist or editor should probably just try to listen to their imagination, rather than logic. According to Harold Evans, "a sense of news values is the first quality of editors".
We then talked about the factors that make an item newsworthy - there were quite a few of them and to make it a little more interesting I have looked at a few current news articles and tried to pin-point the factors that make them newsworthy:

Dollar dives to 10-month low -> Importance, Negativity, Relevance
Flood victims fear further pain after government decision not to lower dam levels -> Emotion, Proximity
Nicky Whelan single again -> Celebrity, (Proximity)

We also talked about the threats to news values - in particular 3 "Tensions of Newsworthiness"

-Journalism/Commercialization of media and social life
-Journalism/Public Relations
-Journalism's ideals/Journalism's reality

While talking about "lazy and incompetent journalism", the term "Churnalism" came up. I love this word-concoction and I found this awesome online-tool where you can enter newspaper articles and see how much of it is actually original and how much is "churned"!

To round off the lecture we were asked what we thought news values were going to be in the future and what for us, personally, constitutes news values. Realistically, media will have to follow market economic demand even more in the future as the media landscape changes and diversifies and thus give the audience what it wants - seemingly lighter, tabloidy stuff. But I personally believe that the media have a very important role in democratic societies and should try their hardest to educate and inform the public. Therefore I think that even really hard, complex issues should be covered - maybe in a simplified, illustrated way that may appeal to a broader public.

Factual Storytelling Assignment

A Road Trip

8 people. 8 different lifes. 8 different stories. 8 different roads that meet and run parallel for a while.

I’m sitting in the backseat of a campervan, glimpses of the breathtaking scenery of a northern Queensland sunset flickering by in the windows; sitting next to people that I hadn’t even met 2 months ago. Yet I feel like I have known them for a very long time...

The bubbly, outgoing French girl; the sarcastic urban planning student from the US; the tanned, adventurous Norwegian boy; the cute but extremely blonde girl from Germany, her two male compatriots and the lanky Austrian guy who resembles that certain actor from Inglorious Basterds.

How did this motley crew and I, the quiet Swiss girl, end up in Australia, sharing our journey, our memories and our stories with each other? During our road trip I talked to some of my traveling buddies about their stories and in the process got to know them a lot better and got to hear some very surprising and sometimes deep insights.

Austrian Boy is sitting next to me in the car looking at the sunset. He tells me how he wanted to go on exchange to "pimp his CV", but also to make new experiences and grow more mature. He ended up in Australia because he had missed the application deadlines for exchange at all the possible northern hemisphere universities. Grinning, he admits that even though he ended up in Brisbane „by accident“ he loves being in Australia, and very much so. He was surprised by the openness and hospitality of Australians – in Europe, those two qualities are often seen as stereotypical Australian, and he personally has found them to be true. 

"I have learnt to appreciate my family more."

When I ask him about what he had learned since he has arrived in Australia he explains how he has come to appreciate his family and the good relationships they have, as well as their material wealth. He confesses to me that prior to going abroad and getting to know different environments and people he took these things for granted and now feels a little bad about his previous ingratitude.

The oldest of the group - a 28-year old business postgraduate student from Germany - admits that Australia had not been his first choice. He only ended up in Down Under because schools in the United States were too expensive for him. While he does like Australia, he sees his 3 semesters here as just a stage in a journey that will hopefully lead him to the US at some point. He tells me about the difficulties of meeting a lot of  new exchange students each semester but having to keep relationships superficial because they will be gone after a few months while he is staying longer. He misses more meaningful friendships and the time to really let people in.

"Australia is the country of regulations!"

What surprised him the most in Australia is that, while stereotypically, the people here are thought to be living a laid-back, relaxed lifestyle but he did not find reality to be like that – there are a lot of regulations and rules in Australia that, to him - even as a German - seem to be exaggerated and cumbersome.

However, the US-born postgraduate student of urban planning can not understand how someone would prefer the US to Australia. To him, Australia is a refuge from his home country which he left because he „realised how screwed“ it is and because the employment prospects are very poor and Australia offers a higher standard of living. 

"I came to Australia because I realised how screwed the US are."

He does not see himself going back to live in the US in the future - having grown up in the South (Virginia), he is very disappointed by a growing right-wing movement there and conservative mindsets in some of his compatriots. He has been in Australia for almost a year now and he feels like it has been a growing stage for him and that he learned a lot about himself and others, especially that it doesn't matter where someone is from - people are mostly the same when it comes down to basics.

I had gotten to know the French girl who had organised the trip as a loud, outgoing, bubbly and happy person, so when we sat down one night on deck of our sailing vessel in the Whitsundays, I was very surprised by the story she shared with me. She, too, had initially wanted to go on exchange in the US, but then decided in favour of Australia because she'd never been here before. She told me about how she loved Australia and how she learned to be self-confident here. "I had never been able to make new friends easily; mostly stuck to the same small group of people", she said, much to my surprise. Is this the same girl who had organised an enormous exchange student party with over 400 guests last month? The foreign environment in Australia with all its possibilities has given her the chance to open up and grow into a different person, for which she is very grateful.

"Australia taught me self-confidence and to just go for it."

However, she is a little disappointed by the feeling that somehow the Australian people "don't fit their country". She feels like Australians are English people, plonked into a very different landscape and nature and seem to be struggling with it. While this might sound strange to some Australians, she had hoped to find a people that feels more connected to its natural surroundings and its previous owners, the Aboriginal people.

Hearing other people's stories about "their" Australia made me reflect on my relationship with this country. My first time traveling to Australia was on a family holiday when I was just ten years old and I loved it, so much so that I went back 6 years later to go on a high school exchange. In the meantime, my dad had died and me and my family were facing a lot of troubles. Looking back I feel that that first exchange year to Australia really helped me learn more about myself, grow up and learn how to deal with such an enormous, painful loss and with the issues it brought with it. For this I am forever grateful and love Australia and its people. Therefore, when I got the chance to go on a study abroad semester at university, I did not hesitate one second before applying for Australian universities, and here I am!

Going to study and live abroad puts you in an entirely new and foreign environment. Your old friends and family are still there; but „there“ is not where you are right now. You get thrown into the deep end; and because every exchange student goes through similar experiences they are the people that you can bond with very easily and friendships form and blossom - even if they might be temporary since roads and lives will part and lead into different directions soon.

While not all roads may lead to Rome, it is a wonderful thing to meet people and share a part of your journey with them, making everyone's individual journey into a road trip with memories that will last a lifetime.