Reporting Refugees Monday, Nov 28 2011 

Advanced Broadcast Journalism Ashley Leal 4:40 pm

In my Advanced Broadcast Journalism 2 unit this semester, we did a very interesting project – telling the stories of refugees and refugee support groups in Canberra. This was part of an attempt to focus on the actual refugees and their lives, rather than the political footballing around the issue, which often lead to dehumanising refugees and asylum seekers. The ‘Reporting Refugees’ program went to air on ABC 666 radio yesterday at 10am.

Leach and Mansouri highlight the effect that labels like ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘queue jumpers’  have on the public’s view of refugees and asylum seekers, saying, “this language has been effective in depicting asylum seekers as a deviant group unworthy of protection” (2003).

Unfortunately, it is not just politicians who are guilty of this. Take, for example, the report from Today Tonight in October this year. The story claims that ‘boat people’ are living in ‘four star luxury’ and are paid more in welfare benefits than Australian pensioners. This was later proved by Media Watch to be untrue.

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My time in the Twittersphere Monday, May 16 2011 

Advanced Broadcast Journalism , , , , , , , , , , , Ashley Leal 6:35 am

obtained via flickr.com

I’ll be honest – when I first set up a Twitter account nearly a year ago now, I didn’t like it. It just didn’t grab me. I only knew a small number of people who had a Twitter account, and following a selection of politicians, comedians and celebrities was not as exciting as I’d hoped it to be.

It wasn’t until earlier this year, in my Advanced Broadcast Journalism unit, that I discovered the major drawcards of the social media site.

The main idea I needed to get out of my head was that TWITTER IS NOT FACEBOOK. I needed to realise that Facebook is for sharing and connecting with the people I already know personally, whilst Twitter is for sharing and connecting with the people outside of my peer group, such as journalists, politicians, academics and even some celebrities (who, by the way, are not as interesting in tweet form as one might think). (more…)

 

My obsessive week and a half Tuesday, Apr 5 2011 

Advanced Broadcast Journalism and Ramblings , , Ashley Leal 4:06 am

A couple of weeks ago (before the mid semester break where I unashamedly did nothing uni related), a group of us aired a radio programme for our Advanced Broadcast Journalism unit (check out the hashtag – but ignore the non-journalism tweets).

Our focus was on the gay marriage debate, in light of the pending territory amendment bill (in which territories will essentially be given the same amount of power as the states, and could pave the way for the legalisation of gay marriage in the ACT).

I was executive producer of our group, and I must admit, I became a little obsessed with the programme. Perhaps I liked my taste of power – having the final say in what went into the programme and what didn’t, being ruthless with time restrictions (constantly asking if the others could edit down their packages just a bit more) and perhaps just generally letting my inner control freak come out.

Putting in the hours creating the programme (NB: not an entirely accurate illustration)

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