My obsessive week and a half Tuesday, Apr 5 2011

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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Social media, and my love/hate relationship with it Monday, Mar 7 2011

As part of my journalism course, I need to have a Twitter, Facebook and WordPress account (hence why I am here). Which is great really – I know what’s going on with my friends, with world events from the marvellous to the mundane (Justin Bieber’s haircut, for example…) through Twitter’s power of the immediate spread of information, and then I get to comment on it all, right here on WordPress.

I wish there was some way of sending a witty statement to my colleague over there without having to open my mouth - is what this person is thinking, I bet.

Lately, I’ve been hearing so much praise for social media – it’s immediate! It’s more interactive with audiences! It’s a great research tool! It’s a great employment-seeking tool! And trust me, I’m on the social media bandwagon too –  I’ve tweeted this to the world (all 47 followers).

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Centrelink happenings Tuesday, Feb 22 2011

Whilst university students from regional areas may have suffered a setback with the House of Reps deciding not to debate on the youth allowance bill, all may not be lost.

As a student from a regional area, youth allowance is basically how I survive as a university student – I pay my rent with it…. yeah that’s about all I can do with it. There isn’t much left over.  However, I was quite fortunate to have been able to score my Youth Allowance the old way – by working to earn $19,500 in 18 months.

NOW, those who want to go to uni and be paid by the government at the same time have to work an average of 30hrs a week for 18 months, which was a way to cut out some of the more fortunate ones who had wealthy parents and spent a gap year gallivanting overseas.

My younger brother was one of those people who had to abide by the new system in order to get his Youth Allowance for this year. Fortunately for him, he had no shortage of work. But I worry for others – those who might struggle to find a job at the start of the 18 months, or those that might be unwell for a prolonged period of time and are therefore not working for that time. What then?

They have to work even more once they finally get back to work in order to meet the standards of Centrelink? Continue to work the same amount of hours once they become a full time student? (A tough gig for regional students who have to move to a new city to go to university)

Going to university is a pricey affair as it is, let alone having to move to do so.

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