Explainer: The Evolution of the Reporting of Breaking News: The Black Rights Movement

Intro The current Black Rights Matter protests were provoked by the injustice of black people being killed and treated unfairly, specifically by police officers. The tipping point and start of this movement was largely based on the recent death of George Floyd, choked to death by a policeman for allegedly trying to use a fake

Local Support for Small Businesses Increases in Wollongong

Small businesses in Wollongong are seeing immense support from locals during the coronavirus pandemic. The community is purchasing produce from cafes and restaurants even more now than pre pandemic. Wollongong has been hit relatively moderately with coronavirus with no recorded deaths. As of the 6 of April, 114 people in the Illawarra were diagnosed with

Analytics and Network Analysis: #stayathome

Introduction The hashtag stayathome has become increasingly popular since the commencement of coronavirus. The hashtag first appeared on Instagram on the 5th of June 2019. Today, it is constantly being used on numerous social media platforms, typically promoting staying home during the coronavirus pandemic. The main hypothesis of this report is, that the engagement and

Free Speech Versus Hate Speech: Racial Discrimination Act

Intro The freedom to express our thoughts and opinions is something that we all take advantage of. Individuals post their thoughts and opinions on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and personal blogs for anyone to view. For some Australians, such as journalists, the fine line between free speech and hate speech is a reoccurring issue. Freedom of

Audiences, Representation and Industry in practice: Fan Studies

I don’t know much about being part of a fandom. According to Kent, M (2006), a fandom can be defined as “a collective term for all the fans that devote parts of their lives to following or admiring a particular person, group, or team”. Learning about the details of fan studies in this weeks BCM110

Media Theory Toolbox: The Public Sphere

The idea of the public sphere was first introduced by Jurgen Habermas in the 1960s. According to Calhoun, C (2002), “the modern public sphere has two related meanings: it refers both to the open discussion among members of a collectivity about their common concerns and to the activities of the state that are central to

Media Industries and Ownership

The thought of who is behind the media I consume, has often crossed my mind, but I’d never taken time to really look into it. In this week’s lecture we discovered that the people that own the media are often biased to their own opinions and beliefs. While you may appreciate this on the occasion

Creative Commons

What is Creative Commons? Creative Commons (CC) is an organisation that promotes the use of the Creative Commons copyright licensing, a license that allows the use and transformation of materials that is released under it. The degree of which it can be used is determined by the type of Creative Commons, ranging from complete transformation

Representation and Interpretation: Semiotics

Semiotics. What does it mean? According to World encyclopedia (2004), semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, both visual and linguistic, and their function in communication. Much of our understanding of the way we interpret signs is due to Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Peirce, a pair widely known for being the unofficial fathers

Audiences

In our week two BCM110 lecture and tutorial, we focused on media audiences and how they have developed within the last century. We also touched on what it means to be an active audience. Discussing this topic reminded me of my favourite memory of when I was part of an audience. In Launceston, the town