Tag Archives: UQ

Event: UQ Great Debate on Citizen Journalism

UPDATE 2: Full video of the debate. My full turn in the debate. Tragically, for those hoping to see my Gangnam Style, it occurred out of shot, so you can hear it but not see it.

UPDATE 1: The People’s Decision: Better off with Citizen Journalism. So, my team did not win, but we had fun and, honestly, I’m rather relieved!

As I said in the report on the debate outcome, ”I think the audience rightly went with hope for better, over fear about current troubles.

“We want citizen journalism because we hope that it gives us all a voice,” said Dr Rintel.

Reports on my dancing Gangnam Style are still unconfirmed by video or images… ;)

ORIGINAL:

Sean Rintel 2012 UQ Great DebateI’ll be taking part in the Inaugural UQ Research Week Great Debate. The topic for this debate is: “We are better off with citizen journalists”.

As UQ News says, the topic is “We are better off with citizen journalists”. Four of the six debaters are from the UQ School of Journalism and Communication, joined by team members from the Global Change Institute and the School of Business.

Myself, Skye Doherty, and Amalia Buckerfield, all from SJC will argue the negative: that we are not better off with citizen journalists because the content they create does not meet any professional standards.

John Cook (GCI), Liam Pomfret (Business), and Carl Smith (SJC) will argue the affirmative: that citizen journalists help to democratize the flow of news.”

The negative position will be interesting to argue, as my personal views tend more toward the affirmative. However, researching for the debate has turned up significant complexity to the argument.

Meet me at Genies Café

I like to meet at Genies Café on the UQ Campus. If you’re having trouble locating it, first find the Chancellor’s Place bus stops (figure 1).

Figure 1: Find the Chancellor's Place bus stops

Then cross the road to the Institute for Molecular Bioscience. Walk down the the big wide ramp between the palm trees (Ah, Brisbane!) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Follow the yellow brick road

The café looks inviting (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Right this way

We can enjoy the delicious brain fuel (Figure 4)!

Figure 4: I recommend the doppio

UQLIC NewsFlashMob 2011

On April 14 2011, about 60 Communication, Journalism, and Media Studies students at the University of Queensland St Lucia campus participated in NewsFlashMob 2011. This was the first event for University of Queensland Live Investigations of Communication, a new UQ group with the goal of improving the visibility and cohesion of UQ Communication students. Check out the videos (if they do not appear, refresh the page)!

Short video (3 minutes)

Long video (18 minutes)

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=23188062&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

UQ Flashmob 2011 from UQ Journalism & Communication on Vimeo.

The UQ Bachelor of Communication is a relatively new degree (less than 10 years) and is run across two Faculties (Arts and Social and Behavioural Science) within which there are many contributing Schools. As such, while it is very rich in content, the challenge is to provide both social and professional coherence for our students. This year Richard Fitzgerald and I decided to work on a new extra-curricular initiative bring Bachelor of Communication students (and those in allied courses of Journalism and Media Studies).

Inspired by Harold Garfinkel’s breaching experiments, Improv Everywhere, and The Yes Men, we have started an informal group called University of Queensland Live Investigations of Communication (UQLIC). For this first event we decided to run an Mp3 Experiment-style event, in which participants follow a set of audio instructions recorded on an mp3 file, all starting the file at a particular time and place. We could not afford to hire Improv Everywhere, but we received Charlie Todd’s permission to use the idea. The organisational benefit of this style of flashmob versus a Sound of Music flashmob is that a small group of organisers did all the preparation (although all students were invited to provide ideas) and the participants just have to download the file, bring a few trivial objects, and turn up on the day. No rehearsal. The interesting thing about an Mp3 experiment style event is that participants’ activities are totally sensible to them but largely silent and senseless to non-participants. As such, they promote cohesion through collaboration and exclusivity. A side-effect, though, is that this is not an audience-focused event. We hope you still enjoy watching the videos though!

The event, called NewsFlashMob involved a range of instructions revolving around the theme of “Be The News”. The participants collaborated over about 25 minutes on a range of short activities that involved either doing things that were newsworthy or were attempts to physically visualise concepts about media use. We conducted a SurveyMonkey survey of the event and preliminary figures indicate that it was well-received (details to come).

The instructions were developed by myself, RF, and a small group of students in an organising committee. The committee also advertised the event on Facebook and in lectures/tutorials, created the Mp3 file, organised video, and ran the event. RF and I are very proud of the student organising group (noted below), who did a tremendous amount of work and learned a lot about the complexities of organising such an event. We all learned about the use of multiple cloud-based social media (Facebook, Google Docs, SoundCloud, Youtube and Vimeo) to distribute work and as aids in co-present meetings. Look for an upcoming journal article about the organisational and pedagogical issues involved.

One of the unexpected but personally very satisfying aspects of the event was that we found a great deal of excellent Creative Commons licensed music to use. Check out the tracks below, they are fantastic!

Credits

NewsFlashMob 2011

A UQLIC event

University of Queensland Live Investigations of Communication

Based on the Mp3 Experiment by Improv Everywhere (idea used by permission)

Faculty Organisers

  • Dr. Sean Rintel (School of English, Media Studies, and Communication)
  • Dr. Richard Fitzgerald (School of Journalism and Communication)

Student Organisers

  • Hannah Scott
  • Natassja Bertram
  • Ashleigh Roza
  • Cate Grace Williams
  • Jaya Kinhal
  • Maximillian VonNeumann
  • Steph Enarbia

Thanks

  • Journalism and Communication Society (JACS)
  • Courtney Phelps
  • Susan McKay
  • Maureen Burns
  • Matthew Peterson and MaPS
  • Charlie Todd and Improv Everywhere

Music

Sound Effects

In memory of Harold Garfinkel (1917 – 2011)