W8 – Part 1 : Media Conference

Soft News

“We lost our car, but we could have lost our lives”. This was the thankful statement made by 23 year old retail assistant Rachael Williams.

          A casual trip to McDonalds in Frankston turned into a nightmare for Rachel and her plumber boyfriend, Jim Allan, 23, after they lost control of their car. Jim attempted to do a burn out at over a 100 kilometres an hour, skidded across Richardson road and crashed into an embankment.

         The vehicle burst into flames with both Rachel and her boyfriend trapped in the car. Two detectives, who were patrolling the area, witnessed the incident and were on hand to rescue the couple from the burning wreckage.

Hard News

           Police rescued a couple from their burning vehicle after they lost control attempting a burn out in Frankston at 10.30pm last night.

         The car skidded into an embankment and burst into flames after speeding out of a McDonald’s driveway in Richardson road at over 100 kilometres an hour.

         The couple, plumber Jim Allan, 23 and his girlfriend, retail assistant Rachel Williams, 23 were rescued by two detectives who had been on patrol.

Mr Allan sustained burns to his legs and torso while Ms Williams escaped unharmed. He is currently in a stable condition at The Alfred Hospital.

Ms Williams spoke to reporters outside the hospital. “I’m just glad Jim is ok. It was just a silly stunt that went too far and it could have ended really badly”, she said.

         Victorian Police Commissioner Simon Overland, commended the two detectives on their bravery. “The two detectives risked their lives to come to the aid of civilians. Victoria Police, on behalf of the wider community, commend their fast thinking actions and their bravery”, he said.

(…)

W7 – Hard And Soft News Leads

1. Hard News Lead :

         According to new research, Indian and Chinese students became a boom market for the Australian universities.

    Soft News Lead :

         An Indian student, Abhishek Puljal, does his studies at the University of Sydney. He arrived more than a year ago, and he selected Australia for many reasons. His brother came first in Australia and has been one of his motivations, but the quality of education attracted his attention as weel.

   

2. Hard News Lead :

         A Kew Grammar School student finished her graduation speech naked.

    Soft News Lead :

         The private Kew Grammar School has been a victim of a prank during the graduation speech. The teenage girl, Kate Logan, thought that after spending six years in the school would be the best way to mark the event, by finishing the speech naked.

3. Hard News Lead :

         In Castlemaime, after 41 years, « The Boy in the box » has been exhumed by the police in order to find how did he die, by using the DNA technology.

Soft News Lead :

         A four or six years old boy has been killed in Castlemaine, and has been found in a cardboard, 41 years ago. Due to the lack of the technology’s efficiency to solve murders, the “The Boy in the Box” case has been unclassified. With the extract of DNA, the medical examiner could determine the death cause.

4. Hard News Lead :

         A 42 years old man has been jailed after assaulting a police officer, yesterday afternoon at 3:49pm, at 63 Gold Street, Richmond.

    Soft News Lead :

Police has been sent at 63 Gold Street, in Richmond, because of a domestic fight. At 3:49pm, the 42 years old man, Harley Dudley, threw a painting of Elvis Presley at Sergeant’s head. He has been released last night.

W5 - Lead and Follow Through

Emergency story

Lead :

According to the police officer of Townsville, Tom Dimatina, the city is in a real danger and has been destroyed due to the two tornadoes, at 2pm yesterday.

The Follow Through :

Some people are reporting that a school bus is missing. Townsville have been cut of electricity, phone lines, water services which means that more than 300 residents are evacuating, and Townsville is still waiting for more assistance.

Court Story :

Lead :

In 2006, Amanda Jane Felsbourg’s boyfriend, Wayne Laffey, has been stabbed and found dead on Keith Avenue.

The Follow Through :

The Supreme Court declared Amanda guilty. She killed her boyfriend after an on-off relationship, moreover they had a daughter together, in 2005.

W3 - Journalistic Investigation or Research.

These three readings illustrate different aspects of investigation and research from journalists. The first reading, "SuperMedia : the future as "networked journalism"" is about the impact of the web 2.0 on news and information. The second one, "Haunted by details missing in the struggle for objectivity", is about this reporter who took a picture of Tiananmen before the massacre, and he has issues with the way to remember the facts. The third reading, written by Paige Williams, deals with poverty in Atlanta, and the evolution of journalism and how journalists should consider the audience's opinion.

Firstly we had the Web that we can call : the initial one. People just had access to all of these many Internet websites, could read, collect, and perhaps share information. But they were only spectators, they couldn't enter in this giant sphere of virtual data. The interaction didn't really exist between the audience and the writer, the generator of content. The flow of information used to travel in one way : webmaster to reader.

Since the launch of the Web 2.0, everything has changed, and anyone who couldn't evolve with it was out. This new version of the Web is based on the sharing of content between you and the rest of the world. Now anyone who wants to create their own website, blog, video or song, they don't need help from a professional. Everything can be home made. The most affected part in the web is news and information. Why ? Because in the past, news and information were transmitted by journalists. It is still the case, but today, I can a journalist, my neighbour can be a journalist, everyone can be a journalist. Due to the blogs, a lot of people started writing about their passions, their feelings, their envies. They interact with their audience, which give their own advices back. They also relate news and information, which sometimes are not broadcasted or published. Journalists don't have the power of control of information anymore. They have to deal with it. Specially with websites like Wikileack, which talks about private information from the government that citizen shouldn't know. It is a difficult task, and some professional understood that, hence they include in their researches, readers' advice. The world of journalism has been shacked by the Web 2.0.

For the third reading, the author shows different aspects of revealing information and numbers about the same topic. In this case, Paige Williams talks about poverty. The writer uses several techniques of interpretation of data such as percentages, decimals numbers, different kind of units. He tries to connect all of them, and each part has their own signification. This is the funny part, because it talks about the same thing, but each time the meaning defers. We can clearly see that the writer investigate a lot to collect all these data.