My Last Post 

Just wanted to say a quick goodbye to everyone as this will be my last post for this course, I know it's a very sad time! I've learnt so much during this semester and have thoroughly enjoyed all the lectures and tutes, I couldn't have asked for a better subject! So goodbye all, and I hope you have a relaxing holiday and hopefully I can look back at this blog from time to time and remember what I loved about JOUR1111 and what I learnt from these four months :)

Teenage Sex in Society

Good morning to all of you on this rainy Sunday! Can you believe that University is nearly done for the semester, only 12 days to go, not that I'm counting or anything... I wanted to talk to you today about teenage sex and how it has become increasingly more frequent in our day and age. What is with all this teenage sex in society these days! Sex sex sex, that’s all I hear. Many of my friends these days who are in relationships or even single, lose their virginity so easily it’s scary to comprehend. Pressures are constantly put on teenage girls especially to have sex at such a young age, that the meaning of “virginity” or “making love” is undervalued, denigrated and completely thrown out the window. I have always been passionate about respecting oneself and waiting until you are mature enough to make a responsible decision about sex. The other day, I came across some startling and disturbing statistics from the National Survey of South Australian Secondary Students on Sexual Health:

• 27.6% of female students have had sex in Grade 10 and 61.7% of female students have had sex in Grade 12. 27.1% of male students have had sex in Grade 10 and 44.4% of male students have had sex in Grade 12.
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• 36.2% of teenagers aged between 15-19 were pregnant and 20.8% of them have had abortions.
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• 24% of teenagers aged between 15-19 were infected with Chlamydia, 485 teenagers were infected with Gonorrhoea and 225 teenagers were infected with Herpes.
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• Nationally, more than half of teenagers have lost their virginity by the age of 17.

Teenage sex is a seriously worrying and increasing occurrence within society and particularly within this generation. If awareness of this rapidly growing issue is made more prominent to the younger generation especially, hopefully teenagers and adults alike can understand how precious virginity is and that waiting until a mature age for sex is the better option. As St, Jerome once said, “Virginity can be lost by a thought”.

A Photo Story Of My Life At College Thus Far

Let's start from the beginning of my journey through St. John's College and how amazing it has been for me so far. I was so nervous when I came to Brisbane, knowing that I would not only have to begin my adventure at University, but at college too. On the first day at John's, I met some lovely people who were equally as nervous as I was. On the left is a picture of us on the first day, dressed up as cowboys and indians, as this was the theme for that night.

As the first week progressed, everyone became closer and the activities became even crazier, like the time when we all went to Wet and Wild in the rain and invaded every ride we could! This was probably one of the best days of my life.

Even though I had started a new life now at St. John's and at University, I still maintained my friendships with my old friends who I visited weekly when I had a spare moment. They are the ones who made High School just slightly more bearable and I will never forget that. On the left are my two close friends, Kristian and Alex, when we went clubbing together one night. 

We all participated in many fun events over the course of the three months at college, such as jazz nights, shower teas, balls and regattas. Everyone always tried to dress up as best as they could to fit certain themes and on the right is a perfect example of this. We all dressed up as a "fetish" and as you can see, I was obsessed with cats! Others were obsessed with being young again, trees and even chocolate!

Throughout my time so far, I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute at my college. Everyone has been so welcoming and kind and I have settled in so well thanks to being at college. I know I am now growing up and things are different, but in a good way. I know that going to John's was the right choice and now going to University and being an adult doesn't seem so scary anymore. I have made friends here that will continue to be my closest friends for life and for that I am grateful. College has changed my life and I will never forget my first three months here and look forward to the next great times to come!

LAST LECTURE EVER!

Can you believe it, the last lecture has come and gone, and what a fun and hilarious class it was! We had a guest speaker come in and explain about his life and how he works online writing pieces, blogging, twittering and so on. His writings are beginning to become recognised by thousands of people around the world and his articles have even been published in large news sites. He was extremely funny and passionate about what he does, he really connected with the audience and made me contemplate about what I wanted to do with myself in the future.

When I was very young, I had always wanted to become a vet, to look after sick animals all the time and feed and love them. Of course, this dream was short lived during my Junior school days and I soon started to write stories. I have a compilation of short stories, mini novels, poems, columns, news articles and more that I had written over the years. I also entered hundreds of public speaking competitions, oratory competitions, news reading competitions and continued to do so since I was in Grade 6. Writing and speaking was and is to this day, my passion. I loved English and have always known that I would do something in Journalism in the future. 

This passion of mine began when I was very young, probably around the age of ten or eleven, and my Grandma gave me my first copy of my Grandpa's published book, Children of the Eagle. It was a fictional story  based around the history of Zimbabwe. My grandma told me that she knew I would follow in his footsteps and do something with my writing and speaking ability. From that day, I couldn't stop writing. I finally realised what my talent was and kept at it until it was time to make the big decision of what to study at University. I had also studied Legal Studies during my time in Grade 12 and was extremely interested in pursuing something to do with law. However, I eventually realised that my passion was and will always be writing and speaking, Journalism was my calling.

When listening to the guest speaker during the lecture, it made me realise that I should never doubt what I have chosen to study and that there are so many possibilities for me in the future with the degree I'm doing. Journalism opens up a world of opportunities for me and I know that one day I will work out my niche within the subject and will work in something that truly makes me happy. Below is a picture of my Grandpa's book, Children of the Eagle.

The Young Designer's Markets

Hey hey everyone! Hope you had a very sunny and relaxing weekend, can't believe we are coming to the end of this course, it's rather sad! I wanted to talk to you all about my experience that I had visiting the Young Designer's Markets last month and how amazing it was. There were so many beautiful items, I was broke by the end of the day! What these markets taught me was that Brisbane is culturally diverse in its products and events, the Young Designer's Markets being a perfect example.

According to Brisbane City Council, “Brisbane is on the cusp of an economic transformation which is bringing unprecedented opportunities to the city.” In recent years, the council has been supporting the new and upcoming festivals and cultural events in an attempt to enrich the city’s cultural background. Such events include; Brisbane Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, Italian Week and various markets. These markets range from food and farmers markets, to fashion markets and to arts and crafts markets. The Young Designers Markets is the new and upcoming design market. The Young Designers Markets was founded in 2007 and the careers of many aspiring designers have been launched through the opportunities that markets have provided. 

The markets are situated in the heart of city at Little Stanley Street, Southbank. They occur once a month and are open from 10am-4pm. The markets cover a variety of areas such as; fashion, fashion accessories, art, jewellery, home-wares and stationery. One of the conditions of having a stall at the YDM is that all products must be made by the stall owner. It is one of the only markets in Brisbane that allows for up-coming designers to sell their creations in an up-market and successful manner. Brisbane has become the cultural hub of Queensland, with numerous opportunities for the creative persons to showcase their skills to the general public. The support for markets has grown considerably over the years, as they cater for a variety of needs with affordable prices. Below are a few pictures of the products sold at the markets.

Lecture 11 - Investigate Journalism

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      Welcome to the second last lecture EVER! Quite a sad time it is.. in the lecture this week we learnt about the “Ins” of investigative journalism. These included five main elements: Intelligent, Informed, Intuitive, Inside and Invest. The next part that I found very interesting was the deeper definitions and purpose of investigative journalism. Words were defined and a key idea was given for each. These included four main points: 

·     1. Critical and thorough journalism:

·     Critical = the journalist is an active participant

·     Active intervention – the key idea

·     Thorough – journalist makes a substantial effort

·     2. Custodians of conscience:

·     Investigation takes society’s morals and norms and holds breaches up to public scrutiny: in other words, what they call “civic vice” is exposed for society to respond

·     3. To provide a voice for those without one and to hold the powerful to account

·     Social justice – power to the powerless, voice to the voiceless

·     Public Interest – Key idea

·     4. Fourth estate/fourth branch of government/watchdog

·     Fourth estate – journalists represent the interest of those without power to balance the power government

·     Fourth branch of government - Journalists ensure free flows of information necessary for the functioning of democracy by interrogating the judiciary executive and legislature

·    Watchdog – Journalists make accountable public personalities and institutions whose functions Journalists make accountable public personalities and institutions whose functions impact social and political life

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      We were then told what shoe leather journalism was, basically it is putting in the hard yards to achieve a story or piece. When it comes to gathering the facts and information for a particular newsworthy story, there are key concepts to understand such as standing back, looking at the big picture, taking nothing for granted and being skeptical not cynical. Some historical trailblazers were then looked at and these included  Edward Hall Smith (The Sydney Monitor 1826) who campaigned against the use of convict labourers, W.T. Stead who was one of the first investigative journalists and was involved with the maiden tribute of modern Babylon campaign 1885. He also raised the age of consent from 12 to 16. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (1872-74) were involved with Watergate. Chris Masters, Phil Dickie and Shaun Hoyt created The Moonlight State which was a 4 corners episode. Finally, there was Julian Assange, the creator of Wikileaks.

·     Each of these trailblazers have something in common, they all changed the world in one way or another.


      Local investigative journalism includes shows and media such as Crikey and Australian Story. We were told within the lecture to always check your facts and assume nothing, to expect whistleblowers to go crazy after they have told a story or facts. There are many types of investigation interaction and these include interviews, observations, documents, briefings, leaks, trespass and theft. In regards to interviewing, there are a numerous interviews conducted with on-the-record sources as well as, in some instances, interviews with anonymous sources for example, whistleblowers. With observing, this is the investigation of technical issues, scrutiny of government and business practices and their effects. There are many types of documents that can be analysed to gain information for a story, some of these are law suits, legal documents, tax records, corporate financials and FOI (Freedom of Information) material. Triangulation was then defined as "do what you were told" and to make sure that what you saw lined up/matched up with what was recorded.
   
      Finally, the threats to investigative journalism was outlined. A very clever formula was given about online news that basically, less money = less journalists + less time = less investigative journalism. The issue of Journalism vs PR was brought up and how PR was propaganda by truth, that PR used a selective use of facts to present a persuasive case to the public. On the other hand, Journalism was about verifying the ‘facts’ in ‘the public interest’. Basically, if there is a growth in PR, there is a shrinkage in journalism. The differences between PR and Journalism are quite large as PR involves resistance to exposure, dodging questions, massaging talent and cleaning up stories whilst Journalism focuses more on no intervention, no show leather, lack of depth and formulating reporting.

Relay For Life Experience

*yawns loudly* Hello everyone, I hope you are having a lovely weekend and relaxing Sunday, I know I haven't! Yesterday, my friends and I participated in the Relay For Life walk at Toowoomba to fund raise for cancer. It was a tiring 18 hour walk with breaks in between, the walk began at 3pm and ended at 9am the next day. The reason I decided to take part in this event with my friends and form a team was because of my best friend's brother, who is battling with cancer. His name is Connor and he was chosen as the face of Relay For Life for his outstanding courage and bravery throughout everything. He is truly an inspiration to all.

We began the long walk with high spirits and lots of energy, there were many others at the same camp site as us at Toowoomba who had dressed up for the occasion. Each team had a theme and uniquely designed camp site and team name. I remember bumping into people dressed up as polar bears, tigers, fairies, mice, clowns and that was just the beginning! As the day progressed, there were more activities that unfolded such as lighting a candle for everyone who has or had suffered cancer. Live music was played throughout the walking and there were many games to try out whilst trying not to fall over from lack of sleep! 

Night time came along and it was FREEZING, I have never been so cold in my life! Each of us took turns walking around the circuit during the night whilst the others slept for a few hours. It was such a challenge to continue walking around the track at 4am in the morning at -4 degrees celsius, but it made me realise that this type of struggle was nothing compared to those who have gone through cancer. We may complain about the little things in life such as having a fight with a friend, not having the latest phone or losing something, but in the end, it can be a lot worse. 

The entire event was a huge success, with all the teams combined raising over $100,000 for cancer research. Even though I am basically twitching at the moment with tiredness and lack of sleep, it was completely worth it. Relay For Life makes me realise how precious life really is, we take it for granted so much! All these people who were at the event, who had gone through having cancer, still had such a positive attitude towards life, even after everything. I will never forget that day and how inspiring Connor was, hopefully more money can be raised in the future to once and for all, rid this world of cancer.