eJournalist - A Refereed Media Journal

Volume 9, Number 2, 2009

Abstracts

QUT journalism education China Project

Alan Knight

Journalism educators need to think beyond the classroom to serve students facing internet driven cultural change. The first wave of change, online interactivity, is already breaking on once dominant newspaper groups. The second wave, Asia centred communications, has begun to challenge western dominance of international news and culture.

This year a group of QUT journalism students went to China for a month, to work on its English language newspapers and publish online. Their project , which included research, internships, publication and reflection, aimed to create deeper and more nuanced learning than might be possible in conventional class groups.

This report includes examples of their work, photographs, opinions, links to published items and the Facebook page which held it all together.

Young, Educated and Pragmatic: A Case Study of the Younger Generation’s Democratic Consciousness in Singapore

Chengju Huang

This study joins current debate on democratic consciousness of the younger generation in Singapore through a case study of three groups of university students. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study found a fundamental pragmatic approach of the study sample on Lee Kuan Yew's authoritarian political and media approach. Contrary to a growing optimism about the younger generation's democratic consciousness as suggested by some observers in recent years, the study seems to support a more established hegemonic analysis of Singaporean politics and media systems as discussed by many in the existing research literature.

Working journalists and journalism graduands: How they rate television newsroom skills

Kay Nankervis

This paper reports on the next stage in an ongoing study of skill needs in mainstream television newsrooms. It focuses on attitudes to technology skills by comparing a sample of television journalists at major Australian networks with a cohort of final year broadcast journalism students. Each group was asked to rank in order of importance six skills or traits - five that had been identified in previous research as important to the hiring decisions of senior news managers along with the skill trait of “technological fluency”. Both groups – journalists and students – ranked ‘technological fluency” on mean averages last behind story generation, news sense & passion for news, television writing, good general knowledge and voice & on camera presentation. They were also asked, in a separate question, to evaluate the importance of more than 40 different skills and traits to television – including four skills involving technological proficiency – by allocating a score of 1 to 5 to each skill on the list. Significantly, out of more than 40 possible choices, both groups independently gave the highest mean average score for importance to “Ability to work well under deadline pressure”. Both groups ranked the four technology skills in the bottom half of the 40-plus skills list, mostly in the bottom quarter.

New technologies and contested narratives: alternative conflict reportage in the final phase of the Sri Lankan war.

Kasun Ubayasiri

Sri Lankan government censorship may have prevented journalists from covering the final days of the civil war, but technological developments such as satellite technology shattered a government monopoly on information and sparked an international outcry over alleged human rights violations.

This paper focuses on the final days of the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, staged in a conflict theatre denied external independent media coverage. It argues that the development of satellite imagery and its availability to ‘independent’ humanitarian agencies provided a somewhat unique media resource, providing alternative and diverse news voices which would have otherwise been censored by the Sri Lankan government. While arguing the hyper-real images of satellite and drone footage provide only a partial narrative of the conflict, this paper argues without it, the much needed debate on the human suffering and the civilian death toll may have been non-existent.


volume one number one number two volume two number one volume three number one number two volume four number one number two volume five number one number two volume six number one number two volume eight number one number two volume nine number one number two volume ten number one number two volume eleven number one number two volume twelve number one number two volume thirteen number one number two volume fourteen number one number two volume fifteen number one style notes submit an article	Volume 9, Number 2, 2009 Abstracts QUT journalism education China Project Alan Knight Journalism educators need to think beyond the classroom to serve students facing internet driven cultural change. The first wave of change, online interactivity, is already breaking on once dominant newspaper groups. The second wave, Asia centred communications, has begun to challenge western dominance of international news and culture. This year a group of QUT journalism students went to China for a month, to work on its English language newspapers and publish online. Their project , which included research, internships, publication and reflection, aimed to create deeper and more nuanced learning than might be possible in conventional class groups. This report includes examples of their work, photographs, opinions, links to published items and the Facebook page which held it all together. Young, Educated and Pragmatic: A Case Study of the Younger Generation’s Democratic Consciousness in Singapore Chengju Huang This study joins current debate on democratic consciousness of the younger generation in Singapore through a case study of three groups of university students. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study found a fundamental pragmatic approach of the study sample on Lee Kuan Yew's authoritarian political and media approach. Contrary to a growing optimism about the younger generation's democratic consciousness as suggested by some observers in recent years, the study seems to support a more established hegemonic analysis of Singaporean politics and media systems as discussed by many in the existing research literature. Working journalists and journalism graduands: How they rate television newsroom skills Kay Nankervis This paper reports on the next stage in an ongoing study of skill needs in mainstream television newsrooms. It focuses on attitudes to technology skills by comparing a sample of television journalists at major Australian networks with a cohort of final year broadcast journalism students. Each group was asked to rank in order of importance six skills or traits - five that had been identified in previous research as important to the hiring decisions of senior news managers along with the skill trait of “technological fluency”. Both groups – journalists and students – ranked ‘technological fluency” on mean averages last behind story generation, news sense & passion for news, television writing, good general knowledge and voice & on camera presentation. They were also asked, in a separate question, to evaluate the importance of more than 40 different skills and traits to television – including four skills involving technological proficiency – by allocating a score of 1 to 5 to each skill on the list. Significantly, out of more than 40 possible choices, both groups independently gave the highest mean average score for importance to “Ability to work well under deadline pressure”. Both groups ranked the four technology skills in the bottom half of the 40-plus skills list, mostly in the bottom quarter. New technologies and contested narratives: alternative conflict reportage in the final phase of the Sri Lankan war. Kasun Ubayasiri Sri Lankan government censorship may have prevented journalists from covering the final days of the civil war, but technological developments such as satellite technology shattered a government monopoly on information and sparked an international outcry over alleged human rights violations. This paper focuses on the final days of the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, staged in a conflict theatre denied external independent media coverage. It argues that the development of satellite imagery and its availability to ‘independent’ humanitarian agencies provided a somewhat unique media resource, providing alternative and diverse news voices which would have otherwise been censored by the Sri Lankan government. While arguing the hyper-real images of satellite and drone footage provide only a partial narrative of the conflict, this paper argues without it, the much needed debate on the human suffering and the civilian death toll may have been non-existent.	Editor Professor Alan Knight, Queensland University of Technology Advisory Panel Dr Judith Clarke, Baptist University, Hong Kong Elliott S. Parker, Central Michigan University, USA Dr Lee Richard Duffield, Queensland University of Technology Jim Tully, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Dr Kasun Ubayasiri, Queensland University of Technology Dr Stephen Stockwell, Griffith University Philip Cass, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates Dr Steve Quinn, Deakin University, Deakin University