Blogging revamp..

I've been reviewing the viewing figures for my uni blog this week and they're not looking very healthy. I'm not sure if I'm losing readers as the blogging novelty wears off and my classmates stop checking out each others blogs, or if it's because my blog posts are too boring!

In an effort to spice things up, I've redesigned look of the page, using page breaks to shorten each individual story so they appear neater when viewed (well, I think so anyway). I also plan to make the posts shorter but post more frequently, with more day-to-day content rather than trying to write articles.

My other plan is to link theses blogs to my personal Facebook page to increase my potential audience. I'll try this approach for a while and see how that goes. If any one has other suggestions, please let me know. 

Eyes in the sky, feet on the ground.

Marty standing next to the tracker, inset top, his aircraft in flight inset bottom, Marty's Bixler aircraft.

On Tuesday morning, I met two model aircraft enthusiasts named Marty and Kevin who were flying their planes out near Townsville's Ross River Dam. I was curious about the weird-looking tripod-mounted contraptions the men had, as well as the funny looking goggles the men wore. Kevin explained that the weird contraptions were actually trackers that followed the model's flight and relayed a video signal from a small on-board camera to tiny video monitors mounted in the goggles. In the model aircraft world this system is known as first person view or FPV.

Inverted Pyramid Writing Exercise

Here's my very short inverted pyramid story attempting to cover the who, what, where, when, why and how of Humpty Dumpty's great fall.

'Humpty Dumpty fell off a Toytown wall yesterday and despite the efforts of all the King's Horses and all the King's Men, he was unable to be put back together again. A witness to the incident said Mr Dumpty was "Just sitting on the wall and then fell." Police aren't treating his death as suspicious.'

Media Convergence: More than a notebook and pen...

This week in our journalism lecture, we looked at media convergence. For those of us studying multimedia journalism, it relates to our core purpose, it's what we're here to learn. 

In the book Convergent Journalism - An Introduction (Quinn and Filak: 2005) the authors say that modern journalists need to "think multiple media" and be comfortable working across several media platforms. Widespread adoption of high-speed broadband, coupled with fragmenting media audiences - asset rich, time poor users that want news when they're ready for it regardless of TV schedules or newspaper printing times - have created the need for multi-platform storytellers.

Sunscreen: Is nano a no no?

Australians have been told for years to "Slip, Slop, Slap" and applying sunscreen before going outside is now a daily ritual for many. Australia has the unenviable statistic of having the highest skin cancer rate in the world, and we are four times more likely to develop a skin cancer over any other form of cancer.

Traditional sunscreens have used zinc oxide and titanium dioxide as ingredients. These work by reflecting and scattering ultra violet radiation, however they leave a white residue on the skin. Sunscreen manufacturers have found that they can avoid this and produce a clear product by grinding the particles down until they are less than 10 microns small. These tiny pieces are called nano particles, and are thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Citizens or Consumers?

The growth of the internet has changed how print media does business. The traditional view of the newspaper tycoon using his wealth and media influence to pressure governments is changing, and while there is no doubt that Rupert Murdoch is still a very powerful figure, some would argue that these days making money is a more important consideration than political influence. Despite superficial media arguments over whether broadsheets are better than tabloids, or tabloid newspapers care more for their readers than the so-called quality papers, commercial media's chief concern is for it's profit margin.

Falling revenue from decreased advertising income has led to major cost cutting measures by newspapers, including

It's not my fault, I was drunk...

Did anyone see the 4 Corners episode called Punch Drunk on Monday? It examined the effects of just one of the 70 000 incidents of alcohol-related violence that are estimated to occur in Australia every year.

18 year old Sam Ford was out with his girlfriend one night in Coolangatta when he was attacked by a drunken stranger in the street and suffered a brain injury that has left him with profound disabilities. The program also explored the increased workload of these violent episodes on  police, paramedics and hospitals, and estimated that alcohol related violence costs the community $187 million each year

Paul Nicolaou, the CEO of the Australian Hotels Association (NSW) disagreed with the findings of studies that suggest