lorraine's backpacking adventures: June 2009

Convergent Journalism was a challenging subject for me. I was shocked at the technology that was involved and a class usually ended with tears in front of the computer monitor. After this subject, I am more confident with technology and I have improved my skills as a journalist because I am able to identify a good news story and I am significantly more computer savvy.
The first assessment task was the audio story. I immediately knew that I wanted to do a story on the Australian National Surf Lifesaving Championships. I have always been interested in sports journalism and I thought that doing a story on surf lifesaving would be an effective way to explore this. I was not certain what the focus of my story would be until I flicked through Facebook and discovered that one of my friends had won a gold medal at this year’s championships. I contacted him immediately and we set up an interview time.
I was nervous to use the Zoom Recorder because I was concerned that I would get to the end of the interview and realise that it hadn’t recorded and that I would have to reinterview Stuart (2009 gold medallists Australian National Surf Lifesaving Championships). I remember Siobhan saying in a feature writing lecture that she never poses any questions to an interviewee before she is recording because the interview subject will never say it as well the second time around. My biggest fear about using the Zoom Recorder was missing his first and natural responses and having to conduct a second interview and risk getting answers that would sound contrived.
The interview was a success. Stuart’s answers were exactly what I was looking for and his voice was loud and clear and recorded well. My fears about the Zoom Recorded were never realised and it recorded successfully on the first attempt.
I found using Pro-Tools to be extremely stressful because of my lack of computer skills. However, in the end I was happy with the final product and I was pleasantly surprised by my mark. I think that the audio story could have been improved by the use of sound effects. I had planned to record a lifesaver at the beach, speaking over the loudspeaker asking swimmers to stay within the flags. However, the day that I borrowed the Zoom Recorder, all Sydney beaches were closed due to dangerous weather.
I especially enjoyed the Photo Journalism aspect of this subject and I wasn’t scared of the assessment task, the photo essay. For the photo essay, I focused on graffiti in the Sutherland shire. I mostly took photos of graffiti on the Cronulla esplanade. I focused on million dollar esplanade properties, the defaced public toilets, the Sutherland shire council graffiti removal truck, a disgruntled local and a graffiti artist.
I wish I could go back in time and do this assignment all over again because there were just too many topics in the one story. I could have greatly improved on the photo essay if I had just focused on one aspect. Looking back, I can see that the best angle for the story would have been to focus solely on the graffiti truck. This story would have worked really well if I had followed the truck around for a day, watched where and how they removed graffiti and then interviewed the driver.
The last assessment task was the audio and visual story. Although this task was significantly more difficult than the others, I felt more confident while creating the audio and visual story. The audio report and the photo essay had prepared me for this task and I felt more relaxed while working on it and I actually enjoyed it. I felt I had enough knowledge to tell a story with images and I knew which quotes were the most relevant and should be used.
I conducted three interviews for this assessment, which meant that I had significantly more to edit. I discovered the zoom-in feature on Pro-Tools and it greatly helped in cutting out unwanted noises. I also put music on the track and it added to the emotion of the “Bridal Recession” story. I think it really highlighted the emotion of the bride who couldn’t afford the wedding she had always dreamed of and it also highlighted the sadness of the bridal stylists who didn’t want to lose their jobs.
In hindsight, I believe that I could have improved on the audio and visual story by the use of sound effects. The only wedding related sound affect that I found on the internet was the sound of bells. Once on the track, the bells sounded loud and annoying and I was concerned that if I left them on the track, the listener might not get the point and think “what’s the go with those annoying bells?”
At the end of this session, it is still clear in my mind that my passion in journalism is for television presenting. When I was ten years old, I remember my mother telling me that with my clear voice and presence, I should be a newsreader. Ever since then, my lifelong ambition has been to become a newsreader for a major television news network.
I have recently caught the travel bug and it is having a strong impact on my future career prospects. After backpacking through South East Asia for three months during the summer break, I was amazed at the unusual places and people that I met. I discovered that if you venture off the beaten track and avoid five star resorts and over populated tourist areas, there is an eclectic world waiting to be found.
After my travels, I realised I wanted to go a step beyond being a television presenter and actually create my own television travel series. It will be titled something along the lines of Lorraine’s Backpacking Adventures. I believe with my love of travel and my television presenting experience on Fox Sports, teamed with my fun and adventurous personality, I could really pull it off.
Lorraine’s Backpacking Adventures will differ from mainstream travel shows in the fact that I will avoid commonly visited tourist areas that are overcrowded with high-rise resorts. It will focus on the undiscovered areas and the people that live there.
After enrolling in a subject entitled Aboriginal Studies: Redefining Eden, I am very interested in travel that benefits the environment as well as the Indigenous people of the countries that I visit. This philosophy will be strongly highlighted and encouraged in Lorraine’s Backpacking Adventures.