Week Six - Photo Essay

Chapter six quiz

This week we had two quizzes to do. I found Quiz 6A to be a little more challenging and difficult, however 6B was quite easy to do as most questions were common sense. Punctuation is probably something I am more confident in when it comes to English so I felt like I did alright in these quizzes. 

Photo essay - Cooking pumpkin salad and salmon

Media press kit

For this week's inquiry, I chose to review the supplementary media for the Cirque du Soleil show called Totem. The following includes the elements of the media press kit. 

Show overview: The Totem show overview describes what the show is all about and gives the reader an idea of what is to be expected. The overview is written fantastically with language used to capture the reader's attention. This element of the press kit will be important to incorporate into a news story as the 'what' component, which is crucial to have in any story. 

A few interesting facts: This element lists the facts of the show in bullet points such as the show being the winner of the 2014 New York City Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Experience. The element of this should also be used as the 'what' component in a news story as it is still describing the event and what was involved. 

What the critics say about Totem: This element is a collection of quotes made by reputable news companies such as: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Toronto Star. This is a fantastic way to bring the news story to life, with real quotes that readers can engage in. I would incorporate this element of the Press Kit as a direct quote as it is evidence. 

About Robert Lepage Writer and Director: This element of the Press Kit is a brief biography of Robert Lepage and his achievements. Included in this biography is a quote from him describing the paradigm of the circus as a discipline. I would incorporate this element of the Press Kit as another direct quote. Being a quote from the Director himself, is really quite important. It will enable the readers to connect to the story on a deeper level.

The Main Characters/The Scenes/Acts: This sets out the main characters of Totem with a brief description of each one; and the chronology of scenes with a description of each one. This would be the 'who' component of the story as it describes who was in the event. I would only put the most interesting and popular characters and scenes in the new story as this would interest readers the most. 

Totem: Cirque du Soleil
Source: Playandgo, 2015

The Creators: This is the element of the Press Kit that identifies the people involved in creating Totem. Each individual has a profile with their name. I wouldn’t include all these profiles in the news story as I don’t think they would be of much interest to the readers. Instead, I may just put a few of the main creators as this would interest readers the most. 

Costumes: This element describes the inspiration behind the costume design with the mention of the costume designer, Kym Barratt. This element of the Press Kit explores the different costumes with quite a lot of detail. This is one area of the news story where we could unfold the story as the costumes of Totem are quite unique, therefore making it news worthy.

Set Design and Projections: The set Design and Projection element deciphers the design of the set and projections used in Totem. This element goes in to great detail about the influential factors for the show’s design. I’m not entirely sure how I would use this element of the Press Kit into a news story, although I do think some readers may find it interesting. 

Support the Performance: This is the element which describes how the show is ever-evolving. This is broken down in to areas of: artistic direction, wardrobe, performance medicine, technical department, and tour services. I would incorporate this element into the news story as the 'how' component. Totem delivers an amazing experience to audiences with their extravagant costumes, stage props and visuals. However, what separates them from other circus productions is the constant innovation and evolution that is pursued. I believe this is very news worthy.

Village on Wheels: This element also covers the 'how' component of the news story. It explains the execution of the circus as a mobile village that includes: the Big Top which is one large entrance tent, the artistic tent, a kitchen and offices and all being set up in 8 days. The most news worthy feature of this element would be that Totem is completely self-sufficient for electrical power. As people are generally environmentally conscious these days, they would take interest in knowing that the site relies only on local water supply and telecommunication facilities to support its infrastructure.

Cirque Du Soleil at a glance: This is the last element of the Press Kit. It describes the evolution of Cirque Du Soleil from a description of its history, to its current empire today. Included in this element is the Mission of Cirque Du Soleil. 

Ames (2014) explains that a media press kit will contain all the information a journalist needs to write or produce a story. Media kits are used to support media releases. If a media release is distributed but it would be beneficial for additional information to be included, this information is contained in a media kit (Ames, 2014). From doing this exercise, I have demonstrated how I would write a media release on this show if I was a journalist. Evidently, not every detail from the media kit would be discussed in the media release, but only the topics that would seem interesting to readers. 

References:

Playandgo 2015, 'Totem: Cirque du Soleil', digital image, viewed 27 August 2015, www.playandgo.com.au

Ames, K 2014, Study guide lesson 6 - supporting the story: packaging and supplementing your writing, course notes, COMM11007: Media Writing, CQUniversity e-courses. 

Week Five - News Report Interview

Chapter seven and 11 quiz
This week's reading was only a short one, so it was very easy to comprehend and get a good mark on the quiz. My first attempt I got 8/10 because I was confused on the question stating to never start a sentence with a numeric figure. Always spell the figure in full if it begins the sentence. I forgot about this and simply stated 14, instead of fourteen. Now I fully understand. The rest of the questions were quite easy. 

Newstory

My boyfriend and mother both agreed today that I am the most important thing to them. The pair also explained what their biggest passions are.

My Mother, Shareen Schultenkamp, said that the most important thing for her is for me to be looked after in every single way.

"I want to see that you do well in life and are happy

"My biggest passion in the world is travelling and experiencing all the adventures from it".

My boyfriend, Mitchell Spreadborough said that to him the most important thing to him was me and our future together.

"The thing that the means the most is my future with you and I hope it will be a good one

"Manchester United and football is my biggest passion

"I love staying up late and watching a game. It's what I look forward to during the week".

My mother and my boyfriend are each enjoying their life as it comes and look forward to witnessing their own futures.

Here is my twitter link for tweets. I took a photo of each of my interviewees and posted a photo to Twitter and a one sentence grab from the interview. Below is the screenshots.

https://twitter.com/YSchultenkamp

Overall, I found this activity quite interesting. However, the interview itself was not that exciting as the questions I had to ask were not really that newsworthy. But I guess it was an exercise to just learn the principle and get good at it! This was great practice for the upcoming assignment 1 where we have to write a news article. Hopefully my new stories in the future will be much more interesting!

The hotel of doom - A fantastic article
My article that really stayed with me can be found here:

News Article - Welcome to the Hotel of Doom

After reading this article, I couldn't stop thinking about it and it really stayed with me. The article is about an undercover English journalist practically breaking the law by pretending to be a businessman in the capital of North Korea. In the article, he travelled to dangerous North Korea and joined a tour group. Whilst he was there, he wrote down the places he was taken, what it was like, the people he saw, the environment and so on. The most interesting part was how the journalist sneaked out of his hotel to visit a hotel that has been under construction for over 30 years. The hotel was once the tallest in the world but ceased construction due to bankruptcy. However, the construction started again this decade and was supposed to open later that year in 2012. The journalist risked his life to sneak inside the hotel and see what was inside. He found only a concrete jungle and nothing else. The hotel has been such a controversial issue all over the world.

Source: CharmJokes, 2012
The Ryugyong Hotel: Before and After completion.

Seeing as the media is not allowed in North Korea, it was very interesting to read the story of this journalist and his adventure. The detail of the article was amazing, he noted down the majority of his trip. His background information and research was so spot on and he knew exactly what he was talking about. The conventions of journalism are all very evident in the article, such as indirect and direct quotes. I could simply not stop reading the article!

References:

CharmJokes 2012, The Ryugyong Hotel, digital image, viewed 11 August 2015, www.charmjokes.com

Parry, S 2012, 'Welcome to the Hotel of Doom', The Daily Mail, viewed 11 August 2015,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2245054/Welcome-Hotel-Doom-The-3-000-room-monstrosity-Kim-Jong-Uns-starving-dictatorship-North-Korea-foreigner-stepped-inside--now.html

Week Four - Preparation for Assignment Three

Chapter four quiz
For this week's quiz, I found it to be quite easy in comparison to last week's quiz. Most of the questions seemed to be general knowledge and I generally did not have any issues this week. Woohoo!

Planning for assignment three

Event one
Event one is the Annual Yeppoon Village Festival. This event is Central Queensland's major music and arts celebration and 2015 will be the 13th Festival. The event will be held from the 21st to the 23rd of August. The event provides a vibrant mix of music, performing and visual arts, children's festival, street theatre, workshops and food and market stalls.  The event is free for the public to attend.  The Festival’s traditional main stage was held at the iconic Yeppoon Main Beachfront stage with other stages being hosted by a number of venues including the Keppel Bay Sailing Club and The Strand Hotel (The Village Festival, 2015). I do not need to get accredited for the event at all. 

At the event, I plan to interview an attendee, an event coordinator and a performer and ask them questions such as:

• 'Is this your first time here?'
• 'What has made you attend the event?'
• 'What has been your favourite part of today?'
• 'What makes this year different to previous years?'
• 'What should everyone look forward to this year the most?'

I will also ask to take a photo of them with their permission to put on my Twitter and Storify accounts. The main parts of the event will be the mix of music and arts and comment on the talent of the local community. Also performing is music legend, Kasey Chambers. This should bring a large crowd to the area. 

Event two

Event two is the Annual 2015 Rockhampton Cultural Festival. At this event, there will be music and dancing with food from all over the globe. The event will take place at the Heritage Village on Sunday August 30. Festival goers can tempt their tastebuds with a wide variety of delicious food, cooked by local members of the international community, or sit back and relax with live music and dance from far-away places (The Morning Bulletin, 2015). I do not need to get accredited for the event at all. 

At the event, I plan to interview an attendee and a stall operator and ask them questions such as:

• 'Is this your first time here?'
• 'What has made you attend the event?'
• 'What has been your favourite part of today?'
• 'What makes this year different to previous years?'
• 'What should everyone look forward to this year the most?'

I will also ask to take a photo of them with their permission to put on my Twitter and Storify accounts. The main parts of the event will be the mix of international cuisine from all parts of the globe, as well as international music and dances. It should bring a nice sense of multiculturalism to the local community.

Planning
Source: Dreamstime, 2015

Three important reasons to plan

After watching Kate's video on why planning is important, I gathered three main points. These are:

• Time waits for no one! So get in there as quick as possible.
• Find your schedule or what the main events are! This is so you know what is happening and when and that you do not miss out on the important events.
• Have you acquired accreditation? It's important to know whether you are allowed to bring your camera to an event or not. If not, it might be confiscated at the entry. This is why it is important to get permission before you go to an event.

Newstory and media release review 

In regards to O'Neil's (2015) story, I have never read such a terrible entertainment news story. There were many things wrong with it. Firstly, the title says "Robert Pattinson talks about his film, The Rover with Dave O'Neil". No he did not! The whole article talks about Robert Pattinson and how much of a teen idol he is. O'Neil (2015) also talks a lot about himself and Robert's security guard. But not once did the writer ask any questions about Robert's new film. The article is also quite offensive towards Robert's security guard and even President Obama. O'Neil (2015) also uses a lot of colloquialism such as 'mate', 'RPatz and 'KStew'. It is an absolutely atrocious article that doesn't actually get to the point!

However, Berkman (2015) wrote a wonderful media release that hit all the nails on the head. The media release starts off by explaining the situation and then goes more into the reason of why. According to Whitaker, Ramsey & Smith (2012) this is what a good media release should do. Every paragraph is no longer than a sentence and there is good use of facts backed up by quotes and sources. The media release towards the end explains what the expected resolution should be. The media release uses the KISS technique and gets straight to the point (Whitaker, Ramsey & Smith, 2012). There is also strong correlation between the title and the actual piece, unlike the entertainment story. 

References:

Berkman, A 2015, 'Drought worst in living memory: AgForce survey, Advancing Rural Queensland, viewed 6 August 2015, http://www.agforceqld.org.au/index.php?tgtPage=news&id=view,478

Dreamstime 2015, Planning, digital image, viewed 6 August 2015, www.dreamstime.com

O'Neil, D 2015, 'Robert Pattinson talks about his new film, The Rover with Dane O'Neil', The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 6 August 2015, http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/robert-pattinson-talks-about-his-new-film-the-rover-with-dave-oneil-20140619-zs99j.html

The Morning Bulletin 2015, 'Rockhampton Cultural Festival is coming up fast', The Morning Bulletin, viewed 6 August 2015, http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/rockhampton-cultural-festival-coming-fast/2730487/

The Village Festival 2015, About us, viewed 6 August 2015, http://www.thevillagefestival.org.au/pages/?ParentPageID=2&PageID=25

Whitaker, W & Ramsey, C & Smith, R 2012, Media Writing Print, Broadcast, and Public Relations, Routledge, New York.