Slightly annoyed at myself for not remembering to bring my headphones today, editing for Advanced Broadcast Journalism is going to be difficult without them so I've organised to come to another tutorial tomorrow at 8:30. Fortunately I am excellent at getting out of bed at early hours (not). Them's the breaks though..!

So while I cannot participate in today's tutorial activity, I thought I'd take a few minutes to have a gripe about a few things journalism-related.
1) $250 million cash-gift to free-to-air channels
2) Election-year 'distractions' / 'impetus' for journos to 'get up close' to politicians.

So first of all. Why is our government spending 'Aussie tax dollars' on commercial stations when these broadcasters create enough revenue through advertising and ratings to afford a plethora of American (pardon my French) shit that they need to create new 'multi-channels' to accommodate? Oh yeah, to help them make the move to digital television. Wait a minute though.. something's going unsaid here, would it be that Prime already has 7two, and Channel 9 has Go!, oneHD is a Channel 10 sub, while all three commercial stations already have HDTV channels, ready to go? And should I mention that these were all made available to these broadcasters at 'no additional cost' ?
Yesterday's article '$250m TV gift needs to be rechannelled' by Simon Whipp, found on the Australian online outlines the Australian-American Free Trade Agreement that extends to television, capping Australian content at 50%. Now who the fuck agreed to that?! (Again, pardon my French. Also, it was John Howard.) What sort of trading-off on Australian production is that? And why should we gift stations who quite happily create their own (billions of dollars of) revenue annually, even if under the guise of 'beefing up Australian content'?
According to Whipp, we ought to ensure the cash goes to production of Australian content and ensuring its quality. According to Stephen Conroy, "the Government recognises that the commercial television broadcasters will require some assistance to maintain Australian content production, while investing in a new delivery platform nationally."  (From a media release from the beginning of the month.)
If that assistance is increasing the impetus for local content in all stations, or readdressing the FTA that has capped local content, then they're going in the right direction. Frankly however it's hard for me to see right now why our tax dollars are being siphoned off to private health care (though apparently K Rudd is taking the stance of hardline opposition to this), private/independent schooling and now broadcasters who make lots of money from subpar programming and advertisement saturation/revenue.
Never one to wave the 'stop spending Aussie tax dollars' flag lightly (because I see it as a bit tabloid-esque, rallying the hardworkin' Aussie battler against just about any 'injustice' that will sell a story), it was Rudd's speech in Question Time early this week about private healthcare not being deserving of our Aussie tax dollar that helped some cogs and wheels start turning in my head.
Being on the look out for a story idea and also just as someone who enjoys Question Time, my ears pricked up. Weren't the 'elite' schools of Canberra just given funding to improve their already state of the art facilities? Personally, I pay my taxes a) cos I'm afraid of the taxman but b) because I support a system that supports those who aren't as well off as I am. The 10% or so of my meagre paycheck that goes to the Australian Tax Office helps me sleep at night. I'm helping my Nan afford the costs of her stay in a retirement home while also helping her receive the healthcare she needs in her old age.
I'm helping my best friend get through CIT as a youth with allowance. Furthermore, I'm contributing to a system that helps the little guys get ahead.
So when the quality of private healthcare usurps that of public because of a lack of funding and support, or when the little tackers in my neighbourhood don't want to go to school because they don't have a gymnasium with an indoor swimming pool and 800 new Macs and all the rest of it and suffer poor literacy and numeracy skills as a result, I have a problem with it. When skills shortages as a result of poor education from the outset affects the care given in public schools and hospitals, I don't mind jumping up and down about 'our bloody tax dollars.' It feels like being taken for a ride, and this $250m to commercial broadcasters with no strings attached or any real conditions smacks of scam.
Oh, and have I already talked about it being an election year..? Meaning our pollies want all media/ broadcasters on their side..?
So my next grievance (and this will be a bit more brief as it's time for my sandwich and nap, but NB my swell segue) is with journalists who appear to forget that their profession requires them to report information of relevance to the public. The point of press-junkets and conferences is to seminate the same, PR spun bullshit to all stations/outlets so that a) media is homogenised and b) is in favour of he/she who is deigning to give the press their time. So journalists who take part in 'distractions' like the insulation debate or Tony Abbott's near miss with a semi while failing to deliver important news like where public funding is going, what certain policy will mean for the Aussie battler or even just telling us something new instead of personifying and then vilifying that political personality make me shudder.
When I tell people I'm studying to be a journalist, invariably I am met with responses along the lines of, "Oh, so you're a bloodsucker then?"
I think it's hard for people who are either disillusioned by the he-said, she-said media style Australian journos are perfecting or who think we're just here to make assholes of assholes and poke holes in things that they'd rather believe to be airtight to believe that some of us want integrity and truth to be our mainstays, and what prompts us to make news. Because at the end of the day, if I wanted to watch banal mediocrities that centre around, "he said this! then she said this and they did this and it was horrible!" I could flick on my television and find on any number of stations an American sitcom that delivers the same calibre of content. The only problem there would be the decision between regular Prime or 7two, channel 9 or Go! or channel 10 or oneHD..