Semester 1 of Professional Communications at RMIT, was insightful, challenging and enjoyable. At the beginning, I was incredibly excited to start university after a year off, especially because I was starting a course that was more specific and had a clearer direction then Arts at Monash. The whole concept of exercising my brain again in a more academic way was an exciting, yet a daunting task. Throughout my football career; of 3 years, I have had opportunities in the media, and I have worked closely with our public relations manager and thought the professional communications was the path I want to pursue. The first seminar we had Ella mentioned the inter-disciplinary approach that Professional Communications at RMIT takes when it comes to media and communications sector. Inter-disciplinary refers to the integration of knowledge and methods from different disciplines and synthesising the approach (Jensenius, 2012). The four main disciplines include Public Relations, Media, Journalism and Advertising and at their foundation is storytelling. Which initially starting this course, did not understand how much we are surrounded by storytelling, not just via books, tv shows and media but through these four disciplines. It is interesting because it is human nature to tell and share stories and it was until reflecting. In reference to disciplinary agnostics and these four disciplines, they rely on commonalities in order to tell and share stories, the features include a purpose, audience, message and context. The type of story each discipline creates may differ, such as; Journalistic and Public Relations stories involve factual and verifiable information basis. Whereas, media and advertising embody more emotive and dramatised storytelling. The purpose of the four disciplines can be interchangeable between public relations and advertising because they both have a strategic and commercial interest. In contrast, Journalism and media have a more public and creative interest. For example, during our assessment 2 and 3 it was highlighted to me the interdisciplinary approach there is when designing a media campaign. Having a combination of skills and understanding can help have more well-rounded approach in delivering a successful outcome and it being engaged with by the audience.

Which then alluded me to the importance of brands, campaigns and organisations understanding the key stakeholders within their organisation and in a communication plan. An important stakeholder is your target audience. To understand your audience sufficient research needs to occur. Which was a new skill that I developed drastically while working on assessment 2 and 3. The importance of doing sufficient research and then sharing with others in the group allowed for debate and communication to occur, it also built respect between the group due accepting different viewpoints (Borrego and Newswander, 2008). Working with my group also showed me how much research could be done and needed to be done to fully understand the topic and has given me a greater insight on what is required to gain better marks in the future.

An exercise conducted in class was our ‘elevator pitch’ to a potential boss or company we would like to work for. What was interesting about this was to hear the feedback in reference to my comfortable nature talking in front of people, and my ability to clearly deliver the information needed. However, during this process, it made me realise that I think I was pitching to the wrong company and the wrong job title. I remember saying to a peer, I wanted to change my pitch to FoxFm and become a radio presenter. As the semester went on this became more prevalent, as during assessment 2 we included a podcast as a prototype. Using the feedback given with the elevator pitch and the peers in my group about writing the script for the podcast it became evident that is an area I want to explore.

An element of the course that I found interesting was my online footprint and the self-doxing task. When researching myself a lot of what came up was in reference to football and that is all well and good, but I hopefully want to be more than just football. However, it could work to my advantage.

I’ve gained a greater insight into advertising and its ability it has to be an agent in social change. When there is a greater importance of representing a mirrored image of society, it is important to include the diversity that is human society (Jaffe, 2015). Nike is a brand that prides itself on the advertisements that embody social change; such as the “dream crazier”, where it explored the traditional notions that women get emotional therefore, they are crazy. Also explore the notion of women doing unbelievable things and that’s crazy. Nike turned this into and positive and empowering message that supports women to dream and strive for greatness, and if people think it is crazy, so be it. Advertising has negative stigma surrounding it due to putting filters and photoshopping heavily, losing its morality in order to get monetary gain. However, when advertising is used in a way that creates discussion, that empowers and creates positive diversity it can be an area for real social shift amongst a community (Kotler and Sarkar, 2018). Through advertising I did not understand the importance it had on understanding the target audience, to make the brand, company or commodity more desirable. Playing on the emotive and dramatized aspects of story telling

As expressed, I’ve found elements of the course challenging; such as the intensive research required and the ability to have greater control over my time management and organisational skills. However, gaining a greater insight in what to expect from the course and the requirements needed to obtain high marks. Areas of the course that gave me great insight was the exploration of advertising and the creative opportunities with media production and exploring the intricacies and inter-relations between all four disciplines.

Reference List

Carr Gemma, Loucks Daniel P., Bloschl Gunter, (2018) “Gaining insight into interdisciplinary research and education programmes: A framework for evaluation”, Research Policy, Vol. 47, Issue: 1, pp.35-48

Jensenius, A. (2019). Disciplinarities: intra, cross, multi, inter, trans. [image] Available at: http://www.arj.no/2012/03/12/disciplinarities-2/ [Accessed 26 May 2019].

Jaffe, C. (2015). How advertising has become an agent of social change. [Blog] Medium. Available at: View at Medium.com [Accessed 26 May 2019].

Kotler, P. and Sarkar, C. (2018). “Stand for Something: Brand Activism at Nike” – Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler. Marketingjournal.org. Available at: http://www.marketingjournal.org/stand-for-something-brand-activism-at-nike-christian-sarkar-and-philip-kotler/ [Accessed 30 May 2019].

Inter-disciplinary includes the integration of knowledge and methods from different disciplines and synthesising the approach. I remember from the beginning of the course Ella briefly exploring the four main disciplines. She presented this graph above, showing how each discipline intersect and how they integrate elements of each other. I first noticed it, when I was sitting in Popular culture class and we were talking about what makes things popular, how is it accessed and how is it controlled? Then in a prof comm seminar we were talking about the internet and the intricacies of distribution of content. That kind of scenario has occurred many times throughout the semester, particularly with introduction to public relations and particular aspects of the prof comm course. Where designing a Public relations plan also involves the knowledge of aspects of journalism, advertising and producing media. With incorporating them in a plan that then successfully captures the audience.

Shown in the diagram above, the green line refers to the type of story and the red line refers to the purpose of the stories. Both journalism and public relations have similar types of stories that they produce, whereby they are factual and verifiable. On the other hand you have media and advertising appealing to the emotive and dramatised storytelling. When it comes to the purpose of a communication disciplines public relations and advertising there is a strategic and commercial interest, where there is a monetary value. Whereas, media production and journalism have a more public and creative interest. Disciplinary agnostic means that the common ground between disciplines involves the purpose, audience, message and context. When handling a crisis management PR plan, yes it has majority of Public relations foundations, however having knowledge of producing social media content that is emotive and potentially apologetic so the audience can relate and understand the to the issue it makes it easier to achieve potential outcomes. If following a crisis, it involves an organisation to hold a fundraiser, it allows us to understand the importance of advertising and making it an event that is morally correct however promotes a message to make a financial gain for a particular cause. Everything is intertwined and having knowledge about them all is very important.

I did not realise how intersected each discipline is, however after researching potential job opportunities post this course, it is evident that communication jobs require knowledge in all four disciplines. It also gives job flexibility and allows us to have the skills in multiple areas. Throughout this course it has been identified that communication relies heavily on the notion of being mutually exclusive, a strong relationship is formed between and organisation and communications company or team.

When critically reflecting it is important to incorporate DIEP which stand for Describe, Interpret, Evaluate, Plan.

Semester 1 of professional communication started well, I was dedicating sufficient time to uni work, keeping up to date and attending both classes and lectures. However as the semester went on my time management and organisation skills diminished. I noticed the busier I got with football training, appearances, meetings and then work and coaching engagements the harder I could find time to devote as much time to university as I would liked. Time management involves scheduling set times to dedicate to a particular thing, I have not yet implemented a plan for being better with my time management.

I’ve started with getting a calendar, that will allow me to pencil in dates when i need to coach, work or have training, appearances and meetings at the club.

This will help me remember when I have things on, also allow me to give notice to my group if I am not able to attend a scheduled meeting or attend class. Spare time is hard to come by, I’ve tried to schedule times where I can complete a task or aspects of a task. With PR elements of assessment 3 I have started to tick off, so it doesn’t come to the day and I’m letting my team down.

Throughout the semester I also noticed that I manage my time and am really organised when it comes to my training, eating and professionalism when it comes to being an athlete but definitely slips when it comes to my studies.

By simply acknowledging that I am extremely busy, implies that I am aware that i need to time manage better, also acknowledging how quickly university content is covered and how quickly you can get left behind, proves that a structure study schedule would help me with keeping on top of it all. Implementing these structures and schedules will change the way i approach assessment tasks, and will be useful for semester 2 as for the duration of my course and with repeat practice of time management it will put me in a good place when it comes to embarking on a career.

The purpose of a media release involve and informational/journalistic motivation and an organisational/strategic motivation. Media releases are in the form of news, where a particular message is delivered on behalf of an organisation. They are formatted in away where the key messages and important information can be quickly assessed and accessed.

An example of a media release is by the Western Bulldogs Football Club.

The media release is about Tom Boyd announcing his AFL retirement. Tom Boyd is 23, it has been covered by the media, the struggles he has had with mental illness in the past few years. It was important for the club to release this information first, due to Boyd being so young and leaving halfway through the current season. All information that Boyd is ok with sharing about his mental illness is summarised in the the media release. This information then lead for news article in the Herald Sun, press conferences held by the Western Bulldogs and many TV footy shows mentioned the retirement and information that was in the press release. This was definitely a human interest story, due to it not just being a of football star retiring, it had elements of mental health involved. For the football audience and especially Western Bulldog fans would find this story to be in close proximity to them, generating an emotional response for those fans. Tom Boyd has been in the media over recent weeks and years about lack of performance on the field, therefore he is a novelty and prominence due to Boyd being under public and media scrutiny in the past.

Another example of a media/press release is;

Senator Fraser Anning was involved in a physical altercation with Will Connelly “Egg Boy”. In this media release, he shares his disappointment in the incident and extremely apologetic towards Will Connelly, the Connelly Family and the Australian public. As it was a conflict making it newsworthy, he needs to provide as much information as possible, in working with his legal team he mentions that he was acting out of self defence. That Connelly initiated the violence, however apologetic and doesn’t condone physical retaliation as the answer. This event got a lot of media attention, even overseas. As Anning is a politician, journalist have a function in keeping politicians accountable for their actions. Information in the media release was used across various different media outlets, to give background information to the article, to factually provide information about the events that transpired.

Media releases are very important in a communication plan, in the event of a conflict or crisis moment it is important to release promptly. People want to know what is going on, providing factual information and satisfying the peoples want and need for that.

According to Stephen Lamble, news happens when an event, action or circumstance has an impact, or likely impact, on people or their way of life. It is a concept that is hard to define, for example; Former editor of the New York Times says that it is ‘anything you can find out today that you didn’t know before’. Or ‘anything that will make people talk’, said by the editor of the New York Sun.

The functions related to journalism and newsworthy content are further explore in Lamble’s book;

• Acting as a mirror to reflect a society to itself
• Helping keep the powerful honest and accountable
• Advocacy role and providing a voice
• Protecting, informing and promoting democratic ideals
• Telling people what is happening around the world
• Protecting the public interest
• Fostering hope and rewarding benevolence
• Bringing communities together in times fo trouble

These functions can make particular events, action or circumstances be newsworthy, these functions can be seen to have an impact on the public or on their way of life. For example, Tayla Harris derogatory comments saga, Herald Sun provided Tayla with a voice when she was able to write a column piece. When it first came to fruition there was a feature story about which informed and promoted women’s right ideals, as well as telling Australia and the world with what happened and the events that transpired.

The values news stories must embody are;

• Significance

Which relates to the number of people affected in some way by an event or circumstance. Another example is Fraser Anning and eggs boy incident. Whereby, Anning was attending a public appearance in South East Melbourne and due to recent comments in relation to the the Christchurch terror attack and boy named Will Connelly retaliated with throwing an egg in his face. Due to Anning being a politician, this was of high significance to the wider Australia, especially Queenslanders because he is their representative and could impact their way of life.

• Proximity

Relates to the news that happens close to us geographically. It also relates to event which are close to us emotionally, culturally, historically and socially. In reference to Anning, it occurred in South – East Melbourne, so naturally it would be covered by the Victoria news outlets. He is also a politician which effects us emotionally, as Anning should be representing society in a better way.

• Conflict

News stories dealing with conflict cover a wide spectrum, from physical and political conflicts. Fraser Anning killed two birds with one stone here. Due to his outrages opinions that many disagree with caused the initial conflict, however was also a catalyst to the physical conflict that occurred between Egg Boy and Anning.

• Human Interest

Humans have a passion for knowing what other people are doing. When an event occurs it immediately generates an information vacuum, where people want to know, who was involved and what happened. However there can be human interest stories that are more biographical on someone’s life and potentially the amazing work they are doing etc.

• Novelty

This can be called the strange, odd-ball, bizarre journalism. Fraser Anning’s incident could have fallen into this category as of the randomness of the incident. Not necassarily the physical altercation, however due to the use of the Egg, it is not something you hear every day. “Australian Senator Egged.”

• Prominence

Prominence is closely related to human interest and novelty. People who regularly feature in news reports tend to develop a certain prominence in society. Eddie Mcguire is a prime example, he is often in the news about something he has misread, miscommunicate or wrongly said. Due to Mcguire being a public figure he is under public scrutiny.

As shown there are many aspects that can make things newsworthy, however everything must be fact checked. Journalists must be credible and must be providing the public and communities with correct information. News is at the eye of the beholder (Lamble, 2015)

Design thinking involves a methodology for how to address a problem for which you had no clear idea what the end solution should look like. Its not about being a creative person and a grand idea just popping into your head, it is the ability to research a topic, asking particular people questions and identify a problem that then leads to the “creative idea”.

This was a profound concept for me, initially when thinking about “something develop(mental) of social media” I immediately tried to figure out the end result. However it was not tile researching did I gain a greater insight into the topic and the potentially gap that could have been explored.

Initially researched involved the negatives of social media and technology use, the addiction, the way people perceive others through social media, escapism, the unhealthy way people view themselves on social media, which increases low self esteem and the disconnection people have with the offline world. It also spoke a lot about social media and FOMO, the infamous Fear Of Missing Out. With more research on the topic of FOMO and consultation with the group, especially Candice who suggest and researched JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out. We saw a potential gap, where we could be creative and tell a story with substance and a different take on social media. We quickly decided we didn’t want to stop people from using social media all together, but help people find a healthy balance with the online and offline worlds. We wanted to target millennial between the ages 18-24, that are somewhat interested in the idea of disconnecting with technology. There is a lot of research in the effects of social media on children and teens and thought there was a gap between the ages of 18-24.

Working in a group help expand on ideas and flesh out different aspects of the topic that I did not necessarily think of. It allows for each person to take charge of a particular area and gain insight on the topic, then expand and deepen the knowledge by talking through points with a group. Working together to find the potential outcome and build towards it.

I chose to pitch to a director or CEO of lulu lemon and worldwide active wear company. I would like to work in their advertising and/ or communication team, and be involved with creating campaigns and help create communication plans that can engage a larger audience.

The feedback I received the first time around was that I needed to give more information about myself and the skills I could provide to the company. My strength is public speaking and being comfortable talking in front of people. I just needed to be more clear in what I was going to say, and say it with a little more conviction. I needed to understand the story I was telling and how I was going to link certain bits of information together.

The ability to communicate in front of people is an acquired skill, in a course such as professional communications it is important to have that ability. The ability to communicate clearly and build trusting relationships is something that a PR or communication practitioner needs to have. I think that is a strength that I have, feeling confident and comfortable to express myself in front of people and hopefuly still rely the message.

The two examples from Josh Stearn’s “Best Online Storytelling”, were both about race. The first example was an article “Social Media Helps Black Lives Matter Fight The Power.” By Bijan Stephens.

The article explores the intricacies of the “Black Lives Matter” campaign. How social media and the internet allowed the campaign to spread rapidly around America via a simple hashtag. A notion that is taken for granted in society, a simple hashtag, can go viral and spread a message and enhance a campaigns reach and unite a community. It compares this to the black civil rights movement of the 60s and how difficult it was to spread the message. It explained the intricate plans that activist groups had to go to in order to get media coverage. A vast contrast of what it is like today.

The second example is an presentation piece by the Balitmore Sun “The 45-Minute Mystery of Freddie Gray’s Death”. Which works closely with the timeline of events, which extenuates the mystery in his death. It provides factual information, with accounts from passerby’s that were drastically different to the accounts of the police officers. The theme of the piece correlating with the Black Lives Matter movement because it is representing the relationship and interaction most black people have with the police.

Both these examples of storytelling are exploring racial discrimination in America. Both examples are presented in a non-traditional format, they have interactive features and use visual representation to increase emotion with in the reader.

The examples are different because they take a different approach in delivering the information. The feature article begins to provide historical evidence and events that showed how hard it was to engage the media when it came to black civil rights. It also explores the progression of the black civil rights movement in more depth. Whereas, the Baltimore Sun recounts the events that transpired, no more information. They are both accessing the same audience, more specifically black people in America, as well as letting the rest of the wider community, for the Baltimore Sun it was more the for the Baltimore community to gain greater understanding of the social vilification and stigma black people face. To shed light on the importance of acceptance of a non-mainstream group.

Not knowing what each example would be about, they actually work in tandem well. It as if the feature article gives context and background on the overall topic of racism in America. Then followed with the Baltimore Sun piece is if it was an example presented in an essay. Where there is a stress in the interaction between police and black people, and negative stigma and notions of black people exist in society.

Charley Jaffe wrote an article called “how advertising has become and agent in social change”, which highlights the role marketing and advertising in shaping society today.

The article explores how advertising can shape our self perception, consumption behaviour and aspirations. An area in advertising that interests me is how to best advertise a product in a social acceptable or in away that represents society in a more natural and relatable way. Often enough we see women over sexualised, underweight and photoshopped. Depicting a sense of perfection, this can have a drastic toll on the growing teen girls, who begin to think that is the way they must look to be fit in, because that is what we see.

Through advertising there is a debate about whether a campaign is values based; is it for-profit and for good. Mentioned in a previous blog post the nike women ad, where nike took the risk to explore and depict and social group that faces many adversities. By showing them through a lens where they are empowered and accepted can have great risk, yet a greater reward.

I like the idea of universal truth, what one person may deem truth, someone else may disagree. However when using advertising in social change it has to play on universal truth, to change the perception of the non-mainstream group and to increase acceptance. With the LGBQI community, the universal truth explored is love, everyone needs love.

Advertising is a paid communication with an organisation and their audience and it is important to understand an audience/ communities needs. In communicating those key messages advertising campaigns involve an emotive push to engage the audience. Which I find could be an area in advertising that can be explored, however diplomatic and responsible so social context in order to deliver well.

Advertising and marketing is a business that is trying to reach audiences to participate and engage them in a particular product or social change. Brands must take a responsibility in social change and depiction of all areas of society.

At Newsgeist in 2015, Jeff Jarvis’s ignite talk on the death of the mass media business model, explored the notion that internet and online journalism has changed, people are able to get the news quickly and easily.

Jarvis mentions that journalism and the business model surrounding it is not how it has been known since the introduction of the World Wide Web. Meaning the business model included having ownership of information access, the advertisers, the distribution and the audience. However the internet interrupted this process and model. In aspects it has improved what news and journalist do by increasing abundance of information and news, increasing the accessibility, making news have more relevance.

The issue with the internet and social media is that organisations in this sector think that providing more and more content is the way the business model has changed. However this should not be the case, according to Jeff Jarvis, he believes that quality over quantity is more important. As an industry journalism needs to rebuild itself around relevance, context, utility and community. Making evident that there should be a greater importance on feeding information that ins relevant to a community and information embodies aspects that are making the community better. Shifting the perception of journalism and seeing it more as a service to the community to help people gain greater insights on issues concerning them.

In the current journalistic approach involves measuring the success of stories and journalist by being media centric, where the focus is on the ratings of the story, did you click on the story, time spent with story. However that is not what should build the foundations of journalism, not with the increase responsibility and accessibility that the internet is providing the journalists. There needs to be a greater stress on is the story of value to the community.

The internet has changed the game for journalism, I think in the current state of story telling through the news has found itself in a negative space, where negative stories are the main feature article or story, to shock and pull people to view, read it, watch it. However that is not necessarily making the community a better place. How can a new business model be implemented where journalist are telling stories to influence and motivate in a positive way. Producing articles and stories that have substance and value in the community. Quality over quantity.