City Journal 2011

This year our class of final year RMIT journalism students has put together three newspapers, called City Journal.

It’s targeted at 18-25 year olds living and working in Melbourne.

In first semester this was inegrated into the subject Print Editing and Producation. We learnt how to use InDesign and Photoshop to put together one paper at the end of semester.

In second semester City Journal was part of Converged Newsroom, and we produced two newspapers and had to put the stories on the City Journal website, adjusting them and adding links, videos, pictures and multi-media to suit the medium. So, here are my contributions througout the year:

Issue 1, Semester 1

I was a reporter and sub-editor for News.

I wrote my story on the way the census was proposing to count homeless youths. It’s the middle story.

Issue 1, Semester 2

I was a sub-editor and reporter for Entertainment.

Here is the print version and here is the online version of my story on a group of friends playing, recording and supporting their music, for the love not the profit.

Issue 2, Semester 2

I was a reporter for Opinion.

As an avid Twit, I decided to take give politicans some clues as to what works and doesn’t work on the platform.  Here it is online, and here in print (down the bottom).

That’s all folks!

Hack! On Triple J

Today marks a week at Hack, and it’s been a huge learning curve.

The team is great and so very hardworking. I really want to get better at audio editing, mixing and writing for radio - and I hope I will in time.

Being here has made me really want to go rural next year and learn the ropes there. Hopefully a country broadcaster will take me!

But here is the package I got to air on Thursday, when we explored people’s experience of being naturally skinny and copping abuse for it when they were growing up. And some of the people I spoke to even still get the odd comment about their weight or stature here and there.

Hack’s Sydney reporter Patrick Abboud helped mix this together.

Podcast me

In the last month or so I have become a podcast obsessed. I would love to know what other commuters think when they see my facial expression change so much in one train trip – from what they would think was music – but is actually the latest Radiolab, This American Life, Hack, NPR story of the day or Freakonomics podcast.

I thoroughly enjoy listening to all of those, but especially the ones that are created and produced as podcasts. Radiolab has about 1.8 million listeners worldwide, with many of them listening in podcast form. And This American Life is listened to by 100 million in America and, according to mUmbrella, gets about 400,000 downloads a week. They mostly don’t need time to be relevant.

These two shows have particularly inspired me, in my role at executive producer of Panorama on SYN, to be more creative with the way I mix in sounds and music into my stories. And they have shown me how excellent a narrative can be on its own. These shows get excellent talent, who sound enthusiastic and describe things in an engaging way. But they also tell stories and introduce talent, layer sounds and put themselves into stories in a way I haven’t heard in Australia.

And it work so well.

I frequently have what NRP calls driveway moments, but without a car, I tend to hang just before the place I’m meant to be until the podcast or section has finished. I’ve taken to lurking.

Here are a few of my recent favourites.

Radiolab – Dogs Gone Wild, Help! and Lost and Found.

This America Life – Break Up, The Psychopath Test and Game Changer.

And here is my attempt at using some of their production values to tell a story.

Yesterday on Panorama we were looking at how young people have been affected by the drop in consumer confidence and online shopping, seeing as many under the age of 30 are employed in retail jobs.

I spoke to Fran Wiseman about her job at retail giant Myer.

RMIT City Journal Online

This semester, my last I might add, one of my courses required us to put together another edition of RMIT Journalism student newspaper City Journal along with an online version of each story.

We were put into sections, and I was put in as a sub editor of entertainment. The minimum was to edit the stories I was given and help the producer and editor with layout.

But, as my overcommitted brain often thinks, why not write a story or two?

So I did.

The first is about a small group of bands in Melbourne, you can find that in its online form here.

That story is pointed to on the front page of the City Journal website, and on the front page of the paper.

And the second was a review, which is below or here with a bunch of other reviews.

TV: MISFITS

BY EMMA BUCKLEY LENNOX

In Australia, we often have to look to the old country to see gritty truths of being young and rebellious translated onto the small screen. They did it well in Skins and again British channel E4 has delivered with Misfits, a science fiction, teen drama written by Howard Overman of Hustle and Merlin fame.

Misfits tells the tale of six juvenile delinquents undertaking their community service.
A punchy script introduces Nathan (Robert Sheehan), who hasn’t let go of provocative schoolboy humour, shamed sporting star Curtis (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), Aliesha (Antonia Thomas), who’s gorgeous and knows it, loudmouth chav Shelly (Laura Socha) and reserved arsonist Simon (Iwan Rheon).

When the characters reluctantly assemble for their first day, something strange occurs. While repainting graffiti-laden benches, a freak storm hits their town and through the use of dodgy lightning special effects, the characters undergo internal transformations.

In short, they get superpowers.

Each character’s troubled past and personality is expressed through their sporadically discovered powers. And as the series unfolds, the group bonds over keeping their secret safe from probation officers, only to find out their experience was not exclusive.

Misfits has slapstick, suspense, not too in-your-face special effects, a killer soundtrack and great acting to boot, where one feels as though this situation is highly plausible and ultimately realistic.

And after two seasons have been and gone, here’s hoping the writers don’t ruin the fun and take the show’s escalating ratings too seriously.

Season three premieres later this year.

Can’t wait? Here’s a look at the show:

Internship – WIN News Ballarat

In July this year I undertook an internship at WIN News Ballarat, the headquarters for WIN Victoria.

During my week there I followed the journalists and camera men around, wrote news updates and a few RVOs.

I also got to practice using an autocue, doing piece to cameras and recording voice overs.

And here are the two stories I got cut together at the end of the week:

Police will decide tomorrow whether to scale back search and rescue operations to find a missing Ballarat man Jason Richards. But Mr Richards’ family say they haven’t given up and vow to stay on as long as the search takes.

Emma Buckley Lennox reports.

Authorities are baffled as to what caused a crash on the Colac-Ballarat Road this morning that left two people seriously injured.

Police say they have ruled out visibility and are still investigating.

Emma Buckley Lennox reports.

Catalyst Magazine: Supped & Sipped

Here’s my article from RMIT student union magazine Catalyst, edited by Jane Vashti Ryan and layout by Annabel Smith.

It’s my picks of the better cafes on the north side of the river.

Enjoy!

Norf-side bruncher

Promotional video, RMIT Media and Communication

Earlier this year I presented a video form RMIT University’s Media and Communication department.

Here’s the end product:

Panorama FYI

I’ve been very busy this year. So much so that if I do have a day off, I tend to not know what to do with myself. But it’s been productive, I swear.

I came up with the idea of a new promo for Panorama, kind of based off the idea of the Crikey.com.au column called the Crikey Clarifier.

It’s basically using an event or issue in the news, explaining it and promoting the show through it.

Here are some of the end products. A huge thank you to Tim Cuthell for making them sound as amazing as they do.

Asylum seekers and Refugee, FYI

Written by Emma Buckley Lennox, voiced by Tim Cuthell, Hayley Crane and Michael Lamonato.

How much Australians gamble, FYI. 

Written by Emma Buckley Lennox, voiced by Tim Cuthell, Luke Lum and Rebecca Russo.

How the Federal Parliament works, FYI

Written by Emma Buckley Lennox, voiced by Tim Cuthell and Travis Butler.

What Australian troops are doing in Afghanistan.

Written by Tim Cuthell, voiced by Tim Cuthell, Travis Butler and Emma Buckley Lennox.

Enjoy!

Take this as a comment, Tony

As seen on ABC's Q and A, 2 May 2011

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I’m a sucker for curing Monday-itis with a big bowl of pasta and the TV tuned to ABC1.

But the crux of my Monday nights is always Q and A, and since discovering TweetDeck for Google Chrome, I tweet my little heart out. Q and A was the reason my friends and I have had such in-depth discussions in the past weeks about pornography and its impact on young men and women. I love that Q and A divides audiences and it’s panelists often give us food for thought.

The politicians are amusing because the audience will give a loud groan or boo when they say something predictable and claps when they make more sense. And everybody loves it when an audience member starts asking the tough questions.

As seen on ABC's Q and A, 11 April 2011

I am annoyed, however, when it’s mostly Sydney-populated audience and Sydney-based panellists begin talking about the city as though no other cities exist in Australia. Former Howard government minister Jackie Kelly did this a few weeks ago and the words “Western Sydney mums” became scratched into my ear drums nearly as painfully as “working families”.

I wish Q and A would travel to other parts of Australia, not just for special occasions, such as the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Adventures in Democracy is Q and A’s slogan, but that would require a greater spread of people, from different parts of Australia.

For now, I’ll just keep tweeting and try to get my Melburnian two cents up on the screen.

Crikey! Internship!

As a student, I know very little of the 9-5 working hours of regular office people. I know about the 11am til midnight, but early mornings usually ain’t my thing. Until last week.

Last week, I did an internship at Crikey for one week. It wasn’t exactly 9-5, but close enough.

Mostly the articles written were to do with the Queensland Floods, as they were and still are dominating the news.

So here are the links to my stories.

Queensland Floods: After the deluge, a flood of volunteers help Brisbane clean up. 17 Jan 2011

Daily Proposition: Stargaze to shrink your ego. 19 Jan 2011

Operation Bounce Back = Operation Ratings? 19 Jan 2011

Planners say it’s time to take people out of flood-prone areas. 20 Jan 2011

From party ice to rent, prices are up post-flood. 20 Jan 2011

Caring for older Australians: a rethink of funding and facilities. 21 Jan 2011