Tag Archives: media

dream and your dream may come true … or not

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Two headlines on the same page of the Herald. Both about following your dreams and the juxtaposition and the contrast is to me at least startling.

Capturing prime position with five related coverage stories and pictures of crowds cheering on Sydney Harbour is the return of Jessica Watson, the nearly 17 year old yachtswoman from Brisbane who has become the youngest person to sail around the globe. The PM, the state Premier and the leader of the Opposition all had quotes in the paper about her achievement.

Jessica herself had this to say according to Herald:

‘I’m going to disagree with the Prime Minister. I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m an ordinary girl who believed in her dream,” she said. ”You don’t have to be someone special, or anyone special to achieve something amazing. You’ve just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard.”

Nice sentiments and true but the next major headline is of a girl who was murdered after following her dream job — which turned out to be a hoax. It was offered to her by a guy that posed on Facebook as a wildlife worker (her field). There was no fan fare, no VIP comments, no column inches by noted columnists. It contains this from the victim’s brother:

”Nona said if she didn’t go she would lose her job and this job was her dream. So she just went and that was the last time we saw her.

and this warning from police

Detective Inspector Oxford said he did not like social networking sites such as Facebook. ”You are dealing with people you don’t know,” he said

I’m not taking anything away from Jessica. The contrast seems striking to me. Both girls stories about following your dreams. Both girls stories appearing next to each other (at time of posting) on the front page of one of the major broadsheet online with such different degrees of hype. And which one do you think had more hits on it at time of posting? The murdered teen story.

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The Michael Jackson thing

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Despite the fact that I am of the right generation, Michael Jackson’s music never really grabbed me. I knew and liked one or two of the more popular songs, though, at the risk of sounding like an old woman as a teenager most of his music was too fast for me. Although, once reviewed, his music, generally had very nice and meaningful lyrics.

As a result, most of my exposure to him throughout my life has been through the media and regarding his huge fan base, his somewhat strange behaviour when walking around, reports about Neverland, and of course the various controversies involving children including his own.

I wouldn’t say that I was tied to the television when his passing was announced but I have been interested, not so much in the controversy surrounding his death, but more in observing the reaction to his passing and the various critiques of his life and work. The public display of affection has been fascinating, both in  very tangible ways and online;  the intermediate, and the slow burning.

This video   sums up quite nicely quite a few of my views on this whole phenomena. With thanks  to Rebecca’s pocket.

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The winner is … talent and, oh, a woman – TV & Radio – Entertainment

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The winner is … talent and, oh, a woman – TV & Radio – Entertainment.

This article discussing the gender issues within the recent MasterChef Australia series is interesting. Don’t get me wrong here. I mean interesting in a good way.

Within the course of the last week of the show, as the women began to dominate in numbers and skill I was waiting for the usual gender related discussion — however minor. In recent series of other reality shows when a woman has won (after a man has won previous series), a mention of the gender of the winner has often been inevitable, however subtle and noble the intent. There was none of that, until the above from the host pointing out this very phenomena. I’m impressed, particularly if you look at the industry that Julie is now entering, which despite the female home cook trend is a male dominant industry at the professional level.

Could it be? Are we moving beyong the gender question in media just for the sake of it?

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