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aliyabilalportfolio · 1 year

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Journalistic Essay

My journey into university has been a long and uphill battle. I was hesitant to apply to study journalism as I had doubts about my career path and capability to complete this course. What made me want to apply was a memory of me at 8 years old pretending to host a news show, I had my fake cup of coffee to my left and my makeshift “news script” on my right while wearing my grandmother's dress. I remember the joy I felt in those days at the idea that I might one day get to share my voice and my perspective with the world. My love for writing and storytelling transcends into creative writing, persuasive writing and songwriting. I knew that whatever pathway I decided to go down career-wise that writing would be a key part of my job.

I was extremely anxious in the weeks leading up to my first semester, I had been out of school for over a year and was unsure of how I would keep up and adapt to the structure of university life. The first few weeks of semester 1 were unsurprisingly stressful and a little confusing, there were many times I had gotten lost trying to find the right buildings or classrooms. I was also stressed about how I was going to remain organised and on top of my work. I consider those weeks to be the icebreaker weeks, they were messy and confusing, but I needed to go through the motions to find my balance. I found learning about the different types of writing styles and when to use them to be interesting and informative. I’ve always wanted to know more about the behind-the-scenes part of journalism writing and the industry.

Because of the hands-on approach to learning, I felt like I was in my element. I’ve always been a hands-on worker and feel I learn the best by doing and using my own intuition. I found the theory portion of hard news writing to be easy to understand but tricky to put into practice, I found myself making big mistakes such as not always using the correct grammar for attributing direct and indirect quotes and making sure the most newsworthy things were in the first few pars of my articles. To try and combat these errors, I decided to take on all the constructive feedback I was receiving from my teachers and put it into practice to perfect the quality of my articles so that they were up to standard. I found the feedback I’ve received from my teachers to be immensely helpful and insightful. I have thoroughly enjoyed the interview portion of the course; I loved having to research potential interviewees and topics.

I've met and interviewed some wonderful, intelligent people who have shared their stories and opinions. I’d say my favourite interviewees have been the Deputy Mayor of Darebin Council, Susanne Newton and Emily Leon who was the First Nations woman I interviewed for my partner colour story. I tried my best throughout the semester to uphold the values of Journalism which are Equality, Diversity and the Freedom of Opinion. I wanted to write articles that moved and engaged my audience. I faced challenges when it came to the format of some of the assignments, there were times where I was unsure of how to format certain articles.

I've learned the structure of hard news and soft news and how to put them into practice. I prefer writing soft news stories because there is more room to add context, depth and emotion. I have enjoyed and found learning about the theory and structure of hard news articles to be extremely insightful and something that I feel will help me in my career. My favourite article I've written this semester was my partner colour story, I wrote about Emily Leon who is a First Nations woman who was adamant on having a treaty before the voice to parliament. I found the process of writing the questions for the interview stressful but once the interview started, the questions seemed to flow. She was she a passionate and lovely person to chat to, I felt so grateful that she was willing to share her opinions and experiences with me in such a raw and vulnerable way. It was my favourite article I’d written; she gave me so much to work with a and I love writing meaningful, emotional stories.

Although I’ve mainly spoken about the good and enjoyable parts of this course/ subject, there were many hurdles along the way. I found myself spending most of my time studying, writing, rereading and editing my articles until they were up to standard. I found myself seeking a lot of advice from friends, and teachers that were helpful but at times would make me feel more confused. For the first six weeks, I couldn’t shake this feeling of being behind. I felt as though I was struggling with putting hard news structure into practice a lot more than some of my peers. I had to stop myself from comparing my abilities and work to my classmates. It made me really question whether my writing would ever be correct or good enough, for a while it made me question why I even applied for this course. It took some time and hard work to push through those feelings of comparison and self-doubt, but once I did, I started to enjoy my course more than I did before.

I have learnt so many valuable tools and lessons this semester. I've learnt what it means to be a journalist, how to find the most newsworthy angles and leads, how to uphold journalistic values and principles and most of all how to write professional hard news and soft news articles. I’ve met so many amazing teachers, friends, and people along the way. I'm looking forward to the next semester of this course and the next two years of university life at RMIT.

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aliyabilalportfolio · 1 year

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The Voice - Hard News, Partner Colour Story & 500 Word Reflection

Hard News Story - The Voice

Deputy Mayor of Darebin Council Susanne Newton said she thinks the Darebin Council will be for the Voice to Parliament.

“In my opinion, I support The Voice because I think progress is important,” said Deputy Mayor of Darebin Council Susanne Newton.

“The Darebin Council hasn’t taken a position yet, we’re guided by the Darebin Aboriginal Advisory Committee,” said Ms Newton.

Ms Newton said she’s worried a no-vote combined with indifferent people to Aboriginal voices, will create the perception Australia is a racist country.

Hard News Source 1 Contact Details: Deputy Mayor of Darebin City Council Susanne Newton

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susannenewton

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susannenewton/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/susannenewton

Senator of Australia Jacinta Price says if The Voice to Parliament is passed it “will divide her family.”

“Later this year they want to establish a so-called Voice to parliament, this is a really big deal,” said Senator of Australia Jacinta Price in her new campaign with Advance Australia.

“There are already too many culture warriors in this country – in the public service, in our sport, in our schools, and in our workplaces. They’ve come for Australia Day, and they’re coming for more,” said Senator of Australia Jacinta Price in her new campaign with Advance Australia.

She claims that the voice is divisive, dangerous, expensive and “not fair”.

Hard News Source 2 Contact Details: Senator for Australia Jacinta Nampijinpa Price

Phone: (08) 8948 3555

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=263528

Address: 1, 229 McMillians Road, Jingili NT 0810

PO Box: 40021, Casuarina NT 0811

Canberra Phone: (02) 6277 3122

Partner Colour Story

Emily Leon is a mother, and a proud indigenous woman who expresses the need to see a treaty before The Voice.

“I’m a mix of 3 different tribes, the first is Gunnai from Gippsland, then Gunditjmara and the third is Worimi. Unfortunately, I didn’t grow up where my motherland is because our culture was taken away from us. I wasn’t able to speak my mother tongue so I can't really speak to what it's like because I lived more inland,” Emily said.

“I’m proud of my culture, my connection to my motherland and to be a part of the longest-living culture out there,” she said.

“Wherever I lived I grew up with the Aboriginal community there. When I was growing up in Northcote, I was living with the Aboriginal community there, I would say that Darebin is one of the more progressive councils in Melbourne,” she said.

“I embrace my children learning their father's mother tongue, which is Punjabi. I embrace it because at least they have one mother tongue,” Emily said.

Emily said because of the past and present treatment of Aboriginal people, from the history of slavery to mass murder, to babies’ heads being kicked off, she believes Australia is a racist country.

“I’m 30 years old and still when I go to a new job people make comments like, you’re too pretty to be Aboriginal or you don’t look aboriginal because of my light skin,” Emily said.

She said it’s frustrating to deal with people's comments because the information is out there, but people need to be willing to be educated.

“If a darker person says I’m Australian, then people will have questions but if a white person says they’re Australian no one asks questions, racism doesn't stop there it affects all people of colour,” she said.

In the lead up to The Voice to Parliament Emily says she’s concerned that just having a voice won’t be enough because politicians can still do as they please.

“I feel like The Voice is a good thing but there should be a treaty first. That would be important to have and hopefully it will be a steppingstone,” Emily said.

“You hear the public saying no and people in the media saying yes, it's like the people in the media are against the people in the community,” she said.

“I think there are Australian politicians that don’t care about Indigenous voices and opinions. I feel like they're only doing it because the public is watching and they’re getting pressure from indigenous people,” Emily said.

Emily said she worries about the people that don’t keep up with the news such as her mother. She believes the government is only thinking about people who are engaged with the media, not those who are disconnected.

Soft News Interviewee Contact – Emily Leon

Phone: 0421 429 757

Email: [email protected]

500-Word Reflection

I had no doubt in my mind that The Voice would produce newsworthy stories. When choosing who to contact I decided the more people I reached out to the better. I was intimidated to contact people for the hard news story as they were people in positions of authority, so I had low expectations when it came to receiving replies. The first and only response, I got was luckily enough from the Deputy Mayor of the Darebin council, Susanne Newton. I could not have been more fortunate to have her as an interviewee, because of her position on the council. But also because of her kindness and open-mindedness, she was friendly and willing to answer my questions. My expectations when it came to finding interviewees and receiving responses were realistic, I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of responses especially when it came to finding someone who was willing to go on the record with an opposing opinion. I had a lot of answers to work with for source 1 of my hard news story and the partner colour story, condensing those two articles down to the most newsworthy parts was my biggest challenge. I have a clear grasp of the structure of a hard news story now, I tried my best to apply them by using as few words as possible when quoting my interviewee for source 1 of the hard news article, avoiding adjectives or convoluted words, having one concept per sentence and making it easy to read and understand. I did my best to put the news first and focus on the facts and be as objective as possible. Learning hard news structure has been a journey of trial and error but one that I've improved on and enjoyed. I struggled when it came to my comprehension of the structure of a soft news article and when it came to writing the partner colour story. I showed it to a friend, and she said it read too much like a hard news story. I read over examples of soft news articles and continued to edit until I was happy with the structure and emotional atmosphere. Finding the most emotional parts of the story was easy, trying to cut down the article was difficult because my interviewee Emily said so many interesting things. I did my best to keep as many of those emotional quotes as I could. I wanted to capture as much of Emily’s personality as possible as she is a passionate and honest person who had a lot of interesting stories and experiences to share. I wanted to create an atmosphere of empathy and a deep dive into her life. I put her personal stories first to create a connection with the audience and set the tone. I followed the structure of a soft news story by using a mixture of longer and shorter sentences, quotes and facts, being descriptive using the 5 W’s & H and making it easy to understand.

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aliyabilalportfolio · 1 year

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Hard News Story - Journalism Society President Speech

RMIT Journalism Society president Loughlin Shannon retired from the presidency on Monday due to issues “so great” they posed an “existential threat”.

The issues Loughlin tackled were governance and service delivery.

One month prior to announcing his retirement he said that he would be “lucky to last another month in this role.”

The Journalism Society team set clear standards of opportunity, networking with the community and developing journalistic ambitions, said Loughlin.

Second-year Journalism student Lily Kristanto has stepped in as the next president of the RMIT Journalism Society.

“I think Loughlin stepped down from the role because of his own personal commitments,” said Miss Kristanto.

“I think that the Journalism Society has a lot of potential to do a lot of great things this year,” said Miss Kristanto.

Loughlin really helped to “revamp” the Journalism Society especially after COVID said Miss Kristanto.

What the team and I want to focus on this year is to “emphasise and create a sense of community”, said Miss Kristanto.

The Journalism Society acts as a “gateway” to a lot of different opportunities for journalism students, said Miss Kristanto.

The Journalism Society's principles are “opportunities, networking and development” said Miss Kristanto.

“This year we wanted to have stronger ties between the other media bodies at RMIT like the Swanston Gazzet, Media Communications Collective, City Journal and Bowen Street Press,” said Miss Kristanto.

“This year I would love to create a media industry day at RMIT for journalism students to have the opportunity to hear from different media organisations,” said Miss Kristanto.

“I would like to bring some successful alumni who have recently graduated back to hear any advice they have to give,” said Miss Kristanto.

RMIT Journalism Society President: Lily Kristanto

Email: [email protected]

500 WORD REFLECTION - Journalism Society President Speech

The first challenge I faced with this assignment was deciding what speech I was going to cover. I was torn between the Patricia Karvellas lecture and the JS speech. I chose the JS speech and was faced with my next challenge which was figuring out my angle. This was difficult because the journalism society president’s speech is roughly 3 minutes long and there isn't much content to break down to begin with. Having to condense something that I already had a small amount of information on made me worry that I would struggle to get to the 300-word limit. My final challenge arrived when it came to deciding whom to interview as my second source. At first, I contacted Alexandra Wake seeing as she is the Program Manager of Journalism at RMIT, she unfortunately informed me that the journalism society was an entirely student-run organisation. My next choice seemed obvious, I decided to interview the person who was set to step into the role, Lily Kristanto. A hard news story conveys facts and information in a fast, easy, immediate, efficient and clear way that’s designed for the audience to decide for themselves. In a hard news story, the most important thing is the facts, each sentence in a hard news story should be 25 words or less and it must contain no adjectives. Your story should be as objective as possible while maintaining a sense of balance. the story itself should be short pacy and simple, knowing your angle and putting your angle in the lead are crucial. News always comes first then you can worry about arranging the rest of the information in descending order of importance. When writing a hard news story, use The Inverted Triangle formula to write the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How in the first few sentences. Your writing needs to be easy to digest so make sure you cater to an audience of all ages, education levels and backgrounds. Having an accurate understanding and use of news style is vital when it comes to hard news, such as active voice using past tense to refer to people (she said, he said) both sides should be represented equally. avoid using words that create bias or a sense of emotional attachment to the story. Don't use unnecessary words such as ‘very,’ ‘quite’ or ‘that,’ etc. Hard news is not about the issues, it’s about the most recent happening related to the issue. The speech itself is not ‘the news’, it's what you think your audience will find to be the most important thing that was said in the news. Don’t use ellipses, quotes or brackets after quotation marks. In hard news writing the most important things are accuracy, honesty and fairness. It's your job as a journalist to uphold a code of ethics and although it is impossible to be completely non biased we must do our best. But don't be afraid to be dynamic and add a little flair.

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aliyabilalportfolio · 1 year

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Academic integrity Awareness Badge

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aliyabilalportfolio · 1 year

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Writing Practise - Weekly Writing Exercises

Exercise Week 2

1.  One man is dead and two are in hospital, after a collision on the corner of Rollins Avenue and Post Road.

Police say the collision happened in Richmond at 7:10 this morning.

No other passengers were onboard.

The male driver was travelling at an estimated speed of 60km/h and was killed instantly. 

His van was destroyed in the crash. 

The two firemen on board were hospitalised, their current conditions are unknown at this time.

2.  Bigger cars are safer to drive, according to a study by The Highway Loss Institute.

The institute found that small and midsize cars, such as two-door, sports, and speciality versions, have injury and repair frequencies of 30 per cent.

While larger cars, stations wagons and vans are around 50 per cent more effective than average claim records.

For example, a four-door Holden station wagon is 41 per cent less likely than average to be injured in an accident.

3. The Victorian Medical Association warns about the ‘dangers of hot dogs’ to children’s airways.

Researchers claim that even “A bite- sized piece of hot dog” is a choking hazard to children 4 and under.

Other dangerous foods for children aged nine and under include lollies, nuts, grapes, apples, carrots, and popcorn.

Exercise Week 3

Home Widgets managing director Sid Entrepreneur told a gathering of Riverside small business owners "they face ruin" if they don't advocate for lower taxes.

Mr Entrepreneur said these taxes will drain 2 million dollars from the Riverside region this financial year.

“Without the makers, the doers and the marketers, there would be no economy,” Mr Entrepreneur said.

Mr Entrepreneur gave a speech about the future of small business to the Riverside Small Business Association at The Community Hall.

Week 3 Selfie Caption

RMIT Student Journalists, Aliya Bilal and Piper Wright captured a selfie at the Melbourne SBS headquarters yesterday afternoon.

Week 4 News Quotes

Sid Entrepreneur Managing Director of Home Widgets has cautioned small business has “fallen by the wayside”.

“Without the makers and the doers there wouldn’t be a national economy”, said Mr Entrepreneur.

Mr Entreperneur urged that all “corporations at all levels including that between small business government” for “sustained economic growth”.

“Did you hear how many bureaucrats it takes to change a lightbulb, none they’ll just call for a report,” Mr Entrepreneur said.

Exercise Week 5

More than 40 workers threaten to walk off the job at Home Widgets Manufacturing Plant.

The workers protested the firm’s rejection to increase their wages by 10 percent extend leave allowance to 5 weeks yearly and reduce 2 hours of workload from the 1st of July.

“We have put on the table an offer to the 40 workers of a 4 percent wage increase from 1st July with further increments of two percent a year beginning in the 1987-1988 financial year for the next two years, “said Managing Director, Mr Sid Entrepreneur.

“We would be prepared to give more time off in return for a productivity increase of 5 percent a year 1998-1989. That would be a good improvement from the projected 1987-1988 figure," said Mr Entrepreneur.

The firm produced 15,570 Home Widgets in 1996-1997 an increase from 11 790 the previous year, to meet strengthening market demand, said Mr Entrepreneur.

Three hundred thousand dollars was spent on infrastructure, $25000 on transport costs and $8790 on government charges, as opposed to $6789 from the previous year, said Mr Entrepreneur.

“Our figures are in the annual report. We made a net profit in 1996-1997 of $A1.25 million, this wasn’t a great return for shareholders when you consider our $7.3 million-dollar turnover,” said Mr Entrepreneur.

“Mr Entrepreneur’s figures don’t take into account that since our last pay rise of $13,000 a week, our wages have fallen in real terms by about $14 dollars a week," said Worker’s Spokesperson, Lathe Turner.

Exercise Week 7 - Colour Piece on Piper Wright

When Piper Wright won a scholarship to RMIT University, it was a dream come true. She would be the first person in her family to attend university, a huge milestone for the Yarra Valley teenager.

I’m completely on my own, I have no financial help from my family.”

But university has proven to be way more difficult than she ever imagined.

“I feel like there’s little leeway that universities give to students who are the first ones in their family to go to university, you just get thrown into the deep end, no special treatment or consideration."

“I have no family who’ve been to university it's kind of like the blind leading the blind.”

Piper says she needed was mainly related to the process of enrolment, allocating her timetable and navigating her way through assessments.

“It took me a while to figure out how to enrol and then how to allocate my timetable, then it’s just me figuring out all of my assignments by myself,” she said.

“I love doing university but sometimes I think if I took an extra day off, I could make more money, sometimes It’s just me trying to weigh up whether going to a lecture is more important or is trying to take on an extra shift more important.,”

Piper said she grew up in Victoria's Eastern suburbs and moved to Lakes Entrance where she completed majority of her secondary education. She moved halfway through year 12 to the Yarra Valley.

“When I moved down to Yarra Valley the last couple of months before exams, I suffered anxiety from being forced to do online learning and I felt like I just couldn’t catch up to my peers at all,” she said.

“I find my elective can be unenjoyable at times because the assignments are heavy work and I have this hatred for when somehow all your assignments fall on the same week.”

“We’re in a situation where mental health is just at the highest priority, and we shouldn’t just be piling work onto university students.”

Piper said that she had to transfer to a “snap school” to get her apartment, so she could get more consideration when she applied to RMIT.

“Before I even got my ATAR, I got shortlisted for that scholarship, I put it in straight away. To get into university I had to go through special consideration for emotional and mental abuse to move and get financial support,” she said.

Piper said by the time she submitted her special consideration, she had 10 letters from people ranging from her psychologist to teachers, she had to submit her restraining order against her dad to prove to VCAA that she had to move.

“It was total survival; I don’t remember much of those last couple of months,” Piper said.

Week 10 Pitch

Dear Elle Smith

My name is Aliya Bilal and I'm a student journalist from RMIT. Would you be interested to run a Hard Story about Deputy Mayor of The Darebin City Council Susanne Newton’s opinion The Voice?

I'm writing an article on the topic for my final assignment and must interview a local member of my council about their personal opinions on The Voice. I've been doing extensive research on the topic. I was fortunate enough to interview Susanne Newton and I would love to have my article published in the Darebin City Council Community Newsletter; I could have this delivered by next week.

Kind Regards

Aliya Bilal

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