Magdalena Wozniak

10422602

When Bird Meets Blog

Synopsis: When Bird Meets Blog is an eight-part video blog that explores the intersection between student media and the internet. 

In this tremulous post-VSU period, many student guilds across Australia have been questioning the continued relevance of student press. In a time when so many students are able to express themselves online, there are widespread concerns about the fact that student print may be an unnecessary financial strain upon already struggle student unions, and this concern has manifest itself in severe cuts to editors’ wages, paper circulation, and general expenses budgets. I wanted to produce a blog that would take these concerns seriously, addressing the usual anti-print arguments in a reasonable and balanced manner.  This was why I chose to open the project on an admittedly negative note, before then presenting the opposing arguments.  I also wanted the video blogs themselves to mirror the unique form and content of student press, in order to illustrate the ease with which student press could be transposed (and, indeed, enhanced) online, and so further support arguments in favour of moving press content onto the internet.  

To begin, I wanted to compare the theory and practice of blogs to the theory and practice of student media. To do so, I researched scholarly writing on both topics, with significantly more information being available on the former than the latter.  This is a real shame, given the genuine and significant influence of student press upon Australia’s independent media landscape.  Nonetheless, in exploring these (at time very limited) sources, the one thing that struck me was the similarity I found within the ideological arguments underpinning both forms of expression. Blogs are frequently heralded as “the most democratic form of journalism,” (Rosen, 2004) or as “commentators” on the worldwide media scene (Alyson, 2006, p. 4), while student media is similarly celebrated as a “bastion of truth” (Reddick, 1963, p. iii) in one of the only two scholarly texts about the topic that I was able to locate.  Having uncovered this connection, I intended to propose that it was not so unreasonable to suggest that student blogging could replace student print, and utilise this argument as a launching pad for further ideas.

Next came the far more complex task of uncovering arguments in support of student press.  With little literary work to turn to, I sought out interviews with student editors around Australia (facilitated largely through FaceBook networking), with Pelican contributors and with editors of other independent street publications in Perth. This was, in many ways, a process of surveying the people around me, and often resulted in regrettably emotion and non-quantifiable information, from which I attempted to extrapolate some clarity.

Interestingly, halfway through my work upon this blogging project, Pelican found itself in the midst of a national scandal.  The paper made headlines nationwide and was featured on ABC TV and radio, as controversy swelled up around an article written by our regular contributor, aspiring politician Dominic Rose.  For me, this scandal illustrated the tangible influence of student press, and the fact that the written word still commands respect far more so than the virtual. For this reason, I decided to abandon my original ideas for my third vlog and pursue a different tangent – which I think worked quite well, despite the limited timing I had following the last-minute change.

With this vlog, as with each of them, I made a deliberate decision to replicate something of the student press tone, form, aesthetic and content.  According to Evelyn Tsitas, student press is characterised by its ability to simultaneously “inform and entertain” (1999, p. 1).  For this reason, I classified my blog as belonging not in the category of “personal catharsis” or “emotional growth,” but rather in the category of “commentary and opinions” (2004, p. 43).  I embraced this classification and veered away from personal or potentially “self indulgent” aspects of blogging conventions, in favour of more informative documentary style, tinted with the recognisable flavour of student media. 

Again left facing few other scholarly sources, I developed my understanding on the distinct ‘feel’ of student press by turning towards my personal experience of student press.  I based my conclusions upon extensive browsing through various other student papers from around Australia, and also upon my experience as editor.  I eventually decided that, for me, student press is further distinguished by three central characteristics; its casual tone (see Johnston, 2007, p. 24), its light-hearted approach (see Dale, 2007, p. 50) and its tendency towards more extreme or radical opinions (see Burgio, 2007, p. 16).

I attempted to work all of these aspects into my blog, adopting a generally informal voice, lightened by anecdotes and colour, but grounded in an (at times) very one-sided argument ideally positioned to provoke a response in the form of comments. More specifically, the first vlog was intended to mirror a two sided opinion column, similar to those I presented in the "Versus" edition of Pelican (2007, pp. 19 - 22).  The second was quite explicitly designed to mimic one of the regular “Vox Pops Round Campus” features (2007, p. 19), which play a real role in grounding student press within its campus community. The third was quite explicitly a feature article in tone and style, and the final vlog was more comparable to an arts section feature article (see Kendrick, 2007, p. 48).

I also began with the intention of actually embedding all my videos within Flash documents that literally replicated pages from the 2007 Pelican.  I wanted to, through the very style of the vlogs themselves, make a statement about the easy transition from the page to the screen.  The fact that I encountered major problems in this arena is significant for many reasons.  Firstly, on a more basic level, my inability to upload a .swf file to the website hampered my ability to publish weekly.  In a more naturalised blogging context this would have obviously altered the impact of my blogs; however, given the more artificial community in which we were operating (where readers are generally understanding of post delays) and the fact that I was actually completing the blogs on a weekly basis (even if I was not able to upload them), I did not feel my ‘blogging experience’ was severely altered. It was unfortunate that I was not able to realise my intentions, though, especially because I was forced to go back and re-edit each vlog in order to more appropriately fit the ‘stand alone’ video format.

On a more ideological level, this complication can also be interpreted as yet another argument in support of printed press.  When I asked Wasted editor Nena Salobir why she chose print over web publishing she explained that, despite having no prior experience in either, she felt far more confident in her ability learn graphic design skills than in her ability to master HTML coding or the other requirements of online publishing (this quote was not included in my posted vlog). Even as a Communications student, I myself struggled to bring my vision to life (most probably because of a bug in my trial version of Flash profession, according to MMC staff).  It seems that the internet, in all its infinite possibility, invites us to dream and thus expands the gap between desire and actualisation.  Conversely, while one may also have far-fetched fantasies about the potential of print (and these can, and do, often go awry), a basic understanding of programs such as Adobe InDesign is usually all that is required to recreate a 'professional feel.'  Ironically, what started off as a concept designed to illustrate the enhancing potential of the internet, actually ended up as yet another argument in favour of student press in printed form.

This technological problem was the greatest struggle presented to me by the blog.  Once it had been overcome, and I had readjusted my expectations to feel satisfied with a simpler .mov file, I felt happy with the final results.  Admittedly, my decision to stick with constantly shifting positions (as opposed to the standard ‘static talking head’ format of the traditional vlog), produced a mixture of results.  On the one hand, I feel that it effectively enlivened the vlogs and therefore  captured the enthusiastic, youthful and ever-shifting feel of student media. On the other hand, it made things far more difficult on a technical level, particularly in regards to audio level. I do maintain, though, that the more creative final product generally compensates for these technical rough patches

Nonetheless, if I had an opportunity to do the project again, I would want to focus more on sound.  I would have liked to devote more attention to the distance at which I held the microphone from my face, in order to ensure a more consistent volume, and would also have liked to edit the project in Final Cut, rather than in iMovie. Simultaneously, though, I recognise that the imperfections of a video blog are in many ways the format’s distinguishing feature.  These are the factors that separate blogs from film projects and contribute that raw, uncut ‘human touch’ to the uniquely personal medium, and gradually evolving genre.

Indeed, I would be interested in exploring this more personal aspect a little more in the future, and in looking at the way in which blogs can function more as “an intersection between the personal and the profound” (Nardi et al. 2004, p. 44). Also, while for this project the simple ‘one-shot’ blog was not suitable, a simpler production process would obviously inspire me to blog more often, and to perhaps be more involved in a constantly evolving video blogging community.  Most significantly, though, this project has succeeded in convincing me of that which I set out to preach – that there is still a reason to be passionate about print media.  So, while the exercise itself has familiarised me with blogging conventions and inspired me to look into them further, it has, most all, motivated me to look further into Perth’s independent media scene.  Inspired by the interviews I conducted with Nena Solobir and Sarah Furtner, I’m actually looking into ways of continuing to contribute to this industry beyond my commitment to Pelican.

And, yes, I do genuinely believe that my voice will be far more influential if it is delivered through the printed word – even if I do utilise the internet (and perhaps even blogging?) as an appropriate compliment to or extension of this more tangible product.

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REFERENCES

(2007) “Vox Pops Round Campus” Pelican September 2007, 19.

(2007) “Who I’ll be Voting for this Federal Election” Pelican September 2007, 19-22. 

Alyson, Barbara (2006) The Electronic Reporter. Second Edition. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press Ltd.

Burgio, Enrico (2007) “This Election the Choice is Clear… Make Howard History.” Pelican October 2007, 16.

Dale, Caroline (2007) “Mixed Bag.” Pelican October 2007, 50.

Kendrick, Kevin (2007) “Chinwaggin with Chinna” Pelican October 2007, 48.

Johnston, Ben  (2007) “An End to Everything that Stands….” Pelican October 2007, 24.  

Bonnie A. Nardi, Diane J. Schiano, Michelle Gumbrecht, Luke Swartz, (2004) "Why we blog." Communications of the ACM Volume 47 Number 12 , 41-46. Online (accessed 30 October 2007): http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1040000/1035163/p41-nardi.html?key1=1035... [1]

Reddick, DeWitt C (1963) Journalism and the School Paper. Fifth Edition. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company. 

Rosen, Jay (2004) "The Weblog: An Extremely Democratic Form of Journalism" PressThink (8 March 2004) http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/03/08/weblog_demos.html [2] (Accessed 11 September 2007) 

Solobir, Nena (2007) Wasted Interview [personal recording]

Tsitas, Evelyn (1999) Hot Off the Press: How to Design and Edit a Better Student Newspaper. Sydney: Herlad Sun.