Yesterday we were once again in the studios, however it was far more intense this week especially within the practical component of the studio. Our group began in a room by ourselves, working together in discussion as we formulated the script. What order to run the different stories in, how to make them flow, and our key jokes. We then caught up with Leo and filled him in on how our group was traveling, he was somewhat relieved to hear that we were up and running, making some good progress. We also did a timed read through infant of him and it was recorded at 6 minutes. Which is too long however isn’t hard to fix, just need to the condense the script now into 4 minutes. We went then finally ended up in Studio A. We decided to have our  talent stand during the segment, her background appears an empty studio, a ladder, camera and green screen is featured around her. We also decided to start the segment with her walking in through a wide shot and immediately staring at another camera to begin her proclamation which is a close up shot. We got into our positions and began practicing the segment, trialling new ideas, our talent got to read the script through auto cue for the first time (this was challenging for her however, and we had to stop and start again many times, but you know what they say practice makes perfect) and also got to get more into depth within our production roles.  However there was some good and bad news. the Bad news is our segment must be filmed and presented our next studio class, this is bad news because it’s very soon and there’s still a lot to do. The good news is that our group works hard, and i know we can do this comedy news segment to a high standard whatever the odds, also Jai gave me some free thins bread (YAY GO JAI!)

Nakita xx

The Daily show works through it’s use of aesthetic parodic discourse to combat an aesthetic political branding techniques. An idea of CULTURE JAMMERS can be analysed within the show through its interpretation of news, potentially jamming the transmission of the dominant political brand message. Through a reliance on humorous parody, it incorporates their own voices into conversation in an innocuous way (after all, it is just a joke).

Jamming Techniques used on the Daily Show:

• Parodic Format
• Strategic Video use
• Socratic Interview Style

Jams Dominant Political Images through:

• Proliferation of humorous dissident images, images that exploit leverage points
• Factual erros, logical contradictions and incongruities

In Conclusion the Daily Show utilises emotion-ladder discourse through a satirical version of humour and laughter. If we can laugh at it, we can examine it, evaluate it, even critique it.

Nakita xx

Jon Stewart’s the Daily show is proposed to by a hybrid of news, comedy and political discussion.News is presumed to be lowering its standardises the good principles of journalism – independence, inquiry and verification- are often sacrificed to meet the demand for eye catching content. With this ‘new’ concept of news (comedy news), statistics show that 21% of audiences ages 18-29 proclaim they regularly get their news from comedy shows and 13% learn from late night talk shows. The Daily Show has 1.2 million people running in live and 800,000 watching repeats. The audience makes up of 41% aged 18-29 and 27% are aged 44 plus. However although many proclaim that Jon Stewart’s The Daly show is the ‘new’ news however he insists it’s ‘fake news’ and there to ‘make people laugh’. It can be better unstop as an alternative journalism through use of satire, parody and dialogue. It resembles much of mainstream news through following conventions such as 8 minute segments on one new, important issue, quick stories back to back with graphics and interviews with important news worthy guests. It’s a form of political communication, through using humour as a license to confront politics and demand a measure of accountability, yet also advocates Democracy.

Nakita xx

Back again in the studio. We spend the first two hours of the class going through the weeks reading once again. However it isn’t until we get to the practical component that the class becomes much more interesting. The class begins with us getting into our ‘Tough on Crime’ comedy news group. My group (Group B) started off with Leo discussing the script. however we ran into some problems, as we had a lot of ides for our segment but didn’t have a clear contention we wanted to portray to our audience. We discussed ideas of how to lay out our script, when to talk about APEX, patrol, fear psychology and the mobster concept. Then we met up with Ruth and started blocking our segment, giving each other production roles. I am the Director of the segment and we’ve decided to block our talent standing up in the segment as this opens her up to more possibilities to act out her scripting. We then caught up with the man teaching us the sound devices, learning about the different types of microphones, how to put on talent microphones and how to use the sound control box.

Nakita xx

 

 

Media 2 Studio PB2 – Research on Gay Men Donating Blood

 

http://www.donateblood.com.au/sites/default/files/Male-to-male_deferral_factsheet_0.pdf

 

• A man who has had sexual relations (oral, anal or safe sex) with another man cannot donate blood for 12 months after sexual contact in Australia
• These policies aren’t meant to discriminate but are based on risk assessment
• Even men in an exclusive gay relationship has on average, a 50 times greater risk of HIV infection, compared to heterosexual Australians with a new sexual partner
• Rights aren’t what they care about, safety is what they care about
• They don’t rely on testing alone as due to the timing and sensitive testing ,they aren’t able to pick up HIV straight away, therefore they take all safety precautions necessary
• 2015 Australia showed that men who have sex with men are accounted for 87% of newly acquired HIV infections

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/gay-men-donating-blood-discrimination-sex-lgbt-equality

SAME ISSUE BUT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (UK)

• Gay men donating blood in the UK
• A man who had an sexual relationship with another man was banned for life in giving blood, no matter how safe or no matter how much time has passed
• The ban was put into place from the HIV crisis from 1983
• The 12-month ban period might change to 3 months. However this isn’t a promotion of LGBT but because of technological advances
• It generally takes 4 weeks for HIV to show in a blood sample
• Promoting ideas of blood donors being individually tested and trusted to regain equality
• HIV still affects the gay community
• Therefore donation should be implanted through a case-by-case basis
• There needs to be more trust put into Gay men
• The level of risk should be indicated by each individuals ability to donate blood, not by the gender of their partner/partners
• For now it appears that gay men can’t be trusted in their sexual activity engagement, take pre-cautions or be truthful about what they’ve done

 

http://www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3411655.htm

 

• The HIV crisis in the early 1980s in Australia, changed the social and political landscape of Australia today
• Gay men, IV drug users and sex workers
• Between 1983-1985, 4500 Australians were acclaimed HIV positive

 

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/pubfiles/Bowtell,_Australia%27s_Response_to_HIV_AIDS_logo_1.pdf

• The first diagnosis of AIDS in Australia was in November 1982 and the first death from AIDS occurred in July 1984
• 6,459 deaths from AIDS in Australia
• 23,989 of HIV infections
• 9,392 cases of AIDS

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117970&page=1

 

• Science or discrimination?
• It assumes that all gay men are HIV positive regardless of their sexual behavior
• Everyone is equally at risk for HIV infection, however it needs to be about specific sexual behavior and not sexual orientation
• The FDA is considering to shift the policy to gay men need to abstain from homosexual sex for 5 years before donating blood
• Agency is being conservative as they are worried about blood banking errors
• ‘Dayton says changing to a five-year celibacy policy will result in more than 62,000 new men donating blood. Less than one unit of HIV-positive blood per year would escape into the blood supply.’
• ‘A one-year celibacy policy would generate 112,000 new donors and up to three units of HIV-infected blood, Dayton says.’
• “Most gay men want to do their duty and be able to give blood”

 

https://medicalreview.columbia.edu/article/ban-the-ban/

 

• May 2015, FDA suggested a shift from the life long ban to a 12 month ban on donating blood for gays in America
• However this notion of the ban although has improved, is still considered very discriminative towards the gays
• The FDA implemented the lifelong ban in America in 1983 due to the HIV crisis at the time
• This ban included men having sex with men, women having sex with men who has sex with men, transgender individuals who have had sex with men who has sex with men were also banned
• Those in relationships or use condoms or undergo abstinence are banned still
• There is a clear need to increase the number of individuals willing to donate
• 38% of the population is willing to donate but only 10% does
• 2,603,004 individuals are banned from donating blood
• ‘Were the ban lifted, it would result in an estimated 130,150 additional donors and 219,200 additional pints of blood’
• Dr Alix Mathieu (the bans opposition leader) stated ‘this disease is not one of races or nationalities, it is one of risky behavior’
• This message sent from all places ‘banning’ gay men from the donating of blood makes them feel ‘unwelcome’. This ban can make them follow the rules of not donating or make them lie about previous sexual relations in order to donate blood
• FDA should shift to an ‘Assess and Test’ model on every individual attempting to donate blood
• ‘The Assess and Test approach uses rational and scientifically based deferral periods, applied fairly, to maximize the donor pool and minimize risk.’
• There needs to be more awareness and support from every individual about this discriminative issue at hand

 

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gates-Goldberg-MSM-Blood-Ban-Jun-2010.pdf

 

• More than 6% of men declare they have had sex with a male partner at least once since the age of 18
• 4% of men have had a male sex partner in the past 5 years
• 5% of men have reported having sex with another man in the last year
• The Centre for Disease control estimate that 532,000 men who have sex with men are HIV positive
• 39% of HIV negative eligible adults are able to donate blood in a given year but only 5% actually do
• ‘Approximately 16 million donations (of a pint of blood) made by 9.5 million donors, yielding approximately 1.7 donations per donor.’
• ‘If the current MSM ban were completely lifted, we estimate that an additional 130,150 men would likely donate 219,200 additional pints of blood each year.’
• ‘If MSM who have not had sexual contact with another man in the past twelve months were permitted to donate, we estimate that 53,269 additional men are likely to donate 89,716 pints each year.’
• ‘If MSM who have not had sexual contact with another man in the past five years were permitted to donate, we estimate that 42,286 additional men would make 71,218 blood donations.’
• ‘Our analyses suggest that lifting the ban could increase the total annual US blood supply by 0.6% to 1.4%.’
• All statistics are estimated by the Centres for Disease Control

 

http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-facts-and-statistics

 

• Every 2 seconds someone in the US needs blood
• Approximately 36,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the US
• Nearly 21 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S.
• The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
• The blood type most often requested by hospitals is type O.
• The blood used in an emergency is already on the shelves before the event occurs.
• It is estimated that sickle cell disease affects 90,000 to 100,000 people in the U.S. About 1,000 babies are born with the disease each year. Sickle cell patients can require frequent blood transfusions throughout their lives.
• According to the American Cancer Society, more than 1.69 million people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2017. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during their chemotherapy treatment.
• A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.
• An average adult has 10 pints of blood in his/her system and only 1 pint of blood is donated

 

http://www.donateblood.com.au/learn#how-your-blood-is-used

 

• One third of blood donated helps treat people with cancer
• The blood donated can be made into 22 different medical treatments
• You can donate whole blood, plasma or platelets
• Plasmas donated are used for cancer blood diseases, haemophilia, anaemia, heart disease, stomach disease, childbirth operations, blood loss, trauma, burns
• It can be stored for 42 days
• You can donated every 12 weeks
• 34% is donated to cancer and blood diseases
• 19% is donated for other anaemia cases
• 18% for other open heart surgery and burn
• 13% is donated for other problems such as heart, stomach and kidney disease
• 10% is donated to orthopedic patients including fractures and joint replacements
• 4% is donated to obstetrics, including pregnant women, new mothers and young children
• 2% is donated to trauma including road incident patients

Nakita xx

The Daily show embodies two reasons behind its existence; one it claims that the ‘real news’ is failing its democratic function, two it mocks the genre of television news itself. Yet his commercial approach helps make traditional news media accountable to the public. But the question every one is asking is how does Jon Stewart hold the news accountable?

1. He holds it accountable by pointing out inconsistencies
2. He holds it accountable by point when inconsequential news is blown out of proportion
3. He holds it accountable by critiquing the very nature of broadcast news

However Stewart makes points through embracing the comedy factor yet besides the laughter he ensures the audience understands and take in this important point ‘News Journalism could do better to support the democratic system that has given it such life’

Nakita xx

Soooo once again we are graced with the 4 hours of intense studio development. The first two hours consisted of our regular debates about the weeks reading, arguing over how we can use satire without abusing it to the point where every individual could get sued or upset anyone watching. We also discussed the ideas of not only implementing satire within our comedy news skit but possibly incorporating some parody which would be an interesting and very different approach in carrying out our comical news. We then went through the list of chosen news segments favorited which will be used in our next project and the challenge of forming groups over who liked which segment the most began. Then the practicality of the studio approached, my group (B) sat down and talked to Leo about what we had research and how we were going to start the scripting process. My research of the implements of fear into media tactics was a highly acclaimed idea and was considered to be the initial opening segment after introducing the topic tough on crime. We then went into a studio again and practiced the news room structure, this time we had a city skyline poster as our backdrop behind the talent sitting on the desk and played with including icons within the segment. It looked very professional and Weekend update worthy, I have to admit this studio lesson was very exciting and has made me more enthusiastic and inspired to start our upcoming projects.

Nakita xx

‘Tough on Crime’ – focusing on the PSYCHOLOGY of it (FEAR)

Psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context (dictionary.com)

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wicked-deeds/201704/how-and-why-societal-elites-manipulate-public-fear

 

• Societal Elites manipulate public fear
• MORAL PANIC- ‘a situation in which public fears and state interventions greatly exceed the objective threat posed to society by a particular individual or group who is/are claimed to be responsible for creating the threat in the first place.’
• Stanley Cohen created the concept in England 1960s in response to threats posed by youth groups
• However this implementation of fear provides benefits towards the media, politicians and law enforcement authorities
• Moral Panic formed through distortion of mass media campaigns
• Campaigns often based on race, ethnicity and social class through the reinforcement of stereotypes

MORAL PANIC CONVENTIONS:

1. Focus on Attention of Behavior – strip favorable characteristics and replace with negative ones.
2. Gap between Concern and Threat – objectively threat is less threatening than the image provided
3. Level of Concern Fluctuates- discover threat, rise in public concern, abrupt subside

• This public Hysteria then forces the public to address and vote the legislation to justify agendas of those in power
• Public and Political response to a distorted conception
• An ‘allegedly harmful individual or group’
• Can be an exaggeration – number of individuals involved, level of violence, amount of damage caused.

SOCIAL ACTORS INVOLVED:

1. The accused threat (group or individuals)
2. Rule or Law enforces
3. The Media (JOURNALISTIC HYPERBOLE)
4. Politicians
5. The Public

• PRIMING- ‘pays attention to the troublesome issue at hand and brings about old information from this issue, bringing back old memories from that issue’
• Triggers the Publics pre-existent beliefs, attitudes and prejudices from the issue
• Law enforcers and Politicians have a sworn identity to protect the public
• President Ronald Regan U.S. war on drugs 1980s
• The Public is the central actors within the concept of Moral Panic
• Politicians + Law Enforces + Media = Moral Panic outcry from the Public
• (1) Cohen, S. 1972. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers. London: MacGibbon and Key Ltd.
• (2) Tuchman, G. 1978. Making News: A Study in the Social Construction of Reality. New York: The Free Pres

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wicked-deeds/201706/how-the-news-media-make-monsters

 

• Massive Media exposure labels the evil
• Social construction of evil and public monsters
• Typically stylized and exaggerated
• Journalistic Hyperbole
• Public concern and Anxiety is heightened
• Scaring the Public through Advertising
• Jeffery Dahmer as the ‘Milwaukee Cannibal’
• ‘Jeffery Dahmer: Man or Monster?’
• Shortly after Dahmer’s capture, the front cover of People magazine published on August 12, 1991 read: Horror in Milwaukee: He was a quiet man who worked in a chocolate factory. But at an apartment 213 a real-life “Silence of the Lambs” was unfolding. Now that Jeffrey Dahmer has confessed to 17 grotesque murders, his troubling history of alcoholism, sex offenses and bizarre behavior raises a haunting question: Why wasn’t he stopped?
• Comparison between fictional evil characters and focusing on the most evil aspect eg. Dahmer it was cannibalism
• Ideas of dehumanization
• Refer to evils in supernatural terms eg. Monster, alien
• Blur the distinction between reality and fiction
• Exaggerated Journalistic Rhetoric

 

https://www.artinstitutes.edu/about/blog/the-four-letter-word-in-advertising-fear

 

• Fear appears to strike a nerve with audiences, it provides scare tactics that are stunningly effective
• Fear is an effective advertising technique as it’s a sensation that escalates instantaneously through the individuals response
• Sometimes a fear advert makes it’s audience stop and think, in the long run it causes frustration
• Fear appeals when it alerts or gathers awareness towards the public
• Ethical questions can emerge when the advert at hand is too graphic and employs excessive amounts of fear tactics

Through the studio readings the ideas of humour as Social Critique is throughly introduced and explored. Satire, being the main form of humorous expression within a comedy news segment. Laughter should toy with norms and challenge liberation through prevailing truth from the news presentation norm. The better the material researched and presented, the more powerful and funnier it is.Satire is therefore an expression of social and political criticism.It encapsulates the absurdity, dragging it out for viewers to witness, the purpose of this is positive change. Satire is provocative, ridicules, asserts the unsettling truths. Parody however draws on aesthetic conventions, in contrast to Satire’s social conventions. Parody ‘makes fun’ of how the text or genre operates, it aims to decontextualise how we make sense of this. Satire provokes reflection and re-evaulation from it’s active audience.

Nakita xx