Final RWAV Blog: Reflection on Goals

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In my first blog entry I set three main main goals for the studio I wanted to achieve, in my final reflection I would like to assess on how I went about in achieving them.

These goals were:
1. Improving my presenting skills.

2. Developing professional interview methods including research.

3. Make content that I am proud of and can use in the future.

Goal #1

Prior to the studio, I had a season’s worth of presenting for community radio on SYN 90.7’s Flagship Australian and Local music program. A major point of difference I encountered with presenting RWAV was the style of which I presented. A music program, in my view calls for the host to be upbeat and provide information about the music in a short but enticing manner, whilst also interacting with listeners on their opinions. In contrast, RWAV differed each time, with content changing every week. Therefore in order to present the show, I felt the need to introduce myself and personality as well as being well versed in the issues we were discussing. The interaction with listeners was minimal, however I hope our topics were of interest to the RRR population, as the stemmed away from issues in the mainstream.

The style of interview with an artist, as opposed to the people I interviewed for RWAV was similar in length of time, however I found that there is no real formula or rules to govern an interview, only a guideline as each interview will vary based on the subject and content. I also developed the skill of interacting with guests in a professional manner and it was refreshing to do a uni class that felt like it was for the real world rather than a practice task.

Goal #2
My interview method improved greatly I felt across this semester, and with doing the live show, practiced how to do an interview with two presenters rather than just by myself. Research was vital and I developed a few ways of conducting this. For example, when interviewing Anthony I devised some key areas I wanted to investigate and previewed these with him to see if they would be relevant or not to the interview.

I also saw the value of doing a pre-record or demo before doing a live interview (if time allowed). Even if it wasn’t recorded it was advantageous to see the type of personality or manner the guest has to anticipate how to navigate this in a live setting.

Goal #3

In terms of making content, I have been happy to share around my interviews on social media.
I also feel that my interviews for the feature were strong, informing the majority of the piece. I am so glad I have work from this studio that I can add to a portfolio, but can also be shared rather than hidden away from the world as with past studios.

I am happy that these goals have been achieved, but are in no way complete. Fortunately this studio has acted as a launch pad for which I can further build upon goals. For example, I hope that with the feedback on presenting received from the live shows

Research for the feature

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RESEARCH & NARRATION

Dixson, B. and Rantala, M. (2016). The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women’s Judgments of Men’s Sexual Attractiveness. Archives of Sexual Behavior, [online] 45(4), pp.887-889. Available at: https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/article/10.1007/s10508-015-0588-z [Accessed 7 May 2017].

https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/article/10.1007/s10508-015-0588-z

“Adults may have on average 10,000–20,000 hair follicles on the face, 100,000–150,000 on the scalp, 425,000 on the trunk, 220,000 on the arms, and 370,000 on the legs (Robertson, 2002; Szabo, 1967).”

Narration: Across cultures, hair growth is shown to differ, still researchers to struggle to find reasoning as to why there is such a large discrepancy and inconsistency of hair growth patterns around the world and as unique as the number of hairs on our bodies are people’s experiences with the removal, or non removal of body hair.

[This particular study analyses the link between men’s facial hair and the perception of their sexual attractiveness based on the amount of facial hair they have. ]
“male faces experimentally manipulated to vary in masculinity are not consistently judged to be more attractive than less masculine looking faces (Rhodes, 2006) and, in some cases, more feminine looking faces are more attractive (Perrett et al., 1998). These patterns may be due, in part, to male faces being judged as less warm, caring, being less interested in long-term relationships, and providing lower paternal investment (Kruger, 2006; Perrett et al., 1998)”

Komar, M. (2016). 100 Years Of Shaving Ads Show How We’ve Been Tricked Into Going Hairless — PHOTOS. [online] Bustle.com. Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/137072-100-years-of-shaving-ads-show-how-weve-been-tricked-into-going-hairless-photos [Accessed 14 May 2017].
Narration: In one way or another, it’s safe to say that most of us are removing body hair to some extent. Commercial inclinations have long been keen to cash in on this desire.
GILLETTE released the first razor blade for commercial release in 1915, and some 100 years later we’re still buying into the idea of hair removal, perhaps so heavily embedded in our minds that we perceive it as the normal thing to do . In some ways the early 1920s was a win for women, with more skin being able to be shown shown and hemlines raising as they continued to do until now. An adverse effect of this was shavers being marketed as a way to prevent embarrassment of guests seeing your body hair through sheer stockings!

Ibisworld.com.au. (2017). Hairdressing and Beauty Services in Australia Market Research | IBISWorld. [online] Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/personal-services/hairdressing-beauty-services.html [Accessed 8 May 2017].

Narration: It is estimated that in Australia alone, the hairdressing and beauty services industry employs 85,338 people.
‘increasing popularity of newer high-priced beauty treatments such as laser hair removal and microdermabrasion has lifted revenue in some segments.”

RWAV WK 11 + 12

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Feature
I have enjoyed leading the charge for the pre-production and production stages of the feature assignment. A feature story for radio is a media form I have not interacted with yet and is therefore both challenging and important for my professional practice and skill set to evolve.

After agreeing upon the broad topic of hair removal, I immediately set up a production document on the drive which became a central and linear means of communication from which the group could work.It included everyone’s assigned roles. Mine included pre-production organisation, vox-pops, research, scripting of narration and research. However my roles altered as I was organised enough to book a total of four interviews to conduct of the following week. On the Monday, my group conducted vox-pops on campus which was able to happen as I booked the equipment a week prior. This was a good lesson in learning a method of producing content quickly and efficiently, allowing ample time for the edit. I know from past media classes that editing and post are not my strong suits, so happily gave those roles to other group members as not to compromise our mark. Over the break, I would endeavour to book time at RRR and also learn editing software to a higher level as I feel this is an area from which I could improve greatly in with confidence, practice and time.

I conducted some research into the area using academic sources. I thought this was important as the initial discussions of our feature indicted that it would be strongly based on varying opinions surrounding body hair. Our piece did not set about with an argument as such as to whether hair removal was “good” or “bad” as the issue is more grey area than black and white – there is no right or wrong answer, rather it was of more intrigue to investigate why we hold the opinions we do of body hair. Based on three main ares of research, I devised a set of base questions regarding the following. These are: A) Cultural B) Academic C) The hair removal industry as immensely profitable. Therefore, we knew early on that it would be important to gather as much opinon and voices on the issue to culminate an interesting and varied piece. These questions included:


How old are you ?/ Culture / name …

What was your first encounter with hair removal?

Do you think your culture has certain ideas about this practice?

Were you allowed to remove hair when younger

Do you think it’s your choice or do you think that’s influenced by outside.

Do you think people think of men/women differently when they remove body hair?
If it’s not in the context of ie sports players, what sort of attitudes do you hear about hair removal?

Do you acknowledge that your decision to remove body hair now is informed in part by society and outside opinions?

Is your opinion of others informed by their body hair?

This set of questions became a useful tool as I conducted my interview, they were used to guide and structure the conversation but also allowed me the room to add more questions around them, making each interview have its own thread or topic. For example, when listening back and annotating my interview with Tom, it became really clear that his parent’s opinions deeply effected his perception of himself. It would also be a useful tool for the editors because using similar questions allowed for a comparison of answers to be sourced on a similar question. I also annotated my interviews in different highlights to easily draw attention to the editors points of insight or similarities across participants experiences.

Research

An example of a research study I sourced was entitled The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women’s Judgments of Men’s Sexual Attractiveness. (Dixson and Rantala, 2016)
interestingly, encounters with media whilst preparing this feature cited this article and the argument of whether or not men were perceived as more or less attractive based on their facial hair (or lack thereof) this was found, via my facebook feed entitled “https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/well/family/are-men-with-beards-more-desirable.html

Secondary insights came from a facebook callout which I shared on my personal account. I posed the question like this:

“HAIR REMOVAL, a hairy situation !
Were you someone who wasn’t allowed to remove their body hair when they were younger? How did it effect you? Do you choose not to remove or not remove your body hair? Why?
Have you ever felt pressure from family or society regarding your body hair choices?
If you are interested in having a quick chat about it for a uni assignment (It’s audio recorded but you can be anon if you like) get in touch ASAP!”

Trong responded asking, assuming that the piece would only focus on females. of course this was not the case, so I responded stating the obvious. This did indicate already, some assumptions people held about hair removal and it in part being influenced by gender.

I had several acquaintances personal message me of their encounters and it emerged that their first encounter was almost always a triggering point for their ideas about hair removal forming.This is why I made it the first question I asked during the interview. I also found that asking the subject why they responded to my facebook callout a catalyst for discussion from which I was able to lead into asking about a very personal subject.

Interviews

Aside from academic studies, I conducted research of my own in the form of interviews. Half were with males and half were with females and the age range was between 20 – 28 years old.
I personally conducted four interviews with participants all of varying cultural backgrounds. The aim of these interviews were to assess how the cultural climate you grow up in has any link to your hair removal practices as an adult. Whilst the limitations of the radio form prevents me from researching a larger sample of participants, I felt these four interviews were sufficient for our purposes. The most different perspective came from Trong, who responded by the facebook callout in regards to not having enough hair to remove. His perspective was immediately a point of difference, as well as coming from Vietnam where I was shocked to here that women having body hair held severely negative consequences (ie. they were called ‘sluts’ and ‘whores’) after hearing this I had to ask the question a few different ways to actually understand what I was hearing. This is a perfect example of the cultural differences we were trying to investigate.

The interview process made me see how different types of interviews can be used for different content. For example, vox-pops are short and sharp and can be used to get a general understanding of the topic. I put in the outline that a montage of these could be used in the intro to almost overwhelm the listener, and then branch out in to discussion and insight offered by the one on one interviews.

Conducting interviews with people I didn’t know very well was also a good experience to have during the semester as it will likely reflect how radio production could work for me outside of uni. I really made an effort to be as organised and informed as possible on topics, even with guests that I didn’t book so I could treat their time with us on the show or in one-on-one interviews with insight rather than ignorance.

Granted at the time of this, I am yet to hear the finished feature, I am content that we approached a topic that goes largely undiscussed by the mainstream media, and even at a personal level may open up discussions amongst our peers into challenging why we hold the views we have as it became apparent in our interviews that our approach to hair removal is almost largely autonomous and seen as a natural thing to do. When an idea like this seems ‘natural’ it is then of interest to take a step back and as “why” is this a ‘natural’ attitude?

From this assignment, my interest in media particularly in the form of radio has been maintained, and further stirred to see what more content I could make. I now see myself more confident in presenting and also have a better sense of the methods of which to organise and produce radio. These two skills I hope will be transferred in my efforts to do more radio related tasks after the semester and post-graduation. The Room With A View studio has offered me a chance to operate in a professional environment and elaborate on skills in the radio production method. A main challenge in this class has been the subjectivity of what makes for a good interview. There are a multitude of variables, that can influence this and it’s hard to assess what conversation may emerge from an interview until you meet the participant. In future, I would always continue to talk to them beforehand to firstly put the interviewee at ease, and to also assess their style of talking and any subjects that would want to focus on. I found this conclusion based on the feedback of my one-on-one interview.

Research for further insight can be found on my blog post called research.

RWAV WK 9 + 10

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OUR FIRST SHOW finally got to air on the 1st of May!

Facilitating a whole hour of radio, proved to be challenging – mainly with organising the availability of guests and being surprised by the interview we recorded in our demo, being turned down for a live interview for our first show. Besides this, two live interviews were organised. Our first, Savannah from the zine ‘Ladies of Leisure’ as suggested by Chloe and our second with Anthony who I had previously interviewed as a pre-record. Although our interview subjects were diverse, when rehearsing our show, Chloe and I noted down connecting links of the interviews to transition the program, for example Savannah spoke of empowering women through her zine, and Soreti Kadir was an inspiring woman empowering her community in Footscray so that connection was used to back announce one interview and introduce Soreti’s which was a pre-record.

A theme that kept occurring to me in the production of the show was the idea that even though things sounds organic and natural and air, planning and preparation are key for this ‘style’ to take effect. The producers, Hannah and Georgia and panelist, Bradley – worked to make two versions of the runsheet: one for Chloe and myself as presenters and a version that detailed more of the technical aspects of timing and where sound sources were kept (ie Computer 1, CD 1). In addition to this Chloe and myself individually made notes in order of each segment of the runsheet. This included things like a fact about the songs we played, whether a tour or an album of that artist is announced or ways to segway into the next segment in case we ‘froze up’.
Before the show we combined our notes, but in future we would have just worked off the same notes document to make sure we had identical information in front of us and avoided making a few reprints and revisions of the notes very close to the show. This was not so much to script exactly what we would say, but to provide a guide with detail of what to say to avoid being tongue tied, especially granted we’d be naturally nervous on our first RRR Live show.

Overall, I would say our first show ran smoothly with challenges like a last minute change to the pre-record as requested by the interviewee, handled with an exceptional amount of calm by our producer. If this interview was to no longer air, fortunately I had spent several hours (more !!) editing down an additional pre-recorded interview with ‘Lushsux’ making it ‘radio ready’ at 11 minutes and even preparing an introduction to contextualise the interview if it needed to air. The most positive aspect of this experience for me personally, was the chance to get to present on-air. I have approached this class with the attitude that it is wholly beneficial for my career goals and hence striving for accuracy in my presentation efforts and broadcast abilities.

Attached below is a link to it on soundcloud with annotations as I listened back through to the show a few days later…
Group 4 RWAV Show #1

RWAV WK 7 + 8

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On Monday, I recorded two one-on-one interviews. This was a test to for my confidence in using the panel to check levels and liase with a guest. In the first interview, I was nervous and I think it could be heard clearly in the way I asked my questions. My guest had some interesting things to say, but the way they were said wasn’t in an engaging way for the audience. I hope that I can edit this interview in a way that highlights the interesting things the artist had to say about street art. I observed when listening back to the interview, that the direction of the conversation was mismatched, whereby my questions wanted to respond to the interviewee in an interesting way but also moved the conversation another way. I think the audio attained might better be used in a feature, because the guest had concise, punchy statements about the street art world of which he was a part.

The second interview I conducted was with Anthony,the vice-president of the Monash Club of Juggling and Fire Twirling . I realised from feedback of my first guest that it was difficult for him to talk to me from where I was sitting (MIC ANN 1) and where he was (MIC 2), telling me that it was hard to make eye contact and see me and he felt “awkward” talking to the mic stand and not me. With this feedback, I moved my second guest to sit at MIC 1 where it felt more like a conversation as we could respond to non-verbal cues. I had a really positive experience interviewing Anthony and was able to articulate my questions better. Something I can improve upon is structuring my pre prepared notes to not order questions but rather points on ideas that we can touch on.

RWAV Wk 5 + 6

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29/03
Today my group rehearsed and then recorded our demo for RRR. From this, I can see that rehearsal is a key step and also a luxury but if time allows we will definitely make it a priority to meet a few times before our first show.

The demo proved really successful. Brad was an excellent panelist and Hannah was able to keep me and Chloe on time. I observed that the runsheet can only be a guide as naturally time gets “lost” and we ended up having more time to talk in our feature interview (13 minutes instead of 10minutes). One thing that happened was my pre-recorded interview dropped out suddenly (we are unsure why this happened) but Brad swiftly went to the text track and so we had minimal dead air.

3/04
Feedback from playing the demo to class:
– Be mindful of superlatives. These are words such as “exciting”. Let the audience decide if the interview was great or not, and if it was don’t talk about it after the fact.
– Wrapping up was difficult. Add insights as they occur in the interview ie “that did not occur to me”
– Thank the whole team, incl guests at the end as well ie “Brad for panel op, Hannah for producing …”

RWAV Wks 3 & 4

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Having now gained a sense of what is suitable content for Triple R, I have spent the last two weeks developing ideas for interviews. In class, when placed in groups we interestingly had some similar interests – particularly the use of art and artists and social media and the accessibility of artists depending where in Victoria they are from.

I pursued one interview with a well known street-artist and I really hope this eventuates. Secondly, I have made contact with a University program that does circus and aerobics and can pursue this interview if needed. I developed these ideas keeping in mind the type of content RRR would think suitable for its large and varied audience, hence why the topics of art and something a bit quirky like the circus!

In week 4 my group finally got the chance to practice panelling in the RRR studios, this was great as although we encountered some difficulty we rehearsed how to troubleshoot this on air. Although I have panelled and presented on air before – I was able to recognise how different the RRR panel is, and where it shares similarities with SYN.

For the next two weeks we will be developing a run sheet – a vital tool in radio and also produce a demo to reflect on with the class.

RWAV Weeks 1 & 2

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The first two weeks have granted me with an insight into how Triple R operates and also a sense of the content they aim to provide – diverse, eclectic and innovative. The sense I get about Triple R is that whilst there is a program structure, you could tune in any time and hear interesting an informative content that may not be otherwise heard on mainstream radio, or other media platforms.

The highlight for me, was being able to visit the home of Triple R, which encompasses all the studios and office space. As I was sitting on the stage area I kept thinking about all the videos I had seen of performers that I had watched at the RRR 40 Years exhibition the previous weekend. To me this really emphasises the role the station plays in the community. Although I had not previously been involved with Triple R, I and I’m sure most of us would be familiar with the station and it’s involvement including the annual Community Cup.

My main goals for this studio include:
Improving my presenting skills.
Developing professional interview methods including research.
Make content that I am proud of and can use in the future.

Week 7: Readings Reflection

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Victor Burgin, ‘Looking at Photographs’ (Ch.6) in Thinking Photography, 1982.
  • summary
  • evaluation
  • relevance
arguments
Victor Burgin’s take on the role of the photograph urges us to look beyond it’s conventional function to “sell, inform, record, delight” and to look for their deeper meaning, something we can easily neglect to do as we are consistently presented with visual information in abundance.
Further Burgin presents that the photograph has formed apart of our formal and informal communication systems, particulary with the development of semiotic readings leaving the photograph to be deconstructed of its “codes”.

The second reading this week provides provision on how we might go about analysing the nature and construction of the media. Under a semiotic approach, the perspective that ‘texts’ are made with embedded codes is taken.

A Reflection on Semester One – Media 1: Questions Ft. Graph

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I do not claim to be the best graph maker, indeed far from it but this exercise was useful in allowing me to think about my progress in the Media program in my first semester of Uni by mapping it out visually. On that note, this post details my 500 Word Reflection on the selected blog post and includes a scanned copy (below) of my ‘Learning Graph’. I have explained in brief detail my justifictaions for my graph plot points also.

MediaGraph

 

 

Question 1

  • How much have I learnt about making media objects/stories?

In terms of making media objects, what I have learnt has come from directly making the product. By stepping out of the comfort zone of having lengthy deadlines and being made to create within tight time frames, although this was challenging I was able to do so by learning to trust my ideas and just go for it really. By not being able to second guess myself I was able to create and then think about how I might improve for next time, not the other way round.

Question 2

  • What is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways or with new systems and tools?

 I can’t say I had a problem working independently before commencing the course, however this skill was built upon, particularly when it came to editing and collating the first few project briefs. Admittedly I felt that I stuck to a particular “safe space” in using programs such as iMovie instead of Premiere, for example which is relatively more complex to use. As depicted on the graph, I felt this only increased with doing the project briefs.

Question 3

  • How much do I understand and think critically and creatively about what I make?

The skills of critical analysis and creativity, I can see through completing this semester will be carried with me throughout the degree progressively, and also when I continue to develop my skills as a media maker.

Question 4

  • What is my understanding of the role/value of the blog

 The role and value of the blog differed, in my opinion throughout the blog. In the first few weeks of class I found it a tedious and confusing task (particularly in relation to what exactly I was meant to be posting. However as the semester moved along I did find the blog useful in ensuring I was ‘digesting’ the ideas put forth in the readings and ideas discussed in the tutorials. A secondary, but equally important function of this blog has been making it a place where I can present my work online and share the links to it with friends and family, although at times I have felt uncomfortable with this forum being public.

 

Links to Blog Posts

Wk 12: Technology

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/rebecca-maakasa/2015/05/27/wk-12-media-lectorial-readings-technology-takeover/

Wk 11: Remixes

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/rebecca-maakasa/2015/05/20/wk11-remixes-post-broadcast-postmodern-poststructural/

Wk 9: Audiences

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/rebecca-maakasa/2015/05/08/wk-10-lectorial/

Wk 8: Narrative

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/rebecca-maakasa/2015/05/01/week-8-narrative/

Wk 3: Reading on media and public engagement

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/rebecca-maakasa/wp-admin/post.php?post=36&action=edit

500 Word Reflection 

Within this semester what I feel I have learnt relates to an increase in technical competence as well as building upon existing skills. Specifically the process of working independently and with others to produce informed yet creative pieces of work. To summarise essentially what I have taken from this semester I would say that I have been introduced and have been able to interrogate some of the “umbrella” terms that form under the multi-faceted concept of “Media”.
Although I recognise I still have a long way to go in terms of investigating and reconciling how I understand media to operate (not just in terms technical competence but also the philosophy of media). I feel that this semester has allowed me to get a taste of a dozen different aspects of the media. by focusing on a concept each week I found the readings and information about each topic summarised and consolidated by needing to write up a blog post about it. I also felt that the topics learned in class and lectorial allowed the theory to inform my media practice, most notably through the project briefs.

So how exactly did I come to reach this? Ultimately my learning was improved by three main factors: research, responding, and reflection (and alliteration, obviously). Dealing with research in both the assigned readings (usually academic articles) and in conducting my own research (particularly with later project briefs) allowed me to further explore in-depth topics such as audiences, mediums and technology. Responding to these ideas was achieved through completing blog posts and further drawing upon researched information in project briefs, especially Project Brief 4 which involved creating an annotated bibliography to summarise concisely the main ideas informed by a particular aspect of research. This information triggered responses within projects as I was able to draw on this information to build my work from a well informed base. Finally, the process of reflection was consistently drawn upon after completing projects and also on a more regular basis following readings, lectorials and tutorial classes. Reflections were posted via personal blogs, as were projects, allowing them to be shared with peers and staff.

This semester was not without its challenges. My first hurdle I discovered was access to equipment was limited. In regards to my own equipment I found it a challenge to work without hindrance as I did not have access to a suitable laptop for some course work (specifically video editing for PB1 and PB2). Hiring microphones and video cameras was restricted at university and times needed to be negotiated to hire and use them due to their being in high demand from all within the course. When situations like this arose I needed to rely on being organised and flexible in when I could work on assignments whilst respecting deadlines.

My creative practice, I have discovered works best when I let go of inhibitions such as doubting my ideas and start a task, even with just a faint inkling of what I want to achieve and building upon it from that point. It is also further improved by taking the extra time and initiative to try and learn skills that will compliment my work. For example, cosulting “Lynda Online” for tutorials on how to use computer editing software (Premiere, iMovie) so that I build confidence and competence in using these programs both improving my skills and ability to complete video based assignments.