I was very excited to pitch our comedy news segment because I am interested in fringe Australian groups and grew up around people who are probably sovereign citizens. Even though I do not align myself with these people, I have a fondness for ignorant right-wing fringe groups and like to understand them as much as possible to potentially combat them.

When Dan said we shouldn’t unintentionally legitimise sovereign people I took this on board. I already like to point out flaws in fringe groups like these by poking fun at them, showing them for who they are and what they represent. We generally got really good feedback but something that stood out to me was when Paul suggested that someone to wear a hat similar to the person in our VT footage. I immediately thought of my dad who is a bit of a cowboy (not a sovereign citizen though) and owns a lot of accessories that fit in with Australian sovereign citizen style—and he smokes durries. I knew that adding little details such as this would make our project look and feel more complete and give the character of Karen a fully-formed personality. I took this same feedback on when creating my field reporter character.

A piece of feedback I took from the ‘whitemanophobia’ group to not alienate your audience. It’s very easy to judge ignorant people when you need to take time to understand them. While I doubt sovereign citizens will see our final project, I feel that ignoring the fears they have surrounding masks, vaccines and law enforcement is a disservice to people who have also had a difficult time during the pandemic, even if this is their fault.

I’m keen to get creating because I think my group is highly motivated, our topic is engaging and lockdown is boring!