COMM11007 Week 1 - Blog Activity


Week 1 – Blog  COMM11007

Inquiry: Different Purpose/Different Writing:
Review and compare the way the same story is presented in different ways:
a.       [Govt statement] – Racing Queensland unveils league legend Slater as official ambassador.
b.      [News story – Gold Coast Bulletin] Maroons legend Billy Slater to be announced as ambassador for Qld thoroughbred racing.’

Both these articles are about Billy Slater being made the official ambassador for Racing Queensland, including all codes: horse racing, greyhounds and harness. Slater’s massive profile and popularity is being used as a drawcard for the industry.

Racing Queensland Acting Chief Executive Officer Sam Adams, declared in the government statement: ‘Being able to partner with Billy allows Racing Queensland to appeal to a wider audience and gain new fans across all codes.’

Billy Slater has a life-long passion for horse racing, and would like to be a trainer one day. He used to ride jockey track-work when he was younger.

Queensland Racing Minister Grace Grace, Sam Adams and high-profile Queensland trainer Robert Heathcote, made the announcement at Suncorp Stadium, as described in the Gold Coast Bulletin. All very cozy.

The government statement is promotional and positive. When Minister Grace says: ‘Billy Slater is more than just a league legend, he’s a great Queenslander who connects with sports fans throughout the State,’ it comes across as ‘engineering consent’ to create positive public opinion. This is a term used by one of the original thinkers of Public Relations, Edward Bernays, in the early 1920’s, as explained in Whitaker Ramsey & Smith (2012, p. 7).

The News story Gold Coast Bulletin is more informative and mentions, at the end of the article, that Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown quit his post as ambassador for Queensland greyhound racing, early 2015 over the live-baiting scandal. Billy Slater is replacing him.

Neither article spoke about the problems of gambling. Gambling (and the revenue to the government from it) is largely what the racing industry is all about. Not a word about ‘gambling responsibly’.

I am not a fan of the racing industry; some people and most animals in racing are exploited. Problem gambling; made so much easier today with modern technology, devastates many lives, directly and indirectly.

Cruelty to animals goes under the radar, until something like the live-baiting scandal in the greyhound industry surfaces.

According to Animals Australia website (Link), unwanted racehorses end up as pet meat at the two horse abattoirs in Australia (Peterborough SA and Caboolture Qld). Approximately 2,000 tonnes of horse meat are sent to Japan and Europe annually, for human consumption (ABS figures).

Also, there is the question of privatisation. Is the Queensland Government setting up Racing Queensland to be sold off?

It makes you wonder why there are only positive messages in the government statement. Not a word about problem gambling – and what to do about it. Not a word about preventing cruelty to animals. It may be legal for the Queensland Government to promote gambling this way, but it is immoral.

Do we want our leaders to be legally immoral?

Should the moral players in the racing industry be doing something to combat the immoral side?

References:

Animals Australia the voice for animals n.d. Horse Racing, viewed 14 July 2017, http://animalsaustralia.org/issues/horse_racing.php

Davidson, B 2016, ‘Maroons legend Billy Slater to announced as ambassador for Qld thoroughbred racing’, Gold Coast Bulletin, 24 June, viewed 11 July 2017,  http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/racing/maroons-legend-billy-slater-to-be-announced-as-ambassador-for-qld-thoroughbred-racing/news-story/564befcf1bdd9e78480e832255cdf171

The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory 2016, Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, Minister for Racing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs The Honourable Grace Grace, media release, 24 June, viewed 11 July 2017, http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2016/6/24/racing-queensland-unveils-league-legend-slater-as-official-ambassador.

Whitaker, WR, Ramsey, JE, & Smith RD 2012, Media Writing print, broadcast, and public relations, 4th edn, Routledge, New York and London.


Week 1 – Quiz Reflection

I was very tired when I attempted this quiz, and had to really concentrate hard.

I found it confusing and had to re-read the questions a few times. I assumed some of the punctuation marks were in the wrong place, and the purpose of the quiz was to correct them.

But, as it turned out, the questions were only asking you to say where the punctuation/attribution was placed in the sentence, which was a bit puzzling – what was the point of the quiz?

Possibly, that is the point – just read the instructions!

Comments

  1. Unknown28 July 2017 at 02:59

    It was a delight reading your post on the Billy Slater story, definitely the best one I’ve read so far. It's really good to include the reference list in your blog. However, I have no ideas how to insert a website link like what you did. Can you give me some clue, please?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown31 July 2017 at 05:43

      To insert a website link, go to the webpage you want to link.
      Copy the address in the address bar.
      Paste the address into the document of your choice.
      Then hold down the control key and press enter.
      That should make a link to the webpage.

      Hope that helps.
      Karen

      Delete
  2. kateam5 September 2017 at 21:55

    Karen, a good reflection here. Well-referenced generally. The only points for improvement here would be to link theory (from text/unit study guide) to content of a news story or media statement, and I don't know how hard it is to adjust formatting text, but a more consistent font/spacing would help the blog 'look' more professional. That being said, my focus is on the writing and ease of review. Cheers, Kate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown15 October 2017 at 16:01

    Hi Kate,

    Thanks for the feedback.

    Have decided to do as you described in Week 11 - Reviewing your work - and use the solid red ruler, red pen and highlighter. Print out copies of the blog; then read each word deliberately and aloud, high-lighting mistakes to be corrected.

    So, for the review of this week’s blog, I have added a link to text theory and fixed some punctuation mistakes for week 1.

    Also, I did as you suggested in the week 4 blog, as per tidying up the look of the blog. So, by cutting the text, pasting it into Word, formatting in Word, and then pasting back into Blogger, has done the trick, and the ‘look’ has improved, and is easier to read. Thanks for that advise, hopefully the blog will look much better now.

    Regards,
    Karen

    ReplyDelete

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