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!
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?
ReplyDeleteTo insert a website link, go to the webpage you want to link.
DeleteCopy 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
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.
ReplyDeleteHi Kate,
ReplyDeleteThanks 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