A Study Guide by Marguerite Olhara
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Journos A STUDY GUIDE BY MARGUERITE O’HARA http://www.metromagazine.com.au http://www.theeducationshop.com.au Curriculum Guidelines Journos would be an excellent series to show students from middle to senior secondary and at tertiary level across a range of subjects including English, Media Studies, in the careers area and the world of work, Studies of Society and Environment, International Studies and Journalism. These stories are told in a very accessible way and many of them are quite inspirational. They demonstrate the increasing need for journalists today to be multi-skilled as Introduction researchers, camera operators, sound recordists, writers and presenters. n a series of five half-hour programs Being a foreign correspondent today we follow the lives of five Australian is not simply to be one part of a much Ijournalists working around the world bigger production unit. as foreign correspondents. While there ‘It doesn’t matter where are some common features about their The activities in this guide encourage you are, people who work, there are many differences in students to develop an understand- how they approach their work in places ing of the lives and work of foreign do bad things will try that are often dangerous and war- correspondents, to discuss some of torn. These are the people we see on the broader issues about the work of and stop information television news and current affairs pro- journalism, to explore ways of con- from getting out, and grams, but here they are the subjects structing portraits of people at work of the documentary, interviewed and and hopefully inspire them to consider we should really try and filmed in the places where they work. becoming journalists. get that information out, They offer insghts into their different approaches to reporting and reveal Who are the journalists no matter what they try both the highs and lows of working far featured in this series? from home. to do to stop us.’ Episode 1: Sophie McNeill Paul Roy, the director and producer – Stephen McDonell, of the series has worked with foreign Beirut based Sophie McNeill is one ABC correspondent in China correspondents for many years as a of the new breed of video journalists cameraman, producer and ‘fixer’ and working for SBS Dateline. She is just had some insight into what really goes twenty-three. This episode follows So- on getting stories to air. He believed phie during a potentially dangerous trip that viewers would also like to see how to Kurdistan and Northern Iraq to meet SCREEN EDUCATION stories are made, what effect they have the people of Sinjar, a small village that and most importantly a bit more about suffered one of the world’s most hor- the journalists as people, not just rific yet under reported terrorist attacks names or faces on television. of the last decade. 2 to Washington for historic coverage • Locate Kirkuk and Sinjar on a map of the final day of the US Presidential of Iraq. elections. • Why does Sophie believe it’s Student Activity 1 important to tell the story of what happened to the Yazidi people in Foreign Correspondents – what Sinjar in North Western Iraq? they do and what they say • Sophie’s story from Kirkuk in Episode 1 – Sophie Mc Neill Northern Iraq needs to be back- grounded for viewers. How much One of the new breed of video journal- information does she offer to con- ists who, with access to affordable textualize her story? and small digital cameras, now work across the globe as ‘one-man bands’. • Why is it so important for Sophie to Sophie directs, films, records sound get as many pictures as possible of Episode 2: Stephen McDonell and interviews for her own stories which the people and place from where she researches and develops herself. In she is reporting? Stephen McDonell is the ABC’s China late 2007, she won an award for young correspondent based in Beijing, report- Australian journalist of the year. • What are some of the most difficult ing for both television and radio. This aspects of reporting from remote episode examines the ups and downs • What was one of the inspirations and dangerous locations like this of a frantic year, covering diverse for Sophie to become a journalist one? events from the traumatic aftermath of when she was just fourteen? the Sichuan earthquake to the circus of • What does Sophie find most the 2008 Beijing Olympics. • Describe her first experience of rewarding about being ‘in the field’ reporting in a country at war? as a foreign correspondent? Episode 3: Mark Davis • What are some of the dangers she In Their Own Words Mark Davis is a multi-award-winning is faced with in her work? journalist for SBS Dateline. Shooting Sophie as a ‘one-man band’ with an open- • How are these dangers compound- ended agenda, Mark accompanied ed by her being a woman? Your ‘fixer’ becomes your best friend Benazir Bhutto during her dramatic when you’re there [on location in a for- return to Pakistan after eight years in • What and who are essential for eign country] and it’s also the best way exile. He was to find himself too close her to be able to compile reports of understanding what it’s really like to for comfort as Taliban death threats in other countries to send back to be a local and live there. became a reality. Australia? When I was sixteen and back from East Episode 4: Luke Hunt • What are some of the dangers Timor, I would get angry at people back for journalists travelling in parts home … I find it hard to understand Luke Hunt is a 43-year old Australian of Iraq? why people don’t care more. journalist based in Hong Kong. Hav- ing worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP) for the past fourteen years, Luke swaps the security of a weekly wage for the life of a freelance journalist. We travel with Luke to Cambodia to cover the volatile elections and an escalating dispute on the Thai/Cambodian border. Episode 5: Hamish MacDonald Hamish McDonald is a news anchor and correspondent for Al Jazeera SCREEN EDUCATION English, the new kid on the block of international news channels. In this episode, we accompany Hamish to Kabul and Bamiyan in Afghanistan and 3 I’m not an adrenaline junkie, I don’t like being scared, I hate it, that’s not addic- tive at all … I want to find things out … that’s what drives me. Travelling to Sinjar is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done … but you know I’m leaving tomorrow … but for the people I’m going to interview, this is the only road they have … they do this every single day … so in order to get a story you have to put yourself in the shoes of the people there, for just a few hours a day. The biggest lesson I’ve learned from people in the Middle East … is to appreciate everything … this is what • Identify Sichuan Province in South • Stephen acknowledges that the always makes a story, the people … West China on a map. How far is pro-Tibetan protests, one of which they’re really keen to tell their story. it from Beijing where Stephen is he covers, are regarded by the Chi- based? nese Government as an attempt to You like to think what you do makes politicize the Olympic Games. How a difference. • Why was it important for Stephen does this attempt to stop the press to get there first to cover the Si- from reporting events like this only Episode 2: Stephen McDonell chuan earthquake on the ground? encourage him to report the story? Stephen McDonell has been the ABC’s • Describe the immediate difficulties • What is Stephen’s view of his job China correspondent for three years. he and his film crew faced when as a journalist? His determination to learn Chinese and they were trying to film the immedi- immerse himself in the culture makes all ate aftermath of the earthquake? In Their Own Words the difference on some assignments. • What aspects of filming this mas- Stephen • Why do you think Stephen wanted sive disaster did Stephen find most to become a journalist? confronting? Journalists have a bizarre relationship with disaster. Any journalist who said • What does he think is the most • The pressure of filming the Aus- they don’t get some bizarre excitement difficult aspect of breaking into a tralian Prime Minister at the flag out of a disaster, they’re probably not job for someone wanting to work carrying announcement in Beijing telling the truth. as a journalist? for the Olympics, a ‘softer story’, provides a very different challenge You can be quite clinical about it in • What advantages does he have for Stephen. What are the deadline a way because you’re just trying to as an Australian working in China? pressures he is under to film this describe things … but I remember one reception? thing while I was describing what was • What happened in Sichuan happening … these little feet sticking Province in May 2008? • What throws him when the story out under the sheets … and I couldn’t goes to air live from Beijing on go on … it was just bang … reality … Lateline, ABC television’s Australian the whole scene was just shocking. night-time current affairs program? The obvious thing with learning a lan- • How are the protests by the Weag- guage is that people trust you and will ers in Kashgar, which Stephen speak to you because they think you travels 4000 kilometres to cover, are serious about the place and having related to the Beijing Olympics? a language opens doors for you, and once you’ve spoken to people they will • What are the difficulties in reporting give you more in the interview … It just SCREEN EDUCATION this story? How is Stephen’s ability drags you down to the deepest layers to speak and understand Chinese a of understanding of the place.