Social Media Analysis – Melbourne’s Moomba Riots

On Saturday 11 March 2017, a brawl broke out after the Moomba festival in Melbourne’s Federation Square which lead to 53 arrests, 14 alcohol offences, nine weapons offences, five for riotous behaviour with 800 people searched for weapons across the weekend.

Approximately 100 youths – mostly young men, came into the CBD specifically to fight and gain notoriety among their peers for their behaviour. Two police officers were treated for minor injuries and bystanders were affected by the pepper spray used by the police to subdue the rioters.

The below analysis will compare and contrast the differences across traditional news media and social media platform coverage of the same event.

Facebook – 7 News Melbourne (8.00am Sunday)

Timeliness

This is a reactive story (Lamble, 2013, p. 55) starting with an event – Moomba riots.

7 News (2017) was the first to run the story on social media via their Facebook page which was used to drive its audience to the website (Dunlop, 2016, p. 76). According to Dunlop (2016, p. 69), social media is a tool used by publishers to distribute content and engage with their audience. However, web-based journalism challenges the role of the media as ‘gatekeeper’ of information and a centre of influence in public debate (Dunlop, 2016, p. 71).

The news lead covered three of the six elements crucial to creating a newsworthy story (Lamble, 2013, p. 53), ‘who’ was arrested, ‘what’ had happened and ‘where’ the incident occurred.

Although this report was timely, it did not cover the whole story as not all the facts had emerged. It did not contain any sources. It did however, spark a lot of negative sentiment from the Facebook audience and exposed an underlying tone of racism, dislike for the police and 7 News.

The shift to online news has fundamentally changed the way an audience receives and reacts to a news event (Dunlop, 2016, p. 71).

As of 13 March 2017, the story received 326 likes, 215 comments, 80 shares and the news footage had been viewed 51,000 times.

Digital – The Age (Fairfax) 9:56am (updated 1.24pm)

The Age

The Age (2017) newspaper headline and lead covers four of the six elements who (police and teens), what (riot), how (pepper spray) and where (Moomba), (Lamble, 2013, p. 53). The news angle focused on how the police subdued the crowd including the number of arrests.

Video footage and photographs were captured for background and context. Two sources were cited.

More information was captured over the 7 News coverage due to the digital platforms ability to update information as it became available.

Digital – ABC News

ABC News Online

The ABC’s coverage (2017) featured a more in-depth description of events out of the four media outlets analysed.

The headline and lead covers four of the six elements ‘who (people/police), what (Moomba riot), how (arrested) and where (Moomba),’ (Lamble, 2013, p. 53). The news angle focused on how the police subdued the crowd including how many arrests were made and how the Victorian government will manage events like this in future.

This story cited four sources including one from the Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner, Victoria’s Police Minister, Shadow Attorney-General and Lord Mayor.

Newspaper – Herald Sun (News Corp) – Hardcopy

Headline: “Police reclaim the streets”

The Herald Sun (2017) ran their 595-word story on page two of the Sunday edition

The headline, “Police reclaim city streets” describes the event and who was involved. The lead covered four news elements, who (police and youth), what (reclaimed the street), where (Moomba) and how (responding to youth).

Three sources were cited but no identifiable names were used. When this story went to print, it was factually outdated.

It could be argued that George Lowenstein’s ‘curiosity gap,’ (Lush Digital, 2016) theory was utilised in the headline to grab the reader’s attention. This theory is based on the information gap of curiosity. According to Lowenstein, curiosity is a state that occurs when people identify a gap between what they currently know and what they would like to know. Curiosity triggered by information gaps is particularly strong. Information gaps prompt people to take action.

Lowenstein developed this theory in 1994 long before the rise of social media. His theory is a widely popular technique used in social media and online content distribution, with popular news sites such as Buzzfeed (2017) and Upworthy (2017) utilising this technique.

News values

A local news angle was taken throughout all of the reports and was dominated by the news value of “conflict.” According to Lamble, (2013, p. 49) conflict covers a wide spectrum of events such as war – or in this case, a riot between youths who came into the city specifically to cause trouble.

Additional news values include “proximity” (Lamble, 2013, p.48) as it relates to a news event that happened locally, in the city of Melbourne, which is also close to Melburnians emotionally, socially and culturally – Moomba being a historic cultural event.

The news value of “significance” (Lamble, 2013, p. 46) relates to the number of people that the event affected. Over 53 people were arrested and police officers were injured in the melee.

According to Lamble (2013, pp. 53-54), the inverted pyramid is used to provide the most newsworthy information first in the lead paragraph which explains in 25 words or less the essence of the main news value and usually explains what happened, where and to who.

This formula was followed through all stories – but a somewhat less in the Herald Sun where information was muddled. Stories that are constructed around this framework appeal to the reader who is in a hurry or consuming the news online.

Conclusion

There are three distinct differences between the coverage.

1. 7 News social media page could run the story first – even though all the facts had yet to be collected. This platform allowed the audience to actively participate in creating content and news distribution rather than as a passive recipient (Dunlop, 2016, p. 71).
2. Digital news coverage enables the media agency to update the same story as new facts emerge. The audience can comment in the comments field. The use of video-based content is made possible through this medium (Dunlop, 2016, p. 75) as is the ability to access news via mobile devices.
3. Hardcopy news is often outdated before it is published and consumed by the reader, making digital news a better option.

References

 7 News Melbourne. (2017). Facebook.com. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from www.facebook.com/7NewsMelbourne/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf

Buzzfeed Home. (2017). Retrieved 13 March 2017, from www.buzzfeed.com

Cowie, T. & Dmytryshchak, G., The Age (2017). Police forced to subdue youths with pepper spray as brawls erupt at Moomba. Retrieved from www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-use-pepper-spray-to-subdue-youths-at-moomba-20170311-guw50p.html

Dunlop, T. (2016). Success, trends and influence of social media in mainstream media. Cited in, Dodd, A. & Sykes, H. Media innovation and disruption (pp. 69-84). Sydney future leaders.

Florance, L. ABC News (2017). Moomba festival: Dozens arrested in Melbourne in crime crackdown. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-12/dozens-arrested-in-moomba-crime-crackdown/8344670

Lamble, S. (2013). News Values, in the news as it happens: An introduction to journalism (2^nd ed., Part 2, pp. 44-55). Oxford University Press.

Lush Digital (2017). A marketer’s guide to the curiosity gap. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from lushdigital.com/curiosity-gap/

Travers, B. Hurley, D., & Alison, G. Herald Sun, Sunday edition (2017). Police reclaim city streets. p. 2. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from www-nexis-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/

Upworthy Home (2017). Retrieved 13 March 2017 from, www.upworthy.com

 

 

 

 

Mobile video app consumption changing the media landscape

“Traditional communications channels have mutated, fragmented and diversified to create a spectrum of media experiences that give consumers unparalleled options and freedom of choice,” Cate Connolly, Universal McCann, cited Kandpal, (2014).

Cate Connolly’s observation certainly resonates; as digital media has become the new way in which brands and media agencies communicate with their audiences. More brands are now utilising Below-the-Line (BTL) direct marketing methods (PR, promotion, events, social media and content marketing) because it’s cost effective and reaches a smaller target audience than traditional Above-the-Line (ATL) media methods used to target a larger more general audience through television, radio and print. (Mansoor, 2015).

According to the Sensis Social Media Report (2016), Australia’s digital media landscape continues to evolve rapidly for both consumers and businesses. Almost three quarters of Australian’s are now on social media and spend more than half a day per week (12.5 hours) on Facebook alone – which makes this more than just a passing fad and a wake-up call for business. This is where consumers are and where brands can engage with them.

In Australia, smartphones are the most popular device owned by consumers. When creating content, brands and media agencies must take into account where, when and how their audience is going to absorb that information and have a “mobile first” mentality (Sensis Social Media Report, 2016).

According to Eventbeat (2016), live video streaming apps are rapidly rising as the next unique and innovate way to advertise and communicate with an audience.  Following the success of independent apps, Periscope (2016) and Meerkat (2016), other business with a huge online influence, such as Facebook Live (2016) and Yahoo Live (2016) have decided to try and capitalise on the demand of the interest generated.

Mark Zukerberg, co-founder of Facebook, is obsessed with live video streaming and suggests that it is the next step in social networks evolution, (Oremus, 2016).

Why should brands and media agencies use live streaming apps?

Some social commentators believe that written content is dead (Biro, 2016). Live streaming apps allow brands to communicate live with their audience as events happen – in real time.

The benefits of live streaming apps are (Biro, 2016):

1. It is more authentic – putting a human-face to a brand or product;
2. It is not static – brands can create content on the go and upload live straight to the app such as Facebook Live (2016), Twitter’s Periscope (2016) or Meerkat (2016);
3. It is engaging – live streaming apps give the perception that something is about to happen, bringing the consumer and the brand together in real time. For example, a behind the scenes before a product launch or inside a meeting to humanise a brand;
4. Can be used with other (new) technology – such as live streaming from a DJI drone to Facebook (Goldman, 2016).

So will live streaming continue to play a part in advertising into the future? It’s hard to tell but all brands should be utilising this cost effective tool.

 

National University of Singapore – Science Summer Camp July 2016

In July 2016 I had the opportunity to chaperone five National Youth Science Forum students for a weeklong excursion to Singapore for the National University of Singapore’s Summer Science Camp (NUS SSC).

NUS

It was my first experience as a chaperone so I was a little anxious about the assignment. It turns out there was no need to be. I had the best group of students any chaperone could ask for.

The NUS Science Summer Camp is designed to stir curiosity and inculcate a life-long fascination for science into the students through inspiring lectures by university professors, creative workshops, engaging demonstrations at state-of-the-art laboratories and visits to research labs at NUS for an experiential learning in a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment.

Gastronomy workshop

As an ice-breaker, the students took part in a gastronomy workshop where they learnt the science behind ice cream including the opportunity to eat the finished product; became a forensic scientist to solve a murder mystery using DNA analysis techniques; explored sub-atomic and molecular structures using an electron microscope in the nanotechnology workshop and; witness a number of scientific demonstrations to discover their specific area of interest.

Natural History Museum

One of the highlights of the program was the opportunity to engage with students and teachers from over 13 countries in the South-East Asia region. For most students, it was their first glimpse of life on campus; living in student accommodation and learning to navigate their way to lectures and lab visits – without the assistance of teachers and parents – as students new to university life would have to experience.

Apart from the lab visits and lectures we, were taken on a guided tour to top tourist destinations including a city tour with an afternoon spent at Sentosa Island with its many fun park rides and the famous Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, followed by a swim at Sentosa Beach.

Outside of the structured program, the Australian group learned to navigate through the university using its local buses and headed into the city through the underground rail system with its efficient driverless trains. We walked through the stunning light show at Gardens By the Bay followed by dinner at Satay Bay – a hawker style eatery. A trip to Singapore would not be complete without stopping at Orchard Road for some late night shopping and people watching.

A highlight for two of the Australian students was celebrating their 18^th birthday while in Singapore.

On the final day, the Australian contingent broke into seperate teams to compete in the Summer Camp Science Quiz. Two of the Australian students won first and second place – what a great way to end our Singapore experience.

NYSF celebrates National Science Week 2015

The National Youth Science Forum recently took part in Science in ACTion, part of the ACT’s National Science Week activities.

National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology and thousands of individuals – from students, to scientists to chefs and musicians – get involved, taking part in more than 1000 science events across the nation.

On the first day, school groups ranging from years 9 to 12 who study in the Canberra region visited the event, learning about the many organisations involved in science activities in the ACT and surrounding areas.

Saturday was Community Day, which kept our NYSF volunteers busy answering questions about our programs and demonstrating the very popular Van de Graaff generator and Oscilloscope, which were kindly loaned by the ANU Physics Education Centre.

NYSF Chief Executive Dr Damien Pearce said, “Participating in this event would not be possible without the support and generosity of NYSF alumni both from on campus at the ANU and living in the area. This year, 15 of our alumni helped us out at the event, which saw an estimated 5000 people visiting over the two days.”

NYSF partners ANU, Lockheed Martin, ANSTO and UNSW were also involved in talks and demonstrations throughout the Canberra event.

By Julie Maynard

Is the concept of the public sphere redundant?

Is the concept of the public sphere redundant? Some scholars argue that the concept of the public sphere does not exist due to the mass media’s threat to the distortion and flow of information. Others will argue it is intact. This paper endeavours to explore Habermas’ public sphere; its supporters, critics and its limitation and asks can the Internet be the post-bourgeois public sphere?

The concept of the public sphere is associated with German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas, author of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962). Habermas’ delineation of the public sphere

“a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere comes into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body”

“Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion – that is, with the guarantee of freedom of assembly and association the freedom to express and publish their opinion – about matters of general interest”

Habermas’ (2006, pp. 74 -75) narrative of the public sphere delineates the growth and subsequent decline of the public sphere by linking political, social and cultural developments to each other. During the seventeenth century, monarchical and feudal societies made no distinction between state and society or between public and private.  In the eighteenth century, feudal authorities collapsed and transformed into the “bourgeois public sphere” (Habermas, 2006, p. 75). The bourgeois public sphere was conceived as “the sphere of private people come together as a public” (Habermas, 1989, p. 27).

In the later half of the eighteenth century, Karl Bucher (cited Habermas, 2006, p.76) delineates this development,   “newspapers changed from mere institutions for the publication of news into bearers and leaders of public opinion – weapons of party politics.” For newspaper publishers, this evolution meant they had changed from “vendor of recent news to a dealer in public opinion.”

In England, France and the United States the commercialisation of journalism began. “In the transition from the literary journalism of private individuals to the public services of mass media, the public sphere was transformed by the influx of private interests, which received special prominence in the mass media” (Habermas, 2006, p. 76).

For Habermas however, the rise of mass media and public relations distorted his concept of the public sphere. Public relations practitioners elected the press and the media at large, in managing and manipulating public opinion. Habermas’ critique of public relations was due to the transformation of the independent free press, into a “gate through which privileged private interests invaded the public sphere” (Habermas, 1989, p. 185).

McNair (2011, p. 23) suggests

“there is a major flaw in democratic theory if the information on which political behavior is based, is or can be a manufactured artifice rather than an objective truth, the integrity of the public sphere is inevitably diminished.”

Further, Maloney acquiesces with Habermas and suggests that the public sphere should be redefined as the “persuasive sphere” (cited Tench and Yeomans, 2014, p. 136).

Much of what we learn about politics today is through the mass news media. Scholars McCombs and Shaw, (Cited McCombs, 2003, pp. 1 – 2) developed the agenda setting theory which suggests that the media sets the nation’s agenda “to focus public attention on a few key public issues, and is an immense and well documented influence.” McCombs suggest newspapers provide a host of cues about the salience of the topics in the daily news. These cues repeated daily, communicate the importance of each topic. In other words, “The news media can set the agenda for public’s attention to that small group of issues around which public opinion forms.”

Habermas argued that the media distorted citizen’s views of mainstream politics. According to Lewis et al. (2005, pp. 3 – 4) there has been a decline in the participatory engagement of young voters in the political process subsequent to the emergence of mass media. Politicians accused the media of cultivating cynicism toward them when in fact; it was more likely that the “narrowing of ideological divisions between parties” is the contributing factor. However, McNair (Lewis et al, 2005, p. 7) contradicts this claim and suggests that the mass media “continues to fulfill its democratic role.” Norris (Lewis, et al, 2005, p. 7) agrees that political journalism is a means of engaging individuals and that this consumption encourages them to be politically active and informed.

With the move from civic engagement due to the emergence of the mass media, in Habermas’ view, have we lost the original political persona of discourse in favour of commercialism and entertainment? According to Putman (cited Lewis et al, 2005, p. 1), the “growth of virtual communities on the Internet, for example, has created spaces for new forms of social interactions.” However he later suggests, that the Internet “has not bought with it a more robust form of participatory democracy.”

In order to establish if Habermas’ public sphere exists today within the realm of mass media and the Internet, we must consider his three claims. Does the public have the freedom to communicate with those who they are associated and share common interest? Is access to the public sphere guaranteed to all citizens and, do citizens have the freedom to express and publish opinions about matters of general interest?

According to Gordon, Baldwin-Philippi and Balestra  (2013, pp. 1 – 2) the evolution of virtual communities and digital communication and the accessibility of these networks over the past few decades has dramatically changed the way citizens participate in public discourse. Citizens connect through social media platforms that were designed with community engagement in mind such as Facebook and Twitter and access information about political issues through the digital mass media.  It is predominately where citizens learn and participate beyond the private sphere with others who hold the same interests.

Gordon et al. (2013, pp. 2 – 4) argues that a citizen’s motivation to engage in civic life is premised by three individual and collective actions

1. Acquire and process information – relevant to forming opinion about civic matters
2. Voice and debate opinions and beliefs – related to civic life within the public sphere
3. Take action – with social institutions and political parties through voting, petitioning of government or activism.

Ostensibly, Gordon et al’s. virtual world appears to answer Habermas’ three claims, however, there are limitations. Primarily, it remains normatively held that citizens are educated about the process and organisation of democracy and be up to date on current affairs and ideological perspectives (Gordon et al., 2013, pp. 2 – 4).

Darlberg’s (2010, p. 615), case study, “Exploring the prospects of online deliberative forums extending the public sphere,” examines the existing online discourse to reveal a number of factors limiting the expansion of the public sphere online. He found, that “the expansion of the Internet requires not only developing deliberative spaces but also attracting participation from citizens who have been socialized within the commercialised world and individualised culture hostile towards public deliberation.”

Dalberg argues that the Internet has been developed, monitored and regulated by government and is not free from corporate power (2010, p. 617). Corporate interests and online commerce are controlling the Internet – which aligns with Habermas’ argument that the mass news media controls discourse.

Dahlberg’s case study demonstrates how online discourse can be structured to more fully approximate the requirements of deliberation but also indicated that overcoming some of the more socially and culturally embedded impediments to the extension of the public sphere will require sustained effort (2010, p. 617).”

Furthermore, Puddington’s (2012) analysis of the limitations of the Internet as the public sphere goes beyond what Western civilisation experiences any examination of how many people in the world enjoy the benefits of a liberal democracy will reveal that the vast majority of the worlds inhabitants have yet to experience anything like a public sphere, and its constituent freedoms, that citizens of the West experience today.

Did Habermas’ book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962) address the concept of the public sphere post-bourgeois? According to Fraser (1990, p. 58) Habermas “stops short of developing new, post-bourgeois model of the public sphere. Moreover, he never explicitly problematises some dubious assumptions of the bourgeois model.” As a result, Fraser suggests we are “left at the end of Habermas’ publication without a conception of the public sphere that is sufficiently distinct from the bourgeois conception to serve the needs of critical theory today.”

Habermas’ concept of the public sphere has been applied to media commercialisation and ownership, culture and the changing civic participation through Internet communities. He argued that the public sphere is threatened by mass media power structures that attempt to inhibit and control the individual is undoubtedly correct. The emergence and convergence of the mass media has dramatically altered the concept of the public sphere through its distortion and manipulation of public opinion.  For the concept of the public sphere to exist, it is assumed that every citizen is educated about the process of democracy and knowledgeable about current affairs and ideological perspectives in order to form an opinion that has not been distorted.  From this discussion, it is clear that the media set the agenda of the day and the Internet is merely an extension of the mass news media’s platform in which privileged private interests invade the public sphere.

References

Darlberg, L, 2010, The Internet and Democratic Discourse: Exploring The Prospects of Online Deliberative Forums Extending the Public Sphere. Information, Communication and Society, Volume 4 (4), 615-633. Doi: 10.1080/13691180110097030. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/13691180110097030#.VQJS9EIVelI

Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy, Social Text, No.  25/26,  55-80. Retrieved from, http://www.jstor.org/stable/466240

Gordon, E, Baldwin-Philippi, J and Balestra, M (2013). Why we engage: how theories of human behavior contribute to our understanding of civic engagement in a digital era. Retrieved from University of Canberra E-Reserve.

Habermas (2006): The Public Sphere: an encyclopedia article in Media and Cultural Studies: Key Works. Durham, M. and Kellner, D. (Eds). Malden, Blackwell, (pp. 73-78). Retrieved from University of Canberra E-Reserve.

Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Retrieved from http://pages.uoregon.edu/koopman/courses_readings/phil123-net/publicness/habermas_structural_trans_pub_sphere.pdf

Lewis, J., Inthorn, S., and Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2005): Democracy, citizenship and the media, in Citizens or consumers? What the media tell us about political participation, Open University Press, Ch. 1, (pp. 1-15). Retrieved from the University of Canberra E-Reserve.

McCoombs, M. (2003). The Agenda-Setting Role of the Mass Media in the Shaping of Public Opinion. University of Texas Austin. Retrieved from http://www.infoamerica.org/documentos_pdf/mccombs01.pdf

McNair, B. (2011). Politics, Democracy and the Media. In An Introduction to Political Communications. (pp. 15 – 26). Retrieved from the University of Canberra E-Reserve.

Puddington, A. (2012). Freedoms in the world: the Arab uprisings and their global repercussions. Retrieved from https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/FIW%202012%20Booklet–Final.pdf

Tench, R & Yeomans, L. (2014). Media context of contemporary public relations and journalism in the UK. Exploring Public Relations (p. 136). United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.

How to write the perfect media release

How to write the perfect media release

Press release tutorial

When I was starting out as a PR practitioner,  I found this tutorial helpful. It clearly explains how to write a media release to attract journalist attention.

Enjoy!

Science in ACTion 2014

 

Canberra and regionally based NYSF alumni volunteered their time to participate in Science in ACTion at the Australian National University (ANU) in August – a two-day event, which runs annually as part of National Science Week, celebrating science and technology.

This year, the NYSF hosted a booth at the event, and a number of local schools visited on Friday, allowing the promotion of our programs to year 10 and 11 students and their teachers.

Saturday was the community day, keeping NYSF volunteers busy demonstrating the very popular Van der Graaff generator and the Wimshurst machine, which were kindly loaned by the ANU Physics Education Centre.

NYSF alumni from the 1988 session and from 2008 dropped by the booth to say hello – both have moved into successful careers in science. One enthusiastic student who will be attending the January session in 2015 was very excited to see the NYSF at this year’s event.

Due to the success of the event, Chair of the ACT Science Week committee, Dr Merryn McKinnon, has invited the NYSF to participate next year.

NYSF Director, Damien Pearce, said participating in this Science Week event was important for the NYSF to raise its profile on campus at ANU. “I would like to thank Dr McKinnon for the opportunity to be involved in this very successful event. It was great to see displays from organisations as diverse as Lockheed Martin, NICTA and the Australian Society of Parasitology. And astronaut Rick Hieb was a real draw-card on the Saturday.”

“A big thank you to our volunteer alumni for providing their time, enthusiasm, knowledge and ability to communicate with the public for a hands-on learning experience.”

MDBA HP Training Video

I produced this VideoScribe training presentation for the MDBA which will be shown at staff inductions.

What public relations means to me