Fake it till you make it?

This is a saying that I have heard numerous times in my area of study, 'Journalism.' And to be honest it has got me thinking quite a lot. Should we make it till we make it?

3 Channel 9 reporters faked important information about a story just to get the story. They faked it and didn't quite make it, so did it work for them?

The 3 reporters claimed they were reporting from a location. 'near Beerwah' over the search site for Daniel Morcombe's remains, when really they were 80 kms away above the news station in Brisbane.

Photo: Footage of the live fake broadcast.

In this instance this obviously was not okay. It was not okay to fake this a situation like this, which resulted in the 3 of them losing their jobs.

In another instance, David Attenborough was in the middle of filming his television series of 'Frozen Planet.' In one episode he gave the impression that he filming of a polar bear birth was conducted in the Artic when it was actually filmed in a zoo.

Photo: An image that was shown on 'Frozen Planet.'

 



Photo: The location that the birth was actually filmed.

David Attenborough noted this information on his website and unless you visited the website you would never have known. This instantly sparked controversy over the impression that he was giving. Mr Attenborough claimed that informing people while the birth was taking place would have ruined the atmosphere and mood that he had created.

So is this faking it? I'll let you decide.

So was this actually good advice or not? Should we fake it till we make it? The power of online journalism will catch up on us if we try to take short cuts.

Maybe it is smarter just to be good at what we do and make it.

Small town set to shine at Relay for Life

The small South Burnett town of Kingaroy has been long preparing for a big event that is set to begin in a couple of weeks.

The South Burnett Relay for Life is back on October 13 at the Kingaroy Show grounds where thousands of people will walk around a track for 18 hours, to celebrate cancer survival and fundraise to fight back against the disease.


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The event began in Australia in 1999, when the Victorian community of Murrumbeena raised over $75,000 for the Cancer Council. Relay For Life is now run in every state and territory, raising over $14 million each year for the cancer fight.

The South Burnett holds the event in a different town each year, with Kingaroy having the honour for 2012. Teams of 10 or more will gather at 5am to set up tents lining the show grounds oval before the relay begins.


Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

Slideshow: Images from Relay For Life.

Click the link below to see a rundown of the event’s activities. http://www.relayforlife.org.au/

The South Burnett Relay for Life sees an increasing number of participants each year, with this year set to break another record. Each year the event in the South Burnett sees an extraordinary amount raised for the Cancer Council which is around $80,000 - $100,000.

This year the towns hopes to far exceed this amount with teams working harder than ever to raise as much funds as possible.

Participating in the event each year is ‘Birds of Feather’ which is a team of strong elderly women who have all survived cancer and now dedicate their lives to raising money to help find a cure.

Photo: Relay for Life team, Birds of a Feather.

Vice president of the team, Jan Lamborn sheds some light on how important this event actually is.

Photo: Birds of a Feather Vice President, Jan Lamborn.

 

“The most important thing to me is that we raise as much money as we possibly can for the research for cancer. It won’t happen in my lifetime, it probably won’t happen in my daughter’s lifetime, but it will happen in my granddaughter’s lifetime,” she said.

But it doesn’t stop there; Birds of a Feather hold various events and participate in many meetings throughout the year to help raise the vital funds.

The team hold garage sales, cake sales, ticket raffles and clay target shoots to help raise money for the Cancer Council. The team also attend many cancer seminars and travel around the South Burnett to increase awareness about the disease, the team and how they can help.

Mrs Lamborn says she can already see the difference that the money raised for this disease has had.

Jan says while the event raises these much needed funds, it is a whole lot of fun.

Each year the Birds of a Feather team raise approximately $8,000. This year the team hopes to increase this number and raise as much money as they possibly can. 

The South Burnett Relay For Life Co-ordinator, Jen Davis says the Birds of a Feather team play a very important role in the region.

Jan says, one of the most emotional parts of the evening is where everyone unites for the candle lighting ceremony.

“All around the whole of the showgrounds, on the inside of the showgrounds is candles. I get very emotional when I think about this,” she said.

The people of Relay for Life gather with lit candles in a paper bag with messages written on the front to those who have lost their lives to the disease. These bags are then lined around the edge of the oval lighting the path of the people walking through the night. This is said to be where the people who have lost their lives to the disease come to help and guide the people through the darkness while watching over them.


Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

Slideshow: Relay for Life candlelighting ceremony.

Ms Davies says the candle lighting ceremony really is the crux of the event.



“We light a candle for those who have passed, for those who are fighting and it’s a little bit of hope,” she said. 

For more information about the event or to get involved, click on the link below. http://www.relayforlife.org.au/

Be careful what you say...it's here to stay.

My mother told me, ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.’ Now I’m pretty sure Alan Jones’ mother forgot to tell him this little bit of information and as a result he’s in a bit of strife.

 

I’m sure we’ve all heard the story by now that he said Julia Gillard’s father died from shame because of her lies on LIVE radio.

What was he thinking?

These comments went viral in minutes which resulted in a huge negative public reaction.

Now the radio host has lost sponsors and the radio channel is losing money due to the comments made. This story has been all over the TV, Internet, radio and now Facebook pages are popping up dedicated to the hate they have for Alan Jones.

These couple of words have literally changed Alan’s life.

He has said sorry but maybe sorry just isn’t enough anymore.

We try to teach kids that bullying is not okay, but how are they meant to learn if the grownups are doing it?

This brings me to another story.

A twitter member tweeted horrible things about Robbie Farrah’s mother. The kind of things you should never hear anyone say. Robbie fought back and pledged to the Prime Minister that she should combat against cyber bullying and introduce new laws.

Maybe Robbie should have dug a little into his tweeting history before making this pledge.

Robbie himself is an offender of bullying by tweeting that the Prime Minister should buy a noose for her birthday.

It’s always a different story when the shoe is on the other foot.

With technology evolving every day, it’s so important that we understand that anything we say or put on the Internet will be there forever.

This goes for radio and television as well, as whatever you say or do on the broadcasting shows will end up on the Internet and be there forever.

This is just the power of online journalism. We need to learn how to work with it, not against it!