An alternative voice in search of truth and justice.
19/08/2019
I do not listen to Alan Jones, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with some form of intelligence and morality, but it is impossible to avoid the headlines when he yet again courts controversy. This time, he’s in hot water for (yet again) attacking a woman in a position of power, Jacinda Ardern. But as despicable as the man may be, that comment isn’t what I want to focus on here – I want to focus on Frydenberg’s response.
17/07/2019
Language can be used for a myriad of purposes. Whether you wish to try and evoke a particular emotion from a reader/listener, persuade someone of your point of view, or just want to convey information, the language you use can be powerful. This can be done consciously or through habit, but how someone will react to what you say may well depend on the language you use. With this in mind, I turn to the media: how do they use language?
15/07/2019
Continue reading “Quick Quips: What’ll We Lose First, Money or Sanity?”
03/07/2019
“If you voted Greens then get out of the house!” Thankfully, I didn’t get drunk that night, otherwise there may have been quite the political hurricane amid the reserved celebrations of the evening. Head down, amiable but fake smile, avoiding the gaze of my chuckling friend as the older man praised “ol’ Trumpy”. Some whiskey and a nod later, crisis was averted – a friend’s birthday saved. I’ll drink to that.
02/07/2019
Of all the industries that can be privatised for profit, war is the most despicable. That being said, while all privatisation is something that should be fought against – from public ownership of vital services to the democratisation of the workplace – I believe education is the most important field that must be kept free and in the public domain.
10/06/2019
As the last couple of weeks have been quite busy with university assessments, admittedly the frequency of my posts here has dropped considerably. Equally as regrettable, or perhaps worse, is the lack of time I’ve set aside to read the books I have literally piled around me. So this week I plan on getting back into the swing of things to catch up on the missed days. The big news this week is the AFP raids, but how much does ‘national security’ really play into this?
07/06/2019
The AFP raids on journalism this week have brought widespread criticism from much of the media (including News Corp), the Unions, GetUp!, and even the international press, like the New York Times. I found the NYT comment about Australia being the most ‘secretive democracy’ rather funny – it inadvertently implies that the US is not a democracy. But this is not the first time the AFP has been used as a political tool, and that should concern everyone.
06/06/2019
For a number of decades now, the Democrats in the US have been referred to, along with the Republicans, as ‘neoliberal’, ever plodding along to the ‘right’ to slowly normalise the inequalities that plague Americans each day, and which was one factor that led to Trump’s successful election. The term “inauthentic opposition” has been used to describe this slow but obedient drift, which most certainly leaves many people disillusioned about how their system works, when the flawed two-party system functions as one corporate body. Here in Australia, the Labor Party is definitely earning themselves this abysmal title.
05/06/2019
The AFP have been used as political tools before, notably when raiding Union offices with a media entourage and shady Minister that tried to hide from her blatant abuse of power. Now, this week, the AFP have raided the home of a News Corps journalist and the ABC for chilling reasons. Both of them are related to ‘national security’. Shout out to Assange, who our government has abandoned completely.
23/05/2019
On this site I frequently criticise the role of the media in society, and a major aspect of that is the commercial TV stations. Channels 7, 9, and 10 here in Australia, or mainstream channels like CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, while they may have different ‘political leanings’, in the most superficial meaning of the phrase, they are all guilty of one particular flaw: soundbites.
Continue reading “Soundbites: One Reason Commercial Media Fails”
