Legends never die: BRAD ELTERMAN

Earlier on in the semester, I wrote a blog piece on the interview I conducted with living legend and constant source of inspiration, Brad Elterman. Brad's work has predominantly focussed on music and pop culture photography throughout his career, however I would describe him as a prominent and talented photo-journalist as his images never fail to tell a story, capture a moment, and occasionally, capture an entire movement. Brad is one of my 'heroes', career wise, because of his willingness to go above and beyond any expectations to get the perfect photo; and also because of his ability to communicate with his subjects on a level that guarantees an intimacy in the final images which is rarely found in music photography, particularly regarding photoshoots featuring contemporary pop acts.

Here are some of my favourite images of Brad's, and why:

Completely different from his usual work, I love this image because it manages to show emotion even though the main focus of the image is her nudity, and her eyes are hidden behind the mask. Brad has such a unique ability to capture the perfect moment in his candid imagery & music journalism, which carries through to his more posed, modern shots. 

Brad Elterman orchestrated the iconic kiss between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John; many people believe that they were in character during this photograph, however I see them as being somewhat stilted in their emotion - Travolta's eyes are open, he doesn't look at Newton-John with the adoration Danny had for Sandy... This is so important to me in this photograph because it shows the actors rather than the characters, and seems to tell their stories more than any red carpet shot ever could. This is one of my favourite things about Brad's photography in general.

Photo journalism, to me, is all about capturing the truth; honesty is more powerful than the obviously aesthetically pleasing - Brad's work inspires me because it doesn't necessarily look for the beautiful, but for the raw. This is what I would like to capture within my own work.

Debbie Harry is effortlessly cool. Brad worked with her regularly & established a relationship with her, which enabled him to truly capture her personality throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s - he saw a star, knew what her impact on pop culture would be, and took every opportunity to showcase the sparkle he saw within her.

When I interviewed Brad, he told me that his favourite icons to photograph were the Runaways, which becomes increasingly obvious as you flip through his portfolio; the intimacy between Brad and the girls is obvious even to those who don't know the background, which is something I would love to be able to achieve. I learnt portrait photography by photographing my friends, which I feel is highly important in understanding the true connection that can occur between photographer and subject - Brad's unique ability to become fast, lifelong friends with his subjects is something I admire and would like to imitate.

Many of Brad's images of the Runaways are particularly light-hearted (see below!) and showcase the girls' fun, spunky, effervescent personalities & capture the whole movement of their musical sensation by showing in a few frames their huge, bold selves - however what I love about the above image of Jett, is how, in a moment of thought, Brad has managed to photograph a completely different side of the charismatic rock goddess many fans ended up being grateful for.

This shows me to always have a camera ready, even when the opportunity for a snapshot doesn't immediately present itself.

True candids are my favourite images. You can just hear Cherie saying, 'Ayyyyeeee!' as Brad presses the shutter on his camera, here!

This image screams 'sleaze' to me, which I love. I find that a lot of music/journalism photographers try to only showcase the pure, attractive side of music; or they go to the other extreme and attempt to capture only rock bottom to prove some kind of point, particularly in the punk movement - once again, however, Elterman just captures the moment. They're sweaty, they're messing around, they know the image is being taken but they don't seem to care - such an honest portrayal of youth within rock n' roll.

Lecture nine: News Values

I didn't actually attend this lecture, so this blog is from the perspective of simply reading the Power Point presentation.

News values relate to the degree of importance & time allocated to a story - which in turn determines the amount of attention the audience gives to any particular news piece. Thousands of millions of 'events' happen around the world every day; it is up to journalists and media institutions to decide which of these make their way into the 'news'.

Arthur Evelyn Waugh summed up the news by stating,

"News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. 

And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead."

To me, this statement relates to the way in which news must relate, not to the most intelligent, interested and/or informed members of society; but to the majority. The 'intelligentsia' will often go looking for their own, alternative sources of information, whilst mainstream news organisations (such as Fox News) maintain the values, and as such mannerisms and methods of communication, of the common public.

Whether this devalues news itself is up for personal discretion.

News values essentially equates to 'newsworthiness' - what is going to map a good story; what people are interested in; at the end of the day, news values determine whether the general public will buy heir morning newspaper, or turn on the evening news.

The four main news values are:

Impact - 

How the audience are going to react. If a news story has low impact, people will be bored and therefore won't pay attention/tune in/pay attention to similar news items in the future. If a story has high impact, the audience will focus on the story, educate themselves & be more likely to consume news again in the future.

(High impact stories are not always the most relevant or important stories, in my opinion. Journalists need to keep this in mind, as their personal interests and preferences may not be in keeping with the news values of the organisations they are working for.)

Audience Identification - 

The audience must be able to relate to, or identify with the news in some way otherwise they aren't going to have any interest in it. This is why stories that can evoke empathy or emotion within the responders are often the highest impact stories and therefore receive the largest amounts of media coverage on the biggest networks.

"News is anything that's interesting." - Kurt Loder, US journalist

Pragmatics - 

Pragmatics relate to the ethics of a particular story, as well as the 'facticity', current relevance, etc.

& Source Influence - 

Source influence, as far as I can tell (the Power Point was less than detailed but I will look into it further at a later date & post on it if I think it's necessary) seems to relate to bias, and the ways in which sources and their personal/professional standpoints influence the news itself. An example of this is the relationship between Journalists and PR people; often pieces of Journalism are simply regurgitated from Press Releases sent to the desks of particular news groups and publications (see "Churnalism", which I will write on later in the week) - thus the source influence would lie strongly in the hands of the PR company which sent the release. Similarly, when writing a story on, for example, motorcycle gang-based violence, if one only talked to sources within a rival gang, the source influence would be biased towards that particular group of people.

This, to me, just emphasises the importance of gathering as many sources as possible in order to create fair, high quality journalism.

It is important to remember that news values vary not only across cultures and countries; but also different news publications, often within the same country or city.

Journalists must learn and adapt to a new set of news values with each news company they work for.

Factual Storytelling Exercise

Because maybe, you're gonna

be the one that saves me...

Oasis' Wonderwall is the most important song I have ever heard, and I have no doubt it will remain so throughout my life; it's always been one of my dad's favourite songs so I think it was important to him, and I appreciate it now because I don't ever remember a time when I didn't know the words to one of pop culture's most iconic love songs. I have so many memories associated with the song; I remember dancing my heart out as a child with our family friends and their kids, like twenty of us there must have been, just in this room on a Friday night after having had pizza and the adults had had a few drinks, and whenever Wonderwall would come on everyone would just sing their hearts out and no-one had a care in the world.

I have many such memories, but none will ever compare to actually seeing Wonderwall performed live when I was twelve or thirteen, my dad by my side. I’ve always known that I was his ‘Wonderwall’, that my birth was the most important and amazing thing to ever happen to him, but I didn’t really understand that concept until I heard him singing the words along with Noel and looking at me. It’s not my place to tell my dad’s story, but it’s not the easiest one, nor is it the most pleasant - but it ends (and then begins again) with me coming into his life. 

Everyone has a past; my dad's is more interesting than most. For as long as I can recall, he won't sit with his back to an open space, because "you never know who might walk through the door". On top of this, I can't imagine my dad without the faint scars on his neck from youthful football hooliganism; nor the anecdotes that peppered our adventures together - stories of wild years, shady characters, fighting people because they supported the other team, and, my personal favourite, throwing a policeman into a canal. One of the most intelligent and insightful men I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, my dad has forever been one of my biggest inspirations, not only due to his work ethic, music taste and intellect; but for what he overcame throughout his life. 

No-one has it easy, but my dad had it tougher than most. Raised without Christmas by fanatical Jehovah's Witness Elders, your typical boyhood scamp had nowhere to go but down the road to Nowhereville, Boozing and Breaking Shit, population, Wasted Youth.

Within a couple of months of meeting my mother, my dad had cornered her in a shop doorway as they walked home from the pub one night, refusing to let her out until she agreed to marry him - thinking he was just drunk and would forget by the morning, she finally agreed. This was on a Saturday night, and as he didn't mention it the next day, my mother, who knew already that she loved him deeply but had never wanted to get married, thought she was off the hook. Then, on the Monday, he returned home informing her that he'd gone to the registry office and booked them in - two months later she donned a gold mini-dress, flowers in her hair and declared herself Mrs. Julie Sowter.

In a way, I'm sure she "saved" him, but from the way my father looks at me, I know if it weren't for me, he wouldn't be the man he is now. From running plain 'packages' from Nottingham to London in his youth, skipping school every day at fourteen to hang around and play pool in bars, and getting into more than his fair share of trouble with the law; in his adulthood my father built himself up to own a successful building and roofing company, made a name for himself doing what he loved to do, and ultimately came to a point in his life where he was able to make the dream of moving to Byron Bay, Australia, a reality. I can say with confidence that most of his achievements, particularly emigrating across the world, were for me.

So often I hear the phrase "the kid never stood a chance" - but knowing on such a personal level someone who started out with nothing at all; was told his whole life he was worth nothing and succumbed to this idea for a while; then managed, by the skin of his teeth, to make something of his life for sake of the life that he created; I find it hard not to believe that anyone is capable of doing absolutely anything in the world.

I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for my dad. He took the first couple of years of my life off work because he didn’t ever want to be apart from me; he carried me around in a sling, took me everywhere with him, because he wanted me around all the time; he taught me to read; he tried to teach me to love his other true love, football; he introduced me to the bands that made his heart swell to bursting point, and in turn ignited the musical fire that burns inside me today. My dad taught me that no matter what life throws at you, you can come out kicking and fighting, and you can come out on top.

One day I hope to find someone worthy of being my Wonderwall.

On being someone with tattoos, piercings & pink hair in the Journalism world:

Before I start this, I just want to say that I obviously don't actually WORK within journalism as yet. I'm only a first year student, and I am completely confident in my ability to do a damn good job of whatever I end up doing, whether it be Journalism, television, PR, advertising, whatever.

I have always maintained that if someone doesn't want me to work for their company due to the fact that I have a few facial piercings and tattoos on my arms, then I don't want to work for them anyway - I am confident enough in my ability to represent anyone I work for in a positive light and do the absolute best at the job, that I don't think it will be TOO much of an issue...
But it's annoying that it has to be one.

Currently, I am a nineteen year old with twelve tattoos, some of which are visible, multiple piercings, and pink hair. I may or may not look like this for the rest of my life, but clearly the tattoos aren't going anywhere. I chose to look like this. I know the societal consequences of my actions. I do not see myself as marginalised or a 'minority' because of the way that I CHOOSE to look. 


However, this doesn't change my annoyance at the way that I was blatantly ignored throughout my lecture today. Obviously I don't know that this was the reason, but when other people's questions were getting answered, it's unfortunately the first thing my mind jumped to.

I am aware that I will have to work harder than some other candidates when it comes to employment, and this presents no issue for me, as I am confident in my ability to blow anyone out of the water - but during my education? Frustrating. Frustrating beyond comprehension.

Lecture eight: ETHICS

Okay, so I'm currently sitting in this Ethics lecture and we're supposed to be filling out a piece of paper on whether certain advertisements are ethical or unethical, but it seems that my contact lenses don't feel like working today (probably need to change them), and I'm sitting at the back so I can't see anything at all. This is particularly unhelpful since the ethics of journalism, media and advertising is a topic which really does interest me on many levels - I have often thought that later in my life I will probably work in advertising, since whenever I see an ad I think of a million ways by which to improve it & often thoughts cross my mind regarding how to market products... Not that this has much to do with this lecture, but I'm sitting here feeling particularly useless and blind, so I suppose writing this is better than being on Facebook...


In other news, I am currently coming third in the votes for the Channel V presenter search 2012 - I was coming second, but a random contestant popped up overnight, beating the guy in front of me by 30,000 votes... Weird. Very weird. Oh well, I currently have over 6,000 votes which will guarantee my position in the next round of auditions, which is all I'm really bothered about; from there I can wow them with my charm, charisma & musical knowledge... Or something!


I'm lucky enough to have received 'promotion' for my entry from Tumblr user JamJars, YouTube user Munky King and, for some inexplicable reason, some kind of One Direction YouTube channel. This help, coupled with my own support from my Tumblr followers, has pretty much secured my place in the top three voting contestants, which means the world to me.


Anyway, back to ethics...


Ethics raise the questions:

1. How do we know what is right and wrong?
2. How do we differentiate between ethical and unethical?
3. How do we decide what's right & what's wrong?
4. What is the difference between the bad, the wrong, and the simply tacky?
5. How do we work all this out?

There are three paradigms that we use in understanding ethics:

Deontology - a rules and principle based theory. You do the right thing by following a specific set of rules, regardless of your own personal opinions. There are Ethical Codes across all facets of society, and when working for specific companies and businesses, journalists would do well to abide by these rules.

What sorts of rules are embedded in the Journalism Code of Ethics?

• Honesty
• Fairness

Journalists are not ethically required to be objective - simply fair and balanced. It is not in the PR, nor the advertising code of ethics either.

Consequentialism - it doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get the right outcomes. The end may in fact justify the means - it also relates to the outcome being of the greatest good FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER; this is important in considering the idea of "sacrificing the one for the needs of the many".

One of the great myths in consequentialism is that whatever the majority thinks is right - we can use the example of Adolf Hitler's majority vote in the democratic election of 1933. 

Virtue - based on good dispositions of character.

Goodness (happiness) comes from good habits of character. These habits are 'virtues' such as courage, justice, temperance and prudence; these habits are arrived at through experience. For example, one only learns to be courageous from being rash and cowardly in the past; as it is the middle ground.

The difference between Virtue Ethics and Deontological Ethics is that virtue ethics are internal and intristic; one is not simply 'following the rules' - attributes of character are developed over time and they are tempered by experience, thus more valuable a quality in a journalist. Anyone can follow the rules and that is all well and good; but virtue based ethics of journalism make for honest stories.

Every ethical theory fits into one of the above. Dr. Harrison says so! Haha.

There are all sorts of rules embedded within society - for example if you murder someone, there are consequences for it. This is not an absolute rule; there are exemptions, for example in self defence, law enforcers, etc. The military has complete exemption from this rule.

Thus, we must recognise the dimensions of societal principles.

An example of this is working journalists having to respect private property - it is possible for a celebrity to sue a journalist or photographer for taking a photograph of them outside their house; but not for taking a photograph of them at a red carpet event. This is a tough 'rule' to follow as it's a hard line to cross. For example, I think I remember a photograph of Hillary Duff performing fellatio on her husband in their own home going around the internet, and I have a feeling that she would have been able to sue the paparazzo who took & published the image. This is something I'd like to look up.

What codes are there:

• MEAA Code
• PRIA Code
• AFA Code - one of the best ones, apparently
• AANA Code

Point of interest:

Multiple times throughout this lecture, we were asked if we had any questions.

Multiple times throughout this lecture, I put my hand up because I had questions.

Multiple times throughout this lecture, other people's questions were answered.

Multiple times throughout this lecture, I was looked at in the eyes by our guest lecturer, and was ignored.

This makes me feel like a very valued member of this course.

I promise.

Personal interest news topic: Trayvon Martin case.

I'm sure everyone will have heard of the second degree murder of unarmed seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who claims to have been "acting in self defence" despite the fact that the African American teenager was unharmed - information found in the 911 call made by Zimmerman has brought to light the possibility of Zimmerman using the 'n' word during the conflict between himself and Martin, thus raising the question as to whether the incident was a case of racial profiling or hate crime.

This is a topic which interests me on a personal level because I am disgusted by both racism and the free distribution of guns in the United States. An unarmed teenager stands no chance in a fight with a grown man; particularly when the latter is wielding a fatal weapon, which as we have seen in this case, can and will be used to kill innocent people.

Zimmerman's supporters say he was acting in self defence; but my question is, self defence against WHAT, exactly? A seventeen-year-old boy who just happened to be walking around a gated community - personally I do not see simple presence in a location, even a closed location, as a crime warranting police involvement, and certainly not the death of a perfectly healthy teenager. Were Martin of caucasian appearance, would the police have been called? Would the altercation have taken place at all? Doubtful. A white youth walking around a gated community would probably have been seen as someone coming home from a party or study group; due to Martin's race and style of clothing, he was branded instantly within the mind of someone clearly harbouring prejudice against him, as a threat.

Even when we consider racial profiling & how Zimmerman (a racist) must have felt about the unwelcome presence of a black youth within his community, the fact is that Martin, as shown in the image above, is significantly slighter than Zimmerman; there is no doubt in my mind that Zimmerman could have physically restrained Martin if it came down to a true matter of self defence, for example by holding Martin's hands behind his back or even knocking him out if it truly came down to it, with ease, due to his superior strength, size and taking his age into consideration. Any of these actions, though still not ideal, would not have resulted in the death of an innocent teenager.

What first attracted me to the Trayvon Martin case was viewing a video by The Young Turks, a left-wing news channel on YouTube; their presenter Cenk made the point that they, in releasing the 911 call from Zimmerman, did not pick up on the possible use of the word 'n*gger' in the background of the call - it was actually a comment on the video which received an overwhelming amount of 'thumbs up' which altered members of The Young Turks' team to this evidence towards racial profiling and therefore, hate crime.

I will be following the case closely.

Piece of personal interest: Judge Steps Down in Trayvon Martin Case.

Victim Trayvon Martin, 17, and his killer, George Zimmerman.

The latest development in the Trayvon Martin case in the United States is that, as of April 18th 2012, Judge Jessica Reckseidler has recused herself from the trial; the case has now been reassigned to Judge Kenneth Lester. 

It appears that she has stepped down due to her husband's position as an analyst following the case for media outlet CNN, which she views as a conflict of interest.

Lecture seven: Public Media

“The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens.”

 - Nigel Milan, ACMA Conference 2005

In contrast with last week's lecture on Commercial (advertisement based) Media, this week's lecture was on Public Media; media that is owned by the public in 'common' rather than having government or sponsor based backing. As I just explained to my friend, a law student, upon reading him the above quote and him having no idea what I was talking about - commercial media focuses more on what people want to hear and see, because it's based on advertising and therefore has to make money that way, whilst public media and broadcasting sort of has a 'by the people, for the people' feel to it. We talk about consumers versus citizens we mean that consumers want to be sold to, because their intention is to buy, whereas the intention of a citizen is simply to live their life as a member of their society.

The most common examples of Public Media in Australia are:

Public Media is obviously an integral part of any society, with its role being to both serve and engage the public. Though commonly associated with the term 'not for profit media', it may generate revenue as long as its ultimate interest remains in the public; AKA as long as the money is being poured back into the media outlet itself, providing information and creating broadcasting.

Personally, if I do ever have to work in mainstream media (something I hope to avoid, probably naively) I would prefer to be working within Public Media, since I feel like its intentions are more honest - however it is important to note that increasingly, the typical method of showcasing public media has been criticised as 'boring', 'elitist', 'of a limited interest' and 'out of touch'. Thus, when presenting Public Media, it would be interesting to provide a 'youthful' or 'alternative' perspective, though once again this would be of limited interest.

Public Media must strive to:

-       Continue to produce quality - not allowing possible lack of funding or lack of interest/consumption to become a reason to become complacent in broadcasting, news reporting, etc.

-       Make themselves relevant - often public media can feel 'stuffy' or seem focussed on older generations and their interests rather than attempting to remain present, reporting current events in a contemporary manner which can be accessed, understood and appreciated by all members of society.

-       Engage with the democratic process - covering political events in a fair and non-biased manner, though many Public Media outlets have been accused by politicians in the past of leaning heavily towards the left.

-       Inform the public - maintain the critical importance of keeping the public up-to-date with news both locally and across the globe; keeping the interests of citizens as top priority as opposed to any vested interests or bias. 

-       Be independent - not allow advertisers to sway the way they broadcast.