Week 9 - Final Reflection

My last post to my blog! How quickly nine weeks went, it feels like I just posted my introduction post in week one!

These activities have been beneficial for my speech and script development. Specifically that activities that I mostly enjoyed and found helpful where week two – ‘What makes a great speech’. This activity I enjoyed because it made you think about and consider what you enjoy about speeches and what speech over time whether they where from Barack Obama or your school principal that you enjoyed and why you enjoyed them. This activity allowed me to identify why I enjoy and believe these speeches are great speeches. It also contributed to my speech writing as I considered these elements. Another activity I found beneficial was week 5. Noticing how I talk. This was interesting, as you really don’t notice how you talk until you are asked to. It makes you consider how you speak and the way your speaking is received. Week 7 activity to do a piece to camera I also found to be very beneficial. As mentioned in my review of this activity, I found it very confronting to do a piece to camera as it made me feel uncomfortable to be followed with camera and watched by people that really didn’t have any idea of what I was doing. This activity was a good step towards feeling comfortable with doing a piece to camera. Finally weeks eight and nine activities where beneficial for the completion of assessment item two. These activities made me begin to think about the final assessment and begin working and drafting it.

At this stage I do feel that my speaking, writing and presentation of speaking has improved. In week one I read quickly and with little pause. Now, I feel that my speaking is clearer and appropriate pause is used to deliver the news story or speech. This improvement has come from the week’s activities. Particularly, from the practice of week ones news story on SBS World News. When I first read this news story it all blended into one and it was hard to determine the break of each topic. After reading again and evaluating the pause the journalist had when read my reading of this developed. This activity helped my speech overall and helped me to determine where pause is appropriate and where it is not. Looking over news story like this one and listening to other news stories over the nine weeks helped my writing of speeches and news stories.

I enjoyed the whole blogging experience. At first when I read over the task of blogging each week I really didn’t see myself enjoying it. However it was a good way to reflect on each activity and also a good way to practice the presentation of writing. I enjoyed formatting my blog layout and making it look good. Have to post each week’s activities onto my blog was useful as it made doing the activates weekly compulsory and when you have created a ‘pretty’ blog with layout etc. you only want to post information on there that you are happy with. This meant that I focused more on each weeks activates then I would have if I where posting to a forum. I wanted all my work there to be well done.

I feel relatively confident with the final piece of assessment. I feel that after completing week eight and week nine activates I have a better generally understanding of the task. The only worry I have is the length of the maiden speech. Initially before completing week eights activities I thought that there would be no way I would be able to write a speech with the max word count being 4000 words. However after writing week eights activities with what topics and information will be addressed in the speech I feel that my maiden speech for assessment item two may be able to have a large word count. Once identifying the key electoral points I feel that I can extend on these.

Overall I feel that the past nine weeks of activates have been a constructive way to develop my skills in speech and script. I feel that they have allowed me to now have the ability to effectively and professional write and deliver a speech. 

Week 9 - News Story Recording and Reflection

This week exercise was the write a draft a script for a news story stemming from my maiden speech for election as state parliament representative for the Capricorn Coast. I drafted and recorded my speech. On reflection I feel that as a whole it was ok. 

The dialog for the speech worked and flowed well. It could be found on a local news radio or television station. It introduced the story and highlighted the candidate’s values as well as used other people to support the candidate’s views. 

The reading of the script was good. It was clear and mostly well paced, however I did stumble over some words. I was originally having a lot of trouble pronouncing the work ‘electoral’ and focused so much on getting the pronunciation of this word correct it distracted me and mispronounced other words and didn’t pause as much as I should have. It was a good test run and draft and with these things considered should make the final speech run far better.  

Draft speech recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNL-4tsdQIY

Week 9 - Draft News Story Script

Draft news script:

VIDEO

AUDIO

PTC (Presenter) VTC: Mary Smith (Journalist) – Vision of Anna Bielenberg within community PTC: Anna Bielenberg Vision: Yeppoon beachfront PTC: Mary Smith (Journalist) Vision – Yeppoon beachfront  PTC: Bill Ludwig Vision – Speaking on Yeppoon beachfront VTC: Mary Smith (Journalist) Vision – Yeppoon hospital PTC: Anna Bielenberg Vision: Yeppoon beachfront

The next story is an introduction to local state parliament candidate Anna Bielenberg. Running for the position of state member for parliament representing the Capricorn Coast. For more, here’s Mary Smith (Example name for journalist reporting). Anna Bielenberg has been a local here on the Capricorn Coast her entire life. Growing up and completing her schooling and university degree in the region, Anna feels her electoral issues accurately represent the Capricorn Coast. The electoral issues Anna will be pitching throughout the campaign include five key aspects. Tourism, community development, liquor and hospitality industry boost, Capricorn Coast Health and the support for our local law enforcement.  I am passionate for the Capricorn coast and what it is all about. I feel that the Capricorn Coast is missing a draw card for our tourism industry and we need to change that. I feel that our representative for parliament needs to be passionate and know the community well and what it needs. My electoral issue address what the community needs and with your support we can achieve this together. Other community member’s have supported the electoral issues introduced by Ms. Bielenberg. Livingston shire Council Mayor Bill Ludwig, has supported the proposal to cut the red-tape on liquor and gaming laws to allow for more local business to be granted liquor licenses and give budding business owners the opportunity to be apart of the hospitality industry.   I think it is a great start in boosting our tourism here on the Capricorn Coast. It needs to be approached with caution and still carefully considered as to who and where these licenses are issued but these types of suggestions put us on the right track to putting the Capricorn Coast on the tourism map. Another issue Anna identified was the Health of the Capricorn Coast. Currently all major medical issues need to be referred to the Rockhampton Base Hospital. This puts further strain on the Rockhampton hospital when Yeppoon has the potential to deal with these issues itself. Yeppoon has a brand new hospital with all the same opportunity’s the base had. We need to take advantage of this new hospital and equip it properly with staff and facilities.

Week 8 - Reflection on week's activities

I found this activity very helpful. It made me think about the topics and construction of my maiden speech. It also helped for the timing of visual aids such as power point and made me consider what sort of information I should be including in these visual aids.

The speech written this week to inform the audience of the topic of the maiden speech was helpful as it made me identify five key electoral topics. This will now make it significantly easier to write to final assessment. Overall I found this activity helpful as a drafting process for the final assessment. 

Week 8 - My maiden speech topic

Good Morning. Today this speech is aimed to inform and outline the intention of my maiden speech for my proposed election for the state member of the Capricorn Coast. My maiden speech will aim to provide key electoral issues such as boost in local tourism, community development, particularly that of the Yeppoon foreshore, giving more support to the liquor and hospitality industry to operate more freely with the reduction of ‘red-tape’, the health of the Capricorn Coast and provide more support to local law enforcement to decrease criminal offences.

My maiden speech will begin with an introduction of my values and myself. It will allow the electorates to see whom I am and that my intentions for the Capricorn Coast are nothing but honest and have the community’s best interest at hand. The speech will use Clayman’s address points of service of other actions and speaking from the heart. This will give the speech a feel of formality but also of softness and genuine intention to relate to the audience. The speech will reflect my affection for the community and the region. 

The five key electoral issues mentioned above would all be delivered with detail and research to support the issue. The first electoral issue, boost in local tourism is an important one for the community. With the development of Great Keppel Island going ahead and the recent marketing exposure of Pumpkin Island being leased as four X island. Yeppoon needs to play a bigger part in this. It is important to myself, as I am sure it is important to nearly the entirety of the community, that Yeppoon and surrounding towns of the Capricorn Coast are not bi-passed and miss and exposure and tourism benefits these places have to offer. The speech will focus a lot on tourism development and the boost of the local economy tourism can have for our community.

The second electoral issue, community development goes hand in hand with boost in tourism. The Capricorn Coast needs a draw card and at this point in time it does not have one. To boost local tourism and ultimately the local economy the community needs to have a draw card and this comes from infrastructure development and development of the Yeppoon foreshore.

The third electoral issue I will identify in my maiden speech is the regulation of liquor and gaming industry to operate more freely. Currently in the community local business are struggling to gain liquor licenses. This topic is one that can be taken both in a positive or negative light and my intention for this electoral issue is to prove to the community that for further tourism in the region the community needs to support further development and approval of liquor licensing. This topic will be delivered with the upmost tact and with the intention not to have more nightclubs but to have more licensed restaurants and bars allowing the community an economic boost without having out of control licensed premises.   

The fourth electoral issue Capricorn Coast Health refers directly to health services for the community. Right now if you require an x-ray, ultrasound or any type of scan you are required to travel to Rockhampton . Along with this, the Yeppoon Hospital is under staffed with an extensive waiting period. In my maiden speech I aim to address these issues and develop a plan that eliminates them and allows the community to take advantage of this great new hospital.

Finally, the fifth electoral issue will be to support local law enforcement to decrease criminal offences. This electoral issue I feel will appeal to many members of the community. The speech will use examples of local offences and offer suggestions on how we as a community can assist the law enforcement agencies to decrease criminal activity. It will also suggest other aspect that can be looked at to re-direct those who consider offending or re-offending.

Throughout the speech I will incorporate Clayman’s research and include elements he suggested such as using lists and examples to relate to the audience. The conclusion of the speech will briefly summarize all electoral issue discussed and will re-enforce my passion for the community and its development.

Link to slideshow - http://www.slideshare.net/bielenberg_10/week-8-speech-pres-34187386

Slide Show Reference List:  

Coolwaters Holiday Village, 2010, image sourced 2 May 2014, http://www.coolwaters.com.au/

The Morning Bulletin, 2012, image sourced 2 May 2014, www.themorningbulletin.com.au

ABC, 2012, image sourced 2 May 2012, www.abc.net.au

Salt Yeppoon, 2013, image sourced 2 May 2014, saltyeppoon.com.au

Capricorn Queensland, 2014, image sourced 2 May 2014, www.capricornholidays.com.au

Queensland Health, 2011, image sourced 2 May 2014, www.health.qld.gov.au  

The Morning Bulliten, 2012, image sourced 2 May 2014, www.themorningbulletin.com.au

Week 7 - Reviewing Clayman

Chat shows and interview based programs fill our television and radio stations. Every station has a number of chat show based programs happening numerous times every day. These types of programs have changed the structure in which interviews take place. This changes the interviewee’s role and as Clayman addresses this in his journal article Address terms in the service of other actions: The case of news interview talk.

The main point Clayman highlights in this article are address terms. Clayman has highlighted two address points, service of other actions and speaking from the heart. Clayman identifies service of actions of being something that ‘often occurred in two-party interviews, leaving no doubt as to the intended addressee… (2007, pp.2).’ This type of action is what we see during chat and talk based shows, panel interviews and interviews involving multiple guests. Clayman also defined service of action as ‘the question-answer turn taking system that organizes interview talk usually leads all IEs direct their remarks via a gaze and body orientation… (2007, pp.3).’ This is exactly what we see when we turn onto a program from chat based news such as The Project to entertainment news programs like Sunrise.

To define speaking from the heart, Clayman used an interview from Hilary Clinton shortly after the infamous Monican Lewinskis scandal. The interviewee asks Clinton to reflect on the life choice she and her family made in pursuing the presidency. The interviewee then asks, ‘given five years of personal and political attacks, whether the whole experience has been worth it. That he is asking her to speak from the heart (2007, pp.5).’ This invites Clinton to share her thoughts and give a personal feel to her answer. This sort of address term is also used on chat-based programs and more specifically on ‘feel good’ programs such as Channel 7 Sunday Night. These types of programs feed of speaking from the heart type of interviews to engage with there audience.

Clayman’s article has highlighted two key interviewing techniques, service of other actions and speaking from the heart. These two techniques are found across nearly all talk based and chat programs and will continue to be used to relate to the audience.

REFERENCE LIST: Clayman, S 2010, Discourse & Communication, Address terms in the service of other actions: The case of news interview talk, 4: 161 DOI: 10.1177/1750481310364330 

Week 7 - Piece to Camera

This weeks exercise was to practise a piece to carmera. The folliwng is the narration of my piece to camera that took place during a check in for a Virgin Australia flight at work.

Good afternoon, I’m Anna Bielenberg. Today we are here at the Rockhampton Aiport for the check in of Virgin Australia flight 1245 to Brisbane. This aricrraft has a scheduled departure time of four fifty five pm. To my right I have four check in staff all very busy. I’m told this aircraft is a full boeing 800 so there is a large que of people consistenly flowing through the checkin counters. To my left, I have the self serve kiosk also with a steady flow of passengers checking through.

The crowd here today all seem very happy to be getting away on an Easter Break. The corwd consisits of a variety of people from family with children to young people and the elderly all eager to get out of Rockhampton on a holiday or returning home.

Reflection on exercise: I enjoyed this exercise and felt it was a good way to feel comfortable in front of a camera as well as feel comfortable talking in front of people around you. I felt that the biggest issue for me to overcome was the talking (what felt like to myself) in front of a whole heap of other people that I do not know. The people at the airport had no idea what I was doing, with just myself and one other following me with the mobile phone. There is such a difference to doing recordings  in front of you laptop webcam with the comfort of privacy then to actually doing them. This exercise was a good onefor me to begin to overcome this awakerward feeling I get when I have to talk away into a camera and have people around me have no idea what I am doing! I feel that I strated to get the hang of it after a couple of takes!