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Surviving university as a journalism student
Stay away from the guild. No guild I have ever known has been without its share of drama. You don’t need to recreate high school all over again. Be aware of what they do as story ideas abound but maintain distance. Find a viable university paper or magazine that drama free or not is likely to run continuously without a hitch for the duration of your degree and join it. Even if isn’t at your university. See if you can wrangle your way in. Start a blog. Especially on the one part of journalism that you want to practice. Go big with a domain name that matches your real name.…
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2014 beckons
I don’t know what 2014 is the year of. Apart from being the Year of the Green Wood Horse. And apparently the International Year of Family Farming so please think about where your food and consumer goods come from and whether they are ethically and sustainably produced. But it is 2014 now. 2013 has gone. I was busy in 2013 and so it flew by fast. The editing conference is over and I can breathe again. In December you all nearly decimated my server by loving the How to tell if you are an editor post so much so thanks for that. Clearly humour wins you over. If you want…
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53 free ways for science journalists to brush up on their science… and counting
This is a list of FREELY AVAILABLE basic science primers, courses and videos that science journalists can take to brush up on their beats/niches/topics of interest. NOTE 1: MOOCS = Massive open online courses = free, short, online, provided by universities to give you a primer in the basics of a scientific topic of study. Both MOOCs and the Coursera courses will use Youtube videos so don’t eliminate them on that basis. NOTE 2: Coursera courses vary in length and whether you get a certificate at the end and are offered at different times so some of the ones listed below may drop off and on again depending on when…
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#ECUWAPolChat transcript: quizzing the Mt Lawley candidates
I was curator/livetweeter/Twitter wrangler for the recent #ecuwapolchat – an experiment by the political journalism students at Edith Cowan University on interviewing candidates for the upcoming WA State Election (9 March 2013) and on livetweeting. Three out of the five candidates for the Mt Lawley electorate came to speak to us on Monday 4 March 2013 and we livetweeted the discussion. This is the transcript of the event with added information and links. Hit the “Read Next Page” button and it will load the next page on this very page so you won’t have to open any other tabs or browser windows. If you like it share it or comment.…
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AWW 2013: Amanda Curtin's Inherited
Precision is what comes to my mind, first. Amanda Curtin likes to write about connections, between person to person, between person and object, person and landscape. And about how those connections make us feel. Or why they are unique to us. Why they don’t make any sense or at least a different kind of sense to others. The back cover blurb for the book tells us: Inherited brings together stories about the gifts and burdens we inherit from the world or from those we love, and what we, in turn, leave behind. Inherited is her latest collection of short stories. And every word in each story belongs…
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Thoughts on teaching
For the past few weeks I have been working as a tutor to the first year Journalism students at Murdoch University here in Perth. For the elucidation of those based in other countries, students go to a lecture here given by the lecturer on the theory of a subject and then break off into smaller groups of around twenty to attend tutorials or workshops where they learn the details of the theory or the practical versions of the subject via exercises and assignments. Tutorials and workshops are run by the tutors.
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Foursquare for flora and fauna? The ClimateWatch smartphone app
Following the stories about and the response to the ClimateWatch iPhone app.
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Want to help break a Guinness World Record?
If you’re in Perth, take a look at this article I wrote: http://sciencewa.net.au/topics/item/1623-perth-residents-ready-to-break-guinness-world-record/1623-perth-residents-ready-to-break-guinness-world-record? It’s National Science Week and instead of lectures, Curtin University is doing something different. Curtin is attempting to break a world record and not only do they need participants, they also need stewards to help them carry everything out. Check out the article and give them a ring.
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Equal Love Rally Perth 2012
It’s far sunnier than I expected on a Perth winter weekend morning as I enter Stirling Gardens formerly the Supreme Court Gardens. It’s an innocent bit of greenery in the middle of the city. On Saturday, 11 August 2012, it got taken over. And I was there to protest. And to photograph. Equal Love – it nearly sounds like something left over from the ’70s but this isn’t that old but neither is it exactly new. Across the world several countries have amended laws to allow people with alternative gender identities and sexual orientations, all sorts of civil rights including the right to marry. Eight years ago, the Federal government…
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Photographing the Perth Royal Show 2012 and failing miserably…
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Designated Director Designate designates direction for marine research
Date published: 11th March 2011 Publication: Science Network WA Editor: Jason Boudville Author/Photographer: Marisa Wikramanayake Title: Oceans Institute announces new Director Link to full article: Oceans Institute announces new Director
