Excluding the academic text, the story I chose to cover is the event of the teenager Madeleine Pulver’s ordeal with a collar bomb strapped to her neck.
Academic text
Withnall, J., Harris, R. (1998) Principles for further education in professional communication: Continuing education or postgraduate degrees? Research Online, Asia Pacific Media Educator, Issue No. 5
Janice Withnall and Rebecca Harris, associated (further information not given) with the University of Western Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney (respectively) explored ‘what journalists and public relations practitioners looked for when pursuing a higher degree’ in their study, to further research the proper education development of professional communication. Their study researched/designed a professional communication postgraduate program composed of learner-centred curriculum. The article mainly focused on this research; that communication in journalism and public relations should be taught on a higher and more professional level. The article believed that journalism was statistically an under-educated career, and that practitioners should have more professional educations/qualifications:
‘We would argue, in the context of the continuing education options for journalism and public relations, that practitioners need not only advanced level skills such as those that come from knowledge and practice, but also a deeper understanding of a range of issues that comes from the study of facts, truths and principles.’ (Postgraduate Education, para 6. Lines 1-6)
The content, while out-dated (published in 1998), was mainly credible in its statements, referencing where appropriate and outlining factors in order to contextualise their colloquy. A few sections were stated without foundation or sources, such as journalism and public relations being treated inappropriately in educational circles, but apart from that the article was accurate and precise.
Budd, H., Cuneo, C., Morri, M. (06/08/2011) The latest developments in the Madeleine Pulver collar bomb hoax case, The Daily Telegraph.
Henry Budd, Clementine Cuneo, and Mark Morri bring their best to this printed article by the Daily Telegraph. This story examines the aftermath of the now famous Mosman schoolgirl Madeleine Pulver’s harrowing experience with an extortionist and a collar bomb, as well as how the Pulver family is coping with the stress. The article outlined the most recent events that transpired for the family, and explained the events of the day that unfolded following the incident, using a timeline of the progress on the arrest of the alleged extortioner. In terms of the medium, the deliverance is excellent. No direct opinion is shown, and appears to be well written and thought out, an antonym of churnalism or yellow journalism. As much of the family was interviewed, as no other newspaper reported interviews with anyone else intimately involved, and included recent news of how the then-alleged suspect Paul Peters was identified and arrested. This is in contrast to The Daily Beast’s David Leser, who, while an experienced journalist that accurately told the event, regularly dramatised the situation with emotional writing (‘…Pulver sat terrified and transfixed in her family home’…‘You would never expect it to happen in real life in Australia’).
Leser, D. (04/08/2011) Australia’s Collar-Bomb Hoax, The Daily Beast, retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/04/madeleine-pulver-transfixed-for-10-hours-in-australia-collar-bomb-hoax.html
David Leser, multi-award winning journalist and writer for many major Australian newspapers as well as the online Daily Beast, gives his report on the Pulver collar-bomb story. The story was older than the Daily Telegraph’s article, and any possible suspect’s names hadn’t been confirmed or named yet at the time of publication, so Leser was unable to comment on the arrest of Paul Peters. While the grammar is slightly inconsistent, the story is well written and credible, giving opinions of both the family and the personnel involved with the case (i.e. the police, prime minister). The angle of the story strongly shows opinion in its sympathy with the Pulver family, specifically the schoolgirl Madeleine, and her experience with the ordeal. This story is similar to Simon Bouda’s (next paragraph) in that it is only written by one person, i.e. only one person’s consultation/opinion has been written on the matter. This article was written on the Daily Beast, a reporting and opinionated website, so it differed from the Daily Telegraph (a conservative paper) in its emotional take on the case.
Bouda, S. (16/08/2011) US police make collar bomb arrest, Channel Nine,
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx or http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8285952/man-arrested-in-us-over-collar-bomb-hoax
Channel Nine covered the Madeleine Pulver case in this video by speaking to Simon Bouda, a reporter with more than 12 years of experience in crime reporting, thus giving the Nine network credibility in its source. However, while Simon gave accurate and reliable information, the actual video was poorly done. Despite information being received and reported on the same morning, giving the night report plenty of time to modify its presentation, the visual clips were only of Madeleine Pulver doing mundane activities, which would be acceptable if there was clips of other relevant clips to the case (e.g. parents, detectives from the scene), or wasn’t looped continuously for almost three minutes with almost no breaks. It seemed at the end as if they were trying to stretch the story longer than they should have, by recapping the story at 7.00pm, only 2 minutes after the story started. Simon also was never at the scene, instead reporting from the Chicago airport, an hour away from Louisville, Kentucky (where the suspect was arrested). Finally, Simon was the only person spoken to, narrowing the variety and accuracy of the case as it was given from only one individual. This is unlike the Daily Telegraph’s story, which was written by three separate journalists, giving it a greater overall credibility.
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