After presenting our ideas for our assignment, and listening to feedback from Ruth, our classmates, and other studio leaders, we were able to start producing the media for our assignment.

While we looked at changing the format to reflect the narrower reach of our assignment, we realised that we could use the original format – a ‘host’ interviewing ‘Jobseeker’ – a human form of the social security program. We also looked at the host’s character, as we had a number of options of how they could be written. The idea that we liked the most was to have the host pushing various popular misconceptions that have been used to undermine support for social security in the media and from politicians, using direct quotes from politicians. We would also use graphics to show who said those lines. We would combine this with some posters debunking misconceptions about Jobseeker, and a social media presence for the same purpose.

I quite liked the Change My Mind concept that we used, especially the way that it tied the different artefacts together. I also believe that it could easily be expanded to look at other issues. If we were making something for a larger audience, we might have to change the name, just in case Steven Crowder spits the dummy.

While working on the piece to camera, I took the role as director. While it was quite a large task, I found it fairly straightforward; even if I need to practice using communication devices and limiting the amount of headroom in shots. It also gave me the opportunity to attempt to assert myself, which I struggle with both at uni, and in life in general. I still find it hard to delegate, which is probably why I constantly feel like I’m not making enough of an effort in groups.

As a group, I feel like we worked well, though I believe that if we were able to work together in person more often, our assignment would’ve been stronger – particularly our social media presence. To be honest, I feel like I was the weak link when it came to that, as I often missed classes, meaning that I ended up wasting the collaborative time we had available. This also showed up while filming. While directing, I misinterpreted what the rest of the group wanted to do. In my head, I assumed that the piece-to-camera was going to run like a traditional interview, with the talent sharing a space, but the rest of the group had been set on a split-screen interview – as if the two presenters were in completely different locations. If I had asked to make sure we were on the right page, then we could’ve set the piece up as intended.

With all being said, being constantly critical of myself gets tedious, demoralising and annoying, especially if I just appear to whinge without making an effort to change.

Before starting on the main group assignment, we presented our ideas to the class, as well as to lecturers from other studios. We showed the research that we had done, and the potential ways that we could present it.

The topic that we worked on was Jobkeeper and Jobseeker, two government programs that provided some income to people who lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. While looking at ideas for our presentation, we examined a few different approaches, including whether to take a satirical stance; and what medium to use for our final work. We were originally looking at making a piece to camera, some posters, and possibly a podcast episode; though we might choose something other than a podcast episode if we decide to narrow our focus to Jobseeker.

Heather recommended against examining Jobkeeper, stating that it was now irrelevant, since it been discontinued. While I still wonder if it would’ve been useful to discuss, as the government has made it difficult to discern between the different job programs during the pandemic; just focusing on Jobseeker would make our assignment more effective to ease confusion, and could potentially be more relevant to viewers for longer.

Though if we just stick to Jobseeker, it might be harder for us to create a third ‘deliverable,’ as if were to go ahead with the podcast episode, we would risk producing something that might be a bit too similar to the piece to camera. We might be able to perhaps extend our infographics deliverable to work both on paper and on social media, especially Instagram. If we have the time, we could possibly also publish shorter cuts of our piece to camera, either to Instagram or TikTok.

As a group, we decided to push back against the decades of disinformation that the media and parts of the government create around social security payments, especially unemployment benefits. Constant talk of dole bludgers and job snobs make it easy for governments to cut funding from our social safety net without public push-back, and hard for people to access the help that they are entitled to as a citizen. While we didn’t find any specific Fact Check articles that looked at the stigma, we were able to find some that reinforced the reality that social security payments barely help their recipients make ends meet, let alone finance the supposedly luxury lives that the media and governments fabricate for these people.

It was difficult to organise as a group without being able to meet up in person, as we all had work and classes, and lived on opposite sides of the city, though I personally found it slightly easier than the previous piece to camera. Similar to my experience working on the other piece to camera, I found it hard to start writing things without others in the group writing their own parts. I’m sure there is some form of writing block there, but it could even just be that I need to be more assertive while doing groupwork. I found it a bit easier to assert myself this time around though, and felt like I could provide constructive ideas for the group. While at this stage, we have plenty of room for improvement, I believe that at the rate that we’re going, we should be able to produce great work for Assignment 4.

The other groups also had interesting topics, though I found the presentation on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout interesting. I think the assignment has the potential to assist those who may not have a clear understanding of the vaccine or the rollout. However, similar to us, they could run the risk of trying to put too much information into a single piece to camera. If they had the time, producing different ones for different questions – such as addressing vaccine hesitancy, and addressing the government’s role and actions – could be more effective than one video attempting to summarise everything. I am looking forward to seeing their final assignment.