Author Archives: samanthabeniacbrooks

About samanthabeniacbrooks

My name is Samantha Beniac-Brooks but I prefer Sammy. I'm studying BComm Media and am interested in becoming in a Media Presenter. I love theatre, music, celebrities and anything to do with the media. This is my blog for RMIT Media 1.
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RWAV: Final Feature

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 29, 2017 , , ,

This semester has been a whirl wind. Whether I had control over any of it, I don’t know. I’m just glad everything has finally been submitted.

I think overall our group has been very unlucky with the way deadlines have lined up. Our first live show fell in a very similar week to the individual interview and demo which left us planning frantically for the first 3 weeks. We then had a large gap in between these three assignments and our second show + the feature interview.

In regards to the feature interview, overall, I think we worked really well together as a team. At times it was hard to coordinate everyone into the same space at the same time. We often worked in smaller groups of 2/3 instead of the group of 5 together. I think mostly everyone did a good job at contributing. I felt at times I hadn’t done enough but I ended up becoming a big part of picking and choosing (editing) the clips together. I conducted an interview with Beth and Ben (this one was with Dusty as well). I think my contribution has definitely aided the team getting it in on time & in a great place in terms of quality.

The idea to make it about YouTube started with me but the we worked as a group formulate it into a topic – YouTube as a platform for developing skills & how it sits in a social media world. Our interviewees were great. I think they all provided a great insight into the world of YouTube. My favourite is probably Ben, the academic. He spoke really well and actually said some things that definitely conflicted with the other interviewees. This was particularly interesting in the sense that he talked about youtubers as being narcissists, just like other social media stars. However, this contrasted with Beth (who I know personally), as she is probably the most innocent and kind-hearted person and uses it as an outlet to get her feelings out into the world. She uses the platform to process her thoughts & at the same time, practices her craft (and she’s great at it).

I think overall the editing together of clips was great, as this definitely showed off contradictions in conversation as well as agreeances. The choice of music worked well for the feature. We attempted to get music that would be similar to a YouTube video in that the music is played underneath.    

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RWAV: Week 6 – The Live Show

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • April 12, 2017 , , , ,

Nerves and excitement were buzzing as my group arrived around 10am in the morning on Monday the 10th of April as we began to prepare for our live RWAV show. Tweets were being sent, photos were being taken and interviewees were greeted. Dusty and I practiced our presenting with the script and Rose had a go at getting the panel operating all down-pat so that once we walked into the live show, we would already all be in the zone.

Below is a list of things that went well and not so well, as well as the link to the live show (with annotations).

Enjoy!

  • Intro: This intro worked a lot better than the one we did in the demo. It went for a little longer and we seemed more comfortable on air. We introduced the show well including giving a timeframe for things the audience were going to hear later on if they were to tune out at any point. I think this was super important as one needs to have an understanding of the fact that people don’t necessarily hear the whole show. Perhaps if people don’t like on section of the show, they can tune in later.
  • Front/Back Announcing: Overall these were great. We constantly heard track names and station and show ID’s as well as a bit of background information every so often about the bands/artists and songs we were playing which gave it just that little bit extra to show we had done our research (and of course we care!). Also a back announce in the intro from the pervious show… this was to ensure listeners knew that this was a new show but still the same station as to not confuse the listener.
  • Music: Choice of music I think worked well for the type of show that it was. We had an eclectic mix of sounds and it definitely had a true Triple R sound.
  • Panelling: At times there were moments of silence between when the presenters had finished talking and when Rose played a song/promo etc. And there is one particular moment where I had started speaking before Rose turned my mic on. I think that was a bit of miscommunication as I was listening to the music and trying to make it sound professional by talking as the song ended. However, Rose I think was waiting for the song to end before allowing me to speak… which is fair! Again, I think at this moment I was feeling a bit flustered and USUALLY in my own experience, I actually panel operate the shows I am on, meaning that sometimes I forget that others are directing me.
  • Interview 1 – Less Meat Less Heat: This is probably my favourite interview of the day. Dusty and I both had a fair share of taking part in the speaking. At times we were probably TOO casual and spoke over each other (including the interviewee) however I think this works well as it meant we were all pretty comfortable with speaking together. It was unfortunate that we ran out of time because Dusty and I had some many pre-planned questions/questions we had thought of then and there that we wanted to ask. I think in future it’s probably best if we work out what NEEDS to be told before asking what we want to ask in order to leave the interview feeling we had asked what people want to hear first + any extra fluff. The interviewee spoke well, I believe he was media trained as well which helps. He seemed keen on the cause and I felt that Dusty and I had done some good research before the show. We both downloaded the app he was advertising ‘The Climatarian Challenge’ so that we could talk to him about that. I think this showed that we cared what he was talking about and made it seem even more natural and well-researched.
  • Interview 2: Swordcraft Melbourne. I wasn’t so keen on this interview. Dusty took more control of this one and there was a long period of time where I was heard speaking. I remember during the interview feeling a little out of it in the sense that I just couldn’t get into the interview because at times the interviewee waffled and I lost track. This was probably my own fault and perhaps I could have payed more attention or done a bit more research beforehand. I think it was important that Dusty lead this one as I was about to have my own pre-recorded interview played. It worked well in this sense as I wanted to share the talking around a little more. We probably could have planned this interview better if Dusty was to talk more having me ask one every 2-3 questions rather than a few at once and then nothing. Overall, I think the interview was insightful and it would have been nice to talk to him for a longer period of time (again another time constraint issue).
  • Placing of content: The segments ran for a varying length of time which I think makes it seem natural. It probably would have been good to have had something to break up the two long-winded interviews, perhaps even splitting one of the interviews in half to stretch out the time. We had a good amount of content to fill the one hour show and I think we did really well on this aspect.
  • The incident during my pre-recorded interview: As you will hear in the live recording, the interview cut out at about 3 minutes in with around 4 minutes to go. Unlike the rest of the audio that was playing off CD’s, this audio was played off Computer 2. In future, we will burn every piece of audio (including interviews) onto a few CD’s so that we do not run into this issue. Rose had double and triple-checked the CD’s to ensure that they worked, so this was fantastic and I applaud her for such hard work. I think we did really well to recover from this mishap, especially considering it was so unexpected. I had begun to read the script from earlier but recovered quick enough so that listeners could find out what the interview was about (a back announce). I also reiterated that they could hear the ‘FULL’ interview on the Triple R website under the RWAV page, which made it almost seem like a planned cutout and it sounded super professional. Dusty also picked up after me quite well, introducing a song. I remember feeling so flustered at this point thinking all this time had passed and we had said nothing, but listening back, I think it was just nerves kicking it. We actually did really well to fill the space and it’s definitely something to add to my portfolio of ways I’ve picked up from tech errors! The cause of the technical error is still unknown, however we believe that the internet may have cut out as it was loading and playing, resulting in corrupt playback.
  • Social Media: Social media throughout the session was great, promoting the interviews and what we were talking about. We ensured to take heaps of photos before and throughout the show to allow us to have as much content to post as possible. It was also good that I continuously plugged the Triple R twitter page so if people were keen to check us out elsewhere, they could do this.
  • Choice of Interviews/Interviewees: Overall the interviews that took place covered three varying worlds which made the show interesting for a whole range of people with different interests. I think the producer Liv did a great job with the diversity targeted during the show.
  • Outro: This also worked just as well as our intro. I made sure to restate what the audience had heard on the show and where to find more information. I plugged the Twitter page and the RWAV website here to ensure that people knew where to go after the show. We front announced the next show which the next show were grateful for! Dusty mentioned the April Subscriber Amnesty as well as why listeners should subscribe. The Talks Producer was shocked but grateful for this as she couldn’t believe that we had done that much research as was really happy that we cared so much for the station. We also thanked each other (this was cute) as well as the rest of our team, to ensure they were recognised as well 🙂
  • Vocal Quality: Dusty and I both have very different vocal qualities but this worked well as we sounded really natural. We went up and down at different points which made the show as a whole flow well and not jarring at all.

Overall a really great show and I’m so proud of both myself and the rest of the team for being able to pull off being the first group with less time to prepare!

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RWAV Blog: Week 5 – The Individual Interview

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • April 9, 2017 , , ,

For our Week 6 show on 3RRR, I thought it would a nice idea to include a pre-recorded interview into our RWAV show so that we ended up with enough material to fill the 1 hour time slot. This interview would also be used towards my individual interview after being accepted by the Talks Manager at Triple R and Bruce/Sam.

So, I went off and contacted a man named Simon Starr, my best friend’s dad who owns his own bird company named Birding Victoria, which provides resources on different birds and where to find them as well as his own tour company called Firetail Birdwatching Tours. I pitched him an idea to discuss not only his love for birdwatching, but also a discussion of the duck shooting problem, something that I was only slightly aware of. Before the interview took place, I had a brief chat to him about the sorts of questions I would ask him without giving too much away, so that he could have a think about what he might like to say in the short time provided.

It’s usually recommended that you chat with your interviewee before the interview in order to make them feel more relaxed and comfortable both when recording and directly with the interviewer. However, this wasn’t as important for Simon and I because we already knew each other and we both felt pretty comfortable talking to one another. Once he arrived at the studio, it was a matter of testing microphone levels and ensuring that audacity was recording and we were away!

Overall, I think the interview went quite well. Below is a list of dot points and more of a breakdown as to things that went well and not so well.

  • Timing: When recording, I noticed that it was getting closer to the 10-11 minute mark. Without thinking about the time after the editing would be complete, I cut it off at this point. However, after doing some thorough editing of the ‘um’s or any pauses’ it was cut down to 7 minutes and 22 seconds, only just scraping the length of the Individual Interview assignment. I think in future, I need to remember that less is more and having had Simon answer more questions would have meant more content and time to play with!
  • Leading questions from previous answers: Something I’ve always said to myself that I want to get better at is commenting beyond an answer without it seems jarring or out of place and awkward. For an interview of this kind, I didn’t want to say too much considering it was mainly focussed on Simon’s work as well as his views on the duck-shooting. During the interview, Simon told me of a story that was recently aired on the 7:30 Report on ABC which I then questioned him about. I think this worked well and actually seemed quite natural as it appeared as though I was interested and had done research and allowed Simon to talk beyond what I already ‘knew’.
  • Amount of questions: I think again relating back to the timing of the piece, I could have asked a few more questions. However I was pretty happy with the amount of research I had done and the fact that I tried to make it seem quite natural, especially at the beginning when we were laughing about his comments regarding birdwatching and that it isn’t just about watching birds.
  • Editing Phase: Regarding the post-production and editing of the interview, I think it was a nice addition to add the bird chirps at the beginning and the end, to give the piece a bit of ambience which may otherwise not exist. It would have been fantastic to record this interview on location but this is something that may be considered for my feature interview later on in the semester. I think overall I did a pretty good job with the tone and the way I spoke, varying levels depending on the types of questions I was asking and I was really happy with the fact that the interview was done in ONE take with barely any pauses. This made it relatively easy to edit and it probably saved me from still keeping within the required time frame of the assignment. At the end of the take, all I had to edit were a few um’s from Simon which made the audio seem a little too jarring at times. Again, this is something super minor and Simon did a fantastic job at speaking with me, especially for someone who hasn’t had a lot of media training. He was succinct with his answers and knew what he wanted to say which was fantastic.

Below is an embed link to the interview that you can listen to. The file also contains some more annotations regarding certain parts of the interview!

 

These are

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RWAV Blog: Week 3 & 4 (and maybe a little bit of Week 2) – The Demo

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • March 24, 2017 , , , ,

As the Room with a View studio begins to really kick off with groups formed and demo’s being recorded, I thought I would reflect so far on how the class has been going and the demo my group recorded.

This task asked us to get together in the studio and record a full hour of a show so that we could reflect on our work and practice before the real live show as a group and in our specific roles. It was great to finally get together and practice using a run sheet that would be similar to the one for the live show. It allowed us to have a play around with song choices, ways we present and stings/promos we could use. The intro was also played many times to practice how long it needed to be played for on the actual day. Of course, I have never presented with Dusty before nor worked with her so ultimately  this demo session was important for us to work out how we communicate with each other whilst on air i.e. hand signals or live updating of the script. It was also an important time for Rose to work out how exactly to panel operate and to ensure the running sheet was adequately filled with promos and stings so that it could be templated for our actual show.

At this stage, we were still finalising our interviewee’s so instead, we interviewed each other. In week 2, in order to get ahead so that we were not snowed under with other commitments, we attempted to get our demo done and dusted. Only issue was that I had to leave early and we rushed too much into it… therefore didn’t have a proper working run sheet. In this circumstance, Liv filled in for my presenting role for the rest of the session so that Rose could practice panel operating.

From here in Week 3, we went on to record our demo with a working run sheet and script. However, as the hour was over, we realised that audacity had recorded the show going live to air, rather than our pre-recorded show. At this point, we were all feeling pretty exhausted after having just done what we thought, was a perfect show.  However, we knew that the demo just had to be completed so we did it then and there again. I think what we learnt from this process was that it’s important to ALWAYS test everything required before the show, something I will definitely think about when recording my interview. I think this also did us some favours as we were able to have an extra live session together before the real live show, allowing us to start to understand deeper into how we all work and how the show might actually turn out. I think Dusty and I started becoming quite good friends at this point which obviously helps with on air chemistry. This time Liv had to leave early but being the in the producing role, this wasn’t such a big deal as a lot of her work is about the pre-live show i.e. organising interviews etc.

At the end of the day we knew there were a few things we had to work on. This included ensuring that Dusty and I balanced out questions so that one of us doesn’t take TOO much of the lead during an interview. It’s sometimes difficult when you get caught up in the moment of the interview and continuously ask questions to find that the last 5 questions have been from the same presenter. This will be fixed for the live show by ensuring that Dusty and I sit in a way that allows us to both see each other and the interviewee so that we can communicate with each other i.e. with eye contact + hand gestures.

You can find annotations on the more technical issues and things that went well on the demo recorded under my username ‘sammyscrammy’, as well as any other comments left by my teammates. Here: https://soundcloud.com/user-960295125/rwav-demo or see embed link below. 

I’m really looking forward to doing my individual interview and the live show!

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RWAV Blog: Week 1 & 2 – A New Beginning

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • March 10, 2017 , ,

This semester I have taken the ‘Room with a View’ media studio. The course enables students to gain some practical radio experience at 3RRR every Monday from 12-1PM. Students rotate between on and off air roles (producing, social media, panel operating, presenting etc.) but I am hopeful that I will score a presenting role at some point within the Semester, to enable myself to work on a different radio station with a different audience and show style.

Coming into the course, I currently do a breakfast and news show on SYN 90.7, so I am hopeful that the skills gained from these shows will enable me to succeed within the course + I am looking forward to doing something a little different to what I’m used to.

Before getting really into the assessment tasks, we were taken to the 3RRR studios and given a run down of the history and what to expect from the station as well as our specific show. The studios are really well set up and spaced out. The panel looks a little intense, however it feels just as easy to operate with a few minor changes from the SYN panels after having a quick go.

Stay tuned for more blogs about my RWAV journey!

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Update on final group project!

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 20, 2016

In regards to my last post for the final group project, Annie, India, Sally and I have decided to put together a hypermedia story surrounding the notion of adopting dogs rather than buying them from pet stores.

Taken from our groups google doc shared with our tutor Hannah; “as per discussed in the initial planning stages our group hopes to design a narrative cemented around the idea of adopt not shop in regard to puppies. Tracing the story of India’s dog we are hoping through the website to craft a “choose your own adventure” styled narrative where the audience is viewing the site from the perspective of the dog and the various choices which they make are relative to how the story or adventure ends.
Through creating a website like this – we hope to also create a site that sheds some light on Lakia the Russian space dog that got sent into space.”

In today’s tutorial, we sat down with Hannah and explained where the group was up to in regards to the project. The link to the site can be found here.

So far we have included an adventure like beginning, with a simple question and a yes or no answer. Already, any user can simply choose whether they wish to go on the adventure or not which shows great interactivity. We plan on creating an entirely interactive space that will teach audiences to adopt not shop.

We have already outlined what the story will be based around and for each yes or no option, there will be either blog posts or original content audio/interviews to teach people about the topic.

India and I are planning two phone interviews next week, that will hopefully address the issues in which we want to portray and raise awareness about. I am very excited about these interviews as I recently joined SYN’s Panorama team, where I get to interview several different people each week regarding recent news stories.

Our audience that we are aiming to target are dog lovers or those who are looking to adopt a dog and in regards to crew roles, we are aiming to try and split the project evenly amongst the four of us. We are going to ensure that there is an equal share of roles; I’ll be working on particular blog posts (topics within our topic) as well as the phone interviews with India.

I am looking forward to seeing where this project goes!

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Searching da web for dogz

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 16, 2016

As part of my final group project, I’ve decided to look around the interwebz for some inspiration. I did a google search for ‘why you shouldn’t buy dogs at pet stores’ and the first link to come up was this.

It’s interesting how this website doesn’t have much interactivity. It means well, yet I reckon listing 8 points as to why you shouldn’t buy dogs from pet stores isn’t the best idea, as people will most likely skim through, or click away.

Perhaps if they had made a more interactive space with a Q&A so that people could learn a thing or two, or even just having some images that click through to the treatment of animals in both breeding places and pet stores, so that people can face the facts.

Screenshot 16 May 2016

Screenshot of dot point 3 as to why you shouldn’t buy dogs from pet stores with links (hypertext).

However, they have provided a few links in some of their points as seen in the image above, yet it appears that they only have this for definitions, in case you are unsure as to what i.e. ‘purebred’ means. It’s a start, but the inclusion of more images or sound as mentioned above would definitely make this more appealing to people and would certainly make me more invested in the topic.

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Group Project + Week 4 = Ideas boom!

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 16, 2016

I am one of those people that half start an idea and then completely forget about it. I think it’s just that I’m easily distracted.

Looking through my draft posts on this blog, I found a post in regards to the reading in Week 4. The ideas raised in the Week 4 readings are to be reflected in our hypermedia stories created as a group.

Hypermedia is a nonlinear medium that allows for the use of audio, video and even image to provide information to users.

It’s interesting to think of ways in which this blog is an example of a hypertext/hypermedia especially as I have included a blogroll, categories and an RSS enabling any audience to explore my blog in a way they choose. These options allow for participation that can alter the duration as well as the journey that the texts offer. Every time I post, I am altering the physical structure of my blog. Adding a link to a blog changes the structure of the text as you are guiding the user somewhere else.

My group is planning on creating a hypermedia text that leaves a message about adopting dogs rather than buying them from pet stores. Through various forms of media i.e. audio, text and images, we plan to raise awareness whilst creating a space where people can ‘choose their own adventure’ and become aware of the way animals come into danger when being sold in pet stores.

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Assessment 2 – Finding My Community

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 9, 2016

Being a part of a community within this day and age is not uncommon. Whether you know it or not, at some point in time, you will have communicated with various other participants in a community. But what is a community? When thinking about my experience over the past few weeks within the Wentworth Community, I have been able to define what I believe a community is.

A community is a shared space (a forum, an online group etc.), where views, values or experiences are similar, thus resulting in conversation between users whether through text, images, videos or the like. This can give rise to the creation of friendships and the expansion of networks.

Through my experience within the Wentworth community, I have come to learn that “we can’t exchange social currency in a vacuum. We need other people” (Oatway, pg. 98). In simple terms, a community cannot exist without people. The Facebook groups that I have become a part of, form a space where people from across the globe can come together to discuss ideas about Wentworth.

As stated in my first post within this assessment, I have been a part of the Wentworth community for quite a while now and thought that because I knew a lot about the show, it would be easier for me to become more involved and to explore whether it is a community. My main points of attack were this Facebook group and this one, as I believed that with over 13,000 members in each, there would most likely be daily conversation happening, as you might expect with any large group. The Facebook groups I joined were both administered groups where rules were set out in the ‘about’ section. I go into a little more detail about this here.

However, despite the fact that I have followed the show avidly for many years, I found it quite difficult to interact with others. I believe that I wasn’t successful for the reason that Season 4 commences on the 10th of May 2016, one day after this assessment is due. As stated in this post, due to the fact that there is so little show content to discuss, unless you are the ‘first’ to see new trailers/images etc., you most certainly will not be able to get much of a following around what you post. I have commented on various posts with little or no replies.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

As discussed throughout the Network Literacy readings and lectures in Week 2, I used tactics such as posing questions and tagging other users within my comments or posts. By tagging users, it increased my chances of getting some sort of a reply as when you tag someone it gives them a notification, drawing attention to the comment. Questions also give more of a reason for others to share their thoughts.

Screenshot of a Facebook Conversation where I only received 1 like for my comment.

Screenshot of a Facebook Conversation where I only received 1 like for my comment.

Whilst walking around crown, I looked up at the television in one of the bars and noticed that Celia Ireland had won a Logie! I received a few hearts and likes but I'm still waiting for a comment reply!

Whilst walking around crown, I looked up at the television in one of the bars and noticed that Celia Ireland had won a Logie! I received a few hearts and likes but I’m still waiting for a comment reply!

This community is definitely something I want to continue interacting with as it paves the way for networking around one of my favourite television shows. I hope that I will eventually spark some deeper conversation, with the new season commencing tomorrow!

 

Bibliography:

Oatway, J 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence: How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109.

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Last try…

  By samanthabeniacbrooks • May 8, 2016

As this assessment comes to a close, I have made a last minute attempt to get more of a following within my community. I just posted this on Facebook, and I hope that I’ll get a reply from SOMEONE. It’s relevant to the TV Week Logies happening this evening, which is certainly exciting for the community due to the fact that two actors from the show and the show itself have been nominated for some awards!

Screenshot of my Facebook Post within the Wentworth Group.

Screenshot of my Facebook Post within the Wentworth Group.

#GOWENTWORTH.