Annabelle Young's Blog Assignment

Political Blogger's Big Hoax

2008-05-18T04:05:00.001-07:00

The point I made earlier in my blog about the unreliability of independant political bloggers has been illustrated perfectly from within the blogging community.

Buddied up in class

2008-05-17T05:10:00.001-07:00

On Friday we were paired up with our peers to discuss our feature stories.

I was paired with a great guy whose name I kept forgetting and can't recall right now!!

It was a great exercise. Looking at your own ideas can become really circular and insular.

A fresh perspective from an outsider is refreshing and can prompt new thoughts and ideas.

Do Mosmanites want a community garden?

2008-05-14T05:14:00.001-07:00

Vox pops

The Mosman Home Gardening Society's Role?

2008-05-11T07:08:00.001-07:00

"Any city that lets its plants die, will also die," said Lyn Morehen, President, Mosman Home Gardeners Society.

The Mosman Home Gardeners Society has approximately 50 members. The group will provide support and advice but the actual gardening will be done by the community.

Mrs Morehen is a passionate gardener and is also passionate about creating a community garden in Mosman. "There's a lot of enthusiasm to get the thing going," said Mrs Morehen.

Mrs Morehen says community gardens are great for elderly people who are isolated and who may have downsized into accommodation where they no longer have their own garden. She would also like to see young families get involved.

The environmental benefits of community gardens are also important to Mrs Morehen and she expressed some concern about chemicals used in commercial food production processes and about the number of miles produce often travels before it hits our kitcehn tables.

"As we become more concerned about our planet, it becomes less acceptable to eat something that has travelled," she said.

Mrs Morehen hopes that participants will also enjoy the connection with the soil that she loves and from which she derives so much joy.

Good luck with this project Lyn!

CG Support from Mosman Council

2008-05-10T06:13:00.001-07:00

Denise Wilton, Mayor of Mosman was first contacted about the community garden a couple of years ago. Mayor Wilton looked into the idea and found it difficult to locate a site for the project.

"A problem, as we do not have large open spaces available," she said.

Boronia House is a council owned heritage site. It is centrally located and accessible by public transport. The Mayor and Lyn have agreed that it is a good start and the Plan of Management for Boronia House will go before Mosman Council on Tuesday 3 June 2008. If the Councillors vote for inclusion of a community garden at the meeeting, the project will be underway.

"We will have to provide the space and a meeting place and publicity. I expect our staff will be supportive and involved in setting up and guiding the group. I expect council will help financially to get it off to a start with plants, equipment and staff support. As mayor, I will be supporting it, promoting it and seeking other areas which might become neighbourhoodcommunal gardens," said the Mayor.

The management and maintenance of the garden will be left up to the community.

"There will be community conversation about the best way to manage it. Will people be allocated a small plot for their own use? Will people work as a group? What will be grown? What happens to any produce?," said Mayor Wilton.

Mayor Wilton said these kinds of community projects are important because they bring people toghether and promote pride in the local area.

"It shows by example what can be grown in your own garden such as fruit and vegetables as we face climate change and increased cost of fresh produce," she said.

Mayor Wilton said she hopes the project will appeal to people of all ages in the community.

"I would love to see famillies working toghether. Also people on their own will benefit from social contact through a shared goal. Spin-offs can be barbeques using some of the produce, social activities, sense of pride and ownership of the project. I hope for support from the Mosman Gardeners but also the wider community," she said.

Community Garden on its way to Mosman

2008-05-07T06:16:00.001-07:00

The next topic in this rolling assignment is to write about somthing happening in my area....

And after a bit of snooping around, I have found out that Mosman, the suburb where I live, may soon have a community garden.

The idea was proposed by Lyn Morehen, a local horticulturalist and president of Mosman Home Gardeners Society.

The proposal is in its early stages and this week the Mayor of Mosman, Denise Wilton attended a meeting with the Mosman Home Gardeners Society and listened to a presentation by John Brandenburg. Mr Brandenburg started one of Australia's first community gardens in 1978.

Community gardens can be found around Australia and many are linked through a national network Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network.

An alternative voice

2008-05-07T06:15:00.003-07:00

The blogosphere has created space for alternative voices.

As a reader and someone interested in facts and truth and no time for rubbish I have a preference for organised blogs such as Croakey: the Crikey Health Forum and ABC Unleashed.

Independant bloggers are a bit hit and miss.

Antony Lowenstein is a blogger whom I admire but very few people have the background, education and resources and motives of Antony.

Newspaper articles/columns also blogs?

2008-05-07T06:15:00.001-07:00

Some of the most informative and provocative "blogs" on Australian politics are written by journalists working for mainstream publications.

Their "blogs" are cut and paste from the newspapers where their work is also published.

Examples include Anabel Crabbe and Peter Hartcher from the Sydney Morning Herald and Malcolm Farr, Piers Akerman, Maralyn Parker and Sue Dunlevy from the Daily Telegraph.

By pasting articles and columns from the newspaper onto the paper's website and labelling them blogs, readers can comment on the original piece and engage in debate with the writer and other readers.

Depending on your definition of blogging, these cut and paste blogs could seem fraudulent. And it has been suggested that the only reason the media sites are providing this is to increase traffic and therefore advertising revenue to their site.

One might argue that true blogging is independant and not aligned with any organised media organisation. That was one of the points made at the seminar held at UTS on blogging. The argument was that genuine bloggers are free from the commercial and political constraints present in traditional media organisations, they can tell the truth and be trusted, for example Antony Lowenstein.

While Antony Lowenstein's work is well researched, he is not representative of bloggers in general. Bloggers and their work are as diverse as the general public - anyone can blog. Inependence does not alone give a writer credibility and make their work trustworthy.

The political blogs posted on the SMH and DT sites are open to public comment and debate by bloggers. Is that not just as legitimate as an independant writer, posting their views and inviting comment?

The ABC provides some middle ground in this debate with the construction of its site ABC Unleashed. This page on the ABC website presents "diverse and robust opinion about politics, society, belief and behaviour."

It is a form of organised blogging. The ABC have sourced "reliable and readable" bloggers. The bloggers' profiles generally reveal experts and researchers. They are not journalists and their work is not constrained by any commercial or political pressures that working for a large media organisation may present. Their work however is far more intelligent and readable than a lot of the senseless blogging I found whilst looking for a political blogger.

Readable Reliable Blogs

2008-05-07T06:11:00.001-07:00

Well I haven't posted for some weeks because I have been sick! Since launching this blog I have attended a seminar on blogging called "Who can you trust?", organised by The Centre for Independant Journalism at UTS. It included analysis and discussion about the credibility of bloggers. Antony Lowenstein was one of the speakers.

Mr Lowenstein is a journalist, author and blogger. He has worked for the mainstream media, including The Sydney Morning Herald. He is now a freelance writer and blogger who focusses on the conflict in the Middle East. He has also writen a book on the subject entitled My Israel Question.

I now realise that blogging provides an exciting forum for independant thinkers such as Mr Lowenstein to publish their work. I remain sceptical about blogging however it is exciting to find experts in particular fields, creating blogs and inviting comment. An example of this is Croakey: The Health Forum the health blog on Crikey.

Professor Ian Hickie, Executive Director, Brain and Mind Research Institute, used the Crikey Health Forum to invite feedback from the public on their experience with receiving treatment for depression. Click here to read his blog. There is a huge range of posts from other professors and doctors also on the site. It's informative and engaging and covers many contemporary public health issues.

Blog-on

2008-03-27T21:31:00.001-07:00

Poynter is a journalim school in America. The site hosts a long list of published papers on blogging. I have trawled through a few of them and opened my mind to blogging.

I have learnt a few general facts including, people continue to access traditional media sites to find news. Blogs are however attracting enormous attention and their popularity and influence is starting to measurable.

A December 2006 post on the Poynter site by Steve Outing, refers to a New York Magazine article that shows "just how mainstream blogging is becoming", and suggests that the hottest blog topic is politics. It's a quick easy read and quite interesting. Click here, if you'd like to check it out.

Blogging on Blogging

2008-03-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

I am a student of journalism at UTS, enrolled in the subject 'Online Journalism' (OJ1). The purpose of my blog is to fulfill the requirements of an OJ1 assignment; to create a blog and post entries on topics to be decided by the lecturer. Students are being notified of topics via email over a number of weeks.

The first topic is political blogging.

During my search, I have found countless examples of unintelligible crap and it seems that I've embarked on a tedious exercise. So far all I have done is to gather evidence supporting my prejudiced view that blogging is unreliable opinion floating around in a virtual ethical vacuum. A friend then directed me to the Poynter site.