Category: Uncategorized

Negotiated Study 2018

Suggested texts:

  1. US President Carter’s crisis in confidence speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCOd-qWZB_g
  2. Transcript: https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-15-1979-crisis-confidence-speech
  3. Koyaanisqatsi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4MXPIpj5sA

Supporting texts:

The point-of-view gun

Zaphod, Ford and Trillian discover the point-of-view gun:

What do we learn about each of the characters? What do each of them value?

Why won’t the gun work on Trillian? What is the joke?

 

Stan doesn’t get it:

Why can’t Stan understand how it feels?

Same-sex Marriage

When reporting on the issue of gay marriage, Kevin Rudd plays a controversial part. Rudd used to have a strong negative opinion of this issue however lately his opinion has changed and he now supports gay marriage. The Australian media have reported on this not by discussing the issue but by discussing Rudd’s change-of-heart. This method of reporting positions the reader to have a strong opinion of Rudd and not the issue itself.

 

When describing Rudd’s parliamentary strategy, one news article, ‘Kevin Rudd: My shift on same- sex marriage’ (The Australian, 2013) the author, Brad Norington refers to Rudd’s decision as “a difficult personal journey” which suggests that Rudd struggled to reverse his opinion on same-sex marriage. This places the reader to sympathise with Rudd and to admire the struggle that he went through to change his long-held position.

 

In the same article, Norington includes snippets of Tony Abbott’s opinion on same-sex marriage. “Like Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott is opposed to same-sex marriage.” The fact that Norington only includes small parts of Abbotts view positions the reader to perceive Abbott and his views as inferior to Rudd’s. Abbott’s opinion of same-sex marriage is represented in the article ‘Same-sex marriage push a ‘fashion of the moment’, says Tony Abbott’ (The Australian, 2013) the phrase “fashion of the moment” suggests that people wanting to legalise gay marriage will soon lose interest in the topic.

 

While the number of people seeming comfortable with the idea of same-sex marriage is increasing, the number of concerns being raised is also increasing.  The use of language from both texts positions the reader to value the right to make their own decisions. The variety of opinions from the members of parliament give the reader a chance to make an informed decision on whether they believe that same-sex marriage should be legalised in Australia.

 

Norington, B. The Australian (May 212013) [online] Accessed: 06/09/13 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/kevin-rudd-my-shift-on-same-sex-marriage/story-fn59niix-1226647250264

 

AAP. The Australian (August 14 2013) [online] Accessed: 13/09/13 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/

National Broadband Network

The language within the two articles “Turnbull’s fragmented NBN dooms Australia to repeat the mistakes of the past” published by ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ on September 4th and “NBN’s glimmer of hope” by Mark Gregory, published by ‘Business Spectator’ show the audience the power that politicians and the government have over simple issues by valuing the cultural representations of Australia such as equality and using local workers to manufacture and install products instead of larger national or international giants.

Australian society highly values local work over international and national efforts, Gregory’s article reveals to the audience through and uses dramatic, negative language such as ‘terminate’ and ‘failure’ (Business Spectator, 2013) to position readers to view the national contractors in a negative light. Comparatively to this is when Gregory talks about the local contractors using words such as ‘experienced’ and phrases such as “one wearing a camel back to remain hydrated in the extreme heat” show the audience the ingenuity and detail that these local contractors bring to the job, and revealing to us that local contractors can be just as good if not better than larger company giants.

On the contrary to valuing local workers is the Sydney Morning Herald’s article which is written to position the audience to see equality within our society via the use of highly dramatised quotes such as “hotch potch broadband infrastructure and monopolistic quagmire created by decades of market failure and regulatory impotence – an environment which empowered the monster that is Telstra” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2013) to position the audience to see that the government, primarily that the coalition are to blame for the shaky infrastructure of our copper networks. With this is a quote about Malcolm Turnbull saying “he’s open to the idea of letting competing telcos build different parts of the NBN – allowing them to cherry-pick the profitable suburbs while making it harder for NBN Co to sustain the network in less profitable areas” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2013) showing to the audience the inequality that the coalition government brings to Australian citizens by using dramatic words such as ‘cherry-pick’  to reinforce the ideas and issues that appear with Turnbull’s policy, also showing the values of competition within the businesses competing to try and get the better parts of the NBN and therefore get a better profit. The article also uses the author’s opinion saying “Turnbull’s plan is exactly the kind of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2013) by using this quote and the negative language and tone that it contains, the audience is positioned to see that the coalition’s National Broadband Network scheme is a horrible idea for todays society to have to suffer with.

The values of Australia’s cultural representations that present within these two articles are that of contradictory statements yet combine together in another way to show us that we should have equal amounts of local contractors and national contractors within our society and not over amounts of either. Though is also shows us that we always seem to have someone to blame for our problems no matter who they are and what prevalence they have to the situation.

References:

Gregory, M 2013 NBN’s glimmer of hope, Business Spectator, accessed 4 September 2013, http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/9/5/technology/nbns-glimmer-hope

Turnbull’s fragmented NBN dooms Australia to repeat the mistakes of the past, 2013 Sydney Morning Herald, accessed 4 September 2013, http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/blogs/gadgets-on-the-go/turnbulls-fragmented-nbn-dooms-australia-to-repeat-the-mistakes-of-the-past-20130904-2t4cr.html

Syria

Most Australian produced reporting about the civil war in Syria during the lead up to the election was focused  on the politicians views and ideas about possible military action in Syria, not the actual conflict. However the texts that were focused on the issue represent the civil war in Syria as a having a worldwide impact.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s article ‘Syria: Where things stand now’ describes different global powers’ actions and decisions in relation to civil war in Syria as an “international puzzle”. This metaphorical description represents the war as having a significant impact on the decisions of countries and governments around the world. The article uses the phrase “the world waits” while introducing the article. The use of the word “world” suggests that the civil war in Syria is of worldwide importance. Suggesting that the civil war in Syria affects everyone makes the article seem more interesting as it personalises the issue and makes the reader feel more inclined to read the article and be engaged with the topic.

The same article represents foreign military intervention in a negative way. The article is divided into 13 sections each based on a separate people group or country. Each section shows the position of that people group or country’s on foreign military intervention. Seven of the  sections opinions are opposed military action, 3 sections support a military strike and the remaining 3 sections are undecided or neutral. This structure creates a negative representation of military action in Syria. This fosters negativity in the audience in relation to intervention of foreign military powers in Syria.

Another article from the Sydney morning herald, ‘Syria: What you need to know’,  creates a negative representation of the Syrian government. The text positions the audience to be against the Syrian government by criticising the government’s actions and using negative descriptions of the government.  the article repeatedly describes the Syrian government in a negative way through the use of adjectives with negative connotations such as “dictatorship”. The word “dictatorship” is usually used as a criticism and has negative connotations to do with corruption in the government. This creates a creates a negative representation of the Syrian government in the text. This representation is likely to make the reader be critical of the actions of the Syrian government.

The title of the article also represents the civil war in Syria as an important personal issue. First, the heading personalises the issue through the use of the word “you”. This makes the issue more personal. It then adds importance to the issue by claiming that you “need” to  know the information you are about to receive in the article. This represents the war in Syria as an important issue that should be important to the reader. This heading is also likely to make the reader interested in the article, therefore making it more likely for them to read it.

Although the article positions the reader against the Syrian Assad regime, it does not support intervention from the US military and positions the audience to see the US military as powerless to resolve the conflict in Syria. It describes the US military’s options as “all bad” and claims that there are “no viable options”. These descriptions create a negative representation of The US military. This places the reader in a position against foreign military intervention in Syria.

Both of these articles  use different language features to represent the civil war in Syria as an important global issue. Also, they both texts create a negative representation of foreign intervention military intervention in Syria. The title of the article ‘Syria: What you need to know’ positions the reader to be concerned with the conflict in Syria by personalising the issue and suggesting it is of great importance. This title may also have been used to engage the reader and make them more likely to read the article.

 

References

Fisher, MThe Sydney Morning Herald (2012) ‘Syria: What you need to know” [Online] Available from http://www.smh.com.au/world/syria-what-you-need-to-know-20130903-2t20m.html [Accessed 12 September 2013]

 

 

The Sydney Morning Herald (2012) ‘Syria: Where things stand now’ [Online] Available from http://www.smh.com.au/world/syria-where-things-stand-now-20130903-2t3g1.html [Accessed 12 September 2013]