The body of an 18 year old male has been found at Kooroogool Nature Park this afternoon. The boy was discovered by two youths on their way home from school just before 2pm and immediately informed police of the situation.
Senior constable Tony Douglas said that “the body is of a male but we have been unable to confirm the identity of the person.”
The cause of death is being investigated by the coroner.
The body of an 18 year old male has been found at Kooroogool Nature Park this afternoon. The boy was discovered by two youths on their way home from school just before 2pm and immediately informed police of the situation.
Senior constable Tony Douglas said that “the body is of a male but we have been unable to confirm the identity of the person.”
The cause of death is being investigated by the coroner.
Grid Girls Article Reflection
Introduction
Being new to journalism and the concept of hard news, this first task of creating a piece was somewhat of a challenge as it forced me to go outside my comfort zone and persist in order to gain information. Having to interview complete strangers, and constantly call companies with little early success were two aspects of this task I struggled with, as I did not realise how unwilling people are to comment on issues such as the Grid Girls debate. Along with the discomfort associated with gaining comments from representative bodies regarding this issue. The actual form of hard news and how to write a high quality piece was another aspect of this task I found difficult to adjust to. Despite this struggles, I found this experience to be extremely rewarding and valuable as it gave me a taste of how the industry works and the lengths quality journalists go in order to convey a story for the public to dissect. In order to reflect upon this task I have chosen to split this piece into a number of sub-topics including: search for a story/angle, newsworthiness of my piece, interviews, hard news writing and contact details/further research on the topic.
Finding a Story and Angle
Beginning this task was a challenge for me, as having never completed a true hard news story I was unsure of where to start in terms of finding a idea that would suit this task. Hence, for the first two weeks of this task I was stuck pondering a wide range of ideas from local council websites, but was not finding anything that was either newsworthy, possible to gain a comment or of interest too me. The main tactics I was employing to try and find a story were to look through local papers and council media releases in the hope of stumbling upon something of note. However, this did not work for me and significantly hindered my progress on the task as a result, as the extra time I took to gain the idea could have been more effectively used in research and setting up interviews. Eventually, through my passion for sport, I was able to find a story from the fall out of the Grand Prix as the Victorian Greens pushed to cut funding for the controversial grid and podium girls. The next challenge was to find an angle which would best suit this story and truly highlight its hard news value. This would be an extremely arduous process as I was forced to re-write the beginning of my piece on multiple occasions and change my view on the topic in order to construct an effective angle to pursue. Being from South Australia, I found that the Adelaide angle was the most interesting one to take, as it had not been extensively documented by other news outlets and a solid example for Victoria to follow.
Interviews
Having worked out an angle and direction as to where I wanted this piece to go, the next aspect of this assessment was to gain comments from key stakeholders from each side of this debate. With quite a distinct for and against disparity, I found locating the people to interview relatively straight forward with my two contacts being from the Greens party (minister for women) and any modelling agency associated with Grid Girls. I chose these two parties as I expected the Greens to give me an opinion against their use and the modelling agency to defend their involvement. Despite the fact I was able to identify who to contact, actually gaining the opportunity to interview a representative was another challenge, as I quickly realised the prominence of rejection in the media industry. It would take over five phone calls to each agency in order to gain a comment, with the modelling industry in particular causing much trouble. Originally my plan was to interview the Greens and Cover Girls Promotional Models Australia (provider of the Grid Girls), however, after many enquires the modelling agency informed me that they were unable to comment. I therefore looked into other modelling agencies and found that Promotional Models Australia (a Queensland based agency) provide Grid Girls to other events around the country. This agency happily obliged to my request, thus highlighting the importance of a backup plan in the Journalism industry. The interviews themselves were another challenge for me, as I felt uncomfortable trying to extract information from strangers. This was particularly evident in the Greens interviews as due to the fact that the minister for women was away. I had to interview somebody else from the department that informed me I had to refer to him in my piece as a “spokes person for Nina Springle”, instead of using his actual name. However, this was a valuable experience for me as it built up my confidence and introduced me to the requirements of the industry.
Hard News Writing
Having gathered all of my information I was then faced with the final aspect of the task, being to turn my idea into a 300 word hard news story. Through the information presented at lectures over the first six weeks of the course I felt reasonably confident in being able to produce hard news and adapt to its unique style. However, actually having to write a piece was more difficult then first thought, as all of the writing skills I picked up at school were completely useless. Being a student that uses a large number of words and develops complex sentences, hard news has been a tough adjustment due to its fast pace and simplicity. Along with the unusual style, the incorporation of direct and indirect quotes and punctuation was another aspect of hard news form I struggled to grasp whilst completing this task. However, after many attempts I feel I was able to adjust to an effective level and produce a piece that exhibits the traits of a hard news story.
Newsworthiness and timeliness of my piece
Produced as a reaction piece to the events of the Grand Prix, I would only have a small window of opportunity to publish this piece in order for it to be relevant amongst the Australian Public. With the Grand Prix running from the 23-26th of March 2017, it would have made sense to submit this piece in the lead up to the race. However, I feel this particular story would be best suited for publication following the event, as the Grid Girls will be fresh in the eye on the public thus resulting in a larger outcry and more journalistic relevance. A piece such as this could be featured in a number of different publication outlets, with the most likely being a large scale newspaper such as the Age, Herald Sun or even the Advertiser in South Australia. This is due to the large amount of interest that surrounds the Grand Prix on a yearly basis, the incorporation of a large stakeholder in the Greens and the publicity surrounding sexism issues such as this.
Conclusion
Overall, this task was valuable for a budding journalist such as myself as it forced me to delve out of my comfort zone and get a taste for the industry I will be entering in the coming years. I feel I adapted well to the challenges of this task and produced an interesting piece I am very proud of. If I was to continue with this story I would go and look at the South Australian aspect of it in more depth and get a comment from influential people such as minister for sport Leon Bignell and race organisers.
Contact Details of Interviewees
Victorian Greens
Alistair Perkins (Office of Nina Springle MLC)
Office Number: 9584 4013
Mobile: 0425 792 532
Email: alistair@arperkins.com
Promotional Models Australia
Sarah Stewart (Campaign Manager Promotional Models Australia)
Office Number: 1300 570 339
Email: sarah@pmamodels.com.au
South Australia has received plaudits from the Victorian Greens as they encourage Victoria to follow their lead in cutting promotional Grid Girls from Melbourne’s annual Grand Prix.
A mainstay at motor racing events around the world, Grid Girls are utilised by race organisers to drive interest and attract the attention of men to motorsport events.
Grid Girls at government sanctioned events have caused significant controversy as political parties and feminist groups push for the removal of this tradition due to the negative way it portrays females.
Spokesperson for Greens Minister for Women, Nina Springle, who has led the charge on this issue, said “it’s a disgrace to see women used as a promotional tool and we would rather have them actively involved in the race”.
Within Australia, the process has begun with the South Australian government cutting funding for both the Clipsal 500 and Tour Down Under to the use of Grid and Podium Girls.
Prompting the Victorian Greens to push for a similar policy for the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Ms Springle’s spokesperson commended the work of the South Australian government and said “it was great what they did, cutting the use of government funding for the objectification of women and their use as promotional tools”.
And “[the Victorian Greens] will be encouraging the Victorian state government to eliminate funding for the Grid Girls involvement in the Grand Prix”.
On the other hand, Promotional Models Australia representative Sarah Stewart defended the use of Grid Girls at motor racing events saying they “provide an extra atmosphere for viewers, enhance the attraction of the event, give people an extra thing to look at and are fantastic for fan engagement”.
Ms Stewart lashed out at political parties such as the Victorian Greens, claiming that trying to cut funding is “quite silly as they have been a tradition that has lasted decades and it is silly to suggest that they are used to objectify women and portray them negatively”.
Despite the rich history and international profile of Grid Girls, the Victorian Greens are hoping that Victoria can follow South Australia’s lead and become world leaders in cutting the Grid Girls presence at racing events.
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