Between the Lines

This Blog Has Moved

Sandy — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:33:02 +0000

Dear All,

I’ve decided to use Blogger instead of WordPress. So, I’ve moved this site to

http://cuppawords.blogspot.com

Hope the switch is okay

Thanks for reading,

Sandy

Visual Research

Sandy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:52:14 +0000

I’ve developed an interest in visual research methods while trying to answer my problems in honours. Drawing, painting are never my best traits. But whenever I try to come up with an idea for my articles or to spot gaps in my ideas, it is always useful to use some sort of visual aid to get me thinking critically and creatively. A brainstorm cloud is the most basic thing that I do. You can say it’s hardly “visual” like a drawing or photograph but it does help to expand on the ideas I have in my head… it helps translates my ideas into something more tangible, it helps to clarify my ideas. Seeing the advantage of drawing a brainstorm cloud, I started to research more on visual research methods and found really interesting case studies, which I’ve shared briefly on Liki. An article by Gauntlett mentioned that by creating something, it enhances the mode of thinking and of expressing oneself – because we take our time as we doodle, paint, design, etc as in response or a reflection upon something.

However, I don’t think I could apply visual research to every aspect of my honours project. Visual research is useful for pre-production or pre-writing, for planning and analysing. It would be less relevant to use visual research methods while conducting interviews with people about music as it largely depends on the agenda of the interview, the topic that we’re discussing and there’s often little time. Visual research is usually conducted in social science research, not journalism. But it would be interesting if I’d brought along an image, maybe of a music festival or an album booklet when I sit down to discuss music with someone. If I’m doing field work such as attending music festivals and other music gigs then taking photographs would definitely help, or to ask the person I’m interviewing whether he/she has a photograph of a particular performance they were in, etc to help me understand their story better.

I think we could all relate to visual research, as it involves communication and the arts. We often put it into practice consciously or unconsciously. We might look at a photograph and form our own opinions about it, and that would be one of the things that inspire and inform our own work.

Something to Share

Sandy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:14:25 +0000

I just read this article about career pursuits that I found on the New York Times website. I think we could all relate.

Is This the Time to Chase a Career Dream?

First Meet

Sandy — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:10:13 +0000

Hope you had a great Easter break

I’ve had bit more clarity now with my project. I’ve had a meeting with my supervisor. It’s good to talk about the problems I have, it helped me visualize my problems. I’ve decided to have a go at The Wrestler idea. I’ve been reading books on Bob Dylan and Springsteen. My supervisor suggested other aspects of the song I can look at.. as well as other songs that I could have a listen to help me with my first article.

Earlier on, I wrote how I’m not sure whether I should write what others would want to read.. My supervisor advised that it’s worthy to think about what my future employers are looking for, as they’d need to know whether I could write articles that are appropriate for their publications. But on the other hand, as Adrian and my supervisor advise – it’s up to me.. to focus on good quality writing, build up a portfolio of a variety of articles of my interest. Was a productive meeting. Time to get back to work!

Writers iLike

Sandy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 06:49:40 +0000

I’ve been trying to find inspiration from other music writers. To be honest, I didn’t have a particular favourite. I have favourite writers but mostly they are novel writers like Paul Coelho, Mitch Albom, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I like these writers because they always manage to evoke this great emotional response from me, they are great storytellers, not just good writers. Mitch Albom in particular – I feel like I’m 100% there at the scene when I read his stories. And I love how he always reference a particular song in his stories. He’s able to make you as if you’re friends with him, friends with his characters in a way. I think Mark Mordue has a similar effect on me, he’s also a great storyteller, he makes it personal but it doesn’t annoy me.But it’s subjective, not everyone would agree with me. One of my friends couldn’t enjoy Mitch Albom’s writing. I think that’s how I realise that these writers whom I like could help me hone my own writing voice. It’s my goal to work towards this writing style for my honours articles. It’s not going to be easy at all for me, so I will keep on practising.

Five, Frust and Fickle

Sandy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:03:14 +0000

I hate this part right here. Week 5. Nothing’s set in stone yet for my first article. Getting frustrated. A million reasons probably. One of them definitely is: Don’t know what I want/should write about for the first article. Have a couple of ideas mapped out, blogging has helped but still having trouble picking up the pen. Today I found a song that inspires me - thought ‘The Wrestler’ would be a good idea for an article while I was blogging about it – the lyrical content gives enough scope for analysis and I’m passionate about the idea so far. But the problem is Bruce Springsteen has been making headlines so how will mine be any different? Who will I interview? Who can I interview? What’s the real angle gonna be? These are what I’ve been trying to figure out today.

Method

Sandy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:15:15 +0000

I’m still not sure which research method I should use. What’s relevant to me at the moment is qualitative research (particularly Observation and Participation) and Fictocriticism, which is like literary journalism as previously discussed.

I think Fictocriticism involves Participation (as part of qualitative research, see Qualitative Research in Journalism – Taking it to the Streets), where the researcher becomes part of the story. I believe this would be close to what I am doing with my project in music journalism. As previously discussed in my post about Chris Atton’s article, some music journalists form their criticisms based on personal experiences apart from cultural and historical facts.

Literary Journalism

Sandy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:56:25 +0000

I’ve only been introduced to Literary Journalism a week ago. I went to google it, and found a radio transcript from ABC on literary journalism and the notion of objectivity. Literary journalism basically instills fiction-writing into news reporting.

Margaret Simons, who finds problems with the term (Literary Journalism), made an interesting point when she said, “So part of my problem with the term ‘literary journalism’ is the journalism bit. I would like to see a little bit more emphasis on the fact that the best of it is not just nice writing for the sake of nice writing, but finding things out.”

The part of this debate which I relate to the most is when Mark Mordue, who is not fond of labelling and hierarchies of journalism, had to refer to himself as a writer. Not as a journalist. And what I’ve gathered – at the heart of what he’s said, is that in literary journalism and even just journalism, objectivity is still achievable. Chris Masters also said before that even if objectivity is not always possible, doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try. And so as Mark Mordue said – literary journalism is trial-and-error, the harder you try to make it good at the risk of failing, you’ll learn the art of precision.

Will update this blog post

Dream Writing

Sandy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:56:20 +0000

Some of my friends write down what they dreamt the night before. I’ve come across books that suggest dream-writing is a good exercise to write creatively. I hardly remember my dreams when I wake up in the morning. But some do stay etched in my mind. I’ve decided to give it a shot this morning. The exercise took me by surprise. I was able to tell a story. The dreams provided me with a strong metaphor for the paragraph I’ve written. It also provided a sense of suspense, a prelude if you will to what I thought was the central theme of the paragraph. The interpretation of the dream gives the facts of the story some depth, some context. It’s a good exercise.

Creative Writing

Sandy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:15:34 +0000

I’ve read lyric-writing books before. I believe those writing tips can be applied to journalistic writing as well.

I remember one of the exercises was – pick a theme or an object, and every morning, for about 10 minutes or more, write a paragraph based on that theme/object. It’s called Object Writing. The lesson was to get your creative juices flowing by using the five senses.

I followed that exercise, and it helped me with writer’s block. ‘Til now I would still feel nervous about writing but exercises like those could get me out of the black hole for a while.