Another Eventful Day In The Life of Me

As I hope you are all aware my Monday blog posts have been devoted to content from my Online Journalism subject, mainly taking inspiration from the lectures and making it my own. As it so happened on the morning of August 29th, approximately three hours before the running story exam, two hours before the lecture and several more before my first coffee, my fate of a chaotic morning on public transport had been sealed. This resulted in me missing the said OJ lecture. So, I'm going to attempt to shed some light on my morning and do my best to rehash the main points from Spencer Howson, the breakfast host of Brisbane's ABC radio station 612.

I was making the drive to the train station when I heard Nova newsreader Ange Anderson (I actually met Ange in another subject and she looked nothing like what I expected. It's weird how someone's voice can paint a completely different picture from what they look like) announce a signalling error on the Caboolture line. My first thought was something along the lines of "poop, I'm sure trusty Translink will have it fixed in no time".

Sadly this was not the case and it seemed the trains were already delayed.

After being stopped somewhere between Narangba and Dakabin for about half an hour we started moving and I thought the worst was over, how I was so very wrong. Once we made it to Petrie the hundreds of busy commuters were told all trains heading south were terminated and buses would be running to Northgate.

Keep in mind I had left the house at 6:15am, was at Caboolture by 7am and it was now 8:30ish. I should have already been in the city.

Once I successfully made it on the bus Channel 7 got in touch with me via Twitter as I had been live tweeting the whole thing. I ended up taking some photos and videos for them, which I was extremely honoured to do. Hopefully it means I have made a few more connections in the journalism world.

At this point I figured my chances of seeing the 9am lecture were slim so I did my best to follow using our hashtag #QUTOJ1.

Spencer's main points were as follows:

1. He went to the same primary school as Leigh Sales and was friends with Kyle Sandilands.

2. Leigh Sales is wrong, there are still jobs in journalism without getting another qualification.

3. He uses his journalism degree to meet many famous people and go to far away places, giving Brisbane listeners the best Queensland experience.

4. Twitter is dying, which kind of sucks as I am just really starting to get into it.

5. Diversity in the media is something the ABC and the whole of Australia needs to improve on, he admits he has a white privilege.

I really liked Spencer's point about diversity, which is something I am focusing on in another assignment on Waleed Aly and the impact globalisation has had on his career. I think it's extremely interesting how Australia is a nation that is so proud of its multiculturalism yet fails to depict it throughout the media. Keep posted for my thoughts on that in a more serious academic essay, which will be going live on my websites 'portfolio' link in the coming weeks (I haven't quite finished it yet but it's not due for a while, famous last words I know).

So after I had wonderfully missed the lecture and made it to Roma Street I had approximately 10 minutes to make it to QUT in time for my exam. Please feel my pain when I try to explain the hilly, stair-ridden campus of Kelvin Grove. I think I nearly busted a calf. Like my calves were stinging. I honestly don't think I have ever puffed that much at Uni and I must have looked like a complete idiot to anyone who did not understand my predicament. On a slightly positive turn of events I made it to my exam even if it meant a slightly sweaty brow and flushed cheeks. I just hope the exam didn't suffer because of it.

#ashleighdwan #beyondthestory #journalism #onlinejournalism1 #spencerhowson #translink