The multi-skilled journalist.

ABC’s Elaine Ford has explained to the QUT Online Journalism class that a journalist must be multi skilled and able to produce news over multiple formats. This means that a journalist must be skilled in written, spoken and visual work.

The wide array of necessary skills provides an exciting prospect as the work that I may be doing will change every hour. A lot of people look for a job that offers variety in the tasks that they have to complete, myself included. Elaine has explained and displayed how varied a journalist’s life may be.

A journalist's day could be as busy as three radio crosses in the morning, an updated story to be posted during the day, a radio feature in the afternoon and then a live cross to the nightly news.

 Intimidating, yes, but also enticing. Being able to break and share news across so many different formats is something that I see as very exciting. I consider myself very lucky to go to a university where I am taught all these skills that will be able to hopefully make me the best journalist possible.

Writing an online story

After my latest assessment piece for online journalism I have decided that I enjoyed writing my first actual online story.

I wrote about a charity called 'Orange Sky Laundry'. What helped was that my subjects are absolute champions and were happy to answer every one of my questions and even let me watch and help out in the build of their van.

Nic and Lucas solving some problems

I was a little bit worried about how I was going to make this story interactive, but I got a great time lapse and took a few photos, which I was really happy with. I wanted to make a really good quality interactive map but my skills with Google maps are a bit limited, though I am slowly learning.

When I interviewed a volunteer I wish I had filmed him to grab a sound bite or at least took a photo of him in action. I wanted to talk to a few homeless people but I didn't get the chance to meet up with a charity service and was asked by the Orange Sky Laundry team to not spread the word around to much, or at least until they had solidified one of their sites.

Despite these problems I am rather happy with how my story went and feel that I have learnt a few things that will help me out in the future.

Orange Sky Laundry Changing the Lives of Brisbane Homeless

Two 20-year-old Brisbane men are set to launch a revolutionary charity which will be Australia's first mobile laundry service providing homeless people with access to free washing and drying facilities, run solely by volunteers.

Orange Sky Laundry will provide services that aim to improve the quality of life of those living on Brisbane's streets.

The idea is the brainchild of two 20-year-olds from Brisbane, Nicholas Marchesi and Lucas Patchett.

The non- profit organisation is based upon the simple mantra; to treat others how you would like to be treated.

The Build Process of the Orange Sky Laundry Van

A van with two washing machines and dryers will work with other homeless service outreach programs providing free clothes washing services, as well as basic hygiene packs and information on other out reach services.

Currently Orange Sky Laundry is in a pilot stage where they are undertaking a process of trial and error to ensure that they are effective as possible.

“There are over 50 charities that help service the homeless in South- East Queensland and we will work in conjunction with them in order to be where we are need most,” said Lucas.

“Obviously at the moment we can't be at everyone of them.

“So we are trying to figure out where we will be most wanted and needed.

“The only way to really do this is through trial and error.”

As a result a set schedule has yet to be decided upon, however Orange Sky Laundry is about to embark in a 3-month trial period where they hope to achieve maximum efficiency.

Co- Founders Nicholas Marchesi and Lucas Patchett

Eddie’s van, a service helping to feed the homeless, volunteer Malachy Maher believes that Orange Sky Laundry will make a significant change in the lives of homeless people.

“A lot of the homeless I have encountered don’t have to much self respect,” said Malachy.

“I don’t know exactly why but I think one reason is a lack of self worth.

“Orange Sky Laundry will hopefully change the way that the homeless view themselves by helping them maintain better standard of living even if it is just having a clean set of clothes to change into.”

Orange Sky Laundry have fitted out a van with two washing machines and two dryers that were donated by their partners, Richard J Laundry and the chemicals used have been provided by Symbio.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=ztIKUOYQrxcg.kaGMXQFDrQSg

As of yet Government funding has not been applied for, however, Nic and Lucas believe it will be necessary in the future.

“At the moment we are focusing on Brisbane, and with the donations we have already received we are able to fund the project.” Said Nic.

“But eventually we do want to spread to regions greater than Brisbane, so eventually Government funding is definitely going to be needed.”

The Orange Sky Laundry Van

The biggest hurdle that Orange Sky Laundry has faced is its access to water and power at the sites they wish to visit.

Currently, negotiations are taking place with local councils to seek approval to use public water or power, but Nic has assured that this can be over come.

“Accessing water and power is going to be tricky in certain places,” Said Nic.

“We are working with local councils to find an appropriate solution, but if that falls through local businesses can always help us out.

“If a nearby local business is kind enough to let us use their facilities there will be no reason that Orange Sky Laundry can’t go ahead.”

The idea for the charity was born through work with other charities.

“Lucas and myself have been fortunate enough to grow up in a stable family with everything we needed, but we both know that there is others out there that haven’t had the same blessings as us,” said Nicholas.

“We have both previously worked with charities helping the homeless but saw the need for something different.

“There are a lot of charities helping to feed and cloth the homeless, and there will always be room for more, but after talking to some of Brisbane’s homeless we started to see that there isn’t enough being done to help improve living standards.

“So we thought that starting a portable laundry service would help the homeless maintain a higher quality of living by ensuring that they will always have a way to wash their clothes.”

Orange Sky Laundry is hoping to launch early next month, for more information please visit www.orangeskylaundry.com.au

Unfortunately Orange Sky Laundry is yet to launch on Twitter! But this is soon to change and they are already being recognised!

STAB is my Bible

STAB is by far my favourite website and source for (surfing) news. The main reason why I like STAB over other surfing news outlets is because they do things the way they want to do it.

STAB don't choose the popular voice and go with it, rather their writers seem to share their view on the news. A lot of the time this comes with backlash and the STAB community have their say as well in the comments section. This makes for some great reading and entertainment. STAB encourages participation from it's readers and seems to value the opinions and thoughts of the community.

Everything and anything to do with surfing is posted on STAB. The latest clips from the biggest swells, reviews of the newest movies, standings in the world tour, new surf labels, fashion and technology all end up on the website. STAB is highly interactive, up to date and consistently accurate. Despite only focusing on one sport STAB still manages to maintain a very loyal fan base.

STAB is a site run by surfers for surfers. I think that is why it is so popular and will continue to remain a surfers best friend.

Be Heard

Crowdsourcing has been around as long as the dictionary. Literally, the Oxford Dictionary was crowdsourced. This is what the Oxford Dictionary defines crowdsourcing as;

Crowdsourcing allows anyone to have their opinion, if they want to share it. Personally, I think this is a wonderful thing. Now, more than ever, people have the opportunity to share their mind and have their voice heard. It has become even more common for journalists or news organisations to find a person with an opinion through social media.

Not only can a person share an opinion or their own story, they can provide further information. A great example of this is how Paul Lewis managed to find out about the greater details of the death of Ian Tomlinson.

After listening to Paul Lewis' TED talk my eyes have been opened to the power crowd sourcing has.

I have never really like the idea of crowd sourcing because I think some people aren't honest. The contributors may bend the truth, maybe to make their information seem more dramatic or worth while.

However, now I understand that if used correctly through appealing to the right crowd, useful and insightful information can be gathered extremely quickly. I see the potential that crowd sourcing has in creating a piece that has balance of viewpoints and correct information by simply putting out a call to the public. 

Oh so close

Today a woman fell under a train at Eagle Junction train station.

Eagle Junction is my local train station, and luckily when I heard this news I was already on the train to my beloved EJ station.

The Courier Mail broke the story at roughly 12:30pm. But by the time I got there (1pm), it was to late. The emergency services had packed up and headed off to continue their day.

This made me think; a story can be broken and finished in half an hour. I couldn't have gotten to the train station, even if I had driven a car. Maybe if I had run every light on the way I would have gotten there in time to wave the Ambulance and Police cars goodbye. But that is how fast journalism has become. If you aren't where the story has broken immediately, you probably shouldn't even bother going.

Of course I had been told this a million times before by my lecturers and even special presenters. But it has taken a first hand opportunity for me to actually understand this important lesson.