Monday, July 30, 2007

Smile for the Camera

This week homepage producer Rochelle Nolan interviews Steven Hutcheon (Digital Editor of SMS and The Age online) about digitally manipulating images. It is ethically unacceptable for journalists to manipulate images, but in an age of citizen journalism propelled by advancements in communications technology, even the best journalists can be fooled by a photo someone sends in that appears untouched but has in fact been manipulated.

Many news services take advantage of technology and invite citizens to send in their own photographs or footage of events. This can be really helpful for news teams (think mobile phone footage captured in the London bombings where news teams were able to broadcast footage their crews wouldn't have been able to access) but it can also prove disastrous.

Technology such as Adobe Photoshop and other image alteration programs are now so advanced it's easy to change photos in so many ways, and not be able to tell at all.

Steven suggests there seems to be one set of rules for news journalists and another set of rules for the people who design fashion magazine covers and apply digital manipulation technology in order to create a sort of 'preferred reality'. Steven also says people can use this technology in their own personal photo collection to create their own preferred reality.

There is no current code of ethics or guidelines in place specifically dealing with image alteration.


Homepage is produced in the studios of 2MCE, Bathurst for the Community Radio Network and is supported financially by the Community Broadcasting Foundation. You can hear homepage on the 2MCE streaming service each Monday at 3pm EST via http://www.2mce.org/

Monday, July 23, 2007

Automated Self Service

It's been a concern for the last twenty years...that developments in phones and internet capabilities have seen an increase in technology replacing human tasks. Sometimes this also means a risk of people losing jobs.

For insight producer Elizabeth Leong investigates automated self-service, a style of system and software that's offering reliability, intelligence, productivity, convenience and speed for mundane customer service tasks. These include general customer service, help desk, directory assistance and support. Elizabeth asks the questions: how effective and reliable is this technology and what about security and the decline in personal service?

To find out the answers Elizabeth speaks with Hank Jongen, General Manager of Centrelink and Chief Technology Officer of VE Commerce, Brett Feldon.

Brett says in recent years we've seen the rise of self-service in general due in part to more and more organisations doing business over the internet. He adds, more recently we've seen the development of self-service over the telephone with speech recognition software which is able to recognise words and direct a caller. For most businesses self-service technology is implemented for convenience sake.

Centrelink is an example of an organisation that has adopted automated technology into their services and Hank Jongen says the decision to do so was based on customer expectation. Today Centrelink customers can choose to use self-service for about 50 different transactions including accessing details of Centrelink payments. For Centrelink the decision to implement self-service technology was about providing a choice for customers.

hompage is produced in the studios of 2MCE, Bathurst for the Community Radio Network and is supported financially by the Community Broadcasting Foundation. You can hear homepage on the 2MCE streaming service each Monday at 3pm EST via http://www.2mce.org.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Getting your face on FaceBook

Maybe you've heard of FaceBook? It's known as the older, less personalised version of MySpace. It's the 7th most visited site in the U.S. and it's currently sweeping across Australia and garnering huge support and usage. So much so in fact that our politicians are using it and creating their very own FaceBook page. It seems politicians are increasingly making use of technology to reach people in new ways.


homepage producer Rochelle Nolan speaks with journalist and avid FaceBook user Guy Logan to find out what FaceBook is and get some insight why it's such a popular tool for politicians in campaigning as well as where this might lead in the future.

Rochelle discovers that FaceBook is a networking site which was designed along the lines of an interactive university year book. On FaceBook you upload a photo of yourself with as little or as detailed accompanying information as you like.

Guy says that FaceBook is used by politicians in the U.S. because it's in the top 10 most visited sites on the web. Politicians use FaceBook to talk to almost 30million users world-wide...almost 100 000 users logging on to FaceBook every day. With these numbers, politicians can use FaceBook to connect with their communities and gauge what the public are talking about.

homepage is broadcast nationally each week to community radio stations across Australia via the Community Radio Network. The program is produced with financial assistance from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. You can stream homepage Monday 3pm EST via http://www.2mce.org.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Addiction to Games

You can't live without it....everything pales in comparison to getting your next fix...well, at least that's what some people are saying. No, we're not talking about drugs or alcohol...homepage producer Amy Spear investigates recent claims that gaming can be addictive. Amy asks what makes gaming appealing to so many people? Is it the status you achieve or the social aspects? Is it the content, the graphics or is it merely something to do? Perhaps it's more the chance to escape from reality and live an entirely different life where you're a warrior saving the world from ultimate destruction...or maybe that's just Amy!

To answer these questions Amy speaks with IT Sales & Service Professional Tom Wilding, and games expert Chris S. Johnson from the University of Technology in Sydney.

Games technology is now the fastest growing segment of the entertainment industry. The world of mass multi-player online gaming is changing the way we interact with other people, the way we kick back and have fun, and even the way we view our world. Over the past few weeks it's been brought to our attention that some doctors are calling for gaming addiction to be classified as a psychiatric disease. While the medical and games industries have both expressed the need for more research into the area, there can be no denying the seriousness of the claims. And with 40million gamers world wide this is one issue that can't be put on the back burner.

Chris S. Johnson reckons humans find anything addictive. He says "games are addictive in as much as they present people with challenges. They're an active form of entertainment as against, say TV". Chris agrees games can be addictive but adds he doesn't believe games are any more addictive then other things like TV.

Tom Wilding works with computers and is a keen gamer himself. Tom likes the social aspect of multi-player gaming which allows people to meet and interact with likeminded people.

Ever changing, always growing and undeniably appealing, there's no doubt that games technology is set to become even more a part of our lives. But do we need to take action to cerb unhealthy use? When is too much really too much? The calls to identify gaming addiction as a serious illness are there. How far will it go?

homepage is produced in the studios of 2MCE Bathurst and is distributed nationally via the Community Radio Network. The program is made with financial assistance from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. You can listen to homepage on 2MCE via our streaming at http://www.2mce.org.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Broadband in the Bush

New to the homepage team is Aimee McIntosh and for her first episode of homepage, Aimee looks at how the internet affects farmers across Australia and whether or not the Federal Government's plans to bring broadband access to more Australians will make a difference to farming communities.

The 2006 census revealed that 60% of Australians have the internet connected to their homes and over half of these are connected to broadband. The Federal Government's recent announcement of a plan that will see 99% of Australians able to access broadband is hoped to boost business and productivity across Australia.

Aimee has fond memories of growing up in Bourke and first connecting to the internet. She recalls:

"Growing up in Bourke I remember when one of my friends got internet at their house. We would all come over to check emails and the surf the net, but the thrill pretty quickly wore off when we decided we didn't want to wait the ten minutes for a page to load. Since leaving Bourke and experienceing faster internet I don't have the patience to wait 60 seconds for a page to load. It seems obvious that the internet will not be popular among farmers as long as they only have access to dial up."

In order to gauge how people in regional Australia use the internet, Aimee speaks to two farmers about how the internet is used in farming practice and what effect access to broadband would have on their lives.

Ian Cole is an irrigation farmer in Bourke, New South Wales, who says the internet plays a crucial role in his daily life as a farmer and that access to broadband would make a huge impact. Ian tells Aimee the slow speed of his current internet connection hinders what would otherwise be much faster work and that broadband would be a welcomed upgrade.

Jim McIntosh is a dairy farmer in regional Victoria who says access to the internet means he can stay in touch with bankers and business that he would otherwise only see once a year. Jim adds he uses the internet to stay in touch with family who live in other parts of Australia.

Aimee learns that while Ian and Jim depend on the internet for different things they both agree that they couldn't image their lives without it. Aimee concludes that broadband access will enhance business and communication for farmers and their families and help bridge the gap between urban and rural communities.

homepage is produced in the studios of 2MCE Bathurst and is distributed nationally via the Community Radio Network. The program is made with financial assistance from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. You can listen to homepage on 2MCE via our streaming at http://www.2mce.org.