Kristi Potter
Group Presentation
20/5/2015
During mid-semester we were allowed to choose groups for a
presentation using an international news story. The group I was
in had 4 other members so the vast coverage we did collect was
found through, magazine articles, radio shows, television,
newspaper, and social media. The group discussed in class
when and where the group should meet up and talk about what
trending news story would provide us with the most coverage.
After a long debateable conversation we all came to the
conclusion that our international news story would be the Bruce
Jenner’s sex change. One of the debates we had within the
group sparked confusion as some thought this story was gossip
rather than news, which made our group keep thinking if soft
news discussing entertainment was acceptable for this
assignment. Once we talked with our tutor and learnt that it was
acceptable, we broke off in to our on paths finding coverage of
Bruce’s sex changed from different forms of media from last
week. I was covering magazine articles, I thought about where
people purchase magazines so I went to one two outlets. The
first store I went to was Whitcoulls on the 17th of April, as it is
a popular shop that sells all reading material and would have to
keep up to date with all stock so I thought that would be my
best chance. I gathered 4 different publications that all featured
Bruce Jenner on the cover page of the magazine. The layout of
all covers had a photo of Bruce with a huge headline reading
“Bruce wants to become a women” similar titles were printed
alongside other magazines. Bright colours and bold headlines
were used in my opinion to capture the reader as it was
appealing to my eyes because it intrigued me. I read through
one magazine and the article talked about how Bruce had a
private life that was suspected by insiders of the stars life, but
were never announced publically until the announcement of
Bruce’s sex change. The photos that were released on the front
page weren’t exactly the best of photos captured of Bruce,
seeing how bad Bruce looked as for me as the reader I could
definitely sense that some of the speculations made in the
article were true. The purpose of the information that was
released in the article was to alert people of what is currently
trending in the entertainment world, the news story itself is
relevant as Bruce Jenner is a part of the most talked about
families in the celebrity world. It leaves much concern as the
news learns of more new information which is significant to the
process of Bruce’s journey through his sex change. I went to
New World next to see what magazines they would have, as it
is very popular for people to read articles while waiting in line
for the next checkout. The same magazines were also published
but less were available for customers, which means some may
have been interested in the Bruce Jenner story. The next time I
went into Whitcoulls was the 29th of April when new
publications had been printed. When I went into the store I
noticed the same articles as last time featuring headlines of
Bruce Jenner. Comparing the first magazines I noticed and the
recent issued ones is that the latest ones were reflecting on
Bruce Jenner’s sex change. Headlines capture the title “My first
day as a women” and “How Bruce’s family is recovering”, by
only reading the titles the magazines are covering the aftermath
of Bruce’s sex change and the effect it has on his family and
friends but most importantly the way Bruce now feels as a
women. The value of this news would be unexpected but only
because of the elite person Bruce Jenner is, this relates to the
framework of magazines and mainstream news media. The
difference between all the forms of media is how the story is
displayed and written. With the magazine articles it was
colourful and captivating with interesting pictures regarding
Bruce’s sex change, the information gathered was through
speculation of a recent boob job that sources inside the stars
private life had leaked. Once the information was leaked it was
talked about on social media such as Instagram, twitter and
Facebook. Social media has an influence on the media as most
people do genuinely have access to these websites and can
easily announce their opinion to Bruce whether its hate or
support, this form of media has more of public’s voice over the
news coverage. For newspapers Bruce Jenner was discussed in
the sport section in a formal straight forward manner as Bruce
was a previous gold medallist for running in 1972. Radio didn’t
have much to talk about apart from mentioning it briefly
encouraging people to read about it in magazines. Television
was very popular as Bruce agreed to be interviewed with Diane
Sawyer, this was also streamed online to end speculations and
confront rumours. Overall I think the group and I worked really
effectively together, we each were independent enough to
contribute our own work. . When presenting our slideshow we
stood composed and supported each of our opinions, we had a
strong and organized team that worked together. We gathered
information over a 3 week period prior to our due date each
week gaining different relevant information to make our
presentation effective.