BtN: Episode 05 Transcript 13/3/12
On this week's Behind the News.

A big inquiry looks at what should happen when the media behaves badly.

Cotton confusion. How much do we really know about where stuff comes
from?
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And you think you're funny? Well stand-up and be counted.
Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News. Also on the show today we take
a look at a volunteer program that's pushing boundaries overseas. But before all that.
Flood Evacuation
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: Imagine packing up your belongings on a truck and having to leave your
house during a flood. That's been the reality for lots of people in NSW, Queensland
and Victoria. But evacuating large numbers of people from a disaster zone isn't an
easy job. Sarah looks into how it's done.
SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: It's something no-one wants to hear; an order to
leave your home and your belongings to the mercy of nature.
JASMIN: I freaked out, I panicked. I ran home mum was half way home and, yeah, I
was freaking out. I was lifting stuff, just whatever I could
Many kids helped their parents to pack up what they could. But some had to leave
with nothing
JULIA: We evacuated at 4 o’clock on Sunday morning. We didn't really have time to
grab anything, just whatever we could find. Devastating. You just don't know what to
think, you can't do anything so you just have to wait. You can't stop water.
It's a horrible prospect for anyone to face. But sometimes evacuations are the best
way to keep people safe.
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You may have come across an evacuation before, maybe at your school or another
building where practice drills are done pretty regularly because getting everyone out
can be complicated.
REPORTER: So imagine how difficult it is to evacuate a whole town, suburb or city.
Here you can't exactly do a practice run.
That's why, long before a disaster hits, emergency services put a lot of working into
planning how to get people out. If it looks like a natural disaster is coming, whether
it's a flood or a cyclone or a bushfire, emergency services will work with the weather
bureau to try and predict who it will affect and when. Then they decide whether or
not to evacuate.
Then it's about letting people know. They can send out text messages, radio stations
give information and in many towns there are sirens. Emergency service workers will
also go from door to door letting people know they need to leave.
Transport is a big issue. If there's enough time people can leave by car, but the roads
have to be clear and safe but not everyone can drive so they might need a lift. If it's
too late for cars they need other ways to get people out.
Then there's finding places for people to go. While some people stay with relatives
and friends others go to evacuations centres like this. They need to be big enough to
sleep a lot of people and have sewerage and running water. So schools after often a
good option.
People in evacuation centres need supplies; food, clean water, clothes, maybe
medical supplies and you need people to run the centres; make sure everyone has
what they need
It takes a lot of work, a lot of resources and a lot of people. But during times like
these communities often work together to help each other out.
TJ: Me and a mate came down from school we had a free period so we came down we
thought it could have been one of us so we might as well help out the people who've
been affected.
And as the flood waters recede and the clean up starts many are going to need as
much help as they can get.
Presenter: OK let's make that our poll this week.
Online Poll
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The question is:
Should people be forced to leave their homes during a serious flood?
To vote just head to our website.
Last week we asked you should Aussie athletes be allowed to use high tech artificial
limbs to gain an advantage at the Paralympics?
76 per cent said yes.
24 per cent said no.
Thanks for voting.
The Wire
On Sunday the people of Japan held memorials to honour one year since a massive
earthquake and tsunami killed 16 thousand people. This fishing trawler travelled
800m inland when the east coast was inundated last year. Now the local people want
to keep it there as a memorial.
Closer to Fukashima where a nuclear power plant suffered a dangerous meltdown
things are a long way from getting back to normal. The Japanese government says
about 100 villages, towns and cities have been contaminated by the radioactive fallout. Some of these places are still completely abandoned.
*****
Only one Australian has made Forbes annual rich list a ranking of the top 100 richest
people on the planet. It's Gina Rinehart she's in the mining industry and has around
17 billion dollars putting her at number 29 in the world. But that's nothing compared
to Mexico's telecommunications big shot Carlos Slim. He's number one with a
whopping 69 billion dollars!
****
And finally it's not often a teenager gets the chance to launch a space shuttle into the
stratosphere. But that's exactly what this Romanian teen did even if it was just a Lego
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shuttle! He wanted to launch the toy to celebrate the shuttle program's amazing
history. And his mission was a big success!
Media Police
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: The media can be very good at exposing people who are behaving badly.
But what happens when the people doing the wrong thing are the journalists
themselves? Who reports on the reporters? Well that's one of the issues raised by a
big inquiry into the media. Let's take a look at what it found.
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: It's been a long walk home after a long day at
school. So it's the perfect time to relax in front of the TV.
NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us. First up this evening to breaking news and
Johnny Johnson has been caught picking his nose. Eye witnesses said Mr Johnson
was sniffling all day in class and undertook the alleged pick on his way home. Later
on in the program we'll cross to our reporter in the playground with more on this
developing story.
JOHNNY: What? I did not! It was just a scratch! I was just scratching!
Okay, at this stage it's Johnny's word against the news. But let's look at the security
vision to find out what really happened. Ahh yes, if we zoom in we can see it WAS
just a scratch. But that won't stop the news from spreading!
NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: JOHNNY PICKS NOSE - eyewitnesses say he may have
eaten it too.
Obviously this isn't fair on poor Johnny because he's innocent of going the nose dig.
So he has every right to complain about the news getting it wrong. But how would he
do that? And what will it achieve?
Over in England last year, a newspaper got it wrong in a very different way. We're
talking about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, where journalists
hacked into people's voicemail on their phones to read their messages and print it as
news. They complained, not because the stories were wrong, but because it was an
invasion of their privacy and also illegal.
After that, some people wondered whether the same types of things might be
happening in newspapers here. So the Media Inquiry was born. It ended up looking
at all the different forms of news media and how they could be held to account for the
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accuracy and fairness of their stories. And they came up with a couple of areas where
they thought things could be improved. The first area was complaints.
When something wrong is aired or printed, like in Johnny's case, people have the
right to complain. For the inaccurate TV news report, he would complain to the
Australian Communications and Media Authority, known as ACMA - a governmentfunded group.
For the newspaper article, he would complain to the Australian Press Council, a
group funded by the newspapers themselves.
But the media inquiry found that ACMA is too slow to punish those doing the wrong
thing. And that the Press Council is too weak, because newspapers could always pull
their funding if they didn't like the decision.
So to solve these problems, they recommended getting rid of both and setting up one
'Super Watchdog' which would be funded by the government, independent and
would keep an eye on everyone!
The second area to be improved is corrections and apologies. After a complaint,
newspapers now might print a correction way back in the paper in small print. But
the Inquiry wants to give its Super Watchdog the power to force them to do it
somewhere more noticeable - even right up the front!
NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: JOHNNY JUST SCRATCHED - nose remains unpicked!
So that's the basics of the Media Inquiry. And some people have come out saying the
changes all sound pretty positive and fair. But some newspaper bosses say the system
they have works fine and they fear a government funded watchdog could stop antigovernment stories, and end up stopping them reporting whatever they like.
As long as 'what they like' isn't nose picking stories, otherwise we might all be in
trouble.
Cotton Cows
Reporter: Natasha Thiele
INTRO: If you're lucky enough to live on a farm you probably know a bit about the
raw materials that make up the food we eat and the clothes we wear. You might've
grown your own vegies or seen wool shorn from a sheep's back. But many kids in
the city don't get to see that stuff. And according to a new survey that's leaving
them a bit confused about where some everyday products even come from. Here's
Tash.
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HOST: We're here with Damien and he's answered every question right so far.
There's only one to go. So for a million dollars Damien, where do cotton socks come
from? Is it A) Animals, B) Plants, C) Science lab or D) Outer space?
CONTESTANT: Hmmm, I'll have to ask the audience.
NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Pretty obvious question right? Cotton is a plant.
It's farmed all over Australia and is a pretty important industry. But according to a
recent report, three-quarters of Year 6 kids thought cotton came from animals.
HOST: Most of the audience said animals. Do you want to lock that in?
CONTESTANT: Well it must be right, lock in A) Animals.
HOST: Are you sure? For a million dollars Damien, is that your final answer?
CONTESTANT: Yes lock in A.
HOST: Oh Damien. Sorry, that's incorrect. Better luck next time!
It wasn't just cotton they got wrong, there were others too. They thought yoghurt
came from plants and just under half of Year 6 students didn't know that bread,
cheese and bananas came from farms. Some people say it's a worrying trend
especially when it comes to food. If kids don't know where things come from, they
won't be able to make good decisions about what they're eating, whether it's ethical
or healthy. Farmers are also worried the next generation of Aussies won't realise how
important agriculture is, if they don't understand how it's used to make the things we
need every-day.
So why wouldn't kids know this stuff? Well, some people reckon supermarkets are to
blame! Lots of stuff is packaged up, all ready for you. It's so easy that lots of people
don't think much about where it comes from and how it's made. But it hasn't always
been that way. Many years ago, it was more common for families to grow their own
produce or buy stuff directly from farmers. Some would even make their own clothes,
so it's no wonder they'd have a better idea about where cotton comes from.
At this school, they're going back to basics. This is one of more than 200 schools
around Australia taking part in Kitchen Garden School. Students are taught how to
grow, harvest and prepare their own fruit and vegies. They even have their own
chickens! Each day they take turns in watering and fertilising the garden, pulling out
weeds and collecting chicken eggs. And they get to make some delicious meals from
the stuff they've grown themselves!
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KID 1: It does make you feel better because like, you know it's like, there's nothing in
it, no like chemicals and things in it. It's just home produce.
KID 2: It's like good to go outside, instead of stuck inside doing all like maths and all
this, I'm not saying maths is bad, but garden is good.
Farmers hope more kids get involved in programs like this, so people can appreciate
all the work that goes into making some of the simple things in life that we take for
granted.
Quiz 1
OK, let's put you to the test with a quiz.
The question is:
Which of these foods is often made using animal product?
Hummus
Orange Juice
Jelly
Answer: Jelly
Jelly and even some lollies can contain gelatin, which is actually collagen from
animal’s skin and bones. Sounds gross!
Class Clowns
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: OK, have you ever been called the class clown? Well, maybe that's not such
a bad thing. Comedy is a serious art, well, maybe not serious, but it does take a lot
of skill. Sarah went along to a comedy competition that's just for kids and found out
what it takes to get
SARAH LARSEN, Reporter: For some it might sound like a nightmare: Standing
alone in front of a room full of people and being laughed at.
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But for these guys it's a dream come true. They're taking part in Class Clowns; a
national comedy competition for kids. Some of the winners will go to the final at the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival. That's somewhere you might see this guy.
Sammy J has made a name for himself and his puppet Randy with a distinctive brand
of comedy.
SAMMY J, Comedian: I specialise in the genre of blonde skinny man musical comedy
sometimes collaborating with puppets and I'm currently ranked seventh in the world
in that genre.
Now he's inspiring the comics of the future.
SAMMY J: The Melbourne Comedy Festival was running this completion called Class
Clowns. My teacher came and said, "Hey, you're weird, you'll like this and I said,
"What is it?" and he said, "You get to write a comedy routine and perform it", and I
was like "Awesome! Do I have to do maths or something afterwards?" And he said,
"No, just perform".
Before the competition there's a workshop where the kids perfect their five minute
routines. It's a chance to get some advice from a professional comedian.
MATT: He's really skinny, that was the first thing I noticed he's tiny.
JAKE: It was pretty awesome. When I was telling people I was going to meet Sammy
J they’re either, “Who's Sammy J?” or, “Sammy J are you serious? That's awesome”.
SAMMY J: It could be any word that's funny it could be cheese or refrigerator or
Marryatville
There's no secret formula for being funny and different comedians get laughs in all
sorts of different ways.
Stand-up comedians often use something called observational comedy which looks at
life and all the funny things that happen in it.
MATT: Instead I found this app. It's called "Is it dark outside". No, really, it is.
They can also use physical humour, which is when you use your body to get a laugh.
Or maybe satire, which can be poking fun at people in power.
TOM: I think they everyone has a different type of comedy that they like to watch and
depending on the person they relate to a different type of comedy.
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SAMMY J: Comedy is very real. It's about the person on stage and everyone brings a
different range of experiences to the stage.
For some of these guys today may be the start of a career.
BEA: You have to be really committed. It's not an easy thing to do but if you get a
rewarding experience from it there's no reason not o come back to it and just
performing in front of a few people was amazing today so I'd like to give it a go on a
broader scale.
But for others it's a chance to express themselves and have fun.
TOMMY: It's a good experience for when you’re older and it's got some good life
skills in it.
ALEX: Good news: this is my natural hair colour, thanks for asking. Bad news: my
voice is like this for the entire show so it's going to be an uncomfortable five minutes
for everyone.
TOMMY: Comedy's great it’s medicine, laughter is the best medicine.
Quiz 2
OK, time for another quiz.
The question is:
A funny comeback or a clever reply is known as what?
Freudian slip
Repartee
Irony
Answer: Repartee
The Score
OK, let's move away from the funny stuff now.
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We've got all the sports news next.
Here's the Score.
The Dandenong Rangers have completed a dramatic season turnaround beating
defending champions, the Bulleen Boomers 94 - 70 in the WNBL Grand final. The
Rangers, who looked unlikely to even make the finals two months ago, won their
ninth match in a row to secure their first WNBL title since 2005.Bulleen shot out to
an early 11-4 lead, before the Rangers dragged themselves back into the match. Point
guard Kath MacLeod took out MVP, with 22 points and nine assists - while Jenna
O'Hea and Steph Cumming also put in great performances.
******
And Aussie sprinter Sally Pearson is looking great for Olympic gold later this year
after taking 1st at the World Indoor Athletics titles in Istanbul. She won the 60metres hurdles in a time of seven-point seven-three seconds smashing her
competitors. Pearson's time equalled the fourth-fastest on record.
Pushing Boundaries
Reporter: Natasha Thiele
INTRO: Staying with sport and if you love cricket you'll know that the season has
just wrapped up. But while lots of Aussies are mad keen on the sport it's not the
same in many other countries in the world. A volunteer group is trying to change
that though as Tash reports.
NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Lots of Aussies love cricket! They love being in the
crowd, the warm weather and soaking up the atmosphere! But not everyone's had a
chance to experience watching a cricket game, let alone play in one!
Over here in Indonesia, cricket isn't even on the radar for most people. Soccer and
badminton are the most popular sports. But this girl wants to change all that.
Jane is a volunteer, who's been sent over by the Australian Government, to teach the
game to kids. So far as part of this program 30,000 Indonesian kids have been given
a taste of cricket. One of the main aims is to encourage more Indonesian girls to play
sport.
Today she's working with these girls, who've never played cricket before. All the
equipment they're using, like the bats and balls, have been donated. And while we
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take grassed ovals for granted here in Australia, many schools in Indonesia need to
make do with what they've got.
JANE LIVESEY, VOLUNTEER: As you can see here we're on a basketball court
which is quite small. It's good for teaching the basics of cricket, but once we move on
to higher skill levels, obviously it's better if we can be on an open field.
On the field and it's a little daunting to begin with, but the kids soon warm up and
start to enjoy the session. They're taught a variety of techniques including how to bat,
how to bowl and how to catch when fielding. Jane speaks a little bit of Indonesian,
which makes it easier to get her point across.
JANE: I first started studying Indonesian in Year 7 at high school and then kind of
gave it up for a while, then had three years studying Bahasa at university including a
stint in Central Java a couple of years ago doing a language course, so every since
then I've been keen to get back over.
The girls not only learn how to play cricket, but they also pick up some important life
skills as well. It builds their confidence, they learn to work in a team and they're
taught how important it is to keep fit and healthy. But most of all, it's about having
fun!
JANE: I've never seen kids play cricket with the passion and enthusiasm that I've
seen here. Everywhere I've been they, I mean it's partly helped by the novelty factor
of having a young white female in their schools, but regardless of that they love
playing cricket.
And if the students get hooked on the sport, now they can join the school cricket
team. So there's no doubt these girls have learned some valuable skills, not only for
on the field but for off the field too!
Closer
That's it for the show.
You can jump onto our website if you want to get more info on any of the stories.
You can send us your comments and don't forget to vote in this week's poll.
I'll see you next time.
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