A Great Day......

I checked Google News this morning and had a welcome sigh of relief as I saw that both Private Members Bills had failed to gain the support of either the government or oposition MP's

TWO separate bids to end live animal exports have failed to win the support of a single government or opposition MP
Source: Herald Sun (Link: http://bit.ly/oturRd)

This is great news for the Australian Live Export Industry as the industry can now start to get back up on its feet after the knee jerk reaction that left thousands of cattle stranded in export yards and farms that were beginning to become overstocked.

This disappointment of the day is the news that the RSPCA and Animal Activist groups are not going to leave the issue and have effectively put into place a scare campaign against producers and the general public by publicly vowing to release further footage. This to me says that this is a very juvenile action trying your cause out in the media using what is clearly going to be a bias to spin their story. I am curious to see whether this footage has in deed been kept from an earlier time as the Four Corners footage and if they are considering the "ethical dilemma" (as they put it) of releasing it now instead of earlier? This to me says they are pushing their own agenda, and that if they'd been concerned for the welfare of animals they would have released the footage earlier, if not to the public then the Government who can put into place policies to prevent further mistreatment.

Interested in a bit of an insight into the strategies that groups use to make these ads and cause you to become emotionaly driven to support their cause? Why not Check out this Weeks episode of The Gruen Transfer on ABC iView (or it is repeated on ABC2 at some stage as well).

Getting the message out there......

As a member of Generation Y I thought that I was very tech savvy, but so far have had a fast learning curve on just how media spreads in these times.
Coming from the land the biggest turning point was for me watching the Live Animal Export Debate unfold before me. I have never seen something of that magnitude gain so much momentum so fast. Everywhere I turned there were posts from Animal activists and concerned citizens everywhere, no longer a domain of writing an incensed letter to the editor of the local paper, these messages flooded the internet, and nowhere larger than twitter and Facebook. On twitter alone the phrase "Ban Live Export" became a trending phrase almost instantaneously after the screening of the controversial Four Corners documentary, and there it stayed trending for at least two days.

Yet nowhere in this social media storm of hate and frustration did I see a message of support for our Aussie farmers or even a statement from them explaining their side of the story. It wasn't until several days later that I finally saw an invite on Facebook for a Save Live Export petition and links to a page on the internet.
If this one instance has taught us anything is that we as producers were on the back foot trying to get our message out there. No longer can we simply rely on print media to get our message across, when with the click of a mouse a story can be distributed throughout the world.

After watching the story on the ABC this Sunday gone I have realized that the need for us to tell our story we need to get out there and not just rely on others. We need to be "Proagtive" in our discussions to get our message out there so that the public know and understand both sides of the story.
For further information on the Landline Story check out this link:
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2010/s3293020.htm