Suggestion for current issues in the Australian media?

[Funkyy007]

Hi,
For English Oral presentation, I need to write a speech on an issue that has been in the Australian media, recently (past 4 months). I've gone completely blank!

Can you guys please give suggestions of recent issues.

I was thinking of doing my speech on the Gonski Review, or Australian Education Bill 2012 about funding schools. I believe that the schools don't need funding but other aspects should be taken into account, e.g. teacher quality. But, I don't think there has been much public debate about this issue in the newspapers.

[Lasercookie]

I was thinking of doing my speech on the Gonski Review, or Australian Education Bill 2012 about funding schools. I believe that the schools don't need funding but other aspects should be taken into account, e.g. teacher quality. But, I don't think there has been much public debate about this issue in the newspapers.

What makes you think that? Education has been discussed a lot in the media in the past year or so.

[jeanweasley]

Hi,
For English Oral presentation, I need to write a speech on an issue that has been in the Australian media, recently (past 4 months). I've gone completely blank!

Can you guys please give suggestions of recent issues.

I was thinking of doing my speech on the Gonski Review, or Australian Education Bill 2012 about funding schools. I believe that the schools don't need funding but other aspects should be taken into account, e.g. teacher quality. But, I don't think there has been much public debate about this issue in the newspapers.

I'm on the same boat! You might want to check this out: http://www.vcestudyguides.com/guides/language-analysis/australian-issues-in-the-media/oral-presentation-topics-for-2012 The only downside of this, though, is that it doesn't give you your contention or the issue and its background.

Good luck!

[WhoTookMyUsername]

There are many perennial issues, I went with one - euthanasia - because that's pretty much one of the few topics that i actually cared about, and i feel passion is essential to delivering a great speech.
My advice - look at what you're passionate about, cross reference it with the media, and go from there.

[EvangelionZeta]

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/australian-alliance-with-japan-not-any-time-soon-20121217-2bjam.html

...or more realistically (for high school students anyway):

http://theconversation.edu.au/medical-intern-crisis-wont-be-solved-with-just-more-hospital-places-10629

[alondouek]

Slightly off topic: You should check with your teacher if the issue you'll talk about in your oral needs to be a specifically Australian issue. At my school, one was permitted to discuss an international issue, but needed to use at least 3 sources from Australian media in presenting their argument.

For example, I discussed the 'Futility of the Arab Spring', but used the required amount of Australian sources along with numerous international media. Happily, I ended up with an A+ and full marks.

The only reason I'm saying this, is in case an international issue (which has almost certainly been discussed in Australian media somewhere) particularly piques your interest

[Highacheiver]

For example, I discussed the 'Futility of the Arab Spring', but used the required amount of Australian sources along with numerous international media. Happily, I ended up with an A+ and full marks.

Ooooh! this sounds interesting! what did you argue and contend?

[alondouek]

Firstly, I should note that the presentation was only supposed to take 7 minutes, but mine ran for 12... luckily, I wasn't penalised

Firstly, I discussed the events leading up to the Arab Spring, and proposed causes for it on both a micro and macro scale relating to social, political and economic issues. In doing this I gave the contention that, as has happened throughout Middle-Eastern history, a vicious cycle of violent oppression and violent revolution would perpetuate. This introduced my overall contention that the Arab Spring was and is essentially futile.

Then, I analysed the conflicts that had - and the ones that both were and, I believed, would - occurred. For example, I compared the uprisings and protests against the Mubarak regime in Egypt to other social justice issues prevalent throughout the modern history of Egypt. I did this as well for Libya and Syria.

In doing this, I made predictions as to what would eventuate from the Arab Spring in these countries - that is to say, I predicted the rise of Islamist governments in Libya and Egypt, as well as President Assad's mass murdering of his own population in Syria.

This can be seen in the presentation I have attached here (this presentation was used to provide background information so I didn't have to present it all verbally). I believe dropbox is needed to view this file, just copy the shortened URL below (couldn't use hyperlink as the file size is bigger than 1MB

goo.gl/Iybdf

As for my contention, I emphatically and emotively stated that the Arab Spring was futile.

I received full marks for this SAC, despite it being 5 minutes too long

[EvangelionZeta]

Firstly, I should note that the presentation was only supposed to take 7 minutes, but mine ran for 12... luckily, I wasn't penalised

Firstly, I discussed the events leading up to the Arab Spring, and proposed causes for it on both a micro and macro scale relating to social, political and economic issues. In doing this I gave the contention that, as has happened throughout Middle-Eastern history, a vicious cycle of violent oppression and violent revolution would perpetuate. This introduced my overall contention that the Arab Spring was and is essentially futile.

Then, I analysed the conflicts that had - and the ones that both were and, I believed, would - occurred. For example, I compared the uprisings and protests against the Mubarak regime in Egypt to other social justice issues prevalent throughout the modern history of Egypt. I did this as well for Libya and Syria.

In doing this, I made predictions as to what would eventuate from the Arab Spring in these countries - that is to say, I predicted the rise of Islamist governments in Libya and Egypt, as well as President Assad's mass murdering of his own population in Syria.

This can be seen in the presentation I have attached here (this presentation was used to provide background information so I didn't have to present it all verbally). I believe dropbox is needed to view this file, just copy the shortened URL below (couldn't use hyperlink as the file size is bigger than 1MB

goo.gl/Iybdf

As for my contention, I emphatically and emotively stated that the Arab Spring was futile.

I received full marks for this SAC, despite it being 5 minutes too long

You should do History/Politics, this is very typical of the academic discussion that happens there.  :p

(that said I do disagree with you, but that's beside the point of this thread, and you're very brave and very intelligent either way to try and pull something like this off for an oral )

[alondouek]

You should do History/Politics, this is very typical of the academic discussion that happens there.  :p

(that said I do disagree with you, but that's beside the point of this thread, and you're very brave and very intelligent either way to try and pull something like this off for an oral )

haha, I did Revolutions last year, and I would've liked to have done politics, but there wasn't any space among my other subjects.

Also, I'm happy to see you disagree with me; if you'd ever like to discuss the subject with me, feel free to PM me