Culture Club - A Welcome to Culture Club and our Thoughts on the Australian Media Industry

00:00:00.000 this is really random but something over the last few months has been telling me to do it

00:00:14.220 even just chat about it with you have you ever thought about doing a podcast

00:00:18.980 and if it was something that you'd be interested in talk soon bye

00:00:24.420 oh my god hi jess this is very exciting i have thought about um starting a podcast for a while

00:00:34.140 just because it's like one of my favorite things like i consume so many podcasts it's definitely

00:00:38.920 something i am so open i know you can't see me but i'm like grinning a lot like this is something

00:00:44.480 i'm really passionate about but you know i'm all ears hi welcome to the first ever episode of

00:00:53.480 Culture Club. I'm Jasmine. And I'm Maggie. Thanks for being here today. And what you were just

00:01:00.260 listening to were our Instagram voice messages from about 10 days ago. And now here we are

00:01:06.620 making a podcast together. Not gonna lie, it hasn't been easy. We've been literally in this

00:01:11.180 Zoom for over an hour trying to figure it out, but we're here and that's what matters.

00:01:16.180 Yeah, I'm sitting in a cupboard at my parents' house in Brisbane and Maggie is down in Melbourne

00:01:21.000 in lockdown. She's not wrong, by the way. She's literally in a closet that's dark and a little

00:01:28.000 bit dingy, but it's cute. It's commitment. It's a makeshift studio. We're entrepreneurial over

00:01:32.840 here. So what is Culture Club? Good question, Jasmine. I'm glad you asked. So the little

00:01:41.500 tagline that we came up with on our Instagram is that we have two 20-something media slashies

00:01:47.260 chatting about pop culture the internet and our lives yeah so this is kind of just a space for us

00:01:53.300 to talk about all the things that we love whether it's books tv shows articles things that are just

00:02:02.900 going on in the world basically everything that we talk about either on instagram dms or we both

00:02:09.700 keep pitching to fashion journal magazine but before we get right into it we would just like

00:02:14.500 to acknowledge the Wurundjeri, Tarabul and Boonwurrung people as the traditional owners

00:02:19.340 of the land upon which we live, create and work. We respect elders past, present and emerging and

00:02:25.780 acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. First things first, who are we? Yeah, honestly,

00:02:33.800 this is like such a job interview question. I hate answering it. We've been having to write

00:02:38.560 little bias about ourselves and we're just like flailing around. Like it's very hard, isn't it?

00:02:42.880 yeah um the way I describe myself is that I'm 21 born and raised in Melbourne my name is Maggie

00:02:50.160 Zhao so in Chinese I pronounce my last name soul but I kind of whitefied it and say Zhao which I'm

00:02:57.020 happy with anyway so I study communication design and media communication and that's kind of led to

00:03:03.640 my path of like freelance journalism writing thingo content creation on Instagram and also

00:03:10.600 social media coordinating so I feel like this is like a nice smorgasbord of like everything we love

00:03:16.740 you know combine it we've got like our own little Instagram we've got a little podcast yeah definitely

00:03:22.200 I feel like our generation are queens of being multi-hyphenates we kind of have to be

00:03:27.540 um so yeah I feel the same way this is a place that we can put all of our

00:03:32.420 loves together. I am Jasmine Wallace and I am 24 and I'm a freelance journalist, copywriter

00:03:42.780 and media lover really. I've written for publications like Frankie Magazine,

00:03:50.380 obviously we both are contributors to Fashion Journal, Rush. I also am the founder of my own

00:03:57.160 online magazine called Genzine, which I started when I was 19. And it's kind of been in the

00:04:02.380 background of, you know, everything that I've done over the years, including my media comms degree.

00:04:09.280 And yeah, Maggie and I are both in really similar fields. So we thought we'd chat about it.

00:04:18.480 Exactly. It's so funny that you brought up Frankie magazine, because that's like

00:04:22.680 what drew us together when we first met so do you want to tell the story because I literally forgot

00:04:28.560 and that's kind of I was like oh I forgot that we met at this event I have such a bad memory so

00:04:33.760 I promise it's nothing personal but I did remember that you worked at Frankie or wrote for Frankie

00:04:39.400 magazine yeah so um I followed Maggie on Instagram it must be for like seven years now because you

00:04:47.980 started your Instagram when you were like 15, 16, right? Even younger, like I was in year eight or

00:04:53.680 nine. I shouldn't have been on the internet. I was like 13 or something. Yeah. So I remember

00:04:58.680 following you from when you, yeah, were just starting out basically. And then kind of always

00:05:04.040 really liked what you did, obviously. And then we both, when was it? Three years ago now. No,

00:05:10.880 that's a lie. It was 2018 fashion, Melbourne fashion week time, start of 2018. And we both

00:05:17.980 got invited to this cool career event um shout out to Kura for organizing it and inviting us both

00:05:25.480 it was just like a day of um speakers and connecting like it's a networking event um

00:05:32.240 and I remember I was with my friend Paris and I saw you from across the room and I was like our eyes

00:05:40.500 yeah and I remember saying to Paris oh my god I know that girl well from the internet I was like

00:05:47.200 oh I've followed her for ages like I should go up and say something and I did and yeah you were so

00:05:54.120 nice and lovely and we just I think you followed me back on that day um and we chatted about you

00:06:01.420 know what I was doing with Frankie um how much you love Frankie and stuff and then that's it

00:06:07.820 we've been internet friends ever since exactly hey and it's so funny because we also have a mutual

00:06:13.380 um we have a couple mutuals from you know your friend Lizzie shout out Lizzie um who I know from

00:06:19.760 Instagram too I feel like in Melbourne especially all the creatives kind of just like meet together

00:06:25.120 we all know of each other or have someone in common so I find that so funny it's it's been

00:06:32.600 two years and to be honest since then we have met in person what like three or four times honestly

00:06:39.700 yeah i want to say four five times maybe um we went to a fashion week event earlier this year

00:06:46.940 before coronavirus shut everything down and then we've gone up we had a dinner as well that was so

00:06:52.780 good the last time we saw each other in between the two lockdowns and yeah we just keep yeah the

00:06:58.740 main thing was we kept pitching super similar ideas um to fashion journal and i remember last

00:07:05.980 month we pitched a similar idea and our editor Kate nearly um gave us a shared byline and like

00:07:13.540 they were so similar she was like oh we can just put them together and I was like oh my god I'd

00:07:16.740 love to share a byline with Maggie um obviously that didn't go ahead but yeah now we get why don't

00:07:22.880 we share our own thing exactly exactly so we obviously both love media hence why we are

00:07:31.100 pursuing it even though it's in a sad state of affairs right now but I'd love to know when you

00:07:37.340 realized that you wanted to work in the media industry and why you love it I'm still at uni so

00:07:43.240 it's funny that you say that because I literally think that change probably happened within the

00:07:48.920 last year it was always a pipe dream so since forever I've always wanted to work in magazines

00:07:55.360 you know that glorious devil worth prada um you know beautiful fantasy right um my oldest sister

00:08:03.860 cindy her nickname for me is magazine because maggie magazine that's so cute you know fate

00:08:09.100 i never really had strict parents in terms of like career um pressures or anything you know i wasn't

00:08:15.100 forced to be a doctor or a lawyer or any other stereotypes um it was always pursue something

00:08:19.640 you love but also in the back of my mind stability was always really important and you know writing

00:08:26.800 does not equal that I've oh I've been such a nerd all my life English has been my best subject

00:08:32.600 always writing always reading when I was younger definitely never crossed my mind to actually

00:08:37.200 pursue that even now I'm like am I am I doing that but I am so I don't know it's been a slow

00:08:45.040 burning thing and it's always been there I feel like that love of writing and like literature and

00:08:49.860 books and media is always there I feel like especially in our day and age we always keep

00:08:55.720 consuming it so it's been quite a natural process of falling in love I literally feel like I'm

00:09:02.660 talking about a lover or something yeah love hate relationship for sure oh god I know right we fight

00:09:09.020 we make up having you though the highs and the lows kind of similar in school I always always

00:09:16.360 loved reading I did like all the English as I could extensions and all that I was terrible at

00:09:22.320 maths um my dad yeah I hate it my dad was also a journalist in the 80s and 90s in the UK so I feel

00:09:31.080 like it's kind of in my blood in a way um and he read to us from my sister and I from a really young

00:09:37.920 age. And yeah, kind of motivated me and inspired me to share my voice. Basically. I wasn't sure

00:09:48.700 if I wanted to go to uni or not when I graduated high school. So I took a year off and I went to

00:09:53.460 London when I was 17. And then it was there that I was like, you know what? No, I do want to,

00:09:59.860 I want to study something. I love magazines. I remember going to like Woolies with my mom at

00:10:06.460 like 11 years old and running to the magazine section and like my eyes would light up over like

00:10:11.840 girlfriend and dolly it took many years um of convincing to let her let me buy them that's

00:10:17.860 kind of sad track and I came back from um London and moved to Melbourne had a year working and then

00:10:24.500 got into Deakin transferred to RMIT but the thing is I always wanted to be a journalist but for the

00:10:31.960 last 10 years or so even longer ever since I've you know wanted to do it everyone has said

00:10:38.360 journalism is a dying industry um there's no money it's really hard to get into but I could

00:10:45.700 still see people doing it magazines were still being made um I followed editors I loved on

00:10:51.820 social media I just like devoured media and content so in a kind of similar decision of like

00:10:59.960 wanting the stability but also wanted to pursue it I got my degree in media and communications

00:11:05.000 rather than straight journalism I think that was a good decision because um for me because now I've

00:11:11.040 learned a whole range of skills so yeah now here we are making a podcast because it's 2020 and

00:11:16.280 that's what you do I don't know about you but did you ever grow up with journalism like the image

00:11:20.820 of journalism being hard news people who do invested to give things and news and politics

00:11:27.700 and men in suits like that was always journalism to me or like the really fluffy women's day

00:11:35.720 weekly gossip magazines I felt like I didn't really know of an in-between you know where

00:11:42.240 there is really good lifestyle journalism and long-form journalism and all that that was never

00:11:47.460 even a choice it was almost like write a novel or pursue hard news so I didn't even know about this

00:11:53.980 like possibility that we have that's interesting you say that I think I was um always drawn to

00:12:00.200 lifestyle and like personal essay I love reading personal essays and feature writing for sure

00:12:05.160 because I'm very interested in news and current affairs but I knew that I didn't want to be a

00:12:09.720 news reporter or even like a reporter for a newspaper just wasn't me I think I don't know

00:12:14.980 if you feel the same but I love looking at a news story and then seeing it from a different

00:12:20.080 perspective taking a step back thinking okay why is this happening what is it saying about the

00:12:25.700 culture what is it saying about the world we live in and then writing um yeah more of a personal spin

00:12:31.740 rather than the hard news of like who what where when why but that's what I love about feature

00:12:36.920 writing is you have both you have to say who what when where why what's happening but you also get

00:12:41.800 to be a little bit more creative with it but I agree that like it did growing up it was like

00:12:46.840 one or the other especially with um movies like devil wears prada and that kind of 90s early

00:12:54.680 noughties perception of um especially women in journalism yeah so movies like devil wears prada

00:13:00.960 and how to lose a guy in 10 days and never been kissed as well she's a journalist i always thought

00:13:06.540 it was really like um it's one of those movie careers that like every you know female protagonist

00:13:14.560 is a journalist I think that influenced me a lot as well or or especially in um suddenly 30 or

00:13:22.600 that's like one of my favorite movies ever like Mark Ruffalo I have such a big crush on him he's

00:13:29.860 like my weird celebrity crush uh but she works in a magazine and if you remember spoilers of this

00:13:35.840 like you know almost 20 year old movie but she just flips the magazine on its head and like

00:13:40.500 brings life and personality to it and oh I love it so much so I think you're so right I don't even

00:13:46.280 think I've realized how much like movies kind of influence my love of magazines but yeah it's

00:13:53.860 definitely there and that was like well yeah I guess it was the golden age in a way I'd say

00:13:59.420 like the 80s and 90s oh my gosh what a time yeah so Jasmine it's kind of funny because you reached

00:14:06.560 out to start this podcast less than two weeks ago now. And even within that time, like the Australian

00:14:13.600 media industry has taken another massive hit. Yeah. So last week there was a closing down of

00:14:20.960 eight magazines from the Bauer publishing house. So it was a week ago today and it was honestly

00:14:29.460 devastating so it was harper's bazaar l which were one of my faves in style men's health women's

00:14:37.820 health good health nw and okay and these titles were suspended back in may um they were told that

00:14:47.820 because of coronavirus there's no advertising money um and that by september they would be

00:14:53.060 back in circulation but obviously that didn't happen um and it's a huge huge blow to the

00:15:00.140 industry um it means loads of people have lost their jobs there's a small even smaller pool of

00:15:07.420 jobs and employers that we can go to like as freelance writers and one of our friends actually

00:15:14.940 one of our fashion journal colleagues wrote a beautiful piece um for fashion journal back in

00:15:22.240 May but it was really relevant um last week did you want to read a bit of that out yeah sure thing

00:15:29.840 so Genevieve Fallon wrote an incredible article back in May called an ode to Australian glossies

00:15:36.640 and their enduring influence so I'm just going to read a bit of a snippet the physicality of print

00:15:42.560 magazines is something I'm confident will never entirely lose that's where the magic lies in the

00:15:48.540 intimate lean back psychology of peeling open a manifesto of the times with a cup of something

00:15:54.060 hot or red. Magazines are liminal artifacts that sit somewhere between a book, an art gallery,

00:16:01.560 and a seat in the front row of a fashion show. They give us a rare and unparalleled glimpse into

00:16:07.020 the inner workings of creative minds. They curate arresting imagery with tactfully numbered words

00:16:12.980 bound by big ideas and important concepts. To the innumerable talented people behind these

00:16:18.980 Australian mastheads, thank you. For those who got it right and got it wrong, and for those who got

00:16:24.740 giddy for the first time when they saw their byline or published a piece that resonated with

00:16:29.440 a reader, congratulations on all your work. It's the end of an era, but not of the entity itself.

00:16:36.560 yeah I feel like that piece summed up so beautifully I honestly had a tear in my eye

00:16:42.800 when I read it I read it again last week so relevant and it does feel that way like it's

00:16:48.660 very sad but people will always need stories people will always want to share things they

00:16:56.320 want to lift other people up profile someone doing good a new product that's helping people

00:17:03.440 so I think personally while it is devastating and sad that so many physical magazines

00:17:10.820 are closing down it's just a new beginning it's a new it's 2020 it's a new decade

00:17:17.700 something else will take its place and then in 20 years we'll look back and say I don't know

00:17:22.760 how could we ever live without that or it would just be so as common as magazine you know

00:17:27.180 and I used to be such a print purist and a magazine purist and you know I'm a diehard for

00:17:35.440 print magazines I have so many lining the walls of my bedroom but I think what I've realized in

00:17:40.820 the last year is that hey digital media has such a place in the world and there's still 0.95

00:17:47.000 a magic to it I know it cops a lot of shit you know there's a lot of clickbait out there and a 0.80

00:17:52.180 lot of trashy trashy articles but you've also still got the good stuff like what we love about 0.97

00:17:57.480 magazines can still exist online we love the photo shoots we love the articles so I think

00:18:03.660 you know digital media is more accessible to so many as well so the magic isn't lost like

00:18:11.820 Genevieve says at the end it's not the end of the entity itself and entities do transform and they

00:18:18.260 to evolve and, you know, we're learning and evolving with them. Yeah, definitely. I just

00:18:24.740 think as well that, I don't know if you felt it during the lockdowns, but people also get tired

00:18:31.160 of digital after a while. I know that I was spending, you know, wake up, be on my computer

00:18:36.660 for nine hours and then be on my screen calling my friends because we couldn't see each other in

00:18:40.800 person, sharing things on Instagram. And you do get tired of it, whether it's your brain or your

00:18:46.880 eyes. And I think that after a certain period of having less physical magazines, maybe there'll

00:18:53.820 even be a resurgence. Maybe people will want to spend the money and invest in physical moments

00:19:01.520 of a cultural zeitgeist. Because I think one thing that is really important about magazines is you

00:19:09.000 can't change it. If I make a mistake on a digital article, I can just go in the back end and cut it

00:19:16.500 or if something happens I can update it I can say edit after the time of writing this happened

00:19:21.800 with a magazine you can't do that it's really like this is the month of July 2020 this is what

00:19:29.700 happened this is what we thought and I think there's something in that I never really thought

00:19:34.180 about it like that so I love documenting things my life that's why my Instagram has over a thousand

00:19:40.480 photos and you're so right it captures a moment in time in our society doesn't it hey and it's

00:19:46.480 it's like filed nicely month by month. And that like the organizational freak in me loves that.

00:19:51.760 I think you're right. There's something so special about every aspect of a magazine. There's,

00:19:58.660 you know, there's strict word counts. There's a designer who's gone and laid out each column.

00:20:04.900 Everything is so, I don't even know how to describe it. Just everything is really,

00:20:11.120 really thought out. It's like books, you know, I feel like that's a direct comparison.

00:20:15.500 in After Work Drinks another podcast we love they were talking about this exact issue last week and

00:20:22.120 it's you know books had a moment in time where sales were really plummeting bookshops are closing

00:20:28.460 but now book sales are on the rise again and I feel like people want to take time away from

00:20:36.500 their phones to really kind of delve into another world of like a book or a magazine same as like

00:20:42.100 records and other you know cool vintage things they will have exactly yeah so they won't be gone

00:20:52.080 forever yeah no it just so happens that we are fresh graduates and it's terrifying we're trying

00:20:58.780 to look for a job in recession a recession and you know when all these jobs are closing it's

00:21:06.560 terrifying but we just have to adapt and I think that's what our generation is really good at

00:21:11.680 I'd also like to read out this piece by Noelle Faulkner who's a writer she's written for Elle

00:21:17.480 and Harper's Bazaar the two two of the magazines that closed last week she made a really good

00:21:22.360 point about how humans will eventually need a break from the screen I'd just like to read a

00:21:28.040 bit now while the pandemic gave us square eyes and made us crave something to hold or escape to

00:21:33.480 many of us working predominantly in print media have watched the walls around our world crumble

00:21:38.300 for some time print has felt like a dead star a supernova that long burned out its last burst of

00:21:45.220 light taking years to reach us like everything the voyeuristic and escapist allure of the slow

00:21:51.180 publication has been substituted by a sea of contextless imagery by a phase that satisfy our

00:21:57.020 hunger for immediacy originally digital spaces felt liberated inclusive informative content was

00:22:03.980 plentiful and free but as the internet is now a shouty echo chamber of hot takes reactions lies

00:22:10.640 and algorithmic served views one can't help but romanticize the edited publication it remains a

00:22:16.940 capsule of ideas warmed with consideration examination and deep breaths magazines are the

00:22:23.740 umami of media they are made by and for dreamers for image makers or writers print teaches the art

00:22:30.900 of restraint every sentence or every image is considered every fact is checked unlike a social

00:22:37.280 media post or blog a magazine is not self-serving it is by nature made for the reader's pleasure

00:22:43.560 only designed to teleport you away from the notifications of the spinning buzzing beeping

00:22:49.400 world and it sums up well it is sad that this you know magazines as we know them are coming to an

00:22:57.520 end but like we said stories will always need to be told people get sick of staring at their phones

00:23:04.280 and all their screens especially if working from home becomes so much more normal people will be

00:23:09.980 spending 14 hours a day on their screen they're going to want a slower model again i i think and

00:23:15.520 i hope wow that was a beautiful way to end i was like i don't want to interrupt um so for the first

00:23:23.280 episode of Culture Club, we just wanted to kind of just sit down and have a conversation about

00:23:28.480 our current thoughts about the Australian media industry and why we love it and why it's also

00:23:33.500 struggling. For future episodes, we're going to be delving into, you know, pop culture, current

00:23:39.520 affairs, things we love, articles we've read and our recommendations, things like feminism. Harry

00:23:46.740 Stiles keeps jumping into my head, so he's inevitably going to end up on the podcast.

00:23:51.160 not as a guest maybe let's put it out into the universe maybe as a guest dream guest harry

00:23:57.580 styles please um and yeah we just kind of want this to be a little space where you can you know

00:24:05.420 share your own recommendations share what you've been loving this week we just want it to be a

00:24:10.860 chill atmosphere where we can all learn from each other and feel safe sharing yeah and discuss what's

00:24:18.200 going on in the world in this crazy world and also even though this is called culture club we

00:24:23.660 don't want this to be some sort of exclusive club that you're you know a part of we want this to be

00:24:29.380 for everyone and anyone wherever they are in the world or whatever industry they're in

00:24:35.260 whoever they are we would just love to create like a really nice community

00:24:40.140 so we're excited for the future and what's to come yay so thank you so much for tuning in

00:24:47.440 We're so excited to be in your ears again next week.

00:24:51.380 Fingers crossed.

00:24:52.500 Yes, fingers crossed.

00:24:54.180 We're doing weekly EPS so that it stays really current.

00:24:57.680 Yeah, we can't wait to chat to you again soon.

00:24:59.880 Thank you so much for listening.

00:25:01.420 Bye.

00:25:02.440 Bye.

Culture Club - July 28, 2020

A Welcome to Culture Club and our Thoughts on the Australian Media Industry

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