The fitness industry is experiencing a boom in Australia and as a result, there are thousands of businesses offering the courses necessary to begin a career in personal training. Course providers entice potential students with slogans like “Fully qualified in just eight weeks!” and “Fast Track your Career…Fully Online, Part-Time and Intensive courses” allowing students to complete the required Certificate IV in personal training via face to face study, distance education or online.

But industry professionals are now raising concerns about the role of personal trainers in Australia and the comprehensiveness of the courses offered to those who wish to pursue a career in the fitness industry.

Anatomy classes, learning about the different ways to exercise, weeks in the gym learning about each piece of equipment and lessons about how to construct a tailor made program to fit each individual’s need. These are the sorts of images in many people’s minds when they walk into a gym and assign the management of their personal fitness with a ‘fully’ qualified personal trainer.

Manager of Geelong’s Gym, Gerard Spriet said “Ninety-five percent of the people who undergo the eight week (Certificate IV) course can’t even do the basics,” Mr Spriet said.

Most fitness providers allow students a maximum of one year to complete their Certificate IV with no minimum time frame for course completion. This means that fitness qualifications can be obtained in only a matter of weeks.

Manager of ReCreation Glen Iris, Carissa DiMonte has heard of people obtaining their personal training qualifications over the internet in just two weeks.

“There is so much riff-raff coming out of those institutes… it is embarrassing,” Ms DiMonte said.

Fitness Australia and Kinect Australia are two independent, not-for profit organizations providing leadership and support to the fitness industry and to the public, whilst monitoring industry standards and registration processes.

Executive Director of Kinect Australia, Ian Kett has expressed concern regarding the roles and responsibilities of personal trainers, expressing the need for a tighter brief.

Mr Kett said short course vocational training, like the Certificate III in Fitness – Gym Instructor and the Certificate IV in Fitness – Personal Trainer, are “the entrance points to the fitness industry,” but admits that he questions the level of understanding and capacity to deliver knowledge in such a short space of time.

“There are issues regarding the quality and level of understanding and capacity of instructors that still need to be addressed properly,” he said.

Although a valuable work force is being created because of these fast tracked short fitness courses, Mr Kett believes it is also about “recognizing the limitations of training and competency and creating links (with medical practioners) to support those in the fitness industry”.

Further problems arise when personal trainers come across a client whose needs are different because they suffer from a medical condition.

Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science at the Australian Catholic University, Dr Vanessa Rice said the scope of practice needs to be defined for personal trainers in Australia.

“Personal trainers should work with healthy populations, those considered low risk. When you talk about disease you change the playing field. Individuals should then move to an allied health practitioner,” Dr Rice said.

Mr Kett describes three levels associated with training individuals, as being low, medium and high risk. Although the exact definition is in a “grey area”, Mr Kett said that a high-risk client is someone who has a “problem that would be exacerbated by exercise, whether that be a condition, injury or otherwise”.

“PTs are trained to provide training for those considered low risk in controlled settings. Other than that, they are outside their jurisdiction and should refer the matter on to an appropriate health professional,” he said.

Mr Kett recognizes that there are a lot of personal trainers don’t even have the base qualifications and still work with high risk clients.

The 2007/2008 National Health Survey indicated that 77% of the Australian population reported having at least one long-term medical condition with just over one in six people reporting a disability or long term restrictive condition. Of these, 27% had a significant core activity restriction.

Professor of Exercise Science at the University of South Australia, Dr Kevin Norton, believes that the Commonwealth Governments decision in 2006 to include university trained Exercise Physiologists under Medicare’s Allied Health Measure has gone a long way to improving the options for those high risk sufferers wanting to manage their condition through exercise.

Under the Measure those who suffer from chronic or complex illnesses are eligible for five sessions per annum with a qualified Exercise Physiologist under the Medicare rebate scheme.

A spokesperson for Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) and SMA appointed board member of Fitness Australia, Dr Norton believes that there are PT’s that fall through the cracks when it comes to being qualified.

“There is a need to clarify the roles of those (PT’s) with no university education… Anyone could and still can call themselves a personal trainer but if they want to claim through Medicare (for high risk) they have to be an accredited Exercise Physiologist,” he said.

As many gyms are now franchises, it is up to the individual clubs and club managers to set the bar regarding the qualifications and practices of their trainers.

Personal Training Manager at Fitness First in Richmond, Brendan Whelan said their trainers are put into three categories of competency: level one being those with less than 12 months experience and level two and above who are qualified to treat those that are high risk.

Mr Whelan said the gym qualifies its personal trainers through internal courses to double the industry standard required by the two main fitness bodies – Kinect Australia and Fitness Australia.

“Only experienced trainers are allowed to take on higher risk patients here,” Mr Whelan said.

Personal trainer at Geelong’s Gym, Danny Reeves also believes the current eight week courses offered by fitness course providers are no longer comprehensive but feels that personal trainers are not fully to blame when it comes to questionable practices.

Mr Reeves admitted that most PT’s would not pass on a client even if they are considered high risk because of the pressure from gyms to have as many clients as possible in order to pay the rent.

“Gyms now require PT’s to pay a percentage or standard rate per fortnight to work in their gyms,” he said.

Ms DiMonte (ReCreation Glen Iris) believes that “more screening at point of sale” may assist in ensuring that the correct advice is given to higher risk clients when providing fitness instruction.

“There is not one health club that is doing everything well 100%,” she said.

Whether or not the fitness industry should be regulated by the State or Federal Government to deal with these issues is up for contention.

“The fitness industry is one of the worst governed industries in business… with little policy in place to assist those with medical conditions,” Mr Spriet said.

Mr Kett said there is a need for legislation to support the training packages and codes of practice set down by course providers and industry bodies.

“(The Government) relies on the professionalism in the industry and good will.. There needs to be a stronger connection between all medical practitioners… with an emphasis on the promotion of education in the industry and in the public in general,” he said.

“The industry codes of practice are voluntary, and encourage industry to act responsibly,” he said.

Dr Vanessa Rice argues that the industry should be self regulated, but there should be “no potential for financial gain” by the two industry bodies (Kinect Australia and Fitness Australia) that are “controlling the market”.

Dr Rice believes that professional bodies and industry regulators should be “separate entities because the bodies have a vested financial interest in having a duopoly over the market”.

Mr Kett dismisses this allegation, saying that “Kinect Australia is a not for profit community organisation, and not about commercial gain.

“Kinect is about developing a system that has real value for the community…in absence of government funding,” he said.

Kinect Australia is looking to develop relationships with industry bodies including Diabetes Australia and Arthritis Victoria to expand programs for Personal Trainers to continue their education beyond current industry standards and educational frameworks and learn more about how to individually train each client to ensure the physical wellbeing of each Australian.

Natalie Marshall & Joel Carnegie

Students are encouraged to apply for this ongoing position of web and graphic designer.

“The role will be casual – and work will be given project by project (can expect consistent supply). Work to be completed from home, hence applicants will need to have own equipment, software etc.

Mix of work is likely to be 70% Web design, 30% Graphic Design.

Would suit a student nearing the end of their course, or someone who has recently graduated and is looking for work to build their portfolio.

We’re a young company, and are looking for someone who can grow with the business. Hence there may be opportunity for the role to become full time.

Please provide with your application copies of/links to examples of both Web Design & Graphic Design work completed. Applicants should have knowledge of building sites with CMS.”

Please visit the job advertisement on Gumtree to contact the advertiser and apply!

Kensington Neighbourhood House is looking for technology-savvy volunteers to help seniors build their computer skills.

“The Volunteer Computer Tutor position involves supporting seniors to gain confidence in their use of computers and also teaching them new skills. As people learn at different paces, may be apprehensive about computers or even have very little knowledge about them, Volunteer Computer Tutors will need to have the ability to adapt their teaching styles to suit individual learners.”

Visit the Job Details Page here to express your interest! It is a 25 minute drive from Swinburne, and remember that this is an opportunity to enhance your CV with media-related experience!

Google is closely watching its customers’ internet searches in order to maximise profits, according to new research.

Dr Vivienne Waller, a social researcher at Swinburne University, believes Google is targeting advertisements at internet users based on searches they’ve made.

“In order to sell you stuff, they are tracking what you are searching,” she told a journalism class last week.

If an internet user has Gmail, Google can see what has been written in e-mails, using this to target specific advertisements to users.

According to Dr Waller, Google once kept its customers’ search terms for two years but after pressure from lobbyists Google is only able to keep details for six months.

“If you have (a) Google toolbar no matter what browser it is, they can track what you’re doing,” she said.

Dr Waller said that 99 percent of Google’s revenue is made through advertisements.

Every Google product is a vehicle for target-advertising. This includes Buzz (Google’s new social networking site), Google Books, Google Talk, Google Street View and Google Wave.

Google claims to make the advertisements relevant to each customer to provide a better experience, however Dr Waller urges consumers to be cautious of the implications and risks.

“Google are doing well financially now but there are concerns that if they weren’t doing so well, what they would do with their information in their database,” she said.

Dr Waller believes that people need to be educated about internet advertisements just as people were educated about television advertisements.

It is “unprecedented, people need to be aware of it… advertisements are the funding model of Facebook and Google.”

“Google is about organising information that is useful for advertisers,” she said.

Dr Waller believes that libraries see Google as a threat to reference services because instead of approaching a librarian for help, people may be more inclined to research online.

“Although it may seem that they’re about the same thing… libraries are about organising information and Google is all about searching the needs of advertisers,” she said.

However some librarians believe Google aid what they do.

Dr Waller is currently working on a research project with colleague Ian McShane and in partnership with the Victorian State Library.

The Google search engine started in the late 1990s as a university project at Stanford University and began as a non-profit organisation.

In Australia, Google has more than 80 percent market share, beating America with 75 percent and United Kingdom at 70 percent.

Stephanie Bellassai

Motif is currently focussed on providing information about upcoming seminars, work and volunteering opportunities to help build your CV and showcases student work as it is received.

BUT!!! We’d like to know what students want to see more of! Help us provide you with the kind of information you’re interested in seeing so that we can shape the content to suit your needs!

Some ideas to start you off:

- More information on career paths in the media industry
- A broader range of student work on display aside from written pieces
- Help developing your own online presence (through blogs, personal websites, forums etc.)

We’d love as many responses as possible! Please post in the comment box below!

Visit http://tennisaustralia.bigredsky.com for a full list of positions for the Australian Open 2011!

Depressed, or just sad? It seems that our society may have an inflated case of the blues.

Karen Masman, author of the book ‘The Uses of Sadness’ has expressed the danger that can result from confusing depression with a period of sadness.

“Experiences of sadness that come and go are not medical conditions. Difficulty with misnaming them as depression is that it encourages us to look for a medical solution. Our society is over-medicalising this mood,” she said, “in our culture we seem to be afraid of sadness, and we don’t really have enough words to describe the whole range of experiences to this emotion. All too often we are left with one word: depression. In 2007, more than 12 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants in Australia.”

Masman contends that there are important flags that distinguish between sadness and depression, and that our society is blending the lines, leading us to “pathologise” this mood, “Depression is real, debilitating and serious… There are five primary markers of difference: functionality, interpretation of meaning, responsiveness, a feeling of overwhelm and other conditions like chronic illness that can accompany depression,” she said.

In 2008, Dr Irving Kirsch from the University of Hull in Great Britain and colleagues accessed all the trial data submitted by pharmaceutical companies to examine the effectiveness of anti-depressants. They found no clinically significant difference between placebo and drugs for all but the most severe cases. There was the same efficacy for drugs and placebo: 60 per cent of people will get better.

Kirsch’s research shows that within two years of ceasing anti-depressant medication, 80 per cent will have had a relapse. However, ten weeks of therapy with a professional, cuts relapse rates down to 25 per cent.

“Very practical actions and therapies can also make a big difference; things like meditation, yoga, attention to diet, sunlight and exercise, hobbies—attitude to life,” Masman said.

Jane Bennett, author of ‘The Pill: are you sure it’s for you?’ said that the issue extends into the effects of other medications, such as the contraceptive pill. “Research at the Alfred Hospital showed that almost 50 per cent of women had depressive symptoms, who had never had them before, because of the pill. It’s huge. And you’ve got to wonder, how many of those are on anti-depressants as well? It’s taking one medication to counter-act another,” she said.

Bennett said that the contraceptive pill is a unique drug, one in which, among other things, interferes with normal bodily receptors that allow us to track and regulate our mood and emotions. “Our hormones are incredibly finely-balanced. The pill effectively smashes our body’s warning lights with synthetic hormones,” she said, “my research has found that almost 90 per cent of Western women take the pill at some point in their life, and 80 per cent will have started taking it before the end of their teens. So if a woman at 30 has been taking it since she was 17, how will she know the difference between sadness and depression?”

It would seem that it is useful for our society to learn to distinguish between a case of the blues, and something more serious. “Rather than automatically assuming sadness means something is wrong, it is useful to get to know the landscape of melancholy,” Masman said, “a time of sadness offers a fruitful time for reassessing goals and habits, developing compassion and learning to embrace the contradictions of a rich inner-world.”

Perhaps, in many cases, doctors should write more prescriptions for boxes of tissues, scheduled down-time, therapeutic conversations and a brisk walk in the park.

Alice Masman

“In 2010 Express Media is giving young people, or people working with young people, the chance to apply to Write in Your Face, a program of support funded by the Literature Board of the Australia Council .

Express Media invites proposals from young writers who are using language in innovative ways. This may involve writing for zines, e-zines, comics, multimedia, multi-artforms or cross-media works, websites, live performance and spoken word. Collaborative and multimedia projects are encouraged.”

Write in Your Face offers grants of up to $5000 for people under 30 who have ideas or projects that need assistance to lift off the ground. Don’t be shy! Visit http://expressmedia.org.au/ for more information about this fantastic opportunity.

AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY MAKER Isabelle Abric has more than a decade of experience in United Nations peace-keeping missions; one could say there is not much she hasn’t accomplished.

Abric started filming bar-mitzvahs and weddings in New York City, later going on to work for the United Nations as a Video Producer, she has received accolades for excellence in her documentaries on human rights, she now is the Chief of Communications in Timor Leste who lecturers at Universities in her spare time.

Her illustrious career began with an internship for the UN in 1986; leading her to her first mission in Namibia as a Video Producer.

Namibia, at the time still racially segregated under the Apartheid, Abric says “It was magic, you rarely get to see a country gain its independence during the course of a mission, it can take a whole generation before it reaches international amnesty that experience was very special to me – plus it was my first mission”.

Travelling at the age of 17, from France the country of her birth, Abric completed her high school studies in Kingwood, Texas. She returned to Paris to complete her undergraduate degree in English with a minor in Journalism. It was not long before Abric returned to the United States, to undertake graduate studies in Media Research at City University of New York (CUNY).

In 1992 Abric’s mission took her to Cambodia, where she produced and directed the documentary ‘Fear and Hope in Cambodia’, narrated by British journalist William Shawcross.

She arrived in Somalia in 1994 shortly after the two US black hawk helicopters went missing, as the Chairperson for the (UNESCO) Committee for Peace campaign. Her mission the second of its kind to ascend on Somalia during the early 90s, Abric describes as “A very sad experience, everywhere you turned the population was dying of starvation”.

“It was also rather frustrating, we were living in a military compound guarded by rebels, paid to protect us, one moment peace would be negotiated and the next moment it would be all out war again”, Abric says.

Her mission in Somalia would see her losing contact with her crew, all albeit her camera man, “That was a little frightening”, Abric says “When we finally made it back to the airport my camera turned to me and said ‘I told you that I would get you out of here alive’.

And that he did, in 2001 Abric along with colleague Simone Di Bagno, completed the award winning documentary ‘A work in progress: Human Rights in Haiti’, following on from her mission in Haiti in 1990 in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The documentary won the Golden Award at the World Media Festival in Germany, the Silver plaque award at the Chicago International Film Festival, a certificate for Creative Excellence at the US International Film Festival and a finalist in the New York International Film Festival. The film was also offered a permanent place in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Broadcast and Communications in Chicago.
Abric later funded her own documentary in with long time friend George Clinton, the documentary titled ‘Funk, its alive’ was a feature length documentary on music and the icon that is George Clinton, the film looked at its socio-cultural impact on culture over the last 40 years.

Abric says “It is very difficult to fund your own documentaries with your own money, I have won the No Borders festival in New York twice”, the festival she goes to explain “Is an independent film festival in which you market your ideas for a documentary, if your successful the organisation sets you up with parties interested in funding your project”.

“Unfortunately each time I have won, before I could get my projects off the ground, I’ve been called out on a mission somewhere and the opportunity is lost”, Abric goes onto say.

In 2003 Abric was sent off to a mission in the Republic of Congo, based in the Ituri province, Abric witnessed firsthand the massacre and violence caused by the militia group, Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC).

‘We were forced to live in our office and eat military rations for weeks, it was all chicken halal, don’t speak to me about chicken halal I never want to think of it again’ Abric goes off on a digression of her own and I don’t dare to broach the subject any further. Abric is a very serious woman, who surprisingly for someone in her position has an incredible sense of humor.

On a more serious note she explains ‘The first person ever is now being tried for crimes against humanity”, she is referring to Thomas Lubanga head of the UPC. Lubanga is guilty for the massacre of thousands of Congolese people as well as trying to enlist young innocent children into his army.

During her time in Ituri, Abric also describes a friendship with a young boy “He had been orphaned as a consequence of the violence in the region, he was adopted by his aunt and uncle” Abric says, “We have kept in contact and is now training to become a mechanic”, she concludes.

Our conversation diverts for a moment to talk about technology and the impact of those
technologies on her career. “In my line of work, it’s all really a plus, I mean, the internet is great for communication purposes, then the technology of the computer programs also enhance what I do”, Abric says.

“Had it not been for the introduction of the radio lines in Ituri, that’s what essentially saved us and potentially many Congolese nationals, we were able to radio ahead for help”, Abric says.

Abric is currently based in Timor Leste and is the Deputy Chief of the Communication and Public Information Section. Their mandate Abric explains “Is to provide accurate and objective information to the Timorese people ….. and to build local media capacities”.

When asked if she had any advice for people wanting to enter her field of expertise Abric teases “Don’t do it”. “No seriously she says, it can be tough, I mean you can’t go out or anything in Timor to socialise, you spend most of your time with colleagues and you drive around in a car covered in flags, I mean you’re the UN”, she says.

Abric is currently lecturing at a local University on ethics in journalism. “So” I ask “If you didn’t have any financial constraints is this what you would be doing?”, “Absolutely, that and independent documentary making that is really where my passions lie” she says.

Deanne Mason

Nicole Brady (Photo - The Age)

Most people would perhaps see television as being completely separate from the arts industry – it is entertainment for the masses, rife with lifestyle shows teaching us how to transform our backyard/front yard/face/body/mind, and vote-via-SMS talent quests. I, however, watch and appreciate TV as art: done properly, a show can take you off your couch and into the office of one of New York’s most equally powerful and feared lawyers; into the deep south of Louisiana, where modern-day vampires are assimilating into society; or into the almost Seussian world of a pie maker who can bring the dead back to life with his touch, without consequence, for just 60 seconds. As both a craft and a multi-million dollar industry it is utterly fascinating, constantly evolving, and what I want to investigate and write about.

Nicole Brady was my obvious first choice to interview. As editor of the Green Guide, she sits in the chair I hope to one day occupy, and gave me an invaluable insight into television reporting culture. It was interesting to discover she started her career as journalist who just happens to write about television. After finding brief work at a newspaper while on holiday in the USA, she returned to Melbourne and applied for a cadetship with The Age. Four places were awarded, and Nicole was number 5. Still, she gained a cadetship at the Green Guide, where her sole responsibility was to write the TV listings. As monotonous as it was, it was not all that time-consuming, so Nicole easily found time to begin writing, and made the quick move to write articles for the Guide, and then made the transition to state politics.  She returned to the Guide in 2000, and in 2006 became editor.

A typical week at the Guide, Nicole tells me, is very organised, with cover stories and articles planned weeks in advance. As deadline for print is 10am Tuesday, the production week starts on Thursday (the day the Guide is published), where photos and stories are organised, and copy begins coming in for sub-editing and proofreading. By Monday and Tuesday – the ‘production days’ – Nicole will have proofs of each page of the Guide, fix any errors, re-write headlines or captions, and send it through for print.

The Green Guide is perhaps unlike other publications in Melbourne, in that the focus is clearly on the craft of television, and less on Logies frocks and Australian Idol exit interviews. This is Nicole’s intention: she sees television as holding a ‘mirror to society’, and wants to know exactly what it is about certain shows and genres that will create either a ratings hit, or leave them in a graveyard timeslot or worse – axed. In coming up with potential articles, Nicole says she has a lot of freedom to work from her own story ideas, but concedes that networks do constantly want publicity for their upcoming shows. Often ideas for cover stories or features are borne from what may be a broader issue within the industry: similarly, the sudden rise in popularity of a new show may provoke an investigation into a wider genre; she cites, for example, an up-coming edition whose cover story is an investigation of the cooking show genre, prompted by the recent success of TEN’s new show Master Chef.

Nicole remains pragmatic about the role the Green Guide plays, and is acutely aware of the two very different readerships: the industry and in the community. While on the one hand the Guide provides valuable feedback to – and PR for – networks in the form of reviews and feature articles, she is all to aware of the fact that by the afternoon, much of it is relegated to ‘fish and chip wrapping’; most people, she notes, want to read about the shows they are watching, so monitoring ratings and being aware of trends is key to hooking in a reader.

In looking to the future of the Green Guide, Nicole is visibly frustrated at Fairfax’s unwillingness to give her the freedom to bring the Guide into the digital age. There is evidently a big debate within the organisation about the role of online media. Nicole would ‘dearly’ love to start a Twitter account and break the Guide into the social media network, the fact remains that the Green Guide itself does not have an online equivalent, so tweeting articles, photos and links quickly becomes redundant.

I asked Nicole about career prospects within a publication such as the Green Guide or in TV journalism, and she told me quite matter-of-factly, that it’s tough, and limited. With the current economic climate, big organisations such as Fairfax are making staff redundant and minimising departments, so opportunities are slim to none. Coincidentally, Nicole began her career at The Age in the last recession, so her advice could not be more relevant. She told me to create my own opportunities, work for free as much as possible, and look to other sources for work, especially online and within production companies. She remains confident that TV as a medium is not dead, and that there is still – and will continue to be – a strong appetite for television. I suppose while that appetite is still there, there will always be the need for commentary, investigation and criticism of the craft and art of television.

Justin Hoffman