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Heywire: Drinking the substitute

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Heywire: Drinking the substitute

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  9–10


While working as a barmaid, Cara Ferguson formed strong views about alcohol.

Listen to her Heywire audio story and consider how she represents heavy drinking. Find out her attitude to the glamorisation of alcohol consumption and the downplaying of dangers associated with it. How does she maximise the impact of her views?

Could you write or record a similar story about yourself and/or your community?

The ABC's Heywire competition calls for stories from 16-22 year olds in regional Australia. Enter to get your story featured on the ABC and score an all-expenses-paid trip to the Heywire Regional Youth Summit in Canberra. More: https://www.abc.net.au/heywire/


Things to think about

  1. 1.How many songs can you think of that glamorise drinking alcohol, either in the lyrics or in the accompanying video clips? Who do you think is the biggest audience for such texts? Do you see a problem here?
  2. 2.At the beginning of her speech, how does Cara construct an image of alcohol as something seductive? How does this contrast with her observations in the pub? What are the 'shared experiences' of the pub community? What does Cara mean by 'every glass was taking away whatever it was supposed to bring back'? Why is Cara 'willing to sacrifice' family and friends?
  3. 3.Overall, how does Cara represent the issue of heavy drinking? What are her views on alcohol and its consumption? How are her choices of language and structure designed to promote this viewpoint?
  4. 4.There have been many government campaigns about the dangers of excessive drinking. Use the internet to locate some. Compare the representations of the issue in these different texts, recording your findings in a table. What similarities exist? How does a change in the intended audience alter the way the message is presented?



Date of broadcast: 31 May 2013


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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