proposal draft

Description of preliminary research
Initially, I was researching the History Wars and Keith Windshuttle. I began reading The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, volume one, Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847 by Keith Windshuttle, however, I found his work to be tedious and I quickly lost interest.
I quickly became stuck for an idea and briefly brainstormed topics such as Ghandi, feminism in Australia and Israel. Finally, I decided on the topic of East Timor, my preliminary research used sites such as Wikipedia and a minor section from Jose Horta’s funu . I quickly became interested in Australia's involvement in East Timor and its policy surrounding the situation, however, this idea was too broad and had to be narrowed down. With the help of Mrs Redman and Mr Wright, I narrowed my topic down to the Balibo five.
After watching the Balibo movie, I began to research into the situation East Timor was in prior to Indonesian invasion and differing sources concerning the Balibo five. Currently I am reading 'cover up' by Jill Jolliffe , who was a journalist reporting in East Timor and knew the 5 Australian journalists killed. She also worked on the set of the film to help make it as realistic as possible.
The Balibo movie website provides a section called film vs. reality, in this section it provides documents and reports regarding East Timor and the Australian journalists killed. From this, I have been able to read government letters between Jakarta and Canberra and information on significant figures in regards to the situation in East Timor.
Recently I read, Inquest into the death of Brian Raymond Peters' (section 8) - Magistrate Dorelle Pinch Coroner. This section states that the Australian government had intelligence about Indonesian plans to invade Balibo where the journalist were at the time and their slow response in making a guarantee of safety.

Enquiry questions
Originally being interested in Australia's policy and the publics reaction to the situation in East Timor 1975, I came up with the question: Investigate differing Australian perspectives in regards to the Australian Foreign Policy and the East Timor war. However, this focus question was too broad and covered a multitude to topics. Mr Wright suggested the question ‘Can the movie Balibo, be used as an historical text?’ This question intrigued me and after watching the movie, I began to understand the broadness of my previous topic and was able to focus further into the specifics of the topic. Questions that I want to focus in on are –
1. What was Australia’s Foreign Policy at the time of Indonesian Invasion?
2. What was the Whitlam’s government response? (The movie suggests the government doesn’t care about East Timor)
3. Indonesians reasons for invading East Timor?
4. What did the Balibo five and other news stations hope to achieve by going to East Timor? (Rogar East, those of the Balibo five and other journalists)

Research intentions in relation to areas/texts to examine
To evaluate whether the film can be used as an historical text, I need to continue researching the various opinions about East Timor and the Balibo five. I also need to take into account the perspective of the film and investigate previous and current Indonesian reactions to the situation. To begin I intend to read the book Shooting Balibo: blood and memory in East Timor by Tony Maniaty . I would also like to read Funu: The unfinished saga of East Timor by Jose Ramos-Horta. I also want to investigate if any of the footage the Australian journalists filmed made it back to Australia. As well I believe I should continue to use the Balibo movie and watch interviews with the cast and director of the film. I also intend to use the website the national archives of Australia .

Research intention in relation to methodology
My research project focuses on history in the media, in particular film. Through this investigation I need to be able to evaluate how well history is used in the media in relation to the Balibo five. This topic will most likely have me researching contrasting approaches to the historical event, to prevent bias and judge the reliability of the movie. I will continue using various texts and websites for research as well as investigating other ways in which modern media can approach this topic, such as podcasts and documentaries.