Journalism Blog By Robert Anderson

Gadaffi is dead and don't we know it!

2011-10-24T13:38:00.002-05:00

The death of Libyan dictator, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, has dominated recent news headlines and with good reason. The man himself has long held associations with the UK including funding of the IRA and suspected involvement in the Lockerbie Bombings. Our more recent relations with him have varied from a friendship formed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, to this year partaking in a sustained military bombing campaign following Gadaffi's brutal crack down on Libyan Rebels.

Pictures of Gadaffi's blooded face and corpse have made the front pages of almost every newspaper and news website, along with various videos of his final moments. There seems to be a willingness to show the gory details of the Libyan dictator's death, more than any individual ever before.

Part of the reason for this may be an argument for the burden of proof and there is no better way to prove someone's death than a picture of their corpse. But the gory content still being displayed on various news websites now seems to go beyond proving Gadaffi's death to the point of embedding the event into our memory.

A simple conclusion is that more visual media of the Libyan dictator's capture and death has been created and shared than similar events previously, reflecting technological developments in communication and camera technology in recent years. The now worldwide use of mobile phones with integrated cameras and video recording , along with mobile and high speed internet connections has made it easier than ever to share this type of media across the globe. Meaning we are only likely to see more of it in the future.

BlackBerry Blackout ends, but is it too late?

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

It is finally a return to normal service for millions of Blackberry customers worldwide today after technical problems downed the Blackberry messenger and email services. The problems, which began at 11am on Monday morning, were due to an apparent 'core switch failure'. RIM founder and CO-CEO Mike Lazaridis apologised on YouTube earlier for the on going issues but has the damage been done?

As a BlackBerry owner (who's contract is coming to an end in a few months) these problems have made me think twice about opting for another BlackBerry smartphone. I do not think it would be unfair to assert that the only things BlackBerry phones have going for them at the moment are the encrypted email and BBM services. In terms of applications RIM devices fall short of their Android and Apple competitors and they offer very little on the innovation front.

I have experienced problems with my own phone, the BlackBerry Storm 2 model, since I first purchased it. Issues include screen freezing, slow internet browser, an often unresponsive touch screen, short battery life and lack of OS updates. However, despite these issues I appreciated the email and BBM services as an effective means of managing correspondence and staying in contact with friends.

Had the technical issues RIM were experiencing been resolved after a day perhaps customers would be more forgiving. But for the many BlackBerry users who have had their work and communications disrupted by these issues the damage may already have been done.

Google+ Falling Short

2011-10-09T06:47:00.000-05:00

Google's venture into the world of social networking has so far failed to make its mark with 60% of users logging off.

The most obvious reason for this is the competition, which comes in the form of social networking behemoth Facebook. From my personal perspective I have yet to find any reason to dump my Facebook account in favour of a Google+ account. The problem is that Google+, whilst offering some innovation in the form of sharing circles and hangouts, is not significantly different enough to encourage the majority of people to use it. As many now already have an established Facebook account with a large group of friends they are unlikely to want to repeat the process again, or lose contact with the friends they have built up from first starting their account.

If anyone has the internet muscle to topple Facebook it is Google, but unless a new innovative method of social networking is offered, Google+ is unlikely to be anything more than a side network to Facebook.

Bad news, Bad mood?

2011-10-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

With the Drudge report tonight leading with a gloomy Telegraph View piece titled "An entire system of global trade is at risk" and constant reminders of the Eurozone crisis on the news it is all too easy to feel to feel bleak about the future. Escaping from negative financial headlines is almost impossible with job cuts, the Eurozone crisis and the government's austerity measures an everyday feature of news broadcasts.

But is such constant bad news good for us?

In the case of the Eurozone crisis, refusing to take the prospect of a looming recession seriously would no doubt be a mistake. But at the same time constantly hammering negative financial headlines into a public, of which the vast majority have no decision making power regarding this crisis is unlikely to have a positive impact.

Previous studies into the effects of news on the mood have found that newscasts increase anxiety and total mood disturbance. Although it is clear that more research is needed in this area, it does raise questions as to the psychological power of news broadcasts.

This is not to say that negative news shouldn't be reported by any means, but that we should be more aware of the impact news broadcasts can have on us as individuals.

Youtube Movie Rentals

2011-10-07T13:06:00.002-05:00

YouTube today announced the release of it's movie rental service in the UK following successful launches in Canada and the US. Available titles include the Dark Knight and Children of Men with prices ranging from £2.49 to £3.49 for a 48 hour rental period.

Obvious advantages of the rental service include ease of access, with the user not even having to leave their house, and no scratched or damaged disks ruining film watching. There is also nothing to download, meaning you can watch instantly, as the service streams the content to you over the internet like any other YouTube video.

However, it is unlikely to offer the majority of consumers the same quality viewing experience as a DVD or Blueray rental unless you happen to have an internet TV. Your ability to watch the films depends on your internet connection, meaning those with unreliable or slow connections are unlikely to be able to make much use of it. For those wanting to watch films in HD, high definition streams are available at a higher price (, but this will obviously place more strain upon your connection.

Being limited to streams means that YouTube movies offers less rental options than Amazon's LOVEFiLM, which boasts streams as well as the more traditional DVD and Blueray rentals. But it does have the potential of being a very unique entertainment experience, merging popular films with extras from YouTube's huge library of clips.

Overall I consider the release of the Youtube movie rental service to be a good thing. It offers us as consumers more rental options and is likely to become more popular in the future as Internet TVs become more common.

Codes Of Practice

2010-12-15T07:51:00.000-06:00

Codes of practice are used to guide journalists through ethical issues and set limits on how far we can go to obtain a story, effectively highlighting what practices are legitimate.There are two main codes of practice in the UK for journalism and these are regulated by the Press Complaints Commision for printed publications and Ofcom for broadcasts.

The Press Complaints Commision was established in the 1980s after a number of publications were deemed to be failing to observe the basic ethics of journalism. Up until this point the press in the UK had been subject to the self regulation of the voluntary Press Council which had been established in 1953. Parliament decided that the council was no longer effective enough in regulating the press with some members considering the enacting of privacy laws and the setting up of a statutory press council with legal powers. A committee was established under David Calcutt QC to decide the best course of action, from this a report was published in 1990 suggesting the replacing of the Press Council with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

The Press Complaints Commission is self regulated and possesses no legal powers leading some people to describe it as a toothless tiger. The key areas the PCC code focuses on are;

Ethical Behaviour
Fair Treatment
Respect for Privacy
Requirements for accuracy and impartiality
Protecting vulnerable groups in society (such a children)

Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communication industries, it operates under the Communications Act 2003. Unlike the PCC, Ofcom possesses real statutory powers, meaning it can fine broadcasters and even revoke broadcasting licenses. In recent years there have been several high profile cases where Ofcom has used it's statutory powers to punish broadcasters. Unlike newspapers, broadcasters are required to be impartial with an absence of bias or preconception and to consider the axis of debate. This means newspapers can actively support a political party, as The Sun did when it announced support for the Conservative party before the last election, but a broadcaster cannot.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2661063/The-Sun-Says-Labours-lost-it.html

The phone in fixing scandal of 2007 came about after it was discovered that the two major UK broadcasters the BBC and ITV had deceived viewers by fixing premium rate phone in competitions and ignoring large numbers of phone in votes. This led to hefty fines being imposed on both broadcasters with ITV fined £5.67 million and the BBC £400,000

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2007/10/19/ant-and-dec-phone-in-rip-off-scandal-115875-19975576/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1938924/Ant-and-Dec-wrongly-given-award-in-ITV-fix-scandal.html

Confidentiality

2010-12-15T07:45:00.000-06:00

The law of confidence is used to safeguard information obtained in confidential circumstances, this can either be between private individuals or a company and its employees. When considering confidence there are three areas of concern for journalists these are revealing state or official secrets, revealing commercial secrets and revealing facts about a person they would have expected to remain private.

The official secrets act protects state secrets be they military or intelligence.It is important to be careful when dealing with official secrets as inadvertent breaches can be possible by publishing photos of, or filming at sensitive military installations. The act is very rarely used as juries have proven to be reluctant to convict whistle-blowers.

In the Ponting case of 1985, Clive Ponting a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence admitted revealing information regarding the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the Falklands War. The documents he sent showed that the cruiser was attacked a day earlier than stated, outside the military exclusion zone around the Falkland Islands and whilst steaming away from the Royal Navy task force. Ponting admitted revealing the information and was charged with a criminal offence but was acquitted by the jury who believed the information he revealed was in the public interest. This was despite the judge's direction that "the public interest is what the government of the day says it is"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/216868.stm

Commercial confidentiality is usually protected by the an employees contract of employment and is used to make sure staff won't do thing detrimental to their employers interests, such as reveal financial information helpful to competitors.

When dealing with newsworthy confidential information a journalist has two options, they can either risk an injunction by seeking a response from the information's owner, or publish the material and take the risk of legal action for breach of confidence or defamation if the information is deemed inaccurate. The most obvious defence for publishing confidential information is that you are doing so in the public interest, however this defence is unlikely to succeed in matters regarding information about individuals private lives. In 2008 the High Court ruled that the News of the World had breached FIA president Max Mosley's privacy after the paper published a story based on a secret video filmed of Mosley taking part in a sado-masochistic orgy. The paper claimed the orgy was Nazi themed and that it mocked victims of the holocaust, publishing both pictures and sections of video on its website. Mr Justice Eady deemed that there was no evidence suggesting that the orgy was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes and that there was no public interest or justification for the News of the World's actions. The paper was fined £850, 000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7523034.stm

The Freedom of Information Act

2010-11-21T13:20:00.001-06:00

The Freedom of Information (FOI) act was drafted in labours 1997 manifesto which led the party to power that year. However, the act did not come into force until 2005. The act covers 13000 public bodies and information from these bodies can be requested by anyone. All information is covered by the act unless there is a valid reason for refusal.

Limitations on requests include cost (providing the information cannot cost more than £600 or £450 for smaller bodies) or if the public body claims that it plans to release the information requested in the future. There are also exemptions which come in two forms;

Absolute, which relates to matters of national security and court records and cannot be refuted,
Qualified, which relates to minister communications and can be refuted.

If your request is refused you have the option of asking for an internal review within the public body to decide if it can be released, if they still say no the next step is to appeal to the information commissioner, and then an information tribunal and finally the high court. Some politicians claim that FOI has had a chilling effect on their communications and decisions, suggesting that very little is now written down and documented through fear that it may come back to haunt those involved later on. In an interview with Andrew Marr, Tony Blair described his regret at introducing the freedom of information act (13:18 minutes in).

When choosing a question to ask a public body precision is key, questions which are too broad are likely to be refused due to cost. In addition it is important to consider whether or not the information is already available as some public bodies release statistics and figures periodically. It is also important to be persistent, the majority of requests when initially refused are given up on, if you deem the information you are requesting important enough then take the time to request an internal review and continue to the information commissioner and beyond if refused from there. It was only through persistence all the way to the High Court that the MPs expenses scandal was revealed by the telegraph.

http://parliament.telegraph.co.uk/mpsexpenses/home

There is an online database of freedom of information requests found at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/?gclid=CM_Ry7XzsaUCFUxO4Qodui24Yw

Copyright

2010-11-21T13:05:00.000-06:00

Breach or infringement of copyright 'is making beneficial use or exploiting someone else's intellectual work without permission. Copyright is important to journalists because without copyright protection journalism would never have flourished. Exclusivity is what gives our product value, as without it all newspapers and news broadcasters would essentially be able to copy each others material.

So what is considered intellectual property?

Books
Films
Music
Photographs
Almost everything that is the product of original work

It is important to respect copyright as failing to do so can be costly as well as damaging to your journalistic reputation for competence. In addition it is important for a journalist to realise the difference between copyright infringement and what is known as 'fair dealing'.

Fair dealing is a term used to describe the lifting of stories from rivals in the news industry. It is common for one newspaper to get an exclusive and the others to lift the story to cover it themselves while referring to the original article. In lifting the article the newspaper must attribute it to the original owner of the story, do so in the public interest and use it fairly. The application of fair dealing effectively allows wider reporting of stories in the public interest, the criticism and review of copyrighted material and the broadcast of news obits of film clips. However photos are never subject to fair dealing, with some news websites going to great lengths to protect them http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327151/Elena-Chiritescu-The-10-year-old-baby-13-year-old-cousin.html

The rise of the internet has made the protection of intellectual property all the more difficult. Internet users have a whole variety of copyrighted material available at their finger tips and can very easily infringe copyright without the owner even knowing it has occurred. Sites such as Youtube and Facebook can be considered a risky area when it comes to copyright and are used for material at a journalists own risk. The music industry has been fighting copyright infringement on the internet for years with limited success. There are currently millions of tracks available for free to those who are willing to breach copyright.

Some of the more high profile cases of copyright infringement on the internet in recent years have against the Pirate Bay founders. The Pirate Bay is what is known as a Bit Torrent sharing site where the owners do not actually host copyrighted material but instead provide links between users computers where copyright material can be downloaded. The Bit Torrent system adds a great deal of complexity to copyright as it can be hard to tell who can be blamed for the breach in copyright.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8003799.stm

http://www.p2p-weblog.com/50226711/the_pirate_bay_goes_to_jail.php

Overall it is important for a journalist to consider the copyright issues they may have in advance. Bear in mind that if material is needed from an outside source contacting the copyright holders will take time, inform others if you have copyright clearance for material and never lift material without referencing the source.

Privacy

2010-11-21T11:43:00.000-06:00

Every county and every citizen of the EU has a right to privacy, as protected by section eight of the human right act. For any journalist privacy is an important consideration when publishing an article about an individual, particularly a celebrity. When considering whether or not a person's privacy has been breached consent is extremely important. As an example this article posted about Wayne Rooney on the Sun website a few weeks ago regarding his private life is a clear breach of Rooney's privacy unless he gave consent.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3199870/Coleen-Rooney-says-she-and-hubby-Wayne-Rooney-are-fine.html

It is important to remember that consent applies to all aspects of journalism including the written word, video and photography. When videoing or photographing someone consent must be given whether it is explicit or implied. Explicit consent is when the person gives consent in a physical form (e.g. signs a consent form giving you permission to film them), an example of this being the Catherine Zeta Jones/Michael Douglas saga with Hello! and OK! magazines. In this example the couple had given exclusive rights to OK! magazine to publicize photos from their wedding in a one million pound deal and had gone to great lengths to make sure these were the only photos released. However, somehow a member of the paparazzi had managed to sneak into the wedding dressed in a tuxedo with his girlfriend on his arm and managed to take some photos, six of which appeared in Hello! magazine. The resulting trial led to Hello! having to pay over one million pounds in damages

http://privacydataprotection.co.uk/journal/articles/catherine_zeta_jones_v_hello/

Implicit consent is when a person knows they are being filmed or photographed and does not appear to object (e.g. by waving at the camera). It is always more legally sound to gain explicit consent than assume implicit consent, however, using consent forms can be time consuming particularly when photographing or filming a large amount of people.

Privilege

2010-11-21T11:41:00.000-06:00

Privilege essentialy allows journalists to write or broadcast material which may be defamatory or untrue and provides protection from being sued. There are two types of privilege absolute privilege and qualified privilege. A journalist is considered to have qualified privilege provided their reports are fair, accurate, without malice and deal with a matter of public concern. Absolute privilege is immune from any defamation action regardless of the words being true or false and is given to Members of Parliament when they are speaking in the House of Commons. It is important for a journalist to remember that although what is said in parliament may be protected by absolute privilege their report on the matter does not yield the same level of protection. The only time a journalist will enjoy absolute privilege is in reporting court cases or certain types of tribunals. However, this is under the condition that their report of judicial proceedings is accurate and published contemporaneously.

Statements that qualify for qualified privilege without explanation or contradiction are as follows:

Fair and accurate reports of public proceedings of legislatures, courts, government appointed public inquiries, international organisations/conferences anywhere in the world.
A fair and accurate copy of or extract from any register or other document required by law to be open to public inspection.
A notice or advertisement published by or on the authority of a court, or of a judge or officer of a court, anywhere in the world.
A fair and accurate copy of or extract from matter published by or on the authority of a government or legislature or by an international organisation or an international conference anywhere in the world.

http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/right-of-free-expression/defamation/qualified-privilege.html

The Clegg Case is a prime example of a newspaper being protected by qualified privilege when reporting a public meeting. The libel claim was made when the Sunday Times reported a claim in a public meeting that a firm of solicitors (Mccartan Turkington Breen) were prosecuting Clegg (a soldier accused of shooting innocent youths) in order to further the aims of the IRA and were in effect 'helping terrorism'. When these allegations were reported the lawyers sued for libel and won £145, 000 in damages, but the paper appealed and the decision was overturned (2000). The judges deemed that it was in the public interest that these allegations were made and discussed so long as the lawyers' own denials were properly reported.

http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=228
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/954759.stm

Defamation

2010-11-21T10:54:00.000-06:00

One of the most common risks a journalist takes in writing an article is defaming an individual. When a person considers themselves defamed they have the right to claim compensation under civil law. There are two types of defamation slander and libel, slander deals with the spoken word and libel with the written word. A person can be considered defamed if what is written about them 'tends to';

Lower them in estimation of right thinking people.
Causes them to be shunned or avoided.
Disparages them in their business trade or profession.
Exposes them to hatred ridicule or contempt.

The UK holds some of the most strict libel laws in the world which has given rise to what some describe as 'libel tourism'. Due to our harsh libel laws the UK is the first choice for rich foreigners wishing to claim libel charges as they know they are likely to win their claim. On a basic level libel can be considered to have occurred if there is publication+defamation+identification. Generally speaking the best way for a journalist to prevent libel charges against them is to recognise potential risks when publishing an article. These include considering who they are writing about and whether or not they could sue, whether what they are writing is potentially defamatory, if they have a defence and asking for legal advice before publishing should they be in any doubt. Should libel charges be made there are several defences that can be used;

Justification, the accusation is true and can be proved in court.
Fair comment, honestly held opinion based upon fact, or privileged material in the public interest.
Absolute privilege, only applied when reporting something said in court.
Qualified privilege, only applied when reporting press conferences, police statements etc.
Reynolds Defence, material must be in the public interest and the product of responsible journalism.
Apologies and Clarifications, can be used if accepted by the claimant.

Even online articles such as this blog are subject to libel law, journalists must use the same degree of care when publishing internet articles to printed ones. Recently there have been calls for UK libel law to be modernised in response to the rise of the internet. A petition addressed to David Cameron and signed by Yahoo, AOL UK, Mumsnet and the Internet Service Providers Association claims that;

"The English law of defamation is having a disproportionate, chilling effect on online writers, e-communities and web hosts: the libel laws have not been updated to address the rise of online publication. The current multiple publication rule, dating back to 1849, defines every download as a publication and a potential new cause of action,"

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/yahoo-and-aol-uk-join-petition-to-modernise-uk-libel-law/s2/a541589/

It is important to note that defamation is not only limited to words but can also be applied to pictures in what is described as juxtaposition. When including pictures with articles or in the case of video using a voice over with general view shots it is important that people or companies are not wrongly identified in certain contexts (e.g. fraud, child abuse).

Some amusing examples of juxtaposition.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/6375398/Unfortunate-juxtapositions-people-photographed-near-amusing-signs.html?image=3

Crime and the Courts

2010-11-21T09:46:00.001-06:00

When reporting crime there are several things that a journalist needs to consider, the most important of which being whether or not a criminal case is legally active. If you are ever in doubt as to when a case is considered active or not it is best to seek legal advice or you risk contempt of court.

A case can be considered active when;

An arrest is made.
An arrest warrant is issued.
There has been a magistrates summons.
A person is charged.

When a person is arrested in the UK the police have 24 hours to question them unless in special circumstances (e.g. when dealing with terrorism suspects). The case will remain active while a suspect is on bail and cannot be considered inactive unless the bail ends without arrest or charge. If an individual or individuals are to be charged and go to trial their is a limit on what information can be reported about them. Pre-trial reports can include:

The defendant (s) their age, address and occupations.
Charges faced or a close summary.
Name of the court and magistrates names.
Name of solicitors or barristers present.
Date and place of the case.
Arrangements as to bail.
Whether legal aid was granted.

Crimes are dealt with in different courts depending upon the nature of the crime. 95 percent of cases are dealt with by a magistrates court where they are heard by a panel of three magistrates. Magistrates courts are only allowed to order prison sentences of up to six months or fines of up to £5000, if a more severe sentence is deemed necessary by the magistrates they can refer the case to Crown court. In Crown court more serious criminal cases are dealt with, including murder, rape or robbery and sentencing usually exceeds five years. If a person is convicted they can appeal to the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court.

When court reporting a journalist wields qualified privilege, meaning they can safely report on anything said in court while the jury is present provided the report is fast, accurate and fair and published as soon as possible (e.g. in the next edition of the newspaper).

Journalism Year 3 : Return of the Law

2010-10-31T12:41:00.002-05:00

So my third year of journalism has begun and due to changes in the course structure since first year we are redoing Media Law. Due so an issue accessing my blogger account I have up until now been unable to update my blog, so the first few weeks of media law will be submitted in bulk. Due to some changes in UK law over the last two years I am not expecting the module to be exactly the same, a notion that will hopefully justify the £20 I just spent on the latest copy of McNae's Essential Law for Journalists. Our first lecture was a general outline of the module to come including it's assesment which includes this blog and an exam later in the year. It also included descriptions of criminal and civil law and generally served as a reminder of our first year module.

The differences between civil and criminal law are not clear cut and can often be confusing. At their most basic levels a civil offence can be described as a wrong against an individual, where as a criminal offence can be described as a wrong against the community. However, what offences constitute civil and criminal law is not always so simple, it can be argued that crimes such as rape are equally offences against an individual as they are to the community. Whether or not an offence is civil or criminal has ultimately been decided by the courts and parliament over the years and does not necessarily reflect how serious the offence is. In the early days of English Law murder was considered a civil matter resolved by a compensation payment equal to the victims value (family wealth) rather than the prison sentence of modern times.

Hayek vs Keynes

2010-05-28T06:41:00.001-05:00

Friedrich Hayek and John Keynes were two 20th century economists with very different views on government intervention in the economy.

On the one hand Keynes believed that government intervention was the key to economic growth. Previously in the United States money was considered a commodity, which could be exchanged for it's equivalent value in gold or silver. The problem with this was that it meant the printing of money had to be tied to the supply of gold or silver, limiting the amount that could be printed. Keynes believed that economic growth could only continue if this system was scrapped so there was no limit on the amount of money that could be printed. Keynes proposed that the government employ the unemployed with menial tasks or supply them with benefits and print more money to pay them. With these wages or benefits the workers would be able to buy goods or services boosting economic growth and allowing more workers to be employed, in what is essentially a multiplier effect. However the problem with printing more money is that it decreases its value and boosts inflation, meaning the price of goods will go up. Keynes believed this wasn't a problem and even more money could be printed, but many disagreed.

Hayek disliked government intervention and was a passionate critic of socialism. He believed individuals should be able to make their own minds up regarding the economy without government interference. Hayek disagreed with Keynes’ ideas including the concept of printing more money, believing that it would result in hyperinflation and the eventual collapse of the economy.

A morning in Borough Green with the Labour party

2010-05-26T07:56:00.001-05:00

The morning is sunny but with a sky dotted with small clouds. As I stand at the front window of my house waiting for Jim Parish, assistant to Daniel Griffiths, to turn up I find myself contemplating what I will be greeted with when I arrive in Borough Green.

I had arranged two days previously to join the Tonbridge and Malling constituency Labour Party in a leaflet distribution operation at Borough Green. I was sceptical about the wisdom of this decision by the party, mainly because they were planning to do so at nine in the morning on a Saturday, a time which I imagined most people would either be hung-over after a Friday night or relaxing with a lie in after a hard weeks work.

Almost dead on time Jim Parish’s car pulls up and I immediately move out to greet him. As I open the car door I thank Jim for allowing me to join the party for a day of campaigning. He is old enough to be my granddad but I appreciate his frank words and find him easy to talk to. Our conversation on the half an hour journey consists mostly of politics. When I bring up Nick Clegg he becomes visibly animated and we have an extensive conversation regarding Clegg’s chances and the T.V debates. He tells me how the local Liberal Democrats had been saying a vote for labour was a wasted vote and that Labour voters should vote Lib Dem instead and also admits that “realistically the lib dems could overtake us”. Whilst having this conversation we take a wrong turn and then another and I become somewhat disheartened when I notice the Dartford Bridge on the horizon in front of us. I decide to cease the conversation so as to not distract him further, and we arrive in Borough Green nearly half an hour late.

Surprisingly as we park outside the village hall no other Labour Campaigners including the candidate Daniel Griffiths have arrived yet. It is very good weather and both myself and Jim put our sunglasses on. As he opens the boot of his car to take out the Labour leaflets I notice the similarity in our appearances. Namely that we are both wearing blue jeans, grey long sleeved t shirts with rolled up sleeves and sunglasses. The thought crosses my mind as to whether people will think I am his son who has been dragged out onto the campaign trail to help him. As we make our way onto Borough Green High Street I am surprised by the amount of people around as well as the amount of traffic. The high street itself is relatively small with a few shops including a green grocer which features a sign with the word spinach misspelt. Cars constantly move past the town clearly suffering from a congestion problem.

I stand with Jim for a while chatting and making notes when all of a sudden I hear a loud speaker in the distance “Good morning I’m Daniel Griffiths your Labour party candidate asking for your vote”. I sight the source of the sound coming down the high street, it is a white van with red labour banners both sides and a megaphone wrapped round the driver’s side wing mirror. As cheesy as it is, seeing the van puts a smile on my face especially as I exam the reactions of the people on the high street, small children stare in amazement, one old woman seems a bit shocked and a middle aged man swears at the van and tells Daniel to shut up. I see the van drive up and down the high street two or three times before eventually it pulls into the car park.

I sit on a bench on the high street continuing my notes when a dark figure appears in front of me and greets me, I know before I even look up that it is Daniel Griffiths. I shake his hand and say “pleased to meet you“ his face appears physically tired with darkened eyes and he seems slightly nervous, as his mouth moves to smile I can’t help but notice the blood red gums over his front teeth. He appears somewhat out of place on the high street of Borough Green or anywhere on a hot day like today, wearing a black suit with black polo shirt, brown shoes and most strangely of all red and black striped Dennis the Menace style socks. As he moves away to hand out leaflets two thoughts cross my mind. First, how much he is going to be sweating under that suit, second, whether or not he deliberately wore the socks or was just so tired he didn’t realise.

He begins handing out leaflets somewhat slowly at first but eventually picks up the pace. His most vocal opposition are old women, the majority of which refuse a leaflet saying “wrong one” or something similar. I cross the road to talk to Daniel as he is handing out leaflets and we have an extensive conversation, among the questions I ask him are whether or not having a listed address outside the constituency would affect his vote. He says it won’t because he knows the area well and has spent a lot of time here. I can’t help but think it will. As we continue talking I keep wondering whether I should stop distracting him so he can continue handing out leaflets. However, I soon realise that me standing with him taking notes makes him seem important and actually appeared to be making it easier for him to hand them out to people who are walking past us. It is no secret that Daniel is an ex journalist and I often feel in our conversation that he is being careful what he says to me. I ask him if he thinks the recent rise in the popularity of Nick Clegg will affect the Tonbridge and Malling seat. He insists that it won’t here but may do in other constituencies.

The time is now eleven o’clock, two hours after we were supposed to have started but there are only three labour party members campaigning and one of them is the candidate! Jim earlier explained to me that local support for the Labour party actually waned when Tony Blair came into power, one of its losses being his wife. At this point I cannot help but feel a bit sympathetic to their cause, realistically they all must realise that Labour are not going to win the Tonbridge and Malling constituency but still they’ve soldiered out on a Saturday morning to campaign.

As the mornings campaigning ends we depart to a pub. I am tempted to buy a pint of lager but fear being judged as some sort of alcoholic so just ask for a glass of coca cola, which Jim kindly insists he pay for. I soon find myself regretting my decision as Jim buys himself a glass of wine. We sit in the pub garden and watch a wedding taking place at the Church next door, many of the guests from which are sat in the pub garden around us, the sun is shining and the scene seems almost idyllic. Jim and the other campaigner sit opposite each other and share war stories. Daniel arrives about half an hour later and we sit having a general chat. I feel a little out of place but sit listening to the conversation, which Daniel insists “off the record”. After another half an hour we move to leave, I shake everyone’s hand and wish them good luck with the election. My final opinion of Daniel has somewhat changed since first meeting him and I find myself appreciating his optimistic charm despite the odds he is facing.

As I am dropped off back home I say my goodbyes to Jim and thank him for his help. I walk towards my front door and something Daniel said earlier comes into my head “The conservative party has been in power here 37 years, that’s longer than I’ve been alive”. I think to myself Daniel will probably be dead before the Tonbridge and Malling constituency is in Labour’s hands.

Drugs, Alcohol, Violence and Insanity.... it's the New Journalism!

2010-04-02T11:35:00.003-05:00

New journalism or 'gonzo' journalism is a style of news writing and journalism founded in the 1960s and 70s. Gonzo journalism abandons any concept of being objective, fair or balanced and argues that objectivity gets in the way of the truth. It was shaped by figures such as Tom wolf and Hunter S Thomson who were unquestionably influenced by the drugs culture of the time. Thomson’s most renowned work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas describes two drug fuelled trips to Las Vegas in which the characters abandon their work to experiment with recreational drugs including LSD and mescaline.

The drug LSD was a big influence on new journalism and essentially fitted the gonzo style of making boring things interesting and interesting things boring. Among the themes commonly adopted in writing gonzo articles were radical causes such as feminism, black power, anti Vietnam War and popular existentialism, matching the radicalism of society at the time.

New journalism led to the adoption of several terms including 'radical chic' a negative term coined by Tom Wolf to describe the adoption of radical causes purely for personal appearances. An example of this being Leonard Bernstein's party for the Black Panther terrorist group that Wolf considered to be purely for social appearances rather than political protest

Naturally gonzo journalism has made the transition into television and documentaries. Rather than focusing on observing what is happening, gonzo documentaries tend to focus upon the journalist involved and his/her experiences of what is happening. Thus you are likely to see the journalist on camera very regularly. Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter of opinion, on the one hand in can be very entertaining but on the other it tends to edge away from the facts and reality of a situation. An example of a recent gonzo film/documentary is Morgan Spurlock's 'Super Size Me' in which Spurlock is filmed eating nothing but Mcdonalds for 30 days.

Among the characteristics adopted in the written new journalism are realistic phonetic dialogue, painting with words (large amounts of detail), and use of the third person to describe what is happening. This style of journalism can ultimately be considered performance journalism with an emphasis on the writer’s thoughts and experiences. It would not be so outlandish to imagine a journalist taking part in an execution in the future just to describe it in a gonzo journalism article or show it as part of a gonzo documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvysld2F_nE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxdvrHzWR2g

The Century of the Self

2010-04-02T11:28:00.001-05:00

The week after our Reich lecture we watched an episode of the British documentary series the Century of the Self created by Adam Curtis. The documentary covered much of what we already knew about Reich his opposition to Freud and the student protests of the 60s but helped to cement the knowledge and built upon the facts with more detail.

Seeing people gather in large groups lying on the floor to reinvent themselves was a particularly bizarre section. I could not help but think of all the modern day workshops and tutorials designed to boost confidence and self help with key words and strange exercises, and wondered if that entire industry could be linked back to Reich in some indirect way.

What was most interesting to me is that in pursuit of freeing themselves people abandoned their political ideals and instead focused entirely on freeing and recreating themselves. Although this initially seemed good the end result was that people were encouraged to think about themselves as their highest duty, thus creating a far more selfish mindset than what existed before. In addition despite this apparent 'new freedom' it did not take long for the advertisers to come up with a new strategy to manipulate the masses with new slogans and more defining clothes. They began to sell their products as objects that allowed people to change themselves and the masses once again bought into it and still do to this day. People were also once again manipulated by the state with President Reagan's election strategy of 'let the people rule' clearly designed to appeal to the new group of inner directed people (defined by the choices they made). Ultimately it would seem that in the pursuit of freedom from manipulation and control the only reinvention people found was a greater sense of self interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0g1RUQMVQ

Orgasms: The key to happiness!

2010-03-16T15:54:00.002-05:00

Wilhelm Reich was a 20th century psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Reich was closely associated with Freud and a member of his inner circle, they shared the same belief in the primitive urges within humans but differed in the way in which they believed they should be dealt with.

Whereas Freud believed these primitive sexual urges should be suppressed Reich believed the urges were good and should be embraced otherwise bad things would happen. Reich argued that in the age of psychoanalysis he was living the body was being ignored in favour of the mind and this led to negative consequences, as ignoring the body meant we were sexually repressed. His theory focused on one central idea, the orgasm, and elevated it to a universal principle. Behind this was the idea of orgiastic potency, the ability to surrender to the flow and enjoy an orgasm. His sessions broke many of the taboos of psychoanalysis treating patients in their underwear and touching them during sessions.

Reich believed there were three layers of the human mind, similar to Freud's concept of the ego, superego and id. The first layer is the surface which is our every day socially acceptable form and is usually polite, compassionate and responsible. The second level is similar to what Freud as the "unconscious" and is cruel sadistic and rapacious. The third and final level going is the biological core which Reich believed was instinctively good, he argued that if people could get past the second level to the third the world would be a better place

In his book 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism" Reich set to answer the question as to why people supported the Nazis. He focused on the lower middle class and blamed their support on a strong paternal authority in family life (the father) which led to a combined love of authority and rebellion. He suggested that any child who experienced sexual repression and an authoritarian social order would become submissive and this led to mass support of the Nazi party in the lower middle class group.

Unfortunately Reich's later life was filled with scandal after his invention of the orgone accumulator a device which harnessed a primordial cosmic energy he called 'orgone'. With this box (a combination of wood and metal) Reich believed he could cure cancer, claims which made the American authorities unhappy. Reich was banned from transporting the device around America and claiming it could cure cancer, but still continued to do so. He was eventually arrested and died in prison of heart failure; in addition to this all his books were burnt. The sudden and somewhat peculiar events surrounding his death led to conspiracy theories about assassination.

In the 1950s Freud's theories were used by the powerful to control the masses. This led to a backlash in the 1960's and a new wave of support for Reich's theories as they conflicted with those of Freud. The 1960's protest movement opposed the brainwashing and consumerism that had become prevalent in American society. A popular phrase associated with the movement was "There is a policeman inside our heads, he must be destroyed" essentially rejecting the suppression imposed by Freudian ideas in favour of Reichian ideas.

Although the movement didn't really accomplish anything, having been violently suppressed by the American authorities, it did lead to the embrace of Reichian ideas. Corporations changed to appeal to people's individuality with products to allow people to express themselves. When it came down to it people didn't want to change the world they just wanted to change themselves and Reich's ideas played a big part in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPV-JExUPns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgqkDCoAag

Wings of Desire

2010-03-07T11:19:00.001-06:00

Wings of Desire is a 1987 existentialist film set in Berlin during the late 1980s. The main characters in the film are two angels Damiel and Cassiel who roam the city watching and listening to the thoughts of the Berlin population. The angels reason for existing is to "assemble, testify and preserve" reality. Damiel encounters Marion, a lonely trapeze artist, whom he begins to fall in love with through observing her life and listening to her thoughts.

Having observed humans for so long, Damiel longs for mortality and the experience of life. When he becomes human the film changes from black and white to colour as a representation of all the different thoughts, emotions and tastes now available to him with mortality. Wings of Desire ends with Damiel meeting the trapeze artist Marion he had previously encountered as an angel. They greet each other as though they share a familiarity, even though they have never met before, and are united together as the film ends.

My initial thoughts were that the film was drab and confusing with its largely sepia visuals and little explanation as to what is going on. The opening scenes appeared to have little relation to each other and the different languages spoken by the characters sometimes made it difficult to keep track of what was occurring visually. Wings of Desire is existentialist in its focus on the thoughts and experiences of individuals, portraying what it is that is making them who they are. The character Marion passionately longs for love and it is this that attracts Damiel to her, reflecting the existentialist admiration for believing passionately in something. The film also uses an existentialist slow flowing camera movement, to convey that it is being filmed from the point of view of an angel. Another interesting allusion to existentialism in Wings of Desire is the child characters special ability to see the angels, representing the existentialist emphasis on the importance of children, as a child lacks a past to hinder them.

To increase our understanding of existentialist film it may have been beneficial to watch Wings of Desire's sequel Faraway, So Close! Which concludes the story. I also believe an English language film such as Taxi Driver would have been easier to understand and relate to existentialism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8sYY0pCdE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY8uDNkOLHM

Existentialism

2010-02-28T09:58:00.002-06:00

The term existentialism applies to philosophy where the focus of thought centres on the individual in their emotions, choices, responsibilities and thoughts. The founding father of existentialism, 19th century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard believed that the individual was solely responsible for giving his/her life meaning and should live their life with passion and sincerity. Existentialism is based on very extreme personal responsibility, finding meaning in a world without God.

Passion is a key concept with existentialism as it is linked with movements in post war art and culture. In particular Jazz, a music style performed entirely out of rhapsodic passion, is admired by existentialists as it typically does not conform to any musical script. Existentialists also have strong beliefs regarding conformity believing that conformity is a form of death and that the individual should behave how they want to and not be influenced by others. This in turn means that Existentialists hate totalitarianism such as that of Nazi Germany as it embodies the complete opposite of their beliefs with its total conformity and control over the individual.

One of the best known existentialist philosophers is Jean Paul Sartre who describes humans as "condemned to be free". Sartre believed that there was no creator and therefore humans were fully responsible for their own actions and could blame no one but themselves for them "existence precedes essence". Part of Sartre's beliefs in the book "Being and Nothingness" is the concept of bad faith in the way the individual conforms with and treats other people. In this assumptions about others are considered a form of oppression and breaking commitments and letting others down are believed to lead to bad implications for the individual. Relating to this is the quote "people should not be treated as a means to an end, they must be treated as an end themselves" frowning upon the individual who uses other people for their own gain.

To be an existentialist you must be passionately committed to something, to do something in a moderate way just to please others is a sin. In this sense Existentialism disagrees with many aspects of modern life such as education and work as it would not be unfair to assert that in both cases people do things to please others. My reasons for creating this post are arguably an existentialist sin because I am not doing so entirely out of passion but instead largely because it is part of my mark for the History and Context of Journalism module and it is necessary for me to complete my Journalism course.

Some of the greatest journalists of the 20th century were considered existentialists including Albert Camus, who won the Noble Prize for Literature in 1957. Existentialism is linked to the 'Gonzo journalism' of Hunter S Thomson. Gonzo journalism is based on first person subjectivity reporting on situations with no preconceptions and writing about the actual reality of how people are behaving. Thomson’s article 'The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved' is considered the first example of his 'gonzo' style and focuses not on the race itself, but on the actual reality of the celebration and depravity that surrounds the event with a running commentary of the drunkenness of the audience.

Overall Existentialism is a difficult subject to discuss as it is categorised in such a broad area and consists of many different concepts and ideas. Its influence in the modern world is without question especially in Western individualistic cultures. An example of Existentialism invading popular culture is in advertising phrases such as Nike's "Just Do It". These advertisements exploit the desire of individuals to change their lives by implying that in buying the product this change will happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hLwMOL_yjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSOImo5Xi-Y

2001: A Space Odyssey

2010-02-21T07:30:00.000-06:00

'2001: A Space Odyssey' is a 1968 science fiction film now widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. The film is unusual in that it does not conform to many of the values of mainstream media. Its lack of dialogue for example is very unusual and often leaves the audience wondering what exactly is going on and opens the film to be largely subject to personal interpretation. This in turn makes describing what actually happens in the film somewhat difficult. The film is directed by Stanley Kubrick, a firm supporter of Nietzsche’s ideals in his other works Dr Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange and is based on the book by Arthur C. Clarke. It is based upon Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche's book in which he describes how man will one day be replaced by superman.

What is clear is that an alien monolith has been discovered on the moon and the discovery is being kept secret, we are also informed that this monolith is the reason for the mission to Jupiter the characters are embarking on. From the opening sequence featuring the apes it is also clear that this monolith possesses some form of unique power, imbuing the apes with the knowledge to use objects as tools and weapons and may be responsible for triggering their evolution towards humanity. However, aside from these facts there is very little else that can be completely determined. The final part of the film known as the 'stargate' is a confusing mixture of visual effects and discoloured landscapes ending with the last remaining character David Bowmen seeing himself ageing in front of his eyes. In his final breathe he wills a foetus into existence which is then seen floating next to the earth in the final scene.

The film relates to Nietzsche in its representation of the three different stages of man, beginning with primitive man, then modern man and ending with the creation of the foetus which can be considered a superman. To quote Nietzsche”Man is just a bridge between ape and superman, but for the superman to be, man must use his will to make it happen, "a will to procreate or a drive to an end, to something higher and farther". Nietzsche believed that when man became superman it would be like a child as”the child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning." and this would explain why superman is portrayed as a foetus. In returning to earth the foetus is in Nietzsche’s terms is returning to conquer it "the spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers his own world."

An interpretation of the film is that these evolutions are triggered by the influence of the black monoliths which are purely noumenal and do not exist outside of the mind. It could therefore be suggested that these objects only exist within the imagination, explaining why the monolith that appears near the apes seems to come from nowhere.

I overall found the film unique and enjoyable although sometimes confusing. It may have been beneficial to watch more of Kubrick's Nietzschian influenced films, such as a Clockwork Orange, that delve deeper into Nietzsche's Dionysus and Apollonian interpretations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZqZXdJOpCQ

Friedrich Nietzsche

2010-02-12T05:50:00.002-06:00

Friedrich Nietzsche was a 19th Century German philosopher and philologist with interesting views on religion, morality and culture. Nietzsche believed that rather than all people being equal morally (as argued by Immanuel Kant), that some people have a higher sense of morality than others and that these morally superior individuals should lead the morally weaker ones. He associated ideas of moral equality with Christianity and considered the religion to be a source of tension in Europe as it made everybody equal when in Nietzsche's eyes they were not. To Nietzsche this morality was holding back exceptional people from flourishing as they were bound by the same morality as everyone else. Nietzsche admired individuals such as Shakespeare who rose up from normality to make a mark on history.

Many of Nietzsche's ideas are drawn from Ancient Greece, which had a significant influence on his work. Nietzsche believed all Western culture had its origins within Ancient Greece and considered all religions to be based upon those that existed their, the Apollonian and Dionysian faiths described in his book The Birth of Tragedy.

Among Nietzsche's key beliefs is the will to power, a concept manifested by achievement, ambition and striving to reach the highest possible position in life. Closely related to this is the Ubermensch best described in Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra with the quote "man is something which ought to be overcome". With this concept Nietzsche believed that humanity should advance beyond itself to become something more, disregarding its previous values so that in the end these supermen will look back on humanity as humanity does apes.

Nietzsche died in 1900 having suffered years of catatonia. His influence on the modern world is undeniable with his work still widely discussed today. There are still many different interpretations of his work and this has led to some confusion, especially in his association with Hitler and Nazism which Nietzsche would never have been an advocate of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnLwlIU0q4k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4pCRwIUDgQ

Orwellian Language: Ethnic Cleansing

2010-01-26T05:01:00.001-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4jqUD9ENg My video blog entry about Orwellian Language using ethnic cleansing as an example.

1984

2010-01-13T12:31:00.000-06:00

1984 was the last book George Orwell wrote, it describes a bleak future in which government control has extended into language and even the human mind. The book describes the life of Winston Smith, a government worker who is tasked with changing past newspaper articles to match the regimes current goals, thus altering written history. A key quote from the book is "He who controls the present controls the past, he who controls the past controls the future". And this describes the government’s means of power over the people. By controlling the present they are able to alter the past to meet their own goals and portray themselves in a positive light. This in turn means that the truth no longer exists in a physical form and can only exist in human memory.

The people are controlled through an individual known as big brother who constantly monitors them through televisions located everywhere in the world of 1984. These televisions are also used to broadcast propaganda to the people of the war effort as well as the testimony of traitors who confess their crimes to the people. Big Brother controls every aspect of life in 1984 including language, the parties 'newspeak' is used to replace old words and alter their meaning as conveyed by the government's slogan "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength". Although there are no laws in 1984 there are still some actions punishable by death. Chief among these is thought crime, essentially thinking rebellious thoughts or anything that disagrees with big brother's propaganda. In thinking for himself rather than submitting to propaganda Winston lives constantly in fear of being convicted of thought crime. Interestingly children have been influenced so much by propaganda in 1984 that they will even report their own parents for thought crime.

1984's importance in the modern world is undeniable and it coined many terms that are still in use today. These include 'big brother' and thought crime. Disturbingly the UK is now often described as a big brother state due to it having the highest number of CCTV cameras per person in the world. Another real life application of Orwell’s concepts is in government control of language, an example being the changing of the name of the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Defence to make it seem less aggressive despite the ministries purpose not changing.

WINOL Week 5

2009-12-06T09:59:00.000-06:00

After last week’s great edition, with a wealth of news stories available, week 5 seemed somewhat of a step back. On the news team we began the week with no pre filmed news ideas, unlike last week, and the confidence of week 4 seemed to have diminished.

My news story this week was the beginning of improvement works on the Southampton Tunnel and the disruption to commuters, with a bus service replacing trains between Southampton Airport and Southampton Central. For this I was asked to get the train with someone to help me film (as my arm is still in a cast) and record some GVs of people getting on and off the buses and the buses arriving and leaving etc for a NIB. After some research I found that the tunnel would only be closing after 11:15pm on weekday nights and then went about recruiting someone to help me and arranged a camera. Having persuaded Josh to help we agreed to meet on Tuesday night and head down to the station.
On Tuesday night I set off failing to realise I had forgotten the tape for the camera. I met up with Josh, who had the camera with him, and we headed to the station. It was only when we got there that a tape was mentioned and at that point I realised I had forgotten it and felt extremely stupid for not remembering something so simple.
The next day I felt incredibly guilty having to explain why the story had fallen through and went about writing a text story on the record high November rainfall to try and make up for the failing.

After last week's professional bulletin everyone expected more of the same. However, they were left disappointed after a series of technical issues with visuals sound and the autocue. This placed particular strain on Claire our News Reporter who was left confused at some points during the bulletin.
Despite the failings of this week our guest editor, Chris Ship, was still impressed by our work and gave generally positive feedback. Generally I believe this week was an important step as failure tends to be the best way of learning from my experience. As the bulletin went so well last week it seemed to have a negative impact on week 5 as people seemed to expect the same degree of success without putting the same amount of effort in.

Having suffered these setbacks and learnt from our mistakes next week should be an improvement on the last.

WINOL Week 4

2009-12-02T06:19:00.001-06:00

Week 4 was arguably the best bulletin so far. This was largely due to the choice of stories as many of our beat reporters had filmed their packages the week before, providing a wealth of options for the bulletin.

I began the week struggling to find a story until I came across an article in Hampshire Constabulary's Frontline magazine revealing a new police uniform. In the news meeting this was deemed newsworthy so I proceeded in trying to arrange a police office to model the uniform for me. Unfortunately this proved far more difficult than I had first thought and I was told my deadline was too short notice for a beat officer to be arranged to meet me.

On Tuesday, by mere chance, Madeline happened to see a car crash scene on her morning bus journey and it was decided we would do at least a nib about it with a text story. Naturally with my broken arm I was not sent out to film but instead was tasked with doing the text story for the incident. To obtain more detail on the incident I rang the various emergency services without luck until Hampshire Constabulary made a voice bank entry mentioning the details of the collision. From these details a rough outline of the collision was made with an eye-catching headline. Colin and Stu who had been sent out to film the scene had some issues filming due to the high police presence, but successfully managed to create some GVs that were later used for a NIB in the bulletin.

The next day new details regarding the woman, who had been the victim of the collision transported via Air Ambulance, were revealed. She was apparently recovering well and would be released from hospital later that day. The hospital she was taken to and her age were also confirmed. Interestingly the voice bank entry from the previous day had said she was taken to Royal Hampshire Hospital but she had actually been taken to Southampton General.

For the bulletin Maxine decided she wanted to try presenting and did a good job considering it was her first time. The interview with Steve Brine went well and Tom performed as professionally as ever on the sport.

Altogether our best bulletin thus far, guest editor Andy Stegall seemed pleased with the result and gave us some important advice for next week.

Winol Week 3 Proper Edition

2009-11-20T08:43:00.000-06:00

This week WINOL took its first step in becoming a real local news website and bulletin. The 2 previous weeks of practice clearly payed off as WINOL had its best week so far. There was a noticeably different atmosphere in the news room as everyone seemed to have adapted to their roles and the expectations that came with them. In addition a greater degree of confidence was present in everyone, the 2 weeks of dummy editions having clearly payed off.

Our lecturers were visibly pleased with the result, as was Kay Oliver our guest editor who seemed impressed by our work.

My role this week and for the near future seems limited to text stories for the site due to my arm being in a cast and sling. Although this is disappointing I had some degree of satisfaction this week as both my crime stories, a collision in Weeke and nose biting assault near University made the front page of the site. WINOL's traffic has increased dramatically this year and is now competing with local newspaper websites The Hampshire Chronicle and Basingstoke Gazette, which should lead to greater respect and recognition for the site as a professional news medium, rather than just a student project.

Altogether a good week with very few issues to address, the only major problem was technical issues in uploading the news bulletin but this was resolved fairly quickly.

Police Cycling Guide!

2009-11-12T12:50:00.000-06:00

A 93 page cycling guide for the police was met with harsh cricticism on its release today and rightfully so! Surely the police force has far better things to spend public money on than a guide which explains the obvious (e.g. not trying to arrest a suspect while still on the bike). I can understand the need for the police to promote a greener image but blunders like this only hinder their efforts. The best way to learn how to ride a bike properly is through practice, not by reading a guide. It is a great irony that the money used to create this guide could have been used to buy dozens more police bicycles or train more police officers in their proper use.

It looks like the police will be using training wheels for some time to come...

Broken Arm

2009-11-11T10:05:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update to inform anyone reading that I broke my arm on Monday night so im not expecting to be back in lectures till next week. Am having to type with one hand so it is taking twice as long.

WINOL first dummy edition

2009-11-11T09:24:00.001-06:00

This is an update regarding the first Winchester News Online dummy edition last week. For those who don't know WINOL is a news website and bulletin run by Winchester University Year 2 and 3 Journalism students. The idea is to provide us with a realistic news room environment, and to allow us the opportunity to try various news room roles.

The first week began with some confusion as it was the first experience everyone had of their roles and the WINOL timetable. The evening before I looked through various news websites in an attempt to find contemporary local crime stories, for my role as crime beat reporter. I continued the process the following morning noting down about 4 or 5 stories, as well as calling the Hampshire Police media voice bank. Unfortunately I failed to find anything particularly interesting and chose my top story to be one on recently released home office crime stats which I would try to find a local angle on. That afternoon I pitched the crime stat story in the news meeting, and was informed of a Hampshire Police Authority meeting the next day to discuss a range of topics including police performance. My next task was to find out whether members of the public could attend the meeting and if it would be possible to film it. After calling the police authority press office I was informed that I could attend the meeting but would be unable to film it, throwing a news package format for my story out the window.

I attended the meeting the next morning but heard little of interest and could not be present for all of it as only a portion was open to the public. However, I was directed towards a document, The Hampshire Police Authority Annual Report, which revealed that Hampshire Police had failed to meet many of its crime targets. This to me seemed a far more interesting story so I decided to change my angle and informed James my editor of this. He told me he wanted some general view shots of the Police Authority Building, so I went into the news room picked up a camera and went out to film. Fortunately I was given permission by the press officer, Richard Andrews, to film inside the building; he was also very helpful in posing at a desk and by a map to make my GVs more interesting. I also filmed GVs of the outside of the building and the sign on the door. After finishing my GVs I went back to the news room and edited them into a twenty second sequence before writing an OOV script for the presenter to go with the sequence. The next day I gave the GV sequence with script to the production editor, but it didn’t make the bulletin due to technical problems and the actual bulletin in the studio was not recorded as no one knew how.

All in all I found the first week good practice despite various problems and it boosted my confidence as a news reporter, it also revealed various problems which we are now aware of and hopefully won't repeat next time.

Penis Envy, Patriachy and more! Yes its Freud

2009-10-29T15:29:00.000-05:00

So to catch up to last week's History and Context of Journalism lecture we covered the subject of Freud and his psychobabble. Freud was a highly influential psychologist who gave birth to the psychoanalytic school of psychology. His psychobabble, as some have described it, is based on sexual repression and primal urges influencing our behaviour and has been highly influential in the 20th century. Freud's first book, The Interpretation of Dreams, emphasised the importance of the unconscious mind and the effect it could have on the conscious. Many of Freud's ideas such as the id, ego and superego, and the concept of depression have become part of western culture.

An idea Freud conceived was the Oedipus complex which basically suggests that males go through a stage of fearing castration by their father because they want to have sex with their mother. In addition he believed that all females desired their father and suffered from penis envy. Freud’s theory's are very patriarchal and generally suggest that men are superior to women, they also tend to oversimplify aspects of the human mind and consciousness.

Modern day psychologists have disproven many of Freud's theories but they are still considered important as they led to a greater understanding of the human mind. I personally believe that Freud was an extremely important and influential figure whose ideas helped to shape the 20th century, although I do not agree with many of his concepts and in some cases find them just plain stupid they still present an interesting perspective on the basis of human consciousness.

Nick Griffin 'could appear on Question Time again'

2009-10-25T11:13:00.007-05:00

The BBC has said that British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin may be invited back to Question Time in the future. Mark Byford, deputy director-general of the BBC, said Griffin's appearance would be justified because the BNP was not 'banned from the airwaves'. He described the BNP as 'a minority party with a small share' and said that this meant they would not feature regularly but would do occasionally.

After the controversy of last Thursday's Question Time I find this announcement surprising. Although the BBC has denied that inviting Griffin on the show was a mere publicity stunt to boost the programmes audience many are left wondering why else the leader was invited. The BNP leaders confirmed attendance on Thursday led to protests outside the BBC all day and even a riot when protesters attempted to rush inside. I am uncertain why the BBC would want to repeat these scenes other than to boost its audience again, having received almost three times the viewers than normal with Griffin on the show. Questions have also been asked as to the shows format with audience members that were present in the show describing how they were given instructions to ask more controversial questions, and were at no point told booing or jeering was disallowed.

Having watched Nick Griffin's debut on question time I found myself questioning the point, it seemed that the entire room was against him and hated his every word. The BBC had clearly not aimed for a calm calculated debate which got to the root of BNP policy, instead the format seemed to support a public humiliation of Griffin. It is hard to imagine anything positive that came out of the debate, as in many respects it made Griffin seem the victim.

If the BBC are suggesting that the BNP make another appearance on Question Time they must produce a more balanced format for the show with a politically split audience and panel, so as to not make the party seem the victim.

Tories the "party of the NHS"?

2009-08-20T08:01:00.001-05:00

David Cameron today insisted that the tories were "the party of the NHS" after recent embarrassing criticism from within his own party of the National Health Service. Without mentioning the death of his son Ivan, Cameron's speech clearly drew upon personal experience
in particular the words "the moment something happens to someone you love".

The Tory leader seemed to be trying to invoke a degree of empathy with the public, sharing his personal experience to appear more down to earth and legitimate. He also dismissed recent labour attacks as "political point-scoring", after Tory MEP Daniel Hannan's attack on the NHS last week which clearly damaged the parties image.

At the forefront of Cameron's speech was the need for the NHS to become more efficient due to an ageing British population, something he claimed that the Labour government was failing to do fast enough. While also wishing to offer people greater control over their treatment.

The purpose of this speech was clearly to heal the wounds the Tory party had suffered over the last week at the hands of its own party members. However, it is difficult to dismiss rifts within the party over important issues such as the NHS and expenses, and thus it is likely that the incidents have already scarred Cameron's campaign.

Controversy as high level British diplomat is sent to Ahmadinejad's endorsing ceremony

2009-08-04T07:03:00.001-05:00

Britain instigated a row yesterday by sending its second most senior diplomat in Tehran to Ahmadinejad's endorsing ceremony. The ceremony, which involved the official endorsement of President Ahmadinejad by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was boycotted by the Iranian opposition.

Patrick Davies, the British embassy's deputy head of mission, was sent by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), even though the Iranian regime has repeatedly accused Britain of causing the turmoil that has flooded Iran since the controversial ballot. In addition Iranian's working for the embassy have been arrested and the BBC's Tehran correspondent has been expelled.

The FCO claimed is was practising "hard headed diplomacy" but it to many it appeared in danger of legitimising the regime. William Hague the Shadow Foreign Secretary said that
"Under all the circumstances, representation at this event should have been kept at the minimum level possible."

President Ahmadinejad's re-election is widely disputed and is claimed by the opposition to have been rigged. Mass protest rallies and marches are still continuing in the country despite a harsh crackdown on the opposition by government security forces.

Although it is understandable for Britain not to boycott the ceremony altogether in order to maintain some level of diplomacy with the Iranian regime, sending such a high level diplomat is highly questionable. Especially given that Britain has born the brunt of Iranian accusations of foreign involvement in the controversy since the ballot.

The FCO has not yet decided whom to send to Ahmadinejad's swearing in before parliament on Wednesday, it is possible a lower level diplomat will be sent given the criticism of the office's handling of this ceremony.

Twitter is for Tw*ts

2009-07-29T15:40:00.001-05:00

David Cameron apologised this morning after swearing twice during a live radio interview. In the interview which aired on Absolute radio, Cameron commented;

"The trouble with Twitter, the instantness [sic] of it, is I think that too many twits might make a twat".

and then later

"The public are rightly, I think, pissed off".

Whether this was an innocent mistake or a PR stunt is a matter of speculation, but it is difficult to imagine Cameron forgetting that he was live on a morning radio show. Interestingly rather than apologising Cameron's aides pointed out that twat was not actually considered a swear word under radio guidelines, which to me points towards PR stunt. Whether or not it was worth the risk remains to be seen but from comments on various news websites it seems there has generally been praise for his honesty.

The timing of Cameron's criticism comes as no surprise given the recent release of the government guide to Twitter. The Tory leader appears to be trying to emphasise the difference between himself and Gordon Brown, and convey that he is not jumping on the Twitter bandwagon just because it is popular, as many MPs have done.

Afghanistan Woes

2009-07-22T07:17:00.001-05:00

Another British military casualty was named today bringing the death toll in Afghanistan to 18 this month. Captain Daniel Shepherd, a top bomb disposal expert, was killed as he tried to defuse an improvised explosive device (IED), which have been responsible for many of the recent British casualties. This will place yet further pressure on the government, having experienced waning public support for the campaign in Afghanistan this month due to the recent increase in British deaths in the country. The lack of helicopters, an issue that has consistently been in the news this month, has also added to the decrease in support and increasing public willingness for our troops to be pulled out. Helicopters with their ability to transport troops to a location through the air, make targeting troops with IEDs far more difficult for insurgents, the current shortage of British helicopters in Afghanistan is thus putting soldiers at far greater risk. Gordon Brown has promised more helicopters for the Afghanistan campaign but this has done little to ease public pressure on the government to withdraw the army from the conflict.

The Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown today apparently became the first member of the government to admit that the Army was not well equipped enough in Afghanistan. Having told The Daily Telegraph “we definitely don’t have enough helicopters” he was forced to issue a 'clarification' a few hours later.

"On the issue of helicopters in Afghanistan, I was making the point - as the Prime Minister and commanders on the ground have also done - that while there are without doubt sufficient resources in place for current operations, we should always do what we can to make more available on the front line."

Lord Malloch-Brown's initial statement suggests even members of the government admit a shortage of helicopters, something that is likely to wither public support even further. The Afghanistan campaign is being questioned, perhaps more than ever before this month and it is likely to decrease support for Gordon Brown's government even further. What is clear is that the government needs to be seen to be handling the rising death toll and equipment shortage in Afghanistan or it risks further public anger.

Expenses Scandal

2009-05-20T10:09:00.001-05:00

So with the expenses scandal being blown open in recent days, MP's have proven to be the dishonest group many of us already knew they were. Commons Speaker, Michael Martin's resignation yesterday after Gordon Brown's withdrawal of support for him, has shaken the very foundations of Westiminster and shown the public that no one can seemingly be trusted. This has created a big problem for all MPs as public anger is not being directed at one party but parliament as a whole. MPs of all parties have claimed unecessary expenses, creating a great deal of mistrust and distancing the parties from would be voters. There has been an 'us and them' perception appearing, where members of the public are now considering MP's greedy and out of touch with their everyday realities. This problem is made worse by the recession as everyday people are struggling to make ends meet, while MPs are happily taking public money to spend on themselves. Major reforms of the expenses system are going to be needed to repair the damage this scandal has done and to regain the trust of the general public.

Catch it, Bin it, Kill it.

2009-05-01T06:10:00.001-05:00

I got the swine flu leaflet under my door last night and was scared by its contents. On one page it reads:

"What are the symptoms? Some of the symptoms are the sudden onset of fever cough, shortness of breath, other symptoms can include headache, sore throat, tiredness, aching muscles, chills, sneezing, runny nose or loss of appetite."

A large group of people are going to experience any one of these symptoms today and start to panic believing they must have swine flu, when in reality it is something minor. It is fair enough to be better safe than sorry, but they have made the symptoms so general it is likely to cause unnecessary alarm.

Equally terrifying is the concept of "flu friends" are these people going to come to my room wearing a bio suit when they deliver the food etc to me? Otherwise it seems likely that the flu would spread to them, making us all actual "flu friends".

Peter Answers

2009-05-01T05:55:00.002-05:00

I was introduced to this site at our media skills lecture today and was surprised by the accuracy of its answers. It was able to answer all my friend Josh's questions including who was sat next to him, what they were drinking, what brand their camera case was etc. I tried myself but it refused to answer me saying I was a non believer. Whether or not this is a simple trick by Josh Duffy or government satellites monitoring our brains I don't know but it is pretty weird to say the least. To update yes it was a hoax just typed into search and found out it was all a trick, Josh Duffy will pay.

http://www.peteranswers.com/

More piracy on the Somalia coast

2009-04-15T08:45:00.001-05:00

Another ship was attacked off the coast of Somalia today, raising the total to 5 attacks on commercial vessels since the US navy's rescue of a captured freighter captain last week. The MV Liberty Sun is now heading to Kenya after the pirate's unsuccessful attempts to seize the cargo vessel and its 20 strong American crew. Ironically the ship that responded to the crew's distress call was the USS Bainbridge, carrying Richard Phillips, the captain taken hostage by pirates for 5 days and freed by US navy snipers on Sunday.

Despite navy patrols in the area it is clear that the Somali pirates still pose a significant threat and are proving difficult to stop due to the sheer size of the area and number of vessels that travel through each day. It is unlikely that it will be possible for the multinational navy task force currently patrolling the Somali coastal region to prevent all attacks. The pirates, in my opinion, are a symptom of a far greater problem, the instability of Somalia as a country. Unless Somalia stabilises piracy will still be considered a viable option for many young men there.

Another day another Jade Goody related story

2009-04-15T06:59:00.002-05:00

The Sun today continued its seemingly endless reporting of everything Jade Goody, with another story on Jack Tweed, Jade's cabbie attacking widow, sentenced to 12 weeks yesterday. By this time it would not be unreasonable to think that the British public have been jaded by the sheer amount of Goody coverage in recent weeks, yet still the Sun seems willing to milk her story for all its worth. It is as though the Sun, unable to resurrect Jade herself, have moved on to reporting on Tweed in the same manner they did with Jade in the weeks before her death. Recent stories have included Tweed going to Thorpe Park to forget his troubles and in a major twist, Tweed going golfing to forget his troubles. Clearly someone must still be interested for the tabloid to continue its shameless reporting, but i'm left wondering exactly who this is other than the most obsessive Goody fan.

The end of hug a hoodie

2009-04-09T15:30:00.001-05:00

The Conservatives have ended their "hug a hoodie" youth crime strategy, introduced by David Cameron in June 2006. Shadow Home secretary Chris Grayling called for "war" on anti social behaviour, a far cry from Cameron's "a lot more love" approach. This reaction is in response to recent high profile youth crime incidents in the media, noticably the grotesque attack on two boys aged 9 and 11 in Doncaster at the weekend. Although this change in stance is understandable, there is a sense that the Conservative party is changing policy with the changing news and has failed to present a stable policy position to the public.

UK Local Government

2009-04-09T13:11:00.001-05:00

Local government in the UK is the Executive and this is split between Whitehall at a central level and town halls at a local level. Whitehall operates under a royal prerogative and therefore has authority over local government. There has been a steady shifting of responsibilities and power from local to central government.

Local government is often considered a training ground for national politicians, giving them the experience to operate on a national level. The shifting of power from local to central government can in some respects be considered a good thing, as it removes power from those who are often not experienced enough to wield it.

The Scottish system of local government, the national assembly, is different to the English local government. It possesses a derogation of local powers, for example to raise local taxes for Scotland. This presents a problem as it allows a Scottish MP elected on the UK parliament to vote on UK wide laws that effect only people living in England.

Links
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Localgovernment/DG_073311
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Home

The UK Constitution: Whitehall

2009-04-07T15:17:00.001-05:00

The UK constitution is the set of laws and principles under which the UK is governed.
Unlike the USA and France the UK has no single constitution document and is often said to have a de facto constitution.

Government in the UK based on two main principles, the rule of law and the separation of powers. Power in the UK is separated between the Legislator, Executive and Judiciary, the Monarch in Parliament, Prime Minister in Cabinet and Independent courts respectively.

Although the lack of a written constitution can be considered a weakness, it allows the constitution to evolve without legislation, making it more flexible in some regards. The lack of a written constitution also reveals the stability of the UK, as unlike other countries it has not been forced to draw up a constitution by revolt or war.

Links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/2561719.stm
http://en.jurispedia.org/index.php/Constitution_(uk)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-big-question-why-doesnt-the-uk-have-a-written-constitution-and-does-it-matter-781975.html

Institutions 1: History of the UK

2009-04-07T12:54:00.001-05:00

In our first institutions lecture we discussed the history of the UK.

The UK is currently a constitutional monarchy having evolved from the absolute monarchy of the past. The formation of the state from the former kingdoms of England, Scotland and Wales involved a great deal of bribery and brutality. England in its conquest and assimilation, impoverished Scotland, and later Ireland, for hundreds of years. Ireland in particular was destroyed economically and became the most backward place in Europe for 200 years due to famine, emigration, monoagriculture and poverty. This lead to an uprising against British rule in 1916, and the subsequent recognition of the Irish Free State in 1922. Northern Ireland however is still recognised as part of the UK as the largely Protestant population does not want to be ruled by a Catholic majority. The Irish Nationalists desire to reunite it with Ireland is the only serious threat to the stability of the British state.

Links
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108078.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ira.htm

Economic Concepts

2009-04-07T12:22:00.001-05:00

In our economic concepts lecture we were taught a variety of economic theories Of these I found empiricism of particular interest.

Empiricism is a theory which holds that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience. It focuses on producing evidence and in turn evidence that this evidence is reliable. Naturally this means that empiricism directly disputes religion, acts of faith and assertions of moral right, natural order etc. The empirical approach leads to a more scientific method and in turn technological advance.

“Look at the facts, and think for yourself”.

Journalists and economists are considered empiricists. This is because they both value facts and evidence, to quote Oscar Wilde "They know the price of everything and the value of nothing".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLcQziOfhxM&feature=related

Also discussed were Karl Marx's views on the contradiction of capitalism, that it digs its own grave. However his predictions have yet to come true.

So it begins

2009-02-10T12:56:00.001-06:00

Today we were lectured about political concepts and the various figures throughout history who had created theories on the subject, ranging from Aristotle to Frederick Neitzche. The lecture particularly focused upon the role of the state. Of particular interest was the theory of Thomas Hobbes whom considered order to be everything and that justice only need be considered after order had been established. He also considered it better to be a slave or a subject than to be in the ‘state of nature’. http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/3x.htm