WINOL

Excellent, so I received my position for WINOL today and I am quite pleased. I'm the commissioning editor for reviews and previews features. Sounds like a good position but at this stage I am still quite unsure as regards to my responsibilities. 

I always thought that working on WINOL would take ages to come around, but now it's here all of a sudden and I'm really excited. I will be previewing/reviewing entertainment within the area of WInchester. Things i'll include will be reviewing local concerts, films etc and giving the thumbs-up or thumbs-down. In addition to this i will review Winchester student nights and be leasing with the people in charge of keeping student's interests.... interesting. 

I think I will fit into this role with relative ease as I am sure I have mentioned in previous blogs that my passion lies in writing, so to work as commissioning editor for reviews will suit my style perfectly. 

Although I find this task indeed a daunting one, the fact that I have a Features Editor above me should keep me in check so as I don't go on mad ramblings containing biased content. With someone approving my work I think it will only improve my writing style, but that's not to say that I can't be trusted to work by myself to produce entertaining content in my features lol. 

"My Story"

On Monday, we finally produced a decent news package for the first time. Our story was on the BBC's "My Story" campaign, which is a national campaign in which the general public are asked to retell a personal and interesting, life-changing story. Chanin, Tom, and I went down to Winchester Discovery Center, where the touring campaign was being held by BBC Solent. 

We were very much pressed for time as all of us had gone home for the weekend, so we had only Monday to arrange, film, and edit the piece; although we saw this as bad - when WINOL is up online - we will be doing this every day. 

We filmed an interview with a presenter from BBC Solent, who set the scene for the story. He was excellent, as he gave us everything we needed so that the viewer would be entertained whilst remaining informed, plus he made it easy for us due to the fact we needed to do very little editing!

A guy called Peter then gave us an interview about his story he told BBC Solent. He used to be a commercial pilot but was made homeless six months ago after the airline discovered that he suffers from Asperges. He had been living out of his car, whilst his wife and son were in St Petersberg. This was excellent for the production as it was such a sad story, which would really create the desired emotive effect within the viewer. Again, his pronunciation and delivery was second to none.

After we got the interviews we captured numerous fillers and a piece to camera with Tom. Tom's presenter voice was exceptional, and he took very few attempts at getting the final piece. The only problems we had during the filming was the fact that we were outside a library and there were small children around, which as we know in the journalism world... is a NO GO!

In the lecture today we viewed every one's packages, and I am in no way saying that ours was the best, but we definitely received the least criticism (beep beep lol). However, the criticism we did receive was things which were very obvious when we watched the footage back. An example of this can be seen in the amount of times we filmed the BBC logo; it was almost as if we were making an advertisement for the beeb. Once it was pointed out by Brian, it was almost comical the amount of times the BBC logos appeared in our package. 

In addition to this criticism, Brian played a package which South Today had made on the event, and they had interviewed the same "pilot man". This wasn't bad in itself but we had failed to mention that he was a pilot and also a sufferer of Asperges... OH DEAR. That sneaky man Brian had managed to shoot us down as these were fairly important points which we had missed out.

All in all we were very much pleased with the production. I would like to say that we knew what we were doing that day but the truth is that we didn't and it was luck that played its part in it all working out for the best. Also Chanin and Tom were great guys to work with as they remained professional and astute at all times. 

Sex with Mother?

No thanks Sigmund, you dirty man! In fact, I can't think of a more harrowing thought than to have sex with my Mother; killing my Father on the other hand....... (joke). 

Jokes aside, in my mind Freud is one of the world's greatest... greats. His theory on id, ego, and super ego are superb and very much hit the nail on the head as to the way humanity behaves. 

The id is the impulsive, consequent disregarding, part of the brain, which acts soley to achieve pleasure and self-preservation . The id is based on instinctive thought processes. When researching the id, i came across this analogy, "If the infant is hungry or uncomfortable, he or she will cry until the demands of the id are met." 

The ego and the super ego are two entirely different entities from the id. The ego handles the real world. It helps achieve the desires of the id, but projects them in a way which is viewed as acceptable by society; a sort of justification. The ego decides whether to put desires into practice or refrain from doing so. The super ego goes one step further as it is this that creates our ideals and opinions based on those of other's around us i.e. parents or peers. It works to stamp out all unwanted impulses, and it is in the super ego where the conscience lies. 

Surely one must strike a balance between the three so as to achieve a sense of well-being, whilst not being disruptive to the morals of society's super ego. I am sure the argument as to the balance in these behaviours is never-ending. I am of the opinion that "good people" must praise the super ego as it lubricates society and that without it the world would be in social ruins, but then there is also the counter argument of how well an individual is taught, and to whom he has acquired his own morals from.

Understandably, my opinion could very well be wrong, as there may be a genius out there who acts heavily with his id (i.e. by not thinking about his/her actions) and will never be understood due to fabricated morals of the super ego within society. 

Is the super ego denying us of who we really are?

Radio Journalism

After completing our first radio production, this part of the course is fast becoming my favourite. In all honesty, I was dreading doing radio work as I'm quite the technophobe and absolutely detest the sound of my own voice, but I definitely don't consider putting a radio show together a chore by any means.

Initially I was under the impression that I wanted to pursue a career in feature writing; (perhaps in music magazines) believing that my talent lay in writing reviews etc, however I'm enjoying radio production so much that i may need to have a rethink. It turns out that I must REALLY like producing for radio as I don't even mind listening to my awful voice being played back to me.

Although it's early days as we have yet to produce a live show, I do believe i could really relish in the opportunities of creating a radio show, and maybe even try and get into it as a career path. The idea of forcing people to listen to the music which i like is rather appealing as is jabbering on about myself aimlessly lol. Perhaps i can transfer my love of writing to radio by reading out features and reviews etc, who knows?

Beyond Good And Evil

After enjoying the lectures on philosophers last year, I wanted to know more about these clever guys, so over the summer I thought I'd give myself somewhat of an education in philosophy. Naturally I began this education with the keystone readings to any philosophical adventure; personified in this case by the works of Socrates and Plato. These guys know there stuff! But it was the teaching's of Nietzsche in "Beyond Good and Evil" which really intrigued me, with his flawless wisdom and insight.

However, I would be foolish to whole-heartedly agree with every utterance communicated through his fluid, lyrical lexis. Two main issues I have with Nietzsche is that he rebukes any sort of organised religion, and secondly he hates moralists.

 I am, by no means, a religious man. However, I was brought up from a young age in a Roman Catholic School thus I sympathise with them a great deal(Nietzsche has a real distaste to Christianity in particular). Call it indoctrination or naivety, but I like to refer to it as being agnostic. To denounce religion would be to deprive hope and inspiration for millions the world over. Whether or not there is indeed a God, religion serves its purpose; for the most part it has a positive influence. 

Secondly, a human race without morals is, in my mind, a most dreadful and freightning comprehension. Neitzsche argues that morals are drummed into us and that we should ignore them, but surely to ignore them would make us no better than any other beast on this earth. I for one pride myself on my morals as they not only give me a sense of self-worth but they also resonate individuality.

Despite the above deviations in opinion, Nietzsche's controversial views make for great reading and I do agree with an awful lot of what he says. Below are a few sound bites from Chapter IV, which represent Nietzsche in all his glory

79. A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.

88. One begins to distrust very clever persons when they become embarrassed.

94. The maturity of man - that means, to have reacquired the seriousness that  one had as a child at play. 

97. What? A great man? I always see merely the play-actor of his own ideal.