Jono News

Website Manager: Week 2

2010-12-02T04:57:00.000-08:00

The website has seen a massive change in appearance this week as Glenn and I have been working hard to format the entire site so that it looks both eye-pleasing and professional. This was done by deciding upon a standard layout default for each article, which we would follow in every article without exception.

Each article now has a picture or video, or both, which looks a lot better, and also helps me, as the Website Manager, to align all articles in the same manner i.e. line the text up with the picture/video then insert a "Read More" at the bottom of the photo/video to create a consistent look. Once I have conquered the Sport layout - which is difficult to make it look visually pleasing - there will be only two types of typographical format on the entire website - articles with videos and those with pictures.

In addition to this, the amount of articles a viewer can view per page has been altered so as that it aligns with what is displayed on the side-bar; this leaves no gaps or areas on the site which appear empty.

The above image demonstrates the consistency in overall look, which we wish to maintain.

The screenshot shows how we have changed the amount of articles present on each page so as to neatly align the side-bar content with the articles.

On top of changing the overall look of the site and deciding which articles go where (they are placed in order of importance), I have also been sub-editing with the team of sub-editors. This has been a great learning curve for me; just when I think I have correctly subbed an article, I get another sub to check it out, only to discover some glaring errors (granted these errors mostly occur after hours at looking at the computer screen). I feel there is now a more efficient system of getting the articles on the site as now there is a Website Manager, there seems to be a greater sense of urgency to get articles subbed as quickly as possible and get them uploaded; before it seemed there was a somewhat more blase and laboured approach with getting articles on the site.

On Wednesday I helped out in the studio from midday. I vision mixed the feature which included Laura Barton and then also vision mixed the bulletin. Unfortunately, I messed up a crucial handover for the first time in weeks, but I'll put this down to lack of communication in the gallery (that will remain the party line haha). All in all it has been a successful week, I just wish I had more time to embrace and excel in my newly appointed role as Christmas fast approaches.

WINOL: Website Editor

2010-11-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

At the mid point of this year's first Semester we were given the opportunity to change roles (those of us who wanted to). I decided to resign from my position as Managing Editor as I felt I had got all I could from that position and believed that it needed a fresh head to provide some new impetus. I certainly felt that my time as Managing Editor was successful but believe that it was time to give up the role and try something new.

I am currently Website Manager. This is a position which I am not entirely thrilled about acquiring as the same problems seem to be present in this position as with the position of Managing Editor; that is to say that other people can do your job, which makes you feel rather irrelevant.

My duty now is to decide how the website looks and to say what content should be included. The Website Editor position, seems to me to have been created without any real need to have one; Chris and Glenn can decide the overall look of the site, and Veronica decides the content- so I don't honestly see that there is a requirement for a Website Editor thus leaving me very disappointed with the overall WINOL experience I have encountered this semester. I have strong convictions that if it weren't for me putting unessential and unrequired work into the project, I might as well have been absent this term.

Nonetheless I wish to make good use of the couple of weeks I have left before Christmas to make the best of the newly created position of Website Editor. My new position has given a certain air of clarity to the layout of the website as Glenn and I have tidied it up and made it look a lot more presentable e.g. we made all articles appear the same lengths on the site, changed the overall typography, and made the site look more smart in appearance.

In addition to my job I also did sub-editing this week (I felt my role requires me to do so), which helps out with Glenn and Cara etc. I Discussed the use of photographs to improve the site with Veronica and also conferred with Jason as to the essentialness of having photos for the site.

As my role appears to give some free time, I offered my assistance to production. On Tuesday I helped out with the children who came in and alongside Paul, Josh, and Rob, demonstrated and let them use our gallery facilities for their own production. On top of this I filmed the band Davis who came in as part of our What's On Winchester production. Also, on Wednesday I ressumed the role of VT operator, for the bulletin, on the newly improved VT software.

On Friday we finally got to record our bulletin live at the Southern Daily Echo. This was a privilege of which I had arranged as my time as Managing Editor for WINOL, which had finally come to fruition. This was a great experience, as it gave all WINOL's executive team the chance to go down and take part in producing a bulletin the like of which we have never done, and so I am particularly pleased with myself and the team as a whole, who, in visiting the Echo, got to "show off" what we can do, and hopefully retain close links we made that day with the Echo in the future.

Media Law and Ethics: Codes of Practice

2010-11-25T11:22:00.001-08:00

Codes of Practice are the very rules which keep us, as journalists, in check and should be followed in order to protect both ourselves and others.

There are four main codes:

-NUJ Code of Conduct. This is outlined in the 12 point guide NUJ Code.

- PCC: newspapers and magazines. This covers the areas below:

Accuracy

Opportunity to reply

Privacy

Harassment

Intrusion into grief or shock

Children

Children in sex cases

Hospitals

Reporting crime

Victims of sexual assault

Discrimination

Financial Journalism

Confidential sources

Witness payments in criminal trials

Payments to criminals

Sometimes there are exceptions to the way in which each area is dealt with when public interest is cited

- Ofcom: broadcasters. There are lengthily guidelines for broadcasting on Ofcom's website under "Broadcast Guidelines"

- BBC: for their staff and licence payers. There is an extensive amount of information under the BBC's Editorial Guidelines.

Why do codes matter?

- Guide us through ethical issues

- How far we can go to get a story

- Guide us to what practices are legitimate

Key areas the codes aid:

- Ethical behaviour

- Fair treatment

- Respect for privacy

- Accuracy and impartiality

- Protecting vulnerable demographics

Currently in the media this week, Ofcom revoked the licences of four Adult premium-rate phone channels. The channels "Tease Me" have all been suspended as they have been ruled as "no longer fit and proper" - Ofcom said that the various channels' daytime content was 'the equivalent of hardcore pornography'.

Ofcom hopes the removal of the Tease Me channels will act as a warning to other channels of the same genre, and the broadcast regulator is set to meet all Adult licencees to ensure that they are adhering to the regulator's rules. Over the last 18 months the network had breached Ofcom regulations more than 60 times and had repeatedly breached the rules regarding protecting children from inappropriate material.

Media Law and Ethics: FOI continued

2010-11-22T04:12:00.000-08:00

After previously having a Freedom of Information Act lecture, we then had another one which consisted of a more in-depth analysis of the act, plus we put the FOI act into use as a classroom exercise.

The learning task we undertook was to make an FOI request ourselves. Firstly, we had to learn how to properly construct and implement a request. Here we discovered that precision is key for finding the information the individual requires. The more specific the enquiry, the quicker and less likely the respondent will be in postponing the request.

Below is a screenshot of the acknowledgment from an FOI request Rob and I put in. We contacted the Young People's Learning Agency to enquire how many young people who receive government financial aid go on to complete their respective studies.

The response was met quickly, and I was told that they would get back to me as soon as possible. I am fairly convinced that my request will be answered as I have made two previous requests and both were met within the time limit stated in the 2000 Act.

WINOL: Week 6

2010-11-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

It was a good week this week as I encountered WINOL's first complaint of the semester. The complaint followed a live studio debate, which focused around tuition fees and budget cuts. The format consisted of a presenter posing questions to three studio guests (two of which were left and one right of the political spectrum). From the offset we were rather dubious about appearing bias due to us only having one Conservative guest, so we payed close attention so as not to appear as we were attacking him in any way. Oddly it was not this individual who filed the complaint.

The individual had complained that he had been unfairly treated as he was misrepresented by the way the final edit was put together; his complaint wasn't that there was heavy editing, but that it had been edited in a way which he felt misrepresented him.

All involved, and I saw this was the case, did everything in their power so as not to cause controversy and remain impartial and fair, however, due to inexperience, we made a fault and duly and graciously accepted this. In response we wrote an apology to the studio guest, and offered him a chance to reappear as a guest. In addition, we are also going to publish an open letter of apology on the website to acknowledge our mistakes and present the fact that we have nothing at all to hide in coming forward to receive criticism.

My duty was to offer the guest our condolences and offer him a chance to appear as a guest again (an offer to which I am yet to receive a reply to). Also, Veronica and I worked together to write the apology letter. I strongly believe that everyone involved worked quickly and efficiently to amend the problem (i.e. I took the video down from YouTube), and appease the studio guest.

Although the aforementioned was the highlight of my week, other tasks were undertaken by myself which included: reviewing the bulletin, publishing the stats, thanking the IT staff for the improvement on our network, distributing the bulletin running orders in the newsroom, and helping with filming.

Media Law and Ethics: Copyright

2010-11-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

Copyright is, in a sense, theft. It is classed as a theft because it is making use of someone's work without that person giving any sort of consent of permission. If an individual can prove that their 'intellectual' property has been stolen then they have grounds to sue the person/persons who have stolen their intellectual property.

Copyright is a fast growing law area, and the lengths that people are willing to go to protect their intellectual property are huge as the world makes technological advances in media.

All work an individual produces belongs to the individual until they sell the results and rights of the work to another.

Intellectual property has as much copyright solidity as something produced by hand. When someone sells their property, there are differences between the two types, as property produced by hand's rights is likely to be sold of completely whereas intellectual property is far more likely to be licenced in exchange for payment, with the original creator still holding ownership; this is particularly true for freelance media work.

There is no Copyright for ideas. One can only claim copyright breach when there is already clear evidence of an idea. If one wishes copyright protection then there property must be of substancial detail and not infringe on any copyright itself (i.e. be original).

Lifting. There is no copyright in the facts of a news story, but everything about the news story is copyrighted... even down to the very words the reporter uses. Any interview or quotes in a story is copyrighted, but the barebones and facts of a story is free from copyright issues.

Fair Dealing. Through fair dealing, copyrighted material can be used in the following ways: Private study purposes

Performance, copies or lending for educational purposes

News reports

Lending by libraries

Official proceedings

"Time shifting" for convenience

Producing a personal back-up

Playing a recording for a non-profit organisation

Fair Dealing allows wider reporting of stories in the public interest, criticism and review of coypright material, broadcast of news obits of film stars can use famous movie clips for free. Photographs, however, are NOT subject to fair dealing.

The best defense of breach of copyright is that one can lift quotes etc from a publication through fair dealing if it is in the public interest. However, the extracted copyright material must be acknowledged (that it is the work of somebody else) by it's extractor and certainly not be passed off as their own work. One does not have to specify where the source was from exactly, i.e. if the Daily Mail revealed some info, it could be said that 'a newspaper revealed', but one should never pass the work off as their own. By doing this malice can also be avoided if the 'news exclusive' transpires to be of a malicious nature.

The length of time property has copyright protection is very peculiar. The 1998 statute states that art work, music scores, drama, film etc is free from copyright 70 years after the death of the particular author/performer. And for music, sound, and broadcasts, there is no copyright after 50 years.

Recently the government has proposed to lower the restrictions on 'intellectual property' to that of the US. The lowering of restrictions, it is argued, is to help economic stimulus and stop creativity being impinged and restricted. The business and economic argument for lowering current UK copyright law is that there is a neccesity for creative people to take already existing concepts and rework or better them for greater creative purposes and economic stimulus.

David Cameron commented that a huge company such as Google would have been unable to originate from the UK with the current restrictions the way they are. If more relaxed copyright laws come to fruition then technological businesses will benefit from a clearer vision and certainty as to what can be patented.

Hopefully, more relaxed copyright laws will be met in the UK, which will bring both economic and creative advantages.

Media Law and Ethics: Freedom of Information

2010-11-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

Since the Freedom of Informations Act's introduction, investigative journalism has experienced a major breakthrough. It is now easier than ever to acquire previously unattainable information from public establishments - with most institutions having their own FOI sector and being legally obliged to respond to a request within a specified time limit.

This is an exceptional gift for the investigative or Gonzo journalist, who now can now expose miscarriages of justice and public interest material without going to enormous lengths to obtain the previously repressed information.

It's significance can be seen, with an example that I'm sure everyone is familiar with, in the MP expenses scandal. The Telegraph exposed the information after it had made a simple FOI request.

The 2000 Act, which came into effect in January 2005, makes it mandatory for a public authority to disclose whether or not it has the information the enquirer wishes to know. This includes Government departments, police, and hospitals.

"Information must be released UNLESS it is judged that the public interest in NOT disclosing it is greater than the public interest in releasing it".

The exemptions of the Act includes things such as special forces and trades secrets etc (not public sector).

The individual seeking information is not obliged to reveal why they require the information, and the institution's response must (usually) be within 20 working days.

Right now in the media there is an amusing example of the use of the Freedom of Information Act in Sussex, where the local Brighton newspaper (The Argus) has exposed that "an OAP crimewave is washing across Sussex". It details that hundreds of old age pensioners have been arrested in the county for an array of offenses including fraud, assault, and serious sexual offenses.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8629391.OAPs__Sussex_crime_wave/

WINOL: week six running schedule

2010-11-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

NEWS

Lead Story

Student Fees Demo (consists of two packages)

Preemptive package about demonstration (VT Jack Courtez)

Tuition fee report from London (Live OB with Will Cooper and Maddie Klippel)

Total Length: 2 mins 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Second Story

Tuition fee rises will force poorer people to look for cheaper Universities (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Third Story

Budget Cuts (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Social Zoning (Joey Lipscombe)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fifth Story

Poppy Appeal (Michael Connolly)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

And Finally...

Bird Seed Cake (Gareth Messenger)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: 12pm Weds

SPORT (2 mins)

Short highlight clips - football

- rugby

What's On

Fireworks VT

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: WEEK 5

2010-11-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

It was an amazing bulletin this week, consisting of strong stories and a celebrity guest. The large choice of stories this week enabled us to pick and choose which packages we used and also didn't affect production when some packages failed to meet their deadlines. In addition, the green screen has been improved enormously and now gives a really professional feel to the whole WINOL setup.

The criticisms have diminished so much that analytically, it is very hard to give negative criticisms... However there are some, and here they are:

- Reporters need to use better headline clips.

- White balance needs to remain consistent.

- Gun mic was in shot in places.

- A greater variation needs to be put in place for interviewing sequences.

- More even length for all interviewees.

- Poor graphic image.

- Expected package lengths were not what they were originally set as, which caused confusion.

- Presenter talking over people speaking in headline clips.

- Lack of sound in GVs.

- Jolty cuts in interview audio.

- Overuse of walking shots.

- Some voiceover soundtracks sounded echoey.

All in all, the bulletin was arguably the best yet with a professional and compelling bulletin having been produced, which would have appealed to all demographics.

WINOL Stats Update

2010-11-08T02:18:00.000-08:00

We are now finally in the top million websites - according to the Alexa ranking - with WINOL. We are currently ranked at 996,112, which is an excellent position to be in and any further ranking improvements will be nothing short of exceptional; in the past three months we have moved up well over one million places. The sheer velocity at which the site ranking has gone up has been astronomical, and is really everything we could have hoped for given the reality of the situation i.e. we are a non-funded, student-based publication.

The reach percentage has improved again and has gone up 180% in the past month. The percentage of global users who visit winol.co.uk has now reached 0.00031% in the past month, which I know sounds very small and is difficult to put into perspective, but it is a grand improvement from 0.0001% which is where were at at the beginning of the semester.

Despite being able to draw many positives and improvements in traffic, there are numerous negatives which can be interpreted from Alexa with regards to WINOL's impact and significance. Firstly, the daily page views per user does not have appeared to have changed in the last three months, with viewers viewing just one page per visit (presumably the homepage). The fact that the traffic has increased but the number of page views remains unchanged implies that promotion and word of mouth is significant in bringing people to the site but perhaps the content or image of the site is rendering it as not worth staying on by users.

In addition to this, the bounce percentage has risen in the past month by 6% giving an overall percentage of 73% of single page views on WINOL. This again shows that people are checking the site out but immediately leaving, although it could mean that people are coming to the website and leaving soon after, it is far more likely that people are just viewing one page because the bulletin is embedded on the homepage. The fact that the site's traffic has increased, along with the amount of time people stay on the site, indeed suggests that people are coming for the advertised bulletin.

This brings me nicely on to the amount of time users are spending on the site. The time is now set at about 4 minutes per user. This is very good, but most people would visit the site to view the advertised bulletin which is 10 minutes in length. When you consider this, it could be interpreted that a lot of people are tuning out half way through the bulletin, but the fact we have retained their attention for that long is in itself impressive. Also, much of our traffic comes from the competition, which is only two minutes in length, so when you take an average from the bulletin, competition, and other articles, a good estimation would be around 4 minutes per user, so...

Search Engine Optimization has again soared, going up by 22% in the last month alone. This demonstrates that people are both searching for us, and, that where people are not, the fact that the traffic is going up gives us greater improved search optimisation. In addition to this, the top three search engine query increases which bring traffic to the site all have the word "winol" within them, which is excellent.

With regards to article hits, the competition still remains the most viewed, with features also dominating the top positions. The studio guest interview with Chesney Hawkes has brought us a significant amount of hits, and I am sure it will take the top spot away from the competition due to the fact that it's impact is so great already and considering it has only just been uploaded to the site. So a good point to take on board would be to increase the number of studio guests we have in the broadcast.

To conclude, even though the majority of analysis is highly subjective by it's very nature, the overall signs suggest that the site and it's success is moving in a positive direction.

WINOL: Week 5

2010-11-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

Week five began with receiving our first complaint of this semester's WINOL. The complaint was from a studio guest who felt he was misrepresented in the final edit of a political debate. It seemed that what it all boiled down to was a lack of communication between those running the discussion and those participating in it. To me, it didn't really feel like anyone in particular was to blame, as those who made the production told the guests that the final piece would be edited, however, I digress. I had to email the person who put in the complaint to offer an apology on behalf of WINOL but the individual wasn't too forthcoming in accepting the apology; after all, he felt he had been massively misrepresented so.... It took an email from Chris to diffuse the situation, however I feel that if we asked the guest back for another studio chat, that he would respectfully decline.

The whole setup had a re-jig this week as Claire became the new News Editor. This gave a fresh feel to the newsroom, and freed up Kayleigh to become Entertainment Editor. To help Claire I gave her all the contact details of the beat reporters and Sports team, which then led to me reworking the news schedule and distributing it around the newsroom to give a sense of change with Claire as the new News Editor.

Again, as with previous weeks, I mostly just undertook my various Managing Editor responsibilities to ensure the smooth running of operations i.e. continuing to complain about the state the computers are in at the moment, changing the flyers to attract more viewers (include Chesney Hawkes).

On Wednesday we had a mass push on all flyers as we had the biggest guest we have ever had on WINOL. This meant producing and distributing around 400 flyers, and giving them out further than just the campus limits. After this I went to do Vision Mixing again for the second time. This went far more smoothly than last week as the reporters had left their packages long so as not to leave any black holes. However there were still problems with timings, which meant that when I mixed the vision the packages often didn't start for a split second and that looked rather unprofessional.

Next week I will discover what I can make from my contacting the Daily Echo...

Media Law and Ethics: Privacy and Confidentiality

2010-11-02T08:26:00.001-07:00

Privacy and Confidentiality in the UK is both good and bad. It is good in the sense that we have amazing privacy laws within the UK, which is in a sense quite reassuring for the public. However, for the budding journalist, the issue of privacy can often prove somewhat of an Everest obstacle.

List the notes.

Breach of Confidentiality And Secrecy

-State Secrets: This covers the Official Secrets Act. Problems for journalists are that they could inadvertantly divulge information about the military through filming etc, which could be used by an enemy.

-Commercial Secrets: Common Law Confidentiality.

-Privacy: Human Rights Act Section 8 'normal enjoyment of family life'.

Breach of Confidence is information which is unfairly passed on that:

-has the "necessary quality of confidence" - not just heresy.

-the individual would expect the person being told to keep to themselves.

-there was no permission to pass on.

-will cause detriment to the person who gave the information.

-If any of the above criteria is not met then there is no breach of confidence.

Gagging Clauses in Employment Contracts

If an individual is employed by someone or a company then they owe their employer a "duty of confidence". This stands even if there is no agreement to this within the contract, or even if there is no contract of employment.

An employee can be dismissed without compensation if they break a gagging clause. The public interest defence is very limited when complaints can be dealt with internally.

Professional Confidentiality

Information shared with a doctor should remain confidential unless the doctor has been given permission by the patient to divulge the confidential information. If an individual puts out confidential information about a person or a company then they are in 'breach of confidence'.

If a journalist publishes confidential information they have obtained then they have committed the crime of 'third party breach of confidence'.

Confidentiality in UK law is a residual right.

Section 8 of Human Rights Act (Family Life Privacy)

This issue of privacy tabloid journalism, particularly when pictures are taken of celebrities etc when they are unaware of their photo being taken. Journalists only have the right to publish persoanl photographs if there is consent given and/or the images are in the public interest (not to be confused with 'interest by the public').

In addition to this the act is also concerned with the publication of the details of anyone's family life.

Current Privacy issues in the media

Presently in the media, Google are under fire from British Privacy laws, and is the first company set to be fined under the laws, after it downloaded private passwords and emails. Google said they involuntarily collated payload data from unprotected wireless Internet networks while they sent round cars photographing residential areas for it's Street View Project.

Although Google alerted authorities when they realised what was happening, and insisted that they never intended to use any of the acquired information, the already privacy-intrusive scheme may possibly be fined, and although the fine will make no difference whatsoever to Google's finance, it's reputation will most certainly be dented.

The UK law criteria for breach of privacy are a bit shakey here, as no one has been directly identified through the "inadvertent" data collection, but there a firm grounds for missuse of private information.

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: WEEK 4

2010-11-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

Despite initial signs pointing to there being no bulletin produced whatsoever, the team produced quite a plausible production - helped mainly by the quality of Andy's crime report. All the stories were quite strong and engaging yet there were massive problems, and tension was very high.

The most significant point was that many of the reporters had either not delivered, or their stories had fallen through at the last minute. The problem was that the production team was unaware of this and this slowed up and unnerved them (I was on vision mixing so I was in a prime position to witness this). Further problems were that the reporters weren't meeting their deadlines despite being prompted to hurry up, and although this did not turn out to hinder the production, I'm sure that leaving editing so close to the bulletin being put out will prove fatal if repeated.

There are still problems with the bulletin, but other than lack of content, problems are being reduced on a huge scale. However the problems which are not being resolved are the ones which appear week in week out:

- blackholes: both within the packages themselves and in the live production due to the fact that VTs haven't been left long so that gaps appear in the vision mixing between VTs and presenters.

-varying audio levels. Even if the levels were consistent within a package, the audio levels of each package are always different to the next or the volume of the presenter.

-audio between reporters and interviewees (in VTs) has no gaps and feels too continuous. This makes it feel like the viewer is being overloaded with information as there are no gaps and time to interpret the information.

WINOL: week five running schedule

2010-11-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

News

Lead Story

Lack of Graduate Careers (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Second Story

Rugby Bible Hate Crime (Andrew Giddings)

Length: 1min 10secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Third Story

Fireworks Undercover (Jack Courtez)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Southampton Council redundancy payout (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fifth Story

Bar End Parking Permit Extortion (Gareth Messenger)

Length:

Deadline: Weds 12pm

...And Finally

Winchester/Westminster Restaurant Award (Aimee Pickering)

Length: 1 min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Sport

Eastleigh bounce back

Length: 40sec VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Winchester V Brading Town

Length: 30secs VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Women's Football

Length: 20secs VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Roundup

Graphic

POSSIBLE SOUTHAMPTON OLYMPIC TORCH STORY

REVISED WINOL SCHEDULE

2010-11-01T06:43:00.001-07:00

MONDAY (planning day/ early writing)

09.30: Attend for de-briefing and planning sessions – read the papers 

10.00: De-brief re: previous edition (Ed) 12.00: News desk - research prospects 

02.15: Features conference (Feats Ed) 

02.15: News and Sport conference (News Ed)

03.30: Main editorial conference (Ed)

04.30: 2nd Features conference (newsroom) (Feats Ed) 

04.30: 2nd News conference (Feats Ed) 

04.30: Management meeting (Learning Cafe) (Editor/Man Ed/ Prod Ed/ CH)

TUESDAY

Writing and early production day

WEDNESDAY (production day/ publication)

09.00: Editorial Conference – Editor, News Editor, Production Editor, (Chief Reporter) – sort out the running order for the daily bulletin.

10.00: Subbing news pages/creating pages 01.00: Deadline for finished news pages to chief sub

02.00: Subbing/creating features pages for next week (deadline 5pm)

02.00: Write/Edit News Index (deadline 4pm) NE/CS 02.00: Write/Edit Features Index (dline 4pm) FE/CS 

02.00: Write/Edit Listings Index (deadline 4pm) AEE/CS

03.00: Write/Edit Front Page (deadline 5pm) Ed/CS
04.00: Live broadcast (on days when this is happening).

WINOL: Week 4

2010-11-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

Week four of WINOL was fairly beneficial for me as far as Managerial Editing experience goes. As well as my usual administrative responsibilities being undertaken i.e. making sure that temporary news running orders and features schedules are circulated and made readily available, I also have been enjoying the position and freedom to promote WINOL to the best of my ability with the resources available to me.

On Monday morning I was in the news room early and then began to prepare notes for Catherine's debrief. We usually go through the bulletin before she gives her debrief, and today was particularly significant as I wasn't sure if she would make the debrief... Fortunately she did; I say fortunately as she is a far more confident public speaker than I, and I would have been the one who stepped in to give the talk.

In an attempt to further boost viewing figures and traffic hits, I began conferring with the Southern Daily Echo. They are very happy to allow the WINOL team to come down and discuss ways in which we can work together. At present I am in talks to getting the team to broadcast the bulletin from the Echo. It looks highly likely that we will be able to do this, however, the fact that we have many guest editors for the next for weeks means that we will have to postpone this until we are free.

A further promotional aspect I had to overcome this week was the fact that WINOL had - despite me giving all the relevant information - failed to be advertised by the hampshire.gov website. This site has a list of events on it that happen in Winchester, so listing our WINOL will certainly bring traffic to the site. It was seemingly difficult for them to put up something which was fairly easy - in my opinion - to do.

Standard Managerial roles I undertook this week included: publishing the WINOL stats, trying to resolve the issue of slow computers, help reassign a member of the team unhappy with their current role, enquire about PC advertising.

On request, I wrote a comment piece on the Guardian Awards, which I put up on the wall for students to read, as well as my two blogs, to encourage them to get involved and nominate themselves and others.

Production-wise, I helped Andy film his package this week, took part in the production of "Hot Topics", and for the bulletin I controlled the vision mixing.

At the end of the week Winchester News Online was now officially advertised on the Winchester City Council website.

WINOL: week four running schedule

2010-10-26T03:53:00.000-07:00

News

Lead Story

GBH (Andrew Giddings)
Length: 2mins VT
Deadline: Weds 12pm

Second Story

Depression jobs (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min 15secs NIB

Deadline: Weds 1pm

Third Story

Gower Graduation (Aimee Pickering))

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 9am

Sport

Winchester Comeback
Length: 50secs VT

Guy Butters Interview

1min

Totton
Length: 22secs OOV

Basketball

Length: 28secs VT

WINOL STATS

2010-10-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

With the Third week of WINOL now safely under our belts, the amount of traffic has risen considerably. Both the Alexa Ranking and the GB Ranking has gone up again, giving an obvious indication that the amount of activity WINOL is experiencing has increased. I predict, and would be very disappointed, if the rankings do not continue to rise in the next few weeks as WINOL enters a period of stability and routine.

Now for the real stats, the percent of global Internet users who visit winol.co.uk has risen by 30%, and although the percentage is very low for overall internet traffic, for it to rise by such a percentage is no mean feat. In addition to this, the percentage of visits to winol.co.uk that consist of a single page view has also gone down. This can be interpreted in a number of ways: people are actively seeking out and are thus navigating the site, or that people have accidentally stumbled upon WINOL and are genuinely interested and intrigued by it's content.

The time spent on the site has risen dramatically by 165%. This is simply because we have added new content etc, but I am sure that promotion and competitions have had a huge effect on the traffic hits. On top of this, the bounce percentage has fallen again, and by 10%. The fact that the bounce rate has reduced, by no matter how much, is very positive and speaks volumes for us as a publication; people are logging on and not leaving the site on first glance.

The percentage of visits to winol.co.uk that come from a search engine has gone down again by 85%. This is very positive as people are going straight to our URL- meaning that people are taking note of the various mediums of promotion made available. Increased promotion brings people straight to the site, making the use of a search engine redundant. Despite the fact we have made our URL noticeable, the concept of search engine optimisation needs to be looked at, as even if people are looking for us, they may not find us. A negative factor in less search engine searches reaching us is that it doesn't bring WINOL higher on Google and others, which is a problem.

More notes of positivity can be taken from the Search Query Results. More direct searches for WINOL are bringing users to the site i.e. the most common search that brings people to the site is 'winol tv'. This is particularly interesting as it shows that people know we have a bulletin and that these people are not people who are overly familiar with us (meaning unique viewers), because our own students, and people who regularly use WINOL, know that we are not called "Winol TV". Furthermore, "Ba Journalism Winchester" has gone down in regards to the search enquiries which bring traffic to WINOL, which means people are searching for us as an independent news provider as opposed to a University-based publication.

As far as what content users are viewing when on WINOL- our top three most viewed articles are made up of our competition and two features. This would reaffirm the saying that 'people come for the news but stay for the features'. Clearly features are a vital tool in increasing traffic flow. It was obvious from the start of WINOL that the competition would bring the most traffic to the site, but it is now clear that features are bringing more traffic than news, so ensuring that they are of a high quality is imperative.

National Student Journalism Awards

2010-10-25T01:47:00.000-07:00

The number of awards for journalism excellence are certainly on the rise. With the Guardian Journalism awards increasing their categories of awards, and other establishments initiating their own prizes, there has never been a better time to celebrate journalistic achievement.

For Journalism students at the University of Winchester to win any of these awards would be hugely significant for a manner of reasons. As far as publicity goes, to win such a prestigious award would direct attention towards the University of Winchester's Journalism courses, and drive focus and crucial traffic towards our deservedly treasured Winchester News Online publication.

As I write this, many people's faces spring to mind, who, I feel, could easily put up strong competition, if not, win, any of these awards. Despite the shortlist consisting of mostly Russell Group Universities, there are a few educational institutes which are certainly on a par with the meagre reputation of that of the University of Winchester e.g. Nottingham Trent University who have two entrants this year for the category of Broadcast Journalist of the Year alone! I mean, come on, if we can't muster up one credible journalist for the Guardian's shortlist, and Nottingham Trent have two, then there is something seriously wrong.

The notorious Guardian Student Media Awards are unfortunately now closed to new entries, but if we prepare now then we can triumph in every category next year. This year there are six categories of awards, which include: Publication of the Year, Reporter of the Year, Writer of the Year, Photographer of the Year, Digital Journalist of the Year, and Broadcast Journalist of the Year.

For Publication of the Year, there is indeed some very credible entrants this year. The University of Manchester's The Mancunion, and Kingston University's the River, offer very good arguments for claiming the prize, with both being very content-rich and engaging. However, Winchester News Online offers a greater sense of interactivity as well as consisting of intriguing content. Both these challengers offer very little in the way of video; they certainly don't produce live news bulletins, but where they come up trumps is that their writers are clearly gifted wordsmiths who produce content thick and fast. If Winchester News Online improves it's feature content and reputation, it would easily take the prize as Publication of the Year due to it being both more attractive and user-friendly than potential rivals. To get noticed we need to promote and nominate WINOL, or it will be forever condemned to the depths of obscurity and anonymity, while lazier and archaic publications reap the rewards through lack of evolutionary competition.

On an individual level there are also some very gifted people who could enter and win the categories of Reporter of the Year, Writer of the Year, and Photographer of the Year. As proved with the Gonzo pieces - where the third years followed an MP on their campaign trail - we can make great copy and I strongly believe that some of the footage would not look out of place on a television programme such as Channel 4's Dispatches. And what's more, with the dedication and lengths that many reporters are willing to go for a great story for WINOL, what excuse is there not to nominate yourself or for others not to nominate you? The same goes for Writer of the Year and Photographer of the Year - Many writers and one particular photographer spring to mind as I write. It's all about putting yourselves out there!

As far as Winchester News Online is concerned, it will win next year's Publication of the Year- If it doesn't then then justice has not been fulfilled.

Media Law and Ethics: Defences

2010-10-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Despite Defenses being one of the briefer areas discussed in Mcnae's Essential Law For Journalists, let that take nothing away from it's significance and importance in Journalism law.

As with other lectures, we were given a written task, which depicted a situation that could cause controversy (i.e. libel) in being published. The task was to study a series of quotes with regard to the topic of the planning permission for wind turbines, and decide which quotes were safe to run and what sort of privilege protected us Journalists.

Here is an example of one of the quotes which gives balance and fair comment (defence) about the erection of the wind turbines:

'Mr Wagstaff isn't at the meeting, but one of his employees Geoff Salt is. He says: "I'm no expert on green energy, but Mr Wagtaff has told me that without the income form the turbines, he might have to pack it in, and I'll be on the dole. So I think it's a good idea."' Including this quote gives balance, as such a quote defends Mr Wagstaff, who is under attack form other people, with regards to him putting up the wind turbines. This would be an essential quote to include in any article publication as it would stop the article being one-sided.

An example of a quote which should only be included in an article after being deemed safe was: 'After the meeting has ended, Mr Eagle comes up to you and says: "The truth is that Wagstaff was black-balled by the committee last year and this is his revenge. Not a lot I can say, but many of us think he was routinely handing in falsified cards. Never settled his bar bill either. Not our sort at."' Using this quote could prove very dangerous indeed as it is highly defamatory of Mr Wagstaff. The points that Mr Eagle make about Mr Wagstaff cannot be classed as being of public interest as they are irrelevant with regards to the wind turbines being built. Also, the quote contains malice and prejudice throughout, which are aspects that make such claims hard to defend if they were to come to print. This is a very hot topic indeed.

The main points of discussion this week was that of Privilege. Privilege allows journalists to write or broadcast material which can be defamatory, or untrue, or even both at the same time. It gives us protection from being sued.

There are two types of privilege:

Absolute Privilege - where it is applicable, is a complete answer and bar to any action for defamation. It does not matter whether the words are true or false. It does not matter that they were spoken or written maliciously. Absolute Privilege applies to court reports, but reports must fair, accurate and contemporaneous.

Qualified Privilege - is available as a defence where it is considered important that the facts should be freely known in the public interest. Qualified Privilege is available on many occasions under statute (e.g. for a report of a public meeting). The defence is qualified because it is lost if the motive in publishing is malicious.

WINOL: Week 3

2010-10-22T01:45:00.000-07:00

Third week in and I am now very aware as to my responsibilties as Managing Editor. First thing, Monday morning, Cat and I went over the bulletin together to prepare for her debrief to everyone in the newsroom. We went over the notes from my blog, which I had written the night before so we left no stones unturned and all problems with the bulletin were noted to give the best possible feedback.

As far as directing people to the site goes, this week's progress is worth taking note. I sent endless emails to valued websites who could link us to sites, which in turn will increase our traffic through the accumulation of more back links. As well as sending many emails, I also added an an event to the Winchester City Council website so that anyone visiting the site will see our website advertised (winchester.gov.uk). In addition to this, I requested advertising at the Discovery Centre in Winchester.

For the first time I published our statistics for www.winol.co.uk. The statitics were accompanied by a detailed analysis as to where we are at the moment as far as traffic stats and page rank etcetera, and also what we now need to do to improve the number of hits and unique users we receive. From the analysis of lasts year's Winol and that of the previous week, it was blantantly obvious that most of our traffic was coming from people visiting our competitions, so it was clear that we needed a big drive in competiton promotion for this week (my area); I decided we needed double the amount of flyers than the previous week. The analysis of statistics led to me making a new blog - on Chris's requests - that would detail all of my notes, which I thought would be of use to everyone on the course (www.winolinformation.blogspot.com).

At the editor's meeting I had to stand in for Kayleigh, which meant I had to take notes and discuss the strength of the stories, with the other editors, that the reporters had offered earlier that day. This was simple but good experience for me for the future when I have to stand in for others again. After this, I made my usual notes on the temporary running orders, which would be put on the wall and made available to people (who wanted them) in the newsroom.

After discussing the issue of promotion with Brian, we decided that radio could be a good path to go down. Most local radio stations didn't get back to me, however I got in contact with South Today (ambitious, I know) and they suggested that Winol could try and get some promotion on BBC Radio Solent. They suggested that I could try and get on the Nick Girdler programme to talk about Winol - this an area I am definitely going persue in the next few weeks. Local Radio would be a great way to promote us as people respect the honesty of radio, and if we could get someone on from Winol, our traffic would easily double.

Other Managing Editor responsibilties I had to do this week included: helping to write the competititon script, making all hard-copy advertisment and leaflets, intervene in disputes between one of the section managers and one of their writers, keep the news room tidy and equipped with essentials (i.e. newspapers and paper for the printer), emailing Keith to put the word out on Wednesday, and run and edit the autocue script.

The achievement I am most pleased with this week is an email I received on Friday from Ian Murray (Editor of the Daily Echo). As with many other publications, I had asked if we could promote ourselves via there publications and establish links with their sites, and Ian had got back to me and said that there would be a posssibilty of Winol working with the Daily Echo and that we should come to the Daily Echo to discuss working with their paper.

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: WEEK 3

2010-10-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

It was a highly satisfactory bulletin this week, with everything running far more smoothly than it had in the previous two weeks. Despite major changes and updates to the bulletin at the last minute, we were able to film with one attempt, which bodes very well for us producing live bulletins in the future.

Our guest editor was South Today's Editor, Lee Desty. He commended us on many aspects of the production, including the discipline everyone maintained throughout the day - he was very impressed with the direction and attitude of the gallery and studio floor. It was good to have a different and insightful perspective, as his input and feedback was somewhat of a change from the normal feedback, and as it came from a person who produces news bulletins daily, was invaluable.

Particular points he picked up on, which I now whole-heartedly agree with, was the fact that our headlines were not engaging enough and had low impact due to their short nature. He stressed the importance to make our headlines more catchy, and reaffirmed that if our headlines are not catchy then a news bulletin loses its appeal.

Another point he picked up on was the fact that sometimes we don't remain impartial in reporting and convey far too much opinion. This is a key point, and one which is often, wrongfully, overlooked. I believe that our packages refrain from malice and libel but sometimes too much comment creeps in. The overuse of comment will only lead to more serious consequences such as contempt of court or alienating viewers.

Further points he picked up on was the length of sport in the bulletin. I acknowledge the fact that sport is an essential part of the bulletin, but I have thought for a long time now, that it is far too dominating - making up 30% of the bulletin. I feel that sometimes the news part of the bulletin acts as merely a warm-up act for the sport as far as it's importance goes.

Personally, this week, I felt like there was a distinct lack of communication between the gallery and the studio floor. This point can be best summed up by the fact that there were changes in the script at the last minute which were not mentioned to anyone on the studio floor; this meant that there was no changes in the autocue. An even more freightening point was that those in the gallery had made a decision to cut a package from the bulletin but the presenters and those on the studio floor were unaware of these changes. This simply would not fly in a televised studio news bulletin. If it wasn't for the run-throughs, the presenter would have read a link which had nothing to do with the VT that followed.

Further points of consideration:

- Audio problems

- Dominating actuality over voiceovers

- Audio overlapped: interview and voiceover

- Problems with wind

- Oddly positioned interviews (not at eye-level)

- Bizarre cutaways with no relevance to story

- Overuse of GVs

- Strap lines appeared whilst interviewee was performing tasks, not talking

Overall, I think I speak for the whole team when I say that I'm very pleased with this week's production. With the all-round improvements in content and production, and improved promotion, I would be very surprised if our traffic has not improved greatly this week.

Media Law and Ethics: Libel

2010-10-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Although already having written a blog on libel and defamation, I stumbled upon an article on The Guardian website, and felt compelled to blog on it.

The article's tone discusses the inabilty of the average person to be able to persue libel action as the risks of entering a libel lawsuit costs, usually, a minimum of £150,00. The article is very much of the opinion that the libel law is one which is merely reserved for big businesses who can afford to sue for libel. This is terrible! The very laws put in place to protect the INDIVIDUAL's - as well as business' - public reputation are simply useless with such financial restrictions put upon those who may have been publicly mistreated.

The article goes on to argue why the issues of libel is reserved to being heard at the High Court when compared to other more serious issues which are heard at less important courts. The argument is that libel cases should be heard in lower courts (County Courts), which don't entail massive fees associated with the High Courts.

See the full article below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/oct/18/libel-reform-high-court

WiNOL: week three running schedule

2010-10-18T08:58:00.001-07:00

Lead Story

Cutting funding to homeless charities (Jack Courtez)
Length: 1min 15secs VT
Package Deadline: Weds 10am

Second Story
Court Report (Andrew Giddings)
Length: 40secs NIB
Package Deadline: Weds 10am

Third Story
Council Take Away Allotments (Stu Appleby)
Length: 1min 10secs VT
Package Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Train Fares Rise (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min 10secs VT

Package Deadline: Weds 11am

Written Deadline: Thurs 12pm

Fifth Story

Public Debate (Gareth Messenger)

Length: 1min VT

Package Deadline: Weds 10am

Written Deadline: Thurs 10am

And Finally

Bishop Doctorate (Michael Connolly)

Length: 1min VT

Package Deadline: Weds 12pm

SPORT (3 minutes)

East Cowes V Winchester (Grant Payne and Karen Purnell)

Length: 30 secs VT

Package Deadline: Weds 4am

Women's football: Winchester V Eastleigh (Rebecca Gray)

Length: 30 secs VT

Package Deadline: Tues 5pm

Basketball (James Fraser)

Length: 30 secs

Package Deadline: Tues 5pm

Ice Hockey

TBA

PLUS GRAPHICS

WINOL: STATISTICS AFTER SECOND BULLETIN

2010-10-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

WINOL has slowly but surely begun to move up the Alexa ranking after a dormant summer of complete inactivity. We moved from something like 12,000,000 up to the current 1,414,368 in a few weeks of resuming the activity on the site via updating the site and promotion.

Although it is to be expected that our Alexa ranking would increase now we have resumed production again, it is nonetheless encouraging, and somewhat of a morale-booster, to see that the site is gaining more traffic. In addition, some very important factors to take into consideration include the fact our bounce rate % has fallen by 18%, meaning that people are actively seeking us out to view content, or that those who have accidentally reached the WINOL site have not immediately clicked off. Equally impressive is the fact that in one month, the amount of time people stay on the site has risen by 124%, which is nothing short of exceptional.

Furthermore, the percentage of people who have visited WINOL by using a search engine has decreased by 61%. This can be interpreted in two ways: either people are responding to the advertising and are logging on by going straight to the website, or, alternately, that it is simply people who know the WINOL address well (e.g. journalism students) who are visiting the site as they have no need to use a search engine - I choose to acknowledge the former interpretation.

When analysing the data from Joomla with regards to traffic and hits etc, it is clear that competitions are a huge factor when determining the amount of traffic, which Winchester news Online receives. At present, the Win With Winol competition is the second most viewed feature of the site.

Such competitions are integral for both bringing and maintaining traffic numbers. The screenshot below reveals the hits on WINOL from last year, and it is clear that the majority of traffic brought to the site was from competition appeal; both the first and second most viewed features were competitions. SO it is essential to continue to promote WINOL through competitions as well as other forms of advertising.

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: week two

2010-10-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

Another cracking bulletin this week, with interesting and engaging stories throughout. I can honestly say that I was interested in every story this week. The scripts were strong (both the presenter's and reporter's), which is far better than last week, as often I felt a tad lost when trying to grip the essence of some of the stories, or felt that the presenter's script told too much of the story - this was not a problem this week.

However - as we experience in the debriefs - it is far easier to criticise for errors, as they are much more obvious than the good points, which are taken for granted. The fact that there are few points to pick up on this week, implies that the bulletin is moving forward in quality, however, some mistakes are so easily rectified, and so glaringly obvious, that it ruins an otherwise quality bulletin through negligent inconsistencies.

Personal points I noted include:

- Rushed opening sequence. The first headline felt like it was squeezed into the opening sequence. It's only a minor thing, but it's points like these which distinguishes the likes of professional bulletins and our own.

- Audio was another massive issue this week. Some packages even had numerous different audio levels to them.

- Some voice overs were too quiet, and had to compete with background actuality sound.

- Audio merged in two different interviews.

- Cutaways would often happen before we really got to see what an interviewee actually looked like.

- Again, strap lines were too brief.

- Jumpy shots. (It is easy to get a tripod)

- Overexposure of shots. This looks absolutely terrible.

- OOV didn't work and felt cringe worthy to watch due to poor timing.

- A point which I noted on the noticeboard, was that the first years believe the voice overs to be unenthusiastic (a view which I share).

As far as content goes, the bulletin this week was top notch. Journalistically, it was of a high quality as everything was interesting and news-worthy, but the simple things let the production down; eradicate these, and our bulletin is perfect. Then the only problems we have is studio production, which will get better with time as people become more acquainted with their responsibilities in both the gallery and the studio floor. For me to only be able to find flaws in the list above is something of an achievement in itself, I feel.

Media Law and Ethics: Defamation

2010-10-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

In the same vein as last week, the beginning of the lecture consisted of us undertaking a task to assess the area of law we are studying. This week, the topic of the lecture was Defamation. We were given a series of statements made by people about a housing company, who it would appear is not fulfilling its duties and responsibilities properly.

One statement read, "They keep making promises they will fix things, but nothing happens. There's definitely something wrong with this company. I reckon that boss of their's John Smith is raking off all the cash and hiding it from the council - how else would he be driving that Bentley of his?" This is a highly defamatory statement and s

uch a statement is very libelous due to the fact that it would cause harm to John Smith's business, and he could possibly be shunned and avoided via these unfair comments. The fact that the words 'raking off' are used, implies that he is partaking in some sort of illegal operation. As these are merely uninformed personal opinions, they don't have any libel defences i.e. justification, as they have not checked the facts. So this is an example of libel.

Alternately, an example of a 'safe' defamation statement we examined in class reads, "If you ask me most of the problems seem to be with this sub-contractor they've been using - Peerless Plumbing. Totally incompetent and haven't got a clue what they are doing. I wasn't at all surprised to see that Hampshire Trading Standards took them to court last week for making a total mess of an old lady's house and then overcharging her for the privilege". This is entirely justified defamation on the speaker's part. He is giving his ho

nest opinion which is a clear defense against any libel issues which may crop up. In addition to this, he is also basing his opinions on facts and public interest as it is fact that the Trading Standards took Peerless Plumbing to court, and it is in the public interest that an old lady was financially exploited.

PUBLICATION + DEFAMATION + IDENTIFICATION = LIBEL

Defamation

- Lowering someone in the 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.

Defamation via Pictures

- Common danger in TV

- Careless use of background shots with a voice over.

- People or companies must not be unidentifiable in certain contexts e.g. fraud news package. (Juxtaposition).

- Imprecise shots e.g. filming a business premises that has been investigated for fraud, but the shot includes other businesses in close proximity of the one being investigated.

Reputation and Meaning

- Reputation is important if you are in public

life, have money, or both.

- Meaning as interpreted by reasonable man.

- Inference and Innuendo are both hazardous.

- Asses the whole context.

Libel Defenses

- Justification - it's true and we can prove it.

- Fair comment - honestly held opinion based upon facts, or privileged material, in public interest.

- Absolute privilege - court reporting

- Qualified privilege - police quotes, pressers.

Further Defenses

- Bane and Antidote - defamation removed by context (balancing).

- Apologies and clarifications.

Reynolds Defense

- Material must be : in the public interest

product of reasonable journalism.

NO Defense

- Not checked the facts

- Not "referred up"

- When you haven't put yourself in the shoes of the person/company you write about.

- Got carried away with a juicy story.

- Not bothered to wait for lawyer's opinion.

Recognise Risk

- Who am I writing about, and could they sue?

- Is what I'm writing about defamatory?

- Do I have a defense?

A famous libel case was the case where the Sunday Mirror (2008) ran an article claiming that Kerry Katona (formerly of Atomic Kitten) worked as a prostitute before she became famous as a performing artist. The story was based on the Mirror claiming that Katona's mother was to release a book which would have detailed such claims. However, Katona's mother has not written an autobiography or is even set to publish.

This was highly libelous on the part of the Sunday Mirror as the results of these unfair claims would have unfairly caused Katona to be defamed. Much of her finances comes from advertising, and such media coverage would - if it wasn't to be found untrue - have caused her to be shunned or avoided, damaged her profession, and exposed her to ridicule. (However I'm not sure that such findings would have lowered her in the estimations of right thinking people HAHAHA).

For this particular case there are no defenses, and after being taken to court, it seems that the Sunday Mirror had merely fabricated such a story to sell papers... NOT A VALID DEFENSE.

WINOL: week 2

2010-10-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

WINOL is now in full swing, and I'm now very familiar with what is required of me as Managing Editor. There was very much a sense of relief and comfort buzzing round the newsroom this week as both the second and third years settled into their roles.

For me, this week has a somewhat bitter-sweet taste to it, as I felt frustrated and elated at times with both my downfalls and successes respectively. First thing on Monday morning I met with Tim Moss of the Student Union to finally get an advert for WINOL on SUBTV. Everything seemed great as he informed me that as soon as I edited an image with layered strap lines, that he would put it on the TVs. However, when I got to the newsroom, he sent me a message saying that WINOL would need to pay a fee if it was to have such advertisement rights! I explained that it would be difficult to raise such funding, so I offered the Student Union (him) free advertising on Winchester News Online as opposed to paying the financial installments. He agreed and the rest is history.

Other advertising included putting signs out advertising the bulletin and the website, and a competition to encourage traffic to the site. I decided to have raffle tickets attached to every leaflet Paul and I designed, as I felt that the fact that there was a raffle ticket on the flyers meant people would immediately become interested as the semantics of raffle tickets and winning prizes is so strong; I went on the theory that everybody loves to win prizes, so they will visit the site). After we decided on the format of a competition, "Win With Winol" was filmed.

Additional promotion included getting the Faculty of Arts to circulate emails to students within the faculty, putting a message on the portal, announcing the bulletin through Facebook. On top of this, Brian had given me a lesson on Search Engine Optimization. The idea is to essentially increase both WINOL's page ranking and Alexa Ranking. There are numerous ways of doing this, including getting relevant websites to link to our own URL so that we can increase the number of valuable back links, thus increasing the traffic of WINOL. SO I have now embarked on a mission to get as many back links, from as many well-respected websites, as possible.

On Monday I attended the usual Features, News, and Editors meetings. But, as Veronica was away filming a feature package, I stepped in her place as features editor and relayed all the information she requested as well as reaffirming deadlines and listening to new ideas for features. After the meetings I forwarded her a run down of how they went and also gave her all the new information I had acquired at them.

On Tuesday, I filled in for Catherine - who was up filming in London - as editor. I wanted to use this time to really assert myself as a capable manager and someone who could fill Catherine's shoes. However I felt that despite me being Editor for the day, not much needed being done editorially; and where an editor was necessary people - upon realising Catherine was unavailable - would go to their respective editors instead of me, which disappointed me somewhat. I look forward to the next time I can assume the editor's role (preferably either on a Monday or a Wednesday).

Other "managing editor" roles I performed this week included: distributing a features timetable, setting all news deadlines, assembling and distributing the bulletin running orders, emailing all students to link their blogs to the WINOL URL, ordering new toner and fixing the printer, keeping the news room tidy, and collecting the newspapers every morning.

Winol: week two running schedule

2010-10-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

Lead Story

International students unable to use foreign ID (Jack Courtez)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Second Story

Tuition Fees (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Third Story

Journo Award (Madeleine Klippel)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Dog Court Report (Andrew Giddings)

Length: 1min 15secs VT

Deadline: Weds 10am

Fifth Story

Queen in Southampton (Aimee Pickering)

Length: 20secs OOV

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Sixth Story

Chocolate (Michael Connolly)

Length: 1min

Deadline: 5pm Tues VT

Sport

Winchester V Hayling (David Champion)

Length: 30secs

Deadline: Weds 9am

Alresford V Winchester Castle (Michael Smith)

Length: 30secs

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Varsity (Rebecca Gray)

Length: 30 secs

Deadline: Tues 6pm

Basingstoke Bisons (Highlights being sent in)

Length: 30secs

Deadline: Weds 9am

Basketball (James Fraser)

Length: 30secs

Deadline: Weds 9am

Graphics X2

Length: 45 secs

Deadline: Weds 12pm

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: week one

2010-10-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

After the first bulletin, which I must admit was an outstanding success, I feel I must give my Managing Editor's criticisms (ha). Despite a great first bulletin, which is a thousand times better than the first bulletin we (the third years) made in last year's first edition, there were clear mistakes with all VTs and production.

Key mistakes in this week's bulletin included:

Reporting:

- Problems with audio (interviews different volumes and wind noise)

- Some of the stories were difficult to follow as there were too many subordinate clauses etc.

- Strap lines were occasionally too short, and lacked detail/were not present when needed.

- Certain Gvs felt rushed and some were quite jerky.

- Need a greater variation in GVs. Certain GVs were used more than once.

- Guilty signs.

- Libeling people!

Production:

- No bed-music over headlines.

- Very obvious black holes in the headlines and throughout.

- The variation in sound levels of the headlines was odd.

Scripting:

- Scripts are needed for a presenters to appear professional and avoid mistakes.

- I felt some of the presenter's scripts told too much of the reporter's stories.

The fact that these are the only things which I can personally find any fault in suggests that we are very much on the right track. A lot of these mistakes can be rectified by experience, and I'm certain that they will be.

Media Law and Ethics: Reporting the Courts

2010-10-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

In today's lecture we deconstructed a fictitious scenario and analysed the various points at which we, the journalist, can report the news of criminal activity.

The task was very useful in conveying what a journalist can indeed print between the times before capturing criminals, upon their arrest (at this point the case becomes active), and before/during their trial. Ian had us right out various openings for stories where firstly: the police were on the lookout for two suspects, secondly: the police had made their arrests, and thirdly: the police had charged the suspects.

I found this most engaging and it acted as a great refresher of the various media laws, which we went on to study for the rest of the lecture.

The key points of the lecture were:

A case is legally active

- when the police make an arrest

- an arrest warrant is issued

- when the magistrates order a summons

- a person is charged

Detention without charge

- police normally have 24hrs maximum to question suspects

- an extension of 12hrs can be made by a senior officer

- further 36hrs detention if magistrates agree

- cannot exceed 96hrs

- terror suspects can be held for 28 days

Categories of offence

- Indictable-only: possible sentence of 5+ years, dealt by Crown Court

- Either-way: can go to Crown court of magistrates court i.e. assault (serious or not). Depends what the magistrates court decides or on defendant's choice.

- Summary offences: stay with the magistrates court

Magistrates' powers

- 6 months jail - fines up to £5000

- suspended sentences

- conditional discharge

- community orders

- binding over

- ASBOs

Pre-trial reports

- names of defendants, ages, addresses, occupations

- charges faced or a close summary

- name of court and magistrate's names

- names of solicitors and barristers present

- date and place to where court is adjourned

- arrangements as to bail

Key stages of trial

- prosecution opening

- key prosecution witnesses

- defense opening

- key defense witnesses

- judge summary

- jury sent out, deliberation and verdict

- sentencing

Court Reporting

- fair

- accurate

- contemporaneous (up to date)

- no recording (tapes etc)

Children and young people

- legally juvenile until 18

- generally anonymous until 18

- beware of accidental identification

Interestingly, in the media at present, there are issues of the restrictions/ lack of restrictions imposed on journalists. The Ministry of Justice is looking to further the rights of journalists for reporting in family courts. Family lawyers have greatly opposed the extended freedom for journalists to report issues in the family courts.

Journalists are allowed to report on family cases, but the proposed extensions of the Children Schools and and Families Act, will allow journalists to report individual cases.

The first phase of the Act means that most details will be allowed to be reported unless a judge says otherwise, identification and sensitive information can only be released if a judge agrees, the media can name paid expert witnesses. The second phase allows the media to report sensitive information, name all expert witnesses, and make it harder for judges to pose restrictions on journalists.

Solicitors are concerned that the changes in the act will deter children from giving vital evidence in a trail; fearing their own safety. The government is set to review the the issue before a conclusion and alterations are made on the act.

For an interesting read on journalists in court, check out this link:

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/law/101005reporters.shtml

WINOL: Week 1

2010-10-06T04:41:00.000-07:00

Well, my first week as managing editor flowed rather effortlessly in comparison to my initials fears and preconceptions of the job description.

Managing Editor

Convene the main editorial conferences and review of edition. Take notes of these meetings and circulate copies to all staff.
With the editor, ensure all editorial deadlines are met.
Answer all correspondence to the site, or ensure that it is answered, and adjudicate on any complaints.
Draw up and circulate lists of up to date contacts (phones, e-mail) make these available to all and keep track of all staff in a duty log on the wall.
Analyse and publish the weekly number of “hits” achieved by the site.
Adjudicate in any disputes between staff and allocate or re-allocate staff as appropriate.
Work with the section planning editors to ensure that the sectional and overall news/features planning diary is kept up to date and is disseminated.
Ensure that the newsroom is kept in good working order and establish working relationship with the technicians. Organise the arrival and storage of daily newspapers.
Make arrangements for the use of specialist equipment (eg cameras) as appropriate.
Deputise for the editor when required to do so.
Co-ordinate advertising and promotion of the site in conjunction with the course leader (publisher).
Answer to the editor and course leader.

As you can see, my role requires me to act as somewhat of a facilitator in ensuring the fluidity of all operations. Acting as Managing editor requires me to liasse between all department editors and the main editor. In addition to this I am also to act in aiding anybody when they require help.

My first week, despite being slightly overwhelmed and unsure of my real responsibilities, I did thoroughly enjoy it and found it most productive. Monday was very busy, and as managing editor, my work input was needed from the offset. My first task was to create the contact lists for new, sport, and features so that everybody could be easily contacted etc. Chris asked me to put them on my blog so as he could direct people to it, and in addition to this I also produced hard copies to be mounted on the wall at the front of the news room. Despite being a rather mundane task, it is essential and integral for a newsroom to function with any sort of efficieny, so I appreciated it's neccessity.

Much of Monday was dominated by various meetings between reporters and editors. I attended all of these meetings, writing notes and giving input where appropriate, but not too much so as not to undermine the news editor (Kayleigh) or the editor (Cat). From these meetings we were able to construct a provisional running order for the news bulletin, and a list of features and their respective deadlines. Again, as with the contacts lists, the news and features lists were available on my blog and the wall-hung hardcopies. In addition to this Kayleigh and I put up the temporary running order of the bulletin on the white board.

Making headway in promoting the site this week is worth mentioning as a triumph on my part. Through networking within the Union I managed to get permission for a still-image advertisements to be projected from the various screens within the Student Union. I am very pleased with this endeavor as I am well aware of the potential attention such exposure will give Winchester News Online. I couldn't even hazard a guess as to how many times I myself have stared aimlessly at the Union television screens when socialising there, so I am very confident that the advert will bring Winol a higher flow of traffic. The advert will consist of a photograph of the studio floor in action, and will convey, through text, the reasons why students should explore WINOL i.e. the inclusion of buzzwords such as, "WIN" and "PRIZE", are imperative to attract traffic. Also, over the next few days I wish to design and create attractive yet formative flyers and place them strategically throughout all areas of the University. In addition to this I further increased my email contacts list so as to alert as many people as possible about WINOL.

Other minor, yet important tasks I undertook this week in accordance with the criteria of managing editor included: relaying problems with the site to Chris (hyperlinks were not properly working), contacting Paul Manning to get permission for new furniture, getting Keith Edwards to spam everyone within the Faculty of Arts.

Other tasks which I undertook included: emailing the news team to tell them what Catherine expects them to bring to the news meeting next Monday, helping Kayleigh to keep the news team focused in getting their stories in on time etc, checking all VTs before they are canned and help with re-editing where applicable, lending a hand to help sub-edit articles, and collate questions from University students, with Vernoica, to ask the SU president for a video/text feature.

WINOL (Features): Important contact details

2010-10-06T04:28:00.001-07:00

Magazine Editor: Chanin Lloyd

07897694409

Features Editor: Veronica Frydel

07899664333

veronicafrydel@hotmail.co.uk

Investigations: Stuart Appleby

07511849527

stuart23fc@hotmail.co.uk

Comment/ Reader response: Thomas Hobbs

07879263565

t.hobbs@winchester.ac.uk

Feature Writers/VJ:

Hanna Keegan

07955041165

hana204@hotmail.co.uk

Jake Gable

07971121864

jakegable@hotmail.hotmail.co.uk

Claire Lomas

07951058726

clairyell@btinternet.com

Katie Rowles
07716235648

katierowles@live.co.uk

Justyna Czlad

07598923614

justina-cee@hotmail.com

Features: Week two

2010-10-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

Happy lady from food hall (Thomas Hobbs)

Format: profile/article/video

Deadline: Tuesday 5pm

Facebook impact on today's culture (Thomas Hobbs)

Format: article

deadline: Tuesday 5pm

Two sisters campaign against asbestos (Stu Appleby)

Format: Article/video

Deadline:Tuesday 5pm

Fashion of the season (Jake, Kate, Claire)

Format: Article/video

Deadline: Moved to next week

Make-over with artist, Nikki (available Tues)

Format: Article/video

Deadline: Moveds to next week

Staff Profiles: Neil Marriot, Kate Gardner (Katie and Claire)

Format: Article/video

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Navigating around Winchester (Jack + Kate and Claire)

Format: Article/video

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Course Review (???)

Format: Artcile/video

Deadline: Not this week

Day in the Life (Hannah and Justyna)

Format: Video

Deadline: TBA

Disabled girl at Uni (Thomas Hobbs)

Format: Article/Video

Deadline: TBA

Miscarriages of Justice (Veronica Frydel)

Format: Video

Deadline Weds

Billy Middleton Interview: Wrongly accused (Veronica Frydel)

Format: Video

Dealine:TBA

Winol (Sports): Important contact details

2010-10-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

Sports Editor: Grant Payne

07545549689

grant_lfc123@hotmail.com

g.payne@winchester.ac.uk"

Chief Sports Reporter: James Fraser

07742769776

j.r.d.fraser@unimail.winchester.ac.uk

Sports Reporter: Karen Purnell

07517487255

kazpurnell@hotmail.com

Sports Reporter: Will Cooper

07789843411

will.cooper123@live.co.uk

Sports Reporter: David Champion

07969079498

daviddchmp@gmail.com

Sports Reporter: Rebecca Gray

07901525365

r.k.gray@winchester.ac.uk

Sports Reporter: Michael Smith

07867841285

m.e.p.smith@unimail.winchester.ac.uk

WINOL (news): Important contact details

2010-10-05T01:36:00.001-07:00

Editor: Catherine Hayes

07897 715760

c.v.hayes@winchester.ac.uk

Managing Editor: Jon Hopley

07897375016

jonohop@live.com

News Editor: Kayleigh James

07837 579036

kayleigh_james89@hotmail.com

News Planner: Lucy Pilgrim

07929 445357

xlu_amberx@hotmail.com

Chief Reporter: Madeleine Klippel

07825 515949

madde_klippel@hotmail.com

Political Correspondent: Joey Lipscombe

07963 352734

joe_lipscombe@hotmail.co.uk

Reporter (Crime/Community): Andy Giddings

07717 290122

andrewgiddings@btinternet.com

Reporter (Finance/Consumer): Julie Cordier

07572 123615

j.c.n.cordier@googlemail.com

Reporter (Campus/Students): Michael Connolly

07840 954276

m.connolly@winchester.ac.uk

Reporter (Entertainment/Showbiz): Aimee Pickering

07758 035360

a.j.pickering@winchester.ac.uk

Reporter (Local Government/Region): Gareth Messenger

07530 998662

gareth_messenger@hotmail.com

Reporter: Jack Courtez

07592 880864

jack_courtez@hotmail.com

Features: Week one

2010-10-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Freshers Fashion (Justyna Chlad/Hannah Keegan)

Format: Written/Video

Deadline: Weds, 12pm

Course Review: Interview with Paul Manning. (Justyna Chlad/Hannah Keegan)

Format: Written/video,

Deadline: Thurs, 3pm

Campus navigation guide (Jake Gable)

Format: Written/video

Deadline: Weds, 12pm

Staff Spending (Stu Appleby)

Format: Written

Deadline: Tues

Students and alcohol (Thomas Hobbs).

SU encourages students to drink

Format: Article

Deadline: Tues 12pm

Should English students study abroad? (Thomas Hobbs)

Format: Article

Deadline: Weds 2pm

Studio interview with Seba and Jaz from Union (Veronica)

Format: Studio Interview

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Winol: Dummy run schedule

2010-10-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

The temporary running order for week one's Winchester News Online bulletin is as follows:

Lead story

By-election (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min 15sec VT

Deadline: Weds 10am

Second story

Tory party conference (Joey Lipscombe)

Length: 1min VT + 1 min OOV via SKYPE

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Third story

Rape Alley (Andrew)

Length: 1min 15secs

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth story

Student Finance (Julie)

Length: 1min 15secs

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Fifth story

Primark (Jack)

Length: 1min

Deadline: Weds 9am

And Finally

Conference Football Coverage (Grant)

Length: 45secs

Deadline: Weds 9am

Sport (30secs per package)

Highlights of Eastleigh V Basingstoke

Second round FA cup action

Basingstoke Bison highlights

Women's football

Graphic round-up of non-league football

3o secs of links

Was Nietzsche a Nazi?

2010-05-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

Simply put... NO. Nietzsche was not a Nazi.

It was often thought that Nietzsche was a Nazi, or to a lesser extent, the inspiration for the Nazis. It is very clear that their are some succinct similarities between the work of Nietzsche and the policies of the Nazis, however the Nazis incorporated many philosophies (including Hegel) to meet their own insane philosophical needs; not just the work of Nietzsche.

Nietzsche is famous for the quote "God is Dead". Obviously this upsets the Judea-Christian ethos and thus he is labelled a Nazi as they believed he caused Nazism to happen.

He is associated with the Nazis due to consequentialism. Religious sects were annoyed with Nietzsche as even when you take away the argument of whether or not God does or does not exist, upholding religious morals does in fact hold weight because it makes people behave morally and in an except able manner.

The main ideas between the Nazi regime and Nietzsche are the concept of the 'will to power' and the ideas of the superman. Nietzsche's idea of the will to power would have been massively frowned upon at the time he wrote his work as it incorporates the ideas of strong leadership at a time when the world was widely democratic and liberal - it could be argued that this is a clear Nazi association as Hitler lived out the idea of the 'will to power'.

The idea of the superman was held by both the Nazis and Nietzsche, however Nietzsche does not look at 'supermen' through racial characteristics. He does see Jewish people as undermench but only due to their religious restraint, which he sees as somewhat of a slave religion, not their race. The Nazis would have labelled the Jews as lesser people because of their race. Clearly Nietzsche was not a Nazi as Nazism was racism. Furthermore Nietzsche would have perceived racism as conformity; something which he strongly opposed.

Nietzsche was not a Nazi, he was an individual.

GONZO JOURNALISM: MP FOLLOWING

2010-05-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I went out with the winning candidate for the meon Valley, Conservative, George Hollingbery. I followed him for an afternoon on his campaign, where he went to speak with local farmers in the constituency. George was a likable fellow, but I in no way could relate to anything he said, and disagreed with much of his political outlook.

His secretary had arranged to have him pick me up from my house on Tuesday 20th April. He arrived at midday with a friend and informed me that we would be visiting a local farm in rural Boarhunt along with the other party candidates.

On arrival at the farm, we were greeted in a friendly manner by a dozen or so farmers who were eager to grill the Conservative Candidate of the new constituency. George made small talk with some of the farmers whilst we patiently waited for others to arrive. It was soon obvious that the farmers and George had a very clear class barrier; on the one hand you had these farmers who, despite the fact they owned and worked their own land, were clearly working class, then you had Oxbridge-educated, middle-class George. Their interactions before the meeting started felt somewhat like a ridiculous pantomime.

Before the meeting commenced, George took me aside and asked me what I was looking to get out of the day so I explained that I wanted to film the meeting and get an interview with him where he would be answering my pre-prepared questions. He was entirely complying and told me his only issue with the interview would be a ten minute time restriction. He then asked me what line of journalism I wished to get into and then went on to tell me that journalism was not a profession he would wish his children to get into as he went on to recite how little a local Hampshire paper's editor was being paid. Although I have no intentions of working for local papers, I did feel rather annoyed by the remarks and they only reaffirmed my initial preconceptions upon first meeting him.

Once all the farmers had arrived, we were ushered to a barn which somewhat resembled an equestrian-esque Question Time format - hay bails for seats etc. Mr Hollingbery then asked why were heading toward the barn as he thought that the meeting would be held inside. To me it was very obvious that the meeting would be taking place in the barn, however George seemed a bit perturbed by the suggestion. I remember thinking that it was quite fitting to have the meeting in the barn, and found it hard to fathom why George wouldn't have expected a similar meeting arena.

The discussed topics at the meeting included competition from abroad, farming disease, and the ridiculous nature of a variety of currently imposed restrictions. George clearly had little to no knowledge of agriculture but he did not try to create a false impression that he did; this was really his only option as the farmers would have quickly become aware that he did not know much in the field (excuse the pun). Fair play to Mr Hollingbery, he hadn't come completely unprepared; he would often try to appeal to the farmers by spouting agricultural sound-bites, one of which i recall went along the lines of, "asparagus from Peru? Come on?!" Despite the fact he was trying to convey some initiative toward the farmers, it seemed that his farming knowledge was more than likely extracted from a Broadsheet Sunday supplement as opposed to Farmers Weekly. It felt a bit like a car crash comedy skit.

Another preparation George had made so as not to look entirely clueless was the decision to invite his farming friend from Suffolk to the meeting. Initially i thought that the guy had just come to help with George's campaign trail, (he came down as the Iceland volcanic ash cloud had prevented him from going abroad so he had a spare few days) which he had, but it quickly became apparent that due to his farming knowledge that he was going to help George, and there were numerous occasions in the meeting where he jumped to Hollingbery's aid and pointed him in various directions. In fact, as we left the farm i distinctly remember George thanking his friend - his voice steeped with relief - for helping him.

I genuinely feel that he was a hit with the farmers. They accepted that his knowledge of agriculture was small, but he did come across as sincere in his promise to put agriculture as high up on his agenda as possible. However, for me it was his oratorical skills which shone through. I feel that he was more of a wordsmith than an implementer of promises. As much as he was indeed a polite gentleman, all he did was just firmly cement my bad preconceptions on the Conservative party. I acknowledge the fact that a lot of politics is all about the show but I strongly believe that once elected, farming will be a small issue for George and somewhat of an annoyance.

The Conservatives did not get my vote.

The Outsider

2010-05-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

Albert Camus' "The Outsider" is a bleak novel with a striking outlook on society. The book strongly challenges the normal conventions of society. Camus' term of "the outsider" refers to the idea that anyone who does not conform to perceived idea of society's law is deemed an outsider. With the novel's protagonist, Meursault, Camus examines the problems of possessing a non-conformist outlook, and the loneliness entailed within the existentialist way of life. Meursault commits murder without remorse, and is conveyed as somewhat of an anti hero as despite the fact he has indeed killed a man, he courageously refuses to lie about his actions and rebukes all the morals of a traditional society.

Despite the fact that I do not sympathise with Meursault who kills in a seemingly racist attack, he is successfully conveyed by Camus as very human. His behavior is indeed remarkably strange but very believable; he just comes across as devoid from emotion. Ironically, it is Meursault's inability to lie - a characteristic which is promoted by society - which labels him an "outsider". To me, this is the single most important aspect of the novel as something as 'pure' as the truth has lost any sense of worth within a "conventional" society (clearly an attack on a conformist outlook of society).

The fact that the narrative is first person is different in the sense that the novel appears to present the way society deals with the "outsider" as opposed to the way he deals with society. Meursault is passive in his outlook yet Camus opts for a first person narrative. We rarely are in formed of Meurault's feelings or opinions. I believe this narrative adds to the alien feelings that the protagonist feels towards society, and firmly heightens the existentialist argument with Meursault, wrongly or rightly, looking like the victim.

WINOL PRODUCTION: Week 2

2010-05-05T04:36:00.000-07:00

Following the capturing of the constituency profile footage I then began to edit the packages so they were good enough to be played without any flaws. The editing process was rather lengthily, and although I am used to editing as I am quite experienced with editing software, it felt more stressful as I knew that failure to provide decent packages would hugely effect the quality of the election coverage.

Some of the biggest problems was that I was rather short of decent GVs. Although I had been out for roughly three days filming my footage I didn't believe that I had a huge amount of decent GVs. I think the reason that I was short of GVs was because Chanin and I had so many constituencies to travel to that we often didn't take into consideration the amount of GVs we had filmed.

Even though we didn't have an abundance of camera shots, all of the final packages turned out to be excellent. After hours of stressing they were complete and ready to be put into the general election night.

The Road To Serfdom

2010-05-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hayek's The Road to Serfdom is a relatively straightforward read. It basically discusses how no one group can ever know enough to successfully run an economy. To some extent Hayek is correct in arguing that any attempt to plan an economic future is setting itself up for failure as can be seen with the German Wiemar Republic's failure. Hayek goes on to say that this failure inevitably results in the rule of a dictator as a last ditch attempt to avoid chaos. Here one can see a clear correlation between the Nazi Regime.

The new command economy represents the submission of the individual to the dictating planners; where power was once dispersed amongst industrialists it is now stuck with a select few. This reduces the common man to that of a "serf" as he is unable to his produce for the highest price.

The book is as relevant now as it ever was. It is a piece of of literature which defends private property and supports the idea that promotes the individual to decide. It puts forward the argument to keep centralised power out of economic matters, and to Hayek, the central control of the economy equals slavery and an abolition of democracy. On the matter, Leon Trotsky said, "In a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle - who does not work shall not eat - has been replaced by a new one - who does not obey shall not eat". This planning then doesn't cease and man becomes a mere cog in a machine, with every aspect of life being planned.

Although a lot of Hayek's ideas appear rather drastic - people even joked that Hayek would have you believe that if there was an over-production of baby carriages, planners would insist upon people having more children as opposed to halting production - his general arguments, which are based upon 20th Century events do bring home a huge amount of truth and poignancy.

WINOL PRODUCTION: Week 1

2010-04-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

For the second part of the semester I have started working on the production team with Winchester News Online. I am acquiring new skills, which adds to my ever-growing and impressive BJCT accredited skills. The prior skills I had before moving over to production include reporting skills, camera use, editing skills, etc and all of these are transferable skills to some extent, which have only helped me more quickly adapt to life on production.

The first week of being on production everyone's efforts were firmly focused on our live election broadcasting. Here I mixed production skills with basic beat reporting skills as we prepared for what is set to be our biggest venture on Winchester News Online to date. The first week I was assigned the task of going out and filming numerous constituency profiles so that on the night of the election we would have VTs to showcase the constituencies to provide background and political history of areas in the south. The constituencies I covered was the Meon Valley and all of the Portsmouth seats. I was particularly proud as my Meon Valley profile contained interview shots of which I had taken for my Gonzo journalism piece, and as it transpired George Hollingbery (the interviewee) won the seat for the Conservatives. In addition to this I was very pleased with all of my piece to cameras and general views, all of which were shot in interesting locations such as inside the Spinnaker tower or by the ferry port.

As well as profiling my assigned constituencies, I also helped Chanin film his areas. For this we pretty much travelled from one side of Hampshire to the other, which was rather tiring. We profiled Hampshire East in the east over to New Forest in the west. These also turned out very well as again we shot a variety of interesting shots, which included Chanin doing a PTC in front of Fawley power station.

After we filmed the footage, which was collated over nearly three days, we then moved over to production side and edited our packages. Depsite the fact that I had hours of footage, I often found myself short for decent GVs. AN example of this was my footage captured inside the Spinnaker tower, which despite being breathtaking shots, were often jumpy or the panning was too fast. These factors aside, Chanin and I were pleased with our work, which combined a good mixture of eye-pleasing general views with an equal amount of information, and history and heritage of all our assigned constituencies.

Fear and Loathing New Journalism

2010-04-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

The godfather of Gonzo journalism and arguably new journalism has got to be Hunter S Thompson. His techniques are unmistakable, taking the reader through every stream of consciousness conceivable with such intricacy that the imagery can almost be smelt. The most notable of his works is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which embraced new journalism and smashed open the doors of Gonzo Journalism.

Though many perceive Thompson’s writing in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as frantic, restless, or overzealous, I must argue that as a narrative it is easily up there with any novel in the way it sets the scene so carefully through first person narrative with Raoul Duke’s analysis of events through facts and questions. One could even go further in admitting that he may not be to everyone’s taste but he does change his style at various points to add nostalgia and poignancy amidst his anarchic monologues, which only enhance his already brilliant descriptive technique.

It is particularly interesting how his utterances within his consciousness do constitute as journalism. “The race was definitely under way. I had witnessed the start; I was sure of that much." There is definitely no way one can challenge the factual information within this statement, which warrants it as viable journalism, it just isn’t written with the age old conformist journalistic technique… hence “new journalism” I guess.

I feel if it were not for the reflective, calm parts within the novel then many of Thompson’s fans would view his work as just mad ramblings, which lack any substance, however the reflective points add eloquence and finesse to a very formative and interesting journalistic approach. Despite the fact that these reflective points can be very opinionated i.e. the reflection of the 1960’s drug, I strongly believe that they only act as a catalyst in heightening the journalism by bringing it to life.

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

2010-03-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

Reich believed that the masses are doomed to enslavement, and that freedom could only be realized if suppression were removed. Much of this suppression is focused around sexuality and the confusion it induces on one's rationality.

One of the questions asked in The Mass Psychology of Fascism, is why do people support and promote groups, which are both harmful and detrimental to themselves? Reich was of the opinion that the roots of harmful authoritarianism lay in the authoritarian family, and that through sexual repression within family life, the masses become submissive and promote "reactionary thinking", which is a fear of freedom.

Where the figure of the father relates family, fuhrer is mirrored through nation. "In their subjective emotional core the notions of homeland and nation are notions of mother and family."
The fuhrer evokes emotional family themes in the masses, and this makes him an authoritarian father figure. He attracts all the emotional attitudes that were meant at one time to be attributed to the father. The masses had need for protection and were allowing the dictator to manage their needs. The more hopeless the people in Nazi Germany became, the greater their connection with the Fuhrer became.

Reich believed that the sexual repression can lead to sadism and is brought about by mysticism and ideology (both of which are prominent features within the Nazi regime). Where the Nazi regime really succeeded was in the way it managed to appeal to the people's sense of duty, which is all a part of mysticism (another correlation with sexual repression). This mysticism is somewhat euphoric and indoctrinating, and the swastika symbol only furthers this sense of unity and primal urges.

Reich attributes much to Freudian sex-oriented psychology and a concept of sex economy. Evidently, sex economy is based on control through sexual repression and suppression. Reich finds a strong link between sexual suppression and economic exploitation.

Being and Nothingness

2010-03-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

Heavily influenced by Nietzsche, Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" rebukes any higher being or entity which goes beyond the physical make-up of reality, and reaffirms that the physical being is the only true reality. Sartre believes this view as not a negative one, and despite somewhat bleak philosophy, people should perceive the physical, experiential world as the only ultimate reality truth.

The main theme in Being and Nothingness is the concept of being-for-itself and being-in-itself. These concepts are relatively easy to interpret. The being-for-itself is a way to describe the subject and consciousness, whereas being-in-itself deals with the physical nature of objects. The two can be overlapped and often mistaken for the other. For Sartre, "nothingness" is the defining characteristic of the for-itself. An inanimate object is unable to establish its "being", and thus remains in the nothingness. Conversely, man has has to make his being through his behaviour, instead of being nothing.

Sartre makes the point that a being-for-itself will interact with another being-for-itself, and he explores aspects such as “the gaze” and “the other”, which he views as abnormal and alien. The way in which humans are aware of the way they are seen not only causes them to deny the consciousness, but also lets them see this denial in others. In turn, we view the other who looks at us as superior and dominating, even if we know that his gaze as detrimental to us.

In response to the gaze of the other, we will assert ourselves as free and conscious and attempt to objectify the individual who objectifies us, and the relationship is reversed. This view is very true indeed and is a superb analysis of the way in which human minds work. There are almost endless examples throughout society, which suggests that Sartre's analysis on relationships is almost spot on. Freedom for some often results in the restriction in another as can be seen in the way women have been treated in the past compared with how they act in the present day.

If he Kant do it no one can

2010-02-23T02:31:00.000-08:00

Kant was of the opinion that things which make people happy and satisfy do not have to be "good" acts, and that the most "evil" things can bring people happiness. This reigns true throughout modern society as people commit heinous crime - not knowing why - but they know that a particular "evil" act makes them happy. But the argument goes much deeper than that as society itself manipulates concepts of "good and "evil", and to go further more, it could be argued that morals change across the globe i.e. in the media at the moment there are many reports of so-called "Honour Killings" in countries such as Turkey, where some feel it is right to kill woman who they believe have brought shame upon the family. Paradoxically, if such events were to occur in the UK there were be major uproar and answers would be demanded.

Furthermore, he argues that characteristics which are usually perceived as positive traits such as intelligence and courage can all be used for "evil" and are thus evil. This can be seen in any war throughout the ages, as to achieve a goal which a particular nation sees as essential for their own survival, people from opposing nations must be killed thus this act of courage is inherently evil.

Kant employed the word "good" to represent "good will" and duty, and he was adamant that by using reason one would discover their duty and then "good will". I divulge in opinion here, and I would have to agree with the likes of Hume on this topic. Hume's philosophy was that morality was more felt than judged with any kind of reason. For Hume, morality is a matter of feelings and impulses of sympathy, which are carried out by rules.

Kant differed a lot from other philosophers in that he believed that there had to be an afterlife because without an afterlife there would be no point in any morality. He was of the opinion that if everything was predetermined in life than morality would have no place in any society. I cannot fully agree with him here as although I am no religious man I do feel that life is definitely not predetermined, however I can agree that in a hypothetical world of predetermined activity, that morality holds no weight.

Despite Kant's estranged views on good and evil, to say he was in anyway a nihilist, or indeed an anarchist, would be entirely incorrect. He was of the opinion that humans must live by laws to give any action that anyone acts out a sense of worth in the world. He agreed in a society where laws and rules can be applied prior to one's own existence. Conversely, just when I thought I could agree with Kant he had to stray with MY "moral" beliefs; Kant said that rational people create the laws that they live by. I feel that this can be interpreted in two ways: firstly he is implying that ratioanlity is the way to live, as if one is rational then the right way to live will surely follow, which is a positive way to live. However, to me it feels like if everyone saw themselves as rational and made their own laws then a common morality cannot exist as everyone's morals would vary astronomically.

Thus Spoke Jon

2010-02-21T03:34:00.001-08:00

In the Biblical parody of “thus Spoke Zarathustra’, the rhetorical narrative is so well crafted that this masterpiece really does stand out as one of the greatest philosophical books ever, and really acts as a tribute to greatness of both Neitzche’s philosphopihalc and lexical talent.

The book is steeped heavily in irony with the text resembling the nature of the Bible to induce biting resentment. The book itself acts firmly as an attack on the juade-christian beliefs of good and evil; the belief that the world is a battle between two different sets of forces.

Neitchze’s take on Zarathustra urges us to get over the diacotmy of Good and Evil, which Zarathustra himself introuded. ZarathustraUrges us to forget ideals of “the other worldly”, and strongly projects neitcheze’s philosophy that there is only the world we are in now and nothing more.

This book, despite having few themes, does contain some continuing themes as can be seen in earlier works such as “the gay science”. The book reaffirms the philosophy of ‘God is Dead’, as the protagonist notes to himself after encountering a hermit, “'DEAD ARE ALL THE GODS: NOW DO WE DESIRE THE OVERMAN TO LIVE.'” This quote brings me nicely onto talking about another theme in the work, the theme of the overman. Nietzsche makes a point that the overman is not the true end for a person, but more the journey of self-discovery and knowing.

Hegel: The Best Yet?

2010-02-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

As far as philosphers go, I am enjoying the works of Hegel.

Hegel believes that reality is a matter of a process of change and understanding objects as processes of change.

He argues, when you contemplate something, the thought is a process of change in itself. One cannot separate the act of thinking about something from the nature of that something you are thinking about.

Contemplation of things is stimulates change. When you have concluded your thought then the object in topic is believed to have then changed… there is no certainty. The only certainty is that the subject has tried to understand it; this concept is commonly known as the Geist.

Hegel philosophy is that history has a goal of freedom and no alienation in the sense of the Geist knowing itself.

Hegel shared Kantian dialectic views, with the ideas of thesis and antithesis. This theory shows that all propositions have their own negatives. For anything to occur there must be opposites i.e. the analogy could be weather, if there was no rain or sunny days then there would be no concept of weather.

No thesis can exist without an antithesis i.e. an EXISTENCE is a THESIS and NON-EXISTENCE is a ANTITHESIS, thus creating history, which is a SYNTHESIS. After this, history becomes the new thesis and then the process continues.

Jean-Paul Sartre does not translate in our Modern World

2010-02-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

Sartre is clearly the existentialism master. His bleak views of humanity have shaped the ways in which aesthetic existentialists view the world.

The quote below represent, quite aptly, his philosophical outlook.

"Existence is prior to essence. Man is nothing at birth and throughout his life he is no more than the sum of his past commitments. To believe in anything outside his own will is to be guilty of 'bad Faith.' Existentialist despair and anguish is the acknowledgement that man is condemned to freedom. There is no God, so man must rely upon his own fallible will and moral insight. He cannot escape choosing."

Although-as this quotation would imply-the individual's actions and choices are key to his own existence, most cannot agree with the ways this existence is personified through the eye's of the existentialist. I for one will not agree with the philosophies of Sartre, his peers, or those in the arts influenced by existentialism. I am of the opinion that the concept of existentialism is a theory which has been embraced to try and portray life as a constant, isolated struggle, and to some extent I feel that it has been glamorised through literature as humanity's "will to power".

In "Being and Nothingness" (a rather appropriate title, which conveys the existentialist persuasion), Sartre said, "There is no ultimate meaning or purpose inherent in human life; in this sense life is absurd". Life is anything but absurd. It has great meaning and poignancy; both in a psychological and reproductive sense. It is madness for Sartre to rebuke the value of life. Life and the interaction in life only furthers humanity's moral greatness and makes for a more comfortable and enjoyable life, and for one to be existential in the modern world is to deny what is all and good within society.

A further aspect which I would like to pick up on as far as Sartre's philosophy goes, is he rejection of basic Freudian concepts, concepts of which one could only perceive as common place and obvious in modern society. Freud argued that who a person becomes is often related abck to the individual's past i.e. childhood, when the ego is installed. However Sartre argues that an individual has the abitly to reshape it's own values. Although in some sense Sartre is correct as people's values are often changed; they are usually changed by others via interaction, and furthermore to argue that we are not driven by our past is madness.

Existentialism

2010-01-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

The existential movement draw upon some interesting concepts of the self, however these outlooks seem very alien as far as I am concerned. Sure, living for the now and just by current, sensory impulses seems like an unashamed way to live a life (somewhat embracing Freud’s theory of the id), but to me this ethos seems like a reckless way to experience a life; a life which encounters constant contradictions, never accomplishing any sort of decent existence.

Claiming to be an existentialist comes across as very selfish and unfulfilling, and though they believe to be independent, I believe living, as an existentialist is lonely; or am I just influenced too heavily by my ego?

Existentialists believe you are what you make yourself through your own experiences, but in doing this one rebukes moral responsibility. In their pursuit for certainty via experience, an existentialist does not care about personal responsibility, which really gives them no place in society e.g. when Camus’s protagonist (in “The Outsider) Meursault kills without remorse.

To be a traditional existentialist one must rely on no one and remain in solitude. The existentialist’s search for truth is very lonely, and without sharing experiences, the individual’s search for truth is surely slowed down. More modern existentisalists (who have noted the fact that social interaction is necessary) take a different stance but still an equally bleak outlook, which can be seen for example in Jean-Paul Sartre’s perceptions that relationships are solely established by people's attraction not towards one another but rather how that person makes them feel about themselves by how they look at them. Existentialism is essentially selfish and despite an existentialist’s belief that they are more honest as an individual, they are far more deluded than the worst of philosophers.

What's the time Mr Wolfe?

2010-01-27T07:18:00.000-08:00

Time to begin semester 2!

First on the old reading list is Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House.

The main theme which occurs in this book is that of Architectures are being stubborn in believing that they know what is best for the human condition, which is hidden in a specific style but often leaves a real sense of alienation; he believes people are being badly subjected to the work of very few.

Wolfe enjoys the intricacy of unique buildings and rebukes the "international style" of modern architecture founded by those such as Walter Gropius, who spawned modern architecture, and was the founder of the Bauhaus school. He believed that the people often associated with the buildings they worked in or went to were never appreciated. Furthermore, Wolfe was highly critical of conformism. He believes that architecture has become so international that origin and identity is often lost ("edge of sensory deprivation").

To me, his comments seem ill-informed and lack depth. Though his ideas appear strong and striking in emphasis, the lack of detail on the structures of which he speaks proves very unconvincing and personally comes across as failed propaganda. He comes across as narrow-minded as the movement he hates.

I can agree with him to some extent about how structure's beauty are compromised in favour of function but he doesn't put his point across well at all, and furthermore, for him to try and bundle half a century's worth of architecture into a flimsy, meagre book, and have nothing positive to say does not lie favourably with me.

The New God Is Dead (Chris Horrie quote)

2010-01-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

Don't blame me I'm wired wrong! Agree with this concept or not, Tom Wolfe's essay "Hooking Up" presents a lot of food for thought. He presents the idea of how the id and ego creates a new God.

Wolfe discusses how educated people no longer need a God (as Nietzsche said) and how Nietzsche somewhat prophesied the history of the next two hundred years.

He predicted that the twentieth century would be a century of devastation and astronomical war, as people would no longer have a god to turn to, to rid them of their guilt. However they would still remain very guilty, as guilt is natural, and begin to hate themselves. With the absence of God in their lives, humans would inevitably form barbaric brotherhoods to give a sense of direction and purpose. Clearly there are very blatant parallels between groups, which appeared across Europe during the early 20th Century; most obviously Nazism, which was somewhat of a national barbaric brotherhood.

There is an agreement with neuro-scientists of the 20th Century, both believing that guilt is predetermined at birth, and that those who don't feel guilt are wired genetically incorrectly and cause crime. This is an interesting concept but I strongly disagree as although some humans may very well be born with different perceptions of both right and wrong, inevitably it is an individual's surroundings and outside influence which is the most prominent factor when determining whether a person feels guilt or not.

The essay states that mankind will come out of the end of the 20^th Century barely upholding religious moral ethos, but the 21^st Century would experience revaluation of moral beliefs and consequently fail due the fact that morals need a God to uphold them. Again there are parallels with Nazi Germany, as although Hitler was at the forefront of barbaric brotherhood. He was trying to establish himself as god-like, and many German’s reveled in this. Were the Germans looking for a new God? Is this a continual circle? Brain imaging?

NEWSPEAK (Assessment): Bittersweet Aspartame

2010-01-26T04:49:00.000-08:00

The concept of newspeak i.e. the manipulation of words and beliefs to establish power and profit, can be seen everywhere in the modern world today, from the complex nature of government and infrastructure to the simplicity of everyday normality, the fact remains that it cant be avoided.

Everyday words are modified to keep us clueless and somewhat sedated from the necessary realities. Obvious manipulation of language includes the replacement of the word “war” which is changed to “defense”, or “downsizing” instead of “firing people”. This doctoring of language has become commonplace in our society today, and is widely and unknowingly accepted.

Although this kind of propaganda is not entirely indoctrinating as any vaguely knowing person can scratch beneath the surface to reveal the true meanings of these so-called socially acceptable words. However what happens when the powers that be try to erase any knowledge of something ever happening, thoroughly embracing the world of George Orwell’s 1984?
The problems really arise when the people in power want you to believe something regardless of whether it is harmful or not towards the planet or us.

Today's food industry has seen numerous additives and preservatives removed from our supermarket shelves, with links to a range of illnesses brought on by the need to preserve or greedily cheapen food prices. But what happens when these additives and preservatives are so widely used that to remove them from the products would cause astronomical loses in money? Is it better to go on living with constant health risks not knowing, or does more need to be done to rid such problems? With such uncertainty surrounding the use of aspartame as a sweetener, why has its usage not been suspended until definite outcomes have been revealed?

My inspiration for writing this article comes from a close member of my family who is absolutely adamant that until aspartame was removed from her diet that she was almost constantly experiencing headaches. Consuming two cans of a diet coke a day, she became increasingly worried and came to the conclusion that when she removed the carbonated drinks from her, that her headaches stopped.

With aspartame being drastically cheaper than sugar and its credentials lying in the fact that it is indeed "Sugar Free" gives positive weight, but is aspartame’s positive approach in removing sugar from people’s diet causing real harm?

Aspartame releases aspartate during digestion. Aspartate is a neurotransmitter used by the neurons in the brain. It is a type of excitatory amino acid. Excitatory amino acids are normal and necessary brain chemicals, and as such, they are allowed to cross the blood-brain barrier. Aspartate, the principal chemical component of aspartame, is a neurotransmitter and a type of excitatory amino acid. It is a natural and necessary body chemical. Neurotransmitters cross the blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier is designed to protect the brain from the invasion of harmful chemicals. When normal neurotransmitters such as aspartate and glutamate cross this barrier in excess, they will cause poisoning and lead to the death of the nerve cells within the brain and spinal cord.[1]

Let us be frank, it is all about profit over knowledge, with aspartame being the most profitable synthetic sweetener in the world and being present in thousands of supermarket products, it is far too convenient that to date there has been an abundance of uncertain trials on this sweetener after it has been widely linked to many illnesses including brain tumors, which never prevail to anything. The NutraSweet Company (world’s biggest supplier of aspartame) states that its product is used in more than 5,000 products and consumed by some 250 million people worldwide.

With the money, which aspartame companies create, there are certainly sufficient funds for extensive aspartame trials to put all the speculation to rest, but why would a multi-billion soft drink sweetener company want to embark in such testing with the possibility of negative outcomes? What is particularly worrying is that all the trials that have been sponsored by aspartame driven industries have all had positive outcomes in that aspartame is entirely safe for consumption, however all independent research have discovered a variety of problems in human consumption; I mean, come on, how can any testing of aspartame draw any positives when it’s ingredients include methanol and formaldehyde?

When researching I stumbled upon this striking article:

Analysis Shows Nearly 100% of Independent Research Finds Problems With Aspartame
An analysis of peer reviewed medical literature using MEDLINE and other databases was conducted by Ralph G. Walton, MD, Chairman, The Center for Behavioral Medicine, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Dr. Walton analyzed 164 studies which were felt to have relevance to human safety questions. Of those studies, 74 studies had aspartame industry-related sponsorship and 90 were funded without any industry money.

Of the 90 non-industry-sponsored studies, 83 (92%) identified one or more problems with aspartame. Of the 7 studies which did not find a problems, 6 of those studies were conducted by the FDA. Given that a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner), many consider these studies to be equivalent to industry-sponsored research.

Of the 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies, all 74 (100%) claimed that no problems were found with aspartame. This is reminiscent of tobacco industry research where it is primarily the tobacco research which never finds problems with the product, but nearly all of the independent studies do find problems.

The 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies are those which one inveriably sees cited in PR/news reports and reported by organizations funded by Monsanto/Benevia/NutraSweet (e.g., IFIC, ADA). These studies have severe design deficiencies which help to guarantee the "desired" outcomes.

G.H. Searle, the company essentially responsibly for the beginning of the production of aspartame, would have had you believe it as safe when it was first introduced, but there was no extensive research into whether it does or does not cause brain tumors or other illnesses. The company simply employed their political claret through Donald Rumsfeld’ links with President Ronald Reagan to ensure the continuation of its production and thus consumption, all at the potential expense of the population’s health.

For this somewhat encrypted and puzzle-like subject I decided to contact a variety of people responsible for campaigning against aspartame use. Among those were Facebook’s biggest anti-aspartame group leader, Ceri Williams, and the founder of Aspartame Consumer Safety Network (ACSN), Mary Stoddard. Mary in particular proved very helpful and insightful due to her year’s of campaigning and personal experience with aspartame. Mary was responsible for taking the anti-aspartame campaign international in 1987, following the brain tumor death in 1985 of her forty two year old husband. Stoddard went on to expose the massive hidden epidemic of aspartame related disease and government cover-up, using her skills as a former broadcast journalist and member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. Thousands of serious adverse reactions fill her organizations database files.[2] For full bio see http://www.aspartamesafety.com/mary_nash_stoddard.htm.

After contacting Mary she gave me the following information:

"Hello Jon,

We do not need further research to show the harmful effects of aspartame. That research is already in place. Peer reviewed medical and science journals have published the studies. I am referring to the harmful breakdown products: methanol, formaldehyde, phenylalanine, aspartic acid, formic acid and diketopiperazine. Most of the indicting research pre-dates the early eighties when aspartame was approved in the U.S. My co-founder, James Turner and most of our independent researchers feel as I do."

Many scientists believe that it is beyond reasonable doubt that aspartame consumption can lead to brain tumors. However as the negative symptoms possibly associated with aspartame consumption vary so greatly; ranging from headaches to seizures, willing funding is not always available as the medical world will not fund research into illness which fits no definite mold.
Are we willing to carry on using aspartame products at the possible expense to our health or are we happy living without real knowledge? After all, ignorance is bliss.

With a lot of internet hullabaloo, it is easy to get swamped and sucked into a somewhat indoctrinating ethos of being anti-aspartame, as bogus information, backed up not through any scientific evidence is rife, but what is backed up is truly harrowing.

The lack of any clear conclusive evidence that aspartame DOES NOT cause ill side-effects within humans is enough to warrant mass investigation to be pursued before the world's population potentially eat or drink themselves to death through ignorance and multinational monopolization. After the subject has been quiet for a few years, I firmly believe that the issue of aspartame consumption is close to breaking point. Hopefully aspartame safety is not an Orwellian fabrication, but when no certainty surrounds its safety the only thing that is certain is a strong sense of worry.
[1] 1999-2008, NaturoDoc LLC, http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/aspartame.htm, Date accessed 25/1/2010
[2] Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, http://www.aspartamesafety.com/mary_nash_stoddard.htm, Date accessed 20/1/2010

Germinal's Influence

2010-01-16T06:01:00.000-08:00

Zola's masterpiece is set in the French society of the 1860's; the action happens during the early stages of the rise of the working class against the aristocratic middle class establishment (called the "bourgeoisie"). The title of the novel itself points to the idea of germination in plants. In Zola's analogy, social and political ideas behave much like wild seeds in the natural world: sowed in a fertile soil and given the right conditions and, ideas will grow and develop into something much bigger and stronger than their initial state might suggest. Ideas will also spread around them and contaminate their surrounding, and eventually take a life of their own.

Germinal, although by no means a new concept in theme, is very much a virgin stylistically. Throughout history working class revolutions have occurred e.g. French Revolution or Communism's rise of Tsarist Russia, but for a descriptive work of fiction Zola's Germinal is a the first and best of its kind.

Germinal's lengthily descriptions has seen numerous television and film adaptations adding a huge degree of poignancy to the novel's resume. On top of this he has influenced many of the arts including fellow authors and artists a like.

The artist Van Gogh was particularly influenced by Germinal with sociological criticism being implicit within much of his paintings (most notably The Potato eaters). Van Gogh produced painting which conveyed naturalism in some of its bleakest and most pessimistic forms. Furthermore, he influenced a legacy of naturalist authors, the likes of which include August Strindberg, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser.

1984 is Everywhere

2010-01-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

It is undeniable that the fictitious world of George Orwell's 1984 can be seen in the modern world everywhere. Be it simple wordplay or extensive indoctrination, for better or for worse, manipulation of language and covering things up it a constant presence in our lives.

No matter how simplistic in content, a slight alteration of any given word can alter the opinion's of the masses.

Examples of the themes running throughout 1984 include manipulation of language, persuading people’s thoughts, and forcing people to forget events, which have happened.

Firstly, the manipulation of language is a constant aspect of today’s life. Be it through colloquialisms or common sayings, this word manipulation even reaches the highs of media and government control, which has constant effect on everyone.

When I say that Newspeak affects everyone, well, it really does as it infiltrates all aspects of everyday life, no matter how mundane. Examples include such words as “downsize”, which at a basic level means firing someone from their job, but by replacing the harsh word with a somewhat less abrasive one, the process sounds less daunting despite the fact that it is not.

Further, more extreme employment of newspeak is a lot more worrying due to the flippancy of its use. To me, it is very unnerving when words such as “regime change” is used to describe a government being overthrown, or even more disconcerting is terminology such as “neutralize” instead of “kill”! What is so crazy about newspeak is that people are so susceptible to using it that it becomes commonplace and the seriousness of what is happening around us is being dulled down as we become increasingly desensitized and ignorant.

In 1984 the citizens are made to believe certain things and also forget events that have happened in living memory. So many parallels can be found between the modern world and Orwell’s fiction world e.g. in 1984 Oceania are told that they have always been at war with Eurasia when they haven’t; for me there are parallels between this and the way Saddam Hussein has been perceived; For the past decade we have been told he has been behind much of the problems in the world, however when it was convenient for the developed world to cooperate with him in the past, the media did not convey him as an enemy. As with 1984, the modern world is awfully susceptible to media misinformation.

For part of our current module we have been asked to produce a production on some form of newspeak, which surrounds us everyday and I have decided to cover the topic of Aspartame use. For me, this is a topic which has been very much overlooked as regards to its safety, and it was and still is not being addressed due to financial and political reasons. This is very relevant as in 1984 things,which could hinder the power system are simply overlooked as is the case with the world’s most widely used sweetener.

Watch this space.

Notes for Test

2009-12-13T04:32:00.000-08:00

On Thursday this semester's test is finally here so I thought I might as well write a summary of the books and themes which I will be tested on. Who knows, if I perform badly in the test, maybe the lecturers will look upon me favourably due to these notes.

Firstly, I'm gonna talk about James Joyce's Ulysses. James Joyce was the Godfather of Modernism and this novel was groundbreaking in so many ways, particularly how Joyce rebukes the idea of a single narrative and gives us a decentered narrative as we see the events in the book through Stephen, Bloom, and Molly's eyes. He shatters the single version of reality of looking at things, providing the reader with unreliable narrative, where personality is in constant conflict and memory is often unreliable. Joyce likes to show that the same event can be viewed from different angles. He shows in his book that atoms can be viewed differently from person to person (relativity). Ulysses show that Art and culture and politics have been overridden by psychology as the characters in the novel all have individual opinions.

James Joyce's High Modernism made people discard single viewpoints. Joyce was an icon for modernism, as there is nothing definitive within his works. He used his Stream of Consciousness to present conflicts of contradiction. In Ulysses, the spontaneity of Bloom’s persona portrays Joyce's belief in fragmentation of thought. Joyce’s character’s also show uncertainty e.g. Stephen’s feelings throughout the novel and Molly's opinions on men.

In addition to these points, Joyce also employs ever changing structures in his novel as there is no clear beginning, middle, and end, just a series of unconnected events which lead into one another, as is our everyday reality.

Ulysses was banned due to its explicit content and sexual nature. Joyce was of the opinion that writers should write without fear of offending as such things as sexuality and deification are everyday experiences, which should be included in a novel. The sexuality and taboo nature of this book, plus the fact it was banned, contains clear Freudian undertones as the novel speaks openly as Freud wanted people to adhere to, and the fact it was banned just represents a conservative society which Freud disagreed with.

Another cheeky character we will be tested on is Sigmund Freud. Sigmund like to talk about sex; . Freud believed sex motivates all and that sex is at the heart of humanity's ills. He also believed in analysing dreams to get to the root of people's problems, he said that dreams are the royal highway to the sub-conscious.

Freud also argued that Civilization causes people to deny their instincts by its social restraint and believed there is a conflict between the conscious and sub-consciouses as is shown in his theory of the Ego, id, and superego. Freud felt that a conservative society made people ill, and that because of a society which hide taboos, people are not what they seem.

Freud has had a massive influence on theories of a consumer society. To appeal to people with psychoanalytic Freudian = massive cultural influence.

A favourite of mine on this year's reading list was definitely George Orwell's 1984. The themes running through this book are very clear, with ideas that people can be controlled through words and that these words are enforced by Thought Police; the ideas that Thought Police control Word crime. The world of 1984 has its own language called New Speak, which gets rid of words to indoctrinate and manipulate people through language.

Although 1984 is only a work of fiction, its does hold great poignancy, and such brainwashing can be seen in our society today. An example of this is when our MOD was called ministry of war. Why is it now called the Ministry of Defence? We aren't under attack!

In 1984 the population of Oceania are fed to believe that they have always been at war with Eurasia. For me, this holds parallels with Stalin’s doctoring of photos as he wished to change the past to control the future just as Oceania did in the novel

Furthermore, sex isn’t a crime in 1984, it is sexcrime. There is no possibility of sex as it is a crime in itself.

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was another personal favourite of mine this semester, and although many criticize its methods of propaganda, for me Steinbeck's motives for such propaganda are pure. Grapes of Wrath is truly a classic. I feel that the novel was very humane and moral, so definitely acceptable. The novel showed that People are better off when they work together.

Steinbeck gave the voiceless a voice in Grapes of Wrath by using campaigning journalism, which induced shock value via visual writing in the wake of photography. The novel included a series of articles he collated to create fiction. Steinbeck isn’t lying e.g. Tom Joad represents everyman’s struggle at the time of the dust bowl and Rose of Sharon's generosity shows ultimate kindness at a time of desperation, and she acts as somewhat of an advocate for socialism.

Grapes of Wrath won the Nobel prize and it was the moment journalism became art.

Finally, Emile Zola's Germinal was an interesting read. It was definitely beautifully brutal! Although some would argue that the violence he portrays within his work is unnecessary, I would counter that argument by saying that violence was used through necessity by the miners in the novel and was used as a force of good.

Zola was one of the greatest realists of his time and also one of the first real photojournalists. Germinal portrays imagery so graphically that it would be hard for the reader not to taste the imagery. Pages and pages of description for a single event is common in Zola's novels e.g. the scene where the mine is flooding and the workers have to escape up a almost never ending ladder.

Thoughts on WINOL

2009-12-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

Wrote my critical review for WINOL last night and I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this module. Writing the review has made me realis how much fun this module has been. As it is a "critical" review i have included both the good and bad points of the module and reached an overall conclusion, which for the most part was positive. Good points I have picked up on from working for WINOL have been that I have become more confident in my work and have overcome my reluctance to use technology to aid in my learning.

I am of the strong opinion that the higher your confidence and morale, the better the work you are going to relay. So I feel that the confidence I have shown in my handling of people is very much reflected in my writing style, as the more relaxed you are, the easier the words come. In my initial reviews I never felt I was holding anything back as I felt I spoke my mind without fear, but as time passed, writing the reviews became easier and less abrasive, and all the signs point to the confidence factor.

Further positives which can be drawn from the WINOL “experience” is that it reluctantly forced me to become acquainted with the dreaded word “technology”. This module required both pictures and video to give it any sort of credit or worth so it was imperative that I used cameras. Fiddly buttons and I have never got along, but I managed to produce a few video packages, which despite usually terrible sound quality due to me being useless at editing, turned out pretty well. They would not look out of place on a news bulletin apart from the fact I didn’t include vox pops because I tried to keep the review feel going throughout, and vox pops I felt would not have worked in my favour for a personal review.

I still hate using a Sony PD170 and the rest of those type of cameras, but I would say I am now very handy with an SLR camera and have taken a lot of very plausible photographs; one even ended up as the background for the “Life” section on the website. Using the SLR cameras has given me a greater sense of direction as to the kind of field I wish to pursue on completing my degree. I would very much like to become a freelance photo-journalist. Despite being a technophobe, the fact that this module forced me to use technology has given me a greater sense of direction, of which I didn’t have before undertaking this module.

Towers of London gig for WINOL

2009-12-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, I bravely ventured down to the coastal town of Southampton to embark on writing another review for Winchester News Online. Easily the best review I have had to go to HANDS DOWN. I have come to the decision that I won't be giving up my position as reviewer for the features... so there! It is too good of a position to give up.

Despite being unable to hire out an SLR camera from the loan counter, (as they are useless) I nicked my Father's little digital and got in close and personal

Forget the facade and charade of Donnie Tourette's appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Celebrity Big Brother, because when the Towers of London come to rocking something fierce, do they?!

Storming the Joiner's stage on Sunday night in true punk rock fashion, singer, Donnie could have said anything and the crowd would have lapped up every word of it. The band played up to the cliche mannerisms of a standard punk band with ghastly smirks and peculiar hand movements, but instead of leaving the audience feeling embarrassed for them, the crowd relished in the scene.

Essentially, what it all boils down to is raw talent and these guys definitely have this by the bag load. Keeping a dying UK punk scene alive, true punk fans have to put their faith in the new generation as the likes of Sham 69 and UK SUBS aren't going to be around forever, plus it would be unfair to expect these veterans to tour forever. Towers of London are certainly as mental as the original punks of the day, and as far as music goes, they are on a par with, if not better than the punks of the late 70's.

Going to the gig with preconceptions of witnessing a bunch of media whores, i was pleasantly surprised. Tonight was all about the music. Stand out tracks were the crowd-pleasing "I'm a rat" with its awesome intro build-up, which climaxed into a crescendo searing lead guitar riff, with a catchy chorus of repeating I'M A RAT. Simple yet effective.

Towards the end of the gig the band left the stage leaving just Dirk Tourette on stage with an acoustic guitar. He gave a great acoustic version of "F**k it up", which, apart from being suitably mesmeric, provided a well earned break for the army of exhausted fans. Then, after being prompted by the crowd to give another song he played the theme tune for Only Fools And Horses, which was excellent. Not expected, but certainly well received, it fitted oddly well in with the vibe of the show.

Without a doubt, one of the best gigs I have been to this year. You simply don't get new bands going all out to make this style of music anymore. With beautified adaptations of punk being broadcast on the airwaves today, Towers of London make no compromises and uphold how the style was meant to be.

No fool, it's a "test"!

2009-11-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

With my confidence at an all time low as this semester's "test" looms ever closer, I was nicely reaffirmed today that the test would have some what of a layed back approach to it.

The themes running through this semester have captured my imagination effortlessly. With Chris Horrie's resilient, and at times controversial views, acting as a shining light at the end of the tunnel. If I don't pass this test, which I have been assured that I will, it will be through my own doings; the education I have received this year has been nothing short of exceptional.

Personal highlights for me obviously include Freud (I bang on about him enough), Grapes of Wrath (who would have thought a novel could entertain master Hopley), and of course Orwell, and Wells.

Today's lecture on the works of Orwell was excellent and very formative. I have always had a love for Orwell, and the lecture just acted as a reminder of how truly great this man was. With Animal Farm acting as a somewhat obvious yet potent and poignant allegory for Soviet Russia, and 1984, well, what can i say...? this to me is a work of art. I'm sure any novelist in the world would give up his arm to have written either of these!

For such blatant symbolism, Orwell writes without shame, I mean, come on, who would name a pig "Napoloen" if he wasn't a pig with revolution on his mind. These two novels share great parallels with Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath as both write unashamedly about troubles and strife as a form of propaganda, as they create sympathy within their protagonists. Although Orwell employs allegories within his novels, as opposed to Steinbeck who is clear in his message, both just use different ends to meet their respective means.

I hope I'm not just writing rubbish. If I am then this will be the sort of rubbish which causes me to fail my "test"

Ulysses: Useful links (or not)

2009-11-22T08:43:00.001-08:00

Being the lazy person I am, I downloaded the audio book for James Joyce's Ulysses, as I found out within twenty pages that this was not a book I would be dedicated my time to reading. This post is really just a bit on information to help my fellow journos who feel that Ulysses is an uphill battle... maybe I'm the only one, and those of you have read it and loved it will hate me for choosing the easy option. The link is below:

http://librivox.org/ulysses-by-james-joyce/

Furthermore, for those of you struggling to interpret this somewhat challenging piece of literature (as I certainly am) I have stummbled across some useful links, which helps the reader understand the symbolism and parallels within the novel.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ulysses/themes.html

Hopefully, you guys won't even need to look at these links, as you probably possess greater brains than I, but if indeed you do I hope they help.

Camera Skills

2009-11-19T09:28:00.001-08:00

First outing with a camera for loveable ol' WINOL... The life owner. Went down to sunny Southampton on Tuesday eve to review the band Detachments. Quality act, but my camera skils left alot to be desired. In all I estimate I took around 50 pics in total, only four of which warranted the quality to supplement my written article... Ouch!

I'd been a foolish young man and managed to leave the camera on manual focus, purely because i didn't know how to switch it to auto. I was rather lucky in the sense that due to the lack of people at the gig, I was able to get in close on the action and when it counted I took some awesome pics, ones of which that would sit comfortably and gloriously on an album cover or as a promo poster for the band.

As far as the focusing went it was a rookie error, but I now feel very comfortable to be able to take decent photos. "Jono the Photojournalist", that has a nice ring to it

Platform 4, The Tempest

2009-11-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

As i become more familiar with my role as Reviews writer for Winchester News Online, I am definitely getting alot better as my confidence is growing thus improving my writing.

My latest review was at the Tower Arts in Winchester where I watched a production of The Tempest(which I managed to get in for free I hasten to add). Below is the full review.

For a performance with a cast consisting of just three people, Platform 4 gave an emphatic interpretation of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ on Thursday evening at the Winchester Tower Arts. The performance was by no means the best adaptation I have seen of this famous play, but it was certainly an interesting one.

The actors, although playing the parts of numerous characters, managed to establish very believable personas; the relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda was very well done, with the actors conveying great chemistry. Notably, the parts of Miranda and Aerial were played by the same actor and for her to be able to switch between characters so swiftly and effortlessly is a skill to be admired.

Due to a minimal cast, not every character in the original play could be included in this production due to the fact that in various scenes of the original there are more than three characters on at one time. To ignore more than half of the original characters and to perform a flawless recital, really is exceptional. The way the cast managed to do this was by following the story line of Prospero, Miranda, and Ferdinand, and completely ignoring the likes of Stephano and Trinculo, who only offer supplementary story lines.

The set was cleverly crafted to accommodate the lack of actors, and kept the story flowing and interesting by being transformed regularly. Furthermore, the inclusion of props proved very significant as they also made up for the lack of characters; a chess board was constantly used to set the scene and refer to characters that, if it weren’t for the lack of performers, would be in the play.

The night was a real success, with the performance captivating the audience and maintaining tension throughout the hour and a half show; definitely a four star performance.

The Grapes Of Wrath: Propaganda At Its Finest

2009-11-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

As far as propaganda goes, Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath is definitely a masterpiece in its own class. It's up there with the best of them. The story tells of a fictional family and their struggle throughout the Dust Bowl period of American history. In my opinion, upon reading what i have read so far, this novel is a superb testament to the struggling of the American Immigrants of the period.

It's biblical analogies and parallels are exceptional, they are very thought-provoking and poignant. As with other great novellists such as Golding, Steinbeck employs this technique to purify something and to ultimately make the subject/subject matter seem to hold "the truth". Brian made reference to the eloquence of Steinbeck's symbolism and told of how Jim Casy is used as a narrative devise to represent Christ When he dies he is seen as somewhat of a martyr, "you don't know what you're a-doin"". By using these allegories, the reader sympathises with the character thus expressing sympathy towards the subject. An exceptional piece of propanda! Using Christ as an allegory is perfect propaganda.

Tom Joad also bares Christian allegories, as he leads his family across the country to get to the figurative "Promised Land". Here there is a clear parallel to Moses, who lead the Israelites to the promised land from Egypt. With these two pieces of imagery alone, one finds it hard not to connect and sympathise with the characters in the novel. With such powerful imagery, Steinbeck has ensured that his novel will be remembered.

Press Officer's and Journalist's Cold War

2009-11-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

As described in the lecture today, there is somewhat of a Cold War scenario, which is mutually reciprocated between a Press Officer and a Journalist. Chris used this analogy as both Press Officers and Journalists always threaten each other but neither acts, through fear of total devastation (pretty good analogy I thought). This got me thinking... at the end of the day what makes the Press Officer at the university different from any other? Nothing! What stops me ringing the University Press Officer in middle of the night if I need to? ANSWER: The fact that no one will pick the phone up on the receiving end!

One point which Chris picked up today was that the role of a Press Officer is one which is 24 hour, as news never stops. This does not appear to be the case at the University of Winchester, so why is this? Just because it is a 'job' at a university, this should not mean that someone is not available for the press to talk to at any given moment; after all it's what a Press Officer is put in place to do.

From the reports I have been hearing, the Press Officer at the University has proved nothing but a nuisance and a hindrance, making it very difficult for both me and my fellow students to obtain basic information. Refusing to comment and not getting back to people - is this what we really need at the University? A Press Officer should be as helpful as possible! Perhaps this is why Winchester University is still somewhat of an unknown entity as far as identity goes?!

Below is a Press Officer Job description. Note the first point.

Press officer:Job description and activities

A press officer acts as the official media contact for a specific public or private organisation, handling all media interest.

Typical work activities include:

answering journalists' enquiries;

writing press releases and news articles;

liaising with the press and broadcast media on an everyday basis via telephone, email and networking;

monitoring press and broadcast coverage;

arranging press conferences, news briefings, media interviews, visits and public events;

attending committee meetings and debates;

keeping up to date with current issues and public opinions;

managing the press and media in a potential crisis situation.

Is our Press Officer meeting this criteria? I think not.

Citizen Kane

2009-11-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

Materialism! a word synonymous with today's culture. Orson Welles' Citizen Kane replicates the way in which modern society is heading, with rich, wealthy, powerful people always under the watchful eye and having their life's destroyed by this.

Kane initially started out as a man for justice (this can be seen when he takes over "The Inquirer") but became corrupted by power and cared more about the way in which he was perceived than anything else. With an inability to love, Kane alienated all who loved him as he could only provide them with 'material' love and not the true love which human beings crave for.

Throughout the feature, it is clear that every cinematic devise somehow works as a narrative implement to dehumanise Kane and the perceived idea that money brings happiness. From the very outset the audience has their metaphorical guard up as to how they interpret Kane, with the dark images at the beginning creating a sense of darkness and isolation within wealth. The way in which the outside of Kane's castle-like mansion is filmed greatly reinforces the themes of the film as the dark images fade into each other, establishing a sense of dread.

Furthermore, the camera angles employed in Citizen Kane offer great allegorical meanings and symbolism. The film is shot from many angles, which can be interpreted as Kane's disjointed soul, but more importantly I believe the varied camera angles are in place to create a sense of alienation between the audience and Kane as the shots create a sense of distance.

Possibly the best piece of symbolism in the film is Rosebud. To me Rosebud symbolises everything Kane lacks in his personality e.g. love. It only became obvious to me what the meaning of this word was at the end of the film, where the word Rosebud is burning away on one of Kane's possessions. It clearly symbolises all the great human characteristics, which the one-dimensional Kane did not posses. This really is a great cinematic devise on Welles' part as it works well with other symbols in the film to strike a lasting image in the audiences mind.

All in all Citizen Kane is a great masterpiece, employing timeless visual effects to induce deep thinking; proving actions speak louder than words.

WINOL first decent review

2009-11-06T09:05:00.001-08:00

My first decent review made copy this Saturday. Despite the weather and my soaked clothes I braved it down to the Railway Inn to review this week's dire performance. Although I was soaked for the entire show, I did leave the venue with a sense of achievement and satisfaction as I knew exactly what I wanted to say in my review, and walked home writing sound bites on my phone so as not to forget.

For some reason I find it somewhat easier to write about something when i have distaste towards the subject matter. I think this is true with many people; there are only few ways to praise something but many ways to destroy it, or maybe that's just me. Also, I feel that the general public prefer a negative review to a positive - Don't ask me why.

Although it's early days, WINOL seems to be great! I am relishing in my position as Commisioning Editor for Reviews and Previews, and wanna make it the best I can cos i bloody well want to keep it (although that won't happen). Below is my article.

On Friday, The Lonely Hearts Club at Winchester’s infamous Railway Inn played host to yet another up and coming band. Holdfast, a female fronted, post-punk four-piece headlined the stage tonight to a decent sized crowed, but why they had such a good turn out baffled me!

Holdfast resemble a poor man’s Blondie. Think Debbie Harry meets the Yeah Yeah Yeahs minus the crucial element of talent. Much of their sound consists of a peculiar mixture of dull electronic drone with glimpses of pop elation, which never manage to prevail. Their music is a cacophony of mundanity!

BBC Introducing described the band as “It’s fast and it holds my attention. Driven post punk girlie groove thang”. These are merely observations, as a band with such dire musicianship does not warrant anything more than a one-dimensional analysis.

Despite their distinct lack of individuality, it is plain to see why these guys are becoming increasingly popular. Their style very much fits the criteria for today’s scenesters; appealing to people in their late teens who have yet to discover who they are, and relish in a band which they think can relate to the way they feel, even though they sound awful.

Credit where credit’s due, as a unit they were very tight, and for an unsigned band this is often a rare commodity. Furthermore, I must complement these guys on their energy and crowd interaction. They definitely managed to connect with, and create intimacy with the crowd, which so many playing at the Lonely Hearts Club do not manage to achieve. But I get the feeling that this intimacy is only superficial, as their music is not attractive and just mildly resembles the trendy music of today, which will almost certainly be forgotten tomorrow.

Analyse This

2009-11-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

Freudianism on the whole is a flawless, eloquent interpretation of the way in which the mind works. Previously I have applauded the theory of id and super-ego etc, as I know I can relate to what Freud is saying, maybe not to the same extremes as another individual, but I know what he speaks of when he refers to id… By George I wish I lived the id lifestyle, but I don’t because I am not yet mental. Furthermore, if someone is willing enough to open him or herself up to free association, then yet again Freud is a God amongst Philosophers.

However I must challenge him on his views of dream analysis. I have had many a dream where someone has said something fairly innate to me in conversation during a state of consciousness, and I have gone on to have a dream based loosely around what they have said. At the time I have thought nothing of what they have said to me and also after a dream, still nothing. Furthermore, if analysing dreams is so effective then why is it not common knowledge about what dreams mean? People have been arguing for centuries about dream interpretation… still no real conclusions.

I strongly believe in the id interfering with the ego/super-ego whilst conscious, but simply cannot accept that the unconscious state (sleeping) does in anyway resonate the true desires of the id. Dreams to me are merely either a cacophony of rubbish or a representation of my super-ego.

Maybe I am too boring to have my id establish itself whilst I’m asleep? Or maybe I just don’t need psychoanalysis? Didn’t Freud give up on the idea of unconsciousness in the end anyway?

Plagiarism

2009-11-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

Got well and truely caught with my pants down today! Whilst attempting to publish my first preview/review for WINOL today, I became a victim of the deadly plague that is plagiarism.

In all honesty, I did not intend to make such a fatal error, (I am familiar with the seriousness of plagiarism) but today fell into the figurative trap! The preview which I was asked to write about was on the "Please Note" concert by Winchester musicians and singers, which is to take place next Tuesday evening (10th Nov) at the West Downs Centre.

I am not going to deny the fact that I had little information on the performers/ performances, thus making plagiarism very difficult to avoid, but I did not intentionally plagiarise. I was caught out in the way in which I listed the acts... exactly how they were listed on a website advertising the event. FOOL!

Understandably, the first draft (which I considered a final copy) was not published and thankfully I have a chance to redeem myself. In my rejected copy I made the mistake of relying on an email reply to help give me more information on the event, but when that email never arrived it made it very hard to review something I knew nothing about.

Tomorrow is a new day, and it is clear that I need interviews to complete my preview. Reliance on emails is the ethos of a mad man!

NOTE TO SELF..... Must try harder

WINOL

2009-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

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"

2009-10-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

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.

The Gurkhas

2009-05-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

On 21 May, Gurkhas who left the British Army with at least four years service before 1997 will be granted UK residency. This is a topic I feel particularly strongly on as my Grandfather was in the Gurkhas from the early 1950's to the 1980's, and then when he retired from service he established the Gurkha Museum in Winchester.

Before Thursday the Gurkhas who had left the British army before 1997 with at least four years service were denied the right to settle in the UK. Appreciation must go to Joanna Lumley who created "the perfect storm in a positive way". Her Father, like my Grandfather, fought with the Gurkhas so this personally I am very grateful for what she has done for these brave warriors.

I have become active in my appreciation for the Gurkhas as for our third project for Media Production I chose to create a photojournalism piece on the Gurkha's struggle. This included taking photographs in the Museum in Winchester and at my Grandfather's house, and an interview with my Grandfather, which details his opinions on the Gurkhas right to settle within the UK.

Intitially my production piece was created before the Gurkha's won the right to settle with the UK, thus making it a convincing piece of localised propaganda, however they went on to gain access to settle in the UK so now my piece merely stands as a tribute to the Gurkhas and their hard work over the last two hundred years.

The Stupid World Of People And Cameras

2009-05-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday... what a day. But this day ended in my group producing the best god damn news package the world has ever seen!!!!!!!

For part of our Reporting Skills course we had to produce a minute and a half tv package on a local news story. We chose to film ours' on the Alresford Watercress Festival, which initially I wasn't too sure on but it turned out to be a great story as the streets of Alresford were rammed with watercress enthusiasts lol.

For our piece to camera we filmed Josh walking towards the camera "miked up" and telling the camera about the background of the festival. We thought this would be a relatively simple task to overcome as how hard can it really be to film twenty seconds of footage of a man walking and talking through a crowd?.... ANSWER: very hard! The stupidity of some people was amazing! At one point we had a woman stand about a metre in front of the camera lens as we were filming, and remained there even when she had noticed... stupid bitch.

If our group were to burn all of the amusing out-takes onto a disk then we would probably have a pretty decent DVD of ridiculous antics. One of the most memorable moments of the day for me was when a woman walked across Josh's path and nearly sent him flying, and because I had the headphones on I could hear everything... the poor woman was so apologetic hahaha!

A further disastrous part of the day was that when we arrived in Alresford it was absolutely tipping it down. So to counteract that move we decided to buy an umbrella and no sooner had we parted with twenty pounds for a shitty umbrella from a coffee house had it stopped raining. The staff at the coffee house found this most amusing as we walked outside and the rain ceased, so to show them how bothered we were we just walked around with the umbrella up, however this just encouraged their laughter. boo hoo.

Another amusing point to note is that we were at a watercress festival, and wait for it, we didn't film any fillers of watercress. In fact the first time watercress is mentioned in the package we cut to images of sausages on a barbeque. How stupid could we be? It was only when we played back the footage in the editing suite that we all noticed the absence of the very reason we had gone out to film in Alresford in the first place.

Despite these funny events, we managed to produce exactly what we had been asked to. As far as quality went we were pretty spot on BEEP BEEP. Although I don't know that Brian liked it too much, which was a surprise (satire). If we had included shots of watercress I feel that the package would have been almost without fault.

Man Flu: The truth Is Out

2009-05-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

The facts are here. hahaha. Finally we have the proof! Man Flu is for real.

It turns out that men have weaker immune systems then women. Scientists have discovered that female hormone oestrogen boosts women's protection against infections. However, an enzyme in men hampers their ability to fight bugs.

This is the best news since sliced bread. When this news was broadcast yesterday, I was sat in front of the TV with a cold and had to shove the sky plus on to show my parents the revelation when they got home from work. Although i myself thought this revolutionary, my Mother just rubbished this revelation (obviously cos she thought i would want sympathy, which i kinda did) and my Dad, who should have supported me, just shrugged and said that he already knew that. This aside, I know that in the future the "man flu" argument, is an argument with scientific fact and who can argue with fact.

Quote of the day:

Dr Maya Saleh: "These results demonstrate that women have a more powerful inflammatory response than men."

Why Obey The State?

2009-05-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

For our final assessment in People and Politics we were asked to write an essay. I decided to write the essay of why we should obey the state. I chose this particular question as I initially thought that I would try and shake things up a bit, and try and find justifiable reasons as to why someone would indeed obey the state, however I found this harder to achieve than first thought.

The odds were stacked against me. I mean, come on, there are a million and one frickin' reasons as to why one should obey the state. Just think about it, for all the so-called "obeying" we do, we get a lot in return; a strong example of which can be seen in the NHS. If we did not obey the state then the NHS would be non existent. In addition to this, everywhere would be total chaos as there would be no police force in place and thus total anarchy would prevail.

Rousseau made the point that we need a governing body to protect us from humanity’s State of Nature (where we were before law and order) and thus that is why we should obey the state, to protect people’s property and interests, freedom and equality. From reading his work I found it very difficult to justify my own attempt at an argument for not obeying the state.

As much as I tried to start my essay by arguing that we shouldn't obey the state, the fact of the matter is we have to so that the world can function. Below is an extract from my essay as to why we should obey the state:

"However philosophers like to rephrase scenarios, the fact is that we can always find an argument within their own argument as to why one should obey the state, thus giving very good grounds as to why we should indeed obey the state"

Day at the Courts

2009-04-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

On Friday I ventured to the courts to do some "reporting". The case i chose to report on was the good old fashioned "body in the suitcase" crime.

The body of Richard Emery, 62 was found last year, in a suitcase near his home in Bournemouth, Dorset. The day i went was the summary of the defence. The defence was started with the postmortem, which argued that there was no DNA evidence or physical evidence linking the defendants to the body. They then went on to say how some of the witness statements were conflicting and that their reliability was questionable as they kept changing their statements. The defence lawyer even went as far to say that one of the witnesses was, and I quote, "bonkers" hahaha.

This was all very interesting and oddly entertaining but my visit to the courts was unfortunately cut short. A member of the Jury began to choke terribly and the judge subsequently had to call for a break (that felt rather surreal). Then when they returned, the Judge decided that court would finish for the day at lunchtime to allow the member of the Jury to go to the doctors in the afternoon. Unfortunately this meant that the prosecution had to sum their case on Monday which was a real kick in the pants as I would be sitting on my lazy back at home on Monday... boo!

Radio Bulletin

2009-03-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

This task was alot harder than i anticipated. Unfortunately I had the misfortune of reading the bulletin out, here my group had made a massive error of judgement.

I feel that my radio voice is quite okay but on the day it was my nerves which got the better of me. I stuttered three times and I feel this was due to the fact that some of the news stories we used were too long in sentence structure (me blaming others, lol), so the combination of having trouble reading them and my nerves proved to be my downfall.

I addition to the fact that I made some errors, I also overan in the time we were allowed. We were supposed to keep the bulletin to two minutes but i overran by twenty seconds. This happened because another member of my group had prepared the bulletin but I was the one reading it so our differing delivery speeds were not taken into account. WHOOPS.

These mistakes aside, I did feel that our group gave it our best shot, and judging on how the groups performed (i can only guess how they performed by hearing them say how badly they messed up) I believe that we were one of the better groups (beep beep).

If I were to undertake this task again, I would definitely meet with my group an hour or so before so that I could make sure that the bulletin ran more smoothly and effortlessly.

Journalism: A Financial Minefield

2009-03-16T03:09:00.000-07:00

Journalism is indeed my passion. I wouldn't be studying it if it wasn't right? Right. But I can’t help wondering what the future holds for me as a journalist. I mean sure I could be a journalist but there is a clear line between one who has made it and one who hasn’t.

Since undertaking this course I have learned a massive array of skills ranging from short hand to producing radio bulletins but does this acquisition of skills outweigh the impending doom which decimates many a journalists’ career? This “impending doom” of which I speak could fall under many categories. Firstly, one of the first things I can remember which truly unnerved me in one of the newsroom lectures in the first semester was when I was told that most journalists rarely start their trade earning more than £12,000 a year. Argh.

This is frightening to me. It was also frightening to other students as the chorus of gasps in the lecture theatre suggested. Earning £12,000 a year and having a comfortable standard of living seem to me to be somewhat of a paradox, particularly when you throw that tiresome word “recession” into the equation. The thought of being a journalist and never earning more money than this is truly terrifying.

On top of this, the threat of getting sued for libel is apparently quite high. I’m not entirely sure how dangerous the risk of libel is as I can’t decide if its our lecturers being overprotective of us by putting the fear of God into us or whether the big bad world is indeed just waiting to sue a pathetic journalist. Either way I’m scared lol.

I won’t speak for too much longer as I feel that this blog has again turned into a rant, but I must point out one more thing… FATAL ERROR SYSTEM… nuff said.

Although I have had a bit of a cry I still aim to be the best journalist the world has ever seen so ha.

Burn Bad Catholics?

2009-02-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

Of course we're not going to be burning Catholics. This is just an eye-catching headline and subject which was touched upon during the lecture today.

Today's lecture was an entertaining one, with Chris Horrie's menacing opinions pushing the boundaries once more. One of his arguments which was hot topic during the lecture was the "American language". This got me thinking...

Being rather lazy i decided to check the pages of the "reliable" and trusting Wikipedia. As usual Wikpedia provided me with the answer i wanted and said, "English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects".

I can see where Chris is coming from by him saying that the English language is actually the American language due to the fact that people learn it because the Americans use it but it would be more accurate to say that the English language originated from Germany not America!

Empiricism And A-Priori. Just Baffling words?

2009-02-24T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yes Empiricism and A-priori are indeed a pair of hyperbolically named words but their actual concepts are relatively easy to comprehend.

A simple definition of empiricism: Somebody who relies upon observation and experiment rather than theory to determine the truth about something.

A simple definition of A-Priori thinking: Is someone who has knowledge and reasoning, which is independent of experience.

Chris got me thinking when he labeled himself as whatever he said. People can’t possibly pigeonhole themselves by such flippant definitions. Can an empiricist not have A-priori views? Surely an individual’s behaviour cannot simply be broken down into such terms? Why can a person not have both of these views or even utilitarian views as well?

Historical philosophers have tried to incorporate different belief systems to create new ones (an example of this can be seen in the Vienna Circle establishing “logical empiricism”, which is a combination of empiricism and a-priori thinking) but these philosophers then usually only seem to adopt the stance they have created thus proving them to be ignorant.

An individual who holds a mixture of philosophical views is surely a normal person! People can have differing views within the same subject matter. An example could be seen in someone having an empiric view towards politicians e.g. they observe how they are programmed to lie etc. Conversely that same person may have A-priori feeling towards politics, after all politics is all about reasoning. Clearly this shows that humans are all different and a lot of philosophies can have an impact on an individual.

Examples of both schools of thought can be seen all over the media today. An example of empiricism can be seen in the guardian the other day where 438 jobs were lost at JJB Sports today. This is clear empiricism as regards to the recession; we can see it in motion as businesses such as JJB are constantly suffering. A-priori thinking is also very prominent in the media. Today in world news US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke warned Congress that without the right policies from the government, the US recession could last into 2010. This is a good example of A-priori as it has not been proved but is a prediction through reasoning.