Totalitarianism is a political system where the state has complete control over everyone and everything. The government has limitless power through total control of both the public and the private sector. Adolph Hitler's Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union are both examples of totalitarian governments, so this gives us a clue as to what they often involve; genocide. A totalitarian government cannot begin overnight however, the public are cleverly manipulated into allowing it to gradually begin. This can be seen in George Orwell's 1984, where Winston Smith, completely drawn into the government propaganda accepts that 2+2=5.
How to start a totalitarian government (For Dummies)
1. Remove Individuality: Start chipping away at peoples individuality, maybe introduce a swanky new compulsory dress code to make sure that everybody looks the same, we are all one!
2. Break up groups: Social groups, religious groups, academic groups, BAN THEM ALL. Ensure that people are mingling with strangers, people that they don't care about, after all, we are all one!
3. Create Isolation: Remove contact from each other and from the rest of the world, we don't care about them. People can't rise against us on their own.
4. Control the media: Take over the media, people will read the news that we want them to. The history books are full of lies as well, erase them, we can start fresh. We can't have those pesky teachers lying as well, better get rid of them and employ some government trained staff.
5. Create fear: This can be achieved by creating a common enemy, but not being too specific about it. Let's choose the short people, what have they ever done for us? Everybody hates them anyway, don't you? Anybody that looks short, or is reported for being short, or thinks they might be short, or has short parents can be executed. Get those trouble makers out of the way. Our increased police presence, many of whom are secret, should make sure that nobody speaks bad of us, or thinks bad of us, or looks like they might be thinking badly of us.
Sorted, now we have a country ready for our totalitarian government. People are scared of being executed, so they do as they are told. This includes executing our enemies, as they don't want to become enemies themselves. Be sure to stay inconsistent, with random executions from time to time, just to keep people on their toes!
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German Jewish political theorist, who focused many of her writings on the idea of power, her most famous book, The origins of Totalitarianism explores Naziism and Stalinism and how they were allowed to exist. She comes to the conclusion that the Holocaust had nothing to do with eradicating Jews, but was simply about absolute power and consitency in that power. She reported for The New Yorker on the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the key organisers of the holocaust. Whilst describing this trial she coined the phrase, 'the banality of evil.' This describes the way in which evil is often simply a result of thoughtlessness. She concluded that Eichmann's only crime, was not thinking about his actions and the consequences that they would have, and simply following orders. In the trial, Eichmann declared that he had always tried to follow Kant's categorical imperative, he saw Hitler as the moral legislator of his actions, when inn actual fact, A. Arendt refutes this, stating that he had taken the wrong lesson from Kant's work and that he should have been following his moral self as a legislator, and he had also failed to follow 'the golden rule'. She claims that he consoled himself by believing that he was no longer the 'master of his own deeds'.
Wednesday 14 December 2011
Sigmund Freud
Last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having dinner with my girlfriend and instead of asking her to pass the butter, I said "You've ruined my life you evil whore!"
Only joking. I don't have a girlfriend.
ANYHOW, Sigmund Freud was a late 19th -20th century neurologist/psychologist/scientist/philosopher, who invented psychoanalysis. He is the most famous name in modern psychological thinking and has had a huge influence in the worlds of philosophy and science.
Freud removed the enlightenment idea of humans being naturally good or naturally bad, he believed that peoples personalities were influenced by 3 important parts; the id, the ego and the super ego. His idea of a human at birth was not completely dissimilar to that of Hobbes, he believed humans were naturally nasty, and fuelled by sex and violence, only seeking their own pleasure. This is the id side of a human personality.
Freud claimed that the id is the most dominant of the three characteristics, this is the natural, subconscious human instinct part of the mind, aiming towards instant self-gratification, an untrained bundle of animalistic instincts. The id doesn't care for morality, or good and evil, it can be seen clearly in a new born baby, crying simply for its own needs and desires.
The id is in constant battle with the ego, which is the second part of the human personality, and unfortunately, the weakest. It is our reason, our principle of reality, it tries to keep control of the id and super ego, but seems to have little luck.
The super-ego is the third part of the human personality and is the only part which is not present at birth, it is something that we develop as we grow through parenting restraints, social norms and religion taught morals. It is our conscience, or the angel on our shoulder battling against the id. The only problem with the angel, is that it has ridiculously high expectations. It wants perfection, and is responsible for the guilt felt when perfection is not achieved.
To make this easier to visualise, let's get Plato involved!
Plato's analogy of a chariot imagines reason (the ego) as a chariot driver, there are two horses pulling the chariot, one is tame and noble (can horses be noble?) And the other is a bit mental. These represent the super-ego and the id. The chariot is hard to steer as both horses want to go in different direction, but in Plato's analogy, the driver would keep control of the two horses. If Freud was to rewrite the analogy, the driver would be dragged along against his will, trying his best to keep a slight bit of control.
Freud had an obsession for sex that some might describe as unhealthy, when conducting his psychoanalysis he came to the conclusion that what was causing many people's neurosis was repressed sexual desire coming to light due to a setback in one of the three key stages in a child's sexual development.
Oral stage 0-1 year: Everything is orally focused, pleasure comes from the mouth, this stems from breast feeding and is why children are constantly trying to put things in their mouths at a young age.
Anal stage 1-3 years - Pleasure comes from the anus, going to the toilet is a thrill! Toilet training can make this a difficult time for a child, and if there is any struggle with toilet training, the child can become anally retentive, meaning that they may suffer from OCDs at an older age.
Phallic stage 3-6 years - This is where Freud becomes a bit strange. Boys begin to focus on their genitals, and decide that they want to have sex with their mum and kill their dad through jealousy. Fortunately at this stage, the wimpy little ego does it's bit and reasons with your sexually aggressive (and confused) id, that your father is stronger than you, he may castrate you and this whole thing might be a bit weird anyway.
Throughout the next few years, a child begins to develop what he has learnt throughout this time, before he eventually hits the latency stage when his own sexuality becomes important, followed by puberty (or the genitals stage) where adult relationships can be focused on.
So, that's what Freud did, in a nutshell. Although he would refer to himself as a scientist, other scientists would reject this. There is little empirical evidence for anything that he says, it is often vague and cannot realistically (or humanely) be tested, but his work for psychology and philosophy of mind cannot be disregarded. He is often scrutinised and criticised and praised, but it seems unlikely that he will ever stop being discussed.
Only joking. I don't have a girlfriend.
ANYHOW, Sigmund Freud was a late 19th -20th century neurologist/psychologist/scientist/philosopher, who invented psychoanalysis. He is the most famous name in modern psychological thinking and has had a huge influence in the worlds of philosophy and science.
Freud removed the enlightenment idea of humans being naturally good or naturally bad, he believed that peoples personalities were influenced by 3 important parts; the id, the ego and the super ego. His idea of a human at birth was not completely dissimilar to that of Hobbes, he believed humans were naturally nasty, and fuelled by sex and violence, only seeking their own pleasure. This is the id side of a human personality.
Freud claimed that the id is the most dominant of the three characteristics, this is the natural, subconscious human instinct part of the mind, aiming towards instant self-gratification, an untrained bundle of animalistic instincts. The id doesn't care for morality, or good and evil, it can be seen clearly in a new born baby, crying simply for its own needs and desires.
The id is in constant battle with the ego, which is the second part of the human personality, and unfortunately, the weakest. It is our reason, our principle of reality, it tries to keep control of the id and super ego, but seems to have little luck.
The super-ego is the third part of the human personality and is the only part which is not present at birth, it is something that we develop as we grow through parenting restraints, social norms and religion taught morals. It is our conscience, or the angel on our shoulder battling against the id. The only problem with the angel, is that it has ridiculously high expectations. It wants perfection, and is responsible for the guilt felt when perfection is not achieved.
To make this easier to visualise, let's get Plato involved!
Plato's analogy of a chariot imagines reason (the ego) as a chariot driver, there are two horses pulling the chariot, one is tame and noble (can horses be noble?) And the other is a bit mental. These represent the super-ego and the id. The chariot is hard to steer as both horses want to go in different direction, but in Plato's analogy, the driver would keep control of the two horses. If Freud was to rewrite the analogy, the driver would be dragged along against his will, trying his best to keep a slight bit of control.
Freud had an obsession for sex that some might describe as unhealthy, when conducting his psychoanalysis he came to the conclusion that what was causing many people's neurosis was repressed sexual desire coming to light due to a setback in one of the three key stages in a child's sexual development.
Oral stage 0-1 year: Everything is orally focused, pleasure comes from the mouth, this stems from breast feeding and is why children are constantly trying to put things in their mouths at a young age.
Anal stage 1-3 years - Pleasure comes from the anus, going to the toilet is a thrill! Toilet training can make this a difficult time for a child, and if there is any struggle with toilet training, the child can become anally retentive, meaning that they may suffer from OCDs at an older age.
Phallic stage 3-6 years - This is where Freud becomes a bit strange. Boys begin to focus on their genitals, and decide that they want to have sex with their mum and kill their dad through jealousy. Fortunately at this stage, the wimpy little ego does it's bit and reasons with your sexually aggressive (and confused) id, that your father is stronger than you, he may castrate you and this whole thing might be a bit weird anyway.
Throughout the next few years, a child begins to develop what he has learnt throughout this time, before he eventually hits the latency stage when his own sexuality becomes important, followed by puberty (or the genitals stage) where adult relationships can be focused on.
So, that's what Freud did, in a nutshell. Although he would refer to himself as a scientist, other scientists would reject this. There is little empirical evidence for anything that he says, it is often vague and cannot realistically (or humanely) be tested, but his work for psychology and philosophy of mind cannot be disregarded. He is often scrutinised and criticised and praised, but it seems unlikely that he will ever stop being discussed.
Existentialism Notes
What is existentialism?
· Apparently, a very difficult term to define, Wikipedia define it as "a term applied to 19th and 20th century philosophers who shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject." So a kind of human philosophy.
Here are some characteristics that existentialist thinkers are believed to share:
· An obsession with how to live one’s life, and the belief that philosophical and psychological thinking can help
· Lack of attention to social questions e.g, politics and the state.
· But a lot of attention on the questions that people should focus on in their lives, these include, what happens after death, what is the meaning of life, Relationships with god. You know, all of the really difficult questions that no one can ever answer.
· The belief that life doesn’t have any pre-determined value or meaning, but that the individual has to create this for themselves through their own experiences of life by living life, not by asking
questions.
· Existential choices and values are primarily demonstrated in acts, rather than words.
· Focused on everyday struggles in individual existence, existentialists often use literary references, rather than abstract philosophical thinking to show these everyday struggles.
· The idea of Human free will tends to be seen as obvious in existentialist writing.
HUMANS ARE NOT LIKE CHAIRS. CHAIRS ARE PURPOSE BUILT FOR SITTING ON. HUMANS ARE NOT PURPOSE BUILT FOR SITTING ON, HUMANS ARE NOT PURPOSE
BUILT FOR ANYTHING!
Human Knowledge is fallible and limited.
Jean Paul Sartre isinto ACTING, he reckons that everyone’s individual acts change something in the world.
The ripples of actions are like ripples on the sea, they go on and on and on.
For example: I publish these notes on my blog.
People read them and gain a false understanding of existentialism.
Existentialism slowly gets badly interpreted throughout the world etc. etc.
OR
I don’t publish these notes.
Somebody has to take time in studying existentialism properly
This helps to spread a more informed interpretation of existentialism etc. etc.
BOB’S YOUR UNCLE
Every act opens a Pandora’s Box, once you’ve done it, there is no undoing it. Unless you’ve done it on a computer, then you can just click undo. BUT CAN YOU UNDO THAT?
Sartre sees all of that ^^ as an ontological fact, a description of life.
Sartre was famously imprisoned by the Nazis, and remarked "I have never felt so free" He was a prisoner and nothing more, he did not have to worry about the affect that this would have on the world. He saw writing as the act of human freedom. He categoirised the world into three:
1.Things that exist for themselves
2. Human beings who exist for themselves
3. Human beings that exist for others. e.g slaves. He saw these people as, 'in bad faith'.
SO
SO
Existentialists believe that life for humans is potentially TERRIFYING because:
1. Everything that we do is so uncertain and unplanned
2. Everything we do has such a huge impact on the world.
Basically every act, so everything ever (except a thought) is a massive responsibility. A burden.
Acts are not trivial; your acts define you as a human being.
Put in the shortest form: "Living without certainty and with personal responsibility is a nearly unbearable burden." (Bob Corbett)
German philosopher Martin Heidegger focused on the structures of being and existence. He believed that life was all about making your own decisions. He claimed that life for a social being was inauthentic, as their decisions could easily be shaped by others. He believed that a person's past was full of guilt and regret, a persons present was full of fear and dread for the future and that the future remained unknown. He believed that we should live for the moment, stop feeling guilty about the past, and remain indifferent about the future, so that it wouldn't cloyud or present decisions. He believed that we should stop wasting time thinking about life and just live it.
Sunday 11 December 2011
WINOL: Critical Reflection. Term 1
WINOL Critical reflection: Term 1
For Winchester News Online this term I was given the role of Sports reporter, and, more specifically, Correspondent for Winchester City FC. throughout this term however, I have worked at Winchester City FC, Basingstoke Town FC, Eastleigh FC, AFC Totton, Basingstoke Bison ice hockey and Winchester Knights basketball, as well as producing a feature from Winchester Boxing Club, and producing news stories on funding for a wheelchair athletics club, and on Winchester's sports stadium being used as an Olympic training ground. It's fair to say that my role this year turned out to be as an all-round Sports correspondent, and this is something that I enjoyed, I feel experiencing different environments and atmospheres massively aided my development in producing packages for WINOL Sportsweek.
In week 1, I filmed Winchester city, as they beat Blackfield and Langley 6-0. Even with my Sports editor with me to help out, I struggled. My white-balance was poor, making the pitch look slightly blue at times. The bright, sunny day didn't help my poor understanding of camera lighting settings, but this is no excuse, it was something that I would have to work on. I also struggled to keep up with the match, particularly when zooming in, I found myself filming with the camera completely zoomed out for large parts of the match, which led to my final footage looking as though it had been filmed from far away, without a second camera to get close up to the action, this never makes for good enough footage. After filming I had to edit my raw footage down in to a 2 minute package, rediscovering Final Cut Pro was my biggest hurdle of week one, and even after editing my piece down with some help, I still didn't feel completely comfortable with this software.
In week 1, I was also asked to present the sports news in the main bulletin. I think that my part in this went reasonably well for my first time presenting, but the bulletin as a whole went out 15 minutes late, due to a lack of preparation from the team something that we all accepted could not happen again. I was told that my presenting was generally good, but Angus told me that it would have been worth pre-planning the handover between the main presenter and the sports presenter, the handover that we used was a very simple "thanks!", whereas some more colloquial chat wouldn't have gone amiss. This was the only chance I got to present, I would have liked the chance to present Sportsweek while I was part of the sports team, but hopefully this is something that I will get the chance to do in the second term.
Week 2 got off to a pretty terrible start, involving me missing a coach back from London, meaning that I would miss the Winchester City game that I was scheduled to film, fortunately another member of the sports team was available to take over from me. I therefore had to find a sports news story and have it ready in time for Wednesday. I found a story about Winchester sports stadium being lined up as a potential training ground for an Olympic team, I arranged an interview with Alex Trumble from the University and got some good, experimental shots of the stadium, our guest editor that week, Rachael Canter of BBC south enjoyed the piece and told me that this is the sort of news that would make it in to one of their bulletins, which is obviously the standard that I am aiming for, the problem that I saw with the story, was that despite the sports stadium being proposed as a potential training ground for Olympic athletes, it had so far recieved very little interest from any Olympic teams looking for somewhere to train. My main lesson learnt this week was to make sure that mistakes like missing coaches are not acceptable, and I was lucky to have somebody available to take over from me.
The following week gave me my most experimental piece from the first term as a sports reporter. We had been looking for some new sports to film, as we were concerned that Sportsweek was a little bit football heavy, so I made contact with Winchester boxing club, and went along to a training session on a Monday night. Before I went, I received instructions to get involved, and make the package a hands-on feature. When we arrived, the boxing club was little more than a shed, meaning that space was limited. I also didn't feel particularly welcome in the club, and this is where I needed more confidence to ask for interviews and not be afraid of getting in the way. I got some reasonably good shots of the training taking place, and eventually asked if I could get in the ring, and have a sparring session with one of the boxers. he punched me a lot, and it hurt, but it made for great footage (although wearing a helmet may have been a good idea). I was also completely unable to keep my guard up, which probably added to the entertainment value of the feature. As I was finishing with a piece to camera, with a boxer on a punch bag in the background, he punched me in the back of the head, which really added to the light hearted, fun, gonzo journalism aspect of the feature. This could easily have been a fantastic package for WINOL, but I let myself down with sound problems. The gun microphone was not close enough to me, and in a building with poor acoustics, my piece to camera at the start sounded terrible, the framing of the shot was also not as good as it should have been. The piece was spiked from the main bulletin, but still made it into Sportsweek. I was advised to completely redo the piece, but I feel much of it couldn't have been recreated in the same way again, particularly not the punch at the end. The style of the piece however, is something that I intend to do again sometime. Brian pointed me in the direction of Mike Bushell's journalism for the BBC, as he often gets involved in a strange sport or activity; this is the sort of thing that I would like to emulate for WINOL when I get another opportunity.
The feature can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DV1nhYWIjg
Mike Bushell takes the "Ziptrek Plunge":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5huPOhAMK0
From this point on I was primarily filming football, and my camera skills improved weekly, particularly when filming with a HD shooting kit, I felt as though my packages were reaching the standards that were expected of them, on some occasions I helped colleagues by filming behind a goal with a second camera and this gave me good scope to experiment with different shots. My voiceovers were still a weakness, as I often left gaps and felt that my voice sounded too downbeat and at times sombre about something that I should have sounded enthusiastic about. My final package was filming the Basingstoke Bison ice hockey game, and this was something that really tested my filming ability as the game is so fast moving and action packed. My voiceover on this was better, and I feel I produced an overall good package. It was good enough to be used on the website of the Shropshire Star newspaper, which is a good industry standard level to be working at, particularly for my first term of filming sports. The sports team as a whole have all worked so hard, and made sport an important part of WINOL. We have formed good relationships with the clubs that we work with, they are happy that we are filming their games as it is the only chance that they get to watch their own performances. It feels like we are providing a service to people, and as journalists, that should always be our goal.
http://www.shropshirestar.com/sport/2011/12/12/highlights-basingstoke-bison-v-telford-tigers/
In an attempt to recreate the success of last year’s third years, we decided to broadcast live coverage of the November 30 public service strikes around the country. This was always going to be an ambitious project but it was one that we felt capable of achieving. The presenting took place in a union building in Southampton, and we had correspondents following the action in Southampton, Winchester, Basingstoke and London, as well as reporters from John Moores University in Liverpool. I was based in Basingstoke with Lee, a member of the news team and two first years who were acting as runners. I also had the task before the day, to pre-record a package on the police, and what their tactics would be if things got out of hand. Unfortunately, no one from the police was willing to speak to me and I had to make do with a statement. I paraphrased the statement in a piece to camera standing in front of the Hampshire police headquarters. For a first proper piece to camera I thought it was okay, I even got moved on by the police which means I must have been doing something right. The main problem was the lack of content in the piece, due to nobody being willing to speak to me.
The day of strikes was an overall success, and as far as we are aware, it was the most watched student broadcast ever, which is obviously something quite special. We had a few problems with microphones and cameras, but that was out of our control, everybody worked hard to make it work as well as it did. The main downfall of the day, was the lack of action, I think that to an extent we were expecting a repeat of the student demonstrations earlier in the year, which would have made for better footage, the protests were all relatively peaceful and well policed.
In terms of WINOL and WINOL Sportsweek as a whole, I think it has been a good term, in that we have all improved so much from week one, but they are still far from perfect, every week there is something that can be criticised, and it would be great if we could come as close to industry standard as is possible with the resources we have at our disposal. There are occasional black holes in packages, sometimes shots are still badly framed and the sound levels are often inconsistent throughout the programme. The present stories that people are been getting however are of the highest that I have ever seen from a student news programme. We beat all of our competitors and this is reflected in our consistently high viewing figures. On the main WINOL website, sport is trailing behind news in viewing figures, but sports has a whole different audience on Youtube, Sportsweek often reaching over 1000 views, on top of those who watch sport in the news bulletin, and those who click the sports tab on the website. We have a real audience of people interested in local sports.
As well as WINOL, I have also been a member of the radio society this year, and throughout December, Sound Radio was granted a temporary RSL licence. I was asked if the weekly show that I presented with a friend could take place on a daily basis whilst we were broadcasting on 87.7FM and I felt like this was an opportunity that would be silly to decline. The show that we presented was previously a show promoting new and 'under the radar' music. Being on FM during the day, we had to change our show to a wider audience, we were now on community radio as opposed to student radio meaning primarily playing pop music, this was tough at first, because our main discussion point previously was the music that we were playing. Instead, we bought a newspaper daily, and discussed amusing news stories, this generally worked quite well, but doing a 2 hour show five days a week, we sometimes lacked things to talk about, due to a lack of outside content. I feel as though my style on the radio is quite good, I'm quite relaxed, and able to think quickly in difficult situations. We were following OFCOM regulations at all times which meant we had to be careful about what was said at all times, thankfully we avoided breaking any of the regulations. A high point of the show was arranging an interview with singer-songwriter Dave Giles, who is set to be performing in Winchester in February. The interview sounded professional and It was a good, relevant feature for community radio.
For Winchester News Online this term I was given the role of Sports reporter, and, more specifically, Correspondent for Winchester City FC. throughout this term however, I have worked at Winchester City FC, Basingstoke Town FC, Eastleigh FC, AFC Totton, Basingstoke Bison ice hockey and Winchester Knights basketball, as well as producing a feature from Winchester Boxing Club, and producing news stories on funding for a wheelchair athletics club, and on Winchester's sports stadium being used as an Olympic training ground. It's fair to say that my role this year turned out to be as an all-round Sports correspondent, and this is something that I enjoyed, I feel experiencing different environments and atmospheres massively aided my development in producing packages for WINOL Sportsweek.
In week 1, I filmed Winchester city, as they beat Blackfield and Langley 6-0. Even with my Sports editor with me to help out, I struggled. My white-balance was poor, making the pitch look slightly blue at times. The bright, sunny day didn't help my poor understanding of camera lighting settings, but this is no excuse, it was something that I would have to work on. I also struggled to keep up with the match, particularly when zooming in, I found myself filming with the camera completely zoomed out for large parts of the match, which led to my final footage looking as though it had been filmed from far away, without a second camera to get close up to the action, this never makes for good enough footage. After filming I had to edit my raw footage down in to a 2 minute package, rediscovering Final Cut Pro was my biggest hurdle of week one, and even after editing my piece down with some help, I still didn't feel completely comfortable with this software.
In week 1, I was also asked to present the sports news in the main bulletin. I think that my part in this went reasonably well for my first time presenting, but the bulletin as a whole went out 15 minutes late, due to a lack of preparation from the team something that we all accepted could not happen again. I was told that my presenting was generally good, but Angus told me that it would have been worth pre-planning the handover between the main presenter and the sports presenter, the handover that we used was a very simple "thanks!", whereas some more colloquial chat wouldn't have gone amiss. This was the only chance I got to present, I would have liked the chance to present Sportsweek while I was part of the sports team, but hopefully this is something that I will get the chance to do in the second term.
Week 2 got off to a pretty terrible start, involving me missing a coach back from London, meaning that I would miss the Winchester City game that I was scheduled to film, fortunately another member of the sports team was available to take over from me. I therefore had to find a sports news story and have it ready in time for Wednesday. I found a story about Winchester sports stadium being lined up as a potential training ground for an Olympic team, I arranged an interview with Alex Trumble from the University and got some good, experimental shots of the stadium, our guest editor that week, Rachael Canter of BBC south enjoyed the piece and told me that this is the sort of news that would make it in to one of their bulletins, which is obviously the standard that I am aiming for, the problem that I saw with the story, was that despite the sports stadium being proposed as a potential training ground for Olympic athletes, it had so far recieved very little interest from any Olympic teams looking for somewhere to train. My main lesson learnt this week was to make sure that mistakes like missing coaches are not acceptable, and I was lucky to have somebody available to take over from me.
The following week gave me my most experimental piece from the first term as a sports reporter. We had been looking for some new sports to film, as we were concerned that Sportsweek was a little bit football heavy, so I made contact with Winchester boxing club, and went along to a training session on a Monday night. Before I went, I received instructions to get involved, and make the package a hands-on feature. When we arrived, the boxing club was little more than a shed, meaning that space was limited. I also didn't feel particularly welcome in the club, and this is where I needed more confidence to ask for interviews and not be afraid of getting in the way. I got some reasonably good shots of the training taking place, and eventually asked if I could get in the ring, and have a sparring session with one of the boxers. he punched me a lot, and it hurt, but it made for great footage (although wearing a helmet may have been a good idea). I was also completely unable to keep my guard up, which probably added to the entertainment value of the feature. As I was finishing with a piece to camera, with a boxer on a punch bag in the background, he punched me in the back of the head, which really added to the light hearted, fun, gonzo journalism aspect of the feature. This could easily have been a fantastic package for WINOL, but I let myself down with sound problems. The gun microphone was not close enough to me, and in a building with poor acoustics, my piece to camera at the start sounded terrible, the framing of the shot was also not as good as it should have been. The piece was spiked from the main bulletin, but still made it into Sportsweek. I was advised to completely redo the piece, but I feel much of it couldn't have been recreated in the same way again, particularly not the punch at the end. The style of the piece however, is something that I intend to do again sometime. Brian pointed me in the direction of Mike Bushell's journalism for the BBC, as he often gets involved in a strange sport or activity; this is the sort of thing that I would like to emulate for WINOL when I get another opportunity.
The feature can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DV1nhYWIjg
Mike Bushell takes the "Ziptrek Plunge":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5huPOhAMK0
From this point on I was primarily filming football, and my camera skills improved weekly, particularly when filming with a HD shooting kit, I felt as though my packages were reaching the standards that were expected of them, on some occasions I helped colleagues by filming behind a goal with a second camera and this gave me good scope to experiment with different shots. My voiceovers were still a weakness, as I often left gaps and felt that my voice sounded too downbeat and at times sombre about something that I should have sounded enthusiastic about. My final package was filming the Basingstoke Bison ice hockey game, and this was something that really tested my filming ability as the game is so fast moving and action packed. My voiceover on this was better, and I feel I produced an overall good package. It was good enough to be used on the website of the Shropshire Star newspaper, which is a good industry standard level to be working at, particularly for my first term of filming sports. The sports team as a whole have all worked so hard, and made sport an important part of WINOL. We have formed good relationships with the clubs that we work with, they are happy that we are filming their games as it is the only chance that they get to watch their own performances. It feels like we are providing a service to people, and as journalists, that should always be our goal.
http://www.shropshirestar.com/sport/2011/12/12/highlights-basingstoke-bison-v-telford-tigers/
In an attempt to recreate the success of last year’s third years, we decided to broadcast live coverage of the November 30 public service strikes around the country. This was always going to be an ambitious project but it was one that we felt capable of achieving. The presenting took place in a union building in Southampton, and we had correspondents following the action in Southampton, Winchester, Basingstoke and London, as well as reporters from John Moores University in Liverpool. I was based in Basingstoke with Lee, a member of the news team and two first years who were acting as runners. I also had the task before the day, to pre-record a package on the police, and what their tactics would be if things got out of hand. Unfortunately, no one from the police was willing to speak to me and I had to make do with a statement. I paraphrased the statement in a piece to camera standing in front of the Hampshire police headquarters. For a first proper piece to camera I thought it was okay, I even got moved on by the police which means I must have been doing something right. The main problem was the lack of content in the piece, due to nobody being willing to speak to me.
The day of strikes was an overall success, and as far as we are aware, it was the most watched student broadcast ever, which is obviously something quite special. We had a few problems with microphones and cameras, but that was out of our control, everybody worked hard to make it work as well as it did. The main downfall of the day, was the lack of action, I think that to an extent we were expecting a repeat of the student demonstrations earlier in the year, which would have made for better footage, the protests were all relatively peaceful and well policed.
In terms of WINOL and WINOL Sportsweek as a whole, I think it has been a good term, in that we have all improved so much from week one, but they are still far from perfect, every week there is something that can be criticised, and it would be great if we could come as close to industry standard as is possible with the resources we have at our disposal. There are occasional black holes in packages, sometimes shots are still badly framed and the sound levels are often inconsistent throughout the programme. The present stories that people are been getting however are of the highest that I have ever seen from a student news programme. We beat all of our competitors and this is reflected in our consistently high viewing figures. On the main WINOL website, sport is trailing behind news in viewing figures, but sports has a whole different audience on Youtube, Sportsweek often reaching over 1000 views, on top of those who watch sport in the news bulletin, and those who click the sports tab on the website. We have a real audience of people interested in local sports.
As well as WINOL, I have also been a member of the radio society this year, and throughout December, Sound Radio was granted a temporary RSL licence. I was asked if the weekly show that I presented with a friend could take place on a daily basis whilst we were broadcasting on 87.7FM and I felt like this was an opportunity that would be silly to decline. The show that we presented was previously a show promoting new and 'under the radar' music. Being on FM during the day, we had to change our show to a wider audience, we were now on community radio as opposed to student radio meaning primarily playing pop music, this was tough at first, because our main discussion point previously was the music that we were playing. Instead, we bought a newspaper daily, and discussed amusing news stories, this generally worked quite well, but doing a 2 hour show five days a week, we sometimes lacked things to talk about, due to a lack of outside content. I feel as though my style on the radio is quite good, I'm quite relaxed, and able to think quickly in difficult situations. We were following OFCOM regulations at all times which meant we had to be careful about what was said at all times, thankfully we avoided breaking any of the regulations. A high point of the show was arranging an interview with singer-songwriter Dave Giles, who is set to be performing in Winchester in February. The interview sounded professional and It was a good, relevant feature for community radio.
Tuesday 6 December 2011
Keynes: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was a British economist best known for his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, which was published in 1936, a time of mass global unemployment and depression. People were beginning to come to the conclusion that capitalism had failed and that the only way to restore economic normality would be to nationalise means of production. Many were even considering other systems, socialism was rising and the idea of communism may have been coming across as a glamorous alternative to capitalism.
The general Theory argues against the classical economic theory that without government interference, the market would naturally establish full employment equilibrium, meaning that supply would create its own demand and employment levels would indicate this. He suggests that liberalism is not the answer. It was widely argued by classic economists that in times of high unemployment, workers should be willing to lower their wages in order to allow businesses to continue to be profitable. Keynes was realistic about the fact that in reality, people are usually unwilling to do this; he describes this notion as naive. He believed that wages regulate demand. Money needs to be injected by the state, wages can be raised which would raise demand for jobs and therefore increase production. Lowering wages would mean people would have less money to consume, meaning production would slow down, causing more unemployment. This would continue in a circle, ruining the economy. He also refutes Say’s law, the idea that if a product is good, supply will automatically create demand.
Keynes argues in the general theory that demand is what is important in governing economic activity. In a state of unemployment, the only way to increase employment and productivity is for the government to increase expenditure, either for consumption, or investment. He wrote in 1928 ""Let us be up and doing, using our idle resources to increase our wealth, With men and plans unemployed, it is ridiculous to say that we cannot afford these new developments. It is precisely with these plants and these men that we shall afford them". He saw that financial failures often had narrow and technical causes, and argued the solution could also be narrow and technical.
Paul Krugman (Nobel prize winner!) sums up the conclusions reached in 'The General Theory' with four bullet points.
- Economies can and often do suffer from an overall lack of demand, which leads to involuntary unemployment
- The economy’s automatic tendency to correct shortfalls in demand, if it exists at all, operates slowly and painfully
- Government policies to increase demand, by contrast, can reduce unemployment quickly
4 . Sometimes increasing the money supply won’t be enough to persuade the private sector to spend more, and government spending must step into the breach
It should be noted that Keynes was not in favour of complete governmental control of the entire economy, he thought that less intrusive policy would still ensure adequate demand, which would therefore allow the market to flourish successfully.
There have been a number of criticisms made at Keynes, one key criticism being that he mistook an episode for a trend. He believed that the situation in the 1930s would be the norm going forward, in reality, interest rates have never been as low since (despite a sharp drop in recent years).
Krugman states that When Keynes first proposed these ideas, they were unthinkable. He believes that one of the great achievements of The General Theory is that it proposed the ideas so well as to make them thinkable. Another blatant success is that many of Keynes' ideas now seem obvious, where they were once seen as radical, even scary, innovations. His ideas were even described as ‘evil’ by William Buckley.
One possible reason for the success of The General Theory is that Keynes chose to limit down the scope of his writing, he chose not to speculate upon the reasons that the economy found its way into depression in the first place, simply on how more employment could be created in order to get out of it. It is a static model rather than a dynamic model. Keynes wanted to allow us to discard the idea that every boom must be followed by a bust. Krugman states that in reality, most people nowadays, perhaps without realising it, are in fact Keynesian. If a politician promises to create employment through lowering taxes, giving the public more money to spend, this is a Keynesian philosophy, similarly the idea that the recent global economic crisis was caused by a loss of confidence between banks and businesses, this too is a Keynesian idea. As a piece of economic theory, Krugman rates it as highly as Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, in that it changes the way in which we look at the world.
It has been argued that many of Keynes' ideas have been watered down by sympathisers keen to find compromise with classical economists, a year after the book was published, Keynes suffered a heart attack and had to spend most of his time resting, He did begin to recover in 1939, by which point most of his efforts were focused on a financial system helping Britain to afford World War 2. He died in 1946.
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Wednesday 26 October 2011
Alresford Town 1-6 Winchester City
A great team performance from Winchester City saw them progress to the second round of the FA Vase and pick up a £900 prize fund.
A Winchester corner almost straight from kick off provided the first goal, Chris Mason steered it in to the home goal, with the help of a deflection from Alresford's Dean Smith, but Mason claimed it for his 8th goal of the season.
Charlie Smeeton was the provider for Winchester's second goal a couple of minutes later, with a darting run down the right wing followed by a strike at the keeper, that was parried into the path of Dom Allen who finished with ease.
A goal line clearance, some great saves by Alresford goalkeeper Chris Waller and the crossbar prevented City from getting a third early on but eventually the prolific Jamie White grabbed a goal with a poachers finish from another Waller save.
Winchester City made it 4-0 before the break, Smeeton volleying home from 6 yards thanks to Allen's perfectly placed cross.
White was playing with the confidence of a striker on form, and he added to his tally just after half time, delicately touching substitute Alex Easton's cross past the goalkeeper. White has now scored 13 goals in just 8 appearances.
Winchester's sixth goal came from an unfortunate defensive mix up, after Smeeton's dangerous cross. Adie De La Nougerede got the last touch leaving him with the embarrassment of an own goal.
Mike McEnery grabbed a consolation goal in stoppage time for Alresford with a neat headed goal, which left Ryan Gosney stranded, after some good work on the left wing by substitute Danilio Cadete.
WINOL: Week 3 Review
This week, I thought I should try something slightly different, I arranged with Winchester boxing club to film at their clubhouse. After speaking to Brian about this, he suggested that I make it a hands on feature piece, so I took Michael along with me to help out with the filming.
When we turned up we were faced with a few problems, firstly Winchester boxing club is basically a shed, meaning that space was limited, I felt as though we were in the way at times so this did limit the shots that we were able to get. Added to this, there were several under 18's present, so we had to be careful who and where we formed.
I did an opening piece to camera in front of the ring, which turned out to be the downfall of my package, the sound quality was poor and in no way fit to be used for the main bulletin, lighting was also not great. I needed to use a radio mic for this piece, or have the camera trained in closer to my face and hold the gun mic underneath me, rather than having the gun mic rested on the ring, out of shot. I got a few nice shots of people training, but with a short package was unable to use a lot of these. I realised that unless I got involved this could turn out to be a complete non story, so I asked one of the boxers if I could spar with him, he obliged.
Sparring with an amateur boxer wasn't fun, he punched me a lot, and it hurt, but it made for great footage (although wearing a helmet may have been a good idea). I was also completely unable to keep my guard up, which probably added to the entertainment value of the feature. As I was finishing with a piece to camera, with a boxer on a punchbag in the background, he punched me in the back of the head, which really added to the light hearted fun, gonzo journalism aspect of the feature.
The feature was generally well received, but the sound problems really let me down, I was told to completely redo the package as it was, but the punch at the end could not be recreated, as it was spontaneous and I wasn't expecting it. I may do another piece at the boxing club, and completely take part in an entire training session, and include a sparring session (with a helmet and a radio mic.)
Monday 17 October 2011
Winol Sportsweek 2: Reflection
A terrible start to the week for me made things more difficult than was necessary, an over indulgent night in London led to me missing my coach back to Winchester, meaning I was unable to film at Winchester City FC. Fortunately Mikey was on hand to replace me. This meant however that I had to find a sports news story, easier said than done.
I settled for a story concerning the 2012 London Olympics, Winchester Sports Stadium is a potential training ground for athletes before the games. I managed to get an interview with the Sports Development Officer at the university who was very excited about the whole situation, and gained permission to film at the stadium. Gareth told me to experiment with some shots to try and make the piece interesting, however the stadium was completely empty so getting interesting shots was not easy. I feel as though I managed to make the piece look reasonably professional, using tools on Final Cut Pro to slow some parts down, and using shots to cut away from the interview, which was not framed as well as I would have liked it to have been.
I got the piece in on time, and it was an appropriate length, it would have been good to have found another angle to the story, but I feel as though I was on to a slight non story in the first place. It may be worth following it up if there is interest from an Olympic team.
Thursday 6 October 2011
Winol Week 1: Reflection
My role this year, as part of Winchester News Online, is correspondent for Winchester City FC. I see this as almost an ideal role. I know each week in advance what I have to do, I can get there by foot, and I love football. Perfect. But that doesn't mean that my role is by any means easy, for a start my camera skills are not great (yet), and climbing wobbly ladders is rarely an enjoyable experience. Winchester City FC are, fortunately, very accommodating to the WINOL cameras so I am able to film from the top of their main stand, which will hopefully result in some good coverage.. Eventually.
The main problem I had this week was simple technique, the white balance was not perfect, due to the harsh October heatwave that left the sun sitting annoyingly behind one goal. I also found it difficult to keep track of the action when zoomed in, which left me filming most of the match from what looks like a considerable distance. There were 6 goals and a penalty in the match, so the laws of averages meant that I did catch some of the goals quite well. The high scoring game also allowed me to get away with leaving out one of the particularly poorly shot goals from the final edit.
Editing was, what I can only describe as, a nightmare. Final Cut Pro did everything it possibly could to stop me being able to edit, tapes wouldn't work, computers froze and electricity was turned off, and apart from the remembering the basics of editing, I learnt very little except for how much I hate technology at times. Eventually, things worked out, but I'm far from content with my final piece, there is so much to be worked on, much of which I'm sure I'll be able to put right this week.
The football package for Sportsweek was not my only contribution to WINOL this week. I was also asked to present the sports for the main bulletin. Unfortunately we had some technical issues that we were unprepared for, making the bulletin 15 minutes late to air. This is something that can not happen again. I feel as though my piece went reasonably well for a first time presenting. One tip that Angus gave was to work on the handover between the two presenters. This is something that we hadn't put much work into, but is something that will hopefully come with time and practice.
Monday 3 October 2011
Winchester vs Blackfield and Langley Match Report.
Winchester City FC 6 - 0 Blackfield and Langley FC
Winchester got off to a difficult start when Mike Byrne was judged to have fouled Beng 'Yela Ngwa in the penalty box within 15 minutes. Thankfully for the home side, Ryan Gosney was on hand to pull off a sublime save to his right from 12 yards.
City looked vulnerable and the away side nearly took the lead again but were stopped by the reactions of goalkeeper Ryan Gosney once again as he pushed a powerful volley around the post.
On 31 minutes, Winchester got off the mark through Jamie White. A Tom Dunford cross was headed down by Charlie Smeeton, into the path of white, who scored with ease.
White got his second goal 10 minutes later, again thanks to a Charlie Smeeton assist, Smeeton battled to keep the ball in a crowded penalty box, before putting cleverly slotting the ball across to White, who skilfully chipped the ball into the open goal.
Winchester City showed no sign of slowing down after half time, Chris Mason making it 3-0 just 2 minutes after the break, Charlie Smeeton picking up his third assist of the game.
Mason was able to get his second of the game with a skilfully placed shot from just inside the penalty area, gifted to him by a great piece of teamwork between White and Substitute Alex Easton.
Jamie White completed a man of the match performance on 75 minutes after capitalising on a misplaced pass in the middle of the Langley half, he carried the ball forwards before unleashing a fierce strike at the goalkeepers near post, which could only be parried into the goal.
Dom Allen made it 6 in stoppage time, after latching on to a pass from Jamie White, the goal was allowed to stand despite white appearing to be in an offside position.
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Hacking scandal summary
As an aspiring Journalist, it seems wrong that I haven't even attempted to blog about the News International 'hacking scandal'. Well basically, shit has seriously hit the fan. After reading a great article in The Independent today (13 July) written by Martin Hickman and Cahal Milmo, I feel prepared to accurately summarise what is going on.
Hacking
Hacking is the word being banded around the most at the moment, this is the process of listening to people's answerphone messages after obtaining their pin code (often simply using the default 4444 number or finding the number through mobile phone companies) Glenn Mulcaire is the phone hacking expert, previously contracted to The News of the World, who is allegedly responsible for much of the phone hacking. He was imprisoned for 6 months in 2007 after pleading guilty to intercepting royal voicemail messages. Computer hacking is also believed to have taken place as a method of retrieving information. Unfortunately, the questionable practices allegedly used by the press are not limited to just hacking.
Bribery
It is looking increasingly likely that the News of the World bribed the police for information. News International emails show that Andy Coulson authorised these payments. Andy Coulson was employed by David Cameron as the government's director of communications in may 2010 after 3 years as a Conservative Party communications director. This has brought the Prime Minister criticism in the recent weeks. Coulson resigned in January this year amid an earlier scandal regarding the hacking of Celebrities phones. There is also evidence suggesting that phone companies may have been bribed for information.
"Now that the News of the World is gone, everything will be fine!"
Not entirely true, for a start it is worth remembering that not all employees of The News of the World were evil criminals. Many were good, honest journalists who didn't hack phones, bribe the police or urinate on the elderly. The closure of NOTW is an example of Rupert Murdoch's sheer bastardy ruthlessness. At the time of the hacking of murdered teenager Milly Dowler's mobile phone, the editor of the NOTW was Rebekah Brooks, now a senior figure within News International (the company that owns The Sun and previously The News of the World.) Calls for her to step down fell on deaf ears. One tweeter summed up the situation nicely 'Last time so many were sacrificed to one ego at least we got a pyramid out of it!'
Don't be surprised to see more newspapers get pulled in to the scandal. Gordon Brown got the ball rolling today by accusing The Sun of hacking his son's medical records (which they denied) and The Times for illegally obtaining his bank details. Private investigator Johnathan Rees, who is believed to have used techniques such as burglary is known to have worked for the Mirror Group and not just The News of the World. The allegations will now probably pick up speed.
Now What?
An inquiry is being held, the verdict to which will probably be something along the lines of "The press shouldn't do phone hacking". The key body that needs to change is the Press Complaints Commission. This is the press's own regulator, however their sanctions are seen to be soft and they do not have the necessary power to investigate wrongdoings. What we don't want is to lose the level of free press that we currently have, this would be a step in the wrong direction but action does need to be taken and standards need to be raised.
bSKYb
Rupert Murdoch was attempting a complete takeover of bSKYb (Sky TV). After pressure from the public and the house of commons he has now dropped this bid.
Twitter
Twitter has gone absolutely mental in the last week, this is what people have had to say about the 'hacking scandal'
Charlie Brooker: "Judging by the trajectory so far, today's the day we discover they hacked Anne Frank."
George Michael: "For many, many years. Like I said, today is a FANTASTIC day for Britain. XXX"
John Prescott: "The News of the World is closing. It's Twitter Wot Won It! But this won't stop us Murdoch."
Piers Morgan: "Shocked and saddened by closure of the News of the World. Scandals of past week indefensible, but has been a great British newspaper"
Billy Bragg: "Dear @WHSmith.co.uk Do you consider it ethical to stock a newspaper prepared to hack a murdered girl's phone?"
Tuesday 17 May 2011
The Dreyfus affair and J'accuse.
Alfred Dreyfus grew up in Paris in the mid - late 1800s, following the France's defeat and subsequent humiliation in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. During this period anti-Semitism was rife throughout Europe, and during the years of French recovery, it became evident that Jewish people were being scapegoated for the embarrassing defeat. Dreyfus was an intelligent French Jew and at a young age was a promising figure high up in the ranks of the French army. In October 1894, he was arrested and charged with passing military secrets to the German embassy. He was convicted of treason and sent to Devil's island where he was left in solitary confinement.
Devil's Island: Drinks prices are extortionate
Devil's Island: Drinks prices are extortionate
THE END
Until Emile Zola, a French Journalist, writer and novelist published an open letter to the French President, on the front page of liberal newspaper L'aurore entitled J'accuse. Zola had been at the trial of Dreyfus and was appalled at what he believed was blatant corruption from within the French army. Dreyfus was being framed because he was a Jew and the army needed a scapegoat to keep the French people on their side. Unbelievably, most were aware that another army officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, was in fact the traitor, eventually undeniable proof was exposed showing Dreyfus to be innocent. Dreyfus was subsequently handed a pardon, but Esterhazy was never proven guilty in court, it seemed as though the French government were trying to protect him and keep the blame on Dreyfus. It would be far more convenient for those in power to be able to blame a Jew.
The Dreyfus affair highlights the effect that Journalism can have on a society both in a positive and a negative sense. A contributing factor to the anti-Semitism that led to the arrest of Dreyfus was the radical far right press scare-mongering and scapegoating. This is not something completely unfamiliar in Britain, with right publications occasionally running stories with anti Islamic undertones. In J'accuse, Zola completely defames many members of the French army but does so with confidence that what he is saying is correct and a belief that what he is doing is entirely in the public interest. He is also not acting with malice, as he states:
"As for the people I accuse, I do not know them, I never saw them, I have against them neither resentment nor hatred. They are for me only entities, spirits of social evil. And the act I accomplished here is only a revolutionary mean for hastening the explosion of truth and justice."
In February 1997, The Daily Mail published a front page, identifying and accusing five men of the Murder of young black student Stephen Lawrence in a racist attack. The Mail invited the men to sue them if this was incorrect but no action was ever taken against the paper. This is widely regarded as a j'accuse moment and seems as though it is largely influenced by Zola's letter. It has led to the archaic double jeopardy law being changed and there is now a chance that these men may be found guilty.
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Waterboarding
An interesting video questioning the controversial practice of waterboarding, allegedly used to gain information regarding the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.
Sunday 1 May 2011
Bin Laden Dead
The Saudi born super-villain Osama Bin Laden has been killed by American forces according to U.S President Barack Obama. The 'mastermind' of the 9/11 attacks has been the subject of a manhunt since 2001 and sat proudly at the top of the FBI's most wanted list. The body has been recovered.
Tuesday 26 April 2011
Album Review: The Wombats - This Modern Glitch
Hands up if you remember the Wombats. Their First Album, 'A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation' reached number 11 in the UK album charts in 2007, and with its catchy, fun hypnotic pop sound it was an enjoyable album. Some would say that it slightly lacked in lyrical depth with its songs about being infatuated with your GP (EW MRSA!) or being infatuated with a stripper (EW herpes) but that was part of its beauty. When I learnt recently that lead singer Matthew Murphy has recently completed rehabilitation owing to an addiction to anti depressants which plagued the first album I was curious as to the effect that this would have on the second album.
The result is a slightly confused album, combining songs about girls and fast cars (Girls/Fast Cars) with songs about anti depressants (Anti-D). Fortunately the latter is a metaphorical love song where Murphy compares himself to an anti depressant but it still somewhat kills the mood of the opening three cheerful tracks. The album does have some highlights, with the electro pop sound of 'Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)' and the anthemic sing-along chorus of 'Schumacher the Champagne', but overall it seems like most of the album is spent merely padding out the few good tracks . None of the songs are particularly bad, but many are painfully average. Quirky and fun the album may be, but memorable it certainly isn't.
6/10
The result is a slightly confused album, combining songs about girls and fast cars (Girls/Fast Cars) with songs about anti depressants (Anti-D). Fortunately the latter is a metaphorical love song where Murphy compares himself to an anti depressant but it still somewhat kills the mood of the opening three cheerful tracks. The album does have some highlights, with the electro pop sound of 'Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)' and the anthemic sing-along chorus of 'Schumacher the Champagne', but overall it seems like most of the album is spent merely padding out the few good tracks . None of the songs are particularly bad, but many are painfully average. Quirky and fun the album may be, but memorable it certainly isn't.
6/10
Sunday 24 April 2011
(Late) Radio Script
University staff across the country took part in a planned strike on Thursday regarding a row over current salaries, job security and pensions. I spoke to Dr William Sherwood from The University of Winchester about why he was taking part in the strike.
AUDIO INSERT: University Strike
INWORDS: ”There’s a couple of issues”
OUTWORDS: ”Less Fresh Money available at the end”
DURATION: 0’19”
More than 45 students are expected to compete for each graduate job this year; a recent report suggests that many companies are refusing to even consider graduates without relevant work experience. We spoke to a postgraduate student about her job prospects.
AUDIO INSERT: Graduate Jobs
INWORDS: “I left University with”
OUTWORDS: “A bit, like, pointless really”
DURATION: 0’22”
High speed Broadband will be in place across Hampshire by 2014. Hampshire County Council voted in favour of the project which would see an improvement in the current speeds. Councillor Raymond Ellis, a supporter of the Hampshire Broadband project said that “Hampshire can’t afford not to do this”. The project is expected to take between 12 and 32 months to complete and may cost more than 3.5 million pounds.
Winchester Tourist Information Centre has been shortlisted to win the ‘ National Tourist Information Centre of the Year’ award. The Centre won the gold award at the South East regional finals in October and is now in the final four. The winners will be announced in Birmingham on the 15th of April.
AUDIO INSERT: University Strike
INWORDS: ”There’s a couple of issues”
OUTWORDS: ”Less Fresh Money available at the end”
DURATION: 0’19”
More than 45 students are expected to compete for each graduate job this year; a recent report suggests that many companies are refusing to even consider graduates without relevant work experience. We spoke to a postgraduate student about her job prospects.
AUDIO INSERT: Graduate Jobs
INWORDS: “I left University with”
OUTWORDS: “A bit, like, pointless really”
DURATION: 0’22”
High speed Broadband will be in place across Hampshire by 2014. Hampshire County Council voted in favour of the project which would see an improvement in the current speeds. Councillor Raymond Ellis, a supporter of the Hampshire Broadband project said that “Hampshire can’t afford not to do this”. The project is expected to take between 12 and 32 months to complete and may cost more than 3.5 million pounds.
Winchester Tourist Information Centre has been shortlisted to win the ‘ National Tourist Information Centre of the Year’ award. The Centre won the gold award at the South East regional finals in October and is now in the final four. The winners will be announced in Birmingham on the 15th of April.
Saturday 9 April 2011
News of the World phone hacking apology.
The News of the World have apologies for their conduct in light of phone hacking accusations. Read the full, and somewhat surprising apology here:
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/public/nol_public_news/1266448/News-International-statement-News-of-the-World-says-sorry.html
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/public/nol_public_news/1266448/News-International-statement-News-of-the-World-says-sorry.html
Tuesday 29 March 2011
DRUNK PHILOSOPHY JOKE!!!
Why didn't Joe have any friends?
Because according to Thomas Hobbes, man is anti-social by nature, and therefore the only friends that he has are simply to meet his own ends, therefore Joe cannot truly have friends in the way that the word 'friend' is commonly used! x
Because according to Thomas Hobbes, man is anti-social by nature, and therefore the only friends that he has are simply to meet his own ends, therefore Joe cannot truly have friends in the way that the word 'friend' is commonly used! x
Friday 25 March 2011
County Council vs District Council
County Council vs District Council
Local government in Britain is divided into tiers. The highest tier belongs to county council which is occasionally divided into districts or boroughs (as is the case with Hampshire county council) and the second tier is district council, these can be ‘unitary authorities’. District councils are then separated into parishes. We attended a Winchester County Council meeting and the themes that were discussed here were entirely regarding Winchester. The articles discussed included Broadband speeds and changes to the local care system.
Hampshire
Hampshire county council is the upper tier in local government in Hampshire, below it are Basi ngstoke and Deane Borough Council, East Hampshire District Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Fareham Borough Council, Gosport Borough Council, Hart District Council, Havant Borough Council, New Forest District Council, Rushmoor Borough Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Winchester City Council. Portsmouth and Southampton are both part of Hampshire, however they are both unitary authorities,; they are their own council. We spoke to Kelsey Lerney, head of Winchester City Council about the relationship between the city and the county council and she admitted that occasionally there are disagreements between the two councils, with the county council being Conservative run, and the city council having a small Liberal Democrat majority. Parishes in Winchester include Winnal, Badger Farm, Hambledon and Bishops Sutton.
What do they do?
County councils tend to be responsible for services such as education, transport, emergency services, libraries and waste disposal, district councils are more likely to be responsible for areas such as housing, waste collection, licensing, cemeteries and planning permissions. Parish Councils are responsible for feeding back local opinion to higher tiers of government, setting up CCTV and other crime reduction methods and maintaining footpaths and green spaces.
Elections
County councillors are elected every four years, these are voted for in the same way as government elections, anybody is able to stand as a councillor as long as they are 18 or older on the day of nomination, have property in or work connections in the county, are a UK or European Union citizen, have not been declared bankrupt or otherwise disqualified and are not already an employee of the Council. Elections are conducted in a first past the post system. In local government councillors are normally elected every four years. Elected councillors usually employ ‘officers’ who take charge of necessary tasks and engagements.
Finance
Councils are funded by council tax and government grants, county councils receive a lot more finance than district or parish councils as Winchester City Council leader Kelsey Lerney informed us. The county council have an overall yearly budget of somewhere near 1.8 billion pounds whereas the district council has only 12.5 million pounds.
Local government in Britain is divided into tiers. The highest tier belongs to county council which is occasionally divided into districts or boroughs (as is the case with Hampshire county council) and the second tier is district council, these can be ‘unitary authorities’. District councils are then separated into parishes. We attended a Winchester County Council meeting and the themes that were discussed here were entirely regarding Winchester. The articles discussed included Broadband speeds and changes to the local care system.
Hampshire
Hampshire county council is the upper tier in local government in Hampshire, below it are Basi ngstoke and Deane Borough Council, East Hampshire District Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Fareham Borough Council, Gosport Borough Council, Hart District Council, Havant Borough Council, New Forest District Council, Rushmoor Borough Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Winchester City Council. Portsmouth and Southampton are both part of Hampshire, however they are both unitary authorities,; they are their own council. We spoke to Kelsey Lerney, head of Winchester City Council about the relationship between the city and the county council and she admitted that occasionally there are disagreements between the two councils, with the county council being Conservative run, and the city council having a small Liberal Democrat majority. Parishes in Winchester include Winnal, Badger Farm, Hambledon and Bishops Sutton.
What do they do?
County councils tend to be responsible for services such as education, transport, emergency services, libraries and waste disposal, district councils are more likely to be responsible for areas such as housing, waste collection, licensing, cemeteries and planning permissions. Parish Councils are responsible for feeding back local opinion to higher tiers of government, setting up CCTV and other crime reduction methods and maintaining footpaths and green spaces.
Elections
County councillors are elected every four years, these are voted for in the same way as government elections, anybody is able to stand as a councillor as long as they are 18 or older on the day of nomination, have property in or work connections in the county, are a UK or European Union citizen, have not been declared bankrupt or otherwise disqualified and are not already an employee of the Council. Elections are conducted in a first past the post system. In local government councillors are normally elected every four years. Elected councillors usually employ ‘officers’ who take charge of necessary tasks and engagements.
Finance
Councils are funded by council tax and government grants, county councils receive a lot more finance than district or parish councils as Winchester City Council leader Kelsey Lerney informed us. The county council have an overall yearly budget of somewhere near 1.8 billion pounds whereas the district council has only 12.5 million pounds.
Monday 21 March 2011
Leaked Reading Festival Lineup
This photo has been removed from official Forums and looks as though it has been taken out of NME magazine. Is it real? We'll find out at 7.15 tonight!
Wednesday 16 March 2011
The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx:
Born in 1818 to a Jewish family
Studied Law, Philosophy, journalism and then Revolution
1844, Met Engels in Paris
1848, Communist Manifesto published
Born in 1818 to a Jewish family
Studied Law, Philosophy, journalism and then Revolution
1844, Met Engels in Paris
1848, Communist Manifesto published
The Communist Manifesto outlines the Communist Leagues aims and ideologies; it focuses largely on criticising capitalism and past class struggles.
According to Engels, Marx’s work achieved a fusion of Hegelian philosophy, British empiricism (particularly the economics of Adam Smith and French revolutionary politics (particularly socialist politics)
The Manifesto begins by stating that “A spectre is haunting Europe -- the spectre of communism.” The reference to a ‘spectre’ is a reference to Hegel’s idea of the ‘Zeitgeist’; the ghost of now, or the spirit of the moment. Marx seems to be implying that the time of writing was the time for communism to happen. The Manifesto outlines that it was created so that communists can ‘openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims and their tendencies in a manifesto.’
The first chapter relates to bourgeois and proletarians, and begins with the line “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” This refers to the way in which class struggles have always affected civilisation. The Bourgeoisie are the wealthy ruling class; the landowners and business owners, as Marx puts it, ‘the industrial millionaires.’ The Proletariat are the people that work for the bourgeoisie, doing hard, monotonous work just in order to earn enough money to simply survive. This chapter claims that the economic structure of each society leads to one part of that society being oppressed.
It claims that oppressor and oppressed have always stood in opposition to each other and that this fight has always ended in the ruin of the contending classes and that the gap between the two classes has been increased by the East Indian and Chinese markets and the colonisation of America, this extension of trade and exchange has led to the disappearance of the division of labour between different corporate Gilds in the face of division of labour in every workshop. New technologies such as steam and Machinery have also helped to further widen this gap, it has caused proletarian labourers to become simple commodities, and their work has lost all individual character. Marx describes them as an ‘appendage of the machine’. The Manifesto reads “the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and exchange”. This passage again shows the influence that Hegel has over Marx. It is referring to the way that things are constantly changing and developing through war and revolution.
He accuses the modern state of being ‘a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie (This is different to Hegel, who was a big fan of ‘the state’).
The manifesto then says that No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portion of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.
The Manifesto indicates that the proletariat need to rise up and overthrow the bourgeoisie using the ‘tools’ that the bourgeoisie have provided (improvements in transport, technology, communication etc). This would involve the proletariat organising themselves into a political party, during this process, Marx believes that parts of the bourgeoisie would be forced into joining the proletariat. This would happen naturally due to bourgeoisie industry becoming bigger, and therefore more expensive, forcing bourgeois out of their positions. As the proletariat numbers grow and the bourgeoisie numbers decrease, the proletariat can overthrow the bourgeoisie through violent revolution or politically.
Once the Proletariat have formed a communist party, Marx states that the following would be applicable:
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
This would apparently lead to the removal of class antagonism, and classes in general and create an “association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”
One criticism that the manifesto addresses, is that without private property “universal laziness will overtake us”. Marx claims that if this was the case, laziness would have overtaken a capitalist society a long time ago, because the people that work don’t own anything, and the people that own things don’t work. It has been suggested that Marx can come across as slightly sarcastic in his responses to criticisms of communism.
The third section of the manifesto is a critical review of other socialist and communist literature. These are reactionary socialism, conservative or bourgeois socialism and critical utopian socialism and communism. Marx argues that each of these fails because it misses out on a key part of communist theory. The reactionaries and the conservatives fail to understand the class antagonism that will lead to the eventual downfall of the bourgeoisie and the critical utopians fail to realise that revolution is necessary and that nothing will happen through “fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous effects of their social science.”
The final section of the manifesto relates to the communist party’s relationship with other political parties, it states “In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.” It finishes with the passage:
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
“Proletarians of all countries unite!”
The communist manifesto is fairly simple to read, and was clearly aimed at a wide working class demographic, I find that one of the key downfalls of the manifesto is the lack of importance that is given to religion and culture, Marx claims that they are “not deserving of serious examination.” Of course Marx was opposed to religion but it seems silly to give this no consideration, surely it’s something that the proletariat would be concerned by, and something that may divide them or bring them together.
Tuesday 15 March 2011
Free Press
An interesting article by Nick Clegg on The Guardian website regarding a shake up of libel laws. Although he'll probably change his mind soon enough.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/15/libel-law-reform-free-press
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/15/libel-law-reform-free-press
Saturday 5 March 2011
Daily Stargate
A reporter for The Daily Star has resigned, claiming that the newspaper encourages its journalists to make up lies about celebrities and has an anti-Muslim agenda.
This is something that I have noticed a lot since gaining an interest in newspapers and I am pleased that this young journalist has decided to take a stand. Richard Peppiatt admits in his letter of resignation that he gladly took to the streets wearing a burkha, but claims he had "discovered some backbone" by the time he was asked to pose semi naked with some burkha clad shoppers.
By simply typing the word 'Muslim' into the Daily Star website's search bar, I discover the following results:
Wear Burka go to prison
SHEER HATRED
Curry Boss: Muslim duty to hire illegalsMuslims on top in decades
And even:
Is Maddie a Muslim?
Although not all of these are entirely negative articles, the headlines give off such a negative, scaremongering impression. Peppiatt says in his letter:
"Our caustic "us and them" narrative needs nailing home every day or two, and when asked to wield the hammer I was too scared for my career, and my bank account, to refuse."
He also writes:
"You may have heard the phrase, "The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas." Well, try this: "The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved in down an alley in Bradford.""
Guardian columnist and personal hero of mine Charlie Brooker, has also written a hilarious and thought provoking piece about a similar topic, which I would highly recommend reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/14/daily-star-crude-propaganda
He sums up the Daily Star's reporting by saying "the Daily Star is either grossly irresponsible in its sloppy representation of the facts, or engaging in overt anti-Muslim propaganda."
Peppiatt says that he knew it was time to 'lay down his pen' when the newspaper seemed to be supporting the controversial far right organisation; The English Defence League. The EDL claims that it is a non violent, non racist organisation with the intention of uniting against militant Islam. They like to show how non violent they are by getting together in a warehouse, wearing balaclavas and burning flags.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkKmzNpUBM4
Charming.
The Daily star responded to Richard Peppiatt's claims with this statement:
"Richard Peppiatt worked purely as a casual reporter at the Daily Star for almost two years. Recently he became unhappy after he was passed over for several staff positions. He refers to a Kelly Brook story: in fact, he approached and offered the newspaper that story, vouched for its accuracy, and then asked for and received an extra freelance fee for doing so. Since he wrote his email we have discovered that he was privately warned very recently by senior reporters on the paper after suggesting he would make up quotes. Regarding the allegations over the paper's coverage of Islam, he was only ever involved in a very minor way with such articles, and never voiced either privately or officially any disquiet over the tone of the coverage. For the record, the Daily Star editorial policy does not hold any negativity towards Islam and the paper has never, and does not endorse, the EDL."
Read Richard Peppiatt's full letter of resignation here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/04/daily-star-reporter-letter-full
This is something that I have noticed a lot since gaining an interest in newspapers and I am pleased that this young journalist has decided to take a stand. Richard Peppiatt admits in his letter of resignation that he gladly took to the streets wearing a burkha, but claims he had "discovered some backbone" by the time he was asked to pose semi naked with some burkha clad shoppers.
By simply typing the word 'Muslim' into the Daily Star website's search bar, I discover the following results:
Wear Burka go to prison
SHEER HATRED
Curry Boss: Muslim duty to hire illegalsMuslims on top in decades
And even:
Is Maddie a Muslim?
Although not all of these are entirely negative articles, the headlines give off such a negative, scaremongering impression. Peppiatt says in his letter:
"Our caustic "us and them" narrative needs nailing home every day or two, and when asked to wield the hammer I was too scared for my career, and my bank account, to refuse."
He also writes:
"You may have heard the phrase, "The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas." Well, try this: "The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved in down an alley in Bradford.""
Guardian columnist and personal hero of mine Charlie Brooker, has also written a hilarious and thought provoking piece about a similar topic, which I would highly recommend reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/14/daily-star-crude-propaganda
He sums up the Daily Star's reporting by saying "the Daily Star is either grossly irresponsible in its sloppy representation of the facts, or engaging in overt anti-Muslim propaganda."
Peppiatt says that he knew it was time to 'lay down his pen' when the newspaper seemed to be supporting the controversial far right organisation; The English Defence League. The EDL claims that it is a non violent, non racist organisation with the intention of uniting against militant Islam. They like to show how non violent they are by getting together in a warehouse, wearing balaclavas and burning flags.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkKmzNpUBM4
Charming.
The Daily star responded to Richard Peppiatt's claims with this statement:
"Richard Peppiatt worked purely as a casual reporter at the Daily Star for almost two years. Recently he became unhappy after he was passed over for several staff positions. He refers to a Kelly Brook story: in fact, he approached and offered the newspaper that story, vouched for its accuracy, and then asked for and received an extra freelance fee for doing so. Since he wrote his email we have discovered that he was privately warned very recently by senior reporters on the paper after suggesting he would make up quotes. Regarding the allegations over the paper's coverage of Islam, he was only ever involved in a very minor way with such articles, and never voiced either privately or officially any disquiet over the tone of the coverage. For the record, the Daily Star editorial policy does not hold any negativity towards Islam and the paper has never, and does not endorse, the EDL."
Read Richard Peppiatt's full letter of resignation here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/04/daily-star-reporter-letter-full
Thursday 3 March 2011
Phone Hacking allegedly used in all of the 'Murdoch press'
John Prescott used his Parliamentary privilege to accuse the Murdoch press of carrying out phone hacking within more than one of its newspapers. News International, the group owned by Rupert Murdoch, is in charge of The Sun, The News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times.
"It is a number of papers owned by the Murdoch press and a number of employees who have been involved in withholding evidence and [hacking into phones]," The former Deputy Prime Minister said today during a House of Lords debate regarding Murdoch's takeover of BskyB.
Because this was said in parliament, John Prescott has no fears of sparking a Libel lawsuit. Parliamentary Privilege means that what people say in parliament is protected from libel laws.
News International has denied that any of their publications, except the News of the World are under investigation.
The Full story can be found here.
Saturday 19 February 2011
Mary Wollstonecraft
Who is Mary Wollstonecraft?
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth century writer and philosopher. The main theme in her writing was womens rights and they way women were treated in society. This was a controversial topic in the 1700s.
I read chapter 4 of her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, where she seems generally critical of women. She is suggesting that women have the potential to be as strong as men, but society in it's current state won't allow that, this is partially due to the way that men treat women, and partially by the way that women accept their roles and follow the same traditional path. She follows John Locke's view that our minds at birth are 'tabula rasa', completely blank, and that it is only sense experience which can shape us. She was asserting that women were able to change their destiny.
I find her points in general reasonable and relevant even in a days society where women are considered to be equal. For example, why is it that fear and emotion in a man is seen as a weakness, whereas in a woman it can be seen as cute and endearing. Why is the phrase/rule 'ladies first' still used if women are equal.
Hollow Respect
This refers to the sort of respect that women are shown by men. When a man holds a door for a woman, is he doing it because he actually respects her, or because it's 'the done thing'? Wollstonecraft claims that the respect women were shown is similar to the respect shown to the king. It is not earnt, and people may not be sure why they hold this respect, they just do. She illustrates this by stating that ' A king is always a king, a woman is always a woman. Here she is referring to the way that women will never be more than just a woman. This is different nowadays as women are more than just a gender, they have equal job opportunities to men.
I feel this video is particularly relevant.
Mary Wollstonecraft does acknowledge that there are physical differences between men and women, but says that these differences should be overlooked until a women is in a relationship. Before then, men and women should be asexual, and therefore equal.
At the time of her writing, she said that pleasure was the main business of a womens life, and commented that whilst this was the case very little could be expected from such 'weak beings'. She disapproves with the way that women were treated like 'creatures of sensation' by the media at the time, this was largely influenced by the romantic movement which was taking place around europe in the late eighteenth century. Love was a consistent theme in music
, novels and poetry.
Educate men like women
This was an idea first made famous by Rousseau, of whom Wollstonecraft was a keen admirer. She says that the more men resemble women, the less power they will have over them. She makes it clear that she doesn't want women to have power over men, but simply over themselves.
I think that her argument is summed up nicely when she writes ' I wish to see women neither heroins or brutes; but reasonable creatures.'
Overall I like what Mary Wollstonecraft has to say. She looks at the problems that she was facing rationally and realistically without throwing blame around too hastily. Until last weeks lecture I had never even heard of her and as far as I was (naively) aware, the Suffragettes were the first people to demand change. The controversy that surrounded her for so long after her death is unfortunate and potentially prevented her from being awarded the credit that she arguably deserves.
Friday 11 February 2011
Lady Gaga. Google. The Jonas Brothers. Tickets. Justin Bieber. Free. Money. David Beckham. Cheap. Egypt. Rihanna. Car insurance.
After seeing my shameful rank in Brian's SEO league table today, I decided it was necessary to 'experiment' and see how much keywords affect my Alexa rating.
Here's a link explaining Black Hat search engine optimization.
Saturday 5 February 2011
Journalism blogs
I've been scouting the internet for other Journalism bloggers around the country and here are a few of my findings.
http://simononeill.faljournalism.com/?p=89&cpage=1#comment-19 (Falmouth University)
http://journalism.about.com/b/2011/01/18/study-seems-to-indicate-metered-newspaper-website-paywalls-can-work.htm#comment-60097 (A blog about pay walls, something which I unfortunately failed to mention in my Journalism Now presentation.)
TBC
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