Winol 30th November National Strike Special

Warning, this blog post contains strikes of a positive natures and sleep deprivation that some bloggers may find disturbing. This sums up the most exhausting, stressful, but fulfilling two weeks of my times at the University of Winchester so far. November 30th, Winchester News Online plan to broadcast six hours of rolling coverage of the national strike over the changes in pension reform. 

We were filming on location at the Unite the Union Southampton. We were able to get four hours of rolling coverage out and it proved after the last few weeks of preparation and last minute change that we pulled off something that no other Journalism course has ever pulled off and we should be proud of this accomplishment. Now to cover the last two weeks for both my own personal role and the overall Winol output.

Initially my role was to be a OB reporter covering the strikes from Southampton, but it was clear that with the broadcast drawing ever closer three things were important to making the broadcast a success; the OB's, the packages and the guests (which we were lacking). It was decided by both our output editor Julie and Chris Horrie that I would become the Booker or guest fixer (we had thought of using guest editor, but that would be confused with being a guest editor for the broadcast). However, the only problem now was this was now Thursday night and I had a little over four days to book enough guests to cover the possibility of six hours of rolling coverage. But, after feeling a bit downhearted, as I wanted to report on the day, I realised that this was one of the most important roles to make the broadcast work and it would only be given to someone who could be relied on.

I was able to contact every Councillor, union member and potential affected group over the possibility of being a guest during the broadcast. This did mean I was not going to have town to put together a package, therefore I decided that any spare time I had, I would make the most of and helped out other with their packages. By Tuesday night I was confident, as I was able to book 9 in studio guests, as well as three pre-recorded interviews, which would be broadcast throughout the coverage. 

Wednesday was a very long and successful day and there is so many points to cover, so I will try and bullet points the key focus points of the broadcast and the day overall:

* It was a personal success that all, bar one of the guests turned up and were all very comfortable, prepared and gave very interesting interviews during discussion with Jake Gable and gave valid input into the overall coverage.

* The presentation of the overall coverage was very good as we had three presenters reversing every half hour and kept the coverage up-to-date and relevant and George was very good with his constant updates from twitters and Online. It made the coverage feel very professional and looked very similar to coverage you would see from the BBC or ITN on any important news broadcast E.G. General Election/The Budget. 

* Even with the technical difficulties, we continued broadcasting and for a student journalism course to be able to stream four hours of rolling coverage is unprecedented and we should be very proud as we kept going throughout even with the technical difficulties and problem in uploading some of the packages. 

* On a personal note, it was nice to finally get on the screen towards the end of the broadcast as I was able to take part in the final discussion with Councillor Keith House, leader of Eastleigh Borough Council and I felt that I did a very good job as the feedback given was that I was comfortable with my voice and kept the discussion rolling, however again it showed slightly with my non-verbal communication as I still get slightly nervous in front of the camera as it was live. 

This was a very successful project from an idea that was very ambitious and risky. I think that everyone gave 1000% effort from start to finish and that was evident, as everyone did not stop helping each other until we finished and left the Unite building. I think I succeeded in my role, as I was able to book the guests, get the right interviews and used my expertise local government and excelled. I feel that this will be able to help me as I did work well under pressure and when it come to my tutorial feel that I have got idea for which role I would like, which this week has helped me decide.

On a final note a big thank you to everyone who was involved in this project, we all worked together as a team and it paid off and a big thank you to the other universities involved for helping us supply content that helped the broadcast flow. Here is the best bit of the coverage and I feel confident now that the second years are reading to take the reigns from the third years and take Winol to the next level!

Winol Week 8.....Everything went right and then we had a wonky collar

Week 8 and I felt that this week was my best week to date as I felt that I took good story that after countless number of technical problems and interview time changes, was resurrected at the last minute.

The week started with the usual news meeting where I pitched my story, which would cover the plans for Southampton City Council to implement commissioning of services, but these changes were being seen as a chance to privatise the council, according to local unions. I was able to obtain an interview with Councillor Royston Smith, leader of Southampton City Council and Mike Tucker, Branch Secretary for Unison Southampton.

I had a series of problems on Tuesday with my equipment, which included my camera not working, the battery dying, not taking the right tripod and changing cameras. However, after 3 trips, back and forth from Winchester to Southampton, I brought Tom with me as I had arranged an interview with a local Green Councillor for his story. Luckily at the last minute, I received a phone call from Southampton City Council's press office and they had arranged for my to meet Councillor Smith.

I felt this was my best interview to date, as Councillor Smith was very vocal in his opinions to defend the council and attack the union's claims. This left me with Wednesday morning to do all my filming of my Gv's, my piece to camera and the second interview with Mike Tucker. Just your usual Wednesday morning at Winol

After a morning of rushing around, I returned to the new room with two hours to editing my piece together and hand a headline clip in.  I finished my package and was given in time. I felt that my overall package this week was my best to date as the interviews I had gave two very good soundbites, as well as continuity as this was the first time I used two part of one interview to use as counter balance to the ongoing debate between Southampton City Council and the local unions.

There was still some issues with the overall piece. I felt that Gv's I used could have been stronger, however I was on my own and worked to a very tight deadline, therefore it was good with the limited amount of time I had. My second interview with Mike Tucker was framed well, but he was looking directly into the camera as if he was being interrogated and I need to ensure that they are looking at me to make the piece look more natural. The final gripe I had was the most annoying as my piece to camera was confident, I kept constant eye contact with the camera, but my collar was wonky. This made me look scruffy and unprofessional and I may take Angus Scott's advice from now and take a mirror with me to ensure I do not look scruffy.

Now to the bulletin, I feel we are getting stronger with our overall content and focus to our primary and secondary demographic. In terms of the bulletin it was good to have the Vice-Chancellor, Joy Carter as it promotes the University in a positive light and in any news institution if you can have an important figure within the organisation (in this case The University of Winchester) in the bulletin, you do it as it the best way to reach your target audience. We also included an in-studio discussion about the rise in youth unemployment, which was again good as we were target the demographic.

However, we should of known in advance and made a package about an important topic to students, as they will be interested in job prospects after graduating. We finally had a court story, but it was not a broadcast news story as it was about a local paedophile and we only had a mug shot and as it involved a minor we could not divulge many details. This would of worked better as an OOV, but it was good that Flick found a story in her patch.

Overall Winol is going from strength to strength as we are targeting our demographic audience's and grabbing their attention with good stories. We just need to ensure that we are focusing on getting the most detail out of every story and keeping the audience engaged every week. With the impending and now success of the 30th November national strike protest broadcast in history, we did not have a Winol bulletin last week and therefore my next Winol review will be the rolling coverage of the strikes!

30th November Coverage Final Guest lists and timetable

Right guys after a million phone calls and e-mails, here is is the final guest list for Winol's coverage of the November 30th National Strike tomorrow. There may be updates if guests drop out, so everything is subject to change:

Right this is the final guest list for tomorrow and time slots, barring any last minute changes or inclusions 

12.00-13.00: Seb Miell (Winchester Student Union President) and Ross England (Winchester Student-Conservative)-student debate over strikes

13.00-14.00: Alan Rickman: Chairman of TACT Winchester (Tenants and Residents Together)- Effect of strike on local residents. 

14.00-15.00: Ian Woodland (Unite South-East regional co-ordinator) and Councillor Richard Williams (Labour opposition leader for Southampton City Council) 

15.00-16.00: Councillor Keith House (Liberal Democrat leader of Eastleigh Borough Council and oppositional leader at Hampshire County Council)

16.00-17.00: Tim Cutter (Unison Hampshire Branch Secretary) and Pete Sopowski (National Teacher's Union Southampton Secretary, as well as a possibility of local headteacher's from Southampton/Surrounding areas 

17.00-18.00: No guests at the moment, but will mainly be used for round-up of day's events 

Pre-recorded Interviews:

Winchester-Tommy Geddes (Deputy Vice Chancellor-University of Winchester: Interview with Ulduuz and Michael Connolly in Conference room at Half 10)

Southampton- Councillor Royston Smith (Conservative leader of Southampton City Council: Interview with Ali and Aaron at 10am at Southampton Civic Centre)

Mike Tucker (Unison Branch Secretary Southampton-Interview with Ali and Aaron at Guildhall Square at half 9)

Still awaiting confirmation from Winchester City Council in regards to guests or a pre-recorded interview with Council Leader George Beckett. 

If anyone has a contact who they can get in as a guest at any time tomorrow, let me know ASAP as we have a spare hour to fill if we broadcast for that long as the news develops and if demand is needed

HCJ:Totalitaranism and George Orwell's 1984

This week's HCJ lecture has taken us away from the money-spinning world of economics into the darker, more sinister realm of Totalitarianism. There was two main questions that we had to take out of the lecture and the 3rd would be answered watch the film adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel "1984". We were given the answer to these two questions:

1. How could it happen (The Origins of Totalitarianism)?

2. What is your personal responsibility (Eichmann in Jerusalem)? 

In the answer to the first question the German, Hannah Arendt, refers us to the reading for this week’s upcoming HCJ seminar with The Origins of Totalitarianism. Arendt's book examines the two major political movements of influences that swept central and Eastern Europe during World War 2: Nazism and Stalinism. Ardent described Totalitarianism as "Everything we know of Totalitarianism demonstrates a horrible originality." This reflects the movement where the masses were dominated and brainwashed by the strong and powerful. 

These can be reflected in the works of Hume where the dangers of seeing this problem stop short of calling them causes. Ardent believed in utter individuality and spontaneity of people creating an entirely new system. A Totalitarian regime believes that "everything is possible" and so seek ultimate power, however the price of total power is destruction and the eradication of humanity.

Our individuality though makes us difficult to control and to gather people up to form a collective movement. So the ways to form this group is through the processes of state terror and ideology. The essence of a Totalitarian government is "total terror", which can be expressed through the Nazi movement and Adolf Hitler's reign of complete and utter terror over the German population and his persecution and genocide of the Jewish race across Europe. 

The purpose of terror is not just mass murder E.G Holocaust/The Final Solution, but is to destroy individuality and ability to act against the government. Genocide is not the only part of the movement; it is the key manifestation of the movement. Two examples of this is The Final Solution and the Holocaust of the Jewish population, which was implemented by the Nazi's as the main solution to the final and complete extinction of Jewish people across the world with the use the concentration camps as the catalyst for this plan. 

On the opposite side of the eastern front there was severe uprising throughout the Soviet army during the winter of 1940, which led to mutiny between the Stalin regime and the Soviet troops. Stalin's solution to this was the mass murder of the troops who he saw as traitors in his ultimate plan to gain control of the eastern front against the Germans. 

Ideology compliments terror policy as it eliminates the capacity for individual thought and experience even amongst the executioners themselves. Ideology also frees the mind from the constraints of common sense and reality. This will break down stable humans world, which means the loss of institutional and psychological barrier limits and emphasises the phrase against that "everything is possible." 

This again was expressed through the Nazi's stripping the Jews of identity and were seen as the perfects victims for a Totalitarian regime. Arendt highlights the fragility of civilisation and how quickly whole groups of people can fail through the cracks, even at the time in Europe. For they’re to be civilised humans, we need to be part of a world full of stable structure and to be part of a society, in order to enable us to become civilised. 

Imperialism was a vital element as the disruption of structures created the victims and the masses of which Totalitarian focuses upon as it was the first references to racism and expresses how it was your genetics, not your actions that determined your race in life. In Alan Ryan's "The Moderns", he explains that It was the concentrated actions of individuals, this rather the logical extensions of mass society where meaning is provided through ideology, where isolated humans are vulnerable to total manipulation through the collapses of both public and privacy.

This brings us on to the answer of the second question of what is your personal responsibility and this can be exemplified in 1960 when the Israeli SS captured the Nazi fugitive, Adolf Eichmann. He stood trial in Jerusalem for crimes committed in "The Final Solution" where Eichmann's responsibility was to organise the mass transport of the Jews from the ghettos to the concentration camps.  

The trial served three purposes:

1. Trying Eichmann for his crimes.

2. For educating the nature and extent of the Holocaust.

3. The legitimatising of the Jewish state. 

Arendt was a reporter on the trial and was chocked to see Eichmann who spoke mainly in clichés and explained how he was only following Hitler's instruction as a "Law abiding citizen." She concluded that it was not necessary to pscess great wickedness to commit great crimes as evil as the Holocaust. She agreed that Eichmann's crimes was non-thinking and criticised his obedience and his inability to think. This is what Arendt believed that a non-thinking human is capable of carrying out genocide. 

Eichmann claimed that his implementation of The Final Solution was acting from obedience and the readings of Kant. Kant's Categorical Imperative is expressed in how according to Marxism whereby you can make it a universal law. Arendt felt that Kant's theory blanks at blind obedience and that Eichmann changes the Categorical Imperative to be one should act in a way that Hitler himself would do the same. 

Eichmann's greatest crime was he forgot to think as it is the judgement made from the interaction with internal plurality. Arendt's ide of freedom is how we act in society and how we exercise our freedom. We must ultimately look at our own judgement, rather than follow the law in order to know how to act. 

This brings me on to the screening, which followed the lecture, which was the film adaptation of George Orwell's 1984. The film shows how a totalitarian super state controlled its citizens through constant surveillance and control. However, the film expresses the private thoughts of Winston Smith and his disobedience to the super state. 

He convert's with his female counterpart, Julia and they start to meet in private and express sexual pleasures, which are outlawed and banned in order to create the perfect utopian super state, where no one thinks and follow's the every command of "Big Brother." They are eventually found out and arrested, but for Smith this is the worst possible outcome as he is brainwashed and tortured by O'Brien (I am not going to even comment on this as my name has been used for evil I tell you.... EVIL!!!).

He is subjected to the worst kind of tortured until he accepts the followings of "Big Brother". This proves the main points of Totalitarians through state terror (The Thought Police) and Ideology (Big Brother). It also expresses Arendt's of us looking at our own judgement, but in a totalitarian form this is not possible, but it is in modern society as our own judgement and thought processes help us establish our own mind and identity.

Winol Week 7: A review of this week and Winol so far....

This week was good as I bounced back from last week's problems and got a story that delivered.

On Monday in the news meeting, I explained my story this week, which would be an update on the ongoing debate of the housing development of Barton Farm in North Winchester with the angle of showing how Winchester City Council need the development to meet it's housing pledge. I would balance this with another topic, which came out of the question-time style forum, which again sparked the debate with the council ignoring the location and worrying about the priority of building affordable housing and more council housing in Winchester.

Tuesday was very straight forward as I had my two interview sorted with Councillor Leader George Beckett from Winchester City Council and Patrick Davies, a former city councillor and Labour parliamentary candidate for Winchester. What I needed to ensure was I got some good shots and GV's as I felt this is where I had been lacking in my previous packages. I was lucky that I stubbled across a few good locations for long shots of housing and that the shots for Barton Farm were easy and accessible.

I finished filming my shots and edited the package together, knowing I would only have to record a short piece to camera in the morning to summarise the piece. I filmed the PTC on Wednesday morning, but due to the location and the lighting, I had to edit the colour to make it look more natural as the light made me look yellow in the footage.

Then I had to help finish Tom's sculpture mystery piece by filming a few more GV'S of the sculpture from different angle and obtain Vox-Pops from students on their opinions of the sculpture and what they thought it could be. This was then edited together, but it was spiked from the final bulletin as it was revealed close to air-time that the university press office has discovered the sculpture was in fact a wind chime and had found out who created the piece (Personally this was another last minute discovery by the press office who seem to be the thorn in our sides....this thorn seems to be hard to get rid of as well!)

In the Debrief, Angus thought that my piece was good with good pictures, however the scripting was sloppy as the link confused the angle of the story. I did not use the most relevant, up-to-date information until my PTC at the end and that was needed in the opening few words to allow the viewers to gain the latest angle of the story. News needs to be up-to-date and should not be dated, therefore it is essential that every package, even if the story is ongoing starts with the newest, most relevant information.

Angus also felt that I needed to be careful with my shots as one of my shots was a sudden,violent zoom out as it can make the piece look untidy. Again the problem with the speed of my voiceover was mentioned, however this was balance as I again show good inflection and intonation in my voice. I know that I need to try and have move voice training in order to help gain the right pace to my voice as I know that I have perfected the pitch and tone of it, but this will come with constant practice.

What I have not been doing is reviewing WINOL as an overall piece and I will now each week make a critical reflection of my own piece and the bulletin as a whole. I felt that this week's bulletin was good, however there was not eye-catching pictures or any story that leapt out and screamed WATCH ME!!!!

We did try another new element this week, with a live Skype feed from London with Tom who was covering the national student demonstration against tuition fees, but the sound quality was not good, therefore it was decided that the bulletin would run with the pre-recorded piece. It is good thought because we are trying new things everything week and adding these new elements that will help in the long run as WINOL is primarily a training camp to help fine tune our crafts to help us be the most-trained, employable Journalist when we graduate.

The bulletin was solid thought as all of the stories had balance and we are starting to gain the quotes we needs from our stories to make them relevant and make the viewers want to tune in, but we need to remain focused on our target demographic as the bulletin has in places started to sway away from focusing on students and more to what is going on in Winchester for local residents in the city

This week was good as we had a balance of stories, focusing on both our primary and secondary demographic. It is key that we keep this up in order to obtain the largest number of viewers possible as it reflect in the number of views on youtube and the traffic to the WINOL website. Overall so far, the bulletins which have gained the largest numbers of viewers have either been due to us sticking to the targeted demographics or because we have had a story, which has been an exclusive (Julie's investigative piece on Hampshire Police) or with a high-profile personality (Steve Brine).

I think that WINOL is going in the right direction, we need to keep the balance of stories every week, but now need to focus on the pictures and making every story interesting and eye-grabbing for our viewers. I know we all can achieve that goal with the looming November 30th National Strike coverage being the centre stage for that challenge.

Winol week 6: The tale of two press offices

I am going to be honest and say I was not happy at all with my work this week as I felt that I had a good story, but was restricted by the lack of interviews and balance for my story.

Over the week I knew I wanted to do a story, which would centre around the closure of the November 30th November 30th National Strike. I came into the news meeting on Monday looking at the story and feeling that I wanted to get the two side of the story across with the side of the trade unions and why they are striking and also the defence of the council, who feel that it is unfair for local residents who could potentially be affected by these strikes.

I was able to secure an interview again with Tim Cutter rom Unison Hampshire, but was having problem trying to obtain an interview with Councillor Ken Thornber, leader of Hampshire County Council as their press office said the council would not comment on the matter until the result had been released. I decided to try and e-mail every member of the County Council cabinet in order to get a response and hoped that Tuesday would be a better day.

How I was completely wrong, Tuesday was a nightmare to say the least as I came into the newsroom to try and find a different contact to obtain a interview with to balance the story, I received a phone call from a private number (Everyone has that fear when a private number comes up). I answered my mobile and it was a press office at Hampshire County Council who immediately started to have a massive go at me for trying to contact the councillors directly because they had already sent the council's response.

But, as a journalist it is my job to try and get the news across, so I tried every resource I had in my arsenal to try and obtain a interview. After consulting with Becky and Brian Thornton, I decided to construct a polite, but heavily worded e-mail to the press officer explaining that in a previous trip to the council's offices in my first year, we met Councillor Thornber who advised that if we ever needed help or advise on a story to contact him. After sending the e-mail I got in contact with Winchester City Council who said I would be able to interview their council leader, George Beckett later on that afternoon.


I went off to conduct my interview with Tim Cutter, which I felt was better than the last one as I was able to get the quote I wanted with him having a go at the local councils and the government and explaining how it was "the final kick in the teeth for the unions." After returning from the interview, I found a e-mail from the press officer and in one second I had a massive grin on my face as she had apologised and tried to defend her actions about what she said in our previous conversation. This was the one battle I did win this week and the final score was Louis O'Brien 2:Press Office 1

However, I had to find an alternative interview, because Lee had also obtained an interview with Councillor Beckett and this made more sense as his story on the bin collection problems was a problem centred to The City Council and my story was centred to the County Council. At the last minute when I thought my story was near enough spiked, I received a phone call from Councillor Thornber, but he only had the time to talk for a telephone interview and therefore I had to go with my last resort and use a statement to summarise his views.

Wednesday I was able to obtain the rest of my GV's in the morning and edit them into the piece I had started on Tuesday night, but I still had to do my piece to camera and thanks to Tom he helped me produce what I felt was my best PTC to date as my eyes were not distracted and were centred down the camera and made me not look shifty, but confident.

I edited the final piece together and knew that even with the statement (which is not a banned feature in our story unless in a emergency) there was a lack of balance to the story. Becky watched the story and agreed that their was no balance from the council's and therefore I had my first story spiked at WINOL.

It was not the best feeling in the world, but I completely understand that the story did lack balance and that in all without the second interview from Hampshire County Council the story was weak, but what I will take out of this week is that I feel I have become more comfortable in front of the camera and I will do everything it takes to try and get a story across and this is one of the key elements of a journalist to take risk in order to make a story work.

Hopefully next week I will come back fighting with a better story, but this week was a personal victory against the press office and all over press office's beware, I will not take no for an answer or take kindly to any rudeness as It will end in a kindly worded e-mail!

Hcj Lecture 3: Marx, Nietzsche and Freud.... with a little bit of Frege thrown in

This week's HCJ lecture started with the focus point for this week's seminar in Kenny's chapter on Frege. Frege's  "Sense and Reference" (1890's) referred to the "reference point" of the work (definition) vs "sense" of the world, which means the sense within a sentence.


This is what Frege called "Sentential Logic" and shows how individual proposition do not have meaning, they have meaning only in relation to other propositions. They have only meaning in relation to other propositions, which is essentially relativity brought into logic. This can be expressed by saying that Manchester United is a football club in Manchester, but Manchester City is as well. Frege is the final rejection of syllogistic logic as a path to truth, when a paradigm shifts occurs, it is often in the field of logic first.


Without any form of logic from reasons as opposed to pure data, then all reason is brought into question with proof and sentential logic supplies the answers to these questions. Frege's Begriffsschrift was the new logical notation designed, which allowed computer programmes to be made possible, therefore Frege has helped one genius in Steve Jobs and one power hungry madman in Bill Gates. I guess you have to take the good with the bad.  


Now we moved onto the main part of the lecture of the three men described as "The Three Great Skeptics": Marx, Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. This moves me onto the topic of subjectivist Epistomology, which is the belief that there is no universal truth only subjective impressions of relative value. It is the rejection of The Judeo-Christian-Islamic, the Rational Secularist scientific Approach, The Kantian Categorical Epistemology and Morality. This is exemplified in one of the most important lines in the American: "We hold these truths to be self evident" and was the rejection of the objective epistemology of both Adam Smith and John Locke. 


Karl Marx claimed that he has discovered the universal law of human social development where he used the language of the enlightenment and was used as his enlightenment project (discovery of the laws of history and prescription of "natural" political and social order). Marx also believed in the truth of the Capitalist and Marxist truth, but this depended on it's own perspective to matter the opinion or outcome. 


Nietzsche and Freud are both from same generation and same thought process, which believed that God is dead, but also is Marx. Nietzsche wrote in a series of outbursts and attacked Marx's thoughts behind his alienation ideology where Nietzsche believed that "The ruling ideas in way epoch and the ideas of the ruling class" (The German/Marx ideology).


Nietzsche felt that Marx lived in a concept of alienation and ideology, but this is still important and evident today in social science, politics and journalism. At it's extreme the Marxian concept of ideology leads to doctrines of separate or independent social consciousness E.G. working class, which demonstrate the move to subjectivity and the collapse of the enlightenment project of universal laws.


Nietzsche also attack Mark's apprentice Frederick Engles and his origins of family, state and property are subject of anthropology, which asserts that truth and systems of morality are subjective E.G. marriage. But, in anthropology the subjectivity is social, share and not individual. 


This leads to the Marxist and Nietzsche critique of Freud as he lacks the anthropological, theocratical approach to his work or a political framework when he describes mental unhappiness coming from power and social issues, but he underestimates the social basis to subjective feelings. Freud then fails to treat Marx's alienation as a personal medical problem as Freud felt the way that people would comes top terns with this way of living e.g. Nietzsche is Neo-christian, but this was before Freud.


There was many ways that you can describe the causes of human unhappiness. Freud describes it using his "ego", with Nietzsche it was the "will" of others and with Hindu-Buddism they believe in "Karma", but what they all relate to is that our own social interaction and mental stability will determine this form of unhappiness as we will sometime cause our own downfall. It is how we perceive and act towards society on how our unhappiness for reflect on others or how others will try and reflect this happiness back upon ourselves, leaving us unhappy. 


But, how is this mental unhappiness achieved?


Freud felt that the triumph of the ID was through "self control", through conforming and self realisation. Also, it was through his own process of psychoanalysis and self-questionaing of ones self. This will lead to the Freudian system not to happiness, but to "ordinary misery". There is no sociological dimension to this and if people are to complain and get angry as David Cameron would say to all British women it is time to "calm down dear."


The Superego is a anthropological element. The Ego and Superego is the sense of one's clinical problems for Freud, as in Schopenhauer the aim is Fama-Nirvana-Abolition of the sense of the self, which is death and this is what the ego fears most of all.


In Nietzsche something like Freud's "Superego": has a form of what he calls "herd mentality", which is a anthropological and genealogical basis of what passed in his lifetime. One famous quote of Nietzsche is he believed that "evil is merely of that thing of which we disapprove." What is that evil though because our Superego would disapprove of anything that did not form of any basis of perfection or satisfaction and it would treat evil as the basis for all of our failures. 


Nietzsche also believed in Human limitation and that perception always came from a given perspective. If you change the perspective, then you change the truth and this is Nietzsche's view of the revaluation of all values. Nietzsche saw resentment as the one unforgivable sin and in 1895 wrote his famous work "The Anti-Christ", which contained the famous quote "That does which not kill me, makes me stronger." 


On that note I will end this blog post for now, but for our seminar reading we were asked to find the answer to these three questions:


1. The evening star is the same thing as the morning star.
2. The present king of france is bald.
3. There was nobody in the road. 


This will come in my next HCJ blog post, but until then I thought I would end this post with a music video inspired by Nietzsche. Enjoy! 

Winol Week 5: Two stories, twenty two takes and two wires that I am now in fear of

Week 5 and it feels like I have starting to feel that I am acclimatised myself to my role of Political Correspondent on Winchester News Online. After last week's baptism of fire, I felt that I needed to redeem myself from my story from last week, which was poor by my high standards. 

On Monday we had a different type of debrief where Chris Horrie reviewed WINOL as a whole including What's On, Sportsweek, Radio and the WINOL website as a whole. Not many relevant points came out of the debrief from a news aspect, but we were told about the aspect of fair dealing, which allows you to use a few seconds of footage from a copyrighted piece of footage for the purpose of reviewing or commenting on. 

We then were sent to call our contacts in order to have a story ready for the news meeting at half 2. I went into the meeting with a story I had found that Hampshire County Council were planning to implement video technology into their council meetings to promote transparency between the council and Hampshire residents, but at a cost of nearly £250,000. 

I had got in contact with Unison Hampshire and arranged to interview the Branch Secretary, Tim Cutter with the angle of showing if this equipment was a waste of taxpayers money during the current economic climate of cuts in both jobs and public services. I was given the task of putting together another story in regards to the announcement by UCAS in the falling number of university applications this year. 

From past experience this year, I knew that this would be a hard task to pull on by Wednesday morning, but I was confident and went on to interview Tim Cutter and was able to gain what I thought was a couple of good quotes. Tuesday morning I was able to meet up with Councillor Colin Davidovitz who is the cabinet member for communication at Hampshire County Council. After I finished my interview, I went into town and filmed my GV's ready to then focus attention on the university application story.

I got in contact with the four local universities in the area, but both universities in Southampton and Portsmouth University were unable to give me their application figures, as they had not yet been released. Therefore, I had to use the information on a national scale to focus the angle on my story, which had been decided to be an in-studio piece with help from a graphic. 

Thanks to Chris and Charlotte were able to create a graphic and a graph, which would help explain the extent of the problem and I was then able to pass my other story onto Flick and gave her the background behind the story and what was left to be finished. I decided it would be more helpful to capture the footage, but we then found that the interview with Councillor Davidovitz had technical and sound problems, which were not evident when I played the interview back through the camera. 

Thankfully, I was able to give Flick the statement I had received from Council Leader, Ken Thornber for her to use in a piece-to-camera in the morning. At the same time, The University of Winchester had got back in contact with me, which allowed me to make the story more relevant with a local angle, but with it being 2am on Wednesday morning this point, I decided to leave the news room and try and get some sleep to be ready for recording my in-studio piece in the morning. 

Wednesday morning came and it was decided that we would only use the graph in the in-studio piece and that the presenter would explain the first part of the story. The time then came for me to go in the studio to record my piece, ready for the bulletin. After a near-hour long constant struggle with sorting the wires out and with the help of five pieces of tape, I was ready to record my piece. After what felt that twenty takes, the piece was recorded, but what was clear is that I need to slow my pace down as sometimes my nerves take control and I will speak to quick, which will make harder for the viewer to understand what the story is about. 

A big thanks to both Angus who helped me relax and pace myself with the piece and to George and Dom for great direction helping me ensures I remained focused throughout. 

After editing the piece together, I handed it in and awaited this week's debrief after the bulletin at 3. After the bulletin had been played out, it was clear straight away I had made a fatal error. I had announced Tommy Geddes as the Vice Chancellor, not the Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Therefore I had not checked my facts 100% and if this has been live it could of been a major legal error and it was not the best thing when the real Vice-Chancellor, Joy Carter came in and witnessed this error during final rehearsal.

Other points that came out from the debrief including that the majority of the images this week were poor and did not tell the story. Brian mentioned that if you turn the sound down on the news, you should be able to tell the story from the pictures and this week's WINOL did not do this. Also, you best picture should be used at the beginning of your story and should keep the viewer engaged throughout.  

Broader points included the use of verb structure between the use of singular and plural verbs. It was also evident that this week the interviews were mainly dull and we were not filming with the story in mind or the quote we wanted. This has now been decided that no story will be used without balance and decent soundbite and without being seen by either Will or Becky to ensure everyone facts are right. 

From a personal standpoint, I think I did very well with the workload I had this week, but feel that I could of put more effort and time in with one story and could of made it better. My in-studio PTC was good, but I know that I need to relax and pace myself in order to get my point across, but also ensuring the viewer is able to understand. My biggest weakness is still keeping my eyes focusing down the camera at all times because there were a few small occurrences where my eyes wandering from focus.

This week has helped me appreciate how hard work does pay off, but the key thing now is to ensure that my non-verbal interaction is as polished and strong as my verbal interaction on camera and during this week's story. 

Winol Week 4..... It's the quality, not the quantity we are looking for!

This week at Winol has shown that the key to making a good news story is that ensure that it involves people doing something or being affected by something. This week started with the usual debrief of the previous week's edition and then came the lovely task of calling my contact in order to have a new story ready for the new meeting at half two.

I was able to use the story I had left about Barton Farm, but use a different angle that would see me show how Winchester City Council are struggling to create a housing strategy to build 4000 homes in Winchester in the next 20 years and to point out the need that local residents are asking for more affordable housing in the city. I was able to secure an interview with local Conservative councillor and member of Winchester Town Forum, Ian Tait who has supported the need for more affordable housing in the city.

I need to ensure that I had balance for my story, so I got in contact with the CPRE (Campaign to protect rural England) to try and secure an interviews about their views of protecting the countryside in and around Winchester. I finished Monday with interviewing Councillor Tait where I was able to gain a good few quotes that could be used in my story.

Tuesday was a busy one as I had to get into the Volkswagen Lupo, which has seen to have been renamed the WINOL mobile or the WINOL taxi service to pick Flick and Becky up and drop them to Marwell to film Flick's piece on Rhinos. I then returned to the news room and tried to get in contact with the CPRE who then passed me onto a member of the Save Barton Farm group who I hoped I could arrange an interview with.

In between trying to secure the interview, I had to drop Ali and Lee into Southampton for them to film Princess Anne who was opening the new police station at Southampton Central. After returning into Winchester I decided now was the perfect time to start filming, but before I could set off I had a phone call from Tom who asked if I could drop him into the outskirts of Winchester to help him film for his news story on rising energy prices.

Thankfully after last week it had proved that working with Tom helped as we were both able to help us film our shots for our stories and ensure that they were relevant to our pieces. After an afternoon of filming, I tried to secure my interview, but unfortunately the contact from the Save Barton Farm group was unwilling to be interviewed on camera and would only provide a statement.

I spent the majority of Tuesday evening watching Southampton beat West Ham to go five points clear at the top of The Championship (It is now only three points clear as of writing this blog, but we are top of the league COYR!!!). I got into Tab9 at around 11 and after a small argument with security who did not think I had applied to be allowed it overnight, I was able to use the combination of footage from this week's story and the failed Barton Farm piece to but together a good combination of shots into my package and then put the voice over underneath. I have been able to become more comfortable with editing with Final Cut Pro and decided to save the package and leave it till the morning and hopefully I could secure a last minute interview.

Wednesday morning was a nightmare as I called the CPRE one last time and they were unwilling to talk to me as they felt it was too early to make a statement on the matter and they felt the city council figures for housing may be changed. This left me with only being able to do a piece to camera explaining this in order to try and get some balance out of the story. After finishing my PTC, I went back into the news room and edited the final piece together and was happy that it was finished.

However, as we had no guest editor this week, Brian decided to take a more hands-on approach with our pieces and felt that my story was good, but it had was only telling a story from one view and that there was really no news relevance, due to the ongoing final decision to be made by the city council. It was decide to change my piece to a OOV-Act, which is where the presenter will explain the story over the images and then will follow with a interview.

After this was cut down, it was then a team effort and the news order was changed around five different times before 3pm and we had to ensure that all of the packages were in on time and to constantly check the news to see if their was any local, news worthy events that we could send someone out to film and edit in time to put into the bulletin. The pressure paid off as the bulletin was put out on time at three, but was very OOV heavy.

Debrief

Brian and Angus both felt that the main problem this week was the stories overall were not good enough to be used as a VT and were mostly changed to OOV's as they were not broadcast quality. It is key to ensure that a news story is about people doing something or something they are affected by, but this was not evident in many of the pieces.

The other problem is that we were holding the News Editor Becky to ransom as we did not supply enough back up stories to fill the news board as back-ups in case any of our stories fell through. Therefore, it was decided to we had to ensure that we come to the news meeting this Monday with at least 2 to 3 different stories.

It was also clear that we were not writing our script to the pictures and this is key to ensure there is a link interaction between the pictures and the viewer, who need to understand the story. Brian explained how it is key to write the script to the pictures. We also had the problem in the OOV's as the majority had no natural sound and it is better to have natural sound in the background as it make the story more real and will make it more interesting for the viewer, instead of only having the newsreader to explain the story without any sound.

This week was tough, but it was rewarding as it was the closest example to a real BBC or ITN newsroom than they had ever had in WINOL. Even though my piece was stripped from a VT to an OOV-Act, I fully understand that the story was relevant, but did not have the broadcast quality to be broadcasted as a full story.

I will ensure this week that I come to the news meeting with as many stories as possible and that I plan my story thoroughly to match the script to the pictures and tell a story that can be understood completely.

All I want to do is have sex and kill all of my fellow Journos- HCJ Lecture 2 and inside the mind of Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud is a man whose ideas tried to explain everything about the whole world.  Freud lived in Austria throughout most of his life, but moved to London in the last few years to escape the ever-growing reign of the Nazi's as even though he was an atheist, there was Jewish routes in his family and needed to escape the worst. Freud died in London on 23 September 1939 and was a worldwide celebrity, a cocaine addict and would be remembered most as being deeply ambitious.

Freud was seen as a sexual renegade as rejected the previous idea's of seeing human beings as noble creatures. His ideas would challenge and be a direct attack against the enlightenment and felt that humans were not rational in there thought processes. Instead he believed that at the centre of our thoughts is a deep pessimism. These ideas Freud felt you could think were similar to the compositions of Rembrandt as there is little light, but they are full of darkness and sinister motives. These visions were Freud's dark vision of humanity.

This reflects the true meaning behind Modernism, which is out with the old and in with the Freudian way of thinking. Freud's way of thinking was his theory of Pyschoanalysis and it can not be disputed that it's influence on modern society is staggering. We will come back to this theory later on, first we must get ready to rumble in tonight's boxing match between Sigmund Freud and Plato.



Freud followed Plato' ideas of a tripartite self. Plato felt our conscious and sub-concious thoughts were made up of reason, spirit and desire. Plato also believed that our reason could rule over any of our thoughts, but Freud thought that reasons was the weakest element of Plato's tripartite self as humans are irrational. Freud also disagreed that we are drive be desires that are outside of our mind and beyond our control.

Now that is a first round knockout for Sigmund Freud, but we have a new challenger coming into the HCJ rumble ring and that is the German Karl Marx. Marx again used the ideas of a tripartite self, but he felt that it's elements consisted of natural, alienated and species self. Freud again rejected this idea as it was simply too idealists and he felt that our deepest needs are agression. This is where Freud's theory of psychoanalysis takes hold as he feels that humans discover the truth about themselves when we are unconscious and we find out thing's we do not know about ourselves.

Freud see the reality of human nature as a combination of pain and suffering with the most painful act a human has to do is the day to day interacting with other human beings. This brings me to Freud's tripartite self and the three elements that makes up the Freudian Personality:

ID: The first part of the personality is made up of our animalistic nature aimed at maximising pleasure and minimising pain. This can be reflecting in our sexual lusts for other people and the aggression we wish to use on the rest of the world and reflects our dominant personality, but this is our unconscious thoughts.

Ego: This is the reality principle and least powerful part of the personality. It is our "voice of reason" and stops us doing the things that our ID wants use to do. It is the mediation between our dreams and reality and ensure our common-sense acts to stop any of our aggression from being released.

Super-Ego: The final part of the personality, which is the internalised rules of parents or society. It is the voice in your head, which is irrational. It will strive for perfection and will want to complete near-impossible tasks or accomplishments. This is the part of the personality, which is developed after we are born through our social interactions. This is the picture of our ideal self, which will strive for perfection, but punish us with guilt.

This is the picture of the personality, but the main problem with this is the conflict, which will divide within ourselves.

Freud believes that the pain we suffers throughout our lives can we described in three types:

1. Our own decaying body as we grow older our body is gradually wearing away.
2. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, which is the bad luck we may suffer, which makes us feel rejected and worthless.
3. The great pain of all is the interaction we have with other people.

Freud explains how there are answers in the analysis of avoiding pain, but this iS not open to everyone as it is the masses who will continue on their ever destructive path. He also outlines that any form of copying mechanism is not recommended. These defence mechanisms include:

* Chemical Solution: Intoxication (getting drunk), however this release is only temporary and can result in either greater pain when you wake up.
* Isolation: Closing your door and isolating yourself from the outside world. Again this release is only temporary and Freud believed this would only work for a few people.
* Sublimation:: Finding socially acceptable realised for your aggression e.g. sport.

Freud felt that civilisation was acting as a collective supergroup in imposing moral limits and restrictions on our ID. This battle can turn into repression of our defence mechanisms and bring our most painful memories to the surface of our conscious.

These problems are related sublimation and the following others:

* Displacement: Turning shameful thoughts into something else
* Projections: Sending negatives thoughts and feelings onto someone else. E.G starting a fight on a Saturday night in Southampton.
* Rationalisation: Returning to an earlier stage of development (becoming a child again in a Fetal position for comfort)

Freud found that the key to psychoanalysis is that people will find something from someone and that there is a way to find out and deal directly what the problem is with a person through their ID. This is through hypnosis, which is a pressure method associated with dreams. The method is aimed at putting the ego to sleep and brining the ID to the surface and showing it's true intentions. Through this Freud  believed it would be impossible to eliminate aggression from anyone.

There are many people that have attacked the methods of Sigmund Freud. Scientists believe that they have proved that Freud's method were wrong as they were so vague. They had not been proved or even tested as it is impossible to tell if someone truly hates and wants to kill their own mother. It shows there is no legitimate proof that psychoanalysis works.

Freud's theories have also been the subject of constant revision. It is believed that Freud did not discover the unconscious and that it was discovered in the 19th Century in academic circles. Schopenhauer believed that man is a irrational being guided by internal forces. But, he also considered that our intellect is as a constant struggle to control our sexual urges.

The main opponent to Sigmund Frued's theories came from Reich who was the complete opposite to Freud. Reich believed that our unconscious forces inside our mind were really good and that they were suppressed by society. Much like Freud, Reich was a sexual radical and believed in unparalleled sexual  pleasures is the ultimate measure of human happiness.

Reich again used the tripartite self and felt that our personality could be seen on three different levels:

* The first level or surface level is our polite side and positive nature to society and others.
* The second level is cruel and mean and the complete opposite to the surface level where our aggression shines through.
* The third and final level of our personality is the honest, loving side, which Reich felt was hidden to almost everyone in society and is not taken into account.

There is a student slogan, which is "Their is a policeman inside our head, he must be destroyed." Well if I was to follow Sigmund Freud's method I would kill the policeman and have sex with the next attractive female I laid my eyes upon. However, we will come back to reality and realise that in the real world our aggression is not the centre of our conscious, it is only a small part of our entire personality.

Winol Week Three..... I learned a valuable lesson

After reflecting on last week, I realised that I had panicked and did not think that the best thing that I could of done was to of came in and seen if I could of salvaged anything out of my shots to meet my deadline. Well a lesson learnt and a new week to make amends, the only problem I had across the weekend was finding a story.

the start of a new week at WINOL began with the news meeting on Monday and I had found a story where Winchester City Council had announced a budget deficit of £825,000 and was looking at a story with the angle of where the money had gone and who was to blame. However, Chris Horrie suggested I went with a different angle and look at who may be affected by the deficit and the potential resulting budget cuts.

I took this advice and contacted the Winchester Church Nightshelter, a charity that had it's funding cut twice in the last three years by the city council who agreed to an interview the following afternoon. I had already arranged a interview with Councillor George Beckett, the leader of Winchester City Council to get his views on the matter.

Tuesday was straightforward as I was able to conduct both of my interviews with relative ease and gain some interesting quotes, which could be used in the story. I filmed a variety of different shots that would be used as cut away for my interviews and used throughout the story. I finished the day with recording my piece to camera and taking Angus's advice from week one, I ensured that I finished the story with my PTC and not at the beginning.

Then it came to the part of the week I am not a fan of in the slightest, editing. I was able to cut my footage down and structured the story and realised that I could finish the last few bits on Wednesday morning, so I decided to call it a night. I had noted down that I needed to film a couple more shots and record my voice over again in the morning as some of the audio in my initial voiceover was either distorted or my speech was slurred.

Wednesday morning I was able to film my last few shots and record my voice over again and thought that I had finished the story. However, I encountered a couple of legal issues as in two of my shots where number plates on cars were visible and I would have to edit the footage to ensure they were not visible. Thanks to Gareth and Will who helped me cut the shots down and delete the number plates from the clips.

This did leave me with a lack of usable shots, therefore I had to reuse a couple of my shots again, but I was able to complete my story on time and without any major problems. I was now looking forward to the bulletin at three, full of optimism and looking forwards to the comments of WINOL's guest editor for this week: Rachael Canter from BBC South.

Debrief

Rachael felt that I had a very good voice and delivery and told the story well. She advised that I could of taken further hold on my angle, I could of tried and planned ahead and tried to of filmed an interview with one of the homeless people affected as that could of possible made it the top story.

She also advised that in my piece to camera that I ensure I always keep my eyes centre down the camera as there was a moment where I looked down to check my script.  This is key as I need to ensure that I am engaging with my audience and always keep constant eye contact with the camera.

Angus Scott then gave his feedback on my story and felt again that I had an interesting, engaging voice and quoted that he can could definitely see me as "A regional BBC reported in 6 to 7 years." That was an encouraging piece of feedback, but I know not to get carried away as there is much more I have to do and I need to try and make every story better than the previous one.

He also advised that I ensure that I gain a variety of different shots in able to gain a varied aspect of the story and keep the viewer engaged. I also was told I need to ensure that when interviewing someone that I am at the same height and level as my interviewee. This was evident when I interviewed Michele Price as she was looking up at me and I need to make the interview look as natural as possible.

Other key points that I picked up from the debrief from the bulletin as an whole was to use the skill of favouring in interviews. This is where you point the gun mic to yourself when asking questions that you want to be heard. We also had another banned phrase to be added to the list and this was be the last time I will type "Only time will tell."

This week has been a much more encouraging week, but I need to ensure that I do even better with my story next week and take the feedback on board and make the changes they have advised happen.

Seminar paper on Tabloid Nation

Tabloid Nation is the story about the history of The Daily Mirror. Albert Harmsworth created The Daily Mirror on 2^nd November 1903 and was seen as the first Tabloid newspaper. Harmsworth, who was later to be known as Lord Northcliffe had already established himself as a media mogul thanks to the creation of his successful newspaper The Daily Mail in 1896.  

However, Lord Northcliffe wanted to create the first newspaper, which was “produced for and by gentlewomen.”  There were two key problems he had identified and that was Women in the early 20^th century could not write and did not have the desire to learn to read. Northcliffe wanted to change that and he hired Hamilton Fyfe, the editor of The Morning Advertiser to help make his vision a reality.

The paper was initially a disaster and Fyfe’s first job was to fire the female staff, including the Daily Mirror’s first editor, Mary Howarth who had been a close alley to Lord Northcliffe as she has wrote for the women’s page of The Daily Mail.

Lord Northcliffe learnt from an early age that the key to gaining a reader’s attention is to entice to their greatest desires and treat them as common folk by entice them with prizes, but with questions that were near enough impossible to answer.

This was achieved with the creation of his first Magazine, Answers where he would create ridiculous competitions and offers, this included where in one edition he offered reader’s £200 of free “life insurance”, which would be paid to the family of anyone killed in a railway accident. This was smart because in the beginning of the 20^th century poverty was rife and £200 was a lot of money to many people and resulted in Answers having over 700,000 for one competition and increased circulation dramatically.

Northcliffe because known as “The Chief” and he hired Kennedy “KJ” Jones to spearhead the written format of the mission. KJ had previously worked for William Randolph Hurst’s premier newspaper, The New York Morning Journal and was a very experienced journalist who was not afraid to speak his mind and this was constant throughout his stay at The Daily Mirror.

The Daily Mirror was to be written in a way to ensure that everyone would be able to read the paper and understand, which was key to Northcliffe's vision. It was not just the words that were key to the operation as Northcliffe hired Hannen Swaffer, who would save the paper and was the first photo Journalist.  The Daily Mirror became the first British newspapers to show photographs on the front page.

The April 2 1904 edition was the first edition of “the photo paper” and a picture of King Edward VII and his family trebled circulation to 71,000. Fyfe and Swaffer played to the reader’s emotions and used “tear-jerking” photos to move the reader’s and drawn their interest in.  This would change in 1907 when Fyfe left The Mirror to be replaced by another former employee of Hurst; Alexander Kenealy.

It was the words of Kenealy and the pictures of Swaffer that drove The Daily Mirror’s success forward. This included a story about a pony that was living in poor living conditions and a Mirror reporter was sent to buy the pony and rescue it. This was financed by Northcliffe and was then purchased by the Lord Mayoress of London. Again playing to the reader’s emotion, which is still the same today as any news story, which involving innocent groups like children and the elderly will sell newspapers.

Other successful tactics included Kenealy writing ridiculous stories, which any educated person would know was not true and knew that the majority of the readership would believe his every word.  The defining moment of The Daily Mirror would be on 14^th May 1910 when Swaffer had obtained photos of the body of King Edward VII and decided to use them on the front page and this resulted in a then world-recording breaking 2,013,000 copies of The Daily Mirror were sold that day.

Swaffer and Kenealy knew that they were to face severe backlash from the Royal Family, but they both liked the prospect of being held in a tower, but Queen Alexandria reacted by saying that she allowed The Mirror to print the photos as it was her” favourite paper.” This expressed two key elements of today’s Tabloid newspapers, which are the press’s fascination with the Royal Family and the duty to never reveal your sources even if it means you end up in prison.

Lord Northcliffe was starting to dislike the newspaper he founded and the tactics of Swaffer who he felt was damaging the paper reputation. This was never more so than on April 15^th 1912 when Swaffer wanted to use the every page in the newspaper to show pictures of The Titanic, which had sunk the previous evening. However, Northcliffe felt that it would be more respectful to have a well written-news story, but Swaffer had his way and every page of The Mirror had pictures of the ship, apart from the back page. This strained relationship is similar to the relationship of Charles Foster Kane and Jebediah Leland in Citizen Kane, which is ironically based on the life of William Randolph Hurst. 

After another scandal Swaffer “sacked himself”, but throughout the rest of his life he portrayed himself as “The Pope of Fleet Street” as he claimed he was “The Journalist with 20 million readers.” He will still be seen as the person who invented and established photojournalism.

Lord Northcliffe finally cut his ties from The Daily Mirror in 1910, but it was not until late 1914 on the eve of World War One where he sold his remaining shares to his Brother Lord Rothermere for £100,000. Northcliffe was to try his hand at politics, much like his American namesake Hurst, but much like Hurst his attempted failed and he was to be greatly affected by mental problems throughout the rest of his life until his death on August 14 1922.

Unlike his brother Lord Rothermere did not care for Journalism and was only interested in making money out of his latest business acquisition. World War One would turn out to be his benefactor as sales of the paper grew from 1.2 to 1.7 million copies daily and thanks to Hannen Swaffer’s apprentice, Guy Bartholomew the pictures in The Daily Mirror painted the true picture of the war for the eyes of the British People. 

After the war, The Daily Mirror suffered under the cost-cutting measure of Rothermere and was neglected, lost it’s northern premises and was again seen as the forgot member of Rothermere Media Empire.

The Free Gift War in 1922 damaged The Daily Mirror as their rival The Daily Herald try to obtain readers by any means necessary and this included giving free gifts to draw readers in at any cost. This tactic would be copied by all of the other national newspapers in The United Kingdom and for Rothermere this meant protecting his key investment, The Daily Mail and left The Daily Mirror neglected.

Rothermere started to invest his money in paper mills across the Atlantic in Canada, but in 1929 The Wall Street Crash demolished all of his profits and William Randolph Hurst was forced to close many of his newspapers. Rothermere was also affected and realised he had to keep his money direct towards The Daily Mail.

The reputation of The Daily Mirror was changed in 1931 when Lord Rothermere started to broadcast his fascist views in his newspapers and formed the United Empire political party. He had been influenced by several trips to Germany where he attended the rallies of Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, who he also befriend. Rothermere would reflect these views to his political propaganda, which he foliated in The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail.

It was not until 1934 when The Daily Mirror was given a true burst of life when Harry Guy Bartholomew created the “Bartland”, which was a system that allowed photos to be sent through radio wires and established links between Britain and America. This was the groundwork for what would be the restoration of The Daily Mirror in the vision of “Bart.”

Lord Northcliffe, Lord Rothermere, William Randolph Hearst and Charles Foster Kane were all men who were at one time or another was a leader of mass media empires. They all strived to be the voice of the people and too have their political vision made reality. However, all of them even though one is fictional would realise that this dream was simply just that and that all they wanted was to be respected by everyone. What they have all done thought in film and reality is establishing the Tabloid newspaper that we read today.