Editorial
Right guys the debate for The Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner election is now confirmed for Thursday 1st November between 7.45pm and 10pm to be held in the Stripe Auditorium. But, we will need to be setting up from as early as possible, therefore we will be moving the equipment from half 3 into the Stripe Auditorium for 4.
We will set up and then start rehearsals to make sure that the Tricaster will work with the cameras in the Stripe and to ensure that the sound is ok, as well as the stream. We will be streaming off the Winol livestream account (www.livestream.com/winol). This will be test prior to the day of the debate. If this does not work we will use the Winol ustream account.
I need you to be aware and know who the candidates are. These are the following candidates and which political party they are representing. I have also put a link to their website so you can have a read of their campaign plans and to ensure that you are in the know to what is going on:
Michael Mates (Conservative) www.michaelmates.org
Jacqui Rayment (Labour) www.jacquirayment.co.uk
David Goodall (Liberal Democrat) www.davidgoodall.org.uk
Stephen West (UKIP) www.vote4stephen.com
Simon Hayes (Independent) www.hayes4pcc.org
Don Jerrard (The Justice and Anti-Corruption party)
Also useful links for the post-debate interviewers to learn up on the elections and the candidates are www.policelections.com and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19492607
The chair of the debate will no longer be Sally Taylor, but will now be Alex Forsyth who is the Home Affairs correspondent for BBC South. She has a vast knowledge of the upcoming election and has a extensive background in broadcast Journalism covering the stories that we focus on every week on Winol. Here is a link of her doing a preview of the election on this week's Sunday Politics. It is about 45 minutes into the programme.
Roles
I have decided to change the roles up a bit because I need to ensure that this looks really professional and well produced. I am playing people to their strengths for what I know so far, so please do not be offended if I have changed your role, but I do not know everyone strengths yet.
Managing Editor: Louis O'Brien
Tricaster/Producer: Henry Lewin-Titt
Director: Graham Marshall
Cameramen: George Berridge, Daniel Mackrell, Ewan Kennerell, Lee Jarvis plus one more who I need to decide on.
Ushers: Felicity Houston, Sophie Webb and Faith Thomas
Guest Reception: (checking off guests name to ensure they have been invited): Kate Drummond and Nicole Collas
Runners: Christina Michaels, Kirsty Phillips and Amy Moore. (you will be mainly going round with the microphone so people can ask their questions as the majority of the debate is a Q and A session with the candidates.
Online/graphics: Liam Garraham and Jason French (this is one of the most important jobs as we will need you to watch the stream throughout to ensure it is working and to have a graphics made ready to use if the stream goes down)
Post-debate interviewers: George Berridge, Spence Spencer, Tom Morgan, Thomas Baxter, Ali Al-Jamri and myself. I will need a couple of extra people to help with the cameras, as well as it will be two people per interview (one interviewer and one cameraman).
I will be holding a brief meeting with everyone tomorrow afternoon after the news and production conferences. I need to know if anyone else wants to help out as the more people we have helping the less pressure there will be (in particular the production team).
Everyone I know has either a HCJ seminar or Media Law. I will be consulting with Brian and Chris tomorrow to see how this will affect things. I gather that Law may be moved to a earlier time that day or we will be given the notes to catch up on. In regards to HCJ I think it may be working around your seminar time and then coming back after it has finished to continue to help out.
I need all hands on deck with this guys as this will we a test run to see how the American Election goes as this will be streamed live for a hour and a half and the American election show will be four times the length. So, it will be good practice for the following Tuesday/Wednesday.
Hope this all makes sense and if you have any questions then please come see me tomorrow morning.
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Fatal Error will cost you a degree, but it won't if you read this blog post: Media Law Update lecture 1
Well it has been a while, six months to be exact since I did a blog post for all you lovely people out there in the World Wide Web. No longer will my postings be about the philosophical world of HCJ, but we are back to a topic that took over the majority of my blogging life during the first year of my Journalism course at The University of Winchester; media law. Now over the last two years I have drunk enough and had enough nervous breakdowns over WINOL to possibly forget the majority of the law that us as Journalists needs to be follow, therefore it was refreshing to be able to have a recap during the first lecture for what we are to expect over the next couple of months.
This series of lectures will be taken by Ian Anderson; former editor of the BBC Ten o'clock news. That's right the man who was responsible for giving us the dulcet, Welsh tones of Huw Edwards coming into our television sets every night for the last 10 years and beyond will be telling us third years all we need to know and this time try to remember in order to become responsible Journalists and not end up in the dock for libel or my personal favourite; Contempt of Court (not saying that I am intending to end up in The Old Bailey anytime soon other then to report).
Unfortunately Ian is away training Journalists somewhere in Indonesia, so for the next two weeks we have Brian Thornton explaining to us why we need to remember as Journalists that the law is paramount for everything we do when thinking about doing a story on absolutely anything. Coming from a BBC background he explained that the team of BBC lawyers (and no they are not 7 feet tall monsters waiting to pounce on our every wrong move or not what we were told) who will look over everything that the BBC broadcasts from the 10 o'clock news to Eastenders with a fine tooth comb.
We were then treated to a short video from a lecture given by Valerie Nazareth who is the head Lawyer for the BBC. We were shown what she feels student journalists need to know about the law when entering the profession. The main three things she feel were the most vital to learn and know were Defamation, Contempt of Court and Privacy. I will in turn refresh yours and my own memory on each of these terms and how they could affect journalists.
Defamation or slander is where you can make a defamatory statement about someone, which is not just wrong, but is also personal and insulting and could lead to them being ridiculed in the minds on right thinking people and affect them in their career. For a statement to be defamatory it must be publish and the person or subject must be clearly identified. However, if the person is dead there is no one there to support them, therefore if you want to be taking the mic out of a old Laurel and Hardy sketch (which has been done many a time by Hugh Lawrie and Stephen Fry) than this is better than saying something bad about a living person.
There are four defences to defamation, which are justification, fair comment, qualified privilege (this will only defend you from Libel) and public interest. The two main example of this recently is the two stories involving the Royal Family with Prince Harry's escapades in Las Vegas and the publication of Kate Middleton without having any clothes on to cover her up. In both situations there is a strong indication of public interest as everyone is interested in the Royal Family, but then they have the right to put in any legal action against the publication of these photos and the comment made about them in the newspapers.
The main difference between the two is the justification for the Prince Harry photo's are that at the time his secret service security had been told to leave, so there was no one there to protect him and stop the photo's being taken in clear public view. However, in the case of the Kate Middleton photo's it has been proved that the pictures could only have been taken by a camera with a long zoom as the area where the photos was taken was very secluded. Therefore, there is public interest, but there is no justified reason for the pictures being taken and that is why no British newspaper has dared to publish them in fear of the legal ramifications, which would more than likely follow.
There is also the recent statement that has been released from the BBC apologising for their reporter Frank Gardener who had mentioned about a previous conversation with the Queen where she had expressed her concerns over the prolonged legal proceedings involving the deportation of the radical cleric Abu Hamza. This is what was described as "Chatham House Rules" where you can report on what was said, but you must never mention who said it as it will encourage free and open debate throughout.
The next important part of the law we need to learn is Contempt of Court. If you forget this and get anything wrong there is a strong possibility that you will be facing a short or long term in prision. There is no defence against Contempt of Court, so you need to ensure that you do not annoy the court or do anything that will interfere with a active court case. Therefore, once a case has become active do not publish that the accused is guilty before the case has concluded. It will not only end up with yourself in prison and a heavy fine, it will destroy your journalistic career before you can say shorthand. The main example of this is the case involving Chris Jeferries who was accused of killing Joanna Yates in Bristol on 17th December 2010. He was accused of the murder by the press, due to his eccentric lifestyle and how he looked, but you cannot judge someone because they look weird and have different tastes and interests than most people. This accusation destroyed his life and has left him trying to piece together the reputation he will likely never get back, due to accusation that were false and untrue.
So, remember when reporting on court cases only a fair and accurate report of the day's proceedings will be acceptable. Do not make up lies and be very careful in sensitive cases involving sexual offences and children.
The third and possible most difficult part of the law to understand and follow as journalists is Privacy as journalists we have to be careful that we are not intruding on the lives of people as this violates article 8 of the European Humans Right Act where one has the right to have a personal family life without any fear or intrusion. But, article 10 of the act gives everyone the right to free expression, which protects the press to the point in dealings of privacy, but these will be discussed further in a whole topic dedicated to Privacy later on this year.
This brought us to the final point of the lecture; The WINOL Fatal Errors system. This system protects us as student journalists from any problem we may face, but if we break any of these rules we are liable to no only failing our course, but liable to criminal prosecution. These are the five things that we are liable against and have no protection over:
1. Malice.
2. Dishonest presentation of sources/dishonest generally.
3. Causing disrepute/disruption.
4. Reckless inaccuracy in basic expression.
5. Legal problems (without justification).
6. Regulatory problems (without justification).
If any of these offences are committed do not just expect to say goodbye to a BA Journalism degree from the University of Winchester, but also expect a brief trip to Winchester Magistrates or even Crown Court sometime in the near future.
That wraps up this instalment for the week that was in TAB9's Law Lecture. Tune in next week where we will discuss privacy, confidentiality and data protection law. By the way my number is 07 (wait can not be handing out number of the internet it's a breach of date protection).
This series of lectures will be taken by Ian Anderson; former editor of the BBC Ten o'clock news. That's right the man who was responsible for giving us the dulcet, Welsh tones of Huw Edwards coming into our television sets every night for the last 10 years and beyond will be telling us third years all we need to know and this time try to remember in order to become responsible Journalists and not end up in the dock for libel or my personal favourite; Contempt of Court (not saying that I am intending to end up in The Old Bailey anytime soon other then to report).
Unfortunately Ian is away training Journalists somewhere in Indonesia, so for the next two weeks we have Brian Thornton explaining to us why we need to remember as Journalists that the law is paramount for everything we do when thinking about doing a story on absolutely anything. Coming from a BBC background he explained that the team of BBC lawyers (and no they are not 7 feet tall monsters waiting to pounce on our every wrong move or not what we were told) who will look over everything that the BBC broadcasts from the 10 o'clock news to Eastenders with a fine tooth comb.
We were then treated to a short video from a lecture given by Valerie Nazareth who is the head Lawyer for the BBC. We were shown what she feels student journalists need to know about the law when entering the profession. The main three things she feel were the most vital to learn and know were Defamation, Contempt of Court and Privacy. I will in turn refresh yours and my own memory on each of these terms and how they could affect journalists.
Defamation or slander is where you can make a defamatory statement about someone, which is not just wrong, but is also personal and insulting and could lead to them being ridiculed in the minds on right thinking people and affect them in their career. For a statement to be defamatory it must be publish and the person or subject must be clearly identified. However, if the person is dead there is no one there to support them, therefore if you want to be taking the mic out of a old Laurel and Hardy sketch (which has been done many a time by Hugh Lawrie and Stephen Fry) than this is better than saying something bad about a living person.
There are four defences to defamation, which are justification, fair comment, qualified privilege (this will only defend you from Libel) and public interest. The two main example of this recently is the two stories involving the Royal Family with Prince Harry's escapades in Las Vegas and the publication of Kate Middleton without having any clothes on to cover her up. In both situations there is a strong indication of public interest as everyone is interested in the Royal Family, but then they have the right to put in any legal action against the publication of these photos and the comment made about them in the newspapers.
The main difference between the two is the justification for the Prince Harry photo's are that at the time his secret service security had been told to leave, so there was no one there to protect him and stop the photo's being taken in clear public view. However, in the case of the Kate Middleton photo's it has been proved that the pictures could only have been taken by a camera with a long zoom as the area where the photos was taken was very secluded. Therefore, there is public interest, but there is no justified reason for the pictures being taken and that is why no British newspaper has dared to publish them in fear of the legal ramifications, which would more than likely follow.
There is also the recent statement that has been released from the BBC apologising for their reporter Frank Gardener who had mentioned about a previous conversation with the Queen where she had expressed her concerns over the prolonged legal proceedings involving the deportation of the radical cleric Abu Hamza. This is what was described as "Chatham House Rules" where you can report on what was said, but you must never mention who said it as it will encourage free and open debate throughout.
The next important part of the law we need to learn is Contempt of Court. If you forget this and get anything wrong there is a strong possibility that you will be facing a short or long term in prision. There is no defence against Contempt of Court, so you need to ensure that you do not annoy the court or do anything that will interfere with a active court case. Therefore, once a case has become active do not publish that the accused is guilty before the case has concluded. It will not only end up with yourself in prison and a heavy fine, it will destroy your journalistic career before you can say shorthand. The main example of this is the case involving Chris Jeferries who was accused of killing Joanna Yates in Bristol on 17th December 2010. He was accused of the murder by the press, due to his eccentric lifestyle and how he looked, but you cannot judge someone because they look weird and have different tastes and interests than most people. This accusation destroyed his life and has left him trying to piece together the reputation he will likely never get back, due to accusation that were false and untrue.
So, remember when reporting on court cases only a fair and accurate report of the day's proceedings will be acceptable. Do not make up lies and be very careful in sensitive cases involving sexual offences and children.
The third and possible most difficult part of the law to understand and follow as journalists is Privacy as journalists we have to be careful that we are not intruding on the lives of people as this violates article 8 of the European Humans Right Act where one has the right to have a personal family life without any fear or intrusion. But, article 10 of the act gives everyone the right to free expression, which protects the press to the point in dealings of privacy, but these will be discussed further in a whole topic dedicated to Privacy later on this year.
This brought us to the final point of the lecture; The WINOL Fatal Errors system. This system protects us as student journalists from any problem we may face, but if we break any of these rules we are liable to no only failing our course, but liable to criminal prosecution. These are the five things that we are liable against and have no protection over:
1. Malice.
2. Dishonest presentation of sources/dishonest generally.
3. Causing disrepute/disruption.
4. Reckless inaccuracy in basic expression.
5. Legal problems (without justification).
6. Regulatory problems (without justification).
If any of these offences are committed do not just expect to say goodbye to a BA Journalism degree from the University of Winchester, but also expect a brief trip to Winchester Magistrates or even Crown Court sometime in the near future.
That wraps up this instalment for the week that was in TAB9's Law Lecture. Tune in next week where we will discuss privacy, confidentiality and data protection law. By the way my number is 07 (wait can not be handing out number of the internet it's a breach of date protection).
Sunday, 11 March 2012
HCJ Lecture/Seminar 4: Tom Wolfe and The New Journalism
New Journalism was a movement that was prominent throughout America during the 1960's and 70's where the country was enthralled in the changes in social and political rebellion. It was during a time where the American were engulfed in the only war that could be classed as a defeat in Vietnam and where the country was embraced in the mentality of free love and freedom brought upon by the hippies movement.
Journalism was also changing from the period where William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer changes the face of Journalism from the world of "Yellow Journalism" and was moving away from stories that would follows the basic new writing narrative rule of the 5 W's (who, what, why, where and when) and the man who epitomised these changes was Tom Wolfe.
Wolfe was born in Richmond, Virginia on March 2 1931 and throughout his youth was interested in journalism from a young age and went onto graduate with a doctrine in American Studies from Yale University. Wolfe decided that he wanted to follow his passion of Journalism into his vocation and moved to New York to work on the Herald Tribune and this is where he would form the foundation of The New Journalism.
New Journalism would blur the line between fiction and non-fiction as Wolfe felt that the novel was in steep decline due to the affect of realism on society and that the novel was practically dead and buried.This would reflect in a quote from Christopher Hitchens who felt that "Everyone has a book inside them."
In Wolfe's book The New Journalism on pages 46 and 47 he describes the four main characteristics that are needed to make the perfect feature piece. Each of these four elements are vital to not just a feature piece, but also a news package that is seen on a weekly basis on WINOL as you have to ensure that the story is about people doing things or being affected by something:
1. Scene by scene construction: Wolfe simply believes that you tell the story as you see it scene by scene to ensure that every details is captured and that you do not try and go down the historical narrative route.
2. Dialogue: Dialogue will help construct the story with help from the characters and how they speak and what they say. This will define and establish your characters and through subjectivity will see the true realism of their character. Regional accents can be key during dialogue as it can also establish the time period or the setting of the piece as well as the characters you are trying to show.
3. 3rd Persons Point of View: This again is key in establishing and defining a character through realism will give a perfection form of fiction. Observing the story from the character point of view and using subjectivity to show how the subject is the focus point of the story. Within a new package or a feature this is where the interview is key as if you can exploit and show an interviewee's true emotion and feelings you can use this as a tool to entice the reader in and play with their emotions to evoke a reaction from them.
4. Status Details: The surroundings of which the characters will take place in. For journalist status details and settings are the perfect tool for a social autopsy as you can see people as they are within themselves from their natural surroundings. This will also help the readers with the descriptions of the setting and paints a picture of the characters.
Wolfe felt that the best examples of New Journalism was in action and emotions drawing the thoughts and feelings of people and the people who knew them. This is where the first breed of new journalists came into spotlight with Truman Capote and his famous work "In Cold Blood" where these emotions and the point of view of the third person is exemplified.
Other example of New Journalism include Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of Gonzo Journalism, which will see people take an active role of what they want to find out. This form of journalism is the closest you will find to a novel where the narrative and creative elements of the piece will explore different topics than in standard journalism.
The example of this is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Thompson portrays himself as a Raoul Drake and alongside his Samoan sidekick Dr Gonzo embarks on a drug-fulled trip to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle desert race. The two main characters throughout the trip take copious amounts of alcohol and drugs to escape reality
Journalism has moved on from objectivity to subjectivity, from seeing to telling and from the journalist would take a back seat and write down everything he saw, they would take a greater role into their story and would sometime go far as they would become the story themselves without realising it. This new role of performance journalism is epitomised in the role of Michael Moore and even though most people hate the man to the point where you want to point a gun to his head, you can not underestimate his influence where he has taken new journalism to a new level where the story is more stressed on the dialogue and the point of view of the characters now more than ever.
With every new packages you have to find a story and then stand it up. In Journalism up to the present day it is evident that to stand the story out you need to combine the objectivity of the fact of the story with the subjectivity of the people who are affected and obtained the verbal (quote) and non-verbal (emotions/gestures) needed to establish a story that will interest your viewer. This is what shows that Tom Wolfe's form of New Journalism is still relevant and being updated 40 years later.
Journalism was also changing from the period where William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer changes the face of Journalism from the world of "Yellow Journalism" and was moving away from stories that would follows the basic new writing narrative rule of the 5 W's (who, what, why, where and when) and the man who epitomised these changes was Tom Wolfe.
Wolfe was born in Richmond, Virginia on March 2 1931 and throughout his youth was interested in journalism from a young age and went onto graduate with a doctrine in American Studies from Yale University. Wolfe decided that he wanted to follow his passion of Journalism into his vocation and moved to New York to work on the Herald Tribune and this is where he would form the foundation of The New Journalism.
New Journalism would blur the line between fiction and non-fiction as Wolfe felt that the novel was in steep decline due to the affect of realism on society and that the novel was practically dead and buried.This would reflect in a quote from Christopher Hitchens who felt that "Everyone has a book inside them."
In Wolfe's book The New Journalism on pages 46 and 47 he describes the four main characteristics that are needed to make the perfect feature piece. Each of these four elements are vital to not just a feature piece, but also a news package that is seen on a weekly basis on WINOL as you have to ensure that the story is about people doing things or being affected by something:
1. Scene by scene construction: Wolfe simply believes that you tell the story as you see it scene by scene to ensure that every details is captured and that you do not try and go down the historical narrative route.
2. Dialogue: Dialogue will help construct the story with help from the characters and how they speak and what they say. This will define and establish your characters and through subjectivity will see the true realism of their character. Regional accents can be key during dialogue as it can also establish the time period or the setting of the piece as well as the characters you are trying to show.
3. 3rd Persons Point of View: This again is key in establishing and defining a character through realism will give a perfection form of fiction. Observing the story from the character point of view and using subjectivity to show how the subject is the focus point of the story. Within a new package or a feature this is where the interview is key as if you can exploit and show an interviewee's true emotion and feelings you can use this as a tool to entice the reader in and play with their emotions to evoke a reaction from them.
4. Status Details: The surroundings of which the characters will take place in. For journalist status details and settings are the perfect tool for a social autopsy as you can see people as they are within themselves from their natural surroundings. This will also help the readers with the descriptions of the setting and paints a picture of the characters.
Wolfe felt that the best examples of New Journalism was in action and emotions drawing the thoughts and feelings of people and the people who knew them. This is where the first breed of new journalists came into spotlight with Truman Capote and his famous work "In Cold Blood" where these emotions and the point of view of the third person is exemplified.
Other example of New Journalism include Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of Gonzo Journalism, which will see people take an active role of what they want to find out. This form of journalism is the closest you will find to a novel where the narrative and creative elements of the piece will explore different topics than in standard journalism.
The example of this is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Thompson portrays himself as a Raoul Drake and alongside his Samoan sidekick Dr Gonzo embarks on a drug-fulled trip to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle desert race. The two main characters throughout the trip take copious amounts of alcohol and drugs to escape reality
Journalism has moved on from objectivity to subjectivity, from seeing to telling and from the journalist would take a back seat and write down everything he saw, they would take a greater role into their story and would sometime go far as they would become the story themselves without realising it. This new role of performance journalism is epitomised in the role of Michael Moore and even though most people hate the man to the point where you want to point a gun to his head, you can not underestimate his influence where he has taken new journalism to a new level where the story is more stressed on the dialogue and the point of view of the characters now more than ever.
With every new packages you have to find a story and then stand it up. In Journalism up to the present day it is evident that to stand the story out you need to combine the objectivity of the fact of the story with the subjectivity of the people who are affected and obtained the verbal (quote) and non-verbal (emotions/gestures) needed to establish a story that will interest your viewer. This is what shows that Tom Wolfe's form of New Journalism is still relevant and being updated 40 years later.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
HCJ Lecture 3: Mathematics, Logic, Language and Marilyn Monroe has a brain, who would have thought it!
Right, it's been a couple of week since I blogged, so it's time to dust the cobwebs off the keyboard and start enlightening everyone with the latest instalment in the world of HCJ. This week's topic will focus on the world according to our good old friend Bertrand Russell and his theories of mathematics and how these numbers can attribute to everyday language.
Mathematics is made up out natural numbers, which are words used to count things and this will then create a category of grouping. Going back to evolution and our primatial cousins they needs only three numbers: one thing, more than one thing and many things. In reality this does make perfect sense as smaller numbers will have different functions than to larger numbers.
Basic mathematical functions, such as add and multiple are empirically plurals of plurals. Creating words and abstract symbols for plurals requires a number-word system and logical syntax, which is then able to combine numbers-words to imply predicates and then these predicates can be analysed.
This can then help determine what is "Analytic Philosophy." It has been determined as the paradigm of analysis and modernism by synthetic German philosophers and shows how language is a vocabulary of symbols, syntax and grammar (predicate). However, there are limits the logical modelling of human intelligence.
Ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians used hieroglyphics for numbers and multiples. The Greeks and Romans system depended on numeric symbols and decided that 0 and 1 were not numbers and in Pythagorean logic, counting started with 2. In India the introduction of Leo came, but it was different as they determined that 0 equaled nothing and something at the same time, which was then adopted by Aristotle as the law of excluded logic.
Modern philosophers of mathematics have asserted 0 as a natural numbers. Number are seen as major and a platonic form with attributed magical properties E.G. 3, 7 and 13. From Greek numbers comes A priori from geometry and aesthetics. Special ratios are shown as the best example of Platonists and Pythagoreans as ratios are perfect and true and this also brought upon the beginning of the now close relationships between music and numbers. Now this is the point in the blog where we stop for our scheduled YouTube video, but instead of a cheesy pop number this week, we will go with something from the left field and with a Latin flavour:
Ok back to the world of mathematics and following Kant, Bertrand Russell believed that numbers and arithmetic were neither platonic ideal forms, nor empirical generalisations, but synthetic A Priori properties, which could in principle be defined logically.
Now after a year and a half of HCJ finally it is time for a brief summary of the life and times of Bertrand Russell. Russell was born in Trellech, Monmouthshire in 1872 into British aristocracy and was one of the first male supporters of the suffragette movement and even stood as an MP for the movement. In 1913 he wrote "Principia Mathematica" in opposition to Einstein's book on his theories of relativity. During World War 1 he was one of few who expressed Pacifist views and these views would lead to his eventual sacking in 1940 from New York University for immolation. He was also a campaigner for nuclear disarmament throughout the 1950's and was very vocal politically until his death in 1970, aged 98.
Russell began his career as a dedicated Hegelian idealist, but he retained some social theories, especially believing scientifically the media was strongly progressive. Maths did appear to be a contradiction of idealism because numbers appear to have objective existence in some cases and their nature is not determined by observation. According to Russell, number can not be understood unless in relation to another number E.G. the questions "What is number?", "What is a number?" and "What is meant by arithmetic?"
Peano showed how numbers van be deduced by the following axioms:
1. The constant 0 is a natural number.
2. X=Y every number has it's own equivalent.
3. Every natural numbers had a successor number.
4. There is no natural number whose successor is 0.
5. If the successor of N is equal to M , then N is equal to M in all number series.
The terms Zero, number and successor were remained undefined by Peano.
Nassau wanted to complete the project by providing objective definitions for zero, number and successor by using class, belonging to a class and similarity. Number is "the class of class similar to a given class."
So, there are number words that numerically corresponding a logical class composed of possible clauses have three members E.G. three cats, three dogs, three students. This will avoid the complication of 3 cats + 4 dogs equals 5 cat dogs. 3 is abstracted because it is from the empirical basis and is purely a logical category. The ultimate basis of the system is empirical observation, therefore platonic idealism is avoided by 3 as "this in itself."
Mathematics is made up out natural numbers, which are words used to count things and this will then create a category of grouping. Going back to evolution and our primatial cousins they needs only three numbers: one thing, more than one thing and many things. In reality this does make perfect sense as smaller numbers will have different functions than to larger numbers.
Basic mathematical functions, such as add and multiple are empirically plurals of plurals. Creating words and abstract symbols for plurals requires a number-word system and logical syntax, which is then able to combine numbers-words to imply predicates and then these predicates can be analysed.
This can then help determine what is "Analytic Philosophy." It has been determined as the paradigm of analysis and modernism by synthetic German philosophers and shows how language is a vocabulary of symbols, syntax and grammar (predicate). However, there are limits the logical modelling of human intelligence.
Ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians used hieroglyphics for numbers and multiples. The Greeks and Romans system depended on numeric symbols and decided that 0 and 1 were not numbers and in Pythagorean logic, counting started with 2. In India the introduction of Leo came, but it was different as they determined that 0 equaled nothing and something at the same time, which was then adopted by Aristotle as the law of excluded logic.
Modern philosophers of mathematics have asserted 0 as a natural numbers. Number are seen as major and a platonic form with attributed magical properties E.G. 3, 7 and 13. From Greek numbers comes A priori from geometry and aesthetics. Special ratios are shown as the best example of Platonists and Pythagoreans as ratios are perfect and true and this also brought upon the beginning of the now close relationships between music and numbers. Now this is the point in the blog where we stop for our scheduled YouTube video, but instead of a cheesy pop number this week, we will go with something from the left field and with a Latin flavour:
Ok back to the world of mathematics and following Kant, Bertrand Russell believed that numbers and arithmetic were neither platonic ideal forms, nor empirical generalisations, but synthetic A Priori properties, which could in principle be defined logically.
Now after a year and a half of HCJ finally it is time for a brief summary of the life and times of Bertrand Russell. Russell was born in Trellech, Monmouthshire in 1872 into British aristocracy and was one of the first male supporters of the suffragette movement and even stood as an MP for the movement. In 1913 he wrote "Principia Mathematica" in opposition to Einstein's book on his theories of relativity. During World War 1 he was one of few who expressed Pacifist views and these views would lead to his eventual sacking in 1940 from New York University for immolation. He was also a campaigner for nuclear disarmament throughout the 1950's and was very vocal politically until his death in 1970, aged 98.
Russell began his career as a dedicated Hegelian idealist, but he retained some social theories, especially believing scientifically the media was strongly progressive. Maths did appear to be a contradiction of idealism because numbers appear to have objective existence in some cases and their nature is not determined by observation. According to Russell, number can not be understood unless in relation to another number E.G. the questions "What is number?", "What is a number?" and "What is meant by arithmetic?"
Peano showed how numbers van be deduced by the following axioms:
1. The constant 0 is a natural number.
2. X=Y every number has it's own equivalent.
3. Every natural numbers had a successor number.
4. There is no natural number whose successor is 0.
5. If the successor of N is equal to M , then N is equal to M in all number series.
The terms Zero, number and successor were remained undefined by Peano.
Nassau wanted to complete the project by providing objective definitions for zero, number and successor by using class, belonging to a class and similarity. Number is "the class of class similar to a given class."
So, there are number words that numerically corresponding a logical class composed of possible clauses have three members E.G. three cats, three dogs, three students. This will avoid the complication of 3 cats + 4 dogs equals 5 cat dogs. 3 is abstracted because it is from the empirical basis and is purely a logical category. The ultimate basis of the system is empirical observation, therefore platonic idealism is avoided by 3 as "this in itself."
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Winol Week 1-3: The Dummy Edition.... Chapter 1 of the Political Diaries
I am back at the the training base of Winchester News Online and after the first couple week's of a refresher course into both the reporting and technical aspects of being a video journalist, which we had been lacking last year, it was time and ready for the first dummy edition of WINOL. With a semester of reporting in my back pocket, it was refreshing to be back reporting, but it a more important role of Chief Reporter and Political Editor. This means that I am the "fireman" of WINOL, which means that if there are any breaking news events in Winchester and the surrounding areas, I will be assigned to this story as I do not have one designated patch.
I also have that freedom to research and carry out my own political stories, as after a semester of being Local Government reporters, I felt it was time to take my political reporting to the next level and move onto from reporting on local council issues to national parliamentary issues, including interviewing the local MP's across Hampshire and hopefully within the Coalition cabinet as the week's progress.
Within the first two week's, I was able to establish my first two news stories and I will not dwell on the 2nd until next week. So my first story for our "dummy edition" focused on the ongoing debate of supermarkets building within traditional market towns and the stance of one local Hampshire MP who is trying to allows communities to have more freedom on choosing if they want supermarkets to be built in their local community.
I went to Westminster on the first Tuesday back to interview Conservative MP for Meon Valley; George Hollingbery. The interview with Mr Hollingbery went very well as he provided my with a number of very good grabs and with his background being a member of the Select Committee for Communities and Local Government is made the interview easier. This was helped with relaxed atmosphere, which is key when interviewing important figures such as MP's, therefore you need to treat them as any other person and not become nervous or overwhelmed.
This was the groundwork finished and now I had to find balance for my story and tried to contact Sainsburys who were building a store within Bishop's Waltham; A "exceptional town" as described by George Hollingbery, which is within his constituency. They were very helpful, but I was unable to secure an interview as they did not want to comment for the entire supermarket trade on a national issue.
They did back me onto the BRC (British Retail Consortium) who again could not provide anyone for an interview because the Business Director was on holiday, but they were kinda enough to provide a statement from him. Now I know that we strive not use statements on WINOL, but I felt and was agreed by my News Editor, I had tried all relevant channels and this was now in "exceptional circumstances."
Now we move onto this week and I missed Monday's debrief in order to reinterview Caroline Ford from CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Hampshire who lived close to Bishops Waltham to get her views on how these new supermarkets builds would affect the local economy and trade. The initial problem with the original interview was the sounds quality, but this time the interview was washed out and this was just the beginning of the technical problems.
I was able to gain all of my gv's across Monday and Tuesday and then felt that I had gained enough shots to establish and make a very effective story. This is where my problems began though because we have decided to start filming WINOL in 16'9, instead of 4'3 to bring ourselves up to industry standards and make the overall visual quality of the broadcast easier on the eye (I will not deny I have had to squint when I have full-screened WINOL last semester on YouTube).
This meant that I had to change the initial camera settings before filming, but when it came to editing it seems that I had not done this for some of my filming and made an initial problem with editing on Final Cut. What I did not also realise it that I had left a gap in the tape, which meant that the timecode would be completely out of sync, Which meant It took longer to edit and having to swap between using the tape deck and the camera.
After hours of stress, I was able to put the story together and many thanks to Henry for helping me with editing, which I will still admit is a weakness I need to possibly get more training on in order to make sure I meet the deadline, which I did unfortunately miss and in a real news room that would mean the story would have been spiked.
I will not go into my story into too much details, but will bullet point what I felt where the strengths and weaknesses in my piece:
Strength
* My voice- I have been working on my voice over the Christmas break and after feedback from fellows Journo's It seem that I have made my voice stronger, but at the same time taken myself out of the story to make my view more unbiased.
* Gv's: I felt this is where my weakness was last semester as I did not have any interesting GV's that stood out and were memorable. Even though this sentiment was the same this week, I was able to put a sequence together and felt my shots were stronger than at the end of last semester.
Weaknesses
Interviews/framing: My framing again this week was not as well framed as it could of been. My interview with George Hollingbery should have been framed more left, then centre-left. But, I feel this was recovered by the backdrop as it was in a relevant location to the story. My second interview with Caroline Ford should not of been broadcast. We should always strive to make every story 10/10 and the washed out interview did disappoint me, but I will strive to ensure I do not let any of my stories look average or second-best.
Editing: I again need to realise that editing can sometimes take longer and when you change to different settings, you should strive to take a bit longer to edit and ask for help if needed. I feel another couple of training sessions on Final Cut will help me in the long run.
I will not dwell on the bulletin overall for now and I will make more notes after tomorrow's debrief. I am looking forward to my story next week as I have got the interview and the GV's, it just needs to be edited and checked to ensure that every angle is covered to make sure there is key balance. On and upwards to next week and also my first chance to present Sportsweek (It only took a semester of badgering)!
I also have that freedom to research and carry out my own political stories, as after a semester of being Local Government reporters, I felt it was time to take my political reporting to the next level and move onto from reporting on local council issues to national parliamentary issues, including interviewing the local MP's across Hampshire and hopefully within the Coalition cabinet as the week's progress.
Within the first two week's, I was able to establish my first two news stories and I will not dwell on the 2nd until next week. So my first story for our "dummy edition" focused on the ongoing debate of supermarkets building within traditional market towns and the stance of one local Hampshire MP who is trying to allows communities to have more freedom on choosing if they want supermarkets to be built in their local community.
I went to Westminster on the first Tuesday back to interview Conservative MP for Meon Valley; George Hollingbery. The interview with Mr Hollingbery went very well as he provided my with a number of very good grabs and with his background being a member of the Select Committee for Communities and Local Government is made the interview easier. This was helped with relaxed atmosphere, which is key when interviewing important figures such as MP's, therefore you need to treat them as any other person and not become nervous or overwhelmed.
This was the groundwork finished and now I had to find balance for my story and tried to contact Sainsburys who were building a store within Bishop's Waltham; A "exceptional town" as described by George Hollingbery, which is within his constituency. They were very helpful, but I was unable to secure an interview as they did not want to comment for the entire supermarket trade on a national issue.
They did back me onto the BRC (British Retail Consortium) who again could not provide anyone for an interview because the Business Director was on holiday, but they were kinda enough to provide a statement from him. Now I know that we strive not use statements on WINOL, but I felt and was agreed by my News Editor, I had tried all relevant channels and this was now in "exceptional circumstances."
Now we move onto this week and I missed Monday's debrief in order to reinterview Caroline Ford from CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Hampshire who lived close to Bishops Waltham to get her views on how these new supermarkets builds would affect the local economy and trade. The initial problem with the original interview was the sounds quality, but this time the interview was washed out and this was just the beginning of the technical problems.
I was able to gain all of my gv's across Monday and Tuesday and then felt that I had gained enough shots to establish and make a very effective story. This is where my problems began though because we have decided to start filming WINOL in 16'9, instead of 4'3 to bring ourselves up to industry standards and make the overall visual quality of the broadcast easier on the eye (I will not deny I have had to squint when I have full-screened WINOL last semester on YouTube).
This meant that I had to change the initial camera settings before filming, but when it came to editing it seems that I had not done this for some of my filming and made an initial problem with editing on Final Cut. What I did not also realise it that I had left a gap in the tape, which meant that the timecode would be completely out of sync, Which meant It took longer to edit and having to swap between using the tape deck and the camera.
After hours of stress, I was able to put the story together and many thanks to Henry for helping me with editing, which I will still admit is a weakness I need to possibly get more training on in order to make sure I meet the deadline, which I did unfortunately miss and in a real news room that would mean the story would have been spiked.
I will not go into my story into too much details, but will bullet point what I felt where the strengths and weaknesses in my piece:
Strength
* My voice- I have been working on my voice over the Christmas break and after feedback from fellows Journo's It seem that I have made my voice stronger, but at the same time taken myself out of the story to make my view more unbiased.
* Gv's: I felt this is where my weakness was last semester as I did not have any interesting GV's that stood out and were memorable. Even though this sentiment was the same this week, I was able to put a sequence together and felt my shots were stronger than at the end of last semester.
Weaknesses
Interviews/framing: My framing again this week was not as well framed as it could of been. My interview with George Hollingbery should have been framed more left, then centre-left. But, I feel this was recovered by the backdrop as it was in a relevant location to the story. My second interview with Caroline Ford should not of been broadcast. We should always strive to make every story 10/10 and the washed out interview did disappoint me, but I will strive to ensure I do not let any of my stories look average or second-best.
Editing: I again need to realise that editing can sometimes take longer and when you change to different settings, you should strive to take a bit longer to edit and ask for help if needed. I feel another couple of training sessions on Final Cut will help me in the long run.
I will not dwell on the bulletin overall for now and I will make more notes after tomorrow's debrief. I am looking forward to my story next week as I have got the interview and the GV's, it just needs to be edited and checked to ensure that every angle is covered to make sure there is key balance. On and upwards to next week and also my first chance to present Sportsweek (It only took a semester of badgering)!
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Seminar Paper on Tabloid Nations parts 2 and 3
Tabloid Nation Seminar Paper
Part 2
“Dead.” This was the headline from the January 13th 1928 edition of The New York Daily News. This one headline referred to the first execution by electric chair of “ The Bloody Blonde”, Ruth Snyder. This headline and the image of the electrocuted, rotting corpse of Snyder increased the circulation of the paper by over 300,000. The headline was the inspiration for Harry Guy Bartholomew to reinvent his struggling Daily Mirror by adopting the “New York-style tabloid”, which he felt was “capable of selling perhaps ten times as many copies.”
After seizing control of the Mirror from the conservative board of directors in 1934, he envisioned a paper where “Sensationalism” would be the main selling point of the newspaper with shocking headlines and sexual arousing pictures to sell alongside them. “Bart” hired J Walter Thompson; an American advertising mogul who concluded the re-launch would focus on “human interest” stories and an expanded features section.
With this idea, off his own back he hired Basil D Nicholson as the new features editor of The Mirror. Nicholson was famous for being an advertising genius whose phrases had the ability to change the thought process of a mass society into thinking something. This approach would be adopted in his features writing where he insured that every story had two important elements:
1. Think of a headline-the newspaper equivalent of an ad slogan.
And
2. Write some “tosh”, which is another way to explain to “stand it up.”
This has remained the same in Journalism even today where whenever you have an idea for a story or interview you need to ensure you have the pictures and the quotes to stand it up.
These ideas did bring upon by 1936, a page and a half on comic strips, which proved to be an important entity within the paper’s core structure. However, a clash of personalities between Nicholson and Bart and one slip of the tongue to many led to the eventful dismissal of Nicholson and he was to be replaced by Hugh Cudlipp who would turn out to be the major benefactor in all of this hostility.
Cudlipp was part of a family dynasty of Journalists with his three brothers all becoming journalists, including his brother Reg who would become the editor of The News of the World. An early experience of near death and unemployment scared Cudlipp to ensure he was always employed and financially stable.
In 1935 at the age of 22 Hugh Cudlipp took over the reigns as features editor and under Bartholomew’s instruction led the rival of stories derived from human interests and labelled “shock-horror” in their realism, without a moments thought to how the story would be received.
Cudlipp did introduce a column where reader could write in and get their questions answered. He ensured that every letter was personally answered and this was starting to obtain The Mirror a new female audience. This was taking advantage of where the paper would support the rights of females to the point where it strived to improve the working conditions of secretaries, this becoming one of the many examples of “Investigative Journalism.” This would be the vocal drive of the features section, which would appeal to a women’s every need, but would also be used as a ploy for Cudlipp and Bart to continue to “sex” up the paper by any means, including the first example of “Page Three.”
Cudlipp would go behind Bartholomew’s back in 1938 when he became the editor of The Sunday Pictorial. This decision enraged Bart, but Hugh Cudlipp would take the paper and sensationalise it further than he had at The Mirror and the circulation increased at a much faster rate.
With World War Two looming and the reign of terror of Hitler’s Nazi party growing every stronger, Cudlipp spoke out against Hitler and used his paper to voice his view on how he felt the nation needed to stand up for themselves against this superpower. He praised Hitler for curbing Germany unemployment, but this was used as a tactic to cause Britain to “deeply resent” Hitler. He was able to along with his superior Cecil King convince Winston Churchill to organise a large Army, Air Force and Navy ready to attack Germany head-on.
Hugh Cudlipp was conscripted into the Army at the start of the war, but this lead The Mirror into a period of severe controversy. The paper at the start of the war were the only paper who appeased other views who felt Britain should side with Hitler, but The Mirror would start to voice opinion, which lead to the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and the employment of Churchill as Prime Minister.
However, the stance of The Daily Mirror, which supported the solders on the front line and belittled the officers and the government took a step too far when in March 1942 when a cartoon showing a merchant solider clinging onto driftwood after an Nazi attack on his ship. The British Government and secret service felt this was a Nazi propaganda symbol and felt The Daily Mirror was working for Hitler against the British.
In reality this was not the case as the paper was just trying to show the war from its true reality. The frontline. Cudlipp had his own paper whilst on the frontline called Union Jack, which deployed similar articles and features found in The Mirror. He was commended for this and was awarded an OBE an honorary Lieutenant Colonel.
As the war ended, the key figurehead of the old school, gentleman of the conservative Mirror board of directors John Cowley died and Bart had been appointed Chairman. Cudlipp who was among a string of Mirror columnist who had reported from the frontline and sent their stories back to Britain and published under secret alias were to be commended and promoted in a time Cecil King felt “That is that we are all going places!”
In 1945 after persuasion by Labour party followers, The Mirror released the headline saying simply “VOTE FOR HIM. “This slogan enabled a Labour victory and showed how one newspaper could have so much influence and cause a political outcome, which no one had expected. This change helped Britain create the welfare state, education reform, social security and The NHS, which has helped the country grow and establish more equality and gave more opportunities to working-class people, which before then had been very limited.
Conflict between Cudlipp and Bart erupted, which led to Cudlipp drunken outburst against Bart at the 1948 Mirror Christmas party and this led to Cudlipp instant dismissal. However, The Daily Mirror rival, The Daily Express, which was run by Lord Beaverbrook, employed him almost instantly.
However, inside The Daily Mirror Cecil King was planning a revolt against Henry Guy Bartholomew and in December 1951 conspired and convinced every member of the Mirror board, including close associates of Bart that he should be removed as chairman. This was to be the end of the Harry Guy Bartholomew and Cecil King would now take reign and would bring Hugh Cudlipp back to fold.
Part 3
Cudlipp was brought back and made editor-in-chief of both The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Pictorial. The Mirror continued to diminish The Daily Express in terms of sales, but was facing a losing battle in the advertising, as The Express would aim its advert at the middle class, whilst The Mirror targeted the working class.
The Mirror would have to change it’s aims and news agenda to meet it’s targeted demographic of the “babybloomers” and Cudlipp tried to build The Mirror as a “modern day” Express and felt it was time he allowed the paper to “Spread it’s wings.”
To do this he hired more university graduates and women to try give the paper more greater depth and knowledge within the stories. Cuddlip’s first editor was Jack Nener, a fellow Welshman who was regarded as one of the old guard, but was experienced and regarded as a technical perfectionist. His views were to keep the old-time war spirit going, but would not shy if he did not approve of something, even if it meant swearing a dozen or so times.
Cudlipp would allow Nener to run the party freely, apart from Political news, which he used as a device to “SHOCK ISSUES”, which would be a political propaganda used to broadcast news, which would shock the readers with stories not conceived as being possible.
The political “SHOCK ISSUE” would not generate as many sales as hoped, but did stur opinion on the newsstands. Cudlipp would take control of the Political affairs in order to show The Mirror’s continued strong support of Labour, even though the Conservatives had regained power in the 1951 General Election.
This did not matter though as the changes had seen an increase in advertising revenue and it seemed that Hugh Cudlipp had the “Midas Touch.”
Alcohol was an integral part of the day-to-day running of a newspaper and this was evident in the office of The Daily Mirror, but Cudlipp cracked down on most forms of liquor, apart from Brandy and Wine. The drinking would made possible by the money trees, which were the salaries of the Journalists and editors and The Mirror was being seen by some as “more of a private bank, than an employer.”
These expenses were seen to have been fiddled about with in a way to ensure that salaries were kept lower and to avoid having to pay tax. It got to the point where some reporters were putting down prostitutes as executive expenses. However, the increased profitability of the paper ensured that Cudlipp could hire all of the best columnist and reporters Fleet Street had to offer and it become known that these people would become overnight celebrities, as famous as some of the film stars and sportsman of the time.
“Cassandra” was seen as the Mirror greatest weapon as he would use his column and a writing style deployed as “delayed drop” as he would write normally for a first couple of sentences and write a “knockout blow” that would rock the reader’s “glass chin.”
The Daily Mirror were truly going through its golden age, but a major rival was starting to simmer from the horizon and its invention would start the decline of newspapers, it’s name the Television.
In 1956 the newsprint rationing law was announced to end on January 1st 1959, which meant it would increase competition for advertising revenue for all British newspapers. At the same time the first commercial television station was launched called ITV and meant now television would compete from the newspaper for advertising revenue.
However, this was detour the continuing surge for The Mirror and by 1964 had over 5 million readers and had eclipsed, the now ageing and declining Daily Express were seeing sales fall as did the lives of their readers. From the mid 60’s the paper adopted a more foreign approach to reporting with various reports from all over the world including the Cold War and the every growing knockout list of Muhammad Ali.
Hugh Cudlipp was starting to enjoy the millionaire lifestyle he had earned and was not afraid to show his newfound wealth in front of friends and associates. With Cudlipp looking after the day-to-day running of the paper, this left Cecil King with the role of building up the media conglomerate and started to buy various media outlets across the entire western world and beyond.
This new media conglomerate, known as the IPC (International Publishing Corporation) was trying to sell of its most invaluable asset, The Daily Herald, which has seen it’s circulation drop to under a million again due to it’s readers dying old age. However, this was seen to be the last fully Labour supported paper and under soon-to-be Prime Minister Harold Wilson he negotiated with King and they decided to relaunch the paper as The Sun. Even though first day sales were at a healthy 3 million, sales continued to decline and The Sun was closed down in 1970 and would have to find a new buyer for a new lease of life.
The on-going argument between Labour and IPC same to a head on May 10th 1968 when King would produce a front-page article in The Mirror with the headline “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” This reflected in his view that Harold Wilson should be removed from political office immediately. This was not the beginning as over a span of four years, he had conspired with Cudlipp to create a “coup”, which would see them with the help of Lord Mountbatten would relieve Wilson of his duties as Prime Minister and would create a new British government with help from the IRA. These finding would not come to light until over 20 years after this infamous article, which lead to the sacking of King from The Mirror and the IPC.
This would lead Hugh Cudlipp to take over as Chairman of The Mirror, but would not enter his office for weeks until everything that had come and was inherited in the King regime was removed from existence, never to be seen or mentioned again.
It was around this time that Australian millionaire Rupert Murdoch came into Britain to start his media empire starting with the easy purchase of The News of the World in 1969. His next step was to purchase The Sun from Cudlipp and the IPC and did so at some ease at a price, which many though was “reasonably cheap.” It was Murdoch’s aim to bring The Mirror down and make The Sun the biggest daily newspaper in the country and to do that he employed a key member of The Mirror group, Larry Lamb.
In order to starting building a law readership it was Lamb’s vision to take advantage of the “Babybloomers” that Cudlipp has ignored in the early 1960’s. Cudlipp was not worried and was mock Murdoch and his newest acquisition Lamb at every turn and thought that is was inevitable that the news version of The Sun would fail the same as its predecessor
Cudlipp decided to relaunch The Mirror as the first “quality tabloid newspaper.” The plan to kill off any kind of Sun revival was to create a new magazine, aimed at the younger audience. The Mirror magazine would be included in every Wednesday’s edition. This failed though and the IPC decided to cancel the magazine at once.
Within eighteen months of The Sun’s launch they had gained 2.5 million readers and The Mirror had lost a million and were struggling to find a solution or a “Plan B’ to the failed Mirror Magazine as sales drop and the advertising revenue dropped at the same time. The Sun would used enticing words like “WIN, SEX and FREE” to entice their now loyal readers and the overall news broadcast was better than The Mirror and it was seen as a win-win situation for Rupert Murdoch who realised that the amount he paid for the paper in the first place was small compared to the profits he was making.
By 1978 the every-growing battle between the papers, which had resulted in SHOCK TATICS, which defied belief had seen The Sun triumph in becoming the biggest selling daily newspaper in Britain.
Hugh Cudlipp would reign as chairman of The Mirror and IPC in 1974 and it was seen as the end of an era for a man seen as the greatest tabloid journalist of the 20th century. The Mirror would never recover and until this very day is still seen as the number two daily tabloid newspaper in Great Britain and still even throughout all of the controversy of press scandals and the on-going Leviasan Enquiry, which had seen The News of The World closed down, The Sun still remains as the biggest selling daily tabloid in the United Kingdom.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
HCJ Semester Two, Lecture One: Television/Consumer Society and Why Southampton is not "A hole" or maybe it is...
It has been a while and since I have lost all the excess baggage after Christmas and New Year, we are back and ready for the final semester of HCJ. This semester we revolve around everything from 1950 to the present day and this week's subject focused upon the history of the media itself, including the political and social impact of the media.
Before we do that though let have a brief overview and the elements of the media that have been covered in HCJ so far:
1. History of the printing press, which started with the flat bet Gutenberg press of the reformation era during The Enlightenment, according to Einstein reductively. This started with the first recorded knowledge of speech over 30,000 years ago and the first known written scriptures was by the Sumerians (now known as Iraq) 7000 years ago.
2. The storm driven rotary press of the 19th Century. This referred to "The necessary conditions of press, industry, demographics, technology and law. These conditions was suited in England and other European "nation states" after 1848 including the strong press if France and Germany.
3. American and "The Wild West", which included The Gold Rush and the rise and fall of the American press mogul WR Hearst and the portray of his life in Orsen Welles acclaimed performance in Citizen Kane.
4. The Telegraph and the rival of Hearst's media empire in the New York circulation wars E.G. "The Yellow Press" Hearst vs Pulitzer.
5. This was reflected in England and the rising power of newspapers masterminds Northcliffe and Rothermere (First part of Chris Horrie's Tabloid Nation)
6. Photograph and the genius of both Harry Guy Bartholomew and Hannah Swaffer E.G. The creation of the Bart-line, which enabled the ability for photographs to be wired from America to Britain and the first portal of real photographs in British newspapers, which increased the popularity of The Daily Mirror
These are all the key elements of the media that we have learnt and now we had to explore everything from the 1920's and the invention of radio and the arrival and emergence of cinema.
This will refer me to the "necessary conditions" model, which consists of the three main elements that form and control the media up to the presents day:
1. Technology (affordable use allowed radios sets and transmissions).
2. Demographics (distribution costs were reduced across the western world and this allowed the American press to boost their profits and audience).
3. Law and Regulation (licensing system and the nationalisation of the radio by the British Government in 1922, nearly as soon as it was created. This meant the BBC were the only transmitted legal radio output throughout the United Kingdom and it was a state monopoly and resorted in pirate radio stations being transmitted from boats across the English Channel E.G Radio Caroline)
This will now allow me to take a break from our normal scheduled blogging to transmit a message from our pirate radio sponsors and present the trailer from The Boat That Rock (or also to be known as the British film that flopped in 2009)
Ok now even you have fallen asleep after watching that I am sorry, but it had to be done. back to our normal scheduled blogging.
In the media these three key elements are seen as the venn diagram of three factors. With radio in the UK, the BBC were now seen as "The Times" of the airwaves and would broadcast hour after hour of countless, monogamous classic music, which would be interrupted by two hours of prime time details of the ongoings debate in parliament. Now I am glad I was born in 1990, not 1950.
Newspapers in the 1930's were at their biggest circulation across the country with the Daily Herald, run by the TUC and the Labour Party and their main competition, which was seen as the conservative supported, Beaverbrook run Daily Express.
Within The Sunday newspapers, the now defunct (still is taking me a while to get used to saying this) New of the World and The Sunday Pictorial (now known today as The Sunday Mirror) were the most popular. The Daily Mirror itself, which was now conceived as "The American picture paper", however the newspaper was unpopular in the 30's as it was seen as the sister paper of The Daily Mail and were both influenced by Rothermere ("Hurrah of the Blackshirts). Picture papers at the time were seen as the most realistic visual depiction of human life until the invention of the television.
The first experiments of television in the UK were pre World War 2, but it was seen that TV essentially happened" historically in the 1950's. In the 50's Keynesian demands management and the consumer society reigned supreme. Huge levels of debt were seen from the WW2 debt, but also through Keynesian"stimulus" and "infrastructure" investment and was seen as it was better to employ someone to dig a whole and then fill it back up again. In 1940's Southampton was an example of that hole, but in the 50/60's full employment ensure that the city was rebuilt.
Now I am sorry, but I feel that being a resident of Southampton that I am quite proud of my city being one of the best places to live on the south coast and even though some parts of the city look more like ghettos within North London, but I feel that overall the city is a great place to live and with a very good football club. Not to be mean to Chris Horrie, but when was the last time I saw Manchester was not the most loveliest of places and Richmond did not have a football team to talk about. Ok, rant over, I will agree to disagree that all cities have their fair share of bad areas.
Now this lead to vast government spending on many key areas including:
1. The military including the arms race and the MIC.
2. The Welfare State: NHS, free universal education including "red brick" universities. This lead to the eventual inclusion of robins, polytechnics and then "new universities" e.g. Warwick.
3. Council Housing, which could be seen as a tale of two stories. On one hand you have the nice terrace housing that at the time you would pay £100 a month to rent from the local council and nowadays some of these houses are worth nearly £500,000. On the other hands you councils houses were seen as luxury high-rise tower blocks, but can not be know as pop out a child and live on the 18th floor skyscrapers of doom. This is where you can describe Southampton as "a hole" with this being the prime example of high-rise gone common:
4. Social security, which ensured full employment and the liberation of women.
Now after this week's changes to welfare and benefits proposed by Working and Pensions minister, Ian Duncan Smith I will not dwell on the phrase that the unemployed and incapacitated in Britain have "Never had it so good, I mean Bad."
This bring me onto the subject that will be the focus point of my seminar paper on parts 2 and 3 of Tabloid Nation; Hugh Cudlipp. The Daily Mirror under Cudlipp was seen as The Beatles as it appealed to young, working class males and campaigning Journalists of the left, all fuelled by the growth of advertising. This was caused by the Keynesian wave of deficit and the baby boom brought upon by the life cycle of the "Babybloomers."
The Mirror was all conquering as it had a 12 million circulation and 8 million sales. The complacency
scene at the mirror was it ignored television and "the summer of love" in 1968 and not attracting the boomers during their teenage year. If they had they may have been able to secure a readership, which is now a slowly, diminishing trend. These women who gave birth aged 20 in 1948 were 40 in 1968, meaning their offspring would of been in their teens and in the peak of their rebellion.
What was so attractive for television during this time was the commercial nature of ITC and the imported American programming. This would still be felt today with everyone favourite baby bloomer:
Everyone's favourite sliver fox there in Ken Barlow. Now with commercial TV emphasis on key demographics and with disposable income invested in what teenagers craved at time time; women and soap operas, which is proven today with the nation's continued infatuation with Coronation Street.
A lot of the records and films produced in the 1960's were seen as "cultural", but television was seen as a different animal to print (more majestic and elegant like a gazelle). The journey of The Enlightenment was ended by television, caused by the social and political reference of television "dumbing down" and was linked with advertising and commercialisation.
This is where The Sun profited as it was born in the age of which we live in and accepted the social demographic aspirations of society at the time. But it was seen as a market failure until it's eventual rebrith by Rupert Murdoch who crucially understood the significance of TV and exploited gaps in the market created by the revolutionary framework. This reflected in the 1990's and up to the present day with slow death of newspaper in Great Britain.
That is all for now tune in next week with my seminar paper of Part's 2 and 3 of Chris Horrie's Tabloid Nation until next time I recommend you visit the picturesque southern city of Southampton when you next get the chance!
Before we do that though let have a brief overview and the elements of the media that have been covered in HCJ so far:
1. History of the printing press, which started with the flat bet Gutenberg press of the reformation era during The Enlightenment, according to Einstein reductively. This started with the first recorded knowledge of speech over 30,000 years ago and the first known written scriptures was by the Sumerians (now known as Iraq) 7000 years ago.
2. The storm driven rotary press of the 19th Century. This referred to "The necessary conditions of press, industry, demographics, technology and law. These conditions was suited in England and other European "nation states" after 1848 including the strong press if France and Germany.
3. American and "The Wild West", which included The Gold Rush and the rise and fall of the American press mogul WR Hearst and the portray of his life in Orsen Welles acclaimed performance in Citizen Kane.
4. The Telegraph and the rival of Hearst's media empire in the New York circulation wars E.G. "The Yellow Press" Hearst vs Pulitzer.
5. This was reflected in England and the rising power of newspapers masterminds Northcliffe and Rothermere (First part of Chris Horrie's Tabloid Nation)
6. Photograph and the genius of both Harry Guy Bartholomew and Hannah Swaffer E.G. The creation of the Bart-line, which enabled the ability for photographs to be wired from America to Britain and the first portal of real photographs in British newspapers, which increased the popularity of The Daily Mirror
These are all the key elements of the media that we have learnt and now we had to explore everything from the 1920's and the invention of radio and the arrival and emergence of cinema.
This will refer me to the "necessary conditions" model, which consists of the three main elements that form and control the media up to the presents day:
1. Technology (affordable use allowed radios sets and transmissions).
2. Demographics (distribution costs were reduced across the western world and this allowed the American press to boost their profits and audience).
3. Law and Regulation (licensing system and the nationalisation of the radio by the British Government in 1922, nearly as soon as it was created. This meant the BBC were the only transmitted legal radio output throughout the United Kingdom and it was a state monopoly and resorted in pirate radio stations being transmitted from boats across the English Channel E.G Radio Caroline)
This will now allow me to take a break from our normal scheduled blogging to transmit a message from our pirate radio sponsors and present the trailer from The Boat That Rock (or also to be known as the British film that flopped in 2009)
Ok now even you have fallen asleep after watching that I am sorry, but it had to be done. back to our normal scheduled blogging.
In the media these three key elements are seen as the venn diagram of three factors. With radio in the UK, the BBC were now seen as "The Times" of the airwaves and would broadcast hour after hour of countless, monogamous classic music, which would be interrupted by two hours of prime time details of the ongoings debate in parliament. Now I am glad I was born in 1990, not 1950.
Newspapers in the 1930's were at their biggest circulation across the country with the Daily Herald, run by the TUC and the Labour Party and their main competition, which was seen as the conservative supported, Beaverbrook run Daily Express.
Within The Sunday newspapers, the now defunct (still is taking me a while to get used to saying this) New of the World and The Sunday Pictorial (now known today as The Sunday Mirror) were the most popular. The Daily Mirror itself, which was now conceived as "The American picture paper", however the newspaper was unpopular in the 30's as it was seen as the sister paper of The Daily Mail and were both influenced by Rothermere ("Hurrah of the Blackshirts). Picture papers at the time were seen as the most realistic visual depiction of human life until the invention of the television.
The first experiments of television in the UK were pre World War 2, but it was seen that TV essentially happened" historically in the 1950's. In the 50's Keynesian demands management and the consumer society reigned supreme. Huge levels of debt were seen from the WW2 debt, but also through Keynesian"stimulus" and "infrastructure" investment and was seen as it was better to employ someone to dig a whole and then fill it back up again. In 1940's Southampton was an example of that hole, but in the 50/60's full employment ensure that the city was rebuilt.
Now I am sorry, but I feel that being a resident of Southampton that I am quite proud of my city being one of the best places to live on the south coast and even though some parts of the city look more like ghettos within North London, but I feel that overall the city is a great place to live and with a very good football club. Not to be mean to Chris Horrie, but when was the last time I saw Manchester was not the most loveliest of places and Richmond did not have a football team to talk about. Ok, rant over, I will agree to disagree that all cities have their fair share of bad areas.
Now this lead to vast government spending on many key areas including:
1. The military including the arms race and the MIC.
2. The Welfare State: NHS, free universal education including "red brick" universities. This lead to the eventual inclusion of robins, polytechnics and then "new universities" e.g. Warwick.
3. Council Housing, which could be seen as a tale of two stories. On one hand you have the nice terrace housing that at the time you would pay £100 a month to rent from the local council and nowadays some of these houses are worth nearly £500,000. On the other hands you councils houses were seen as luxury high-rise tower blocks, but can not be know as pop out a child and live on the 18th floor skyscrapers of doom. This is where you can describe Southampton as "a hole" with this being the prime example of high-rise gone common:
4. Social security, which ensured full employment and the liberation of women.
Now after this week's changes to welfare and benefits proposed by Working and Pensions minister, Ian Duncan Smith I will not dwell on the phrase that the unemployed and incapacitated in Britain have "Never had it so good, I mean Bad."
This bring me onto the subject that will be the focus point of my seminar paper on parts 2 and 3 of Tabloid Nation; Hugh Cudlipp. The Daily Mirror under Cudlipp was seen as The Beatles as it appealed to young, working class males and campaigning Journalists of the left, all fuelled by the growth of advertising. This was caused by the Keynesian wave of deficit and the baby boom brought upon by the life cycle of the "Babybloomers."
The Mirror was all conquering as it had a 12 million circulation and 8 million sales. The complacency
scene at the mirror was it ignored television and "the summer of love" in 1968 and not attracting the boomers during their teenage year. If they had they may have been able to secure a readership, which is now a slowly, diminishing trend. These women who gave birth aged 20 in 1948 were 40 in 1968, meaning their offspring would of been in their teens and in the peak of their rebellion.
What was so attractive for television during this time was the commercial nature of ITC and the imported American programming. This would still be felt today with everyone favourite baby bloomer:
Everyone's favourite sliver fox there in Ken Barlow. Now with commercial TV emphasis on key demographics and with disposable income invested in what teenagers craved at time time; women and soap operas, which is proven today with the nation's continued infatuation with Coronation Street.
A lot of the records and films produced in the 1960's were seen as "cultural", but television was seen as a different animal to print (more majestic and elegant like a gazelle). The journey of The Enlightenment was ended by television, caused by the social and political reference of television "dumbing down" and was linked with advertising and commercialisation.
This is where The Sun profited as it was born in the age of which we live in and accepted the social demographic aspirations of society at the time. But it was seen as a market failure until it's eventual rebrith by Rupert Murdoch who crucially understood the significance of TV and exploited gaps in the market created by the revolutionary framework. This reflected in the 1990's and up to the present day with slow death of newspaper in Great Britain.
That is all for now tune in next week with my seminar paper of Part's 2 and 3 of Chris Horrie's Tabloid Nation until next time I recommend you visit the picturesque southern city of Southampton when you next get the chance!
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