Wednesday 15 December 2010

Privacy/Confidentiality

Privacy

The UK has no written constitutions but the nearest thing to one is the Human Rights Act passed in 1998. Section 8 of the Human Rights act states that everyone has a right to privacy and the right to enjoy a private family life. This means that when a journalist reports on an individual, there are certain hurdles they face.

A person needs to give consent to have their photograph taken unless they are engaging in a public duty. The two types of consent are; explicet consent which is all very official with a signed contract or such and implied consent when the individual is posing in the photo or it is clear they had no objections to being photographed.

Other main areas a journalist should beware of is; revealing state secrets or ‘official’ secrets, revealing commercial secrets or revealing facts about a person they would have expected to remain private.
Confidentiality

McNae's states that traditionally there are three elements that work towards a breach of confidence. Namely;

  • Information obtained must have a 'necessary quality of confidence'. Information CAN be freely used if it is within the public domain BUT if it is obtained in a way that breaches confidence of a person or organisation then it cannot be used
  • If there is an obligation to keep the information private then you cannot use it freely
  • There must be an unauthorised use of the information to the detriment of the part communicating it. The person who the confidence is being breached must not suffer in any form of detriment as a direct result.
For a claimant to successfully prove a breach of confidentiality has been made they must prove every one of these points.

One big case which reflects privacy and confidentiality is the Max Mosely case from 2008. Max Mosely was the head of Formula 1 racing and was caught to have hired five prostitutes for a Nazi based orgy in London by the News Of The World but the High Court ruled that this was not within the public interest and that Mosely had a right of provacy and so damanges had to be awarded.





Wednesday 1 December 2010

WINOL happenings

A Ramble -

I haven't been blogging about WINOL of late, for many reasons. Mostly because after I leave TAB9 and go home I can't bring myself to write about the week as I'm usually low in spirits. However, I will be writing a critical reflection very soon so I thought I should write about the last few weeks.

The last time I blogged on WINOL was the really bad news week so to continue from that, the next day I was ushered into a meeting with the editor, Chris and Brian and stripped of my news editor role as 'didn't seem happy' doing it. This translates roughly to; 'You are shit and we're replacing you'. Fair enough. It was a very bad week but I think sometimes people lose sight that WINOL is a University course and everyone is on a learning curve. Never mind... I was given a new role as Entertainments Editor and as upset and embarrassed as I initially was I decided to get stuck in and try my best to come back from it.

Enter Chesney Hawkes...

I noticed that Chesney was due to play at The Railway Inn on Wednesday night, the day of the bulletin so I thought if I could only get hold of him I could ask him to come in before the show to promote it and talk to us about what he's upto at the moment. I emailed The Railway begging for contact details to no avail, and emailed a media officer in connection with him but still nothing. Then as a last resort I tracked him down to his Twitter account and found a personal email address. I sent a quick email asking if he would be interested and 'tweeted' him to check his emails. I didn't expect a reply but thought there was no harm in trying and of course there wasn't... in fact he replied within half an hour agreeing to come down to the studio before his sound-check. After ALOT of running around and organising here is the final outcome...



...needless to say it didn't go exactly smoothly in the live run and I'm sure I will have "Can I start again, oh are we live?" haunting me through-out my career. I definitely let nerves get the better of me but managed to hold it together for the interview.

I haven't managed to bag any other big names since then, as of yet. But as the saying goes - watch this space. My role as Entertainments Editor seems to differ each week depending on what I can get hold of. One week I was presenting 'What's On' which we ran into a package - by my entertainments reporter at the time - about the fireworks procession which worked quite well.


The Training Week -

As I have touched upon, WINOL morale was at an all time low recently and this started to show in the output that was being produced. Chris intervened and called for a training week so everybody could spend the week training up on roles they've been wanting to turn their hand to but haven't had the chance and there wouldn't be too much pressure to perform.

Initially I wasn't keen on the idea and thought it was pointless producing lots of bulletins of perfected old packages as I felt this was time we could be spending producing a fresh bulletin but the outcome was good. All the 2nd years got involved with different roles throughout the three days and some 3rd years dedicated the time to making a show-reel for their portfolio.

During training week it was decided that my 'What's On' section and 'Win With Winol' should collaborate with two presenters bringing an element of relaxed studio chat to the table. With Lucy as the 'Win With Winol' presenter we went out about ways to do this. In the end we decided on standing and addressing each other informally. It worked ok but I felt we rehearsed it too much and the end result looked a bit wooden. During this week I had a local band as a guest to interview who gave us a performance. Here is how it went...



Up To Now -


This week the dynamics of Win With Winol and What's On changed once more when I went out to film on location. I went down to the Winchester Christmas market ice rink to film it as I thought it would be relevant to what I was talking about and would look visually more attractive than yet another studio produced piece. I think the extra effort and time paid off and I'm quite happy with the out-come.



I am fast becoming the cheese queen of WINOL but to be honest... I'm quite happy with that title :) Bridget Jones eat your heart out!

Ciao x


Thursday 18 November 2010

Law lecture notes Week 8

Freedom Of Information Act


130,000 bodies covered by the act
100,000 requests a year - cost £34m
Journalists requests only accounts for 12%

Politicians claim the FOI has a "chilling effect" on government as they don't feel safe or free to discuss issues that could become  damaging to them if they found their way into a document.

Tony Blair, who brought in the act - "FOI was not a good idea... makes it hard for government to have confidential conversations."

Basic principle of the FOI act;

"Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled to have that information communicated to him."

An FOI request must be in writing, email included and it is free.

If it costs more than £600 (£450 for smaller authorities) or if the information is EXEMPT. But you do not have to accept this decision.

Exemptions:
Absolute (eg security services, court records)
Qualified (eg ministerial communications, commercial confidentiality)
Where the information is covered by a qualified exemption, you should still be given it if the balance of the 'pubic interest' favours disclosure.

Public interest - within the publics interest, not just interesting to the public.

The public authority has to respond to an FOI request within 20 days unless there is a public interest consideration then they can take a further 40 days.

What if they say no?
Internal review
Information Commisioner
Information Tribunal
High Court

Thursday 21 October 2010

Law - Privilege



Privilege allows us as journalists to write or broadcast material which may be defamatory or untrue or even both at the same time. It gives us protection from being sued.

Absolute Privilege -
Anything said in court. Judges, lawyers and MP’s have it

It is from the monarch, so as it is to do with the trial they can't be prosecuted for it.

Qualified Privilege -
As long as reports are fair, accurate, without malice and on a matter of public concern
Journalists have Qualified Privilege in Parliament/Court/public meetings Reporting


Statements that qualify for qualified privilege without explanation are as follows;
  • Fair and accurate reports of public proceedings of legislatures, courts, government appointed public inquiries, international organisations/conferences anywhere in the world.
  • A fair and accurate copy of or extract from any register or other document required by law to be open to public inspection.
  • A notice or advertisement published by or on the authority of a court, or of a judge or officer of a court, anywhere in the world.
  • A fair and accurate copy of or extract from matter published by or on the authority of a government or legislature or by an international organisation or an international conference anywhere in the world.
- Lee Clegg case, significant



Privilege Part 1


  • Public proceedings in a legislature anywhere in world (ie Russia)
  • Public proceedings in a court anywhere in world
  • Public proceedings of a public inquiry anywhere in world
  • Public proceedings of an international organisation or conference

Privilege part 2



  • Subject to explanation and contradiction
  • Public meetings
  • Local councils and committees
  • Associations have different status
  • Findings or decisions are covered - official
  • Proceedings are not 
Pressers
  • Pressers are public meetings
  • Written hand outs also covered
  • Consider risks of live broadcasting

Privilege summed up
  • Report must be;
  • Fair
  • Accurate
  • Without malice
  • On a matter of public interest
  • No privilege outside main proceedings
Page 340




Tuesday 19 October 2010

Defamation and Libel

  After a year of HCJ learning all about exciting philosophers and their work I was more than underwhelmed to say goodbye to the likes of Emile Zola, Fredrich Nietzche and Freud and welcome Law for Journalists back into my life. It would be fair to say that law is definitely a weak point of mine BUT after two lectures I found it all coming back. Here are some notes so far.

Defamation and Libel 

To break it down in simple terms, defamation is taking away a reputation to which a person is entitled. There are two types of defamation. These are; slander (defamation in the temporary form) and libel (defamation in the permanent form)

Reputation is precious to those who have a public life, money or both. To say something about someone in the public eye that you know to be untrue would be said with malice. If it threatens that persons reputation then you have defamed them and therefore committed a libel.

However, most mere abuse has a certain degree of legal safety. "You smell" for example. Most defamatory is about a persons qualifications. A doctors professional reputation is absolutely vital for them to carry on in their profession. You wouldn't seek out a doctor to help your ailments if they've been accused of raping, poisoning or misdiagnosing patients... would you?

One famous case where this happened was, Rahamin vs. Channel 4/ITN
In July 1998 channel 4 broadcast a major news report on the 7o’clock news that made allegations against locum consultant Joseph Rahamin that he claimed were not only untrue but also defamatory as they damaged his personal AND professional reputations. The accusations made were that:

  • Mr. Rahamim was probably responsible for the death or serious injury of many of his patients including two who had died during their operations
  • Mr Rahamim was not competent to practice as a consultant thoracic surgeon and was seriously under qualified and inadequately trained.
  • That he had fraudulently obtained his post as a Consultant by misrepresenting his qualifications and employment history.
  • That he had dishonestly sent out letters to local GP’s in which he had falsely described himself as an FRCS
  • That he had dishonestly concealed from his employers the fact that as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident he was unable to operate safely and
  • That by reason of these matters the GMC ought to have Mr. Rahamim struck off.
Publication + defamation + identification = Libel

The only libel defences are as follows;

Justification - If it is true and you can prove it in court
Fair comment - An honest held opinion which is based upon facts or privileged material within the public interest.
Absolute Privilege - Court reporting
Qualified Privilege - Anything said by the police or pressers
Bane + Antidote - when the defamation is removed or cancelled out by the rest of the context

Cartoons are totally exempt from libel, this is why you can often find cartoons in the first few pages of The Sun newspaper that poke fun at celebrities or politicians who have been in the public eye during the week.

If a libel is present without any of these defences then steps should be taken to apologise in a later edition of the publication.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3065451/Marlon-King-An-apology.html

Here is a recent example of arguably the biggest tabloid newspaper in Britain apologising for defaming imprisoned footballer, Marlon King.

Reynolds defence

Named after a defence raised in the late 1990s by Times Newspapers after the Sunday Times published an article about the former Irish prime minister, Albert Reynolds. Mr Reynolds sued, arguing the allegations in the article were not true and were defamatory. The newspaper argued that the allegations it published were serious and that it had a duty to publish them. They were, it argued, made in the public interest and after they'd exercised all reasonable care in checking. Even if the allegations were not true, they argued they should have been able to report them and be legally protected by 'qualified privilege'. - Kevin Marsh BBC News


Material must be in the public interest... a product of responsible journalism.

WINOL week two!

Apologies for this late blog entry... I've been dying of chest and throat infections. Phlegm and snot flying everywhere! Not pretty.

Anywho... week two. The news meeting on the monday showed a bit more promise than the first week with our top story affecting international students, a high profile court case and even a story about the Queen. Unfortunately things didn't go quite to plan as the week progressed. Andy fell ill on Tuesday forcing us to postpone the court case story, we had new information emerge changing the context of Jacks international students story and Aimee struggled getting interviews on her trip to Southampton to film the Queens naming of the Queen Elizabeth ship so we had to make it into a NIB (News In Brief).

Further to this. In production the tricaster blew up meaning WINOL went backwards in technical progression and we had to upload the bulletin to Youtube instead. This takes longer so we aimed to film the bulletin at 2pm by bringing all the VT deadlines forward but the Macs in TAB9 have become so slow since we came back after summer that they crash every two minutes so of course these new early deadlines were impossible to be met! We ended up filming just before 3pm and somehow managed to get the bulletin out at 5pm as planned.

Scripting was much better, largely the story links submitted. This was helped by the presence of guest editor Graham Bell.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

WINOL IS BACK! Week one....

It's Wednesday, it's 2pm and it's a WINOL week which could only mean one thing. Absolute mayhem in the news room. As news editor I have taken on a role which has enforced me to drop my niceties and become less passive in my mannerisms.

The Monday morning news meeting was okay, but I've a long way to go before I will feel like I can say I've managed to bring the group together as a successful unit. The second years who have produced a package have done a great job for a first attempt. Certainly miles ahead of what I could have achieved this time last year. There is a slight disrespect of deadlines though and that is something I will be pushing on next week.

As far as the bulletin goes I am very excited as our political editor, Joey managed to become Winchester Mp, Steve Brine's plus one for the Conservative conference in Birmingham. This is leading the bulletin today and we have a story about a Lib Dem by election to follow by Stu. As Joey and Stu are third year reporters I knew I wouldn't have many technical issues with their VT's and so left them at their own devices.

The other stories being reported today are; a student finance story by Julie Cordier, a story investigating a winchester area dubbed 'stabby alley' by Andrew Giddings and... some teams played sports.

I am very anxious to see how the bulletin is going to go, considering for many of the reporters this is their first shot but from what I've seen they're doing ok and if worst comes to worst this is only scheduled as a dummy week so we can draw a line under it and move on.

Tune into www.winol.co.uk after 4pm to see how we did.

Kisses x

Saturday 28 August 2010

Earlier I was walking home from the railway station and just crossing the busy road by the roundabout just near the airport, but I was distracted on the phone and whilst crossing came within inches of being run over. I saw that flash of headbeam from the car and for a second as I sprinted across the road my mind was clear. As I continued to walk down the road an ambulance came screeching up the opposite way and I got this odd feeling that WHAT IF... I actually HAD of been hit and that ambulance was for me? But I was unaware of it in some other parallel world and so carried on with my journey home?

What if I'm dead?

Somebody please help me confirm my existence.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

The Forgotten Generation

I apoloise in advance but the following is a tail end thought following the recent general elections...

Cast your mind back to when you were 18. Where did YOUR priorities lie? Were they in choosing the right political party to vote for to better your country? Did they lie in; global warming, NHS matters or even international affairs? Or were you one of the hundreds of thousands of 18 year olds (like me) who was absolutely clueless on politics, worried more about where your next lambrini and kebab was coming from or whether you could afford that pair of shoes this month... BUT admitted if desired to go into the polling station and select a party with a a blind eye or whichever name tickled your pickle.

I met a 17 year old girl recently who didn't know who the Prime Minister was. She actually did not know who ran the country. At first I was shocked but given a few moments to think I thought, actually, politicians don't really communicate very well with the younger generation or explain their policies and what they're about in any sort of colloquial language that could be understood by every walk of life. If you watch the news, David Cameron as well as the other party leaders are all guilty of using jargon terms that only middle class, well educated people generally understand. This means a majority of young people are choosing to throw their vote away or choose at random. Perhaps if they spent a little time reaching out to these youths then they might adopt some sort of interest in the economic state of the country.

Perhaps the candidates should consider this in the next general election...

Monday 21 June 2010

Thursday 17 June 2010

I write this from Heathrow Airport as I wait for my next coach to take me home to Southampton. I've been in Glasgow all week visiting family, although my initial reason for coming up this time was to see Snow Patrol at Bellehouston park. I've had the most interesting week travelling around Glasgow alone and talking to complete strangers, my mum says I could talk the back legs off a donkey but I argue that being a Journalist means this is a good quality! The show on Saturday was breath taking and the rest of the week, although slightly more down-to-earth did not disappoint. When I visit I always like to spread my time evenly. I stay at my grandads, and although he's a lovely man, he doesn't keep very well anymore so through the day I took the chance to go and visit every aunty, uncle and cousin.

I spent one of my days with my two cousins and they're seven children and rekindled my childhood just for a day. I raced the kids to the ice cream van, played football in the local field, took the dog for a walk and returned back to my cousins house to watch Scooby Doo. There is something really satisfying about breaking away from everyday 'adult' life and getting in touch with your inner infant. My cousins childrens have wonderful characters and lifted my spirits so much. I return home with many pictures and scribbles they've conjured up for me that will take pride of place on my wall of fame in my bedroom!

I spent another one of the days entirely with two of my aunties learning all about the background of my family and feeling quite proud to belong to the Reid family tree... although the night ended with one of my aunties a little worse for wear on Tennants lager telling me how beautiful I was!

Now on my journey home I was lucky enough to meet the most interesting 77 year old lady named Carmen. Spanish native but married to a middle class english man when she was 25... (because she wanted to learn better english!) I spent the home hour and a half coach journey from Stansted to Heathrow chatting away as if she was a lady I'd known all my life. I now know alot about her personal and family life and she knows quite intimate details of mine. We laughed as she taught me how to roll my R's and laughed even more when I couldn't quite do it, although she told me to keep at it as she could never say the word "wasp" when she moved to England! I found myself opening up about things I don't talk to anyone about and she had a very modern outlook on life, "I can't stand these old people who critisise the young for being young, they forget that was them once." She explained that she understands how things are very different in todays society to when she grew up and prefers to offer guidance to people who have lost track rather than judge them.

Carmen is one of those people in life that you cross, they touch your life and then they're gone...

Saturday 29 May 2010

John Maynard Keynes and The Capitalist System

John Maynard Keynes the economist, can be described as both the destroyer and the hero of capitalism for different reasons. The Marxists hailed him as the destroyer of capitalism because of his theory to reject the laissez-faire economic structure that had dominated the western world up until this point. Keynes said that in order to get the economy moving we needed to employ people to do meaningless, pointless, domenial jobs such as digging holes and filling them up again. By doing this, we'd be putting money in peoples pockets which they in turn would spend and put back into the economy. There was of course great criticism of this theory. The main problem being that while giving people work would indeed provide funds for people, to maintain a profit  the workers would need to work for less money that the cost of what they were making otherwise there was a risk of a market crash. The theory was seen as unsustainable.

Keynes however had another solution... the Government could print more money to provide benefits for the people who needed them. However, this caused a massive inflation and caused the value of money to go down. Keynes believed that money was only as valuable as it's interest rate. To put it simply, if there is more money to go around then the price of living goes up. That 50p loaf of bread will become 60p. This solution can be applied to modern day where Gordon Brown printed more money at the height of the recession. David Cameron is sort of anti-Keynes in the way he doesn't believe that printing more money will boost the economy and so he is now trying to take money out of the economy by cutting government spending.

Keynes can be seen as the hero of capitalism as his plan to get the economy working is still being used today.

Friday 28 May 2010

Lets Just Have One Pint... (The Drunken Ramblings Of Two Girls On A Mission For Greatness)


Well!! As you lovely creatures of the earth know (or should if you did your HCJ reading and indeed you should have as we had an exam today...) alot of the NEW JOURNALISM material was written under the influence of drugs, i.e. LSD and as me and my lover Gabs Louvel have just stumbled home from some post work pints into a bottle of Vodka I thought now would be as good a time as ever to get my thoughts out into the open.

I would like to start with...

Yesterday my dear friend Paul Carrett said something to me that blew my mind. "My perfect way to die would be from a meteor that crashed into the earth and wiped out EVERYBODY because then I wouldn't be missing out on anything." I myself think about dying all the time... because death is the ultimate goal of life. It's what each and every one of us is heading towards like a black abyss and nobody can avoid it. NOBODY (make the most of every minute and endevour to give your life meaning!) And although I've often thought about the people I will leave behind when I die... I've never really thought about WHAT IF... everybody died? Brian Thornton always tells us to step away from the work 'tragedy' because if one person dying is a tragedy then what is 10,000 people dying? Well if the whole world died out, that would not be a tragedy and do you know why? Because there would be nobody left over to grieve or to label it a tragedy. Grieving was not invented for the deceased. Being sad about somebodies death doesn't benefit the dead person in any way. Grieving is a purely selfish act. We all die. It's a fact of life so... whatever! Don't beat yourself up over an act of nature that has been happening since the first living cell.

Gabi wants a word...

"Okay, so my names Gabs, I'm not a student, and I basically never have been, but here we go, I'll give it a go anyway...
So me and Kayleigh were chatting today about this thing she has been learning about called existentialism, and then about death and such things, and pain, and meanings of life. All of that charming walakazam stuff.
Thing is way I see it, if I'ma gonna post an opionion out there...is that the meaning of life... well that's never going to be known, guess everyones minds works in too many different ways.

This is one of my biggest flaws, as people who don't know me, I'll fill you in, I like to look at every view point, and the worst bit... I can see everyone's understanding to how they got to that point of view and how they see things in that way, so how can I have an actual opinion myself you may ask?! Well, it doesn't matter.

That is it. You can have an opinion. You can argue it. You can let it go. You can learn from it. You can strengthen it. You can act like you agree with someone elses.

But at the end of the day, what ever your saying for those 5, 10 minute verbal struggles... they'll be forgotten by tomorrow, and whatever is happening in your life.

So what do you do?! You wake up in the morning and you live your life. No regrets, no thinking, just do it, you'll never  be more alive than you are right now. You'll never be younger, more beautiful and more opinionated. So even if you don't know what to do, then thats brilliance in itself because how many people get to wake up and CHOOSE if they're going to "mong out" or "make a difference"

Remember the biggest difference you'll ever make in life is making someone that little be happier, that little more self assured, that little more confident that their life means something. Even though the happiest thing they'll ever learn, and perhaps are unable to ever understand is that happiness will never be theres."

Kayleigh returns...

Just one more thing. "Love." a feeling, or just a word? At the age of 21 I certainly don't feel like I have told somebody I'm in love with them and meant it. I care about some people more than others but that is all. Do feelings even exist? You can't hold a feeling, you can't touch a feeling so how can we determine whether it is there? I tell people I love them on a daily basis because I appreciate certain characteristics about them but society has built up the word 'love' to hold some sort of fairy tail meaning and I just havent experienced that!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm even here. How can you guarantee that everything you know isn't the result of a bigger forces imagination?

<3

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Sunday 23 May 2010

General Election Coverage – Gonzo Journalism

I arrived at the newsroom at 10am. The atmosphere was tense. People were already getting stuck into their individual roles that would keep them busy for the next 20 hours. It felt like a normal day apart from the BBC News Channel on the projector screen being watched vigilantly for any updates on the big election race. Opinion and exit poll results were coming in all day filling the news team with excitement, dread, nerves and fear all in one. It was going to be a long day.

By 1pm the smell of Red Bull was rife. What a mistake. Don't these people know that drinking caffeine too early gives you a massive come down when you need to be most alert? I, myself decided on an early night with a hot chocolate to mentally prepare for the reporting marathon but I suspected others had refused to let a simple all nighter at University stop them from partying the night before.

As with any big project, things didn't run perfectly in the run up to broadcast. Everyone was pretty excited at the prospect of having outside broadcasts from across the country but it wasn't until very late in the afternoon that the Skype connection was even confirmed with many of the contacts. Several of these posed problems but nothing too major! The initiative within the outside broadcasts (OB's) was to be able to send reporters to the different constituencies so we wouldn't have to rely on other news channel sources. This made the whole experience feel even more real. We were all there and we were making the news happen. An experience each and every one of us would take away with us and utilize in our future careers in Journalism.

Towards late afternoon, time began to evaporate. The regular newsroom routine had been abolished and so it was necessary to avoid the clock at all costs if I was to keep my head about me. Otherwise I risked losing motivation. I was becoming swamped with pressure from the election editor, Chris Horrie, to keep in contact with the world and his mother, so I was forced to find a way to juggle all this correspondance and also find time to revise every leader of every party in every constituency - I wanted to be properly prepared for my on camera role that would come later on.

With 10pm fast approaching like a cross country train, the pressure on everybody was immense. Rehearsals had been scheduled to start at 7.30pm but with some bodies missing and some slight technical issues there wasn't a huge amount of time to devote to run throughs.

I was introduced to Graham Bell, the anchor for the first 2 hour stint who would be throwing over to me and my screen for news from the different counts. He was a charming, confident guy who showed no sign of nerves. He had graduated from this very course 2 years previous and moved on to the likes of Sky... he had bigger fish to fry now and it was clear this was just something to do for him.

The gallery was not an inviting place during the 8 hour broadcast. I avoided it like the plague... I was not about to subject myself to any frustrated outbursts from overworked directors and stressed out vision mixers. That was not my game for the day. I put on a smile and made my way down to my post in the corner of the studio. While I wasn't on air I was making calls to the OB reporters to find out what was going on so I could decide which person to line up for when Graham was ready to throw over to me. This allowed me to establish an idea of what questions I could ask them.

The first 2 hours went by like a dream. The night was still a massive novelty for everybody involved and the reality that we wouldn't be walking out until 6am had not sunk in yet. Graham took to it like a duck to water, even improvising when the script didn't seem relevant at the time. I assume sources such as Google and Twitter were his Bibles as he seemed to churn out news about the three running candidates as it happened like a reporting machine. I had a few pre-broadcast nerves but unlike a WINOL bulletin, this was not going to be all over in 10 minutes so I decided to try and address the OB reporters as I would normally. I didn't want to look all stiff and formal.

Between midnight and 2am Lucy took over my role in a sort of tagteam effort. Five minutes was all we had to get the microphone and earpiece off off me and onto Lucy and for me to get acquainted with the autocue... which would be my new companion for the following 2 hours. And while the studio was filled with a guilt trip attempting 'adopt an Orangutan' advert I soon found a scripting issue. The autocue contained material that we couldn't use in this part of the night. A few strops later and Rob was enticed to come and help me out.

Autocue issues aside, things continued to run smoothly. Claire was given the difficult job of following on from Grahams more than impressive performance, but she stepped up to the mark and delivered a faultless performance. The studio erupted in giggles when Claire recovered from a vision mistake with a Orangutan gag. Everyone was still in very high spirits.

The final 2 hours were not the final 2 at all. We had expected results for Winchester in shortly after 4am but as luck would not have it, they came in at 5.30am. Everything that happened after 4am was a daze. I had been given a sudden burst of energy one hour earlier and was on a bit of a come down by this point. Adrenaline was running low and the finish mark was on my mind. I spent the last 2 hours making calls to my reporters to make sure they were safe and I found myself returning to the studio for a final stint in OB presenting. I don't remember if it went well.

Coffee.

The end was nigh and everybody had put in a sterling effort to keep this ball rolling. Everybody gathered in the studio on tenterhooks waiting for news from Stu. He was about to reveal the new leader for Winchester. A few moments silence and the words "It's Brine!" became audible. Stu was the man of the hour, he'd taken the results before anybody. Winchester was now a Conservative city. A few moments as we faded to black and then a round of applause. Tiredness always makes me emotional and the clapping brought it all home. We'd done it.

Friday 7 May 2010

LIVE ELECTION COVERAGE!

It's approaching 3am and the Winchester News Online team are still working very hard bringing live election coverage to the public, as we will be until the very last results come out... whenever that may be. If you happen to stumble across this blog in the next couple of hours then you should check it out.

www.winol.co.uk

<3

Friday 16 April 2010

The First Election Debate - A Review

So last night, political history was made. For the first time all three of the main party leaders were brought together for an election debate. The audience put questions to Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Gordon Brown as they fought it out to win the votes of the public. Here is a rundown of the three opening statements.

LABOUR

Gordon Brown promises to protect our police, NHS and schools. He also claimed that this is the defining year in reaching a strong economy. "Get the decisions right now and we can have secure jobs, we can have standards of living rising and we can have everybody better off. Get the decisions WRONG now and we could have a double dip recession."

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

"I believe the way things are is not the way things have to be..." Clegg explained that we don't have to vote on 'old politics' and that our only choices are not between two old parties who have been running the country for years. "I think we have a fantastic oppertunity to do things differently for once, and if we do things differently we can create the fair society, the fair country we all want". Clegg went on to explain he believed in a fair tax system, better schools and an economy "no longer held hostage by greedy bankers." Clegg stated that the changes he would propose were all ones he believed were possible

CONSERVATIVES

David Cameron began his opening speech with an apology to the public over the expenses saga. He recognised that we have been let down by parliament and explained that he hoped the debate would restore some of the trust we as a society have lost in the government. He claimed that Britain can do much better. "We can deal with our debts, we can get our economy growing and avoid this jobs tax and we can build a bigger society but we can ONLY do this if we recognise we need to join together, we need to come together, we need to recognise we're all in this together." Cameron went on to recognise that Labour has done alot of good things for this country over the last 13 years but added that we need change.

ISSUES RAISED -

Immigration
Brown declared he would introduce a points system in which no unskilled worker from outside the EU can come to Britian now. Cameron acknowledged that the rate of immigration is too high and said he would like to bring it down to the tens of thousands instead of the hundreds of thousands that we have had over the last decade. He said that he would like to put in a limit on immigration and make changes so people couldn't all come over to the UK at once. But he gave no real plan of how he intended to do this. Clegg explained he wanted to restore exit controls and also wanted to only send immigrants to places where they were needed to work.

I myself like the ideas that Cameron put forward and appreciate that he recognises immigration has become out of control but as he gave no explanation of how he would make the changes I find myself siding with Clegg on this question. There is a huge pressure on housing in this country and I believe he has the right ideas to change that. I also like the idea Brown put forward about introducing a points system and recognise this to be somewhat like the ways of the Australian government but as Cameron pointed out, after 13 years of a Labour government he has only begun to get serious on this topic so whether his ideas are plausible or not is another question. The other thing I liked is while Cameron proposed we have a 'cap' on imigration Clegg pointed out that there is good immigration and Bad immigration and having a cap may prevent vitally needed doctors and people of other important occupations joining us. Cameron also did point out that we need to reform welfare as there are many of people in this country who could work but don't work drawing even more people into the country to fill the voids which I think is a very fair point.

Law and Order
Clegg and Cameron both agreed that we need more Police on our streets and Cameron claimed he thought that jail sentences are just too short to reform the characters of offenders, with many coming out of prison and reoffending. Cameron also said that he felt alot of crime was commited by drug addicts and that the government needs to act faster in getting addicts off the streets and into treatment. Clegg proposed that we need to to stop the young offenders of today becoming the hardened criminals of tomorrow and Brown suggested we need to do three things to bring crime down. Those being; effective policing on the streets, parents needing to accept responsibilty for their children and the right to take out an injunction against the police if you feel they have not done you justice. Brown also suggested we need to get young people doing useful activities such as sports and dancing and suggested we need more youth clubs to keep the kids out of trouble.

Clegg made a very good point to Cameron and Brown and this is, while his own Manifesto gave figures of what needs to be spent and how he would do it to boost the policing system, neither the Labour nor Conservative manifestos could offer this which gives the impression that they are not as serious on crime fighting as Clegg. However, Brown has been Prime Minister for a couple of years now and crime has reduced while he has been in power. I believe actions speak louder than words and so with this in mind I think Brown holds the key to a safer Britain.

Education
Brown said he wants teachers with better qualifications and education to continue until the age of 18. He also suggested that if a school is underachieving it should be taken over by a local federation or academy to bring it to standard. Gordon Brown believes our education system should be of the highest standards and thinks we can achieve this if we vote Labour as he promises to continue to put alot of money into it.
Cameron said he wants to cut waste and put more money into the teaching rather than the furnishings. He said our education system has become bureaucratic and needs to be about opening the minds of young people and not just grades and exams. He is interested in getting as much money into the schools as possible rather than wasting it at Whitehall. He said we need to reintroduce good discipline in our schools.
Nick Clegg said he would like to introduce an education freedom act to ban the government from controlling what goes on in the classroom. He said he wants to provide schools with additional resources so they can cut class sizes to concentrate on the pupils and encourage creativity. Also after school classes for pupils struggling to keep up so that classes can move on together.

During this topic it became quite a heated argument between Brown and Cameron discussing figures and pounds. Of course our education system needs to be of higher standards but with little explanation of how he planned to achieve this, I feel Brown came out worst on this topic. I liked that Cameron brought up the fact that schools spend alot of money on furnishings and useless novelties that could be saved to boost the education but I as he wasn't dragged into any form of arguing and came out with some (I think) brilliant ideas that are definitely possible I think Nick Clegg put the other two candidates to shame. Cutting class sizes is such a simple idea but it is simply brilliant! I'm not sure the idea of an education freedom act would happen but it is something that we could use.

To conclude -
The debate did go on to discuss the armed forces and the health care system but I won't go on in this way as you all saw it and I'm sure you've all made your own opinion on who you are going to vote for by now! What I will say is that Nick Clegg brought up a great point and that is that, billions of pounds are being spent on nuclear war weapons created to wipe out full countries when there isn't enough money going into the front line. Clegg suggested that we have moved on from the days of the Cold War and spending so much money on weapons of mass destruction is unjustified in this day and age. I agree with this to a certain extent. However I can appreciate the reasoning behind this funding is to protect and defend our country.

Cameron personally thanked a lady in the audience for her service to the NHS as he himself had spent alot of time in NHS hospitals and had alot of admiration for doctors and nurses. I thought this was a nice touch and displayed his genuine side... however earlier in the debate he said he met a 40 year old man who had served in the navy for 30 years. This is either a figure mistake on his part or he was just making stuff up as he went along. I hope it's not the latter! If it is then I couldn't take anything this man says seriously.

Brown pointed out that back in 1997 there was a 2 year waiting list for an operation whereas now patients wait a maximum of 18 weeks. This is the sort of visible change Labour has made that I think needs to continue. He promises to continue to support the NHS so that these short waiting lists can be kept short and cancer patients can be diagnosed within 2 weeks.

In his closing statement Clegg stressed that we don't need to choose between two parties who "have been playing pass the parcel with our government for 65 years now". He said he believed they had gone on and on making and breaking the same promises and that now is a time for change.

Gordon Brown took a slightly more 'hip' approach to his closing statement comparing the election to Britains Got Talent and X Factor which actually made me laugh out loud. I realise he is just trying to reach out to a younger generation of voters but I think he went about it in a slightly cheap way. However he closed to say we need to secure the recovery of the economy this year and he has done alot to help get us out of the recession so I truly believe he could achieve this.

Cameron said we must choose hope over fear and that the idea we need to continue to waste money to boost the economy was wrong. He also said that for real change to happen we need a government with values and an understanding that we need to come together as a society for this change to take place. In my opinion Camerons closing statement was rather 'wishy washy' and a bit too idealistic rather than realistic. He has the ideas but no real plan of how he wants to put them into action!

So who do I vote for?

Well incase it hasn't become clear during this essay of a review I have now found myself leaning towards Liberal Democrats. The thing that has stopped me considering voting this way before is that as Clegg himself said, we are lead to believe that it is a choice between two old parties but if you keep that attitude then you are not helping to make change. Labour have been leading the country for 13 years now and yes, they have done us proud in alot of ways but they've also made many mistakes. Voting Conservative is just not an option for me. I was rather anti-conservative before the debate as I myself am from a working class background and know their manifesto doesn't do people from poor backgrounds much justice. The debate just confirmed my choice. Cameron did not serve his party well last night. He had all these wonderful ideas and was waiting to knock down Brown at every hurdle but his ideas and policies had little or no substance to them. I'm hoping for a change that will benefit every walk of life.

Time will tell...

Friday 2 April 2010

Another Day Another Misused Substance...

Rather late I know but I am talking about Methedrone or "Meow Meow" as I've also heard it referred to...

I first came into contact with Mephedrone back in October when I saw a friend of a friend sniffing it off a counter before a night out. When I questioned what it was, they simply replied "oh... it's mephedrone, don't worry it's not illegal." I was pretty clueless so left him to it! It's only in recent months that I've discovered the true impact that this new drug is having.

It has become increasingly popular with the young working class as it's such a cheap high and with no legal restrictions outlined yet users know they can't be prosecuted for possesion. Sounds like a great idea right? Well actually no! Here are the facts...

Mephedrone is actually a form of plant fertiliser, easily purchasable over the internet until recently.

The drug falls into the "stimulant" category and the effects are said to be similar to that of ecstasy.

It has been around for a couple of years but the media only kicked up a storm recently once two teenagers were reported to have died in Scunthorpe after taking the substance

It is thought that the emergence of mephedrone is related to the decreasing purity of ecstasy and cocaine on sale in the UK

Side effects include; headaches, poor concentration, bad short term memory, increase in heart rate/heart palpitations, depression and nausea.

Very little is known of the long term effects as it has come about in the last year or two.

On March 29, Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced that mephedrone and other synthetic "legal highs" would be illegal "within weeks".

So with so little known about 'Meow Meow', why are young clubbers so keen to risk their health and maybe even lives on consuming this plant fertiliser! And on that note why does anybody do anything? For the high... yeah I get that but when did life become so dire that a significant majority of people can't get through a night out without taking something to give them a boost? What is wrong with doing the good old fashioned thing of getting wankered on booze at the weekend? At least you know where you stand. Hangover + cup of tea and toast = Standard Sunday morning!

Maybe it's the state of our economy causing depression making these people reach out to drugs for a form of escapism? Or maybe it's just curiousity? But as the old saying goes... curiosity killed the cat.

Well, I am digressing...

I wonder what the next 'legal high' will be once MCAP has been illegalised... maybe drain cleaner?

Thursday 25 March 2010

New Journalism

It's the last day of term and while everybodies minds were focussed on anything but uni today, we still had some unfinished HCJ business to attend to. Today we covered New Journalism. Now the main point to be made about the rise of New Journalism is that it was a new way to tell the story. There was a shift in the 1960's/70's from Digetic (telling the story) to Mimetic (showing the story). Mimetic is a way of illustrating a story - "painting with words" or "colour writing" Two of the main influences of New Journalism were Hunter S Thompson (self confessed user of LSD) and Tom Wolfe (accidental user of LSD... 'something in the water'). It's generally thought that the usage of this mind altering substance was key in the shift to New Journalism! Everybody was rebelling against power and it was an anti consumerism and anti Vietnam war era. The Beatles were at large and they too, were off their heads on drugs (Lucy In The Sky Of Diamonds and I believe Strawberry Fields were written about the effects of a trip on LSD). A new left wing emerged and it became 'cool' to be different - alternative society.

Officially interesting things are boring and officially boring things are interesting. Reality is just another type of fiction which is why new journalism was written in a story like manner, often describing minor details within a setting rather than the vital, relevant aspects.

"Everything is strange" idea adopted from existentialism.

Friday 12 March 2010

Wilheim Reich And The Orgasm

I've lost my notes from the lecture and can't locate them on the portal at the moment so I will write a few bulletpoints to comment on later!

Wilheim Reich

Avid follower of Freud and his ideas on sexual repression

Sexual radical fixing upon the orgasm in particular

Orgone energy

Repression is visible in the body

Reich wrote that the ability to lose ourselves in the sexual act was to find the ultimate measure of wellbeing.

Three layers of the human mind

Existentialism

Sometimes in life, you run out of excuses. It's 5am and I'm wide awake with nothing else to do other than catch up on my HCJ blogging so I shall start with Existentialism.

What is the meaning of life?

Well... if you are an existentialist then the answer will lie in your own hands as they believe that nobody could give your life meaning apart from you. God is dead and you must find meaning in a world without him. It's completely down to the individual to give their own life some sort of meaning and make it stand for something. Existentialists believe that there are people who live their life actively and make stuff happen and those who live it passively... doing nothing and waiting for good things to happen TO them. Personal responsibility and discipline is a must, existentialism is the journey searching for true self.

I recently read 'The Outsider' by Albert Camus in which the main character is an existentialist. The book begins along the lines of, "Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday. I don't remember." Which just shows he doesn't care. Everybody dies so why be upset about it? Later in the book he kills a black man for no reason at all. Just something to do. Existentialists do not think about their actions... they just do. Nobody wants to prosecute him and he is told if he just says he wasn't in his right mind after his mothers death and shows remorse then he will get off but he really doesn't care and it is the lack of emotions that he is done for! The language used in this book is very simple. Very short sentences and no complexities which reflects the mood of Meursault. Can't be bothered. Lazy actions contrasting to his active mind.

Among the philosophers who were existentialists included our friend, Fredrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche particularly impacted existentialism as he was considered the father of 'Nihilism' which is the idea that there is no ultimate meaning to human existence. If you believe this then you really have no other choice than to give life meaning yourself. Nietzsche was also anti-religious and therefore did not believe in reincarnation. He was convinced that you only live once and so you must be aggressive in living your short life and not sit back and watch it go by.


Existentialism ideas are still around today - you can see it used in Nike's advertising, "Just Do It".

The main philosopher who wrote of existentialism was Jean-Paul Satre (and here is a random fact about him. In 1964 he was awarded the nobel prize in literature... but refused the prize). He said that conformity is death. He said you should not conform to society and for this reason they admire people who are different and live their life with passion - you should live your life your way without being influenced by any person, group or in particular religion.

I've run out of tea so I shall end here and leave you with this useful link on existential jazz;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQi0tgB8GtA

Thursday 11 March 2010

Tuesday 2 March 2010

MORE WINOL!

Things are looking up! We seem to be getting better each week, yes there's the minor hiccup here and there but nothing majorly soul distressing has happened so everybody is happy. My role as output editor was a struggle for the first week as I wasn't used to the software or had anybody available to devote an hour or two to me to train me. I did improve (some may say marginally) but I feel I got there in the end. Chanin has mixed us all up again for this week which I am pleased about as I don't think there was anything more for me to gain from copying links people had written for me and putting them in an order Tomek had asked!

This week, well tomorrow, I will be operating camera 2 for the bulletin which is a pretty easy role, the only aspect that is said to be tricky is the handover from news to sport but we managed to spend hours in the studio and gallery doing run-throughs today until everybody was happy which will pay off tomorrow. I even faced my demons and had a cheeky go at presenting while Josh and Rob were in the gallery. I hope to present soon as the presenters to me are like the ambassadors for WINOL, and also I have a few confidence issues to work on. I think a week presenting would see me right!

Another thing I have noticed is that VT's are being handed in before deadline now... well done everybody! It's Tuesday evening and I'm not filled with a feeling of dread about going into the newsroom tomorrow. Hopefully there should be less pressure as everybody is much more prepared. Also the presenters are staying the same as last week so there won't be an element of presenter virgin nerves!

Good Luck everybody!

....if the bulletin goes tits up tomorrow I will be deleting this blogpost of misguided hope!

Thursday 25 February 2010

The Moment...

I'm aware that I am not a grounded person, I float about in my own little bubble with my thoughts and dreams swirling around me and nothing is more important than the moment I am in. I can't forward plan because that's not the person I am. But every so often I am brought back down to earth with a massive crash when I am reminded that life is ultimately about death and every individual life is so insignificant to the universe.

Today I was walking down the road (in my little bubble) when a hearse drove past me. Not very unusual, but as it passed I noticed that in the back next to the coffin sat an elderly man looking very solemn. I assume the deceased was his late wife. The moment really touched me. This man had accompanied his dearest to the very end of her journey. To me, that is true love.

People often obsess about what love really is. I believe that love is the essence of life and death and the only thing that survives when everything else is gone. True love follows you through life and goes with you to the grave.

Time is our biggest enemy, it ticks by so impatiently and with every passing hour our ability to change the past becomes more difficult. What I am trying to say is, make the most of the moment because life IS short and nobody wants to wake up 85 years old and wonder what might have been if...

Saturday 20 February 2010

Friedrich Nietzsche


A wise man once said, "After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands."


That man was Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher. Nietzsche had many idea's floating around in his oversized moustache head but unfortunately his work was widely unread until his death from mental health issues in 1900. It's thought that after his death his written word suffered some distortion by his sister and literary estate, Elisabeth and became a set of ideas which supported Hitler and Nazism... whether this is derived from his obvious hate of religion I don't know. There was always an argument surrounding whether he was a Nazi or not. Nietzsche was NOT a nazi, the nazi movement happened after he died but he was into anti-semitism but he didn't hate Jews in particular. He hated all religions equally. "God is dead." was a famous quote of his


Through out his 1885 philisophical novel, 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', Nietzsche talks about the overman which is essentially the superman theory. He believed that humanity was something that must be overcome and that the world consisted of Übermensch people such as Leonardo Davinci, Beethoven and Shakespeare. He said that 'normal' people could become superpeople by breaking away from conventions. It could be argued that Nietzsche was a role model for gay rights as he believed you don't need to worry that being gay is wrong because that is a collectivist idea, just as all religions are too.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

WINOL 10/02/10

Today's broadcast... what an absolute shambles. Nobody is to blame, which is why I am so flared up by overhearing people take the first opportunity to shirk the blame onto the next mug. It's our FIRST live broadcast with this reduced group so nobody was expecting any miracles. The problem was that nobody really knew what was expected of them. Roles were not explained in full to the people who really needed to know.

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for my role in the downfall of WINOL! I was told I was the script writer and so I was shown a sort of template of how to do it and just did as I was told... bad idea. I should have shunned the help and taken full responsibility for the role. A little research would have gone a long way today. Next week will be very different as I plan to take a more active role, and less bullshit. My role was not explained to me properly and so I was running around running errands totally irrelevant to my role. I think there was an "at the moment" attitude through-out the newsroom when everyone should have been looking at the bigger picture.

I'm not making excuses but my production group had held a meeting without me and so I received the 'left over' job that nobody wanted, that happened to be a vital one! If I had been there I would not have opted for this role but now I have it I will endeavor to improve and excel. To be fair I didn't want to be a news reporter last semester but once I got my head around it I was alright so I am trying to see the positives in that this is all relevant experience.

I noticed that in the news room, as predicted, nobody was willing to take a role of authority which made for a more laid back approach which really, REALLY did not do the bulletin any justice. I hope that people will stop worrying about what others think and do/say what needs to be to get the job done.

Rant over... now I'm off to slit my wrists!

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Back To The Grindstone, That Is Winol...

Yesterday saw the beginning of the second semester for me and my Journo chums and as we all try and tackle our brand new roles it's the early mornings that seem to be the killer. I, myself entered the newsroom yesterday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed... probably something to do with the 9pm bedtime the night before!! Best sleep, EVER! Second morning back, I'm not going to lie... getting out of bed was a struggle! The smell of tea and coffee is wafting through the air as people try and shock themselves awake with copious amounts of caffeine.

SO! This semester I have moved from the newsteam onto the production team and it's a good place to be. Chanin, the production editor has assigned me to write the scripts for the Wednesday bulletin. This means I am trying to get my head around a new programme, ENPS. I am a bit worried that if I word something the wrong way, the VJ's who worked on the story might be disappointed with me but I am going to do my best to do everyone justice... although the temptation to fill the autocue with absolute gobble-de-gook to see the presenter, my friend, Glenn Hutt panic is SO great! I wouldn't though!

Tom Otrebski has taken over from James Kenyon as News Editor and is doing a mighty fine job so far! He has a harder job than James had in my opinion as James did not know us. He was a year above, he had not made friendships and bonds with us but Tom is a friend to many of us so I think he will struggle in being authoritive initially. I know I would! But Tom has made a vow to make the news outweigh the sports section of the bulletin and I believe we can achive this goal this semester.

Being the first live bulletin of the semester tomorrow I think emotions will be running high as everybody tries to get the show on the road. It seems that there is a bit of a lack of news this week as some people were unclear whether we would run a bulletin but hopefully it will be a success.

Tune in at 5pm tomorrow to find out how we did...

www.winol.co.uk

Saturday 6 February 2010

Something HAS to change...

Today I travelled to London for an audition to be a contestant on a gameshow. Now entering for this was so out of character as it was. I am not what I would call an 'extrovert' and I'm definitely not one to 'put myself out there' but I had come across this website called beonscreen.com and they were scouting for contestants with "brain and brawn" and although I possess neither of these traits I suddenly decided to go for it. I sent my application off and a few days later had a call inviting me to come and audition... so today at 3pm there I was.

The audition was a collection of activities to bring out our personalities and test our fitness... yes there was a bleep test and no I do NOT want to talk about it :/

So we got round to doing some screen tests and that was when it hit me. I. am. BORING. Among my fellow auditionees were; a stand up comedian, a scuba diver, a man who had recently lost 6 stone in weight, a girl who could raise her leg above her head... and then me. It got to my screen test which went a bit like this....

"Hi, I'm Kayleigh, I'm nearly 21 and I study Journalism in Winchester." (voice of God: What's going on in Winchester Kayleigh?) "Nothing... absolutely nothing happens in Winchester". (What do you do in your spare time) "My degree takes up alot of my time but apart from that I like going out drinking."

I have absolutely NOTHING interesting to say about me! At what point in my life did I decide I wasn't going to do anything for myself... I was just going to become engulfed in stuff going on around me? I can't live like this anymore! What an actual granny I am! I'm making changes starting today. I've bought a brand new diary and I have told myself that there has to be something in it that's new and exciting on a minimum of a monthly basis, so if you're a member/organiser of a tap dancing class, opera rehearsal, base jumping team, or ANYTHING else, keep an eye out because I might just be joining you soon!

Love and hugs :)

Monday 1 February 2010

Thursday 28 January 2010

Coming Soon...

I have shot my first video blog, on Orwellianism today. It is just being edited at the moment but I hope to have it up here by Monday afternoon/evening. Thanks for waiting :)

Wednesday 27 January 2010

A Little Bit More Freud...

I touched on Freud in an earlier blogpost but I would like to talk about a different topic, okay it's still about sex but find me something Freudian that wasn't loosely related to sex :P

Freud once declared that, "Dreams are a royal highway to the unconcious mind". But what does this mean? Does this mean that, the time I dreamt I had a baby, that on some level in my unconcious mind I do actually want to have a child? Or that time I had a dream that my friend died that I actually want her dead? I really hope not.

The thing is, Freud believed that in every person there was a mental battle going on between their concious and unconcious mind, or their Ego and Id. There is a animal sematic drive in every one of us which Freud said was being supressed by civilisation. For example, if a very attractive woman walked past a young man, in his unconcious mind he may have desires to behave inappropraitely- i.e. rape her! But his concious mind knows that this is unacceptable in society so his Ego would not allow it. Between the two extremes comes a compromise called the super-ego. A person's super-ego will think rationally about a situation before acting. I understand this is alot to take on so I found a video which explains these ideas in a very simple way which you can view here.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Steinbeck, Grapes Of Wrath


Grapes Of Wrath was published in 1939 by John Steinbeck following his experience living with migrants during the great depression. Written as a piece of Journalism, it was soon greatly criticised for the "unreal" picture Steinbeck was apparently painting. The book was banned and burned as people saw it as a book of lies, it was thought to be communist proganda. It is still quite a controversial book and even today there are arguments as to whether the book is indeed acceptable as a form of Journalism.


Although the characters and the events are ficticious, the book was written for effect to give a voice to the voiceless. The characters were architypes and the events were written to reflect reality. Steinbeck had been touched by the plight of the migrants and had therefore wanted to do something about it in the form of a novel. Grapes Of Wrath has been desbribed as a type of campaign Journalism due to it's nature. The soul purpose of the novel was to open the eyes of the ignorant as to the conditions the poor had to endure during these hard times. However, research done showed that conditions were not quite as bad as Steinbeck illustrated but the sheer fact that this research was carried out shows the impact the book made on society.