Revision Notes

1. Media control Germany invades Poland discuss referencing Carey and Arendt .

· THe Germans restricted what could be said by the media, as they were state run.
· The media gave a Hegelian outlook on the war in Europe; the idea that Germans had to eliminate everyone so that they would get closer to God or 'divinity.'
· Carey says that the mob or masses becoming literate leads to them being just about able to write and makes them a political force.
· The intellectuals in the case Hitler and the Reich want to eliminate the mob as they are slowing down society’s progress.
· The masses bring about fascism by being manipulated by people like Goering. The masses are aware who they are voting into power and allow themselves to be manipulated as they are incompetent and need to be directed.
· Carey says the use of art and literature being too difficult for the mob to understand keeps them at bay but if they can write they have the ability to overthrow the hierarchy. Nietzsche wants to keep the masses controlled and illiterate so they have no power or political influence.
· The media In Germany and USSR would never report any losses of battles but often tell the complete opposite to boost morale. Furthermore this kept the mob in check and ensured that even their thoughts about things were controlled by the state; independent thinking was not allowed. On the other hand countries like Great Britain had free media that in some casses lobbied against Churchill resulting in the house of commons voting on the confidence they had in Churchill to lead the war effort.
· Totalitarian Rule is rule through fear. The state terrorise society and control everything through the secret police. No one has individual thought at this is controlled by the media. The very few people who oppose the totalitarian rule are murdered or arrested. Stalin and Hitler controlled society through communist and Nazi Regime; each regime used its principle ideas to excuse their behaviour. Communism was exterminating the class struggle and Nazi’s were trying to lessen the decay of society by eliminating the weak. The masses are all as one and nobody has individual freedom or rights; they are part of a nation state in which everything is ruled by one party that can never be opposed.
· No pluralism- tolerance for other races and religions etc.
. Arendt often asserts that anti-semitism had a lot to do with totalitarian rule in Germany, as it gave a common enemy for the government and the mass to hate on. Arendt says the Jews were secularised as they did not belong to a social class and were in control of finances in Germany for a long time. In the time of depression in 1930's Germany they were an easy target.
. Arendt says that the Jews were stripped of all individuality so were almost willing victims with nothing to fight for. This is similar to the way the masses were influenced giving them no indiviual thought asnd making them think they belonged to the nation under Nazism.

2. How does modern state differ from classical or medieval state according to Arendt. Refer Hobbes, Rosseau, JS Mill, Hegel and Marx.
· The modern state has much more control such as the media being a huge weapon in controlling what people think. Medieval states controlled society’s normally though their monarchy such as in England the ‘ divine right of kings’ meant society believed God had chosen them to rule in a teleological society. Modern Nationalist states submit to one ruler in order to protect the country from other countries.
· Hobbes - Without state ruling everything everyone would being trying to kill each other and take each other’s stuff. It would be carnage without state intervention. We must submit ourselves to the government for protection. State of nature would rule without harsh state intervention.
· Rousseau – More liberal thinks there should be a social contract between public and state and they should have limited power. The state should be the only people that can use force but only a little bit. Says state should listen to the general will of the people and anyone who did not want to be free will be forced to be free.
· JS Mill -believes people should be able to do what they want as long as no one else is harmed in any way. Freedom of speech and didn’t believe in censorship.
· Hegel- Believes that Germany or Prussian state is doing the will of God by killing other countries who were not following the prussian states religious views. This will bring Germans closer to God and is the natural way of the world.
· Locke –. Civil rights to property. People should be free and able to say what they want.
· Marx – Doesn’t believe that God exists; state is a tool of oppression to keep lower classes down. Liberal view in that he thinks state should not have total power. Mass culture attempts to eliminate diversity.

3. Analyse Nietchsze and modern literacy movements in journalism, popular culture and the masses.
· Writes in small outbursts like headlines you see on tabloids
· Very incoherent and hard to understand, thinks that the meaning is in the readers mind and that everyone interprets things differently. He makes it up to the reader to decide what is happening.
· Abstract art being interpreted by the viewer is a Nietchsze idea.
· Slogans used in advertising are a Nietchzse thing.
· Phenomenology means that everything and everything that happens is just a phenomena. Nothing has a morality of good or bad it is just happening.
· Amorality is where u are told what you are feeling and what is happening. Modernism says there is no god or spirits but we are just here and nobody knows why.
· Modern journalism is centered on telling the acts and not moralising what has happened and only saying it how it is. Also eye grabbing headlines in short outbursts.
. Modernism is centred around a scientific out look rather than religious in previous years, Nietzsche approaches things obejectively looking at facts and objects.

4. Explain the fascination for intellectuals and some journalists of the film citizen Kane.
· William R Hearst is Careys theory in action, a semi-literate member of the masses gaining power through literacy.
· Kane wants power and nothing is every enough for him
· Hearsts yellow journalism was the first of its kind, with short bursts of headlines and often exaggerated stories about crime to make people want to read. And using competitions.
· The idea of finding a story then standing it up comes from Hearst
· Hearst came from nothing as part of the masses but became literate and rich through skill as a businessman. He then informs the masses about the intellectuals through his paper which in turn gives them political power. Carey predicted this could happen if people become literate.
· Freud would attribute his actions to never being accepted by his mum as he was up for adoption at a young age. Also in the film Kane is unable to obtain rosebud so tries to obtain every material possession to make up for it. The analysis of dreams – Freud.
· Hearst shows a conflict between is real self that should never be shown and the mask he uses to be fake and appear strong and powerful. This conflict between real and fake makes you go crazy.

5. Asses Freud on the media from Page 3 to BBC and from to cosmopolitan Jerry Springer
· Shows Like Super nanny have been influenced by Freud’s child physcology
· Freud’s idea that everyone is fascinated with sex is reflected in advertising; everything is made to be sexy and revolves around sex, very fashionable.
· Feminism and ‘dear Deirdre’ columns influenced by Freud.
· The idea behind page three was that men weren’t breast fed as children in the 40’s and 50’s so they would be fascinated by breasts on page three!
· Shows like Jerry Springer where the super ego takes over and acts without thinking.
. Freuds theory of personality being shaped by parents rejection can apply to Kane who was given up by his parents,although it was a chance for him to have a better life. Kane (and Hearsts) apetite to always have more could be interpreted as Freuds need for approval from parents.

HCJ - The intellectuals and The masses

The intellectuals and the masses.

John Carey clearly has a dislike for people who follow the masses, however one of the people he writes about Arnold Bennett, says that even the masses who follow people are all individuals in their own way even if they are following people. He thinks that if people write books that appeal to the masses this should be seen a good thing and the masses that read them should not be looked down on.

Talks about the anti-feminist movement in modernism and how women allow themselves to be subjected to a lower social class to men.

Carey agrees with Hitlers view on a weak human race. Hitlers idea of a weak race was eastern Europeans, Jews, blacks homosexuals etc. any one not of aryan race. He even considered Russians as 'sub-humans' ( a tactic mainly used to stir up anti russki feelings during the campaign against Russia.)

''The remedies of the twenty-first century...will entail the recognition that, given the state of the planet, humans, or some humans, must now be categorised as vermin."

This is an almost fascist outlook, to categorise any humans as vermin is a prejudice view discriminating against them for whatever reason similar to one Mr Hitler.

Thought that Hitlers 'Mein Kampf' was not an evil look at society, but what all of western philosophy thinking is like.

Carey says that intellectual people are scared by the threat of the masses and there capability to overhaul the hierarchy. Carey says that the emergence of people being taught to read and learn for themselves scared the modernist intellectuals that had used literature and art exclusively to exclude the masses. He uses Nietzsche as an example of this who thinks the masses will always be lower in society.

Carey views the intellectuals in the same way as Hitler, he sees them as superior and that the masses should essentially be exterminated. The weak were seen as an inferior and they cannot contribute to society and are therefore useless.

Overall he believes that the masses should be controlled and cannot understand intellectual thinking and that if they are given the right to express their views and opinions they will overhaul the intelligentsia. This is similar to Hitlers views, believing that the masses are a threat.

Totalitarianism - HCJ

Hannah Ardent was a writer writing in post holocaust society, in a time where Stalin was allegedly still sending immigrants, Jews, Slovaks etc to essentially die in Serbia. This was part of the Communist movement in Russia still being run by Stalin who, like Hitler, wanted to destroy entire races and cultures that he considered to be inferior. The communist’s ultimate triumph was the defeat of Nazi Germany in the 40’s. The left wing socialist movement of the 60’s was seen as the right thing to do and is often referred to as ‘The popular front’. This was also the time where anti-communist views were very popular; the cold war between America and Russia was very strong this followed a movement for individual rights and liberation of; blacks, disabled, Jews and so on. The 60’s movement of freedom and love was very much an American Ideal that revolved around liberation and individual prosperity (such as the idea of the American dream).

Hannah Ardents main point was that she believes the Nazi holocaust and Stalin’s killings were ultimately down to society’s participation. She does not see Hitler or Stalin as dictators who simply hypnotised people and made them do things without consciously knowing what they are doing. She says that the people who were involved in the whole Nazi ‘final solution’ are as much if not more to blame than Hitler or Stalin respectively. From the people that made the maps and designed buildings to house people, or helped run the transport they are the people systematically wiping out entire cultures. She argues that people should not simply obey authority just for the sake that they have to, they should think before they obey. Mass submission was the reason for the extermination of the Jews due to the large amount of collaborators.

HCJ- seminar 2

Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Part 1
· Says that the search for knowledge should be followed to the furthest degree possible, even if it creates war as war itself is good.- war and warriors
· He says that most writers are so in depth that are hard to understand and almost pretentious and no one else understands. (Although the book itself is exactly that, Pot kettle black). – Reading and writing
· A murder that kills someone is more aware of their own emotion as they can at least be aware of their want to kill. Someone who hasn’t killed can’t even admit to wanting to do it and therefore has less moral awareness.- Pale criminal

Talks a lot about suffering and the struggle. He says that if you preach about struggling and suffering and saying that this is the only way to prepare for the afterlife then you are preaching for death. Essentially these people are preparing themselves to die when they are supposedly preaching about living and how to live.


· Says that freedom can only be found outside of the state. The state sets the rules, runs the economy and has the say on which religion to follow. Although all are seen as free within any state, only personal freedom and choice can be found outside of state rules.- The new idol
· Says that sex is natural and good for some but bad for people too. It is natural to look for sex but if don’t constantly nothing else will be done? - Chastity
· ‘Overman’ comes up frequently in the book. This must be ‘GOD’ or a god, but this is not specified as a certain religion, it could be anyone someone that is in charge of everything. However he says you can strive to become an overman presumably in the afterlife, how you achieve that is not really made clear. – The way of the creator
· Says that there is a knack to dying at the right time. Sounds like he is hinting at having an honest and noble death at the right time could inspire others ( such as Socrates with Plato).
· His attitude towards women is very negative as he says they are only capable of loving men and that basically that is the only need for them. They can also bare children which are handy, but they are not capable of friendship.

Part 2
· Nietzsche Talks a lot about ‘Slave morality’ and how he is against Christian views on life.
· He says that slaves struggle like Jesus did and this is a good thing as the afterlife will reward them.
· This preaching is similar to the first part of the book where struggle needs to happen.
· ‘Self-overcoming’ Is a common theme, Nietzsche talks about powerful people and how you can only be truly powerful if you can control yourself. If you cannot control yourself then there is now way that you can lead and therefore you need someone to control you. Will power is an underlying feature as it determines your ability to overcome yourself in pursuit for power and leadership.
· Nietzsche is anti-nationalist and thinks that if you believe in only the state so strongly then the only outcome is going to be war. Nationalism surrounds people with a false sense of security, and makes everyone believe that if they follow everything the state has to say then they can be free and that everyone else should follow them. This is what Nietzsche believes will happen.
· Nietzsche talks about how our will and change effect so much in life in ‘on redemption’. He says that our will to be different or in fact do anything effects our present and indeed future. However we can never change the past. This is why, he argues we change is so important, as without it we can never improve ourselves or become better people.
· He talks about will being so powerful that it has created your past and that therefore to forget about your past you must forget about will all together. This would leave you in a state of doing nothing and therefore you could not create anything so you would never regret your past as you will never create a present for it to become the past. If people do not have complete control of themselves then doing things with will, will constantly happen and you will always regret the past. In order to be happy and not regret one must obey and control themselves at all times.
Part 3
· In part three we learn about events reoccurring all the time throughout life and that there is no way we can change this. In the book Zarathustra finds it hard to accept that everything that is happening now in the present has already happened in the past and will happen again in the future. This is a never ending cycle that will happen through the human instinct of will. However this does not mean that all things will happen exactly the same, Nietzsche says that things will constantly change and this is what is reoccurring not necessarily the same thing happening over and over again. The way in which people interpret the planet has constantly changed over years. Since the begin of time people have accepted and followed different religions and ways of living. People’s moral code of weather killing is or isn’t acceptable has changed from cavemen having no morality but just survival instinct all the way through to following society’s boundaries and rules. Although it was once acceptable to cut a man’s hands off for stealing a loaf of bread it would now be seen a morally outrages to punish in this way, showing a change in moral code. This happening although being a reoccurrence it is a change and it is change in itself that keeps happening, and through this change we can strive to become better people and let go of our past.
· Nietzsche therefore thinks there is not one set god or in fact morality. He believes that all gods that have been forgotten about such as Egyptian, Greek and Roman etc. have at one point asserted themselves as the one and only God or Gods for all eternity.
· Zarathustra is against a lot of Christian fundamental beliefs a common theme in the book looks at sex. Christianity says that sex should only be used for pro-creation and otherwise is dirty and wrong. Zarathustra believes that it is a natural human feeling to want sex and it is emotional and a happy thing for people to experience in person. Selfishness and pride is another issue taken up as in Christianity it is sinful for be proud. Zarathustra thinks that you must be proud of yourself if you like yourself. If you are not proud then you must have something to conceal and you are not truly happy within yourself. The sin of wanting to rule is a very important area that Nietzsche or Zarathustra disagrees with as not wanting to rule or better yourself means you have no will, and earlier in the book he says that having will leads to change and this is the way in which the natural world works.
· Change is an important issue in this chapter as it is pinpointed as Nietzsche seems to think that the world is in a constant state of change. He believes that Christianity in particular does not allow for people to feel emotions that will lead to change. Maybe he thinks that humans although in their own mind think they are living morally sound according to the bible, they are in fact ignorant to the real world. As he thinks morality is always changing if you commit yourself to one religion or even to the state and follow nationalism you can never be open to change. Although things are constantly changing every moment that people experience in life such as praising God and things of this nature will happen again. However this maybe be praising a different god or following a different type of moral code but either way the principle of following a set of rules and regulations will happen again due to change.
· It seems like Nietzsche does not believe in fate or destiny as we create our own destiny. The theme of change is only controlled by our will to do things for good or for bad, so if people are using their will this will create whatever happens to us. The term creating your own luck seems to fit his mindset; however luck in itself may not be something he believes in himself!

Part 5
· When Zarathustra comes across the kings that have fled their city, you get another taste for Nietzsche’s Sinicism for the human race through what the kings tell him. They are leaving their city as they are not contempt with leading mundane mediocre lives that their people lead. Nietzsche’s view on how people lead their lives comes across as arrogant and pompous. He believes that people are happy with just enjoying the simple pleasures of life, and he sees this lack of ambition or ‘will’ as a weakness that should not be present in society. He thinks that everyone should strive to be better and achieve, other than those content in the past to be slaves and follow a god to get justice in an afterlife. Every character that he comes across seems to have a negative attitude towards society all giving their two cents on how society is so pathetic and how individuals cannot create their own lives to become over men, the criticism of how people live their lives is relentless and patronising. For example the ugliest man gets pity from people however he despises the fact that he gets pity as it is a feeble emotion. This is another flaw that Nietzsche picks out from humanity.
· The men that Zarathustra is surrounded by are all men that bear the ideals of Nietzsche. These are men that could eventually become overmen they don’t like pity or peoples inability to achieve anything above mediocrity.

The whole book essentially boils down to change and that people have to accept fundamentals in life will be repeated. Even though specifics may change, having will and determination is the only way to create change and become a better person. Nietzsche has shown that not all people posses the ability to change, and these people should not even be accepted as they are just wasting their time they are a speck of dirt in as dirt storm insignificant. Without change we cannot progress.

HCJ seminar 3

Freud and Ulysses
• Chapter 15 essentially brings Bloom and Stephen closer together, bloom follows Stephen to ‘night town’ and is trying to protect from the lurid things he may see ( It being a red light district and all)

• They are having hallucinations because they are drunk or high or something; e.g. ‘On a step a gnome totting among a rubbishtip crouches to shoulder a sack of rags and bones’.

• The hallucinations seem to be coming out of their sub-concious, when bloom sees the sombrero wearing image it seems like his paranoia is coming to surface something key to his personality perhaps, a lot of blooms seem to be about sexual guilt such as when he is with the Nymph.

• Bloom has a hallucination about his parents were they confront Bloom about things he's done wrong, this links with Freuds theory of people constantly looking for acceptance and approval from their parents.

• Bloom has a hallucination about smoking and how he shouldn't be doing it which shows his sub-conscious voice speaking against what he is doing, something that he would not consciously think of.

• Stephen reacts more emotionally to seeing his dead mother, whereas Blooms apparitions are more of a drunken nature. Stephen seems to be intellectually and artistically independent due to his rejection from his parents, this has been pushed into his sub conscious something that has been repressed.

• Stephen is left unconscious at the end of the piece bloom helps him to his feet and helps him gather his things. Bloom is shown to be stephens metaphorical father by helping him to his feet. He is always trying to protect and shepard Bloom throughout the episode.

• Blooms hallucinations seem to be fuelled by his drunken state rather than his sub conscious thought but it still shows what he is really thinking/ feeling.

Freud
Freud's thinking circles around sex, everything people do all actions and emotions are linked to a sexual desire.

Rejection by parents can shape personality

Sexual desire to kill father and marry mother

The drive to live and the drive to die - Humans want to stay alive but also want to return to a natural state of calm i.e. be dead

Winol Week one

The first week of winol was an intimidating one. With very little hands on experience in video journalism it was difficult to predict what exactly one was in for. The day started like any other; waking up late, rushing to get dressed and making sure the bf a.k.a Joey c was ok. The first news meeting was rather daunting, however I was prepaired with a story covering Chute house and its possible closure. The angle taken was that the staff there could loose their jobs as re-deployment to the king Alfred campus was not guranteed. The idea was pitched and the editors lapped it up like hungry houndogs fresh on the blood trail!

I started by first speaking to Seb miell getting the straight facts and writing them down, I also set up an interview for the next day. I then sent an e-mail to Lisa Simpkin who I was passed on to by the chute house manager as she would give me permission to speak to Joy Carther Pro vice chancellor. She was as useful as a headache. I now know that press officers are essentially a waste of what very little time I have. Unable to balance the story I tried speaking to the union leader representing the staff that could loose their jobs, who declined to comment as the situation was on going. This meant that the stories angle could effctively not be persued. The story had hit a brick wall, in hindsight I could of researched the story a bit earlier and maybe I would of made a bit more progress with trying to get interviewees. With only Seb Miell able to give his opinion on the matter it meant that I didn't have balance and had to drop the story. Leaving me with only a written peice on the story including the fact that Joy Carter and the union rep failed to reply.

Seb said that I miss quoted him saying that the chute house 'could close' as I could not put up the fact that it will close for legal reasons. I couldn't confirm it as a fact as I needed someone at the university e.g. Joy Carter to cover myself and WINOL legally. The story was spiked not through lack of effort as I worked extremely hard and stressed, and sent at least 10 e-mails to get my story set up. The only thing I could of done better is give myself more time to set up my story as Joy Carter may have spoke to me. The Union rep on the other hand wouldnt of helped me at all!!!

The moral of the story is; Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

Tabloid nation

Tabloid nation, what can I say a superbly written peice with a comical twist and interesting look and the birth of todays tabloids. The book fives an in depth look at the history behind popular journalism or 'tabloid' journalism as we now know it today. Wait I am writing as if I am reviewing the book when im just posting my notes, anyway I digres.

Harmsworth Started the publication 'Answers', he was one of the first to start competitions in papers that seemed unatainable for example offering £200 life insurance prize; something you see in papers like the Sun's £10 holidays. Furthermore Northcliffe was very much like William Randolph Hearst and in that he aimed his paper towards people vulnrability with competitions praying on gread, and headlines to do with crime praying on fear. This sort of thing however made people by papers which acheived their objective.

The Daily mirror started off as a neche paper aimed at the womens market, Lord Northcliffe got rid of all the women writers however as they were causing a distraction leaving a lone women editor.

The Mirror was also the first paper to use pictures to boost the sales of its paper, with sales trebled by 71,000 overnight. Hannen Swaffer played a big part in this when he was appointed art editor. These pictures included pictures of the Kind and his family, this could be seen as the equivellent to the modern day celebrity culture. The Mirror and The mail saw the advantage of pictures and battled furiously to secure the exclusive pictures of the dead King, Northcliffe wanted the picture so much that he did not care that he could be in trouble for treason as circulation meant so much to him. The Mirror at one point had a story about a Pony they were trying to rescue making the paper look very sensitive and appeal to the audience. This is something we again seen in todays tabloids such as The Sun who are often running petitions about something such as petitioning to get the latest X-factor wannabe back in, or marching against the latest Big Brother race row. Although sometimes genuine campaigns such as 'backing the heroes' for servicemen in the army.

The Mail in its early days was aimed more towards the everyday reader with a 250 word limit on articles brought in to simplify it for their target market.

Alot of what you see from Northcliffes time you see in todays tabloid media such as the celebrity culture, cheap prizes that seem impossible to win ( and normally are). Northcliffe was a character significant in shaping todays tabloids, along with Hearst he is one in now what is a long line of charasmatic newspaper owners with crazy new ideas that launched todays fantastic tabloid journalism.

Forgotten past

70 years have passsed since the evacuation of Dunkirk, marking a formidable push for hitler's Nazi army into Europe. The second world war will be rememberd for all of history... or will it?

The history of the second world war has always been retold in classrooms around the country to remember the heroes that fought and serve as a warning from history never to happen again. However is this still the case? More than 70 years have passed since the war ended in Europe with Hitler's army defeated in the German capital. However it is vitally essential that the story of the second world war is repeated time and time again, youngsters must know of the hardships our forefathers endured in fighting for queen and country against the German war machine. I saw a question on yahoo answers asking; 'why should we study world war two?'. If the youth of today even need to ask that question then clearly the educational system has failed somewhere down the line.

Children should learn about the toils of the second world war, it should be an important part of education as without remembering what happened all those years ago history is sure to repeat itself.

Rags to Riches - Blackpools fairy tale story

In only four years Blackpool have fought their way up from the third tier of English football to the dizzy heights of the Premiership. They continued their glorious assent to the top with a exciting 3-2 win over Cardiff City yesterday at Wembley. A thrilling encounter which saw no less than 5 goals scored in the opening half has lead Blackpool to the big time.

The estimated jackpot of winning this promotion comes to around £90 million pounds; once TV contracts and parachute money is added into the mix. The game of football has very much become about money these days; after all it is a business, even though many top flight teams such as Man United seem to be drowning in debt. Ian Holloway himself has said how much the money will affect the area of Blackpool, a once thriving beach side resort home to many sun seekers looking to escape the cities. However this was a long time ago and with the advances in technology it was inevatale that over seas travel would take over, leading to a slump in the town which did unfortunately devestates local business. Now there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, with presumably increased gate revenue and increased exposure of the once buzzing town Blackpool has a lot to look forward to come September.

This is a fantastic footballing story that once was a distant memory only pulled off by the greats of Brian Clough and Notts Forest, taking a second division team away from relegation and into Europe in a matter of years. Even with the ever growing money in the game, this is a feat that has not happened in years, the likes of Millwall came close making the play-offs about 5 years ago but finally we have the beautiful game back! With a team that only get paid £90 a week in the off season, only pulling in gates of around 8,000 a week it is almost unbelievable that they will be visiting the likes of Old Trafford and Anfield next season.Holloway has proved that by installing beleif with good man management, with very little money, good teams can become great. Starting as relegaton favourites Blackpool have had a steady season always in and around the play off zone. This should be a boost for any team in any league the message is clear - It IS still possible to get somewhere in football with grit, hard work, and determenation. I say with a grin on my face; the beuatiful game is still as beautiful as she ever was.

Revision Notes

Mary Wollstonecraft asserts that the social subjection of women was partly due to nature and partly due to education why?

Mary Wollstonecraft accepted herself that by nature women weaker and by this sense were dominated by males they need protection. However education was something that Mary thought should be a natural right for women, in line with the thinking of Rosseauea who during the romanticism asserted there should be rights for all, although Rosseau himself was against women eduction and in this way they differed. Mary thought that women were to blame for letting themselves be oppressed rather than blaming men for oppressing. Mary thought like Hobbes in the way that people are a blank slate and with education and experience create ideas and become a rounded person. Mary thought that this school of thought applied to women as well, and that they should be able to learn things. This was very much against the views of Aristotle who claimed that women were an inferior species and believed that women were a species that were ‘naturally slaves’. Aristotle’s views were what society accepted for years until this point. Mary is often criticized for her relationships with men even trying to kill herself when rejected by someone who she was having an affair with. In the Vindication of the rights of women she says women accepted the role of women in society, education would set them free. Mary thought in the public space people should be viewed as human being not as separate genders.


Compare the epistemological stance of Keats in ‘ ode on a Grecian Urn’ to that of Kant in ‘critique of pure reason’

Keats ‘ode on a Grecian urn’ is a romantic poetic view on the epistemology of life. Romantic poetry at the time in England focused on the beauty of the Noumenal world. Aesthetics is the study of beauty itself, many people in the early 1800’s viewed life and the way in which the world worked aesthetically. Many believed that and beauty is truth and truth is beauty as asserted in ‘ode on a Grecian Urn’, anything that is beautiful is real e.g. a beautiful plant must be truthful and real due to its beauty. There has been great debate about what that final line of the poem means, it could mean that things exsist if they are beautiful, however this would go against Kant’s stance on the epistemology of life. Kant thought that there were two different worlds; the nomenal and the phenomenal. The nominal being an object itself and the phenomenal being something that is perceived by the world, he would argue that an object not being perceived does therefore not exist. However Keats would say that the feeling received from the vision of something beautiful meant that it was real and did always exist. Kant also argues that there should be a universal law e.g. ‘make all the money and power come to me’ cannot be universal as other people are left out. Berkley was a phliophser who Kant agreed with who said that things only flash in and out of exsistance and agreed with Kant that the mind shapes what we see. He also thought that everyone had a moral law within and was able to distinguish right from wrong.


An essay on human understanding chapter: Mircacles. Why does Hume assert that every observable phenomena is a miracle?

Hume is very sceptical about everything, and believes that nothing can ever be known for certain. He believes that everything is a miracle, Hume would argue that there is no causality in nature. This means that nothing is always certain, there is no law of nature that says this. Hume believes that even though the sun has set there is nothing that means it will rise the next day, once in does rise and becomes a phenomena ( when it’s been viewed) it therefore becomes a miracle as there is no guarantee of it . Hume also doubts what he calls; ‘human testimony’ Hume thinks that humans cannot be believed to have seen something for many reasons including; not many people being a witness, the person being unreliable and humans tendency to wanting to be seen as truthful and not a liar. In other words Hume is saying that people cannot accept something as being true just because they have been told it, only once to you have viewed the phenomena for yourself can you be certain that it is true. Humes essay on human understanding encourages people to find the truth for themselves rather than accepting what they are told.

Hume asserts certain inductive knowledge that we know is for certain.


Axiom- Absolute truth, geometry term – the starting point – ‘all men are mortal’
Apriori – Knowledge without experience, something that cannot be proved. – ‘I think, therefore I am’
Aposteriori - Gaining knowledge through experience, opposite of Apriori
Induction - Adding knowledge to something that you know is true, gaining information to get to a conclusion. Using the method of science.
Deduction – Deriving conclusion from original idea. Deducing the truth from a statement.


Contrast philosophical materialism with idealism reference Hegel and Marx
Materialism epistemological stance is that the world consists of atoms and physical objects.

Idealism is the view that everything you see is a mental phenomena, physical things don’t exist we just see everything that is created by our minds.
Hegel- Idealist that thinks nothing at all is matter and everything is spirit, manifestation of ‘Geist’. His view is teleological - everything happens for a purpose because there are rules. If an adorn falls from a tree its purpose is to become an oak tree – logic.
Marx – Hegelian descendant, a materialist believes the world is made up of atoms and things. Marx himself claimed he was not a materialist in the sense of John Locke, Hume etc. He believed that ideas to have a material effect in the world. Locke (an empiricist would disagree). Marx dismisses empiricist thinkers he sees them as capitalists against communism.’ ‘I’ve stood Hegel on his feet’’

Discuss: Economic, demographic, political, technological and sociological factors influencing papers and Journalism. 1815-1915.

Economic – Free trade, printing things to make money which is new. A lot of taxes are lifted such as the Corn Laws, this allows for money to be made. A more liberal state, mercantilism is dissolving. Individuals can print and now make profit.

Demographic – Cobbett moving around farmers being moved and urbanisation begins with highly dense cities and towns. People migrating from Europe (New York).There is a market of the same people affected by the same thing that can be printed and sold to millions of people in London.

Political – Radical press. Repeal of stamp duty, no censorship and the high taxes are lowered allow for more production. The country is a lot more Liberal allowing freedom of expression etc.

Technology - Steam driven press allowed for thousands of copies to be printed a night, which lead to massive copies, very profitable.
Railway trains meant there could be massive distribution all over the country which leads to high circulation.
Telegraph, 1860’s meant up to date reports first done in Crimean war.

Sociological – Migration to America class language gender etc. Hearst and yellow journalism appealed to the masses.

Swift and Addison

Adam Smith
· Seen as a pioneer of political economy, Adam Smith studied moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow and Oxford University. Starting his professional career as a lecturer he is well known for writing the books ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’ and later after travelling across Europe; ‘The wealth of nations.

Smith is against slavery, not morally but because he thinks it does not work economically to have slaves instead of free men working. Smith goes on to make this point by stating that free men who will benefit from a good crop of produce will naturally want to work harder and make profit.

‘Such tenants, being freemen, are capable of acquiring property, and having a certain proportion of the produce of the land, they have a plain interest that the whole produce should be as great as possible, in order that their own proportion may be so.’

Smith makes the point that being free men they will have a certain proportion of crop and will want the crop, whatever it is, to grow well and thus will put a lot more effort into seeing it succeed. He thinks that they will have the opposite mindset of a slave who will have no motivation.

Jonathon Swift

· Jonathon Swift takes a satirical look at the current goings on at the time of the Irish famine. In his publishing ‘A modest proposal’ he makes a long winded sarcastic suggestion at the predicament that the Irish people find themselves in at the time of the famine. Essentially he has written about eating your own children, even at one point suggesting on how they should be cooked. He of course does not really think people should eat their children, but this is how he sees people like Smith thinking.

Swift takes a very sarcastic and humorous approach to his writing in ‘A modest proposal’. Although the writings of Smith were written many years after, Swift is attacking the sort of thinking of people like Smith who are constantly trying to figure out prices, profit and business. He takes a very sarcastic viewpoint, when saying;
‘Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.’
Here he is talking about the profit of selling a child (for food) and the woman producing another as something similar to growing and selling corn. By taking such a blunt satirical look at empiricist thinking, that Smith will go on to write about, he looks down on people who only think of profit.

Court reporting (2008)

Law Report

On Wednesday 22nd of October at 10:30am Winchester Crown Court heard a case involving a man charged with manslaughter, the case was ongoing from a previous date this is how the case unfolded.

Firstly before the jury arrived the Barrister for the prosecution put forth the idea of using CCTV footage as evidence in the case. The Barrister for the defence did not refute and the judge felt it was necessary for the case. The judge then made it clear to the jury that the fact that the first witness has decided to remain anonymous should have no reflection on him and should not change the authenticity of his evidence.

The first witness, David Imborg, approached the stand behind a curtain to protect his identity and swore on an oath that his evidence was truthful. The prosecution started the questioning, the barrister asked if he lived in a house in Bournemouth to which the witness replied ‘yes’. Then he was asked if on the 23rd of February he went to the Dolphin Pub to which he also replied ‘yes’. The witness then went on to say he went to the pub at 10:00pm that night with his friend Michael and another friend, and went to meet Michael’s friend Liza. After the formalities’ where out of the way the witness went on to describe what went on that night. He began with saying how Michael suffered racial abuse when entering the pub which led to them drinking outside in the smoking area. The witness was asked how much he had had to drink that night to which his reply was ‘two vodka oranges’. The usher then handed the witness photos of the aforementioned smoking area in the Dolphin pub. The Barrister then asked exactly where the witness was situated in the photos. The witness then went on to recall hearing the bell ringing in the pub for last orders at roughly 11:50pm. He goes on to describe seeing three people sitting at a table; a man one side, a lady opposite and a third man who he believed to be standing. The witness said he then heard an argument at which point the woman at the table threw the contents of her pint over the victim, and then flick a cigarette at him. The glass, now empty from the contents being thrown, fell and smashed and the victim looked at his hands as if checking for blood. The witness described the woman as being roughly 5ft 3 to 5ft 5 inches in height. The witness then said that he did not pay attention to the incident after it had happened and carried on. Later the witness says that the woman and third man who had been around the table walked off towards the car park, the witness described the man who had been shouted at by the woman as a bit off balance as he had had possibly too much to drink. The witness went on to describe how he heard an argument between the people in the car park to which he can remember hearing ‘ I’ll see you in Mr Green tonight’ being said by the woman to the victim. The witness said the woman was facing the victim whilst saying this and standing next to the other man and her body language, in his words, was very ‘dynamic’. He then went on to say that the man standing with the women threw a punch at the victim. The witness described the punch as a ‘prepared action’, he said that the man took his arm back and got ready to deliver, what he described as, a ‘knockout punch’. The witness was then prompted to show the punch and he complied. The defence barrister then asked for the prosecution barrister to repeat and he did so. The witness then said the punch hit the victims face who was standing upright with his arms by his side, which he was again prompted to show the action which he complied and did again. The victim was described as hitting the floor ‘like a weight’ after receiving the punch. He went on to say that he could hear the impact of the body hitting the ground and that the victim did not put his hands out to break his fall. The witness then saw the alleged attacker run from the car park, at which point the witness and his friend went to his assistance who he described as not conscious.

Defence Barrister cross examines the witness:
The defence Barrister firstly asked the witness to look at the photos of where they were sitting on that night. The barrister said how it sounded like a ‘friendly atmosphere’ at the pub to which the witness agreed. The Witness was then given his own statement he made in March. The Barrister asked if the victim had anything in his hands, and was then asked to look through his statement which implied that the victim may of had something in his hands when approaching the woman and defendant. The barrister asked David where Jason ( the victims) hands were. The witness said at least one arm was by his side. The jury then put a question forward asking if Jason had picked up the glass or anything from the table, to which he witness replied he could have picked something up.

A second witness then approached the bench, without the screen. The Witness goes by the name of Liza, she too swore on the oath before sitting down.

Prosecution:
The witness said she went to the pub to meet Michael, she was handed photos of the hut and showed where she sat at the back. Liza said she knew the victim Jason but referred to him as Tony. Liza was then handed her statement from the night. Her account of the nights incident started with two women sitting on the same table as Jason and a blonde woman saying ‘you’ve been giving me funny looks all night’ to which Jason replied ‘ no I haven’t’. Liza said the women were with two men. The witness said that one man said to the blonde lady ‘come away we’ll deal with it later’. Liza said that as the argument continued and the glass smashed ‘Emma’, a barmaid working that night, told them all to go home. The two women and men left and were followed into the car park by Jason. The blonde lady then shouted at Jason as she stood behind one of the gentlemen. Then the gentlemen pretended to box Jason and then hit him with his right fist, which knocked Jason to the ground. Liza said the man paused briefly then ran away as did the other people with him, at which point Emma and Liza went to his aid. Liza was questioned on whether there was any glass around Jason but she could not see any.


Defence Cross Examination:
The defence questioned Liza on what area of Jason she was concentrating to which she replied the head. The barrister questioned whether it was possible for her to notice any glass as she was trying to keep the head wound from getting any worse. The Barrister was suggesting that Liza did not have the best view of the incident and that maybe the defendant approached the blonde lady berating Jason and asked her to leave and calm down. In her statement she had previously told the P.C. on the scene that she could not give a detailed account of what had happened and instead rung her friend Michael who spoke to the officer over the phone, and Liza could only give a description of the man. In Liza’s statement she had said the man who threw the punch was between 30-40 years old, 5ft 11” – 6ft in height, had a ring on his middle finger, had in Liza’s own words; ‘a skinhead’ and a black jacket. The Barrister said that his client did not have a black jacket on that night, nor did he have a ring, and was implying that Liza’s evidence may not be 100 per cent reliable.

The CCTV footage of that night was watched by the landlord of the Dolphin Pub on Sunday morning and was then given to the Police. The DVD was then played to the jury.

Winchester (2008)

Christmas at Winchester all fun and games?

Winchester has already got its Christmas celebrations off to a start; with Christmas lights, ice skating and many more festive events coming up in the near future, but could this also mean mixed reactions from local businesses.
If you are anything like me then just the thought of Christmas shopping ignites a flaming hole burning its way through your pocket. However, Christmas is a time of happiness and historically the celebration of Christ’s resurrection (not forgetting the annual Christmas dinner binge eat and two weeks off work!).
There are Santa bag full’s of activities happening in Winchester including; an ice-rink, West meon Christmas fare, cathedral tours, Winchester cathedral market and many more.
With more people visiting the town centre to partake in these Christmas activities, you may think they bring more revenue for the local business, putting a pleasant blanket of Christmas snow on the dark drab reality of the credit crunch. However local businesses such as Reflex have spoke of the detrimental effects of the fare such as Jane Winson, Manager of Reflex, Winchester High Street
‘‘There are signposts to go down abbey passage... the people not familiar with Winchester might miss out on this end of the high street. (The stalls)Sell cheaper than the regular retail price on items that I pay for my shop.’’
On the other hand, businesses such as Shoon, find that they are generally not effected by what is going on in town.
‘‘Our customer base is relatively return over and over’’ Lisa Manager of Shoon
So could the signposting leading punters away from local business such as Reflex heap more doom and gloom on British businesses in the credit crunch? Or will the Christmas fare help chain businesses in their time of need? Only time will tell, but for now everyone should take in all there is to offer in Winchester at this time of year.

Popular Journalism

The birth of popular journalism

The birth of popular journalism is often attributed to one William Randolph Hearst. Hearst’s first newspaper was the San Francisco examiner which he took over from his father in 1887. The gold rush in the late 1870’s lead to his first real adventure as a newspaper magnate, over exaggerating the amount of gold being found in San Fran lead to a huge number of newspaper sales. This style of over exaggerating or ‘bending’ the truth is now commonly attributed to today’s modern tabloid papers. The recent invention of telegraphing news only helped as it meant up to date reports on the gold being found in his paper advertising shovels, praying on the greed on humans and providing the necessary tools to get the gold. After major success on the West coast Hearst had his eyes on the most powerful city on earth; New York, where he started the ‘New York Journal’. Here he came into direct competition with Joseph Pulitzer a Hungarian Radical escaping oppression, very much on the side of the poor and the downtrodden who had the East coasts only main paper the ‘New York World.’ At the time both men were part of the emerging United States that was singly handily wiping out the indigenous settlers that were there before its discovery to the rest of the world. San Francisco where Hearst was settled was formerly a Mexican province that they were forced out from creating the state of California, this was largely due to the influx of Europeans coming over trying to get part of the gold rush. Eastern Europeans and Irish made up a large number or poor immigrants coming over looking for work. New York at the time provided Hearst and other wealthy business owners with cheap labour however people still were free and had many rights. The ever expanding cities lead to high rise buildings being built due to high population density. This lead to better distribution tube links cheap food and extremely cheap resources from the South all which Hearst profited off.

The term ‘yellow journalism’ or ‘yellow press’ is often attributed to Hearst’s style of paper in created in New York. The term means to create news with eye-catching headlines with vastly over exaggerated stories often about crime, a tactic which prayed on people’s vulnerability and sold many newspapers. Hearst was intent to take down The New York world and after investing a large sum of money, did his best to reduce Pulitzers circulation including knocking down the prick of the Journal to only one penny, in contrast to Pulitzers two cents New York world. Hearst achieved this by appealing to the popular market, and focusing on circulation his papers, again the cheap labour being a useful actor in employing people in factories printing and then distributing the paper. Another tactic used is the introduction of competitions in his paper; Hearst also employed world renowned writes such as Mark Twain, as well as luring away Pulitzer’s writers with extremely large salaries. Another big scalp on Hearst’s part was the acquisition of the cartoonist Richard F Outcault who drew the ever popular ‘yellow kid’ cartoon in Pulitzer’s paper. The character was very popular amongst the public and was another factor in the every growing sales of Hearst’s newspaper. Pulitzer and Hearst’s yellow journalism is often thought to have played a massive role in the up and coming American-Spanish war. There had been many attempts of an uprising in Cuba to gain independence from Spain, the then President of the U.S. was pushed into a war he was trying to avoid due to public pressure fuelled by over exaggerated news stories from Pulitzer and Hearst’s papers. The Spanish army were committing atrocities against the Cuban people and Hearst made sure that these were publically known. Also the sinking of the ‘USS Maine’ by the Spanish harboured in Havana, was widely publicised one of many events that vilified the brutal Spanish people. Although at one point when Hearst had sent one of his Illustrators to Cuba he is reported to have telegraphed Hearst saying there was no chance of anything happen least of all a war to which Hearst is believed to have replied; ‘You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war’.
Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles is the story of Charles Foster Kane, loosely based on William Randolph Hearst. Hearst used his power and connections to limit the number of bookings of the film which lead to average reviews; he also made sure that any mention on the film was strictly prohibited in any of his publishing’s. Hearst eventually set out to destroy Welles by threatening to reveal Hollywood scandals about his private life that he had previously kept quiet about at the request of production companies. The film paints Charles Kane as a dark lonely figure, a media magnate who owned many papers similar to Hearst. The film draws many similarities about Kane and Hearst inheriting business from their fathers, in the film Thatcher receives a telegraph that Kane would rather take over a small newspaper than peruse a career in Mines or the banks. Hearst is portrayed as someone who is very much living the ‘American Dream’ starting with nothing and although inheriting a small business worked himself to the very top with little help just perseverance and following a dream.

Politics shadowing

Michael Cox Lib Dem Uxbridge and South Ruislip
Prospective Parliamentary candidate Michael Cox became councillor for Ruislip Manor in 2002 where he became deputy leader and leader for the liberal democrat group. The area of Uxbridge and South Ruislip is Conservative; however South Ruislip has only recently joined the constituency due to boundary changes. South Ruislip is traditionally a working class area which leans towards labour. Hillingdon council, the London borough in which Uxbridge and South Ruislip lies is also Conservative.
The first day of canvassing started in the Hillingdon east area which covers the Uxbridge side of the constituency. The area has a mix of ethnicities including Asian, polish and white British. The road being targeted lies of a dual carriage way leading to Hayes, a slightly less wealthy area industrialised with many housing estates. Michael Cox was canvassing people on the register that had already voted as well as new voters, he had alongside him an actor by profession looking to stand for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the local elections. Mr Cox says that he is targeting Liberal Democrat voters as they ‘cannot turn voters on the door step’. An interesting political strategic move used at some houses was to advise voters to split their vote in the local elections. Mr Cox did this by letting the person know Labour were very unlikely to get in and that giving two votes to the Tories and one to the Liberal Democrats may be a way of voting. This tactic was only largely used on home occupiers that had already decided to vote for the conservative party. One interesting observation that caught my eye was that the area was in a part of Hillingdon that contained a lot of flats some with students, a lot of people you would not consider to be your typical every day conservative voter. Mr Cox encouraged many people that were sceptical about their vote, and considering not voting at all to vote for somebody. This was something that took me by surprise, surely a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal democrats doesn’t want to lose and vote and potentially gain one for the Tories? This was a rather humbling notion to show that politicians think about what is best for the good of the country. The manner in which Mike Cox approached people was very much the same and only slightly differed from person to person. Some people clearly knew quite a lot about the elections and each party’s manifesto; however some weren’t sure about the whole process. It seemed that Mr Cox played this by ear and got into greater depth about policy with those who had a sense about party policy and manifesto information. The majority of voters were leaning towards the Conservatives, however there was a fair share of the street that was voting Liberal Democrat and of course the odd far right party’s including BNP and NF. Further down the street we were met with some hostility from a resident who had lost all faith in politicians and would not be voting as she had been let down by the council many times, the expenses scandal not helping her scepticism. She was one of many who seemed to be anti Labour in the area.
The second day there was a different tactic employed; a member of public was used to help canvas in Ruislip Manor (which falls under the South Ruislip bracket). The woman used was local 60 plus years in age and a very non-threatening easy to talk to woman. The member of public was a local lady who had been helped by Mike Cox when she had problems with her street. The road being canvassed was mainly white middle class, with a few working class houses all or mostly semi-detached. Once again the majority of the roads were Conservative voters, but the Liberal Democrats were in a close second with very few labour supporters. The member of public who was canvassing explained to each person what Mike Cox had done for her. This seemed liked a very good tactic as she explained she wasn’t a politician but someone who was just like them who had been helped out by the candidate Mike Cox in her hour of need. As people rarely discussed policy it meant they could get a local perspective minus the political jargon, something that most people seemed to appreciate. This was a tactic I assume to help the voter understand they would receive help from Mr Cox as there is proof he sticks to his word. Along on this canvassing trail was two local candidates for the ward, both middle aged family people one male and one female. This portrayed very family orientated approach that man of the home owners could relate to. Mr Cox applied the amount of time necessary to each house, in one case even going in for a cup of tea with an elderly woman to discuss what could be done for the local area whilst dunking biscuits into a homemade brew. A lot of family men that were spoken to seemed to have their mind already made up and were choosing to vote conservative, however this did not put off Mr Cox as he still angled for a vote and never left a house without asking to or leaving a Liberal Democrat leaflet. The leaflets, he told me, largely aimed at the local elections but still had a political angle to influence the general elections on the same day.
The day culminated with the majority of leaflets being dropped and a big liberal democrat push in the South Ruislip area.

Sell out industry

After a recent facebook discussion I decided to air my views via my fantastic blog. It is about the UK music scene, Plan B has recently shot to fame with his number one selling album ' The defemation of Strickland Banks', which contains two top 10 singles. Plan B has been making music for many years, I first heard about him 4 years ago when he came to my attention with such songs as 'sick 2 def' and 'mama (loves a crackhead)'. At the time he recieved very little media attention but was accurately described as Englands answer to Eminem with a daring and bizzare but clever lyrical style. He also plays guitar and sings something very unique. His debut album 'Who needs actions when you've got Words' reached number 30 in the charts. However due to the negative vibe surrounding around UK rap artists he did not recieve much media recognition despite being clearly very talented, admitadly some songs could not be played commercially due to the lyrical content such as ' No more eatin' and 'Charmaine' due to the subject matter.

The defemation of strickland banks is a far more comercial album. Plan can not be faulted for trying something new with his motown inspired album which doesn't really appeal to the 'pop' market. Furthermore he strayed away from the dance/techno scene that similar grime artists have gone down in persuit of mainstream money such as Wiley and Bashy. After all this rambling you must be thinking what my point is, well your eger mind is about to be satisfied, it is that clear talent should be noticed and promoted regardless of it's mainstream potential. Right of centre music like heavy rock and trance have their own comecially succesfull markets being apreciated for their talent, however UK urban artists do not get the positive promotion they deserve. Most of the music does involve talking about negative things such as drugs sex and violence, but most are only talking about everyday situations that they live in. Furthermore many artists put out positive messages or even promote themselves through music without talking about drugs and guns.

An example of artists that have been labelled 'sell outs' are Dizzee Rascal and Kano. Both raised in East London, had a raw gutter style which at times talked about drugs and guns but only describing the way in which they live their lives. Dizzee Rascal found fame with 'Boy in da corner' and followed success with 'Showtime', both musically creative albums. However his most recent release is not worth the plastic its made on, with an almost pop sound with no raw edge that the former dizzee rascal would of laughed at. I understand he is just trying to make money and can't talk about the hood and that type of subject as he does not live around that anymore, however his descent into senseless drivil such as 'bonkers' is beyond me and awful basic bassline with nonsense lyrics about being bonkers? An example of someone balancing the best of both worlds in Wiley who became a house hold name with ' wearing my rolex'. Acredited with being the creator of Grime he has made money through the trance/grime scene but also realesed two albums which appeal to the grime fans. He is a true hard worker who makes music he enjoys aswell as music that will be popular and make money, although he is often critiszied for not making the commercial switch along with dizzee rascal, but he has became succesfull eventually doing his own thing. A recent release that may have commercial success is 'midnight lover' that has an R n B theme that has brought through artists from around the country.

However times are a changing, strong lyrical artists who talk about real social situations such as Devlin have been getting recognition recently singing to XL recordings along with South London rapper Giggs. Hoepfully they will not follow the path dizzee rascal and Tinchy Stryder and they can utilise their raw talent and put it into a style that will appeal to all true fans aswell as having chart success.

Karl Marx and the communist Manifesto

The communist manifesto was seen as a solution to the class struggle, written by Karl Marx currently residing in London at the time, although originally from Prussia. However the manifestio was not just aimed at England but was seen as a solution for the whole world, and seen by Marx as the next step in developing the world. This was a theory very similar to Hegel, a school of thought that Marx himself and breaken away from with his idea of Communisim.

In theory communism works. Everyone is equal and the poor are not exploited in the way the buorgouise were exploiting the poletarians at the time of Marx writing his manifesto. It is very far left of the political sprectrem, extremely socialist and is aimed at the workers of the time working in factories and feilds being exploited. The manifesto was aimed to cause a rebellion from workers who were being unfairly treated. Marx wanted this too be a peaceful revolution tho with the government in charge making everyone fair.

The idea of communism meant that possesions were removed and everything was stated owned, such as hospitals,housing and businesses. In THEORY this meant that everyone was equal and this was seen a revolutionary idea. However theorists like Adam Smith would have disagreed with this due to the 'hidden hand of the market'. Communism means there is not competition in any area of business which can lead to lack of innovation, but this was seen as fairness and everyone would be on the same playing feild which of course gets you closer to perfection and God!

Where has the passion gone?

There seems to be a new craze sweeping the modern worlds football industry; Billionaire tycoons buying out English football clubs. The most recent club to become part of this fad, Manchester City. However can money really buy success? Take Queens Park Rangers for example, the former proclaimed ‘ richest football club in the world’. Although only taken over in the early stages of last season, a string of lack lusture performances and a fall to 10th in the Championship has made many Rangers fans question their title ambitions, not least the passion of the side. Manchester City seem to be following in the path of QPR scrapping a point away to hull is far below the expectations of the arab owners and indeed the City fans. The mentality of the uber-rich clubs seems to be very unconvincing, sure you can inject millions into a squad and offer weekly wages tripling that of what a fire fighter earns in a year, but where is the passion? As a QPR fan myself i look back with pride when we went away to west london rivals such as Brentford, battling hard to grab a point to instill fans with pride and passion. Now, what was once a fortress of bellowing Londoners urging their team on has become something reminiscent of the ‘highbury library’. There just simply isn’t much to cheer for, with most players earning enough to put big shiny alloys on their brand new jaguar, why should they care if the club finishes in the second half of the table? Too much money in the game has been a problem for at least 10 years, however with the recent influx of foreign ownership, no one seems to take pride in being a professional footballer. I would glady live off my current student budget for the rest of my life if it meant gracing the feild in the presence of the likes of Ronaldo and Torres. Footballers need to realise that many people’s livelyhoods rest on their team, and maybe just maybe they could spend a little bit more time on the training ground and a little less time thinking about what colour to paint their brand new Mercedes.

Kant,Hegel, Idealisim

Where to start, this weeks lecture is a tough subject to get your head around, idealism and imperatives. I shall endeavour to explain.
Kant talks about noumenal and phenomenal worlds in ‘Critique of pure reason’. This is the idea that there is a world perceived in the noumenal realm, it is said that if the object is not being perceived and viewed then it does not in fact exist. In other words it means that what we are seeing does not in reality exist as an object but only something created in your mind. Kant says that intuition makes perception, meaning our brain creates the world around us. Berkley says that objects flash in and out of existence as when we are not looking at them and acknowledging them they simply do not exist.
The Mind shaping what we see can be described as ‘Idealism’ also known as ‘German Idealism’. Idealists argue that good can only come if it can be legislated as universal law. In other words it would be good to have all the money in the world, but then no one else would have any money; therefore it could not be good. Empiricists will argue that the world exists as it is regardless of human perception. Kant says that everyone is born with a ‘moral law within’, he says that everyone knows right from wrong sort of like a moral code. In other words people who do things against the law for example know from they moral law within they are wrong.
Hegel was a devout Christian who believed in negation; that life was in fact changing all the time and that nothing ever exists! This in my opinion is a rather bizarre concept, as if nothing exists how does anything get done? Hegel would answer that everything is just changing constantly to get closer to paradise (essentially the garden of Eden as, in his opinion, everything has gone down-hill since the whole eating the apple incident). Hegel believes that historical events over time such as the Prussians eliminating alot of europeans was done as part of Gods work. A rather radical idea, i’m sure dictators and physcopaths have used to justify multiple murders and genocide in the past.
That concludes my rather weak attempt at trying to explain idealism and Noumenal and Phenomanal worlds. I hope this has been of some help to all you people that care out there!!!

Liberty

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a very well educated man who took a strong belief in Utilitrarianism; which he described as ‘ The greatest good for the greatest number of people”. John Mill believed strongly in the freedom of speech, he thought that people’s individual opinions should never be dissmissed on the grounds that they do not fit the current mainstream idea. He thought that by alllowing people to challenge what is generally decided to be ”correct” then even if their opinion is wrong then it can only make the ”correct” idea stronger. He very much believed that people should be left to their own devices as long as they are not harming others; this can be applied to modern day society in that people have the right to choose their own sexuality etc. as long as no one is being harmed. This would of beeen very different in his time as being homosexual was outlawed. However he felt the state should get involved when it came to educating children as he thought it should be compulsory for children to be educated. He advocated womens rights saying that if women were so incapable of doing things, why do we need so many laws to stop them. Some people argue his utilitarianism ways were flawed as utilitarianism removes pain for pleasure, however some people exercise (go through pain) to feel good at the end which contradicts that way of thinking.
John Stuart Mills was a promoter of civil liberties. In John Stuart Mills essay on Liberty when talking about having a leader of people with power he says ; But as the king of the vultures would be no less bent upon preying upon the flock than any of the minor harpies, it was indispensable to be in a perpetual attitude of defence against his beak and claws. He shows here that although he believes in having elite leader(s) people should still be weary and limit the amount of power the person has giving the community liberty.

John Wilkes

By his own admission John Wilkes was not an attractive man, but he claimed he could talk the attraction away from his own face. John Wilkes was no stranger to trouble and often found himself in jail; this could be attributed to the ” Hellfire club” that he was a part of. This ‘gang’ consisted of elite members many of whom held a place in parliament including John Wilkes himself. The King of the time George III had appointed a Scot as Prime Minister who set up a newspaper called ‘ The Briton’ which was used as a propaganda machine. Wilkes did not approve of the appointment of a Scottish Prime Minister and so released ‘ The North Briton’ which spoke very crudely and unfavourably of the new PM. King George eventually released a general warrant for the publisher of the newspaper as he could not prove that Wilkes was publishing the paper. Subsequently Wilkes sued the government for false imprisonment and invasion of privacy and won which lead the way for indiviual rights in these sorts of cases. He was eventually expelled from the House of Commons and charged with Blasphemous Libel; he fled to France for four years and was put in jail on his return. He was then voted back into Parliament from Jail however the people in power did not see him fit to serve, however in the futre Wilkes went on to become Mayor of London. John Wilkes made a breakthrough in Journalistic reporting when reporting a discussion in Parliament which he published in the City of London, protected by their law he was not arrested by the people of Westminster and was the first to bring Parliament discussions to the masses seen as a massive breakthrough in politics.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft is considered by some to be the equivalent of a modern day feminist, however many would also disagree due to her somewhat fruitful and extravagant relationships with men. People would argue that she can’t be held in high regard as an advocate for women’s rights as she had affairs with married men and even attempted suicide when separated from another man.
In the book ‘A vindication of the rights of women’ she says;
I will take for granted, she was not created merely to be the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy the human character.
This quote is an example of how Mary Wollstonecraft was more trying to change the view of the way in which women are viewed in a social context rather than pushing for women’s rights. She says that women should not be labelled as sexual objects but as human beings; the same as men.
Mary often talks about lack of women’s education and thinks this should be a fundamental right that women should be educated in the same way as men;
‘if woman be allowed to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employment of life, an understanding to improve.’
This shows that Mary thinks a lot like Locke in respect to the mind being a blank canvas that can learn. Mary is saying that women can learn from life and will be able to improve in the same way as men can with an education.

Jean Jacques Rousseau and The Romanticism

Jean Jacques Rousseau & The Romanticism

Jean Jacques Rousseau believed ” man are born free”, he believed that society and rules constrained man and their animalistic natural state. He thinks that man should be allowed to live free off their impulses. However he does concede that civil liberty does have its advantages as impulse can be used in line with reason and logic, this being a positive outcome from obeying rules and becoming part of a community. In his essay he goes on to say that to give up freedom (i.e slavery) is to give up being a man. He relates this to kings conquering countries, and argues that as war is a fight between the two states and not individual men therefore the conquerer has no right to claim slaves as a reward for victory.
Rosseau is believed to be the equivellant to a modern day individual rights campaigner. He says that ” all men are born free”. With regards to property he thought that there was too much emphisis put on it and that property was something that belonged to everyone and not one person deserves to have acres of property as everyone is equal. In this respect he goes against thinkers like Hobbes who believes strongly in the value of property.
The right of the strongest is a section from Rosseau’s book that talks about the idea of having one leader. He thought that the physically strongest man of one community does not deserve to lead and make all the descions, as this should be the job of what he calls the; ‘general will’. His words were thought to have greatly influenced the forthcoming French revolution; because he said that everyone deserves to be equal and have their opinion heard as part of a group. This was considered to be the defintion of freedom, however if you were in the minority and were part of the few who disagreed with the general will of the public you could be ‘forced to be free’. It was these words that were read by revolutionists in France and lead to a bloody uprise across the country.
In summary I beleive that Rousseau was in a small way a hypocrite. He beleived in freedom and equal rights however if anyone were to go against the general will they were forced to agree thusly they were no longer free or equal. It could argue that this makes his logic very flawed and asinine.

News agenda; Financial Times & Wave FM

The first thing that grabs my attention is the sources used by the Financial Times. They seem to source alot of their quotes, stories and opinion polls from Reuters. This is what is expected as Reuters is one of the most recognised and established news distrabuters in the World. The world news that they supply in regards to Politics and Finance appeals directly to the target audience.
The target audience seems to be aimed at upper managment types, and people who work in citys possibly running a business themselves. This seems to be the case as alot of the financial sections relate to changes in the stock market which can effect businesses. The newspaper is also very politically angled, both nationally and globally, therfore it may be aimed at auidiences who have a strong interest in political affairs. At times it assumes a certain amount of knowledge from the reader; there is alot of political jargon used that requires some pragmatical understanding of the situation.Furthermore The Fincancial Times use alot of statistics and figures to get their point across for example;
‘‘(a -21 percent negative balance),but private sector-services’ prospects were up plus 11’’.
This also shows that the paper assumes a knowledge of employment figures.
The newspaper is divided up into; National news, World news, Comment and analysis. There is also a seperate Companies and Market section. The paper has aimed the seperate Companies and Market section at the audience soley interested in changes in the market and business takeovers etc. By this seperation they clearly show that they are aiming at the business minded person.
Wave Fm report on largely local based news stories, and tend to link national/global news with local events. Some of their stories are sorced from papers such as the Daily Mail in which they have taken quotes from. A large portion of their news seems to be taken from other Newspapers with very few direct interviews with Wave FM themselves.
The news is aimed at the south coast, with stories coming out of; Bournemouth,Portsmouth,Southampton etc. With this in mind alot of stories revolve around local events such as NHS Portsmouth being too busy. They attract the local audience by linking National news ( Soldiers being killed in Iraq) and A memorial service for a Soldier killed from Fareham.

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison in his trip to the Royal exchange takes an observant look at the way in which mankind is seperated by nature and also brought together. He goes on to talk about how one item of food needs spice from a completely different part of the world. He also observes that the Royal Exchange in London brings everyone together and is great in the way that is supplies the poor with commerce and money. In my opinion there is a slight patronising undertone in what he is talking about; he makes seems to be saying that all the lowley people selling spices etc. are only able to make a living because of London and Great Brtitain. Although he talks about bring the rich and poor together it seems as if he is trying to make the point that only the rich will benefit. His condesending tone matches his personality of being a whig, enjoying extravagent tea parties and making whitty observations about what he has seen in the day. These sort of people surrounded themselves with like minded people, therefore it seems as if anyone who spoke any different from him or his social group would be considered an idiot.
Away from the British exchange, Joseph Addison was a very intelectual man who believed in methodical thnking. Methodical thinking and writing is something that Addison deeply believed in; he seems to think that method in discourse when talking and writing is essential to give superiority over the less educated commoners.

The Crimean war and the telegraph

The Crimean war fought in the lands by the black sea from 1853 to 1856 was important for many historical and political reasons. However it was also the first war that had news reported back to Britain the next day. This was a huge technological breakthrough that transformed the way in which news was reported. The Crimean war was fought between the allied countries of; France, Britain, Turkey, the Ottoman Empire and later Sardinia against Russia. The Russians occupied land previously controlled by Turkey, after withdrawal negotiations broke down Turkey declared war on Russia. Turkey was quickly swept aside by Russia before Britain and France arrived securing vital victories such as that at the Alma River. The British army suffered great loses not only in battle, but to diseases such as Malaria loosing over 8,000 men when first entering Turkey.
The idea of telegraphing information first came about in the early 1800’s. Samuel Morse was credited with making the first working model in 1835, hence the term; ‘Morse code’. In late 1854 the Government in London created a military telegraph detachment for the Army commanded by an officer of the Royal engineers. The telegraph worked over long distances using wires placed on horse-drawn carriages in areas of the Crimea. Lieutenants were given twenty-four miles of copper wire as well as; two telegraph wagons, a cable cart and a plough. With this equipment Morse code was used to report information over great distances, something that was not possible before. British engineers designed cables that would stretch across the floor of the black sea; information would be sent through these cables to Bulgaria and from there to landlines to London. This meant up to the minute reporting, whereas before it would take days for such information to be sent across Europe.
One of the most influential and important reporters of the time was William Howard Russell an Irish reporter with The Times, who was considered to have been one of the first modern warfare correspondents. He reported his twenty-two month coverage of the Crimean war back the British people. What he wrote caused uproar amongst the British public as, for the first time; regular civilians were shocked by the realities of warfare. William Howard Russell would often talk of the gory details surrounding battles, and make it clear that there was a lack of ambulance care for wounded soldiers. Williams work received a varied response from readers; Queen Victoria talked of how the reporting of the horrific war events reflected badly on the British army. The reports that were read in The Times lead to an attack on the way in which the Army was being run and lead to an inquiry into the condition of the Army. As messages where able to reach London and within minutes, people were made aware of a Florence Nightingale a heroic nurse who often criticised the medical treatment that British soldiers received.
The telegraph led the way for modern-day war reports; almost instant messages could be sent to newspapers and this was to revolutionise the way in which news was reported.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/
http://www2.armynet.mod.uk/museums/royalsignals/displays/crimean_war.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Russell
http://distantwriting.co.uk/telegraphwar.aspx
http://home.clara.net/rod.beavon/samuel.htm

Radio News day 4

With obesity rates quadrupling over the last 25 years, and two thirds of UK adults currently overweight there are no sings of the problem going away.

Luke Prangle, personal trainer and owner of Jogging on gym in Winchester gave his opinion on what could be done to combat the every growing problem.

http://www.edublogs.tv/play_audio.php?audio=6830

Radio news day 3

With the the recession hitting every part of the budget, it has so far been the public that has had to sponsor the recovery.

There has been no change with the recent plans to plug the pensisons defecit in the Hampshire area. If the plans come to fruition then council tax will be raised across the county to reduce the debt.

Councillor Eileen Berry had this to say

http://www.edublogs.tv/play_audio.php?audio=6810

Radio news 2

With the local elections coming up in only a few months, it seems that many students are unaware of their ability to vote in Winchester.

Students are able to vote In the Winchester district if they have a residence in the area but few students know what exactly the rules are.

We spoke to councilour Ray Pearce to find out how he felt about educating students on voting.

http://www.edublogs.tv/play_audio.php?audio=6808

Radio news 1

With the country slowly climbing out of a recession local businesses in Winchester have struggled along side big plc companies alike.

However this is not always case, we spoke to local business woman Lynn who owns and manages Creative Crafts in Winchester, to get her personal insight in to how her business has coped.



http://www.edublogs.tv/play_audio.php?audio=6482