Media Law 6

Freedom of Information (FOI)

The freedom of information act 2000 gives the general public the right to information from public authorities including the government.

The freedom of information act is seen as a good thing for journalists as it allow them to uncover truths about subjects that the public otherwise wouldn't have known. Tony Blair's government brought in the act to give the government more transparancy however Mr Blair has openly regretted the move as many journalists have used it against the governments favour.

Public services covered include;
. Government departments
. Local authorities
. National health service bodies
. Schools, colleges, and universities
. The police
. The houses of parliament
. The Northern Ireland assembley; and
. The National assembley for Wales

McNae's Essential law for journalists states;

Any person (icluding a journalist) who makes a request in writing to a public authority for information must be told wheter the authority holds that information and must be supplied with the information he is seeking, unless an exemption applies. However, in the majority of cases where an exemption applies, the public authority will then have to consider whether the information must be released in the public interest.


Reference: McNae's essential law for journalists 19th edition.

Media law 5.

Copyright

A short but sweet lecture and helpful nonetheless!

Copyright, according to McNae's, covers people's: skill, creativity, labour or time.

For a journalist this will cover video output as well as written articles.

It is important to note that a whole varitety of things are covered from; music, dance moves, written words, adverts, costume designers and so on.

Copyright gives the person rights to whatever it may be, for example music will belong to the artist and producers.

Fair dealings

Copyrighted work can be used for the uses of criticism or review, for example when reviewing a movie and this does not infringe the law. However people must be careful that they credit the makers of the film in this case, you must make it clear that the work has been done by somebody else.

media law 2

Reporting in courts.

The two main issues you want to stay clear of are; contempt of court and prejudice. Basically if anything is reported that may sway the juries mind for example calling the defendant a thug could make the jury (who are supposed to be impartial) think differently. This would be contempt of court which is punishable by jail. so don't do it.

Before a trial has begun however, you can report on some aspects of the case such as:

Names, age and occupation of the defendant.
Magistrate and courts name
Bail arrangements
Barristers/lawyers
Wheather or not there was legal aid

When the case is active you can then be found in contempt of court, the case is active when;

A person has been arrested, or a warrant for his arrest has been issued, or a summons has been issued, or if a person has been charged orally.

The case ceases to become active when;

.The arrested person is released without police charge (except on police bail)
. No arrest is made within 12 months of the issue of the warrant
. The case is discontinued
. The defendant is acquitted or sentanced
. He is found unfit to be tried, or unfit to plead, or the court order the charge to lie on file.

The courts are keen to stress that everybody has the right to a fair trial and that the media should not affect this.

Court reporting must be as always; fast, accurate and fair. The story must be printed without prejudice it must have accurate details and be printed on the first available issue.

People who are victims of sex crimes such as rape, and children involed in sex crimes should be treated with caution as they are guranteed anonimity and their names should never be reported.

Magistrates courts can give out these sentances;

.6 months Jail time
. Fines up to £5,000
. Suspended sentance
. Community orders
. Asbo's

References; McNae's Essential law for journalists 19th edition

Media Law 1

Basic court structure, Basic Law.

In England and wales:

At the lowest level you have;

Magistrates court - Tribunals

Crown Court - County Court (Split in to criminal and civil respectively)

High court

Court of Appeal (split in to Civil and criminal divisions)

The supreme court - The top of the pile where for all appeals.

Break Down

Magistrates court:

All criminal cases in England and Wales start in the magistrates courts.

Indicitable offences are sent to the crown court

Triable either way cases can be at crown or county court.

Cases heard by JP (Justice of the peace)

Crown Court;

The most serious offences are sent here, for example; Murder, Rape, Section 18 wounding etc.

Cases heard by a Judge and Jury.

They hear cases from magistrates court
They deal with cases sent for sentance from the magistrates court
They try indictable offences such as those mentioned above.

County Court;

Deal with civil law.

Cases such as contracts and common law torts are dealt with at country court, such as claiming compensation money.

High court;

Deals with civil cases, and listens to appeals from the crown court. It is split up in to the following divisions;

Family Divison - Deals with divorce, adoption etc.

The Queens Bench Division - Deals with large compensation cases also listens to some appeals from crown or magistrates court

Chancery Division - Deals with wills, winding up orders etc.

Court of Appeal;

Deals with Criminal and civil appeals from crown courts and County courts respectively.

Supreme court;

Deals with cases that are appealed from the court of appeal in civil and criminal cases.

The European court of justice is what cases are reffered to when involving Eurpean law, this is the only court above the supreme court that cases can go to. The European court of Human rights is a court which deals with cases of human rights, where someone thinks a case can't be solved in the national system.

References;

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_rights/legal_system/courts_of_law.htm#high_court

McNae's essential law for journalists 19th addition

Winol 16/11/11

Good headlines.

The in studio debate was a good idea and made a change from the usual introduction of a package. The questions are good however it didn't come across as natural coverage like Gareth and Becky were having a conversation. I think this was the idea however it was just Becky reading from a sheet and came across a bit strange to me.

Lou's Package is very good, however to a simpleton like myself it is a big confusing. I'm not really sure about services being cut and merged I think it is a bit hard to explain to your average Joe. The first interview is framed well, however the second is a bit awkward the man is sort of staring in to no where towards the camera he needs to turn to his right to be better framed. But over all a good package.

The pedophile story is a bit long, Flick delivers the information needed very well and is well framed in the shot. However there is a lack of cutaways which is understandable, but it makes the package drag out a bit, possible better in a OOV. Also there is a shot of the court that pops up after Flicks sing off, maybe a technical issue.

The parking story is a good local story, all be it a bit dull it is relevant to our audience a good mix of shots keeps the viewer interested. Lee has done well to get the interview, who gives a good quote asking why the prices are being raised giving his opinion. The interview with the councillor gives balance explaining the reason for the rise.

The festival story Good use of natural sound at the start. And lets face it, it is a shameless promotion for Winchester University.

The University App is an interesting story, and maybe could of been made in to a longer package maybe with some vox-pops as this story directly affects students. This appeals directly to our target market.

SPORT. The Totton package had to dominate sport as it was such a big story. It was well covered and edited. Stefan Brown interview was good, but as Angus said, he had set a world record for the fastest goal ever scored off the bench so this could have been focused on more. Possibly with a follow up feature after scoring the hat trick.

The final story is good again some shameful self promotion but still a interesting story. The shots of Aaron talking into the microphone then talking over that from the first part of his interview was a bit confusing. The interview with Joy carter was well framed and it is good to get her opinion the charity radio show.

ICE HOCKEY- Much of the same from me again. I feel I am starting to master the ice Hockey packages. As it was low scoring game I didn't get a chance to use a score counter in the corner. I did a feature where I travelled to the Bison's home ground and did two interviews and got on the ice myself. I decided to make it funny as it will be better to watch. I did a fast paced scene of of me putting the gear on then cut to a slow motion of me walking out of the Bison curtains. Then a few shots of me falling over! I made sure that I over did it with the comedy side so that it was obvious it was a jokey thing rather than serious as it couldn't be half serious and half funny as I think this wouldn't look right. For one of the interviews I asked about the fighting aspect of the game as this allowed me to put archive footage of fighting over the interview. This made it a little bit more light hearted as the cut aways were interesting as the subject of fighting isn't too in depth and I think is interesting to the viewer. The only thing that I was not happy with was the amount of time I had on the ice. I would have liked longer and to got more shots of me doing different things on the ice but we simply did not have time. Furthermore I tried to get some shots of the camera being sprayed by skates but it didn't work and again we didn't have time to film it because we could only be on the ice for 15 minutes.

Winol 09/11/11

Another good bulletin The top story in London, very good that Tom recored a peice to camera to use in case the live feed didn't work which of course it didn't! Always good to have back up and the information was short but sweet.

Julie has done very well again to get an MP on the bulletin. A good mix of interviews with shots of him talking at what looked like a press conference. The news team have been told to get quotes e.g. Huhne saying 'we can't go around having referendums every week' and Julie has done this again and seems to be very good at doing this, aspiring journalists take note! It is all about the quote.

Lou's housing story starts with his explanation which is very clear, the shots of Barton farm are in all honestly a bit boring but there isn't much else that can be done as this is what the story is about. Technically the second interview needs to be decentred and could be tighter, but over all the story is a good local story explained well by Lou who has a very interesting voice which is nice to listen to and keeps you interested.

Lee has done very well again. Another interesting local story which is well put together. The second interview is very good as it follows the structure of information in Lee's voice and comment from the school teacher who is very happy about schools receving money and gives her opinon. And it is a nice shot to finish on with the teacher drawing on the board.

On to sport.

The Map graphic for the olympic story is a good idea as it is much more interesting that just saying it over some shots of sport. A good idea to have Mikey presenting it as having somebody physically talking about it and showing the route makes it much more interesting. A nice link in to the fencing story, well done on getting the interview. Hoever it is a bit short, and as Chris said it would have been nice to see Mikey getting involved putting the gear on and having a go himself, but some nice shots of the fencing taking place is interesting to watch.

The OOV's are good, I think that not showing the long football highlights is better for the show in general as I'm sure a lot of people don't like football (I Can't understand why) and could switch off if it's too long. I think in the past it has been and having it shortened down keeps those who are predominately watching for the news locked on.

Flicks story as mentioned probably missed out on focusing more on the twins graduating, however I think she did well to get the twins graduating together on the same course etc. for an interview. This is still very interesting to hear, and although it didn't focus on them Flick did well to get them in the package. Technically some of the pictures look a bit too white, but the story is well put together again and has some good shots of happy students throwing their hats up which is good to see!

My contribution for the week was Ice Hockey again this time the Peterborough Phantoms were in town to face Basingstoke. Not one of my best and probably one of my worst! Looking back over the package I think that my voice over is not as enthusiatic as it could be and has been in the past. I think that I could swell up the sound a bit more when the Bison score, the only problem being that the crowd are sometimes too loud... which will need me to turn downt he sound on the actual recording. I think it is important to get crowd sound in as it gives the viewer an idea of the atmosphere that was at the game. Unfortunately I ran out of tape and when in over time I missed the game winnng goal that the Bison scored with only 19 seconds left. I had old tapes but did not check if they were re-wound which meant my tape cut out about 10 seconds before they scored. I managed to cover it with some clever commentary but I was very dissapointed that I missed it as it was completely my fault, however you live and you learn and I will make sure this doesn't happen again! Over all it was not my best work and I shall look to improve and be more enthusiastic with my next package.

And a special mention to George for presenting very well especially for his first time. And Cara very well done again very natural you don't ever seem to look nervous, impressive stuff.

Media Law 4

Confidentiality/Privacy

1.Confidentiality - Official secrets act and test of condfidentiality, You cannot diclose information without lawful permission. People may pass on information to journalists in confidence, and they have the right to expect this not to be passed on to anyone else.

2. Privacy - Dispute between Article 8 of the human rights act; the right to respect for private and family life, his home and correspondence And artcile 10; the right to freedeom of expression

3. In the public Interest - NOT just the interest of the public. Article 8 says that you have the right to privacy, however when you discover something that is in the interest of the public they have the right to know for example when;

.Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety
.Protecting public health and safety
.Preventing the public from being mislead by action or statement of an individual or organisation.

For example it could be argued that if an MP is portraying themselves as a family man for which they have a private life to, however if they are caught having an affair then this may be of interest of the public. The people who voted for the MP have a right to know as they are representing their constituency.

Also it is important to remeber that people have the right to privacy so you should always be sure that you have permssion to use what someboday has said or film them. In situations such as demonstrations such as we have seen recently, these people are in public looking for attetion for their cause so to a degree they can expect to be filmed. This is what is known as implied consent as staging big public events is not a private matter.


The Official secrets act (1911) ELIMINATES the public interest defence.

If somebody reveals secret information to a journalist, this has the potential to be ' third party breech' injuctions can be put on to stop publication. An injucntion gives the person anonomity. A super injuction means that nothing can be said at all, there is effectively no story.

A Breech of confidence happens when;

- It has to be ''the necessary quality of confidence''
- There has to be circumstances imposing an obligation
- There was no permission to pass on information
- Detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave the information.

Winol 02/11/11

WINOL a good show once again with some very interesting stories.

The pick of the bunch being the Steve Brine interview by Julie, my personal opinion anyway. The Brine interview made the show look very professional with a MP talking about his 'rebellion,' great stuff! One criticism I would have is the headline strap said ' he's a rebel' and in the clip of Brine talking he says ' I don't see myself as a rebel '. Brine gives his opinion on Europe; saying it's bad and the facts are in Julie's voice; talking about the MP's voting on Europe. Good work Julie on getting the interview in the first place outside parliament, It can't have been easy.

The Farage interview is good, the story of question time coming to winchester is not package worthy but it's good that we have followed the story and spoke to Farage linking it with the European referendum. He says some interesting things 'it's a disaster for the north and south of Europe' very good!

The occupy Bournemouth story is good as it's a global issue on a local scale. The shots of the sign with lots of writing on it was a bit confusing however the shots of the protestors painting the signs were good as we actually see people doing things. The interviewee's were good and added a personal feel to it. Also the update is a good idea and worked well, however I think that although it is obvious Ali is reading it would look better if the paper was actually in the shot to make it really obvious for the battery chickens as chris would put it.

The Rubbish story lacks a variety of shots for me. There are only a few bins outside a house and some big red ones. I think that if the rubbish situation is so bad we need to see laods of bins over flowing and if possible more than one house on a street with uncollected rubbish. However the base of the story is good, the facts in Lee's voice and the resident saying how bad it is. George Beckett apolagising is priceless! to get a councillor saying sorry is great and it doesn't happen every day!

The Laser story is interesting, and explained well without being too technical so that everyone can understand it. Would have been good to see Tom suited and booted but the story is good and the interview, however I think that the interviewee is facing too far away from the camera. It looks good when the person your interviwing is at a slight angle but I think he is facing too far away.

Well presented by keegan and Champion very natural and calm.






SPORTS good stuff once again; a lot of footage and some interesting cup ties! The non league teams progressing that far is great for their fans and draw in much more viewers than our normal league matches (or at least it should do). I think that the sport is possibly a bit too long for the bulletin, and believe me from an aspiring sports journalist this pains me to say it! But realistically I can see how people tuning in for news would get bored of watching premiership football let alone blue square south football and Ice Hockey! As mentioned in the de-brief the winol woodwork is probably too long. A short clip and a advertisement to sportsweek would have been better.






BASINGSTOKE BISON. A decent game with seven goals making it much easier to make interesting that the 1-0 fiasco I had the week before! I Was happy with the over all package and am continuing to try and improve my voice however I feel that it was maybe lacking a little bit. I want to get the variation in my voice that is interesting for the viewer to listen to. I also left slightly more in the build up play to show the viewers more of the game. Also I think this would make it less confusing to what is going on and what the score is! I had toyed with the idea of using a goal counter in the corner so that the viewer doesn't get confused. The reason I haven't is that I think it could look a bit tacky but may experiment with it in the future! I had a slight problem with the sound leading up to the last goal as I tried to blend it in with the last clip but it didn't work as well as I had hoped and there was a slight jump in the volume. I don't think it was that obvious but I noticed and I was not happy with it.

Winol week four

A one nil thriller was my exciting game for this week action packed and full of chances......or not.

For the first time we had two cameras at the Planet ice arena to see the Bison take on the Milton Keynes Lightning. I was accompanied by the beautiful and talented Henry 'the hoover' Lewin-Titt.

OF COURSE, this would be the only game I have been to so far that ended in at the least with five goals on the board. The extra angle provided us with a shot from behind the goal which I think improves the coverage very much giving it a much more professional feel. Once again I had a problem with my auto focus, it seemed to be focusing itself and when I moved sharply it was taking to long to re focus and I couldn't seem to get it off. This is something I'm sure I will have figured out when I am fully HD trained for next week. FORTUNATELY the only goal of the game was at the end that Henry was set up with his camera which I used for a slowed down replay. I feel this gave a much more professional feel, and it gives the viewer much more visual stimulation. It was hard to make in to an interesting package, through the lack of goals, but there were a few decent chances and I picked my best looking pictures only for the highlight reel. Again I didn't use shots of the teams warming up as I thought that this looked too much like a feature intro, instead I just extended my first highlight; showing more of the build up to the chance and putting my introduction voice over on that. On the whole I feel I made it pretty interesting considering there was only one goal I managed to stretch it out over a minute!

Michael Connolly, Winchester News Online

Media Law 3

Libel defences

To be found guily of Libel you must have done these three things;

.Defamation

.Identification

.Publication.

To defame someone what you said must have done one of the following:

. exposed him to hatred, ridicule, or contempt

.caused him to be shunned or avoided

.lower him in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally

.disparage him in his business, trade, office or profession.

Identifying is simply naming someone. This can be done accidently however, you must be careful not to name some facts that could lead to the identification of some body.

Publication is to one or more person. So a blog can be classed as publcation, it isn't just professionals that can get in trouble!

The defences against Libel are as follows;

Justification - basically to avoid any legal action you must simply prove that it is true such as calling someone a murderer if they have been convicted of it, and you are sorted!

Comment - Your personal opinion. It can be used as a defence as long as there is no malice and it has to be an opinion based on fact. For example you can say that John Terry is not that good at football, but you can't say he is rubbish at making pizza, because you probably haven't tried any of his pizza...I would of thought.

Qualified Privilege - The two types are; Common law Q.P. and Statutory Q.P.

Qualified;

Means you are above the law; a judge has absolute privilege in court. Also anything said in parliament is covered by Q.P.

As a journalist has Q.P. but it is limited. You can report what is said in court but it must be fast accurate and fair. This means it must be published as soon as possible and not sat on for weeks, it must be accurate to every detail and fair, not bias or anything of that sort.

You must include their plea and that the case is continuing.

Common law Q.P.

Some people should be allowed to say defamatory things for the common convenience of society.

For example a case of a soldier who shot and killed youths in Northern Ireland and got convicted of murder. Campaign groups to free him called the prosecuting IRA terrorists, they were allowed to say this for the common convenience of society.

The 10 point test was set out to give journalists a guideline when reporting cases.

1. The serious of the allegation

2. The nature of the information

3. The source of informtion

4. The steps taken to verify the information

5. The status of the information

6. Urgency of matter

7. Whether comment was sought from the claimant

8. Whether the article contained the fist of the claimants side of the story

9. The tone of the article

10. The circumstances of the publication.

Winol 19/10/11

Another Successful bulletin from the Winol team, and I would like to extend my most sincerest gratitude to every one who put the hard work in to make it happen... that didn't sound sincere but I assure you it was!

Julies Story on Hampshire police officers is first and foremost a great find and goes to show that you can uncover great stories simply by putting in an FOI request, well done Juilie! The graphic that Julie is standing in front of is very good and well put together. However I would criticise that the story does drag on a little bit too long and there are a lot of facts to take it. The script could be slightly shorter so that the facts can be absorbed easier.

Toms story has a good range of opening GV's that are engaging to watch. There is a change in the sound of the voice over though, I assume they were recorded separately, I know it's a bit nit picky but hey that's how a Don thinks! The interview is good and gets a good opinion out however it would be good to get he woman saying how unfair it is and how no one will be able to cope. A very good range of shots which is impressive!

The library oov is again another good local story that I think is suitable for an oov rather than a package.

The strike story is good to follow up on as it firstly gives a good story with not much work needed to revisit. Also it shows our viewer that we are keeping up to date with the story and that

The sports team excelled once again with a big and diverse range of sport to offer for both he bulletin and sports week. It is good to know that if needs be the news team can come to us to fill up the bulletin if stories have been dropped for any reason.

Sam and Henry did really well with their Boxing and Dodgeball features that were fun and interesting to watch and it shows they weren't afraid to experiment with and enjoy making their features.

I was once again on Ice Hockey once again at the home of the mighty Bison, who are still experiencing some unsteady form. I managed to overcome my problem of getting my white balance right for this game. The problem being the lighting changes from the warm up to the start of the game, and the camera takes a while to adjust to the change of light, this time I left it alone and I think it paid off. The game was exciting once again, and as the weeks go on I am getting more confident with my filming, and am attempting to get closer when I think there is a chance. There is always the possibility of loosing the puck when going in close, but I feel I am beginning to read the game better and am able anticipate when I need to zoom in on the action. With nine goals in the game it was going to be again full of action, I left the goals a little bit longer by including more of the build up play as I think the previous week it was a bit too fast paced. This also meant that the goals don't look too similar as they can do on a small playing ice rink. The pitch and tone of my voice was good again I think, but it still needs improvement possibly getting more animated when recording the voice over could help. I had a problem with the focus, I think it must have been set on auto focus as when I moved the camera quickly it would go out of focus and sometimes focus in on the railings when they got in shot. I need to check the settings more carefully to make sure this doesn't happen again. The sound recording was better also as I turned down the sound on the recording so it wasn't too loud. For next week I will try to improve my voice over to make it more enthusiastic and I think that will improve my package.

winol 12/10/11

The Bulletin was overall very much improved on the calamity that was last week with everyone in the news room and production generally working much harder and as a team.

Julies council cuts story is very good. However the first interview we hear about facts about jobs being cut rather than his opinion. At the end he says something like the council could do more I would like to hear more about him complaining. Julie has done well to get balance from the southampton councillor.

Tom's story is a good national story scaled down locally well by Tom. The sequence leading to the first interview is a bit too long I think this could have been mixed up with some different shots. The interview is good, However it could be framed tighter as it has his whole upper body in shot which isn't necessary. Also the cut away to him talking whilst he was still talking was a bit confusing. The second interview is very good the interviewee is clear and gets his point across well.

Louis, very hard to get GV's for this story I think maybe some more shots of people doing things inside. The first voice over is very good it gives us a clear idea of what is going on. The interviewee is is sitting down and looking up which looks a bit strange. I think that the woman working at the shelter should have given her view rather than just straight facts. The councillor says that the lib dems failed, this is a great thing to hear him say so well done for getting that out of him.

There was a few too many oov's, they could have been broken up as it could lead to the viewer getting a bit,well, bored!

Sport wise everyone managed to deliver again, and it is good to see that everyone is pulling their weight, because if one of us starts slacking it can have repercussions for the whole team.

My Ice Hockey piece included 13 goals which admittedly was a bit of a nightmare to pack into a maximum time slot of one minute thirty! It meant that I wouldn't be able to fit all the goals into my package. I took out two goals and used my voice over to explain that goals had been scored. Once again I think that my voice has improved along with my scripting, I tried harder this week to improve the tone on my voice, and as Ice Hockey is a fast intense sport I had to make the enthusiasm in my voice match that or it just wouldn't sound right.

I think that a few of the goals were a bit similar to each other which may have looked like I used the same shot but I can put everyone to rest and say that they were just almost identical goals! Angus mentioned that I could have had a bit more fun with it, which I agree with. I thought about making the voice over a bit exciting and being playful but as it was going in the bulletin I didn't want it to be too silly. Next time that two teams score that many goals I think I will try and be a bit more playful with the script rather than ' goal, goal, goal'. As I can now see that it was maybe a bit confusing to see that many goals and action within such a short space and time and really take it in! Also for my next piece I think I will use some natural sound at the start of the piece as it seems a waste not to use the natural sound that is really pleasing to the ear.

Flick's piece again needs to have the interviewee saying that it is amazing that this is happening rather than explaining the facts. The interviews are very well framed and hearing the scientist saying it's 'surreal' and 'awesome' is the kind of comment that is good to hear!

As I said the sports and news team have been great once again. Great to see every body working hard!

Winol 05/10/11

This week winol hit the air for the first official show after the dummy run. As far as sport the sports team is concerned I feel we all had very much to be proud of but could also improve in many areas as well.

The sport bulletin was very well delivered by Sam, with a clear and confident voice. Good to see that Sam came across confident as for the first time in front of the live cameras and full gallery can be very daunting.

On to the content. The OOV by mikey was very well shot with some good action shots. Dael's Eastleigh package was again well shot, with some good delivery on the commentary.

Personally I feel my Hockey package came together well for a first time effort. I found it difficult to follow the game at times as it is such a fast paced game. Luckily for me there was only five goals which made it easier to follow. I was particularly proud of one shot in particular in which i managed to follow the puck from the shot all the way to the goal, something I had been trying all game, this time it paid off maybe call it luck or skill I don't know but it looked good! The idea when putting it together was to try and make it as fast paced as possible as it is in real life. The sports gives you a chance to get some really exciting shots into your package and I feel visually I delivered, even managing to include a punch up near the end! I think that I have come a long way from my original sports packages in terms of my voice over. I tried to improve the delivery by changing my pitch and being more enthusiastic to make the intensity of the game. There is a long way to go in terms of perfecting my technique, but the delivery was definitely an improvements on previous work.

An interesting point was made by guest editor was that she felt we could expand our sport to include more of a wider audience. I agree in the sense that we do isolate anyone who doesn't support Eastlleigh, Basingstoke or Winchester. However we do get large viewings from Basingstoke football fans who rely on our service to watch there favourite team in action. That being said I think it would help if we had more sports news stories that will appeal to a wider audience. Expanding our sport coverage to Ice Hockey has prove our intent. If we can keep improving on our current sport coverage and include some more sport news then we should keep the viewing numbers rising!

HCJ revision notes

1. Outline the verification principle as part of the school of thought known as logical positivism, how might this be applied to journalism.

· The verification principle basically means that if something cannot be verified than it is neither true nor false but just nonsensical. For example a certain moral or ethical belief cannot be proved though means of collecting data or science so its nonsensical
· Ludwig Wittgenstein says that there is no point in talking about things that you can’t prove as it makes no sense.
· Solipsism- people should only talk about things that exist in their world. Some people believe that our minds make up the world so we should only talk about what out actual mind can see rather than things like heaven and hell which can’t be proved.
· In relation to journalism, by following these ideas it means that people will believe only what they see. If someone tells a journalist a story they need to be 100% sure that it is true and before they see it in the world they perceive then they is no point publishing or broadcasting it. Furthermore it must be able to be proved to be true or it is pointless talking about it according to logical positivism. So only when a fact enters your world and you see it can it be considered real, which would avoid any false information being released.


2. What is phenomenology can there be a subjective reality or subjective truth, what standards ought a journalist apply.

· Kant believes that things exist only when we perceive them and that they are only there when we look at them.
· Kant would say that there is a thing in itself ( Noumena) such as a table but it only really exists once we use our senses and perceive it (phenomena)
· Other thinkers such as Locke and Hume think that objects in the world are always there regardless of whether we perceive them. (empirical thinkers)
· Phenomenology is creating things with your mind, the idea that we will the world to exist by thinking of it.
· In existentialism, the intentions that we have make the world, and solipsism is the idea that we can change what we see with our thinking.
· In relation to journalism, a journalist should apply the idea that truth and reality are not always the same. There are things in the world that are true but we must experience them for ourselves to know if they are real or not. Kant thinks that you can have a priori knowledge about some things in the world, which I think is true, but we must experience the noumenal world to understand it.

3. Describe JM Keynes ideas on monetary policy with an indication of how the Keynesian ‘revolution’ came about. Does this lead to social regression, moral failure and serfdom as Hayek asserts.
· Economists try to see world from non phenomenological way
· The depression of the 30’s brought it about (Keynesian revolution)
· In the war the government printed worthless money for total employment.
· The multiplier; people get a pointless job, spend their wages in a shop the person who works in the shop can buy things now etc. Etc. Money makes the world turn.
· Keynes wanted to boost aggregate demand, and thought government should increase spending rather than saving to boost recovery.
· Keynes thinks government spending to keep people employed will keep the flow of cash going round which is key.
· Keynes thinks that even if a country has no gold they should print money and keep people employed.
· Thought the government should intervene to avoid severe unemployment.
· Since the recession of 2008 started, the government has seen a return to a more Keynesian like policy.
· Says that peoples spending will catch up with the new money supply. The key is that people spend and buy what the economy in producing without jobs this isn’t possible.
· Keynes wanted to control the market whereas Hayek wanted them to be free.
· Hayek thinks that saving is the right thing to do and Keynes ideas lead to radical movements in society ‘serfdom’

4. ‘Facts in logical space are the world.’ Tractatus Do you agree?
· It rejects Metaphysics
· Says that there is no ideal form, no noumena, the world is just made of facts that are in our mind
· Facts make the world, I agree as facts are the truth and represent everything in the world.
· Without facts the world could not exsist. FACT.
· Without facts we cannot verify things as we have nothing to compare it to so otherwise everyone is chatting nonsense.
· The world consists of facts which is the basis for logical thinking.
· People have different opinions of the world but the facts are there and cannot be changed.


5. Choose a movement or thinker we have discussed who has affected journalism.

Wittgenstein’s ideas on logical positivism sticks in my mind and not just because it was the most recent thing we studied. He says in the Tractatus that; ‘there are no grounds for believing that the simplest eventuality will actually be realized.’ He uses an example of the sun rising saying that just because it rose doesn’t mean it will again the next day. I have my own example of crossing a road; you look left and right and right again seeing that the road is clear. However this doesn’t mean a drugged up nutcase on a bank robbery get away job can’t come down the wrong side of the road and hit you from the left! The point is you can never assume anything even if it really is the simplest occurrence that happens every day, facts must be checked as they make up the world. You cannot talk about things you don’t actually know and can yourself verify. One of, if not, the biggest mistakes a journalist can make is to get their facts wrong. This is why we must always believe only what we see and can prove, also this school of thought has allowed me to rely on myself and trust myself more in life as well as journalism as I can prove myself what is true and not rely on a next man gassing it.

QPR FA hearing

Like many Queens Park Rangers fans I have been sweating at the thought of QPR losing out on automatic promotion as champions.

The question that seems to be being asked all over the internet is; is it fair?

Is it fair to dock a team points, strip them of the title they have won on the pitch beating teams 11 v 11 for 90 minutes? As a fan I am naturally bias and say no, of course the squad have done nothing wrong and have nothing to do with transfer deals. The squad that won enough points to mathmaticlly secure promotion deserve their title as champions.

IF and that is a big IF, the board or individual staff are found of any intentional wrong doing then they should be punished. It doesn't seem fair to strip the players, and fans to some extent, of what they have rightfully won. Lets put it this way if a big multi-million pound company were found to be in breach of some trading rules, would the staff be fined? Would the employee of the month get thier plaque taken off the wall because of some fidling of the finances rom the boys upstairs? Of course they Wouldn't the people who did wrong would be punished. And IF the qpr board are found to be in breach of the Leauges rules is it fair to demean all the hard work of the football players? These are the questions the FA may be thinking about now as I type.

The other issue surrounding the alleged charges is the somewhat rediculous timing of the FA to have the inquest. The player in question was signed ion 2009, yet the final descion on the clubs fate has been brought against the club ONE day before the end of the footballing season. The FA seem to have been alerted about the problem a good few months ago and yet the case happens in the last week! If qpr were to be deducted points earlier in the season they at least would of known what was needed for promotion. Because of this reason the FA may have to think carefully about what punishment they give out as in the eyes of the public they may have seen to have been very incompitant. Also the desicion could open an entirely new can of worms; throwing the play offs in to a complicated mess.

To your everyday sports fan, the charges brought against the club are very difficult to understand unless you have some sort of legal background. However if QPR have been in breach of the rules, this fan hopes that a heafty fine will be sufficient to punish any wrong doing.

Tractatus

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in to a wealthy Austrian family, and he served in the Austrian Army in the First World War. He started Work on the Tractatus towards the end of the First World War. He studied engineering at Manchester which led to an interest in maths and philosophy. Ludwig was a student of Russell Bertrand, and learnt a lot from him; however a lot of his ideas laid out in the Tactatus seem to differ from that of his teacher, even pointing out faults in his logic. The book talks about logical positivism, and the connection between language and thought. He talks about the way in which the world works through language.
Ludwig’s theory is based on the way in which language is used in the world, and says that language is everything and everything is language. He says that without language the world cannot exist, and that logic is the structure of reality. Ludwig says that things can be true or false but also nonsensical, which is something that can’t be proved to be true or false therefore it simply makes no sense. Wittgenstein says that things can only be said that are true about the factual world, anything else is nonsensical such as a certain moral or ethical belief as it cannot pass the verification principle. He goes on to say in the book that the problem with a lot of philosophers theories is their inability to understand language, which means by his theory, makes some of the theories that they put forward nonsensical. He says the world consists of, and is determined by facts. This is the basis for logical thinking; he says there are objects in the world that which make the world exist. He says that without language objects cannot be verified. Space time and colour are forms of objects.
Ludwig often talks about a proposition which is the way to communicate something through spoken or written word; it is made out of specific names in a particular logical form. A proposition is a logical picture of reality, an example of this would be saying ‘this house is red’. There are types of propositions such as tautologies which are true and contradictions which are false. He says; ‘a proposition is neither probable nor improbable, either an event occurs or it does not; there is no middle way.’ This could relate to everyday life as people often chat a load of nonsense, and Ludwig says that there are only two ways to decipher a statement it either happens or doesn’t. Ludwig also talks about states of affairs, States of affairs is the combination of objects or things. He says that the structures of a fact consist of the states of affairs. To try and simplify, a factual statement consists of a combination of objects that fit in to each other like a chain to make sense, however a state of affairs can only exist if the proposition itself is true and not false. He says that; ‘language disguises thought’, he says that a human can speak without actually knowing how the sound of speech is made. He makes the comparison of clothes covering a body saying that you can’t tell what exactly the body looks like as the clothes cover the true form of the body. This could mean that some people often talk about things that they really know nothing about, either through straight lying or just pretending they are knowledgeable on the subject and they use language to disguise what they are actually thinking.
When talking about pictures we get a clear idea about his views on fact and logic. He says that a picture is fact; a picture represents what it portrays in pictorial form only. A picture represents a possible situation in logical space. To know whether a picture itself is true or false we must ourselves compare it with our reality. This means that we can use our own mind and experiences to find out whether something is true or false. A picture only shows something that is fact but the truth of it we can only discover personally.
One of his key ideas was solipsism; he says that you cannot talk about anything other than what exists in your world. He goes on to say that; ‘there are no grounds for believing that the simplest eventuality will actually be realized.’ Wittgenstein thinks that there is no way of knowing if anything will happen just before it has happened before, or something else has happened. He seems to think that the world is only what you can see before you and that you can’t know anything else other than what you have experienced personally and therefore you cannot make assumptions about anything else in life. He says that people may have different impressions of the world; however the facts and objects in the world remain the same. One person can view the world as fun and exciting where as other may see it as corrupt and harsh; however the facts of the world from the ground we walk on to the air we breathe are still exactly the same.
Ultimately he is saying that we must use language to try and explore facts as people can lie or not know what they are talking about. Understanding language and logic, we can ourselves find the truth without having to rely on what people are saying we can determine it for ourselves. The book shows what exactly a factual statement must consist of such as propositions, tautology etc. Without these principles what someone is saying cannot be true, or will be nonsensical which isn’t necessarily false but just doesn’t make sense. The world cannot be verified without the use of language, every proposition that is true makes the world and we need language to verify and confirm what is true.

Wired Wessex event

Wired Wessex hosted a talk on Mind mapping on the twenty fourth of February, in an impressive newly refurbished Walton suite in Winchesters Guildhall. The event was held for local small business to give them the opportunity to see if mind mapping could benefit their company, as well as being able to network with other businesses. Many people will be wondering what exactly mind mapping is, well to simplify; it is essentially a way of organising anything from your business to your blog or even what daily tasks you need to carry out. The event that saw about fifty people attend, ranging from small to medium business owners, saw Andrew Wilcox gave a talk about the advantages of using mind mapping software to improve business productivity. Mind mapping is very similar to what most people will recognise as ‘brain storming’, writing down ideas on paper to help with a project such as an essay. Mind mapping allows you to put your ideas down on a vast database in your computer. Also you can link your ideas to websites, as well as to other mind maps. The people that attended the talk were impressed by the idea of mind mapping; Jane Michel, a local business woman, said ‘they research their audience by looking at the guest list and pull out appropriate points; I’d recommend the events to any local business’. Wired Wessex will be holding there next event on March 10th at the slug and lettuce in Winchester. For more information on wiredwessex events visit; www.wiredwessex.co.uk

Tractatus Logico-philosophicus notes

Ludwig was born in to a wealthy Austrian family, served in the Austrian Army in the first world war. Worked on Tractatus towards the end of the first world war. Inherited money but gave a lot away to Austrian writers and artists, very patriotic. Says that logic represents the structure of reality. Says that objects can be analyzed as they are the truth in existence. When comparing to other philosophers theories he says that a lot of the problems arise from the philosopher’s inability to understand language. Which makes their questions ‘non senseical so they can’t be right. The world is determined by facts. This is the basis for logical thinking, in the world facts exsist. Objects exist in the world which make it real Space, time and colour are forms of objects The structure of a fact consists of the structures of states of affair. The state of affairs is the combination of objects or things. So a factual statement consists of a combination of objects, that fit in to each other like a chain to make sense. A picture is a fact. A picture represents a possible situation in logical space. A picture represents what it portrays in its pictorial form only. Whether it is true or false is different to what the picture itself represents. To know whether a picture is true or false we must compare it with reality, but we can’t tell if a picture is true or false just from looking at it. A thought is true if you have no knowledge of anything to compare it to. So if you have a thought then it is true if you don’t know anything to contradict that thought apriori. ‘Language disguises thought.’ Wittgenstein says that language and be spoken by a human without the person knowing exactly how the sound of what they are saying is made. He compares clothes covering a body. You cannot tell what a body looks like as the clothes cover the true form of the body. This could mean that people can say things to cover what they really mean like lying or just not knowing what the f they are talking about. In other words some people just Gas a load of hot air not knowing what they truly mean hence disguising the thought. Wittgenstein says that things can only be said that are factual about the world. Things can’t be said that cannot be proven such as a certain moral belief. Ultimately he is saying that we must use language to try and explore facts as people can lie or not know what they are talking about. Understanding language and logic, we can ourselves find the truth without having to rely on what people are saying we can determine it for ourselves.

The new industrial state

· People are given jobs to provide for the economy, building things like roads is only done so money can be put back in to the economy.

· Thinks that population effects economic growth the kids you have the less money goes into the economy.

· Says tax rates are there so that rich people’s money goes to the poor who will spend it and put it back into the economy.

· Power is held by landowners who make capital from having the land.

· In the industrial world we live in, individualism means nothing as people must be working in teams like in factories producing things

· Corporations can’t overrule groups but can overrule individuals.

· The individual must be made to think that by working for the organisation they will benefit in some way. They must think that if they can achieve the organisations goals then they can someway improve themselves.

· Advertising is used to control demand, to increase it so that there is more supply more people buying things thus more money going into the economy

· TV and radio advertising helps demand greatly

· Firms have to appeal to the inner desire of the consumer. As technology advances more skilled workers are needed to operate machines etc.