Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the readers of this blog.
As my gift to you, here's a funny little story with a mild relation to Christmas.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8222526/Father-Christmas-arrests-Italian-mafioso.html
See you in the new year.
Stay Classy Internet x
Saturday 25 December 2010
Thursday 23 December 2010
Media Law - Sheridan Case
The Tommy Sheridan case is finally over and the 46-year old former MSP has been found guilty of lying in a defamation case in court (perjury). All the details in the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12059037
Good stuff for our media law studies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12059037
Good stuff for our media law studies.
Saturday 18 December 2010
The Philosophers Song
As it's the end of the semester I thought I'd treat any readers of this blog to something different. In fact, you could say 'and now for something completely different' as it's Monty Python's Philosophers Song.
Link here--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNDTUUmz_9s
It just made sense after a long hard semester in which we learnt a hell of a lot about philosophers to learn just the one more detail about them.
Link here--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNDTUUmz_9s
It just made sense after a long hard semester in which we learnt a hell of a lot about philosophers to learn just the one more detail about them.
Saturday 11 December 2010
Journalism Now - BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 began in 1967, evolving from the Light Programme and took much of its programming from the former when Radio 1 was launched to house much of the popular music broadcasting. The channel has gone from strength to strength in recent years currently labelling itself as “The Nation’s Favourite” as it has more listeners on average than any other radio station. The audience for BBC Radio 2 for example is 13,682,000 compared to 11,647,000 for Radio 1[1].
Much of its broadcasting can be described as AOR or Adult contemporary, although the station is still well thought of for its broadcasting of other more specialist musical genres such as the programme God’s Jukebox, presented by Mark Lamarr and covering genres as wide ranging as Soul, Ska, Reggae, Country, Gospel and Rap from the last 70 years. Unfortunately the show will be finishing its run by the end of 2010 with Lamarr leaving in protest at the direction in which the station is going.
As a BBC station there are no adverts at any time in the programming so we cannot determine the audience this way, but it is thought to have mainly adult listeners aged 25 and above although it has attracted younger listeners as its playlist contains current chart hits, album and indie music.2 The station is quite hard to position in ABC1C2DE ranges because it has no available data on those statistics, but by listening to its output you could presume that its audience is in the ABC1C2 range although the station does have quite a wide ranging appeal. I put it in this bracket because I believe the combination of presenters are more appealing to an ABC1C2 audience than a DE audience, who may be more likely to listen to Radio 1 or no radio at all.
The news is an integral part of Radio 2’s programming and as such it has a particular news agenda that you cannot ignore whilst listening. As an example, I took a whole day to listen to Radio 2 and took notes on the news of that day; the most interesting thing I found was the difference between 10am and 11am as the stories changed order and items that took precedence in the 10am bulletin were much lower down just an hour later. Even more interestingly, the last story of the 11am bulletin (on the cutting of the number of skilled workers being let in to the country) was the top story by 5pm.
On the station the news is more likely to have an unbiased view than a newspaper such as The Independent or The Daily Mail because it is BBC based and so has a code of conduct to follow which prevents it from bias. Even so, the priority it gives to stories in a bulletin does reveal something about the station and what the BBC terms as important; for example, the day I listened to was the day the Royal Wedding was announced and despite the BBC having a long history with the Royal family, the story was fairly low down. In contrast the Daily Mail included a 16-page pull out and keep section about the Royal Wedding on the day after it was announced.
BBC Radio 2 will probably continue in its popularity with a core audience that has made it the most popular radio station in the country today. It has a good mix of programmes ranging from the usual radio fare with a presenter, some witty banter and some music to more intellectual pieces like Jeremy Vine’s weekday show, which actually includes some fairly hard hitting journalism between the AOR hits and radio jingles.
Sources:
[1] RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research)http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php
[2] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lamarr#Radio
Much of its broadcasting can be described as AOR or Adult contemporary, although the station is still well thought of for its broadcasting of other more specialist musical genres such as the programme God’s Jukebox, presented by Mark Lamarr and covering genres as wide ranging as Soul, Ska, Reggae, Country, Gospel and Rap from the last 70 years. Unfortunately the show will be finishing its run by the end of 2010 with Lamarr leaving in protest at the direction in which the station is going.
As a BBC station there are no adverts at any time in the programming so we cannot determine the audience this way, but it is thought to have mainly adult listeners aged 25 and above although it has attracted younger listeners as its playlist contains current chart hits, album and indie music.2 The station is quite hard to position in ABC1C2DE ranges because it has no available data on those statistics, but by listening to its output you could presume that its audience is in the ABC1C2 range although the station does have quite a wide ranging appeal. I put it in this bracket because I believe the combination of presenters are more appealing to an ABC1C2 audience than a DE audience, who may be more likely to listen to Radio 1 or no radio at all.
The news is an integral part of Radio 2’s programming and as such it has a particular news agenda that you cannot ignore whilst listening. As an example, I took a whole day to listen to Radio 2 and took notes on the news of that day; the most interesting thing I found was the difference between 10am and 11am as the stories changed order and items that took precedence in the 10am bulletin were much lower down just an hour later. Even more interestingly, the last story of the 11am bulletin (on the cutting of the number of skilled workers being let in to the country) was the top story by 5pm.
On the station the news is more likely to have an unbiased view than a newspaper such as The Independent or The Daily Mail because it is BBC based and so has a code of conduct to follow which prevents it from bias. Even so, the priority it gives to stories in a bulletin does reveal something about the station and what the BBC terms as important; for example, the day I listened to was the day the Royal Wedding was announced and despite the BBC having a long history with the Royal family, the story was fairly low down. In contrast the Daily Mail included a 16-page pull out and keep section about the Royal Wedding on the day after it was announced.
BBC Radio 2 will probably continue in its popularity with a core audience that has made it the most popular radio station in the country today. It has a good mix of programmes ranging from the usual radio fare with a presenter, some witty banter and some music to more intellectual pieces like Jeremy Vine’s weekday show, which actually includes some fairly hard hitting journalism between the AOR hits and radio jingles.
Sources:
[1] RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research)http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php
[2] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lamarr#Radio
The Independent - Journalism Now
The Independent was launched in 1986 and is one of the youngest national daily newspapers in the UK. It was first published on 7 October 1986 as a broadsheet by Newspaper Publishing plc and was created by three former journalists of The Daily Telegraph, Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds.
Its main focus was to challenge The Guardian for centre left readers and The Times as a newspaper of record. It launched with the slogan “It is. Are you?” attracting staff from Murdoch owned broadsheets who preferred not to move to Wapping. It sparked a price war and caused a shake up with its new design style[1].
Today it is struggling to survive in the economic climate and a difficult time in general for newspapers with its ownership having changed hands to a company controlled by Alexander Lebedev and Evgeny Lebedev, the father and son team having previously bought a controlling stake in London’s Evening Standard[1].
The paper’s political stance was intended to reflect the centre of the British political spectrum but is now thought to be tending towards left wing ideals making it The Guardian’s main competitor. On the eve of the most recent general election however it made its stance clear, advising “There is a strong case for progressively minded voters to lend their support to the Liberal Democrats.”[1]
On The Independent website it claims its readers are mostly male with 57%, this is also the same percentage whom the paper believes are solus readers; people who only read The Independent[2]. It places its readers in the ABC1 category which is not surprising considering the news agenda and even the price of the paper. When compared to the Daily Star at about 30p, £1 actually seems like quite a lot to pay for a newspaper.
The audience can also be discerned from the advertising with large adverts for brands such as House of Fraser or Waitrose, the paper is placing itself firmly in the ABC1 bracket. A page advert in colour in The Independent in a specified position is £16,660[3] so companies like Currys must think it worthwhile to advertise in the paper even with its small readership.
The audience profiles also suggest that most of their readers are professionals as 59% are in full time employment with 50% with degree level or higher in their education. A large majority as well are from the London and South East area[2].
The newspaper’s agenda ranges from political prisoners to climate change and often focuses on the stories like this that it sees as more ‘worthy’. You will not find celebrity based gossip in The Independent although you are more likely to find it on the website.
The Independent has also recently launched the ‘I’ newspaper which runs in conjunction with The Independent as its cheaper and more disposable cousin. The editorial is mostly similar and in fact on some days the articles that appear in The Independent find their way into the ‘I’; it just strikes me as odd however that a paper that is struggling to stay afloat has introduced yet another rival, one that is cheaper and more cost effective.
Like all newspapers and especially the ‘qualities’, The Independent’s circulation is dropping rapidly with 183,547 copies in circulation daily. This is down by 10.88% on the previous year. With this in mind it is difficult to see whether the newspaper can survive in the current economic climate or will the populist tabloids soon be the only papers we have.
Sources:
[1] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent
[2] The Independent Website http://www.independentonlinesolutions.com/advertisingGuide/media/indy.pdf
[3] The Independent Website http://www.independentonlinesolutions.com/advertisingGuide/cards.html
Its main focus was to challenge The Guardian for centre left readers and The Times as a newspaper of record. It launched with the slogan “It is. Are you?” attracting staff from Murdoch owned broadsheets who preferred not to move to Wapping. It sparked a price war and caused a shake up with its new design style[1].
Today it is struggling to survive in the economic climate and a difficult time in general for newspapers with its ownership having changed hands to a company controlled by Alexander Lebedev and Evgeny Lebedev, the father and son team having previously bought a controlling stake in London’s Evening Standard[1].
The paper’s political stance was intended to reflect the centre of the British political spectrum but is now thought to be tending towards left wing ideals making it The Guardian’s main competitor. On the eve of the most recent general election however it made its stance clear, advising “There is a strong case for progressively minded voters to lend their support to the Liberal Democrats.”[1]
On The Independent website it claims its readers are mostly male with 57%, this is also the same percentage whom the paper believes are solus readers; people who only read The Independent[2]. It places its readers in the ABC1 category which is not surprising considering the news agenda and even the price of the paper. When compared to the Daily Star at about 30p, £1 actually seems like quite a lot to pay for a newspaper.
The audience can also be discerned from the advertising with large adverts for brands such as House of Fraser or Waitrose, the paper is placing itself firmly in the ABC1 bracket. A page advert in colour in The Independent in a specified position is £16,660[3] so companies like Currys must think it worthwhile to advertise in the paper even with its small readership.
The audience profiles also suggest that most of their readers are professionals as 59% are in full time employment with 50% with degree level or higher in their education. A large majority as well are from the London and South East area[2].
The newspaper’s agenda ranges from political prisoners to climate change and often focuses on the stories like this that it sees as more ‘worthy’. You will not find celebrity based gossip in The Independent although you are more likely to find it on the website.
The Independent has also recently launched the ‘I’ newspaper which runs in conjunction with The Independent as its cheaper and more disposable cousin. The editorial is mostly similar and in fact on some days the articles that appear in The Independent find their way into the ‘I’; it just strikes me as odd however that a paper that is struggling to stay afloat has introduced yet another rival, one that is cheaper and more cost effective.
Like all newspapers and especially the ‘qualities’, The Independent’s circulation is dropping rapidly with 183,547 copies in circulation daily. This is down by 10.88% on the previous year. With this in mind it is difficult to see whether the newspaper can survive in the current economic climate or will the populist tabloids soon be the only papers we have.
Sources:
[1] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent
[2] The Independent Website http://www.independentonlinesolutions.com/advertisingGuide/media/indy.pdf
[3] The Independent Website http://www.independentonlinesolutions.com/advertisingGuide/cards.html
Tuesday 7 December 2010
WikiLeaks/Leeks Continues
Today in the papers the main story on WikiLeaks followed the arrest warrant given to the head of the WikiLeaks company, Julian Assange.
For anyone who doesn't yet understand why he has been issued with a warrant, Twitter pointed me to a good piece by the Daily Mail which explains the charges he could face and also does an overview of the WikiLeaks story so far.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336291/Wikileaks-Julian-Assanges-2-night-stands-spark-worldwide-hunt.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
For anyone who doesn't yet understand why he has been issued with a warrant, Twitter pointed me to a good piece by the Daily Mail which explains the charges he could face and also does an overview of the WikiLeaks story so far.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336291/Wikileaks-Julian-Assanges-2-night-stands-spark-worldwide-hunt.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Media Law 10 - Codes of Conduct
Our final structured law lecture (next is revision, then the dreaded exam) focused on the many codes of conduct that journalists have to adhere to.
Before this, we looked at a case that was from our own university's WINOL broadcast about the inspection of the bar Mikiki's after anti social behaviour allegations. The report contained examples of prima facie libel, broad brush identification and innuendo defamation. It was a great example for us as first year students to see how a story that seemed innocuous to us at first could actually contain some legal issues for you to consider. For example, needing the refutation of the owner about the allegations without which you would be subject to malice and would lose all defences.
Onto the codes of conduct now and there are four types that we indentified in the lecture as the main codes of conduct for journalists. The first was the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) code of conduct which B.M., (before Murdoch) had a lot more power. If you broke a rule from the NUJ code of conduct you could be thrown out of the NUJ, losing your press pass and other privileges. It is the journalists own code of conduct, decided by jounralists for journalists and so you are more likely to be frowned upon for breaking this code than probably any other. It is still quite important however as the BBC recognises the NUJ; The Sun however could fire you for being a member and there are cases where young journalists have been fired by a Murdoch owned paper simply for sticking to the code. A famous case where one of the most important aspects of the code of conduct was stuck to (protect your sources) created a kind of folk hero for journalists in Bill Goodwin which I discussed in a previous blog on confidentiality.
NUJ Link here --> http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=174
The second code is the PCC or Press Complaints Commission's code of conduct, often referred to as 'The Editors Code'. It is, in normal terms, the establishment and as such if you break it you can be sacked without compensation. These two codes are more applicable to newspaper journalism but the NUJ code of conduct should be thought of as the code for all journalists.
PCC Link here --> http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html
Next is the Ofcom code of conduct, also known as The Broadcasting Code, which of course applies to commercial TV (we will move on to the BBC next). It has specific rules relating to factual programming and is similar to the PCC in that it works on complaints before it is able to act. Generally if there are no complaints or at least not very many, it will not act.
Ofcom link here --> http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/
Finally we come to the BBC Producer Guidelines which are far, far too complicated to even get in to. They're available online and cover the same areas as the other codes but in a lot of detail.
Link here --> http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/
Revision time now.
Until next time. Stay classy Internet.
Before this, we looked at a case that was from our own university's WINOL broadcast about the inspection of the bar Mikiki's after anti social behaviour allegations. The report contained examples of prima facie libel, broad brush identification and innuendo defamation. It was a great example for us as first year students to see how a story that seemed innocuous to us at first could actually contain some legal issues for you to consider. For example, needing the refutation of the owner about the allegations without which you would be subject to malice and would lose all defences.
Onto the codes of conduct now and there are four types that we indentified in the lecture as the main codes of conduct for journalists. The first was the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) code of conduct which B.M., (before Murdoch) had a lot more power. If you broke a rule from the NUJ code of conduct you could be thrown out of the NUJ, losing your press pass and other privileges. It is the journalists own code of conduct, decided by jounralists for journalists and so you are more likely to be frowned upon for breaking this code than probably any other. It is still quite important however as the BBC recognises the NUJ; The Sun however could fire you for being a member and there are cases where young journalists have been fired by a Murdoch owned paper simply for sticking to the code. A famous case where one of the most important aspects of the code of conduct was stuck to (protect your sources) created a kind of folk hero for journalists in Bill Goodwin which I discussed in a previous blog on confidentiality.
NUJ Link here --> http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=174
The second code is the PCC or Press Complaints Commission's code of conduct, often referred to as 'The Editors Code'. It is, in normal terms, the establishment and as such if you break it you can be sacked without compensation. These two codes are more applicable to newspaper journalism but the NUJ code of conduct should be thought of as the code for all journalists.
PCC Link here --> http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html
Next is the Ofcom code of conduct, also known as The Broadcasting Code, which of course applies to commercial TV (we will move on to the BBC next). It has specific rules relating to factual programming and is similar to the PCC in that it works on complaints before it is able to act. Generally if there are no complaints or at least not very many, it will not act.
Ofcom link here --> http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/
Finally we come to the BBC Producer Guidelines which are far, far too complicated to even get in to. They're available online and cover the same areas as the other codes but in a lot of detail.
Link here --> http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/
Revision time now.
Until next time. Stay classy Internet.
Seminar Paper Points - Swift and Smith
Our seminar this week focused on Adam Smith and Jonathan Swift.
We began with Louis' seminar paper which started with Smith saying that the opulence of a town can change a nation. This is quite a modern idea and Smith's ideas do translate into the modern world quite easily as he claims that the wealth of every nation is dependent on trade. Smith gives the examples of boom towns such as Manchester as a place that has thrived through trade in the way that Smith felt was best. He looked at the Romans as the originators of the modern world where the land you own affects what you manufacture. Smith was in favour of the free market and were he alive today, he would possibly point to Zimbabwe as an example of where the lack of free trade has caused the country to crumble. This is an example of Smith's links to his contemporary Hume as it recalls Hume's rights to life, liberty and property. You could also argue its link to the current banking crisis and the free trade that went on there to lead us to the situation we are in now.
Louis then moved on to Jonathan Swift and more specifically his Modest Proposal or to give it its full name, 'A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public'. The 'Modest Proposal', as it is more commonly known, outlines the use of the Irish children and specifically toddlers for food. It advocates the fattening up of one year old babies for food to sell to the rich as it would solve the debt problem in Ireland. Swift even specifies that 100,000 carcasses would be enough to benefit the state, because it benefits the state, I also believe the points he makes to be mercantile. Fortunately, this is a satirical work which satirises the un-emotional empiricist tracts of Locke and Hume. Even the title is a piece of satire, unusually long in its attempt to satirise the "Enquiry" and "Essay" like works of the day.
This seminar was one that I struggled the most with, especially the works of Adam Smith as I have no background in economics or business to use. I enjoyed Swift however as I appreciated the satire especially after having to sit here blogging away for months about these empiricists. Time for me to go do some revision, exam not far off now.
Until next time. Stay classy Internet.
We began with Louis' seminar paper which started with Smith saying that the opulence of a town can change a nation. This is quite a modern idea and Smith's ideas do translate into the modern world quite easily as he claims that the wealth of every nation is dependent on trade. Smith gives the examples of boom towns such as Manchester as a place that has thrived through trade in the way that Smith felt was best. He looked at the Romans as the originators of the modern world where the land you own affects what you manufacture. Smith was in favour of the free market and were he alive today, he would possibly point to Zimbabwe as an example of where the lack of free trade has caused the country to crumble. This is an example of Smith's links to his contemporary Hume as it recalls Hume's rights to life, liberty and property. You could also argue its link to the current banking crisis and the free trade that went on there to lead us to the situation we are in now.
Louis then moved on to Jonathan Swift and more specifically his Modest Proposal or to give it its full name, 'A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public'. The 'Modest Proposal', as it is more commonly known, outlines the use of the Irish children and specifically toddlers for food. It advocates the fattening up of one year old babies for food to sell to the rich as it would solve the debt problem in Ireland. Swift even specifies that 100,000 carcasses would be enough to benefit the state, because it benefits the state, I also believe the points he makes to be mercantile. Fortunately, this is a satirical work which satirises the un-emotional empiricist tracts of Locke and Hume. Even the title is a piece of satire, unusually long in its attempt to satirise the "Enquiry" and "Essay" like works of the day.
This seminar was one that I struggled the most with, especially the works of Adam Smith as I have no background in economics or business to use. I enjoyed Swift however as I appreciated the satire especially after having to sit here blogging away for months about these empiricists. Time for me to go do some revision, exam not far off now.
Until next time. Stay classy Internet.
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