Karl Marx had a bushy beard, there I said it, it's out the way and I don't have to think about it again. In related news, he was also a philosopher but not in the way we normally think of philosophers. He once said that "philosophers have only interpreted the world - the point however is to change it" and it is this that lies at the heart of his works.
Marx was born to a Jewish family which, depending on your opinion, has either no significance or great significance but let's go with great significance because it's a much more fun idea. Some people have commented saying that Marx saw himself as some sort of Old Testament prophet and even the wild beard and hair were significant; it seems he saw himself as someone coming to tell the 'good news' of the communist message as if it was something Biblical, which in some ways it was. Biblical in the sense of its size and impact but more on that later. The young Marx studied Law initially and was an exceptionally gifted student with a lucrative career ahead of him. Suddenly he decided he was more interested in philosophy which angered his parents but what angered them more was his next decision to become a Journalist. Lawyer to philosopher to journalist and it was his skills as a journalist that made his most well known work The Communist Manifesto so readable and persuasive.
He was one of the Young Hegellians, influenced greatly by Hegel's ideas on dialectics and this was to form a large part of his manifesto. He made a move into radical journalism and revolution meeting Friedrich Engels in Paris in 1844, the start of a friendship which encompassed co-authored works and the publishing of Marx's other writings posthumously. Marx's journalism at this time was rather inflammatory and it got him kicked out of countries for the radical beliefs he promoted. He was giving philosophical backing to the revolutions bubbling under the surface in Europe at the time. In 1848 he was pushed out to London where he lived until his death in 1883. His tombstone has one of his most famous quotes, the one at the heart of his communist manifesto, "workers of all lands unite." In the lecture we were reminded of a campaign slogan by Bill Clinton which said "It's the economy stupid" and Marx approached his theories in a similar way. He believed that you can explain everything about society by analysing the economic forces that shape it. For Aristotle, man is the political animal; for Plato, man is the political animal; for Kant, the moral animal; for Hegel, the historical animal; for Marx, man is the productive animal. Mankind creates the environment it inhabits - 'not a figure in the landscape, but the shaper of the landscape'. We dominate because we can make tools and co-operate.
In his works, Marx achieved (according to Engels) a combination of Hegellian philosophy in his history and dialectics, British empiricism with economists like Smith and French revolutionary politics especially socialist. He worked using a Darwinian scientific method, researching every aspect of society in order to understand it; he worked his through the reading in the British Museum. Hegel had a large influence on Marx and his historical process in terms of the spirit through history and its seeking of self understanding. History will end when the spirit achieves full self knowledge and becomes the absolute spirit. This process works through the dialectic:
• Thesis (Proposition)
• Antithesis (Counter proposition - contradiction)
• Synthesis (Combination or refuting of one proposition)
Hegel called the spirit Geist and believed history is being guided by the Geist towards an eventual end. Marx took the idea of the dialectic as he liked that two ideas could form one new idea but as far as Geist went, he thought that was all mystic rubbish.
Marx saw the class struggle throughout history, the master and slave, the lord and serf and now the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. His dialectic is based on Hegel's but reflects a more economised view, basing it on money in the real world, a so called "dialectic materialism". In this he argues that the proletariat have nothing to lose, "they have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." Other groups like the bourgeoisie have property to lose so cannot possibly be as selfless.
One of Marx’s most important theories in The Communist Manifesto is that of alienation. It comes from his theory of human nature in which - like Plato - Marx proposes that we have a tripartite self. We as human beings have three aspects or needs; the natural self which needs subsistence; the alienated self where natural needs are perverted, sex perverted by male dominated society, productivity and activity not met; finally the species self which understands we are all part of one another and will emerge in the Communist State. Capitalism, Marx states, alienates us from ourselves and each other, as we value things over each other, the cash nexus becomes the criterium of all value. As a generalised statement this works in theory but I think many people would value friends and family more than money and things, the laptop I'm writing this blog on isn't as important to me as my parents for example. Marx was writing in a time of child labour and possibly this cruelty in the name of financial gain tarnished his world view; as he once said, "Bourgeoisie has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment." Marx claims that the communist society will be characterized by equality and true justice and the evolution of a truly free individual. In a truly Hegellian manner, he looks at communism in this way:
• Thesis: The Bourgeoisie
• Antithesis: The Proletariat
• Synthesis: Socialism
Capitalism is sowing the seeds of its own destruction... apparently. Marx even provided a nice little sound bite for this idea, "capitalism produces all things in profusion but most of all it produces its own grave diggers." Capitalism encourages intense competition and so its eventual fall is inevitable as is the rise of the proletariat.
Communism will be some sort of Garden of Eden where no countries exist, no possessions and no religion. There will be no difference between mental and physical labour, no division. All activities will have equal worth. But how? What incentive would a Doctor have to do 7 years of training if in the end his salary will be the same as that of a bin man, whose job is hugely important and extremely necessary, but cannot possibly be seen as equal; good luck with that Marx. To explain this in an easy to digest way, Marx said "To each - according to ability. To each - according to need."
Procrastinators of the world unite!!! Tomorrow...
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
P.S. Sorry for the late and slightly disjointed blog, was attempting to write it whilst also doing a bunch of other assessments.
Saturday 26 March 2011
Friday 25 March 2011
Public Affairs Test
We’ve been lucky on our course to have guest speakers and visits to meetings of both our County Council and the Safer Neighbourhood Committee in the past month or so, and I believe these experiences have helped me gain a better understanding of the differences between District and County Councils.
Local government can be formed in different ways with the most common being the two tiered system where the responsibility for services is divided between District and County Councils. Sometimes you can have single tier councils or Unitary Authorities, responsible for all local authority, services and functions such as in Southampton; in all there are 55 Unitary Authorities across the country.
The total number of people employed by local authorities is about 2 million with about 133 billion pounds spent a year. The councillors in these authorities are responsible for matters such as land use (i.e. planning applications), refuse collection and leisure facilities; they agree the local authority budget and make constitutional decisions. They are elected by local people and stand for a 4 year term. When talking about this it is important to remember that this is local government, almost separate from central government in operation and often politics. The only connection to central government is the money.
In the case of Winchester, Hampshire County Council is based in the City and they run the schools, they deal with land use and employ over 40,000 staff, that’s a lot of people and a lot of money. In fact, when we were visited by Kate Ball, the Council’s Communications Manager, she told us that the council has a huge budget of £1.8 billion for the whole of Hampshire, but when you’re covering 500,000 households with 1.4 million residents then maybe it doesn’t seem so much. In comparison we heard from Kelsie Learney, the Leader of Winchester City Council, that their budget is a comparatively small £12.5 million. As well as collecting the rubbish and other things you’d expect from a local authority, they also run the car parks, have health inspectors, distribute housing benefits and look after their estimated 6000 council houses. They run a leader and executive model with the cabinet making the decisions, much like central government, but although the cabinet make the final decisions, policies are set by the whole council. At the moment in Winchester the City Council has a Liberal Democrat leader and cabinet whilst the County Council is Conservative. This would be a problem with any county and city council but in Winchester, the tension is doubled as they’re in the same town. Decisions on issues like the highways can be contentious because although the County Council looks after the highways, the City Council runs the parking. As Kelsie Learney said though, whatever the political issues, they are still civil with each other as they are both aiming to improve the area, despite their differences.
In conclusion, District Councils and County Councils have very similar functions. They both exist to serve the public and do the best for their constituents. County Councils operate on a larger level, affecting the decisions of the district and city councils, but without the district councils, the county councils would surely be too disassociated from the general public to act in their best interests.
Local government can be formed in different ways with the most common being the two tiered system where the responsibility for services is divided between District and County Councils. Sometimes you can have single tier councils or Unitary Authorities, responsible for all local authority, services and functions such as in Southampton; in all there are 55 Unitary Authorities across the country.
The total number of people employed by local authorities is about 2 million with about 133 billion pounds spent a year. The councillors in these authorities are responsible for matters such as land use (i.e. planning applications), refuse collection and leisure facilities; they agree the local authority budget and make constitutional decisions. They are elected by local people and stand for a 4 year term. When talking about this it is important to remember that this is local government, almost separate from central government in operation and often politics. The only connection to central government is the money.
In the case of Winchester, Hampshire County Council is based in the City and they run the schools, they deal with land use and employ over 40,000 staff, that’s a lot of people and a lot of money. In fact, when we were visited by Kate Ball, the Council’s Communications Manager, she told us that the council has a huge budget of £1.8 billion for the whole of Hampshire, but when you’re covering 500,000 households with 1.4 million residents then maybe it doesn’t seem so much. In comparison we heard from Kelsie Learney, the Leader of Winchester City Council, that their budget is a comparatively small £12.5 million. As well as collecting the rubbish and other things you’d expect from a local authority, they also run the car parks, have health inspectors, distribute housing benefits and look after their estimated 6000 council houses. They run a leader and executive model with the cabinet making the decisions, much like central government, but although the cabinet make the final decisions, policies are set by the whole council. At the moment in Winchester the City Council has a Liberal Democrat leader and cabinet whilst the County Council is Conservative. This would be a problem with any county and city council but in Winchester, the tension is doubled as they’re in the same town. Decisions on issues like the highways can be contentious because although the County Council looks after the highways, the City Council runs the parking. As Kelsie Learney said though, whatever the political issues, they are still civil with each other as they are both aiming to improve the area, despite their differences.
In conclusion, District Councils and County Councils have very similar functions. They both exist to serve the public and do the best for their constituents. County Councils operate on a larger level, affecting the decisions of the district and city councils, but without the district councils, the county councils would surely be too disassociated from the general public to act in their best interests.
Thursday 24 March 2011
Media Artefact - Assessment
Well I handed this in so it's not being assessed on here but I was just interested to see whether you the reader of this blog would like to see more of this kind of writing. The next thing you read is the first assessment this semester in my media module, enjoy!
Media Artefact Assessment – BBC iPlayer
The media artefact I am going to talk about for this assessment is a relatively new one, but one that I believe has helped change the way we watch and enjoy television and radio. Yes it’s the iPlayer, the BBC’s foray into the world of ‘catch-up TV’ and one of the first catch up services in this country. Looking at the archives on the Media Guardian website, you can see that the idea was initially deemed controversial, with Ofcom having to make major changes to it in order for it to get the go ahead[1]. It seems quite odd to think now that the iPlayer left its beta testing period and went completely live in late 2007, as it’s become such a widely used feature since.
Since its inception, the iPlayer has only become more popular and widely used as the early adopters and digital natives were joined by those who had once looked on the new media sceptically, and those who had seen it as a threat to the old media. The BBC produced the iPlayer in order to move into the catch up TV market, whose sole legal inhabitant was Channel 4’s 4oD (ignoring for the purposes of this assignment illegal sites like TV Catch Up). This is an example of a technologically deterministic version on history as the technology eventually changed the way we approach TV. The site aimed to provide a service by which users could either watch again or catch up on shows they had missed during the week, changing the way we experience television. Whereas before the schedules dictated how we experienced shows and when, we could now pick and choose, deciding when and where to watch our favourite shows revolutionising the TV experience. This worried some, believing that TV would essentially die out with programmes existing only on tools like iPlayer and 4oD but people and TV itself have adapted to the new media, encouraging users and still retaining its relevance as a medium.
New media should have got rid of TV but people are still watching it for the same reasons they used to. We still have ‘appointment to view’ television but there is a new media interactivity; young people spend more time with new media like iPlayer and social networking, but not at the expense of old media like the TV. According to Kackman et al (2010), television has survived because it has become a ‘converged technology’[2]. The iPlayer is reflective of the far more technologically advanced culture we live in and the disposable nature of it. People are less likely these days to sit and wait for their media products and therefore having content on iPlayer means people can actively choose what they want from their service, making users more powerful in their interaction with their favourite programmes. With links to other new media like Twitter and Facebook, iPlayer is becoming just as powerful as the main BBC channels themselves.
References:
[1]Deans, J. (2007). BBC iPlayer gets go-ahead. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jan/31/news.bbc. Last accessed 21st March 2011.
[2] Kackman, M (2010). Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence. USA: Routledge.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Media Artefact Assessment – BBC iPlayer
The media artefact I am going to talk about for this assessment is a relatively new one, but one that I believe has helped change the way we watch and enjoy television and radio. Yes it’s the iPlayer, the BBC’s foray into the world of ‘catch-up TV’ and one of the first catch up services in this country. Looking at the archives on the Media Guardian website, you can see that the idea was initially deemed controversial, with Ofcom having to make major changes to it in order for it to get the go ahead[1]. It seems quite odd to think now that the iPlayer left its beta testing period and went completely live in late 2007, as it’s become such a widely used feature since.
Since its inception, the iPlayer has only become more popular and widely used as the early adopters and digital natives were joined by those who had once looked on the new media sceptically, and those who had seen it as a threat to the old media. The BBC produced the iPlayer in order to move into the catch up TV market, whose sole legal inhabitant was Channel 4’s 4oD (ignoring for the purposes of this assignment illegal sites like TV Catch Up). This is an example of a technologically deterministic version on history as the technology eventually changed the way we approach TV. The site aimed to provide a service by which users could either watch again or catch up on shows they had missed during the week, changing the way we experience television. Whereas before the schedules dictated how we experienced shows and when, we could now pick and choose, deciding when and where to watch our favourite shows revolutionising the TV experience. This worried some, believing that TV would essentially die out with programmes existing only on tools like iPlayer and 4oD but people and TV itself have adapted to the new media, encouraging users and still retaining its relevance as a medium.
New media should have got rid of TV but people are still watching it for the same reasons they used to. We still have ‘appointment to view’ television but there is a new media interactivity; young people spend more time with new media like iPlayer and social networking, but not at the expense of old media like the TV. According to Kackman et al (2010), television has survived because it has become a ‘converged technology’[2]. The iPlayer is reflective of the far more technologically advanced culture we live in and the disposable nature of it. People are less likely these days to sit and wait for their media products and therefore having content on iPlayer means people can actively choose what they want from their service, making users more powerful in their interaction with their favourite programmes. With links to other new media like Twitter and Facebook, iPlayer is becoming just as powerful as the main BBC channels themselves.
References:
[1]Deans, J. (2007). BBC iPlayer gets go-ahead. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jan/31/news.bbc. Last accessed 21st March 2011.
[2] Kackman, M (2010). Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence. USA: Routledge.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Radio Script - Final Bulletin
So here it is, Merry Christmas... wait, that's not right. This is actually my final piece of radio for the year and is in fact just the previous three that have posted right here on this blog all edited together nicely. Well it's been fun doing the radio module, going out and trying to get stories... failing. Trying to edit and record your copy... generally succeeding. But now we're done, and I leave you with the script and the final bulletin itself in YouTube form.
Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.
In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.
The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.
Winchester's tourist information centre are pleased to have won an award for being the best tourist centre of the year in the south east region.
The centre's team leader, Sarah Harfield talked to us about the award and what they do for tourism and the community.
AUDIO INSERT NAME: TOURISM AWARD
INWORDS: We try and provide
OUTWORDS: from other TIC's
Duration: 0'15"
The centre is also in to the last four in the national finals with the results being announced on April 15th in Birmingham.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Council aims to promote the plight of Winchester's homeless though the nationwide Spare Change for Real Change campaign.
There will be collection boxes placed in the shops and pubs in the town centre.
Winchester's Trinity Centre which aims to give support and care to the homeless and those in need are giving the campaign their full backing.
We talked to Development Manager Sue McKenna who let us know more.
Audio Insert NAME: SPARE CHANGE AUDIO
INWORDS: Instead of just giving
OUTWORDS: difference to homeless people.
Duration: 0'12"
Thank you for listening if you did, and if you didn't, why not?
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
EDIT: Oops. Massive video. Well it goes over the borders but as long as we both don't worry about it or look at it for too long I'm sure everything will be fine.
Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.
In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.
The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.
Winchester's tourist information centre are pleased to have won an award for being the best tourist centre of the year in the south east region.
The centre's team leader, Sarah Harfield talked to us about the award and what they do for tourism and the community.
AUDIO INSERT NAME: TOURISM AWARD
INWORDS: We try and provide
OUTWORDS: from other TIC's
Duration: 0'15"
The centre is also in to the last four in the national finals with the results being announced on April 15th in Birmingham.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Council aims to promote the plight of Winchester's homeless though the nationwide Spare Change for Real Change campaign.
There will be collection boxes placed in the shops and pubs in the town centre.
Winchester's Trinity Centre which aims to give support and care to the homeless and those in need are giving the campaign their full backing.
We talked to Development Manager Sue McKenna who let us know more.
Audio Insert NAME: SPARE CHANGE AUDIO
INWORDS: Instead of just giving
OUTWORDS: difference to homeless people.
Duration: 0'12"
Thank you for listening if you did, and if you didn't, why not?
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
EDIT: Oops. Massive video. Well it goes over the borders but as long as we both don't worry about it or look at it for too long I'm sure everything will be fine.
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Will Cameron be as flexible with the Economy as he was with Libya
Well that's the question addressed in a column by Mary Riddell in the Daily Telegraph.
First of all she looks at how the conflict might impact David Cameron's tenure as Prime Minister and how it will possibly be his defining moment, (for more on that see earlier blog with link to a Mail story).
"Resolution 1973 was voted through as Gaddafi told 700,000 citizens of Benghazi that he would show them "no pity and no mercy". To suggest that Mr Cameron made the wrong call is tantamount to saying that the world should have closed its eyes to slaughter. The Prime Minister was right on Friday, and he is right today. The question is whether he will still be right when the Libyan intervention gets difficult, as it surely will."
This is just one more of the issues Cameron will face in his time but will he be up to it; time will tell.
The telegraph article can be read by clicking here.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
First of all she looks at how the conflict might impact David Cameron's tenure as Prime Minister and how it will possibly be his defining moment, (for more on that see earlier blog with link to a Mail story).
"Resolution 1973 was voted through as Gaddafi told 700,000 citizens of Benghazi that he would show them "no pity and no mercy". To suggest that Mr Cameron made the wrong call is tantamount to saying that the world should have closed its eyes to slaughter. The Prime Minister was right on Friday, and he is right today. The question is whether he will still be right when the Libyan intervention gets difficult, as it surely will."
This is just one more of the issues Cameron will face in his time but will he be up to it; time will tell.
The telegraph article can be read by clicking here.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Sunday 20 March 2011
Radio Script - Tourist Centre Award (with audio)
This is just a blog to let you see the final story in the epic that is my radio module bulletin. The fully and finally edited together version will be up you know where (this blog in case you didn't know) by next week. Until then, enjoy this script and the video below in which I say the words from the script. It's like magic.
Winchester's tourist information centre are pleased to have won an award for being the best tourist centre of the year in the south east region.
The centre's team leader, Sarah Harfield talked to us about the award and what they do for tourism and the community.
AUDIO INSERT NAME: TOURISM AWARD
INWORDS: We try and provide
OUTWORDS: from other TIC's
Duration: 0'15"
The centre is also in to the last four in the national finals with the results being announced on April 15th in Birmingham.
Thanks for listening.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Winchester's tourist information centre are pleased to have won an award for being the best tourist centre of the year in the south east region.
The centre's team leader, Sarah Harfield talked to us about the award and what they do for tourism and the community.
AUDIO INSERT NAME: TOURISM AWARD
INWORDS: We try and provide
OUTWORDS: from other TIC's
Duration: 0'15"
The centre is also in to the last four in the national finals with the results being announced on April 15th in Birmingham.
Thanks for listening.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Will the Libya Conflict define Cameron
Well an article in today's Daily Mail certainly thinks so.
In a piece written by Mail journalist Ian Birrell he points to the defining moments of other Prime Ministers terms in office such as Winston Churchill and World War Two, Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War, to some extent even Tony Blair and the war in Iraq. Will this mean that the Libya conflict will define David Cameron's reign?
Read the article (link below) and decide for yourself.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1368023/Libya-David-Camerons-battle-Gaddafi-desert-despot-define-him.html
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
In a piece written by Mail journalist Ian Birrell he points to the defining moments of other Prime Ministers terms in office such as Winston Churchill and World War Two, Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War, to some extent even Tony Blair and the war in Iraq. Will this mean that the Libya conflict will define David Cameron's reign?
Read the article (link below) and decide for yourself.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1368023/Libya-David-Camerons-battle-Gaddafi-desert-despot-define-him.html
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Saturday 19 March 2011
Radio Script - Social Care (plus audio!!!)
Well this is a novel idea, the radio script plus the audio? Some people thought it couldn't be done, we sure showed them. Enjoy my attempt at reading a script for my course and of course, for the news.
Here it is...
Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.
In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.
The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.
That was that, essentially a post I'd done before but with audio, any comments and constructive criticism would be appreciated. I can only get better with practice.
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
Here it is...
Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.
In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.
The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.
That was that, essentially a post I'd done before but with audio, any comments and constructive criticism would be appreciated. I can only get better with practice.
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
Thursday 10 March 2011
Radio Script - Audio plus script
Today I recorded the newsreader style audio and edited in my quote from a very nice lady at the Trinity centre in Winchester. What follows is the script for that audio which I think I stuck to and then a video containing the audio. Thanks for stopping by.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Council aims to promote the plight of Winchester's homeless though the nationwide Spare Change for Real Change campaign.
There will be collection boxes placed in the shops and pubs in the town centre.
Winchester's Trinity Centre which aims to give support and care to the homeless and those in need are giving the campaign their full backing.
We talked to Development Manager Sue McKenna who let us know more.
Audio Insert NAME: SPARE CHANGE AUDIO
INWORDS: Instead of just giving
OUTWORDS: difference to homeless people.
Duration: 0'12"
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
P.S. One take... that is all.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Council aims to promote the plight of Winchester's homeless though the nationwide Spare Change for Real Change campaign.
There will be collection boxes placed in the shops and pubs in the town centre.
Winchester's Trinity Centre which aims to give support and care to the homeless and those in need are giving the campaign their full backing.
We talked to Development Manager Sue McKenna who let us know more.
Audio Insert NAME: SPARE CHANGE AUDIO
INWORDS: Instead of just giving
OUTWORDS: difference to homeless people.
Duration: 0'12"
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
P.S. One take... that is all.
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Search Engine Optimization and Alexa Rankings
During our course we have been encouraged to optimize our websites for search engines in an attempt to get them further up the Alexa rankings. I'm fully aware that everything I just wrote may be confusing to some so this series of blogs will aim to explain what SEO is and how you can optimize your own website.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of improving the visibility of your website via the natural or unpaid (i.e. Google's algorithms) search results. It can be done in a number of ways, chiefly editing the content or the sites HTML to introduce keywords that may attract users to your site. The initials SEO can also refer to 'Search Engine Optimizers', so people whose job it is to move a website up the search engines rankings for a corporation. This is extremely important to a company because, let's say you're a travel agent offering cheap package holidays. To get to the top you could change the content so that it's more likely to be your website people find, you can edit the keywords in the HTML which will bump you up the rankings enormously (if you have your own website of course, trying to change them on blogger is a no no). It's not about being the best, it's about being the most visible to customers. Another way you can draw hits to your site is to link back, this is on your own blog and on other sites. Leaving your website any old place is a bit dodgy and not necessarily the best thing to do anyway but leaving it with a constructive comment on similar blogs and linking your blogs from sites like Facebook and Twitter can only help your ranking.
You can take the example of this blog. When I first started this course my blog like everyone elses but I blogged regularly (also important), posted my entries on my Twitter and sometimes Facebook and appear to have done quite well in the rankings amongst my fellow students.
This series of blogs will continue pretty sporadically over the next few weeks with tips as I find them and little stories of what I've done so far to help me.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of improving the visibility of your website via the natural or unpaid (i.e. Google's algorithms) search results. It can be done in a number of ways, chiefly editing the content or the sites HTML to introduce keywords that may attract users to your site. The initials SEO can also refer to 'Search Engine Optimizers', so people whose job it is to move a website up the search engines rankings for a corporation. This is extremely important to a company because, let's say you're a travel agent offering cheap package holidays. To get to the top you could change the content so that it's more likely to be your website people find, you can edit the keywords in the HTML which will bump you up the rankings enormously (if you have your own website of course, trying to change them on blogger is a no no). It's not about being the best, it's about being the most visible to customers. Another way you can draw hits to your site is to link back, this is on your own blog and on other sites. Leaving your website any old place is a bit dodgy and not necessarily the best thing to do anyway but leaving it with a constructive comment on similar blogs and linking your blogs from sites like Facebook and Twitter can only help your ranking.
You can take the example of this blog. When I first started this course my blog like everyone elses but I blogged regularly (also important), posted my entries on my Twitter and sometimes Facebook and appear to have done quite well in the rankings amongst my fellow students.
This series of blogs will continue pretty sporadically over the next few weeks with tips as I find them and little stories of what I've done so far to help me.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
Thursday 3 March 2011
Radio Script - Social Care
This is the script for the first part of the Radio assessment. I took the story from a Hampshire County Council meeting that we visited as part of our course.
Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.
In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.
The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.
There it is; the next part of the assessment will be uploaded (with audio unless there are any technical hitches) by next Thursday.
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
Hampshire County Council has agreed to change the way social care is paid for in the area because the current system is thought to be unfair.
In a meeting this past week it was agreed that those who need social care will all have their own individualised budget tailored to their needs. The new plan would ensure that people contribute to their own care based on their ability to pay, not the services they choose.
The new policy will mean an average increase of between twenty eight and thirty six pounds per week for those affected. With heavy cuts to the council’s budget this plan would mean less contribution from the council to certain users of social care whilst others who are less able to pay would receive a larger grant.
There it is; the next part of the assessment will be uploaded (with audio unless there are any technical hitches) by next Thursday.
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
News Corp, BSkyB and Murdoch - What's up with that?
So today we get the confirmation that our Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has approved News Corps plan for Sky News as they complete the takeover of BSkyB. That's essentially the whole of the story but of course, when it comes to takeovers and Murdoch there's always a little bit more.
Here's what is being planned, from today's Guardian:
"The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has approved News Corporation's plan to spin off Sky News, clearing the way for its proposed £8bn purchase of the 61% of BSkyB it does not already own. Under the deal, the loss-making news subsidiary will be spun off into a new publicly listed company called Newco, and will be independently funded for 10 years. News Corporation is to license the Sky News brand to the operation for seven years, providing an incentive to renew a second funding deal. News Corporation will have a 39.1% stake in the venture with the other shareholders made up of existing investors in BSkyB."
What worries me, is that even with this new independent company Newco having its own board and chairman, separate to News Corp, the fact that the majority of investors come from News Corp and their buddies at BSkyB means they have the control, not only of BSkyB but of a supposedly now independent Sky News.
Anyhow, the full story is available to read on the Guardian website by clicking here.
What this will mean for the news, journalists, and just everyday people is as yet unknown.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
P.S. My fellow student of Journalism has done a couple of blogs on this very subject and if you're interested it would be worthwhile checking out his page by clicking here.
Here's what is being planned, from today's Guardian:
"The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has approved News Corporation's plan to spin off Sky News, clearing the way for its proposed £8bn purchase of the 61% of BSkyB it does not already own. Under the deal, the loss-making news subsidiary will be spun off into a new publicly listed company called Newco, and will be independently funded for 10 years. News Corporation is to license the Sky News brand to the operation for seven years, providing an incentive to renew a second funding deal. News Corporation will have a 39.1% stake in the venture with the other shareholders made up of existing investors in BSkyB."
What worries me, is that even with this new independent company Newco having its own board and chairman, separate to News Corp, the fact that the majority of investors come from News Corp and their buddies at BSkyB means they have the control, not only of BSkyB but of a supposedly now independent Sky News.
Anyhow, the full story is available to read on the Guardian website by clicking here.
What this will mean for the news, journalists, and just everyday people is as yet unknown.
Until next time. Stay Classy Internet.
P.S. My fellow student of Journalism has done a couple of blogs on this very subject and if you're interested it would be worthwhile checking out his page by clicking here.
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Seminar Paper - Kant and Hegel
I promised you a seminar paper and today I deliver on that promise. Here's the magic.
Kant and Hegel were German Idealist philosophers, both writing around a similar time in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Their philosophies however were often at odds and Hegel in particular often wrote in reaction to the approach employed by Kant. Hegel also disagreed with the British Empiricists and their approach to natural law as, and this is a quote from the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, “Empiricism reaches conclusions that are limited by the particularities of its contexts and materials and thus cannot provide universally valid propositions regarding the concepts of various social and political institutions or of the relation of reflective consciousness to social and political experience.” I think what is meant by this is that Empiricism does not address certain social and political issues in its study of epistemology which Hegel believes you need to study.
Back to the differences between Kant and Hegel. Kant’s initial ideas, laid down in his 1781 book, The Critique of Pure Reason were a synthesis of the rationalism of Leibniz, which holds that all knowledge is derived from deductions based on existing ideas and Hume’s empiricism which holds that all knowledge is derived from observation alone. Kant therefore comes to the conclusion that we rely on the structure of our mind to form knowledge of the world, pure reason being something that is a priori. So the mind is not a blank canvas but instead it plays an active part in acquiring knowledge by processing the information it perceives. What we perceive then is more a result of our make-up as an observer than anything we do with the objects themselves. To this end he identifies objects such as time and space, which don’t exist externally and can’t be learned from experience so they help make up the basic concepts of the framework which enables us to make some sort of sense of the world.
The Critique of Judgment is the one I feel has the most relevance to our current work on Romanticism so I’m going to talk about that next. This particular work of Kant’s is most often remembered for its thoughts on aesthetics and with the previous lecture going into detail about first political and the aesthetic Prometheanism I felt it was appropriate to talk about it. Using the wonderful world of the Internet, I found an overview of the critique saying; Kant calls aesthetic judgments “judgments of taste” and remarks that, though they are based in an individual’s subjective feelings, they also claim universal validity. It goes on to say that our feelings about beauty differ from our feelings about pleasure and moral goodness in that they are disinterested. We seek to possess pleasurable objects, and we seek to promote moral goodness, but we simply appreciate beauty without feeling driven to find some use for it. Judgments of taste are universal because they are disinterested: our individual wants and needs do not come into play when appreciating beauty, so our aesthetic response applies universally. Aesthetic pleasure comes from the free play between the imagination and understanding when perceiving an object.
In Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, I was shocked to find scant mention of The Critique of Judgment but Russell has never particularly struck me as Romantic in any of the reading we have done so perhaps his bias should not surprise me. He does however go into some detail about Kant’s epistemology, stating in a round about way that whilst Kant believed ideas like arithmetic and geometry are synthetic in the Hume sense, they are also a priori. But how is this possible? Kant’s solution was that the outer world causes only sensation but our own mental apparatus orders this matter in space and time and supplies the concepts by which we understand experience. Essentially, we have some inbuilt thought processes which help us to make sense of the outer world and order our experiences. As a link to Hegel; Russell talks about Kant’s problem with ‘antinomies’ caused by applying space and time to things that are not experienced. Russell writes, “’The World has a beginning in time, and is also limited as regards space.’ The antithesis says: ‘The world has no beginning in time, and no limits in space; it is infinite as regards both time and space.’ The second antinomy proves every composite substance both is, and is not, made up of simple parts. The third antinomy maintains that there are two kinds of causality, one according to the laws of nature, the other that of freedom; the antithesis maintains that there is only causality according to the laws of nature. Finally, the fourth antinomy proves there is, and also, is not an absolutely necessary Being. This part of The Critique of Pure Reason greatly influenced Hegel who based his dialectic on antinomies.
We now move onto Hegel, viewed as more important than Kant by some, Russell included, because of the political implications of his writings. In Lesley Levene’s book, I Think, Therefore I Am: All the Philosophy You Need to Know she writes briefly on Hegellian Triads joking, “nothing to do with Chinese gangsters”; aside from the puns, she goes on to say there are the three parts of Hegel’s dialectical process. Using her example, first you have your thesis, being; then you come up with its antithesis, nothing; the resulting synthesis is becoming. Simply put, thesis and antithesis are reconciled into the concept ‘becoming’. Working off Kant’s ideas, Hegel reasoned that the world is not a collection of separate, contradictory units; despite appearances, these contradictory units are in fact part of the unified whole; the ‘Absolute’. Since these ideas can be refined and developed once combined, reality must be a rational idea with its fundamental structure mirrored in the structure of our thoughts as we try to unify contradictory ideas. I honestly really like this idea and so far agree with Hegel more than most philosophers, as the idea that we are a blank slate as in Locke’s Tabula Rasa never particularly appealed to me. The suggestion instead that we are using what are essentially a priori thought processes to come to terms with our experiences makes a lot more sense to me.
I made a passing reference to Hegel’s political importance and it was his posthumously published lecture notes on the philosophy of history which had such an impact. He saw history as a progression towards freedom; from the empires of the East, via the Greeks with their city-state, to the Protestant Reformation, when individuals realised they could achieve their own salvation. Imbued with this revolutionary spirit, Hegel had confidence in concepts such as progress and purpose. This had an enormous influence on German Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century and, with all this talk of historical progress, was central to the political theory of Karl Marx whilst Hegel’s dialectical reasoning, (minus all the spirit) became Marx’s dialectical materialism.
Thank you for listening.
Kant and Hegel were German Idealist philosophers, both writing around a similar time in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Their philosophies however were often at odds and Hegel in particular often wrote in reaction to the approach employed by Kant. Hegel also disagreed with the British Empiricists and their approach to natural law as, and this is a quote from the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, “Empiricism reaches conclusions that are limited by the particularities of its contexts and materials and thus cannot provide universally valid propositions regarding the concepts of various social and political institutions or of the relation of reflective consciousness to social and political experience.” I think what is meant by this is that Empiricism does not address certain social and political issues in its study of epistemology which Hegel believes you need to study.
Back to the differences between Kant and Hegel. Kant’s initial ideas, laid down in his 1781 book, The Critique of Pure Reason were a synthesis of the rationalism of Leibniz, which holds that all knowledge is derived from deductions based on existing ideas and Hume’s empiricism which holds that all knowledge is derived from observation alone. Kant therefore comes to the conclusion that we rely on the structure of our mind to form knowledge of the world, pure reason being something that is a priori. So the mind is not a blank canvas but instead it plays an active part in acquiring knowledge by processing the information it perceives. What we perceive then is more a result of our make-up as an observer than anything we do with the objects themselves. To this end he identifies objects such as time and space, which don’t exist externally and can’t be learned from experience so they help make up the basic concepts of the framework which enables us to make some sort of sense of the world.
The Critique of Judgment is the one I feel has the most relevance to our current work on Romanticism so I’m going to talk about that next. This particular work of Kant’s is most often remembered for its thoughts on aesthetics and with the previous lecture going into detail about first political and the aesthetic Prometheanism I felt it was appropriate to talk about it. Using the wonderful world of the Internet, I found an overview of the critique saying; Kant calls aesthetic judgments “judgments of taste” and remarks that, though they are based in an individual’s subjective feelings, they also claim universal validity. It goes on to say that our feelings about beauty differ from our feelings about pleasure and moral goodness in that they are disinterested. We seek to possess pleasurable objects, and we seek to promote moral goodness, but we simply appreciate beauty without feeling driven to find some use for it. Judgments of taste are universal because they are disinterested: our individual wants and needs do not come into play when appreciating beauty, so our aesthetic response applies universally. Aesthetic pleasure comes from the free play between the imagination and understanding when perceiving an object.
In Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, I was shocked to find scant mention of The Critique of Judgment but Russell has never particularly struck me as Romantic in any of the reading we have done so perhaps his bias should not surprise me. He does however go into some detail about Kant’s epistemology, stating in a round about way that whilst Kant believed ideas like arithmetic and geometry are synthetic in the Hume sense, they are also a priori. But how is this possible? Kant’s solution was that the outer world causes only sensation but our own mental apparatus orders this matter in space and time and supplies the concepts by which we understand experience. Essentially, we have some inbuilt thought processes which help us to make sense of the outer world and order our experiences. As a link to Hegel; Russell talks about Kant’s problem with ‘antinomies’ caused by applying space and time to things that are not experienced. Russell writes, “’The World has a beginning in time, and is also limited as regards space.’ The antithesis says: ‘The world has no beginning in time, and no limits in space; it is infinite as regards both time and space.’ The second antinomy proves every composite substance both is, and is not, made up of simple parts. The third antinomy maintains that there are two kinds of causality, one according to the laws of nature, the other that of freedom; the antithesis maintains that there is only causality according to the laws of nature. Finally, the fourth antinomy proves there is, and also, is not an absolutely necessary Being. This part of The Critique of Pure Reason greatly influenced Hegel who based his dialectic on antinomies.
We now move onto Hegel, viewed as more important than Kant by some, Russell included, because of the political implications of his writings. In Lesley Levene’s book, I Think, Therefore I Am: All the Philosophy You Need to Know she writes briefly on Hegellian Triads joking, “nothing to do with Chinese gangsters”; aside from the puns, she goes on to say there are the three parts of Hegel’s dialectical process. Using her example, first you have your thesis, being; then you come up with its antithesis, nothing; the resulting synthesis is becoming. Simply put, thesis and antithesis are reconciled into the concept ‘becoming’. Working off Kant’s ideas, Hegel reasoned that the world is not a collection of separate, contradictory units; despite appearances, these contradictory units are in fact part of the unified whole; the ‘Absolute’. Since these ideas can be refined and developed once combined, reality must be a rational idea with its fundamental structure mirrored in the structure of our thoughts as we try to unify contradictory ideas. I honestly really like this idea and so far agree with Hegel more than most philosophers, as the idea that we are a blank slate as in Locke’s Tabula Rasa never particularly appealed to me. The suggestion instead that we are using what are essentially a priori thought processes to come to terms with our experiences makes a lot more sense to me.
I made a passing reference to Hegel’s political importance and it was his posthumously published lecture notes on the philosophy of history which had such an impact. He saw history as a progression towards freedom; from the empires of the East, via the Greeks with their city-state, to the Protestant Reformation, when individuals realised they could achieve their own salvation. Imbued with this revolutionary spirit, Hegel had confidence in concepts such as progress and purpose. This had an enormous influence on German Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century and, with all this talk of historical progress, was central to the political theory of Karl Marx whilst Hegel’s dialectical reasoning, (minus all the spirit) became Marx’s dialectical materialism.
Thank you for listening.
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