WINOL CRITICAL REVIEW YEAR 2 SEMESTER 1

WINOL has undoubtedly progressed this semester covering all forms of broadcast such as TV, Online  radio and social media. Five teams lead our project: news, features, sport, production and web, and together the WINOL team has worked tremendously hard in achieving the highest ranked student publication in the country; receiving many national BJTC awards. WINOL strives to continuously improve, and in doing so we persistently observe our competitor East London Lines’ strengths and weaknesses. This semester we focused heavily on our online website www.winol.co.uk making vast changes to the layout of the site and adopting a ‘broadsheet’ style of writing. Moreover, regularly updating the website with news daily, and further promoting this on media sites such as Twitter has allowed us to reach out to a larger audience and increase our traffic flow; this was something we found our competitors initially had an upper hand on. Despite our competitors being a much larger team based in London, we have over taken them both globally and in Great Britain. WINOL’s Alexa ranking is currently [10/12/12] #10,338 in GB and #477,045 globally which has dropped dramatically from 1.8 million over the past three months, in contrast, East London Lines is over double in GB with a rank of #24,950. In comparison our local paper The Hampshire Chronicle has a global ranking of #894,774 and #43,856 in GB, these figures speak volume, as it is clear that the audience appreciation for our site is far greater targeting both the local people and students. The time spent on our site is approximately six minutes, whereas East London Lines is only two minutes, this is primarily due to our weekly news bulletin, but the content on our site has a ‘live’ feed by having constant twitter updates and regular stories posted up; writing for the site helped me practice and develop my news writing skills. In addition to channelling out continuous content we were determined to improve the picture content on the site, ensuring that every news story had a good picture preferably with faces involved. If it was not possible to get hold of our own photograph then we used creative commons, abiding by the laws of copyright licensing. 

On top of WINOL we have covered several special events including the BJTC Awards Ceremony, HPCC debate, US American Elections, and WINOL 99 Daily News. The Hampshire Police Crime Commissioner debate saw three hundred people fill the Stripe to watch the debate live. My active role on the night was an audience runner, passing microphones in a question and answer debate; it was a privilege to be apart of an extremely high profile event, particularly as it was covered by BBC South. This role amongst my position as Floor Manager for the US Elections, allowed me to experience more of the Production led role, teaching me that organisation and timing is crucial, particularly in a ‘live’ transatlantic broadcast. The US Elections was a huge milestone for WINOL, receiving recognition and praise from www.journalism.co.uk. In the run up to the elections I produced four short packages on the main campaign issues, which could be played into the gallery to lead discussion between the presenter, experts and guests. My VTs included a graphic of the candidates and some fair dealing clips from YouTube of the debates; this was a skill I did not know before. On the morning of the election we found out that the results were in and Obama had won. The scripting had to be changed, VTs cut down, but this is the art of live TV and I think WINOL handled it extremely well turning the show in to a reaction based programme.

Sound Radio launched Tuesday Takeover. I contributed weekly, writing news stories, and adapting my court report scripts to a radio style, abiding by contempt of court laws by legally identifying the defendant, and simply summing up the story and the sentencing. I presented one of the news bulletins and recorded an in-studio discussion, which could be recycled as an audio cut; both of which helped me practice my delivery and build confidence. 

For the first semester of WINOL I was appointed Crime and Court Reporter, this entailed making close contacts with Law Courts, Crown Prosecution Service, Hampshire Constabulary and Police Press Offices. Court reporting was an extremely challenging but exciting position to fill; I regularly encountered two main issues. Firstly, finding pictures that made my report visually interesting, and secondly legal identification and scripting. As court reporter, it allowed me to put the law module from first year in to practice, reporting the facts accurately with a Qualified Privilege defence, ensuring that I was not at risk of libel or contempt of court. My packages heavily relied on the scripts and unless it was fast, accurate and fair abiding by the laws of defamation it would not be broadcasted, I found scripting a challenge at first but feel I improved with guidance from Brian Thornton and Ben Mitchell from the Press Association. Unfortunately I was not able to use shorthand in court quick enough to keep up to speed accurately, but this is a goal to work towards.

In time, I built contacts with the CPS and with Court Listings who verified identification such as date of birth, address and any spellings I was unsure of, this way I could be sure that my report was accurate. For most of my packages I obtained a mug shot from the Police, but in two instances I learned that this was not possible, as the defendant did not receive a custodial sentence. In week eight my package had no visual element to it, and when trying to get hold of a picture of the defendant the only source I had was Solent News who charge a fee for their photography. As Geoff Hill, editor for channel 5 news suggested I could resolve this by having a cameraman waiting outside of the courts to film them as they walk out. In order to get a convicted photograph I had to fill out a form where often the missing detail was the name of the officer in charge, initially the CPS helped me identify the officer in charge of the case, but they claimed this was against their protocol and that I should seek this information from Police headquarters. Some of the officers in charge of the cases were extremely helpful, talking to them directly, allowed me to ask if there were any police photos they could send me to help me illustrate the case. In week three I covered a case regarding a man who set himself on fire in a suicide attempt; visually it was extremely eye-catching as I had police photos of the inside and outside burnt property. To begin with I had these photographs merged in the middle of my package, however I soon learnt that the best images had to be at the top of the package, ensuring the voice over was re-scripted so the words matched the pictures. The fire happened in Totton, which was within driving distance, allowing me to do my PTC on location; this worked far better then outside the courts as it added context and meant I could film the flat from the outside, and have extra cutaways. This package had all the features needed for a successful court report, a piece to camera on location, a mug shot from police, exclusive police photographs as evidence of the damage, and a revised script with no legal issues. However, I made a huge mistake by letting a witness pass me by, without asking if she would comment on camera. This was a lesson well learnt.

I often went down to court and came out without a story, particularly in my first week, where I hadn't got to grips with court reporting. However, I quickly moved on to a new story about cyclists safety, I did a PTC on the road affected in Southampton Wednesday morning but with a tight deadline there was no interview and it was cut down to an OOV. The shots I used were all filmed from the same angle so I learnt the importance of point of view and to vary the angles. I found that at times it was pure luck as to whether you got a good story that editorially worked. For three of my court reports I was limited to doing a PTC outside the law courts, although this is visually mundane, in certain instances it couldn't be avoided, so I experimented with other alternatives to make the package interesting. For example, creating a reconstruction of the case, ensuring it was clearly labelled and changing the colour of the footage to blue. In week six I covered a case regarding a courier who was caught with cannabis in his car boot, the props of a car and suitcase was easily accessible so I filmed a series of shots to put together a sequence illustrating this.

Week seven was my strongest week; I took a court report and related it to a wider issue of hoax calls. This meant I could arrange to set up an interview with the South Central Ambulance Service who assigned me to Paul Jefferies, the Area manager for North Hampshire. When I arrived at their office in Otterbourne I chose not to film in the control room, as this was a noisy room, with echo, therefore I opted for a quieter room where the acoustics and sound quality were good. To link into my interview I got some GVs of the control room and of the paramedic walking. The interview itself was constructed well; I ensured the questions I asked where open, relating back to the law court issue at hand, and covering the larger scope of prank calls. I didn't stop the interview until I knew I had a good sound bite that I could use in my package “it’s a matter of life and death” - this summed up the entire report, and I think it worked really well hearing it from a respected professional. That week I also had a mug shot, which scaled in on the eyes to focus on the emotion, dramatising the criminal and a PTC on location in Southampton. The weather conditions were bad in particular wind and rain affecting the quality of the sound and footage, but we worked around it finding a quieter spot. Although it was rushed and the camera had not been white balanced, when it came to editing, the colour balance tool in Final Cut Pro helped bring the colour tones back.

Aside from court, I did a crime related story in week four, which was topical to the festivity of Halloween. This week I got the chance to be more creative with my work aside from the seriousness of court. Although the story itself was regarding posters for the elderly to stop trick or treaters knocking at their door, I did my best to make it as entertaining and visually appealing as possible. My opening shot is of a creepy character knocking at the door this initial NATSOT grabs the audience’s attention, I swiftly open the same door to do my PTC, I felt this transition was creative making it more interesting rather then static. I filmed several cutaways which were not used of Halloween related clips, but this gave me the chance to be selective with what I put into the package. With this story elderly people’s opinion was vital; therefore I did some VOXPOPS of local residents. This was my backup as I tried to arrange an interview with a shop owner at One Stop regarding the matter that they would not sell eggs or flour to under 16’s, but as their press office is led by Tesco they were extremely weary of how the report may seem negative, and requested it all in writing. However, it didn't meet the tight deadline we were working to.

On two occasions throughout this semester I got a Court report out in WINOL before the Daily Echo did, particularly the arson story that made front page two weeks after the sentencing. After speaking with the reporters at the Echo who initially reported on the fire when it happened, they were naturally inquisitive to hear the details of the case and I immediately brought them up on the fact they did not have a follow up story. The second story was the child abuse story, the Echo covered the trial but they were not present at the sentencing, they put the story in their paper a week after WINOL published it. To be able to say I got a story out before the local paper did is a huge personal achievement for me. Although we are students, we are training journalists who operate similarly to any other news publication; the guest editors who came to visit us at WINOL this year have justified this.

WINOL Week 9

The first semester of WINOL is over already! And the torch from the third years is soon to be passed down. I have learnt unbelievable amounts this semester from lecturers and my fellow peers, in particular the advice, encouragement and support from the third years will be certainly missed in the new year. It's come to that time of the year where the second years are going to have to step up and take charge.

This week I did my final court report, covering a murder sentencing. I was hoping to cover a broader issue this week as it related to the tougher sentencing law on knife crime. However, a potential interview with an officer fell through when the press office said said they couldn't comment on the matter. Therefore, I was back to scrabbling together a visually interesting court report. I managed to get hold of a picture of the defendant as well as the victim, from Portsmouth Corporate Communications. In addition to a statement from the family, which added depth to the report and made a change from normal. This also broke up the PTC outside court.

In addition I went to Trimline in Southampton for Spence's top story on the Ministry of Defence contract. This was a great morning, Spence arranged it all and carried out the interviews professionally, it was nice to hear from the workers, and we were spoilt for choice with GVs. We filmed some sequences which introduced the speakers nicely, adding detail from different points of view - a great experience. Check it out:

Guest Editor this week was Mike Bushell from BBC Breakfast, hear what he had to say about WINOL-

I'd like to take this time to also say Thank You to all of the help given to me by the third years, and to Flick and George who as fellow Court Reporters coached me! It's been an intense semester, but it wouldn't of been as enjoyable without everyone being apart of a team and working together. It's been a pleasure, we hope to do you proud.

Man locked up for life for brutal murder of friend

A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing his friend to death.

Sean Bailey fuelled by drink and drugs armed himself with 4 knives before he killed Simon Warton outside a house party in Curlew Gardens.

Bailey flew into a jealous rage in the early hours of April 12th when he saw the victim speak with his 16-year-old girlfriend.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Bailey from Robin Gardens, Watelooville killed him with a single stab wound that “pierced his heart”.

Mr Justice Hamblen said the 29-year-old would serve a minimum of 19 years in jail.

Paul Blackburn - Miscarriage of Justice

Paul Blackburn was falsely imprisoned for 25 years, he grew up as a prisoner when his life was stolen from the state at only age 15. Blackburn was convicted for attempted murder and sexual assault of a 9-year old boy, he was sentenced to life in prison. Blackburn was told he would die in jail for a crime he didn't commit. As only a young juvenile, Blackburn was manipulated, there was pressure from the police and the media to find someone responsible for the crime, and unjustly they pinpointed Paul Blackburn. Police interrogated Blackburn, who had no lawyer present to protect him; as a naive young boy he didn't know who to turn to, and the Police forced him in to signing a confession to admit guilt against his free will. Blackburn who forever protested his innocence was targeted as a young yob fitting the description of the convict, but there was never a single piece of evidence that linked him to the crime.

When Blackburn came down to the University of Winchester, he told us his touching story, a hard hitting case of injustice. The real criminal has walked free and he has had to serve someone else's sentence. Blackburn was unaware of his fate when he was sat at home watching telly the night of the crime.

Blackburn told us how he had to live behind bars, he described it as"the loneliest place you could be", and as you can imagine he couldn't trust anyone, after all he has "no reason to have any faith in anyone". He told us the "prison system is set out to kill you", there is no one guarding you, or watching out for you, you are left alone amongst the worst people in society. Jail became Blackburn's normal everyday life, he knew no other way, he lost the opportunity to be a young boy, have his liberty, go to school, enjoy celebrations, have an understand of the outside world, and most importantly be apart of a healthy, supportive family lifestyle. Blackburn told us how he had a "violent, abusive upbringing", when he went to prison and needed his family most, they abandoned him. If he was walking down the street he wouldn't recognise them. Not only did the system destroy his life they stole his right to a normal family life.

Blackburn shared with us that "prisons never quite" it is full of tension, anger and stress, a life constantly "on edge". He was fearful and frightened "every single waking moment of every single day", he would have to live on "constant threat 24 hours a day". Decade after decade the innocent man would cry in the dark, but continued to "fight the system". He described his fight against the system like "banging your head against a brick wall", there is no escape- "even when your asleep you don't get away from it".

At the age of 40, Blackburn was released, after his second appeal. His conviction was overturned, and the innocent man was finally free; 25 years too late. His strength is truly admirable, he considers himself as "one of the luckiest guys alive"; the power in that statement gives me great gratitude for the life I lead. Still to this day, 10 years at liberty he continues to try to pick up the life he left as a teenager, and fill the hole and bridge the gap that he has missed. Blackburn received no real support post prison, or an apology at the least, no amount of compensation can ever make up for this tragedy. His determination and drive is extremely inspiring, he got a job down in Cornwall, and is learning to accept that "what is gone is gone", and this must be the hardest thing of all. The Innocence Network UK has been, in his words, his "life saver". 

Exclusive Interview with Paul Blackburn - By Tom Morgan

For a detailed, account of Paul Blackburn'a false imprisonment, read The Guardian's article here

Judge shows mercy to recluse who forced bleach into girl’s mouth - WINOL Week 8

A 61-year-old woman has been convicted of carrying out a campaign of abuse against a young girl in her care.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Christine Morgan, of The Tyleshades, Romsey, assaulted the young girl up until the age of ten by striking her across the face and pinning her up against the wall.

On one occasion Morgan forced a bleached cloth into the girl’s mouth, by pulling her jaw down and squeezing the chemical inside.

Judge Gary Burrell called Morgan "odd" and said that her actions were of a "bullying" nature, causing the victim who is now an adult to suffer nightmares.

Morgan was convicted of ill-treating and assaulting a child but the judge did not jail her as "an act of mercy". He added "there are concerns of you coping in custody" due to her medical conditions and age.

Morgan was given a 12 month suspended sentence, fined £1500 and ordered to carry out two hundred hours of unpaid work.

The judge said Morgan would have faced prison if she had been “younger and fitter”.

WINOL WEEK 8

The penultimate week of WINOL proved to be a slight challenge with regards to visuals. As usual it is always hard to visually display the story making it more engaging for the reader. This week I did a PTC outside the court similarly to what you would see on BBC South Today. Unfortunately I hit a few brick walls when I tried to get hold of a mugshot of the defendant. Firstly she did not receive a custodial sentence meaning the police cannot issue an official mugshot, secondly the only image of the defendant is in the daily echo but they couldn't issue this photo for copyright reasons. Lastly the original owners of the photograph shown in the echo is Solent News who charge a fee for their photography. This week I focused on my scripting and delivery.

Critique of Channel 5 News Bulletin

We were set the task to review Channel 5's 5 o'clock news by the editor Geoff Hill, who will similarly critique our WINOL bulletin tomorrow.

To begin with the first thing I was drawn to was the delivery of the headlines, I expected the presenter to sit down after the headlines were over, as I found it slightly distracting that she was stood up for the entire bulletin. I find the traditional news readers of BBC and Sky News are always sat behind a desk similarly to WINOL which I find more professional and engaging with the audience, as the eye line is more intimate and enticing.

Two flood related stories led the bulletin, this was ideal for the top story as it is the most current national story affecting a large audience who will want to be updated on the story. The bulletin lasted around 20 minutes, this is an ideal length to keep the concentration of the audience, however the floods took up 10 minutes of the bulletin and therefore I lost focus as it felt like it dragged out for a long time. I really liked the use of OB's from the reporters and the link/handover from the presenter, the fact it was live also enhanced the strength of the content, as it was happening then and there, making the news present, and it visually supported the story by having the PTC on location near the floods. I thought the range of interviews from emergency services, to Prime Minister to local residents really covered the entire scope of public opinion, in particular the interview with the man stood in the 2nd floor window added a humorous appeal but also demonstrated the extremity of residents being housebound.

I found with a lot of the interviews the reporter/interviewer was in vision, although this seems like a stylistic feature of Channel 5 I found it visually uncomfortable as I wanted to just focus on the interviewee and found the back of someone's head distracting - moreover seeing the gun mic (or fluffy dog as I call it) in vision was a little distracting too, but this is hypercritical.

I really liked the studio set, the opening music, and the neutral colour blue which added a universal appeal. I thought it was really effective that a photo illustrated what the presenter was saying in the screen behind her, it was visually pleasing and was a teaser for the viewer who is waiting to see the full footage.

The use of graphics in two of the stories: floods and the virus were a nice visual way of getting the statistical evidence across, it was punchy and clear for the audience to follow. In terms of the norovirus story, I thought the pictures were good, especially as they filmed inside the hospital without breaching privacy rights of Article 8 - Human Rights - simply filming hands and bodies rather then identifying peoples faces. However, I noticed that the package did start and end with the same image, which was a bit lacklustre.

The third story was about I'm a celebrity star Nadine Dorries, this added more a light hearted entertaining tone from the previous risks to property and health. I did question why there were still images used, and Nadine Dorries herself wasn't interviewed, but this was shortly answered when the reporter in Westminster explained that she couldn't be on screen, which I have not often seen.

I loved the coming up news belt, it continued to build tension and interest to know what's still to come, this is something we have recently introduced on WINOL and I think it works really well in keeping viewers tuned in. Furthermore, it breaks up the bulletin from having solid packages one after the other. On return, the presenter reminded us of the top story which is a nice introduction and refresher for potential viewers who may have missed the start of the show.

I am not sure whether this is because I am not used to writing links, or because I have not had a great deal of practise with but I found the links that introduced the packages were very long, but this is only a personal preference.

The OOVs in the bulletin helped to break up the lengthy packages, compared to WINOL where we have recently incorporated an OOV belt of several OOVs lined up back to back.

The funeral of Coronation Street star was a story to touch the hearts of the nation, I felt it should of been situated above the story on Nadine Dorries. I've didn't feel like the package began with their best shots, the opening frame of the young child and the crowds stood outside didn't illustrate that it was instantly a funeral as it would of done if the first thing we saw was the coffin being carried into the church. I liked the use of fair dealing clips of the actor on the soap opera, giving the audience fond memories of his on screen performance. I felt the clips of the speeches inside the church and of other fellow actors outside added a touching and heartfelt message as well as seeing a lot of common faces for Corrie fans.

Archive footage was used on the Yasser Arafat story which was well handled considering it was hard to get pictures.

The final story was Sports Personality of the Year, which had some sharp and superb photography that caught my eye, I liked the effect of overlaying miniature clips of the Olympians over each other. During an interview with the reporter it would have been nice to see a more creative approach to the reporter being stood by the interviewee, for instance a walkie talkie instead of a long held shot that cut in closer to the reporters head. It would of worked better if the interviewee was framed in closer, or a sequence shot was done before introducing the interview. I liked the vox pops too, it added some light and shade from the lengthy interviews, getting an overall balanced opinion of who may win. This sporting story featured in the headlines which included action shots and natsot of crowd cheers which instantly grabbed my attention.

I personally would of liked to watch the bulletin back, but Channel 5 on demand says that it is not available  I think this should be altered so the presenter can refer the audience to the website for more information.

Overall, the bulletin flowed really nicely, the sound was continuous, the stories were relevant, covering a large scope and there was something for everyone covering beats on environment  health, politics, entertainment, crime and sport. I liked that it ended by promoting the 6.30pm news: "find out why..." which teased the viewer into tuning back in.

WINOL Week 7

This week was an unusual week for me compared to normal, the court report I was working on was open to a wider issue, which I felt was important to cover to add depth and scope to the story. The sentencing was an arson attack which was instigated because her 999 hoax calls were ignored. The issue of prank hoax calls is an extremely common occurrence which needed to be addressed, therefore I arranged an interview with the South Central Ambulance Service, in order to add an element of comment to my piece. I was in touch with their press office who arranged for me to come down to their office in Otterbourne and speak with the Area Manager of North Hampshire, this was a good experience, and it was a relief to have someone help film as I could have a comfortable conversation with the interviewee before hand. I also got to go into the control room where the 999 calls take place, and these GVs added a more interesting visual feature, introducing the interview quite nicely. Although the background interview was shot against a white wall, this was because the acoustics in the control room were too loud and there was risk of echo; so for sound quality purposes we went ahead with a quiet room. When It came down to editing I found a few sound bites which addressed the issue straight away "matter of life and death", in addition, I interviewed him on what he thought about the sentencing at the law courts relating the wider issue back to the current report at hand.

With court reporting the hardest issue is always pictures, however this week I thought it was a visually pleasing report. In addition to the interview and GVs of the control room, I had a mug shot from the police, a reconstruction of someone dialling 999, and a PTC on location of where the incident took place. When we arrived in Southampton the weather was certainly not on our side, it was pouring with rain, and the wind was ruining any hope of clear sound. We attempted a PTC near the road but this was picking up all the loud buses driving past, so we moved round the corner which was quieter but still had the flats in vision. When we came back to the newsroom it was clear that it had been rushed, the sound quality was good, but the framing and positioning of me could have been more central, but this is me being hypercritical so I'm told. With the help of the final cut pro colour balance tool I didn't look so blue in the end and it served the purpose of being at the scene which I wanted; compared to outside the law courts. I also used the lip mic to record my voice over for the package and to introduce the interview. I was told the piece on the whole had a sense of authority which I was extremely pleased with.

In addition to my package this week, I worked with George to cover the Jamie Dack trial, he went to court which established that there was reporting restrictions on the case, as it is now being re-trialled. I was in touch with the officer who sent us police photos, a mugshot of the defendant who confessed to murder and a photo of the victim. When I was in Southampton I filmed the location of where the body was found in a wheelie bin on Empress Road. This solved the issue of having no footage to illustrate the OOV. Here is this week's bulletin:

The guest editor this week was Ben Mitchell from the Press Association, who gave me some extremely valuable pointers on scripting my piece. As a man with many years of experience in court reporting he gave me some great advice on how to structure my written story, which I have taken on board. Here is what he had to say about WINOL-

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud’s theory like all other philosophers began with a problem, and the problem is that the human condition is miserable. We are all unhappy inside because we live in a world of suffering and pain. We are divided within ourselves because we don’t even know what we want. We live an alienated life of anguish, and then we die; how is this the reality of life Freud thought?

Freud wanted to explain everything. He had a solution to this problem, and this was psychoanalysis. Freud claimed to discover the unconscious mind, the part of our brain, which controls us. Although we may think we are in control of our actions, Freud said that we don’t even know that we are being controlled, and that the decisions and rational reasons we make are down to sexual desire.

Medical professionals would laugh at Freud, they consider him an embarrassment because there is no scientific evidence to support his theories; however, it is very important to the media. Sex is seen as the centre of motivation, it is the dominant force in the media, and this sort of scandalous sex content features in magazines and newspapers all the time.

When our real thoughts come out even though we don’t want them too we call it a Freudian slip, this is when people say things that don’t mean to say but it’s in fact what they are actually thinking. We access the dominant part of our mind through our dreams. Our dreams are an illustration of the real problem, whereas our rational mind cannot access this part of the brain, because it doesn't believe it exists. If you don’t face the underlying problems you will become neurotic.

Freud was an extremely pessimistic person, especially about humans; his theories were channelled by a dark vision of humanity. He suffered from cancer of the jaw, thus was in constant pain and fearful for humanity. He damaged the idea that we are noble creatures “man is the measure of all things” and said we when we think of his ideas we should think of the artist Rembrandt – a little light but a lot of darkness.

Freud attacked Plato and Marx’s theory of the tripartite self.

Attack on Plato -

Plato’s idea of the tripartite self is Reason, Spirit, and Desire. This is the ‘Allegory of the Chariot’ – there are two horses, the first is Spirit which represents bravery, and the second is Desire which represents the need for satisfaction. These horses are guided and controlled by the rider, which is Reason. However Freud didn’t believe that it is the rational mind that is in control, instead he believed we were driven by our desires. We are ruled by our desires without us being aware of it, and it is in fact the rational mind which is the weakest.

Attack on Marx –

Marx said that we alienate ourselves from what we really want, and that the tripartite self is Natural, Alienated and Species Self. He believed that in a communist society the needs of the species self would be most dominant. He had a teleological perspective, that we needed history to go somewhere in order to progress to a happier society whereby humanity can access the true expression. Marx believed human nature had the ability to develop and evolve. However, Freud rejected this as he believed it was too idealistic. Freud believed our deepest needs are fuelled by aggression, with the wilful desire to hurt others. He thinks that in a communist society we would still be ourselves, and we cannot escape this. We are out to hurt people. This relates back to Hobbes - “war of all against all” and “life is nasty, brutish and short”. Freud agrees with Hobbes’ outlook on human nature, and believes that inside our brains is a Hobbesians realm dominated by aggression, whereby we are at constant battle.

The Freudian Personality

The condition of human nature is full of pain and suffering, we cannot seek peace because we are at endless war with ourselves. Freud explains the reality of this is triggered through internal division, and the agonising interaction with other people. This division within ourselves is divided in to three parts, all of which conflict one another.

1. Id – This is the part of the brain which is the most dominating. We develop the Id from birth; it is a bundle of instincts aimed at gaining pleasure and avoiding pain. It is the reservoir of the unconscious; sex and aggression are merging in the Id dominating the personality. The demand for fulfilment and expression bubbles away in the “cauldron of seething excitations” but we are unaware of the power and inner spoiled brat.
2. Ego – This is the part of the brain which is the reality, the voice of reason and commonsense. It is the least powerful part of the personality that makes rational decisions based on what we think is the best option. Although we may think we are making the right decisions the ego is not in control.
3. Superego - This is the part of the brain that is irrational; it is the judge and the punisher of your decisions. We do not have the superego when we are born; it comes from our parents who impose ideas of perfection on us. It is the policeman in our head that punishes us with guilt. The morality principle often uses religion which imposes controlling morals upon us.

Society is full of suffering; Freud outlines three reasons for why we are full of pain:

1. Decaying body – we live life with aches and pains, and as each day passes we are getting older and our cells start to die, this is part of human nature.
2. The external world – this is what happens on the outside and around us.
3. Other people – this is the greatest pain of all, everyday interaction with others is full of pain because people are out to hurt us, but we are all irrational beings who are inclined to hurt others.

Freud thinks the answer to this all is Psychoanalysis which strengthens the ego, but this is not open to everyone and it is very expensive. He offers some ways to deal with these urges, a coping mechanism to distract you from reality of life:

1. Intoxication – get drunk but this is only a temporary solution, we cannot remain drunk forever.
2. Isolation – stay away from others, but this is also temporary and only appeals for a few people
3. Religion – type of sublimation* it is a mass delusion and distraction away from the desires of the id.

*Sublimation – socially acceptable release for our aggression, e.g. sport or work, which diverts our energy away from aggression. However, these only give mild satisfaction, the only way to give oneself real satisfaction is to destroy the enemy.

Civilisation is a collective superego, which imposes moral limits on the id – “love your enemy” – however, men are not gentle creatures, they are aggressive forces “man is a wolf to man”. Religion is a super ego which imposes impossible demands on us. 

Psychoanalysis

The key to psychoanalysis is to hide something from yourself. Freud claimed he had found a way to deal directly with the id and this was the royal road to the unconscious – hypnosis, free association and dreams. When we are asleep, the ego is like a “sentry asleep at its post”, our dreams are fantasies, a repressed wish, when we dream the id can let loose and show its true self. If we are creative we are releasing our inner aggression, if we are not creative we may have a block and not feel ourselves.

The free association exercise is where patients speak about what comes to mind, Freud's believed this revealed the underlying pattern of the unconscious mind, and infantile sexuality is key to this pattern. Freud believed Psychological traumas dates back to infancy, there are 5 psycho-sexual development stages:
Oral Stage - birth < 1 pleasure is focused on the mouth - Weaning (mothers breast milk)
Anal Stage - ages 1-3 pleasure is focused on the anus - Toilet training
Phallic Stage - ages 3-6 child focuses on genitalia. This is a crucial stage in the emotional development of every boy who concentrates upon their desire to sexually possess their mother and kill their father. But, there is fear that the father will castrate him. Girls ave penis envy because without a penis she cannot possess her mother, this is called the Electra Complex.
Latent Stage- age 6 - puberty
Genital Stage - puberty - death - Sexual interest matures in this stage

The Freudian unconscious was manifested in three different ways, though trivial everyday mistakes, reports of dreams and neurotic symptoms.

Attacks on Freud

Falsifiability – Karl Popper – There is no scientific proof that it psychoanalysis works, even so scientific predictions could be proven wrong. He was not the discoverer of the unconscious, as he claimed. It was discussed in academic circles in the 19^th Century before Freud came about.

Schopenhauer – He also spoke of the unconscious mind, and the struggle to control sexual urges. He believed man was irrational, guided by internal forces, of which we are unaware of. The universal will is “the secret antagonist of the intellect”.

Reich – believed in the complete opposite, he thought unconscious forces inside the mind were good, and that the underlying energy was sexuality. If this is released then human beings would flourish. Reich believed sexual pleasure is the ultimate measure of human happiness. He thought sexuality and politics were intimately connected – sexual repression is a weapon of political domination. Unlike Freud who taught patients to keep it in and control their feelings, Reich encouraged people to be open and just scream this is Reichian Therapy. He also influenced the hippy movement “free love, free sex”. 

Prank caller jailed for attention seeking arson

An alcoholic attention-seeker has been jailed for six years for setting fire to an elderly friend’s home after a judge branded her a “significant risk to the public”.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Victoria Makey, of Latham Court, Southampton, started the fire in order to get the attention of the emergency services after she made a series of drunken hoax calls.

Sentencing the 27-year-old for an offence of arson reckless as to whether life was endangered, Judge Evans described her as an “attention seeker”.


She added that Makey’s actions endangered the lives of the residents at the sheltered housing complex as well as the emergency crews which attended the blaze.

The sentence has been praised by South Central Ambulance Service for sending a message out to the public about the seriousness of prank calls.

Paul Jefferies, North Hampshire Area Manager, said: “It is nice to see society and the law courts are taking it seriously and acknowledging that the ambulance service is a precious resource.”

The court heard that Makey was visiting her friend’s flat at Ironside Court in Southampton, on March 30, when she made several prank 999 calls to the emergency services. When she got no reaction, she set fire to the curtains, forcing the firefighters to come to the scene.

Makey was sentenced to 6 years in prison with an extended licence period of 4 years.