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.

Claudia Murg - Guest Editor for WINOL

This week's guest editor was Claudia Murg, an undercover investigative reporter for Panorama. We were very privileged this week to have Claudia assist us in our news conference, and debrief. We were given a lot of professional advice to help us on our path to becoming a journalist; some lessons well learn't for the future.

Murg lead the debrief by discussing the reporters as individuals themselves, explaining how it is important to look comfortable on screen, and "be who you are", we can only be ourselves, and find our own style that we feel comfortable with. If we look comfortable on screen, the audience will feel more comfortable too. As journalists we are the "eyes and the ears of the public", we need to be aware of the agenda and ensure our story is of public interest. She also urged that we develop a quick obsession for note taking - we should treat every meeting and conversation as an opportunity for quotes, we should constantly have a notepad and pen to hand, we cannot rely on our memories!

In terms of finding stories, a lesson well learnt this week, is that we should not be relying on other papers to lift stories. We should be signing up to press releases, talking to people, making calls and networking to find our own stories, "you're not copywriters - you're journalists". When it comes to looking for stories, we should be thinking about how we would pitch the story in 30 seconds (90 words) to our news editor, and who will actually care about the story? The best way to get a story is building up relationships with contacts, who can grow to trust you. Once you have earned the trust of someone they will be more willing to assist you, this way you can get fresh evidence, and potentially hear about something no one else has. When it comes to interview's, explain to the interviewee the agenda and why is it in their best interest to answer your question.  "Don't take no for an answer". 

The real question is, if you want to be a journalist - "Are you curious?". - Claudia Murg

WINOL BULLETIN 14/11/12

Cannabis Courier Caught WINOL Week 6

14/11/12. By Christina Michaels, Court Correspondent:  

A courier has been sentenced for "doing a drug run" with £48,000 worth of cannabis in his boot.

Matthew Arthur, from Byron Avenue Margate, Kent, was stopped on his way to Gosport, where a suitcase with 12 kilos of cannabis was found in the car boot.

Winchester Crown Court heard that the drugs had a street value of around £120,000. Judge Patrick Hooton said that Arthur must have known what was in the suitcase.

The 39-year-old father pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison.

Week 6

This week marked the half way mark through the semester, and our roles. I have grown in confidence from the start, and I finally have started to feel like Court is 'my' beat, and despite the complications of court reporting I have built up experience and skills giving me the drive and determination to follow a story through. I find that this news beat is one that is a challenge, but one that I have a genuine interest in. Each week I am trying to take on the criticism I hear in the de-brief and put it in to practise to do new things and improve my package each week. This week the main desire was for a sequence, therefore I thought I would give this a go, and incorporate a sequence shots as a 'Reconstruction' of the case. I have wanted to do a reconstruction for a while, but the cases I have covered have been quite hard to re-enact  but this week's props were far more accessible  I did a sequence shot of the car, the wheels, opening the boot, seeing the suitcase, and opening the suitcase. This allowed me to experiment with different angles and realise the beauty of editing when you have plenty of GVs to play with, it certainly beats having just a PTC for the entire court report. So this week I was happy with the reconstruction making it more visually interesting, and with a mugshot also, identification was not a problem.

When I went down to court this week, I went in and sat in the Jamie Dack case, an ongoing trial that has been followed by a lot of press publications. This was a change from a sentencing, as it allowed me to hear the facts in more detail, and follow it through. However, there are dangers of contempt of court when the case is active therefore I tend to cover a sentencing to ensure the case is closed and no longer active.

American Elections

The US Elections are over, but what a hell of an experience it has been for the WINOL team and indeed the organiser Ali Al-Jamri. It is the first live transatlantic broadcast, entirely run by students. Everyone had a part to play, but it was certainly heavily reliant on the presenters, experts and guests to keep the reaction show alive! And, they did a fantastic job of this too,considering the panic of the news room at 7am when news had come to light over night that Obama had won, which certainly was not anticipated! But, that's the beauty of live TV, and the show had to go on - the scripts were changed, the VTs were cut down, and 'America Decides' changed to 'American Decided'.

My active role on the morning was Floor Manager, this was a invaluable experience, as I hadn't seen the production side of things until then. It gave me a chance to get to grips with the buzz of being in the gallery, and of course the exciting nature of 'talk back' with the calm, professional and reassuring guidance from the director Graham Marshall, who was superb throughout the entire 2 hours!

In the run up to the elections, I produced 4 short packages of the candidates campaign promises, broken down in to issues such as Economy, Education, Healthcare and Energy. These topical VT's were used in the show to spark off discussions between the guests and the experts, in addition to the presenter and the live Skype conversation over to our sister college in Esatern Illinois. For the first time I learnt how to extract clips from YouTube in order to use a few seconds of footage from the debates under Fair Dealing. Moreover, it was the first time I experimented with a graphic, scaling in on certain aspects and adding effects and text which supported the voice over, to make it more visually interesting for the viewer. Here are the original packages, but they were cut down to just Obama's promises for the show.

Highlights of the show will be posted soon, watch this space

Ethics and Aesthetics

Ethics is defined as morality, what is right and what is wrong? Aesthetics is the appreciation of beauty and taste. The purpose of art is to produce beauty, and it is this beauty which arouses desire and pleasure.  The finest beauty is found in nature. Nature is beautiful and sublime, it looks like art, whereas art is only beautiful because it is artificial and not natural. There is an idea that if you are looking at beauty then you are not thinking about pain. Kant says there is two types of beauty: free beauty and derivative beauty; artificial beauty is not a beautiful thing. Kant argues that real beauty doesn't have a purpose, it is just beautiful because it is. Plato's idea of the perfect forms comes in to his aesthetics, the principle that there is a perfect form of beauty and art. Plato regards art as copies and ideas of material things.


There are three types of art:
1. Arts of Speech - poetry
2. Formative Arts - painting, sculpture, architecture
3. Play of sensations - music

Bentham

Happiness is one of the greatest concepts in the system of morality, moral philosophers regard happiness as the supreme good, apart from Kant, who considered duty as the ethical motive. Bentham regards pleasure as the supreme good which he associates with happiness; the greatest happiness for the greatest number, gives the greatest pleasure. However, Kenny's book 'Philosophy in the modern world' outlines the ambiguity of this statement, to be begin with: The greatest number of what?, Should individuals attempt to control the number of candidates for happiness? Does the extension of happiness to a great number mean that we should try to bring more people into existence? and when we are measuring the happiness of a population, do we consider only total happiness, or should we consider average happiness too? In my opinion, it is important to note, that different people have their own forms of pleasure: for instance, boxers get pleasure out of fighting but to someone else, this pleasure would be pain. So how could we grade pleasure? This needs to be modified for utility. Bentham regarded pleasure as a sensation, not only caused by eating, drinking and sex, whereas, Aristotle disagreed and refused to link happiness with the pleasures of the senses. Bentham believes that the quality of pleasure does not matter, and that all pleasure is equal. Bentham lists two principles, first the principle of asceticism, which is the mirror image of utility and second the principle of sympathy and antipathy which judges actions as good or bad, in other sense it is common sense and moral understanding. He divides moral philosophers into two categorises absolutists who believe that an action is wrong and that is should never be done, and consequentialists who believe that the morality of actions should be judged on the consequences. Before Bentham most philosophers were absolutists who believed in natural rights, however he rejects the notional of natural law and natural rights.

Schopenhauer 

The ethical teaching of Schopenhauer is linked to metaphysics, he believes the world of experience is just an illusion and that the true reality, and thing-in-itself is the universal will. We are all creatures of will, and our will can never change. The root of all willing is need and pain, every time we want something it causes us pain, and we suffer until our needs are satisfied, but once we are satisfied, then the will lacks objects of desire and thus life becomes a burden of boredom. Schopenhauer teaches that the only way to cure this, is to overcome your desires; the way to do so is through intoxication. Although sex, drugs and alcohol achieve ecstasy, it is only temperamental, we cannot be drunk and high for eternity. Unlike, the form of arts such as paintings and literature, which can inspire someone. Moreover, Schopenhauer believes to overcome desire we must drive ourselves into a trance through music, even though there will come a time when the music will stop. Kierkegaard regards music as the most abstract of the arts, like language is the vehicle of spirit, music is the vehicle of sensuality.

Nietzsche

Nietzsche's most famous work is 'The birth of tragedy' in the spirit of music. He bases his aesthetic theory on Schopenhauer's pessimistic view of life, similarly they both see art as the easiest escape from the tyranny of life. Nietzsche believes there are two ways to escape reality: intoxication and dreaming. He presents these forms in two gods: Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo being the God of light, dreams and beauty and Dionysus being the god of intoxication and ecstasy; the duality of these two gods is the development and progress of Art., creating a Greek Tragedy.

In contrast to Schopenhauer, Nietzsche believes desire is good, and that we should build upon these strong passions, after all it is these desires which bring us happiness.

Some quotes to leave you on:
"It is better to be a human dissatisfied, then a pig satisfied" 
"Death is just a sleep in which individuality is forgotten"
"Walking is only constantly prevented falling, the life of our body is only ever postponed death, the life of out mind is constantly deferred boredom"

WINOL Reflection Week 1 - 4

Week 1

The first week of WINOL was a shock to everyone’s system, packed with news meetings, potential stories, re-writing of scripts, billions of phone calls, rejection, interviews, travelling further then just the news room, lugging about heavy equipment, filming, and editing on new software! But it was expected that it was going to be a rocky few weeks, but what fun it was to be submerged in all the action. The atmosphere in the news room on a Wednesday, is definitely an adrenaline a buzzing vibe amongst us all, with the appearance of a guest editor. As my news beat is court and crime, I went to Winchester Crown Court, sat in the Press Box, and attempted shorthand, I realised this wasn't going to work and I’d be better off scribbling away everything I heard at supersonic speed. I was definitely an intense experience, being sat within feet of the defendant, and in a lot of cases their family, but this is something in time I hope will make me thick skinned. I found there was a lot of problems and obstacles with court reporting in my first week, in particular Identification, at this stage I was unaware of how to get the defendants name, DOB, and address, but I realise now that I shouldn’t be afraid to go down and speak to the Clerk of the court, or even ring Court Listings for confirmation. There was still however, a few legal issues with my first report, I was unsure of spellings of places and names and the defendant was being charged for three separate offences, so it was hard to keep up and report each detail accurately. So, after an eventful trip down to court, I returned to the newsroom and was faced with a story on cycling safety. By this time I was panicking, but if I could turn something around on Wednesday morning, then I've started off with a hard challenge, and it can only get easier. I went to the scene in Southampton where one of the roads had common accidents, and did my piece to camera (PTC). I got some relevant GV’s of the road, and cyclists which was vital for the visual aspect of the story, I even got a guilty road sign, but I'm proud to say I didn't use it! I learnt my script and was told that I had a confident and clear delivery (confidence I would say I need to work on) but compliments always help! Criticism is the best way to learn, and this week I was reminded of Article 8 (Right to respect for private and family life) and therefore had to remove some of the footage I had where cyclists faces could be clearly identified, in its place I had filmed plenty of shots of the back of people’s head that I could use. My package was not used this week as it was incomplete, to improve I should have had an interview with the officer in charge of the campaign or perhaps some VOX POPS from cyclists would have made it more interesting then just PTC and GVs. For a first week, I won’t dwell on it, it got used as an OOV in the end, so I edited my footage into a 20 second grab. I realised when looking back at my package, that all of my shots were more or less from the exact same angle, therefore it looked like I disappeared after my PTC, in future different shots from different viewpoints will look much better and make it more visually interesting.

 Week 2 

This week I made a lot more phone calls, which helped a great deal! I made a strong contact with the Crown Prosecution Service, who helped me confirm the spellings and names of key facts in the case. This was the first case I publicly reported, as I was for certain that my facts were true. I managed to write down a good quote from the Judge, and although I struggled to get the name of the place where the crime occurred, I eventually found out after help from the CPS. Through making phone calls and contacts, confidence was building that I could formally identify the defendant. This week I rewrote the script several times with a lot of guidance from Flick (previous court reporter) and Brian! The advice I was given was to keep it simple, but the most interesting part at the top, and follow with details, ensuring a conversational yet formal tone was maintained. I struggled to make my script conversational which is why I took several attempts at memorising a very wordy script. The key is to keep it simple. I went down and did my PTC outside the Law Court, and got some footage of the courts – a pan of the building, and a blurred in to focus shot of the ‘law court’ sign which was a good opening shot adding context and location. This package did not make it in to the bulletin but I could certainly see why, I had no other visual footage other then a PTC and a few standard shots of the court, so visually it was very dull. I tried to get hold of photographic evidence from the officer in charge, of the damages made to the property but he proved to be extremely difficult to get hold of. In addition, the place itself had closed down so I couldn't go there, or talk to anyone who had worked there.

Week 3 

This was an extremely interesting week for me. I got a story from court that I knew would be of interest to a lot of people. After chasing up calls I managed to get in touch with the Officer in charge of the case, who kindly emailed me over some photographic evidence. This was vital for my package, as previous weeks I struggled to find pictures that would make it visually interesting for the viewer. The images of the burnt out house were shocking and very eye catching, initially I made a mistake by putting them in the middle of my package but with some useful advice I learnt that your best pictures should be the first thing you see! I also learned that we must speak to pictures and discuss what the viewer can see, in order to create a bigger picture. Therefore, I cut a lot of my PTC down, and recorded a Voice Over describing the images. I had a lot of trouble with echo and background noise despite using the lip microphone, but I re-recorded it in the Audio Suite to ensure the quality was clear. Court Listings and CPS confirmed the identification of the defendant so I sent of a request form to Hampshire Constabulary for a mug shot. I was extremely pleased that I had all the information required to obtain this as the image itself secured positive identification and ensured I was not at risk of libel. To make my package more interesting I went down to the scene of the crime in Totton, to do my PTC, instead of the standard law courts background. However, it could have been framed better to cut out some of the unnecessary brick wall! For the first time since starting out as court reporter, I had pictures from the police, a mug shot and a PTC from the house, so a visually interesting package for once this week! When I had all the elements I needed and a rehearsed script filmed from the scene of the crime, I could begin to piece it together. I learnt new skills on Final cut pro X such as scaling into certain aspects e.g. the eyes which added emotion and power to the piece; moreover, I used key frames, which allowed me to create movement on a still image. This week I made a huge mistake, which I hope to never make again; I bumped into a lady who spoke to me about the event of that morning, but ashamedly did not interview her… she was a witness, and this was the missing piece to my package. Initially, I planned to use the image off the daily echo website, with the confirmation for copyright from their picture desk; however, I am pleased to say that I got the photographic evidence myself from the police.

Week 4

This week I steered away from Court as I struggled to get a complete coverage of a case, I attended 4 separate cases but elements were missing so I was at danger of contempt of court. Instead of court, I focused on a crime related story, and with Halloween approaching I thought a Halloween based package was needed for the bulletin! The story itself is pretty bland, it’s about a lot of guilty posters that can be pinned up to stop trick or treaters knocking on people doors, therefore I tried to be more creative in my editing and filming to make it as interesting as possible. The critic from the week before was that no one used NATSOT to open their package; therefore I took this on board and ensured I started by package with a knock at the door from a creepy character, this instantly made it clear from the onset that it was about trick or treaters disturbing residents on Halloween. I tried to be more creative with my PTC this week, rather then a static PTC, I had the poster on the door in view, and then I opened the front door, creating a transition from the initial knock to me opening the door. This week I hoped to get an interview with a shop owner about them not selling eggs to under 16s however, I felt the questions I asked were too closed, and therefore the response I received was very brief and not worth using. In replace of this, I did some VOX POPS of elderly residents who could give me their opinions on how they were feeling about Halloween. Although I got a lot of rejection understandably because of the scary camera, I found a few helpful locals willing to be on camera, who offered some insightful comments and quotes. One of the shots was too over exposed, even after moving her a few times, it was still hard to block out the sunshine. This week I also created a sequence: going on to the website, clicking on the poster, printing it out, and putting it up on the front door. This demonstrated exactly what the story was about – it showed them what they needed to do. I was pleased this week, as it made it into the headlines, although the story itself was not an extremely interesting one, it was relevant to Halloween that night. On the whole, I felt the vox pops worked well, and with GVs, PTC, and a sequence I felt I got a better understanding of how to edit a package together.