Critical Reflection - Semester Two

Winchester News Online is effectively a mirrored reflection of any other professional broadcast. Although it is on a smaller scale and run by students we take pride on our award-winning output serving a local audience with our news bulletin, and more recently reaching out to a wider, national audience with the new magazines such as NWR: Arts, and Fashion Absolute:ly. WINOL covers a large spectrum of content; we are divided into five teams - news, sport, features, online and production. People come for the news but stay for the features. The news has been of outstanding quality, mainly due to the extensive coverage of the Eastleigh by-election but a stand out improvement on the website is the launch of the new magazines which have targeted niche markets with a particular interest, such as travelling, culture, philosophy, music, or fashion. The standard of these academic reviews and interviews is extremely high, contributing towards the average 5.16 minute total for time spent on the website. [19/5/13 Alexa] WINOL continues to pull traffic towards the website through the increased use of social networking sites such as Twitter, led by our social media controller Hazny Hayesmore who targets those directly interested in the story, e.g. politicians or an organisation that the news relates to. We currently have 1361 twitter followers which contrasts the 276 followers of ‘NewsLabBU’ at Bournemouth University. [19/5/13] This is proof that we are regularly channelling out a ‘live’ feed of updates daily, and producing fresh content all year round. Jason French and Sam Ashton have together improved the website which is the core centre for all the work of the WINOL teams, I particularly like the sectioning of each relevant topic e.g. crime or campus, which makes navigating around the website easier. As advised by guest editor Paul Wood the web team have maximised the use of SEO to increase our readership and ensured there are no broken links. Our YouTube channel is also a vital tool for uploading content; it allows reporters to upload their individual packages which can then be put on the website alongside a written story separate from the bulletin. A successful example of this is the Boris Johnson interview which went viral receiving nearly 3000 hits. Alone this emphasises the number of views we receive through our video content, totalling to 722,522 YouTube views; this is a suburb achievement for WINOL which set up the channel in 2009. Similarly, JMU Journalism TV at Liverpool University also started their YouTube account in 2009 but has only received 85,848 views. [May 2013] This showcases how WINOL has produced not only quality work but that of great quantity to.

For the second semester of WINOL I was ‘promoted’ to Chief Crime Reporter, this allowed me to develop upon my skills as a news reporter, and continue to practise responsible journalism. Winchester Crown Court has been the most prominent source for my reports; attending court regularly has allowed me to develop upon my interest of law and the criminal justice system by experiencing active cases and sentences. The satisfaction of being in the court room and hearing the sentencing first hand is a very rewarding experience. Acting as the eyes and ears for the public is what I enjoy most about court reporting, it shows that I am capable of carrying out accurate, trusted and above most legally safe reports. I have covered a mixture of court cases including Robbery, drugs, fraud and affray. One of my main goals is to make it pictorially interesting, aside from the standard PTC outside court, I have done walking PTCs on location such as the Robbery in Andover which was praised for the strength of my delivery. Other pictorial solutions were the use of CCTV, access into press conferences and animation. The hospital scam was a package that stood out for me; the facts were illustrated through animation, superbly made by Jason French. This worked well as it was innovative and I think more animated content could be used in the future on WINOL. The idea of taking a story from court and making it more than just a standard court report is what I personally feel I have progressed with this semester. The hospital fraud story marked this realisation for me, I spoke with the fraud investigator in court and he gave me an ‘off the record’ briefing on the scam. Despite the intimidation of a court room it’s important to speak with the professionals to find out more.

Aside from reporting this semester, we rotated the role of News Editor, this was an exciting opportunity to be able to overlook the bulletin as a whole; a completely different angle to what I am used to as a reporter. It allowed me to make editorial decisions as to what would make the headlines, help coach the reporters with their packages, and liaise with the production team. This leadership role brought to my attention the importance of timings and organisation; I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of taking a more senior role, an interesting change from being out of the field. I had a strong mix of hard news stories in the bulletin, including two national stories: Chris Huhne pleading guilty and the new law of same-sex marriage. Both reporters Nadine Forshaw and Anja Elen Eikenes managed to localise these national stories and get reaction to the breaking news, two very impressive packages. Moreover, Matt Spencer delivered an exclusive local story about the new appointed chief constable which had strong interviews with both Simon Hayes and Andy Marsh. Luke Garratt presented a court report on Rape, and Ellen Millard did an update on the market, which meant the content I had was extremely strong, but it was all hard hitting news. I struggled for lighter and entertaining news, which Jack Webb delivered in future bulletins. Faith Thomas filled the ‘and finally’ slot with a new leisure centre opening up; this was the only bit of light news that I had and therefore had to be placed at the end of the bulletin. I decided to headline the two national stories and the court report; however, after hearing the critic I agreed that there should have been some lighter news in the headlines too such as sport. Paul Greer was the guest editor this week, he agreed with my editorial decisions of the running order: “I’ve been in this business for nearly 30 years, the stories were plum in the right order, the whole thing was tight, the whole thing was clever”. Greer from five live taught us a valuable lesson, that your story is not you, if people criticise your story they are not criticising you as a person. We have to be thick skinned in this industry and without doubt "be interested". If we are not interested in our story then no one else will be, and this was something I took forward with my own stories.

WINOL has also covered some specials this semester, the highlight being the live coverage of the Eastleigh By-Election. My role on the night was to present the first live hour and the results show with co-presenters. Presenting has always been something I wanted to practise and improve on, therefore I set myself this challenge, it was out of comfort zone, not only because politics is not my strongest point, but because the output was live. I am so pleased I pushed myself to do this, because it was a great learning experience. It allowed me to understand more about the production side of things: communicating with the director, dealing with technical problems such as Skype live on air and ad-libbing with the in studio guests. (Councillor Ian Tait and Ex-Councillor Eleanor Bell). The show was streamed online from 10pm to 3am which had 1600 unique viewers tune in, this was an incredible audience for a student led show, and the whole WINOL team were extremely proud of the success. The content of the packages was all our own footage, which is what we lacked, showcasing many of the big names in politics, including the Prime minister, Nick Clegg and Boris Johnson to name a few. This was fantastic journalism from all the reporters who covered the main parties, and particularly Nadine Forshaw who was live at the count representing Winchester News Online on Sky News. A great team effort from everyone on WINOL, and a highlight for the news team. The run up to the election was extensively covered, 2/3 stories were uploaded daily bringing a lot of traffic to the website; WINOL certainly took advantage of the fact London came to Eastleigh.

To avoid all the content being about Eastleigh I was continuing to deliver court reports weekly to act as the 'in other news' for the bulletin. Week 4 was a highlight for me; the common issue of no visuals for court reports was not a problem this week. I managed to get a copy of the CCTV footage that was shown in court during the sentencing from the CPS as I have built up a trusted relationship with the press office. My main focus was scripting to pictures, initially I still told the story like a court report, but with some guidance from Chris Ship the guest editor that week I changed the scripting to ensure it followed through and guided the viewer through what was being shown on the screen. In the debrief, Ship made a point of crime stories being difficult pictorially, “a lot of the times that can decide the difference between doing the story and not doing the story, just if the pictures are there, it’s not about the strength of the story itself”. This was illustrated in my case, as it was picture led, but not significantly hard hitting crime news. This package stood out for me, as it has got over 900 views on my YouTube Channel.

A personal achievement for me on WINOL this semester was being the first to broadcast the breaking news of the break in at the jewellery store in Winchester town centre. Fellow crime reporter Luke Garratt heard of the news from a passer-by, and without hesitation we both saw this as an opportunity to investigate more. We were the only journalists there, I took some still photography using a DSLR camera and video footage on our iPhones as this was the only recording device we had on us. I learnt from a mistake that I made earlier in the year by only taking stills of the bus that hit the boy near the market. Although it was good to have our own photos, lecturer Angus Scott rightly pointed out that we are working for TV and therefore moving footage is more suitable, a mistake I promised not to make again. Although the footage of the break in wasn't used in the bulletin, we were the first to get the breaking news story up online. This brought a lot of traffic to the website and no other local paper had photographs of the damage caused aside from WINOL.

Week 7 brought about a new experience for me; I got permission from Ringwood Police to go to the press conference where the family of a teenager who was killed in a motor crash were appealing for the driver to come forward. This was like no other story I had worked on, vast amounts of press were there such as BBC South, ITV Meridian, Heart Radio, BBC Radio Solent and local papers, being surrounded by some of the 'big guys' in news I regret shying away and not throwing out a question to the police officer in charge. This was a visually led package, containing raw content from the family themselves, the interview with the police officer which was conducted by BBC South, and cutaways of flowers and messages capturing the solemn atmosphere. This was a memorable week for me, it made me realise that as a journalist you have to detach yourself emotionally from what you feel.

Fleet street fox reiterated this point as she explained that as a news reporter you never get the right to your own opinion, you have to keep your thoughts to yourself and be objective, this is why new journalism is profitable, because it is objective and true. George Berridge conducted a brilliant chat show style interview with her, I was part of the studio audience as I had read her book. This was an enjoyable day, as she didn't shy away from telling us what to expect within the journalism industry, an eye opening useful day.

Towards the end of the year, the big news on campus was the student elections; after filming the speeches and receiving over 800 views I decided to follow it up for the bulletin. This was in the style of a feature, I arranged for all four students running for president to come in to the studio and sit in WINOLs black chair: mastermind style. As I am so used to dealing with the facts on crime news, I missed the point of making it entertaining and comical, so I had to reversion the original video, and include snap shots of the chair and a music bed to lift the idea of mastermind. This made me explore a more creative approach to news, and highlighted for me the differences between news and features.

A second semester on news has helped me develop as a reporter, aside from my own reports I have worked closely with the Chief reporter, attending high profile meetings such as the Hampshire Police and Crime Panel, and developing upon my camera skills by filming interviews at the launch of the Police budget. Attending events such as these was extremely encouraging for me, it ties in well with my news beat and helped build upon my networking skills, meeting other journalists and gaining contacts.

WINOL may not be above a student publication by definition, but it is treated as one by the team. We take every story we do seriously, ensuring there are no fatal errors, we don’t make room for excuses as students, we are trained to be have the mind-set of a professional journalist. WINOL has given us the platform and foundation to walk out of our newsroom and confidently walk into another. Every story we do, or event we attend we are not just representing ourselves, more importantly we are representing WINOL, and this semester I feel we have boosted the profile of WINOL as a whole, and made it known to many more.

Philosophical Ramblings

Warning: This blog post has been written entirely from my memory. It was a test of my philosophical knowledge, so I apologise in advance if there are some slip ups, but with the exam looming tomorrow, I hope it is accurate.

Existentialism

All that matters is that we exist. Existentialists believe that we are defined by the decisions that we make, and it is the next decision which is the most important. We have to choose, and it is our choices that define us.

Key Existential figures are HEIDEGGER, SARTRE, NEITZCHE.

KANT claims consciousness is not individual, we are are composite of those around us: 'you wouldn't be you if you were alone'. Kant states that we cannot stand outside of consciousness, because this would make us unconscious, and therefore we would be a mind without properties. Kant rejects DESCARTES cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am, as he believes that thinking is not a predicate of being, you have to exist in order to think, and therefore supports I think therefore I am. Consciousness is not a predicate of existence, and consciousness is not proof of existence anyway.

HUSSERL is the founder of phenomenology, he studied the immediate data of consciousness. He also opposed DESCARTES theory that we can not trust our sensory experiences because an evil demon may be deceiving you, so what your senses perceive as reality could be a dream. Husserl however, said it made no difference whether the ideas present the real world or an hallucination, because the intentions are the same.

HEIDEGGER proclaimed the end of the metaphysical age, it was believed to have been triggered off by Kant. Heidegger states that being is not an abstract idea. He also rejects DESCARTES theory of Cartesian dualism, that the world is made up of two things: mind and body (spirit and physicality). Heidegger says this is nonsense how can we interact with the world if we are stuck in our minds? In place of consciousness, Heidegger speaks of Dasien, and this is our being in the world. We are thrown into this world, and things are constantly moving like a roller-coaster ride. Our engagement in the world is our existence. Heidegger says you have to find your Dasien, and be defined by your interaction in the world, rather then your facticity. Our facticity is not you, this is everything that has happened in the past up until this point, that has been given to us. But, we have no choice over our facticity e.g where we were born, or who our parents are, but we do have the choice over what our engagement in the world is, and Dasein is not thinking its about caring in the moment, it is non reflective. The choice is crucial to existential outlook, as SARTRE states the only thing we cannot escape is the need to choose. A das man attitude is someone who will allow their past to define them, e.g "i've had a tough upbringing". Heidegger says in order to be free you have to be fully absorbed in the task at hand, and if you are fully engaged you lack boredom and you no longer exist. To exist is to be bored, and boredom is the problem of being. There are three aspects of time:
1. Attunement - associated with the past, and the feeling of guilt
2. Being there - associated with the present, caring about the task in hand
3. Directedness - associated with the future, and the feeling of fear and dread

SARTRE said existence preceeds essence. We create our own purpose. As Simone de beauvoire said 'one is not born a woman but becomes one' - we choose how we want to behave and portray ourselves. The key theme here is choice, Sartre says the only thing you cannot escape is the need to choose. We as humans are a collection of decisions, the idea of recreating oneself is frightening, but if we avoid this freedom then Sartre says we are living in bad faith. We are living an inauthentic lifestyle if we choose to avoid the choice.

Albert Camus' book The Outsider illustrates an existential outlook well, the main character Meursault show little consideration to those around him, even after his mother dies, e.g when he thinks about not smoking for his mothers sake, but lights up a cigarette regardless. Instead of taking advice from his lawyer that he should tell the jury he killed the arab because he was suffering with the loss of his mother, he thinks for himself, takes the responsibility and chooses not too make that false excuse just to be let off. This shows that he was living in good faith, and an authentic lifestyle, because he made the choice for himself.

SARTRE states that the world is made up of two types of things, definable and undefinable. Chairs are definable objects their properties will never change, whereas humans are undefinable because we are changeable. The next decision we make is the most important.  Humanity for Sartre can be summed up in three terms:
1. Abandonment - no authority to guide us, we are on our own
2. Anguish - we must take responsibility, as we are fundamentally free
3. Despair - the realisation that the world may prevent us from getting what we want.

NIETZSCHE also adopts an existential outlook. He states that God is dead this is the start of freedom and the end of certainty. He says there is no authority or guiding spirit to tell us what is good and what is bad, we have to use our own inner morals to make decisions on what we think is good and bad, and this is known as the transvaluation of values. For Nietzsche human nature is not universal, we are not all the same and we all have different points of view and different moralities.

Logic and Mathematics 

The definition of logic it it's simplest terms is that it sorts out good inferences from bad. 

The first founder of Logic is Aristotle, but I am going to focus on the 2nd founder of Logic which is Frege. Frege systemised logic and concluded that it was apriori and analytic. He focused on validity and invalidity - in order to overcome a false conclusion you had to change the grammatical notions of subject and predicate to new logical notions argument and function. The subject in a predicate calculus must be an individual, whereas the predicate can be the class of all men. 

If I use the example: Her Majesty the Queen is Elizabeth

This part is the FUNCTION - the fixed component
This part is the ARGUMENT - it can be changed in order to make a true statement false
e.g her Majesty the Queen is Christina

But certain functions could hold their truth whatever the argument may be, for example:

Socrates is Mortal 
Argument can be changed and it will still maintain it's truth: Christina is mortal.
Therefore, Frege had to find a new logical notion to express generality - for all.

(x)(x = mortal)

MILL was an empiricist, he believed that knowledge was derived from experience. He disagreed with Frege, and said that logic was a posteriori. He thought science and mathematics were derived from experience. 

Mill states that every number asserts a physical fact, one being singular, two a pair, 12 a dozen etc

Each number denotes a physical phenomena but connotes what makes it a physical property, e.g two denotes a pair, and connotes what makes it a pair; and this would be physically distinguishable to three. But Mill admits that it would be difficult for the mind to distinguish between 102 apples and 103. 

Natural numbers are words used to count things. There are three types of numbers:

1. Natural numbers

2. Institutions of perfect platonic and harmonic worlds

3. Logical objects derived purely by syntax 

Natural Numbers - these are number we don't have to count. If i was to walk into the kitchen and see three cups sitting on the side I would not have to physically count 1,2,3 my mind would be able to naturally know, and some people can see up to 7 objects without counting. Stone age tripes and apes appeared to be able to judge empirical pluralities, they would use pluraities which are numerous phrases instead of exact numbers e.g "one thing", "more than one thing", "lots of things".

Pythagoreanism - focuses on prime numbers, those that are indivisible. Pythagoreanism was founded by Pythagoras, who worshipped the triangle. The number three is a magical number, it is used in arts: three part drama, in music the triad, but it also has religious significance to Christians: The trinity, jesus rose on the third day, cross made with three fingers etc. For muslims, number 1 is the holy number, one god, one unity, Allah. But for the greeks, they feared the number one, and began counting with the number two, as they only regard plural numbers as natural numbers. 'One' and 'not one' are in a different logical category. 

The problem of nothing and zero remained unsolved for thousands of years until Frege came along. Zero was first introduced in India, the problem is that zero = nothing, but nothing = something. This is contra to Aristotle's Law, which was solved by Leibniz who claimed that objects could contain their own negation. Modern philosophers now regard zero as a natural number, logically derived from 1-1=0 To say that there is "nothing" is just a philosophy absurdity. 

Frege's axiom: all things that are equal are identical to themselves. 

All pairs are equal to other pairs

One cannot be associated with anything else

Zero is the null class, it's empty, things are not equal to themselves 

Therefore zero exists as a logical object.  

The New Industrial State

The New industrial state was written in 1967 by John Kenneth Galbraith. It explores the economics of production and the affect large companies could have over the state. GALBRAITH argues that the industrial system is controlled by a technostructure, which aims to maintain control over the companies. A technostructure is a group of technicians, which have considerable influence and control on its economy, these group of elites are decision makers, in an industrial system the decisive unit is a group not an individual.  

The biggest change to the economy is the advance in sophisticated technology. Planning is the core component in an industrial system, and advanced technology has led to increased bureaucratic planning. 

Galbraith states that planning is economically motivated, but more so technologically motivated.

The state is in charge of maintaining aggregate demand at a high level to avoid unemployment. During the time of the great depression, the economy collapsed and unemployment was at it's highest. KEYNES had a solution to this, he is the great god of economics. During the time of the depression everyone was willing to work for less, as there was surplus in labour. Everyone needed a job, and no one could afford to buy the products. Demand was less and as a result businesses supplied less, meaning less workers were needed, either their wages had to be cut, or they would lose their job entirely. Keynes solution to this was to print more money, by injecting money into the economy, the government could give businesses subsides to employ more people or set up government schemes. Military Keynesian helped boost America's economic growth because billions was spent on defence each year, providing many jobs.

The 1950's was an era of American prosperity. However, Keynes' 'managed society' received many attacks, from the far left and far right, the likes of Heidegger, Sartre, and Fanon, who labelled American civilization as bureaucratic technological militaristic nihilism. Nihilist are people that don't believe in anything! Hayek also criticised Keynes as he thought he was corrupt and that we would all eventually be ruled by bureaucrats. WEBER states that there is a rise in bureaucracy, and by 'rise' he means ruled by officials. Heidegger states that society is doomed, because it is pointless, and we have no purpose. 

Totalitarianism 

Totalitarianism is all about control. Hannah Arendt stated that 20th century totalitarian regimes were completely different to anything that had come before. The main purpose of a totalitarian regime is to utterly destroy the individual, Plato's republic is an example of this, peoples individuality is totally stripped away, and every aspect of life is controlled. [Hitlers Nazi Germany or Stalin's Soviet Russia and other examples]

The state is everything. As Mussolini said 'Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state'. 

Arendt believed that imperialism was the cause of totalitarianism, because it contained similar traits which are explicit in the new regimes, e.g development of racism which grouped people and decided on their superiority based on their genes. 

Our individuality makes us difficult to control and gather up into a collective movement. There are two methods which can be used: Terror and Ideology.

Terror - This is not just about murdering vast numbers of people, it is about destroying their abilty to act against the state, and degrading them.

Ideology - This is about eliminating an individuals capacity of thought and experience. 

Ideology is a specialist knowledge, POPPER pointed out that it was used as a justification for rulers, to avoid responsibility. Instead of people thinking for themselves they are following.

An example of this is MILGRIMS shock experiment whereby there is a teacher and a learner, the learner is in fact an actor. There is an authority figure, telling the teacher to administer potentially fatal shocks to the learner when they get an answer wrong. Milgrim's findings showed that 2/3 of the people continued on when told by the authority to "continue" and "you must go on", showing that even normal Americans were capable of committing acts against their conscious, simply because they were following instructions by an authority man in a white coat. 

Arendt says that the first step Nazi's made on the road to the Final Solution was to deny Jews citizenship, by making them stateless, and denying them rights. These stateless people were perfect victims for a totalitarian regime. 

EICHMANN - 11th May 1960, Israeli secret service kidnapped Nazi figurative Adolf Eichmann. He was trialled in Jerusalem for the crimes he committed during the final solution. His main responsibility was the transportation of millions of Jews from across Europe to concentration camps. His defence was that he was following orders from the law, and Arendt points out that he had lived his whole life according to a kantian definition of duty.  

She was shocked to hear him speak in endless cliches "proud to be a law abiding citizen". Eichmann was blindly following orders, but it was the ideology that blinded him. Arendt agreed that Eichmann should be put to death for the crime he committed, but disagreed with the reasoning. She believed his true crime was not thinking, and not choosing. She adopted an existential outlook and said that he had the choice to do what he did, and he ignored it and passed it on by following the officials. SARTRE would classify Eichmann as living in bad faith because he chose to ignore the choice, and became subject to slave morality by following rules and not making decisions for himself.

The Eichmann trial served three purposes:

1. To trial him for his crimes

2. To educate the world on the nature of the holocaust

3. To legitimise the Jewish state

The New Journalism 

A brief history in America - It all started with the Penny Papers, which were worth 1p, they were controlled and funded by political parties that wanted to put forward a point of view. In the mid 19th Century, The Associated Press became more objective, the news was not one sided, it was truthful and objective and this increased readership and make it more profitable. In the late 19th Century The Yellow Press evolved, and this was the new journalism without soul. Newspapers became sensationalised, they were extremely colourful like frozen TV, huge headlines, shocking pictures, exclusive stories which were commonly on sin sex and violence. 

Two journalists during this period were William Randolph Hearst from the New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World. Both journalists resorted to sensationalised news, because there was a competition for readership. 

The yellow press was the start of the new journalism, events were recorded in a formulaic way: who, what, when, where, why? Journalists were mirroring the style of events and used real dialogue. This new approach allowed the real representation of events to bleed into the copy. 

America in the 1960s and 70s was a turbulent time. There was disastrous wars, serious military threats overseas, the hope of John F Kennedy was destroyed when he was assinated in 1963, wars in Vietnam, controversy of the draft, and Muhammad Ali refused to be conscripted. The main reasons for this turbulence were:

1. Demographics - there was a huge spike in the population, the baby boomers post WW2 were in their teens by the 60s, and they created a powerful youth culture. The young people were changing society, they became the voice of radical political change. 

2. Sexual Revolution - Sexual freedom, woman could take the pill. The use of contraception gave woman the choice, they didn't have to marry the first man they slept with, and they could have many sexual relationships if they chose to.

3. The student movement, brought about world wide protests for civil rights, black power, the use of LSD was big, it was seen as a way to escape heirachy and have 'real' experiences. The prohibitions of drugs brought about subcultures, such as hippies. 

4. Music was a core element, protests songs were drug fuelled. It was a full frontal attack at the norms.

Influence of existentialists - Heidegger authenticity, and Sartre's bad faith.

Two key themes are choice and freedom.

Fanon's path to freedom was the act of violence, and this violence was the extreme choice. 

Anti-establishment feeling, was the idea that there was a policeman inside our heads, that had to be destroyed.

New Journalism was about representing real people in the real world. Examples of this breed were journalists Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe. There was a shift in telling to seeing. Marshall McLuhan outlined hot and cold media. Hot media was explicit it was telling  whereas, cold media was ambiguous, interpretable and more so seeing. 

Tom Wolfe was heavily influenced by Emile Zola, who was a natural realist. Wolfe outlined that features should have a scene by scene construction, paying close attention to small details, right down to peoples mannerisms and gestures, to allow people to live the story not just tell it. Wolfe shows this in his article Radical Chic by telling us small details such as the food in the penthouse suite, creating a sense of atmosphere  Wolfe outlines that they should be a third person point of view, and most importantly that real dialogue is included. This is shown when there are elements such as "Mmmmmmmmmmmm" in radical chic highlighting the tasty delicacies. Also explicit in Hunter S Thompson's piece Kentucky Derby as scene by scene narrative takes us through the story from the airport to the derby, dialogue and graphic detail right down to his whiskey stained notebook brings alive the drunken fuelled weekend. 

WINOL Profile

Produced by Alex Delaney and Megan Fisher

A review of WINOL 2013

Take a look back at the successful WINOL year, here are the highlights of 2012/2013.

The New Journalism

Brief History

Journalism evolved over the years, but it all had to begin somewhere, so lets start with the old journalism.  In America there were The Penny Papers, these could be brought for 1p they were controlled and funded by political parties putting forward a point of view. This was where is started, it was the first written material for the public.

In the Mid 19th century, objectivity becomes more of a factor because of the creation of wire services - The Associated Press. In order to make journalism profitable, it had to be objective and true, or it just simply wouldn't sell!

The late 19th Century brought about The Yellow Press, this was the first real change towards news journalism. It was the idea of making newspapers more sensationalised. By this I mean full of pictures, interesting shocking content, emotive headlines, big striking pictures and exclusive stories. Tabloid press is sensationalised, it is colourful and can be thought of as Frozen Television. The yellow Press was known as the new journalism without soul all the stories were about sin, sex and violence. William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer of The New York World were two key journalists in this period. They hit a news war, when the need for readership became more competitive, the competition to get the best inside scoop of a story, the original quotes and present the real action drama.

Journalists are there to record the events in a formulaic way. As it has been implemented into us also, we have to use the news pyramid and the five W's: who, what, when, where, why? The New Journalism was an attempt to record events that mirrored the language and style of the events, and then let that real representation bleed into the copy.

Political and Cultural Scene 

In the 1960s and 70s in America, there was a great deal of political and social upheaval, there was foreign wars, and serious military threats overseas. The 1960's was a turbulent time, the great hope of John F Kennedy was destroyed when he was assinated in 1963. There were disastrous wars in Vietnam, and huge controversy of the draft. Muhammad Ali refused to be conscripted.

Reasons for turbulence in the 1960s:
Demographics: After World War II there was a baby boom, this spike in the population created a powerful youth culture. The baby boomers hit their teens in the 60s, they would march for civi rights, and be the voice of radical political change. It was the younger people that were changing society.

Sexual Revolution: It was legally accepted in American for woman to use the contraception pill in order to let woman take control of their reproductive system for the first time. This sexual freedom, allowed woman to have the choice, it meant people could have partners and not have children, or have casual sex with many people. This refers to an Existential view point, they believe we are defined by our decisions, and it is the next decision which is the most important. The freedom of choice is crucial, and Sartre believed ignoring the fact you must choose would be living in bad faith.

The Student Movement brought about world wide protests, for civil rights, black power and the use of LSD to access altered thinking of counterculture. LSD became big, it was seen as a way to escape controlling heirachy and have 'real' experiences. Prohibitions of drugs created subcultures, such as the hippies, communes and collectives, much of youth culture was 'other'.

Music was central for Sartre Jazz was authentic  the music of 1960s was a full frontal attack on the norms; it was drug fuelled, and fed the student movements. They were protest songs wit an aim to subvert and be political. - Gill Scott Heron: The Revolution will not be Televised. 

Influence of Existentialism

Key to existentialism is Heidegger's authenticity and Sartre's bad faith. The main ideas were Freedom and choice, for example Fanon's view of a path to freedom via violence. For Fanon the act of violence is essentially the extreme expression of choice, choice that has real immediate impact. Anti-establishment feeling - the idea that a "There is a policeman inside your head
- he must be destroyed" began to seep into journalism and bleed into the copy.

New forms of Journalism began to emerge, Journalists began to focus on setting, plot, sounds, feelings, direct quotes and images, while ensuring that it was all true, and stuck to the facts. Examples of this new breed were journalists such as Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer.    

This alternative journalism was personal and expressed as a point of view. It was a shift in 'Telling' to 'seeing'. There was two types of media according to Marshall McLuhan: hot and cold media. Hot media                     is explicit it is telling you how it is, whereas cold media is more seeing, it's ambiguous and allows you to interpret it more.

Tom Wolfe was an explicit journalist, that was influenced by Emelie Zola. Zola was a master of natural realism, painting the scene vividly. Features dramatically shifted, they were real and included dialogue. The authentic way was to portray the real world and real people, paying extreme close attention to detail. Features should represent the way people speak, including a scene by scene construction, with a third person point of view. They should include realistic dialogue about how they behave paying attention to fine detail such as their everyday habits. This will allow them to express what they are truly like, and allow for the public to interpret it for themselves.