Economics - Keynes General Theory

Copyright: epSos.de

Economics lecture notes

“If you have a lot of money then you can buy any kind of sex you like.” An interesting statement, one which is probably true. If you're feeling libellous, then you could just ask Max Mosley.

It is maintained in our society that money is the root driving force of the world, a thing in itself. Economists would certainly agree. The general rule is that people will never stop spending, because satisfaction can never be achieved – the more you consume, the more you want to consume. This is the premise of the economic problem, and economics is all about how you can solve this problem while keeping everybody relatively happy, or at the very least, employed.

Economists will only talk in terms of human want, they will completely ignore need. Figuratively speaking, the needy have no cash to spend, and are therefore non-entities (but not really, as there are statistics for the economically active unemployed.)

'Need' has no reference point; in Fregian terms, it makes sense but it has no reference within economics. 'Want' makes sense: how much are you prepared to pay for something you want? The statement “I think everybody needs houses” is therefore meaningless in economic terms.

People derive something called utility from spending – a verifiable phenomenon, and therefore it provides a reference point. Consumers will always seek to maximise their utility. Utilitarianism is the idea that everyone left to their own devices will only seek to obtain things that please them, and it treats people as entirely self-contained individuals. It has to assert the latter, or else the first premise wouldn't work. Adam Smith's ideas about the hidden hand of the market are in essence utilitarian – assuming that everyone involved is a sensible, rational human being and knows what it good for them.

David Ricardo – The labour theory of value

Theory: that there was embedded labour power in objects, and this affects their worth. As an example, consider 1 biro versus 1 grand piano – the piano is worth more because more labour has been expended in making the piano than the biro.

Thomas Malthus – the iron law of population.

Theory: population grows exponentially, it is geometric.

Resources, however, are arithmetic i.e. finite in a way, and there is never enough to feed the population. Famine is the only way to bring the population back in to line.

Ricardo + Malthus = Marx – the iron law of wages

Theory: Everyone wants to do a certain job because they've heard it's easy and stress-free but well rewarded (journalist does not seem to fit here, but we'll use it as an example anyway.) If there is suddenly a glut of young, talented people all trying to seek jobs in that industry at the same time, then the employer will have their pick. It then becomes much harder to get a job, and so on. There is a recurring crisis of over production and under consumption. Things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them, and if everyone is unemployed, the price of an object (an apple) is going to go down; wages of those producing the apple are then cut and everyone still can't afford to buy the apple.

Classical economists regarded money as something that was neutral and transparent, and simply a medium for the transmission of value. Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Say believed that 'products were paid for by products' and that the sale of one item in essence allowed a businessman to purchase other things with the profits. John Keynes refuted this and pointed out that the existence of savings accounts meant that Say's Law was completely meaningless.

Thanks to Keynes, modern economists hold a completely different view and believe that money exerts a power on the real world. This power can make people behave in peculiar ways, and is completely de attached from the classical theory of economics and the theories of Adam Smith.

The world economy is described as a “gigantic confidence trick” - taxation only gathers enough money to pay off the interest that the government's debt is building up. In an active capitalist society, that debt can never be paid off. You could always print more money if people are starting to feel the pinch, but then you'll find out that the value of money plummets to the mud like the Germans did in the 1920s. Hyper-inflation was bad for some, but the comedic mental image of workers carrying home stacks of cash in wheelbarrows never gets old for me. The problem lay in that the money that the government printed wasn't backed by gold – Alfred Marshalls quantity theory of money – and it really was only worth the paper it was printed on.

The roaring 20s, by comparison, were the result of deficit spending for WWI. This led to the supply of money expanding – the multiplier/accelerator effect – which in turn led to widespread stock market speculation and rising prices.

The inevitable stock market crash led to the Great Depression in the 1930s - 40s. The government responded to the unemployment crisis by lowering the cost(value?) of money itself and reducing wages. The second world war at the time was good in Keynesian terms as war destroys surplus value and keeps people employed.

John Maynard Keynes

Cheeky.

Keynes was an extremely influential modern economist, born in 1883. He wrote the The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money and published in in 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression. Time magazine said of Keynes in 1999, “His radical idea that governments should spend money they don't have may have saved capitalism." Again, that relates back to the 'confidence trick' from earlier – spending money that doesn't exist isn't necessarily a bad idea, for reasons that Keynes outlines in his book.

For our seminar, we studied Paul Krugman's interpretation of the text. He defends Keynes from the right-wing pressure groups that initially stopped circulation of the book in America – it was regarded by them as a “leftist tract”, propounding socialism and calling for a large central government and high taxes. The opposite could not be more true – despite writing his book at a time where great poverty was being attributed to the failure of capitalism and socialism could easily be seen as the 'sane' way of dealing with the economy, Keynes was adamant that the failure was down to a small number of preventable technical causes. He saw the problem of mass unemployment as narrow and technical, and therefore thought that the solution could be narrow and technical, too. He denied that total government takeover of the economy could help matters but that instead, governments should just polices to “insure adequate effective demand.” This less intrusive intervention detailed in The General Theory is given by Krugman in the following points:

• Economies can and often do suffer from an overall lack of demand, which leads to involuntary unemployment

• The economy’s automatic tendency to correct shortfalls in demand, if it exists at all, operates slowly and painfully

• Government policies to increase demand, by contrast, can reduce unemployment quickly

• Sometimes increasing the money supply won’t be enough to persuade the private sector to spend more, and government spending must step into the breach

Keynes goes about meticulously detailing every aspect of the current model of economics, mainly to lend credibility to himself so that no-one might accuse him of trying to change something that he doesn't fully understand. It means that as a whole, General Theory is a cumbersome read, but Keynes write in the preface: “The composition of this book has been for the author a long struggle of escape, and so must the reading of it be.”

Krugman says that step by step, Keynes is liberating economists from the confines of the Great Depression, the confines created by classical economics.

The conception of classical economics that Keynes fought so hard to overturn was that of a Say's Law abiding model of a barter economy, where supply automatically creates its own demand because wages and income are immediately spent, not invested. It was impossibly simplistic.

He also attacked the notion that falling wages increase employment, an idea which was popular with other economists at the time.

Something else he did was refute the business cycle theory of boom and bust. Other economists of the day were approaching it in the wrong way and asking the wrong questions, asking about the mechanics inherent in a bust following a boom. Keynes instead identified that a bust embodies mass unemployment, and asked how to create more employment. Other economists were also obsessed with identifying the complex disequilibrium of the business cycle, whereas Keynes made the case that the market can actually operate normally without everyone being employed, that it is in effect a sort of stable equilibrium.

Keynes also laid out the assertion that there is strong irrational element in economic behaviour. He arrived at this conclusion through psychological observation rather than strict interpretation of figures.

The difference between macro- and micro-economics

Microeconomics is a 'bottoms-up' approach to looking at the economy; it will look at the decisions of specific individuals and businesses, whereas macroeconomics is a 'top-down' approach that looks at the decisions of countries and governments. Microeconomics looks at supply and demand and market competition. Macroeconomics will look at things like nation income, unemployment levels and the behaviour of every economically active member as a whole.

Hermeneutics Seminar Paper

Here is the paper that I brought along to the seminar on 3/11/11. I'm also going to include ideas that we discussed afterwards because until we spoke about it I didn't really have a clue what I'd written.

Hermeneutics is, in short, the study of meaning in a text - or, as one German theologian (Friedrich Schleiermacher – I had fun trying to pronounce that) called it, "...the art of avoiding misunderstanding." The may make it sound a little bit like when you were forced to dissect poetry for GSCE English, but hermeneutics was first used as a tool for interpreting religious texts such as the bible - texts which have at times been wilfully misinterpreted to suit the needs of others - so having some sort of pseudo-scientific method of understanding the author's intentions is rather important. Scholars sought to achieve this through analysis of the specific words used, the syntax, and by making allowances for any historical context which may be able to explain away apparent contradictions in manner or custom.

Hermeneutics was essentially a precursor to modern philosophy of language, semiotics, and analytical philosophy: the latter being a method of tackling philosophical issues one at a time rather than coming up with sweeping answers to complicated questions - a trait all too commonly seen in idealism.

It also paved the way for the type of language seen in computer programming: language which must be logically watertight, as a computer is extremely literal and cannot infer any sort meaning.

Friedrich Frege, a German philosopher and mathematician, published a paper in 1892 titled 'On Sense and Reference', which is thought to be the first original work on the theory of meaning. In this, Frege questions whether the 'sense' of a sign (which is the way in which a term refers to the object) is truly linked to the meaning that the sign is expressing.

He uses "The morning star is identical with the evening star" as an example to illustrate this point, saying that the statement is nonsensical when viewed logically - but as soon as you apply what he calls reference (the understanding of what a word or symbol is referring to - in this case, both names refer to Venus at different times of the day) and sense (which is how a sign presents its intended meaning) you can understand the thought conveyed in the sentence.

So, when broken down in to terms that somebody like myself could understand:

Proposition: A = B ...does it? Why and how?

To understand this, you must understand the sense of both A and B to understand that both are referring to the same thing.

With this, you can see that A does equal B in this case, at least - but only because you have the right context. Frege is saying that this is how people can derive meaning from utterances that are essentially meaningless.

Frege speaks of meaning in three levels:

• Sign - the sounds you make, the words on a page, or a symbol
• Sense - expressing some sort of meaning: Anthony Kenny says that it is not merely a 'mental image', but  that it is "a common property of all users of the language" - so a sign should be universally understood.
• Reference - the ultimate understanding and connection you make in your own mind upon witnessing the sign and sense.

Frege also thinks we are obsessed with the truth-value of sentences. He highlights this by looking at works of fiction - even though we could not possibly have any reference for Odysseus in Odyssesy, we will be driven to accepting as the reference of a sentence its truth-value whether or not it has an actual basis in reality. The conception of a man called Odysseus still makes sense, even though we have no frame of reference to put him in. We want to impose some sort of value on the proposition in a sentence, even if we know that the object it refers to does not exist. This is how human beings are able to discuss metaphysical or abstract concepts.

Towards the end of his life, Frege became less concerned with applying his systems of logic to language, and more interested in the 'colour' present in expressions of thoughts. He said that this colour in language was seen in the form of interjections such as a swear word or a statement like 'Thank god!', which express emotion even though they're not full statements. Another example he gave was using an emotionally charged word in place of a plainer one – 'cur' instead of 'dog.'

No, I don't know what a cur is either, but it certainly sounds horrible. Frege said that such utterances have no effect on the logic of the sentence – if somebody uses 'cur' instead of 'dog' but does not feel hostile while doing so, it will not automatically render the statement false. He is essentially implying that language is absolute – what you say is what you mean, regardless of your real feelings. I get the feeling that Frege might not have understood jokes very well.

In 'The Thought', he explains the importance of context – in order to grasp the thought expressed in the statement using the present tense verb: 'It is snowing' then you need to know when it was uttered to know if it was true. Two people saying the same thing – 'I am hungry' are expressing two different thoughts – one could easily be true while the other is false. The same sentence can express a different thought in different contexts.

Bertrand Russell was another eminent thinker on the philosophy of language. He took particular issue with the idea of 'pragmatism' in regards to truth statements, where pragmatists would ask whether it was good to believe that a given proposition was true. He said: “It is far easier to settle the plain question of fact 'Have popes always been infallible?' than to settle the question of whether the effects of thinking them infallible are on the whole good.”

He was also uncomfortable with the idea that named objects which have a sense can be denied existence, e.g. “The round square does not exist.” Russell arrived at the conclusion that if such statements are not referring to things with proper names then they are logically permissible, because you can argue that it is false that there is an object xyz that is both round and square.

Another example given by Russell is that of truth-value gaps, highlighted in 'The present kind of France is bald.' Though the sentence has meaning, it is identified as positively false by Russell as not only is there no King of France, he cannot possibly be bald if he does not exist.

Ordinary Language

A concept proposed by Frege and Russell. It is an aim to construct language as a precise instrument for the purposes of logic and mathematics. They felt that is was important that a language should contain expressions that had a definite and unclouded sense. If sentences are allowed that are ambiguous or lacking in a truth value (that is, flowery synonyms and expressions of thought, or purely 'comment' in media law terms) then logical deduction becomes impossible.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, in his book the 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus', said that “language disguised the structure of thought beyond recognition. It was the task of philosophy to uncover, by analysis, the naked form of thought beneath the drapery of ordinary language.” He said that complex propositions were made up of elementary ones, and that those in turn were little slices of reality. He also believed that each of these tiny propositions were essentially mental pictures.

In the 1920s and 30s, Wittgenstein revised his opinion slightly. He thought that ordinary language was already embedded in society, and that members of certain social circles (e.g. religion) or those carrying out an activity (rugby or something) would adhere to conventions and structures that he called 'language games.' He compares understanding language to knowing how to play chess – it is a state of being rather than a process. Those in these circles use language with certain senses that only members of those circles will understand the reference for – for those outside the circle, their utterances are meaningless or don't have the same meaning.

In this, he asks why the marks on a page as ascribed any special significance – the answer is that they are given significance through understanding meaning. Anthony Kenny states that we go through certain mental events when hearing an utterance in a language we know – emotions, metal images, etc, that just do not occur when hearing an utterance in a language we do not know.

As a side note, the above is precisely why I find visiting a non-English speaking country so relaxing; you can't tune in to peoples inane conversations by accident, it's all just white noise.

Ordinary language explained badly

So, ordinary language. During the seminar, thinking of it in terms of computer programming really helped me to understand the whole thing.

Frege's assertion that statements can only be true, false or meaningless brings us to the workings of a computer at the most basic level. Binary code; 01010100101001 – it is simply on or off, true or false. There is no gray area inbetween, no 0.5 – that is utterly without meaning. Computers are relentlessly rational and cannot infer any meaning beyond pure black and white logic.

When Frege says that statements are meaningless if the words make sense but have no reference, he is taking things very literally just as a machine would: a computer only will understand and use the words or bits of code that you define to it. Computers today are so powerful not only because of the physical capabilities of processors and hardware, but also because the programming used is almost infinitely complex. Visually, it would correspond to a tree with millions of branches; and yet, right at the very core, there would be a list of very basic definitions and exceptions for rudimentary things that have to be there to enable the rest of the code to make sense. From those basics, more definitions are piled up from there. By defining certain terms (e.g. the computer recognises the command RUN as an order to open a certain program up) the computer is given sense, and the framework for the reference is the idiosyncratic syntax in a programming language by which a statement is given meaning. This is why a statement like “you're evil” would make no sense to a computer, and why in futuristic sitcoms most robots can't understand sarcasm.

A simple 'language' that most people have a grasp of is HTML, the set of rules that format graphical representations of web pages – somewhere in a browser, the rules of HTML are defined; e.g, the <b></b> tag is recognised as transforming text to bold. <b> is meaningless on its own in this blog post even though we have the sense of what it is used for, but in a html file it has sense and reference and becomes a true statement.

The reason computers crash is when a logical path is thrown up that leads to a vague, contradictory or meaningless expression. If the code cannot resolve whether a proposition is ultimately true or false, then it becomes unstuck.

Logic gates are exactly the same, and are used primary in data story systems and computer memory. A logic gate must use Fregian logic to validate what seems like a simple proposition, i.e. “There is nobody on the road.” That's not specific enough.

Ugh.

In Fregian terms, this would have to be expressed as something like, “For all possible roads, there is no man on this road. - FALSE.”

Modernism, Hearst and Harmsworth

Modernism

Modernism is starkly contrasted to Empiricism and Romanticism - while the paradigm of the latter two was change, the defining characteristic of modernism was that of relativity. Modernism defines an era where things are no longer seen as black and white as they once were and sees the introduction of nihilistic philosophers such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Music, too, became more pessimistic and not as much of an expression of joy as in years past; it instead was obsessed with rather Freudian themes of death and fatality.

Relativity is the somewhat unsettling idea that there is no centre to the universe; no grand or even careless plan. In relativity, there are no overriding correct or false ideas, and in Freud's case, no conception of the 'self.' Morally, you might speak of 'cultural relativity' in defence of a certain culture's treatment of people or animals - if there is no real way of knowing what is morally sound, then who are we to criticise anyone? This sort of idea directly opposes Immanuel Kant's moral absolutism, and also defies totalitarian ideals which are largely based on mechanics of Kant's ethical maxims and then applied with no regards to cruel consequences.

And he wasn't even hiding behind Movember as an excuse.

Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher born in 1844. Nietzsche loved to compose music, and he described the almost familial relationship he had with friend and famed composer Wagner as his greatest lifetime achievement. In his first book - “The art of tragedy and the spirit of music”- he said that the beauty of Wagner's music is in tragedy. Both men shared a mutual admiration for the writing of Arthur Schopenhauer who was a huge influence on their works; the tragedy experienced through Wagner's music, and the pessimism seen in Nietzsche's essays. My own, personal favourite quote from a Schopenhauer book I read when I was younger regarding the disequilibrium of pain and pleasure is the world is: “Compare the happiness of the animal eating to the pain of the animal being eaten.” It is fair to say that he was a rather gloomy man.

A famous quote from Nietzsche is “God is dead, and we have killed him.” He also said that humanity must be destroyed. That we are just apes, and we know where we came from. That we don't know where we're going and that modern medicine means we have effectively stopped evolving - which will culminate in the devolution of the human species. Now, this might even be something you have thought in passing when you see (what you think is) a particularly horrible human being shouting/swearing at/blowing smoke in the faces of their offspring in public. I know I have. You wonder who let these people have children in the first place then realise you are straying dangerously close to eugenics. And history has shown that support of eugenics as an ideology and the inevitable mass genocide that follows is rather unsurprisingly not a great idea.

Internal moral debate is one thing, so it stands to reason that politically the idea espoused by Nietzsche above is an extremely divisive one. There are two paths, both with powerful ramifications; the first path involves evolving through technology. The future is not organic; it is intellectual. This has inspired the plot of many a decent sci-fi flick; Bladerunner, the Matrix, to name a couple. The second path involves eugenics, which ultimately will throw someone like Hitler in to the mix. Hitler (or more accurately, someone he had appointed to do his dirty work for him) tried to selectively breed people as though they were dogs to create the 'master' Aryan race – as a consequence, undesirable people had to be eliminated from the gene pool to prevent contamination, free up resources for the desirables, and most importantly maintain the climate of fear that is endemic in a totalitarian regime. In terms of attempting to 'improve' the gene pool, “The Final solution” was first geared not towards Jews, but disabled or mentally handicapped people. The Natural Law - the rules by which all humans are simply agents looking to uphold - was that of survival of the fittest.

There's a third option, which is education. Science helps us to evolve, and understand the world. It constantly unravels new questions, which lends more strength to relativity. And if relativity really is the opposite to totalitarian ideology, then you could fairly argue that that's no bad thing.


William Randolph Hearst, Alfred Harmsworth/Lord Northcliffe

Citizen Kane - a film produced by and starring
Orson Welles that is widely believed
to be a biopic of Hearst's own life

William Randolph Hearst and Lord Northcliffe were extremely influential men in the world of journalism, whose influence can still be seen today; sensationalism ('yellow journalism') as a byproduct of the circulation war between Hearst and Pulitzer, and Harmsworth with his clever application of his knowledge of the industry and of target audiences and marketing tricks in 'Answers' and when working for the Daily Mail.

Hearst was born in 1863 to a wealthy family. He took control of the San Francisco Examiner from his father, and then moved to New York to again take over The New York Journal. He later became involved in politics, and ran for mayor and later governor of New York. Hearst completely changed the format of every paper he came in to control of, moving from heavy text-based stuff to front pages full of visually striking photographs. At the peak of Hearst's 'publishing empire' he owned more than 30 newspapers. Hearst hired top quality writers in order to compete with the New York World, owned and published by Joesph Pulitzer. In a particularly cheeky move, he even headhunted writers and a cartoonist from the New York World's Sunday edition, and during the fierce battle for readership Hearst would sanction more and more outlandish stories with apt headlines to grab readers in. The authenticity of such stories could sometimes be dubious, but the practice of yellow journalism is the predecessor of red-top tabloid journalism today. Apart from the 'dubious in origin' thing, because everything you read in the Daily Star is 1000% true facts, folks.

Alfred Harmsworh, a.k.a. Lord Northcliffe, was born in 1865 in Ireland. He was essentially the English Hearst in terms of being a successful publisher. Much like French chemist Louis Pasteur, nobody seemed to think that he was really anything special academically until he ventured out in the work and set up his magazine 'Answers to Correspondents on Every Subject Under the Sun', or simply 'Answers'. It contained bizarre articles asking questions such as whether Jews ride bikes. It also ran competitions and offered its readers cash prizes and special toy surprises free gifts. When the Daily Mail launched in 1896, Harmsworth brought these ideas with him.


Articles in the Daily Mail weren't to exceed over 250 words - Harmsworth argued that the rising level of literacy meant that people were more able than ever to pick and choose what they read that and that the paper needed to provide short and interesting news articles.

WINOL Reflection - Week Seven

This week didn't go so badly, but only because I again got lucky with my story.

On Monday, I went to the law courts with the hope of blundering in to an interesting court case - this did not happen. Thankfully, Winchester's graduation ceremonies were being held this week so I managed to nab that instead - it was a blessing, seeing as it was so close (the cathedral - a ten minute walk away from the newsroom) and I was pretty much guaranteed some nice pictures.

George went to film with me on Tuesday morning and helped me to get some GVs of the crowds and do vox pops of the students before and after they had graduated. He was much better at holding the camera freehand than I was. Neither of us were particularly great at that, though. I'm not sure how much shakycam made it in to the bulletin, but it wasn't criticised in the debrief, so maybe I got away with it. On Wednesday morning I also back to another ceremony to interview some identical twins who were receiving identical degrees, which had been sponsored by the same employer.

In the debrief, Angus mentioned that human interest is always the best way to play a story; in my original script I hadn't done this and had buried the twins towards the bottom. I should definitely have gotten more footage of the them and possibly even renosed my story to be mainly about them.

My script was sloppy - I settled with saying 'a procession of councillors' instead of finding out who they actually were. Turns out most of them were a bunch of university higher-ups and professors - seeing as it was a story about the uni, I really should have known that. I didn't round my story off either - it went straight from a vox pop to my outcue, which I'll admit was a bit blunt and strange to listen to.

The bulletin as a whole went rather well, I feel. There were no major hiccups even though they had tried something as ambitious as a link from London. Angus did mention that it was a bit dry which I agree with: there were also no pictures that stood out that a viewer would remember. I'm going to try to work on this, because I know for a fact that I still don't approach a story with certain pictures in mind. I feel like I improved with that a little bit this week - I realised that when I'm introducing the twins, for example, that I'd want to just have a posed shot of them together - but I definitely need to work on sequencing.

I'm really looking forward to next week, I've got a few meetings to attend so hopefully I should find something newsworthy.

WINOL Reflection - Week Six

I looked for a story over the weekend, but didn't find anything particularly interesting; I did, however, notice that there would be a sentencing on Monday at court, so George and I went to that instead of the debrief.

The case concerned three young guys who had stolen £34,000 worth of stuff from loads of houses in Farnborough, and £4,000 in laptops from a primary school. We got enough identification - full names, ages, and their addresses by going up to the court clerk and asking to speak to the person who had access to the records.

What I now realise I should also have gotten while I was there was the criminal's exact date of birth, and the names of the officers in charge of the case - I needed this information to ask the police for pictures of the men to use in the bulletin. I had foolishly said that we were just students instead of journalists so we were led in to the public gallery high above the court rather than the press box - it would have been impossible to grab the officers and ask for their names. When I rang the court on Wednesday trying to get that information, I was told they didn't keep it on file - but I'm sure if I had thought to ask anyone on the day then I would have been able to find it out fairly painlessly. Now I know.

I've got a clearer, ever growing list of things that I have to do when I go in to court looking for a story:

• Look at the listings beforehand to get the full names and spellings of the defendants and the judge.
• Go to the clerk afterwards and ask to speak to whoever is in charge of records. Ask for the date of birth. Ask where they come from, and to be even safer get the name of the road. Name, age, location and occupation should give me enough id to make the story viable. Occupation can be found out through the court proceedings - in this case they had all been in custody for the past five months and were unemployed.
• Ask who the officers in charge of the case are so that I have enough information to request photographs of those convicted using this form: http://www.hampshire.police.uk/Internet/news/press/convicted_photo.htm
• Write down everything the judge says as he/she gives their verdict. They have privilege and can say whatever they like to the defendants with impunity, and I can repeat this. If they say anything particularly emotive, then it is a solid way to begin the report.

In the end, my package had to go on the spike because the piece to camera I had done was, while legally sound, a bit unclear and especially dull without any photographs of the criminals. I tried to re-do my PTC to make it a bit easier to follow but the wind ruined the audio and no matter how I tried to edit it together it was unusable. I still exported it and had it ready for production to use if another VT fell through.

I had also agreed to help Ali with his Occupy Bournemouth story on Tuesday. He helped me film my original piece to camera in front of the court in the morning, and we got on the train straight afterwards and made our way to the Town Hall where about ten of the protesters were camped out and more than willing to speak to us. They were very open and friendly and even made us coffee. As Ali was speaking to Becky on the phone, I shot some GVs of the campsite and the placards. They invited us in but said there was no-one available to go on camera at the moment, so we just chatted to them for a while. Many of them had very interesting things to say - unfortunately, those who were coming out with the most quotable material were camera shy.

With permission, we got more GVs of inside the tents. The men we wanted to interview arrived; Ali interviewed one, I interviewed the other. We both ran out of tape just as the council served the occupiers with a court notice which was incredibly unlucky.

I was a bit saddened that I didn't make it in to the final bulletin, but I still feel as if I contributed in finishing my own story and helping with Ali's, so it's not that bad.
Hopefully next week I can get another decent court case and be more on the ball with getting some photos out of the police.

WINOL Reflection - Week Five

This week did not go as well as the previous one.



I've been quite unwell for a while and, coupled with the loss of my phone and no money to replace it, I wasn't as on the ball over the weekend as I should have been. I missed a court case on Monday morning that looked as though it could have been quite interesting. I rang up to see if there was anything coming up the next day or Wednesday that I could sit in on, and there was nothing that I could use. From there on I had no more luck in trying to find a story - everything led to a dead end, and Chris's idea about chasing up local authorities and lawyers to see what they thought of the legal aid cuts was surprisingly difficult; I could not find anyone who would agree to an interview before my deadline. I had a statement from the Taxpayer's Alliance backing the cuts, but I could not find anyone to balance it.

As I was essentially twiddling my thumbs while still looking everywhere for a viable story that could be shot and edited before the ever impending deadline, I decided to help everyone else out as best I could. I went with Tom to help him film his interview with the media lecturer about the 'zombie symposium' and went to town with Lou to help him film some GVs for his piece.

Lou did very well and had found two stories this week, one about a drop in university applications and another about the council's plans to install cameras in the meeting halls - the only problem was that he could not be in the bulletin twice, and so I agreed to voice the latter story. I used the footage Lou already had to stitch the story together, but we unfortunately found that one of the balancing interviews was completely unusable due to a problem with the tape. To balance the story, I went out on the Wednesday morning to do a piece to camera in front of the Hampshire County Council building in which I read out a statement from the chairman.

My piece to camera was poor, as my voice apparently seemed almost mocking of the Chairman's statement to the point where the balance of the story was thrown in to doubt. I didn't sound like I had enough authority. I was unaware that this is how I come across and will work on that in the future. Holding the soggy bit of paper was also a mistake as it looked unprofessional and I should have just held my notepad instead.

My grammar was also off - it's "The Council is" not "The Council are." Such an elementary mistake is embarrassing and I'm annoyed that I didn't catch that. In future I should always double check subject verb agreement as I have made this mistake before.

Chris and Brian mentioned on a broader note that everybody's interviews were a little bit dull, and that we weren't going out to film with our story in mind. Always get a soundbite is now as important as always making sure you get an interesting headline picture. I think this is a good rule to stick to as it'll make the whole process much less complicated.

WINOL Reflection - Week Four

I feel that this was the first week that went smoothly for me.

On Monday at the news meeting I said that I wanted to cover an appeal about rhinos that Marwell zoo had just launched, and to go down to Southampton to see Princess Anne open a police station. I was given the go ahead and so I set about confirming interviews.

Tuesday was an absolutely incredible day. I went to Marwell in the morning and got some shots of the rhinos, some tigers and a snow leopard (which we didn't use for the package in the end, but we've got them if we need them in the future.) Then I tried to do my interview with the rhino zoo keeper and there was a small problem; the sound didn't work. We chalked that up to some loose connection inside the camera because the levels weren't even moving. It was my fault for not checking my equipment before we set out, even though we are constantly being told to do just that. I won't make that mistake again.

That was annoying, but we asked there and then if it would be okay to come back in a few hours and they said that was fine, so we went back to uni, grabbed a new camera, and came back. I did my interview and then did my piece to camera inside the rhino enclosure – as we were messing around trying to get a decent angle, one of the rhinos decided to come over and see what was going on. The result is that I'm tentatively patting a rhino in my piece to camera. Anyone reading this is probably absolutely sick of me bragging about it, but I don't care. Sula the rhino completely negated how technically bad I was in my PTC, and saved the day. I should thank Karen as well for climbing around on the bars with the camera to get the best shot. Cheers!

For once, I was prepared on Wednesday morning and already halfway through my editing. Brian helped me write my voice-over script and told me that I wasn't writing to the pictures and instead I was imposing some sort of essay over them: I can see what he means. I was also being too literal and writing as someone might for a radio piece. It's a hard habit to shake but I'm going to try much harder in the future to let go of whatever I seem to think the story should be, and lead with the pictures, rather than using them as aids. Brian told me to write a drop intro, which is setting the scene a little bit more and getting the viewer involved, rather than just chucking facts at them like I was originally.

I finished with time to spare and tried to see if there was anything I could do to help the others. I was told to operate camera 2 for the bulletin, which was both dull and nerve-wracking at the same time. It's still nice to have the experience.

I got lucky this week. Even though a story about rhinos isn't exactly hard hitting journalism, it was an enjoyable experience. I got to go to the zoo twice, for free, so I'm checking this off in my head as my first ever job perk.

WINOL Reflection - Week Three

This week hasn't been as bad as the last, even though I've had to stumble through the same number of hurdles.

The previous Friday, I went to the Crown Court for the first time since last year. It was a great experience; all of the staff were really pleasant and helpful, which I suppose makes sense when one of the primary purposes of a journalist is to help the public see that justice is being done. The clerk directed me to Court 8, where a string of sentences were going to be processed.

I sat there and wrote down as much as I could about each case, including names and ages, but critically I missed where each person was from. No matter what else I had, above all, I needed as much identification as I could find or the story could not go ahead; the name, age and occupation of a person was not enough to prevent accidental libel. After trying to contact various magistrates courts and being denied a request for more information, I had to accept the fact that we could not run the story. At least I know what I need for next time.

Most of Tuesday was spent chasing a breaking story about record youth unemployment figures which were to be released the next morning; I spent all day trying to track down and speak to relevant members of youth groups and job centres but nobody was available to speak to me, and the job centre flat out refused to be interviewed about it.

I was a bit stuck at this point. Eventually I was given a story about an Antarctic expedition to cover - I rang up the centre in Southampton and attempted to speak to them on Tuesday afternoon, but the interview had to be on the Wednesday morning.

Karen kindly drove me there bright and early for 8.30 and we managed to get the footage and be back in the newsroom for 11. I had under two hours to turn that around in to a package which I just about managed, but it wasn't that great. I again left my interviewees to tell the story and committed the sin of using them to tell the viewer facts, which should be my job - my scripting should contain the facts, the interviews should contain comment. The framing was poor and I needed the shots to be a little bit tighter on the face. I also used a cut away of one interviewee demonstrating something else while he was speaking about another thing - this made it look as if it were out of sync.

Angus and Rachel also mentioned that I should have 'rounded off' my package - there's an interview, then it abruptly stops and I gave my SOC. This sounds a bit strange and I should avoid that in the future.

I still feel much more positive about this week than I have done about the others, and that feeling seemed to be echoed throughout the whole newsroom. Hopefully next week will be just as good.

Second Week WINOL Reflection

These past couple of days have been the most stressful and physically exhausting ones that I've ever had at uni, which either speaks volumes about my ability to cope or says more about what a breeze the first year is. A bit of both?

Like Chris and Brian have said, it's better to make mistakes because it shows that you're doing something. I did a lot less last week, and felt positively serene compared to the way I feel now; but I didn't learn as much. I understand what they mean now - it's much better to touch something hot and get burnt rather than simply being told not to or watching someone else burn themselves. Nothing that I've learned this week will be forgotten any time soon.

My week

Over the weekend I had attempted to get an interview with some local students who had had their house broken in to and 7000 pounds worth of their stuff stolen, but it soon became obvious that they didn't want to talk about it, which was fair enough. On Monday, I went out to film an interview with a museum curator about the theft of lead from the building's roof. At the news meeting an hour later, I found out that this story was unlikely to go anywhere so I dropped it and instead went with Chris's suggestion about filming Conservative club members watching Kenneth Clarke's speech on law and order.

The following morning, I went out to Totton to the nearest club to film, but unfortunately no-one was around at 11am; when people finally did start filtering through, they would speak to me but point blank refuse to be filmed. I still should have made the best of a bad situation and came back with anything at all, which was the first mistake I made. I wasted my own time and effort and came back empty handed.

Tuesday afternoon wasn't so bad; on the journey back from Southampton and the walk through Winchester town I met a local councillor who was pleasant, helpful, gave me times and dates for various meetings and said that I could personally come along as his guest. It was complete luck that I was walking to the uni at the same time he was, but I'm glad that it happened. There was a fire in town a few hours later so Henry and I ran out to film that, and I went back to edit it during the evening. It was made in to a 30 second OOV which I was proud of as now I at least had something to contribute to the bulletin, but it was riddled with issues that were mentioned in the debrief.

A planned council worker strike was reported on Wednesday morning and we tried to pick up on that and present it as breaking news. I rang the union and the council to find out some facts about the strike and was instructed to write a short script telling viewers what had happened and what was going to happen. I ended up in the studio as a guest speaker talking to Hana about the issue.

Debrief notes

The biggest, most fatal error I made this week was relying on technology to see me through my chat with Hana on screen. If I'd made any effort to take in what I was supposed to be talking about, learn my script or even have it there in front of me on the desk then it might have been okay.

Even if the auto-cue did work, my eyeline would have looked weird anyway, so in future that is never going to be an option. Hopefully no-one else will make the mistake I made, because it didn't feel great.

Angus also mentioned that my choice of words was strange and that instead of 'citizen' anyone would just say 'person.' I'll bear that in mind in the future and keep my script simple.

The guest editor, Rachel, commented on the overlay of the previous bin men strikes and said that I should cut the pictures myself so that I know the timings. This will help it to flow well on screen – she said if it doesn't flow then it can look quite odd.

In terms of my OOV, the pictures were in the wrong order (I should have started with the burnt out sports car) and I should have gotten a wider selection of shots so that we could see what the eyewitness was talking about - it's TV, not radio. I also needed to make the eyewitnesses interview shorter - she took up about 20 seconds which is way too long in a standard package, let alone a short piece. As I left in the bulk of the interview it made timings difficult in terms of the presenter knowing where to talk over the underlay/oov and where to stop to allow the actuality/upsot to be heard.

So yeah, this week has been a bit of a baptism of fire, but I'm still looking forward to the next one.

First experiences of WINOL

My First Week

I was a bog standard mix of nervous and excited at the thought of getting back in to the routine of University again. As it turns out, I was unprepared for how intense the first couple of days would be; we were seemingly dropped right in the thick of it as a chance to prove ourselves. Maybe. That's what I was telling myself, anyway.

We attended our first news meeting on Monday and we were asked about any potential stories we had lined up. I'll plainly admit that I didn't have very much. Solely relying on the court to provide me with a story the next day was a bad move. Thankfully, Will the Editor gave me a pretty much fully-formed story about the tobacco vending machine ban and I spent all of Tuesday chasing that up.

What I learned from work experience, and what I reaffirmed that day, was the extent to which press officers and other people will fob you off as if you're a child of a divorce. I rang one place and was referred to another. I rang that place and was referred to where I came from. What a horrible, time wasting recursion. I'll definitely be having some abstract nightmares tonight about that.

The pure, 100 per cent proof, triple-filtered stress that I have felt this week (or more accurately, these past three days which have felt like a week) has truly knocked me off my feet. I want to throw around ridiculous hyperbole like "No one has ever been as tired as I am now" and "Nobody has ever walked so far" but that's obviously not true. The feelings of exhaustion are probably more down to the total inactivity that I enjoyed during the summer. If I could change one thing, it would be to go back in time and make myself do more so that WINOL wouldn't come as such a massive shock.

Following up the story itself and filming vox pops and other bits and pieces I really enjoyed. On the Wednesday morning, I went to film an interview with a pub manager which went fairly well, apart from a few technical issues like some light falling on the interviewee's face in a weird way and the mic picking up annoying background sounds. Also, there was the fact that I took at least 20 tries to do my piece to camera. It wasn't even very good in the end, I could hear all sorts of crazy stuff going on with my speech because I was so focused on trying to memorise my script ( something else that is much harder than I thought it would be). You know, that's unless a nasal quality and glottal stops are in vogue right now or something, in which case I did super well.

After the delivery of WINOL at 3pm, Angus debriefed us on what he had seen. He told us that starting a package with a piece to camera was poor form, that reading out statements yourself and not corralling someone else in to doing it sounded odd, and that interviews in packages should never be more than 12 - 15 seconds long. If you didn't get a salient quote in that sort of time frame, then you weren't asking the right questions.

Another point was to completely eliminate any unnecessary audio saying "I spoke to blah blah blah"; the video that we've captured of us doing exactly that should get that point across, and if it hasn't, we haven't done our job. It takes up valuable time in a package which could be better spent telling the story.

It was a lot to take in, but surely the only way from here is up. That's what I'm banking on. I think every one of us did pretty well considering we only had a day to deliver on a story where we'd usually have close to a week, and the fact that we're all newbs.

In the mean time, this is what I'm going to bear in mind:

• Spend more time making sure that the camera is correctly set up, fix white balance and focus
• Never open a package with a PTC
• Don't bother recording "I spoke to..." because planning and editing will obviously imply this
• Limit interview grabs to 12 - 15 seconds
• Get someone else to read out statements

I'd just like to say that I'm really, really grateful for all the help the third years gave me. So cheers in particular to Julie, Dom, Aimee, Will and Becky. I owe you all a few pints, or at least a pack of ten from a vending machine.

London Riots

This is all conjecture and is just my thoughts on the current situation; for a live update, head here.

I'm sure that any of you reading this already know what sparked the riots that began on Saturday the 6th. For anyone that doesn't, it was the killing of Mark Duggan, a father of four from Tottenham, in unclear circumstances during a police operation. What started as a peaceful protest by family and friends was subsequently hijacked by people who just wanted to watch things burn; 'anarchists' brandishing eloquent, well thought out sentiments such as "F**K DA POLICE" and "This is what the government deserves!!"

Incredible.

Marathon runners and saxy men...

If that title hurts you as much as it hurts me, then I can only apologise. Although I suppose I'm not that sorry, or I'd change it. Anyway: here are the two articles that I wrote during work experience that were published, for anyone who might be interested.

Marathon Runner Cancer Tribute

And:

Johnty's fresh start
 

Kant and Hegel: some nice, fun, light reading.

Before I begin, I'd like to personally thank whatever may remain of Immanuel Kant for saving my bacon during my A-Level Philosophy exam. Without a vague, semi coherent allusion to his work which I lovingly peppered with 'categorical imperative' and 'ethical maxim' every so often like a master chef, I doubt that I'd have managed a half-decent grade. Thanks Kant. Hegel, I owe you nothing.
Both Kant and Hegel are German idealist philosophers, meaning their philosophy is based around the idea that human experience of the world is only a rough approximation of what actually exists.

Work experience.

I finished my work experience at a local paper on Thursday, and thought I'd share what I've learned with you good people. I enjoyed it a lot, and got to experience first-hand what our lecturers have been trying to drum into us for months.

Public Affairs Test: County/District Councils

County and District Councils

One of the biggest differences between county and district councils is their area of influence. While district councils are only concerned with a certain smaller area, the aptly named county council is responsible for an entire county. There can be overlap between the two councils however, which can lead to disputes and tensions; particularly where land or shared responsibilities are involved.

Final Radio Bulletin

Well, it isn't big and it isn't clever but here it is anyway!

Cheers to the guys for their help, and thanks to Tom especially for converting all of my audio into video (I'm too mentally challenged/my computer is too old and arthritic to manage it myself)

Script:

Winchester Tourist Information Centre has been shortlisted to win the 2011/ National Tourist Centre of the Year award.

The centre has already won a gold award in the south east regional finals held last year.

We spoke to Sarah Hartfield, the centre's Team Leader, about the recognition that she and her coworkers are receiving.

AUDIO IN - "We're really pleased..."

AUDIO OUT - "...sets us apart from other TICs"


A scheme which aids homeless people in Winchester has been relaunched.

"Spare Change for Real Change" is a charity that funds homeless shelters in and around Winchester.

The shelters give homeless people the help that they need to get off the streets for good.

The Trinity Centre is a such a shelter based in town. We spoke to Development Manager, Sue McKenna, about the benefits of giving change to the charity as opposed to giving money to people on the street.

AUDIO IN- "If people give in..."

AUDIO OUT - "...make a difference for homeless people."

And lastly, high speed broadband will finally be brought to rural Hampshire.

It's a part of a government push to bring a reliable internet connection to every home in the country by 2015.

Hampshire County Council say that they are eager to take advantage of special grants to make this possible.

Consumers may still have to foot the bill if they wish to have a faster internet connection than that provided by the government initiative, which is specified at a minimum of two Megabits per second.

Raymond Ellis - a member of the County council cabinet - is strongly supportive of the 'Hampshire Broadband Project', saying that "We can't afford not to do this."

1'45

Radio script three

Script:

Winchester Tourist Information Centre has been shortlisted to win the 2011/ National Tourist Centre of the Year award.

The centre has already won a gold award in the south east regional finals held last year.

We spoke to Sarah Hartfield, the centre's Team Leader, about the recognition that she and her coworkers are receiving.

AUDIO IN - "We're really pleased..."

AUDIO OUT - "...sets us apart from other TICs"

'39

Media shit.

As part of my course I was forced to write a 500 word assessment of a media 'artefact' of my choice. I thought I was being original by choosing a record player. I was wrong. Who cares.


Media Artefact: The Vinyl Record Player

The vinyl record player, despite being technologically obsolete, is still firmly rooted in modern culture. They were used in the 20th century from the 1920's, up until the point when digital Compact Discs were introduced. CDs superseded the analog vinyl record. Datacide, 2009, cites the following reasons for the CDs success over vinyl: "...the Compact Disc that was ultimately much cheaper and easier to manufacture and lighter to transport."

However, vinyl has been experiencing a resurgence in the past few years - this could be explained by the fact that a vinyl record is larger than a CD and therefore tactile in a way that they are not; the space provided for often elaborate cover art and notes in the sleeve; better sound quality when compared to overly compressed audio files; and the sense of nostalgia that it invokes in a lot of people (the appeal to the 'retro' or 'vintage' aesthetic.) (TIME, 2008)

The very first incarnation of a vinyl player was developed by Thomas Edison in 1877, called the phonograph. Edison, being a scientist, was more concerned with what was 'scientifically correct' than to explore to full utility of his invention. (Vinyl Records Still Live, 2007). His phonograph used high fidelity wax coated cylinders instead of the lateral cut discs - invented by Emile Berliner - that more closely resemble a modern vinyl record. These records at first had a very low sound quality, but after working Eldridge R. Johnson the sound improved to the point where they could compete with the wax coated cylinders. Berliner and Johnson merged their company to form the Victor Talking Machine Company, market leaders for decades, who would spread to become JVC in Japan and HMV elsewhere.

Edison tried in vain to compete with the lateral disc, releasing a cylinder that had a maximum play time of 4 and a half minutes - even though this ultimately failed and Edison stopped producing the cylinders in the 1920s, it is thought that this technological restraint actually helped to shape pop culture by influencing the length of a standard pop song, an element of technological determinism. (The Telegraph, 2009)

In a generation that relies heavily upon their mp3 players as their main musical device, young people are criticised for not knowing good sound quality when they hear it. The lower fidelity sound recordings on their mp3 players produce a 'metallic' sound and studies have shown that a younger person will prefer this over the crackles and rumble of a vinyl record. (The Telegraph, 2009). This seems to conflict with sales figures which assert that vinyl is making a come-back; however, part of its very appeal is its exclusivity, and association with the eclectic and strange.

Vinyl originally lost the battle to CDs because record players are cumbersome and the discs are large. However, in a world now where everything is portable and instant, the idea of something static and almost ceremonial in a constantly changing environment is attractive. Audiophiles are also often quick to point out that music itself is not a digital medium, and to convert it into such causes it to lose some of its qualities; they believe that an analog medium is the only way to really capture music. (Daily Record, 2006)

References:

Datacide Magazine, 2009. The End of Vinyl Again? [online] Available at: <http://datacide.c8.com/the-end-of-vinyl-again/> [Accessed 19 March 2011]

TIME, 2008. Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back. [online] Available at: <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702369,00.html> [Accessed 19 March 2011]

The Telegraph, 2009. iPod generation prefers tinny music to CD. [online] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/4941506/iPod-generation-prefers-tinny-music-to-CD.html> [Accessed 19 March 2011]

Vinyl Records Still Live, 2007. Vinyl record player history uncovered [online] Available at: <http://www.vinylrecordslive.co.uk/vinyl-record-player.html> [Accessed March 19 2011]

Daily Record (The Baltimore), 2006. Vinyl records enjoying a resurgence in popularity [online] Available at: <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4183/is_20060120/ai_n16025264/> [Accessed March 19 2011]


Why have you even read this far?

Radio script two

Script:

A scheme which aids homeless people in Winchester has been relaunched.

"Spare Change for Real Change" is a charity that funds homeless shelters in and around Winchester.

The shelters give homeless people the help that they need to get off the streets for good.

The Trinity Centre is a such a shelter based in town. We spoke to Development Manager, Sue McKenna, about the benefits of giving change to the charity as opposed to giving money to people on the street.

AUDIO IN- "If people give in..."

AUDIO OUT - "...make a difference for homeless people."

'33

Romanticism 2: Electric Boogaloo

He was gutted.

He was already the God of forethought and champion of oppressed mankind. If I were him, and someone approached me with the God of Romanticism title as well, I'd sigh and make a big show of it but take it on anyway. Prometheus, however, took in all in his stride.

Prometheus was just your ordinary Greek God, who, after moulding the entirety of mankind out of clay, wanted to do us one better and steal some fire from Zeus to help us out even more. What a nice guy.

Radio script one

Script:


High speed broadband will finally be brought to rural Hampshire.

It's a part of a government push to bring a reliable internet connection to every home in the country by 2015.

Hampshire County Council say that they are eager to take advantage of special grants to make this possible.

Consumers may still have to foot the bill if they wish to have a faster internet connection than that provided by the government initiative, which is specified at a minimum of two Megabits per second.

Raymond Ellis - a member of the County council cabinet - is strongly supportive of the 'Hampshire Broadband Project', saying that "We can't afford not to do this."

'33

How to write copy for radio

A lecture from Annette Rizzo. I found it to be really helpful, so I thought that it couldn't hurt to stick it on here.

Writing copy

You have to work twice as hard to grab the attention of a listener when writing a news bulletin, as there are no visual aids.

Good copy will:

• Have a 'headline' style to it
• Have the main point of the story in the first sentence
• Cut out waffle. It's not a lecture or an essay - just include the salient facts
• Avoid repetition e.g. avoid using 'The Government wants... the public wants'
• Avoid polysyllabic words where a mono one would have done the job... like I could have just said 'long words' there. The copy will have to be read out on air, and words that are tricky to say just make the whole process more difficult
• Avoid clichés, melodrama and emotive language - where applicable; it is acceptable to say house prices 'crashed' if they dropped overnight by 30%, but not acceptable to say an MP 'attacked' the Prime Minister when all they did is disagree with them. Unless The Sun has a radio station, leave it out
• Avoid complex sentences with many a comma. It's not an 18th century book on philosophy, and while the reader is struggling to make sense of the long sentence a listener will lose track of what they are trying to say
• Remember your target audience at all times. While younger listeners will prefer a more conversational style, older listeners tend to see this as a lack of authority. It's acceptable to use longer words for an older audience.
• As you write your copy, read it aloud to see if it flows and is easy to say.

Mechanics

1 line spacing

One side of the page only, to avoid the sound of rustling paper on air

Never handwritten, always typed up so that everybody can read it

Audio cuts written as: "Mr Brown has defended his decision"

Audio name - Brown expenses

IN WORDS: I have already...

OUT WORDS: ...will not be drawn.

Duration: 10'

SOC

(which means standard out cue - I'm John Smith, and that was the news. You stay classy, Hampshire)

Peas in a POD - Perfect Oral Delivery 

PACE

Nice, consistent pace

Slower than ordinary conversation

Variation in intonation

PAUSE

Well placed pauses

Mark script with pauses

Helps to phrase things properly - spoken punctuation

PHRASING

Grouping of words into 'sense units' A sense unit is a mental concept spoken in one breath.

PITCH

Is the position of sound on the tone scale.

Make it low but give it variation

Mark your script so that you know where the most important words are which should have the most stress

PRONUNCIATION

Received pronunciation used to be the standard - not many stations would deviate away from that

Any accent is acceptable now... BUT:

Avoid glottal stops (sounding like you're from Eastenders) and misconstruing the meaning of words

e.g.

Perfect is an adjective. Perfect is a verb. Be clear.

PRACTICE

Recording yourself speaking is the only way to improve.

Also helps to listen to the professionals doing it - listen to the radio.

That's it folks.

Radio bulletin

After taking a look at this recent BBC article, Tom and I felt inspired to get up and interview our friend Gemma and her lecturer for their thoughts on the matter.

In addition to school teachers, we cover why social care workers should be careful about having any personal information stored on an easily accessible Facebook profile. It's just a bad idea in general though really, isn't it?

We didn't understand why the clips of us chatting had so much echo; was it just us being newbies or the nature of the sound room? Constructive criticisms on a postcard please. We thought this was alright for a first go but y'know, we want to improve.

Tell us what you think in the comments. Cheers!

Rousseau and the Romantics

Does the heading sound like some nerdy indie band name? I don't know. I would look it up to see if it exists but I'm too scared of what I might find. Some other time maybe.

Indie tosspot vs gothic cathedral;
the same thought processes at work.

In any case, Jean-Jacques Rousseau would probably have no problem sporting the meticulously crafted amalgamation of old and new that is the choice clothing of lots of young'ns today. He headed the whole Romantic movement which contains, among other things, a desire for the aesthetics of the past. It explains why in the 18th century there is a sudden revival of the Gothic architecture associated with the Middle Ages - it's all down to a bunch of people looking at old stuff and deciding that it looks cool, an ethos which has been very much carried on to the present day and seems to be the basis for all executive decisons made in fashion.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a huge misogynist.

Bless her, pretending to read.

Well, not really. But she did lay it on a bit thick.
Mary Wollenstonecraft is often referred to as the first 'real' feminist. She lived up to the label; she had numerous affairs behind her husband's back (as men were prone to do to their wives) and authored a very influential bit of prose questioning why exactly women don't hold the same status as men, and came to the conclusion that it can be all followed back to the quality of education that women are denied. From reading through "A Vindication on the Rights of Women", I saw that she was relentlessly angry and passionate about her cause. She hated everyone. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I kind of like her.

It's been a while!

You know, it's not in my nature to outright lie, so I'll just come clean. I've done a fantastic amount of nothing over the Christmas holidays, apart from plugging a 100 or so hours into a console game. I didn't rise before 11am on any given day and slept for an average of 13 hours. I think I walked about a mile over the course of seven weeks.

All in all, a qualified success!

So, to ease me back into the routine of actually doing anything at all, I've been asked to look at blogs belonging to journalism students from other unis. From what I can gather, we're pretty hard done by. Most of theirs seem to be more 'personal' blogs, talking about their experiences at uni so far, relationships, opinion pieces, festivals, stuff like that. No tedious law notes or metaphysical discussions. Maybe their courses involve more hand-in assignments than ours?

Now I think about it, personal blogging would probably be far more challenging for me. I think I'd be stuck for material when I lead the life of a particularly lazy pensioner. I'm not complaining or anything because my sedentary lifestyle is pretty sweet. It's just not very gripping.

There's a Cardiff student blog that specialises in newsworthy though - it's all law reporting, like the one by Andy Giddings we have here. Sadly, it seems to be inactive.

I've left comments on the other blogs, but due to moderation or inactivity I'm not sure if they're showing up or not. I'll continue to find some more and add them as they come through.

Links:

Cardiff Court Reporting: http://thecardiffcourts.wordpress.com/

UCLan blogs:

http://studentlifeofmine.wordpress.com

http://lifeoffatima.wordpress.com