Tag Archives: Journalism

Journalism Day Speakers (20th March) Biographies and Questions

Rosie Millard
Rosie is a British Journalist and author. She graduated from Hull University, the London College of Communication, although she was educated at an American High School, with what she calls a “glee-style” education. She has worked freelance for a while, working between writing comment pieces, doing interviews and features in papers and magazines, and she has appeared on TV and on Radio. In 2011 she took part in a reality show, but was first to leave.

Stuart Heritage
Stuart is a writer for the Guardian, and writes about TV and Film, and he has written for NME and the Radio Times before. He co-author’s LUVandHAT.com, which is a blog about arguing. He has made some appearances on TV, but not enough, and blames his haircut for this. He has said that he has a literary agent and will one-day write a book, and is passionate about baking.

Damien Johnson
Damien is a sports reporter, who was born in Hull. He reports on Match of the Day, and Football Focus, and is a broadcaster working with the BBC. He started his career with a radio station in Sheffield, and sometimes presents the sports news on BBC Look North for East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Robert Crampton
Robert is a award winning journalist. He joined the Times as a columnist in 1991, and writes Beta Male, a weekly column in the Times, every Saturday. He also writes features and interviews, his past interviewees including; Liam Gallagher, Sienna Miller, David Cameron and Kate Winslet.

David Banks
David is a media law trainer, who co-authored the 18th, 19th, and 20th editions of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists. He contributes articles on media law to the Guardian, and works as a media law consultant. His clients include; the BBC, Northcliffe Newspapers, The Daily Mail, and The Sun.

Nick Petrie
Nick joined the Guardian in November 2010 and works as a content coordinator for the Guardian. He is also a co-founder of Wannabe Hacks, a website aimed at budding journalists who want to get into the industry.

Andrew Dixon
Andrew is the bid leader for the Hull City of Culture 2017.

Questions for Nick Petrie
1) How did you go from a co-creator of Wannabe Hacks to working at the Guardian?
2) Have you any advice for budding journalists on getting into the news industry?
3) What exactly is Wannabe Hacks and what does it do?
4) What do you do for the Guardian? What is a content coordinator?

Questions for Andrew Dixon
1) How did you get involved with the Hull Bid?
2) How did you get support for the Hull Bid?
3) What do you think Hull will improve with the money from the Hull Bid?
4) Do you think Hull will benefit from the Hull Bid?

Self Initiated Project Research into PAS and Budget Cuts

Due to funding cuts, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a group of specialists from the British museum, have had to reduce their staff who visit the annual Finds Days at different museums all around the countries.

Hull and East Yorkshire Museum, an archaeological museum in central Hull, used to have two people from the Portable Antiquities Scheme attend their Finds Days, once every two months, but since the end of 2013, they have reduced their number from two to one.

Because of this, one representative from the Portable Antiquities Scheme has to sit and examine a large amount of artifacts that amateur metal detectorists take in to be identified. After she takes them away, the representative must properly research and identify the artifacts, and must write up a full report of what it is, before publishing it online. In total per two months, the one representative has to identify and report on approximately 700+ artifacts. Because of this, the Portable Antiquities Scheme representative has had to lower the amount of artifacts that she is allowed to take away from each person from as many as she can, to 12 per person.

This may seem like she can still take a lot of artifacts, however, nearly twenty people attend the Finds Days per museum, and the numbers begin to add up. However, since the amount has been lowered, less people are attending the Finds Days as too many of their good artifacts are being rejected, because the representative does not have the time and help of other staff to record everything. Because the amount of people attending the Finds Days has become less and less, amateur archeologists and historians are beginning to say that we are losing our local history, because if people do not take their good, important historical finds to be properly identified and recorded, the Portable Antiquities Scheme are missing the important finds, and therefore are not seeing some of our important local history.

Self Initiated Project Ideas – Museums and Funding Cuts

Due to my knowledge of the museums and how they have been hit by funding cuts, I am doing to create a short (five minutes approx) documentary about the different museums in Hull, mainly the Streetlife and the Archaeological museum, and how the funding cuts have affected them.

I am going to talk about how the Streetlife museum was hit and how it cannot afford to digitalise it’s exhibits. I will talk about the Heritage Lottery Fund, a fund for museums to keep them open, and will talk about how the Streetlife museum is asking for a donation in order to keep the museum free.

I will talk about how the Archaeological museum has been hit by funding cuts, and ask the question “will it always be free?” and I will go into the finds days that happen every two months. I will explain how the staff from the Portable Antiquities Scheme has been cut and therefore only one person travels around to the finds days and takes in items to record and identify. I will speak to amateur archaeologists about how they feel about the finds days only taking a limited amount of finds from amateur archaeologists and how some people feel that they are losing history, because people will stop coming to the finds days and will not record their finds, therefore we are losing history because the finds arent being recorded.

I will try and get interviews with the museum curator Paula Gentil, and possibly an interview with the PAS finds officer, and will try to get vox pops around or outside the museum, asking people their views on how they think the funding cuts are affecting the museums, if they know about it, and if they think museums should always be free.

24 Years of Fighting Cancer – Specialist Article

Cancer Patient Dies after 24 Years of Fighting

First diagnosed with breast cancer over 20 years ago, Brenda Hattingh began a long treatment of chemotherapy. However, after suffering with bone and liver cancer, she died at Bridlington hospital on Monday 18th November 2013 with her daughter Sharon by her side.

“She was an inspiration to many. I’m going to really miss her.” Granddaughter Rachel said.

Mrs Hattingh was a strict Christian and visited her local church whenever she was well enough. Through her long-term illness, she remained positive and lived each day to her full. Even on her deathbed, she remained happy and content.

“I remember the last time we visited her in hospital,” Granddaughter Ami began, “we were all crying. She gripped my hand and told me not to cry for her, as she knew she was going to somewhere better; she was going to God.”

The family have been sharing memories of the positive, strong lady, and even found a family video filmed on Mrs Hattingh’s 70th birthday five years ago. Son Simon told us about his experience watching the video.

“It was sad, because the whole family was there. I couldn’t help but think that the last time her family was together after the birthday party was for her funeral.”

Mrs Hattingh was cremated at a family only service at Octon Crematorium on Friday 29th November 2013, followed by the church service of Thanksgiving at Mrs Hattingh’s church in Bridlington, which was attended by both friends and family.

Mrs Hattingh will be dearly missed by all those who knew her, especially her family and husband Steve.

How is the Free Press threatened by the Royal Charter? Essay

The Royal Charter is a legal document that encourages regulation in the press. This has been brought on by the recent Leveson Enquiry, where newspapers such as the News of the World has been accused and found guilty of hacking the phones of certain celebrities, and people such as the parents of missing child Madeline McCann. Through their phone hacking scandal, newspapers were publishing their findings illegally, as the press was not regulated and anything could be published. The Royal Charter has recently been brought in with the idea of a self regulated press, which means the end of what we know as a “Free Press”.

A Free Press is a press that can publish anything they want, with certain legalities such as those similar to stories where they are legally contracted to courts or scandals involving young children, and cannot publish certain information about the victim(s) of the stories. A Free Press would be threatened by the Royal Charter because the Charter has the ability to bring in any form of regulation, which starts the argument that the press wouldn’t exactly be “free” to write what they want, therefore making some stories impossible to publish.

The Free Press would be threatened by the Royal Charter because recently the Royal Charter has brought in a new idea that the press can self regulate itself. This means that newspapers can choose one person, an editor possibly, to read all the stories about to be published and can say “yes that is regulated enough to be published”, or “no, this cannot be published because of this reason”. There are arguments for and against this new regulation written by the Royal Charter. A famous argument for press regulation was written by Steve Coogan, actor and supporter of group Hacked Off, who are fighting to regulate press. In his argument for the Royal Charter, Coogan wrote a letter to David Mitchell of the Guardian, arguing against Mitchell’s view of the press being threatened by press regulation. This is what Coogan wrote: “Let me give you an example of what the rubbish part of the press don’t like about the very modest Royal Charter: equal prominence of apologies. Let’s just suppose you read a headline, something really awful about you like, “David Mitchell likes to have sex with animals… small ones… a lot.” (I know it’s a bit annoying but multiply your irritation by a thousand and you may get a taste of what it was like to be Bristol landlord Chris Jefferies, who was accused – without a shred of evidence – of murdering Joanna Yeates.) Now let’s say that you can demonstrate quite swiftly that the headline is untrue through personal testimonies (I would vouch for you) and CCTV footage. How would you feel if, after the paper did a mea culpa, they printed the correction/apology in a one-inch column on page 16? Happy? Or really, really happy? OK, now imagine you’ve been accused of pickpocketing the dead on a football field after a disaster. Just to sell more newspapers. Not so funny now is it?”
In his argument, Coogan is explaining that we need press regulation because otherwise anyone could write anything about anyone, as he uses the example that someone could write that David Mitchell likes to have sex with animals. Coogan also uses the emotional side to back up his argument, asking D avid Mitchell how he would feel if he were a victim in this. This last sentence appeals to Coogan’s own time as a victim of phone hacking, so he is using personal experiences to back up his argument.
Other arguments against press regulation include Bob Satchwell of the Society of Editors, who says: “This is disappointing and it is a pity the Queen has been brought into controversy. Royal charters are usually granted to those who ask for one not forced on an industry that does not want it. The press has moved to create a robust new regulator, taking on board Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations including £1million fines, orders to make corrections, investigative powers and an independent board with no serving editors in the regulatory system. Those who seem to want to neuter the press forget there are 20 national papers, 1,100 regional and local papers and hundreds of magazines who have not done any wrong.” Mr Satchwell’s argument includes the fact that a press regulation would affect newspapers who are currently not doing anything wrong, and they would lose out on freedom because of someone else.
Other arguments for press freedom include the idea that if a press is regulated, then everyone will have to write the same thing, and not put their own angles on it because there will only be certain things they can write. This idea means that the public will become fed up of reading the same thing over and over again. Newspapers such as the Guardian write things in their own opinions sometimes, depending on the story, and if a press is regulated then they will not be able to write what they want, because they may write something that is against the regulation, as Steve Coogan mentioned, David Mitchell sometimes puts a funny spin on things, and these things may have to disappear if press regulation comes into action. However, to counteract this, the argument for press regulation explains that if a press is regulated, people will not have to worry about rubbish being written about them and published to the whole nation, or the whole world. This would stop people becoming the victim of press publication, and phone hacking.
One final argument against the press regulation is that some local newspapers use the word “free” in their newspaper titles, and it encourages people to buy them because they know that the newspaper is free to write whatever they want about their local area. For example, the Bridlington Free Press writes about things that happen all over the Bridlington area, from murders to drug raids, or even people being married or people dying. Residents in the area like these “free” papers because they tell people the truth about what is going on. Whereas, if the press was regulated, they would lose “free” and would become the Bridlington Press, which some people may have trust issues about because they know it is regulated and would worry about what people can and cannot read about. Some stories such as murders or drug raids may be cut out if they were not written about properly, and therefore residents of the local area would not know everything that they would like to know about what is going on in their area.
In conclusion, there are arguments for and against the free press and press regulation. The Royal Charter threatens the Free Press mainly by regulating what can be written and published in a newspaper, and this has been brought on by the Leveson Enquiry and the phone hacking scandals. There has been an uproar whether or whether not press regulation is the right or wrong thing, because either press regulation means the end of “free” news papers such as the Bridlington Free Press, or because it is a way to stop horrible scandals such as the phone hacking and public humiliation for many people involved, such as the parents of Madeline McCann and actor Steve Coogan.
1232 words

Bibliography:
Steve Coogan, argument for Hacked Off: Coogan, S. (2013). Steve Coogan: David Mitchell, press freedom is not being threatened. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/27/leveson-press-regulation-steve-coogan-david-mitchell. Last accessed 9th Jan 2014.

Bob Satchwell, argument: Little, A, and Brown, M. (2013). Royal Charter causes outrage as freedom of press is cast aside after 300 years. Available: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/440257/Royal-Charter-causes-outrage-as-freedom-of-press-is-cast-aside-after-300-years. Last accessed 9th Jan 2014.

Writing For Purpose Assignment Brief – Finalised Idea

As I said in a previous post, for the assignment brief we have to create a news story. I was initially going to use the question Do you think a lack of job prospects after finishing school causes more young adults to join the British Forces? However, after personal problems over the last few weeks, something else has come to my attention.

Whenever I watch the news, I hear all about some paedophile being jailed or someone having died; there is no sense of positivity or hope in the news. I have found a story that combines both these things, and is a news story.

A week ago, my Grandma died after fighting cancer for 24 years. Through that time she remained positive and was an inspiration to everyone. This is a news story in itself because of two reasons: 1) someone has died, and 2) someone has been fighting cancer for 24 years. I have decided to do a tribute video for the family to celebrate Grandma’s life, and I am going to create the tribute into a news package to hand in for my brief. I will use videos and images of Grandma when she was alive and I will voice over some important part of her life. I will have voice interviews and video interviews with family about their memories of her. I will also try and find some fitting music to use in the background.

My Immersive Experience – Pine Point Review

Pine Point – http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint

Pine Point is an immersive website by “the Goggles”, Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons. It is about a pace called Pine Point where one of the creators of the website, Michael Simons, first travelled for a hockey tournament and he took a liking to the place. He talks about searching for Pine Point online after some years and finds that it is no longer there, but he finds a website called “Pine Point Revisited” and it takes him on a nostalgia trip of Pine Point. The website goes into the history of Pine Point and talks about the time it had as a mining town. Michael then decides to go visit his hometown of Yellowknife, near to Pine Point, and he takes us on a tour of his hometown. He shows us his yearbook, and tells us where people where back then and what they are doing now, and they all recall their hometown memories. Michael tells us about the day the Russian satellite crashed near Yellowknife, and tells us about the day he was woken up by his mum to find that the high school has burned down. Michael then goes into detail about how the government decided to close down Pine Point, finding old letters telling residents to move, and Michael decides to visit Pine Point with his friends, telling us what is left of it. The website ends by telling us that there is a “bash” at Pine Point every year in which the people who used to live there let off fireworks, and he tells us that even though it is deserted, someone still mows the grass in Pine Point cemetery.

The website is good because it uses animations, images, and videos to capture footage of people and places, and there is a clever animation of a scrapbook, which helps to create a nostalgic feel, and the images in the year book create a personal feel to the creator. The website is also good, because it is interactive and allows the viewer to scroll through pages and images at their own pace, although some images are set on a slideshow, but the slideshow is set at a slow pace so it gives the viewer time to see each picture. The images and video are joined by some text, which goes into more detail about what the images and videos illustrate. However, there is not a lot of text so it does not cramp the page and look messy, and it makes the website better for people who prefer videos and images rather than a whole bunch of text.

The main thing that lets the website down is the fact that Pine Point is not immersive enough. This website allows the viewer to interact in order to scroll through pages and images, but it does not let the viewer make their own decisions, for example, Mercedes Benz’ immersive website. At a time of advertising their new C class cars, Mercedes Benz made their website into an immersive experience for people, in a hope to encourage more people to buy their cars. Mercedes Benz’ immersive website put you in a car with a lady, who was quite good looking and attracted the audience of many men, and she told you that you had to drive through the city in order to escape. As a viewer, you could choose your route, and at the end of the immersive experience, if you managed to escape, you could put in your phone number and the lady would ring you with a chance to win one of the new C model cars. That is what Pine Point misses, the fact that Mercedes Benz allowed the viewer to choose your route yourself, while the Pine Point website did not.

See the Mercedes Benz immersive film/website here: http://www3.mercedes-benz.com/mbcom_v4/us/c-class-coupe/en.html

Writing For Purpose Assignment Brief – Ideas

For my assignment I have to create a piece of news, which could either be a news story or a video package.

Proposal:
I have decided to create a news story for BBC News online, and I would follow the same format as this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25094101, where you have an interview or important point of the news story as a video format and then the text of the actual story underneath.

My story idea came about after I was looking through my yearbook from year 11 at school. There were so many people who had left school early to go and join the British Forces, and so I came up with a question to ask people: Do you think a lack of job prospects after finishing school causes more young adults to join the British Forces?

I sent the question to two people who I knew would be good examples of interviewees in this subject:
– My friend Rachel, who knows many people who left school early to join the Forces.
– My boyfriend, who has been a serving member of the Army for three years.

Results:
Rachel O’Brien, student: “I know someone who wanted to join but not straight away, but because he couldn’t find a job and didn’t want to be on dole, he decided his only option was to join the army. I myself would consider if I didn’t have a child.”

A serving forces member (my boyfriend): “Yes, I think more people are joining the army because people cant find jobs, so they decide to join the forces because they are guaranteed a job there.”

NB: Because of security reasons, I am not allowed to state the name and title of any serving forces member.

Evaluation:
Because my question came back with results and so I have decided that this is the right news story for me. I shall now research my topic further and conduct more interviews, some video, that I can use.