Day 20 in the snow.....panic everywhere.
Thank God i've got tins in

Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist and political writer who was born in 1667.

Although he is perhaps best known for his novel 'Gulliver's Travels' the piece of Swift's work that I looked at was his satirical essay written 1729 entitled 'A Modest Proposal'.

Swift begins this essay by outlining his 'great intentions' to help the poor people of Ireland. The exaggerated grandeur of such language was undoubtedly a subversive mocking of Empiricist writing, as it is very similar to the pompous tone used by followers of this school such as Locke.

Swift highlights the plight of the poor and emphasizes the need to find a cheap and fair way to help them, help themselves. Swifts ingenious idea to achieve this is for Irish people to start eating babies.

Under this plan, Swift says that as children are not of much value to their parents anyway and are expensive to raise, selling a child between the ages of 1 and 2 when, according to his 'American friend' (a narrative trick Addision also used) they are at their most delicious as a luxurious food, would bring in income for poorer families and save them the money on raising the child anyway.

Swift outlines a number of surprisingly convincing advantages of this proposal. The first point he lists is that it would lower the number of Papists, who he implies breed too much as it is. This humorous attack on Catholicism was very in keeping with the general attitude of many at this time as it was widely believed that they could not be trusted and harboured allegiances abroad.
Swift proposes that selling their babies to the rich would also mean that the poor had something valuable to trade with that would both make and save them money.
He adds that taverns would also benefit, famine would decrease, the economy would improve and debt and poverty would be reduced as a result of this scheme.
My favourite of Swifts advantages for his proposal however, is that it would prevent men from abusing their pregnant wives by methods such as kicking them in the stomach, as they would not want to risk harming their unborn money-making child. Swift seems very anti-abortion and this plan would mean that such a practise would also be made redundant.

Although from a modern day perspective this cannibalism seems inhumane, I couldn't help but think that economically speaking Swifts proposal made a lot of sense. Indeed considering the hunger and suffering that the poor endured during this period in Ireland, his argument that the children would be saved from a life of misfortune and pain anyway makes his idea sound somewhat kind. The essay is so well written that Swift makes an idea that when first heard seem so far-fetched appear very reasonable. This is due to the brilliance of his satire of Empiricist style writers and his economically accurate and logical hypotheses.
So good in fact, that I'm contemplating how much my new-born niece would fetch on the black market......and whether she'd taste good with gravy.


Click here for a great 'rap' video summarizing Swift's Proposal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf0LH8FtHAc

The Daily Telegraph and Radio 1 Newsbeat

As part of my latest presentation, I looked at the News Agenda of The Daily Telegraph and Radio 1.

The Daily Telegraph was founded in June 1855 by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh, an army officer and travel writer. It was originally published to air Sleigh’s complaints about the Duke of Cambridge and to expose what Sleigh saw as the truth of the Crimean War. The paper was not a success however and as a result Sleigh was forced to sell it to his publisher Joseph Levy.  Levy was experienced in this field as he was involved with other newspapers around at this time and he decided to launch the Telegraph as a cheaper alternative to those already on the market. His sons who succeeded him later coined the slogan ‘the largest, best, and cheapest newspaper in the world’.

Nowadays, however, the Telegraph is owned by identical twin brothers, Sirs David and Frederick Barclay, who made their £1.8billion fortune in a variety of businesses including hotels, casinos and department shops. They purchased the Telegraph and its sister companies in 2004 from a Canadian business for around £665m. Their time in charge has been somewhat ruthless and eventful with one hundred journalists made redundant in 2006 and a further seven editorial changes to the Sunday and Daily Telegraph since their ownership began.

The Daily Telegraph is traditionally considered to have a right-of-centre political alignment and as a result has conventionally been considered pro-Conservative Party. Its affiliation with Tory leaders actually led to Private Eye magazine dubbing it ‘The Torygraph’. There is some suggestion however, that under the Barclay brothers the Telegraph is eager to move away from being associated as 100% Tory. In a recent interview David Barclay stated that the Telegraph would not be ‘the house paper of the Conservatives’ adding that ‘where the government are right, we shall support them’. Despite this I believe the Daily Telegraph to still be a centre-right newspaper. I have found numerous references to this relationship in my recent reading, from subtle quotes such as ‘targets concerning waiting times and cancelled operation, introduced by Labour, result in managers pushing Doctors’, showing a desire to emphasize blame on the previous Labour government. There was also some more obvious pro-Conservative content featured, such as the headline ‘Mrs. Thatcher was right’. I think that Barclay’s statement regarding The Telegraph’s political persuasion was a somewhat pragmatic comment on his behalf. He may well have wanted to avoid the paper being completely associated with the current government as if they were to prove unpopular, the newspapers sales would be likely to dip.

The Daily Telegraph itself usually has something of a busy front page layout. The ‘Win Free Sex’ box at the top of the paper is not as crudely obvious as many of the tabloids often are, but it is often brightly coloured, advertising promotional give-a-ways or articles from feature writers.   
The main headlines of the day of course feature on the front, and are usually politically based, rather than entertainment news for example. There are usually three or four main stories on the front page, each with a reasonably large section of reporting and this is again in contrast with the one story front page approach favoured by the tabloid and mid-market papers.

Along the right hand side of the second page runs a news in brief column which features short bulletins of both serious and light-hearted stories. 

The Daily Telegraph features a World News section towards the back middle pages of the paper. I was surprised at how far back many of these world affair stories were published as they were often important reports including violence in the Middle East and the G20 summit. Even further towards the back is the Comments and Features section, where feature writers and special guests write much more in depth pieces. There is also a significantly sized letters to the editor area in this section.

The Daily Telegraph describes its target audience in its online rate card as being affluent, loyal, influential and elusive. This claim of loyalty appears to be justified as 81% of their readers look at no other daily quality. 

The Telegraph has the oldest average readership of any national paper and on average it takes fifty-six minutes to read. This suggests to me that The Telegraph is mainly targeted at someone with more time to spare reading the news, and its high age of readers suggests many of them will be retired. The Telegraph can therefore afford to feature longer articles and features as it understands that many of its readers can afford the time to view them.

In terms of social groups 59% of the Daily Telegraph’s readers are AB1. This means that they are upper and middle class with a further 28% lower middle Class. This would imply that the vast majority of Telegraph readers are wealthy and well educated. As a result of this the Telegraph can use different language and more complex sentences than a tabloid paper. The Plymouth University’s guide to working out a reading age shows that the Telegraph use an average reading age of a nineteen year old whilst The Sun’s is that of a twelve year old.

The Daily Telegraph also has a 56% male majority of readers.  One example that I regularly found which may show their awareness of this was that more often than not the front page featured a photograph of an attractive woman.  These women tended to be more culturally high-brow than say Cheryl Cole for example (and usually in less sexually suggestive poses), but including these images may be a deliberate acknowledgement of their male majority audience.

The adverts featured in the newspaper also tell us much about their audience. I found that the brands of car and watch that are often advertised were usually at the reasonably high-end of the market, with Audi in particular embarking on an almost daily campaign. Similarly the supermarkets that advertised in the Daily Telegraph were Waitrose, Marks & Spencer’s, Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s, highlighting the Telegraph’s predominately middle-class audience, as cheaper brands such as Aldi or Lidl did not.

The Daily Telegraph is the bestselling quality daily with an average circulation of 678,252 between April and September 2010, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. This is estimated to mean they have around 1.8m readers (National Readership Survey). This circulation is 35% more than the nearest daily rival The Times and amounts to 43% of the quality market. Despite this, in keeping with the general decline of newspapers, sales for The Telegraph are down by around 2.5% in the last year and nearly double that in the last five years.

With other former broadsheet newspapers such as The Times deciding to change their broadsheet format to something smaller, it is interesting that The Daily Telegraph did not. One possible reason for this could be to ensure that it still stands out. Given that all the other daily qualities now use a smaller format I believe that this is certainly a valid point. I also think that given the older nature of their main readers, many will be retired and therefore can spare the time and space to unfurl the paper over their table. Also given the great emphasis on loyalty that the Telegraph places on its audience, they may have been reluctant to change this particular area, despite making technological innovation with other aspects.

The Telegraph launched its online version in 1994, becoming the first daily web-based newspaper in Europe to do so. www.telegraph.co.uk is now in the top 3 most popular UK newspaper websites, receiving an average of 1,669,773 unique browsers a day, each spending roughly thirteen minutes on the site. Though The Telegraph had fallen somewhat behind online in recent years, its exposure of the MP’s Expenses Scandal has seen it climb back up in the last eighteen months.

I will now look to compare The Daily Telegraph with Radio 1’s own news coverage.

BBC Radio 1 was launched in 1967 in an attempt to modernize the BBC’s radio coverage. Its use of jingles was also a BBC first and was an attempt to attract the young listeners who previously had often listened to ‘pirate’ radio stations such as Radio Caroline, that had recently been outlawed.

Radio 1 has a public service broadcasting obligation to provide news, under Ofcom regulations, as it is an organisation intended for public benefit rather than purely commercial reasons. The result of these restrictions is Newsbeat, Radio 1’s flagship news programme.  It began in 1973 and was a response to the less traditional news bulletins that were popular on commercial radio stations at this time, making it very different from the formal, old-fashioned style of BBC Radio’s news reporting.

Nowadays Newsbeat is broadcast at 12.45 and 17.45 during the week, lasting for around 15minutes, with shorter bulletins played throughout the day every thirty minutes. This is structurally the complete opposite to The Telegraph, which has a lengthy average reading time and as a result reports each story in much more depth.  

Newsbeat tends to open by outlining the stories it intends to discuss, with brief snippets of upcoming reports and interviews. The various regulations imposed ensure that it too must provide important political stories; however it often features basic question and answer style information to explain more complex reports. In addition to this nearly every report tends to feature interviews with the general public asking for their opinions. This is a clear contrast to The Telegraph, where the readers own thoughts are located near the back, taking up just half a page.

Most Newsbeat episodes feature entertainment news, usually with at least one celebrity interview. In addition to this there is usually one story featuring education based events as a result of their target audience. Recently for example, stories about the rise in tuition fees have featured and are very pro-student biased. In contrast to this The Telegraph was very critical of lecturers who took part in and praised the recent protests.

The tone of Newsbeat is very informal. The language used is a clear representation of this. One person interviewed used the word ‘crappy’ in the broadcast and this is something that I would not expect to find on any of the other BBC news programmes. Presenters and reporters talk to each other colloquially as well with one example being where the main presenter linked to the next reporting by saying ‘Alright Dave’. This is yet another contrast to The Daily Telegraph as we have already seen that they have the highest readership age of the national newspapers.

There is music played throughout Newsbeat, rather than just at the beginning or end of the broadcast. This emphasises that Radio 1 is a predominately music based channel and could also be used to keep their target audience interested during the news break.

These examples of tone and content clearly show that they are aiming at younger listeners and indeed their target audience age is between fifteen and twenty-four. The BBC’s own Radio 1 audience rate card emphasizes this adding that the young do not often associate the BBC with things that are relevant to them. They perceive the BBC as generally ‘old fashioned’, ‘introspective’, ‘slow’ and ‘corporate’. This suggests that Radio 1 takes very deliberate attempts to appear ‘cool’ and appeal to a younger audience.

The dominant social group of Radio 1 listeners are C1, with C2 close behind. These are the lower branches of middle class mainly made up of white collar workers and skilled manual workers. The entertainment content of the news broadcast perhaps best represents the difference between Radio 1’s target class and The Telegraphs as Newsbeat for example discusses movies, rather than the opera or the theatre, which are often reviewed in The Telegraph.

Radio 1 receives an average of 11.81m listeners per week according to Rajar’s last quarterly figures. This is just over 9% of total radio listeners and makes it the BBC’s second most popular radio station. I would assume that Newsbeat’s figures are similar to that of Radio 1 as a whole, as the feature is so short that I would doubt many listeners would turn over during the broadcast.

One area where The Daily Telegraph and Radio 1 could be seen to show similarities is in their online content.  Newsbeat Online generally features similar stories to that of the radio however, I found that there was much more entertainment news and lighter hearted stories online, perhaps as it is less restricted in the content it is obliged to provide. A great deal of focus is placed on interaction, with listeners given plenty of chances to have their say, and to use Newsbeat on every modern day social network or application.  This is a clear attempt from the BBC to provide news in the format that they believe young people want, they summarise this in their target audience briefing, by stating that most young people  are ‘technologically literate’.
The Daily Telegraph online also features opportunities for ‘citizen journalism’ and interaction, as well as providing many modern day services such as Podcasts and applications.
To conclude both Newsbeat and The Daily Telegraph appear to understand the current requirement to provide news online. Both have been the innovators in their respective fields and this shows a clear understanding that modern day users need much more interaction and online availability of their news.  This could perhaps be an admission by each side that these two separate forms of old media are dying out and in order to survive, online content is a must. 

The Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act became operational in 2006 after being drawn up in 2000 – no doubt to give certain organisations time to ‘lose’ certain information in that six years!
It applies to the availability of information in the public sector, allowing the public to get hold of such information or documents.

The Act states that ‘any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled to a) be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request and b) if that is the case, to have the information communicated to them.’

A large part of the Act, however, is taken up with exemptions; particularly regarding national secrets, security and military operations.

One problem of the Act is the definition of the information itself. Information can only be requested if it has been recorded down and this has led to the practise of ‘sofa government’ where leading figures of government or organisations discuss certain matters more informally and avoid recording the meetings.
Confidentiality is another hurdle – many organisations can refuse information regarding a specific person.
One further obstacle is the Cost of Complying, whereby if the information is too expensive for an organisation to gather it, even if they do have it, a request can be refused. An average amount considered to be too much is around £600 though it varies on the organisation.

Every organisation is required to have a designated Freedom of Information Officer. If a request is rejected however, you can appeal to a Information Commissioner who can adjust whether your FOI application should be granted.

Although appealing for information via the FOI can be very bureaucratic it seems to me to favour the journalist as long as they’re prepared to fill out the paperwork, be forceful in their demand and not take no for an answer. 

David Hume - Seminar Notes

David Hume was a Scottish Philosopher and writer who lived between 1711 and 1776. He generally followed the Empiricist school of thought and was a very sceptical writer.

His essay ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’ was published in 1748 and was probably his most important work, although it was basically just a re-working over of his ‘ A Treatise of Human Nature’ which he had published unsuccessfully around a decade earlier.

Section 1 of ‘An Enquiry’ (which we looked at) was concerned with the ‘Different Species of Philosophy’.  This begins with Hume discussing the two different types of ‘moral philosophy’, which is basically the science of human nature.

Hume describes the first school of philosophy by saying that it follows the idea that ‘man was chiefly born for action’ and that we are influenced by our own particular tastes. This is a philosophy much more based on common sense and enters frequently into common life. As it is more obvious and easy to understand this means it is more likely to have an effect on everyday people.

The second manner of philosophy considers man as a reasonable, rather than active being. It suggests that philosophy doesn’t have a fixed answer.  Hume states that it is much more ‘abstruse’ and therefore has less of an effect on everyday people and as a result of this the philosopher has a  more difficult task of getting his point across – which in turn leads to more mistakes and confusion being created. Hume criticises these philosophers by adding that nature ‘ prohibits’ abstruse philosophy due to the uncertainty it brings and that these types of philosophers often lock themselves away in their thoughts and experience sadness as a result.
Hume suggests that the perfect philosophy is somewhere between the two as an abstruse philosopher is incredibly intelligent but lacks the scientific accuracy needed to clearly understand things. He uses a great phrase to summarize this which is ‘be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man’.  

This would suggest that Hume’s ideal philosophy would combine profound ideas with clarity and scientific reason.

Hume, as an empiricist prefers the first school of philosophy as accuracy is more important to him than the ‘beauty’ of abstruse thinking. This is important to us as journalists as we need to be clear and accurate in our writing to produce a short bulletin or ‘News in Brief’ story rather than a 300 page story. Hume considers ordering and reflecting on our experiences as being crucial in how our minds operate and he emphasizes the need to study human nature when he describes that it is just as important to study how our minds work, as it is astronomy.  

There is also a brief insight into Hume’s political thoughts in this section when he comments on the need for a politician to have a ‘subdividing and balance of power’ in order to create a stable government. I think that this is very similar to Machiavelli who acknowledged that the people must have some say in an ideal rule, in order to avoid continuous rebellion.  

The next section of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding focused on The Origin of Ideas and this features the topics which are probably most important to someone studying journalism such as Induction, Causation and how our thoughts and ideas work.

Hume begins with explaining that there is a difference between feeling something (for example pain) and then trying to imagine this sensation again in our mind. He describes how all the colours of poetry can never paint natural objects so that they look like the real thing and states that ‘The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation’; Suggesting that there is a clear distinction between our experiences and how we view them. His view on epistemology suggests for example that when someone tells us they are in love we use our experience of this emotion to understand what they mean even though it is different and less animated to actually experiencing the feeling yourself.
Hume takes this further by saying that we can divide the perceptions of the mind into two classes which are separated by their different degrees of force or animation.

He calls the less forceful our ‘Thoughts and ideas’ and our more lively perceptions such as hate, love and desire our ‘Impressions’.

When describing our thoughts and ideas Hume says that at first glance nothing seems as unbounded as the thought of man as our imagination can create monsters and unrealistic scenarios. However, Hume says that if you take a closer look at what we imagine you see that we are actually very narrow minded. We create these thoughts very simply by putting familiar objects together. Hume uses the example of a unicorn to show that we conjure up this animal easily by putting virtuous ideas in a horse form. This is an example of synthetic logic where our minds can add knowledge to other knowledge we have and is very similar to Locke’s view on our ideas in that they solely from what we experience.  

However Hume says that there are problems with linking ideas together in our minds as we draw inferences or jump to conclusions using this logic. He says that we tend to produce ideas by induction rather than by reason. To show this he describes Causation theory which is basically where our mind decides that one thing causes another. Two examples of this are the Billiard Ball example where the white ball hits the red and the red moves. We assume that the white ball caused this movement however there is no natural evidence that this happened. The example that Betrand Russell uses is that when biting an apple we may experience a certain taste, but that does not 100% prove that the apple caused the taste.
Obviously is it highly likely that this is the case and Hume is being extremely sceptical with this idea as it would be pretty much impossible to live without making inferences however, I think that he is correct to scientifically suggest that we should not assume one thing causes another for definite because we regularly find ourselves jumping to conclusions and then realise we were wrong. One example of I could think personally was when I’d brought a magazine from one shop and been accused by a different shop selling the magazine of stealing it from them. Though it would seem likely I had taken it from them, I actually had not.

Finally therefore Hume clearly shows a preference for the ‘Impressions’ of our ideas as these are stronger, more accurate and defined. He says that we should ask ourselves ‘from what impression is that idea derived’ in order to clarify the ideas we have and discard ideas that may not necessarily be true.  This is something that Journalists should look to do when reporting a story as it allows us to try to understand exactly what is going on and for what reason rather than drawing inferences between events.

In many ways Hume sees the world as a baby. He sees everything that happens as unusual when broken down and believes that it is all equally improbable. By stating that we should never even assume that the sun will rise tomorrow or any of the other habits of mind we make every day, it is almost like when these things do happen they’re something of miracle. This is an outlook that I feel is a great way to look at things and by not presuming one thing always causes another, we may well notice more unusual ‘miracles’ happen all the time. 

Confidentiality and Secrecy

Confidentiality is a civil law. This means that it is harmful to an individual as they have a right to keep secrets and pass them on to those they choose to in private – providing of course that the secret is not in the public interest.
Certain professions have a duty not to disclose personal information confided in them, such as Doctors, lawyers and employees etc.   Failure to keep such information is therefore a breach of confidence and a claimant has a right to lodge a civil complaint, most likely in a bid for compensation. If information becomes available through a breach of confidence to a Third Party (such as a journalist who may wish to publish such a story) the claimant can apply for an injunction to prevent such an article being published.

Secrecy is a criminal law, including examples such as revealing a military secret without permission and is treated as a much more serious crime. The Official Secrets Act 1911 outlined the duty of confidentiality owed to the UK State and the need to punish those who leak unauthorised information of a sensitive nature. Journalists must be aware of such risks when publishing material concerning the military or information regarding terrorism in particular.

The Official Secrets Act has been accidently broken on a number of occasions. Often a film crew taking a ‘general view’ shot of a military base for example has unintentionally portrayed an area that may disclose private information of use to organisations wishing to harm the UK and this could be considered a crime. To try to prevent this most military bases have large signs forbidding the filming of certain areas in any circumstance. Similarly announcing Armed Forces returns should also be checked before publishing as military location is also considered a government secret.

Businesses also have certain protection rights regarding their commercial activity in The Commercial Confidentiality Statute. For a business to file a claim against someone found guilty of disclosing private information they must prove that the information is important, was imparted in circumstances implying confidentiality, that no permission was given for the information to be published and that the information caused actual detriment.

The Human Rights Act outlines the need for an individual to have a certain degree of privacy in their family life. This often applies to celebrities in particular and it is considered a breach of privacy if photos or videos are published without consent, unless a public duty is being performed.
The are two types of consent; Explicit Consent – which shows an awareness of the camera and Implied Consent – where a person is looking into the camera and posing for it etc.
As a journalistic defence implied consent is generally the stronger defence should a claimant file for a breach of privacy against a photograph being published.

Newspaper Surveys

Much of today’s society seems to be obsessed with surveys and polls. This is something that the media has clearly taken on board and we see it in all aspects of news, from opinion and health polls to entertainment and political surveys. Channel 4 even has a long running and successful comedy panel show ‘8 out of 10 cats’ based solely upon strange and unique polls.
Flicking through The Sun on Friday November 5^th I found a total of 15 polls and surveys including;

•  3 out of 4 offenders leaving prison embark on a life in crime
• Car sales fell 22% in October
• More UK men resemble Peter Kay than any other celebrity (according to a phone application – genius!)
•   Norway is the world’s best country to live in
• Daily sex with ‘the wife’ is the best way for men to live longer

It seems to me that we shouldn’t take tabloid surveys like this too seriously as many of them didn’t say where the data or sources were acquired. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were simply the product of a Horny Norwegian Criminal Car Salesman who looks like Peter Kay.

Many of these surveys also gave no precise figures or statistics to back up their claims and one ‘fact’ in particular appeared to originate from just one man (no not the Norwegian comedian). Builder Steve Morgan ‘claimed the number of mortgages available to buyers with deposits of ten per cent or less has fallen from 1,244 to just 33 since 2007. This made me wonder just who Steve Morgan was (the boss of Redgrow Housebuilders apparently) and how he had time to interview all those people.

So there we go, I’m not sure I’ll ever take a poll or survey seriously again.

Studying Newspapers

As part of my Journalism Now topic I am starting to study newspapers themselves and in this blog look at how the different British papers operate and their differing audiences and styles. Peter Cole wrote an interesting series on this in the Guardian and I will link his pages at the bottom.

The sales of newspapers in general are in decline. This may well be to the modern day desire to have everything online, despite this however, over 11.7m papers are bought each day.  This figure clearly shows the massive influence that newspapers have on our everyday lives and they can affect everything from how we vote to what we eat and can even form certain prejudices.
Most ‘normal’ people (and by that I mean non- Journalists) read one particular paper. They are often dismissive of other titles despite having never actually read them. What paper we read says a lot about who we are and using Cole’s articles I am going to look at the different papers and try to understand who they are aimed at and how their chosen stories and language affects this; as well as trying to see if papers really are dying and if different titles are evolving and trying to stop this.

The ‘Mid- Market’ (Express and Mail)
The Daily Express is a clear example of a paper who’s circulation is in decline, selling 770,000 papers daily whereas in its peak it topped 4m. It was traditionally a Tory newspaper however during the 1960’s new ownership led to a new Labour preference, though it has recently reverted back.  Cole describes its favourite topics to include house prices, taxes, the weather, political correctness, the threat of immigrants and an obsession with Princess Diana (!Express readers look away now! – What was Diana wearing the night she died? A blue bonnet).

The major player in the mid-market section nowadays however is the Daily Mail, which is the second highest selling daily behind The Sun.  Cole accredits its success to stable ownership and an understanding of who its reader is. The Mail is very anti liberal, with the majority of its readers over 45 and I would imagine middle class. Cole states that the Mail understands its audiences (probably out dated) prejudices and reflects them socially, culturally and politically.
One way in which I would suggest the Mail is trying to battle newspaper declines is that it spends the highest amount on promotions. It regularly gives away DVD’s and CD’s (although who uses them anymore?) such as The Artist formerly known as Prince’s last CD, to help boost sales. I think that this shows a willingness to battle against decline and evolve and this may well be the reason for it overtaking the Express in the mid-market sales.

The Tabloids

Tabloid papers are generally considered the papers for the masses. Cole states that they feature quick read stories on crime, sex, sport and celebrities with a mostly working class audience in mind. He adds to though they too are in decline they are something of a loathed obsession for the rest of the media and those who don’t actually read them.  The main tabloids of today are owned by two groups The Trinity Mirror (The Mirror and The People) and Rupert Murdoch (The Sun, NOTW).  The tabloids aim to connect with ‘ordinary’ people and its main readers are in the skilled manual workers and below social grouping. To meet this demand they have a very low reading age of text and run extensive features on ‘celebrities’ and lower pop culture, the things they seem to think their target audience cares most about. Despite this audience The Mirror in particular under Piers Morgan tried to take a more upmarket approach, no doubt as a result of the falling numbers of the working class population, however this failed, allowing The Sun to increase its stronghold of the tabloids.

Broadsheets

Broadsheets are considered the ‘quality’ newspapers, although Cole suggests this is inaccurate and that ‘serious’ would be a better adjective. The main broadsheets are The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and The Telegraph. Though their circulation is very small they are considered to be of great importance and are the first choice read of most politicians, professionals and managers. As a result of this their style is generally more affluent than that of the tabloids and mid-market papers with a higher reading level and more focus on higher levels of interest and culture.

It could also be argued that the broadsheets have achieved the most innovation over recent years. The Independent, Times and Guardian all changed to a more compact, tabloid style format of paper with an increase in sales a sign of the success this had.  Other examples of change include the magazine supplements that feature in The Times and Guardian in particular, whilst The Times also launched a pay-per-view online format, recently copied by the NOTW, although whether this has been a success is still up for debate. The Telegraph, whilst keeping its broadsheet format, has also moved into the internet age with many interactive features and podcasts.

In conclusion, it is very interesting to try to understand how the different newspapers operate with regards to their audience and attempting to do so certainly changes the way we read and view the differing titles. Change seems to be something that a lot of papers have been reluctant to do but the declining sales suggests that it is something they must attempt. Regardless of this however newspapers are still vital forms of media and are certainly not irrelevant just yet.

For Peter Coles articles see the following links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/20/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/27/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/sep/03/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/sep/10/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing4

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was born in May 1672 and could perhaps be considered one of the first true Journalists.  The majority of his works focused on minute social observation and his writing style contained much flair and humour.

In 1712 Addison began publishing ‘The Spectator’ with the help of his childhood friend Richard Steele.  The Spectator was something of an entertainment paper with articles often featuring the leading fashions at the time as well as frivolous issues such as how to correctly throw a tea party. In many ways the paper was representative of the Restoration period in which Addison worked.  This era saw an end to the Puritan reign started by Oliver Cromwell, where plays, parties and enjoyment in general were often seen as immoral. Addison’s style of writing is certainly a step away from this as he uses much humour and colour in his work. There is often something of a sarcastic tone to his style such as when describing the Royal Exchange in one essay he comments that there were ‘tears that have stolen down my cheeks’. This over-exaggeration is a clear example of the gentlemanly style of tongue-in-cheek wit that was fashionable at the time.

Another interesting aspect of Addison’s work, particularly The Spectator, was that it was aimed at both male and female audiences.  Many articles focused on what was fashionable at the time and this shows that Addison clearly understood he had female readers as well. This was very reflective of the age as the increasing industrialisation had led to a rise in the middle class and therefore it was considered very proper for domestic women to spend their growing leisure time sat around a table cheerfully discussing papers like The Spectator. Addison himself acknowledges the value of female writers in his piece ‘On the Essay form’ commenting that he received letters from ‘persons of the best sense in both sexes’. This is yet another example of a change in attitude in the Restoration period as during Puritan times women were somewhat distrusted and witch hunts were still prevalent – no doubt with Eve and the apple firmly in mind!

Addison was also very interested in the structure and style of essays and conversation, something that highlights his importance to Journalism. In one issue of The Spectator he discusses two different styles of writing; Regulation and Method, and much longer essays.
Method writing is described as being a ‘plantation’ where everything is laid out and planned in a certain order, making what is being written clear and easy for the reader to comprehend. He also believes that this style is effective in conversation and debate as it prevents losing sight of the question, as well as helping the author come to terms with their ‘invention’.
In contrast to this lengthy ‘essay’ writing is portrayed as a ‘great wood’ full of ‘noble objects and confusion’.  Addison praises the writing of a single volume of ones work but suggests that many great pieces have perhaps been lost due to writers being unwilling or unable to construct such a large amount of work. He likens this style to throwing down ‘Pearls in heaps’ in front of the reader rather than the ‘pains of stringing them’ and this would suggest that though Addison saw the genius in long volumes of work, he preferred shorter, concise pieces. 

To press this point further Addison used two characters to describe each form – Tom Puzzle and Will Dry. This humorous method was often used by Addison for entertainment purposes and also to help emphasize his points of view. Tom Puzzle represents the Unmethodical style of writing, with Addison stating that he knows enough to ‘raise doubts but not to clear them’.  This suggests a person that knows a lot about a handful of subjects but has no concise knowledge and therefore has to revert off topic in conversation. In contrast Will Dry’s character is a ‘clear, methodical head’ that uses less words but has an advantage of Puzzle and cuts him short with precise questions.
Such characters help to show Addison’s own views and opinions. Puzzle and Dry appear to depict Addison’s own preference for methodical writing of short, lively pieces and these are common in the work of the press, which is a great way of dealing out ‘lectures’ to the public. Addison himself stated that he wished the great writers before him had had such an invention as it would have made their own works much more concise. 

This perhaps best shows Addison’s importance to journalism as a profession. As well as understanding its potential as a business, The Spectator in particular was vital in bringing philosophy, information and stories into everyday life via the press, as previously it had only really been used as propaganda for religion and political parties. His love of precise, entertaining articles is also something that should be adhered to by any good journalist.  

Qualified Privilege

There are three main defences that can be used in court against accusations of a defamatory statement. The first of these is justification, a difficult defence that involves proving that your story is conclusively true. The second is fair comment. This is a reasonably well protected defence which basically means that it must be proved that the possibly defamatory statement was clearly an opinion and was not presented as fact. A journalist should chose their words very carefully to ensure that there is an obvious distinction between fact and opinion - particularly if they have any doubts about what they are publishing. The third main defence is Privilege, where certain groups are exempted from libel for certain reasons. Types of privilege include: 

• Statutory - where there is privilege in certain circumstances; such as reporting in court.  
• Absolute - where you can say anything you like, regardless of malice. This is a rare privilege that is enjoyed by MP's in parliament (e.g. Labour MP Tony Banks once referred to Margaret Thatcher as a 'sex starved boa constrictor). 
• Qualified Privilege

Journalists have Qualified Privilege. Reports should not show any malice and it is considered important that statements made against an individual were in the public interest. Journalists should look to show Positive Identification by methods such as putting the age, location or image after naming somebody in order to avoid being sued as a result of somebody of the same name to that reported taking offence or receiving persecution. 

Failure to do this is often referred to as 'broad brush identification' and this is potentially very dangerous indeed.

When using Qualified Privilege reporting must be fast, accurate and fair in order to prevent having it taken away from you if taken to court. The report should be published as soon as possible and any errors regardless of how trivial can also lead to the loss of QP. As previously mentioned writing should contain no malice and both side of the argument must be shown.

Following a high profile court case between former Rep of Ireland head Albert Reynolds and the Sunday Times, Lord Nicholls set out a list of circumstances to be examined by court in dealing with the defence, known as The Reynolds Test:

1. The seriousness of the allegation
2. The nature of the information
3. The source of the information
4. The steps taken to verify the information
5. The status of the information
6. The urgency of the matter
7. Whether comment was sought from the claimant
8. Whether it was a balanced article
9. The tone of the article
10. The timing of the publication

Women’s Magazines – Pre War

The first publications solely aimed at a female audience are believed to have appeared towards the end of the 17^th Century.  The primary periodical of any note was ‘The Ladies’ Mercury’ which was published in February 1693 by bookseller John Dunton. This was a double sided sheet which promised to respond to ‘all the most nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour and humour of the female sex’. It was only printed for four weeks but was perhaps the first real acknowledgment of the need to produce publications designed for women alone.

The term ‘magazine’ itself was not actually used until 1731 and therefore the pioneering women’s magazine was technically ‘The Lady’s Magazine’, brought out in 1770. Though the magazine featured the fashion, educational and domestic advice that we might expect from this period, its main concern was for the ‘adornment of its readers’ minds’. It introduced visual elements and contained amusing, often scandalous, fiction or autobiography, full of stories concerning adultery, suicide and heroic men – not dissimilar to the shocking stories found in today’s ‘real life’ women’s magazines. ‘The Lady’s Magazine’ was aimed at filling the leisured days of upper-class women and ran monthly for seventy-seven years.

By the mid-nineteenth century, however, changes in the position of women and of society itself had a major impact on women’s publications. The rise of industrial capitalism from the 1780’s onwards created clear distinctions between the working class, the now sizeable middle class professionals and the upper class aristocrats. Janice Winship states that ‘the workplace became completely separate from the home’, with women now associated with domesticity and childcare. As a result of this the content of women’s magazines changed.

Recognising the new market of domestic, middle class housewives, Samuel Beeton created the ‘English Woman’s Domestic Magazine’ in 1852. This publication contained much more practical information than its predecessors, regularly featuring articles on treating illness, gardening and cooking good family meals, highlighting the need for ‘domestic virtues’.

The ‘English Woman’s Domestic Magazine’ laid out a blueprint for the modern magazine industry. It marked the beginning for publications aimed specifically at different groups and classes of women and its rapid rise in circulation, from 25,000 in 1854 to over 50,000 in 1860, proved that there was much wealth to be gained from the female niche. This increased circulation also led to higher levels of literacy amongst working class women as well as great improvement in the mass publishing of magazines. The rise in production costs led to such magazines needing to find further sources of revenue and consequently more and more magazines began to turn to advertising. The other notable female magazine of the time that benefited from advertising was ‘The Lady’, which was described by The Times journalist Rupert Morris as an ‘Exchange and Mart for nannies’.

By the twentieth century the number of magazines available had more than doubled. Up until this point however, women’s magazines had been reasonably formal. The magazines ‘My Weekly’ and ‘Woman’s Weekly’ of 1910 and 1911 respectively, established a much more personal touch, which we now see in most modern publications. Journalist Mary Grieve believed that before the war women’s magazines were the ‘Cinderella of the British publishing industry’. It was the World Wars however, that led to an explosion in their reputation.   

Defamation

Defamatory statements are those published or spoken which affect the reputation of a person, company or organisation. Such statements will often; expose the claimant to hatred, ridicule or contempt, cause the claimant to be shunned or avoided, lower the person in the estimation of 'right thinking' society or disparage the person in their particular profession. 
Defamatory  court cases usually involve a Jury, however a Judge does have the power to decide against this if they feel that the case is too complex (particularly in terms of legal laws, regulations and exceptions - of which there seem many!) to explain to them in a short space of time.
When publishing or writing an article Journalists must be very careful about what they say. Even using inferences (statements with secondary meanings that would be understood by someone with reasonable worldly knowledge) and innuendos (statements that may seem innocuous to some but defamatory to those with special knowledge) can be very dangerous as if a claimant can show that the article is clearly about them and that most readers would understand this was the case, they most certainly have a case for defamation. In an attempt to entice a reader to a story even if untrue many Journalists use the 'bane and antidote' method. This is where a potentially defamatory headline is used (e.g. Beckham hooker scandal) but the article itself actually reports the story to be false. This is also very risky as a claimant could suggest that many readers would only view the headline and therefore issues such as the layout of the article are used as evidence.
Media organisations must choose very carefully when deciding to publish a potentially defamatory statement. As well as the dangers listed above they must also take into account how a jury may interpret meanings, the fact that they would have to prove the story true in court, the potentially huge damages awarded if they lose and the large legal costs involved in a defamation case.
Although all these hazards may suggest that a media organisation would be foolish to publish potential defamation there is some evidence in recent developments to suggest that freedom of expression is beginning to tilt in the journalists favour. Legislation passed such as the UK’s adoption of the Human Rights Act 2000 and The 1996 Defamation Act provide journalists with some defence against the seemingly endless swarms of groups and individuals just waiting to sue! 

WINOL

WINOL is the online news channel run by the students studying Journalism at Winchester University. The most recent bulletin contained matters including the expected rise in student fees, problems foreign students have had with identification, the local sport news and the recent commendation the students themselves have had for their efforts.
The first thing that struck me about WINOL was the professionalism of the two presenters. If I had shut my eyes I could have easily been listening to the BBC or Sky News as both readers had the exact tone and consistency of voice that we expect from news presenters. As well as this highly polished competency the two presenters also finished with a personal touch, proudly showing off the recent BJTC award for Innovation in Journalism. I thought that this was a good idea to fit this story in as it gives physical proof to the viewer that the channel is of a high standard and this deters them from considering looking for other sites.
As I have a keen interest in Sport, and aspire to be a Sports Journalist myself, I was pleased that WINOL featured an in depth sports report. Featuring local sports ensures that the content is relevant to the viewer and I was impressed by the excellent highlights footage of the local football in particular. Having such footage showed a determination to fully report the stories rather than simply reeling off the results and also made the report more entertaining.
The bulletin did contain a couple of spelling errors in the report however and this is something that brought the production down slightly as that is something you very rarely (if ever) see on a BBC or Sky News report. The reporters lumbered with the more tedious roles of commenting on issues such as the housing development plans in Winchester could also perhaps have used a bit more expression in their voices to keep the viewer hooked on the story as had I been watching at home I would have probably flicked over at that point.
On the whole though I was really impressed with the WINOL channel and they clearly work very hard and deserve their recent accolades, I'm looking forward to getting involved with the channel myself in the next two years.http://www.winol.co.uk/

Reporting the courts

I was pleased to hear that as part of the Media Law section of my Journalism course, we will soon have the opportunity to sit in and report from Winchester Crown Court. Studying the court system in Britain actually turned out to be surprisingly interesting, particularly from a journalistic point of view as it is vital to realise what you can and cannot report, especially as I have no intention myself of ending up in court accused of malice or slander!
UK journalists have something of a 'free press', although there are certain limitations. Journalists cannot, for example, reveal the name, address, school or picture of a juvenile involved in a youth court case under Section 49, whilst there are also limitations on what questions or information can be published regarding military or police matters under the 2008 Counter - Terrorism Act. Journalists must also presume a defendant is innocent until they are proven guilty and must be careful to show no prejudice during the court stage so as not to influence the jury. Creating contempt of court in this way is a strict liability offence - and there is NO defence for influencing a jury. Deliberately reporting lies or information you know to be false is considered malice and also carries strict punishments (as 'Touch' magazine will no doubt find out to their cost over the recent David Beckham affair).

 In the main, however, UK journalists have a reasonably high license of freedom. They are considered the 'eyes and ears' of the public and as such have a duty to provide stories that are considered within the 'public interest', and therefore important for society - rather than simply scandalising for impact. Justice must seen to be done in the court and cases must be proved beyond reasonable doubt for a jury to convict someone. Journalists also have access to certain material held by the police or prosecutors such as maps and photos, images of the crime scene and CCTV footage to help the media report court cases.

So now I have a better understanding of what I should and shouldn't do when reporting a court I can look forward to my visit in a week or two. Lets hope I get a nice, juicy case I can really cut my court reporting teeth with!

Machiavelli (1469-1527)

My recent study of the history and context of Journalism around the Renaissance time has thrown up many interesting personalities and pioneers. Those that particularly interested me included the philosopher Descartes and the scientific genius of Newton and Galileo.
One character that especially stood out to me though was Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli was born in Florence Italy, the city that was synonymous with the Italian Renaissance. After serving in various minor posts in the local government Machiavelli was arrested and sent to retirement in the Florence countryside by the newly restored Medici family upon their return to power. The Medici's were enormously rich and power having made their fortune by giving loans out but demanding their repayment in differing currencies in order to be able to charge interest on top - as doing so was forbidden by the Catholic Church.
Machiavelli's banishment, however, led to his most famous, and greatest work. He became an author simply because he had nothing else to do, and wrote 'The Prince' in 1513. He dedicated the book to the Medici family in order to win their favour however this was in vain. The Prince was a pragmatic guide of how to win and keep power. Machiavelli approaches the subject of gaining power as something of a science. He gives little or no comment on God, or takes morality into account in any of his lessons. He acknowledges the requirement for physical brutality particularly in the acquisition of power  and states that 'it is better to be feared than loved' but makes the observation that popular governments do tend to be less cruel and unscrupulous than tyrants. He also places a certain degree of emphasis on the need for the people to have a certain degree of power in order to maintain stability in a regime, as opposed to the constant upheaval created by continuous revolutions.
Machiavelli's realistic approach to politics was very representative of the period as a whole. The art of this time was also very humanistic with religious paintings now depicting much more human characters, displaying very real emotions, as opposed to the bland, generic subject of Dark Age works. This approach appears to highly justify Machiavelli's reputation as the founder of Political Science and I believe that the fact that he was able to produce a work that appeared to disregard his own desire for a unified Italy or any other beliefs he may have harboured certainly suggest a very precise and measured technician at work.
Machiavelli's influence is still very much clear in the more modern day. Pragmatic leaders that spring to my mind such as Hitler and Lenin appear to show some reference to the 'Machiavellian' mindset particularly in their acquisition of power. Although we still use the term Machiavellian today to describe a politician of ambition and cunning, having looked deeper into Machiavelli, I cant help but feel that this phrase is somewhat incorrectly used. Machiavelli's ability to separate his own views or morals particularly in 'The Prince' from the required 'art' of politics perhaps suggest that the term 'Princian' would be more accurate. That his great work was only published 5 years after his death may well suggest that Machiavelli was not influential in the Renaissance time he lived, but his clear influence in politics since then, be it in the meticulous planning that now goes into democratic election campaigns or the ruthless way in which dictators maintain power, in addition to the way his works reflect the humanistic age of the Renaissance means that Machiavelli should certainly be considered one of the key players of the Southern Renaissance.

Renaissance and Enlightenment Period

My first Journalism lecture focused on the changes in Philosophy particularly the Renaissance period in the Western World. Having never study philosophy myself I found it interesting to see just how important a part the study of how we think and feel played in changing so many things throughout history from science and technology to religion and art.
The pre Christian Greek era is generally considered to be the beginning of discovery. They are considered to have invented science, mathematics and philosophy, whilst their advancement in art and literature was also astounding. The way that the leading intellectuals of this period were also able to combine many of these studies also surprised me with one particular case being the philosopher Thales. Bertrand Russell states in his book 'The History of Western Philosophy' that the philosophy of this period 'begins' with Thales who even managed to predict an eclipse - showing how linked various subjects became during this period of advancement in civilisation.
However, after the period of the Greeks there was something of a dark age, where the rapid progression appeared to halt. This suggests that humanity is not necessarily continuously progressing, particularly when there is no ability to record information and history down, this is an idea that I will explain further with the introduction of the printing press.
After the dark ages an age of discovery was rediscovered in Italy around the 15th Century. The ancient Greek mentality had managed to be preserved through the dark ages mainly by the Catholic church. Iconic, conceptual art now often depicted man and this was an apparent reference back to Greek philosophers such as Protagoras who claimed that 'man is the measure of all things'. The art of this time supports this with very human characters portrayed in religious situations.
However, there were also new, non-Christian ideas born at this time. As a journalist the most important of these was the printing press in the 16th Century. This enabled theories and thoughts to be recorded as historical fact and meant that the ideas, and the those who thought them up, could become immortal. This led to a rapid increase in technological advancement and justifies why Einstein later referred to it as the greatest invention of all.

Winchester Journalism

Hi, my names Josh and I'm starting a Journalism Course at Winchester University.