Journalism Soon (Journalism Now! Article on 'The Independent')

Launched in 1986, The Independent is a traditionally left wing newspaper aimed towards men of the ABC1 social bracket. From the statistics on the paper’s rate card, it could be suggested that the majority of readers are young professionals as the vast majority of readers fall into the ABC1C2 category and a large proportion are aged 15-34 years (source NRS July 2010-June 2011 statistics on NMA online rate card). This is reflected in the advertising seen throughout the paper, with advertisements for relatively expensive electronics (such as phones, computer games and iPod docks) and luxury cars often seen throughout, and particularly towards the front of, the paper which suggests that these sorts of items are of particular importance or great desire to the newspaper’s demographic.

Despite being one of the United Kingdom’s youngest daily newspapers, The Independent has gone through many stylistic changes, most obviously in its change from being a traditional broadsheet into a ‘compact’ version in 2003. In 2005, the layout of the paper was changed causing some of the sections to be merged and in 2008 it became full-colour. The newest changes, however, occurred on 2011; the change of font and colour of the masthead and dropping of its banner, describing the paper as “free from party political bias, free from proprietorial influence”.

Some of these changes may be due to the values seen within the paper. Although it presents itself as a newspaper that is free of political bias, the ideas it expresses often agree with the Liberal Democrats’ policies and beliefs. For this reason, they may have felt it necessary to drop the banner that they once used on the front page. Others could be explained as ways of trying to attract a greater number of readers in its target audience; the introduction of the red masthead makes the paper more noticeable as the colour stands out more and the less formal-looking font, it could be argued, makes it look like it would be easier and more interesting to read. These aspects are appealing to the younger ABC1 demographic that The Independent target and compete with The Guardian to obtain.

Although The Independent is still marketed as a newspaper free of bias, it features a large pull out section of features and opinion. However, as columnists cover a spectrum of political stances, it could be argued that it still does not have a specific political bias and, in having this variety of columnists, allows readers to find articles that fit in with their own ideas and beliefs.

Whilst The Independent is seen as an unbiased paper, the content and changes in design suggest that it may, to some extent, have a slight political agenda but could, equally, be seen as a way of attracting a greater number of readers in a world in which its medium is struggling to be profitable.

Serious Law Business

Right, before my exam in less than 10 hours time, I want to just list some of the law things I know that might come up in the test so that the world knows that if I fail it's not because I haven't been paying attention but because 1) I suck at exams and 2) I probably got distracted by things... possibly mostly by trying to find the purple in my hair (seriously, you can barely tell it exists, haha). Particularly as I haven't done that many proper law blogs. If any. I should really cut back on the comment...

Media Law:

• The highest court in the UK is the Supreme Court and deals with appeals from Crown Court
• DPP stands for "Director of Public Prosecution" and they hire the prosecuting lawyers for criminal cases
• Crown courts: Hear/try indictable cases; Hear appeals for bail; Hear appeals against conviction/sentence from Magistrate's Court
• Magistrate's Court: Bail application; Committal & setting a trial date; Hear "either way"; summary justice
• You can state in the news that someone has been denied bail but not why as it may sway a jury's decision
• Criminal court - cases of crime against the state or society e.g. murder, fraud, drug dealing, etc
• Civil court - against individual/company e.g. divorce, libel, trimming someone else's hedge because it's spoiling your view, rent disputes
• Statute - law enacted in Parliament
• Common Law - precedent set by Judges
• Prejudice: to pre-judge someone; in court, being unable to get a fair hearing as the jury have been swayed in some way by something
• Contempt: compromising integrity of the case/court; a crime; stopping people from having a fair trial e.g. prejudicing a jury, going against a Judge
• A case becomes active when "it's likely there will be a trial" so when charged/arrested/some point between the two
• Once someone's arrested, you can report: their identity (making sure you've got positive identification); things like they "look nervous" (NOT that they "look guilty"); anything that won't prejudice a jury
• Things you can report about a case once it's active: Identity (though not in sexual offence cases in case of jigsaw identification of victim); charge; whether they have or haven't been granted bail; how they pleaded
• An "either way" offence is one where you can either chose summery justice or a trial in Crown Court
• To have qualified privilege, your report must be Fast, Accurate and Fair/have Balance (FAF or FAB, depending on what you prefer)
• To libel someone, you must have: publication, identification (must be positive to stop other randomers from being libelled too), defamation
• Defamation: lower someone's respectability/alter their representation/remove their fame; to expose them to hatred, contempt or ridicule or damage their profession or cause them to be shunned or avoided
• Defences for defamation: Common Law Qualified Privilege; It being true (requires evidence); "Fair" comment (honest opinion, based on fact, in public interest)
• Accidental Libel (or very bad luck libel, if you want a technically more accurate name) - when you have positively identified someone and someone else also, coincidentally, is also identified in spite of this (i.e. shares the same unusual name, age, occupation and lives in the same place as someone else)
• Picture/Juxtaposition libel - when an unrelated picture/story is next to another, making it look related and therefore libellous (i.e. having a picture of Kate Middleton next to a story with the headline "Axe Murderer Found" makes it look like she's the axe murderer); solved on TV by using a presenter and in newspapers by putting different stories in separate boxes
• According to Reynolds' 10 point test, stories must: be serious, have a good and reliable source, be investigated thoroughly, be new, be urgent, be put to accused so that allegations can be denied, include "the jist" of the defence, be written factually, not be sensationalised, be written and published as quickly (yet accurately) as physically possible
• You have Qualified Privilege on things said: In Court; In Parliament; in Local Government meetings (subject to refutation, i.e. so long as there's lots of balance in the same story); Public meetings/gatherings (common law, subject to refutation), UN meetings and foreign courts with which Britain has diplomatic relations (common law, subject to refutation)
• Copy right protects intellectual property (everything you physically write/make/create) until these rights are traded in some way
• Fair dealing is "lifting" a picture or section of text which you use and give credit to such as a link to a blog or the name of the artist/photographer - sometimes are given conditions such as you cannot alter it or claim it as your own in anyway even if you do alter it, etc
• Material on the internet is not automatically free of copy right, but can be sourced on there if you look in the "creative commons" parts of sites such as Flickr
• In confidentiality, privacy is protected by Section 8 of the Human Rights Act which entitles everyone to the right to a "normal family life"; State Secrets are protected by the Official Secrets Act; Commercial Secrets are protected by Common Law
• You breech confidence if you disclose information that: has the necessary quality of confidence and was provided in circumstances imposing an obligation and was not permitted to be passed on and is likely to cause detriment (with evidence that this will happen)
• Gagging clauses - contractually stop you from revealing information, even if it is true.
• Need permission for things such as photographs for celebrities (explicit consent) unless they are "engaged in a clear public duty" or allow you to photograph them by acknowledging the camera and not stopping you (implicit consent)
• Ofcom provide the Codes of Conduct for broadcast journalism and is an official Government body
• PCC Editors' Code of Practice deals with print and although it can't issue fines etc, unlike Ofcom, it will mark you as a bad journalist and make you essentially unemployable
• Impartiality is to not show your own opinion/a bias - this does not apply to political stance in Newspapers as if you do not agree with their values, you can buy a different one where as broadcast must be fair and balanced as you have no/less choice
• Equal amount of time must be given to each political party on television, proportional to their seats/votes (I can't remember which) in the last election
• During an election, there is a danger that you may be biased towards a particular party by broadcasting/writing too much/little about one of them (apparently they use actual stop watches on TV to time how much exposure each party receives in broadcasts)

Right, as I now have less than 9 hours until the test, I'm going to go to bed and, hopefully, dream of law and philosophy so that I can revise even in my unconscious state.

Until next time, Good night (and good luck if you're also doing this exam with me!)

Hospital Fire in Winchester

Fire fighters in Winchester are still tackling hospital blaze that began at four o’clock today.

Affected buildings at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital were evacuated safely after a fire began in the MRI building. Despite rumours, the blaze was not started by a gas leak but is thought to have been caused by a faulty MRI machine.

Many emergency vehicles were called to the scene and are continuing to work into the night despite having gotten the fire “under control” over five hours ago.

Roads surrounding there area are still closed but many of the buildings in the area, including some of the housing on the Main Campus here at the University of Winchester, that were evacuated have been allowed to return.

I managed to get a few photos of the fire at about seven o’clock this evening; you can see the smoke coming out of the buildings and still could as I left at just gone ten.

Taken near the West Down Students Village, looking down towards many of the main hospital buildings; many of these emergency service vehicles were still there when I left.

As seen from the car park by the MRI building, where you can still see smoke coming from the direction of the A&E. (I had to sneak in to get this – I went up some stairs but there was a security guard on the main entrance who started walking over to me as I left)

This is all true to the best of knowledge and nosy reporter skills at 22:10, i.e. the last time I walked past the hospital. You can also find more info (and a much more interesting photo) here: http://hpwinchester.blogspot.com/2011/12/fire-at-winchester-hospital.html or here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16119106 and read all the tweets from my live twitter updates here: http://twitter.com/HazGotNews4You

Top 5 “Classic” Christmas film Countdown!

There’s only 29 days until Christmas! Have you done your shopping yet? (If not, I have some brilliant hints for you here: http://hazny182.blogspot.com/2011/11/top-ten-tips-for-christmas-shopping.html)

Anyway, to get you into that Christmas spirit, I thought I’d run down my personal top 5 Christmas films, some classics some… well, you’ll see. I may, at a later date, do a list of my least favourite too (because there are some truly awful Christmas films out there… and some that should be awful but are in fact ruddy marvellous)

I would like to remind you now that all this is my own opinion and that I haven’t been sponsored or anything like that (for a start, I’m nowhere near famous enough to be influential…)

So, in the words of a very famous, fictional, Italian plumber – Here we go!

5.       The Santa Clause (1995) – the Christmas film that puts the laughter in manslaughter… fairly sure they didn’t put that on any of the promotional material, but it’s true. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) accidently kills Santa and gets more than he bargains for when he dons the suite himself. I think what made the film for me is the brilliantly dry and sarcastic elf Bernard (David Krumholtz). The second film (The Santa Clause 2) is also good however “Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” I found to be a bit of a let-down, possibly because of the severe lack of Bernard but mostly due to the annoyingly cheesy ending.

4.       Die Hard (1988) – It’s set at Christmas, so it counts. Fact. Bruce Willis (who still has hair at this point) plays New York cop John McClane who ends up stuck in a sky scraper that’s been over-run by terrorists and is the only one who can save the hostages from the building’s Christmas party – including his wife. It’s full of brilliant stunts, violence and explosions and McClane’s humour is the icing on the Christmas cake. The other 3 films in the series are also excellent, but sadly only the first and second films have any relevance to Christmas… but, hey, that’s two films for you guys to argue with your partners about watching!

3.       Home Alone (1990) – a brilliant, if terribly unrealistic, film full of comedy to suite the whole family. 8-year-old Kevin McCallister is left behind by his family when they go to Paris for the holidays and comes up with various ingenious ways to stop two dim-witted burglars from breaking into his house. The idea of a young child out-smarting two fully grown men is funny in itself, but McCallister’s witty lines and the copious amounts of slap-stick add to the hilarity and make it suitable for all ages.

2.       The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – It’s a Charles Dickens’ classic with the Muppets and Michael Caine in it… what else could you possibly want? Essentially a re-telling of the traditional story where Scrooge (Michael Caine) is visited by three ghosts that just so happen to be puppets… The whole thing is narrated by Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat, whose relationship adds an extra layer of hilarity to an already funny film.

1.       Scrooged (1988) – Bill. Murray. That is all…

Frank Cross (Murray), a cynical and selfish TV executive, is visited by 3 ghosts on Christmas Eve whilst he tries to put on a live performance of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” which, as I’m sure you can imagine, has hilarious consequences. The modern twist this film put on the Dickens classic makes it both more relevant and funnier and Bill Murray is excellent, as usual.

You will never understand how hard it was to narrow it down to just 5 films… Some other brilliant films that didn’t quite make the cut (but possibly would have if I had made this list a few days ago or a few days from now) include:

·         Gremlins (1984)

·         Miracle on 34^th Street (1994)

·         Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

And, arguably not a Christmas film, but there’s snow so I think it counts:

·         Edward Scissorhands (1990)

So, there you are. If that’s not enough to get your Christmas juices flowing, you should probably start practising saying “Bah-humbug!”

Until next time, merry 29 days ‘til Christmas!

Some Flood, Some Food and Science Fiction

Today I’m feeling opinionated which, as any proper journalist knows, isn’t good if you’re trying to write news stories. After all, it’s hard to be totally objective when you’re having one of those days when everything goes wrong; you wake up early, you fall asleep listening to the Today program yet again, your shower floods your bathroom 20 minutes before you’re meant to be in lectures, you can’t find your bottle opener – that kind of jazz. Seriously though, there was about an inch of water on the floor- anti-fun times! Today was not my day…

So, as I’m not allowed to have an opinion writing news, I thought I’d do something where my opinion is valid and do some reviewing! I’d like to do travel writing, but I’m a poor uni student so I don’t have the means… (Free holiday, anyone? Please?)

I’ll start with a restaurant review, I think, and then review the last 4 series of Red Dwarf (i.e. series 5-8). I’ve never written a restaurant review before, so constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated! Though quickly, before I do, just want to ask if it’s acceptable for a man to wear a t-shirt with the neck cut so low that his boobs were almost falling out and jeans so low his boxer-clad bum overhangs the top… it’s not is it? Though, what’s probably worse was that this guy was a waiter (at a totally different restaurant, I hasten to add) and every time he went to serve the customers outside he appeared to me smoking! I mean jeez, surely you can wait for your break before you light up…

Anyway, reviewing... I would like to point out that all opinions are indeed my own and that everything was paid for by myself and not someone trying to make me write nice things about their stuff (because even if I do get free things, I refuse to say nice things about them if I didn’t think they deserved it… please give me a free holiday please?)

Today I ate at the Slug and Lettuce in Winchester for the first time. The front of the restaurant made it look quiet and unassuming and the décor, upon entry, was nothing of particular significance. The wooden floor gave it a slight rustic feel and reminded me of my friends & my favourite pub from back home. We were seated in the restaurant very quickly by our incredibly friendly and helpful waitress. Our order was taken and filled quickly too, which was nice. The food itself was good; the tuna melt was well toasted without becoming too crispy and the ratio of tuna to cheese was about right, however I personally found that the sautéed red onions inside were a little over done and felt they should have been cut smaller too. My friend Emma (whose blog can be found here: http://emmahblog.blogspot.com) enjoyed her food too, having opted for sausage and mash but changing the mash to chips, which they were very accommodating of. In fact, we ate there at her recommendation as she said: “I’m never disappointed when I go there.” The food seemed relatively reasonable in terms of pricing too, though it’s not somewhere I could afford to eat out at too regularly as a student.

Over all, I’d give it four out of 5 stars (see, right here: * * * * … ta-dah) which, technically means nothing because I have no background in food, apart from living off of it for the last 19 years of my life like the rest of humanity. That and the fact that I have nothing to go by star-wise and you have nothing else starred by myself to compare it to.

Moving on to Red Dwarf! (I’ve lost my professional/hoity-toity voice for now, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know). Warning: SPOILERS!

Having thoroughly enjoyed every episode of series 1-4, despite the continuation errors, I found myself feeling a little disappointed towards the end of watching series 5-8. Series 5 followed on relatively well from series 4 and ended with one of my favourite episodes (though I could say that about a lot of the series). However, Series 6 begins with the crew in pursuit of Red Dwarf in one of the smaller ships but it is never explained how they lost it. At the end of series 7 we discover that Kryten’s nanobots (which live inside him to repair him) have somehow shrunk the ship and are flying around Lister’s laundry basket but it’s never established when they managed to do this or where the crew and Starbug were when this took place. Perhaps I’ve missed something somewhere whilst I’ve been too busy laughing.

Anyway, I begin to lose some of my love for the series after losing Rimmer mid-series 7. Although the scripting is still good and the plots interesting and funny, I feel the novelty of him being gone and replaced my Lister’s love interest, Kristine Kochanski, rather wears off after the first two or three episodes. He returns in series 8 after the nanobots recreate both Red Dwarf and its entire crew but the show doesn’t feel the same; the set is completely different and although the additional characters may make for a greater number of possibilities in terms of plots and scripts, they change the shows entire dynamic. And don’t even get me started on the ending of series 8! Leaving Rimmer trapped on Red Dwarf as it completely corrodes and the ending with the words “The End” changing into “The smeg it is” is both thoroughly unimaginative and incredibly annoying. After all, what happens after that? And how does that link to the latest special episodes in “Back to Earth”? I think when I watch Red Dwarf next I’ll just make sure I don’t bother with Series 8, at least not the second half of it anyway.

So, there you have it; my reviews of various things.

Until next time, thanks and keep reading!

Asdfhgqeirkfndjk!!!!!

OhmyGodI'msohappyIthinkImighthaveforgottenhowtousethespacebar!!!!

Oh, I remember now... Sorry, but I am rather excited right now; words can not describe... however, as I'm in the business of words, I'm going to have to try and use them...

So, my aim in life for this month was to double the number of views for November compared to October and I've only gone and actually succeeded! For, like, the first time in my life ever! I'm exaggerating a lot, but as I have mentioned on about 105 separate occasion (still exaggerating... sorry), I'm a stats-addict - curse you, Alexa! The ranking system... not a person...

Anyway, to prove my super-special-awesome achievement is a fact and not something I've made up, here is the evidence:

It's amazing, isn't it?! And here, just because I've broken the 2000000 mark, is my Alexa ranking:

I'm so happy for me! Though that may be the M&Ms talking...

So, yeah... Thank you all so much for all your support and reading and repeatedly clicking on links to keep me happy/sane; I'd be nothing without you! I really appreciate knowing people are reading this and I love getting comments over facebook, on twitter, at the bottom of my blogs and when people come up and tell me in person (especially that last one if it involves also getting a hug off a friend - I love hugs).

However, this means I'm now rather lacking in a short-term goal... ideas anyone?

Anyway, until next time!

Guess Who's Back

Back again!

Hazny’s back!

I’ll stop there… Though you should tell a friend; just saying.

Anyway, sorry I haven’t blogged much over the past several days, though this does in fact make my 3^rd this week, so I’ve kept my promise – yay, reliability! This short hiatus is due to the work that seems to have piled up suddenly. That and I keep going home. Two weekends in a row now; was only meant to be going shopping in London Saturday, and that was only to stop my mum and sister getting lost. Never mind; I got enough peanut m&ms to last a life time out of it, so it was certainly worth the train journey. That, and it was a really funny day out.

What else was I going to say… I can’t remember; it’s late and I’m tired. I’m also cold, though I don’t think temperature affects memory. That sounds like a potential experiment, right there…

Seriously, physics has, quite clearly, ruined my brain.

Well, anyway, there was definitely something else I wanted to write, but it’s gone now; hopefully it wasn’t important. If it was, I might remember in the morning and tell you then… with a bit of luck, at least…

Anyway, until next time!