Her morning elegance: oren lavie

I stumbled across this music video and thought I have to share this with as many people as possible. It’s so innovative in its formation and I was actually disappointed when it ended…this doesn’t happen often. Clever videos and adverts are part of the new witty culture we have in the media industry and this video demonstrates the reason for their success. Check it out!

social media engagement: a self-refelection

Social media is everywhere. Everyones using it. Everyone who’s not using it should be. Even I wasn’t doing a module on web communication I’d still be completely enthralled in Facebook, Twitter and Blogging.  I genuinely enjoy meeting new people, having interesting conversations and sharing and gaining information. So what better way than social media engagement?

I must admit, I didn’t use Twitter before taking this unit. I thought Facebook took up enough of my time already so tweeting would just distract me even more. This is still half true. The key, I’ve found, is to listen, engage and build relationships. When I’m not using Twitter as a distraction tool, I actually look at trends in tweets and respond to people and start opinion building. This is a great way of getting involved in the wide conversation. A recent example is the MP’s expenses topic, by which I tweeted and linked a comment to the BBC news site. I then was able to see trends on this topic and gain more information than what I already had. I think my problem before was that Twitter was something new to me and I wasn’t aware of how to use it productively and therefore not too bothered in learning. Now I understand the reasons behind it. It’s actually a great way of following trends, creating relationships and forming opinions.

Blogging is something I have struggled with a bit more. I like to write but when given a topic and ‘rules’ as such, it’s hard to find the motivation, for example, the ‘ethics of journalism’ that I didn’t engage with as much as I would have liked. I found it hard to find the right information and create something interesting from it.

I like the creativity behind blogging, being able to impart your own spin on subjects and I learnt that I can actually inform readers on subjects.

Social media is a core part of our daily lives. It is a rare sector of the economy that seems to be booming in the midst of the recession. And I love it.

 

does anyone know what a feature is??

First, we’d better ask: what exactly is a feature? The best approach, I think is to compare it with a news report.

Well, according to Hennessy (2006) skills that are common to the production of news reports and features are the need to appeal to a wide audience in the sense of purveying accurate information in an interesting way.

Still, the neatest way to illustrate what’s news and what isn’t is: ‘man bites dog’ is and ‘dog bites man’ isn’t. News is about recent events, previously unknown (says the dictionary). Ideally, a news story is objective. A feature does not have to be. It is more focused and distinctive. It still aims to inform but may also narrate, describe, explain, persuade or entertain, and sometimes all five.

There is usually  a standfirst, which brings the reader a context for the rest of the story. It is then the lead that really sets up the narrative. There is usually more room for a feature, therefore more scope for imagination and originality of expression so the format is less structured for the rest of the piece.

Personally, I see a feature as being more of a story, with more opinion behind it but this isn’t always the case. Luckily, a feature is quite noticeable without having to think too much about the features (of a feature)!! But when you actually do think about it, it’s agreeably hard to distinguish what’s what! There’s also different kind of features; news feature, opinion feature, arts…the list goes on. Features can also be seen in lots of different mediums; newspapers, magazines, online…with our ever expanding media world a feature can appear almost anywhere.

In basic terms, a feature provides readers with a written analysis of a certain topic. These articles are intended to serve readers with the writer’s interpretation of a story, unlike news stories, which simply provide the facts.

Does that answer the question? I may have to write a feature on this…

top ten quotes: charlie sheen

Good old Charlie has been all over the press again recently showing us what he does best. Being an absolute diva. To mark the end of his career in Two and a half Men I have comprised a list of his top ten quotes to express the true Charlie!

1. “I have real fame. They have nothing. They have zero. They have that night and I will forget about them as the last image of them exits my beautiful home.”

2. “I have a disease? Bullsh**! I cured it with my brain, with my mind…this bootleg cult arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous supports a 5% success rate. My success is 100%.”

3. “You have the right to kill me, but you don’t have the right to judge me…that’s life. There’s nobility in that…there’s focus. It’s genuine. It’s crystal and it’s pure and it’s available to everybody, so just shut your traps and put down your McDonalds, your vaccines, your Us Weekly, your TMZ and the rest of it.”

4. “He may be nails, but I’m frickin’ bayonets…battle-tested bayonets!”

5. “I’m dealing with fools and trolls. I’m dealing with soft targets and it’s just strafing runs in my underwear before my first cup of coffee…they lay down with their ugly wives and their ugly children and just look at their loser lives and then they look at me and say, ‘I can’t process it.”

6. “I have cleansed myself. I closed my eyes and in a nanosecond, I cured myself. It’s the work of sissies.”

7. “I will out live you! I will piss you off!

8. “I’ve spent, I think, close to the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into pure gold.”

9. “I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can’t handle my power…I wish him nothing but pain…clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words…imagine what I would have done with my fire-breathing fists.”

10. “The Goddesses? Let me just say this about The Goddesses…I don’t believe the term is good enough, but when you’re bound by terrestrial descriptions, you must use the best choice available.”

ethics and journalism

A reporter is ‘a man without virtue who writes lies…for his own profit.’ By Dr Samuel Johnson.

It is for this reason that there needs to be clearly defined rules within journalism. Reporters needs a law to abide by otherwise they’ll stab everyone in the back even more so. There are four main aspects of ‘journalism ethics’ that reporters must abide by in order to meet the ethical standards required to work in the UK. These are a few things I didn’t know…

Defamation of Character

Defamation is the act whereby a individual or groups  reputation has the potential to be negatively impacted by information publicised.  This is only unlawful if the statements are untrue, either by slander or libel.

Contempt of Court

Journalists have an obligation not to have any influence on the outcome of an ongoing court case.  They have to remain fair and balanced in their reporting so as not to prejudice the views of a jury.

This is especially relevant when a person has been arrested but not officially  charged with a crime.  Only certain information is allowed to be publicised so as to avoid a media frenzy.  The information allowed to be reported is Name, Address, Age, Occupation and the alledged crime (if over 18).

Respect privacy

The media follow people so they can get that shots for gossip magazines and papers. Much like the defamation they are often taken to court for this. They have to justify their reasons for intruding.

Intellectual Property

Reporters have to be careful when it comes to plagiarism just like anyone else.  They can’t use other journalists information and they certainly don’t want to pick fights in this kind of industry.

And there we have it; the codes and conducts!

#christchurchearthquake

On my quest for some daily intake of news I came across one of the most shocking stories of the year so far on BBC news.

“New Zealand’s prime minister says at least 65 people have died after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch.”

The earthquake looked like it had caused more damage than the country had seen for a long time. From the footage its hard to believe that only 65 people have been killed from this disaster.

The tremor caused widespread damage as it occurred at a shallow depth of 5km (3.1 miles) during lunchtime when Christchurch was at its busiest. The photos that have over-ridden social media sites show it all.

Without these social media sites I wouldn’t have got all the information I wanted regarding the disaster. Tweets informed me of the best sites to go to and Facebook discussions told me what was going on and people’s thoughts on the matter. I also found out about how we can help.

Donations are being made to RedCross.

Everyones thoughts are with the Kiwi’s, even the Queen’s who said “My thoughts are with all those who have been affected by this dreadful event.” It isn’t the first time this has happened so I know they will pull back through.

City Mayor Bob Parker talks of how; “This is a terrible, terrible toll on our city.”

“There is no power in most of the city; there is no water in most of the city,” he added. It is unimaginable how they are functioning. Makes you truly realise the comforts that we take for granted here.

The eyewitness accounts bring it all home, which I found here.  “We watched the cathedral collapse out our window while we were holding onto the walls.”

Truly shocking.

These people have been through such tragedy and if all I can do is spread awareness and get some people to donate then I still feel like I haven’t done enough but it’s a start. Do donate.

review: true grit

Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross’s (Hailee Steinfeld) father has been shot in cold blood by the coward Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), and she is determined to bring him to justice. Enlisting the help of a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), she sets out with him — over his objections — to hunt down Chaney.

The latest Coen Brothers’ film was another one of their true works of art. Its western, yet, contemporary style offers a a hugely entertaining spin to an old novel. I must admit, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to see. Just turned up knowing Matt Damon was featuring and what the film title was. I am massively influenced by what peers say about films and after hearing Radio One give it great reviews I thought why the hell not!? It would make a nice change to the Rom-coms I normally opt for.

I wasn’t disappointed. True grit was full of exciting moments (if not a bit gruesome) and I was certainly not bored, which is a must when seeing a film I’m sure you know. There were moments when I got emotional, moments where I laughed and plenty of sitting on the edge of my seat. It is the character of Mattie Ross that really impressed me. She plays a confident and assertive young girl who just wishes to seek the justice for her father’s murder. The actress plays this part brilliantly. She continuously outwits her male counterparts, much to the amusement of the audience.

The relationship between the characters is what adds the best aspect of the film, as they experience major obstacles on their search for the murderous Tom Chaney. At one point they nearly give up but it is the determination of Mattie that continues their voyage. Tom Chaney, can I just mention, starts as quite a terrifying character but he even is subject to Mattie’s quick wit and sarcastic attitude.

It’s a forceful film but in all the right ways. The violence is not really an issue for those who don’t like blood and gore, as the emotional attachment around it makes it watchable somehow. All the actors play their roles fantastically and I would recommend to anyone.

I don’t want to spoil too much so all I can say is that it is a must see this year!

where are all the jobs??

Unemployment has risen AGAIN.

I’ve recently started to think about what to do with my life. End of uni is fast approaching and I literally have no clue what I want to do. I thought back to what the Christmas holidays were like at home and decided if I couldn’t last three weeks in Epsom then how was I going to get through the Summer and beyond?! I then came up with the idea of staying in Bournemouth over the Summer; maybe get a little job and hit the beach 🙂 great plan! Then Radio One informed me that unemployment had risen again. GRRRR. In a place like touristy Bournemouth this would have great effect I’m sure.

It was true. I began surfing the web for job vacancies around Bournemouth and managed to find a VERY minimal response. Unemployment rose by 44,000 to nearly 2.5million in the last three months of 2010 according to national statistics. Why can noone get work?? I then found out that it had mainly affected youths…fantastic.

With the UK back in growth mode after the recession – albeit fragile – businesses are more likely to up the hours of exisiting staff rather than employ new people. Looking ahead analysts think the situation may get worse before it gets better! So good luck Laura I thought.

People are trying to get part-time jobs because full-time ones are so hard to find. Maybe this is the route I’ll have to go then I can spend the rest of my time catching the rays. Ohh deeear!

Back to the drawing board it is…

a journalism experience

“What is semesterisation?”…“Are we part of the semester scheme?”… “Are we not in terms then?”

Sigh… Just a handful of the responses I got when asking students about what they thought on the matter of being semesterised at Bournemouth University. Although I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t know what it meant either so how was I supposed to get a decent response when we are all so unaware?

The issue wasn’t about approaching people. That was fine. Most people were happy to chat, as they had probably been given a similar task in their time so I guess they knew the feeling. The difficulty was in the fact that most students were actually completely and utterly unaware of the semester scheme, therefore in turn didn’t have much to say about the matter. Great start to a story I thought. Then I thought again. And a little more. Perhaps this was my angle! BOURNEMOUTH STUDENTS UNAWARE THEY ARE BEING SEMESTERISED. Needs a little work I know…

So why don’t students know about this? Have they not been given efficient information? Now this is when I began to get my reponses.

One student told me “We aren’t told anything. Yeah sure there might be an announcement on MyBu but usually that’s just something I skim read and if it doesn’t explain exactly how it will effect me then I won’t pay much attention”.

I found that it was a lot easier to get a conversation out of a student when they had the chance to complain! On the other hand, the staff were much harder to firstly track down and secondly get enough information out of. I literally couldn’t find anyone. I started thinking that they heard about our journalism task and were all hiding away under the desk in their office. Perhaps they too knew that the semester scheme wasn’t quite explained properly to us poor students.

Finally, I found a lecturer but unfortunately they were on their way to a meeting so the response was short but sweet.

“The semester scheme has been put into practice so that both staff and students can have an easier life when it comes to their allocation of modules and so far we’ve found it’s worked quite well”.

That was suffice enough for me! As long as it’s working then it’s okay right? To be perfectly honest if I didn’t know what it was in the first place and wasn’t aware of any change then why should I mind if we’re being semesterised or not?!

why journalism?

Journalism is a tangent of the media that has the power to shape public opinion to a massive extent. Imagine life without journalism…would we still have the same attitudes about people, situations or events? This is exactly where my interest in the topic stemmed; what is the effect of the powerful medium of journalism? I’m hoping to explore this concept in my study of the topic and create some answers to these very questions.

I am particularly interested in the freedom that journalists have. Of course there is an element of structure and certain rules have to be followed BUT where is the line and what do journalists do to break (or perhaps more accurately bend) these rules in order to get their point across? Not only will I be looking at journalistic methods but I will be producing my own work and learning techniques that hopefully will improve my writing skills. I have already explored journalism to an extent through my modules in Writing Foundation Skills and Journalism, which I found really interesting. I didn’t quite realise what I could achieve in terms of creativity and how much my personal opinion could be put across. I hope to learn more about the power of journalism and to what extent it affects society so watch this space!

Feature: the roads the limit

Why the new 40mph speed limit on the Wessex Way is driving Bournemouth round the bend

As Bournemouth City Council website say themselves, cameras have two distinct functions – one being to demonstrate to all road users that they are near to a collision hotspot and the other is to ensure the speed limit is adhered to. My response to this is…collision hotspot? Adhered to speed limit? This is all fine when considering the dangers of motorways and residential roads BUT the peaceful, non-residential dual carriageway that is the Wessex Way? I don’t think so. The proposal to reduce the Wessex Way speed limit is intended to mitigate clusters of accidents occurring throughout this length of principal road, according to the Bournemouth Borough Council’s experimental Order. However, in the council’s own 5 year study there was only one fatal accident located at the western two way section – it involved an eighty-six year old driver who strayed into the offside lane and hit an oncoming car. Studies show that many accidents occur at the roundabouts and at the western end of the road towards county gates roundabout. In these cases inappropriate speed were not listed as a causation factor. So, why the new speed limit?

To put it bluntly, there is no reason for it. Unless you include another money spinning government scheme. And that is most definitely not benefiting the residents and visitors of Bournemouth. More drivers will get caught speeding at 40mph now that they’re used to it being 50! More speeders equals more fines and more fines equals more revenue for our politicians. To put a 40mph limit all the way down to Asda is completely disproportionate. So much so that drivers are finding alternative routes across town. This means that the council are forcing more traffic onto the residential areas where families shop and children play; surely this is far more hazardous than on the road that was built to prevent this?

Resident and student of Bournemouth University, Lucy Smith, 20, is against the new enforced speed limit.

            “It’s bad drivers that cause accidents, not the speed at which they’re going at. Studies have shown that the safest drivers tend to drive at speeds appropriate to the road conditions and not the arbitrary speeds set by the authorities. I’ve had points on my license but I know I’m a good driver”.

A speed of 50mph is certainly appropriate to the road conditions, whereby the Wessex Way is a non-residential dual carriageway. Why should the people that have been living in this town all of their lives, change their conventions to suit the needs of the government? Aren’t the government supposed to meet our needs as the public?

Imagine my surprise when I am quite happily driving along my usual daily route to realise that I have to slam on the breaks because the council has actually gone through with this preposterous road scheme! This distraction of spotting cameras and diversion of attention is far more dangerous in my opinion. People argue, (that is the people who are most likely bad drivers); that with today’s general manners and driving standards on the roads, the reduced speed limit can only be a good thing. Are these people going to have the same view when the council reduces it to 30mph in five years time? There are plenty of fatalities on motorways so do we reduce those limits as well? This is not just about the Wessex Way; this is about general changes to our town that are unnecessary and not in the interest of our community. Yes, it can indeed be argued that a reduced speed limit is in the interest of safety but surely not when there wasn’t a problem to begin with? More important issues should be dealt with such as the potholes from the recent freeze. Or perhaps finding an economic way of reducing the amount of cars, not the speed. Use our extremely high council tax for projects like this!

 Don’t get me wrong; I’m not the usual angry, protesting type. Honestly. However, I am curious as to why the 1.4 million tickets issued a year and 120 million pounds raised have not reduced accidents. I’m not trying to encourage speeding; it is a matter of trying to maintain the sanity within Bournemouth town at least. A Facebook group has also been dedicated to this anti-speed limit campaign, known as the ‘Stop the Wessex Way 40mph Madness’. This group boasts over 9,000 members all in favour of getting rid of the reduced speed limit. Members use the site to unite in discussing how to reinstate the speed limit on Wessex Way and organise regular protests. According to the Facebook group, the public have the right to a public enquiry should our objections not be heard properly. Furthermore, the group suggests signing the petition against the ‘lunacy that is the 40mph speed limit on the Wessex Way’. If you sign the petition you are agreeing with the petitionary statement;

             We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to reinstate the speed limit  on Wessex Way, Bournemouth back to 50mph or use any powers at his or the government’s disposal to cause Bournemouth Council to reinstate the 50mph limit.

I’ve signed it. I welcome you in signing it too. A regular user of the Wessex Way carriageway and Facebook group member, Jonathan Peers, joins me in this campaign.

            “What I’ve noticed since the speed reduction is how close cars are driving together. When coming off the slip road at Richmond Hill towards Bournemouth there is no longer space to pull out and now I have to stop and wait with at least four cars in front of me. It’s getting out of hand”.

An independent analysis to the 38 areas that were operating within the National Safety Camera programme over the four year period, from April 2000 – March 2004, showed that vehicle speeds were down & both casualties and deaths were down. There were positive cost benefits & the public supported the use of safety cameras for the targeted enforcement. This information I do not doubt. It is of course important to continue with the use of safety cameras in order to reduce collisions, casualties and deaths (The National Safety Camera Programme Four Year Evaluation Report, December 2005), however my concerns are with the consequences to areas affected by a reduced speed limit, which could in fact provoke such incidences.

The Council will be considering in due course whether the provisions of the Order should be continued in force indefinitely. The council are in fact welcoming people to write in with their objections before deciding to make this move permanent. So, that’s exactly what I’m doing. As a Bournemouth citizen I have this right and so and I ask others to join me in this protest. Guidance of writing letters of objection can be found at http://www.abd.org.uk/speed_limit_objections.htm.

Any such objection must be in writing, must give the grounds on which it is made and must be addressed to the undersigned.

M.Holmes, Director, Planning & Transport Services,

Town Hall Annexe, St. Stephen’s Road, Bournemouth BH2 6EA.

Please help drive Bournemouth to victory in this campaign and watch this space…