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Sunday 12 December 2010

Code of Conduct

Thier are 4 different Codes of Conduct for Journalism:-

NUJ(National Union of Journalist). This Code of Conduct is a very good one to follow as it is constructed by the journalists themselves, and therefore you can be sure they are fair and reasonable to follow.

PCC(Press Complaints Comission) - This Code of Conduct is more stacked against you, and is seen as an 'Editors Code Of Conduct'.

BBC - The BBC have thier own Code of Conduct for people that are employed by them and are named 'guidelines. They are available to view online here.

Ofcom- This Code of Conduct is generally more specific to commercial television(also covering factual programming and news) with guidlines aimed towards advertising, watershed and glamorising crime.

Another rule that needs to be followed throughout Journalism is balance. This is required particularly for the BBC, but involving all tv stations when politics is involved. You are required to remain un-bias, but can restore yourt channels balance overtime if preferred and done effectively.
Newspapers and online are different, and can be as bias as they wish. You can see this with many newspapers such as The Sun with over the top headlines which make it very clear what partytey upport aswell as views on similar topics.

NUJ Code of Conduct
  • You must obey the code.
  • Eliminate distortion, news suppression and censorship
  • Let a certain authority edit it(eg - editor, police officer etc0 label as advatorial.
  • Seperate comment from fact
  • Don't cast comment as fact.
  • Rectify any harmful innacuracies promptly
  • Obtain information, photographs and illustrations only by straightforward means.
  • 'Death knock' - taking photographs at funerals - don't do it without permission
  • Protect confidential sources of information
  • Shall not accept bribes, or allow inducements to influence the performance of professional duties.
  • Shall not mention age, race, colour, illegimacy, marital status, gender or sexual orientation unless this information is strictly relevant.
  • Avoid Juxtaposition(libel) - horrid story with juxtaposed picture beside it(innocent person)

Public Interest
Reporting a threat to safety of committe
Health Issues
Exposing crime, corruption and justice.

Monday 6 December 2010

Jonathon Swift and Adam Smith

A Modest Proposal

In 1729, when Ireland was in very big financial trouble, satirist, Jonathon Swift decided to publish 'A Modest Proposal'. This was a satirical piece of writing which suggested eating your children, or selling them to the rich as a food.

He pointed out that up to 1 year of age, a child can survive on nothing but the mothers milk, and therefore not needing to cost the family any money during that time. He suggests they turn 1 year old, they are then killed and used for feeding and cloathing. The Cloathing items that Swift suggests includes boots for geneltemen and bags for ladies.

  • He stated that this process prevented(ironically) voluntary abortions and prevents murder of bastard children.
  • It also halts the over-pupulated problem that Ireland has.
  • Swift argues that it would be more humane to kill the child while they still have minimal awareness and thoughts than to let them suffer a slow death of starvation because of thier poor family being unable to supply food.




This idea is very humourous, and i can just imagine people at the time reading this piece and believing it to be true. The word 'modest' in the title is satircal itself as it couldn't be further from the truth.

The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith was a philosopher and very enthusiastic about political economics. He wrote The Wealth of Nations which explained why certain countries are richer than others.

In this publication Smith used the term 'the invisible hand'

Sunday 5 December 2010

News Agenda - Sunshine Radio

Sunrise Radio is one of the most popular and successful independent radio stations in the UK reaching around 2 million listeners monthly. Its target audience is the Asian Community, and they project towards a young audience with the content they include such as the contemporary music and brief news coverage throughout the day. As a radio station they feel they are ‘in touch with customers on a personal level’. This claim shows their confidence that they know who their audience is and what they want, this makes their radio station a very powerful tool, particularly for advertisers.

They appeal mainly to C2DEs whilst the AB’s are likely to listen to a radio station targeted more to their taste (such as Radio 4). The adverts reflect this demographic, promoting household items such as sofa’s, as well as offers for family cars and holidays. The cars include Fiat 500 and Audi A1 which range from 10-13 thousand pounds which could be considered just over the average price of a family car. They also occasionally advertise with a targeted area in the country such as promoting events taking place in certain towns and counties. They also promote property availability in places such as London. Also, the Asian specific audience enables advertisers to precisely reach their customers. Advertisements include flights to Thailand, and Asian events around the country. They appeal to advertisers through their boast of credibility as a successful UK brand and describe themselves as the ‘most powerful cost effective Asian media network in the UK’.

The target audience also has influence on the news broadcast. Sunrise radio frequently broadcasts information on Bollywood and general news that usual has a connection to the Asian community. The detail of the news appears to increase as the day progresses, with later programmes providing more detailed accounts of events that were only briefly covered earlier in the day. They mainly cover national news, but will also include news considered more important for the Asian community such as a Sikh Gurdwara being built. They also refer to the latest Asian flight news regularly after the news and weather, such as delays and flight times. This could suggest that part of their audience is constantly moving in and out of Asia and UK, perhaps on business. Sunrise claims to be 50% news and discussions, however they don’t add too much to their news reporting. They don’t use music, relying only on the presenter’s voice. It appears that they feel their audience prefer the music on the shows than the news reporting. The news reporting usually last 5 minutes and the sports coverage is kept brief and refers mainly to national teams which include both England and areas such as Pakistan. They also keep interview clips very brief. However, as it is a 24 hour radio station, it means the news is constantly developed and relevant.