New Student Union President Package

KODAK WINS STUDENT ELECTIONS

Harry 'Kodak' Stow has been elected SU President for 2012/13, writes Daniel Mackrell

With competition from the other candidates Samuel Quested and Andrew Teale, Winchester's campus has been surrounded in flyers and campaigning throughout this week.

Harry was the Community Actions Officer for the university last year, setting up events for Children in Need, the Mental Health forum and Sport Relief.

Some of Harry's manifestos during the elections include the focus on student safety and introducing more diverse activities for students.

Former SU president Seb Meill has stepped down this year, which allowed three new faces to step up at this year's elections.

Voting closed at 3pm on Thursday 29th and the result was announced at around 10pm along with the other SU positions. For more results see the Winchester Student Union Facebook page.

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Winol Semester 2 Week 10

Week Starting 02/04/2012

Monday.

I had a few different story ideas this week.

One was to try and do the '3d Lung x ray' story that I had as a back up last week, and was unable to do because of the Student Union elections story.
I rang up the press office a few times to hope to arrange an interview and the chance to film the technology, but the press officer needed to get confirmation that I would be able to film. This took a lot longer than I had hoped, and prevented me from doing the story.

Another idea involved the Queens Diamond Jubilee, and involved four parks in Winchester becoming commemorative fields. I had read that their was some controversy from unsure councillors, and it was felt this would be good to follow up.

My other idea was to follow the result of the SU president election that I had covered last week, as we now had a winner. I proposed it as an oov, as I could comfoprtably get an interview with the new SU president
Tuesday.
Today after speaking with Brian, I decided to turn my interview with Harry Stow into a full package, instead of just an oov.

The aim was to show Harry and Seb (the current president) together, shaking hands and discussing the plans for the future of the student union.

I managed to arrange to meet both Seb Miell and Harry Stow together, which meant I was able to follow them around with a camera.

I followed them with a camera s they walked over to the office, and then filmed them in different places around the office, and chatting together, this gave a lot of footage to choose from when I was editing.
Wednesday.
This morning I finished editing my news package, which just meant tweaking some of the voice over, and adding the straplines.

I had already put together my written piece during the weekend, when harry had first won the election, and their wasn't much I could add as an update.

This Week's Bulletin

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University Election Package

Presidential Candidates

Students at the University of Winchester have the chance to vote for their next Student Union president this week, writes Daniel Mackrell.

Three candidates are running for the position this year, and the results will be announced Thursday 29th at 3pm.

Presidential candidate, Sam Quested said at the Q&A session on Tuesday evening 'Taking on something so big would be a massive challenge'.

All three of the campaigners have been greeting students around campus, handing out leaflets and promoting their manifesto.

Harry Stow said while campaigning on Tuesday: 'I'd be so happy if I would be able to achieve this role'

Candidate, Andrew Teale said on Tuesday evening: 'I know it's not a 9 to 5 job, and i'l put everything into it, even if it means working long hours into the night'.
Current SU President, Seb Meill will be stepping down at the end of this semester which has left the position available for a new president.

The online AV voting system is running between 10am Monday 26th until 3pm on Thursday 29th.

Candidate List

President Candidates

Samuel Quested

Harry 'Kodak' Stow

Andrew Teale

Vice President, Activites Candidates

Jonny 'Bizzle' Brason

Jack Griffiths

Daniel lockwood

Francesca long

Daniel McAtarsney

Chris Watson

Academic Affairs (HSS Faculty) Candidate

Thomas Lowe

Communications Candidates

Megan Magrath

Jennifer Pringle

Entertainments Candidates

Megan Magrath

Jennifer Pringle

Entertainments Candidates

Gemma Carden

Chelcie Peryer-Davis

Lauren Williams

Equality & Diversity Candidates

Will Kelly

Akil Morgan

Ethical & Enivironmental Candidate

Alexander Walker

International Students Candidates

Kora Kirby

Eleanor Liverakos

Participation & Volunteering Candidates

Aston harrison

Kaily Nathan

Kristian Pigeon

Welfare Candidates

Sophie Farmer

Abby Paige Jeffery

Tor Radjen

To find out more about the candidates, and to vote for your preferred candidates, go to www.winchesterstudent.co.uk

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Winol Semester 2 Week 7

Week Starting 12/03/201

Saturday (10/03/2012)
Today I got aranged a press pass for a Science and Engineering Day at the University of Southampton.
We've been told that if we go to event, the focus should not be on the event itself, instead we should find a story within the event.

Before heading their, I already knew that my main focus would be on a model vehicle called the Bloodhound SSC, which hopes to reach 1000mph. I made sure to get a number of shots, as well as shots of a special 'bloodhound experience' that they had on the day for people(mainly children) to use. I asked permission of some parents to record some of the footage, but the media officer assured me that generally it was ok to film the public as their were signs informing them that filming would be taking place.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was that I was walking around with the press officer alongside two ITV journalists who were filming the whole event itself.It was interesting to see how they decided to interact with the public, and decide on their shots. They moved to multiple areas before deciding on a place to shoot one of their interviewees.
When at the bloodhound, I managed to find a good spot to film some of the 'bloodhound experience', and one of the itv crew asked me when I was done so they could stand in my spot. I felt quite good that I had found a spot that ITV wanted.

I also filmed some Vegetable Orchestra, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped. I was hoping for a touring orchestra that uses vegetables as their instruments, but it was more simply a small workshop for families to construct their own vegetable instruments

Monday
Today kind of replaced Tuesday, in that I was editing the majority of my package together, including the majority of the voiceover. We also had the usual news meetings and debreif where we analysed the previous weeks bulletin.

Tuesday
This morning I helped Louis with his 2 interviews in Southampton, including one with the head of the Southampton City Council. Unfortunately the two stories Lou had fell apart, but when we returned to the news room in the afteroon, I was able to record the final piece of my voiceover, to finish my package completely.

Wednesday
As usual. today was very busy.
I was first asked to edit together an oov on a planned biomass plant in Southampton. A similar oov was developed the week before by Graham using stock footage, but the oov wasn't used in the end. I made it a bit fresher from the week before, so it was still usable.

This weeks bulletin

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Winol Semester 2 Week 6

Week Starting 4/03/2012

Monday


Tuesday
I already knew that my story was falling apart, but Tom was slowly running short on news stories, and had asked me to try and make an oov out of what I could get, considering I already had an interview arranged.

I went to interview a local councillor about the recent power cuts in Winchester. It wasn't the best of interviews, I soon realised that the oov would generally be quite week, but because of Tom's desperate need for content, I made an oov nonetheless in case he needed it.

Wednesday
I was made script editor this week, which originally meant knowing everything about every package. But I was put on script writing duty along with Tom, which halted my attempts to look through what people had and understand all the information and context of the packages. I then had to print the scripts, help people with links, look over packages, keep communication between the newsroom and gallery, and assist Tom with News Editor dutys when he was busy. Juggling lots of responsibilities made it difficult to keep on track. It also prevented me from fully achieving my role as script editor.


This week's bulletin

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Winol Semester 2 Week 3

Week starting 13/02/2012 

Monday.
Debrief Notes
- My link was good, but could have used one more sentence.
- My package had a limit to the shots I could use, and it showed in my package, I was told that my quotes were good.
- For my writing of the two oovs scripts (Broadband and Jamie Oliver), both Angus and Chris said that they were well written, which I was quite pleased with.

News Story Preperation + Meeting

Today I came in with an idea for two different stories.

My first story regards the growing housing list for the city. My plan was to interview someone at the Winchester Nightshelter because of the ever increasing number of people try to find somewhere to live, with families being moved into hotels and bed and breakfasts, because of lack of space.
To balance this, I was going to interview a member of the council, preferably a member of the housing comittee. When I called the nightshelter, I was told that the woman I wanted to interview was away today, so I immediatly felt that this story was going to struggle to progress in time for Wednesday. I decided that it was safer to turn my primary focus on my other story idea.

My other story revolved around the citys carbon footprint. over recent years it has developed a bit of a reputation as one of the least eco friendly citys in the country.
I had already arranged an interview with Robert Hutchison, a councillor who has been vocal about the councils carbon footprint in a recent council meeting. I was scheduled to go to his house on tuesday afternoon at 2.
I then arranged an interview with the WACC - Winchester Action on Climate Change, for 10am on

Tuesday.
My other fresh angle to the story (and also to help gather some slightly interesting shots), I discovered that two new 'zero carbon' homes were being built on the outskirts of Winchester. I decided to contact the company behind the buildings to try and gain access to film inside one of the homes.
Sadly, the person I spoke to wasn't in the area this week, and was therefore unable to show me around. However, he said that he would speak to Hamptons, the estate agency that was selling the houses. However, I didn't get another call back on Monday.

I had an interview with the Director at 'Winchester Action on Climate Change' 10am, thier offices were in the Main Building at the University, so luckily I didn't have to travel too far. It was a good interview, and I was able to film a sequence of her typing at a computer.

I had then secured an interview with Ian Tate, a conservative councillor in winchester. And I travelled to the guildhall to have the interview at 12:30. Again this went smoothly, and this time I filmed Ian walk through a door as a shot I could use in my piece.

I then helped George for his interview with George Beckett which was also at the guildhall, at 1pm. After that we went to the home of Lib Dem Councillor Robert Hutchison, which was not too far from the train station. I interviewed him, and then we popped into Hamptons so that I could see if I was able to film inside the home  in time for the wednesday bulletin.

I was told that the best they could do was 10:45 on Wednesday. I decided that it was the only way my package would work, and agreed.

Me and George then returned to the news room after he had collected a few gvs, and got I got to work on editing.

I then recieved a phonecall from Hamptons and it turned out that I was unable to get access on wednesday, as Hamptons were going to be a man short.
I spoke to Tom Morgan, the news editor, and we decided that I should try and see if I could get permission to use some of their images in my package.
I did get permission on Wednesday morning, but the conditions were a bit hazy, and myself and Tom were abit cautious about using them. And after speaking with Brian, we agreed that the piece was more reliant on actual footage of the homes. We then decided it would be best to postpone the story until next week, when I would have more time to gain access to the home.
My sights then suddenly turned to the lobby meeting I was expecting today. Brian thought this should be my new focus today, and we began to discuss me heading down to Southampton where the unions would be holding a rally outside the civic centre.

As I was beginning to prepare for that, I was then told by my news editor Tom, that he had decided that it was more valuable for me to handle the new unemployment figures that had been released today. I was lsightly hesistant, as I had a deeper knowledge of the union rally, and thought it would be more interesting visually.
But I understood Tom's desire for us to have coverage of the new unemployment figures as it would interest our audience.
I tried to speak to someone at student services about the figures, but after being moved all around the building, nobody were willing to talk. Also, we struggled to find to find local figures in time, which made the story impossible to localise.

It was then decided that I should try and pursue the union story once again, but it turned out to just be a lobby, and no officla decisions were being made on the day. And because it was now too late to travel to southampton to cover the lobby, their was little I could do. he hope was that I'd be able to record a shrot piece in the news room possibly reporting that their was going to be a strike sometime in the future, but sadly for me that wsn't the case.

As Tom Morgan was presenting this week, I was given the temporary role of news editor for the remainder of the day. This involved looking through peoples packages and communicating with Ewan (production editor) to ensure everything ran smoothly as we went towards going live.

This weeks Winol

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Existentialism - The Outsider by Albert Camus

Seminar Paper

Existentialism concerns itself very much with the idea of free will, and a person’s feelings towards their existence and how they go through life. It is a cultural movement that looks at how the idea of society is somewhat unnatural, because it moulds our views. It also suggests that our human morality that we have developed, shouldn’t exist. This is because in a sense, no one life holds distinct value; we are merely the tiniest of dots in the universe.

Existentialism seems to focus on the idea that we can individually structure our own lives and values, and is the search for our ‘true self’.

In ‘The Outsider’ by Albert Camus, this idea is explored throughout the book with numerous examples. In the first few chapters, a lot of focus is put on the death of the main character, Meursaults mother. It’s immediately clear that her death doesn’t seem to have a big effect on him. The closest to sadness is him saying ‘I’d rather mother hadn’t died’ and that he ‘probably loved mother quite a lot, but that didn’t mean anything’. This distant emotion was the first example of someone not placing too much value onto one life, and showed signs of not feeling real emotion or pain. However, part of Meursaults thought process was that his feelings or reactions to her death shouldn’t affect anybody, including his mother, because she is dead. Later in the novel, he also says ‘Given that you’ve got to die, it obviously doesn’t matter exactly how or when’.

Kirkegaard, a key figure in existentialism, felt that it was important that we all accept that death is both unpredictable and inevitable, as many people struggle to grasp the idea that they will one day die. He blames society partly, because of its denial of death, which makes it harder for people to accept it and move on when it suddenly affects them.

The way Meursault handles his mother’s death also emphasises the ‘accept everything’ viewpoint that existentialists seem to have. If someone dies, you should simply accept it and move on. This is the same when in prison, as he explains that he is able to adjust to life without too many problems. Such as not being able to smoke, he states that within a short period he was soon able to become accustomed to the change, and did the same for living in the cell with not much to do.

Similarly, the killing of the Arab seemed meaningless to him. He states that he doesn’t feel any true regret for the murder. From an existential point of view, this is a fairly reasonable response. What was interesting was that before he shot the Arab, he never really had any intention to kill him. Even when the Arab withdrew a knife, it was the intense heat of the sun which made him feel uncomfortable and lead to him shooting. Meursault seems to have two sides to his personality; the physical side seems to be his bigger focus. It was the annoyance of the sun that leads him to shoot, not his emotional feelings towards the Arab.

When he discovers he has to go to court, he finds it difficult to understand, throughout part two he refers to how the situation is ‘simple’, and that he must pay for his actions of murder.

While in prison, Meursault seemed to constantly look towards the future, imagining if he had to spend a long time in prison, and how he would adjust. He says ‘I’d never really been about to regret anything. I was always preoccupied by what was about to happen, today or tomorrow’. Again, this reflects a very existentialist view of constantly looking forward, ignoring the past, moving forward. They consider the future to be the most important dimension.

At one point in ‘The Outsider’, Meursault is standing by the sea, and says ‘I denied myself the water for a bit longer’. The fact that he is ‘denying himself’ shows that he is going against what his body craves, but in a sense that makes him more in control. He speaks as if he is two separate people, the person that is structured by society, expecting to feel certain emotions and react in certain ways, and what could be considered his ‘true self’. Ironically, this is the stranger side of him, as it analyses every moment, and sees it from a clear viewpoint. It looks at choice, something that is seen as crucial by existentialists.

One of the few times we see a sign of true emotional connection, particularly towards the past is Mr Perez who is very sad about the death of Meursaults mother. It was a good way of being able to compare two different emotional reactions to the same situation

Nietzsche is an important figure to look at when studying Existentialism, specifically, Nietzsche talks about existential nihilism. This is the theory that there is no specific meaning or value to life. He was against moral ideas such as Christianity and utilitarianism (which suggests that you can only asses the morality of an action after knowing all of its consequences). He believed that morality should be left to the masses, and only more prolific people should have their own ‘inner law’.

Heidegger is another key philosopher in existentialism, for his book ‘Being and Time’. He realised philosophy had explored all beings in the world, but not actually what ‘being’ is, and also how humans develop personality over time. By being, he means knowing what it is to exist. He calls us ‘Dasein’, just like every other creature. He looks at the idea of life itself, and suggests that we may not live (or exist) long enough to truly understand being, and confesses in the book that there is no real way of knowing if Dasein is able to understand life.

Going back to looking towards the future, Heidegger had described the present as ‘dread’, he felt that we are always thinking about the past, and using our memories to see what could happen in the future. He argued that the main memory from our past is guilt.

At the end of ‘The Outsider’, the author – Albert Camus, explains his view of what the novel shows through the main character. One point that interested me was that Camus labelled him a ‘hero’. I think that this may be because he is always telling the truth, ignoring the consequences. In my opinion, many would consider him an anti-hero, only his honesty is a heroic-like characteristic. Although, Camus does admit that Meursault doesn’t claim to be a hero. Meursaults acceptance of his punishments for the actions he took is a very existential approach.

Camus describes him as ‘an outsider to society’. And I agree, as throughout the book we see him go against what would be considered normal human reactions. His focus is often more on the physical reactions of life, rather than the mental reactions. He shows know real passion towards other people, such as not crying at his mother’s funeral, and not showing real love towards Marie.

In the novel, Camus seems to suggest that there is no natural basis of morality, and is merely something we have developed. Also, through Meursaults lack of belief in God, Camus seems to suggest that we shouldn’t fear there being no higher power.

The fact that the novel is called ‘The Outsider’ or ‘The Stranger’ reflects my own feelings towards the character throughout reading it. His unusual reactions to events in his life make seem almost inhuman. That could be because society has implanted me with a default setting of what I should view as ‘normal’. A key concept that existentialists are against, seems to be the expectation that we should all follow certain rules and beliefs. This is seen as a way of destroying our individualisation, and it should be our own judgement and feelings that determine what we believe. Otherwise we are not so much human; we in a sense become no more than an object. Towards the end of the novel Meursault says that the prosecutor ‘announced that I had no place in a society whose fundamental rules I ignored’. This is another example of the point made by existentialists that we have been made to follow certain rules that have been laid out by society, and always question and fear those that don’t.

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Winol Semester 2 Week 2

Week starting 06/02/2012

View my package from this week here.

Monday. Today started with a debrief of our first real bulletin of the semester. We looked at the developing design of the Winol website. This includes the new addition of Twitter, wich we are starting to focus a lot more on this semester. As a frequent user of Twitter, I'm pleased with this decision. As I see Twitter as a great tool for modern journalists to not only promote their work, but to find out news(sometimes quicker than through other forms of media).

Tuesday. Today was a very busy day for me. It started very early when I left my house just after 8am to head out to the train station to travel to Southampton for my interviews and filming.
My first interview was with the Deputy Leader of Southampton City Council - Cllr Jeremy Moulton. The interview was a 10am, I arrived about 10 minutes early, but this seemed to be fine for Jeremy, he mentioned that he thought I may have arrived slightly early.
We then commenced the interview, and I was pleased with the responses I got, their were some good quotes. my particular favourite was 'this is the peoples museum', which I ended up using in both my package, and the headline clip that was used for the broadcast.
After the interview, I was left feeling quite pleased at the good start made to my story. I had decided that it was best to try and get my other interview(for balance) sorted today. Especially after calling my news editor Tom Morgan, he told me that a lot of the stories from other reporters were falling through. So the bulletin was starting to rely a bit on my package to work out. I decided that since I was unable to get a lift from anybody, and I needed to get to the otherside of Southampton rather quickly, that I would have to catch a taxi to Thornton, so that I could get the balance that I needed.

Before that I walked behind the City Council, where they are still doing building work for the Sea City museum, and I filmed a number of GVs. I knew I would be light on footage, as I as of yet have not recieved access to go and film the building work inside the museum. So instead I filmed the building work that was happening outside. I noticed a few of the builders shovelling some dirt and gravel, and remembered when Brian asked us to try and start our package with some natural sound to give it sometime to breath before entering the voice over. So I asked them if I could just film them shovelling the dirt into the wheelbarrow. They agreed. After my filming there was done, I jumped into a taxi, and went to Thornhill. I walked into the Thornhill Community Centre, and was able to interview Cllr Simon Letts. He was very polite and helpful, and then afterwards I asked to film a sequence of him just looking at some sheets of paper. We've been told in the past, that if your lacking shots for your package, sequences are often a good solution.
I managed to catch a bus back to the city centre, and then got the train back to Winchester.
When I arrived at the newsroom at around 1pm, I then got to work on editing my package together.

Wednesday

This Weeks Bulletin

Mike Smartt Feedback on WINOL

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News Report Training - Angus Scott

NOTES

On Assignment
- Do your research
- Know your library
- Know where you are going
- Forward Planning
- Check equipment
Make sure equipment works and is charged.
- Be punctual
- Get shooting

Rule of Thirds

Filming
- Use sequences
Eg- wide, medium, tight shot
- Different size shots
- Shoot long - 10 second shots
- Maintain continuity
- Shoot cutaways
Helps you bridge a gap between two cuttings
- Don't 'cross the line' (180 degree rule)
- Shoots in 'thirds'

Piece to Camera
- Don't start with a piece to camera
- It should add something to the piece
- Use movement (but don't start walking before you talk)

Interviews
- Make interviewee comfortable (use small talk)
- Stay in control
- Get cut aways
- Intro shot for interviewee (set up shot)
- Sequences
- You can never have too many shots

Coming Home
- Start writing your story
- Check pictures are out of the library (archive)
- Organise graphics (if needed)
- Make sure you have straps/captions for your upsot
- Report back to the news editor

Writing Intro
- Write the link/intro first
- 3/4 sentences setting up the piece
- Remember the 5 W's - who, what why, where when.
- Never repeat what is said in the link, in the package.

Writing your story
- One idea(piece of information) per sentence
- Make it simple
- Compliment the pictures
- Use present tense if possible
- Keep stories fresh
- Speak plain english
- Simplify numbers
- Use graphics to explain numbers/stats

Packaging
- Tell a story and use a sequence
- Start with your best pictures
- Don't name your intervewee - use a caption/strap instead
- Limit 'grabs'/interviews clips to 20 seconds max(more likely 10-15 seconds)
- End with something that 'means something'
- Never end on an interview
- Don't end with SOT then SOQ

Press Conferences
- Get there early - get central position
- Sit near your camera
- Ask if there are one-to-ones

Media Scrums
- Roll early
- Be prepared for 'the crush'
- Look after eachother - you're a team

Terminology
PTC - Piece To Camera
GV- General View
SOQ - Standard Out Queue
SOT - Sound On Tape (interview/grab)
UPSOT - Piece of interview uring oov
OOV/OOV ACT/UNDERLAY UPSOT - Out Of Vision (presenter out of vision)

OOV    -    Underlay     -      UPSOT
Presenter    Pictures           Interview

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Tabloid Nation - Parts 2 and 3

During the 1945 election, the Mirror wanted to get their readers to vote labour, but without actually telling them how to vote. The feeling was that they needed to reach out to female voters as they would have a smaller idea of who to vote for, and the beleif was that they'd vote for Winston Churchill simply because it was a name they recognised.
On the polling day in July, they decided to simply have the headline 'VOTE FOR HIM' with a picture of the candidate.
After the second world war, it was felt that the paper needed to change. King felt that a new formula was needed, instead of the formula(that while being successful in the 1930's) was now outdated.
It was now post-war, and King saw the readership as better educated, and more female. He wanted to have less sensationalist and more up market reports like the Express.
Bart disagreed, and sent a message by publishing a front page stating pride at being a sensationalist paper.

I do find it interesting that Bart was such an influential figure at The Mirror, and held a lot of control over its content despite being illiterate. The core reason for this must have been because of it's focus on pictures to create the sensationalism that made the newspaper so popular at the time. When he was editpor, Guy Bartholomew was still able to ensure their was senesational content that would interest people, and could assess that based on the images that they could put on the front page.

The 'Vampire in Notting Hill' story could be seen as a bad turning point for the Mirror, but perhaps showed more of Barts self-obsessed desire for constant sensationalism. After the arrest of a man (John Haig) on suspicion of both murder and drinking the blood of his victims, Bart published a front page which included a picture of the man in handcuffs while getting arrested, and used a number of different words such as 'monster' and 'maniac' to describe him.
This was a clear breach of contempt of court, it could influence a jury member if they were to read the paper, because of the images and the language that is used. Therefore, it could heavily influence a jury's decision.
However, as the editor of the paper, Bolam was the man that was sentenced to prison for the crime, despite not being enar the building when Bart discussed and approved the the article. But the 'law of the land' dictates that the editor takes responsibility for what is published. The three months in prison left Bolam a 'broken man', but Bart showed a rare act of 'kindness' and reinstated Bolam as editor.

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Back to Winol - Refreshing

This week was a return back to University, with new roles, and new faces.
It was decided that instead of jumping straight back into Winol, we would have some 'refresher training' so that our work for the weekly broadcast would be better than ever.

My roles for the semester will be the Radio Production Editor as well as a reporter for Science and Technology.

(24/01/2012) I had an interview with Dr Douglas Connelly, a Marine Geochemist at the National Oceanography Centre.
The interview went well, Doug was veryf riendly and helpful throughout. Some of the interview answers were quite technical, so it will require me to present them in a digestable way for the audience(through my own voice), however their were some solid quotes which showed 'comment' which we're told is needed for a good news package.
Visually, I managed to make options available for editing. I got a shot of Doug walking into the room that I interviewed him in. This gave me atleast a bit of a sequence.
I also asked Douglas the day before if he could supply me wioth any images or video footage from the deap sea vents that the news tory is about. He was very helpful in this respect, and was able to provide me with a number of excellent images and some great footage that helps tell the story and make it interesting for the audience.

(25/01/2012) We had some more news report training from Angus Scott which you can read about ___here___
We also did a production dummy run, which i sat through in the gallery so that I could help out with any issues, and assist the new members of production because my experience in the gallery last semester. I also provided my opinion on some of the new experimental techniques that we tested today.

(27/01/2012) I went to the news room to edit together my news package today. I decided that I would make two versions for my news editor - A one minute package, and a 20 second oov. I also started writing different scripts for the two versions, as well as writing a link that doesn't repeat what is said in the package.

Aims for this semester
- Produce good quality news packages each week.
- Successfully convert news packages into written and radio versions under deadlines each week.
- Arrange a weekly podcast that can involve all members of Winol.
- Produce good quality radio bulletins.

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Existentialism

- It is a cultural movement

- Kirkegaard

- Phenomenology - a branch of philosophy, closest to psychology, and deals with the perpection of things.
Eg- the 'duck rabbit' - object of perception. You my can see both a duck and a rabbit in the picture(but you can only focus on one at a time).

The 'Duck Rabbit'

Kayka - Book called 'The Trial'.

Husserl

- Consciousness is intentional, and meaning is fixed subjectively.

Consciousness = intention - desire to see the object.
'Duck Rabbit' - humans choose between different things to see.

Huuserl had a student caled Heidegger.
Heigeger's man book was 'Being in Time'. It was about how the how the human personality develops over time.

- Structure of time - constantly looking towards the future.
- The way the future seems to someone varies on how long in the future they look.

Heidegger was a nazi, and thought highly of Adolf Hitler.
He wanted to go back to nature(much like Rousseau) and felt technology was wrong (bad faith).
He also thought western civilization was not sustainable financially, morally etc...

Described the present as 'dread'.
Heidegger also believed that we are always thinking about the past, and looking back through our memories to search for signs of what could happen in our future. And the main memory from our past is guilt.

John Paul Sartre
Was an economist (and not a nazi).
He takes from Heidegger the idea of 'dread'.

Takes 'Dassein' but calls it 'good faith'.
Sartre is brutally honest - feels it's the only way to combat nausea.
He was imprisoned by the Nazis.
- Solidarity - we're inevitabley doomed, but so is everybody else.



Existentialists are against fighting the collaboration from within.

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November 30th 2011 - Highlights

November 30th was a great day for WINOL, with a LIVE 4 hour broadcast from the Unite offices in Southampton.

I spent the day controlling the various cameras that were in use in the studio. Here is a video containing some of the many highlights from the day.

You can read my notes from the week leading up to Novemember 30th here.
You can read my notes from the week of November 30th here.

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Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism can be seen as a form of dictatorship. It is a political system which produces complete control over both public and private sectors.
Political parties with the aim of totalitarianism usually have policies that are concerned with movement.
Previous governments have used positive laws - they replace them with teorror. Everyone then becomes subjectively innocent.

Single process of thought - This way nothing new can be learnt. Reality is seperated from ideological thinking - People's perceptions of reality are altered.
Loneliness then starts to exsist amongst the masses when you de-individualise them.
Marxist - 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need'.


It goes against the 'positive laws'.
'Positive law' isn't needed. The police are seen as fair. It's best to not be guilty of anything, it's better that you're completely innocent, so that their is no reason at all for you to be killed.

Statutory law - Government
Common Law - Court cases (man made law)

Milgrams Theory - Stanley Milgram
The Malgram Experiment
Stanley's Experiment was influenced by the evnts of the Nazi Holocaust, and decided to carry out an experiment that would demonstrate the relationship between obedience and authority.

1963 - Milgram submitted the results of his 'Milgram Experiment' in the article - 'Behavioural Study of Obedience'.
1974 - Published 'Obedience to Authority'.

37 out of 40 participants administered the full range of shocks up to 450 volts after being instructed by someone that looks like they're in authority, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole series. Those shocked were actually paid actors, and simply faked the effects(the shocks were fake)

According to Milgram, the subject shifts responsibility to another person and does not blame himself for what happened.

Resembles real-life incidents - people see themselves as cogs in a machine, 'just doing their job', avoiding responsibilities for the consequences of their actions.

Milgram also started the six degrees of seperation idea.

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Winol - November 30th Preperation

Week starting 21/11/2011

Debrief Notes

Monday. Today was almost nothing but meetings. Firstly a general meeting about November 30th and our plans for that day. In the meeting I voluteered to create an expo package about the unions, explaining who the represent and some of their history(such as what they've influenced or campaigned for).
After that we had a production meeting, to gather some ideas of what we will all be doing on the day.

Tuesday. Today we recorded Winol Life where I was controlling the sound desk. The sound for Winol life is more complex than Winol, as you have 4 mics to monitor - the two presenters, the guest, and the feature team. So it can be difficult to try and get them all up at the right time after a package, and you need to remember to fade them all done as well as pushing the VT sound up at the start of a package.
Afterwards we recorded the links for Sportweek, and I was sitting at the autocue, which also meant typing up (and editing some parts of) the script.

Wednesday. Today theirs was no Winol as the preperations for November 30th continued. I went with Tom Morgan in the afternoon to Southampton, to help with an interview with the Southampton UCU President.

Thursday. Again I went down to Southampton with Tom Morgan, this time to interview a Southampton City Councillor Jeremy Moulton about the Novemeber 30th Strikes. We interviewed him at his office in the Southampton City Council building. He came across as veyr media trained, but gave some good answers to a few quesitons that we'll be able to use in some form for a package.

Friday. The aim today was to do some more research for my union package which i was able to do. I was also hoping to collect interview pieces from the various reporters that had done them, but unfortunately the news room was pretty empty apart from a few people, so my package was unable to make as much progress as I had hoped. My aim is to try and get it as ready as much I can over the weekend, despite the limits to what I can actually do.

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Winol 8.0

Week starting 14/11/2011

Monday.
Debrief Notes
Got to split the audience. Their are people that are interested in politics, those that are mildly interested, and those that aren't interested at all. You need to cater for all of these audiences.
Eg - The Chris Huhne story wouldn't appeal to all audiences, and you need to make a bigger deal out of the fact that he's a minister, and cover recent stories involving him and his wife. Don't be afraid to ask questions that may upset your interviewee, or people around you.
- 'Assume no knowledge' - from your audience

- Audience is key
You need to connect with the audience.
- Make sure you have a strong quote.

- This week we're going to start a new 'behind-the-scenes' style piece to add onto the end of our weekly Winol Bulletin. Showing parts of the debrief, and discussions between editors and reporters etc...

- The spoken parts of the headlines are too descriptive, as well as some of the links into packages. Their was also comment for no reason.

- Take control when filming, instruct you're interviewee and guide them if necessary to ensure you get a good shot, and that they're looking in the right place.

- Be careful of juxtaposition libel. Eg - The bin story update included a shot of Biffa bins which could imply them to be be completely in the wrong/to blame.

- The graduation piece was a bit too descriptive, more focus should have been made on the identical twins.
- Need good quotes
Eg - The teacher saying 'It's amazing news!' in the school story.

- Your experience at the point of filming isn't the important part. It's what the final package looks like that is important.

Tuesday.
Today I was helping Tom to film some gv's for his news piece this week. This involved travelling over to the Winchester Recycling Plant.
I found out on Wednesday that unfortunately the footage wouldn't be used, as Tom was unable to secure a second interview on statement to give his story balance, and therefore it couldn't feature in the bulletin. However, the shots could perhaps prove useful in the future, if a similar story comes up.

Wednesday.
Today started when I arrived in the news room at around 9am. I was surprised to see absolutely nobody in thier, unfortunately this was a sign of things to come. Lee came into the news room shortly after me, and said that he had come in simply to drop of his euipment and make sure his packages were sorted, as he had been sick all night, and still felt ill with the flu.
As the day went on I helped open up the gallery and set up the equipment, as well as going around sorting out straps with Graham and George. I then had to distribute them to the reporters.
The headlines were a big problem this week. It's hard to put my finger one exactly where it went wrong. Their was a bit of a wait for some headlines, such as the Estonia piece, this was because the mac with the footage on had freezed multiple times.
We also had trouble with the music for the headlines, and also a black hole was in one of the clips.
Ideally we should now have a template to rely on each week, but we still seem to be facing a few problems.
These were all errors that we tried to fix as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, the huge number of errors meant that it took a while to correct. For this reason, it took a while to get the headlines done, which consequently pushed back almost everything else.
In the end we were very short on time and only had around 30 minutes of decent rehearsal time.
I feel like everyone in the gallery still worked hard to try and create more time for ourselves, but everything seemed against us this week. George did his best to direct, but at times he faced some difficult problems. Over the last few weeks I've noticed different directing styles, all have there pros and cons, and I do feel like watching the different directors including myself) over the last few weeks has helped me understand the role more and more. I also feel really comfortable in the gallery, and can jump onto almost any piece of equipment last minute and control it if needed.
We faced some difficult challenges this week, some we managed to overcome and others we didn't, but I feel like I learnt a lot this week.

Debrief Notes

- It can be better to have headlines that make sense in 7 seconds, instead of trying to cram them into 3 or 4 seconds.

- For the unemployment story, we need to explain what's important abouts the figures going past a million, and that winchester has gone up by 100% - what does it mean? What if thier was only 1 person unemployed, and now it's 2. Suddenly 100% isn't such a big leap.
Should be more prepared and have it in a diary that the latest unemployment figures were goign to be announced.

- Southampton story - If you don't know the answer to every question, then neither will the audience.

- Need full VT rehearsals every week to make sure they're all correct and have no errors.

- The paedophile story should be nothing more than an oov/nib (news in brief)
If you only have the mugshot and not much other information can be used, then it's not really a package.

- No excuse for mistakes (stutters, pauses, strange noises etc...) in a piece to camera, as you can do it as many times as you want until it's perfect.
You can do it again and again as much as you like.

- Parking story - Cut aways can be elongated, not just 2 seconds, otherwise it's clear that you're covering up a cut in something like an interview. If you need to cover up a cut, then make the overlaid shot longer so that it doesn't change too quickly for the audience. You can even use more than one shot (one after the other). You don't have to neccesarily go back to the interviewee after a cutaway either, once you see them, you don't have to neccessarily show them again.

- Estonia story - Make the most of the trip - get good visuals. You should see things that we can't normally get/show.
You also need to caption her film piece, even though she's an ex studen,t that shouldn't matter, otherwise the audience might not pick up enough information.

- The nib had a black hole for the wipe between two oovs.

- Sport - First line of the package was exactly the same as the link.

- Should have made more of the hat-trick - it was the fastest hat trick from a sub in FA Cup history.
It could have been more personalised, perhaps gone to his house for an exclsuive interview.

- The Sportsweek promo - images didn't match what was being said.

- Banned phrasing - 'Our very own' and 'too little too late'

This week's Winol

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Modern Economics

This week, in our HCJ lecture we focused on economics. Money.
In the past we have looked at money in some ways, such as Adam Smith, and his look at free trade. We also looked at Smith's satirical solution to the financial problems in Ireland in 1729.

We have a desire to consume which outweighs our desire to produce. We have a number of 'wants' in our life, and finance usually means we have to decide which 'wants' to satisfy. People often say that they 'need this' and 'need that'. Humans don't 'need' anything. They simply 'want' it.
Economics ignores 'needs'. Need has no reference point.

Utility- To economics it is fundamental
- A phenomenon
- The reference of human wants
Humans maximise their utility.
'Utilitarianism'

Marx = Ricardo (Value theory) + Neo Malthusian

Value Theory
Embedded labour power

Eg- Piano = 5000 bins
Takes more work to make the biron - 5000 times more labour.

Malthus - the iron law of population
You should have 2 children, so that they can replace you.
- More than 2 children means a population increase.
- Less than 2 children means a population decrease.

Neo-Malthusian - the iron law of wages
- Internal contradiction of capitalism
- Inability of system to scoialize surplus vaue = crisis of revolution
= Crisis and revolution
- Neo- Malthusian means over productions and under consumption ecause of profit.

The answer to unemployment is growth.

Simple Economy (an example)
All that's made is 1 apple.
Value of the apple = £3
Producer of the apple is paid = £2
Profit would be = £1

However, if the producer of the apple went to the shop and wanted to buy the apple, he wouldn't have enough money.

They would then try to solve the problem -
Cut wages to = £1
Cut price of Apple to = £2
But this doesn't solve the problem.

Source - Flickr: Images_of_Money

Old economists thought of money as transparent.
Modern economists eel that money exerts popwer on the real world - irrational.
Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto
People didn't have enough money

1850's - The gold rush in America.
Until recently - gold had no real value/purpose.
Anthropology - Superstitions about gold.
Gold supply has varied through the decades.
But gold mines caused economic recession.

Paper (money) circulation is a small percent of that used today. It is now mainly electronic.
In some ways this means that the 'Economy is based on confidence'.

- 1880's onwards - Germany, America, Britain - The welfare state.
State education came at around the 1870's.
- Government bonds (gilts)

Why pay taxes?
Taxes help to pay interest on the bonds, because governments get charged interest on the bonds/gilts that they recieve.

Problem - Inflation
German hyper-inflation - resulting from 'printing money' (not backed by gold standard)
Too much money chasing too few items.

Two types of economists
1- Keynesian
- Don't care about inflation.
- Plan economic growth

2- Monatarism
- Followers of Adam Smith
- Classical in the sense of Smith
- Pre-modern and Pre-Freudian
- Think people accurately work out what the want.

'Know the price of everything, and the value of nothing'

People should accept cuts in their wages to help the economoy, but they won't.

National Health Service - helpful in avoiding inflation, as the government needs too keep spending money to keep people employed.
However, they need to keep public spending within the public sector.
Eg - War
- No private sector
- Means investing in public sector of war doesn't put anybody out of business (thier is priate sectar for war, so it doesn't damage any private companies).
Eg - Space programmes
Eg - Digging holes

Y = C + I + G

C = Household spending
I  = Private investment (eg - savings)
G = Government spending
If Y decrease, then thier wont be enough money to keep people employed unless they take pay cuts.

If banks won't take bonds, we end up with the situation currently in Greece. They are no longer trusted to eventually pay back the money.
Answer - print more money. Germany have taken out a lot of money and handed it to Greece to help them financially.
Germany has more ability to raise money, so they can continue to take out bonds.
Once banks default on bonds = Mass unemployment

In the long term, we can try to keep doing this and 'kicking the can' further and further forever. Alternatevly, we could try and wipe all debt, or could face a global economic crisis.
In the long term we're dead, and the problem moves onto the next generation, and so on.

When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.

Oscar Wilde

Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.

Plato 

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.
Jonathan Swift

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen

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Winol 7.0

Week starting 07/11/2011

Debrief Notes
The straps for the headlines need to be smaller so that we can see faces etc...
Sports is arguably too long, decisions are being made in order to help the viewer, such as explaining(just before going to sport) what other packages we still have for them too watch.

Features Debrief
Gonzo - Presenter Lead (Eg: 'I went to...' or 'I spoke to...)
Be careful as it shouldn't always be presenter lead. Those too phrases shouldn't really be used.
Gizmo - 'Quest'

Avoid too much exposition

Keep it balanced. Try and find something neutral to say. If you're reviewing or visiting a place, you should try to avoid always being really positive and make sure you don't come across as selling the product/place.

Be careful of sound.

Avoid too much padding.

Monday. Today we had a meeting to start planning for our November 30th broadcast.

Tuesday. Today started by helping Ewan and Graham to film their links for Winol Games. For this I was on camera 2, and wearing a headset to communicate between Dom (in the gallery) and Ewan/Graham (in the studio) as neither of them really needed talk-back.
We then showed members of sport and features some of the equipment that we use in the gallery. This included the autocue, vt machine, video mixer, sound mixer, cameras and lights.
We then filmed the links for Sportsweek. I was mainly watching over these recordings as some people tried out different jobs in preparation for 30th November.
Wednesday. Today was as usual a busy day for the whole team behind Winol. I took over the job of making the straps this week, and luckily the majority of them were done very early as not too many were needed this week (they were mainly for sport). Most of my day was based more in the gallery, setting it up for the day, helping to record headline, and of course helping throughout rehearsals and during the live broadcast. As well as this myself, Graham and Dom set up the OB kit in the newsroom. Although we haven't used the News room as a place to broadcast so far this semester, it is very useful to practice as much as we can so that we have a good knowledge of how to set it up. Dom's blog post has proved very useful. The OB kit also means we can communicate with the news room from the gallery to save time, while this doesn't always work (sometimes nobody can hear us calling for them), it's still useful to have. Also, it looks likely that the OB kit will be used in the news room on November 30th, in which case the practice will be very helpful for us.
For the headlines I was on autocue, whilst also adding the headline straps to the VT. The aim this week was to make them smaller so that they didn't take up too much of the screen or cut off big parts of heads. Whilst this cannot be completely avoided because of the tight shots, the smaller straps worked a lot better in this weeks headlines.
For the live broadcast I was sat on the vt machine. Usually it consists mainly of pressing play and selecting the next clip thats needed. Although, during rehearsals i realised how important it still is to keep you're attention at all times, as at one point I missed my cue, which was completely my fault. After that i made sure that i stayed focussed. Even if a job doesn't require too much attention, it doesn't mean you don't need to give it much attention, because that is when things can go wrong.
Looking at the bulletin overall, it was a decent collection of stories. One point raised was that (like 2 weeks ago) thier weren't any really memorable moments, and I can't help but agree. Thier were no outstanding visuals that really grabbed my attention, and the stories were a bit bland overall. However, thier was a decent balance in the type of stories we had, and the reporters did really well with what they had. I'm definately seeing improvements week after week.
After the headlines were recorded, at around 1:15, I decided to head into the news room to collect packages, and to my surprise they were all exported and ready to collect! I could simply walk up to each mac and transfer them onto the hard drive. This is the first time that has happened this semester. I don't know if it's simply because of delays with the headlines, or because the reporters have got used to the schedule, but I was very pleased and hope it stays the same next week. Package collecting ran very smoothly.
We experimented this week with a live feed, and it's good that we remain ambitious and always keen to try new things. However, we didn't quite pull it off. We were able to see Tom through skype and get it onto the screen, but it was hard to make out what he was saying as the audio wasn't particular good. But it was a good attempt and it's nice to see we're always trying to add something new, it's what makes student journalism such a great opportunity.

This Week's Winol (09/11/2011)

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How to...Make Straplines

The straplines are a slightly under-appreciated part of any news broadcast when you are watching at home, but in the news room they are a vital part of any package that has any form of interview.It provides correct, precise identification which helps from a law aspect, as well as providing the viewer with more information on who they are seeing without the news reporter having to explain in too much detail. It also provides the knowledge that the person being interviewed has some relevance to the story and has an actual purpose in the package. It (almost subconciously) makes their soundbite relevant to the audience, because they then know exactly who it's coming from, and can make up in thier own minds that it is from someone that has a write to voice thier opinion on the subject. This is usually either someone in authority, or someone directly effected by the news story.

The current WINOL strapline

The way the name and position is added to the strapline isn't very complicated. The member of the production team in charge of straplines simply goes around the news reporters and checks if they need any straplines to be made. They write down the full name and the profession. Some reporters will occasionally say they only have the first name(this is usually when it's not someone with a high position, and may instead just be a campaigner or 'local resident'). The reporter may argue that the person didn't want to give their full name for some reason, and they may even say the full name isn't important. But of course, it is important. As reporter you should tell the person their interviewing that if they are happy to go on camera, then they should be happy to give their full name. If they still refuse, then you should simply find someone else to interview.
We currently add the names to the straps using 'microsoft paint', but hope to soon move over to using Fireworks, which would enable the strapline editor to remain in the newsroom instead of having to go into the mmc.

The straplines need to be saved onto a memory stick, so they can then be 'delivered' to each reporter. Usually you save them onto the desktop for the reporter to then add onto thier package.

How to put the strap onto you package using Final Cut Pro
Once the strapline is on the desktop you do the following:-

- Import into final cut pro
- Drag onto the timeline
- Place over the interview that the strapline is for
- Double click the image and select the modify tab on the middle screen.
- Change the scale to 80
- On the far right screen, you should be able to move the strapline(if not, then it you should be able to do it on the middle screen.
- The strap should be placed near the bottom left of the screen (make sure their is a slight gap between the strap and the very edge of the screen, like an invisible border).
- Go to effects, then to wipe, then selected edge wipe.
- Place edge wipe on the beginning and end of the clips.
- Reverse the edge wipe that is on the end of the clip. (You do this by double clicking the edge wipe that you need to reverse, then look at the middle screen, and thier is a reverse button that you need to click)

Hope this helps.

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Winol 6.0

Week starting 31/10/2011

Monday.

Debrief Notes
- Fair Dealing - Few seconds - linked with review/comments.
Fully credit the clip.
This means you can't be accused of passing it off as yours.

- Time is quality (not quantity)

- Don't be afraid of cliches

- Always try to get a good quote/soundbite
It helps to warm them up before the interviewee.

- Pictures and quotes are very important for a good package.

- You're best visual should be at the very start of your package, as well as in your headline.

Tuesday. Today was another busy Tuesday. We recorded for both 'Sports Week' and 'Winol Life'.
I came in at 9am and helped to open up the studio. We then had to start preparing for Winol Life while waiting to start Sports Week. This included setting up an ob kit outside of the studio to plug into an extra camera so we would be able to have 4 cameras in the studio. This enabled us to film a yoga segment where Becki shows George some of the yoga moves that she picked up(to follow on from hers and Zoe's yoga package). I felt this added more depth to the overall show, it's always good to experiment with new ideas and possibilities.
At around 11am we were able to film the sports week links, and I had my first attempt at directing. It wasn't the most difficult of directing though (because they are just links) so it simply required me to cue in the presenter (which was Gareth) and just keeping communication with him to make sure he was happy with everything. It was a good practice ready for when i would be directing Winol which is more complicated when sound, VTs etc come into use, and also the fact that it's live and cannot be re-filmed will add more pressure.
We then moved our attention to Winol Life. This week's guests on Winol Life was Elizabeth Barnett.
In my opinion, it could be considered the most complex to film, as you have multiple people on camera, and multiple camera angles to use. This means more cameras are used, more microphones are needed, and you have a lot more people to speak over and instruct. However, their were huge improvement over the quality of the first Winol Life from two weeks ago, we were a lot more prepared and their seemed to be a calmer atmosphere.
I was controlling the VT machine for Winol Life, which meant playing the VTs at the right time for the broadcast. It's not the most difficult job, but you need to keep your concentration as you don't necessarily have a strict time on when to play it, as the interviews are mainly spontaneous responses.

Wednesday. This day is always a busy day, particularly for production. I came in today to be told that George had decided last minute to help Ali with his filming for his Bournmouth package. This meant that we were short by one production person, and with a small production crew as it is, we were a bit short of helping hands at the start of the day. George's job would have been to collect the packages and to control the vision mixer for the day.
Me and Graham decided that it made sense to try and get the straps done as quickly as possible, this was helped with Gareth having the straps he needed already prepared at around 9am, so we could then go away and have them done pretty quickly. In fact, we were able to quickly get everyones straps this week, they all seem more informed on who they had interviewed, and thier positions. While Graham did some of the straps, i went to help Jack prepare the gallery for the day, before heading into the news room to try and get the rest of the strap information ready before making some more a bit later in the day.
Without George, Graham did really well to then assume the role of collecting the headline clips and the packages, which really helped to keep us fairly on time.

Of course my big role this week was working as the director for Winol. The job carries a fair bit of pressure, and required a lot of organisation and concentration.
A lot of communication was needed amongst a number of different people ranging from the editor Will, to the people on the cameras, the production editor Jack, the production people controlling equipment in the gallery and also the presenters. So it can be difficult to direct my attention to multiple people at the same time, and when possible I tried to concentrate on one set of people at once.
I also had to keep remembering to keep the presentes and other people in the studio informed on what we're doing in the gallery, as thier are constant changes and check-throughs for the packages, and its easy to forget that your the one main communication to inform those down in the studio of what is happening.
I was really pleased with the support I got from everyone, as well as the praise afterwards, but I know that thier are areas that I can improve on, such as the timing for cueing the presenters and people in the gallery, and i feel like my voice needed to be maybe a bit more commanding. But overall I was pleased with my performance, and look forward to doing it again.

Debrief Notes
Good preparation

Should caption only when they literally start talking.
The link shouldn't be too similar to the opening of a package.

This Week's Winol (02/11/2011)

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