Friday, 28 May 2010
WINOL the last edition at the end of year II of ba Journalism
The last edition and the last production challenge this academic year-tri-casting.
We can notice a dramatic improvement in not only our production skills but also news reporting and presenting. The last push and the last efforts and we could see such a difference comparing it to previous editions.
We can see not only the improvements on the production side but also content wise. Things like filming, getting good interviews, video-reporting or editing doesn't seem that scary anymore and script writing became a habit, we've learnt how keeping the deadlines and rehearsals are important and how equally essential is the team work and good level of communication.
And from now on we're also going to be using the latest technology of tri-casting which will allow us to broadcast live-stream straight onto our winol website at 5pm. The pressure on the legal and quality matter at the first time of recording will be significantly higher but no challenge is frightening after the overnight election coverage for us.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Hayek, Keynes and the capitalist system
During economic depression in 1930s people couldn't consume because they earned less money, and due to rising unemployment even smaller amounts of goods were purchased.
The main difference between Hayek and Keynes worth mentioning at the beginning is that they had a completely different vision to what type of systems in economy could save the capitalist system in US at the end of XIX century in time of economic depression. They both had good starting ideas but which one would be more sustainable and keep the economy going and get rid of unemployment and at the same time make the production process circulating.
"The most effective way of making everybody serve the single system of ends towards which the social plan is directed is to make everybody believe in those ends." F.A. Hayek
Hayek saw a vision of a large and active state taking a huge part in the economy planning of business and running schools and hospitals as well as high public spending, he introduced a new vision and meaning of money, he saw it to be determined by supply and demand. The price of money is the interest rate, and the value of money itself was an absolute central for economical prosperity and growth. For Haykes money was an active factor in the economy.
In his book, The Road to Serfdom, Hayek also says that "the attempt to direct all economic activity according to a single plan would raise innumerable questions to which the answer could be provided only by a moral rule, but to which existing morals have no answer and where there exists no agreed view on what ought to be done. People will have either no definite views or conflicting views on such questions, because in the free society in which we lived there has been no occasion to think about them and still less to form common opinions about them."
Going from philosophical and more general point of view into more precise subject, money, Keynes, on the other hand, believed that lack of money supply could choke of economic development during its rapid development , and so keeping devaluation money was important, to make sure there was enough money to keep up with the increase of supply of goods in the real economy in US. He suggested the state would not only print more money but also create more jobs of less meaning (employing people on Government programs earning small money) like digging holes etc to help the unemployment and keep the circulation of the money going as they could then spend it. Also at the same time make more financial benefits for these with lower paid jobs to be able to afford the goods they produce and keep not only the sells stimulated but the production level going (and in this way demand keep up the level of demand for goods).
This effect has been called a Positive multiplier- as if you take an unemployed people and give them wages even from social benefits, then they have some money to spend and the economy stays safe. On the other hand, if a person gets fired he or she will have no money for spending and these involved in the production process will suffer because there will be lower demand for goods and the circulation of the economy will be effected and this process is known as a Negative Multiplier.
Logically thinking, no income creates no savings, the country gets poorer, goes into recession and the economy falls. Keynes response to this was that the Government should print more money, as I already mentioned but also make it non-transferable to gold or silver, because if we increase the supply of money which would lead to SPENDING BOOM... Yes this solution did boost the economy temporally but will not sustain it for long and eventually, it would lead to a big devaluation of the currency, government's bailout and even hyperinflation.
That was exactly what became a massive issue in Britain and USA in 1970s , Keynesian theory failed as predicted and the bills were coming in form of gigantic inflation.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
References:
1. Hayek and Keynes- theories on economy during economical depression in US in 1930s
2. F.A. Hayek, the Road to Serfdom
3. http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=102
The main difference between Hayek and Keynes worth mentioning at the beginning is that they had a completely different vision to what type of systems in economy could save the capitalist system in US at the end of XIX century in time of economic depression. They both had good starting ideas but which one would be more sustainable and keep the economy going and get rid of unemployment and at the same time make the production process circulating.
"The most effective way of making everybody serve the single system of ends towards which the social plan is directed is to make everybody believe in those ends." F.A. Hayek
Hayek saw a vision of a large and active state taking a huge part in the economy planning of business and running schools and hospitals as well as high public spending, he introduced a new vision and meaning of money, he saw it to be determined by supply and demand. The price of money is the interest rate, and the value of money itself was an absolute central for economical prosperity and growth. For Haykes money was an active factor in the economy.
In his book, The Road to Serfdom, Hayek also says that "the attempt to direct all economic activity according to a single plan would raise innumerable questions to which the answer could be provided only by a moral rule, but to which existing morals have no answer and where there exists no agreed view on what ought to be done. People will have either no definite views or conflicting views on such questions, because in the free society in which we lived there has been no occasion to think about them and still less to form common opinions about them."
Going from philosophical and more general point of view into more precise subject, money, Keynes, on the other hand, believed that lack of money supply could choke of economic development during its rapid development , and so keeping devaluation money was important, to make sure there was enough money to keep up with the increase of supply of goods in the real economy in US. He suggested the state would not only print more money but also create more jobs of less meaning (employing people on Government programs earning small money) like digging holes etc to help the unemployment and keep the circulation of the money going as they could then spend it. Also at the same time make more financial benefits for these with lower paid jobs to be able to afford the goods they produce and keep not only the sells stimulated but the production level going (and in this way demand keep up the level of demand for goods).
This effect has been called a Positive multiplier- as if you take an unemployed people and give them wages even from social benefits, then they have some money to spend and the economy stays safe. On the other hand, if a person gets fired he or she will have no money for spending and these involved in the production process will suffer because there will be lower demand for goods and the circulation of the economy will be effected and this process is known as a Negative Multiplier.
Logically thinking, no income creates no savings, the country gets poorer, goes into recession and the economy falls. Keynes response to this was that the Government should print more money, as I already mentioned but also make it non-transferable to gold or silver, because if we increase the supply of money which would lead to SPENDING BOOM... Yes this solution did boost the economy temporally but will not sustain it for long and eventually, it would lead to a big devaluation of the currency, government's bailout and even hyperinflation.
That was exactly what became a massive issue in Britain and USA in 1970s , Keynesian theory failed as predicted and the bills were coming in form of gigantic inflation.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
References:
1. Hayek and Keynes- theories on economy during economical depression in US in 1930s
2. F.A. Hayek, the Road to Serfdom
3. http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=102
Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle (1920-30s)
"Logical positivism grew from the discussions of a group called the 'First Vienna Circle' which gathered at the Café Central before World War I" (Ref.2). After the war One of the main characters associated with the movement Moritz Schlick came to Vienna.
Moritz Schlick, was interested in theoretical physics and philosophy in particular. Bertrand Russel, the inventor of consequentialism which could be partly applied in theories of Nietzsche as well even though he is discredited with all schools of philosophy of communication at this stage(being good and following moral rules having respect for human condition). Russel is an empiric and so Solipsism is some sort of danger for him, the type of his logical refutation of solipsism is for example that nothing can be verified and nothing at all is true and nothing can be said, even including this thought. Another persona worth mentioning was Wittgenstein who studied philosophy of language. He rejected the traditional thinking of languages as a mean of conveying information which would normally mislead people. For him, communicating facts id only one of the things that the language does and it's not the main thing either. He says that "there is no logic in language, language is just people emoting." (Ref.1)
"Logical positivism (also called logical empiricism and neo-positivism) is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism – the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world – with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology." Estimology is a theory of knowledge which is "a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge."(Ref.3) Logical Positivists base their knowledge on scientific research, important is logical side of knowing things through empirical experiences.
Falsificationism, theory by Karl Popper brings another side to Verification Principle saying that if the opposite of idea that can be independently verified is false then the original idea must be false too, meaning that not only the original idea but also the opposite tho the idea must be independently verified and that is when the idea itself is fully true. What he takes from classical logic is the principle of non-contradiction which in itself is in fact both verifiable and falsifiable.
"There is nothing beyond the world of perception", Hume (Ref.1)
The most important aspect of the movement is Verification Principle (Freddy Ayer-Language,truth and logic) which states that nothing can be accepted as true unless it can be independently verified, unless it is possible for it to be scientifically proven(eg something can be classed as a fact only if it is verifiable otherwise it is opinion).
And following that Logical positivists don't see ideologies of Hegel, Nietzsche, Kant or Marx as verifiable and therefore false.
In art and architecture, Bauhaus movement took over, drawing a line on leading thematic of desired style, which became 'Yale's glossy boxes'. Psychology was still influenced by Freud's Psychoanalysis and Social Democracy, bureaucratic, technocratic state planning dominated systems applying logical systems of analysis.
The movement was completely anti-romantic, science became a centre of attention along with all technological developments (early computers-and Verification principle is like how computer thinks) which required logical solutions through logical analysis of thought process(pragmatism and provisional truths, technical work on logic.
However, as Kant and Plato say that "there is a spirit in the world that is beyond perception". (Ref.1)
The theory that the world that depends on phenomena that are not in this world undermines the Verification Principle because Logical Positivism rejects all metaphysical. And here we can recognise the fault in the theory of Verification principle is the theory itself as the it is not scientific. Ayer says that "the method of verification is the truth of a statement". Further on, statements like God exists can not be verified either and so for Logical positivists it has no meaning, and therefore, religion is also neither true or false, but nonsense.
Economy is non-metaphysical and therefore it became one of the central areas that Logical Positivists focused on. Von Hayek and Von Mises evaluate processes like economic planning or price systems as well as the patterns of consumer spending through the supply and demand systems.
Accorging to Hayek in his book Road to Serfom, "the part of the lesson of recent past which is slowly and gradually being appreciated is that many kinds of economic planning, conducted independently on a national scale , are bound in their aggregate effect to be harmful even from a purely economic point of view, and in addition to produce serious international friction."
"That there is little hope of international order or lasting peace so long as every country is free to employ whatever measures it thinks desirable in its own immediate interest, however demaging they may be to others, needs little enphasis now."
It also has to be mentioned that "Road to Serfdom" by Hayek became an impacting critique of socialist economic planning and here again could be also seen as another metaphysical piece of literature because it touches problematic of the "market mechanism" and "the hand in the market" which are, in fact an abstract ideologies themselves. (Ref.1)
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
References:
Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle - lecture
1. http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=102
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology
4. F.A.Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Moritz Schlick, was interested in theoretical physics and philosophy in particular. Bertrand Russel, the inventor of consequentialism which could be partly applied in theories of Nietzsche as well even though he is discredited with all schools of philosophy of communication at this stage(being good and following moral rules having respect for human condition). Russel is an empiric and so Solipsism is some sort of danger for him, the type of his logical refutation of solipsism is for example that nothing can be verified and nothing at all is true and nothing can be said, even including this thought. Another persona worth mentioning was Wittgenstein who studied philosophy of language. He rejected the traditional thinking of languages as a mean of conveying information which would normally mislead people. For him, communicating facts id only one of the things that the language does and it's not the main thing either. He says that "there is no logic in language, language is just people emoting." (Ref.1)
"Logical positivism (also called logical empiricism and neo-positivism) is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism – the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world – with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology." Estimology is a theory of knowledge which is "a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge."(Ref.3) Logical Positivists base their knowledge on scientific research, important is logical side of knowing things through empirical experiences.
Falsificationism, theory by Karl Popper brings another side to Verification Principle saying that if the opposite of idea that can be independently verified is false then the original idea must be false too, meaning that not only the original idea but also the opposite tho the idea must be independently verified and that is when the idea itself is fully true. What he takes from classical logic is the principle of non-contradiction which in itself is in fact both verifiable and falsifiable.
"There is nothing beyond the world of perception", Hume (Ref.1)
The most important aspect of the movement is Verification Principle (Freddy Ayer-Language,truth and logic) which states that nothing can be accepted as true unless it can be independently verified, unless it is possible for it to be scientifically proven(eg something can be classed as a fact only if it is verifiable otherwise it is opinion).
And following that Logical positivists don't see ideologies of Hegel, Nietzsche, Kant or Marx as verifiable and therefore false.
In art and architecture, Bauhaus movement took over, drawing a line on leading thematic of desired style, which became 'Yale's glossy boxes'. Psychology was still influenced by Freud's Psychoanalysis and Social Democracy, bureaucratic, technocratic state planning dominated systems applying logical systems of analysis.
The movement was completely anti-romantic, science became a centre of attention along with all technological developments (early computers-and Verification principle is like how computer thinks) which required logical solutions through logical analysis of thought process(pragmatism and provisional truths, technical work on logic.
However, as Kant and Plato say that "there is a spirit in the world that is beyond perception". (Ref.1)
The theory that the world that depends on phenomena that are not in this world undermines the Verification Principle because Logical Positivism rejects all metaphysical. And here we can recognise the fault in the theory of Verification principle is the theory itself as the it is not scientific. Ayer says that "the method of verification is the truth of a statement". Further on, statements like God exists can not be verified either and so for Logical positivists it has no meaning, and therefore, religion is also neither true or false, but nonsense.
Economy is non-metaphysical and therefore it became one of the central areas that Logical Positivists focused on. Von Hayek and Von Mises evaluate processes like economic planning or price systems as well as the patterns of consumer spending through the supply and demand systems.
Accorging to Hayek in his book Road to Serfom, "the part of the lesson of recent past which is slowly and gradually being appreciated is that many kinds of economic planning, conducted independently on a national scale , are bound in their aggregate effect to be harmful even from a purely economic point of view, and in addition to produce serious international friction."
"That there is little hope of international order or lasting peace so long as every country is free to employ whatever measures it thinks desirable in its own immediate interest, however demaging they may be to others, needs little enphasis now."
It also has to be mentioned that "Road to Serfdom" by Hayek became an impacting critique of socialist economic planning and here again could be also seen as another metaphysical piece of literature because it touches problematic of the "market mechanism" and "the hand in the market" which are, in fact an abstract ideologies themselves. (Ref.1)
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
References:
Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle - lecture
1. http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=102
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology
4. F.A.Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Monday, 17 May 2010
WINOL weekly bulletin semester II, week 10 (12th May 2010)
Exhaustion showed its fruits after the big Election Coverage but our winol team has not finished fighting for a great content and production of another great weekly bulletin this week.
We made the decision to use the latest technology of tri-casting (as we used on the election coverage) and we allowed the deadline for the packages to be 3pm on Wednesday. As the control of the production flow is very important we were assigned new roles. Apart from the continuous news planning, I found myself to be part of Script writing on Tuesday and VT operating as well as PA (time counting) Director at the same time. As my news planning role requires, I had previously set a separate blog and kept posting new ideas and listing of events and latest press releases to help our reporters in finding an inspiration. I found that hardly anyone went on my blog and no one actually decided to be a follower. Thanks to Glen, our News Editor Rob from production, we managed to remind reporters about the existence of my ‘News planning for WINOL’ blog and hopefully following weeks will bring new followers to it.
On Wednesday, I decided to take over the responsibility of chasing the packages and making sure they were all transferred onto the hard drive and then imported onto the VT in the Gallery. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts nearly all the reporters missed their deadlines which resulted in a delay of our rehearsals, our reporters did not seam to have taken their deadlines seriously, and we found ourselves running after the links and writing them ourselves even a lot after the deadline.
Effectively we did couple of run thoughts of the script and we practised before going live. The tri-caser worked very well and we streamed live onto our winol website. The only hick-up technically was that the VT computer froze for about 10sec on during the headlines but Madde handled it well, as usual, kept the gallery calm and told John to keep reading the script. Thankfully, VT computer run smoothly till the rest of the bulletin and I managed to fulfil my role as a PA and VT operator without further failure.
As we later found out in the feedback our bulletin’s script contained too many clauses and we learnt that we should simplify it and focus on a very basic structure of subject, verb, object clause which would make it a lot clearer for our audience. We should also ensure of a factual structure of the script rather than poetic and complicate. When setting camera 2 on the main presenter we should ensure of a tighter shot and asymmetrical alignment rather than central to make it more interesting and professional.
“Always deliver, always have an idea and have contacts appropriate to our level” is the key to our employability.
In overall, or reporters did an excellent role on content and cooperating that with our production site we managed, once more reach quite a high level of news making.
Stu’s story was genuinely great news, holding a great live news atmosphere and had lots of energy. It’s script was generally well written and confidently executed and it brought a completely new standard to our package making ‘outlining Westminster University’s standard of package making’ as our tutor said. Grant’s council story was also an excellent piece covering equally well researched subject in council matter. Grant did a fantastic PTC with expo of the issue and confident performance in front of the camera. He had a right authority member to discuss the issue, used ‘nod-dies’ which he could have probably avoided. Joey’s piece about the race raw after the vault’s hockey team girls appeared wearing inappropriate costumes was also a fantastic piece that added another strong content story to our bulletin. It had a brilliant usage of our BIG ‘BUT’ showing the apologies of the hockey team captain. It was interesting and had quite dangerous content but very well executed. But, there was also a problem in it, as our tutor noticed were 2 spelling mistakes that had put the package in the fatal error area in the legal aspect unfortunately. Claire covered very interesting subject on teenage pregnancy but it left dissatisfied feeling of not entirely well covered topic. As our tutor spotted it was a ‘vox-pop heaven’ and was lacking in good pictures. It also contained Claire’s opinion containing an expo on the issue and became a feature piece rather than a news package. The ‘and finally’ story was a good choice of not for serious piece type of package lifting up previously hard news content. The only problem with it was that is wasn’t fully balanced as it looked as a puff piece, ‘advert like’ package and so there was a danger there on an ‘innuendo of slander of goods’ there. However, we know that the ‘and finally’ piece is usually not to be taken fully seriously that is why we could use it.
We made the decision to use the latest technology of tri-casting (as we used on the election coverage) and we allowed the deadline for the packages to be 3pm on Wednesday. As the control of the production flow is very important we were assigned new roles. Apart from the continuous news planning, I found myself to be part of Script writing on Tuesday and VT operating as well as PA (time counting) Director at the same time. As my news planning role requires, I had previously set a separate blog and kept posting new ideas and listing of events and latest press releases to help our reporters in finding an inspiration. I found that hardly anyone went on my blog and no one actually decided to be a follower. Thanks to Glen, our News Editor Rob from production, we managed to remind reporters about the existence of my ‘News planning for WINOL’ blog and hopefully following weeks will bring new followers to it.
On Wednesday, I decided to take over the responsibility of chasing the packages and making sure they were all transferred onto the hard drive and then imported onto the VT in the Gallery. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts nearly all the reporters missed their deadlines which resulted in a delay of our rehearsals, our reporters did not seam to have taken their deadlines seriously, and we found ourselves running after the links and writing them ourselves even a lot after the deadline.
Effectively we did couple of run thoughts of the script and we practised before going live. The tri-caser worked very well and we streamed live onto our winol website. The only hick-up technically was that the VT computer froze for about 10sec on during the headlines but Madde handled it well, as usual, kept the gallery calm and told John to keep reading the script. Thankfully, VT computer run smoothly till the rest of the bulletin and I managed to fulfil my role as a PA and VT operator without further failure.
As we later found out in the feedback our bulletin’s script contained too many clauses and we learnt that we should simplify it and focus on a very basic structure of subject, verb, object clause which would make it a lot clearer for our audience. We should also ensure of a factual structure of the script rather than poetic and complicate. When setting camera 2 on the main presenter we should ensure of a tighter shot and asymmetrical alignment rather than central to make it more interesting and professional.
“Always deliver, always have an idea and have contacts appropriate to our level” is the key to our employability.
In overall, or reporters did an excellent role on content and cooperating that with our production site we managed, once more reach quite a high level of news making.
Stu’s story was genuinely great news, holding a great live news atmosphere and had lots of energy. It’s script was generally well written and confidently executed and it brought a completely new standard to our package making ‘outlining Westminster University’s standard of package making’ as our tutor said. Grant’s council story was also an excellent piece covering equally well researched subject in council matter. Grant did a fantastic PTC with expo of the issue and confident performance in front of the camera. He had a right authority member to discuss the issue, used ‘nod-dies’ which he could have probably avoided. Joey’s piece about the race raw after the vault’s hockey team girls appeared wearing inappropriate costumes was also a fantastic piece that added another strong content story to our bulletin. It had a brilliant usage of our BIG ‘BUT’ showing the apologies of the hockey team captain. It was interesting and had quite dangerous content but very well executed. But, there was also a problem in it, as our tutor noticed were 2 spelling mistakes that had put the package in the fatal error area in the legal aspect unfortunately. Claire covered very interesting subject on teenage pregnancy but it left dissatisfied feeling of not entirely well covered topic. As our tutor spotted it was a ‘vox-pop heaven’ and was lacking in good pictures. It also contained Claire’s opinion containing an expo on the issue and became a feature piece rather than a news package. The ‘and finally’ story was a good choice of not for serious piece type of package lifting up previously hard news content. The only problem with it was that is wasn’t fully balanced as it looked as a puff piece, ‘advert like’ package and so there was a danger there on an ‘innuendo of slander of goods’ there. However, we know that the ‘and finally’ piece is usually not to be taken fully seriously that is why we could use it.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
The Gonzo Journalism - Richard Benyon Fly On The Wall documentary
A great example of the Gonzo style Journalism story that has first-person and subjectivity that characterized it, is The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson, which is a seminal sports article on the 1970 Kentucky Derby in Kentucky This two main characteristics of style were beginnings of the Gonzo style. In the article Steadman remembered his first impression of Thompson that day:
"I had turned around and two fierce eyes, firmly socketed inside a bullet-shaped head, were staring at a strange growth I was nurturing on the end of my chin.'Holy shit!' he [Thompson] exclaimed. 'They said I was looking for a matted-haired geek with string warts and I guess I've found him.' [...] This man had an impressive head chiselled from one piece of bone, and the top part was covered down to his eyes by a floppy-brimmed sun hat. His top half was draped in a loose-fitting hunting jacket of multi-coloured patchwork. He wore seersucker blue pants, and the whole torso was pivoted on a pair of huge white plimsolls with a fine red trim around the bulkheads. Damn near 6-foot-6 of solid bone and meat holding a beaten-up leather bag across his knee and a loaded cigarette holder between the arthritic fingers of his other hand." (ref.2)
There are four tools for story telling in Gonzo style Journalism (The New Journalism) and I am presenting them in my short documentary movie on Day in life of Conservative MP Richard Benyon during his campaign before the election 2010. Fly on the Wall Gonzo Journalism style:
1. Scene by scene Construction (with jump cuts or punctuation)
Must have a set up scene –establishing shot of a place and static shots, setting of the shots but must be kept mysterious, intense, there should be detailed description of the place of detailed shots establishing the place.
2. Phonetic dialogue / actual speech (‘wild track)
If it is a written piece it has to include contractions, just like in script writing or Steinbeck’s Grapes of desire type of writing). Painting with words- painting with detail as color is the exact way that people speak.
3. Third person restricted point of view (no ‘I’ see, used ‘it is’)
Use the style like it was in Wings of Desire- floating camera, a third, unknown narrator speaking.
4. Concentration on symbolic “status life”People try to differentiate themselves and although everyone is the same in modern life, (even though economy targets ‘YOU’) we are all, in fact, the same. However every profession creates certain rituals of social life, a status which makes groups of different from each other people. It is important to recognise the hierarchy of importance among the characters that we include in the movie or text.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
Referance:
1. Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Journalism
"I had turned around and two fierce eyes, firmly socketed inside a bullet-shaped head, were staring at a strange growth I was nurturing on the end of my chin.'Holy shit!' he [Thompson] exclaimed. 'They said I was looking for a matted-haired geek with string warts and I guess I've found him.' [...] This man had an impressive head chiselled from one piece of bone, and the top part was covered down to his eyes by a floppy-brimmed sun hat. His top half was draped in a loose-fitting hunting jacket of multi-coloured patchwork. He wore seersucker blue pants, and the whole torso was pivoted on a pair of huge white plimsolls with a fine red trim around the bulkheads. Damn near 6-foot-6 of solid bone and meat holding a beaten-up leather bag across his knee and a loaded cigarette holder between the arthritic fingers of his other hand." (ref.2)
There are four tools for story telling in Gonzo style Journalism (The New Journalism) and I am presenting them in my short documentary movie on Day in life of Conservative MP Richard Benyon during his campaign before the election 2010. Fly on the Wall Gonzo Journalism style:
1. Scene by scene Construction (with jump cuts or punctuation)
Must have a set up scene –establishing shot of a place and static shots, setting of the shots but must be kept mysterious, intense, there should be detailed description of the place of detailed shots establishing the place.
2. Phonetic dialogue / actual speech (‘wild track)
If it is a written piece it has to include contractions, just like in script writing or Steinbeck’s Grapes of desire type of writing). Painting with words- painting with detail as color is the exact way that people speak.
3. Third person restricted point of view (no ‘I’ see, used ‘it is’)
Use the style like it was in Wings of Desire- floating camera, a third, unknown narrator speaking.
4. Concentration on symbolic “status life”People try to differentiate themselves and although everyone is the same in modern life, (even though economy targets ‘YOU’) we are all, in fact, the same. However every profession creates certain rituals of social life, a status which makes groups of different from each other people. It is important to recognise the hierarchy of importance among the characters that we include in the movie or text.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
Referance:
1. Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Journalism
Monday, 10 May 2010
Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism and birth of Gonzo Journalism
“(…) The New Journalism can no longer be ignored in an artistic sense. The rest I take back…The hell with it… Let chaos reign… louder music, more wine… The hell with the standings… The top rang is up for grabs. All the old traditions are exhausted, and no new one is yet established. All bets are off! the odds are cancelled! It’s any body’s ball game! ... The horses are all drugged! The track is glass!... and out of such glorious chaos may come, from the most unexpected source, in the most unexpected form, some nice new fat star streamer Rockets that will light up the sky. “Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism
It was 1966 when people first started talking about the New Journalism and before that in the period between 1940 and early 50s the idea of American Dream for journalist was to write a novel. Feature writers belonged to a little league, one of them Portis began his career at this exact level. One day he decided to quit the Herald Tribune and became a novelist. This brought him a bestseller, “Norwood” and then sold to a movie that is how his life became a rich fairytale. Following this example feature writers began to write articles that read like a story (Joe Louis, “The Kind as a Middle-aged Man”) hoping that one day they will and up like Portis.
Journalists explored the style of becoming part of the action rather than staying an outside narrator. And using this new style of narration they could be involved in the scene and ignore the objective approach to the topic. In some articles authors went even further (Breslin, about Phil Spector), they would begin the article not only inside the character’s mind but also with a “virtual stream of consciousness.” Eventually, these further reaching authors were “accused of ‘entering people’s minds’… as if that was ‘one more doorbell a reporter had to push’.”
The New Journalism book is also “a manifesto for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of New Journalism by American writers, covering a variety of subjects from the frivolous (baton twirling competitions) to the deadly serious The pieces are notable because they do not conform to the standard dispassionate and even-handed model of journalism. Rather they incorporate literary devices usually only found in fictional works.” (ref.2)
Hunter S Thompson, a Californian journalist represented all time free-lance style a nonfiction novel and got awarded with the writer’s Brass Stud Award for the “The Hell’s Angels : Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang” . Hell's Angels was the book that launched Thompson's career as a writer. He followed the Hell’s Angels for 18months. “When 'jokingly' threatened with violence he pointed to a loaded double-barrelled shotgun that he kept hanging on his wall and replied in a similar vein that he would "croak two of them first.”(ref.2)”few really look forward to being gang-raped. It is a very ugly experience - a fact the angels tacitly admit by classifying it as a form of punishment. (...) It is a definite ceremony, like the purging of a witch: the girl is stripped, held down on the floor and mounted by who ever has seniority. The punishment is administered in a place where everyone can watch.” (ref.2) The sentence he came up with summarizing his experiences (while getting beaten up by the gang) was “Exterminate all the brutes!”(ref.1) The book was widely read even though the story was about the gang that was feared and even accused of number of criminal activities it described "a world most of us would never dare encounter." (The New York Times)
Another great author Truman Capote happened to have found out about the brutal murders of 1959 of Herbert Clutter, his wife and two of their children who lived in Kansas. Capote decided to write about the crime when the killers were not yet captured. All the detailed descriptions of the scene set up and people as well mysterious dialogues make the piece even more colored and vivid in imagination. Reading the conversation between Dick and Perry, the reader can get into the characters head and see what the killers saw during the scenes of reconstruction. The killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested not long after the murders, and Capote effectively spent six years working on the book.
Wolfe writes “For all his attention to novelistic technique, however, Capote does not use point of view in as sophisticated way as he does in fiction. One seldom feels that he is really inside of the minds of the characters. One gets a curious blend of third-person point of view and omniscient narration. Capote probably had sufficient information to use point of view in a more complex fashion but was not yet ready to let himself go in nonfiction.” (ref.2) he also adds that, "The book is neither a who-done-it nor a will-they-be-caught, since the answers to both questions are known from the outset ... Instead, the book's suspense is based largely on a totally new idea in detective stories: the promise of gory details, and the withholding of them until the end." (ref.2)
1960s was time of a ‘generation gap, the counterculture, black consciousnesses, sexual permissiveness’, ‘death of God’ and ‘fast money’. Journalists also focused on writing about the changes after the Vietnam War (Social realism). For example The Armies of the Night, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning nonfiction novel written by Norman Mailer. The book deals ostensibly with the March on the Pentagon (the October 1967 anti-Vietnam War rally in Washington DC). Armies was a significant contribution to the newly founded genre, which was otherwise somewhat preoccupied by Tom Wolfe's theories of the new journalism. A departure from Capote's more journalistic example of the form, Armies suggests the historical value of a more contemporary mode of literature. (ref 1&2)
Journalists were learning techniques of realism through the progress of New Journalism and discovering new styles and possibilities within the feature writing. Another example of the New Journalism was Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that tell a story about love and death in the golden land of California. It shows Didion's impressions of San Francisco during the neighborhood's heyday as a countercultural center. In contrast to the more utopian image of the milieu promoted by counterculture sympathizers then and now, Didion offered a rather grim portrayal of the goings-on, including an encounter with a pre-school age child who was given LSD by her parents. (ref.1&2)
Paper Lion was published in 1966, is a non-fiction book by prominent American writer George Plimpton. To write the book, Plimpton repeated the experiment in the NFL, joining the training camp of the 1963 Detroit Lions on the premise of trying out to be the team's third-string quarterback. The book is memorable for its insights into the personalities of the players and the coaches. Another sport laden inspiration can be found in The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson who was one of the first authors to use Gonzo style Journalism. (ref.1&2)
My trailer for a Fly on the Wall, Gonzo style Journalism on Day in life of Richard Benyon, Conservative MP for Newbury - click in here.
In film some of the examples of the New Journalism are also shown through movies like Haiti... a gonzo style documentary that captures the cultural routine of rural Haitian life. Experienced in the first person and presented in the same way, we want to show the honesty of the people we encountered and the impression they made on us. It shouts through realistic pictures, not edited, rough, down to earth uncut. The feelings represented and shared by the viewer are honesty and authentic experience, seeing not telling all through visual images.
John Steinbeck used an unique style of floating naturalistic point of view, realistic and honest (ad on my blog)in his The Wings of Desire movie. Joe Eszterhas work who was a Hungarian-American writer, best known for his work on the pulp erotic films Basic Instinct and Showgirls also uses the concept of New Journalism. He has also written several non-fiction books, including an autobiography entitled Hollywood Animal. He became a National Book Award nominee for his nonfiction work Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse in 1974. A polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, in his “poet on the Frontline” explores concept of war, repetitive memories from the past, impact of the war and structuring the culture and polish believes, it is essentially the drama caused by past affecting the future. (link to my blog!) Another and slightly different but using Gonzo Journalism documentary was Horace Andy with Sly & Robbie “livin'it up 11/17 rastafari...” which is a documentary of the making of a traditional album in harry studio with sly and robbie with some of the greatest living reggae artist, shot in Kingston Jamaica.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
Refferance:
1. Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism
2. The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe on wikipedia
3. Horace Andy with Sly & Robbie “livin'it up 11/17 rastafari...”
4. “Ryszard Kapucinski, poet on the Frontline”
5. John Steinbeck, wings of Desire
6. Haiti...
7. The New Journalism on wikipedia
It was 1966 when people first started talking about the New Journalism and before that in the period between 1940 and early 50s the idea of American Dream for journalist was to write a novel. Feature writers belonged to a little league, one of them Portis began his career at this exact level. One day he decided to quit the Herald Tribune and became a novelist. This brought him a bestseller, “Norwood” and then sold to a movie that is how his life became a rich fairytale. Following this example feature writers began to write articles that read like a story (Joe Louis, “The Kind as a Middle-aged Man”) hoping that one day they will and up like Portis.
Journalists explored the style of becoming part of the action rather than staying an outside narrator. And using this new style of narration they could be involved in the scene and ignore the objective approach to the topic. In some articles authors went even further (Breslin, about Phil Spector), they would begin the article not only inside the character’s mind but also with a “virtual stream of consciousness.” Eventually, these further reaching authors were “accused of ‘entering people’s minds’… as if that was ‘one more doorbell a reporter had to push’.”
The New Journalism book is also “a manifesto for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of New Journalism by American writers, covering a variety of subjects from the frivolous (baton twirling competitions) to the deadly serious The pieces are notable because they do not conform to the standard dispassionate and even-handed model of journalism. Rather they incorporate literary devices usually only found in fictional works.” (ref.2)
Hunter S Thompson, a Californian journalist represented all time free-lance style a nonfiction novel and got awarded with the writer’s Brass Stud Award for the “The Hell’s Angels : Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang” . Hell's Angels was the book that launched Thompson's career as a writer. He followed the Hell’s Angels for 18months. “When 'jokingly' threatened with violence he pointed to a loaded double-barrelled shotgun that he kept hanging on his wall and replied in a similar vein that he would "croak two of them first.”(ref.2)”few really look forward to being gang-raped. It is a very ugly experience - a fact the angels tacitly admit by classifying it as a form of punishment. (...) It is a definite ceremony, like the purging of a witch: the girl is stripped, held down on the floor and mounted by who ever has seniority. The punishment is administered in a place where everyone can watch.” (ref.2) The sentence he came up with summarizing his experiences (while getting beaten up by the gang) was “Exterminate all the brutes!”(ref.1) The book was widely read even though the story was about the gang that was feared and even accused of number of criminal activities it described "a world most of us would never dare encounter." (The New York Times)
Another great author Truman Capote happened to have found out about the brutal murders of 1959 of Herbert Clutter, his wife and two of their children who lived in Kansas. Capote decided to write about the crime when the killers were not yet captured. All the detailed descriptions of the scene set up and people as well mysterious dialogues make the piece even more colored and vivid in imagination. Reading the conversation between Dick and Perry, the reader can get into the characters head and see what the killers saw during the scenes of reconstruction. The killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested not long after the murders, and Capote effectively spent six years working on the book.
Wolfe writes “For all his attention to novelistic technique, however, Capote does not use point of view in as sophisticated way as he does in fiction. One seldom feels that he is really inside of the minds of the characters. One gets a curious blend of third-person point of view and omniscient narration. Capote probably had sufficient information to use point of view in a more complex fashion but was not yet ready to let himself go in nonfiction.” (ref.2) he also adds that, "The book is neither a who-done-it nor a will-they-be-caught, since the answers to both questions are known from the outset ... Instead, the book's suspense is based largely on a totally new idea in detective stories: the promise of gory details, and the withholding of them until the end." (ref.2)
1960s was time of a ‘generation gap, the counterculture, black consciousnesses, sexual permissiveness’, ‘death of God’ and ‘fast money’. Journalists also focused on writing about the changes after the Vietnam War (Social realism). For example The Armies of the Night, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning nonfiction novel written by Norman Mailer. The book deals ostensibly with the March on the Pentagon (the October 1967 anti-Vietnam War rally in Washington DC). Armies was a significant contribution to the newly founded genre, which was otherwise somewhat preoccupied by Tom Wolfe's theories of the new journalism. A departure from Capote's more journalistic example of the form, Armies suggests the historical value of a more contemporary mode of literature. (ref 1&2)
Journalists were learning techniques of realism through the progress of New Journalism and discovering new styles and possibilities within the feature writing. Another example of the New Journalism was Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that tell a story about love and death in the golden land of California. It shows Didion's impressions of San Francisco during the neighborhood's heyday as a countercultural center. In contrast to the more utopian image of the milieu promoted by counterculture sympathizers then and now, Didion offered a rather grim portrayal of the goings-on, including an encounter with a pre-school age child who was given LSD by her parents. (ref.1&2)
Paper Lion was published in 1966, is a non-fiction book by prominent American writer George Plimpton. To write the book, Plimpton repeated the experiment in the NFL, joining the training camp of the 1963 Detroit Lions on the premise of trying out to be the team's third-string quarterback. The book is memorable for its insights into the personalities of the players and the coaches. Another sport laden inspiration can be found in The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson who was one of the first authors to use Gonzo style Journalism. (ref.1&2)
My trailer for a Fly on the Wall, Gonzo style Journalism on Day in life of Richard Benyon, Conservative MP for Newbury - click in here.
In film some of the examples of the New Journalism are also shown through movies like Haiti... a gonzo style documentary that captures the cultural routine of rural Haitian life. Experienced in the first person and presented in the same way, we want to show the honesty of the people we encountered and the impression they made on us. It shouts through realistic pictures, not edited, rough, down to earth uncut. The feelings represented and shared by the viewer are honesty and authentic experience, seeing not telling all through visual images.
John Steinbeck used an unique style of floating naturalistic point of view, realistic and honest (ad on my blog)in his The Wings of Desire movie. Joe Eszterhas work who was a Hungarian-American writer, best known for his work on the pulp erotic films Basic Instinct and Showgirls also uses the concept of New Journalism. He has also written several non-fiction books, including an autobiography entitled Hollywood Animal. He became a National Book Award nominee for his nonfiction work Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse in 1974. A polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, in his “poet on the Frontline” explores concept of war, repetitive memories from the past, impact of the war and structuring the culture and polish believes, it is essentially the drama caused by past affecting the future. (link to my blog!) Another and slightly different but using Gonzo Journalism documentary was Horace Andy with Sly & Robbie “livin'it up 11/17 rastafari...” which is a documentary of the making of a traditional album in harry studio with sly and robbie with some of the greatest living reggae artist, shot in Kingston Jamaica.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
Refferance:
1. Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism
2. The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe on wikipedia
3. Horace Andy with Sly & Robbie “livin'it up 11/17 rastafari...”
4. “Ryszard Kapucinski, poet on the Frontline”
5. John Steinbeck, wings of Desire
6. Haiti...
7. The New Journalism on wikipedia
The new era- The New Journalism
The New Journalism was a generational change in the popular culture in the USA. The new alternative society (‘living in the tipi one’) was influenced by LSD and ruled by the politicians of the New Left, communists that hate communists (leaving Stalinism out of it). The changes in Journalism were initiated by a technological development in 1960, the invention of lightweight cameras and cheap tapes with possible hours of recording.
1960- 70s was a period of an Anti-Vietnam war, anti-consumerism, feminism, black power, popular existentialism in philosophy (Zen-Chinese existentialism), in art post-expressionism and drug culture empowered by LSD, Marihuana and heroine (Jazz). As mentioned, leading music of the New Journalism was Jazz considering its spontaneous style and realistic structure as well as Rock (The Beatles) with its glorification of liberty and freedom. In 1968 in Paris student uprisings started taking over.
As New Journalism was mainly literary movement, its main aim is to shift in form of narration from Digetic (telling the story-digesis) to Mimetic (Showing the story-mimis), the style is based rather on seeing than telling. Objectivity is junked in favour of subjective experience theories of subjectivity and truth rather than boring old objective scientific truth having an impact on psychology of the public. “In contrast to a conventional journalistic striving for an objectivity, subjective journalism allows for the writer’s opinion, ideas or involvement (…). Another version of subjectivism in reporting is sometimes called participatory reporting. Robert Stein, in Media Power, defines New Journalism as “A form of participatory reporting that evolved in parallel with participatory politics…” (Ref.2)
Popular were authors like Tom Wolfe with his iconic Radical Chick, written for the New York magazine article starting a trend of interest in a terrorist life and “Mau-Mauing The Flack-Catchers” which shows a community action on poverty featuring black guys with guns. Also Hunter S Thomas with his ultimate piece of GONZO JOURNALISM, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in which “ included everything from ‘bights’ chucky little items, often from police beat (…) to human interest stories’, long and often hideously sentimental accounts of hitherto unknown souls beset by tragedy or unusual hobbies within the sheet’s circulation area…
In any case, feature stories gave a man a certain amount of room in which to write.” Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism (ref.1)
Tom Wolfe introduced onomatopoeic writing (longer features with no ‘four Ws rule”) and the triumph of the Feature writing among journalists was known as The Novel, meaning that it was completely outside of the category of the hard news. Also it was believed that the end of WWII in 1945 was down of new golden age of American Novel, like the “Hemingway-Dos Passos-Fitzgerald” era after WWI. Journalists started learning techniques of realism through the progress of The New Journalism.
The third person point of view- gave the reader the feeling of being inside the character’s mind and experiencing the emotional reality of the scenes as he experiences it. “It was there and this is how it effected me”. (Ref.1)
Gonzo Journalism also became the default format for almost all TV journalism as well as any future type of feature writing and magazine work. A non-fiction started becoming a serious artistic form in 1966, the new literary genre ‘non-fiction novel’ and gave The New Journalism a “overwhelming momentum” (Ref.1)
In the world of video and photography as well as poetry Ryszard Kapucinski, was one of the biggest journalists of the era of New Journalism. His piece “A poet of the Frontline” is a perfect example picturing the journalists of the new era.
The movie is based on Ryszard’s childhood memories from when he lived in Poland, in Pinsk during the Nazis invasion. The imprints of the war memories left significant scar. Danger, tragedy and fear will always be the leading emotions of his past memories. Once one experiences war the emotions never end it will always be a part of the present reality even though the memories belong to the past. Tragedy and suffering is part of polish peoples’ legacy, part of their lives, identifying problem for polish people is not enough, because their past thought them that there is no solution. Poetry was for Ryszard a defence against the tragedies he witnessed, he could not deal with his past completely and so he tried to express the trapped sadness in his work. Through art or poetry he could express himself. He believed that the nation would survive everything and beauty would help it to do so. Spiritual world is more important than material strength, thanks to which the nation survived.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
1. The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Journalism
1960- 70s was a period of an Anti-Vietnam war, anti-consumerism, feminism, black power, popular existentialism in philosophy (Zen-Chinese existentialism), in art post-expressionism and drug culture empowered by LSD, Marihuana and heroine (Jazz). As mentioned, leading music of the New Journalism was Jazz considering its spontaneous style and realistic structure as well as Rock (The Beatles) with its glorification of liberty and freedom. In 1968 in Paris student uprisings started taking over.
As New Journalism was mainly literary movement, its main aim is to shift in form of narration from Digetic (telling the story-digesis) to Mimetic (Showing the story-mimis), the style is based rather on seeing than telling. Objectivity is junked in favour of subjective experience theories of subjectivity and truth rather than boring old objective scientific truth having an impact on psychology of the public. “In contrast to a conventional journalistic striving for an objectivity, subjective journalism allows for the writer’s opinion, ideas or involvement (…). Another version of subjectivism in reporting is sometimes called participatory reporting. Robert Stein, in Media Power, defines New Journalism as “A form of participatory reporting that evolved in parallel with participatory politics…” (Ref.2)
Popular were authors like Tom Wolfe with his iconic Radical Chick, written for the New York magazine article starting a trend of interest in a terrorist life and “Mau-Mauing The Flack-Catchers” which shows a community action on poverty featuring black guys with guns. Also Hunter S Thomas with his ultimate piece of GONZO JOURNALISM, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in which “ included everything from ‘bights’ chucky little items, often from police beat (…) to human interest stories’, long and often hideously sentimental accounts of hitherto unknown souls beset by tragedy or unusual hobbies within the sheet’s circulation area…
In any case, feature stories gave a man a certain amount of room in which to write.” Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism (ref.1)
Tom Wolfe introduced onomatopoeic writing (longer features with no ‘four Ws rule”) and the triumph of the Feature writing among journalists was known as The Novel, meaning that it was completely outside of the category of the hard news. Also it was believed that the end of WWII in 1945 was down of new golden age of American Novel, like the “Hemingway-Dos Passos-Fitzgerald” era after WWI. Journalists started learning techniques of realism through the progress of The New Journalism.
The third person point of view- gave the reader the feeling of being inside the character’s mind and experiencing the emotional reality of the scenes as he experiences it. “It was there and this is how it effected me”. (Ref.1)
Gonzo Journalism also became the default format for almost all TV journalism as well as any future type of feature writing and magazine work. A non-fiction started becoming a serious artistic form in 1966, the new literary genre ‘non-fiction novel’ and gave The New Journalism a “overwhelming momentum” (Ref.1)
In the world of video and photography as well as poetry Ryszard Kapucinski, was one of the biggest journalists of the era of New Journalism. His piece “A poet of the Frontline” is a perfect example picturing the journalists of the new era.
The movie is based on Ryszard’s childhood memories from when he lived in Poland, in Pinsk during the Nazis invasion. The imprints of the war memories left significant scar. Danger, tragedy and fear will always be the leading emotions of his past memories. Once one experiences war the emotions never end it will always be a part of the present reality even though the memories belong to the past. Tragedy and suffering is part of polish peoples’ legacy, part of their lives, identifying problem for polish people is not enough, because their past thought them that there is no solution. Poetry was for Ryszard a defence against the tragedies he witnessed, he could not deal with his past completely and so he tried to express the trapped sadness in his work. Through art or poetry he could express himself. He believed that the nation would survive everything and beauty would help it to do so. Spiritual world is more important than material strength, thanks to which the nation survived.
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
1. The New Journalism by Tom Wolfe
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Journalism
Overnight Election Coverage triumph for WINOL team
It was one of the most ambitious project that the students of Journalism at Winchester University have seen. The 8 hour election coverage was not only immensely ambitious but gave us a fantastic practice and experience that we can be definitely proud of.
Despite significant problems that we had experienced already at the start of our rehearsals in technical aspects we managed to pull together one whole hour of the show with very few mistakes considering this was an early practice. It was rightly noticed by Paul, our Director, that Madeleine had far too much to do on the rehearsal and the decision to split the role and put another person on Vision mixing was an absolute spot on.
Before the big night came we already reached 100 views in a single day for Catherine's trailer for election night, which proved a great idea for promotion of our big night.
On the night of 6th May 2010 there was many impressive performances at WINOL. As part of the gallery team I must admit I felt that the first two hours went a lot easier than the rest of the night. We managed to plan our script well for the first two hours and the rest of the night was meant to be led as the night went. With no script and good intuition Maddie, James and I managed to pull the rest of the night together, it was not hard because we had fantastic team of reporters that we could always rely on. They gave us some time to think on the next step to take.
As our tutor Chris said, as a team we “completely outshone Kingston University who were, so far as I was aware, the only other student operation that was trying to cover the election live (…) and whatever the situation in terms of old school tie - we will have been involved in the actuality of producing journalism to a far, far greater extent and at a much better level than any other students in the country.”
We reached up 2000 unique user sessions which proves our high determination, potential and level that we are aiming at in our WINOL experience.
Despite significant problems that we had experienced already at the start of our rehearsals in technical aspects we managed to pull together one whole hour of the show with very few mistakes considering this was an early practice. It was rightly noticed by Paul, our Director, that Madeleine had far too much to do on the rehearsal and the decision to split the role and put another person on Vision mixing was an absolute spot on.
Before the big night came we already reached 100 views in a single day for Catherine's trailer for election night, which proved a great idea for promotion of our big night.
On the night of 6th May 2010 there was many impressive performances at WINOL. As part of the gallery team I must admit I felt that the first two hours went a lot easier than the rest of the night. We managed to plan our script well for the first two hours and the rest of the night was meant to be led as the night went. With no script and good intuition Maddie, James and I managed to pull the rest of the night together, it was not hard because we had fantastic team of reporters that we could always rely on. They gave us some time to think on the next step to take.
As our tutor Chris said, as a team we “completely outshone Kingston University who were, so far as I was aware, the only other student operation that was trying to cover the election live (…) and whatever the situation in terms of old school tie - we will have been involved in the actuality of producing journalism to a far, far greater extent and at a much better level than any other students in the country.”
We reached up 2000 unique user sessions which proves our high determination, potential and level that we are aiming at in our WINOL experience.
We all worked incredibly hard to produce Constituency Profiles, Election Issues packages and additionally some of us "Fly on the Wall" packages from the day that we spent with a politician before the election. I personally covered an Immigration issue, which I found quite challenging considering all other responsibilities as a PA Producer in preparation for the big Thursday. Along with the Immigration Issue package I was asked to make a 3min and 10min version of my "Fly on the Wall" documentary that I did on Mr Richard Benyon, who was back then a conservative candidate from Newbury. I put my best effort to fit my package editing around all the rest of arrangements for winol. I managed to produce 4 packages all together, fulfill PA duties and be where ever I was needed on the night of election coverage and joined the gallery team throughout the whole night. I enjoyed it all immensely and was happy to be part of such a successful team of production.
My package on Immigration Issue:
Graham and Tom Otrebski were absolutely superb as presenters. Claire also did amazing especially when the Autocue started playing she managed to keep calm and perform professionally. Maddie, Paul Wood and James Kenyon did wonderfully as directors and also it is worth mentioning that Rob Anderson kept on top of the sound operating even though he had’t had much practice on the sound desk before.
Stuart kept his title of the best reporter in my opinion and there were also some fantastic first attempts of reporting among OBs, we witnessed very natural and professional performances from Andrew from first year and Luke Garret from combined honours. Kayleigh did a great job with the Outside Broadcasts which was not an easy considering a faulty equipment, she stayed calm and carried the SKYPE conversions till the end.
Unfortunately, it was hard not to notice that our equipment made it difficult for most of our OBs to report back to the studio, perhaps next time we could make sure all the computers, sound, cameras (etc) an the location are properly tested to avoid technical hiccups. We can also definitely see that we should be preparing our materials like packages a lot earlier and make the ‘deadlines’ more meaningful than they still are at the moment as the rehearsal time is significantly limited otherwise. All the equipment should be checked, butteries and tapes ready for exchange.
Top of the hour reports Josh, Grant, Joey and James Fraser did definitely a top job and showed how highly skilled and professional they are. We can also definitely see that we should be preparing our materials like packages a lot earlier and make the ‘deadlines’ more meaningful than they still are at the moment as the rehearsal time is significantly limited otherwise. All the equipment should be checked, butteries and tapes ready for exchange.
The highlights if the 7 hours of our Overnight Election will be also made available through our winchesterjournalism channel. I will also post them on my blog so if you missed our big election coverage triumph you will have a chance to see the best parts of it shortly on my blog, I assure it is such peace of journalism not to be missed out on!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
WINOL'S FIRST LIVE NIGHT ELECTION COVERAGE COMING SOON!
" The first and biggest exercise of its kind involving journalism students ever in the … world. " Chris Horrie
Following our Question Time Debate triumph, our tutors and students of journalism are streaming our own election night news coverage complete with studio guests including the university’s own political wizard Dr William Seward, on the spot reporting from local counts, and links to other universities such as Kingston.
This unique opportunity has been given to journalism students of the University of Winchester and we will certainly make the best of it. Winchester News Online (WINOL)has not stopped surprising us and throwing into a deep sea of challenges. I have been privilaged to be the PA Producer of WINOL for the election coverage and I strongly encourage all my readers to tune into the Winchester News Online LIVE ELECTION COVERAGE!
As mentioned before, it will be streamed live on WINOL.CO.UK on the night of 6th May 2010 starting of 10pm. Our team of students and tutors will be hosting a 7 hour programme until the results are called.
The links will be find here shortly
Following our Question Time Debate triumph, our tutors and students of journalism are streaming our own election night news coverage complete with studio guests including the university’s own political wizard Dr William Seward, on the spot reporting from local counts, and links to other universities such as Kingston.
This unique opportunity has been given to journalism students of the University of Winchester and we will certainly make the best of it. Winchester News Online (WINOL)has not stopped surprising us and throwing into a deep sea of challenges. I have been privilaged to be the PA Producer of WINOL for the election coverage and I strongly encourage all my readers to tune into the Winchester News Online LIVE ELECTION COVERAGE!
As mentioned before, it will be streamed live on WINOL.CO.UK on the night of 6th May 2010 starting of 10pm. Our team of students and tutors will be hosting a 7 hour programme until the results are called.
The links will be find here shortly
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