HCJ-Hume and Addison

Sextus Epircius believed that all ideas were of equal value. For Sextus thinking was a waste of time and interpreted human life as avoiding as much pain as possible and enjoying pleasure. Most empiricists (the belief that knowledge is derived from the senses) believe this as it is a harsh, non-sentimental view.

Addison was the first journalist who was a feature writer and specialised in travel journalism whilst he worked for 'The Spectator'. He believed that normally people are only motivated by pleasure and actions/devices which cause you the most pleasure- the physical side of pleasure.

You cannot derive an 'ought' from an 'is' = HUME'S LAW (Hume's Fork) as stated in his book ''Treatise of Human Nature'' is the idea that we cannot say something "ought" to be. It either is or it isn't. This therefore reinforces Hume's belief that nothing is for certain.

Process of thinking is called induction, all science is based on induction philosophy synthetic knowledge. Statements are indicative since they only last to a certain point.

There are two types of logic:

•  Analytic/Deductive Logic  - logic which is true by definition.
•   Synthetic/Induction Logic- this is the opposite to analysis, it is true by observation and verification.

'odd' isn't equal to 'is' which therefore implies that probability is important to science and law since in science it is stated that the sun will probably rise everyday. Hume is sceptical when it comes to religion and believes more in inference- we don't know for definite that the sun will rise just because it has everyday before.

Codes of Conduct

The most crucial element to Codes of Conduct is ethics. Ethics is self preservation. If journalists break the Codes of Conduct they are consequently acting in an unethical manner. To be unethical is anything which short-changes a reader or a viewer. Anything such as spelling mistakes, bad language and a poor layout are all considered to be unethical.

There are four Codes of Conduct which are:

1. NUJ Code of Conduct
2. PCC Editor's Code of Practise
3. BBC Producer Guidelines ('standards and values')
4. OFCOM Broadcasting Code (sections 5,6,7,8)

The PCC could take action if you're an unethical journalist and act unethically by making up facts etc. This can then be taken as evidence against you in a libel case. There is the possibility that this could be mentioned in court if there is press complaints.

The BBC is similar to the PCC.

If you work for Rupert Murdoch's papers such as 'The Sun' and 'The Times' and you break the PCC Code you will be fired immediately with no compensation. This is because it is written in a Murdoch employee's contract that they must abide by the PCC Code even though you will be asked and expected to report in an unethical manner. They just don't wnat you to be caught.

The NUJ is the journalists own Code of Conduct. Murdoch banned his employees from joining the NUJ. A membership is priced around £25 a year and enables you to report with ethical guidelines. The majority of the BBC are members of the NUJ. It is illegal for any trade union to force you to join the NUJ.

As stated on the NUJ website (http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=174):

Members of the National Union of Journalists are expected to abide by the following professional principles:

A journalist:


1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed

2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair

3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies

4. Differentiates between fact and opinion

5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means

6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest

7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work

8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge

9. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation


10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed

11. A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare.


12. Avoid plagiarism.

Valerie Nazareth-Law essentials that need to be learnt

In this weeks lecture we watched a video which was of Valerie Nazareth, the head of the BBC's legal advice department, who explained what is is that young journalists are required to know about media law when applying for a job at the BBC standard.

She explained that it is vital for all candidates to understand what the terms:Defamation, Privacy(Section 8 Human Rights Act) and Contempt of Court (when a case is active you need to ensure that you know whether you're being prejudice or not) means. A good example of this is the Chris Jefferies case. The Sun and the Daily Mirror were fined for committing contempt of court against Chris Jefferies during the Joanna Yates case in July earlier this year. An article in the Guardian explains this case further: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/29/sun-daily-mirror-guilty-contempt

Therefore, while a a trial is running you cannot publish or broadcast anything specific about the case that could risk influencing the jury's decision and therefore making it an unfair trial.

With Qualified Privilege, however, you are allowed to produce a TV clip based on the trial that is small and compact with facts. Once the verdict has been announced you are free to publish with comment etc.

Valerie also put emphasis on the importance of consent when collecting footage to be broadcast. For example:

• Explicit Consent- Must sign a release form.
• Implied Consent-It is made obvious that your are on television, E.g talk to the camera.

The way to avoid Copyright is to use your own work as far as possible and state where you got a quote or some information from if it is not your own work. Permission is compulsory.

This week's WINOL review

I really liked this week's Winol, there was very few mistakes and the news coverage was of a professional standard. For example, I was extremely impressed with the local paedophile story and how any potential legal problems were avoided.

Secondly, I also really liked this week's presenter. I thought he had a voice that was really easy to listen to and could easily have been mistaken for a professional newsreader. It seemed effortless to him and he was really relaxed.

The Guardian's Layout and Design

‘The Guardian’, originally known as the ‘Manchester Guardian’, was founded in 1821 by John Edward Taylor who was a member of a non-conformist group.  However, it wasn’t until 1872 when C.P Scott became edition of ‘the Guardian’ that he transformed the paper into being nationally recognised. This remains consistent to the present day. ‘The Guardian’ is traditionally Left-Wing which means that the paper is anti-conservative and supports Liberalism views.

‘The Guardian’ has a target audience of both men and women and the average ages of readers are between the ages 45-54 which shows that a more mature audience is drawn to the paper. Despite appealing to both sexes, statistics show that the male audience prefer to read ‘the Guardian’. Stereotypically people who have professions such as: businessmen, bankers, teachers etc. are attracted to ‘the Guardian’ and therefore are people of Upper and Middle class (ABC1C2). This is repeatedly shown through the paper’s choice of advertisements, language and content.

Newspapers are gradually becoming more renowned for being able to express a person’s social class and even aspects of their personality through the layout and style of a newspaper.  For example, ‘The Sun’ deliberately conveys itself as a cheap, affordable tabloid with a garish colour scheme and tacky puns because this is what meets the sun’s audience who are placed between ABC1 and C2DE social class. Since ‘the Guardian’ is targeted at people of a higher social class, the layout must reflect this also.

‘The Guardian’ is distinct from other newspapers available to the public because of its complex, organisational layout. Unlike tabloid newspapers, ‘the Guardian’ refrains from using garish, striking colours which are usually used to attract a reader’s attention. Instead, the paper uses a well thought out colour scheme of blue and green.  ‘The Guardian’ invested in three new printing facilities which were able to produce this colour scheme whereas usually newspapers are only able to print in block colours in certain sections. 

‘The Guardian’ also decided to change the style of the paper which meant converting the current broadsheet to a Berliner or ‘midi’ format. A Berliner format is roughly 18.5 × 12.4 inches and is slightly taller and marginally wider than the typical tabloid format; and is also narrower and shorter than the usual broadsheet.

Priced at £1.20, ‘the Guardian’ is one of the more expensive papers that are available to the public. Therefore, the readers want ‘the Guardian’ to convey the fact that the paper is more expensive through its new design. ‘The Guardian’ therefore, also uses the design of the paper as a way of justifying charging £1.20 because the paper looks upper class which immediately gives the impression that the content within the paper is going to be of an upper class standard. This new design not only satisfies current readers of ‘the Guardian’, but can also allure new readers into deciding to purchase this paper. A recent readership figure of 1,198,000 people per day indicates that the design has achieved this purpose to attract people globally.

 

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act which was created in the year 2000 (great, now I have Busted's year 3000 in my head) to enable information which should be brought to the public's attention, to be found out. For example, it is a journalist's right to write to the police in order to ask them how many of their officer's have a criminal record. This all comes down to public interest once more.

However, you can't ask anything personal for example how much money a person earns, instead you need to ask, how many people earn over £100,000 a year? You also cannot use the Freedom of Information Act for spying purposes. E.g. Ask questions about war etc.

It is a criminal offence to refuse to give out information when asked. It is a necessary part of the Freedom of Information Act to publish a schedule or table on a company's Freedom of Information website page, stating how much money is spent in each department. Every citizen has the right to ask an FOI officer for information, they then must reply within 20 days with the requested information. The officer can say that finding out the requested information would cost too much money and therefore refuse to do the research. This is a legitimate excuse to refuse to hand over the information. Therefore, it is suggested that you should keep all questions simple, easily attainable and brief.

''I think therefore I am''

Western Philosophy in the 17th and 18th century was divided between British Empiricism and Continental Rationalism.

Locke was an Empiricist. An Empiricist was someone who believed that knowledge is only gained through the power of our senses therefore knowledge is gained through experience and not from innate knowledge.

Bacon was also an Empiricist who supported the Scientific Method which means that he avoids the ideas of the mind.

Rationalists, such as: Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza believed in pure reason, the mind alone, or at least the pre- eminence of the mind.

Both of these theories are ways of attempting to know the truth, neither of these theories are better than the other.

Metaphysics
Materialists believe that material only exists whereas idealism denies existence of matter and that everything is made up of ideas. It is a theory of physics about physics.

Rene Descartes
The first half of the 17th century was contemporary of Galileo which therefore means that it held views similar to Galileo and Bacon etc. in comparison to Aristotelianism and the traditional education available in Universities today.

''I had gained nothing but an increasing recognition of my ignorance.'' (A Socratic idea)

Descartes hoped that a life of action would give him insight but he was disappointed because he embarked on an ambitious plan to search for True Knowledge. He thought that by going back to a point at which no doubt was even possible and then rebuilding human knowledge by unmistakable steps using knowledge that had been tested and was unquestionable.

Descartes was a Christian and therefore uses God and the theory of necessity because your senses can sometimes be deceived which means that it is no more than a status than a dream or a hallucination. E.g 'The Evil Demon'. Descartes' thought of God therefore proves the existence of God since God is perfect which means that his senses are too.

''I exist; I find in my mind the idea of God, who must exist, God being God won't deceive me and hence my belief in an external world is true idea.''

George Berkeley believed that there are just ideas, you can't doubt that you exist or cease to think as to doubt you are thinking.

The Ontological Argument
This argument comes from Kant who believed that existence is a necessary condition for thought, not a result of thought. Does this highlight problems with Dualism? Dualism is the belief that the mind/soul is separate from the body. Descartes believed that they communicated at a specific part of the brain. Materialists rejected this idea because they see matter as fundamental.

Spinoza rejected the Dualism theory since he believed that everything is part of the same substance. Spinoza also didn't believe in Free Will either because humans are not a separate reality, humans are simply aspects of God.

Investigative Journalism

Investigative journalism is regarded as 'off diary' this means that its journalism which is not known to everyone. This is similar to Gonzo Journalism. An example of this is  Michael Moore who has created films which mostly highlight America's flaws such as there being no national health care. Therefore it is something that someone doesn't want you to report or publish. An Investigative Journalism story is usually unique unlike everyday news reports which is a report based on everyday events that many people will publish or broadcast.

The classic investigations are on serious (public interest) issues. An example of this is when Harry Evans, editor of the Sunday Times, revealed that a new drug that had been created to prevent morning sickness, actually caused babies to be born deformed.

When publishing Investigative Journalism stories you must be careful to avoid:

• Malice. For instance if you report a story that is personally linked to you it could be viewed as you reporting with malice.
• Conflict of Interest. When two interests overlap.

Miscarriage of Justice
Although the legal system may pronounce a person guilty or innocent this doesn't necessarily mean that this conviction is just. For example, the legal system can be corrupt which means that innocent people are punished and therefore imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

The Criminal Cases Review Comission (CCRC) was created in order to prevent corruption from occurring, however, this system isn't always effective.

The INUK believes that society is damaged by wrongful convictions. As Brian told us, unfortunately there are cases such as that of Warren Slaney who has already carried out a 20 year imprisonment but remains in prison since he still believes that he is innocent. Slaney remains in prison because he shows now sign of rehabilitation since he hasn't 'come to terms with his crime'.

This week's WINOL review!

Just like last week's WINOL I was really impressed with the professional looking opening credits of the bulletin and the shots of Winchester which gives a clear indication that the news is local and comes from Winchester.
I was also impressed with the content of this week's WINOL, for example the range of interviews that were included to be were very professional and were worthy of being shown on television. I especially thought that the interview with the MP of Winchester, Steve Brine and the good shots that were captured of London. For instance I liked the idea of interviewing Steve Brine in front of the House of Parliament. A few of the shots were however, slightly shakey but i assume that's due to the handheld camera or even the cold weather.
Unfortunately I did find the interview with UKIP leader Nigel Farage to be difficult to listen to. I'm not sure whether it was due to a muffled microphone but I found it to be pretty unlcear at the start but then it became clear once more.
The report of the protests against Capitalism in Bournemouth shows the diversity of stories that WINOL is able to cover having got footage of the protest as well as interviews from the protesters.
I always think that WINOL excel when it comes to their sports report, it goes on for a little bit too long but then again is having lots of reports and footage or a range of sports a bad thing? The non league round up screen looked very professional to me and was a good way of rounding off that section.
The only criticism I did have was the sound during the WINOL woodwork challenge was really hard to understand, the music seemed to be too loud so it was impossible to hear what the footballers were saying.
On the whole I found this week's WINOL to be of an extremely high standard and still exceeds the expectations that most people would have of a student produced bulletin.

Copyright Laws

Any work that you do belongs to you, therefore no one else has the right to claim that this work is theirs unless they pay in order to have this privilege. For example,you can do this by either:

1. Selling your copyright which is called a 'Buy Out' which means that you no longer have ownership over your work anymore. 
2. Or License your work out so that people can use it but you still have to be credited and receive recognition because you still own the right to your work. For instance, when you download a song you are purchasing the license to listen to that song however, you don't have the right to to resell it or use it in any other way. For example, it would be forbidden to use this song on a website without a 'Buy Out'.

There are ways of avoiding breaking any copyright Laws. 'Fair Dealing' or 'Lifting' means that there is no copyright if you just use the facts of a story, therefore you can reuse them. There is also no copyright in ideas. However, an interview is copyright. For example, both quotes and pictures etc. come under the protection of copyright. For purposes of comment, criticism or review you are allowed to use someone's work (must be brief). You MUST include credit of where the work came from and ensure that all sources are acknowledged in your work, in order for it to be packaged within 'Fair Dealing'. This basically means that you need to state if you are reviewing/ criticising a film if you're using the film's footage.