A Tale of Two Revolutions

The two revolutions were:

• The French Revolution-  A turning point in European Politics
• The Industrial Revolution- Transformed Britain and the world with the new idea of the factory and mass production.

The Act of Union in 1707 was the first British Empire and therefore created the UK.
In 1698 Scotland attempts to set up a colony in central America but turned out to be a disaster. The place was called Darien and was a 'malorial swamp' and Scotland lost 1/5 of its wealth. This financially and psychologically knackered Scotland and surrendered sovereignty in the Act of Union with England.

England/ the UK did very well out of the French Revolution although the Napoleonic War was very expensive and so income tax was created in 1799 in order to pay for war effort.

British Naval power was absolute and the blockades of the French Ports destroyed French trade and created a boom for British exports. Britain started building its empire: India, Singapore, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

The Transatlantic Triangular Trade was enormously profitable for Britain. In the 16th Century one million slaves were transported from Africa to America in exchange for cotton and by the 17th Century this numbered had increased to 7 million slaves being transported to America.

The end of the war meant that there was widespread unemployment and a fall in wages. In response to this The Corn Laws were created in 1815-1846. These laws meant that a tariff was put on imported grains. This tax that was on all food in the UK to protect farming in the UK. However, no one could afford the produce.

 The Industrial Revolution caused Manchester to be considered the centre of the world because the city was the centre of this revolution. It was 'hell on Earth' with immense pollution and people lived in slums. Cholera was very common.

Politics- Pressure began to build for reform which saw the beginning of Socialist Movement' in the UK called 'Peterloo Massacre' in 1819 in Manchester. Cavalry charged a crowd of 60,000 demanding parliamentary reform-11 people died. Protesters demanded that growing cities should have the right to elect a MP. This meant that the Reform Act was to be more democratic and expand those who are eligible to vote.


Farming- There was nothing to stop people from choosing to transfer from a non-industrial work force to and industrial one. Thousands of farm workers came to the city to look for work since they had given up on the country. After 1770 these figure began to double every 50 years.


Utilitarianism is the belief that happiness is pleasure and pain should be absent from life. This favours those who promote the happiness and reduce pain. Workhouses were therefore started based on the Utilitarian beliefs of Jeremy Bentham and the New Poor Law Act was created in 1834. No able bodied person was to receive money or any help except from within a workhouse. This Act effectively criminalised the poor since people were given just enough food to survive yet an amount so small which would slowly kill them. In return for this food they would have to do horrible jobs. Therefore, Bentham wanted to help the poor in such a bad way that they wouldn't want to do it.

Rousseau-HCJ

Rousseau, born in 1712, lived in the time of Transition. This was a time two years before the death  of the famous Sun King, Louis XIV. He later died ten years before the French Revolution.

He was part of the Circle of French Intellectuals, most notably of all was Voltaire who created the 'Encyclopedie' This was aimed to bring together all human knowledge and also to be a reference for all future generations.

In the 1750s occurred the progress of the arts and science which raised the question as to whether art and science had a beneficial effect on morality? Rousseau believed the answer to this question is no, we progress through testing and challenging what happened before so that therefore humanity is able to progress. This view is similar to Francis Bacon.

Rousseau's other famous books were involved with the Romantic Movement. There is a body of facts to which we must submit, science is submission. The opposite of this is the Notion of the Will. Creating values is what men do in the same way that man makes a work of art and therefore until we create these values they don't exist. The heart of this progress is invention out of nothing, the most central idea being that we create our own universe.

In Rousseau's book: 'Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality Among Men' humanity are labelled as naturally good but has been corrupted by society throughout time. He compares the effects of history on humanity to be like a statue which is damaged by the elements. The 'Noble Savage' was someone that Rousseau described as living outside of society and is close to nature, free from being distorted by society. Rousseau was extremely interested in tribes discovered during the age of the European Exploration, he believed them to be the peak of humanity since they haven't been corrupted by other influences.

The Social Contract: ''Man is born free, and is everywhere in chains.''  This is the most famous line from Rousseau's most famous book. This caused so much uproar that he was forced to flee and copies of his book were burnt.

Hobbes believed that we needed a supreme Leviathan to control and preserve society or else we will live short, brutish lives filled with war. However, Rousseau said that war and violence only come into being once we are in society. The state of war is really the state of society. ''War all against.''

Locke on the other hand, believed that we need a sovereign to protect society and our property. He was greatly concerned with property. However, Rousseau believed that property only complicated things and caused more problems to do with inequality: ''You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the Earth belong to all and the Earth to no one.''

Natural Man was virtuous according to Rousseau and he considered the Golden Age to be a reaction against the corruption of 18th century society. Society corrupts us and makes us obsess about possessions and social standing-how we are viewed by others. We are trapped in a competition of self-esteem. He doesn't believed however that we have natural rights, unlike Locke and more similar to Bentham. Law is expression of the General Will.

General Will allows us to ''find a form of association which depends and protects with all the common force, the person and gods of each associate, and by means of which each one while writing with all obeys only himself and remains as free as before.'' Because we all agree and contribute to the shaping of this General Will, when we obey its laws we do no more than obey ourselves. Anyone who refuses to obey the General Law: ''Will be forced to be free.'' Our freedom starts where the law begins. Kant called Rousseau the 'Newton of Morality'.

The French Revolution

Everyone believed this to be the fantastic start of a new age where people would be given the opportunity to come back to being their true natural beings. However, this revolution collapsed into terror. The government deliberately used violence and the king was even executed in 1793. Thousands of people were killed during this 'Reign of Terror'. Therefore, it wasn't a glorious revolution and went against Rousseau's beliefs.

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.