Theirs a law 't to talk about

So this week we delved into law. Something which many of those who commentate on journalism like Professor Tim Luckhurst of Kent University who believes it to be one of the main distinctions between a professional journalist working for a conventional media outlet like BBC news as a vital skill for a journalist.

One of the key things I’ve for law whilst looking for through my law notes and something which applies heavily to contempt of court. Ethical consideration has been hardwired into the law. To demonstrate this I’ll apply this to certain instances in the law:

Section one of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 states:

• Any matter which is likely to lead members of the public to identify the person during his/her lifetime at the victim/alleged victim of that offence, including in particular:
• His/her name,
• His/her address,
• The identity of any school or other educational establishment attended by him/her,
• The identity of his/her place of work,
• Any still or moving picture of him/her.

As you can all of these points above take into consideration the victim life’s afterwards and how to reduce the shear distress we could be inflicted on them. However it could be argued the same treatment isn’t shared with the defendant whose identity can be revealed and depending on the media be exposed completely to the public.

Another example to cement who ethics have been hardwired in the law would be in the sexual offences act 2003 clause 7 headed ‘Children in sex cases’ in ‘which any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child:

• The child must no be identified
• The adult may be identified
• The word ‘incest’ must not be used a where a child victim might be identified;
• Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relation between the accused and a child. ‘

Again this is ethically sound by society’s standards however room for discretion of a reporter has been left. ‘The adult may be identified’, this again leaves room for ethical consideration by a reporter if it’s suitable for all the details to be revealed about a defendant.

During our session Alex asked us to develop some legal questions for his mid week drive time show. Here are two which stick out in my mind:

1. With some ridiculous laws still valid in today’s courts like ‘It is illegal to leave baggage unattended.’ How does one avoid prosecution for what could be considered quite silly and obtuse laws ?
2. In terms of creative writing how careful should writers be with taking inspiration from event, person(s) and organisations? And if ever threatened with legal action like libel or copyright how should they react ? An example would be- http://www.mania.com/tony-twist-todd-mcfarlane-settle-lawsuit_article_53683.html

Docu-do

Today we covered the subjects of documentary. Theirs a growing saying in news coverage that no journalist can be unbiased and will always have some kind of agenda, though this doesn’t always reflect in their work if they take facts from both sides of the story.

So after that little diversion of thought the saying about biased in journalism can be applied to documentaries. For those of you who are unsure what a documentary is, if I tried to create a specific definition below:

A documentary is a factual product with a specific subject with narrative structure and mystery.

However schools of thought have thought such a truthful medium which blends creativity to re-construct or demonstrate events to its audience (via reconstructions of or docu-dramas) can in some instance deliberately or unintentionally can obstruct the truth.

In terms of deliberate manipulation this goes back to another saying lies, damn lies and statistics. Though facts are powerful instance of the truth they can easily be manipulated to put someone’s agenda across. This also goes with the manner of footage is edited. Going back to the Boston councillor who had a blogger create a vlog for him, this could have easily been edited with biased motivations to portray the councillor in an extremely favourable fashion.

Unintentional breaches could stem from the subject. An example would be an example a documentary on a serial killer, this serial killer would clearly be portrayed as a troubled unlawful soul.

Placement update:

So it’s official I’ll be doing my placement with The Lincolnite. So every week I’ll be updating you on the goings on and what I’m doing with the Lincolnite team. I’ll be posting this in separate posts so they don’t get mixed up.

The placement issue

So after a lot of time flip flopping and some rather lazy soul searching i've finally decided for my work placement which is (go to youtube and find a drum roll)

The Lincolnite- For who I already do some work already

So to help with the paper work side of this placement I've made these following points:

My USPs:

News gathering

Sound editing

Copy writing

News photography

Ability to pick a suitable sound clip

Interviewing techniques

Some knowledge of the local area

Page layout and design

Uploading web based content

Basic video editing

Developing shorthand

Contact development

Competently operate a marantz

Reliable

Punctual

Strong research skills

Polite

Five things I want to get out of this work placement:

1. The ability to write quicker, accurate copy
2. Create stronger news photos
3. Learn how to expand on the knowledge of a press release
4. Have a better understanding of to upload online content
5. Work in news environment on a regular basis  

SWOT:

Strengths:

1. This will help with my academic writing skills and is a strong quality to have for work in a news environment.
2. This will help with my photographic understanding and will be a good chance to place a lot of practice I’ve learnt into theory.
3. A lot of news outlets are accused of chunralism and looking beyond what can be accused of bias sources can lead to strong more balanced news stories.
4.  With the print industry in decline and most news outlets moving to an online format it’s logical to be immersed in how this function works.
5.  This will help my professional news development which is lacking on my course since the pace tends to be a little more relaxed.

Weaknesses-

1. This is something which could take time and in a more professional news environment my colleagues may not have the time for me to slowly improve my skills.
2. Again this can take time, if I produce a photo which is not suitable the story is in danger of being scrapped if a decent photo cannot be produced.
3. This could be a case to case basis problem, for example if a press realise is produced by the NHS it would be difficult to find a strong enough and credible source to give balance to the story.
4. Since this is a crucial part of the entire outlet this could be quite complex and difficult to learn and would again consume the time of my colleagues.
5. Doing this for online could be a tough learning curve and could lead to stressful repercussions.

Opportunities:

1. A great chance to prepare myself for my working career and overall enhance my skill as a journalist
2.  Good skills for a journalist since journalists are expected to be multi skilled.
3. This would help my establish myself as an investigative journalist and help with my research skills.
4. This would prepare me for the expected change in journalism industry from less print to more of an online setting.
5. I have experience in radio news environments and this will be a chance to experience another side of the industry.

Threats:

1. This would be the skill that required the most development. It would probably take the longest to develop and could endanger the publication of a story.
2.  A strong photo can make a story and since all Lincolnite stories have at least one photo again the publication of a story could be endangered.
3. Sometimes looking for other sources could lead to incorrect information tarnishing the quality of the story.
4. If I’m trusted with uploading web content this could lead to a lack of proofreading for my stories and could lead stories being published with inaccuracies.
5. With my timetable and work schedule this could be at threat to get one solid period of time to put this point into practice.  

Citizen journalism

So in the 21^st century we have magical little thing called the internet, heard of it?

The internet is piece of technology which has been in a long line to ending what is called fixation listening or another less obsessive term would be appointment listening which is where a consumer consumes a media form at a certain time, like someone deliberately turning on a TV to watch the news.

All of this had lead to a movement known as ‘citizen journalism’ which has been defined as a movement in which citizens with no journalistic experience participate in typical journalist activities. Since these journalists could be justly minded their lack of training can have bad ramifications. Below is the advantages and disadvantages and in a sense what not to do for podcasting and VODcasting, a common outlet of citizen journalism.

Dos and advantages:

Portability- As mentioned above for good or for worse appointment viewing and listening is dying, taking adavantage of the Ipod generations on the go technology will definitely make you more appealing to listen to.

Plug into social network use the power of viral- Social networks are like most things they suffer from the FAD problem, like Bebo and Mysapce they easily go stale, at the moment taping into Facebook and Twitter is the social network yes like blogger Movie Bob posting his latest videos on both (though it can be quite geek controversial)

Highlights- This one applies mainly more for radio shows but the benefits of the Chris Moyles show having a podcast streamlining the shows content could help draw in audience with little time or specific interest in the show.

Don’ts and disadvantages:

Vanity broadcasting- This is where your citizen journalism can easily border into P/R or just someone just telling everyone why they love their on voice. An example of this could be John Tobin the Boston councillor who has a knack for public speaking enlisted the help of a video blogger friend to video him everyday before his re-election talking about a specific subject. Admittedly Barack Obama did this when he ran for president but this is a two edged sword and bloggers should be careful of the influence the have.

Coherence- Something mainstream media has mastered is keeping a general theme throughout their work, like Bargain hunt which is about producing the most profit out of a relic. An example would be Movie Bobs blog, it may swap for serious to light subjects on a regular basis though this has made him extremely popular on the internet creating intellectual debate.

Responsibilities/legal/ethics- As a great man once said with ‘Great power comes great responsibility’, surprisingly I found the  Lancaster BNP site had took the steps to conceal it’s posts unless your invited by the blog administrator, so this shows some responsible neticate despite your views on the BNP party. Also legally the internet is as difficult to police due to it’s vastness Ofcom don’t monitor the web except for varied media outlets.

Avoid the The Hyde Park corner syndrome- Opinion is all nice and may appeal to someone but it’s not just enough to be taken seriously, finding examples to back up your point, The Plymouth EDL blog has tried to do this by finding material of likely minded people, if the content is ethical is another question.

Mentioned blogs:

http://plymouthedl.wordpress.com/

http://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http://lancaster-freespeech.blogspot.com/

http://moviebob.blogspot.com/

Community expanded

So this week we expanded on the subject of community and how we define in terms of local and smaller communities.

After our initial discussion we came to the conclusion that smaller communities our being erased by advancements in communication as we move closer to the idea of a ‘Global village’. Aside from the positives of a better linked world from here to America we found many negatives. So examples included the idea that some people could go days without social communication and could easily disappear without anyone noticing for a while like an elderly person dying in their home and not being found for a few days.

Another theory presented was that smaller knit communities could encourage more socially acceptable behaviour since everybody knows everyone. This also relates to the ethical conduct of journalists, with smaller communities a journalist would have to be much more respectful to the community if they wanted to maintain a healthy amount of stories.

Something quite vital I learnt about the industry this week was the tier system, a set of categories which separated the types of media:

Tier 1: Public services, so for this country the BBC is the main example and possibly council based publications. In America the example would be PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).

Tier 2: Commercial radio- Examples of this would be Capital and Smooth FM. Media outlets which generate revenue from advertising.

Tier 3: Access/community radios- Smaller radio stations which are designed to be hyper local and serve a small specific area. Like Siren FM which broadcasts to the area of Lincoln.

Vital websites which are crucial to community or Tier 3 radio stations producing online content and general communication:

www.commedia.org.uk- Original called Community radio this website serves as a Google/Wikia site for community radio stations providing information about community radio stations in the UK.

www.podbean.com and www.podcast.com – These are podcast hosting websites which can used by practically anyone to create short podcasts on subjects like Sesame Street and Middlesbrough united. An interesting note on this would be that uploading podcasts should always be done in the mp3 format as wav. Files are to big from uploading. These website also include vodcasts (Video casts, essentially pod casts with moving images).

www.spreaker.com – Essentially Youtube but for sound, here you can create your own radio station online for free and broadcast online.

On another note I was surprised to find that they’re was another community radio station with links to Siren FM called Radio Hartlepool. It came into debate that this station was not technically a community radio station, despite Ofcom licensing it as one. What bought it’s classification in disrepute was the fact it’s broadcasted adverts and also didn’t feature any content related to it’s community area.

In my opinion this station could be seen as hybrid, as it features a hyper local target audience but attempts to behave in a more professional national serving manner but using Tier 2 conventions like themed hours, an example would be Numbers one at one.

Also I had a first eye account at a Tier 3 radio station which was Siren FM. Like most community radio stations it was small but busy with middle aged presenters to school children, an example of a community coming together.