Critical Reflection - Year 2 Semester 2

This semester I moved from being a member of the production team to the political reporter. I was a little bit apprehensive at first and missed my spot behind the vision mixer, but the following few weeks quickly changed my mind.

This semester our Alexa ranking increased massively going from 15,260 (figure from Alexa.com and correct on 06/02/13 at 13.08) to 12,025 (correct on 27/03/13 at 11.16) and peaking even higher throughout the semester. WINOL has a better Alexa ranking than any other student publication in the country, with the exception of TAB. TAB however is the work of several universities so they are not realistically comparable to the work we do on WINOL. Last semester our main student competitor was East London Lines from Goldsmiths University in London, however this semester their Alexa ranking was not even comparable to WINOL. For example on 13/03/13 at 11.19 their Alexa ranking stood at 43,367 whereas WINOL.com was much further ahead at 9,258.

 I believe the main reason behind this increase is down to social networking. Every member of the WINOL team plugs their work on both the official WINOL Twitter and Facebook accounts, and on their private and/or work accounts. We also keep our feeds active on the days leading up to the bulletin by tweeting about what we are doing for our packages, whether its uploading a picture of us filming on location, or just tweeting about an interview taking place. Nearly all of our guest editors mentioned just how important social networking is to news. Former student Paul Wood gave us advice on how to properly market WINOL, and Fleet Street Fox, Susie Boniface, advised us on how to utilise the internet using her own highly successful blog as an example. Simple things such as posting your tweets at a certain time can have an astounding effect on how many people will see it.

Having a Social Media Editor (Hannah Hayesmore) definitely helped promote WINOL as she was continually plugging all of our work and made sure WINOL could never be forgotten about. It was also helped by the fact that the features really took off this semester, with continually updated fashion, travel, music and arts websites. As features don’t particularly date, we can keep them on the front page to help our website appear active and current. This, alongside our “weekend news team” who updated the website with stories over the weekend, meant we could continually promote WINOL throughout the week and not lose our audience. This was a problem we had encountered last semester, we would have a surge of viewers on a Wednesday, but it would then die off for the rest of the week.

We were also very lucky to have the Eastleigh by-election unfold on our doorstep. This by-election was triggered by the huge scandal of MP Chris Huhne’s resignation after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice. This captured the attention of the nation so naturally it helped increase our audience as we covered the by-election from its very beginning.

During the weeks leading up to the election the WINOL website became a hub of political news and exclusive interviews. As the political reporter for WINOL this was a perfect opportunity for me to get some of my best news stories and really get a grasp of the local political landscape. Within a week I went from being the definition of a political half-wit, to a near expert on all of the main parties campaigning in Eastleigh. 

During the by-election most of the reporters abandoned their usual posts so we could cover as many aspects of the election as possible. Faith Thomas, Ellen Millard, Ben Hatton and Simisola Adebosin  each followed the campaign trail of one of the main four parties in the election; Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Labour and Conservatives. This helped WINOL gain contacts so we could get interviews with each of the candidates and get behind the scenes of their campaigns.

WINOL got thrown in with the big dogs as famous faces from parliament paid a visit to Eastleigh. I went with our political editor Louis O’Brian to film the Deputy Prime minister, Nick Clegg, visiting a college in Eastleigh. This was my first experience of a media scrum and it was more intense than I had ever imagined, but I managed to elbow my way in and get all of the footage I would need. Although we were unable to get our question in, I still managed to film him responding to interview questions from other publications, and fortunately everyone wanted to know the same thing; “what have the Lib Dems got planned in response to the Chris Huhne scandal?” I chose to pair the Nick Clegg footage with interviews I had recorded earlier in the week, with UKIP leader Nigel Farage and UKIP candidate Diane James. I would consider this to be my best package on WINOL and I received very positive feedback from both Angus Scott and our guest editor Chris Ship (ITV NEWS Deputy Political Editor) who described it as “excellent coverage”. The first few seconds of the VT were the most mentioned as the few seconds of natural sound left at the beginning made it seem professional and led into my voiceover well.  The only tip that was mentioned, and it is something that on reflection I wish I had done, is that I should have made reference to the irony that Nick Clegg was being shown around an apprentice mechanics after Chris Huhne’s speeding scandal.

This package also highlighted that not everyone I will interview during my time as a journalist will have been media trained. Diane James proved difficult to interview as she wouldn’t stand still, she kept edging closer to me as I interviewed her so she would go out of shot. Fortunately she gave us another opportunity for an interview so on this occasion I decided to film it as a sit down interview. This ended up working in our favour as I then edited it into a separate package, as an extended interview with the UKIP candidate. We then made sure to do this with the rest of the main party candidates, which proved quite popular.

Labour leader Ed Milliband, Conservative Boris Johnson, and the Prime Minister also paid a visit to Eastleigh and WINOL managed to cover them all. The by-election increased our audience massively, with the WINOL interview with Boris Johnson reaching nearly three thousand views on its own.

The lead up to the by-election was very time consuming as you were constantly out filming, either for your own package, or helping out with someone else’s, but it was also very rewarding. The perfect example of this was the Boorley Green/Botley housing development. This was a controversial topic in the by-election so I was eager to cover it. Housing developments are usually a story we avoid as they can make for a very dull package, however I was quite lucky as the Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings was at the housing meeting and she was very opposed to the plans.

Maria Hutchings by this point was notoriously hard to get hold of and all of the media were asking “where’s Maria?” We approached her before the meeting and her PR assistant stated she would not be available for interview until after the housing meeting once the decision had been made. This seemed reasonable so myself and Ellen Millard set up our camera to get our shots from within the meeting. Little did we know that it would drag on until 1am. Once the decision had been passed and the plans were approved, we approached Maria Hutchings for our interview, and after a lot of persuading and innocent looking faces, her PR assistant agreed. He was clearly not one hundred percent comfortable with the interview as he strongly warned us to only ask about the housing development. This was fantastic as WINOL hadn’t managed to interview her yet and she held a very strong view against the development which made for good sound bites. However this also provided one of my biggest regrets on WINOL. Hutchings was all over the news after a controversial statement about public schools not being good enough for her son, I knew I needed to question her on this. The question was in my head but annoyingly so was the PR man so I chickened out, and kept my questions strictly to the development. If I could go back to any moment in WINOL and change something, that would be it.

On the night of the by-election WINOL produced an election special, “The South Decides”, starting at 10pm and continuing until the result. This was a huge task for the production team as there were so many elements to consider. The time was split up between three presenters as it was going to be a long night so they needed to ensure everyone was at the top of their game. They also organised a variety of in studio guests, special packages, live news updates from the news room and an OB live from the count in Eastleigh. My role on the night was to report live from the count. We had practised and conducted run throughs with all of the equipment we would be using on the night and it was working flawlessly. However things did not run quite so smoothly on the night.

We were the first media to arrive at the count and we immediately took to setting up and testing our equipment. It all went downhill very quickly from there. As we don’t have an OB truck we had to report via Skype using a gun mic connected to the laptop and a HD webcam, this was a simple solution that had worked extremely well in rehearsals. But when it came to the night the laptop wouldn’t register the sound, and then failed to register the webcam. After hours of trying every solution possible the only one we could make work was Skype via an iPhone. This was the last thing we wanted to do but it was better to have something than nothing. We made the best of a bad situation and so did the production team back in the studio. I can only imagine how stressful it must have been for them but Nicole Collas made sure to keep us informed and the whole team helped our OB’s run as smoothly as possible.

Whilst at the count I was also interviewed by Sky News. I expected them to ask me about WINOL or our journalism course but instead they questioned me on the election and the party’s policies. Fortunately I had been following the by-election religiously so I could answer their questions, but it was still unbelievable terrifying.

Although it wasn’t perfect, the fact we even attempted to cover the whole election and have OB’s live from the count is a massive credit to the whole WINOL team, that as a student publication we could still be so ambitious.

 It may have felt like it, but the world didn’t stop turning for the by-election, and a lot of fantastic non-political news was reported by WINOL this semester. Christina Michaels gave us weekly court updates and a very harrowing report on the Jade Clark hit and run story. The heart breaking footage of her family’s appeal was very carefully handled and reported in a very dignified manner.

One of my most popular stories this semester ended up being one of my few stories completely unrelated to politics, the New Forest dog toxin. A mystery toxin in the New Forest had killed eight dogs over three months. After they got lesions on their legs and paws, they would then go into kidney failure and die. The source of the toxin is unknown, and since I reported on it, has gone on to kill several more dogs. I did a lot of research into this package as I wanted to get a grasp of just how serious the situation was and how much of a concern it was for dog owners.  I interviewed a vet investigating the toxin, who had treated a couple of the affected dogs. Unfortunately this interview came out grainy as the camera was on Lolux (night vision), however I still chose to use it as I felt it was necessary for the story. I then interviewed a dog owner walking in the New Forest and got some lovely cut aways of her dog playing.

I posted my package on Twitter and Facebook, the same way I would every week, and it was then shared by some local dog owners who knew people that walked their pets in the New Forest. I think the main reason this story was so popular is because it’s a local story with a big shock factor, people are mad about their pets so the minute they think they may be in danger they want to know about it.

Another big story for WINOL was the Budget which was announced on a Wednesday, so we turned that week’s WINOL into a “budget special”. On Wednesday morning I went to Westminster to report on the political side of the budget and Faith Thomas went to the Bank of England to cover the economic side. This was a very high pressured day as we had to get to London early in the morning to film our piece to cameras and conduct our interviews. I interviewed Liberal Democrat MP Mike Thornton, which worked out well as this meant we also could record a separate interview with him as a catch up since his victory in the Eastleigh by-election. We then had to rush back to Winchester, edit as much as we could on the train, and then finish our editing in the news room in time for it to go in the bulletin. By this point we were all very used to working under high pressure, but even then it was still a very stressful day for all those involved. I was very pleased with this package, despite its rushed edit, as I felt it looked very professional, set up in front of parliament discussing predictions with an MP.

Alongside my political role on WINOL I also maintained my role as radio news editor. My main focus this semester was to help train the first years to write news for radio. They would each come in for a day, write a few news stories, then produce and record a bulletin. Working on WINOL gets you used to a very high standard from your peers, and to no fault of the first years, sometimes my patience was tested as I wasn’t used to people not knowing exactly what they need to do. Unfortunately on several occasions I had to leave due to filming commitments so I would delegate to another member of the radio team. Radio was fairly restricted this semester as I really couldn’t dedicate as much time to it as I would have liked, and also the radio society were gearing up to make changes which we were not made aware of. Ideally I think WINOL needs its own separate radio streamer, or at least a better relationship with the society. Radio could be a fantastic asset to WINOL it just needs to be given a lot of time and effort for it to thrive in the same way that features did.

So much happened this semester it is impossible to mention it all, but the main highlight is how well everyone on WINOL worked as a team. Everyone has shared footage, spared their days helping others film, and playing chauffer to those who don’t have cars. I really enjoyed my role as political reporter and I felt my confidence grow as my work improved week by week. I think I have learnt more in this role than any other I have taken on during my time in WINOL and I am intrigued to see where it will go next.

WINOL Highlights

WINOL has covered a lot of big stories this year, so we decided to compile a special highlights edition to look back over our best packages.
For this special edition I edited the politics highlight package. This proved a lot harder than I expected as we simply had too much good footage from the Eastleigh by-election, so I struggled to pick and choose what should go in. In the end I decided to take a chronological approach to the package as they really told the story of the by-election and it was the best way to get as much footage in as possible. As the by-election was a collaborative effort of the whole team I couldn't give direct accreditation to each reporter for their footage as it would have just become a mess of names, but it really was a team effort.  

Unfortunately our usually presenter Harry Parkhill had to pop away on the Wednesday so I was asked to fill in on presenting. I was very nervous about this as I have very little experience presenting and it was all being filmed on location so I couldn't have an auto cue. However I tried my best to fill some very big shoes and I hope I didn't do WINOL too much of an injustice.

Totalitarianism - Revision Notes

Totalitarianism is all about control. HANNAH ARENDT argued that the 20^th century totalitarian regimes were completely different from anything that had come before.

Everything is in the state, the state controls everything and there is nothing outside of it. The aim is to completely strip away peoples individuality and undermine their humanity. Two methods to destroying individuality:
1) State Terror – Destroys their ability to act against the government
2) Ideology – Eliminates the capacity for individual thought and experience

Ideology is a type of specialist knowledge and is also used as justification for the authority of rulers. It is a way to avoid responsibility and gives people “total explanation of the past, the total knowledge of the present, and the reliable prediction of the future”. Ideology frees you of common sense and reality. The breakdown of a stable human world breaks the institutional and psychological barriers that normally set limit to what is possible, e.g. concentration camps. For Arendt when the Nazi’s denied the Jews citizenship it removed their humanity. Totalitarianism highlights the fragility of civilisation. If you control language you control thought.

Totalitarianism is so different from what has come before; it develops an entirely new political institution and destroys all political, legal and cultural traditions of the county. It transforms the classes into masses and destroys individuality. Because it’s so different from what has come before it’s difficult to predict their course of action.  

Some try to compare totalitarianism to tyranny, but the difference is that tyranny has no law, whereas totalitarianism believes in higher law. Totalitarianism defies all positive law (common, cultural law). Nazi Germany followed the law of nature, using biology as the basis of their laws. The race struggle and segregation of the Jews was based on DARWIN’S idea that man is a product of natural development. Whereas Stalin’s Communist Russia was based on MARX’S teleological view of history, that history is working towards something.

You do not have to be inherently evil to do evil things, Arendt calls this the banality of evil. An example of this is the Eichmann trial. Eichmann was a Nazi fugitive who stood on trial in Jerusalem. He provided transport for Jews across Europe to concentration camps. His defence was that he was just doing his job and he didn’t directly kill any Jews. Arendt takes an existentialist view to this in that he had a choice to make and as far as SARTRE is concerned, by not making a choice he is living in “bad faith”. Eichmann was just doing his duty and following the categorical imperative of KANT. But you can’t just sit back and be passive in your own life, you have to be accounted for, you have to choose.

The New Industrial State - Revision Notes

WEBER-
Mentions the “rise in bureaucracy”, this means we would be ruled by officials and they would gain authority through their charisma and then keep their power through legalities. Weber was quite anti-political, he was interested in power and why we follow rules set out by certain people.

The 1950’s and 60’s were a time of prosperity in America and Keynes was the god of economics.

KEYNES-
Keynes used the Great Depression as an example and a basis for his theory.  During a depression people will be forced to work for less because of a surplus in labour. Everyone will need a job but no one will have the money to buy the products. This means that demand will fall so businesses will supply less and need less labour. This can then result in either unemployment or very low wage as people will be desperate for any income they can get.
Keynes’ solution: print more money. By boosting the economy with more money, the government can give businesses subsidies to employ people. Or they can create government schemes that seem pointless e.g. digging holes and filling them in again.
The government should intervene when the economy slows because the private sector would not be able to invest enough.
This is known as military Keynesianism.
However Keynes “managed society” received a lot of criticism from both the far left and right. It has been referred to as a form of “soft totalitarianism”.

J.K. GALBRAITH – (The New Industrial State)-
During the 1950’s and 60’s Americans reached a new level of prosperity, whilst other parts of the world were struggling to rebuild from the devastation of World War 2.

Galbraith argues that the industrial system is run by the technostructure rather than business owners.  Technostructure= a few large corporations control 2/3rds of all economic activity, they are run by people from technocratic universities. The leadership of these organisations is run by economic planners, scientists, generals, security experts, propagandists and media maniuplators etc. These people are not some secret society, they are the fabric of the leadership level of society. Galbraith says they would all share the same training and the same outlook.

There is no aim to this system. It is essentially nihilistic, pragmatic “technological-bureaucratic”. It is extraordinarily violent, for example spending on nuclear weapons. Heidegger predicted it would reach a violent disintegration and said it was doomed.

Problems/Criticisms of the New Industrial State:

1. Increased role of the state

2. Inflation

3. Keynesian Military 

4. Destruction of profitability

Existentialism - Revision Notes

There is no point to anything. There is no right or wrong, no moral compass, it is all about choice. Choice is crucial to the existentialist point of view. It is the brave decision to do something even though it is utterly pointless. Existentialism is the agent for political change.

NIETZSCHE-
“God is dead and we have killed him” – this marks the end of certainty.
We are faced with a crisis and need something else to sustain us. Nietzsche thinks this crisis is a good thing because it means complete freedom!
It gives us the freedom to find value for ourselves as there is no hierarchy to tell us what is right or wrong. 

Our ships can at last be put out to sea in the face of every danger.
Human nature is not universal; people’s natures are different so they have different moralities. The Ubermensch overcomes what has so far defined us. The Ubermensch carves his own place in the world according to his will. The Ubermensch will define himself and ignore the rules.

HEIDEGGER-
Claims he isn’t an existentialist but is regarded as the father of existentialism.
Interested in what it means to exist and the problems of human life. What is being? He responds to this with “Dasein” (Being in the world).
Mainly attacks DESCARTES and his Cartesian dualism (mind and body). Heidegger thinks this is nonsense. How would these two things interact if my mind is one thing and my body another? How would I control my body and interact with the world?
Instead of consciousness, Heidegger simply talks about Dasein. This is our interaction with the world,  it denotes a certain amount of engagement. For Dasein to exist it must exist in the world, there is no Dasein without the world.
All we are is our interaction with the world, and we are defined by our choices. If you make and face your decisions then you are living an authentic life. If you follow social constructs then you are living an unauthentic life, you are a slave. You should not be defined by your facticity (your past).
We are thrown into the world, it is nothing but blind luck. There is no reason to it. You can re-create yourself, for existentialism your potential is just as important as where you are now.

SARTRE-
Existence precedes essence. We create our own purpose.
There is no guiding spirit, no teleological driving force, stuff just happens, good and bad, without reason. Heidegger’s existentialism is right wing and Sartre’s is much more left.
The life of a person is not determined in advance. The only thing I cannot escape  is my right to choose. This is frightening so people try to avoid this which is “bad faith”. We are not defined, we define ourselves.
A table is a table because it has an essence, human beings have no essence, there is no one way it has to be, as it is possible for us to change or reflect on our behaviour.

Existentialism is the reaction to the realisation there is no reason to anything.

Logic and Mathematics - Revision Notes

Natural Numbers=Words used to count things

3 Basic Approaches to Number:
1) They are natural and can be empirically observed (MILL)
2) They are institutions of a perfect and harmonic platonic world (PYTHAGORAS, DESCARTES)
3) They are abstract logical objects, constructed purely from syntax (FREGE)

1) Numerical Naturalism:
Stone age tribes appear to be able to judge simple empirical plurality. “one thing”, “more than one thing”, “lots of things” are all the numbers they need. If you walk into a room and see one person you don’t physically count that one person, you can just categorise it in terms of plurality. Most people can get up to six or even seven before they physically would have to count how many people there are.  A large number like 7,246 is just a predicate symbol of more basic symbols, organised according to known syntax.  Realistically you would just say “there are a lot of people” or “the room is full”.
MILL went beyond his predecessors claiming that not only all science, but also all mathematics is derived from experience. The definition of each number contains the assertion of a physical fact. Every number (2, 3, 4 etc.) denotes physical phenomena and connotes a physical property of that phenomena. E.g. “two” denotes a pair of things, and connotes what makes them pairs. Two apples are physically distinguishable from three apples. They are a different visible and tangible phenomenon.

Mill doesn’t make it clear exactly what the property is that is connoted by the name of a number, and Mill also admits that the mind has some difficulty distinguished between 103 apples and 104 apples.

2) Pythagoreanism/Platonism:
Prime numbers are pre-existing, eternal, supernatural forms.  They are necessary preconditions for consciousness. This goes against KANT’S theory “existence is not a predicate”, for Platonism existence is a predicate of numbers.  Prime numbers exist in a non-human dimension, just like the perfect form of an object exists in the realm of the forms. These things are eternally true.
There is a special religious significance to the number three. Three is the magic number.  Rule of thirds, three part drama, three chord triad etc.
PYTHAGORAS and all the Greeks only regarded plurals as natural numbers, so began counting with two. “One” and “not one” were different logical categories. FREGE later points out this can cause a problem in logic, “there is no one on the road” does not mean the road is empty.

PROBLEM OF NOTHING AND ZERO – Introduction of zero came from India after the fall of Rome.  This is difficult because zero=nothing=something. This falls under ARISTOTLE’S law of contradiction. LEIBNIZ solves this law of contradiction by stating that an object can contain its own negation. Modern philosophers of mathematics have now asserted that zero is in fact a natural number.

3) Numbers as Logical Objects:
The problem of nothing and zero remained unsolved for 1000 years until FREGE.
He links logic and arithmetic in an overall system of philosophy of language. He attempted to demonstrate the logical basis for numbers therefore refuting Platonism. He also rejected MILL’S numerical empiricism, you cannot find zero in nature.
FREGE’S method:
Axiom= all things that are identical are equal to themselves (definitional, a priori, deductive truth).
- All things which are pairs are identical to other pairs.
- We assign a nominal symbol to this class of pairs (e.g. two)
- “One” is the class of all things not associated with other things.
- “Zero” is the class of all possible objects that are not equal to themselves.  “Null class”
- Therefore “zero” is defined into existence as a logical object.

Existentialism and Phenomenology Revision Notes

KANT-
Existence precedes essence. Consciousness is not proof of existence. Consciousness just is, it doesn’t cause anything and isn’t caused by anything.  You cannot stand outside of consciousness. This is the rejections of DESCARTES’ Cogito Ergo Sum (I think therefore I am), consciousness is not individual, there is no “I”, so Descartes theory makes no sense.

HUSSERL-
Consciousness comes in 2 kinds:
1)Physical (colours + smells)
2)Mental ( thoughts with content)
At first tried to link maths with psychology, but this didn’t work and received a lot of criticism. E.g. FREGE criticised it stating maths is a public concept but mental events are private so maths can’t be based within the mind.
Logic cannot be derived from psychology; psychology is the home of philosophy. Science and Logic require factual enquiry.
Mental Phenomena have Intentionality; thoughts are directed to objects. Content and processor are both essential for thought. “I think of a cat” the cat is the content and I am the processor.

Husserl then took this further to draw a distinction between psychology and epistemology through a practice called “phenomenology”.
Phenomenology= To study consciousness in a purely logical way, no metaphysics.
Whether you’re thinking about a real thing or a fantasy it doesn’t matter as your intentionality is the same.
We can only speculate about the external world.
Imminent perception= immediate acquaintance with my own thoughts (basis of phenomenology)
Transcendent perception= perception of my past thoughts and other people’s minds.

Only consciousness has absolute being, everything else depends on consciousness for their existence.

HEIDEGGER-
Phenomenology is too half hearted. The terms used to describe it e.g. “content” weren’t found in consciousness but were just taken from earlier philosophy. Heidegger wanted to re-invent the philosophical vocabulary so we could discuss the term “being” without worrying about what it used to mean in previous philosophical examples.

Dasein = Being in the world.
Thinking is only one way of engaging with the world, acting on it is just as important. Dasein is not about thinking, it is about caring and is purely instinctive. It is relative to the person ad can be entirely ungrounded or even dependant on mood. It involves complete absorption within a task. Dasein is the unfolding of a life, your potential is just as important as your achievements.
Reflection on past= guilt
Reflection on future = dread
Only when you completely care and are absorbed by the task at hand do you have Dasein.
“Authenticity relies on complete absorption within a task”. You should aim towards the “authentic life”

Through his use of Dasein he became the father of existentialism.
Existentialism= we are not just members of a species bound by universal law, we are what we take ourselves to be.
This can be scary and can result in unthinking conformity, but to do so is a betrayal of your Dasein.
Existence is boredom, “the problem of being”. The opposite of boredom is Dasein. Within infinite time there would be infinite boredom.

It is all about choice.

SATRE-
Also thought that Husserl had not taken phenomenology far enough. Husserl had accepted the Cartesian Ego, but Satre says there is no thing.  The “self” belongs to the transcendent world, when I do something I do not think of myself, it’s only upon reflection that I become the object.

Being underlies all the different things we encounter in consciousness – we sort things in order of what interests us and what will be of use to us.
We are the only beings for which our being comes before our essence. E.g. an oak tree has a life plan and cannot deviate from this plan, it has no choice. But we do have this choice, it’s up to you what kind of person you want to be. Human life is not pre-determined, but this choice can be scary! So we try to hide from it by trying to adopt some pre-determined role given to use by society or religion. But Satre says that doing this is bad faith! You must embrace the freedom.

New Journalism Seminar Reading

Radical Chic – Tom Wolfe.

This is the epitome of New Journalism, delving into great detail and describing every possible moment. Wolfe describes every detail of the party down to the hors d'oeuvres (appetizers). By giving such a lengthy description Wolfe highlights the ironies within the event, but it seems almost unintentional as he’s stating things so matter of fact.

The Black Panthers, who are supposed to be these extreme revolutionaries, are sipping drinks and eating nibbles in a posh penthouse suite. It’s not quite the image you would conjure up if you thought of them. Wolfe’s style of writing is similar to what you would expect from a feature, giving the reader a real feel for the room and the atmosphere.

In this time of revolution a lot of peoples focus seemed to be on not upsetting or offending the Black Panthers, as Wolfe goes into great length about the importance of having a white server that evening.  The thought of not having a servant is “unthinkable” to these people, it is seen as a necessity to their lifestyle.

Wolfe appears to take great joy in highlighting the fact there is still a divide within the party, not to do with race, but to do with status. Those attending the party are still concerned with what is thought of them by the servers and the doormen.

Serious issues and the agenda of the Black Panther movement is discussed and Wolfe chooses to record this in real voice colloquial language. This adds to the detail and really gives the reader a feel for the guests at this event.

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved – Hunter S. Thompson

Thompson, like Wolfe, gives you a step by step construction of each scene in great detail, really giving the reader every inch of colour that can be added. But unlike Wolfe, Thompson gives a better insight to the character of the narrator, he is the main focus, whereas in Wolfe’s he’s simply an observer.

It also gives you an insight into the life of a new journalist as he mentions his journal which becomes whiskey covered and mud stained as he keeps it with him through every moment of the drink fuelled weekend. Thompson also sticks by the use of colloquial, true to life speech “naw, naw”.

Kentucky Derby is set in the same time frame as Radical Chic so the revolutionary, rebellious feeling is still very strong. The fact the narrator continually refers to the use of mace shows that there was an element of fear at this time. 

SKY News Interview

At the count of the Eastleigh By-election, I was interviewed by SKY News on the election so far.

New Journalism

The Penny Papers marked the very beginning of American journalism. They were usually funded by politicians and businesses so this brought up suspicions regarding their neutrality. During the mid-nineteenth century objectivity became more of a factor. The associated press need objectivity to be profitable.

The first “new journalism” was the Yellow Press in the late nineteenth century. There was a big rival between the New York Journal and the New York World. The press used “sensationalism”  - huge emotive headlines with big striking pictures, not too dissimilar from The Sun on Sunday. They focused on exclusive, dramatic, romantic stories to really attract their audience and draw them in. Many referred to Yellow Journalism as New Journalism without a soul. All the stories were about sin, sex and violence.

The 1960s was a very turbulent time, the great hope of JFK was destroyed with his assassination in 1963. There was also the disastrous war in Vietnam and there was a lot of controversy surrounding the draft, Muhammad Ali refused to be conscripted. The baby boom also had a big effect. It created a powerful youth culture as the baby boomers hit their teens in the 1960s. It was a big period of revolution; the sexual revolution with  the pill becoming available, civil rights, and black power. LSD was introduced by the CIA and was used to access the altered thinking of the counter culture. Universities became the centre of radical politics. Music was central to the culture, it was a full frontal attack on the norms. It was drug fuelled and anti-establishment, protest songs were very popular.

The ideas of the time were informed by existentialism. Heidegger’s “authenticity” and Sartre’s “bad faith”. The key ideas are freedom and choice. For example Fanons view of a path to freedom via accelerated choice (i.e. violence). For Fanon, the act of violence is essentially an extreme expression of choice. It is choice with a real immediate impact. There is a real anti-establishment feeling, “there is a policeman inside your head, he must be destroyed”. This idea seeped into journalism. Journalists began to question whether basing stories on press releases and press conferences was really objective. Journalists began to focus on plots, quotes, settings, feelings and images, whilst still being extremely thorough with their facts. This alternative journalism was personal and expressed an individual point of view.