The 'Political' english language.

George Orwell wrote an essay about the English language and how contemporary English language has just become manipulative and very 'political.' Orwell said that political English was simply created to "make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Basically, to manipulate voters into thinking that the politicians were whiter than white and being truthful even if they were the most immoral of people. But he argued that this manipulative creation had spread to those that didn't even need to decorate lies, the general population. I think this is true 100%, journalism has taught me that school teacher English as it has been called by our lecturers, is designed to make you decorate the basics. Fill out a sentence. Rather than just get to the point. The point of a sentence is to provide information to your reader, audience, whatever. But how can you do this when half of your readers don't know what you are talking about! By using 'political English' a writer can distract himself from the purpose of writing in the first place, constantly trying to make what he is saying sound interesting, controversial or intelligent and drown the information in a sea of over complicated, alienating bullshit.

Orwell in his essay "Politics and the English Language", lays out six rules to avoid political English language:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
   

Even Orwell said that these bad writing habits can be easily picked up by anyone. He said that he had even committed the same bad habits that his essay was against! So why is it so easy to pick up these bad habits. In a society where most jobs, schools and even people require us to be intelligent it is easy for us to cover our basic/sloppy ideas and transform them into something brilliant by decorating the idea with elaborate language. I am also guilty of doing this!
I think developing these bad habits goes way back to the schoolroom. Teachers were always pushing you to use descriptive language and forcing you away from the basic words, "what is wrong with the word but", what's wrong with umbrella words? Why can we not just say what we think. That is the purpose of a word, to show exactly what you mean. Why should I point at a wall and go "that solid object formed of a red stone that prevents access" when I can just say, "that wall that stops me getting in". Teachers were always handing me back essays with 'describe this in more detail', why? She's sad. That's how she feels now please get stuffed! I don't want to pick up a paper and read a pompous article about a load of facts. I want the facts and that is what Orwell is saying. Lets not have unnecessary words that take away the feeling of the article/story just so that a writer can dress it up. Lets leave that to the politicians!

WINOL - The new term

So, a new year a new module. I know it is a bit late to start blogging but I thought I would get back into it. I have sat down so many times and just had complete writers block! Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Starting our second year we are now part of the team that produces WINOL - Winchester News Online - a university based news channel that brings the local news from all over Winchester to the people that take an interest. Not many right?
Although I didn't think that WINOL was going to be as big as BBC news or any other news channel for that matter I still didn't feel confident enough in being in front of or behind the camera. So I decided to opt for a features job - more specifically - the features role of people and celebrity. I know what you're thinking... "People and celebrity? In Winchester!" Yes I know that when you walk down the street you're hardly likely to bump into Kate moss or Peter Andre but I had to make the best of it!

So people and celebrity. What was I going to do. Who could I possibly use? Then I realised, WINOL is a university based news channel, with a majority of the audience being staff and students. So why not just used well recognised people from the university, people who everyone knew but wouldn't necessarily be able to talk to everyday. People like the student union president or the DJ's of well known university events! So that is where my idea came from. I decided every week that I would do a feature interview on the people whose names were known but not necessarily what they were like or what they did. Similar to a celebrity.
Who would be my first victim! I only came up with the idea at the features meeting and when the editor asked me who I was going to interview I panicked... "I haven't actually got anyone... I could ask the DJ at LKD (another student event)?" So that's what she put me down to do and to have it in by 6pm on the following day! So I rushed home to try and get in contact... but did not hear anything back. Then my friend put me in touch with Jimmy Weighall the student union president. He asked me if I was available to do it right there and then... of course I said yes! So I rushed up to the union armed with a digital camera and no questions. Great!
Luckily on the way I thought of some questions, just the basic get to know you questions though, stuff about his role and about how he felt doing the job bla bla bla. From doing that interview Irealised in the next one I needed a few 'curve balls' questions that would cause a bit of panic. After all, if a interview isn't interesting... no one is going to read it right?
Well I wrote up the interview in the style of a magazine. The standard question and answer format but after talking to Chris (my lecturer) I realised it wasn't enough. I was writing for a feature not the news, so I had to be creative and somehow convey myself through the article. He told me to write it as though I was going on some sort of adventure of discovery to include my own opinions and thoughts as well as the interviewee. So in my future interviews this is something I will take on board. I will be creative and put an element of myself in the interview. So... all I have to do now is re write my original interview!

If you want... take a look at WINOL every Wednesday! The team do a really good job!

www.winol.co.uk

Its a shame..

Once again a football match between Millwall and West Ham breaks out into violence with an alleged stabbing. Unfortunately for the players all their hard work will be over shadowed by their uncontrollable 'fans' violent outbreak at the match on Tuesday night.

West Ham's 3 - 1 victory will once again be pushed to the back of peoples minds as predictable 'match reports' begin with the violence that ended the game rather than anything to do with the actual match.
Football hooliganism in my opinion should be made thing of a past, in a society accepting of such violence how can we ever hope to deter youth away from such things as knife culture and bullying when its going on every weekend at such a thing as a common sports match?
Big burly men beating the hell out of eachother around children and women are not my idea of good upstanding people, and they're setting bad examples for younger men (and women) to follow.
So... well done west ham... Let down by your fans again.

The Great Drug Debate!

I know it probably isn't the most positive item to kick start with, but after reading a few items I found it quite interesting on how people react to the subject. Not just drugs, I mean what people think should be done with them, or how the entire industry should be dealt with. To legalise or not to, this is the great debate.
Many argue that legalising drugs would ultimately lead to having some control over the trade. There would be no drug lords/barons, drug related killings and people would not have to worry what the drugs were being made of as they could be made legally. Other drug related crimes would also decline as being created in a controlled state would mean that money associated with it could also be controlled... similar to alcohol in that it is created in a controlled area and prices are controlled. However, would the legalisation of drugs not paint us the picture that taking drugs is an acceptable thing to do? Or would legalistaion make it easier for addicts to "get clean" because some of the moral issues associated with taking drugs would be made redundant making it less of a taboo in society thus making being an addict easier to admit to.
There are many moral issues linked with the legalisation of drugs, as there are with any law. I know its easy for me to say "even if they were legal I wouldn't take it" because I know about the moral issues and the negative aspects of drugs. However, if drugs were to be legal, our children would know nothing of the moral issues that they are linked with. Would drugs be to them how alcohol is to many of us now? Instead of binge drinking... Would there be binge drug abuse? The illegal stamp that drugs carry make these substances the ultimate taboo, there are arguments over what classes drugs should be let alone whether they should be legal or not. There is a reason drugs are illegal just as their are reasons for age restrictions on other substances like alcohol.
There are pro's and cons to both arguments, but as it stands it should be a long time before any decision is made. Both parties need to be considered, victims of the already out of control drugs trade and the potential victims that stand to suffer if drugs were to be legalised.

Meeting Someone Who Lost It All..

Whilst out filming for our television news day at "The Big Sleepout" - a charity event that aids the homeless - We met and interviewed a man who literally had and lost it all.
Ed Mitchell had been a 30 year journalist working at various institutions including the BBC, a famous face amongst journalists and at one point earned £100,000 a year.
The economic climate and debt eventually took its toll, and Ed lost everything, including his family. For most of the year that he spent homeless he slept rough and told us "when your sleeping rough, there is no way out."
It proved to me, in our time of economic struggle, that the recession in fact DOES hit everyone, whether dramatically or not it is a great time of struggle where people need to stick together. Ed told us that it was "by a miricle" that he got out of it and not many homeless people have the same luck. Without the christian homeless charities and night shelters he would never have survived. An example of society pulling together to help others in a time of great struggle. So shouldn't our government instead of putting money into thier back pockets be pulling together with the rest of society to get us out of this time of desperation.
Ed Mitchell said if there was an important thing he got out of his suffering it was that he now has "no fear" and that after losing everything and coming back from it he has so much more confidence and doesn't worry about hitting rock bottom.
It was scary to realise that even those who could be sitting on the highest perches one day could have the troubbles of scraping around in the dirt the next.
His story was really interesting and inspiring and he was a lovely man to talk to. I'm glad I had the fortune of meeting him!

Links

These are a few links that may be useful!


http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk

The Great Radio Debate!

The recent opinions of radio presenter James O'Brien definately landined him in a bit of hot water with not only Frank Lampard but a fair few others aswell! It made me think that Frank Lampard was perfectly within his rights to defend himself just like any other father divorced from his wife and without his children. I should know, my parent aren't together and I still see my dad, he still does pretty much everything for his kids. Times are different, marraige is no longer taken the way it was forty years ago. In a society where more women are opting for a baby over a husband, its unlikely that many children will live with both parental units in the same home. Why should that make a man "scum"? Its very appropriate for a man in a family situation to say "I would fight tooth and nail to keep my kids" but until they're in a situation where the children are to be with both parental units then its difficult to imagine what you would do in that situation.
Personally I don't think there should be this stigma attatched to single parents. Many fathers work hard to take care of their children without seeing them everyday! I think that O'brien was also extremely hypocritical. When interviewed about the whole situation he said that their had only been a reaction to what had happened because Frank Lampard was "this famous footballer", however, O'brien only explicitly commented on his situation because it was in the newspaper, he therefore exploited the same fame at which he was so aggrivated about.
I completely agree that he is entitled to express his opinion, and as he rightly said, it is a radio show and people are able to call in at any time to express their own views but I don't believe that he should have made the 'attack' so personal or so insulting. Thats just mindless name calling!

"Seize the time"...

This is exactly what anti globalisation activists plan to do on saturday in London. Thousands of demonstrators including anarchists are going to flood the heart of the city to protest against financiers who are blamed for dragging the economy into recession.
They are hoping to promote an 'anti fatcat' climate amongst those afected the most by the finiancial state of Britain. The protest is against the financial system.
Some of the groups have been making the point that whilst people are losing their jobs whilst fat cat bank bosses still get to keep their gross bonus payments. I have to say I agree with them.
With the G20 summit arriving in London on the 2nd of the demonstrators are using it as an oppertunity to gather together a large amount of people and make a difference.
Some people think that the demonstrations will be overshadowed by riots and violence and are urging people not to go down there as their attempts to change things for the good will only be linked with the violence of the riots.
Police have already made plans in order to keep the protests under control and keep damages to a minimum.

Angry Britain

Parents of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen spoke out against Britain saying that it has become a country of anger selfishnesness and fear. The same time this appears so does a story about how teachers are demamding that they get the same amount of pay for a four day week rather than five, in this, a time where the rest of Britain struggles to stay afloat of the financial crises.
How much could this possibly prove what Jimmy Mizens parents have had to say. Youths are becoming out of control, businesses are liquidating and in a time where the country should be pulling together the most we are letting eachother down. Britain has always prided itself upon fair play, civility, manners and fairness, how could we lose that so quickly.
Children killing other children, children getting pregnant, banks out for all they can get, people out for all they can get. It used to be that you would only fear walking down a street late at night, lonely, dark. Now you can barely walk down to your local cornershop at 10 am on a saturday without getting a mouthful of abuse from some twelve year old in clapped out trainers smoking two cigarettes at once while his "girlfriend" rolls down the street pushing a pram. "Its working class culture" - since when? If my dad had ever given a mouthful of abuse to a woman walking down the street my grandad would have showed him what it felt like not to be able to sit down for a month. Time was when even police would give kids a clip round the ear and you respected them for it. Now its all "wha' you gonna do abaaat it?" because police are too afraid that the girl or boy they've just approached may have a knife on them.
No, its not working class culture, its a lack of respect culture. A lack of respect for elders, for ourselves, for our society. How many more teenagers have to kill eachother before people sit up and take note. Fahri has to serve a minimum sentence of fourteen years. By the time he gets out he may be about 34, 35, he'll get married probably have children if rehabillitation works. What sort of punishment is that? He took away someones life and should have the priveliages of life taken from him. He should have had a life sentence.
If people continue to let people off because of how young they are then nothing will ever changed, and the civility and fair play nature of this society will dissappear, along with any respect that anyone has for eachother.

WellWorths... Was the pick n mix well worth the money?

Reading an article on a woolworths store reopening as Wellworths, I looked at the headline "Pick 'n' Mix is back as Woolies store reopens as Wellworths" at that moment a single thought crossed my mind. How gutted must the person who paid over £14, 500 for what they thought was the LAST bag of woolworths pick and mix!? I know. The store has changed its name, but the sweets are still the same. The shop is "identical" inside, and everyone knows it used to be woolworths! I know it is really cruel but it made me laugh. It was done for a good cause and everything, it is just really funny. Then again, it wasn't far off what the store ACTUALLY charged for their pick n mix was it!
Despite that little kick in the teeth, the second thought was how good the manager of the new store was she hired back all twenty two of the staff who lost their jobs when woolworths closed down. It this time of recession and 'doom and gloom' stories like this are quite uplifting. There is always light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dim it may be.
Everyone was quite upset when woolworths went, and now there is this identical store with the good old pick n mix and toys! Great! Good luck to it!

Politics... Some funny things

I don't claim to know much about politics. Its probably why I find the lectures quite interesting, because i'm learning alot of new things. In our most recent lecture I was made aware to many things that made me think some political aspects are actually quite funny!
Some of the parties like the NIMBY's for instance or the "Not In My Back Yard" parties. These are pretty much the elderly generation who think change is fine as long as the change stays a million miles away from them. The example chris gave was that they'd think wind farms were great... as long as they weren't in their back yards! The first thing that popped into my mind, "wouldn't you just love to put wind farm near these people JUST to make them angry?" Cold I know, but if your not thinking the same thing then your pretty odd. Can you really call this a political party? Although they are part of local government rather than Whitehall, they don't actually create movements for the good of society. In my opinion they are more like a pressure group, putting a stop to something they disagree with rather than debating something that might do society a bit of good.
Another aspect that is quite comical and obviously gets under a few peoples skin is what is known as "the West Lothian question". Basically it refers to how a Scottish politician can debate and vote on things that will affect people living in England, but not the people living in Scotland. How fair is that? So a Scottish politician may have voted for tuition fees to apply to the University's in England even though they don't apply to the University's in Scotland. This aspect is probably THE definition of political correctness. How ironic!

Being Selfish..

Although a morbid subject, a recent death, made me realise a little bit more about myself. Not that many people read my blog anyway, so for anyone reading this, sorry for such a depressing subject!
I was always very close with my grandad. Having been so lucky as to grow up into my adult life with BOTH sets of grandparents made me realise that I was luckier than most. I'm not sure why, but, myself and my brother Luke, always felt like our grandparents were indestructable. I suppose that meant we sort of, always thought they would be there. It was the best thing, being kids, and going to see nans and grandads. You grow up though don't you. You find yourself getting busier and busier, before you know it, your seeing nans and grandads on maybe special occasions. Don't get me wrong. I'm not on some guilt trip tormenting myself, I just wish i'd spent more time with him. He was such an amazing character! Schoolboy demeanor, Frank Sinatra loving, charmer, who loved and cared for his grandchildren. Telling my dad this, I started to cry, amidst the sobs, there were words about an empty space at the dinner table as I had always sat next to him. Sure there were little digs and jobes at my mum for being from manchester, but he did love her.
Then my dad said something to me. "He's probably watching you know. Laughing at you, he's not crying. We're crying because of our loss, because, he won't be a part of OUR lives any more. How selfish is that" this followed by a little bit of a laugh. I realised then, that is why people always say "when I die, please don't grieve for me" because we're not greiving for them. We're grieving for ourselves. Its not bad, I don't mean that. I just think that thats why a life should be celebrated. My grandad lived a long, fun (and sometimes difficult) life. His favourite little saying was "I don't care what the weatherman says, If the weatherman says its raining" maybe we should all be like that. There will always be rain in our lives, I guess its whether we choose to stay inside and avoid it, rather than face it with a big red umberella and wellies LOL! I don't want to sound like, a wise old egg, I just can't think of any other way to put it across. I will miss him. I will miss him in my life, at my birthdays, wedding, (hopefully graduation), because he was the one that pushed me the most, I don't think I would have gone to university if not for my dad and grandad. I'll always remember our last conversation,
"How's university, doing well I hope."
"Yeah its good, i'm trying my best anyway, I seem to be doing alright"
"So.. We can expect great things from you then"
"Maybe... Hopefully"
"Not hopefully, definately"

I'll always love my grandad, its selfish of me to say i've lost him, I haven't lost him. Even though there will be no new words. I'll have all the best words from him always!
Thanks grandad!
xxx

Somethings Wrong Here...

Having a conversation with a friend i'm convinced that younger teenagers are out of control. After the shocking revelation about the thirteen year old father and his fifteen year old girlfriend, another story has come out about two more fifteen year olds who have become mother and father to two twins, a seventeen year old who is expecting triplets. What is going on? Not only this, but little Alfie is now walking round in a jumper on which is printed "I'm the daddy... If not f**k you". Are his parents for real? Letting him advertise the fact that this society has let him down.
These kids cannot be responsible enough to have children can they?. Conceiving at ages 12-16, they clearly don't have a clue. What will it take for people to sit up and think, "hmmm something's not right here." I'm not some sort of prude or anything, but its sad thinking that these kids are going to grow up and realise they never had a childhood. Although how much of a childhood can you have growing up in their gang and knife culture. It is like they have a choice between one wrong and another - highlighting everyones opinion about a broken Britain. This is not about having abortions, it is about these kids who should NOT be conceiving children at the age of twelve in the first place. If they aren't responsible enough to use contraception then they can hardly be trusted with a baby! Society has really let these kids down, lack of sexual education? Parents who are not strict with their children anymore? Or maybe just the lack of something to do for children? It could be put to anything, but maybe if something was done, rather giving them so much publicity this crises may come to an end.
Forget about the recession, that will dissappear in time, shouldn't first priority go to the kids in this country, the next generation? This is something that is getting worse. It will not go away. It will not get better. If these children are going to act out this poor imitation of adulthood, then maybe they should be treated as such. A "family" that DO NOT support themselves (let alone children) should have their children taken off them and giving to someone who can care for them properly. An example needs to be set, standards need to be made. Society needs to help the youth in todays society. The future of Britain doesn't look good, our fast food nation is becoming a crises.
I'm not sure about anyone else, but isn't teenage preganancy becoming a little bit of a joke now?

Empiricism&Apriori Reasoning.

I'm not going to lie. I absolutely dreaded the politics lecture, from the second I found out it was the next module. Politics is definitely not a subject i'd slip into my 'strength' catagory. It isn't that I don't like it, I just find it a difficult concept to talk about! However, it is key in understanding the way our society works, and I appreciated the opportunity to know more!
Having missed the first lecture due to personal events, I could not help thinking that I was off to a brilliant start. I probably would not understand what Chris was talking about, but I would soldier on none the less.
Empiricism, a complicated word, but yes! I understand the meaning. Although a very basic (very, very basic) understanding I was surprised at how much the topic interested me. I do to a certain extent agree with the argument. In this modern society we are a very much 'seeing is believing' culture. That is what I understand empiricism to be, an ideology that can be observed or experienced directly. You know, an idea that can be supported by evidence.
An example of an empirical argument would be that the amount of benefits being given out has increased. There is sufficient evidence to support this. With the decline in economic activity, many companies have shut down and many jobs have been cut. The outcome of this being that many people have now been left with no option other than to apply for jobseekers allowance.
My understanding of A priori is that it is reasoning that cannot be proven as true or false until such an event occurs that proves it to be true or false. A good example that Chris gave was David Icke and his belief that the the 'rulers' were actually lizards or extra terrestrial race. Due to the fact that there is no evidence to prove otherwise there is only reasoning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctIpUmJjkAs - Whether you believe it or not is upto you!
An example I could give of A Priori reasoning is that of "ghosts" or "witchcraft". There is no evidence to prove that any of these do not exist yet there is no 'real' evidence that they do. We're lead into a state of mind that perhaps doubts that 'true' paranormal activity exists because of such people as mediums and ghosthunters. Until there is any evidential proof it is upto the man as to what he believes. Also in regards to witchcraft it is no longer dominant in society where religion is no longer dominant. In many instances, "witches" were only witches if they were practicing something other than the dominant religion. So many people may argue that although it may appear that it does not exist it may not be defined in the same way as it was 200 years ago.
My attitude to Empiricism? Although I mostly agree with the view that 'seeing is believing' there are some instances that blur the black and white lines. With regards to the A Priori argument that I gave earlier, if there is no factual evidence to support that there is no paranormal actuvity, then surely men must have a 'spirit' of somekind? Then the definition of the empirical economic man would be untrue.

Narrow Minded....

I've met alot of people over perhaps the last 15 years. Not sure about the first three (being shoved around from pillar to post by your mum is not something i remember.) I've met such a wide variety of people, many different backgrounds, many different looks on life. I say now, the people that are a joke to me the most. Narrow minded, hypocritical people that judge other people because they are a little bit different to them. I am not just talking racism or whatever. I am talking about right down to the way people talk. A battle between the middle class and working class. Hello? Get over yourselves. Just because you pronounce every little detail or a word you think that your intelligent and those who don't talk like you are stupid or common? Well how naive are you? Just because i was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and was probably someone your mother called a "latch key kid" does not make me any less educated that you. YOUR A JOKE. You know what makes me laugh the most, the people that hang around with the narrow minded people... you're even worse!! You listen to these people talking about how these people are this and that. Then when their backs are turned, you'll go and be all nice to that person, when it suits you! To be honest, i'm over the whole being spoken to when suited. How about I give YOU, MY attention when it suits ME. I'm really sorry that i'm not everything you want me to be, but i have much better things on my time than to worry about your opinion, like having a life? Just stop judging people and arguing with people and take a good look at yourself, you probably have one or maybe two people that you actually like? How are you going to go through life with a narrow mind and open yourself up to new experiences and new people. I'm not stupid. I'm not silly. I'm not COMMON. I'm from the south east of London. As are my family, as are my closest friends. I'm at University, doing a degree and I have many friends. I don't go through life screwing people over, and before you think anything, there is a fine line between bitching and helping someone out when you think they're in trouble.