A football chant take on the eurovision song contest song for this year! Really made me chuckle. Thought i would share...

BUT... Even if we don't win on saturday..

One thing is for sure... This summer. The world cup. Watching it with my fam and mates. Epic.

Come on ENGLANDDDD!!!

The Outdsider... Meursault

Meursault in the novel 'The Outsider' is an existentialist hero. He displays all of the characteristics of the existentialists such as a complete uncaring for society and its moral values or even his own life.
In the story Meursault kills a black Algerian man in a French economy simply because he is bored. In this time, the court and jury are completely racist so they are uncaring about the facts of the murder and are in fact quite prepared to let Meursault off. BUT he has to go through the normal social/moral conventions of being tried and then apologising (recognising) for his crime and saying that he didn't mean it. He is even told that he should use being upset at the recent death of his mother as an excuse.

He clearly refuses.

He doesn't care about the death of his mother, something that upsets the jury greatly. He doesm't care about what he did and he certainly isn't sorry. He believes that the universe does not care about life and death or his life or anyones so it doesn't really matter.
Needless to point out he is viewed as evil in our western society and convicted of his crime and is later sentenced to execution!
Mersault although unconventional is definately a prime example of existentialism. Existentialist (like I have said in a previous blog) believe in existence preceding essesnce. Meaning that, we re born just as we are, no moral constraints. No laws, nothing. So why should we live any other way. Existentialists live from moment to moment, where moral vaues always change depending on the sitution. Meursault lived moment to moment, and this particular moment he was so bored he was driven to kill someone.
A prime existentialist.

Keynes - Digging and filling holes - Pointless or Perfect?

John Maynard Keynes was an economist who completely changed the face of the economy and indeed the capitalist system. But whether for better or worse is still debated in todays modern society. He completely rejected current economical theories like the free market.
His main theories are on money, what it is and what it does. He completely overturned any conventional views of money that it was a commodity and that it had a price based on supply and demand.
Therefore in conventional terms, the price of money would be interest rates. So if there was a high demand for money but a lack of it then the interest rate would rise, whereas if you flooded the market with money then the interest rate would fall drmatically. This was deemed by classical economist as the key to economic growth.
Keynes went against all the conventional views and believed that money was merely a SECONDARY factor in economy, and in fact it was the real economy, the REAL resources of the economy, precious metals or materials etc. He believed that in order to ensure economical growth you had to mirror the real economy, ensure that there was economical production going on this would create more jobs, for instance digging holes just to fill them again. His idea was to create jobs in order to put money in everyone's pocket so that they will go out and spend that money ensuring economical growth. However, there are negative points. In order to pay everyone the Government had to print MORE money, devaluing currency just so they could keep people employed in pointless jobs and undermining social stability.
So for Keynes, money is not an active factor in the economy, it doesn't make a difference to the rate of economical growth. The only thing you have to do with money is make sure there is enough of it going round in order to keep economical activity going. Completely opposite to classical economists who believe that money IS the key factor of economical growth. It is the only activity in the economy.
This can be mirrored in todays soceity. You can see with Labour, they took a more Keynesian view by creating government benifits and giving money to those who needed it. These people can then take these benefits and spend them how they like and investing money in infrastructure to create more jobs. But the Conservatives, believe that making cuts is the only way to save us from a recession. They believe cutting back on benefits will improve the value of the economy because there is a higher demand for money pushing up interest rates.

Logical Posivitism - If it can't be bottled, don't use it!

Logical positivism was born out of a movement known as the 'Vienna circle'. Members of this movement completely relied on science and rejected everything that couldn't be proved to be true, i.e anything metaphysical for instance.




From this movement logical positivism was born. Logical positivists work on a theory called the verification principle. Basically they believe that anything that cannot be verified cannot be trusted and should be completly rejected. Something must be true independently and could be codified in a scientific manner in order for it to be verified. In this, logical positivists largely rejected anything metaphysical, as these were merely essences or assertions they could not be verified or codified and therefore could not be trusted. They were not rejected as being wrong, merely not as having a meaning.
HOWEVER, there are criticisms of this theory. Karl popper, one of the most influencial characters in philosophy destroyed the verification principle claiming it to be ridiculous as it could not be verified to be correct or true itself! This meant that in the eyes of Karl popper, if he was a logical positivist the verification principle is merely an assertion of what could prove something to be true (if that makes any sense!)
A lot of philosophical theories are based on assertions, for instance Sigmeund Freud's theory on the ID being the repressed part of the ego and causing the animal urges could be completely rejected, as the ID cannot be bottled and examined to be the 'caveman' part of the brain.
I think a lot of this applies to journalism today in that Journalism in news can only be based on fact, completely accurate fact. Anything else that cannot be verified is merely dismissed as comment, and as I know from doing journalism, comment can NOT be trusted! Just like the logical positivists!

Tom Wolfe - The new journalism

New journalism is a term referring to the new style of reporting that was used by journalists such a Tom Wolfe and others.

Although described as a feauture/magazine style of writing Tom Wolfe wrote in an article that it wasn't like that at all. In fact it was more like writing a story, reporters who adopted this style of writing had to apply a fictional characteristics to the article.

It isn't really known where and how this new style of writing came from or who used it first.

New journalism can be closely linked with realism, in fact Tom Wolfe and the other advocates of the new style of reporting actually adopted elements of realism into their work. This was because their was no way of lying or hiding the truth. All of the information was there. For the reader to see. Everything that happened was there and there was no spin, or altering the truth.

The were criticisms of the new style. But mostly about the writers that adopted it. For instance, it was claimed that while Wolfe insisted that using the new technique expressed the personality of the subjects he was writing about, he was in fact just holding up a 'fun house mirror' meaning that people didn't really care whether it was a true representation or not.

'Gonzo journalism' something we have practiced ourselves is actually a form of new journalism. Gonzo journalism, does take a fictional stance on what you are writing about, but it is where uninteresting things become interesting and vice versa. I really enjoy Gonzo journalism, however, I can see that people may not take to it as it merely mentions the actual facts of what you are writing about rather than them being concentrated on as in a normal news piece.

New journalism really applies to modern society. Look at The Sun for instance, doesn't stick to the same conventions as say The Times, new journalism in a way can be compared to the debate about the tabloid journalism. People need change o be kept interested, evolution and improvement are needed in society to keep up with peoples needs rather that people changing themselves to meet the needs of society.

Election Night – A Gonzo Description.

Walking down the road I knew that this wasn’t just a normal walk in. I knew, as I was walking down that road at half nine, that I probably wouldn’t be walking back until about six the following morning. That was the worst thought. That I was going to be at university for a full day. No sleep. No break. No decent food, nothing but the vending machine, the studio and the newsroom.
So, I finally arrived at about 10am, not that the time is important. Why bother looking at the time when I knew this room was going to be my new friend for the next, well what seemed an eternity.
The hustle and bustle had already started. Surprising, usually its dead at ten. The room seemed to be filled with excitement at the upcoming event, a feeling that would switch throughout the day from excitement to stress, stress to dread, dread to exhaustion, then back to excitement again.
12pm. Ten hours to go till we started our LIVE coverage. Everyone was starting to settle in to their individual roles. I think the anticipation of what was going to happen made people panic more than actually doing it. OB’s were being planned and tested all over the shop. First years were working on camera skills, whilst presenters were sitting around just waiting for their time to shine. How had people prepared, early nights? Coffee? Sugary food? Sending your body into sudden shock by breaking away from normal routine was insane. I decided to keep mine normal lots of water and a late night. This felt better. I had pushed my body clock back to a time my body could accept. Not quite six am, but now my body was used to staying up late rather than think it was getting an early night.
The night grew closer and closer and with going live looming ever nearer the mood turned into stress. What still needed to be done? A big sign on the board saying rehearsals at 7.30pm meant that it must be close. This still needed to be done. That still needed to be done. In actual fact, everything was done. The studio was up running. All skype connections had been established. We had OB’s. We had presenters. We had cameras. It was ready. Everyone returned to the newsroom. All sitting together there had already been tension within the group. Catherine was right. The last thing we needed was to fight with each other, for the sake of the coverage running smoothly it was important to listen to one another and not get touchy when we were asked to do something. At the end of the day we were all doing a job, and trying to get it done.
The sun was finally disappearing. People were playing various sports games out on the field. People were drinking in the terrace bar. People were going home. Not us. We were there still in that newsroom probably being watched by the site stewards on the little camera. OB reporters had left for their posts, people were now coming back and forth between the studio and the news room all the time keeping their eyes on the big screen that had constantly been playing BBC live coverage of the election watching for any inkling there might be.
9pm. The smell of Chinese food had absolutely stunk out the newsroom. People were hungry and desperately eyeing up the vending machine for anything they hadn’t eaten that day. Please. No more teas, crunchies and mini cheddars.
10pm. This was it. That edgy tense music started. Graham Bell took to the presenting like a duck to water. There was not a single nervous energy coming off him. Sure there was sweat, but those lights, the whole room was boiling. Stress, bodies and lighting made sure it was like that all night. The first two hours I was too excited, too nervous, for any tiredness to even come into the equation.
I can remember thinking how uncomfortable the poor first year lying on the floor with the boom mic must have been.
Shit. My concentration slipped, the autocue froze, I panicked but managed to find where I was. Saved myself. Couldn’t let that happen again, I MUST concentrate.
12pm. The studio was even hotter. A couple of minutes break as the top of the hour rolled forward. Adverts were playing; I can’t even remember what they were the only advertisement I remember that night was from the Pudsey bear on Graham’s towel. He switched with Claire. The only person who could follow his lead, I swapped with Kayleigh. I was now presenting the OB’s and was terrified. The one thing I remember thinking. What If I can’t understand any of them!
The talkback in my ear ALWAYS hurts. Talking both to Brian, the director and listening to Claire while she was throwing over to me was hard, and sometimes I was nearly caught out on camera. I knew my friends were watching.
The final two hours or so we thought. We’d completely lost autocue but Graham had done this enough to know exactly what he was doing. At this point I had changed into a large hoodie. The studio just smelt of sweat and bodies. It was too hot. Too tense. We just wanted the result. Who was going to be Winchesters representative?
As OB’s dried up and Southampton ordering a recount it was down to Stu, our reporter down at the Winchester count. 6am. The sound had gone. I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting. “What’s happening Stu? Stu? Can you hear me Stuart?” No one knew what to do. Deathly silence filled he studio. Everyone was in there now.

“IT’S BRINE. STEVE BRINE’S GOT IT!”

We had got through it without falling asleep. People were complaining about stomach aches, the smell in the studio and the fact it was daylight outside. But it was done.

We had done it. The only student live election coverage.
And we had done it.