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.

Wilhelm Reich - Here's to the orgasm!

Now that I have grabbed your attention...

Reich, a psychoanalysist and Psychiatrist was an avid follower and supporter of Freud's theories about sexual repression. One of the most radical and unconventional figures in psychiatry he was a MASSIVE believer in the power of the orgasm. He believed that every living thing had an energy inside them that could only be released by an orgasm. The bigger the orgasm the more pent up energy was released.
He believed the orgasm was an energy regulator. But because people are constrained by social conventions and expectations we have developed this armour to block sexual energy from being released leading to a build up and potential mental health issues. A theory that is compatible with those views of Freud.
Reich also claimed to have discovered 'orgone' energy. This is a cosmic energy that Reich claimed could be collected in orgone energy accumulatores or 'cloud busters', which he would often make his patients sit in. He believed it had a healing potential.




All in all, reich believed we had an orgiastic potency. Basically, people who were abe to really free themselves and surrender themselves to the orgasm were trully happier people and had a greater 'ogiastic potency', but those who were more confined by their armour, or social constraints had a low potency, and were more at risk of poor mental health.

Well then!

WINOL - Week 5

Ok. So I haven't updated for a little while. Computor has been messing up a bit but I though I would just do a little blog about the last few weeks of WINOL.
So week five, I was presenting sports again for the third time. This time I was definately A LOT calmer. I felt like I was used to the whole process and due to great directing by Josh the whole studio felt quite calm (even though Stu is calm EVERY TIME he presents!) Every week we have been improving on deadlines and scripting getting it all done early so as to leave the production people with enough time to get the studio prepared and run through so that when it comes to the live runs it is SPOT on.
There are always a few glitches, but presenting I felt quite calm and actually excited about it. I know that I still have a few things to work on in regards to my London accent but with more practice I hope to be able to switch it on and off whenever I have to. I think a lot of the issue is with nerves but over the last couple of weeks, not just in presenting but in reporting too, I feel like my confidence has grown and that I feel like I CAN do it whereas before I would always doubt myself.
In regards to the story in week 5, Catherine and myself went to film a piece on the fairtrade fashion show. It was an 'And finally..." piece so we wanted to make it very entertaining. As well as the fashion show there was music and dancing so we got a lot of footage of that. We had taken two camera's so that we could get loads of different angles and put them together in a sequence. Unfortunately when it came to editing, the tape from one of the camera's had NOTHING on it even though whilst recording we always double check. So we worked with what we had from camera one. We managed to make it look quite good, it could have looked better with more angles but that's just the way things go sometimes. Again, due to the fact I was presenting someone else had to do the voiceover, and sometimes in the feedback sessions I wonder if people know that I went and got the package! Haha. Unfortunately, our bulletin ran over the ten minutes which was a MASSIVE problem so my story was cut from the package... AGAIN. But it happens although we were reminded that this was a very bad thing as in a real situation there would have been all sorts of problems with scheduling and if we were an advertisement reliant channel like ITV then we could have lost the company A LOT of money!

EXISTENTIALISM - Who are you?

You are in charge of your own life. You are responsible for giving your own life meaning. If you don't YOU are ruled over by other people. This is existentialism. Well not just that, but that is one of the general views. You're in charge of giving your own life meaning and being passionate about it despite certain obstacles that may drag you down, like grief, boredom, despair etc.
One of the main themes in existentialism was "existence before essence" which meant that a persons actions and what they did or their 'actual life' defined who they were instead of some predetermined 'wish to be' that lead them to behave in a way that was human.
Essence is therefore not what makes you human but your own decisions and actions. The way you are creates your meaning in life, your desire to be something does not. Existentialism relates alot to news. "News is about people doing things", rather than what people are thinking or feeling to do. Existentialism, is about people 'doing things' to give them a purpose, not about their desire to be something. Thus through your own choices and actions you give purpose and value to your life. Nothing else can affect this, nothing outside the person himself can dictate his own essence, so existence defines essence.
But once people have defined themselves, Sartre (a philosopher who followed existentialism) said that as humans we must then be responsible for the essence or profile that we create for ourselves only then can man be trully free.

WINOL week 4.

So, haven't blogged for a bit. I'm getting stuff together to blog on HCJ at the minute. I thought I would update you on the most recent WINOL. So. I had gone out and filmed my package before the news meeting had come round. I had followed the volunteers on the 'Big Tidy Up' which is an event organised by the university to clean up the local area. I had spent ages thinking about what shots I wanted and the interviews I should get. It took a couple of hours to get together and finding that only SEVEN students had volunteered I decided that that should be my angle. I've realised, doing journalism in Winchester, NO ONE will bad mouth anyone, especially not at the university. So explaining my footage at the news meeting on Monday, we decided it wasn't strong enough and went to film fair trade instead. Making the 'rubbish flop' story a nib. I went out and filmed and edited both, but as i was presenting could not voice the VT which Kayleigh James did for me instead, a very good job too! I feel like I did a really good job on filming the nib, but as fairtrade was really rushed and last minute I didn't put as much thought into the detail. The story was better for fairtrade than for the big tidy up though. So I clearly have to work on my putting together of stories.
I had finished and handed in all the times in/out words and links with fifteen minutes to spare. Now all I had to worry about, was presenting.
To be honest, I wasn't as nervous about presenting as I had been the previous week. I think confidence helped me as well. Over coming my 'glottlestop' is something that will come with practice but I feel like I tried extremely hard throughout my own part in the bulletin. Everything was very calm in the gallery and having time to go over and over the bulletin made me feel a lot better and a lot less rushed. I found myself really enjoying it this week, and hope next week goes even better! Especially as the BJTC are in!