David Hume

Hume believed that causation is a human fallacy created in our mind based on perception and probability. Hume said that everything we know is based on knowledge gained through experience and we are born without any prior knowledge, like Locke’s Tabula rasa theory. His causation theory said that if a human experienced a cause and effect a number of times then they will believe that the same result occur every time the object interact, but he questions whether the cause brought about the connection. For example Chris gave the example of a billiard ball, when the white ball hits a red ball we believe that the white ball will cause the red ball to move away from it by transferring force. But this is only because this is all we have experienced, Hume argues that the balls could stop dead, or that the white could hit the red and bounce off; just because we believe the white to cause the red to move does not mean it is so. 

This is Hume’s main thought on causation, this it is built up from experience, which makes up believe that there is a relationship between causation and the reality of what has happened. He also believes that the expectation of an object to constantly act the same way is foolish, for example you should not expect the sun to rise every day just because it has done all the days before, although it is very probable it does not mean it is infallible but instead could just be a random occurrence.

Hume expands on Locke’s idea of induction and reflection in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by discussing how the impressions of the properties of objects affect the way in which we react to them. Hume said that when we have an experience our mind will break the object down into its simplest impressions and once this has happened we can use these impressions to create and build new ideas. Hume said that there are 4 ways in which our mind can manipulate impressions, these are: 

• ·         Compounding:  Man + Wings = Angel
• ·         Transposing: Woman + Fish = Mermaid
• ·         Augmentation - Making things larger
• ·         Diminishing - Making things smaller

These ways in which our mind manipulates experiences allows us to have an imagination and create new ideas based on past experience, but if there is no past experience then the idea cannot be synthesized. He gives an example of a man who has seen every shade of blue bar 1, if he is shown all the shades of blue he will be able to see that one shade is missing but because he had no experience of this colour he cannot synthesize the idea of this missing colour.

Hume’s ideas about self and knowledge are in direct opposition to Descartes, who believes I think therefore I am, so everything comes from this idea of self. Hume rejects this argument and said that within a person there isn’t such a thing as a self or prior being, there is just the impressions which have come from the persons senses and the ideas that they have synthesized from these impressions.  

BBC Radio Solent

BBC Radio Solent is the BBC local radio station covering Hampshire, Dorset and The Isle of White. It was first aired in 1970. According to recent RAJAR, Radio Joint Audience Research, figures the station   has a daily audience of 268,000 people which is 18% of its 1,532,000 reach. The average listening time of each individual a week is 10.5 hours which gives the station 7.9% of the UK listening shares. 

The target audience is in the ABC1 demographic which is made clear through the chosen news agenda and the way the bulletins are presented. Also the frequency of travel reports throughout the day suggests a majority of the listeners would commute to and from work in the large cities within the county. Another reason for this chosen demographic is the area Solent covers. Hampshire’s largest employers are The Army, NHS and the Public sector; with 25.21% of the population working in the public sector. 

I believe Solent to have more female listeners than male. I have made this judgement from the features in the shows throughout the day, but the majority are in the day rather than drive time or evening shows. The features are aimed at women more than men, with many focusing on cooking or fashion, which would appeal to a large majority of the female population. The other popular focus for features on the station is the armed forces, which reflects the large military influence in the area.

I believe the age of the majority of Radio Solent’s listeners to be aged between 46 and 75. I made this decision from the music chosen, the news agenda and the presentation of the news. Solent’s bulletins are fairly long, usually lasting around 4 minutes, and do not have a musical bed or music between bulletins. Each story is time for all the facts to be presented and they usually contain a vox pop or an expert opinion. Compared to Radio 1, which is aimed at a younger audience, Solent’s news is much slower and clearer; it does not contain any sound clips between stories and gives clear factual information. 

Solent’s news agenda is very much focused on the local area. The lead story of the bulletin will relate to local news usually government of council reflecting the large percentage of the audience who are employed in the public sector. Also this is will appeal to an older audience who are interested in local politics and will be affected more by council changes than younger people living in the area. National news also takes a high priority on the news agenda; this is partially because the station is run by the BBC and because national stories interest a large audience. Usually the day’s bulletin will contain a story or feature focused on the armed forces or the NHS which is relevant to the audience because of the number of people employed within these services. 

Sources:

http://www.rajar.co.uk/

The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail was first published in 1986 and since then has been a huge success in the UK. It was the first paper to sell over a million copies a day and has become the second largest selling daily paper in the UK and has a daily readership of 4,678,000 according to the NRS, National Readership Survey. The Mail is the only newspaper to be targeted at women more than men and takes many of its attributes and much of its news agenda from magazines but stays away from tabloid journalism. This gives it an individual place in the market and gives readers a newspaper between a tabloid and a broadsheet.

The majority of The Daily Mail’s audience is between the ages of 45 and 65+, according to NRS statistics. In fact 75% of The Daily Mail’s audience falls between these age ranges. This much older audience can be attributed to the news agenda of the Mail and the fact it has never changed ownership. Peter Cole gives a very simplified version of what he believes to be The Daily Mail’s news agenda: “For Britain and against Europe; against welfare (and what it describes as welfare scroungers) and for standing on your own feet; more concerned with punishment than the causes of crime; against public ownership and for the private sector; against liberal values and for traditional values, particularly marriage and family life. It puts achievement above equality of opportunity and self-reliance above dependence.”

This gives a good analysis of the basic structure of the Mail’s agenda which is reflected daily in its choice of stories. It knows the values of its audience and their political stance, centre-right, and so fits its stories to suit their opinions. This agenda favours the opinions of older readers compared to younger readers because of its stances on many issues like immigration, benefits and recently tuition fee changes; the Mail’s stance on these stories reflects the values of an older audience especially on marriage and family life. The fact that the Mail has never changed ownership or political stance so its audience knows what to expect when they read it which helps explain the older audience because people are likely to continue reading it throughout their life.  

The Daily Mail is the only British paper to be targeted towards women rather than men, and subsequently is the only paper which has a higher percentage of female readers than male. The Daily Mail has a large features section, which is mainly targeted towards women, called femail which has celebrity news, fashion and healthcare advice. This coupled with the focus on celebrity news within the main paper and the family values displayed within the paper make it more targeted towards women than men. 

The audience demographic of The Daily Mail is mainly ABC1C2 which is reflected in the advertising and news agenda. The main advertisers in the Mail are: Asda, Morrisons, Tescos, DFS Marks and Spenser, BT and Sky television. This reflects the ABC1C2 demographic who would be working and fairly well paid so would be able to afford to visit more expensive supermarkets and buy new sofas. If you compared this to The Sun you see some of the same advertisers, Tesco and Morrisons and Asda, but the products advertised are different; with the Mail advertising their top range products while The Sun contains lower priced and bulk buy items. 

The Mail Online is the most visited newspaper website in the UK and has the same values and agenda as its sister paper but is focused more on celebrity news and popular culture than The Daily Mail. I attribute this to the difference in the audiences, especially in age. I think that the Mail Online will have a younger audience, mainly between 46 and 55 because of the more celebrity focused news and because it is a new media source and therefore is less likely to get used by older audiences. Also because of the online format it suits celebrity gossip because it can be quickly updated and changed. The other reason why I think that the Mail Online is so popular is because of the interactivity of the site; it allows readers to give their opinions on stories and turns each story into a forum discussion allowing all to voice their opinion.  

Sources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/20/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing
http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/factsAndFigures?newspaperID=10

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act was introduced in 2005 and is an important piece of legislation for journalists if utilised properly. This legislation allowed people to request documents and information held by public authorities.

• McNae’s gives some examples of public authorities covered by the act:
• ·         National, government departments and ministries
• ·         The House of Commons, The House of Lords, the national assemblies of Wales and Northern Ireland
• ·         The armed forces
• ·         Local government authorities
• ·         National park authorities
• ·         Universities, colleges and schools

This means that under the FOI act any member of the public can write to any of these agencies and request information. Under the act the agency must normally respond within 20 working days and must either supply the information requested or explain why it cannot be supplied. There are several restriction that mean that an organisation can refuse to release the information.

There is a cost limit which restricts the information that can be obtained without any charge. If it requests costs less than £450 then the department must provide the information without any charge. If the cost of obtaining the requested information exceeds this limit then the request can either be refused by the organisation, the organisation can charge the person that requested the information or they can still supply the information for free. These restrictions mean it is important to request information that is only necessary because otherwise you may not receive any information because of the price limits.

There are certain government organisations that can refuse requests due to several exemptions put in place when the act was created. Any information dealing with national security matters can be refused, e.g. MI5 and MI6. It makes sense for this information to not be available to the public because of its nature. If the information can be reasonably obtained by other means, for example it may be available on a website or in library archives then the request will be refused because it would be a waste of the agencies time and money. Court records cannot be obtained through the FOI act because a court is not a public authority and so is not covered under the act.

Personal information cannot be released under the act because it does no override data protection law. The authority can edit the text and change it so the person cannot be identified from the information that is given. It is also noted in McNae’s that in these cases it is important to take into account the difference between professional personal information and personal information. This could be the difference between getting information about someone’s job description or professional responsibilities and getting information about their sick days.

If the information was provided to the authority in confidence by the person who provided it then the authority has entered into a contract and therefore cannot release the information. Also any information which is forbidden to be released by another law cannot be released under the FOI act. The example of this given in McNae’s is any complaints against police which is covered under the provision of the Police Act.

There are several qualified exemptions in the Act that allow an organisation the right to deny a request. The organisation must first apply the public interest test before they can deny a request. If the request is denied because of one of the qualified exemptions then the person who requested the information can appeal to the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal. If the commissioner accepts the claim and demands the information be released then the organisation can appeal against this decision to the Information Tribunal, or if the request is again denied by the commissioner then the person can appeal to the Tribunal. These are the two stages of appeal after this, if the request is still refused then there is nothing more the person who requested the information can do. If the information has been accepted for release then cabinet minsters’ have a power of veto and can block the information being released.

Very recently WikiLeaks has released large amounts of information from the American embassy which people are claiming will damage national and world security but the website has been closed down by the US government, but the information has been leaked to several large newspapers around the world. Here is a link to the Guardian’s coverage of the material and the information they are releasing: Guardian wikileaks coverage A video of journalists discussing Wikilinks

Investigative Journalismgate

Chris describes journalism as selling the news. Investigative journalism is selling the news that they make. So rather than a journalist reporting from the courts or a press release they instead discover a story and find the information they need until they can publish a story, and more defend themselves against liable. Investigative Journalist’s investigate stories that are not on the news agenda, but rather choose their own.

Miscarriage of justice is the main off agenda story that an IJ will focus on. In the lecture Chris gave several examples of cases where journalist’ have discovered a miscarriage of justice and helped to resolve it, whether that’s getting someone released from prison, or put behind bars. 

Emile Zola is considered the father of IJ, and one of the greatest journalists of all time. In his famous letter called J’Accuse Zola claimed that a French artillery captain, Alfred Dreyfus, was wrongly accused of giving military information to the German’s which helped them win the Franco-Prussian war. Zola found many errors in the case and court proceedings and a lack of evidence, he was found guilty of libel after the letter was published in a French newspaper and had to flee to England. This article is considered one of the best pieces of IJ ever written and has had a big effect on modern day journalism. 

A modern example of a miscarriage of justice case is the “Who Bombed Birmingham?” story produced by World in Action. This was a television production focusing on six men who were arrested and falsely convicted of carrying out a bombing in Birmingham. After the program was aired and after several years of articles bringing to light the fabrication of evidence and suppression of evidence the men were released in 1991. They were released after their third appeal which shows that without the influence of the journalists who investigated the story these men could still be in prison today for something they did not do. 

Probably the most famous case of investigative journalism is the Watergate scandal which caused Richard Nixon to resign from the position of President of the United States, the first time this has ever happened. This shows how much power investigative journalists have if they follow the correct procedures and work within the law. This post on the Washington Post outlines the entire Watergate case http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate.

One important thing IJ have to remember is the evidence gap. In criminal cases the evidence must prove that the crime was committed by a person beyond reasonable doubt but in civil cases the evidence must only prove a balance of probability. This means it is much easier to prove someone is guilty in civil court than in criminal. The example of this given in the lecture was a story about a racist gang who murdered a teenager. They claimed they were innocent but refused to give alibies and the police did not have enough evidence for a conviction. But when the Mail accused them of the murder and defamed them they did not sue because the Mail had enough evidence that it was likely they would win the case through the balance of probability.

The Reynolds defence is also an important defence for the “serious and responsible investigative journalist, who works without malice” as Chris puts it. If the 10 steps of the Reynolds defence are followed by a journalist then they should be covered in court. 

The way an IJ gains their information is very important for the 10 point test and sources are the main way a story will emerge, for example without Deep Throat, as he was known, the Watergate story may never have been known and Nixon would most likely have continued with his corruption. The most important thing a journalist must do is protect a confidential source; this is a fundamental part of the journalist code of conduct. This can lead to problems for journalists including contempt of court if ordered to give the name of the source by a court. This has led to journalists being jailed in the past and this will probably happen again. 

Another method an IJ can gain information about a story in through subterfuge. This is the discreet recording of a person. For a journalist to be allowed to do this they must first gain permission from the head of ethics if at the BBC or Ofcom for other broadcasts. To be allowed to use the recordings as evidence you must have permission from the person you are recording, but without permission you can still quote it. 

Hopefully in a few years some of the people in this lecture, including me, will be using these laws to bring down corrupt governments and expose injustice, rather than reporting on a local church fete.

Copyright

Copyright is very important for anyone who produces any intellectual property and stops someone using your work and claiming it as their own. It is important to remember that copyright does not protect ideas, only physical work. For journalists it is important to remember who owns the copyright, if a piece of work was written by a freelance journalist then they own the copyright, and then if they sell the story to a news organisation they can retain the copyright. Whereas if a journalist works for a wage most of the time when they write a story or produce a broadcast the organisation that pays their wage will own the copyright for  that piece and can then sell it on and not have to give the creator any of the extra profits.  

Only certain work is protected by the laws of copyright and copyright can only protect an item for a certain length of time. “Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 copyright protects any literary, dramatic, artistic, or musical work, sound recordings, film, broadcast, or typographical arrangements” this is the definition of what copyright protects taken from Mcnae’s essential law for journalists. This restricts people from using any content that falls under there categories, which they did not make, unless they gain permission from the creator to use it. 

If someone uses content which is protected by copyright and they do not have permission from the creator then the owner can seek damages or prosecute the person who breached the copyright.  This can be a large fine; the maximum fine a magistrate can impose is £50,000. This is why it is important for journalists to know copyright laws so we don’t breach copyrights and get fined. 

There are several defences journalists have against claims of a breach in copyright; the main defence is fair dealing. Fair dealing means that a copyright can be breached if it is for the purpose of reporting current events, provided there is a fair acknowledgement of the author and provided the work has been made available to the public. Although this defence does not work with photographs, section 30 of the Copyright act excludes photographs from the defence of a fair dealing. This means that to use a picture you must get permission from the original photographer. 

If a copyrighted item is being reviewed or commented on thenthe reviewer is allowed to use pieces of the material to prove a point, as long as there is acknowledgement. This means that you can quote books, plays, films and broadcasts, which is why reviewers can use film clips in broadcasts without fear of infringement. The most important thing to remember with fair comment is that the work must be available to the public; this means that material that is not lawfully available to the public is still subject to copyright laws even if it could be viewed as fair dealing. This means that private letters and confidential material are always subject to copyright laws.

You cannot copyright the news; the facts in a news story are not subject to copyright claims. Any journalist can write a story about Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0 yesterday, but they cannot take a quote from Steven Gerard about the match that was obtained by a journalist, because the copyright for that specific quote or interview belongs to the journalist or organisation. What a rival journalist can do is “lift” the quote and use it in their story. If they do this it must be clear in the story that the quote not exclusive to that journalist. This can be done by attributing the quote to a separate journalist or paper by saying “Steven Gerard told a newspaper or told reporters”.

Tabloids and the Mail

After reading Professor Peter Cole’s articles about newspapers in the UK I found out many things I didn’t know about newspapers, especially the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail has had the same owners for the past 100 years, which Cole attributes, partly, to its success because the paper has had the same underlying morals and ethics for such a long time its readers know exactly what to expect. 

Knowing your audience is an important for newspapers and Cole highlights the Mail’s knowledge of their target audience as another reason why is it the second most successful daily paper in the UK: “It comes down to confidence, the Mail's dominant quality. It knows it knows its audience. This is often described as "middle England" and predominantly it votes Conservative.”  The Mail knows exactly who their audience is, AB, C1, C2 and predominately women, and provides them with relevant news every day. 

Some people, including myself, don’t read the Mail because of its very Conservative viewpoint, for example in the news today the Mail featured a story about how children from divorced families are more likely to commit a crime. Whereas the Guardian’s headline today focused on Barak Obama’s recent speech and difficulties in the current elections, this just shows how the Mail is focused to suit its target audience who are more concerned with immigration and family values than world politics. This video is just a funny song about the types of sensationalised stories that can be found in the Daily Mail : The Daily Mail song. 

 

Obviously these are sensationalised versions of what is actually printed in the Daily Mail but are the type of stories which feature frequently on the cover. Cole summarises the viewpoint of the Mail quite nicely is his first article: “Those Mail views can be characterised thus: for Britain and against Europe; against welfare (and what it describes as welfare scroungers) and for standing on your own feet; more concerned with punishment than the causes of crime; against public ownership and for the private sector; against liberal values and for traditional values, particularly marriage and family life. It puts achievement above equality of opportunity and self-reliance above dependence.”

Cole comments on the skills it takes to be a tabloid journalist in his second articles one the Guardian’s website although they aren’t as trusted as broadsheet journalists because of certain incidents, for example the recent News of the World’s illegal phone tapping. Cole said that this is a shame because “Some of the best journalists work for tabloids and the techniques of tabloid journalism are the hardest to acquire.” The decline is sales of tabloids can be attributed to the “Big Brother news”, as Cole calls it, especially in the Star which has lost a vast majority of its readers. 

Even the Sun, the UK’s largest selling daily, has lost about 800,000 readers since 1987, Cole attributes this loss partly to the age of the Sun’s audience. As the readers have gotten older they have stopped reading the Sun and are likely to start reading a broadsheet or the Daily Mail once they reach 35. Cole said “the emphasis on sex and semi-explicit pictures makes them less likely to survive the settling down life stage” and that a father would not want to expose his children to the Star or Sun.