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