Sigmund Freud’s work had a massive cultural impact, he explained the way people thought before the brain could be examined through science. Freud said that we are all motivated by sex and that sex is always on the mind. He also said that sexual dysfunction lead to fear and depression. This was revolutionary because despite the fact that everyone had sex, no one ever wrote about it. Freud also spoke about a constant conflict of the ego vs id and suppression of the id in civilisation causes unhappiness. This basically means that you can't do what you want to do because it is not deemed acceptable in society and this turn makes you unhappy. He also said that society damages the individual by constraining them and repressing their thoughts. From this, Freud ascertained that people are not what they seem to be, because you never know what they are thinking. What people are doing and what they are thinking can often be two very different things.
Freud also based some of his work 'on the analysis dreams' and said that dreams are a way of understanding personality and that they are the 'royal highway to the subcultures'. Furthermore, Freud was a sexist and believed that men were superior to women. He also wrote about sexual politics and gender differences, stating that all women were hysterical because they had 'penis envy'.
As far as Freudian psychoanalysis still being relevant in today's society a prime example would be advertising. Advertising is all about influencing people to buy things. A good way to advertise something is by use of sex, an idea that was first presented by Freud.
Monday, 11 January 2010
James Joyce - Ulysses
James Joyce’s novel Ulysses is the essence of the concept of modernism. Ulyssess was at one point banned due to its expressing of sexuality. Essentially it shows that the same event can be seen from two angles at the same time. Ulysses is basically the same day over and over again from different views. It was modern in the sense that it had no single story with a beginning, middle and end, but a decentred narrative. It also plays on the concept of an unreliable memory and unreliable narrative. Nothing is definite and there is no conclusion. The book also explores the fragmentation of thought and the idea of merging dreams with reality.
It is debateable as to when modernism came about, but most people would argue it was between about 1880 and the First World War, 1914. This was about the same time as the broad cultural movement of surrealism. I would say that as the term modernism continues to evolve that Germany are a good example of it. In my opinion they are the most modern country in terms of culture, economy and art because of the depression after the Second World War they had to rebuild everything.
The thing about modernism is that one person can think something is modern and another person can think it’s not. This fits the concept that everything can be viewed from a different angle; everyone sees everything in a different way.
It is debateable as to when modernism came about, but most people would argue it was between about 1880 and the First World War, 1914. This was about the same time as the broad cultural movement of surrealism. I would say that as the term modernism continues to evolve that Germany are a good example of it. In my opinion they are the most modern country in terms of culture, economy and art because of the depression after the Second World War they had to rebuild everything.
The thing about modernism is that one person can think something is modern and another person can think it’s not. This fits the concept that everything can be viewed from a different angle; everyone sees everything in a different way.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Flashback Review: BioShock
Bioshock released way back in August 2007, selling a whopping 3 million copies as of July 2009 (According to notorious Take-Two sex symbol Strauss Zelnick anyway). With Bioshock 2 a mere month away from public release we’re here to take you back through time and reminisce on memories past. Hit the jump to see the reason that you’ll be picking up a copy of the sequel on the 9th.
If you haven’t played the demo already (which you probably have considering it became the fist demo on the Xbox Live marketplace to reach one million downloads) then you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about. The demo features the first five or so minutes of the game. It’s one of the most incredible video game introductions. Set in 1960, Jack (the character you will play as) is a passenger on a plane that crashes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. After swimming to the surface you will see a lighthouse. Why would someone put a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean you ask? Well, that’s one of the questions that will keep you playing.
To explain a few things about the crazy city of Rapture: Andrew Ryan created Rapture as a place where there would be no political, economic and religious authority, essentially a place with no laws or restrictions. Everyone in Rapture wants ADAM, a chemical that can rewrite human genetics, and give incredible powers to the user. Little girls called ‘little sisters’ [or as our Editor Tom likes to refer to them as: "Potential Victims"] are capable of extracting ADAM from dead people; therefore they hold a lot of ADAM. However, Little sisters are protected by Big Daddies, the hardest enemies to kill in the game.
The introduction to the city of Rapture is almost like a safari; you are taken down to the bottom of the ocean in a bathysphere and shown the city of Rapture. It looks incredible. The visuals in the game are stunning, as is the sheer scale of Rapture, you will feel compelled to explore every corner of the city. Rapture can be very unsettling and scary at times, but this all adds to the atmosphere.
Strictly speaking, BioShock’s a first person shooter, but guns aren’t your only weapon in this game. The first weapon you’ll get is a wrench; this will be your melee weapon for the duration of the game. Shortly after you’ll get a pistol and then a machine gun. Later on in the game you get more powerful weapons, all of which can be upgraded too with more firepower/range etc. So, aside from standard weapons, you can also use plasmids which by far the best thing about the combat in the game. The first plasmid you get is the ‘Electro Bolt’, where you can fire a jolt of electricity to electrocute an opponent. At first you have a limited number of plasmid slots but with more ADAM you can unlock more slots and equip more plasmids. There are a lot of plasmids, all with different advantages; my personal favourites have to be ‘Incinerate!’ ‘Telekinesis’, ‘Hypnotize Big Daddy’ and one you may have seen in the trailer, ‘Insect Swarm’. The plasmids that you wish to use will depend on your style of gameplay, but there are plenty to choose from! You can also change what plasmids you have equipped at gene banks to adapt to the different situations you’ll experience.
The main enemies in the game that you will face are Splicers, there are many different types of Splicers, and they are people that have become dependant on ADAM due to their abuse of the substance. As the game progresses, these Splicers become harder to defeat. You will also want to kill, or attempt to kill, Big Daddies to get ADAM from Little Sisters. Again these get harder as the game goes on but your plasmids and weapons also get more powerful, so with a good combination of plasmids and weapons these Big Daddies won’t cause you too much trouble. After you’ve killed a Big Daddy BioShock forces the player to make a very strong moral choice with the Little Sisters. You can either harvest or rescue them. Harvesting gives you the most amount of ADAM but kills the Little Sister. Rescuing them gives you less ADAM but but the Little Sister gets to live.
One thing that makes BioShock such a good game is its originality; it’s a game like no other in so many senses. Firstly, it is strictly classed at a first person shooter, but it does feature elements of role-playing and survival. BioShock takes you on an adventure like no other with plot twist after plot turn; it has the strongest narrative that I have ever experienced in a game.
The dystopian back-story to how Rapture was made and developed can be discovered through audio diaries, which you can collect. They also give background to pretty much everything that has happened in Rapture in the past. There are 122 to find in total and collecting them all won’t just give you an Xbox Achievement, but also a huge understanding of Rapture and how perfectly this game has been put together.
There are few complaints about this game if I were really nitpicking; the game doesn’t really give the opportunity to explore Rapture as much as I would like it to. Sure you can explore Rapture but you’re not really encouraged to because the gameplay is quite linear, and your objectives and direction are pointed out by an arrow at the top of the screen. Another problem is that there’s no penalty for dying, if you die fighting an enemy, you respawn in a Vita-Chamber and your enemy will be in the same condition they were in when you died. However 2K rectified this by releasing free downloadable content for the game that adds an option to disable Vita-Chambers (along with a few new plasmids as well).
Now those are just small setbacks and at the end of the day BioShock is just an over-whelmingly fun game to play. 2k will actually make you feel like you are immersed in Rapture, everyone that plays BioShock will have a different gaming experience. Would you kindly go and buy a copy of this already, before the Sequel comes out next month!
95%
Monday, 28 December 2009
Sherlock Holmes Review
The character of Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conon Doyle and has starred in many novels and short stories. The character, and his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson, has also been adapted to film many times and in this 21st century effort directed by Guy Ritchie the world’s most well known detective is almost reborn in what is set to be the last blockbuster of the decade.Holmes is played by Robert Downey, Jr. who does an excellent job of portraying a very clever but effortless detective; an accidental genius of sorts. Jude Law plays Dr. Watson and the chemistry between Downey and Law is explicitly visible in the film and works to its advantage. It seems so natural and makes the characters very genuine and also pays homage to the relationship between Holmes and Watson – a bond as close as brothers. Watching them together is like watching a comedy sketch; they do genuinely look like they have known each other for years. The rest of the cast are also very strong, Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, a criminal mastermind whose motives are never quite revealed. Mark Strong plays Lord Blackwood and suits his role well; he has a very cold and dark aura about him that makes him perfect for the role of the villain.
The film is set in 1891, and the case to be solved in the film is to be the last case that Holmes and Watson will solve before Watson goes to get married. The pair aim to stop Lord Blackwood destroying London with his ‘black magic’. Lord Blackwood seemingly raises from the dead after being hanged and Dr. Watson himself even pronounced Blackwood dead.
As you’d expect from a Sherlock Holmes film, the film is very clever from all different perspectives. It is also directed in a way that almost insults the viewer’s intelligence to glorify Holmes’ superior intelligence that makes him the fantastic detective that he is. Most clues surpass the viewer and are then exploited by Holmes and then the viewer realises the genius of the film.
Holmes uses violence as a method of solving cases in this film and he demonstrates that he is very good at is, this is a side of Holmes that we’ve never seen before. Add to this the Hollywood style explosions and set pieces you’ve got Sherlock Holmes for 2009. A fight scene in slow motion is another example of Holmes’ genius. Normally slow motions scenes in films are irritating, but this scene is put together so well as Holmes explains what he is doing and why he is doing it move by move to overcome a big bruiser almost twice his size.
Sherlock Holmes is a relatively simple film that doesn’t require the viewer to think too much, all the clues are explained, the viewers do not have to figure anything out for themselves. It’s as entertaining as it is action packed. It’s rich in British wit and subtle humour that fits the setting of the film. In authenticity to the original character, there is not too many similarities, but Ritchie has created his own new 21st century Sherlock Holmes. It’s safe to say that this won’t be the only time we’ll be seeing Holmes on a film screen this century: the film sets up a sequel in typically annoying fashion making the ending dire for the viewer.
The narrative as whole is strong yet predictable, even at the beginning of the film it is clear how it will end. I think there are a few scenes that could have been cut down or were just completely unnecessary. Another little problem with the film is the authenticity to the time when it is set; in some respects it is clear that research has been done well to recreate it, however I can’t help but think that Irene always looks a little too made-up. I’m sure that make up wasn’t as advanced as it is now in the late 1800’s and to be honest there’s no real need to make Rachel McAdams up, she’s sexy enough as it is and plays the role of the femme fatale well.
Although predictable at times, Sherlock Holmes is still one of the better films of 2009. It’s very entertaining and a new take on the Sherlock character. Combined with some action, some humour and case solving detective genius, it’s a must see this holiday season.
74%
Friday, 4 December 2009
'Date with Fate' Video 2 (Described as comedy gold!)
So, for the second week of doing the 'Date with Fate' competition as a video we decided to make it completely silly and go completely over the top, maybe too far over the top...
Hadouken review published @ Winchester News Online
Hadouken proved that they are not one hit wonders as they sold out the Joiners in Southampton on Thursday the 26th November.
Soft Toy Emergency are the only support band and they did a great job of warming up the crowd for Hadouken’s return to Southampton.
The headline act greeted a rowdy crowd with the first track from their debut album, Get Smashed Gate Crash to kick off their set in pulsating style. Next the band played their new single M.A.D. from their new album 'For The Masses' which is set to be released 25th January 2010.
As the band broke into their most successful single to date, Declaration of War, a series of lasers started beaming lights all around Southampton’s most intimate venue. The lasers featured for the rest of the set with a different colours or styles for each song. The lighting show that the band put on was phenomenal creating a thriving and electric atmosphere catapulting the screaming fans into delirium.
Hadouken kept up the fast paced set with fan favourite songs like Crank It Up and Liquid Lives. As their set came to a close Hadouken stormed into Bombshell, a track from the new album that is produced by Drum & Bass act Noisia.
Considering that the average age of the audience was in the mid-teens the noise and atmosphere created shook the Joiners to its very core, their trademark song That Boy That Girl ended a very impressive night from one of England's most exciting bands.
http://www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=382:hadouken-at-southampton-joiners-261109&catid=43:previewsreviews&Itemid=68 - Link to the review on the WINOL website also featuring pictures courtesy of Benji Walker at Live and Loud Photography.
Soft Toy Emergency are the only support band and they did a great job of warming up the crowd for Hadouken’s return to Southampton.
The headline act greeted a rowdy crowd with the first track from their debut album, Get Smashed Gate Crash to kick off their set in pulsating style. Next the band played their new single M.A.D. from their new album 'For The Masses' which is set to be released 25th January 2010.
As the band broke into their most successful single to date, Declaration of War, a series of lasers started beaming lights all around Southampton’s most intimate venue. The lasers featured for the rest of the set with a different colours or styles for each song. The lighting show that the band put on was phenomenal creating a thriving and electric atmosphere catapulting the screaming fans into delirium.
Hadouken kept up the fast paced set with fan favourite songs like Crank It Up and Liquid Lives. As their set came to a close Hadouken stormed into Bombshell, a track from the new album that is produced by Drum & Bass act Noisia.
Considering that the average age of the audience was in the mid-teens the noise and atmosphere created shook the Joiners to its very core, their trademark song That Boy That Girl ended a very impressive night from one of England's most exciting bands.
http://www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=382:hadouken-at-southampton-joiners-261109&catid=43:previewsreviews&Itemid=68 - Link to the review on the WINOL website also featuring pictures courtesy of Benji Walker at Live and Loud Photography.
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Winchester News Online Diary (Weeks 3 & 4)
A lot has changed in the last two weeks WINOL wise for me. I have got a lot more involved in my role and undertaken in a lot more work. The first change was to change 'Lucky Dates' to 'Date with Fate', we did this for many reasons, lucky dates has more than one meaning, and date with fate is more BBC, so we thought this would be a more appropriate competition name. We also made the competition real in this week in the sense that the competition could actually be won. Chris Horrie kindly bought three bop (student night out) tickets as a prize for 'Date with Fate'. The competition was a great success and we decided to make it into a video for next week to include an interview with this week's winner. The next change was instead of just having reader response social networking websites called 'Winchester Speaks', the features team and I thought it would be better to have a general 'Winchester News Online' twitter account and facebook group. I feel this works a lot better as 'Winchester Speaks' didn't really indicate it was at all related with WINOL and using these social networking platforms we will be able to publicise WINOL content as well as get reader responses. Needless to say I used the facebook group and twitter account to promote the first live bulletin as much as I could so that we would get a lot of viewers watching it.
So, here is the first live WINOL bulletin, week 1,(or week 3 if you count the two dummy editions) - 18/11/2009
We were lucky enough to have Kay Oliver of GMTV, Sky and ITV as a guest editor for the WINOL live launch and her knowledge and expertise brought a lot to the WINOL news team and I think we all took a lot away from meeting with her. Here are her comments about WINOL and journalism at the University of Winchester:
Week 4 was a very big week for me. I had the massive job of pressing the record button on the tape deck to record the live bulletin! But in all seriousness, it was quite a big week for me as the features team and I decided to run 'Date with Fate' as a video competition, revealing the winning date and featuring an interview with last week's winner. It was my first TV (internet?) appearance so cut me some slack. I think the thing I found most hard was to smile while talking and animate my voice more so I wasn't talking in monotone. We decided to make it a bit silly because we want it to be funny, and we included some cheesy gameshow music, anyway here I am:
Also in week 4 I created a twitterfeed for the WINOL website so every story that was published to the WINOL website is then published to the WINOL twitter page and I set up different feeds for news, sport and features so each story is categorised aswell. I think this is a good way to get the content on the WINOL website read because a lot of focus is put on to the bulletin and not so much on to the stories on the website.
So, here is week 2 WINOL bulletin (or week 4 if you count the two dummy editions) - 25/11/2009, this is where I had the very important and complicated job of pressing record on the tape deck to record the bulletin otherwise there would be no bulletin.
I think this bulletin was our best yet and we are improving more and more week after week. We also had Andy Steggall of ITV and Sky, as the guest editor for this week and I think that the guest editors are fantastic for feedback from people who work on bulletins like WINOL in the real world. The expertise and responses that they give the WINOL team are invaluable and it's always a great experience and great feeling when they praise the work that you are doing.
So, here is the first live WINOL bulletin, week 1,(or week 3 if you count the two dummy editions) - 18/11/2009
We were lucky enough to have Kay Oliver of GMTV, Sky and ITV as a guest editor for the WINOL live launch and her knowledge and expertise brought a lot to the WINOL news team and I think we all took a lot away from meeting with her. Here are her comments about WINOL and journalism at the University of Winchester:
Week 4 was a very big week for me. I had the massive job of pressing the record button on the tape deck to record the live bulletin! But in all seriousness, it was quite a big week for me as the features team and I decided to run 'Date with Fate' as a video competition, revealing the winning date and featuring an interview with last week's winner. It was my first TV (internet?) appearance so cut me some slack. I think the thing I found most hard was to smile while talking and animate my voice more so I wasn't talking in monotone. We decided to make it a bit silly because we want it to be funny, and we included some cheesy gameshow music, anyway here I am:
Also in week 4 I created a twitterfeed for the WINOL website so every story that was published to the WINOL website is then published to the WINOL twitter page and I set up different feeds for news, sport and features so each story is categorised aswell. I think this is a good way to get the content on the WINOL website read because a lot of focus is put on to the bulletin and not so much on to the stories on the website.
So, here is week 2 WINOL bulletin (or week 4 if you count the two dummy editions) - 25/11/2009, this is where I had the very important and complicated job of pressing record on the tape deck to record the bulletin otherwise there would be no bulletin.
I think this bulletin was our best yet and we are improving more and more week after week. We also had Andy Steggall of ITV and Sky, as the guest editor for this week and I think that the guest editors are fantastic for feedback from people who work on bulletins like WINOL in the real world. The expertise and responses that they give the WINOL team are invaluable and it's always a great experience and great feeling when they praise the work that you are doing.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Bring Me The Horizon review published @ Winchester News Online
Bring Me The Horizon entertained a sell out crowd at the Portsmouth Pyramid Centre on Thursday the 19 November.
Support came from two great American bands: August Burns Red and A Day To Remember. August Burns Red greeted an excitable crowd with a tight set of metalcore songs. A Day To Remember’s fans were out in force and the band did not disappoint. Despite a short set, ADTR pretty much stole the show and a lot of people left the show after ADTR’s set.
Bring Me The Horizon took to the stage with an illuminated backdrop displaying the massive letters ‘BMTH’. They kicked off their set with the popular single Chelsea Smile, which really got the crowd going. Despite the transition from deathcore to metalcore from the first album to the second album, the set still flowed incredibly well with a range of material from both albums.
BMTH lead singer, Oli Sykes, demanded extremely big mosh pits for songs such as Pray For Plagues, Medusa and Diamonds Aren’t Forever. The band have recently released 'Suicide Season: Cut Up’ which features remixes of songs from their latest studio album. They cleverly use clips from this as intros and outros to certain songs.
Bring Me The Horizon sent their fans home happy by ending the show with a party on stage for their last song Football Season Is Over with the anthemic chanting of “Party ‘til you pass out / Drink ‘til you’re dead / Dance all night ‘til you can’t feel you legs”.
Support came from two great American bands: August Burns Red and A Day To Remember. August Burns Red greeted an excitable crowd with a tight set of metalcore songs. A Day To Remember’s fans were out in force and the band did not disappoint. Despite a short set, ADTR pretty much stole the show and a lot of people left the show after ADTR’s set.
Bring Me The Horizon took to the stage with an illuminated backdrop displaying the massive letters ‘BMTH’. They kicked off their set with the popular single Chelsea Smile, which really got the crowd going. Despite the transition from deathcore to metalcore from the first album to the second album, the set still flowed incredibly well with a range of material from both albums.
BMTH lead singer, Oli Sykes, demanded extremely big mosh pits for songs such as Pray For Plagues, Medusa and Diamonds Aren’t Forever. The band have recently released 'Suicide Season: Cut Up’ which features remixes of songs from their latest studio album. They cleverly use clips from this as intros and outros to certain songs.
Bring Me The Horizon sent their fans home happy by ending the show with a party on stage for their last song Football Season Is Over with the anthemic chanting of “Party ‘til you pass out / Drink ‘til you’re dead / Dance all night ‘til you can’t feel you legs”.
http://winchesterjournalism.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=345:bring-me-the-horizon-at-portsmouth-pyramids-191109&catid=43:previewsreviews&Itemid=68 - Link to the review on the WINOL website also featuring pictures courtesy of Benji Walker at Live and Loud Photography.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
WINOL LIVE AT 5
The first ever WINOL news bulletin is LIVE at 5 today! Tune in for all the latest news and sport from the Winchester area:
www.winol.co.uk
www.winol.co.uk
Friday, 13 November 2009
Winchester News Online Diary (Weeks 1 & 2)
Winchester News Online (or WINOL) is an online newspaper and weekly bulletin produced by my university which I am a part of. My job title is "Commissioning Editor for Reader Response/UGC Editor" which basically means I am in charge of getting feedback from the viewers of the bulletin and visitors of the website.
I started this role by starting up a Facebook group and Twitter account, both titled 'Winchester Speaks' as two easy ways for the people of Winchester to contact Winchester News Online. To publicise the site I plan to run some competitions over the nest few months.
The first competition is called 'Lucky Dates'. For this competition I developed lucky dates 'tickets' which said: "It could be your lucky day with lucky dates. All you have to do is check here: www.wincesterjournalism.co.uk. Your lucky date is..." and then put a certain year on each ticket. The corresponding piece on the website (which hasn't been uploaded yet, otherwise I would just post a link to it) says: "Is it your lucky day? Check if your lucky date is a winner here! This week’s lucky date is based on the now cult series of films: Star Wars. But when was the first ever Star Wars film originally released?" I then included a picture of the Star Wars logo, which is free from copyright because the 'image, or text depicted in it, only consists of simple geometric shapes and text. They do not meet the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection, and are therefore public domain'. I then reveal the answer: "The first film: ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’ originally just titled ‘Star Wars’ was first released in 1977. If your ticket has the year 1977 on it then you are a winner! Email winchesterspeaks@hotmail.com for details of your prize." However this competition cannot be won as I never printed a ticket with the winning date on it, cunning, eh?
The second competition that I am running is a basic 'how many sweets in the jar' competition (pictured right). However, this competition can actually be won and the prize is the jar with the sweets in which I paid for out of my own pocket, all for for the promotion of Winchester News Online! I also sat and counted the sweets out which took an awful long time! The corresponding piece for the competition of the website reads: "How many sweets in the jar? Guess correctly or guess the closest to the actual amount and this large jar of sweets could be yours just in time for Christmas. Email your guesses to winolonline@googlemail.com. Competition closes Friday 18th December 2009, winner will be announced later that day and informed by email. If there is more than once correct guess, the winner will be picked out of a hat." I then provided a little background as to why I am running these competitions: "The competitions that we run here on Winchester News Online are our way of promoting our website in the hope of creating a bigger awareness of it and making it the most popular source of news for Winchester and the surrounding community." When this competition is posted on the website I will post a link to it on here so you can all be in with a chance of winning the jar of sweets!
As for the weekly bulletin's that Winchester News Online puts out, I don't really have much to do with them because I am part of the features department. However I help out where I can and pay a lot of attention to the process of making the bulletin as I know I will have a more news based job next term. I would have liked more of a pro-active role because I tend to feel a bit redundant when it comes to bulletin day. However it is amazing just watching all the elements of the bulletin come together.
We did our first dummy bulletin on Wednesday 4th October and it was a complete shambles to be honest. Two of the packages that were in the running order were not finished in time and therefore could not go in the bulletin so the bulletin was significantly under time. Everything was just a bit too last minute, I don't think anyone knew what to expect or how much work the bulletin would entail. We also did not include headlines in this bulletin. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) this bulletin was not recorded, however I think we still all learnt a lot from the many flaws in the bulletin and it did show a lot of potential. The presenting was very good despite the presenters having no practice run-throughs and of the packages that did make it into the bulletin, some of the camera work was very good.
As for this past week's bulletin it was a lot better, the entire team was a lot more prepared and set earlier deadlines for all packages so extra time was available for technical difficulties etc. The only problems we had this week were a few timing issues where certain packages were not the length they said they would be or were labeled wrong, this meant that we have two black holes in the bulletin. We were also lucky enough to have Ian Anderson, the former deputy head of BBC News and editor of the BBC 10'O Clock news, as a guest editor for our bulletin. This a great help for us, with an industry professional giving us feedback on out second ever news bulletin.
Here is this past week's bulletin (11/11/2009). As noted by Chris Horrie this bulletin uses the old title sequence (we are hoping to get even newer titles for this coming week's bulletin) and the first few minutes of the bulletin were lost because the tape was corrupted. Nonetheless here it is:
Next week we go live at five for real. Dummy bulletins are over. There is no room for error now. I will post a link to the bulletin on Wednesday so you can all watch it, we're trying to get as big of an audience as possible for the first bulletin so the pressure is really on!
I started this role by starting up a Facebook group and Twitter account, both titled 'Winchester Speaks' as two easy ways for the people of Winchester to contact Winchester News Online. To publicise the site I plan to run some competitions over the nest few months.
The first competition is called 'Lucky Dates'. For this competition I developed lucky dates 'tickets' which said: "It could be your lucky day with lucky dates. All you have to do is check here: www.wincesterjournalism.co.uk. Your lucky date is..." and then put a certain year on each ticket. The corresponding piece on the website (which hasn't been uploaded yet, otherwise I would just post a link to it) says: "Is it your lucky day? Check if your lucky date is a winner here! This week’s lucky date is based on the now cult series of films: Star Wars. But when was the first ever Star Wars film originally released?" I then included a picture of the Star Wars logo, which is free from copyright because the 'image, or text depicted in it, only consists of simple geometric shapes and text. They do not meet the threshold of originality needed for copyright protection, and are therefore public domain'. I then reveal the answer: "The first film: ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’ originally just titled ‘Star Wars’ was first released in 1977. If your ticket has the year 1977 on it then you are a winner! Email winchesterspeaks@hotmail.com for details of your prize." However this competition cannot be won as I never printed a ticket with the winning date on it, cunning, eh?
The second competition that I am running is a basic 'how many sweets in the jar' competition (pictured right). However, this competition can actually be won and the prize is the jar with the sweets in which I paid for out of my own pocket, all for for the promotion of Winchester News Online! I also sat and counted the sweets out which took an awful long time! The corresponding piece for the competition of the website reads: "How many sweets in the jar? Guess correctly or guess the closest to the actual amount and this large jar of sweets could be yours just in time for Christmas. Email your guesses to winolonline@googlemail.com. Competition closes Friday 18th December 2009, winner will be announced later that day and informed by email. If there is more than once correct guess, the winner will be picked out of a hat." I then provided a little background as to why I am running these competitions: "The competitions that we run here on Winchester News Online are our way of promoting our website in the hope of creating a bigger awareness of it and making it the most popular source of news for Winchester and the surrounding community." When this competition is posted on the website I will post a link to it on here so you can all be in with a chance of winning the jar of sweets!As for the weekly bulletin's that Winchester News Online puts out, I don't really have much to do with them because I am part of the features department. However I help out where I can and pay a lot of attention to the process of making the bulletin as I know I will have a more news based job next term. I would have liked more of a pro-active role because I tend to feel a bit redundant when it comes to bulletin day. However it is amazing just watching all the elements of the bulletin come together.
We did our first dummy bulletin on Wednesday 4th October and it was a complete shambles to be honest. Two of the packages that were in the running order were not finished in time and therefore could not go in the bulletin so the bulletin was significantly under time. Everything was just a bit too last minute, I don't think anyone knew what to expect or how much work the bulletin would entail. We also did not include headlines in this bulletin. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) this bulletin was not recorded, however I think we still all learnt a lot from the many flaws in the bulletin and it did show a lot of potential. The presenting was very good despite the presenters having no practice run-throughs and of the packages that did make it into the bulletin, some of the camera work was very good.
As for this past week's bulletin it was a lot better, the entire team was a lot more prepared and set earlier deadlines for all packages so extra time was available for technical difficulties etc. The only problems we had this week were a few timing issues where certain packages were not the length they said they would be or were labeled wrong, this meant that we have two black holes in the bulletin. We were also lucky enough to have Ian Anderson, the former deputy head of BBC News and editor of the BBC 10'O Clock news, as a guest editor for our bulletin. This a great help for us, with an industry professional giving us feedback on out second ever news bulletin.
Here is this past week's bulletin (11/11/2009). As noted by Chris Horrie this bulletin uses the old title sequence (we are hoping to get even newer titles for this coming week's bulletin) and the first few minutes of the bulletin were lost because the tape was corrupted. Nonetheless here it is:
Next week we go live at five for real. Dummy bulletins are over. There is no room for error now. I will post a link to the bulletin on Wednesday so you can all watch it, we're trying to get as big of an audience as possible for the first bulletin so the pressure is really on!
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