News Agenda Presentation

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British tabloid newspaper. It began as a broadsheet newspaper, first published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe and his brother Lord Rothermere. Costing only a halfpenny when it first began, it was an immediate success. The planned issue was 100,000 copies but the print run on the first day was 397,000 so additional printing facilities had to be acquired to sustain a circulation which rose to 500,000 in 1899. In 1900 the Daily Mail began printing simultaneously in Manchester and London, being the first national newspaper to do so. By 1902 the circulation was over a million making it the largest in the world.

From the beginning the Mail set out to entertain its readers with human interest stories, serials, features and competitions. In 1971, the paper’s 75^th anniversary of its founding, it became a tabloid newspaper. It is now the UK’s second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.  

The daily mail contains a range of articles from politics, finance, health, sport, travel, lifestyle and celebrity. Its main audience is the older generation and it also has a lot of readership from women. It successfully targets its female audience through its many articles on the education system, and motherhood and family life by editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, Lorraine Candy. Lorraine has very strong opinions on motherhood and her weekly Femail column ‘I Don’t Know How I Do It’, which most women will generally relate to, reveals what life is really like juggling kids and a high-powered job.

 The recent education worry is the Sharia law punishments lessons, being given to Muslim pupils aged six to eighteen at so called ‘weekend schools’. The Daily Mail featured the following headline: ‘SHARIA LESSONS FOR PUPILS, SIX’. The paper featured this story on its front cover using bold, sharp phrases such as: ‘CHILDREN being taught brutal Sharia law punishments’ and ‘including how to hack off a criminal’s hand or foot’. This is to emphasise on the shocking details to make the story interesting and for the paper to share its disgust with its readers, particularly the parents that read it in order to keep their support, especially from mothers. The Daily Telegraph also featured the story on its front cover but in smaller print with the headline: ‘Pupils learn to cut off hands of thieves’. The Daily Telegraph is much more descriptive in its article, excluding any strong adjectives and instead explaining the details more formally. On the same day, the sun’s cover story was the lottery winner who had to pay his ex wife and exclusive x factor concert tickets to be won, along with the recent x factor results which supports its entertainment and TV status compared to the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph for example.

The daily mail is most likely to feature articles based on government topics more so than celebrity news and scandals. Although it features stories involving the entertainment industry, such as the most current popular TV shows: I'm a celebrity get me out of here, x factor and strictly come dancing, it doesn’t rely on these stories as heavily as, for example, The Sun which features columns such as Bizarre (pop music stories and gossip) and TV Biz (television stories, concentrating on soaps and reality TV). 

The Daily mail features its entertainment column ‘Its Friday’ each Friday to get its readers in the mood to enjoy an entertaining weekend. Much like The Sun’s ‘Something for the weekend’, it covers a wide variety of news and reviews across the arts and entertainment spectrum including music, film and television programmes.

In comparison to The daily telegraph, the Daily Mail is not Business and finance orientated, although it does feature some main stories in this category. The daily telegraph focuses mainly on money, the government and businesses rather than celeb scandals and TV gossip.   

The Daily Mail’s City & Finance column is the paper’s business part. It contains advice and information designed to make its readers financially aware and to enhance their financial well-being and gives the latest news on leading business companies. It also has its own website, www.thisismoney.co.uk.

The Daily Mail’s audience is mainly the older population (65+), women, and people of middle and working social class background (ABC1C2).

The Daily Mail is in touch with the hearts and minds of ‘Middle England’ or it reflects their concerns, hopes and lifestyles. In his article ‘Why Middle England gets the Mail’, Peter Cole describes the views of the Daily Mail and its audience as:

•       for Britain and against Europe,

•        against welfare (and what it describes as welfare scroungers),

•        for standing on your own feet

•        it’s 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, which explains why it has kept hold of its older audience.

He also says it puts achievement above equality of opportunity and self-reliance above dependence.

Daily Mail was the first to realise how much newspapers could learn from magazines, particularly the technique of applying a current news story about a celebrity, fashion or fad to ‘ordinary’ mail readers. This explains why it also has the highest proportion of women readers of any national newspaper. The Life & Style section on Mondays contain a mix of fashion, beauty, and home. They describe it as a magnet for pioneering women. Regular feature contributors include editor of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, former editor of Cosmo and She, Linda Kelsey and journalist and author, Lucy Cavendish, who all bring real charisma and style and connect with their female audience. MailConnected reveal that 45% of Life & Style’s female readers spend more than 15minutes with the section every week.

The daily mail connects strongly with its readers, reflecting their opinions and concerns. They say the relationship of trust they have built with over 9 million people works very effectively for their advertisers. They say ‘their audience can count on them to keep them well briefed on current events; their roster of star writers command respect and readers rely on their knowledge, advice and ideas across the spectrum – finance, travel, health, sport – all the important things in life are covered in their ‘signature entertaining and informative style.’

A newspaper’s circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. For the Daily Mail between January 2010 – June 2010, the Total Average Net Circulation per issue was 2,098,175. It was second from The Sun which had a Total Net Circulation of just under three million. Between October 4^th 2010 – October 31^st 2010 the Total Average Net Circulation was 2,129,328 per issue.

The Daily Mail describe their audience as the economic backbone of the UK and is hugely influential, with the power to make or break brands. Advertisers who wish to publish their advertisements in the Daily Mail or any newspaper, are influenced by the paper’s audience. 

The Daily Mail’s audience are mostly women, ABC1C2, and the over 65 generation so the ads found in the Daily Mail are aimed in particular at this group of people.

These are mostly home furniture and food brands usually promoting their offers, aimed at middle/working class women with families/children to provide for and mobility and cruise advertisements for older couples. 

The ads likely to be found include the following brands:

·         Dfs

·         BT

·         Tesco

·         Asda

·         Morrisons

·         Lidl

·         Argos

·         Mobility ads (everyday in Mail Classified)

·         Holiday Inn

The advertisements found in The Daily Telegraph, for example, are different to those in The Daily Mail or The Sun as they’re aimed more at middle class businessmen. It’s more likely to include jewellery brands, bank advertisements and computers such as the following:

·         Tiffany & Co.

·         Cartier

·         Sainsbury’s

·         Prezzo

·         Barclays

·         Santander

·         Brewin Dolphin

·         Dell

·         Canon

Advertising rate cards helps the retailer understand what types of ad sizes, discounts and other advertising the publication has to offer.

For the Daily Mail, advertising rates vary from £129 to £183 per single column centimetre Monday – Wednesday and from £134 to £196 Thursday – Friday.

WAVE 105

Wave 105 is a UK regional commercial radio station currently known as the ‘South’s biggest radio station’ owned by Bauer Radio. It began broadcasting on 14^th June 1998 across Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and parts of West Sussex. It was instantly competing with long established local stations Ocean FM and 2CR FM (both now Heart), Power FM (now Galaxy) and BBC Radio Solent.

They play a variety of hits, old and new. It combines presenter-led shows with local news bulletins and information, entertainment guides and competitions. News is provided by Wave 105’s local news team in conjunction with Independent News Radio.

Wave 105 describe their news bulletins as ‘fresh’ and ‘comprehensive’. Their news bulletins occur every hour, keeping their listeners up to date on all the latest headlines and ‘stories that matter in the south’.   Their local news bulletins include all the latest news happening in the South, updating every hour. The bulletins include a brief, straight to the point description of the news story followed by interviews from people concerned usually MP’s or local councillors and interviews with local residents.

An example of this was the local resident’s thoughts on the engagement of Kate Middleton and Prince William, the radio was able to involve their listeners and engage them with the latest big headline.

They also feature global news stories usually 30 minutes after the local news. They include headlines and the papers main stories to keep their listeners up to date. Followed by this is the latest local and global sports news. After the bulletins they often refer their listeners to the radio’s online website for more details and pictures related to their news stories. 

The radio news presenters also engage their listeners more than a newspaper is able to. They often give their listeners a contact number to call in and express their views on air about any of the news stories.  Travel and weather news is also important for their listeners. Majority of their listeners are driving and so travel updates are essential. Although travel news does appear in the papers, it’s very limited and not frequently updated so radio stations are much more useful for that particular information.

Entertainment news occurs less often than local and global news, mainly because celebrities and entertainment is often mentioned by the radio DJ’s. Latest news on musicians is usually told between playing their music and recently on Wave 105, news from the TV programme, I’m a celebrity get me out of here, was discussed by the Radio DJ who encouraged listeners to call in and have their say on the programme’s contestants, particularly when Gillian Mckeith fainted.

The station’s entertainment news is very brief and for more details, listeners are referred to their website which includes much more detail and videos for listeners to enjoy. Radio is able to connect with their audience and involve them more by speaking to their audience directly and keeping them entertained which explains its great success.

Since Wave 105 is a radio station in the South’s region, it mainly reaches people within that area specifically in Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and West Sussex.

In October 2010, Wave 105 revealed its highest listening figures ever.

Audience research from RAJAR showed:

•       its weekly adult reach - 369,000

•       Its weekly average adult hours - 11.6

•       Weekly adult total hours – 4,286,000

Wave 105 reaches more 25-54 year olds within the Meridian TV region than any other commercial radio.

Wave 105’s advertisers aim to target the radio’s main audience. The station describes their target listener profile as a: “41 year old married with children who enjoys life with their family but also taking time out to watch films, read and eat out but not forgetting those all important holidays.” Therefore, adverts on air set out to target that particular audience. These adverts are generally popular consumer brands but also local consumer adverts including local stores and restaurants: 

·         Toby Carvery

·         The Range

·         Peugeot

·         Boots

·         Fiat

·         EDF Energy

·         TomTom

·         Olay

Client testimonial's from brands such as Audi and Bathroom Warehouse Winchester, revealed that:

‘Wave 105’s audience profile exactly matches the type of person they are looking to attract. They have always been delighted with the response they received from their campaigns and the service Wave 105 provided’.

‘Wave 105 has helped Bathroom Warehouse to strengthen its brand across a larger region. The success of the advertising is apparent when looking at how their client profile has changed since they have been advertising as they have drawn customers from further afield’.

News Online

The rise in the internet has given newspapers the opportunity to reach more audiences through their online news websites. Readers now have more access to the news, from their home and workplace through their computers. However, newspapers are now competing with a rapidly increasing variety of websites, such as other online newspapers, wire services, search engine news links, citizen journalism websites, blogs, online commentary and podcasts. This to an extent does affect the daily circulation of newspapers.

The Mail Online users spend an average of 9.8 minutes on the site per month and it receives a higher percentage of UK visits than any other national newspaper’s online news site. This does help advertisers as advertising creativity is at its highest online. The Mail Online offers brand the opportunity of targeting audiences through display advertisements, integrated creative solutions and inserts to make ads noticed and entertaining to benefit both the advertiser and their audience.

BBC News

The BBC News is a huge disadvantage for newspapers and their online websites. With television, radio and a website, it’s the world’s largest broadcasting news organisation. The average weekly reach across all BBC services in 2009/10 was 97%. Their website is the most popular news website in the UK. The site records around 14 million unique users a week and newspapers see the BBC as ‘unfair’ competition. This means they feel pressure to be first online and feel pressure to be free, whilst looking for ways to hide their content behind a pay-wall.

The BBC has to serve all audiences, which means meeting a diverse and competing range of needs and interests and therefore attract a wider audience than any national newspaper. 

Media law - Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000, became law in january 2005 after A Labour Government came to power in 1997 with a manifesto commitment to give people a right to know. It created the UK's first general right of access to information held by government departments and other public authorities in the UK. Journalist's began to use the Act's provisions, and this has produced many exclusive stories, some about the highest reaches of Government. However, a person using the Act must be able to argue, if necessary, for the public interest justification for information to be disclosed.

Authorities that hold the information must supply the information frre of any financial charge for finding and collating it, if meeting the request costs them no more than £600 (in the case of national governement departments) or £450 (in the case of local councils and other types of authorities).
The Act has been used extensively by journalists and researchers, generally with great success.

A request by Heather Brooke to the House of Commons made it reveal details of what some members of Parliament were claiming in expenses to finance and run their second homes.

Disclosures prompted by regional and local journalists using the Act have included:

• the numbr of under 16s requiring treatment for drug problems and alcohol related illness at a local hospital
• the number of police officers arrested for alleged crimes
• how many crimes reported to police, including alleged sexual assaults, are given no publicity by the police
• how many children have been excluded from local schools

Disclosures prompted by BBC journalists using the Act include:

• only two councils had met Government targets on the welfare of children in council care
• councils in the South of England had made the same planning procedure mistake 68 times in relation to mobile phone masts
• elderly residents of a nursing home allegedly suffered verbal and physical abuse

The following is a list of some of the major and minor bodies covered by the Act in the public sector:

• national government departments and ministries e.g. the Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Prime Minister's Office.
• the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the national assemblies of Northern Ireland and Wales
• the armed forces
• local government authorites e.g. metropolitan, county, district, city and parish councils, transport executives, waste disposal agencies, police forces, fire services
• national park authorities
• universities, colleges and schools (if in the state sector)
• the National Health Service
• various advisory councils, and regulatory bodies with statutory powers, e.g. Ofcom, the General Medical Council.

The UK's security and intelligence agencies; M15, M16 and GCHQ, are exmpt from the Act, and so they are not required to respond to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
Courts and tribunals are also not covered by the Act, though some information gathered in their functions will be available if an FOI request is made to the relevant government department which it holds it e.g. the Ministry of Justice.

If a journalist is not sure what information an authority holds, before they make an FOI request they should check its website, if it has one, and if there is any likelihood of the information being published there by the authority routinely. Each authority is required by the Act to have som form iof publication scheme showing what it publishes. if the ifnormation is not listed there, then the journalist, if they are unsure how to precisely describe in an FOI request the ifnormation they want, should ring the authority concerned to ask the relvant person (i.e an official who co-ordinates FOI matters) about the types of information it holds.

Public authorities are required by section 16 of the Act to give someone proposing to make a request, or someone who has already made one, 'advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so'.

• The public authority should tell you, before you make the request what informatiopn of the type you want may be available.
• The public authority should give you guidance to avoid your request breaching the cost of limit for such information to be provided without charge.

The Act allows authorites to refuse to supply information on various grounds, known as exemptions.

Absolute exemptions

Some exemptions are 'absolute'. This means under the Act, the public authority does not have to give any reason for not disclosing the information, beyond stating that the exmeption applies because fo the nature of the information.
Absolute exemptions include the following categories of information stated in the Act:

• Section 21 - infromation reasonably accessible by other means.
• Section 23 - information supplied to the public authority by or relating to bodies dealing with security matters
• Section 32 - court records
• Section 40 - personal information (a public authority may decide that an FOI request encompasses exempt personal data).
• Section 41 - information provided to the authority in confidence by abother party
• Section 44 - information the disclosure of which is forbidden by other law 

Qualified exemptions  

Qualified exmeption means that if the public authority decides not to supply the information in these categories, it must give reasons, showing how it has applied the 'public interest test', as laid down by the Act, to justify its refusal to provide the information. Under the Act, the information may be withheld only if the public interest in withholiding it is greater than the public interest in releasing it. 

Copyright 

Copyright is a branch of intellectual property law and it protects the products of people's skill, creativity, labour or time.
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the Copyright Act), copyright protects any literary, darmatic, artistic, or musical work, sound, recording, film, boradcast, or typographical arrangement.
Reproduction of copyright work may constitute infringement.

There is no copyright in facts, news, ideas or information. copyright exists in the form of in which information is expressed and the selection and arrangement of the material, all of which involves skill and labour.
However, while there is no copyright in a news story, persistent lifting of facts from another paper, even if there is rewriting each time, may still be an infringement because of the skill, labour and judgement that went into research on the stories.

Fair dealing is a defence to breach of copyright for use of extracts of a copyrighted work, properly attributed to its author.This means, fair dealing with a copyright work for the purpose of reporting current events is therefore, not an infringment provided it's accompanied by sufficient acknowledgement of the work and its author and provided the work has been made available to the public.

David Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher and historian and is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume strove to create a total naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. He argues that belief rather than reason governed human behaviour, famously saying: “Reason and is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”

He argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding instead that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. He divides perceptions between strong and lively impressions or direct sensations and fainter ideas which are copied from impressions. He developed the position that mental behaviour is governed by custom; our use of induction, for example, is justified only by our idea of the constant conjunction of causes and effects. With direct impressions of a metaphysical self, he concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self. This means, he believes quite considerably that humans have no interaction with their own self or can prove that their own self exists but our sensations that we feel can help us to believe we do exist. Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles.

In 1748, Hume published An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In the beginning of the book, section 1, Hume is introducing philosophy. He says there are two types of philosophy; Moral philosophy which is the philosophy or science of human nature and natural philosophy. In moral philosophy he considers man to be born for action influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment. They make us feel the difference between vice and virtue.  He says that these philosophers match popular opinion more. ‘The other species of philosophers’ consider man in the light of the reasonable rather than an active being. They regard human nature as a subject of speculation and so they examine it and therefore, they find ways to analyse reasons for the creation of the world and nature and also the way in which humans think.

He argues that philosophy which is founded on a turn of mind which cannot enter into business and action is likely to be forgotten whereas philosophy which is accurate and can be proven is considered to be more agreeable and more useful. He says man is a reasonable being and as such, receives from science his proper food and nourishment. This makes me think he prefers the work of philosophers who can justify their beliefs, findings and ideas of the world through experiment and science because we can trust these reasons more so with a bit of evidence.

Man is an active being and therefore needs to be occupied so must submit to business or occupation but the mind also needs some relaxation and cannot always support its bent to care and industry. When he says this he believes that human beings need to keep society and the industry in order and need to participate in an occupation in order to ensure that services are available and living is improved but at the same time human beings need their relaxation time for pleasure and entertainment. I like the saying he Hume uses: ‘Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.’ This means that as much you should be a philosopher and a believer, at the same time you should still be a man and man should enjoy his own taste and sentiment.

I agree when Hume says that the sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning. Science can find so many essential life necessities such as the creation of medicine (and of course vanities!) and the interesting findings in space, we learn about things that are proven to exist but we can’t actually see or feel them yet science allows to have the knowledge of knowing they do exist.

In the origins of ideas, Hume discusses the distinction between impressions and ideas. By impressions, he means sensations and by ideas he means memories and imaginings. He compares our ideas and impressions and how important our ideas can be and how impressions we have of something can cause an idea as he says: “The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise, and good being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom. We may prosecute this enquiry to what length we please; where we shall always find, that every idea which we examine is copied from a similar impression.”

Hume is trying to suggest that the ideas we have of something, for example, the taste of wine, is much different to our sensations or impressions of it, for example, different than actually drinking it. Therefore, he argues that impressions are the sources of all ideas.

However, Hume does say that there is one contradictory phenomenon, which may prove that it is not absolutely impossible for ideas to arise, without having an impression at all of something particular before. He asks us to imagine a man who has seen every shade of blue except one. He believes that it is possible the man will be able to have an idea of that particular shade, from his own imagination without any impressions. But Hume says that by bringing ideas into so clear a light we may reasonably be able to remove all dispute, which may arise concerning their nature and reality.

Investigative journalism

Investigative journalism is where journalists go off the news agenda and decide the agenda for themselves. Reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest most commonly involving crime, political corruption and financial issues, much like what you see on BBC's Panorama.
De Burgh (2000) says the following to define investigative journalism: "An investogative journalist is a man or woman whose profession is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity."

There are cautions for journalists to consider when taking part in investagative journalism. Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1988, garuntees the right to privacy. This gives protection against a public authority and also against the media so people can use this to prevent or seek damages for breaches of their privacy.

Investigative journalism contains alot of infomration which has been obtained covertly.
Surreptitious filming r recording, for example, should be used only where it is warranted, and normally it will be warranted if:

• there is prima facie evidence of a story in the public interest; and
• there are reasonable grounds to supect that further material evidence could be obtained; and
• it is necessary for the credibility and authenticity of the programme.

Ofcom said that secret filming by a reporter who obtained a job in a prison was justified, to show practices at the prison which, it was claimed, put vulnerable prisioners at risk and which failed to deal with hard drug use.
In 2005, in the Mckennitt case, the singer's former friend and employee, published a book with no rights which contained confidential personal information about their friendshsip. In 2006, the Court of Appeal reffered to cases where 'confidence' arose from information having been acquired by unlawful or surreptious means.
The court regarded the taking of long-distance photographs as being an exercise gernerally considered to raise privacy issues. In the Douglas case the wedding pictures had been taken by an uninvited freelance photographer and in the Campbell case, photographs of the model leaving a Narcotics Anonymous therapy session were also taken surreptitiously.

In 2008 the singer Madonna launched a High Court action against the Mail on Sunday for more than £5million in damgers over private photographs of her wedding to film director Guy Ritchie.
The photographs were copied surreptitiously by an interior designer during work at Madonna' US home, the court was told. The paper admitted breach of copyright and privacy and damages were due to be assessed in 2009.
However, journalists can plead that the disclosure of confidential information would be in the public interest. Judges may be prepared to accept that the celebrity status of a claimant can generate a public interest in private conduct that ould otherwise be protected.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 prohibits intentional and unlawful interception of communications by post or phone or other tele-communication systems. It supersedes the Interception of Communications Act 1985 but, unlike the 1985 Act, it applies to private systems as well as public systems. The gaps in the law were illustrated when a journalist tapped the phone of the actress Antonia de Sancha to record telephone conversations between her and David Mellor, a government minister.
RIPA says that the sender or recipient of an intercepted message can sue, even if the person having the right to control the use of a private system gives permission, if such interception is without lawful authority.
The BBC's Panorama programme's into the investigation of the Omagh bombing is an illustrative example of investigate journalists using persausive and accurate, but legally inadmissible evidence, gathered by the police. The official investiagtion was largely based on the innovative methods of electronic tracking of mobile phone traffic.

some elements of the law are more relevant to photographers, journalists using video cameras and TV crews than to print reporters.
The Protection Against Harassment Act 1997 is designed to tackle all stalkers. In 2008 the actress Sienna Miller accepted damages of £53,000 in settlement of civil law claims for harassment and breach of privacy claims agains Big Pictures Ltd. Terms were agreed which included undertakings by the agency not to pursue Miller by car, motorcycle, or moped, or to place her under surveilance. It also included nt taking pictures of her leaving buildings where she had an expectation of privacy.

Public interest is extremely important. If the information obtained is of public interest this needs to be balanced against the right of the individuals uder the investigation to maintain their reputation as well as their right to privacy under the Human Rights Act. If it can be shown that there is a high level of public interest in making the allegations, and that they are free from malice, then there is a strong qualified privilege right to publish them even if the allegations turn out to be untrue or are incapable of proof.

Peter Cole on Newspapers

Reading Peter Cole’s articles in the Guardian, I found it interesting that he prefers to call broadsheet newspapers; serious papers. He says that broadsheet is now inaccurate for the majority but I don’t think serious is a good term to define the difference between tabloids and broadsheet. Surely all newspapers are published with the aim to be taken seriously by their audience in order to sell well.

It is clear broadsheets present stories more formally in comparison to tabloids and include stories which seem to have a greater affect on the public, for example a lot of governmental issues are covered rather than celeb scandals you’ll find in the Sun, but all these papers want to be taken seriously and want to be successful so include stories of public interest. Broadsheets such as the Guardian and the Times both have sections aimed at younger readers, such as G2 and Times2 which are filled with similar articles you are likely to find in the Sun or possibly even the Star, such as Big Brother gossip, celebs, sex surveys and fashion. These features are being published on a basis of seriousness in order to sell and gain a wider audience, therefore I’m not all too keen on the term ‘serious’.  

 What I found most interesting, reading through Peter Cole’s articles, was the information he gave about Sunday papers. I have often wondered if and why newspapers seem to be more of a hit on Sunday’s and after reading the articles, I now have more of an understanding.

Peter Cole says that we buy 11.7million national newspapers each weekday and 12.5million on Sundays. This means that compared to one weekday, newspaper sales are higher on a Sunday but I’ve never understood why. I seem to enjoy buying a newspaper each weekday morning so I know what’s happening in the world when I start my day. I’d have thought many people on a Sunday would spend the day at home, preparing the roast and watching Eastenders Omnibus, rather than waking up early and heading out to buy a paper (but that might just be me being stereotypical).

Peter Cole says Sunday newspapers are embedded in our culture, even if the nature of Sunday has dramatically changed. There is still an appetite for the long narrative read on the big news stories (I guess because there’s not much else to do on a Sunday). Politicians still like to launch or float policy ideas on Sundays.

Interestingly, he also says that Saturday quality papers are multi-section imitations of Sunday papers, with service sections such as personal finance, travel, property, and motoring often appearing in both. I found it interesting to know that these Saturday papers are vital for the dailies as they sell substantially more than Monday to Friday and boost the average sale. He claims a Saturday Telegraph or Times, Guardian or Independent, provides enough reading for the weekend but I can’t say I agree. I’m not so afraid to admit that after a busy week, I do enjoy a bit of sun gossip for the weekend.  

Murder in Court 3 and Murder in court 4, just go on in...

Take one Court, two murder trials and you have three very nervous journalism students. On Tuesday, me and two girls from the course decided to head down to Winchester Crown Court just to get the gist of court reporting. After our law for journalists lecture, we were all a bit worried because we didn't want to do anything wrong, but we knew it would be good for us to experience.

Before we got into the reception of the court, we had to go through a security scanner. When it was my turn to walk through it, the scanner typically beeped! I found it funny that the security guard blamed it on the keys which were on the desk not even close to the scanner, a very alert guy!
Once we were in reception, we asked the reception to tell us which courtroom we should go to. I was expecting her to say there's a drink-driving or speeding case in court such and such, but what i wasn't expecting was what she actually said. It went a bit like this: 'Oh there's a murder in court 3 and a murder in court 4, so just go on in girls'. Ok, so this was serious.

We slowly walked up 'the marble and then the carpet stairs' as directed by the receptionist until we were standing outside court 3's public gallery. This was all really happening. This wasn't my usual Monday night Eastenders episode, this was all real-life. We hovered outside the door for a while because we wasn't sure if we were able to walk in since the trial had already started. One of us was then brave enough to go in first whilst we followed like lost sheep!

The courtroom was just as I expected with the judge, the jury, the prosecution and the witness. The jury didn't look as I expected them to. I thought they would be very smartly dressed in suits and ties but they all looked quite 'normal' in formal but casual clothes. Both courtrooms were the same, they had a very tense atmosphere. The questions that were being asked to the witnesses in both courts were so detailed and often repeated but worded differently to get as much information as possible. I can see why shorthand is needed!

The murders were obviously extremely brutal and I found the comments from the witnesses were really shocking and upsetting. You read about devastating violence in the newspapers all the time but to actually be sat in a room with real people who have witnessed such horrendous violence is a completely different feeling. The jury had folders containing horrorific images from the crime scene and the weapons which were used were also shown in the court. They were concealed in boxes so a replica was shown to the jury.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to view both cases from start to end as we had arrived after the trials had started and we had to leave before the trials ended so whilst we were there we only heard from the witnesses.

When we left the court, (which took us a long time as were afraid of making any noise since the trial was still in process) we agreed that we had found it a very interesting experience and we were annoyed we didn't get to see the trials from beginning to end. I would deffinitely be interested in learning more about court reporting as the cases get so gripping, but for now i'll enjoy hearing less about murders!

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. In 1709, Addison’s friend, Richard Steele, began to bring out the Tatler journal to which Addison immediately became a contributor. Soon after, he started The Spectator, a daily paper. Its goal was to ‘enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.’

In the Spectator No 476, Joseph Addison debates the differences between regularity and method styles of writing and irregularity styles of writing. Addison begins by saying he writes with both regularity and irregularity. When writing his daily papers, he more frequently writes with method and has the whole scheme of the discourse in his head, much like planning his structure of writing before writing the final piece. However, he then says that he uses the style of irregularity when writing ‘essays’. It seems to me that he thinks writing methodically, planning your writing and ideas and thoughts in order, seems to be a trouble because instead you can write quickly and more freely.

Although, based on what he says, it seems he strongly prefers to write methodically because without regularity he says it can cause confusion and disorder probably to both the reader and writer. He describes an author of irregular style of writing as a Genius but I think he uses this word sarcastically to an extent, because he compares this style of writing to being lost in a Wood where great objects arise and surround you but you’re in confusion. He says that geniuses are too full to be exact and therefore, ‘throw down their pearls in heaps rather than be at the pains of stringing them’. It seems he’s not speaking seriously about these geniuses because surely geniuses have the brains and power to ‘suffer at the pains of stringing them’ rather than writing the easy way, freely and continuously writing ideas from their heads.

It seems he also writing with sarcasm in The Royal Exchange. He mentions being a citizen of the world and seems to portray the fact that he loves mankind as he says: ‘Nature seems to have taken a peculiar care to disseminate the blessings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to this mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind.’ He also says natives of several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another and be united as if he loves to see citizens of the world uniting as one but in actual fact, I think he’s mocking the concept with a purpose to entertain his audience and add humour to his writing.

In the Spectator, to show his preference for method, Addison describes method as an ‘advantage to a work, both in respect to the writer and the reader.’ I agree with him when he says that method helps a writer’s invention because, as he says, ‘when a man has planned his discourse, he finds a great many thoughts rising out of every head’. This makes sense because when you plan your writing it gives you the time and opportunity to think about what you’re writing and to expand on your thoughts rather than simply writing what is already in your head. I think it is also true when he says that thoughts are more intelligible and better discover their drift and meaning when they follow one another in a regular series rather than when they are thrown together without any order or connection. It makes much more sense to link the ideas and thoughts you are writing especially for journalists who are publishing information to their public audience. They need to be sure that their readers are able to connect with the writing and understand the information they are being given rather than writing information that will confuse the readers and have no meaning to them.

Addison also suggests that method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, because it is generally known that people talk to make themselves understood. Therefore, we often ‘think before we speak’ to make sure what we say is necessary and understood by others for us to receive replies and have conversations. 

Addison also compares Tom Puzzle and Will Dry. Tom Puzzle is an immethodical disputant and describes him as the admiration of all those who have less sense than himself, and the contempt of those who have more. Will Dry is a ‘clear methodical head’ and Addison interestingly says Dry gains the same advantage over Puzzle, that a small body of regular troops would gain over a numberless undisciplined Militia.

In the Royal Exchange, Addison talks in a very feminine and witty manner. He writes about his fondness for trading and the positive impacts it has on society but as I’ve mentioned before, he does speak, I believe, with a lot of sarcasm to entertain his audience.  He uses a lot of feminine ways of describing objects. For example, when he writes about the food and products from different countries, he describes them in great detail in a very feminine way. He says:

“The infusion of a china plant sweetened with the pith of an Indian cane. The Philippine Islands give a flavour to our European bowls. The single dress of a woman of quality is often the product of a hundred climates. The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. The scarf is sent from the Torrid Zone, and the tippet from beneath the pole. The brocade petticoat rises out of the mines of Peru, and the diamond necklace out of the bowls of Indostan.”

This paragraph is written in a very womanly way, the descriptions such as sweetened and diamond is very feminine and the places such as the Philippines and India are very exotic places. The fact that the clothing mentioned is all for women, such as the dress, muff, fan, petticoat and diamond necklace, makes me think that his writing is aimed at women rather than men.

He also mentions a list of exotic fruit including melons, peaches, figs, apricots and cherries which also suggests to me this is for a female audience. Mainly because it was stereotypical then of women to stay at home to clean and prepare meals for their families whilst men went out to work and therefore, this would mostly be of the interest of women.  

Joseph Addison also talks a lot of Sir Andrew Freeport, a fictional character he created. Addison created Sir Andrew with an intention of him being a representation of himself, a character which shared his views in order to make his writing unique.

Interview with Keith Devlin

Keith Devlin, head of maths at Standford University had some very interesting ideas on the theories of Ancient Greeks. He said theorists such as Aristotle, 300/400 BC, Develop crude and simplistic rules of logic. Their theories on logic are not the logic people use today when making complex deductions. Devlin believes logic is important not because you use the rules to do reasoning, but thinking about those rules makes you reflect on the rules you do use. Most reasoning today is so complex; you have to use a holistic approach using all kinds of methods. The Greeks didn’t really value logic in itself; they were interested in politics and democracy and thought it was all about convincing people.

Devlin had a very interesting idea of probability. The year following 9/11 found that death rates increased in America. I’ve never took the time to dwell on this and his ideas have made me think more about it. Less people wanted to fly after 9/11 because they were too afraid of the same incident happening again so death rates increased because more people were deciding to drive and travel by car. This meant there was more traffic on the roads and so more traffic accidents were happening. These accidents killed more people in America the following year than were killed in 9/11.

Devlin said after 9/11 it was actually the safest time to fly as there were fewer planes in the air and crews were more cautious and had more time. People were frightened by the odds. The odds of being killed in a terrorist attack on a plane are zero. If you’re worried about dying on a plane, don’t get a taxi to the airport because that’s where the danger lies. Once you’re on a plane and it takes off, the chances of there being a terrorist on that plane are essentially zero. This completely makes sense and I have never actually considered it before. If you think about it more carefully you are able to realise, terrorists are after a new story, airplane crashes are dramatic and they make news and have an impact but there’s only been one 9/11 incident in the entire history of America yet people are dying from various other things everyday for example, a car accident, but to the majority they don’t see that as a likely to occur to them and continue to drive their cars everyday.  

Devlin also had interesting views on scientific method.  It is a Universal myth that science is all about finding the truth. Science cannot possibly do that. Science is about getting the best rational explanation grounded in the evidence we have and it changes over time. If you go back to Newton’s time, Newton has the idea that gravity is an unseen force that keeps the planetary system together, now called the Newtonian theory of gravity, and it still works today. Einstein overturns that in a sense as he says that there was some things wrong with it and we have a new theory. When we send space equipment into the outer reaches of the solar system, we know that Newton’s theory is not accurate enough; we have to make allowances for Einstein’s corrections. So our knowledge changes and we now have masses of evidence about human illnesses and the human body from human research. Whereas going back to the 50’s we didn’t know as much as we know now. Theories have developed and they’re better theories than before but there is no such thing as the truth. Today’s truth is tomorrow’s approximation. Science is about making better approximations to this mythical thing called the truth. Any scientific statement is capable of being tested and therefore could be overturned, the longer something which could be overturned isn’t, the more confident we feel about these statements. Science doesn’t go by the majority; it only takes one person to prove your explanation wrong in order for it to be abolished. That’s why we have such faith in science.

He also discussed probably and justice. When a crime is committed and there’s evidence containing DNA, the FBI immediately looks through the database to find a match. Your profile data on an FBI database if you have one is a sequence of 13 numbers. The question is to prove identity, how likely is it that 2 people randomly chosen from the population will have those same 13 numbers? It is pretty likely. The classic case that shows you often do get accidental matches is that you only need 23 people in a room to have the better than 50% chance that two of them share the same birthday. The fact is when you have populations of any size, and 23 is large for this to happen, random coincidences occur. So with DNA identification, the issue comes down to what s the likelihood of two people chosen at random, share the same 13 numbers. It’s quite high and Devlin says that proving innocence is like a scientific method, you only have to show the DNA doesn’t match and the person is innocent because there’s no evidence and the DNA has no value. If the DNA does match then there’s the issue, is it matched because you were there at the crime scene and you committed the crime or did the DNA get there through some other means or is it just a random occurrence? The courts need to have a calculation for how likely is it that the DNA match is just an accident so that’s a statistical issue and calculations have to be made.  

The Invention of Google at Standford University was a piece of mathematics. One of the powers of mathematics is that you don’t need a huge laboratory to do mathematics, you need a paper and pencil and you could come up with an idea anywhere and within a year or so, that idea could change the entire world. I myself have never enjoyed mathematics and often, as many pupils at high school, found myself saying I didn’t see any point to it because there’s not much mathematics can get you. However, I began to learn that we do actually use the subject every day and mathematics is the key to a lot of great inventions. It is fascinating to think, as Devlin said, that one day you could be in the bath, jogging through the hills, having a bike ride, or on the beach abroad and you think of a brilliant new idea, for example, a new web creation, that makes you a billionaire the following year. It makes a fantastic dream!