Media Concepts revision notes.

Multiple choice questions:

Mass culture theory:

-          Pierre Bourdieu; asks how logic of taste and preference work challenges notions of innate taste or ‘authentic’ sensibilities.

-          Different forms of culture provide different forms of pleasure.

-          Tastes and notions of quality are socially constructed. Used differently by different groups to gain status.

-          Cultural Capital; invest into consumption practices- acquiring status – producing symbolic capital of power. Can be acquired through education and its value can shift when context is changed.

Saussure/Signs – semiotics:

-          Language not just a way of classifying objects in an external world

-          Words only have meaning as parts of systems  i.e. languages

-          Langue = the system or language

-          Parole = actual utterances of words

-          Signifier (concept)+signified (word)=sign

-          Signs only have meaning within particular systems of meaning

-          Denotation and connotation.

-          Pierce: Symbolic; signs in which the relationship between the sign and its meaning are totally arbitary, Iconic; signs that resemble their meaning in some way, and Indexical signs; signs that indicate what they stand for.

Structuralism (Wright, Eco, Barthes):

-          Propp - 'narratemes' - he designed a structure of narratemes made up of 8 character roles, and 31 basic narratemes.

-          Todorov supports Propp, claiming all stories have the same universal formal properties.

-          Wright = westerns and Eco = James Bond.

Fabula/syuzhet  (Bordwell):

-          Fabula is deducted from Syuzhet

-          Syuzhet is an employment of narrative and fabula is the chronological order of the retold events.

Genre Theory:

-          Another way to explore the media text constructed meaning.

-          Genre is a signifying system; a paradigm (lists of possible signs from which particular signs are selected to form syntagms).

-          Agents of ‘ideological closure’

-          Limit meaning potential; ‘Contract’ between producer and audiences as to content; Annoying when broken.

-          There are usually generic features to genres. But there is also genre hybridity.

-          Genre changes and develops over time.

Political economy:

-          To fully understand media and cultural texts we have to examine the material conditions in which they are produced

-          Relate texts to wider social relationships and power

-          Hard power - control of capital, military, legal systems, etc.

-          Soft power - symbols, discourses, the cultural and semiological

-          Power – works at three levels

-          1. The ability to influence decisions

-          2. The ability to set the agenda in the first place

-          3. Structural power  - the effect an institution has by simply ‘being there’

Hegemony

-          Power – works at three levels

-          The ability to influence decisions

-          The ability to set the agenda in the first place

-          Structural power  - the effect an institution has by simply ‘being there’

-          Hegemony - when popular ideas or ‘common sense’ reflect the interests of the powerful ideology. Also known as ‘culturalism’.

-          Hegemony never finally secured.

-          Resistance to dominant ideologies. Media and cultural texts can be sites of resistance.

Stuart Hall:

-          Popular culture; he suggests the boundaries of popular culture become a site of contestation.

-          Constructions of art are merely weapons of power struggle.

-          Encoding and decoding model;

-          Dominant : Share's the text's code, and accepts/reproduces the text.

-          Negotiated - partly shares the codes but may resist/modify the code to reflect their own life

-          Oppositional - understands the reading but does not share/deal with it.

Lister:

-          Audience identity; new media-virtual reality.

-          Identities and communities online; new media provides new ways of experiencing self and relating to groups in society. ‘In touch but, never touching. As deeply connected as they are profoundly alienated.  

-        Being anonymous; different mediation allow is to express different parts of our identity. Different communications effect how we present ourselves.

-          Belonging; online communities create a sense of belonging and use them as an antidote to social fragmentation.

The Chicago school:

-          Offer a mode of regulation: law; social norms; the market; architecture.

-          Social norms; the prescribed and proscribed forms of media of behaviour. They aren’t administered through authority.

-          Markets; availability and prices regulate by effecting how we consume or produce. Independent of laws and social norms.

-          Architecture; forms of constraints that prevent us doing things – passwords regulate our use of networks. They are pre-action constraints – social norms and law are post action constraints.

-          Changes to one will affect the regulated activity, they all regulate to different degrees.

Narrative:

-          A communicative act – narrative involves a ‘teller’ and a ‘listener’.

-          All narratives involve a sequence of events (they are located in time).

-          All narratives are constructed.

Framing and priming:

-          Framing: helps to construct the ‘preferred’ reading. It’s the media perspective.

-          Priming: endorses certain responses to active certain thoughts (in the preferred readers mind)

Computer mediated communications:

-          The separation between reality and online reality.

-        

Todorov – structuralism

-          Believes there are common structures in the narrative of a story. Equilibrium – disequilibrium –equilibrium.

-          The structure of narratives tends to suggest that the restitution of the status quo is ‘normal’ and ‘appropriate’

-          Suggests ideology.

Barthes

-          Believes narratives have up to 5 distinct codes operating below the surface.

-          This includes enigma code (meaning) - this activates the viewer or readers interest in guessing the meaning or ending.

-          Enigmas or ‘puzzles’ are introduced, resolved, reintroduced.

-          Symbolic codes (through which stories are symbolically represented)

-          Cultural codes – narratives frequently draw upon ‘authoritative knowledge’ or popular shared assumptions.

-          Myth - wrestling

-          Myth is political and ideological.

-          Codes which are taken for granted and seen not as codes but as ‘natural.

-          Signs placed in different codes operate in different ways

Uses and gratifications

-          Katz and Blumer.

-          Audience can control media exposure.

-          People use media for what they want, his may be complex and conflicting.

-          May be expressed in different ways:

-          1. To reinforce existing views

-          2. To identify opposing views

-          3. To be immersed in a community

-          4. To escape reality

Chomsky and Herman:

-          Outlined a propaganda model; focuses on the effects of US capitalist ideology on agenda setting in the media.

-          They said there were five main filters or ways media is given consent in society.

-          By size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth and profit orientation of the dominant mass media firms.

-          By advertising as the primary income source of the mass media.

-          By the reliance on the media on information provided by government, business and experts.

-          By ‘flak’ as means of disciplining the media.

-          By anticommunism as control of mechanism.

-          ‘Flak’refers to negative responses to media or news programmes. The ability to produce flack is the greatest for the powerful institutions most committed to the capitalist cause.

-          Media professionals are puppets of capitalism.

-          Everything media professionals do can be explained in terms of ideology and its effects.

-          Ideology explains media effects take many theoretical forms.

-          Suggest there is a ruling class and that this ruling class controls the media and their effects.

News Writing: 'hit' or 'collision'

We were asked to write a news story from a sussex police press release, this is what i came up with;

A 13-year-old boy died after being hit by a car in sussex, yesterday afternoon.
The 62-year-old driver and his passenger, were both uninjured. The boy was rushed to East Surrey Hospital with serious injuries, where he later died.
The driver of the Land Rover was arrested, at the scene, on suspicion of careless driving and has been released on bail until January.

In one of the examples Brian chose to show to the group, 'hit by a car' was discussed to decide whether or not it was the right phase to use as opposed to 'collision'. Turns out we can, but can sometimes be a problem because it suggests there is someone to blame and is defamatory.
Mentioning the car was a Land Rover was bought up; it doesn't need to be included because what car it was is irrelevant, speed is, even though Land Rovers are bigger cars and look as though they could do more damage than your average smart car....

History and context of journalism lecture/reading five:

Seminar Paper.

David Hume:

David Hume was an 18^th century philosopher, during the Scottish enlightenment. He was in favor of John Locke’s ideas and theories in terms of empiricism but built on them to create extreme form of empiricism.

Empiricism is the belief that all knowledge comes from the senses, there is no innate knowledge. David Hume was a believer in scepticism which is the idea that there is no such thing as true knowledge and that the real world is unknowable. Hume concluded that the only claims we can make about the world are those that place human existence in the center of reality, because human existence is the closest we can ever be to the truth. From his strong belief in human knowledge from experience the ‘Bundle theory’ came about which suggests the features of objects are they only what exist, there is no actual object, which leads to his doubt in ‘self’.

One of Hume’s well known book is ‘Treaties of Human Nature’. It is divided into three books and begins by distinguishing between ‘impressions’ and ‘ideas’, as does ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’. ‘Impressions’ and ‘ideas’ are considered perceptions but impressions (sensations) have more force and violence.  Hume says ‘By ideas I mean the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning.’ Ideas, for Hume, are simple and similar to impressions but much fainter. ‘Every idea has a simple impression…every simple impressions has a corresponding idea.’ Complex ideas do not resemble impression because it is believed that impressions come before, from experience.

‘Of abstract ideas’ outlines the difference between the kinds of ideas he believes there to be. General ideas are seen a particular ones, connected to a term that gives it extensive significance and makes us recall things similar to them. Hume’s describes abstract ideas as ‘individual’ but may become general through their representations. There are said to be defects in his theory; one logical the other psychological. The logical objection is that there can be several objects of which share resemblance. The psychological objection is that it ignores vagueness. Vagueness is different from generality, but shares some characteristics.

Hume then banished the concept of substance from psychology in saying there is no impression of self and therefore no idea of self. Though he contradicts himself in saying some philosophers have the ability to perceive themselves. The idea of ‘self’ is of great importance and Hume argues that if the self is such a thing it is never perceived, therefore we can have no idea of it. Suggesting we must have an idea of self. Such ideas are interferences of perceptions and are not among the logically basic ideas; they are complex and descriptive. If Hume’s principle that ideas are derived from impressions the argument must be correct. If the principle is rejected we are forced back on ‘innate’ ideas.  Though all psychological knowledge can be stated without introducing the self; the ‘self’, Hume describes, is a bundle of perceptions, not a new simple ‘thing.’ It does not determine that there is no simple self but follows the idea that we cannot know whether there is or is not and ‘self’ cannot enter into part of our knowledge. 

Hume’s most important ideas are around ‘knowledge and probability’. For Hume, probability is uncertain knowledge, such as what is obtained from empirical data by interferences that aren’t demonstrative. This includes our knowledge of future and unobserved times in the past and present – everything but direct observations.

Hume came to sceptical conclusions after his analysis of knowledge and defines seven kinds of philosophical relation: resemblance, identity, relations of time and place, proportion of quantity for number, degrees in any quantity, contrariety and causation. These are then divided into two kinds; those that depend only on the ideas and those that can be changed without any change of idea. Resemblance, proportion of quantity for number, degrees in any quantity and contrariety are of the first kind and give certain knowledge; our knowledge concerning other is only probable – when we remember, our ideas are copied from our impressions. The three remaining relations, identity, relations of time and place and causation depend not only on our ideas. For the first two, the mind does not go beyond what is available to the senses whereas causation alone enables us to infer some thing or occurrence from some other thing or occurrence. Difficulties arise when Hume suggests there is no such this as an impression of a causal relation. We perceive by observation of A and B, that A is to the right of B, but we do not see that A causes B.

Hume’s theory that ‘cause’ is really the perception of things constantly being conjoined in the past is backed up by his definition of ‘belief’. Belief is considered, by Hume, to be a lively idea related to or associated with a present impression. Through association, if A and B been constantly conjoined, the impression of A constitutes a lively impression of B which is belief in B. 

Adam Smith:

Smith is described as an extreme empiricist, like Hume, and as a materialist. He thoroughly studied human behavior and society, describing people as being like machines, and of human society of consisting of ‘levers’ and ‘devices’ where one action creates another.  Morality was also raised by Adam Smith’s analysis; which he believed to be a sense data and internal psychological (vanity or self-regard). He believed this vanity should just be accepted as part of society and in policy rather than try to tame it with laws; to Smith believed laws will only fail or create more problems. To Smith, people are conflicted and complex. The central conflict is between what he calls ‘self love’ and ‘vanity’ which people desire for pleasure. Smiths view of human nature is reflected in his idea of the hidden hand of the market.  The hidden hand of the market is based on the free market economic system which Smith believed to be the ultimate tool of success for business, if the laws of the free market are denied is a doomed enterprise. Universal wealth leads to poverty. He believed there is no such thing as human need, instead there is want.

Wealth, to Smith, is not simple the accumulation of money, but is something he feels to be gained through life experiences of civilization and by trade. Accumulation of wealth is believed to have a ‘trickle down’ effect on society, as it provides jobs for the less wealthy and seen more able to develop civilization because of their cultural hobbies.

News Writing:

What is news?
- It is new or has a 'news peg'/ 'angle' - don't write about issues!
- Could be soft news or hard news.
- News is about people doing things.

Editorial reasons:
- availability: there must be someone to interview and someone thing to record or take pictures of - quotes and pictures are key to a story.
- Do people care about? is it relevant to the audience?
- Should it be dramatic or simple?
- Does it tap into certain current obsession?

Practical reasons:
- is there space?
- has a similar story been covered recently?
- has it been sucessfully pitched?
- must be 100% true, facts must be checked and beyond doubt. A story must have balance.

How to write a news story:
Who? What? Where? When? Why?
The news pyramid:
- Intro: short and sharp - latest most important information (who?, what?, where?, when?).
- Two: elaboration of other important information or quotes.
- Three: chronology, more detail (why?).
- Four: more detail, loose ends.

Key elements:
- Its about people - topline.
- Dont be passive - have an angle (think about audience - demographics)
- Don't start with a question - the audience want to be informed.
- Be objective - no opinion.
- Quote people.

Sentences:
- One idea.
- Short sentences.
- Use active, not passive, verbs. News is about people doing things.
- Get rid of non-essential words.
- Avoid the drop intro.
- The first words are vitial.
- Use verb and nouns, not adverbs and adjectives.
- Cut out gobbledygook.

Winol Review; 17/11 Bulletin

This weeks Winol, and the previous week, have improved considerably in terms of continuity and framing, looking more professional overall. Although it was quite obvious that many of the shots were used in previous episodes, in the housing and union strike stories.
The main story of the bulletin, youth unemployment, was very well researched and presented. But from the set up of the shot gave the impression it was supposed to replicate a comfortable chat, though instead it just seemed like information was just being given and to some could be a little overwhelming to some people because of the constant stats.

Law Lecture/reading eight: Freedom of information act

The freedom of information act 2000:
The freedom of information act gives individuals the power to require 'public authorities' to disclose information which wouldnt usually be published. The information requested must be supplied without charge, except if it costs the governmental department more than £600 or £450 for other authorities.
In the past, it had been requested that government disclose the attorney generals advice on the legality of the UK taking part in the invasion of Iraq. and an early draft of a controversial dosser published by the government to justify the invasion. 
The freedom of information act is a worldwide and helpful tool for journalists.

 Under the act, public authorities are considered to be:
- national government departments
- the house of commons, house of lords and NI/Welsh assemblies
- armed forces
- local government authorities
- national parks
- Universities, Colleges and schools
- NHS
- Advisory and regulatory bodies.

Some institutions and agencies are not covered by the act:
- UK's security and intelligence agencies are not requiired to respond to requests.
- courts and tribunals not covered, neither are housing associations, private prisons, charities, members of parliament and schools with academy status.

The FOI act works by responding to requests of information within 20 days, this can either be the information itself or explantions as to why the information cannot be given.
If information cannot given, it may be becuase
- that particular authority does not hold that information.
- it would exceed the costs limits for free information.
- its covered by exemptions under the act and doesn't need to be supplied.
The information that is held by an authority should be checked before making the request, this information is required to be shown in a 'publication scheme'

Public authorities are required by section 16 of the act to give those requesting the information advice and assistance. When someone is making a request, they should be told before the request what information of the type wanted, is available and should be given advice to avoid exceeding the cost limit for the information so they do not receive a charge.

The Daily Mail; 'Femail' demographic

The Daily Mail is a well-established newspaper, with its form being midway between the broadsheet, through the style of news articles, and tabloid topics and features. Its main demographic, in terms of social status, would be the C1, C2 and D categories; it is stereotypically assumed that this group of people enjoy the tabloid style, of which majority of the newspaper content appears to be.  Thought the Daily Mails general target audience can be narrowed down to women, within the above social codes, and of middle to older age group. Various aspects of the newspaper will help to demonstrate this as well as the newspaper’s history; being one of the first newspapers to include articles on things, such as cookery and fashion, which interested women.

The main aspect of the Daily Mail that highlights its female demographic is the everyday and weekend magazines ‘Femail’ and ‘You.’ The articles within these are features about ‘womanly’ things including fashion, cookery and lifestyle articles such as ‘could you spot your body shape?’ The content appears to be written by women, include women’s experiences and comment.  Articles like this allow women be reassured by others who have the same worries as them, rather than a sex who feel ostracized by the medias image of the ‘perfect’ woman.  A weekly breakdown of the paper highlights its aim at females:  Monday; Life Style, Tuesday: Good Health, Thursday; Femail Magazine, Friday; It's Friday and Saturday; Escape and the Weekend Magazine.Statistics show that during the week, 53% of the readership is female. 

Throughout the newspaper, the advertisements are to a more ‘womanly’ appeal, particularly those with families. There is a repetition of large supermarkets adverts, which compete with prices and deals, as well as, offers for children’s toys and party clothing, which reflect the needs and wants of a stereotypical woman around the Christmas period. The offers suggest a certain appeal to the lower income that comes with the social codes.  These advertisements are also online and appear more glamorous in advertorials themed for Christmas.

The online version of the Daily Mail appears even more feminine than the newspaper; the homepage has links to the features in the woman’s magazines, highlighted in pink, as well as articles generally aimed at women. 

In terms of capturing a male readership the sport, and ‘city and finance’ sections of the paper, seem to take up a considerably smaller capacity, compared with the ‘Femail’ and womanly features.  Though, with the Mail on Sunday, there is a male magazine, ‘Live’, full of male orientated features and the latest gadgets, suggesting there is effort made to attract a male audience and is successful, with a 2% rise in male readers (to 49%) on a Sunday. But the larger appeal to women could raise the thought that patriarchy is still very prominent in society today, and how it used by the media to get women to conform to certain ideas and stereotypes of liking pink and enjoying shopping.  

History and context of journalism lecture/reading four:

Modern European Sceptical Rationalism:

Descartes:
Descartes was a philosopher effected greatly by 'new physics' and astronomy. He doesn't not accept foundational ideas of previous thinkers, but tried to constructed a complete philosophic eclifice. Advancements in science helped Descartes with this and gave him new confidence.

'Le monde' is a unpublished by Descartes, he believed this book laid out two doctrines:
1. the earths rotation.
2. the infinity of the universe.

The books of Descartes can be broken down into two main topics; mathematics and science.
In terms of maths he was considered to be a great contributor as he invented coordinate geometry, but not in its final form. he used the analytical method, which supposes a problem solved and examines the consequences of the supposition. He also applied algebra to geometry.
Where science is concerned, Descartes hoped to make a discovery in medicine. He thought the bodies of animals and men as machines. He differentiated between the two by considering animals to be the automata, governed by the laws of physics devised of feeling or consciousness. Men are different because they had a soul and it is the soul that creates a connection between vital spirits, because of this the soul and the body work together. From this he takes that the total quantity of motion in the universe is constant, and so it cannot be affected by the soul; but can alter the direction of the motion of the vital spirit, hence, other parts of the body. The actions of mind  of matter that Descartes imagined is proved impossible, and was rejected by Spinoza as physicists discovered the conservation of momentum, according to which the total quantitative motion in the world at any given direction is constant.
 Descartes' theory appeared to have two merits:
1) it made the soul, in a sense, independent from the body, since it was never acted on by the body.
2) it allowed the general principle; 'one substance cannot act on another.'
To him there were on two substances; mind and matter. They were so dissimilar to him that interaction between the two seemed inconceivable.

In terms of mechanics, Descartes accepts the first law of motion, according to which a body itself will have constant velocity in straight line. Descartes then worked out the formation of vortices: round the sun there is an immense vortexs in the plenum which carries the planet around with it. The theory is ingenious, but cannot explain why planetary orbits are elliptical, not circular.

 The two most important books Descartes wrote were 'discourse method' and 'meditations', the content of both overs laps and they explain the method of 'Cartesian doubt' (I THINK, THEREFORE I AM) which begins by 'doubting everything he can manage to doubt' he then regulates his conduct by commonly received rules. He begins with scepticism in regard to the senses.  Cartesian doubt outlines mind, and how it is more certain than matter and that the mind of an individual more certain to them. This brings up the principle 'All things that we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are true' though Descartes accepts that this is very hard to know.

He also develops a theory of knowledge, and claims that knowledge of external things must be by the mind not the sense. This leads to different kinds of ideas. The commonest of mistakes, he says, its to think that ideas are like outside things. The following outline the types of ideas:
1) those that are innate.
2) those that are foreign and come from without.
3) those that are invented by me.
The second kind of idea are outside objects. We suppose this because nature teaches us to think so. Sometimes there can be two different ideas to the same kind of external object. Though, these considerations have not disposed of the sceptical arguments which threw doubt on the existence of the external world. This is only done by proving God. Once God is proved, everything is said to fall into place.
The philosophy of Descartes was important because it bought very near completion to the dualism of mind and matter which began with plato and was developed by the christian philosophy.

Spinoza:
Spinoza wrote the books 'Ethics', 'Tractatus', 'Theological politicus' and 'Tractatus politicus'. Many of the books explore political theories derived from Hobbes' idea of the state of nature. Spinoza holds the idea that there is no right or wrong in the state of nature, for wrong means there must be disobeying of the laws. He also believed the sovereign can do no wrong, and agrees with Hobbes, that the church should be subordinate to the state. Though he disagrees with Hobbes in thinking democracy is the most natural form of government and that not all rights are to be sacrificed to the sovereign - freedom of is opinion most important.
The book 'Ethics' deals with the following matters; metaphysics, psychology of passions and the will, and an ethic based on proceeding metaphysics and psychology.
Metaphysics is a modification of Descartes; psychology is reminiscent of Hobbes, but ethics is original. Spinozas metaphysical system, similar to Parmenides, highlights the existence of one substance 'God or nature', nothing finite is self subsistence. He believes the soul and separate pieces of matter are adjectival. They are not things, but aspects of divine being. Spinoza's belief in the existence of God relies on the idea 'there can only be on being who is wholly positive, and he must be absolutely infinite.
According to him, everything is ruled by an absolute logical necessity. No such thing in the mental sphere or chance in the physical world. Everything that happens is a manifestation of Gods inscrutable nature, and it is logically impossible that events should be other than they are. Though, it appears that we cannot accept his method, but that is because we cannot accept his metaphysics. We cannot believe that interconnections of the parts of the universe are logical, because we hold that scientific laws are to be discovered by observation not logic.
Spinoza also presents his own theory of emotion, also discussed in Ethics as 'passions'. He believes that passions distract us and obscure our intellectual vision of the world. 'Everything' we are told 'in so far as it is in itself endeavors to preserve to preserve in its own being.' hence love, hate and strife. Spinoza does not object to all emotions, only passions (those which appear to ourselves to be passive in the power of outside forces). From this idea, we are bought to the proposition of 'intellectual love for God', which contains nothing negative, making it part of a whole, where fragmentary things, so separated are thought to appear as bad. Spinoza carries the belief that God is not effected by any emotion of pleasure or pain. Love that we have toward god must hold the chief place in the mind.  Which brings forth the understanding of everything as part of God is the love of God. When all objects are reffered to by God, the idea of God will fully occupy the mind.

Law lecture/reading seven: Investigative journalism

Investigative journalism is seen as an off diary or set to no agenda, it can also be described as 'what someone doesnt want you to know (or publish).' Investigative journalism differs from every day news, in that every day news is a report of what has happened and interviews of those involved. Like everyday news, it comes with its own risks of committing malice and conflicts of interests. 
Investigative journalism can be used as a tool in the case of miscarriages of justice through organisations such as the innocence network united kingdom (INUK).

Photography, filming and videoing:
The press complaint commission code of practice has various clauses which protect aspects of personal privacy. It is not law, but breach of the clauses can have consequences.
Clause 3, privacy states:
i) everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence. editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individuals private life without consent.
ii) it is unacceptable to photograph individuals private life without their consent.

Clause 4, harassment states:
i) journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
ii) they must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursing or photographing individuals once asked ot leave and not follow them.
iii) editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non compliant material from other sources.


Clause 6, children states:
i) young poeple should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.
ii) a child under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child's welfare, unless a custodial parent or similarly responsible adult consents.
iii) pupils must not be approached or photographed at school without the permission of authorities.
iv) minors must not be paid for material involving children's welfare, nor parents or guardian for material anout their children or ward, unless in the childs interest.
v) editors must not use fame or position of parent or guardian as sole justification for publishing details of a child's private life.

Harassment
the harassment act 1997 was implicated to tackle stalkers, but was only considered for use against the media because of the treatment of Kate Middleton by the paparazzi.
Trespass
forbids the unlawful physical entry to land or buildings. Civil courts can impose injunctions to prevent it further. There is no consideration of trespass when a picture is taken from property where the photograph has permission or right to be taken, eg. public highway joining private land. The concept of trespass can include trespass of the 'person' which might amount to compelling a person to be filmed by stopping him getting into his home or place or work. There is also trespass to goods, for example, picking up a document without permission and photographing it.
Aggravated trespass
Aggravated trespass is committed if he or she trespasses on loud, and in relation to any lawful activity which other people are engaged in on that or adjoining land, does anything to intended to the effect:
- of intimidation ant if them so as to deter them from engaging in that activity.
- of obstructing that activity
- or of disrupting that activity

Reporting elections:
False statements made about election candidates - under section 106 of the representation people act 1983 it is an offence to:
- make or publish false statement about the personal character or conduct of an election candidate, if the purpose of publishing the false statement is to affect how many votes he/she will get.

To constitute such an offense the falsity must be expressed as a fact, as distinct as possible from a statement which is comment or opinion about the candidate. As a defense, he or she must show they had reasonable grounds for believing it was true at the time of publication. It is also an offense under the act to:
- publish a false claim that an election candidate has withdrawn from the election. If the publisher knows this claim is false and published it for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of another candidate.

Defamtion dangers during elections - Qualified privilege protects fair and accurate reports of public meetings. When reporting extremist candidates, laws against the stirring up if hatred come into place.

Law lecture/reading six: copyright

Any work that is produced by an individual belongs to that person, unless it is sold/licensed to someone else to use. This can be in the form of physical property and intellectual property (ideas).
The idea of 'Fair dealing' allows us to use copyrighted material without paying for it, but rules apply as follows;
- the clips must be SHORT.
- the source must me CREDITIED.
- the AVAILABILITY of the content must be mentioned.

There is another tool which allows copyrighted content to be available without cost, this is called 'Creative commons' This lifts the copyright so anyone can use it but whoever created it can place conditions for use, eg, the creators name must be noted where the photograph is used. Photos under 'creative commons' are search able on websites such as 'Flickr', although using images from Google makes life easier, taking the extra time on Flickr could save you getting into trouble with the law. Or ultimately, to lose any risk, create your own photos and film footage instead of stealing others'.

What is protected by copyright?
Copyright is a branch of intellectual property law and products of peoples skill, creativity, labour or time. Under the designs and patents act 1988, copyright protects literary, dramatic, artistic or musical work, sound recording, film, broadcast or typographical arrangement. Artisic work includes photographs and graphics.

Copyright does not have to be registered, reproduction of a substantial part of copyright work may constitute infringement. But It can depend on the importance of the work copied and the quality. However for work to be protected by copyright it must satisfy the test if originality.

Material from contributors: copyright in material supplied to news papers by outside contirbutors, whether paid or not, will usually be owned by the contributor.
Results and listings: sporting or trade association may make material available for free, but it is still under copyright of the association and can be withdrawn whenever, make a charge or prevent another journal from copying it.
TV images: publication if television images without permission is an infringement under section 17 of the copyright act.

Copyright in speeches: there is copyright in spoken words,  even if they are not scripted, as soon as they are recorded, with or without permission. The speaker as the author of a literary work owns the copyright of their words, unless they are speaking in the course of his or her employment. under section 58, it is not infringement to use the record of the words for reporting current events, subject to four conditions:
- The record is a direct record and not taken from a previous record or broadcast.
- The speaker did not prohibit the making of the record and it did not infringe and existing copyright.
- The use being made of the record, or material taken from it, was not of a kind prohibited by the speaker or copyright owner before the record was made.
- The use being made of the record is with the authority of the person who is lawfully in possession of it.

It is possible that limited use of a speakers words might be covered by fair dealings. Surreptitious recording of speakers words is not a breach of copyright. Once words have been recorded they become copyrighted and owned by the speaker. In many cases there is copyright in the recording because of the skill involved in making it. Copyright in speakers words is not infringed parliament or judicial proceedings.

Crown Copyright:
work produced by civil servants is protected by crown copyright, which had been used in court to prevent publication of material and threaten former public servants with action for revealing matters concerning their employment.

Defense of fair dealing:
fair dealing with copyright work for repoting current events is not an infringement if it is acknowledged sufficiently and its author, provided the work has been made public.
Criticism and review: Copyright work will not be infringed id used for a purpose if criticism and review, even photographs, under fair dealing. So long as there is sufficient acknowledgment and to the work being made available to the public.

Remedies for breach of copyright: 
Civil action - owner of copyright can obtain an injunction in the high court or county court to retain a person from infringing his copyright, as well as seeking damages and an order for possession of infringing copies of the work and material used in the infringement. 

Winol Review

I have a feeling im going to sound incredibly mean, but here it goes;
The negative aspects of the bulletin weren't to do with the content of news itself, but more so to do with the technical aspects of it. Being quite a perfectionist (obsessive compulsive) when it comes to the fine tuning of a media production,  the most annoying thing was how unprofessional parts appeared, first being the camera work and editing. Cutting between shots within the first minute or so could be considered quite confusing and at various times there were gaps between the clips (Turn snapping on!) the only real indication of the story changing was the spoken headline and the banner. The banner itself is one of the first things I really didn't like; it seems to ruin the frame being a block of white being there in the corner and is really big.
In one of the stories the reporter was using a scrunched up piece of paper which was in the frame, looked a little messy and at other times clips in the VT's were too long, focusing on one image, or cut while they were moving which I found a little bit disorientating.

The news stories I found most interesting were the university applications declining and the zombie symposium on wanting popular culture to be taught. The sports stories seemed to also be a lot more professional than the other stories.
Previous Winol bulletins I've seen have seemed to hold more interesting stories (the big wide worlds fault not Winol's) as well as better produced on a whole.

Law lecture/reading five: Confidentiality

Within in the concept of confidentiality  there are three main areas; state secrets, commercal secrets and privacy.
Privacy can be considered the new libel. Under section 58 of the human rights act, privacy is the right to the enjoyment of 'normal' family life. Therefore writing about someones private life is not permitted.
Confidentiality refers to secrets, which can then be split into two; state secrets - all under the official secrets act. The OSA prevents some forms of investigative journalism, publication of anything under this act can lead to prosecution.
Commercial secrets - people have the right to keep secrets, but not those that are considered to be against the public interest.  People the right to expect certain people to be confidential depends upon their relationship, a doctor would be required to not breach confidence.
Injunctions on peoples confidence can be put into place to stop publication of certain secrets which are thought to be THIRD PARTY breach of confidence (information given by a third party to a journalist) though this is also considered to be a crime. 

Someone who feels their confidence had been breached must show that they have been harmed, unlike defamtion where they must prove that they could be harmed. For something to be a true invasion of privacy, the information which is thought to breach confidence must have all of the following:

1. quality of confidence  AND…
2. circumstances AND…
3. no permission to reveal AND…
4. cause actual detriment.

Gagging clauses -  if a person is employed by another for wages  they owe the employer a common law “duty of confidence” - even if this is not specified in a contract, and even if there is no contract. So if any secret information is released, even unknowingly, action can be taken by the employer.

Law lecture/reading four: Qualified Privilage

For qualified privilege to come into play as a for of protection for journalists, there must be defamation/libel = defamation+publication+identification.  There are two types of qualified privilege: common law and statutory.

Common law qualified privilege on the idea of "the common convenience and welfare of society", that is, the public interest.

Statutory qualified privilege comes into use when reporting in court with a judge present. Everything can be mentioned, and it has to be made clear whether or not a defendant denies charges. Statutory qualified privilege must be published immediately, contain no errors or any indication of malice.

To highlight the extent of which a journalist would be covered by qualified privilege after defamation, Lord Nicholls gave the ten point test of reasonable journalism:

The ten point test:

1. The seriousness of the allegation – the more serious the allegation, the more protection will be applied. 

2. The nature of the information and the extent to which the subject matter is a matter of public concern.

3 . The source of the information. The more authoritative the source, the more you are entitled to report their allegations, even if those allegations can not be proved or even if they turn out to be incorrect.

4. The steps taken to verify the information.

5. The status of the information.

6. The urgency of the matter.

7. Whether comment was sought from the claimant .

8. Whether the article contained the gist of the claimant’s side of the story

9. The tone of the article.

10. The circumstances of the publication - must be fast, accurate and fair!