The Land Documentary

Hampshire is well known for its rich history, beautiful countryside, wild life and sleepy villages. It is now occupied by wealthy people, expensive stores and a large number of curious tourists who come to the county every day to get to know the roots of Hampshire’s history. However, it hasn’t always been this way. Places such as Winchester, Southampton, New Forest and Basingstoke have dramatically changed since the rural times. Today they are modern and sophisticated. During rural times they were simple, primitive and overpopulated.

Farming used to play a huge part of Hampshire’s life, influencing the landscape and people’s lives. It was an essential factor to help the economy run, bringing food and other products to sustain life. When the technology started to develop life in Britain became very hard. As new machines were invented, people were no longer needed to do farming jobs so they moved to the cities. The cities became overcrowded. Many people didn’t have a job and were very poor. People stole things to survive. This was seen as a crime which caused masses of people to be transported to Australia.

The land documentary is supposed to show Hampshire and its history; and how it developed after the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial revolution, of course, eventually won the competition with the rural industries and the urbanisation started in the 19th century. Industrial revolution also effected transportation. In the 19th century bicycles, steamships and trains made it easier for people to move further away. In the 20th century, the explosion motor further accelerated this process. An ever-growing part of world population became subdued to market economy. The revolution was something more than just new machines, smoke-belching factories, increased productivity and an increased standard of living.

Initially, as a team of three, we chose to film Hampshire from William Cobbett’s point of view. The view that he included in his Rural Rides. On this theme, his Rural Rides has proved his most enduring work. It is a collection of journals written during his tours on horseback between 1822 and 1826, observing rural conditions and discussing the political perceptions of the agricultural community. William Cobbett was a journalist who didn’t agree with the British government but who believed that reforming Parliament and stopping the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers. He was brought up by his father who owned a farm. This has certainly put countryside to his heart.

The planning stage of the documentary was simple as we knew exactly what we wanted our film to look like. We got together in order to write down all the ideas that came to our heads and pictured everything scene by scene. We decided that we would have two people talking in the whole documentary. One of them would be a historian who tells us the story of Hampshire, and who also talks about William Cobbett, his love for countryside, but also about Industrial Revolution, emigration and overpopulation. In the end, we had to drop that idea and focus on just countryside instead due to an interview we arranged which didn’t go the way we wanted to. The second person talking would be a voice over reading out a poem called ‘The mask of anarchy’ by Shelley, alongside with quiet music in the background- Ralph Vaughan Williams, Tallis Fantasia- that would put the audience watching the documentary into a lovely, nostalgic mood. The historian we chose is a lecturer at Winchester University, Jean, who specialises in William Cobbett and rural history. We also got in touch with Collin Firth’s agent because we thought it would make the documentary look very professional if he read out the poem for us, however he we were unsuccessful and therefore we went for Tony Dean- the Dean of Winchester University. Instead of the historian we asked an English Literature student- Hollie Ward- to be a narrator to a script we wrote about Hampshire’s rural life and our own interpretation of the poem.

We went to Salisbury, to film a beautiful and frosty sun rise as an establishment to the documentary. Salisbury was our starting point because of its rich history and wonderful scenery, such as the cathedral and fields filled with beautiful flowers, horses, sheep and an easy countryside life. It shows how relaxing and simple farm life is now comparing to the one people were leading before the Industrial Revolution.

The next stop was Southampton and Winchester to show the contrast between a country side and a busy city life. We filmed the Southampton gates and the high streets with many shops and people rushing around trying to get to work.  We didn’t use any of the shots in the final edit because we focused on countryside.

In the editing stage we cut the music into shimmers, swells, themes and bed in order to then choose the right pictures and put them in an accurate position matching the music and giving the whole documentary colour. We cut Hollie’s speech and Tony’s poem and put them in the places we thought they fit in. We thought making long pauses in between talking and stings after their speeches would make it sound more affective and be more interesting to watch. We used long pans of the country side and river to emphasis the nature of rural life. Our bit of the overall Land project is 5 minutes 20 seconds long.

Overall, the project was a great experience and a good way to finish the university course. It was more relaxed than any other projects ever done before but at the same time it was highly enjoyable but challenging. 

Magazine Spreads Analysis

Choosing a type of an article for my magazine spreads was quite tricky as initially I had too many ideas. I narrowed them down to a confessional and a review. I started writing a review about a film called ‘The woman in black’. I thought it was be a good choice because people had different views on the film. However, soon after I found a news article about common medicine containing animal products in them. Since most of my family and many friends happen to be vegetarian I decided to write a short feature on that subject. For my second article I decided to do a confessional because I know a person who went through a bad sailing race and he was happy to talk to me about it. While at work I met a woman who told me the story of her life- This being she found her father after 34 years of looking for him. I thought it was a beautiful story. When I asked her for an interview she said she would be more than happy to. Because I thought both confessionals are great and I couldn't choose one I decided to keep both because there wasn't a limit on how many spreads you are allowed to produce.

To write the medicine article I needed to find out more about the subject. I emailed various vegetarian societies across the country and read an article on the BBC website where I found it in the first place. Most vegetarian societies didn't really want to talk to me on the subject when I send them some questions for them to answer. This is because they were working on an article themselves or they just didn't want to comment or they were just too busy. A person working in one of the societies was nice enough to send me a press release that explained the issue. This helped me write a short feature. My main aim was to interview a vegetarian person, but I didn't want to use any of my friends or family. I know a lecturer at Southampton University who is a vegetarian; however she is the mum of the boy who gave me an interview about his sailing experience so I decided not to ask her. Other than that I couldn't find anyone to talk to about this subject because most people weren't aware of this issue. I managed to get an opinion form a lady who works for Vegetarian Society; therefore I think the article is too Vegetarian Society based unfortunately.

Look wise, I made a delicate background for the article. I thought warm colours would go well with a word 'medicine' and the pictures that I chose for the article, which convey colourful pills as well as vegetarian food. I decided to make headline short and snappy. I made the letters 3D and dropped a shadow behind them to make the article look more affective. To me it looked like this is something you would see in a medical magazine.

My second spread is a confessional interview with Oliver who experienced a horrific sailing race back in 2007. He described what happened that weekend with a great detail. Even though they lost a mast which cost a lot of money the whole crew has raced since and still race till today. It's a sad story with a happy ending- I thought it is a perfect article to go to Daily Sailing or sailing magazine, because it's different, it's a real life story that teaches how to stay calm in situations like that. As a background for this story I chose a picture of a boat that belongs to Oliver's dad. I put slight lighting on it to fade it. I chose a standard 'Times New Roman' font and chose colour navy, which reflects the subject of water, sailing and storm. I managed to get pictures of the crew after the race completion and the boat while sailing and almost falling over. I also tried to get a close up picture of the jot after the race, without a mast, but unfortunately no one took a picture of it afterwards because everyone was still in a great shock.

And finally, my third spread is another confessional interview which is just as good. This is a sort of article that would be seen in Pick Me Up, That's Life or Essentials magazines. Meeting someone that had just found one of her parents doesn't happen every day. In fact, this is the first time it has ever happened to me. Ironically enough it was just after the magazine lecture about confessional interviews. I couldn't believe my luck, as I thought I would never find anyone with a real life story to talk to. This is why I decided to keep both of the articles. Sarah seemed very outgoing and friendly, and very chatty as well. I recorded the interview on a Marantz which I rented out from the University. The interview lasted for an hour. Once transcribed it was 4000 words long and it was very detailed and descriptive. I had managed to cut it down to 1987 words at first and couldn't imagine telling such a beautiful and sad story in only 1000 words. I spent a lot of time editing it to make it sound good and impressive after cutting out the descriptive details. Sarah after knowing her dad for 2 years now still hasn't managed to take a single picture with him. After then interview she said she would do it next time she sees him which was a month later, which is just after the deadline. I can add the picture when I get it, but for now all I managed to get are pictures of her and her family.

I didn't choose a specific background for this article for a reason. The background is white and plain, the font black and standard Times New Roman' because I thought the story was good enough to tell itself that way. It doesn't need any colours in be background or special font to make it look good. I thought the pictures and the optimism of the interview add colour to the article.

Overall, the project was very interesting and different to everything I have done so far. I enjoyed talking to people about these life situations that happened to them, writing about them and making spreads in Fireworks, which is now a new software that I can use.

Third magazine spread: Non- veggy medicine

This is my third magazine spread about common medicine that is not suitable for vegetarians.

Second confessional interview: It took me 34 years to find my father

This is my second confessional interview: It took me 34 years to find my father- with Sarah Chearman.

Magazine Spread: Battle Against Nature

My final University project. This is one of the magazine spreads: A confessional interview with Oliver Barlow about his sailing race back in 2007. Hope you enjoy it!

Magazine Journalism- My first Magazine Spread

This is my first ever attempt at magazine spreads. Very amateur, as I am just getting to know Fireworks and I have just learnt the very basics. What a highly enjoyable exercise though!
This semester we said goodbye to WINOL. Our new magazine module teaches us how to make professional spreads (definitely not like the one above) and write articles for specific magazines and target audience.
I never even once in my life thought about a glossy magazine career, but now I am thinking 'why not?'. Lets give it a go. Hope you like my cute little puppy :)

WINOL SPECIAL- November the 30th, National Pension Strikes

We did it! The four hour live coverage on pension strikes on November the 30th was a huge success. Considering that noone really believed that we can do it outside the studio (not even I believed it) and we stayed live for so long, bringing in outside guests and packages from our correspondents that worked in different places on the day, I can comfortably say that I am very proud of our amazing team work and team effort. 

Being outside your comfort zone is extremely stressful because you are stepping into a room where you don't really know what to expect or you don't know how to react in case something goes wrong. This was my and everyone else's opinion about covering the strikes in the Unite the union office in Southampton. Having been and worked in the TV studio for the last year and a half, we all comfortably know everything about it. We know what could possibly go wrong and how to fix it. We also have our two technical heroes- Dave and Corrin who we can run to and ask for help. Being in a strange place with all this TV equipment and broadcasting from there for four hours seemed impossible to us all.

But what I have learnt in the last four years is that impossible is nothing! Neither was the strike coverage from Southampton.

The Unite the union office was huge and bright. That was the first thing that cheered me up. We set up on Tuesday, a day before the strikes and we had a small rehearsal. 

On the day of the strikes we went live at 12.00pm and everything seemed to be going smoothly till Chris realised that the sound on the actual LiveStream was playing up and it was impossible to hear Cara. We tired fixing it for an hour, which was a huge let down. But we fixed it, which proves that we don't really need Dave or Corrin as much as we think. Of course if they were with us, the problem would have been fixed quicker. The next three hours went just so great. 

Our reporters did an amazing job. They were all in different places, such as London, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton. They all continuously interviewed those that striked and tried making packages to send into the studio. Unfortunately the strikes didn't turn into anything big, instead they calmed down so there were no breaking news stories. 

The correspondents from other universities, such as Liverpool and London Met also did incredibly well helping us with the national strikes. Unfortunately, we couldn't hear London Met as well as we planned so their interviewed didn't happen but Liverpool was clear and very helpful.

 

Teamwork is so important. On November the 30th we proved what an amazing team we make. We trust each other and share responsibilities. We are always willing to work together, share the jobs and help each other out. We are all ambitious and we always aim for the same target. We put all the effort we possibly could  into this project. And that is why we succeeded.

Here are the highlights of our record- breaking four hour strike coverage on pension strikes. 

30th November Strike Live Coverage

On Wednesday, 30th of November the Winol team is traveling all the way to Southampton to broadcast a LIVE strike coverage from the Unite the Union office on the Avenue. Originally, we were planning to do it in the studio but we decided we want to be as close to the heart of strikes as possible, so the union office seemed perfect. It is the first time we broadcast something outside of the studio so it is a big challenge for us but the preparation is going well so far, so lets hope for the best.

There will be over 20 unions striking all over the UK over pensions. This will cause disruptions in places such as schools, hospitals, airports, courts and libraries. It will be the largest co-ordinated action ever seen in the UK.

WINOL reporters and producers are preparing for a 6-hour Live coverage. It will include in studio special guests discussing the issue, outside broadcasts from Winchester, Southampton, Basingstoke and London. We will be delivering breaking news stories as they happen on the day. This is going to be a UK-wide live coverage as we have our own correspondents from other universities who will be working with us on the day. That includes: London Met, Buckingham and Manchester,. We will not be missing anything.

My role for the day is director which I share with Dan, who will be taking over from me after 3 hours, at 15.00, or whenever I need a quick  break. Directing is going to be quite difficult in the office as I will be in the same room as the presenters who will, of course, be mic-ed up so anything I say will be picked up by their mics, therefore Cara, Hana (the presenters) and I have worked out a sign language that will help us communicate, if unnecessary, during their links and during an in studio discussion with guests. Otherwise we will only be able to communicate when the packages are running. We are hoping to get plenty of rehearsals done in the studio tomorrow so everyone knows exactly what it's all going to be like on the actual day.

The in studio guests are highly important during the coverage. So far we have:
1. Councilor Keith House: Leader of Eastleigh Borough Council/ Liberal Democrat opposition leader of Hampshire County Council. He will be coming in at 3.00 pm.
2. Ian Woodland: Unite representative for Southampton. He will be coming in at 2.00 pm
3. Seb Miell: University of Winchester Studen Union president.

I have also managed to get in touch with Tommy Geddes, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, who is willing to give us an interview on the day from campus where our Winchester correspondents will be. We are also pre recording an interview with Councillor Royston Smith. The Conservative Leader of Southampton City Council.


I think there are more guests still to confirm their attendance 

Here is the Production Rota for the day. I will print out and put it on the wall in the union office. But have a quick look now anyway.

Winol Life with Lorelei Reddin

It has been three weeks since last Winol Life. The delay is due to my going away to Estonia for a week, but also the lack of packages last week. Fortunately, we managed to produce it this week with the help of Lorelei Reddin who kindly agreed to join our show this week. She has been the entertainment editor of Southern Daily Echo for the past 6 years and she is still really enjoying it. Lorelei was very friendly and bubbly and provided our features reporters with a good, constructive criticism and good advice for their future video features.

There were no technical problems at all this week. Not major ones anyway. Lorelei came in at 11.40, as I went to meet her the rest of the team stayed in the gallery and rehearsed the script. We used three video packages this week: The re-edited Giraffe restaurant review, games review and an exclusive interview with the marketing manager of Coldplay- Alex Eden-Smith. Lorelei really enjoyed watching the packages and she thought they were really good.

I feel that Winol Life is getting better and better, the team knows the show well now and understands what it needs to look like. We also work really well together as a team, I think this is really important that we know how to communicate with each other. Everyone is always supportive and positive. Well done everyone, great job this week!

Enjoy watching Winol Life.

Freedom of Information Act

Freedom of Information Act allows people, including journalists to have the right to access any information held by public authorities, such as Government departments, local authorities, the police and hospitals. It can be any any information. This is important for the citizens to know everything they need to in order to make democracy work. By having a access to essential information they can plan for the future, as well as choose which politicians to vote for.
This is also an interesting source of information for investigative journalists. The Freedom of Information Act allows them to produces free exclusive news stories. We had one of them at WINOL a few weeks ago produced by Julie. She investigated the number of previous convictions of police officers in Winchester, by sending a request to Freedom of Information Act. 

The frustrating thing that journalists have to go through while investigating is the fact that they information can be really delayed, so the story has to be planned in advance. If a public authority receives a request for information it must make a response within 20 working days, either giving the requested information or explaining why it can not be supplied. 

There are various reason for why the information may not be supplied. That includes the possibility that the public authority does not hold the information, or the request would exceed the cost limits for the provision of free information or that the information is covered by exemptions under the Act, and therefore need to be supplied.

The information that is held by the public authority will be provided free of charge if it costs government department £600 or less to provide, or any other public authority £450 or less to provide. 

Law lecture- Confidentiality and Privacy

Confidentiality – official secret act and test of confidentiality

Privacy - Disputed territory between Article 8 (right to private family life) and Article 10 (right to freedom of expression)
In the public interest- not just of interest to the public.

Confidentiality

Here is yet another rule to the selection of important rules that Journalists have to obtain every day of their work life while reporting on current affairs. Confidentiality is run by Common Law

Everyone is allowed to keep secrets as long as it is not in the matter of public interest ( as long as it doesn’t have an effect on the public)

If confidential secrets given to somone, that don’t affect the public were passed onto the third party without a permission then they committed breach of confidence which is a crime that may be a subject to a civil action for compensation.

If the secret information is revealed to a journalist then this has the potential to be Third Party Breach of Confidentiality.

Breach of confidence is committed when someone passes on secret information that has:
1. The necessary quality of confidence
2. There has been no permission to pass on the information
3. The detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave info.
4. The information must have been imparted in circumstances imposing an obligation of confidence

All of above must be used for the information to be confidential.

In order to stop confidential information from being published the person to whom the secret belongs to has to get a temporary injunction preventing publication of confidential material. An injunction against one media organisation is an injunction against all publishers.

Super injunctions are different. They have been broken by MPs using parliamentary privilege – and journalists using qualified privilege.

Privacy

Also known as personal secrets.

Article 8 of the human right states that everyone has the right to respect for their private and family life, their home and their correspondence.  It is unacceptable to photograph anyone in a private place without their consent.

Privacy mainly affects tabloid and celebrity Journalism.

As in every other set of rules, there are expectations in the privacy code set on grounds of public interest:
1. Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety
2. Protecting public health and safety
3. Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.

Consent is an essential part in video and photo journalism. There are two types of consent. A journalist has to get one of them to be able to either film or photograph the scene/person.
1. Explicit consent: is when someone signs a written permission/ contract that allows to publish a picture or an article
2. Implicit consent: understanding of being filmed, for example in the crowed when everyone knows that the camera has a purpose to get shots of the crowed. If a person doesn’t want to be included in the shot they can just move away from it.

Public Interest

There is no legitimate public interest in knowing the whereabouts and behaviour of individuals generally in their private life despite appearing in public, regardless of their private live. A legitimate expectation of protection of one's private life is to be extended to be the criteria for assessment. A fair balance is to be struck between the right to privacy and the freedom of press

WINOL LIFE with Elizabeth Barnett

The new episode of Winol Life is now ready for you to watch. This week has been a high success compare to our last show. The organisation, preparation, and the overall outlook of the show improved dramatically. We should all be proud of our hard work and great effort.

This week we were honored to have the editor of Hampshire Life magazine on our show. Elizabeth Barnett kindly took out of her busy schedule to join our on-sofa discussion. Elizabeth was very nice and chatty, which made the show look so professional, relaxed and informal, which is what we are aiming for. She gave a very good constructive criticism to our features reporters but also gave all of us a really good advice on how to get into the industry after we graduate. I think many of us felt more confident about the future after our lovely chat with Elizabeth.

We used a variety of shots this time. We used 4 cameras instead of 3. The fourth camera was a PD170 that we had plug into an OB box outside the studio to make it work. That camera was set especially for the short yoga show. I thought it would be a good idea to have one of the presenters demonstrate yoga. I thought it would look like one of big morning shows such Daybreak. We also used radio mics, rather than long poles with gun mics on the top of them. The studio as a whole took a long time to set up, as in terms of production I would consider this show to be the most complicated one out of all the other things we do, which is Sportsweek and the news bulletin.

I also slightly changed the style of WINOL LIFE, trying to give it a little bit more character and making it look like a professional chat show. I knew we were lacking something last time we filmed it. This time I added headlines- a 'coming up on the show' character, which I think is essential to keep the audience interested and intrigued. I also made new WINOL LIFE strap lines for the in studio guest as well as the reporters, which I think also looks quite effective, but please do give your opinions.

The problem of the sofas:
THERE IS NO PROBLEM! No longer, anyway. We had a slight issue in the first show, as there were no sofas on the campus available for us till I spoke to Tommy Geddes, and who kindly let us borrow the sofas for the first show. However, he wanted us find out own sofas after that which was impossible. We even tried to get some money which would allow us to go to IKEA and choose our own perfect sofas, but that wasn't an option. After negotiating with Tommy, he allowed us have the sofas for the rest of this term, so for the next 3 episodes of WINOL LIFE

Elizabeth arrived at 1.30 and I took her to the news room where our WINOL LIFE team was waiting to meet her. I introduced her to everyone and showed her around our news rooms. Soon after we went through the script explaining what the show was going to look like. We explained the questions that we were going to ask her about her and we also showed her our features packages to help her get an idea of what feedback she would be giving live in the studio.

Once we were in the studio we didn't have any technical difficulties in the gallery (Hallelujah!) therefore the show went smoothly and fairly   quickly. Elizabeth is a natural speaker so she seemed like the task of giving feedback was a simple task and she did it brilliantly.

The post production was a simple process once again. The show was 15 minutes long and my aim was to have only 13 minutes which would be simple to upload onto, whereas 15 minutes is too long and we would use the good quality like last time and I wanted to avoid that. Cutting over 2 minutes seemed almost impossible. But with Chris' help I managed to cut out the most unnecessary bits.

Overall, brilliant show and brilliant production work so WELL DONE everyone and thank you for your hard work.



Hope you enjoy the show, please leave comments, critics and thoughts.

Winol 26/10. My first go at Live presenting.

Here it is. I finally found the courage to have a go at ENGLISH and LIVE presenting. Only a few people know how much of a big deal it was for me. But I can proudly say that I've done it. Tick on the list.

Only a few sentences about the bulletin:
There have been, as usual, many technical difficulties, especially when we went live. After my third link, the VT machine broke and the package didn't play, leaving me in the studio 'Add -libbing'. Fortunately, in the post production we got rid of the link and the package, leaving the bulletin looking tidy.
George directed this week. For his first time directing, he did an extremely good job. It almost felt like he has a natural talent :) So very well done for that. The production was as usually perfectly organised, which kept me calm till the very end of rehearsals. George, previously moved the deadline to 3.05, but rightly so, changed it back just 40 seconds before we went live.  It was the counting down before we went live that made me nervous. I unfortunately showed it in the first 3 links, but then the nerves went and the rest of the bulletin went smoothly.

The quality of news packages unfortunately decreased, comparing to last week's bulletin. The pictures need to be improved in packages and in headlines. They need to attract the audience, they have to be memorable. The script, of course, still needs improving. We need to use less complicated sentences and words. This week's script was in fact quite complicated and difficult to read, but it can definitely be improved in the future.

I think that's it for this week. It was an unusually enjoyable experience.

Hope you enjoyed the bulletin.!

Law Lecture, week 4 -Copyright.

Today's law lecture was taken by a guest from the BBC- Peter Hodges, who is an expert in copyright.  It is a very short, but very important chapter. Copyright protects intellectual property, which include products of other people's creativity, effort and skills. It covers music, lyrics, films, pictures, design rights, graphics, etc. For work to be under copyright protection it has to be original with lots of effort and research put in to the work. The piece of work has to be shown to someone as well; otherwise, if the work is hidden or had never been seen by anyone, then it is not protected. Copyright prevents from stealing somebody else's work. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right in the UK to: make copies of the work, issue copies to the public, perform the work in public and broadcast the work.



When it comes to Journalism, there is no copyright in facts, news, ideas or information. It is the way the fact has been expressed and the news has been presented that makes it be protected by copyright, because it involves skill and labour. 


There are numbers of cases, where a reporter CAN reproduce someone else’s work without permission and without and without infringing copyright.

1. Defence of Fair Dealing.

Coping facts or news stories from another newspaper can be seen as stealing, because of labour, skill and judgment involved into the research. A reporter can use the defence of fair dealing for reporting on current events, which will sometimes allow quoting from another newspaper.
Reporters can use facts and information from another article, as long as  they don’t use the picture used in the article, as they are excluded from fair dealing defence. The author of the article/ information has to be mentioned and has to be made available to the public.

If you write an article, or take a picture you own the copyright to the work you have done. If someone buys a copy of your work, they can look at it or read it, but they cannot make copies of it. They can sell the copy they bought to another person, but they cannot legally sell copies they make.



2.Private study or non commercial research, which is not very relevant to Journalists.

The key that makes work infringe copyright is publishing it. Researching and rewriting someone else’s work just for your own educational benefit is not a crime, as long as the work doesn’t become open to the public.

3. Criticism and reviews.

This is another exception where it is fair to have limited use of copyright in work that includes a photograph. The work must have already been available to the public before you a reporter can use this defence. This allows for reporting which quotes from books, plays, films, and broadcast when writing a criticism, story or a feature. The reporting has to be FAIR.

4. Incidental use

‘Use is incidental if copyright work is in the background or subordinate to the main focus of the work in which it is contained’. It is an exception when a reporter honestly had no idea that the work was a subject to copyright. This exception can be deliberate in any case, except in the case of music.

Who owns the Copyright?

The very first owner of a copyright work created after 31 July 1989 is the author. However, in the case of work done in the course of employment- the employer is the owner. 


The copyright lasts for the life time of the author plus the next 70 years. When it comes to music it is the same but after author's death there are 50 more years of protection.

REFERENCES:
McNae's - Essential Law For Journalists

BBC College of Journalism (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/collegeofjournalism/law/copyright/)

Media Law, Week 3, Qualified Privilege and other defences.

There are numbers of defences that journalists can take in order to avoid a costly libel action against their stories.

One of them, justification, as a defence means that a journalist has to prove in court that the libel statement is true. To justify their point they need to use relevant evidence. The reason for why justification is a difficult defence is because the claimant who started a defamation action against the publisher doesn’t have to prove whether the statement is true or false, it is in a publisher’s business to make sure they have a proof to defend their story.

Fair comment, however protects published articles which were just pure comments, rather that factual information. In order to be able to seek this defence, the comment has to be recognisable as opinion. It should not be perceived as factual allegation, but it has to be based on true facts. The subject commented on has to be a matter of public interest.

Qualified Privilege is a type of defence again libel taken in defamation actions. It is also available in situations where it is considered important that the facts should be known in the public interests. There are two types of QP: Statutory qualified privilege and Common Law qualified privilege.

Statutory qualified privilege can be used in certain circumstances, such as court reporting, public and council meetings reporting and reports of police statements. The published report has to be accurate, fair and free of malice. There is also a requirement for Statutory qualified privilege which states that the matter published must be a matter of public concern, the publication of which is for the public benefit.

However, Privilege at common law can be applied in situations where the law protects defamatory statements that are untrue, for the convenience of the public. For example, it applies when a person makes a defamatory statement in the performance of legal, moral, or social duty to a person who has corresponding duty or interest in receiving it.

The Reynold’s defence includes 10 points, which protect published material, which was then taken as defamatory, provided that it was a matter of public interest and that it was the product of ‘responsible journalism’

10 point test includes:

1.The case has to be serious- the more serious allegation, the more protection will be applied.

2.The nature of information

3.The source of information

4.The status of information

5.Evidence is essential

6.The urgency of the matter

7.A comment from the claimant is needed

8.The tone of the article- it has to be written in a balanced language

9.It has be to published immediately

10.A claimant has to have a chance to deny it.

The Galloway case:

The Daily Telegraph lost the case after making serious defamatory allegations against George Galloway, including elements of malice with no Justification, comment or QP. The reason for losing the case was that journalists failed the ’10 point test’, mainly because the paper did not put all its allegations to Galloway for him to deny before the information was published.

Here are just rough notes taken in the last law lecture. I also used McNae's- Essential Law For Journalists to help me write and understand the notes.

WINOL LIFE- October Edition

WINOL LIFE has finally arrived. (I know you all have been waiting for it!) Just a little background of the show for those who aren't sure what it is:

Winol Life is a studio based discussion where guests come in, watch a few video features that students have created, and then talk to our in-studio presenter about the feature in question. Often offering constructive criticism or just comments. A notable guest editor that has been on the show in the past is Laura Barton- features writer for the Guardian. This time we had an honour to have Sally Churchward as our in studio guest. Sally is a senior features writer for the Southern Daily Echo.

The first episode of the show went really well, considering it was our first time. However, editorially I would say it was just a trial and a learning curve for the whole team and me. We managed to make quite a few mistakes which I will try to improve and avoid next time.

The planning stage:

As I have mentioned before I am the producer of Winol Life, which means I am responsible for the whole show. It involves planning, organizing the style, inviting guests in, booking them a parking space if they are driving, creating the graphics and the script.

One of the mistakes I made this time was taking all the jobs by myself, instead of dividing them within the production team. Trying to be independent and almost selfish when it comes to work is definitely one of my faults. This is what will improve next time. So prepare for more work next time, guys!

In an email to Sally Churchward I explained the show and what the day was going to look like when she arrives. She seemed confident in her emails. After the show, when all the nerves and stress disappeared, I had a chance to have a longer chat with her. She said she was also quite nervous but enjoyed the experience and the show. We may see Sally back in Winchester when she comes with her photographer to write an article about us.

One problem that we had which was quite big and frustrating was the lack of sofas on the campus. I tried ringing around, tried the campus porters and I was unsuccessful, which meant that the show couldn't really happen as it was all about 'sofa discussions'. On Monday, a day before we were filming, Chris, Brian and I spent the lunch time running around the campus, looking for anything that looked like a sofa, or that could look like one. But that was also unsuccessful. I thought there was only one thing I could do. I went to talk to Tommy Geddes, the Deputy Vice- Chancellor, who has recently purchased nice, red sofas for the staff room at the university. They were perfect for our show. Thankfully, after having a nice talk with him and after asking nicely, he let us have two of his lovely sofas for Tuesday.

Another problem that we had was a technical issue in the gallery on the day. The gallery was a total mess when we walked in on Tuesday morning and took at least 3 hours to sort it out and even after sorting it out some things still didn't work. Dave, our technical person, was with us for at least 30 minutes trying to sort out the vision mixer which refused to work. This prevented us from having a proper rehearsal before Sally came in. This built up the tension, stress and nerves. People weren't too sure what they were doing as it was our first go at WINOL LIFE. Sally arrived at 11.00 am, I went to meet her at the university's reception and gave her a short tour of the news room. I talked her through the show again so she knew what to expect.

The post production was simple. I had to cut out one package as we ran over 15 minutes. I reduced the show to 14 minutes which was ok, but not great. The show as a whole was too big to be uploaded on YouTube, it took me and Chris 3 hours to work how to prevent the upload from keep failing. Finally, we compressed it in Final Cut Pro and made it smaller. That, however, ruined the quality of the show. While uploading onto YouTube the quality became even worse and the show is out of sync. It is not a huge issues, other than that Winol Life looks professional.

The show went quite smoothly. We only had one run through and then we went live. I was really pleased with how easy it was to film and how well we seemed to work as a team. Even if it wasn't perfect, we still put the whole, really complicated show together. It is complicated because we use all the studio cameras, we have a guest in the studio, we run all the packages and we have only one take.

The presenters: Hannah Keegan and George Berridge did and excellent job. They knew the script well and they were confident. The reporters: Zoe and Becky, as well as Ewan and David were also brilliant with their answers. Great job guys!

Therefore, despite all the mistakes, and technical difficulties, the show could have gone MUCH worse than it did. I think the organisation was brilliant, the team work was great, and if there was no stress or nerves, everything would seem to be more at ease.

We will be making mistakes in the next episodes, but that's the way to learn! I am more than sure that the number of mistakes we reduce more and more and the last show will be simply perfect.

Thank you to everyone for your help and hard work. Thanks to Sally for joining us and giving great feedback.

Now, it's time for you to see the show and decide whether you can spot many mistakes (Other than the out of sync. issue). Feel free to give feedback, as it is really important for me to know what I can improve for the next episode.

Media Law- Libel and Defamation.

'Law exists to protect the moral and professional reputation of the individual from unfair attack'.
My understanding of Defamation is a false statement of published or spoken facts about a person, company or organisation. It can lower their reputation or make other people think less of them without justification. 

The following examples show how reputation can be lowered and therefore, when a statement becomes defamatory.

• Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt
• Causes them to be shunned or avoided
• Discredits them in their trade, business or profession 
• Generally lowers them in the eyes of right-thinking members of society

Journalists have to be extra careful with their statements, as they can be sued for anything that can’t be proved. For example, if a publisher tells a story about a person who is a liar or a cheat or in financial difficulties, the statement can easily be considered as libel unless the publisher has a defence, such as evidence.

Another ‘tricky’ thing that Journalists have to take special care of is words that carry more than one meaning. (English can complicate your life sometimes!). There are statements such as Inferences, which can be read/understood by someone in a wrong way. They have secondary meanings, a person could read them ‘between the lines’ and then can make a wrong conclusion.

The statement, however, can be protected by defence in libel law. A claimant has to show the court three tings when suing for libel:

1. The publication is defamatory,
2. A defamed person has been identified
3. It has been published to a third party.

It is quite similar to Slander, which is the type of defamation with no permanent record. Normally it's a spoken statement. It requires defamation and identification but NO publication to a third party. For example, it can be seen as a form of conversation.

Journalists need to remember that the defamed person doesn’t have to prove that the statement is false. If it is defamatory then it is obvious that the statement is false, however if the journalist can prove their facts than that’s their evidence, therefore, defence. The defamed person doesn’t have to prove intention or any proof of actual damage. All they need to do is to show the false statement.

There are four main defences that journalists can use:

1. Justification- The defamed person needs to prove that defamatory statement identifies them. On the other hand, the publisher needs to prove that the publish statement is true, by using essential evidence.

2. Fair comment- A statement has to be an honest opinion based on fact. No malice should be included. The subject commented on must be a matter of public interests.

3. Absolute privilege – It’s a complete answer and bar to any action and defamation. It doesn’t matter whether the words were true or false, or spoken maliciously.

4. Qualified Privilege- which is a specific protection against an action of defamation given in the first place to judges, lawyers, and witnesses in court cases. It is also a defence where it is considered important that the facts should be freely known in the public interest.

There are a few situations where defence cannot be used. This is when reporters:

• Haven’t checked their facts,
• Haven’t ‘referred up’,
• Haven’t put themselves in the shoes of the person or company they write about,
• Got carried away by an exciting story
• Haven’t bothered to wait for their lawyer’s opinion.  

This is a lot of rough notes and definitions, but they are one of the most important law rules that a journalist needs to know in order to be able to report and never be sued.

McNae’s- The essential law for journalists helped me write up these notes. 

Winol Week Two

It was the second week in our new roles. I imagined that the bulletin would have gone much better than in our first week, yet I was wrong. Rachel Hepworth was our guest editor this week. She patiently watched us all get ready for the bulletin and then she gave us many useful comments and tips in the debrief. I think we all learned a lot from her notes.  

There were several issues that affected the bulletin as a whole. The biggest mistake we made this week was missing the deadline. Instead of going Live at 3.00 we went live 15 minutes later. This would be a huge issue on a real TV channel and it would probably never take place. Angus Scott, one of our lectures and ITV sports presenter has told us before never to go live at all if we don’t make it for 15.00 pm on the spot. However, this hasn’t been anyone’s fault in particular. I think there was a misunderstanding in the gallery, as well as technical difficulties, such as the lack of talk back, incomplete packages and just general chaos. Jack, our new production editor took on too many jobs. As well as overseeing the bulletin as editor he decided to direct as well, which made it impossible for him to notice little problems, such as pressing the record button at 3.15, as he was concentrating on counting down the VT and cueing in the presenter. Therefore, I think everyone tried to get involved too much into controlling the Gallery, as it just seemed like a little bit of a mess. We need a little bit more discipline in there, but also organisation. The production team didn’t do anything till after 12.00 by that time they were late for headlines, therefore the rehearsal didn’t take place till late which caused the bulletin miss the deadline.
This week my role was to play VTs from the machine. I managed to set an OB kit in the news room for our breaking news story which we couldn’t use in the end because the lack of sound from the news room. We had Felicity in the studio with the presenter instead.

The presenters- Hannah and Sam did a very good job despite the stress and technical problems. They were both confident and sounded great. The only thing I would say is the handover. I think the presenters should have a relaxing chit chat about upcoming sport packages to ease the stress and tension.

The content of the bulletin was good, but yet not quite excellent. We keep having problems with the headlines. Rachel said that they are good; however they didn’t attract her enough to want to watch the rest of the bulletin. This is something the team really need to work on- the right clips and words. Another thing that needs improving which Rachel and Angus agreed on was our script. They are nowhere near as good as TV scripts. The style of them is also wrong, but this is due our script machine being broken. Usually in the scrip you need to have: a slug, package duration, out words and a link. There should be 5 copies of it as well, 2 for the presenters and 3 in the Gallery.

Overall, well done for putting a lot of good effort everyone, let’s try to improve those little mistakes and the bulletin will be perfect once again. 

Reporting Crimes and Courts

Knowing criminal law is an essential skill for all journalists, as they have to know exactly what they can and can’t include in their reports in order to make them accurate, fair and to avoid committing contempt of court.

All journalists are at risk of being sued for their stories, therefore it is important that they know how to avoid that risk. Prejudice is one of the main things that can put them at high risk. Prejudice means ‘pre-judging’ something; if a reporter makes a statement about a person or an event based on false beliefs or before knowing the case well, they are most likely to be rightly sued for their report. It is important for reporters to get their facts right and to get to know the story well before reporting on it, as well as staying objective and open minded, trying not to pass the judgment too quickly.

Standard of proof in criminal law

For anyone to be convicted of a criminal offence, guilt must be admitted or proven in court ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
The court journalists can start reporting on the case when it becomes ACTIVE. That happens when the police make an arrest and when the person gets charged. However, the case is not active when an arrest is made with no evidence. In that case the suspect can only be kept under arrest without charge for 24 hours. By law, if they have not been charged within that period, the person has to be released.

The pre trial reports include 7 points of what a reporter can include in statements. That includes:
- Names of defendant, ages, addresses, occupation.
- Charges faced or close summary.
- Name of court and magistrates’ names
- Names of solicitors or barristers present
- Date and place to where the case is adjourned
- Any arrangements as to bail. ( Bail is a system by which a defendant is given his/her liberty until the next court case)
- Whether legal aid was granted.  

Criminal charges are divided into three main categories. Reporters are expected to be able to tell the difference between them, as each category requires different rules for reporting. There are some details that the Automatic reporting restrictions don’t allow to include in reports on some hearings at magistrates court. Journalists need to be able to distinguish those restrictions.

1. Indictable-only offences, which are the most serious crimes, punishable by the longest prison terms.  Possible sentence of 5 years or more. Examples for this type of crime would be murder, rape or robbery.

2. Either-way offences- such charges can be dealt with either at a Crown court or at Magistrates court. Magistrates can decide whether a particular case is a serious one which needs to be dealt with in Crown court, or if the magistrates can deal with it

3. Summary offences are very minor ones compare to the other two, they include crimes such as common assult, drunkenness. These are also relatively easy to deal with and they stay with Magistrates court.

Winol is back! Week 1.

After a very long and productive summer, I am back to join the rest of the WINOL team for the last time.  It feels strange thinking that it has already been a whole year since WINOL became a huge part of our lives and after Christmas we will no longer be a part of it.

Surprisingly, the term started completely differently to what I imagined. I was expecting panic, running around, screams and arguments because of frustration of not working cameras or computers. However, the first week back was very calm. The new members of the team seemed relaxed and prepared for the hard work. They also seemed curious of what it was all going to look like, especially that they never had the essential training on how to make a news package. Last week’s bulletin was only a dummy edition in order to let the second years get used to the equipment, getting the interviews, having balance in their packages and getting to know the editing system.  I thought the bulletin went really well production wise, there were no technical difficulties, everyone seemed to know what they were doing, Domonique was a good director. Domonique and I tried to pass on all the knowledge we have about the Gallery and the studio to the new production team, who picked up everything easily.
The reporters met their deadline and the script was in on time, which didn’t happen very often last year. This term looks very promising so far. Of course, there were little mistakes made by reporters, such lack of white balance and some of the shots were out of focus, some content was lacking balance. These mistakes were essential last week, as that’s the only way you can learn how to produce a decent package. The content wasn’t brilliant, but we definitely had worse in previous bulletins. The aim of the dummy edition was for the new ones to get an idea of what a package should include. Well done everyone for trying hard.

My role on WINOL this year is Features Producer, alongside with Domonique. We share the role but have different jobs. Domonique is responsible for in studio, regular shows which we produce on Tuesdays, such as Sportsweek, whereas I plan, organise, produce, edit and upload a number of editions of WINOL LIFE and other special projects. I need to attend every features conference and discuss ideas for WINOL LIFE show with the Features Editor, Katie. As Features Producer my aim is to get trains on the Outside Broadcast kit, which we can use on the 25^th of November in the Performance Gym. I am also planning to select a number of features students who can get trained on advanced technical equipment such as gib and dolly with me, which could be useful in perfecting WINOL LIFE, making it look more professional.

This week, starting from Monday I had a feeling of confusion from other members of Winol team, about their roles especially. I think it may be because we are all used to our old roles and being reporters and producers, which is more productive in terms of creating content, rather than having editorials roles, where we are responsible mostly for legal issues and overseeing the content that our new reporters produce. I think this feeling of confusion is going to pass soon when get used to our new roles and when we discover what exactly our particular role involves.

This week is going to be a real bulletin, which is going to be watched by out first guest editor this year – Rachel Hepworth from ITV Meridian. Good luck everyone :-)