Coverage of student demonstration 10.11.10

Student protests across the country have finally made government officials think twice about the rise in tuition fees. Worry has broken out for not just for students, but for A-Level lectures.

50,000 Students in Central London

There may be many decisions the government make that we don’t agree with, but, the rise in tuition fees is something that hasn’t gone down very well with students all over country. Last month up to 50,000 students from all over the UK united to make a stand against the rise in tuition fees. The demolition on the 10.11.10 through the centre of London was set up by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and college union (UCU).
The government’s plan to raise tuition fees means allowing some universities to charge up to £9,000 – currently students pay £3,290 pounds a year, the major worry is that socially everyone will not be entitled to a chance of free education and making it more about the individual.



ULCAN make an appearance

Michael Palmer the University of Central Lancashire’s student president said “180 students from UCLAN have marched down the streets of London; they have done themselves proud, I’m proud to have led them. It has been a massive achievement”. He explained “The whole country had paid attention to students, their future and what we need to achieve – to fight this rise in tuition fees; to demand that every single MP that signed the pledge to stick to it.”
Hundreds of students waved banners in the heart of the capital against the 300% increase in tuition fees set to be in place by 2012. Fury has originated from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Cleg, who originally campaigned against the rise in tuition fees in the general election. Nafisah Aticha, a student attending the protest said “Nick Clegg went back on his word, he shouldn’t have done that, that’s not what we voted for” she went on to say “most of the votes he got were from students, he’s lost that now.”

Students start march’s across Britain

London is not the only place that students have protested against the rise in tuition fees. Protests have been going on in recent weeks all over the country with thousands of students making a stand in hope that the government will listen. There have been mass walk outs, sit ins, some students closed access to the Old School office which is home to the vice-chancellor's office and finance office in Cambridge last month.

Suzanne Cunning a student from the University of central Birmingham said “By students protesting across the country it is making people and more importantly the government realise just how badly we feel about it, the people really have spoken and this is something we just won’t stand for. We have been promised something completely different to what is happening”.
With this being the biggest student protest in over a decade many students are hopeful that this will make a difference Suzanne went on to say “we won’t give up, that’s for sure!”.


View Universitys that have took part in a student protest in a larger map


Putting people off University

A recent survey on popular networking site Facebook, asked people of all demographics ‘how this will affect future generations – if at all’ there was a very controversial mixed response. Louise Rebecca Crowther said: “As a student myself I think its silly paying that much for university. It's already too expensive as it is let alone putting it up to a possible 9 grand. Of course it will put people off going to university and I don't think it will necessarily mean more determined students get places, just the ones who can afford it!.”
Some people think it’s a good idea – suggesting that places becoming more competitive may be an incentive for people. Colleen Butler another student says “as for university places I think they may get more competitive. No it’s not fair but it is an incentive to maybe work harder, after all tuition fees are a loan so yes it is adding on a few years in terms of debt but it’s a vicious cycle!”

Fears for A-Level students

As the potential increase is not due to take place until 2012, it’s more a worry for A level students and also lecture’s preparing future university students. A lot of people that are currently in University won’t actually be affected but there are lots of fears for college students. With debts up to £30,000 plus, if the increase does go up to £9,000 this will hold back thousands of students that have the qualifications but primarily funding is the initial problem. The spending review announced that there could be cuts of up to 40% by the end of 2010 but it’s said that teaching funds will face bigger cuts then 40%. There are some university’s that will be able to increase there’s fees allowing them to increase their funding regardless to the budget cuts.




The problem college lectures now fear some people not going on to study at college due to the fact some students know they won’t be able to pursue any further. This is instigated fear into teachers of further education. Questions have been raised as to whether people now will not want to receive further education from A-Levels and leave school just to go straight into work.

College tutors in fear over plans

Nicola Sandano, head of media studies at Preston College is worried she won’t have any students if the government do go along with the rise. She says “A lot of the students we get are from a working class background so they will right off the idea of going to university; it scares the hell of them being in that much debt.”
She went on to say “Now students will be looking for apprenticeships or just go straight into work. It’s definitely having an impact on numbers in getting students in to do A-Levels in the first place, because what’s the point if I’m not going to university”.

Nicola has said she has many students that know what they want, have the qualification and know what course they would like to do they just have the support financially.

New government plans

New government plans mean that up to 18,000 students may be able to get their first two years of study paid for according to universities minister David Willets. Following the past few weeks it has seemed that the government would have to do something to insure there are equal opportunities to all. This is what the government have come up with. Ministers believe that this could benefit poorer children and able all classes the right to education.

Have you‘re say

With a very mixed and controversial reaction to the government’s plans and with thousands of students across the country against the plans – many education officials will have to re-think their plans, we as a nation can understand that in a recession we will understandably have to go through cuts backs, but is it right that some people will miss out on opportunities that in the long run could actually benefit our climate? Or it will ensure that the most determined and academically able students will get places meaning there will be a higher level of more qualified professionals?


Have your say at: ALDillon@uclan.ac.uk

International Reporting

Western media organisations are very much active on a global scale, with western countries being the most powerful countries in the world in many different aspects, media just being one example. As America and the UK do have the most power and influence in worldwide media they will often cater to western media values and ideologies.

Richer cliental such as Japan for instance, would be included in many media mediums and even make headlines in some newspapers – whereas a story out that same day, even of more importance but from a seconds or third world country would be ignored as they have less marginal concern.
The age-old saying goes – “Who pays the piper calls the tune!”
Power and money have the biggest influences here.

Global news agencies

Three types:
• The British – Reuters (Primarily a private company, now deriving most of its considerable wealth, income and profits from its financial services)
• The American agency – AP ( also running a strong financial service – primarily remains a media cooperative)
• The French AFP – thrived for a long time on generous government subscriptions but increasingly it is trying to shift its emphasis to media clients

This in turn means that there is not equal representation of world news. With the west of the world being more privileged in many aspects journalists will often stay in London, New York e.t.c.
Poorer countries would struggle to have foreign correspondents as this is very expensive – so in a way poorer areas of the world will rely on western countries to provide their news and also giving the more western countries the power to represent them. This does have its negative factors as western countries such as the UK or USA can be quite stereotypical with what they report, some of their reporting becomes quite predictable. Major news companies will have correspondents all across the world in about 100 different foreign countries, but for the major quality newspapers they will only have about 20-50 maximum. Correspondent’s in main cities.

Bigger scale events in less developed countries will almost always be underreported when up against anything of readership gold dust in more developed countries - simply because of money and power and again what audiences in places like the UK and USA are expecting to get out of their daily newspaper.

Not even a hundred words on a bomb that killed to Afghanis including three children.
However as we would expect to see from tabloid newspaper, X factor makes the front page followed by lots of follow up articles about the people that are in x factor in the following pages.
Here is an example showing that even though the people killed in Afghanistan maybe be of more importance it is very much underreported by western countries for two main reasons – we expect this kind of thing to happen in these countries and also when buying our tabloid newspaper we expect and want to see x factor or I’m a celebrity splashed across the front page.

Quite often (tabloid newspapers mainly), will leave out background information about the country and just include a few basic facts about one particular story – again just leaving people with a very stereotypical view of the outside world.


This results in less/few journalists being around the rest of the world to report what’s going on, therefore a lot of news goes unreported.

Rule of thumb

• Less than a third of USA correspondents are stationed in North America
• More than a third in western Europe
• Roughly a third covering the entire rest of the world (Eastern Europe, Africa Latin America e.t.c)


A more recent example of predictability would be the newly married couple in South Africa. The women was murdered – again this is a predictable story for South Africa as it’s known for having some of the largest crime rates in the world. This will also reinforce the stereotypical views from western parts of the world, as this is what western audiences would “expect to see”.

26 people die of aids in New Zealand – this would be a massive story worldwide maybe even making some front page news – however the exact same story happening in Africa – would probably, well most likely not even get reported at all because as bad as it may sound people expect to hear this coming from this country.

Many places get mentioned frequently in the media just because of its historical values, we could also say its predictability value as well. Japan is a good example here; Japan is often in the news because of their developed technology.

Oliver Boyd- Barretts’s study of the international news agencies (1980: 152-3) identified a number of interrelated factors which help explain differences in the strength of agency representation in different countries:
• Historical referencing (Influence of old agency cartel practices)
• Logistical (referring to the differences between countries in their importance as possible strategic or communication centres for coverage of wider geographic regions)
• Political factors (arising from controls or restrictions imposed by given countries on visiting correspondents)
• Commercial or cost revenue – seen as one of the more important factors – (differences in market pull within different areas of the world & differences in responsiveness of the agencies to the news requirements of different markets)


Historical places often follow a certain agenda. This means that some news will be over reported leaving others under reported. For example a new touch screen device gets brought out in Japan would make big headlines in the more western, more developed countries (mainly because we would probably be next to get the devices), compared to 1000 African students get new I phones.

News will always cater primarily to the home nation of one audience. News values are often a big issue here. For example the UK and the USA are very culturally similar – both English speaking countries, therefore this will mean that there will be more reporters in countries like these to allow maximum news coverage. This also applies to countries such as New Zealand and Australia. Proximity is a major news value here – having a high geographical connection.
The balance will vary from country to country but all media will have a range of potential sources of income. This may be in forms of government contribution, sales to audiences and obviously advertising. With government contributions this can cause some problems, as they expect there ideologies put in the medium this is however slowly changing as many mediums are starting to focus on getting their income strictly just through says as to contributions.
Certain adverting can say a lot about the media it is representing and more importantly the audience that it attracts. For example an advert for ASDA in The Mirror would represent a working class audience – for cheap meals, toys for Christmas e.t.c whereas The Guardian will have adverts for a classical CD, were most middle-upper class people would be interested in this product.

To conclude I have found whilst researching for this presentation that poorer countries do seem to miss out and in a lot of ways go unnoticed/unreported. It also seems that if you are not in a good financial place within world media not only will you countries be underreported but the countries will also find themselves with very stereotypical stories in western media as when they are reported – as said about Mexico in the news – it will often be about the same issues therefore consumers in first world countries will developed a certain option about that particular countries. It is very unfair – however journalists will tend to stick to a certain agenda Oliver Boyd examines. With journalist’s sticking to particular agendas – this may vary depending on what news corporation they work for – this often leads to very predictable news. Consumers will get use to and in some cases expect to see certain stories coming from any particular country. As said before Mexico for example we would relate through no fault of our – to drugs and crime, Asian countries for their conflict over religion. As this is what is constantly injected into our media.

Gangster's

The importance of ‘identity’ as a primary concept of gang culture. Using theory to support arguments.

I think that the increase in the media’s interpretation of ‘gangsters’ and ‘gangs’ and what they should look like highly influences the identity in which gang members feel/think they should act, dress and even criminal activities that they participate in. For example movies like 50 cents’ ‘Get rich or die tryin’ had a massive effect on how young black boys (especially in America) act and ‘think’ they should be acting. They learn illegitimate ways to receive goods and services. They are exposed to what a “hit” is for example or a drive by shooting. I think that it could be argued that these films even educate these young people on how to get away with it. Economic deprivation plays a big part in the forms of gangs – witnessing because of the media all the money, nice clothes, women and big houses e.t.c and thinking ‘This is what gangster are – this is what I want to be’.








Before the age of eighteen, the average American teen will have witnessed eighteen thousand simulated murders on TV this it without films and all other types of media i.e music, newspapers and radio. Willis & Presdee observes that:

“Crime should be viewed as everyday responses to lives out within deprived, brutalised and often lonely social locations. In a society based on consumption to ‘have’ is to exist: to have nothing is to be nothing. Presdee asks rhetorically how – in the latter case- can we emotionally live life that is laden with such a shame and observes that is it through crime we can ‘have’, and therefore ‘be.’
It is the nothingness and loss of social status that is often the wellspring of social or personal harm, the trigger for violence as self expression, weather it is directed inwardly (self mutilation) or outward (the mutilation of others).”

There is, in many areas of the world, ‘dominance for identity’. For example in a lot of gangs even if its small gangs or large organized gangs its seems the more deviant you are, the more anti-social the more you are respected and looked upon – the more other members of the gang want to be like you. Gangs will often commit crimes to become this like this ‘respected ’gang member. Injecting this criminal identity were they are deviant, ruthless, scared of nothing – no one. Some areas such as Rio De Janerio (Brazil) the gang member will often have to kill to become part of the gang.



Studies from Chicago university have showed that people living in these socially disorganised areas with adopt different moral standards to people living in for example at the top end of Rio De Janerio as it is a town split into two worlds. For people that live in the ‘slummy’ areas this will contribute to their willingness to become more involved in criminal behaviour. As this is all they have know – this is who they are – their identity. Some of these patterns of behaviour however have been adopted and passed on from one generation to the next. (Parents were heavily involved in crime).

However, Thrasher (1947) argues that:

“The adolescent gang emerged out of spontaneous street play groups of young children in relatively permissive and socially disorganised slum areas were neither ‘disturbed’ or ‘psychopathic’ nor ‘driven’ by socio-economic forces beyond their control, they were simply looking for excitement, adventure and fun. This can be found on the streets but not at home”.

So the gang members or ‘deviant’ individuals may not have been brought up around criminal activities and may be completely unaware of crime and what in entails however some of what they see outside of what they know (school, home life e.t.c ) interreges them, these new identities that they are being exposed to excites them.

For many young gang member’s or young males and now even females thinking about becoming gang members much of this is due to their home life and financial situation. They join to find out their identity. Who they are, what they are or more what they should be, what they should look like.



For many young males joining gangs or getting involved in criminal activities a lot of it starts from their roots - their family situation. Talcott Parsons (1937) studies argue that women are more at home looking after children the house chores e.t.c while the male goes out to provide for the family therefore being absent a lot of the time – resulting in them being unable to function as a role model for his children. Males do have strong cultural expectations of how they should be, what makes a good father, a good friend, a good home provider and good ‘identity’ to aspire to. Whether the father is absent due to work commitments or the mother is a single mum this proves problematic as the young males have to adopt this masculine role with ‘no real concept of what it involves’. Talcott says that:

“He has, during his childhood, discovered that stealing, violence and destruction provoke the disapproval of his mother and hence identifies these as non-feminine and therefore masculine characteristics. Offending behaviour satisfies these criteria of masculinity”.

We could argue from this, also in relation to the media, that being in a surveillance society forces some ‘gang members’ to adopt identities that they are shaped and told to look like. In some circumstances for example the area in which they live in or the colour of their skin often contributes to this factor. For example young black men living in a council estate in London, may well want to better themselves and work they way up the social ladder but they are already stereotyped by society as ‘young black thugs – that wont/cant amount to anything’. I think this is very unfair though it could be suggested why these males keep the identities they all ready have and live up to what society and the media label them as. Studies of Gerland suggest that:

“contemporary life is characterised by a ‘culture of control’ where we are policed at home, at work, at pleasure and in a surveillance society were we cannot escape the dominate gaze (gaze of the dominate) , as we are watched and tracked, trailed, filmed, photographed as our ‘life trial’ is picked up by electronic panoptical society”.

Personal social decline plays a big part on deviant behaviour and identity. This is when we learn that we are ugly; we are different, apart and even excluded. In effect this can result in a silence and often being left isolated and lonely. However in some instances it can go the other way and in a culture were distraction is a part of everyday life – in Presdee’s theory the central question becomes: ‘Social survival or social destruction?’.

In conclusion, identity is hugely important factor in the gang lifestyle. Not looking a certain way, wearing a certain colour of clothing or even your hairstyle in different gangs across the globe could even get you killed in extreme cases. I think one of the most influential aspects that contribute to this at the moment is the media. In all its mediums, it is very stereotypical – young gang member’s pick up on this and begin to adopt this ideology that this is the norm to be included, accepted and part of a new criminal family. There are two areas in which gang members don’t understand the vital difference – ‘fantasy’ and ‘reality’. Suggesting that ‘identity’ in gangs is very much glamorised as said previously, they are not aware of the many negative realities that their activities will outcome. These people can often end up in prison (their sentence also increased if they are part of a gang), addicted to drugs or alcohol or even worse – dead.

However on this point, I would argue that every person has their own mind – and should have a good sense of right or wrong no matter where you live, how you were brought up or how much money you have. Identity and finding about your individual identity and who you are is part of growing up – I think that people in these gangs have so many different cultural influences that they may struggle to lose the identity or be stopped from gaining it when it’s what’s been programmed into them or the area in which they live produces this identity as the norm.

South African Reporting

Government/Political influences (Including reporting before and after the Apartheid)

Even though the government doesn’t actually own media bodies in South Africa, they have a great influence on what is printed and in many ways regulate what is printed. During the Apartheid era, newspapers that were published more than eleven times a year had to apply for registration through the government. There were also heavy restrictions on what could and could not be printed – especially anything that was against the Apartheid for example, how prisoners were treated and more importantly the activities of the security forces. The 1980’s proved to be a very tough year for the media on anything that was anti-apartheid or questioning any of the government’s laws. The South African broadcasting corporation (SABC) through an act of parliament was brought into action in 1936. Originally controlled by the White Party this resulted in the SABC being accused of bias reporting. They were said to be “more for the National Party” however, more recently since the end of the Apartheid era in 1994. During 1996 there was a revolution for South African media as the SABC became a service that reflected the new democratic society. It has now in more recent years been accused of favouring political party ANC mainly in the broadcast medium.

Here we can see many similarities in thedc

English media – in both countries political influence is seen to be a very controversial area. The BBC is seen to be a broadcaster ‘for the government’. Influences such as William Beverage in 1947 started to criticize the British Broadcasting Corporation for some of the same reasons as the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). The Beverage report claims that ‘the ideal society would be run by neither Parliament nor dictators, but by professional administrators – ‘social doctors’ – who would organize society ‘to adapt the social and economic relations of clients so as to produce the maximum economic health’.’ In the first half of the eighteenth century, English newspapers would receive a clandestine government grant (the last English newspaper to do this being the Observer in 1840); however by dismissing these grants the papers could then gain more independence and would not rely on ‘prior intelligence’ from the government. With the rise of commercial advertising and channels such as ITV and channel 4, government input decreased. Referring back to MISA, this was a new era for reporting in Southern Africa – MISA is a non-governmental organization launched in 1992, MISA focuses mainly on promoting free independent media. MISA’s vision wants to maintain that the media ‘enjoys freedom of expression, independence from political, economic and commercial interests and pluralism of views and opinions’.

Types of media in South Africa

SABC is the biggest broadcast corporation in South Africa providing 18 radio station and 3 television broadcasts one of the more popular channels being E T.V.
Caxton, Avusa and Media24 are three of South Africa’s largest publication corporations. Together with foreign-owned Independent Newspapers they own a massive 95% of SA newspapers.

Caxton is probably the biggest out of the three owning South Africa’s leading daily newspaper, ‘The Citizen’. Caxton owns or co-owns 88 newspapers (some being free) and 15 magazine titles ranging from family magazines to lifestyle. The Citizen a Tabloid newspaper and the only main English newspaper in South Africa, is said to be favorable to the ruling National Party under apartheid, it would be fair to say that over half of Caxton’s ‘The Citizen’ is based around government or politics, this continues most days.

The Citizen does cover worldwide news such as celebrities, there is also good coverage on sport, again as well as South African sport there is also coverage from Asia, Europe and America. Similar to English tabloid newspapers such as ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Mirror’ for example, all aspects of news covered in the Citizen generally reflects the interests of the South American audience. For example, event’s happening in South Africa will be covered in much more depth than a similar event in the UK. The stories are of general importance to South Africans, also lack of coverage on more Western Countries may be due to the fact that foreign correspondents is costly with few media organisations being able to support independent newsgathering abroad. With America and the UK being the major media giants their coverage of foreign news may be more in depth and in some cases more accessible then South Africa. The BBC may have correspondents all over the world in all seven continents whereas South Africa may have one or two correspondents covering the entire world.

In respect to news values it could be argued that the most important and more relevant would be reference to Elite Nations and reference to elite persons, as mentioned previously government and political parties have a huge influence on south African media – therefore a lot of what is published in all media formats often reflect upon these two news values. For example elections are an area covered by almost all media formats on a daily basis – even though there are other areas covered such as world news, sport and celebrities e.t.c. The government still use some media as a way of protecting their own messages and ideologies, “The press was seen as a cultural and political weapon for the promotion of the Afrikaans language and political independence, as well as for drumming up support against the perceived threat of Black Nationalism.” – South African Consulate General.

Recent media changes, not just in South Africa, but on a global basis, are trying to survive on purely the income from sales and not rely on government contributions as much – as this does prove to be problematic not just for the media companies but for the consumers as well. For example, when the government contribute to print products, as they often do in parts of Africa because it is poor and can’t simply survive off advertising, Elite persons or groups would expect some of their values and opinions to be injected into the mainstream media in return. This in turn will block out certain concepts while emphasising others.

News24 is an online news source that offers around the clock news coverage worldwide. This website offers an extensive range of media coverage with more in depth and accessible media. At the top of the webpage you will find a ‘hot topic’ subheading were the most talked about and priority subjects are highlighted. Many journalists have certain ideological subject areas to emphasis on. For example one if the ‘hot topics’ on any particular day is ‘Aids’. Obviously this is an issue affecting people worldwide – however Africa being the country some may say is more ‘affected’. Journalists will have certain news values to stick to one of the most important news values for this particular subject being negativity and threshold. This subject area is of huge importance so African people as this is something they need to know about and something that will/could affect them or those close to them. This is another example of how certain things must be reported – regardless to what medium it is presented in.

Degrees of Bias

There are degrees of bias in many countries or mediums when, it would seem that with journalism comes bias. It could be argued that much of the bias media in South Africa is government related – as even though there are certain acts and agencies in place to help provide freedom of information, power of these elite persons over powers of journalists resulting in many South Africans receiving very underreported news – if they receive it at all. Ideologies will vary from country to country – with more western countries such as the UK and USA reporting very stereotypical stories to western audiences were as south African news seems to be very much the opposite to what we would expect to see. For example, even though there are many stories to do with crime especially, there are also a lot of light-hearted stories, stories about positive community work, sports and positive business stories. Referring back to what we, as a western audience, would expect to see. It would be rare to associate South Africa with any type of wealth as this is much underreported here and within the G8.

What we can expect to see from any one particular newspaper

Similar to here in England, South Africa has an equal proportion of tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. It has its own version of The Star; again this is tabloid, attracting the same type of audience – working class. There are not that many celebrity stories however, like we would find in our version of ‘The Star’ for instance, sadly a lot of the stories in this newspaper are of feuds between government officials, crime including rape and GBH offences. Through the whole of this newspaper there was only about 20% light hearted stories compared to The Citizen were it is quite the opposite. The Star is though, however a newspaper for the whole of the country so they will have less space to cover less important, light hearted stories and only those that have real importance and high news values. As we are aware even in this country – “bad news is good news”.

So, overall the typical balance of content within all major newspapers in South Africa is mainly focused on politics, economy and crime. A factor we must remember here is that journalists (where ever they are in the world) ideology and cultural framework, sticking with a particular gender just like here in the UK. One may argue that a lot of the news may become quite predictable as consumers will get used to the particular products agenda, this in turn could cause confusion if their typical everyday issues are not mentioned or go underreported.

UFO’s could be potential warning of Natural Disaster

Following the recent sighting of a potential UFO last month in Southport, new investigations have gone further suggesting that UFO’s may in fact be a warning of a natural disaster.

UFO sightings quite common for Lancashire area

UFO’s have been spotted locally, nationally and even globally right before a natural disaster. Pat Regan founder of the North West UFO research offers a vocal point for people that have information on sightings of UFO’s. Mr. Regan has made many attempts to get local and national people to come forward with any information he said “I’m not the first one to say Lancashire is a hot spot, I have written to hundreds of newspapers and physically asked people to report stories to me.’ Mr. Regan was receiving feedback on a day to day basis.



One of the more recent examples of sightings before a natural disaster is the earthquake earlier this year that effected parts of Cumbria. According to Mr. Regan there were several reports made before this from people claiming to see unexplained lights and objects in the sky.

Warnings Globally

Just days before the Tsunami earthquake in south and south East Asia there were over a hundred reports of mysterious lights and flying objects in the sky and for some time before that people in India were making similar claims of strange objects hovering around in the sky. The local media in Asia started to suggest that this may be a communication of some kind.

A lot of people believe we may in for more potential disasters as far as earthquakes; volcanos and similar natural calamities are concerned.

But what’s the likeliness?

Simon Murpthy a stellar astrophysics student at the university of Central Lancashire is more sceptical saying “I believe people have seen things they don’t know how to explain, I’m not necessarily sure that indicates some kind of alien craft. Most scientists would agree that you expect around 10,000 alien civilisations in our Galaxy, but we don’t actually observe any evidence.” He went on to say “If they did send us a message it would take us at least 25,000 years to receive, if we did at all”.

What do you think?

The subject seems to be very controversial however there has been a huge increase of people of all ages and locations coming forward with information on sightings. If you have any more information or would like to comment on the topic please email: ALDillon@uclan.ac.uk

Video Skills Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFaROD7a-eU


This is my Video element of the skills test. I asked a UCLAN student what her view was on the proposed increase in tuition fee's. I also asked an additional question focusing on a more specific angle. I thought this topic was a good idea considering it has been in the media a lot recently. The interview is in a study room in the university.

Journalism is changing. The way it is created, accessed and shared.


The Digital Newsroom in enabling this to happen quickly and easily. It is up to us, a new generation of journalists to continue this growth but we must also be aware of the threats associated with the changes in the technical world. In this presentation we will explain the threats and the opportunities that face digital journalists day to day.



In this presentation we have covered a vast range of technological advances in journalism. The growth of the digital newsroom brings many opportunities but journalists in the 21st century must also be aware of the threats. We have compared the industry from old media such as newspapers to new media platforms including social networking sites.

"Twitter is a useful way to hear of stories, but then journalists still need to go out and check them." David Schlesinger, Head of Reuters.

Digital journalists must be capable to work with the new media but must not forget the traditional methods of sourcing a story, going out and interacting with the public.

"The information industry will become more of a boutique business. The customers will be people and their computers agents. The public will pull what it wants from the internet and digital media, rather than accept what is being pushed at it by the media giants. Media consumption is becoming customised according to individual taste, and the monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving into an army of cottage industries – making obsolete ‘industrial – age across ownership laws.'" Nicholas Negropon, 'Being Digital', Vintage 1996.


Related Links

• The Guardian's Digital Content Blog


• The Official Google Blog


• http://spot.us/ 'Community Funded Reporting' - Citizen journalism in action.


• The BBC's College of Journalism Blog

By Amy Birch, Matthew Worthington, Ashleigh Dillon and Russell Keers

Image skills test

This is my original image of UCLAN's library building. I decided to take a picture of the library as this is one of the busiest and most used buildings on the campus. As the building is quite large it difficult to capture the whole thing in one shot, I took the picture from the side to try and increase what could be captured.



This is my 200 x 500 image. This image shows a clear picture of name of the building and also shows students outside - therefore creating a sense of student life.


This is my 100 x 100 image. This image shows most of the building (from an angle). From this you can get a sense of the size of the building, also allowing you to still see the students.


This 400 x 300 image. The largest out of the images, from this I have cut out some of the students to allow the top of the building to be shown. This image shows all of the building from top to bottton - so height is clearly visable here.

Map Skills test

As part of my course, one of my assignments was to complete a skills test. Taking any four news stories from the LEP and marking them on google maps. I also added a the original LEP link and also a related site. There is an image avaliable with each location.



View skills test assignment 2 in a larger map