Wednesday 16th February- Lots of Lecture Stuff

Well it seems to have been a while since I last updated this, so lets take a look at what I've learned over the last week and a half.

Friday 4th and Friday 11th February- Introduction to Law and Public Affairs

So the first week we looked at the hierarchy of the court system, which looks a little like this.

Magistrates Court -> Crown Court -> High Court -> The Court of Appeal -> The House of Lords

Following the lecture I now know about the different undertakings in each court and how cases get to be held in a certain court depending on the seriousness or the appeal. Following this we carried out a mock court hearing on theft, with the verdict not guilty.

The definition of theft: To take the item in question and intentionally permenantly deprive the owner of it.

The lecture on Friday 11th February was about the role of the Judiciary. We looked at how different case are seen differently in the courts e.g. difference between bike and motorised vehicle being rode/ driven around a park. I also now know how different cases from the past can be used to support a defence in court, e.g. R Vs R, a rape case between a seperated wife and husband, who were not divorced but living apart for numerous years.

Thursday 10th February- Introduction to Professional Writing
The focus of this lecture was press releases, to equip us with the skills to carry one out if we decide to do it to include in our major assignment, a portfolio of 6 pieces of work including the front page of a blog. Following this lecture I know fully understand that a press release is to make it clear for the public to understand what a certain product or organisation is about, to raise the profile of it, to get a message across and to keep the organisation in the public eye.

I now know how to find the right story that is of interest to the public, and how to write it based on the medium it is for and what needs to be included. I also know contacts are important, you need reliability.

Friday 11th February- Professional Development in Journalism
Todays lecture was about our minor assignment, which involves sitting in on a Cabinet Council meeting, in order to write a report of a public meeting. A man visited us from the council to discuss the agenda with us and which items we may find more useful. We did an activity based on a 2005 agenda from which the Labour party proposed to cut home care charges, from this we were to write a headline and opening. After reading the agenda and the financial implement section I decided to write the story from a negative perspective due to the fact cuts here meant tax rises and money being used from elsewhere. My headline was- "Tax rise feared as home care charges axed". I believed this was the more controversial angle and would be what the press would use to draw the public in, as tax increases and budget cuts elsewhere would affect more people. This was in fact the angle the press did take on the story.

Monday 14th February- Digital Publishing
After completing lectures on the minor assignment of comparing online and print newspapers, including advantages and disadvantages we were eased into the use of Dreamweaver and Photshop to create our major assignment; a working website containing a home page, three sub categories and one main story.

Sketching up and looking at layouts for both the page and masthead is how we have begun, after deciding our paper should be of the broadsheet variety. The masthead has been kept simple, with black and white text, along with the navigation.

Tuesday 15th February- Council Cabinet Meeting
It was interesting to see how one was carried out, although without the full advantage of shorthand it was difficult to keep up with what was being said and making notes to correspond. Now I have my notes for this, I will choose to cover one of the 31 items on the agenda for my report on a public meeting.

Friday 4th February 2011- Introduction to Professional Writing and Professional Development in Journalism

Introduction to Professional Writing
The first lecture of Professional Writing discussed blogging, Rhetoric and advertisements. After this lecture I feel comfortable being given the job of finding a way to sell a product. The sticky language to use throughout advertisement campaigns is now something I feel I can definately use to my strength.

For example, to sell a product such as Pontefract Cakes (an example we used in class) we would run through the alphabet discussing words to sum up the product, which are positive and would persuade people to buy it.

A= Amazing, Awsome...
B= Bold...
C= Curious...
D= Delicious...

(The example above gives an idea of the first process to be carried out)

Once the favourite description have been chosen I would then work on these, turning them into more lengthy descriptions, or phrases that would be memorable for an audience watching a commerical.



Professional Development in Journalism
Being a budding journalist it is important to know "what makes news" and the news values behind what makes the story newsworthy to it's audience.

The news values include; frequency, threshold, meaninfulness, unexpected, uniqueness, elite, negativty, unambiguity, continuity, compostion and personalistion. Others say it can also include sex. It is usual for stories to contain a number of these values.

These values are what sell a story, for example if it's local news, is negative and unexpected then if printed in a local newspaper will sell the product.

I believe with the support from what I have learned in this lecture that I have the confidence to find and execute a news story of interest. This is definately a skill which I can keep in mind for a future in the career I wish to have.