Our Last WINOL...

This week see's our last WINOL production for us third years, it will be a slightly sad week for some of us, as we will miss the demands of WINOL and the invaluable experience that it has given us.

We on the sports desk, are hoping to go out with a bang and will be doing our best to put together some decent and technically perfect packages. The weather hopefully won't play its part unlike the past two weeks, and we can look forward to finishing the term strongly.

However, don't get me wrong, i will be looking forward to the Innocence Project! I will update this post come wednesday evening when our last WINOL has been on air.

Law Blog's

Check out my law blogging @ http://lawandjournalismwinchester.blogspot.com/

WINOL's Filming Of Student Protests

After WINOL's visit to London to film the Student protests over the rise in tuition fees, here are a few tips on hostile environments that all journalists should abide by:

1) Always have an exit strategy

2) If you are going live from wherever you are filming i.e interview in a potential place of violence, the rule is to have a friend called a "fixer" looking out for you and advising you at all times. (Example : in a foreign country have someone who knows the area and language)

3) If you get lost or in a violent situation, act completely non threatening, if you are asked for your camera hand it over peacefully. Camera's are covered by insurance, hand them over to either protestor or policeman or face jail/ possible death

The footage was strong and had good interviews and captured some great scenes and was WINOL's first proper piece of Journalism that we expect will get 20,000 + views due to its public importance.

To see the footage visit www.winol.co.uk or at YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWZyt80QQkQ.

WINOL

Another week of WINOL is nearly upon us, and this weekend i went to the Eastleigh FC vs Boreham Wood FC game at the Silverlake Stadium on Saturday with Will and got some good footage and wrote a match report. The game ended 3-0 to Eastleigh and was highly entertaining, check this weeks bulletin ( at www.winol.co.uk )for highlights and the site for extended highlights.

Sport should yet again be pretty solid this week, i think as a team we can be proud of what we are doing, as we are meeting our deadlines with no trouble and providing accurate and up to date coverage of all of our local teams.

Next week's bulletin will spring a few surprises as we are filming one or two new sports this week, which means next week's bulletin is a can't miss!!

Till then.....

Human Rights Act

Having covered the Human Rights Act in our law lectures recently, it made me want to know a little bit more about it, and i found a couple of useful descriptions/websites people may want to have a look at if they can't make head nor tail of each article of the act itself.

Just copy and paste the addresses into your web browser....

This BBC one is pretty breif and basic but worth a read : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/946400.stm

This one is a bit better with more information : http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/LegalAreas/HumanRights/HumanRightsOverview.aspx

And finally here is a link to download a detailed explanation of each article, i downloaded it and printed it off, but if you don't want to do that then just have a quick peep through it. www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/act-studyguide.pdf

Hope it helps someone!

Law Lectures

So, three weeks have gone by now and the law lectures on a thursday have actually been very good in my opinion. When i first joined the university the Journalism course syllabus indicated a heavy presence of law and learning to write print journalism as it turns out its transformed into a BBC news type production each week in the form of WINOL, so the introduction of more Law based lectures has been met kindly by myself.

Learning about the courts, defamation libel is essential for us as journalists to learn the rules in regards to media coverage of court cases and any stories in the public interest. However, there are thin lines, that must not be crossed when reporting, and this is proven by the constant changing of the law, in my first year as a student i had McNae's 19th edition and now i've had to go and purchase the 20th edition as the law changes so frequently and it is essential to stay up to date and be aware of the laws in relation to journalism and reporting legally.

In Chapter one of the new McNae's Essential Law For Journalists, the book covers freedom of expression, human rights and public interest.

WINOL Week 2

Okay, so last week did NOT go to plan, the bulletin over ran and in general was a bit of a mess with stories falling through and no thorough or proper organisation, but i can personally say this wasn't the sports desk fault (thats not a bitchy comment just fact) as i respect the work production do as its very technical and complex.

We as a sports team seem to be performing well and getting our packages edited and in on time, which is a good sign this early on in the year. For example we had 3 football packages, a basketball feature and a University Varsity package all done and edited for last week but decided to drop one of the football packages in order to not be to "samey" and also the basketball feature as it wasn't current and we can use it this week if we are short which may be the case due to the postponement of two of the weekends games.

Week 2 should be another strong week for the sports, or so i hope, il keep this post updated when theres more to tell!

WINOL WEEK 1 - Live

11th October - the beginning of the week and the first live edition of WINOL for the academic year 2010/11.

Being the sports planner for WINOL , i have been in touch with my reporters and Grant , my sports editor, and already arranged two interviews for tomorrow evening with the Winchester Knights Basketball team's new coach, and the 1st team captain, to do a piece on the forthcoming season, its more of a feature than news, but none the less should attract some good traffic to the site. I have arranged for Rebecca Gray to come and help me record the interviews with a view to editing them on Tuesday morning and having the package in the can by afternoon at the latest. We are this year blessed with a good number of reporters for sport, so obtaining footage/highlights of games is easier than last year when it was just Grant, Jason and myself.

I will update this post as the week progresses.

4th October - Dummy Winol Week

The term has now started and we start this week of WINOL with new team members with the addition of around 25 2nd year students. It will be good to have all these new faces to help out with the tasks that WINOL demands especially on the sports side as it means we will be able to delegate sports reporters to all new sports all over Winchester and improve the sports side of WINOL no end! I will update this post later, when i have more news on what our side of the bulletin is going to contain!

WINOL's Election Coverage Show

On the 6th May, the team at WINOL hosted their very own Election Coverage show which went live from 10pm until 6 am the following day. The show, in a word, was a success.

The team put in a tremendous amount of work making packages for the show in the weeks prior to the election date in order to give the show more substance. All the packages centred around politics and many were interviews with electorate hopefuls although a few were more economical pieces on topics such as fair trade, recycling, the carbon foot print etc.

Josh, Joey and I headed to Romsey to create a package about the constituency and managed to get a few vox pops from the public about the upcoming election as well as an interview with the Liberal Democrat electorate hopeful, Sandra Gidley.

Unfortunately for us, the day started poorly, because when we got to Romsey, we discovered the ever tremendous loan counter had failed to put the camera we had hired out on charge, and the battery was flat. So being the opportunists us students are, we headed straight to the pub..... but with a legitimate reason of using the pubs electricity socket to charge the camera in exchange for a nice cold pint of coke.

Once the camera was charged, we headed out into the town getting as many general views, and vox pops as we could but the people of Romsey weren't too keen on appearing in front of the camera so we had to work had to get our footage. We then struck lucky, when we went to the town hall and we were told that the Liberal Democrat candidate for Romsey was just arriving in town, so we rushed down to the address we were given and Sandra Gidley herself kindly gave an interview for us. We were initially worried about the sound, as it was a particularly windy day and the sound levels were through the roof as the wind attacked the gun mic!

Fortunately for us, when editing, we managed to drop the sound level completely and the interview was saved. We cut the package to a minute and a half and submitted it to the editors. Next stop, Election Night!

Having been preparing all day, by increasing our knowledge on the political parties we would be covering, in my case, The Liberals, we headed into the studio dressed smartly at approximately 8pm. We prepared up to date scripts for the top of each hour giving our audience a round up of how each political party was fairing, paying particular attention to the regions close to us in Winchester. The newsroom was hectic and people were rushing about in order to get everything to run smoothly, but overall everyone enjoyed it, and the highlight of the night was when at 5:30am the majority of the team had gathered into the studio for the final result coming in from Winchester, and we all celebrated at the end of the show when we learnt that Steve Brine the local conservative MP had been elected.

During the debrief, although we were tired, there was a sense of pride and satisfaction amongst us all, as we knew we had put on a great show. Our traffic was through the roof compared to our average bulletins and we had even managed to break some results to our audience before the BBC with thanks to your reporters out in the field at various constituencies across the UK.

Overall, the Election Coverage Show was extremely successful, the quality of the show was outstanding for student work, and given the current state of our government, one would not rule out another election sooner rather than later, and if that happens the WINOL team will be ready and waiting to put on another show!

Vote Correctly, Vote CONSERVATIVE

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first political debate on TV last week, and am already itching to see the next one this thursday, however, i was left wanting more, especially from the Conservatives who i felt didn't have a particularly strong debate, as Cameron was kind of overshadowed by the ever moody petulance from Brown, and the almost warming figure of Nick Clegg.

However, unlike many others, i have not been caught up in all the fuss surrounding Clegg, and have been shocked to here so many people saying, "Oh i'l vote for him, he's the best".

It was one debate, and the fact of the matter is, if a selection of people base their views on that solitary debate that they shall vote for him, it would be a catastrophe because as David Cameron warned, because of the current structure of the government, voting for Lib Dem's would almost certainly result in Brown becoming re-elected, which would be nothing short of a disaster.

The latest YouGov poll for the Sun, carried out on Saturday and Sunday, suggests the Lib Dems are 1% ahead of the Tories on 33% with Labour in third place on 26% - which if repeated on 6 May would result in a hung Parliament. This would be a disaster, and we as intelligent journalism students, must do the right thing, VOTE CONSERVATIVE.

WINOL WEEK 7

The last WINOL production of the term, and this week, i took on another new role, this time i became part of the camera crew. The stories (as ever!!) didn't leave us with much time to have a practice run through and as that 3pm deadline drew closer and closer my nerves were at an all time high.

Thankfully with the help of Joey and Josh up in the studio gallery, they were able to calmly and collectively guide us cameramen through the process as the bulletin went out live and on time despite a few technical problems to begin with and the small issue of us running out of time, which cut the live interview from Austria short, which was a shame, as i thought it was an incredibly clever use of our technology and would have excited our viewers.

I look forward to next term where i have a new role as a news reporter and will be working hard to get stories that will interest our viewers, increase our traffic, and make WINOL better overall.

Until then, Happy Easter

WINOL Week 6 Debrief Notes

Road Closure: Good, strong images, something happening, good shots of the bridge
Maps looked very professional, lined up the interview with bursar well,
Didn’t lower the sound on a cut-away, lost a sentence. Out line was a bit
Strange, never use ‘Remains to be seen’.

OOV: Libel to show the man, positive identification. Run it longer or leave it out
Completely, it is not factual that he is a thief

Union: Voice over and scripting was very good, no comment and all factual.
Trying to frame to fit in a poster.

Mice: Good piece, no shots of signs allowed! ‘But at what cost?’ No suspense.
Introduced Councillor with the statement was poor, use a tag line.
Tree was coming out of Claire’s head.

Slob: Brian did not understand it, wasn’t very well explained. Not relevant to
Winchester. Liked the PTC at the start, good moving shot worked very well.

SPORT

Carry cheers underneath a picture edit, run it longer, and then fade it down.
Good presentation from James.

WINOL Week 5 Debriefing

WINOL WEEK 5 DEBRIEF:

Reading suggestion from Chris : On bureaucracy – Max Vaber

Opening shots – too many views of campus, get different/alternative shots
Don’t use the word alleged old fashioned and opens you to being sued, the word vandalism is LIBEL, had to be removed.

The Council Statement – punctuality – council IS not are, always correct grammar unless you’re intentionally showing them up

Park and ride story – good expo – use of the word “claimed” is strong. Interviews good, but try to get more damning quotes.

Officers in schools – slightly biased piece, rule on identifying people,

Email story – classically written introduction, who what where when why,

Sport -

Bulletin overall was okay, not on time, takes a hit on traffic which is not good. Content and detail was strong, presentation was good and only a few technical glitches.

The Dangers of Facebook

We all have a facebook page. We are all stupidly addicted to it and use it far too often,however, today the more sinister and dangerous side of social networking was revealed.

Peter Chapman, who has a history of violent sex assaults and is a convicted sex offender, befriended 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by posing as a teenage boy on Facebook. Chapman falsely lured Ashleigh into a meeting back in October, and days after her body was discovered. Ashleigh had been strangled and dumped in a farmer's field near Sedgefield.

Chapman, 33, pleaded guilty to the charges at Teesside Crown Court. He also admitted failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register.

This story is a stark reminder to us as the internet generation to be more careful when we are online and to only accept and converse with people who we know and trust.

WINOL Week 4 Debrief

Here are the debrief notes for the past week's bulletin :

Job Loss Story: Joeys opening line – repetition okay as long as its not too noticeable. Opposition – always going to give a good interview or “slam” opposition. Good shot, nice background view, well framed, noise issue with the water though. Should have asked more obvious questions to get more quotes.

The graphic quote was too weak. Good framing of the noddy’s, becareful on the eye line to make sure the noddy looks realistic and not fake. Make sure both interviews are of similar time so not to show bias.

Simulator/Trading story : Technically brilliant, slight editorial problem in the fact that its too positive, maybe in the sign off put some sort of spin on the article eg “it remains to be seen if the simulator will be a success….” Needed a stronger finish

Big Tidy Up – good shots again, balanced story, Joy Carter liked story because although it was negative it was truthful.

Fairtrade story – facts are in Kayleigh’s voice, exposition, would be better if it came from a real source, or a piece to camera would be stronger.

Sport – stumble over words in opening, relax and pretend you have more time. Re-shoot it. Strong piece to camera, not too bad footage , trying to emphasise the amount of people there, tighten the shot to give a more crowded effect. Try to get tighter to action, maybe cut aways to the crowd to get emotions on footage. Well read over the footage.

The and finally was not as strong and quick as hoped.

Bulger Killer's In Trouble Again

In the past week it emerged that one of James Bulger's killers has been re-arrested after breaching the rules on his release license in 2001. The public seem to have extremely strong views on whether the details of this re-arrest should be published and Jon Venables's new identity revealed.

The murder of the young and innocent James Bulger is a sensitive topic, due to the age at which James was savagely beaten to death. Bulger was taken by two young thugs from his mother in the local town shopping centre and lead to a railway where he was subjected to a horrific beating and was left to die. Venables and Thompson became Britain's youngest murderers at the age of just ten years old.

The government has come under strong criticism from the public over their refusal to release the details of Venables's re-arrest. Justice Secretary Jack Straw has however agreed to meet James's Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, after her calls on the government to tell her and the public what offences Venables is alleged to have committed.

Venables and James's other killer Robert Thompson were given new identities on their release from life sentences, controversially Mr Straw admitted that the details behind Venables being returned to prison were in the public interest, but said there was a risk of prejudicing any further criminal proceedings.

This is a very difficult subject but personally i feel the public should be informed because Venables has been let off light for the crime he committed and has shown his time inside hasn't taught him anything and he has broken the release rules and could be a danger to the public again as could Thompson and thus we as innocent members of the public have the right to know.

WINOL Week 3 Debriefing

Another week of WINOL....

Opening headlines and pictures didn’t match, however better overall introduction with music.

NEVER use someone’s name in headline – exceptions with celebrities, this allows for the audience to want to know more/read or listen on….

Get your interviewee talking, play dumb, let them do the speaking, but when they give you something juicy/good, stay quiet as it will provoke the interviewee to expand and say

Cutting room journalism - have a clear idea of what the story is, get your interview to say what you need for the piece. Where students go wrong is only knowing half the story, you need an angle before you start the piece.

Paedophile story – should have done a piece to camera, more effective, shot of building too long,

Issues of consent on filming of car parking forum, section 8 – performing a public duty

Don’t use words or phrases that don’t emphasise enough, make your verbs more dramatic, “selective quoting”

Hospital bug story – good introduction, basic yet informative. Good strong quote from doctor, however he should be saying it’s a nightmare not telling the story. “Big” problem , interviewer should prompt further questions. “Inevitable” – comment not fact.

Sound on the rugby manager interview - poor quality.

One woman band – no news at all, just a mini feature. Good cut away shots and filming.

Overall, a much better bulletin, people seem more confident, its far from perfect but 80% there and pretty good considering there is no budget and we are short staffed, but as ever, there is always room for improvement.

The traffic was up again, but we need to improve it further, date with fate may need to be brought back to bring traffic to the site.

Canada Deliver For Their Fans

Canada ended the Vancouver Winter Olympics on the perfect note last night with a 3-2 overtime win over rivals USA in the men's ice hockey final to claim the gold medal.

Canada had lead the match for a long time but with 23 seconds remaining the US snatched a dramatic equaliser through Zach Perise to stun the home crowd into silence. However Canada didn't panic and fittingly it was crowd favourite Sidney Crosby who scored the golden goal 7 minutes into over time to clinch a 14th gold for the host nation - a record for a country staging the Winter Olympics.

Having never followed ice hockey or properly watched it i found myself engrossed in the final , and cheering on the home nation, and even found myself enjoying their success, if only Great Britain could be half decent at the winter games or even the normal athletics events id get right behind them!!

I will now pay more attention to the Ice Hockey on the ESPN sports channel!!

Disaster In Chile

Following the massive earthquake that struck Chile on saturday, the country's president Michelle Bachelet has announced further emergency plans to help the country get back to normal.

The country was struck by an 8.8 magnitude quake, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded and has killed over 700 people with the death toll expected to rise as research efforts are stepped up over the next few days.

Troops are being deployed to help with rescue efforts through the country and also to prevent looting as some civilians desperately seek food and water.

A curfew is in force in some areas and some basic supplies are to be distributed as rescuers attempt to reach worst-hit areas.

The country has been in a state of shock and panic, with one US risk assessor, Eqecat, estimating the cost of the damage at between $15bn and $30bn (£9.8bn-£19.6bn) or 10-20% of gross domestic product.

Responsibility for the reconstruction of the country will soon pass to President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office in two weeks, and what a job he has, personally i wish him the best and hope that the country can get back to normality as soon as possible and offer my condolences to the family of the dead, and wish speedy recoveries to those who were injured but lucky enough to survive this horrific disaster.

Microsoft Forced To Offer Alternate Browsers

People logging on to the internet by the Microsoft owned program Internet Explorer, which is the standard default browser for all Windows machines, will be greeted by a different home-page today.

Windows users will be offered the choice of downloading other browsers as part of a deal that Microsoft has struck with the European Commission.

This compromise by Microsoft resolves a long-running case in which the software giant had been accused of abusing its market power and position to belittle others.

Customers using the Internet Explorer browser will be greeted by a pop-up window which will prompt the person to choose and install one of 12 different browsers or let them stick with Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Although the update has been prepared for Windows XP, Vista and the new operating system Windows 7, not all Windows users will see it.

The alternate browser choice window will not pop up in front of those who already run a different default browser on their PC's, such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome.

This pop up windows is seen as a move in the market by Microsoft's competitors following the recent trouble Microsoft had with safety issues surrounding the security of your computer and its files whilst using the Internet Explorer browser.

WINOL WEEK 1 Debriefing

Clearly not our strongest bulletin by a long shot, but there were some positives to take from it but also a lot of things that we need to work on.

Some of the information provided was inaccuate and we as a team must make sure that all the news we report is 100% fact so not to get into any trouble.

Technically the majority of the sound levels were off cue and out of sync, and there were some basic errors made in filming i.e not enough general views and lots of boom mic's in shot.

On a personal note , i enjoyed filming the football again and doing the voice over ,but agreed with Chris's comments about it being slightly bland and will work on my voiceovers in the coming bulletins.

We know we can do better, and we will.

Former Sikh Judge Thinks Kirpan's Should Be Allowed.....

Sir Mota Singh QC, a former high court judge has started a furious debate this morning regarding his comments on the banning of "Kirpan's" and other religious Muslim artefacts. For those who don't know a Kirpan happens to be a ceremonial sword or dagger that must be worn by all baptised sikhs.

"Not allowing someone who is baptised to wear a Kirpan is not right," Sir Mota told BBC Asian Network. Mota is deeply religious but surely common sense must prevail here, we cannot have people being allowed to walk around carrying knifes, London has a problem with knives already. This is in no way to suggest that Muslims carrying these religious artefact's would intend to use them in an unsavory way however, it is clear to everyone that arming young teenagers with knives is hardly a sensible idea.

Sir Mota said "It's a little more than ceremonial. It's a requirement of the religion." when asked about the possibility of substituting a smaller knife in place of the traditional Kirpan. The judge however conceded that it may have to be an option for debate between school and Sikh authorities.

Personally, i think its a very sensitive issue here, but with all due to respect to the Muslims and their religion, this our country, England, and whilst we respect and welcome their religions and cultural diversity, they must respect and obey our laws if they wish to live here and thus carrying knives no matter how important to their religion cannot and should not be allowed.

Orwellian Language Blog

Advertising - accurate, fast and fair - or just simply misleading? It has the benefit of being able to express views and exploit an audiences mind.

Advertising has the capability of persuading people into entering into commercial transactions and thus "false advertising" (i.e the use of false or misleading statements) is strictly forbidden and companies are required to have "truth in labelling" (the customers have the right to know exactly what they are buying).

For example in Australia, (and most European countries) there is a very broad provision in the Trade Practices Act that prohibits conduct by a corporation that is misleading or deceptive, or would be likely to mislead or deceive you.

It makes no difference whether the business intended to mislead or deceive you—it is how the conduct of the business affected your thoughts and beliefs that matters.

If the overall impression left by an advertisement, promotion, quotation, statement or other representation made by a business creates a misleading impression in your mind—such as to the price, value or the quality of any goods and services—then the conduct is likely to breach the law.

George Orwell’s creation of "Newspeak" in his the novel 1984 shows how the reduction of words can change the meaning of them and the following adverts are good examples:






For example, Gillette's slogans such as: "the best a man can get" and "the worlds most comfortable shave" are extremely misleading because some men may prefer Wilkinson Sword blades and find them more comfortable. The advert suggests that there is nothing better a man can have to shave his face which is clearly misleading and not the 100% truth. The product itself is aimed at a mass audience but the adverts slogan brackets all men into the same category. The use of the 3 professional athletes is another Orewellian technique showing that by bringing famous personnel together and the mass market in order to sell a product.

When the iPhone was first released, one of Apple's adverts was banned because of complaints over the adverts fale advertising. The advert showed the phone loading webpages very quickly and containing "flash and java" images , which at the time the iPhone was actually incapable of producing.

Watch the advert here :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/27/apple.apple

Perhaps more recently and maybe more in the public eye, there was the controversy surrounding an anti ageing advert, where Twiggy had infact been airbrushed, thus misleading the target audience (presumably women, perhaps the odd vain man..!) into thinking the cream would have the amazing effects and results shown on Twiggy's perfect wrinkle free face.

Read about it here : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/airbrushed-twiggy-advert-ruled-misleading-by-watchdog-1841973.html

Personally i believe there are certain boundaries in advertising, airbrushing Twiggy was unacceptable and misleading, however, there also comes a point where the audience must not be so gullible as to believe everything they see., however, the truth of labelling law is there for good reason, in order to protect the average member of the public and make sure transactions occur on fair ground for both parties.

Other adverts that caught my eye when surfing the net were examples such as the food colourings in Hula Hoops and the "100%" beef burgers in McDonalds, the list could go on forever.

George Orwell's theory of "Newspeak" in 1984 is simply fascinating and gripping because it ties in with the foundations of modern advertisements. In the world we live in today, the advertisement industry's manipulation of language and misleading slogans for their brands seems to be socially acceptable and we all fall for it , so my advice to you all , read the small print!

The 70 Nation Summit

So today Gordon Brown has marked mid 2011 as the deadline for "turning the tide" in Afghanistan. Since invading the country in 2001 little if any progress has been truly made and Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts are still unknown and day by day the death toll rises as Al Quaeda recruit militants and suicide bombers with their false preaching. Why should we have to wait until 2011, there is such anger felt and spread through the media when one of our soldiers dies out there, this may sound harsh or cynical, but if we care so much, why don't we do soemthing about it. We do not negotiate with terrorist nor will they with us, its a dog eat dog world, and sitting on our laurels hoping for peace to miraculously occurr is not the answer, action must be taken, and it must happen now...

PS3 Finally Hacked By iPhone Hacker

News has broken this evening that the teenager George Hotz, who was the first person to crack the software on the Apple iPhone has managed to hack the Playstation 3 security software.

The process involves using hardware and software, allowing users to play pirated or copied games on their consoles and Hotz has promised he will make the hacking guide available on the internet as soon as he has perfected it.

The news was met with concern by Sony officials, and it will be interesting to see what happens when Hotz publishes his hacking guide on the net.

Osama to Obama - Or is it a hoax?

A newly released audio tape said to be the voice of Osama Bin Laden, leader of the terrorist group Al Quaeda was aired on Al Jazeera today stating that the US will never live in peace until there is "peace in Palestine".

The audio tape also claims that Al Quaeda were behind the christmas day attempted terrorist act carried out by Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with attempting to blow up the Delta Airline's plane as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam.

The tape comes in the same week that the UK has lifted its terror level threat to "severe" meaning an attack is possibly imminent and comes as an unpleasant reminder of the world in which we live.

We can find just about anything in this world with the technology we have, but for the best part of 10 years now we have not found Osama Bin Laden (if he is still alive), and as long as he remains alive, terrorists will thrive off of his radical views and propaganda.

I am intrigued to know the authenticity of the tape and will be keeping my eyes glued to all the news sites this week, as i feel the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for Bin Laden is extremely important and his capture and inevitable death are imperative to the war on terrorism.

Haiti Disaster

Following an earthquake in Haiti, hundreds possibly thousands of people are feared dead and the country is in a complete crisis.

The earthquake struck south of Port-au-Prince, and hit 7.0-magnitude on the scale, Haiti's worst for over two centuries.

President Preval told the Miami Herald newspaper in the US he feared thousands of his people had died.

He described the epidemic as "unimaginable", and went on to say: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.

"There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."

The US and UK are readying aid , and the first of which is expected to reach the country later on today.

This tragedy was unavoidable and shows us that we undervalue our luck to live in such a normally safe country where the worst we get is cold temperature and a few inches of snow once a year!!

Rupert Hamer - RIP

Saturday was a dark day, for all of those in the journalism industry. Rupert Hamer, the Sunday Mirror's Defence correspondent, was killed by a roadside bomb raising the death toll of servicemen and women to 246 since 2001. However, this death, was the first of a British journalist and has caused a stir within the UK.

Hamer was on his 5th visit to Afghanistan, when the car he was travelling in was blown to pieces by a roadside bomb also injuring Phil Coburing (the Mirror's photographer) and several others.

In a way i felt personally

effected by this death, because as a journalism student, i can appreciate the work that Rupert Hamer was doing in Afghanistan and admire his shear bravery and devotion to his job.

As some of his family members said, "Rupert died doing something he loved", this brought a smile to my face and was a fitting tribute to a truly great servant to his job and to his love of journalism.

The death of Hamer goes along way to reminding everyone, that although the main danger lies with the soldiers fighting the "war", Afghanistan is a dangerous place and shouldn't be taken lightly, the job journalists do to report events out there is challenging and life threatening.

So maybe next time the news is on, we should all pay more attention and appreciate the reporting they do, as a journalist in practice, i know i will......

Michael Jackson - A True Icon

Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) - The King of Pop - without a shadow of a doubt.

I felt it was about time that i wrote a blog on the man because without being too cliche, his music has really had an impact on my life. No matter how bad or sad a mood i get in, as soon as i hear a record of his, my mood is instantly transformed into happiness (so much so i believe i can sing , much to the annoyance of those who are normally around me albeit on the tube or at home!!)

His countless number ones, go a long way to showing his dominance of popular music, but perhaps the most telling feature of his career was sadly, his death. The news was dominated by the great man's demise for weeks. He had been on the verge of a sell out come-back tours and despite rumour about his apparent poor health, the since released movie "This Is It" has put to be questions surrounding his health showing the great man at his best albeit drugged up to the eyeballs!!

Theres no doubt Jackson was a troubled man, and we will never know the truth about his apparent skin condition, the amount of plastic surgery he had, but do you know what, that doesn't matter, we lost a true great in 2009 , a God who walked amongst mere mortal men. Now some may say that is a over exagerration but i genuinely believe it to be the truth.

Jackson had a talent, a natural gift, of song and dance, that most of the current music industry today could only begin to dream about.

Now obviously being born in 1989, i missed out on a large chunk of his career but i've done my research and it seems that no matter how hard i look there is no real explanation for his sudden transformation from a young good looking black male, to a middle aged, troubled, white male accused of pedophilia.

Undoubtedly, Jackson's fame from a young age affected him mentally and that telling interview with Martin Bashir was compelling television and answered lots of questions, but i for one, do not believe Jackson was a paedophile, just merely a man who missed out on his childhood and who was suffering for it later in life. Its funny how, i find myself being a journalism student, yet i hate the very thought of journalists who hassle people, especiallly some celebrities, so much so that they have their lives ruined.

Michael was a victim of bad press, its funny however, the millions of dollars he earnt that he gave away to charity, the visits he made to sick children all over the world, the concerts in aid of all kinds of charitable causes, go unmentioned, yet the mans desire to have the perfect face or skin colour made the front page of every paper and dominated his life as a celebrity.

Jackson, clearly did make some strange choices in his life regarding his surgery and particularly odd yet sad comments likening himself to Peter Pan, but don't we all have weaknesses and things about ourselves we would love to change.

No matter the incidents or events in his personal life, the man was a musical genious, and i don't think any of us will experience another musical prodigy such as him whilst we live.

That is what I will remember him as....

Togo - Don't Give In!

After last night's shocking events, in which Togo's national football team's coach was ambushed by terrorists brandishing machine guns, resulting in the death of three men, including the assistant coach, the bus driver and the team spokesman, Togo today have announced they are considering boycotting the tournament and are attempting to get the other nations to join them.

For me, this is completley and utterly the wrong decision/movement.
Yes, the event is an attrocity and one that should never have been allowed to happen, (the security must be tightened at such events) but what one must understand is that terrorists can't be stopped. We can only combat terrorism by attempting to prevent it from happening, there will always be terrorists, their aim is to cause terror and spread fear. They have caused terror, in the result of 3 deaths and other injuries to players and members of staff, however, by boycotting the tournament, Togo are sending out the wrong message, they are letting the terrorists win and spreading fear across the continent.

The only way to tackle terrorists is to oppose them, be unfazed by their disgusting actions however hard that may be. Many people may not agree with me , however Margaret Thatcher was one of the best PM's this country has ever had, yes thats right , a woman. She had the perfect response for a journalist when the Argentinians were invading the Falklands, she simply replied "We will not negotiate with terrorists".

Thus in my opinion it is essential that Togo compete in the African Cup of Nations and that the tournament goes ahead as planned and let the authorities find the culprits and punish them accordingly......

The Big Freeze/Failure

As i'm sure you are all aware (unless you are one of those Briton's lucky enough to be on holiday or just completely unaware of the arctic conditions outside your home) the weather in Britain has been disastrous these past few weeks. Record amounts of snow has fallen and some places in the UK even had the nostalgic much sought after "White Christmas".

However, as per usual, the country has come to a grinding halt. Schools and Shops have shut for days on end , putting GCSE exams in doubt and harming the attempted regrowth of the economy accordingly. And what has the government done about it, reduced salt/grit supplies by 25% in an attempt to preserve ever dominishing supplies.

The government was warned by the MET office , weeks in advance of this "Freeze" that temperatures and conditions would be hectic, so instead of doing the intelligent thing in warning local authorities and providing counsils with extra grit , they sat back and let the snow hit us.

Now, i'm far from an expert on politics neither of weather predictions, but surely, just surely, common sense would have kicked in, and Brown and his delirious cabinet members should have been more prepared than they are, but i suppose that would be too much to ask. Given that the MP's are dropping like flies around him, this was Browns chance to maybe just maybe show some initiative that could go someway (not far at all) in the way of showing just how on earth he is the leader of this country that is going faster downhill than holiday makers in Les Arcs and The Alps alike.

Maybe Clarkson had it right when he describe Brown as a "one eyed scottish idiot".

Iceland (The Country) - As Cheap As The Supermarket?

So today, not only did i wake to what one could mistake for Icelandic weather conditions but also to the news that Iceland's president has refused to sign a bill to repay $5bn to the UK and the Netherlands.

President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson has instead opted to hold a referendum on the bill, following public large protests and outcry. On 2nd January, the president even received a petition calling for the bill to be vetoed, signed by almost a quarter of the country's population such is the disapproval from the public.

President Grimsson says the referendum will happen ASAP, now i admire the fact he is listening to the public and giving them the chance to have their say for their country, however, we are all suffering in these economic conditions and that money is owed to the UK and can't simply be written off because of a vote.

It will be interesting to see what Gordon Brown has to say about this.......

P.S Happy New Year fellow bloggers and Winchester Students!!