WMN Exeter Article

Simon Hadley
Friday April 17 2009

A SERIES of craft markets are being held in Exeter city centre starting in May. Exeter Crafts Saturdays, now in its third year, will be taking place at the junction of Fore Street and South Street on the first Saturday of each month until the end of September. Stalls will be selling a selection of crafts including jewellery, paintings, photographs, pottery and organic skin care. This will be the first year that the markets are being spread out over the spring and summer periods. Similar to previous years, there will be live jazz music entertaining the crowds every Saturday. The markets will be held on May 2, June 6, July 4, August 1 and September 5. Markets will be open for buisness from 9am to 5pm.

Critical Analysis - Big In Japan

In comparison with western countries, Japanese media serves as a watchdog of the state. A revisionist’s view of this is that Japanese mass media could also be seen as a ‘lapdog’ of the state.

National media in Japanese society is currently dominated by a small number of outlets such as: NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōka) and 5 newspaper groups.

Japanese newspapers emerged in their current format at the end of the 19th century. Before that, news about wars, disasters, the government and everyday gossip was conveyed by one-page tabloids called "kawaraban". These tabloids had a very limited circulation.

The main players within the Japanese press are: Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbum, Sankei Shimbun and Nihan Keizei Shimbun.

Together these newspapers have a combined circulation of over 40 million, in a country which has a population of around 127 million people. This works out as more than 80% of the Japanese population regularly reading a newspaper.

There are currently 121 dailies available in Japan, with 72 currently in circulation.

According to recent figures, Japan’s newspaper readership is the highest in the world with a 99% literacy rate. This therefore means that there is a high consumption of books and magazines within Japan.

Despite this most articles in national papers are submitted anonymously due to Japan’s constitutional laws.

Freedom of the press in Japan is guaranteed by a constitutional law. The Liberal Democratic Party, which was formed in 1955, seeks to co-opt the media by offering media outlets prime office locations in Tokyo at cut back prices.

This is due to the Kisha Club. The Kisha Club is Japanese press club originally set up by The Liberal Democratic Party.

The Kisha Club system is able to limit what information is given to journalists and in return limits what a journalist can write about a particular topic. For example former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's controversial business practices were broken by non press club journalists.

The Kisha Club system is currently only small, consisting of around 15 reporters that have exclusive access to its press clubs at certain offices.

Word Count: 346

Critical Consideration - Photojournalism

In order to complete this task successfully I needed to research into the topic of photojournalism, including the history of photojournalism and how it is used now within the journalism profession.

To do this I visited a variety of website, with the added aide of Jules’ PowerPoint presentation which I found very helpful.

I found the topic of photojournalism very interesting and it is definitely something that I would consider doing as an addition unit in the future.

Photojournalism is in my opinion a good way to express person’s feelings about a certain topic or to draw immediate attention to a story, which is used well in tabloid newspapers such as: ‘The Mirror’ or ‘The Sun’

Critical Analysis - Photojournalism Lecture

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story.

This often leads to people making their own about a photo, which often causes political and heated debates within society. These types of photographs often have a metonymy effect in tabloid newspapers.

For example the image of Saddam Hussein’s statue falling in Baghdad created meaning on its own without the need of a caption to tell its reader what has happened.

French literary critic and semiotician, Roland Bathes thought that viewers looking at photos ultimately believed that: ‘The thing had been there’ (Camera Lucida: ‘Reflections on Photography, 1982) in other words photos depict ‘what-has-been’ by bringing real life events into the public realm.

Using Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotic approach, Roland Barthes also thinks that an image itself is fundamentally ‘polysemic’, open to multiple interpretations,

However if the image is ‘anchored’ by a specific textual message, the reader can be encouraged to view an image in a certain light.

For example various images depicting the fall of Saddam Hussein’s statue has created numerous arguments such as: ‘Was the fall of Saddam's statue a U.S. staged media event?’

This is also an example of an ‘iconic image’. This is when specific photographs become symbolic of a particular event, triggering the public’s memory, feeling and emotions about that period in time. These images are often used as enduring historical icons.

Also drawing on his structural roots, Barthes suggested that the press photograph should not be regarded as an isolated structure.

Semiotic analysis’s of cultural myths, on the other hand allows us to deconstruct codes in popular cultural texts, revealing how certain belief systems may be legitimised at the expense of others.

Word Count: 297

Writing For The Media - News Writing Assessment 7

Students at the University of Runningham shocked staff on Thursday evening by barricading themselves into the Vice Chancellor’s office over the issue of top-up fees.

Around six of the University’s 4,200 students took part in the sit in, following the Vice Chancellor to agree to meet representatives of the students’ union next week.

Amanda Donne, president of the university’s student union, said: “We have been lobbying for weeks and so far he has refused to meet us. Certain members of the student body obviously felt so strongly about this that they decided to take positive action”.

The University is now charging students the maximum of £3,000 a year in top-up fees, potentially increasing students debts to £15,000, stretching the period of time it will take students to repay their debts.

James Robbins, a third year Photography student said: “I think it’s great that these students decided to make a stand to demonstrate how serious the issue of student finance has become. At last the Vice-Chancellor has agreed to talk to us”.

Students will be eligible to start repaying their loans once their annual incomes pass the £15,000 threshold.

Once students are earning over that figure around 9% will be taken from their salaries each year, until the loan is paid back in full.

Police were called to the incident after an emergency call was made at approximately 9pm by security staff after an alarm went off in the main administration building at the lower end of the campus

A police spokesman confirmed that six students were taken to Woolley Green police station, but were released later without charge.

The students have not been named but are believed to be studying Fine Art.

The college has since launched an enquiry into how the six students gained access to the area.

Word Count: 299

Guest Speaker: Kirsty Newton

Editor of ‘Cornwall Today’, Kirsty Newton today revealed her magazines aims and ambitions to eager first year journalism students.

Kirsty, who has been in the journalism profession for 10 years told students that, “Cornwall Today is looking at the younger end of the market”, for its target audience in comparison to previous years.

Since Kirsty took over as editor of ‘Cornwall Today’ over a year ago she has made many changes to the magazines content, including the addition of many new features.

Amongst the new features added to the magazine is a property and leisure section. These features have been bought in to attract a younger audience.

Regular features in the magazine already included: a home and gardens section, a food and drinks section and a wildlife section as well as various articles on village life in Cornwall.

The magazines target readership is an ABC1 readership audience in relation to the NRS Social Grading System. An ABC1 readership is stereotypically defined as the upper middle classes.

Also since Kirsty’s arrival the magazine has rose from 40 to 216 pages an issue, which according to Kirsty, “has allowed for a broader range of advertising”, which has also increased the magazines income per issue.

The majority of the magazines articles are written by freelance journalists, whose work on average is valued around 10 pence per word.

On average 16000 copies of the magazine are printed each month, a 1/3 of which are subscribers who live outside of Cornwall.

Despite this ‘Cornwall Today’ also has around half a dozen competitors in the South West that rival the magazine on a monthly basis, including: ‘Inside Cornwall’, ‘Taste of Cornwall’ and ‘Devon Today’.

Before taking up the role of Editor of ‘Cornwall Today’, Kirsty worked as a trainee for the ‘Western Morning News’ in Plymouth, before becoming Deputy Editor for ‘Devon Today’.

Word Count: 307

Critical Consideration - Gatekeeping

Since writing and researching about the subject of Gatekeeping in the profession of journalism I felt might see questioning its future in journalism.

For instance, how does the rise of citizen journalism affect the established journalistic industry? Some journalists have already started to dismiss citizen journalism as being journalism without its credibility aspect.

Some media outlets are using citizen-participants in journalistic processes, from simply inviting their commentary on published news stories to providing them with access to the processes of news publishing themselves.

An example of this is the BBC who frequently ask viewers to send in photos/videos of particular news events or comment on their website about news stories that they are interested in.