Critical Review

This was my last semester on Winol and by far my least enjoyable. The two previous semesters I had spent on Winol I had enjoyed on the most part. In my first I was swept in by it all, and overwhelmed by the professionalism of the students. I immediately decided that I wanted to produce my packages on sport with a view to trying features in the future. I produced what I consider my best package to date in the first year. I was covering a national sports story in that Portsmouth Supporters Trust were looking to buy the Club. I managed to get interviews with a former Portsmouth player, Vince Hilaire, as well as the ‘most famous football fan in Britain’ John PFC Westwood. To add to this I also managed to get free run of Fratton Park therefore my shots were varied and impressive. I uploaded the package onto youtube and it managed to  receive over 400 views. I was also approached to see if it could be used for a football website. For second year I decided to stay on Sport hoping to get more stories as oppose to highlights. I was given the role of University Sports Reporter. This role wasn’t as simple as it suggests as it was a struggle to get news worthy packages so I found myself looking away from the University for stories. In my opinion my best package of that term was my piece on Olympic hopeful Greg Bridet. Bridet had been shortlisted for the Olympic Boxing squad for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and as he boxes out of Portsmouth I thought it would make for a good story. I was very lucky in that Bridet’s Coach Quentin Shillingford was used to cameras being in his gym and allowed me to get all the shots and interviews I needed. Towards the end of my second semester on sport I started to find myself feeling aggrieved about the lack of feedback we would get on our packages as the main focus was on Winol. I thought I had produced some good quality packages but had heard nothing back about them.  

Coming into this semester I was hoping to be given a new role as I had stated that I wanted a new challenge on Winol and liked the sound of doing some features for the website. I had come up with several ideas that I wanted to pursue but was left disappointed when I found myself once again as part of the sports team. The problem was I had lost interest in Sport and was struggling to find good stories once again. My first few stories of the year were packages I put together for the sake of having something in and thus lacked content and I had to resort to the sort of 'Mickey Mouse' reporting I had always tried to avoid. My only other package of the year was a breakdancing feature, this was a better piece as I spent a lot more time editing the package and I was happy with the finished product, however at the end of the day I am well aware that I have not been able to achieve my full potential on sport. I personally consider Winol and Sportsweek two separate productions and despite the obvious connections I think people on Sports often find themselves slightly alienated from the rest of the group, which is frustrating. On Sport it is standard procedure to have your work completed by Tuesday, so in reality Wednesdays for people on sport don’t have to be spent in Tab but you still find yourself going in hoping to get some sort of feedback or acknowledgement more often than not to no avail. This was obviously not helped by Angus moving to Dubai as it made communication with him even rarer. At the start of the semester there was talk of having a few guest editors in who specialised in sport which really would have been beneficial to the department. However this never materialised and once again we were overlooked. This has always been an issue for me and has subsequently meant that I haven’t been giving the 100% I would have liked. A large problem I find with Winol is that no one seems fully sure who our target audience is. As we are a university course it makes sense to me to draw views from fellow students. However a lot of the time we deter students with stories that they quite simply will not care about. I was criticised by Gareth Messenger formerly of Winol as he asked why I was doing stories on University sports teams a lot of the time. My reply to Gareth would be that I believe we are overlooking University sport in favour of teams such as Winchester City who have less than 50 people turn up to watch games and doesn't draw people to the website. Whereas if we put together packages of University Sports or at least a weekly results section people from the numerous on campus teams would be interested. If I were Sports Editor, I would make sure that one of the better local teams; Eastleigh or Totton, were filmed but along with that I would make sure at least 2 or 3 Uni sports were filmed and maybe put together into a smaller package. I think establishing ourselves as the best source of on campus news is essential for the Winol brand and yet probably over half of the students don’t even know what Winol is. Apparently at its peak Sports week hit over a thousand views yet nowadays 300 views is considered good. I understand that cracking the University will be tough and probably wouldn't be the right route for Winol to go down but is definitely where I see Sports week’s future lying. I would also encourage people on sport to do as many features as possible, the Sports section can often be pretty boring and dull depending on results, a lighthearted fun feature offers a balance similar to an and finally piece.

       I know it’s been a good year for Winol and some of the work I have seen from others has been brilliant. Some people really have benefited from Winol people like Liam Garrahan and Harvey consistently  produce solid packages and I think they have massively benefited from Winol and will probably go onto have good careers on the back of what they've learnt from Winol. I think that the lack of a major event to cover was a shame because it’s a time when everyone pulls together and works as a team. In my opinion an event in the ilk of the BJTC would have helped the second years out a lot. For me when I helped out with the BJTC awards in my second year it was what originally sold me on Winol, as I saw the quality and professionalism of the Third years and it made me realise where I could be in a years time. The website has never looked better and I know that the website has been receiving a lot of hits. I liked the fact that more time was spent on expanding Winol with Access and Absolutely Fashion as this will undoubtedly bring in a lot more page views which at the end of the day is what we want. On a good day the buzz in the room is evident for everyone and come 5 o clock everyone is feeling good. Part of me will miss Winol as it has given me a good start for whatever route I decide to go down in life. I remember that the reason I decided to come to Winchester in the first place was after I came to an open day and was won over by Brian in the way he spoke about Winol. I immediately knew that this was the course I wanted to be on and I do feel like I could produce good quality packages now wherever I go which will be valuable when I apply for jobs and I feel like I have a good variety of packages that I will happily show to employees with confidence. I will always be very thankful to Brian and Chris for this as Documentary is where I would like to go.

       The whole course for me is too focused on Winol, there are other aspects of Journalism that we are all clearly lacking e.g written stories. Chris spent at least an hour going through the problems with some of the written stories that were lacking basic techniques due to the fact that we've never spent a great deal of time working on them. I can fully appreciate the fact that I’m on one of the best journalism courses in the country but I don’t think I’m the only one that currently feels like I would struggle to work for a newspaper at the moment. As far as Winol goes though I think the statistics speak for themselves. After all the awards Winol has been given since I joined there is no disputing that the course put together by Chris and Brian is a good one but not everyone benefits from putting so much focus on the broadcast aspect of journalism. This year apart from an optional shorthand class the only thing we had on our timetable was Winol. I’m not saying that this is a massive problem as Winol is time consuming but some of us haven’t written practically anything all semester and obviously that comes across in our written stories. This semester has hindered my time spent on Winol but despite that I did enjoy the first and second semester I spent on Winol.

Recently the large part of my time has been spent planning for my final year project; ‘Life after Football’. The plan is to interview ex footballers David James, Linvoy Primus and Lee Bradbury about where they decided to go after retiring from football.I decided upon this after reading the Linvoy Primus auto-biography a few months back. I found his book very inspirational and as it was brought out in 2005 whilst Linvoy was still playing I decided that I wanted to find out what he was up to myself, by interviewing him myself. The rest fell into place afterwards through contact I made with their clubs etc. I’m also hoping to follow each of the players around for a day a, in order to give people a real insight into their lives which I’m hoping will be interesting and also make my documentary more authentic and true to the format. I know David James works for BT Sport as a pundit and Bradbury works as Manager of Havant & Waterlooville who play in the Conference South. I’m hoping to make this Documentary about half an hour long, and I’m hoping to make it as fly on the wall as possible. I will be using all the tools and skills I have acquired on Winol to make this and I am confident Winol has provided me with the knowledge to do so.

Critical Review

The second semester of Winol was always going to be difficult without the help of the more experienced third years. We were used to relying on them to help us with our roles as well as helping us put the finishing touches and polish on our packages, well I certainly was anyway. So upon return I was slightly anxious to see how semester two would pan out. Firstly I was keen to see who would take over Henry's role at the helm of Sports Week. There were people that seemed obvious choices to succeed e.g Liam who consistently produced very good football coverage as well as some interesting Sports features. Initially when I heard Sam was going to be the new editor I was surprised but also keen to hear the direction he wanted to take Sports Week. As well as loosing a few people we also inherited some from other parts of Winol as well as the Masters students. I was hoping that the new fresh faces would be able to add something to the mixing pot and hopefully help Sports Week get more views.

The first week I was asked to take Kirsty along to my familiar saturday night hang out, The Planet Ice Arena. In the first semester the Ice Hockey was my beat and after going there week in week out in the first term I was keen to pass on the torch and go out and get my own stories. I was given the role of on campus sports reporter. I asked for this role as I believed that we were missing out on a lot of views by never featuring University stories, as students are likely to watch if they themselves or friends were in it. My first story in my new role was to cover an event called 'Technocise' in the Student Union. Various clubs from around the University performed and because of the type of event it was, a Techno music based exercise, the pictures came out really well. I was happy with the interviews and the audio and I was generally happy with my package. However on the whole Sports Week was struggling as it seemed Sam was finding difficulties with his new position. We were airing late and sometimes our show wasn't edited in time for the recording of the bulletin. This was an issue that needed to be solved quickly.

It didn't take long for me to realise that covering University sports was going to be tedious and hard work. The reason for this being that nothing was happening. In order to get something for Sports Week I had to interview people on nothing, it wasn't particularly enjoyable and cutting the interviews to make them ready was difficult. I felt that covering campus sports stories just for the sake of it was pointless as it made Sports Week look like we were short and just trying to fill some time. I wasn't totally closing the door on University sport, just made a logical decision that I would only cover it when something of note was happening. After making that decision I decided that i'd like to cast my net a little further and as my best package from the semester before was a story from Portsmouth I returned to interview Olympic hopeful Greg Bridet. Greg had been shortlisted for the Boxing squad in Rio and seemed very willing to be interviewed. His coach also was very keen for his gym to get some air time. I have noticed this quite a bit now, that people see us turn up with cameras and think its a golden opportunity for them to get a bit of publicity. I've realised the best way to get around this situation is to be obliging and say you'll include everything they ask, and then not. Anyway, this was my first decent/news worth story of the term and I was determined to make it my best. I was allowed to go down and film a training session with Greg as well as get interviews from him and his Coach. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of my footage and when I had finished also very pleased with my finished product. I was looking forward to getting some feedback as my package was going in the bulletin however sports week wasn't completed in time for the bulletin. I was disappointed by this as I remember the Guest Editor that week was a former student and as he was walking around the room I had a good talk with him about Winol and had told him about my package, so I was intrigued to hear his views. One thing I did notice in

semester two was that there wasn't as much communication as there was in the first. Usually on Monday morning the Sports team would have a little meeting with Brian where we would discuss our stories for the week. I always felt these were useful as it meant that we could all put our thoughts together with the long term goal being a better package. We also didn't seem to get much of a mention in the Debrief which could be frustrating when you felt you had put forward good work. I think in future after the bulletin is filmed a separate talk with either Brian or Angus would be very beneficial for Sports. Getting an opinion from a seasoned Journalist like Angus could only help the sports reporters with future packages.

On the whole the second semester of Winol was a fun experience and some brilliant packages were made. I think once he got into the swing of the things Sam made a good Sports Editor. For me personally though I often found myself a little frustrated, whereas before I had the simple task of turning up at the Ice Hockey and filming the game, this time I had to hunt for stories where often there was none. I tried my hand at presenting for the first time which was interesting. Up until that day I had never really been all that bothered with presenting but I knew it was something I'd have to try. It turned out that I did enjoy presenting and in my head I was very good at it, I saw myself in the TV monitors and thought that I could get used to this, unfortunately I was hit by a bit of reality when I actually saw my presenting and realised that maybe it wasn't for me. This view was also shared by many of my friends from home. I did however begin to feel myself becoming more and more comfortable whilst co-hosting the Sports Week radio show. Me and Harvey always met up the night before we were due to go on air and always made sure we had a lot of material to talk about and we had a lot of fun doing so. I had a good two semester run but I think when we return in September I'll be looking for a new role, one with a bit more freedom where I can be released from the shackles of sports 'Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains'.

The Winol bulletin wasn't something I had to much to do with this time around but I always found the stories impressive. From my view from the back corner of Tab I could always see a lot of people fluttering around like they were desperately trying to make things come together. My contact with the Bulletin was pretty limited to just watching it and sometimes being involved in the discussions about stories etc. Sometimes I find myself in awe of the content of the Bulletin as it is always of the highest quality not dissimilar to what you'd watch at 5 o' clock on ITV. I'm proud to be part of Winchester News Online as it is starting to establish itself as the place to go locally for news. The online website has reached new heights, quashing any competition we had the previous semester. It is easy to see why as well, with the introduction of the Fashion section and The New Winchester Review, which both cater for smaller niches but are always being updated with high quality content. Our online presence has been largely down to Jason redesigning the site to give it a cutting edge professional look. He targeted search engines so that we would gather more readers using SEO's which has generated a lot views. Targeting social networks was also a recent development that paid off as people subscribed to Winol would be updated to new stories and linked directly to them. As far as stories went its hard to see past the Eastleigh by elections after Chris Humes resignation. That was a national story that happened to land right in our laps and for a week or so the usually mundane town of Eastleigh became the Political hotspot of Britain. Winol provided great coverage of this as well as a Winol special that everyone got involved in to help out despite the antisocial hours. That is one of the perks of the Winol experience, in times like this everyone is prepared to help out and there is a big sense of comradery. I thought Spence did a good job as Chief Reporter on this as he managed to gain access to people like Boris Johnson, massive figures in Politics, and get great interviews which is the type of thing that's really going to put Winchester News Online on the map.

In my first year I was battling with inner demons, Freud's ID, telling me that I needed to go to a different University, one that had more to offer on the social side of things. What kept me at Winchester was the fact that I was enrolled in the best Journalism course in the country and I am very glad my superego levelled my thoughts as at the end of the day I want to leave Winchester with the tools to go on and become a good journalist. For me personally I've always admired the work of Gonzo Journalists such as Louis Theroux and I think that Winol and myself would benefit from adding this type of journalism to our repertoire. I am often misunderstood as being lazy but often it is actually due to me losing my passion for a certain subject in this case Sports. I produce my best work when I am doing something I am passionate about and I feel that if I could produce short documentaries in my third year I would achieve my potential, which has been threatening to happen for a long time. In some ways my attitude towards the course is selfish as I want to take what I've learnt and use it for personal gain in the future. I have lots of ideas for features that I would like to pursue and as I am hungry to clear my name and prove that I'm not a dosser this would help greatly. I have spoken to Winol heroes such as Andrew Giddings and he told me that if I wanted to make things happen and achieve my goals studying at Winchester was the right decision. Now that I have a clear head I feel that I am in the right place to push forward and reach my goals. I am very thankful for the opportunity I have been given at Winchester by Chris and Brian and in my third and final year I just hope to prove they made the right decision by letting me on the course.

Foals - Holy Fire

Foals released their debut album 'Antidotes' in 2008 and were instantly popular with the british public reaching number 3 in the UK albums chart. Foals managed to bring something new to the table pioneering the MathRock genre and in doing so influencing a range of future bands. The bands second album 'Total Life Forever' showed the bands progression both as musicians and in maturity. Foals dropped the shouty approach they employed in Antidotes and singer Yannis adopted a more melodic style in his vocals. I also think it would be fair to say that the songs were better written and contained layers which made them more accessible to a wider audience. Not in the sense of selling out but the Math Rock movement was short lived and i think Foals were aware that due to their rise in popularity they would be playing bigger venues and thus would have to write songs for arenas. Personally 'Total Life Forever' was one of my favourite albums of 2010 so naturally i was very much looking forward to listening to 'Holy Fire'.
Prior to listening to the full album i had read that the band had cut down on the amount of weed they smoked, this was worrying. Sometimes bands or musicians work better and produce better stuff when on some substances. I'm not advocating the use of drugs but when they managed to produce such good albums when high why change a winning formula? these fears were quickly put to bed and read a bedtime story when i heard the first single 'Inhaler'. The first time i heard it i was sat in my cold overpriced Uni room probably eating a pack of salt and vinegar chipsticks, in other words bored out of my brain. I saw the video linked in a tweet and like a fat kid walking into a bakery, i was excited. My first thoughts as the intro started was yeah good tune if not a bit samey. The chorus caught me so off guard, such a big leap for them to add that heavier aspect to their repotoire, works a treat though. I fell in love and its no exaggeration for me to claim to have watched the music video 5 plus times a day. In a word, belter.
Anyway, as the album goes, i've always been a big fan of the instrumental opener something i feel isn't used enough. A big, big intro that sets the tone of the album and i'd say 'Prelude' does just that. I'm picturing it live maybe as the set opener, its the type of intro that is guaranteed to whip the crowd up. The next track 'Inhaler' obviously you know my thoughts on that 'and that's all i have to say about that' Forrest Gump. 'My Number' is a catchy little tune with a nice bit of backing vocals probably the type of song you need after 'Inhaler' had blown your socks moments before. For me its slightly reminiscent of the 80's as its got that funky twang to it but all the while keeping the type of guitar sounds we have grown to love from Foals. Definitely not a 'mosh pit' song but the type of song you won't be able to resist throwing shapes to. This is followed by 'Bad Habit' a song that could have easily been on their second album, not one of my favourites but its still a solid album song, just doesn't have the edginess that other songs on 'Holy Fire' have.'Everytime' kicks in with a techno-esque intro and some tribal sounding drum beats, a great combination. It lures you into believing you've got a massive drop coming at some point and the chorus just tickles that idea. The whole way through this song your anticipating the big breakdown climax. You could argue it does come towards the end but i would have liked it to be bigger fatter with a PH. 'Late Night' emphasises the progression in Foals. The vocals kick starting and leading the song, with the instruments providing a nice ambient sound in the background, complimenting the vocals beautifully. It builds up gradually to become a really nice ballad of sorts, the type of song 'Antidotes' lacked. Its a very mellow song but once again i challenge anyone to not have a shuffle. 'Out of the woods' has a more stereotypical intro, I like the way this song incorporates some instruments you don't tend hear in a Foals song, they blend well with the generic Foals sound. 'Milk and Black Spiders' easily the most striking song name i saw when looking at the track listing. I was hoping the strikingness of the title would spill out into the music and i wasn't disappointed. It keeps this sort of trickling guitar line achieved with delay the whole way through the song and maybe i'm just being weird but i personally felt it kept the rhythm perhaps a spider would when making its web. I realised i should probably go to bed when i felt like i was at a 4d cinema and could actually feel spiders crawling over me. Definitely one of my highlights of the album though this song. 'Providence' starts with the echoey vocals accompanied by the punky guitar strums. throughout the song that takes a back seat as we are treated to a masterclass in how to build a song up to colossal heights like only Foals can. This was what i was waiting for from the album the glorious climax where you just lay down, eyes closed with goosebumps and just ride that music. Following on from that was always going to be a monumental task. Foals went for the almost hypnotic song 'Stepson' which could easily double up as a lullaby even the lyrics 'Now i'm falling deeper down i go'. What are you trying to do boys send me to sleep? Personally i think 'Stepson' will forever be living in the shadow of 'Providence' it doesn't have that Genese que needed to follow up from such a massive tune. Finally, we have 'Moon' and your starting to get the impression they really are trying to get you to catch some zzz's. A slow intro with a mellow assortment of guitar parts floating in the background. Then you hear the faint crashing of drums in the background and your thinking 'lets have it'. The synth kicks in but then fades back into the earlier calm vibe at the beginning of the song. The last 30 or so seconds is just noise which left me feeling shortchanged. I was hoping for another corking ending but i guess it just wasn't meant to be.
I would like to say that this was all upon first listen, i was listening to the album for the first time as im typed so any of these songs could either grow on me or start to grind me. However very enjoyable album that i would recommend to anyone i'd even give it an 8/10 upon first listen which for me is unheard of. I know just look forward to seeing them live again which will hopefully be a better experience than the last time at Reading when i was tricked into drinking piss. I hope you enjoy. Toodles

Should've gone up a while ago but here we have my critical review from the first semester

Last year I was made aware that the second year of the Journalism course would revolve around Winol however I didn't quite anticipate how much. Since restarting in September Winol has pretty much dominated my life. During the week i'm editing packages and at the weekend i'm filming them, not that I haven't enjoyed it. The way the second year of the course is structured is to essentially gain on the job experience as Winol represents a realistic newsroom environment therefore further our skills as Journalists. Everything feels real about the experience most notably on Wednesday when the bulletin is due to air. Around 1 o' clock the atmosphere changes from relatively relaxed to a full throttle all systems go battlefield as everyones trying to make the three o clock deadline.
The role I undertook this semester was as a Winol sports reporter as Winol cover the local sports teams including; AFC Totton, Winchester FC and The Basingstoke Bison. Originally I was asked to film the Bison, an ice hockey team. For me this was my introduction to the sport as it was something i'd never really followed. The first week I set off and was slightly hindered by the fact that the public to the Planet Ice Arena left a lot to be desired, nonetheless I turned up and recorded the game and put together my first package for the bulletin. In hindsight i'm not particularly happy with the highlights I put together as I underestimated the intensity of the sport and thus my camera work was sloppy. As football has been the main sport I have been weaned on the speed of an Ice Hockey game came as a bit of a culture shock and when the highlights were posted on Youtube they got some negative reviews however from this mishap I know knew what it was I had to improve on and had a slightly better idea of how the game was played, so naturally I was eager to redeem myself the next weekend.
The following weekend I returned to the Planet Ice Arena looking forward to game but also at having the opportunity to make up for my mistakes. The game was equally as intense but as I'd managed to get there with time to set up properly I had the camera and tripod moving much more freely which enabled me to get better shots. When I came back to edit the package I was a lot more contented with the footage I had to work with as I had picked up all the goals as well getting shots of the fans and establishing shots. The package I made on the second week was probably my favourite of the semester as I also managed a solid voice over. The trouble i've had this semester was not with the writing of the script as I enjoyed writing the humorous pun filled commentary it was just that I couldn't make myself sound excited enough. The majority of the voice overs i've done have sounded pretty monotonous which has been very frustrating but this week for whatever reason I managed to sound like I was actually enjoying myself. After the second package I felt a lot more comfortable covering The Bison and found myself adopting Ice Hockey as a second sport. The main factor of me enjoying the Ice Hockey was the buzz in the arena the games are exciting enough but the DJ and the upbeat fans make it a highly enjoyable experience.
I spent the next few weeks filming the Ice Hockey but as my packages were usually finished by Monday I found myself offering to help out other people on the Sports Team. Me and Harvey went down to film an interview with the manager of Winchesters Women's team, as Harvey was presenting the package I was the cameraman which I still enjoyed and it also gave me an idea of the sort of things others were providing for the bulletin. I also suggested at the weekly meeting that we should capitalise on the fact that I had a housemate who was part of the Universities Polo Team which we could use as a feature. It was agreed that Emma would front the package as she had prior horse riding experience and I would assist her in filming the interview. For both of us it was a new experience as neither of us had used a lot of the equipment including the radio microphones but we managed to pull it together and when Emma had finished the package it came out looking very good. After helping Emma I then went onto help Harvey out with an interview he had with QPR scout Kevin Braybrook this made me realise that I wanted to try out an interview of my own. I felt confident that I would be able to conduct myself accordingly in an interview situation and also that i'd like to broaden my experiences in the first semester of Winol.
After realising that I wanted to expand from the Ice Hockey highlights I brought up a story idea I had that I knew was quite ambitious but still attainable, the Portsmouth Supporters Trust. I felt that it ticked all the boxes for Sports Week story as it was a local story that was also being
covered on a national level. I was hoping to use contacts I had within the club to both interview and help me film in and around the stadium which turned out to be very successful. As my dad used to be involved with the supporters club a few years ago I knew that I would be able to get reasonably decent interviews but when I managed to get ex Pompey player Vince Hilaire for an interview it instantly gave my package more credibility. I had the idea that it would be good to interview John PFC Westwood as he is regarded as the most recognisable fan in the world and as the story was about the fans it fitted. After a lot of hunting around I did manage to get in contact with him and he was more than willing to give his thoughts on the Supporters Trust. I had hoped to do another interview with someone from the supporters trust but they were difficult to get in contact with and when I did manage to get in contact with the spokesman I was already back in Winchester so I had to settle for a statement. Once I put the package together I was incredibly pleased with the outcome my pieces to camera came out well considering I had to use a gun mic and as I was given exclusive access to Fratton Park I got some excellent shots and managed to do one of my pieces to camera on the pitch. One of the things I would have changed if I had more time was the statement as the white text over a still of the pitch didn't look quite as good as I had liked. Fortunately both the interviewees had some interesting stuff to stay which gave the VT a nice fluidity and hopefully would have kept the viewer engaged throughout.
Aside from the weekly bulletin I have also been part of a couple of other projects put on by the Winol team. The first was when Winchester were selected to host the BJTC awards which gave us a chance to showcase our professionalism. Everyone was eager to impress not only because it gave Winchester the opportunity to gain a stronghold as the best student journalists in the country but also as there were a lot of audience members who were big names in the industry most notably Sir Alistair Stewart. I was asked to man one of the cameras which would mostly be holding a tight shot on Alistair as he hosted the awards. The day was a complete success as everything ran smoothly despite some quite shaky rehearsals.
Another event I was asked to help with, once again manning a camera, was Winol's coverage of the American elections. The event was another success as both of the 2 hours seemed to run smoothly enough the only issue was the skype connection. This was understandable as the conversation was being held from opposite sides of the globe. In terms of working on these projects I didn't hold down major roles but it was still nice to be part of such big projects both of which were pre-eminent for student journalism.
As far as the whole bulletin is concerned I think it was evident that we struggled to produce a decent standard of bulletin in the first few weeks, but I don't feel that it took us long to find our feet at all. By the third bulletin peoples packages were looking more professional, the sound was coming out better and people looked more comfortable in front of the camera. Also the content of the stories gradually began to improve as the semester went on. Next semester I would like to have a go at presenting the bulletin as I thought that everyone else did a good job and fancied having a go myself. I know the features team have been focusing on the website more so than the bulletin and some of the features could have easily been picked up by national institutions. Lee's Hitler's neighbour feature for example strikes me as the type of thing that you'd see as a documentary on the BBC or ITV. Also the Paul Blackburn interview, I personally felt quite privileged to have been able to hear his story first hand. It was a powerful and shocking talk but his story will undoubtedly be broadcast at some point, if it hasn't already.
I was keen to dabble in some Radio this year, which I managed to do in the form of two Sports Week radio shows. The shows were an hour at an time which I thought would be difficult to talk about sport for but as soon as I sat down in the booth the time flew by. Radio is something I would like to keep doing next semester as I did enjoy both the shows so hopefully I will be able to carry on with this.
Without the aid and support of the third years it will be a tough task taking over Winol. I know I personally relied quite a lot on our sports editor Henry this year but I think as a unit our second year team is strong. We have people that will be able to slot in to the editorial roles that i'm sure will be able to do a good job. I just hope that by the time the new second years take on the
challenge of Winol I will be as much of a useful source of help as the third years were to me.

Everyone loves a bit of Freud

After the Continental and Anglophone philosophers had drifted apart the analytic tradition had started to dominate in English speaking countries. The most influential continental thinker on Anglo-American philosophy was Sigmund Freud. Freud didn't see him self as a philosopher more as a Scientist. Freud was born into an Austrian family in 1856 he trained as a doctor in the University of Vienna were he specialised in Brain Autonomy but became fascinated by neurology. In 1895 he published work on mental illness, Freud was originally a fan of hypnosis but later went onto develop a new form of therapy which he called psychoanalysis which he stated consisted of nothing more than a conversation between Patient and doctor. Freud felt that the hysterical symptoms of his patients were forged by a trauma that had been repressed and that by provoking them into remembering and discussing they could be helped. Being Freud he believed most of these traumas to have been caused by sexual encounters in the patients youth.

In 1900 Freud published his most important work 'The interpretation of dreams' which he believed let people express their repressed sexual desires. He made many adaptations to his original theory and book over the next few years slightly tweaking the theories. In 1923 he published a new work the ego and the id in which he described his thoughts on the unconscious mind. Freud was forced to flee to England after the Nazi's banned psychoanalysis and after 16 years of suffering from jaw cancer he was euthanised by his physician in 1939.

Freud summed up his psychoanalytic theses in a set of lectures between 1915 and 1917. These were that the greater part of our mental life was unconcious and secondly that sexual impulses were vital in maintaining a healthy mental state. He believed that if one suppresses these emotions due to them be deemed unacceptable by society they could later surface in the form of a mental illness. Freud believed the unconscious is manifested in three ways ; trivial mistakes, reports of dreams and symptoms of neurosis. He felt that his psychoanalytic approach could reveal patterns in a persons unconcious. From this development Freud developed the Oedipus complex. In Freud's opinion the most important stage in development to help understand a persons unconscious is to look into their sexual development. According to Freud infantile sexuality starts with an oral fixation followed by an anal stage between the ages 1-3 and then the phallic stage in which a person is fascinated by their genitals. This is when the oedipus complex kicks in as a male child becomes aroused by his mother and therefore resents his father, however the boy fears his father will castrate him so drops the feelings for his mother and begins to identify with his father. His female equivalent to Oedipus was never fully worked out.

His later work was more focused on his theories the ego and the Id. In its most simplest form the ego is the level headed part of someones soul. The Id represents the devil we see appear on someones shoulder in cartoons the part of our psyche that wants to act on impulse and fulfil our desires. The superego is the angel and basically the conscience that tries to cancel out the ID. Freud believed that as long as there was a healthy balance people would be less likely to display neurotic symptoms.

Well needed TLC

I realise that my blog hasn't been receiving much attention of late which isn't good news, therefore i have decided to take on a blog a day challenge from now until the end of the semester. However this will probably not include weekends.
I think a good place to start with this new ambitious project is to talk about my first experience presenting. I was asked to present Sports Week and naturally as i had yet to give it a go i was keen to take the 'hot seat'. I came in on the Tuesday suited and booted and nervously waited for the camera to start rolling. As I was losing my presenting V plates I wasn't familiar with the autocue but found it easily enough to use. I felt like my performance wasn't too bad for a first attempt, the build up beforehand was quite stressful as a lot seemed to be going a bit Pete Tong, but when we actually got down to business everything ran relatively smoothly. Obviously it took me a few takes to nail the links and such but the finished product was alright. I was keen to watch back the footage just to see how it came out and when I did i was quite disappointed. Its something that i'm struggling to come to terms with but I don't think i look that great on camera, which is bit of a pain. In my head I looked suave like a James Bond type character however in reality I really didn't. Anyway this is only a short one to ease myself back into the swing of things but judge for yourself.