Tribal Journalist

Rant Press Poison Jon Venables.

2010-03-04T03:59:00.000-08:00

This is the type of article which proves press poison, propaganda and use of PR. Melanie Reid, Times Online has used the Jon Venables incident to say people should consider he may have had a terrible childhood. There are plenty of people who had a terrible childhood and chose not to pass that pain on to others. Publishing excuses for extremely bad behaviour and choices in the name of political correctness, bites me.

I've commented on the article online, but it could be a good feature, those who were abused etc as children, but have turned their lives around or made something of themselves and focused that pain and hurt into positive action rather than crime.

Detaching from the public emotion around this, and let's face it there's plenty, the crime happened in 1993 and still provokes extreme anger from the public. Again, detaching from the emotion the reason why this story is newsworthy is because Jon Venables is perceived as a threat to the public. IE bad news sells, because of our natural instinct to focus on anything or one who is a potential threat to our own survival. As the justice system will not release details of Jon Venables new identity or how he has reoffended there is fear in the mystery. The govt/justice system would do themselves a favour if they released the details of the offence and take some of the heat out of the situation, but lots of agendas and the reality is it's useful to the press.

Political correctness - good intentions gone mad. By giving Jon Venables an excuse for his actions (his poor childhood), we stop him from growing. Taking responsibility for our own actions whatever age we are brings maturity and growth as a person. PCorrectness DOESN'T work - after the best care and interventions - he's STILL reoffended.

Remove

Julia O'Shaughnessy Even now the political correctness is calling out to stop Jon Venables from taking responsibility for his OWN actions.

We were told Jon Venables had the BEST of interventions, rehabilitation and opportunities within the system to change. The reality is he has CHOSEN NOT to change. The Justice system has protected Jon &...

We have not yet faced the real Jon Venables problem | Melanie Reid - Times Online

www.timesonline.co.uk

Even as the infamous name of Jon Venables flashed on the screens, you could feel the moral panic start. Seventeen years may have passed since the Bulger killing, but we still haven’t separated logic from emotion in our response to it.

FOJ NEWS High Street Booksellers Struggling

2010-03-04T02:54:00.000-08:00

Independent Booksellers are closing down at 2 p/week because of booksites. Major book chains such as Waterstones are also having problems.

The Writers Club in Norwich say there will be a dip in sales for high street booksellers for the next 5-10 years while booksellers adapt to price wars and e-readers such as kindle, but after that there should be an increase again.

Report from BBC News 04/03/10

Possible local feature?

Journalism 101 Newsroom

2010-02-12T08:57:00.001-08:00

"It is better to print a boring, truthful story than an exciting lie".

So with this in mind I sent off an article and photographs to the Western Morning News and The Advertiser in Newton Abbot. Neither have picked up the story.

But here it is with one photo:

ARTICLE:

[START]: Shocked Newton Abbot residents woke to find metre deep holes in a walkway joining their area to Milber Trading Estate. Although Police cordoned off the danger, local workers are concerned to see a fire hydrant and six drain covers still missing.
Matthew Sharland, a local office worker said: “This is ridiculous, the covers were taken in the middle of the night, they are right on a walkway and we’re lucky no-one has fallen down and killed themselves”.
This incident is the second theft of metal drain covers in just over two weeks. The first being from behind a pub in North Hill, Plymouth, fifty miles away.
Drain smuggling in Devon hit the news three years ago when local Church Bells were also stolen from a restoration shop in Tavistock. The following year four inscribed plaques and 500 Devon road signs joined the increasing list of metal-related crime in Devon.
Rising metal prices (£640 a tonne) have encouraged thieves worldwide to join in what has been inaccurately described as a ‘victimless crime’. With 60% of recovered metal being exported legally from the United Kingdom, according to Police Review, it is one of the fastest growing crimes.
Anyone with information about the two thefts should call police on 08452 777444 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. [STOP]
How did I do it:
I'm always talking to friends and contacts about what's going on and encouraging them to pass me articles. An old health and safety contact text me and said had I heard about what had happened. It wasn't until I started looking into why the drain covers would be taken that I realised it was the second time in two weeks drain covers had been stolen. Newton Abbot is fifty miles away from the other incident in Plymouth. So I emailed the story to the Western Morning News first as they cover the geographical area and the Advertiser which covers Newton Abbot wouldn't be interested in the fact there was another theft in Plymouth. I didn't hear anything from WMN, I emailed the same email to the newsdesk instead of just the Editor, heard nothing. So I emailed the story and photo's to The Advertiser, but as yet have also heard nothing. Possibly they've already covered it, possibly they will re-investigate it themselves and write the story, possibly it's just not interesting enough.
I was happy with myself, as I received the information about 3pm and I'd got photo's and the article researched and written by 1am, ready for the morning paper should it be necessary. In terms of the industry, the amount of time it took to get photo's etc. I can see why a lot of journalists are office bound. In the time it took to complete this article I could have researched and written possibly ten articles received from PR/wire services.

Multi-Media - hyperlocal news & podcasts 17/12/09

2009-12-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well, at last. There are two podcasts, by me, on the website. After going through several pod hosting sites. I found podbean.com. They allow a larger file to be published AND supply an embed code which works with weebly.com. The link comes up with a 'Listen to podcast here' statement. I have to say I prefer the one Rich found, which is houndbite, looks more professional and 'funky'. So, to be able to use houndbite I've decided to keep all my podcasts to six minutes maximum so they fit in the same format.

It does mean that some sessions will miss out on some of the information, but as long as the main points are there I feel it's fair to people who require an audio format.

I looked on the Express & Echo website, which is a news/lifestyle website. http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk and noticed that they only have an abridged version of their stories, don't include all their stories and are mostly in text or video based formats.

One element I was also interested to note was 'Anna's Campaign' - it has a picture, a link to a page on facebook and a video of her Mum talking about how she lost Anna, her 21 year old daughter. Anna was the passenger in a car involved in a drink driving accident. It's actually quite an emotionally horrific video, with photo's of Anna as a child, as an adult included. The point being that the campaign has brought together an annual campaign (drink driving) with a local human interest story (Anna's death) and combined it in a multi-media format on the local papers website.

I've included a photo of the banner. I've included it here as an example of the hyper-local trend which is appearing on websites at the moment. Newspapers are hitting a bad time, as we all hear and many of the podcasts I see on Mediashift by Gorkana talk about the concept of hyperlocal that newspapers and news in general will obviously have a national context, but that it will also become more and more localised to smaller communities. For example in Exeter, that may mean areas like Exwick, Countess Wear, Pinhoe, Middlemoor, Heavitree would have their own news/websites etc.

The local government has already started this trend by setting up PACT and My Neighbourhood groups which meet in the schools of the localised areas to discuss the problems in a relatively small area. The meetings attract members from the Council, Education, Police and local residents.

Multi-Media Did it work on the website?? 2

2009-12-17T06:37:00.000-08:00

Aargh, I've now recorded the 8 CV Must Have's Audio three times. First it was 22 minutes long, so then remembered it should be no more than 15 minutes long. I then recorded it and it's 9mins 48 seconds. I thought plenty of time spare. HOWEVER, after trying to load it three times. I looked at the site help and realised the file cannot be bigger than 8mb. Mine is 9mb. So, I'll have to re-record it and try to cut it down to 6minutes and see if that is less. The reason I can't just cut it up as I would normally, is that I'm not at college and I don't have the software to be able to do so. *Sigh* Take three!

Multi-Media Did it work on the website??

2009-12-17T05:11:00.001-08:00

Hurray, houndbite works perfectly on the weebly website, as it has for Rich. So it is just that houndbite is not compatible with blogger.

For now, I'm not worried. I'm just happy I can upload the audio's for the CV Tips etc.

Multi-Media Did it work?? NO

2009-12-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

A big fat NO. It closed down all of my 'safari' windows on the mac and chucked me out of blogger, houndbite and everything else I had open. Great. Oh well, I'm going to move on, come back to it later and see if it works on the website. :(

Here we go again, will it work this time.

2009-12-17T04:59:00.000-08:00

This time, I've highlighted the text and linked it to the URL of the houndbite podcast. Will it work, will it work?

Podcast for houndbite Test

2009-12-17T04:41:00.000-08:00

No that didn't work either, as you can see. argghhh. This is what takes up all the time on this course. I know that's half the point of doing the course, but the advertising for the course gave me the impression I would be taught some of this type of stuff. Apart from in-design there hasn't been one taught package on this course and the college doesn't run courses to back it up. Bit pointless telling us to go away and produce multi-media products, websites, etc. without the giving us the tools to do so in the first place. In the workplace, if a new piece of software/technology was to be used under Management of Health and Safety at Work legislation from Europe we would have to be taught it before having to use it. Why is it that just because this 'education' that the leaves the college free from this legislation. I'm not saying that all new media should be taught, but at least the basics. We have to use final cut studio, photoshop, dreamweaver, indesign and various other packages, yet receive no training. Even though the college provided specific training for tutors. Why couldn't it be run in an evening or lunchtime and staff paid to teach these lectures. Instead we're left to find training in these packages on you tube or from a book. We just don't have the time with studying as well to do the background research and training that we need to do the course. I also rang at the beginning of the course to say what could I do to prepare myself for the course - NOTHING was said about needing to have prior knowledge of these packages. To me, it's just common sense and I guess that's why I'm so frustrated. If I was attending a proper university I'm sure I would be able to access a course at the university which I'd need for my course.

Anyway, frustrated, whinge over. My moto - winning, not whining. Back to how do I load an audio podcast to my blog and to the Work Rest and Play website :D

2009-12-17T04:36:00.000-08:00

I might have found how to post it. Had to change the settings in blogger under the formatting tab to show links. Now when I'm posting a new box comes up which lets me put in the URL from houndbite. Let's see if it works lol.

Enclosed: TEST podcast.

Multimedia - Houndbite didn't work

2009-12-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

For some reason I cannot copy and paste into the blogging post, so that won't work. I'll see if there's a way round it. It seems I'm able to upload video's, but not audio's. So I'll see if it works with this.

No, tried to upload it as a video, as it is an mp3 file and the site says it will accept these files. It's not worked. This is what happens when I copy and paste.

file:///Users/juliaoshaughnessy/Downloads/Julia-upload-5duxhf4rz6vd.mp3

that hasn't worked either. So now, I'm not so excited. The compatability of all these things should be considered. I'll try to put it into the website and see if it's just me or blogger that's the problem.

Multi-media Group Project 10/12/09

2009-12-17T03:21:00.000-08:00

Yeay, I've discovered how to embed an audio file into a website/blog using houndbite. Feeling really happy because I would like to do some of my evaluative log in audio. It adds to a multimedia feel and gives it more personality, but more importantly means we are able to comply with legislation such as DDA The Disability Discrimination Act and with W3C the World-Wide-Web Consortium WAI Guidelines. The Disability Discrimination Act is a piece of legislation that promotes civil rights for disabled people and protects disabled people from discrimination. However, it does not mention specifically websites.

Most lifestyle/news websites such as ...... have podcasts and the audio files ensure the site is accessible to people:

with visual impairment
with low literacy and reading skills
who's first language is not English
Users who are dyslexic

I've also included a written version of the training session which allows people with a hearing disability to access the information.

We've put the text directly into the website rather than downloadable PDF's because a lot of PDF's do not have a semantic structure. This means a screen reader cannot differentiate between text, headings, lists and therefore the user cannot get a feel for the structure of the document. It also does not pick up on tables or pictures within the document. If the document is inputted into the website screen readers and assisted technologies, such as Browsealoud, will pick up on the information. Browsealoud is a free plug-in download - see the following website for further information www.opsi.gov.uk/about/accessibility.htm .

Here is the test houndbite audio I did initially to see if the process would work on the mac computer. I recorded this file with H4 Zoom digital recorder, downloaded the file to my mac. Then went to the houndbite site, uploaded the file and used the embedding code to input it to my blog. Which is what I will do with the training session audio's.

http://www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=21685

FOJ 13/12/09

2009-12-13T17:48:00.000-08:00

Interesting to read an article by Will Bunch about the death of Editor and Publisher. An opinion I hear repeated and repeated. Journalism isn't dead, just the print industry. Although having seen The Sun's advert today on the TV before X-Factor I don't think they're going to go down without a fight. Editor and Publisher were a company who based their principles on good old fashioned great journalism - asking difficult questions and not just accepting the official line. The finale to his article says:

"It's a sad day, but in a strange way the death of Editor & Publisher gives me hope for the future of journalism. Because they showed us a blueprint, that size or technology is overrated, that a half-dozen people can make a difference just by asking the right questions and by not backing down. And if Greg Mitchell and the others could accomplish this at a small, shrinking trade publication, then I know that it can happen again and will happen again, somewhere else and in some other format -- that no-holds-barred journalism is possible even on these weird little newfangled tablets or whatever.

Because in the remarkable way that they died, Editor & Publisher showed the rest of journalism how to live."

Magazine Production 031209

2009-12-03T04:56:00.000-08:00

I'm so pleased, I saw some photo's on a photoshop site, tracked the photographer to the Deviantart site and left him a comment to ask if he would allow me to use his photo in my magazine. He's emailed back. He's called Jesus Martin Miguel Constantine (how apt for a spiritual magazine). He's sent me 8 photo's that he's happy to use. He's sent them in a resolution suitable for web though 72 dpi and I really need them for cmyk 360 dpi if I want to get the magazine printed.

I've emailed him back, of course thanked him, even if he can't then I could use the photo's for an online version of the magazine - which I'm now also thinking. I've done the usual thing - which could be all or bust, but I want a printed copy of the magazine, an ebook email version and a free meditation CD on the front. The ebook would have downloadable files attached for the CD. Reason behind this is that although print is in decline, the actual concept is not. People will always need information - information is power - whether that be for leisure, work or learning. The format in which this information is obtained is changing, yes. But, I feel if the print industry got on board with the mobile/kindle etc technology, they could save themselves a lot of money. OK, to date papers are finding it difficult to find a decent way to obtain payment from online content, BUT, I don't feel that'll go on forever. I feel the key is to provide content which people want to read - now which form of news values is that again, must look up my notes. Anyway, I digress.

As I say, I want to provide the magazine/book in a 'pick up and read way' - whether people pick up their mobiles and read it on the train, download it to their computer or have a physical copy of the magazine - I want it to be accessible. This also is why I've been tossing over in my mind whether to have the magazine in A4 size or A5. I've noticed the women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour now have the option of either size on the shelf. The A5 is perfect handbag size, A4 as opposed to the slightly larger magazine sizes is perfect for fitting into folders, rucksacks, any magazine rack, etc. The A4 is winning at the moment as part of the way I want the magazine to look is full of stunning photo's. So that reading through the magazine/book is a visual experience.

The reason I'm calling it a magazine/book/e-mag is because I've noticed that some magazines eg: Photoshop Advanced are charging £5.99 for their monthly magazines. Reason being is that they include tutorials/training. The charge for online/self taught psychic development courses aren't in the same ballpark as photoshop courses, however the interest in the actual product 'spiritual learning/psychic development' is probably much larger. To make a monthly spiritual 'how to' magazine is a niche in the market that I don't feel is filled. Frequently, I find the 'spiritual' magazines Kindred Spirit, Chat Fate & Fortune, Psychic Times etc are filled with experiential interviews or advertorials for courses. EG. Mr/s X Reporter goes to a course and gives a description of how it felt, who taught it, perhaps a bit about the background, quotes from attendees and her opinion of, usually, how much s/he enjoyed themselves. Personally, and it's only an opinion, I think this is lazy reporting. It's all very nice, but how useful is it, except for advertisement purposes?

Anyway, back to Mr Constantine. He made me think today about the concept of the photography side of the magazine today. I like people who make me think. I'm being a bit harsh on myself, but I wonder if I had perhaps an image in my head of a lot of beautiful photo's of perhaps fairy-esque women, whether it be photographed or drawn to go alongside the writing.

The photo's he sent are mostly of 'poor' people. There's a photo of an old woman standing in a que, with such character in her face and an internal verbal battle started. 'Great face .v. shame she's looking down' 'Want to include real photo's .v. made up shots are more pleasing to a commercial eye' etc etc. The main conclusion being is that I want the magazine to be real, whether reality is ugly or not, 'surely that's the whole concept of the magazine' - that there is beauty everywhere, that you don't have to go to Church or follow religious 'rules' to be a strong spiritual woman. So the magazine has taken a bit of a turn today. I had, without realising, started to get together what I consider 'fake' images of women, because I felt that's what the reader would expect and enjoy. This is my one chance to put together something different from the norm as if it were being 'sold' in a commercial world. I don't know if I'm doing myself justice either way. Commercial high gloss, 'pretty' - or a different look at what beauty is and take the chance to do something more organic, but less mainstream market? Hmmm? I don't have the answer right now and would find the images easier if I had more content, but these are just a few of my thought processes and an uncredited thankyou to Mr Constantine for making me think.

I'm chuffed I've also found a site www. lulu.com which allows people to publish their ebooks/CDs for free and then publishing is only pay per order. So the e-mag concept is looking possible for this project - yeay! This is the link to how to publish on Lulu and what it's all about. I also noticed that if people buy multiple copies they get a discount eg. 3 copies gives 3% discount, so small spiritual booksellers may be interested in stocking the e-mag. Also, this site has already a large stock of books for the spiritual industry, so it must already have a similar customer base.

http://www.lulu.com/uk/publish/index.php?cid=en_tab_publish

Magazine Production 17/11/09 P2

2009-11-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

OMG I'm just loving photoshop. It's an absolute answer to anyone like me who has creative ideas, but just can't draw.

I've been playing with brushes again today. I want to create a corporate logo/image throughout the magazine, but something like a drop of water. I've been looking through some photoshop trouble shooting books. The first one by Peter Beid Cui is all about creating the wonderful flows. I've managed to create a green blob. I lovely blue and cyan feather swirl and a white like frosty wind image. You open a new doc, put all these blobs and lines on the page, then add motion blur of 430, then put in a transform grid, manipulate the grid and hey presto - your image. Loving it!

I want my magazine to have this additional texture, like 70's but with a etheric flow to it and the 'blow images' are perfect. The brushes element in photoshop seems to be the answer to my prayers. Although the programme takes a lot of playing with, it really is worth it. As I say I can't draw for toffee, but know what I like and what I want. I think photoshop combined with Indesign is the answer.

Mag Production 27/11/09

2009-11-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

Some advice I picked up off of a photoshop website. I thought very useful when considering my magazine. : D

1. Use the acronym of A.I.D.A, to check if a poster (or advert) works.

A = Does it get my Attention? No! The name of the company very rarely will get anyone's attention. Whereas, FREE PATIO SLABS! Will most certainly stop anyone who is the market for a Patio.

I = INTEREST. Once you have the readers attention now is the time to get their interest in the product.

D = DESIRE. Once you have created an Interest in the product you must now create a desire, tell them how they will benefit from owning this fantastic patio!

A= ACTION. Once all the above have been addressed, tell the reader what to do! Tell them to take action. PHONE NOW! I said by one yer get one free... phone NOW! (Example?)

2. Be careful with the fonts you use, I'm sure you well understand the power of the typeface and what it can covey to the reader. Be sure that the font provides the reader (potential customer) with the correct perception of the product or company. The correct perception is that which the vendor wishes it to be.

3. On a poster I wouldn't consider using more than two different typefaces. And, I wouldn't be tempted to use a hand-written script type font, mainly as on a poster at a distance it could be difficult to read.

4. Finally, if poster is in Landscape, consider Portrait before committing, on a poster the upright view usually works better. (depending on what the product is and what use the poster is to be put to.

WRP paragraph about self

2009-11-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

The paragraph hasn't been agreed by David, so I'm assuming there's something wrong with it?? Will email him to see what the problem is. He's obviously working on the site as I notice his paragraph has changed. There's little communication in this group at the moment. Maybe that's just my perception/opinion. Hopefully will see the other two guys and Mary Monday and find out. I've asked twice for a catch up meeting, but this isn't happening. I've a feeling I'll have to plow on with the work element of the site and just accept that Jaime's hate campaign has so far worked.

NEWS: Notes: Media Revolution

2009-11-25T04:29:00.000-08:00

Notes from BBC The Media Revolution programme: presenter Janet Street Porter. started as a Fashion Writer in the 1970s

PART ONE: Newspapers

Property and Recruitment advertising going elsewhere. - Online websites.

Print: 2.25m loss of readers last year.

750,000 readers lost The Mirror

400,000 readers lost The Sun

10% Guardian lost

500,000 readers stopped buying a sunday paper.

Sir Martin Sorrell WPP, buys advertising round the world.

Advertising FB, MSN, MySpace are taking lots of advertising from the papers.

Classified ad's a previous income for newspapers have gone down by 30-35% eg.property in the last year. Moved to online websites.

NUJ reports 500 print journalists in a week lost jobs.

Derek Jameson started with Reuters as a runner. Newspapers have survived Radio/TV, why won't they survive the internet?

10/12/85 Murdoch moved offices to Wapping.

25/01/86 Strikes and riots between proprietor Rupert Murdoch and workers. HQ in NY. Controls Sun/The Times/ Wall Street Journal.

London Sun's circulation gone up in the last year, but less than it was ten years ago. NEWSCORPS.

Graham Dudman, MD. Sun, Says great journalism is still selling the paper. Has cut it's cover price against the Mirror. RM has increased investment in Editorial and production. Printing has moved from Wapping to London. Prints all his papers faster 30,000 p/h before. 86,000 copies an hour in full colour. They print £23m newspapers a week. Printing more economical and delivers newspapers so quickly and in full colour.

Media Analyst, Paul Gooden. Prices going up, but can keep loyalty by giving away a book or CD, DVD's.

McFly set up own record company and instead of releasing it they gave it away free with a newspaper. It boosted their sales and the band £2.4 had the album, and extra 300,000 more readers/listeners.

Offsetting advertising losses with new giveaways.

Free papers are also picking up the advertising. Targetted young people with disposable income, good for advertisers.

Freesheets are accused of dumbing down news. Supposed to be 55% news, but in an onstreet survey people still wouldn't pay for it. One person said 20p. Junk newspaper. Freesheets cannot deliver news indepth.

RM Chairman and CEO - young people are living on their computers. RM totally neutral about where the news is read, tv,web,print.

Alan Rusbridger Guardian, says the print presses they have are probably the last presses they will ever buy.

People want to see news as it happens, pictures, audio, opinion all at once.

Daily Telegraph, Britains biggest selling daily. Has overhauled it's offices. Images projected across the wall and also a realtime number of how many people are reading articles online.

Edward Roussel, Telegraph. They are making more video than they used to. EG financial programmes. Feel they have a younger audience metropolitan audience on the web. You find they're not so different after all (young and old news readers)

New Media distinctly unprofitable - no-one wants to pay to read news online.

Tim Bowdler - If it's online we should have it for free.

20m unique users 2m abroad - Guardian. £7m p/month log on from USA. to Guardian newspaper. British news is popular.

Cameron Yuille, Agent 007, need to change the way the newspaper thinks about their audience. They got to figure out how to sell to the global audience. Reader specific advertising.

Guardian going for US, and India.

Amazon - the kindle, can have books, newspaper subscription, whole paper.

Newspapers have to find the funds to weather the recession and invest in digital technology.

Newspapers will not die, because it's a good way of reaching large sections of the population, like TV. Our appetite for news is not diminishing.

PART TWO: Books. The Fight, Libby Potter.

Who's profiting from the boom in celebrity books?

Books have been cheap, delivered to your house next day - what's not to like, Will Self

Booksellers are telling publishers what they will sell and what they won't.

£1,500 - £100,000 being paid to booksellers to highlight their book.

£200m books bought last year in the UK.

Rise of celebrity books, 5 of last years top 10 books were written by celebrity's.

Patrick Janson Smith, Publisher. gave Dawn French (for her book) - £2m advance, but how many books need to be sold to recoup that?

Fiction and Celebrity are popular books. Paul O'Grady was paid 'seven figures' for his book. Larry Finlay MD. If you have the books that are generating the money then you have money to help new authors.

Carole Blake, Literary Agent, 'celebrity take up a lot of bookshelf space, marketing, and smoothing ego's'. But only one out of ten of these books will make it.

Fay Weldon, Author, feels the Celebrity books are affecting what is being published. The quality, history and standards are going downhill.

Stephen Page, Faber and Faber. Says other books are being overpriced to fund the celebrity books.

Neill Denny, Editor in Chief, says celebrity books is helping other books by using profit from their books.

Book world, price wars, competitive wars. Gerry Johnson, MD Waterstones. People have to feel confident that our prices are as good as they can get anywhere else.

PD James are not selling as much now. Used to be £15 is now £10 for a hardback.

A £20 book is now selling at around £8. Publishers are losing out.

Newsnight, WHSMith 26/9/95. 'Net Book price' collapses. Now a free for all on what the market can charge.

Asda etc introduced their discounting skills to books. Will your author take a minimal price, but higher quantity.

Booksellers dictate to publishers what will be sold and how much of.

Amazone and rise of books on internet has had a massive impact on the bookselling world, competing with price and availability.

Christopher North VP of Media, Amazon. Basic idea was to be able to offer the entire selection of books which wouldn't be offered on the high street.

Has discounting gone too far? Amazon's discounting is same as other retailers large.

Haschette has recently refused to sell their books at the discounted price Amazon requires.

Aggressive discounting has left smaller independent booksellers unable to compete and have had to specialise or close. Nearly 100 independents have closed in the last year. Independent bookshops can't compete on price as can't hold the same amount of stock.

Will Self, Author, says the customers are starting to wag the dog. Buyers reverting to independent bookshops. Although, TV daytime programmes such as R&Judy bookclub has had a phenomenal impact on the book industry. Will's been asked to butter up Amanda Ross to help the trade!

Amanda Ross - MD. Cactus TV. idea to set up a bookclub on daytime TV. She chooses the book by what she likes. Oprah Winfrey also did on her show.

Daytime TV has got the right demographic, Richard & Judy recommendation.

22/1/04 Star of the Sea, Joseph O'Connor. - started climbing after the show and went to number one after the show. Bob Geldof's recommendation sent it sky high too.

Must secure foreign sales too. Bookfairs in Frankfurt, Brit titles in big demand there. Booksellers and buyers across the world meet to April/Oct. All manuscripts delivered month before bookfair.

Carole Blake, she has back to back meetings all week selling foreign rights to her authors books. Independent publishers don't have marketing budgets like the

Tindal Streeet Press, Luke Brown, - small publisher. Have to be more inventive and more passionate. Go for books that the larger publishers miss. EG Catherine O'Flyn What Was Lost sold 7m copies. She was told that the book lacked commercial appeal by the bigger publishers. As it didn't fit in the pigeon holes they felt were selling.

Conscious of the market you're selling to. Agents aren't looking for: completely mad letters suggest completely mad people and Carole Blake isn't interested.

Cost of a title can dictate where the book is sold. EG 3for2 deal tables hold a small marketing fee and will make the book sell thousands more than it would on shelf.

Transworld Publishers. Larry. pay £1,500-100,000 to get their book in prime slots in booksellers.

Pressures of market, industry is now mass market and mass market ideals. Therefore, a lot of books have been pushed down this format. Profit from publishing is being concentrated to big commercial houses/multi-national conglomerates. The big book selling chains are winners.

Losers are the independent booksellers, small publishers and authors who couldn't get their work out there. Serious literature is supposedly being printed less.

The consumer is winning, not just the educated elite buying books, wide variety, cheaply.

PART THREE: TV Analogue to Digital as prfound as moving from b&w to colour.

Britain invented it.

Hells Kitchen, UK Idol,

Still funding TV as if it were 50 years ago.

Who wants to be a millionaire started from a home quiz show. biggest profit.

What will keep TV alive?

Rod Taylor, Head of International TV, 2waytv, Executive Producer, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Being made for Cosovan and Albanian TV.

Needs to consider viewers and advertisers. Young male presenters attracts women.

Max Flint - reporter.

TV competing

25% share of advertising held by internet.

Google will be as big as ITV.

Reaching £4.50 p/adult - used to be £7 from advertising.

Has to find new sources of funding to meet new landscape.

Wayne Garvie, must have an international strategy and can you access international funding.

Britains done well with it's format. EG Freemantle Media. Tony Cohen. Format has tears, laughter and a resolution. A format can be repeated. 50% of formats across the world are from the UK. Because UK commissions original ideas and can then export them.

EG: Strictly has been screened across 40 countries. Each country has own judges and contestents so it is adapted to each culture.

Similar to way films are funded. Patchwork of various funders and participants/companies.

hit film Slumdog Millionaire has shown how ingrained one of our shows has become.

London's Capital Radio started Who wants to be a Millionaire. David Briggs worked to turn show to a TV show. Prizes got from premium rate numbers. Once international companies heard they wanted to buy, never got any answers, so prices kept going up.

WWTBM has been broadcast in 107 countries.

2waytraffic was bought by Sony for £7m

Peter Bazalgette, after WWTBM US were knocking down his door for next new format.

UK US, Russian and Eastern European Companies take it on.

When they sell a programme it includes a bible to producing the show.

In a lot of countries it isn't £1m. In Cosovo it's 50.000 Euro's as this is 2o times someones annual wage and will therefore change their life.

Albanian and Cosovan's are bused to the gameshow.

Lee Bartlett, ABC 92-99, says they can film in London and still fill the audience with whatever language they want. If you go to the country and produce the show yourself then you get to keep the production fees. In US the production fees are very lucrative.

$100m a year Granada TV US.

The BBC have offices in US and own American Idol show. Fox screens the show. American Idol has been number 1 for last five years. (FremantleTV).

Simon is part of the british original . - A nasty britishman seems to increase ratings (Gordon Ramsey).

Wife Swap, What not to Wear, Antiques Roadshow, Top Gear have all been taken to the US.

The Office, NBC Universal, Ben Silverman - says Britain invades US with Shakespeare, music-the Beetles.

Product Placement is being campaigned for as imported programmes are allowed to. John McVay says domestic programming can't use this.

Merchandising - v.comp in kids programmes - NEVER! - Tele Tubbies going on tour, in China huge themed kindergartens are being opened. Anne Wood co-creator of Teletubbies. Lucky if you get quarter of funding, have to go out and get 75% yourself. It's made more diff by counterfeit merchandise.

Piracy of digital content. Video sharing on the internet - this threatens the corp from exploiting the show across different platform. Therefore, jeopardising the production of this type of show again.

Director of Content and Production Worldwide. Wayne ... & Ben Silverman say if other people are counterfeiting the programme, work out a way of doing the same thing, so they can't.

Bebo experimenting by having TV. Joanna Shields Ch Exec. Bebo. Drama Kate Modern, 67million views worldwide. Advertisers were brought into the show, ie Cadbury's Cream Egg suit worn.

Future, may be able to choose what adverts they will see. Can sell their time of watching an advert for 20sec's then they get certain amount of time to watch free content.

Millionaire into Afghanistan 2009?

30-40 yrs TV has shown itself adaptable to new technology and new viewers.

Transmedia - content available in lots of areas.

Movies didn't disappear when TV came in.

Work Experience Express & Echo/Features

2009-11-18T17:06:00.001-08:00

My second Women in Business Feature went in today. It was a column the Echo have been running for a little while and Gordon asked me to have a go at. I wrote the piece in the first person after interviewing Celina West. I'd interviewed Liz Hodges the week before and done the same thing.

Liz Hodges article was harder to interview easier to write. Celina was easy to interview, but harder to write as she had so much more riding on the published article. I was pleased to see they published my article on their website too. www.sarahwestrecruit.co.uk

Gordon had changed the order around. This is something I keep coming up against. The paragraphs seem to be fine, but they're in the wrong order, ie. the priority of which to put first, second etc isn't always right. I was glad to see he hadn't really changed the wording, just the order.

Strange to see something in print you've written. If it gets changed it takes away that delight for me. I wrote an obituary, and it was changed around slightly and they spelt my name wrong. After that it didn't give me the same pleasure as reading a very short article I'd written which had been put in word for word. Something about pride and the fact that it's printed word for word being equivalent to a 'tick' on a marked piece of work.

Anyway, the article has gone in, it was a professional which I recommended us to interview and I was pleased it hadn't been pulled. :D

Mag Production 17/11/09

2009-11-18T16:12:00.000-08:00

Today for the first time in a while I felt like a 'real' student.

I saw Russ this morning for a tutorial and was pleased to see I wasn't as behind as I thought I was. I then went to both of the learning resources centres to try and register for the library. Forty minutes later I was 'in'. I'm official, it's real and I'd better get on with it now.

We'd been talking about the magazine this morning and I want to do a women's spiritual magazine. I was so pleased to see at the library a book by Anna Gough-Yates, 'Understanding Women's Magazines'. How 'meant to be' was that! NB: Do you put a ? after a retorical question, or a full-stop?

Anyway, moving on. I'm sat in my bed, alone with the pc/a book and some chocolate biscuits- I'm officially a student ha.

From the small amount I've read so far I can feel the neuron's start to flick and ignite already. Gough-Yates talks about the fact that she feels the magazines have been putting out an image of a 'new woman' since the 70's, but more so in the 80's and 90's. An almost superwoman, who runs the home, but is mostly a middle-class young, professional woman. She talks about how some magazines are now (2005) trying to target women they had previously targeted as younger women, but who are now in their mid thirties.

It got me thinking, firstly how if the market is moving their content to fit with a certain set of aging women, that obviously there were some ingredients (culture,class,opportunities etc) that made them predisposed to purchase magazines or a certain type of magazine. The eighties and nineties, as I remember were growth periods for my career and during this period I was very much career and lifestyle orientated. It becomes a chicken and egg question, what came first the type of woman or the magazine which promoted 'being' a certain type of woman? I do remember seeing my Mother with her copy of Woman's Own and from a young age being quite repulsed by it and it's articles. Especially, anything which seemed to want to teach me to be a better 'housewife' - YUK. Although now I'm a parent, I do sometimes think it would be quite useful to know how to make clothes out of old curtains, like The Sound of Music's, Maria.

Initially, I looked on the County Council website at the local demographics and found out 18-29 yr olds were prevalent in this area of the country. So I had thought I would aim a magazine at that age group. However, because the magazine is a spiritual/women's magazine it occurred to me that most women interested were not 18 year olds. Although there are younger people interested, mostly people come to looking at their spirituality after a variation of experiences. When I say spirituality, I don't mean religion. This magazine is not about following certain rules or ways of life. I've always said the 'simplest person can still hold the strongest truth'. In a nutshell, spirituality, to me, is about helping people while finding and spreading happiness in everyday situations.

This led me on, today I had been plotting out some ideas for articles, to make it easier to plan the number of pages for the magazine, what artwork, photographs and graphics I might need. The ideas I'd come up with were, in no particular order, an interview with Nicki Ravenscroft about what it's like to be the woman behind the musician, an article on depression - a life coaches perspective/answer. Parenting - teenagers and 'crystal/rainbow' children, how to develop psychically, mah-jong horoscopes, Interviews with Reiki/Homeopathy teachers locally, etc etc. BUT, tonight, I realise that Gough-Yates is trying to say that people buy images/icon's and read magazines about things/people/etc they want to be like or are like. So, I realised it was a tougher job than I thought. Although I had decided the concept of the magazine I haven't fully considered the image that the reader is buying into. At the same time, I don't really like the idea of an image. Maybe I can have a non-image as this would fit better with the magazine. IE. Here are a series of articles which you may or may not feel an affinity with or find useful. The main aim is to boost confidence, self-esteem and start opening the reader to possibly new concepts and ideas. Like a catalyst for change. MMmmm 'Catalyst' is that a good name for the magazine???

There are a few on the shish kebab of names at the moment, 'Shhh', 'Power of She', 'Shine', 'Independent', TRY (The Real You), but I'm not 'feeling' it. I thought about Ohana - it's a Hawian name meaning 'family', but again, parenting is only a subsection of what the magazine is about, so I don't want to give the wrong impression. To me the mag's which make it, have one word catchy names, Elle, Red, Hello, Psychologies, Cosmopolitan, Glamour etc. In some ways I like catalyst better, it has scientific connotations as well as other more general associations. Catalyst, is something which happens that CAUSES something else to happen. I like the thought of the magazine giving someone/a woman a spark of inspiration to make a change. I am passionate about living a motivated purposeful life. Through these two things I've achieved and got through things I never thought I would. I like the idea of the magazine being a bit of on-hand motivation. It's not the run of the mill Closer/Hello type magazines, but it is better to die standing than to live bending (an albanian proverb).

WRP paragraph about self

2009-11-17T04:25:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Julia, the Editor responsible for the Work element of the WRP website.

Providing bread and butter on the table ie: our working life takes up such a large part of our time that I feel it should have an element of fun to it. If you're looking for a job, looking for some guidance as to what to do next this is the area for you.

There are links to other sites as we couldn't squeeze it all in here and I'm not pretending to know it all just provide a structure around which you can start to think about short and long-term career goals, or consider other available options. The journey's important, so I'm not going to do all the work for you, make sure you have something to take notes with and remember to send in more specific questions to the work Q&A area :D

My sins also include studying for the Fda in Journalism and Practical Media, I'm a freelance journalist and a loan parent of a five year old son. My career in short has given me experience of training, recruitment, health & safety, security, employment skills, sales and management. If you'd really want to know more about my career to date I've included a brief history in the work section.

I have 12 years experience of managing and facilitating and in short as long as fun is included on the work schedule a lot more gets done. I hope my section is a lighter way to help you through the career maze whilst still holding on to what else is important to you.

'The best things in life, aren't things'. Art Buchwald

BRIEF CAREER HISTORY:

My career has been varied starting when I finished a B-Tec National Diploma in Sports and Leisure Management. I taught myself to touch-type during the two years and temped for a while when I left College.

TIP: Having office skills of some description will always keep you in work, even if it's only a temporary gig.

I then worked for both the Police Studies Centre within Exeter University, progressing to Office Manager and took high ranking Police Officers around Europe to study European Policing. Eventually a mortgage and an increased sense of social responsibility attracted me to a management position within a Drugs Project.

It was an 'interesting' time and within five years I was part of the management team that grew the project from eight people working within Exeter to seventy people working all over Devon and Dorset. Responsible for staff, security, health & safety administration and finance the post was varied and pretty stressful. I frequently worked seventy hour weeks. When I left, I was proud to be informed they had to replace me with three people. I had been offered a commission with the RAF, however a horse riding accident put an end to my 25 mile a week running and fitness regime. Changed my destiny in a split second.

I was then offered a promoted position with Avon Health Authority as Facilities Manager, responsible for a £2m budget, 11 team leaders and 70 staff. This was great, but although I was good at my job I realised my heart wasn't in it anymore and the work was no longer challenging.

I went to a local recruitment company TACT Personnel to find alternative work. Surprisingly, impressing the manager so much she offered me the Account Manager's job at Howmet recruiting and managing temporary staff. We quickly changed the recruiting processes and went from one to one interviewing to group interviews of up to 40 people a session, three sessions a week. It was so successful I was quickly earning £30k a year. Little ole me, in little ole Exeter - anything can happen. I can honestly say, I've never enjoyed a job so much, the buzzy atmosphere and the social life I had working in recruitment was phenomenal.

Nothing lasts forever, 9/11 put paid to the American owned company Howmet's growth and 212 temporary staff were whittled down to 30. I love a challenge and responsibility for thirty staff was not. I moved from recruitment to self employment and took up a contract with a local training agency, whilst also working as a door supervisor and running a small door security company.

Becoming a mother put work on hold temporarily and when I returned I craved some stability, so took up a position as Advertising Account Manager for the Sidmouth Herald. Here, again, I was successful and within three months offered promotion to a larger paper, but working for Archant I realised I wanted to be a journalist and an old dream resurfaced.

The rest of my career is, 'in progress' so to speak. I've returned to University, proving the key to success is to never stop learning and it's never too late to start again. :D

Whether you're hunting or gathering stay happy. Julia :D

How NOT to: :D NB:

2009-11-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

NB: Don't put what I wrote in my 'witty writers' application - It didn't work - no response lol. :D

You may wonder why I'm laughing and just think 'silly woman, of course she wasn't going to get a response'. I don't think life's all about getting it right every time. If we really think about it, we all know what's 'right', but if you don't make a few harmless mistakes how can you ever find new solutions or new ways to do things at all.

I feel that we should never be afraid to lose. Obvious reasons are that we don't get/have the things we want, but also because there's a lot of learning in the losing. Mainly, staying positive and knowing it wasn't meant to be.

Random Poetry for the Magazine 16/11/09

2009-11-16T11:12:00.000-08:00

Just some random poetry:

Here we are, monitors of the outcome.

Weighing the difference between chaos and calm.

If it were said that chaos was ahead,

would you smile and forgive? will you make sure you live?

'Love makes the world go round',

hate drives love into the ground.

You decide, LOVE? ... or hide?

Work Experience Express & Echo Concluded

2009-11-16T03:01:00.000-08:00

I'm such an all levels person that working with the E&E on the lead up to Armistice Day was quite emotional. For some reason this year seems to be more prominent to people. It was reported that more people turned out to the various memorials and much younger people. It doesn't feel too many years ago the media reported people fearing the loss of interest in marking Armistice Day.

The people I worked with were all lovely. Hannah Hope (Features), 'Fletch' John Fletcher (Court Reporter), Tom Bevan (Reporter), Gordon Richmondson (Business Section). They all really helped and were so friendly. Watching Fletch, Tom and Gordon doing telephone interviews with forces and ex-forces service personnel was quite touching. They've all got great technique and seem to know just when to ask questions, how to get people talking and able to show the right levels of respect. It was one of those moments when although I know I have a little bit of talent, I realised I'm still leagues away from being a professional. I never felt like I was treated me like a work experience bod, more like part of the team, which I liked.

I had done various articles and was feeling a little bit more confident. However, I was given a small article to write about the timings of the parades etc and asked to include all the various contingents in the article. There was a list of twenty or so different regiments, charities, community forces and companies. I couldn't tell which one's would be more important to mention and which ones to leave out. It was obvious in the case of Royal British Legion versus St. John Ambulance, but I have to say I made a right hash of it. I seem to be more comfortable writing in a feature style.

The editor Patrick was also great in loads of ways, encouraging, supportive, helpful. He gave me a story about a local man to who has terminal cancer. His friends and family raised £5,500 for the family. I spoke to Paul from Bridge, I spoke to Andy from the Kings Pub in Cowick street and asked Paul to contact the family to pass our number on so we could speak to them. I wrote the story and the editor was very happy, said I could have a byline on it. The photo's we'd got from Rob, someone at the fundraiser, were too poor a quality to print in the paper. So Paul was finding us some better photo's. All of a sudden he seemed to have cold feet and when I rang him, kept going on about how the family didn't know about the story. I asked him again to pass our number on. I spoke to Patrick and told him about Paul's (cold feet) issues.

Patrick was quite clever and said that if the man's wife contacted us and said specifically she didn't want it in the paper then we wouldn't print it, but we wouldn't retract the article just because Paul had cold feet. I rang Paul and asked him to get Janice to ring us by 8pm that Friday night. We heard nothing, but then Saturday I got a phonecall on my mobile of Janice having small fits about the story being in the paper. I got the message at 9pm, so rang my parents to see if the article had already gone in - it hadn't. Then I rang her back and said I couldn't guarantee it wouldn't be in Monday's paper already, but that I had spoken to the Editor and he had asked for the family to ring us. She said Paul had only just given them the message, then she proceeded to rant about Rob and how he shouldn't have given us photo's etc. I told her he'd given us the bare minimum and that most of the information we had included the amount of money raised had come from Paul himself. She seemed to calm down then and wanted to know more about what we'd written. I talked to her for a bit and said that we didn't want to upset the family, the E&E weren't about that, we had just wanted to print the story as it was about the fact that one man had made such a difference/impact on so many peoples lives that such a fundraiser had even been possible.

I dealt with her with kid gloves, thought about how I would feel about it and thought there was probably a few reasons why she wouldn't want it printed:

1. Once something's in print it becomes 'real' maybe the family felt there was hope and did not want to tempt fate?

2. Death of a loved one is a very personal experience and something you may want to go through without everyone stopping you in the street saying 'I read about it in the paper'.

3. Cynically, perhaps they're on benefits now, as she had to give up work, and did not want the benefits system to know how much they'd got as it would effect them.

4. They didn't want to feel like a charity case - pride.

Either way, it definitely wasn't worth pushing the story into the media just for my own ego to have a byline in the paper, at the expense of someone's feelings. If it had involved crime, dishonesty, fraud etc - I'd have been right there and not caring about their feelings, but not this one. It was good to discover an experience to prove my ethical boundaries, something which writing for College doesn't provide without real work experience - real self knowledge.

As I say, everything comes to those who wait and by the end of the week, possibly because of the way I dealt with the other scenario, I was given an obituary to do and to contact people who knew Major General Marston Tickell, another sensitive situation. I got my byline. tbc.

Work Experience Express & Echo Day 1 and 2

2009-11-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

I've completed a couple of days at the Express and Echo now, and I'm glad to say - I love it!

My son was ill Monday and Tuesday, so I couldn't start till Wednesday, but I can go in Monday and Tuesday next week to make up the time. I've been put in the news team with Hannah Hope, John 'Fletch' Fletcher, Tom Bevan and Gordon (who I only met today so don't know his surname). I started off being given some press releases to turn into fillers between 150 and 300 words. They ranged from being about 8 yr old Brownies looking for ex-members to Skate Parks in Teignmouth, to talking to someone who had put together a fundraiser for his friend who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

It's interesting to see the varying responses to the press. Some people like agents for the Hotel Barcelona in Exeter are VERY cagey and won't give away anything. Even when I said we were wanting to do a positive article. Contacting people about news is very much like sales, you have to ring them and ring them, never leave a message unless you absolutely have to. Once you've left a message you take away your right to keep ringing back lol.

This afternoon I went into Exeter for Hannah's 'What we're wearing' feature which appears in the E&E on Saturday's. She asked me to take four photo's of 'fashionable' people walking around Exeter High Street and get details of their name, age, occupation, where they bought all their clothes, their favourite shops and any style icon's. Initially I was a bit nervous, mainly as I don't have much of an idea about 'fashion'. Funnily enough, the people I thought really were 'cutting edge fashionable' wouldn't speak to me lol. I ended up interviewing people who mostly shopped in Primark, New Look, River Island and Topshop. They all seemed quite chuffed to appear in the paper. I was getting a bit desperate to find some people who would take what I thought Hannah might think were 'good' photo's. So after I'd taken photo's and got details of six of the general public I accosted two Sales Assistants and asked them if I could take photo's of them. The first a guy from Moss Brothers, the second a woman from Jane Norman.

I was quite disappointed with the quality of my photo's. After looking at the photo's I noticed most of them weren't smiling warmly. Most looked terrified in their first photo lol, so much for me putting them at ease. All those seasons watching America's Next Top Model - wasted! :D Apart from all that I did actually enjoy doing that 'assignment'. So I HOPE Hannah Hope likes my photo's.

Anyway, it has made me think if I want to be a journalist I really need to address the poor quality of my photo's. Unsure exactly how to do this outside of reading books and getting photographic magazines. I can't afford another course and don't have the time.

We're HERE! WRP Multimedia

2009-10-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

'Ey up, we're here!

Eleven luggage bagts, seven adults, four kids, three cars and a dog! The journey took a mere two hours, through the rain, but that's what camping's all about. The main aim of the blog this week is to give you a few highlights and ideas of what to avoid when taking budget holidays in the UK.

I say camping, but I mean caravaning, there's probably a severe distinction between the two and I don't want to insult a windbreaker full of people. The main similarity to me seems to be the fact both groups drive hours away from their warm and secure homes to battle with not much between them and the elements. Bracing! I love that word, it conjures up images of war time hero's, cold winds and some courageous pursuit of some description.

Anywho, moving on, the weather is actually quite beautiful for the time of year and I'd like to say a quick thanks to India for sending us some of their summer. We're actually staying at Twichen holiday camp in Woolacombe, North Devon. My first tip would be - don't tell them you have a dog. We've booked two caravans and at the last minute half of us got moved to the other end of the campsite in the 'BUDGET' caravans. Not good. Rust, dust and the smell of damp dog welcomed us, right after the grumpy Receptionist Lynne did not.

After a cold night - no radiators in the BUDGET caravans - a glorious 5;30am morning had me up showered and read for action.

Half of us, the younger have gone to the beach, the other half have gone shopping, and one of us has found a wifi site two miles away and is blogging - guess who got the best deal, lol :D

The papers are full of photos of fields full of snow last year and the russet reds and golden oranges of the leaves this year, the views here are no different and it is stunning. So, grumpy receptionists aside the place is a haven for mending the soul, as far as caravaning can.

Got to make this a short blog as I've had to pay a pound to use the internet for an hour, the Waves Studio is filling up with kids who want to paint pottery - the other usage for the cafe - and I've got to walk the dog. Lovely.

How NOT to: :D

2009-10-24T02:49:00.000-07:00

I noticed an advert asking for 'Witty Writers' to send a pitch to obtain 'top notch' professional freelance work. Feeling in a particularly cheeky mood I emailed this:

Well, what DOES one put in pitch? It could be likened to an ad in the personals, but I hear now it's all in the translation. Initially I thought I would put: 'Beautiful, voluptuous, free spirited woman, approaching her 40s', but according to the unofficial 'Dictionary for Decoding Women's Personal Ad's*' this would be read as: A 49 year old pathological liar who is very fat and possibly a junkie. Not nice, not accurate. So, I reconsidered .. keep it simple: 'Adventurous, open minded professional'. I popped through the internet looking glass to translate, 'Desperate, bitch who has slept with everyone'! 'Survey says 'Uh OH'. This just isn't working, so I've decided to go for honesty: 'Busty brunette writer, GSOH, NFOFD'. :D I hope that helps..! JULIA

* Link: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/lvg/440674102.html

mag production social media feature

2009-10-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

Check this out, intro to social media conference. lol. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCdexz5RQ8

NEWS: Alike Minds Conference 16/10/09

2009-10-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE ‘HITS’ EXETER

A coffee in Starbucks, Exeter last August sparked two friends to hold the first social media conference in the South West. The conference was advertised using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and email only. The cost of the advertising and marketing was nil and attracted 180 delegates from all over the UK, with a ticket price of between £5 and £35 each.

The main theme was based on the ability to make an investment into social media and gain a return. Local businesses and charities sent representatives. Public relations officer, Sarah Parkhouse from the Red Cross said, “We are using twitter already to communicate between offices, but I’m hoping to pick up tips to utilise it further”.

The event, streamed live around the world via Ustream.com, also allowed delegates from the internet community to participate and started with a controversial video from Scott Gould, who introduced himself as ‘nobody’. He prepared participants for some straight talking from speakers and panellists who included a local solicitor James Barisic and Carl Haggerty from Devon County Council.

Trey Pennington, author and Social Media Manager for the Jones Group, informed everyone, hits on social media sites have taken over the number of visits to pornographic sites. James Barisic, from Every’s Solicitors in Exeter spoke candidly about his experiences as co-founder of their PhotoLegal podcast.

Olivier Alain Blanchard, manager of thebrandbuilder.com, gave a demonstration regarding ‘Social Media: Return on Investment’ and was met with mixed reactions. Some felt the social media concept was not a new idea and others spoke out to say they did not feel they, “Had learnt anything new’, but only one person has requested a refund. These questions pre-empted outrage from the internet community following the conference and comments such as, “Without social media you people wouldn’t even be there!” and “How do you think this conference was organised?” were two comments projected regularly onto the large screen behind the panellists.

Most delegates showed more enthusiasm in almost revolutionary tone, one predicting, “National newspapers will disintegrate and we are not going to be led by the nose, by the media anymore”.

Rich Waghorn, creator of twitter-based ‘OutWithABang’, was asked whether he felt social media was partially responsible for the deterioration of the print industry. He replied, “Businesses wishing to thrive in the future can not stop this phenomenon”, then reiterated a recent comment by The Guardian’s Emily Bell, “We are entering the age of participation and journalists must engage”.

Apart from the controversial questions all seemed glued to their seats until realising the Guildhall car park shut at 6pm. The conference finished at 6:30pm, but through the power of new media all were able to recap the nuggets from Sky’s, Maz Nadjm’s final spot on Ustream.com.

LINKS:

http://alikeminds.org/

http://www.exeterconferencecentre.co.uk/

PHOTO'S TO FOLLOW FACEBOOK IS BUSY CENSORING ME AT THE MOMENT. THEY SIGN THE OPEN INTERNET POLICY, YET FREEZE MY ACCOUNT FOR THREE DAYS FOR NOTHING. GRRR

Random Poetry for the Magazine 15/10/09

2009-10-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

Do you feel sad?

Look through MY eyes.

Through MY eyes the world is beautiful and every day there is something new.

Everyday there is a miracle.

Come skip and play.

Come to the field today.

I ... am never far away.

I am the child.

The child within YOU.

Look through MY eyes....

Mag Production/Independent Study 14/10/09

2009-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Mag Production

Today we worked on our magazines

Independent Study

Having spoke to my Tutor Russ and realised that the project making a DVD might not take off in the way I was hoping it to, and this year I don't want to leave anything to risk. I needed to rethink what I would do for my independent study. Although there are many things I would love to do in a journalism career I have to be realistic about my own situation. I'm a loan parent who has CFS and the reason I started this course initially was to be able to work freelance writing for various magazines/papers on a flexible part-time basis. The other people on the course have all been in very different situations, mostly being younger and at the start of their careers, being able to put energy, freedom and youth behind their ambitions. I'm starting a new career at a time in my life where my mind isn't as viperesque as it once might have been. Basically, I'm not there anymore and have many restrictions on my time.

So, to cut a long story short, it's time to revise my expectations and go back to what I started with, working/writing freelance, part-time and flexible. In order to do so, I have to return to the areas I know best. 1)new age information 2)being an independent self-sufficient woman.

By going back to these basics I can tackle two parts of the course at once. I can use these industries to form my magazine from. I've already looked through a few women's magazines such as Marie Claire, Glamour, Cosmo, Psychologies, and new age magazines such as Re-connect, Kindred Spirit, Spirit & Destiny, Pentacle, Psychic News, Prediction, (all the p's lol) The Source, but also through various magazine sites on the web, Dennis Publishing,IPC Publishing. The site www.issuu.com is great, lots of ideas and has helped me to think about making my magazine pages look like posters with some text opposed to standard magazine lay outs. It's also helped me to think of a design theme - I call it 'pastal retro' lol. Pastel colours, but the images are quite 70's, with lots of flower symbols.

I set up a poll and have been asking people to vote on various names for the magazine, 'power of she', 'shhh', Chic Geek, Beg Me. I've also thought of Ohana which means family in Hiawian. Other ideas people have put forward are 'penny', 'independence', 'goddess', 'independent goddess'. I've offered a free reading for the winner.

Had to have a little laugh and try the virtual makeover on the Marie Claire site. http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/beauty/virtualmakeover.html

I looked terrible lol.

Managed to put a mock up page together in Magazine Production today and that was a useful start to both magazine production and the independent study.

We also went through Richard and David's rewrites of each other's articles. They were both brilliant and are very talented. I know I could never write in their witty and individual style. The standard of their work is very high and at the moment I'm feeling very down about my own abilities. Not because theirs are brilliant, it's nice to hear their take on the same work. I just feel quite lost in general with the course, mainly because of what happened last year. My confidence in my ability to write/put together articles is VERY low and probably lower than when I started the course. I feel like my abilities have gone severely backwards. Having confidence in yourself is important as sometimes it is the glue between a lack of ability and with hard work producing something spectacular.

At the moment I'm a fraud, I'm winging it and not very successfully.

Mag Production 07/10/09

2009-10-08T03:13:00.000-07:00

Design Thoughts

I've been looking through the internet for some ideas for my magazine. This year I would like to do something that is within a mainstream industry. The two areas which are obvious are women's magazines and parenting being as I'm female and a Mum :D

I've never been keen on parenting magazines they're all a bit 'toddler group' for me, some of them seem like they seem to be as if they're written for their five year old rather than the parents. Massively colourful, cluttered and crammed full of information and adverts for summer camps and childminders. Exceptionally useful, please don't get me wrong, but I don't buy them or even look at them as the whole look of it puts me off. Also, sometimes the parenting mags I've seen seem to have an underlying message - 'Be a Hockey Mom'. This catchphrase was used continually to describe Sarah Palin during the US elections. What I mean when I say this is some Mother's seem driven to be like PR agents for their kids. They (and the kids) are dressed in the best clothes, full face of make-up no matter what time of day it is, great bodies, great nails, great teeth, the kids go to Ballet, Football, Piano Lessons, Scouts. They have a full-time job, their houses are immaculate and in the latest house magazine fashion, they drive 4x4's, they throw parties for their husbands boss and clients, they holiday in Mexico and have the best ever grandparents lol. They are phenomenal women, but I don't feel they're a good role models for the modern day woman. If they are truly happy on the inside - fantastic, I'm not judging - I wish I had that kind of energy, but not that kind of life. To me it's almost a modern day version of the 50's housewife.

Looking at what type of magazine I would like to do I can feel an idea forming in my head. It's something combining, women, parenting, power, self-esteem, reality, beautiful design (if I can lol). Looking through some of the magazines on www.issuu.com (what a fab website) I want something simple, clean colours, either b/w and yellow highlights or pastels with an organic feel to it (not greens and browns) but hand sketches, lines and doodles through it.

I've started to learn photoshop, as I want to create my pages in indesign, but I want the double spreads to look almost like posters, complete pictures in their own right. I'm torn between striking and smooth, or pastel and calming.

Nothing Moves People like People Moving Together

2009-10-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

At the moment I feel a bit lost with the course. Like I'm going through the motions, but I can't find my heart in it. The last two years I was motivated, but this year I feel like I'm dragging my feet a bit. Once bitten twice shy kind of thing, but I have to get past it and find my motivation again else there is just no point.

The group project, Multi-Media, got me down last year and it's doing the same this year. I feel we've wasted two weeks of our ten weeks already. I still haven't got any real way of communicating with the group apart from Rich. Jaime's influence to stop people working with me seems to still be around the others. Tomorrow I am going to be more insistent that we agree roles or at least tasks to get on with. I'm hoping the poster has been done to advertise for people to contribute to the site. If not I'll do it myself. I'd really like to get involved with co-ordinating 'consumer content' - content sent in from site users.

I am going to try and talk to Jaime tomorrow, nothing heavy just try to get some communication going between us. If she wants to be involved with this group project I am going to make it loud and clear that this year she isn't getting rid of me.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

by Marianne Williamsonfrom A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Mag Production Pastiche 05/10/09

2009-10-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

Evaluation for Pastiche:

The idea of this piece of work is to hype up our own style. I picked this article because I actually liked the style, it wasn’t as dry as the usual articles in the Economist, plus I am intrigued by Obama and haven’t quite made my mind up about him yet. Politics is one of my weak areas, mainly as I believe that fundamentally they’re all the same and therefore have to make an effort to be interested. There’s another one of my sweeping, inaccurate, offending statements!

After reading through this and considering how I tend to work in general I recognised some key points. My work , left unchecked, is often:

v Grammatically incorrect.

v Badly researched. There are few solid statistics although the original article is full of statistics and quotes.

v I often include something of my own experience and use this to back up my point. I know little about the health system in the US or the proposed reforms, but aged 18 I was working in America teaching outdoor pursuits. I broke my toe in what I would like to say was a heroic adventure, but I was only playing volleyball. I was taken to hospital and luckily had health insurance. I wasn’t in very much pain at all, but a black pregnant woman near me was in agony. They were trying to find ‘someone’ to pay for her care as she had no insurance. They treated me first. I left after having X-Ray’s and perfect treatment about two hours later. As I passed through the waiting area I noticed the black woman was still there, still in agony. I don’t even know the whole story, she could have been an addict who regularly came in cold turkey, but I have still used this experience in my article. It is wrong to do so, for several reasons, but mainly personal opinion in an article disrupts the balance of the article and one incident proves little. If the article is not perceived to be balanced then the writers credibility could be doubted and therefore the ‘facts’ not taken as true.

v Full of strange humour, which is too subtle, and not many people ‘get’. For example I mention the ‘right-wing bangs’, this is to replace ‘right-wing fringe’ in the original article. ‘Bangs’ being a word used for a straight fringe. The article makes no other mention of hair, so it would be difficult to pick up. I sound sarcastic. This will put the reader off, especially if my articles aren’t known for style.

v Has two or more crossed themes, here I’ve crossed references to Jesus Christ with Obama. This is something I love to do, take two different concepts and mix them up and make new metaphors. I could have mixed Obama with references from the movie Grease, but I’ve chosen Jesus to mix with Obama for several reasons.

o I often offend people with non-pc writing

o The new messiah is often said to be black. There are also references to the original Jesus being black and not of Jewish origin.

o Obama came from ‘small’ beginnings, like Jesus. He speaks passionately and is able to motivate and attract huge crowds of people. His story isn’t yet told and I think that he has stirred up such a hornet’s nest within the US and will they ‘kill him if they think he’s lied’. (Jesus Christ Superstar the musical).

o Gallup and the ‘respected analyst’ are like the Apostles and Gospels of today and it made me smile. I used the word prophet for Charlie Cook as Obama claims to have lived as a Muslim. So again badly researched references to major religions, neither of which I am involved in or know very much about.

Again this isn’t a good idea if I don’t want to alienate or confuse the reader.

v I often sound ambiguous about what my opinions are. Here I start as if I disapprove of Obama, then appear to defend him half way through. Finally to discard him altogether. In my attempts to be balanced I often swing from one extreme to another rather than walk a middle line throughout the text.

Ind Study & Work Experience Diary/Tasks 02/10/09

2009-10-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

Raf was in London today and Nicki had a lunch meet, so I worked from home today from 10:00am - 2:45pm. I rang Raf and he was with Paul Haplin at Music Sales Ltd. He needed a list of publishers for a new project, so I started researching publishers who have previously published similar projects. I found several sites, but the most helpful was Amazon. I found similar titles and then clicked down to see the similar books, then clicked on each of them to find their publisher.

There were several repeated regularly, Music Sales, Wise Publications, Schott, AMSCO, Hal Leaonard, Boosey & Hawkes, Mel Bay Publishing, OUP, and Faber to name a few. I text and emailed the list as it I found the details. Raf rang a couple of times, to keep me updated. It's a work in progress.

Nicki also wants me to work on some photo's in photoshop, so I've bought 'An Idiots Guide to Photoshop' and the magazine 'Photoshop Creative', published by Image Publishing (est. 1983).

Publishers & Addresses

** = A publisher listed on Amazon which publishes Saxophone related products.

Publisher/Publication	Address & Email	Contact No’s
A&C Black Publishers **
Adams Media Corporation **
Backbeat Books **
Beckman Visual Publishing DVDs **
Berklee Press Publications **
Cherry Lane Music Co. US. **
Wise Publications Absolute Beginners Alto Sax **	N/A
Music Sales Ltd **	N/A
Shott Music GmbH&Co KG Weihergarten 5, D55116, Mainz **	info@schott-music.com 48 Great Marlborough St. London, W1F 7BB	Tel:+49 6131 246-0 Fax: +49 6131 246-211 MPA. 02075340700
Stainer & Bell’s	www.stainer.co.uk PO Box 110, Victoria House, 23 Gruneisen Rd, Lon, N3 1DZ post@stainer.co.uk	+44 020 8343 3303 Sales& Copyright. +44 020 8343 2535 Promotion, library etc.
AMSCO Music Pub.Co	All contact info seems to be protected! Can’t find anywhere
Alfred Publishing (Warner Bro’s Publishing)	www.alfred.com
Boston Music Publisher **
C.L. Barnhouse Company	editorial@barnhouse.com Send cover letter, contacts, music title. Full score file in Finale or Sibelius. A ‘live’ performance in MP3 format pref. 205 Cowan Avenue West PO Box 680, Oskaloosa, Iowa, 52577	(641) 673-8397 questions@barnhouse.com
Carl Fisher Music (Theodore Presser) Dealers:B&H	cf-info@carlfischer.com 65 Bleecker St, NY 100012	Tel: 212-777-0900
David E.Smith Publications	www.despub.com 4826 Shabbona Rd, Deckerville, MI 48427.	PH: 810/376-9055
Dover Publications Inc **
Flame Tree Publishing Co Ltd **
Words & Music **
Hal Leonard Publishing **	7777 West Bluemound Rd, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53213	414 774 3630 Fax: 414 774 3259
Jamey Aebersold Jazz	Assume publish only ‘Jameys’ work. PO Box 1244 New Albanny, IN 47151-1244 USA	Tel: 1-812-945-4281
John Wiley & Sons **
Kjos Music Company	http://www.kjos.com/index.php Neil A Kjos Music Co., Attn: Submissions, PO Box 178270, San Diego, CA92177-8270	Music for schools, Churches and private music studios.
Konemann UK Ltd **
Lorenz Publishing Company	www.lorenz.com 501 East third Street, PO Box 802, Dayton OH 45401-0802	(800) 444-1144 x 1
LTP Publishers Ltd **
Boosey & Hawkes **	Aldwych House, 71-91 Aldwych, Lon, WC2B 4HN OR: 295 Regent St, W1B 2JH. www.boosey/shop.com	020 7054 7200 OR: +44 020 7291 7255
Foils ?
Now Publishers Inc **
Mel Bay Publishing **	salesUK@melbay.com Office 512 Fortis House, 160 London Road, Barking, Essex, IG11 8BB. email@melbay.com Submissions: Attn:William A. Bay No.4 Industrial Drive, Pacific, MO 63069.	UK:020 8124 1222
Music Minus One Accompaniment Music
Prentice Hall & IBD **
Southern Music Company
The FJH Music Company	custserv@fjhmusic.com Westport Business Park, 2525 Davie Rd, Suite 360, Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33317-7424 (Frank J Hackinson) sales@fjhmusic.com	800-262-8744
Sheet Music Publishers
Harmony & Melody Studio
Too Smart Publications
Oxford University Press **	custserv.us@oup.com Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street Oxford, OX2 6DP	(44 1865) 556-767
United Music Publishers	www.umusicpub.com 2440 Speulveda Blvd, Suite 220, Los Angeles, CA 90064	310-235-4700
Universal Music Publishing Group UK	ukpublishing@music.com www.universalmusicpublishing.com 20 Fulham Broadway, Lon, SW6 1AH	020 7835 5200 Fax: 020 8752 2601
Chester Music
Trevor James & Co
Universal Edition
CPP/Belwin	www.alfred.com
Sanctuary Publishing Ltd **
ABRSM Publishing (part of Musicsales group) Examining Board	Musicroom. info@musicroom.com	+44 01284 725725
Camden Music	info@camdenmusic.com 85 Waldegrave Park, Twickenham, TW1 4TJ, UK	UK: 020 8744 9005 Fax: 020 8607 9536
Studio Music London	sales@studio-music.co.uk www.studio-music.co.uk Cadence House, Eaton Green Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU2 9LD	+44 01582 432139 0800 389 2484
Chappell Music	www.alfred.com
Novello
Scarecrow Press
Summy Birchard Inc **
Faber Music Ltd **
Wadsworth Publishing Co **
Registry Publications Ltd **

Multi-Media Group Project

2009-09-29T07:14:00.001-07:00

29/09/09 - This week there were four of us David, Mary, Richard and I. We talked a lot about the concept of the website and what it would contain. We looked at the Connexions website, GCSE bigbites, NASA and a film review site.

We discussed the audience - I felt we should aim it at 18-29 yr olds rather than 16-25 for two reasons. 1) If we include the under 18's will this restrict our content. It would only take one mistaken article/comment on the website to put us in trouble. I looked at the Exeter City Council website which includes local demographics. The site suggested that in Exeter we have a high proportion of this age, group, that they are mainly the one's working or are students. As the theme of our project is Work, Rest & Play I feel this age group would be more likely to show an interest in the website.

As the discussion progressed I felt we could fall into the danger of making the project all about the website rather than it's content and concept. I mentioned the Headliners website which is a website for 'young people aged 8-18 produce articles on issues that are important to themselves, but of interest to everyone'. http://www.headliners.org/

We briefly talked about using consumer content. This element really excites me. I think it would not only be great to include content from other freelance journalists/students and local people, but would also fit better with the idea of interactive multi-media. We cannot make all the content ourselves and if we were doing this for real, it would be an impossible task to go out research the features and make them quick enough to keep a floating audience interested. I say floating as I feel people rarely stay loyal to a website unless it grabs their interest or has something entertaining or useful to them on an ongoing basis. The success of social-media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Twitter seems to be about the ease of communicating with the wider world and friends about what people are, what they like, what they want to share, what they need. This is why this element of the project excites me as it appears to be part of a new and growing industry at a time when most industry's (such as print media) are failing due to the 'credit crunch'.

It was interesting to note that two of the small, but long term businesses we interviewed about Princesshay last year have closed down (Clayhanger/Orange Blossom) and the other has been taken over by an international company Ranstad (Calibre Recruitment). Most businesses are moving their shop-fronts online. Even the local driving school Elliscars which has been next to the central station for around twenty years has closed the 'recently refurbished' office and moved to online bookings.

If our project was real we couldn't afford to make a website which is just a 'shop front' for entertainment and information. I feel in order to make it a success and used regularly we need to make it as interactive and consumer-led/contributed to as possible. By having the 'publics' content published on the website it means that each piece of work/photo etc will be automatically advertised to probably at least another five people. If they were then able to share this information with the social networking sites, this number is then infinitely multiplied. At the moment I have 163 friends on my facebook account. This is a relatively small number as I restrict my friends to people I have actually met/know or spoken to. Looking through my friends the person with the least friends has 63, the person with the most friends has 1108 friends, but most people appear to have 200-600 friends.

If I was to share one article/photo with all of my friends and then ask them and their friends to go to the website perhaps half of them would do it and another half would pass it onto their friends who would also do it. That is approximately 81+40 =121 people advertised to 'virally'. When you take into account groups on facebook which I also feel we should double up and make another copy of the site for a group on each of the networking sites, the hit rate could reach 1000 people.

Jaime arrived at 11:30pm and we then drew a 'tree' diagram on an A1 piece of paper of the site, what areas it would include, how many pages it would have.

We have the main areas work, rest and play, but as it's only a first draft, I feel the site is wishy washy. It will have an article on what the best festivals were this year, how to get work at a festival. A video of a cook-off between David and Jaime for 'Cooking on a Budget'. Jobs, Gap Year, Photo Competition.

My concerns: I feel we are going about it the wrong way. I feel we should agree a 'statement' for the website - What is it about? Why is it there? What do we want to offer, service/entertainment/magazine? If we agreed this it would help us to decide content and what content to ask for from other people. At the moment it feels like the project is about the website rather than the fact it is a vehicle to display work/information/photo's etc for public viewing.

We agreed to do a poster to put up, which will invite students/journalists to contribute to the site - allowing them a place to publish their work. This will enable us to fill the whole site, rather than having unfilled holes which looks unprofessional. David, Mary and Jaime disappeared at the end of the session I assume to produce the poster.

I have asked each of them for contact details (emails/mobiles) which they are not willing to give. Richard and I talked about communicating through facebook as there's a problem with me. He has added me as a friend and he said he set up a group which he's invited the others to join. It will be very difficult for me to break into the group work if I am unable to contact anyone. Jaime is still not speaking to me at all, which Mary and David appear to be falling in with as they all went to the same school and live in Ottery, but I hope the childishness will not continue.

The group did not wish to split the project up into jobs - deja vu - so this week we're to research job roles and come back to the group with what roles we think we'll need. I've already done this as I thought it would be a good thing to agree those things today. Next week is hopefully good enough, but I am worried it will become too late and we'll all be panicking to get things done at the last minute. I need to ensure everything I need to do is done early. Hopefully this year it will be easier as we're not making ONE video the main element to go on the website. I am hoping this will allow me some space to make some creative decisions about multi-media products to include podcasts/video vox pops/quick how to's.

Richard was an absolute star. He started the session having produced a complete schedule of what we'll have to do over the coming weeks and I hope he is one of the people chosen for Editor as he has a very logical mind and is obviously quite efficient.

Ind Study & Work Experience Diary/Tasks

2009-09-29T06:25:00.001-07:00

28/09/09 - I met with Raf and Nicky today from 12-3pm regarding what and if we could help each other out. They are such nice, down to earth people I quickly forgot he's a huge celebrity and fell back into an old role of getting down to the job.

We sat and he told me about his new projects. I had already listened to the new single 'And a Little Child Shall Lead' and read the book 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho before we met today, so I had a feel for the essence of the project.

http://thealchemistthemusic.com/

http://www.reverbnation.com/RaphaelRavenscroft

We talked for a long while and he showed me some of the beautiful music he's done. The film-makers Harvey Weinstein are to make the film for 'The Alchemist' and Raf, having already met with them, hopes to be given the contract to produce the music to go with the film.

http://www.zoom-in.com/film-tv/news/the-weinstein-company-to-bring-the-international-best-selling-novel-the-alchemist-to-the-big-screen

He has already completed a first 'draft' of the music, but wishes to redo some of the music to make it even more authentic to the regions discussed in the book throughout North Africa, Egypt etc. Very exciting stuff. The amount of work involved is huge and I felt wowed with all that could be done and who was involved, Virgin/EMI etc.

We then talked about the possibility of an e-book/DVD and a new publication.

Raf and Nicki explained it very well and I had to boil it down to what I could practically do to help. My knowledge of the music industry is zero, so it will be a steep learning curve.

From my viewpoint it seems there is some initial work to do with the administration/record keeping etc. So, I offered to work for them two days a week from 10am - 2:30pm to get the ball rolling.

TASK 1. I offered to set up and reconnect with all his contacts and let them know he's about.

TASK 2. Set up a system to find DJ's who would play this type of music, who runs their playlists and at what time of day. Then ring/email/post CDs to all of the major DJ's to get the single on their playlist, so it may have a chance to be in the charts for Christmas.

TASK 3. Follow up all the DJ's/Stations systematically and get feedback about the CD and why they're not playing it, should this be the case.

TASK 4. Get all the 'finished' works into a hard-copy CD library in their home.

TASK 5. Three quotes for the filming of the DVD - I spoke briefly to Til who thought it might be around £1,500 for one day's shooting and two days editing, but need to get the quotes.

TASK 6. Chase all the royalty's from other work Raf has done.

TASK 7. Intellectual property. How do you secure it/copyright it? Find out.

The main aim initially seems to be to get 'out there' start publicising the work and bring in some income to fund the major project - which I don't want to put too much about in a blog just yet.

I have contacted two friends who know people in the music industry, to see if I can speak to them for some advice. I've one number of a woman called Fleur who is married to a 'pop-star' and another friend Patsy who will speak to Alistair who's 'in the business'. It may come to nothing, but I feel any advice I can get has got to help.

Since speaking to Raf and Nicki I had another thought which could bring in some money in the meantime and is not limited to the season.

JOB X . Contact Kindred Spirit with a pitch and ask what they would pay for an article about Raf's spiritual journey following 'The Alchemists' trail and perhaps a meditation CD to give away free on the front of their mag? I feel we could put this together easily, it would be the costs of production to consider. I could write the article which would allow me to be published.

As an aside, one of the elements I really like about this project is the fact that the music/project will cross religious barriers and get people from separate cultures working together in one project - ie. music. In effect the governments of the countries involved in the film and where the tour will take place have declared war on each other - Christian's and Muslim's. It always makes me sad to think of people waring over 'religion'. I can see the point in making a stand for the right to believe in whatever anyone wants to, but not to fight just because we believe in different things.

Work Experience

The work experience element of my project can be covered in three weeks with Raf and Nicki by doing the two days a week.

D&C Police.

I have contacted the D&C Police Press Office and asked them for a week/two of work experience to compliment the work I have already done.

Med Theatre

I have completed my work experience with the Med Theatre producing a booklet to advertise their website. I contacted Wendy Brooking and she is happy to complete paperwork for the course.

1st Day back at Uni

2009-09-22T04:35:00.000-07:00

I generally use facebook for everything including notes, but I did start a blog on this last year, so I've set it up for all my notes to pump through to facebook too. Anyone wishing to comment/give feedback please feel free.

Til's lesson 'Multi-media' we were set the task of 'again' completing a group project. We were all sent away for half an hour to discuss what we wanted to do. Dave and Jaime went to the bank and Richard and I went to the College Cafe. We discussed the sorts of things we'd like to do with the project and/not want to do. It's no secret that there were problems with the previous year. Dave returned and we talked about perhaps doing an interactive DVD or a game. I said I didn't feel we had the time or the skills to be able to achieve a game, but a DVD sounded good. Jaime then came back from the Bank. I asked what do we want our target audience to be, the other three were keen on, 'young people'. I asked if that meant 16-25 yr olds as that is what Connexions class as young people and it may be nice to tie in with them. As an after thought I wonder if we should make it 18-25 in case having under 18s restricts any of our content.

Jaime wants to cover 'fun things and music'. Richard talked about study and travel/gap year. I mentioned the element about work and welfare, as not every 16-25 is having it easy or going along a conventional route in life. I mentioned that perhaps we could each take an area and do all we need for each area. So that we are able to do useful research and some work alone without having to rely on the group, but also to get chance to commission people to help film/photograph/record audio etc for our areas of interest, should we need to. I feel this is a big mistake the last group made and contributed to the quarrels and back-biting which ensued. Til also mentioned this when we returned to class and we're all to bring in ideas for roles and their salary within industry each one could expect.

Hierarchically there are two ways we could go.

1) an Editor - someone who takes group consultation, but with the power to have overall say for the look and content of the site/project. Then each of us are like team leaders for our own area, commissioning others to help with filming/audio/photography, but the content for our area is directed by us (again in discussion with the Editor). OR

2) we have an Editor - each of us has a role or roles (as there's only 4/5 of us), for example filming, writing,research,text,photography,interviewing, editing,web-site input and management etc.

3) we have a 'collective' approach, no leader and we agree as a group what each of us is to contribute, then we go away and do it - with regular meetings to ensure each of us are on track and not having problems which will later hold up the project.

I feel that we must have a leader/Editor of some sort from day one, not just because of the problems last year, but this is a task focused project with a deadline. This is how it would work in industry - so it is how I feel it would be best to work in the group. There are drawbacks for some people, one person has final decision, so there is little room for ego. The person who is the leader is probably in for a shed load of grief which s/he may not want whilst trying to get other modules of the course finished at the same time.

We also discussed how we could get enough content for a site - eg. customer participation, photo competitions etc.

HOMEWORK:

Research multi-media - what does it mean?

Research roles for the group and current salaries?

Research if in-design can be launched made up as a web-page?

Research different ways/programmes to create a website .. dreamweaver, indesign etc?

Do a short case-study for a website we like the look of.

Research which platforms we could aim product to which would reach 18-25 yr olds.

Set up a possible schedule to ensure all tasks are completed on time.

Tree diagram for website headings/content etc.

Just a few things then .. and it's only our first lecture lol. !!

Second lecture was with Russ, work based learning, based in the Metro Centre. This used to be where people could update their CV and IT skills, but I don't know if they've left and it's now leased by Exeter College. Must find out.

Anyway, good news, no real work until next week. Bad news, so many things to do to prepare for the work that got to start now anyway. We're meeting tomorrow to discuss, 'Where we want to be in a years time - education/work?' and ... something else I've forgotten now and will refer to notes lol. Also forgot to ask Russ if we can use In-Design to put a website together. I've put a note on facebook for Mary to say we're meeting at 10am Bostons.

Work experience:

Although I did do some work experience last year I've lost contact with the person I was working with, so will have to see if I can locate her and get her to fill out the w/exp forms for me.

HOMEWORK:

Get in touch with D&C PR Office - w/exp.

E&E - w/exp.

D/County Council PR poss, but I don't fancy this particularly.

Email Pheonix Centre again - w/exp.

In other news:

Well... lol. What can I say. Good and bad.

When conflict has arisen in the past I've often been known to ignore it - let it be - it'll sort itself out or in extreme cases such as last year withdrawn myself from the whole situation. I can't always change how people react to or treat me, but I have the choice to withdraw from the situation altogether, which in the past on this course I have had to do.

I have been told today that someone on the course who is also repeating their second year has told everyone they, 'Can't stand me'. Day 1 ... Nice. So it appears the swords are already drawn and at least I am under no illusion as to what the rest of the course members now think of me lol. I withdrew last year without a fight, without getting my side of the story in or defending my innocence and thought, with the health issues I was having at the time, it would be best for ALL concerned if I just wasn't there. Now, it seems I will be made to deal with that scenario once and for all. For my part, I will do my best to heal the 'rift' and not let it interfere with my studying or anyone else, but I will fight for my right to be on the course and pass this year without being marginalised.

In summary, my lesson for today is: deal with conflict at the time it arises. Fight (mentally/emotionally) for your position as hard as you can with everything you can, because even if you lose the fight it will then be done and finished. It does not matter if you win or lose, just that you fight. If you side step an issue/withdraw without fighting for yourself, karmically you will be given that lesson again.

Getting Back To It :D

2009-09-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

Had fantastic news, I'm back to Uni part-time from Monday hopefully. So will have an income to supplement my main job lol.

I've lost 5lbs this week, so I'm chuffed about that too. Although it's like taking a drop of water OUT of the ocean lol. Onwards and up/downwards ha.

Anyway, this is just a quick spike to get the ball rolling again.

Luv, light and laughter. Ju x

Pledge blind allegiance to certainty to feel safe, or embrace uncertainty and FLY

2009-01-23T17:30:00.001-08:00

I am a fusion of thoughts today.

I started out working on some multimedia stuff ... typing in some research I'd done ages ago, but not added. It's been quite an emotional challenge this week. I've been accused of accusing others of 'bullying' me. In a lot of ways this is utterly hilarious, but you'd have to know me a lot longer to know why.

The strangest part of it is I haven't accused anyone of anything. I spoke in confidence (ha) to three people from Uni about issues in the group. Each one of them tried to tell me I was being bullied, but I told all of them, regardless of panic attacks I didn't feel I was being bullied. However, one or maybe all of these people have taken it into their own hands to misinform group members and say I have called them bullies.

So, without judge or jury I was sent to 'coventry', which actually is bullying. The best part of it (considering the course we're all on) is not one of the accused have asked me for my side of the story or tried to find out the facts. It's hilarious. However, as I seemed to have played the role of devil's advocate in this group the exclusion is text-book behaviour. Groups who have formed as a team in the way we did tend to stereotype those who appear opposed to any of the group decisions as 'weak, evil, disfigured, impotent or stupid'.

More importantly it has been valuable for me to be involved in a text-book example of Bruce Tuckman's model of group development. On a personal level I been reminded of one of my inner strengths, the ability to be an individual during times of conflict, 'like a sheep that's run the herd ... marching out of time'. I still don't lose sleep over whether I'm liked or not. Instead of feeling bullied as I'm 'supposed to' I feel freedom and a release from having to conform to the judgmental ridgity of the group norm.

The experience of working in this intense way has given me preparation for working as a freelance journalist. It can be a lonely job, working long hours alone, moving from one group of people to the next.

Final Note: Being part of a group can sometimes offer security, but can also be stifling. Being excluded from a group means never having to compromise unless you choose to. Now we are finished I don't have to worry about the 'group politics' or 'dynamics' again. I have traded certainty for uncertainty and the latter is (surprisingly) a happier place to be.

Second Meet 28th October 2008

2008-12-22T17:26:00.001-08:00

Well..

The End

2008-12-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

Be happy till your heart bursts

Cry till your socks are soaked and.....

When you feel the blood of your ancestors dance inside your veins...

You'll know you're home.

Julia O'Shaughnessy

Tribal Journalist

Filming Day 1

2008-12-01T23:31:00.000-08:00

Today is Monday and a bit like the Boom Town Rats - "I don't like Monday's"*1, but today we booked to go out and interview Sean Nicholls the owner of Clayhanger for the short 'Princesshay' film at 2pm so I had to get with the enthusiasm asap.

I got into Charlies lesson a little late after trouble at the school (funnily enough). Long story short, my son's being bullied by three boys and after eight weeks it's got beyond a joke. Politicial correctness has gone/come so far it's like the binding and tape around everyone's mouth. As I'm typing I wish I was a great photographer, because I would have a kid covered in bruises with it's hands and mouth bound with yellow and black tape (the type they use for murder scenes) and the black writing would say political correctness. Above it the words 'the little c that killed me'. Is it going to take my son being bounced off the floor and sent to hospital or worse before a school is 'allowed' to do anything. They even offered me counselling for my son! "We can't stop the bullying, but we can offer your son counselling to deal with the symptoms of our incompetence". Anywho, moving on....

Weather has been great for filming, sunny,bright and only a little cold. We collected the equipment. Camera, dog mic, radio mic, small light to fit on camera. We decided against the heavy light as we would be dragging it around town and had planned to do interviews on the street anyway.

The first interview we went to was with Sean Nicholls, the owner of Clayhanger. A great guy, James and I met him a few months ago when we were trying to sell advertising for the Flying Post. He had given us some fairly controversial views about Princesshay and we were hoping he might repeat some of them in his interview. James contacted him and booked the interview and also put together some questions for him. I was quite nervous with this interview. For some reason I was worried it would all be over in a few minutes and we wouldn't have got the sound bites we wanted.

It was decided that all interviewers would not be seen on the DVD, so I stood to the right of the camera, but out of shot. Sean was as talkative and friendly as before and gave us a great sound bite about Princesshay being, The crown of Exeter, but Gandy Street being the Jewel'. He also brought up some interesting angles to follow up on- Council signposting to Princesshay rather than Gandy Street, refuse collection and cleaning resources being concentrated in the Princesshay area and less on Gandy Street. From the mess in the small street and ripped bags of rubbish it was easy to see he wasn't exaggerating about the refuse collection.

After the interview James stayed to get some shots. I had decided this morning to nip into a recruitment agency as I had previously rung Westward Training and Personnel who said they couldn't speak to the media and also the Job Centre who said there was a two week waiting list and all requests had to be emailed to head office. We didn't have the time to wait, so I went around to Calibre Recruitment to see if they would give us an interview. I previously worked in recruitment and Mandy Pitts one of the owners was there and remembered my name. We chatted for a bit and then I asked if she would give us an interview on the effect of recruitment in the city following the introduction of Princesshay. She was happy to come and talk. I wrote some brief questions, but mainly asked questions on the hoof. Before I went back in we set up the shot and decided to include the business name in the shot to make it more interesting. We filmed introduction pieces of myself walking into Calibre or talking with Sean Nicholls to show whilst the interview is being introduced by James on the DVD.

I chased up the Press Office for Devon County Council to see if we could interview someone from there and they said we could interview Margarette Rodgers a Councillor who would be at the Exeter City Offices on Tuesday for a meeting. We will meet her at 4:30pm on Tuesday as she has a Traffic meeting at 4:45pm. Only fifteen minutes, but I feel if we get there early and set up we can just shoot with the questions and get it all in.

For some reason it has been a long day. Even though we had appointments booked and squeezed in an extra one, I felt a bit like walking on egg shells, but I'm not entirely sure what that's about. One member of the team was very quiet and said very little to me if I spoke to them. Because of the silence I wasn't sure if they were unhappy because I now had an 'interviewer' role or if something very personal was going on? Who knows, the good thing was that at last I felt like we were actually getting there. I just wanted to squeeze in more filming so we could get a lot done while we were on a role. However, I've always been a keen person when it comes to task orientated work, I like to get it done and out of the way. Which is good, but not so much when you need to time it right and film at a point when it will fit with what else you've recorded.

o
*1 - Boom Town Rats a seventies band who's success was overshadowed by the lead singer, Bob Geldof's, charity work. In 1979, "I Don't Like Mondays", was released. This was written in response to a school shooting in California by Brenda Ann Spencer, and also reached #1 in the UK.

There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed

2008-11-19T15:27:00.001-08:00

If you are in any doubt who the people accused of baby p's demise are please follow:

http://pysih.com/2008/11/17/steven-barker-jason-owen-tracey-connolly/

If I take Kenny Roger's advice it looks like it's time to 'hold em'. I've been signed off for a couple of weeks - fatigue or something equally as undiagnosible and unaccountable. But, it is accurate in one way - I'm tired, dog tired.

Stuff like this Baby P thing really gets to me. The systems and institutions in this country,paid VERY GOOD money to ensure the vulnerable are protected, are failing. It takes some poor tortured baby to grab the public's attention to cry for justice.

I had a message from a friend today (a social worker) saying, 'Remember you have to be realistic about your ability to bring about change'. This man's a good man, but the comment has enraged me. I wrote back, "Remember- man has achieved the most when he has taken the constrictions of 'what is realistically possible' away". It seems to me the demise of mankind is near when Joe Blogs starts to think only in terms of 'what is realistic'. People around the world are dying everyday for what they believe in, to bring about change. I don't think we always realise how lucky we are to even have the option of believing in 'realism'.

Realistically I need a rest. I feel like I've travelled 1000 miles and forgotten why I started the journey in the first place, but as Bob Marley allegedly said, "The people who make this world worse never take a day off. So how can I".

Hence I'm writing my blog when I'm not really in a frame of mind to be writing anything.

There's time enough for counting

2008-11-17T23:20:00.000-08:00

On a warm summers evening on a train bound for nowhere, I met up with a gambler, we were both too tired to sleep. So we took turns a staring out the window at the darkness till boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

He said, "Girl I've made a life out of readin peoples faces, and knowing what their cards were by the way they held their eyes. So if you don't mind my sayin, I can see you're out of aces. For a taste of your whiskey I'll give you some advice".

So I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow. The he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light. The night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression. Said, "If you're gonna play the game, gal, ya gotta learn to play it right".

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away and know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin at the table. There'll be time enough for counting when the dealin's done".

"Now every gambler knows that the secret to survivin is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep, cause every hands a winner and every hands a loser, and the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep".

So when he'd finished speaking, he turned towards the window, crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep. Somewhere in the darkness the gambler, he broke even, but in his final words i found an ace that I could keep.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold em,

Know when to walk away, know when to run.

You never count your money when you're sitting at the table.

There'll be time enough for counting when the dealin's done.

I woke this morning with this song pounding in my head and couldn't get rid of it. There's obviously something my sub-concious is trying to tell me. The course is really hard at the moment and it's tired past exhausted. Hopefully, it's time to hold 'em not time to run away. I guess we'll see. 'Something's a foot' .....

The last straw - Up to my hubs in mud !!

2008-11-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

I'm so FED UP. If I'd have known I'd spend the end of the day up to my elbows in mud I wouldn't have gone out. haha

I was dropped back to my car at 5pm tonight, at the time, feeling pleased. I'd faced the music this morning in my first lecture about uncomplete homework. Since returning to College my son's been a nightmare. He won't go to sleep until late, he's whingy, demanding, needy and I'm absolutely worn out with it all. He's not in the wrong - he's only got one parent - he's entitled to say 'Hey Mum, I'm kinda priority here'. Yet I feel stretched so energetically thin and torn. I physically cannot do everything I have to do at the moment. I can't get my homework finished because of my son's behaviour, I'm not a good Mum at the moment because I'm desperately trying to multi-task when he should be getting my attention, his friends at school are ahead of him because their parents are able to dedicate real time to them. I couldn't feel worse.

When considering my son's Father as a parent, 'waste of space' comes to mind. Yet if you met him, you'd like him more than me. He's able to get on with anyone, he works with young vulnerable teenagers who have gone off the rails, he's cool, women fall at his feet, he's tough - not many people who would mess with him and he's pulling his own life together after a couple of bad years of bad luck. BUT, as a parent he's useless, he doesn't see his son, he doesn't contribute to his son's upbringing in any way, shape or form and I feel so sad for my son, deep inside.

Anyway, back to the day, after two really interesting lectures (on celebrity culture/Obama and interviewing techniques) a friend from the course and I popped to the Imperial for lunch. The Imperial is one of those weird pubs without music, but it sells cheap beer from 9am every morning and it's always packed. There were no parking spaces so, I plonked my car on a verge and went for lunch.

During lunch we planned to visit Phonic FM. They were looking for people interested in helping provide voice packages. I've emailed a woman called Jenna and a guy called Aaron twice to see if they wanted any free help, but it's not what your offering it's who you know. A guy on our course is friendly with the Chairman through football and he gave us the right name to contact. We went along and he was great - really helpful. Then came the first lesson of the day, he said, "Shame you didn't come along yesterday we needed someone to interview Kate Aidie". Kate Adie, the Kate Adie, KATE ADIE - just one of the reasons I even wanted to be a journalist was in WH Smith yesterday and I could have been the one interviewing her!! If I'd followed up my emails sooner I could have been talking to and interviewing one of my heroines. Oh well, let that be a lesson, I'm gutted.

Anyway, the day wasn't all lost we'd made a good contact with Phonic FM and made ourselves known to them. I'd handed in two pieces of work to College on time, so I went back to the car to lick my wounds.

I get into the car, figure the grass is a bit wet, better reverse out slowly, but what I hadn't banked on was that the whole lawn area's been re-turfed in the last couple of days and my car had sunk. Anyone with half a brain-cell would have noticed this before 5pm on a dark autumnal night.

PANICK, no DON'T PANICK... DANG! Lots of beefy, rugby playeresque guys came down the road - phew saved... NO! I'm not a size zero blonde and the damsel in distress look didn't work. Not even one offer of help. To be fair I probably look more like I should be in the scrum, not cheerleading by their side. I could probably bench press more than some of them anyway, but that's just not the point. I'm so independent sometimes and was determined to get myself out of the mud. Finding rocks/sticks I stuffed them by the front-wheels to try to get out. Even though it was front wheel drive, the hill was just too steep I'd get within inches of the road like a politician it would spin spin spin.

Hopeless, no-one to call, got to get back for my son within the hour, I know nothing about cars or getting them out of the mud and the more I try to get out, the more the stupid thing buried itself like a mad mole on vodka, Red Bull.

Anyhow, long story short I have parents who are silent hero's. Dad left work, brought rope and he and I pulled me and the car out of the mud. Mum picked up my son. So, apart from being covered head to toe in mud ha, as always, it was alright in the end. :)

The Offensive Truth: Remembrance Sunday

2008-11-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

In a week where we see the first black president elected, on the day three Islamic militant men were put in front of a firing squad and executed (for the October 12th,2002 Bali bombings) and during the two minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday - Truth seems a good subject to think about.

Why does the truth offend?

I have always been someone who believes in truth and felt safe in the fact that my truth has been based on facts and often been close to the actual truth. Lately, I have on occasion been wrong and come to question that safety. Trying to get into Journalism 'the truth' seems an important area to explore in myself, people and the world. Have people created truth? or is truth something we are trying to grasp a hold of? If we go down the line that everybodys truth is different then how can there be any truth? What is truth? Is it fact, reality, commonly held belief, certainty?

The Oxford English and Cambridge Dictionaries record truth to mean ...

1 the quality or state of being true

2 (also the truth) that which is true as opposed to false (mmm helpful)

3 a fact or belief that is accepted as true. 4 the facts about a situation, place or person.

A fact is defined as ... Something which is known to have happened or to exist, especially something for which proof exists, or about which there is information.

So even the Dictionary doesn't, for me, exactly define truth - even fact uses that which is known, going back to the truth being something the human race holds within itself. For example climate change - 'global warming' either is or isn't happening to this planet, people are desperately trying to prove it either way. The truth we know today will be different to the truth we know in 50 years time. So even what we define as facts or truth are not always accurate when put under the test of time. After all, the world used to be flat.

So back to why does the truth offend...

The truth has consequences (good or bad). It can be used to allocate blame or show the darker side of society/a person. Sometimes the truth offends because it can expose people or their illusions, what they have done or said. The truth defends action and opinion.

Regardless of its positivity or negativity the truth asks us to change our thoughts and behaviour. Is it wrong to kill? My mind says yes, but I am behind and support the brave men and women who have fought and are fighting in HM Forces. If we say it is wrong to kill where does that leave our soldiers fighting and dying in wars abroad?

Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. said, "You can only find truth if you seek it for yourself, for the truths of history are the truths of others. But truth is like a mirage in the desert. For us, the task is not to chase the truth, but to create it. Truth is a stance, an act of power that you bring to all your actions. Truth is what the person of knowledge brings to every moment".

http://www.thefourwinds.com/about-alberto-villoldo.htm

This isn't meant to be conclusive, just a few thoughts. In the main, all I can conclude is the truth seems ever changing and all I can do is to strive to ensure the information I hold as my truth is as informed as it can be at the time and encourage those who enforce, report or print the truth to do the same.

A last note on truth ...

be careful what you think, it can become what you know,

be careful what you know, it can become what you say,

be careful what you say, it can become what you do,

be careful what you do, it becomes your destiny.

Weblinks to online dictionaries:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5114539.ece

(Execution just after Midnight, Java. Nov 9th, 2008. Just after 5pm UK. Nov 8th, 2008)

www.askoxford.com/?view=uk

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

AM Project Meeting 04/11/08 Thoughts

2008-11-06T04:24:00.001-08:00

We actually got together for our second meeting last Tuesday. We met at the Imperial, a quietish pub without music and the only one that has round tables. A good mix as, it's only my perception, but people seemed to be a bit wary. After all the emails that have been flooding round I was interested to see how the day would pan out.

We waited for about half an hour for people to arrive, get drinks, order food etc - all the usual necessities. Then eventually dived right in. There was no agenda, but it seemed to flow fairly well.

I haven't really been able to work it out, but there's been some awkwardness in the group. When the group task was announced I thought, 'Oh No, we'll never get it together to agree on anything'. As the time progressed on people have really worked at trying to get along. Some have quite a strong view of how the final product should look, but this hasn't been explored properly at present.

Back to the meeting... after some pussy footing around we got to the one of the 'Elephants in the room'. For anyone who hasn't heard this it just means a huge issue which everyone can see yet no-one mentions because no-one wants to talk about it or have confrontation.

The elephant.. whether we have one narrator telling the whole story or whether we have a narrator and some presenters. This has been a huge issue for some reason. One person does not want presenters at all, other people only want certain people to present and some people want everyone to present.

My interest has been what are the real issues behind this. We have had conflict because there are two agenda's to making the documentary: we have different priorities when we all have to gain equal input into the documentary than if we were just making a good documentary. Some people don't want to be in it, but want to be able to hand the recording to a future employer and say, 'look this is partly my work'. For my part I'm probably seen as an overweight, middle-aged mum not unlike Dawn French and I can understand that If you want to present your product to a young music magazine or programme - the fat lady singing is not going to get you the job. I do understand this point of view, but the other part of me rebels at the prejudice. Needless to say I didn't opt for a presenters role in this instance and bowed out of it as I couldn't stand anymore of the awkwardness. I have the independent study to complete this part with.

Prior to the meeting one of the group emailed everyone and suggested myself for Editor, but it wasn't brought up at the meeting. I am happy to be a team player, so it makes no real odds.

Agreed elements:

Deb - Farmers Market

Jaime - Vox pops

James - Independent Stores & Shops

Steve - Independent Stores & Shops

Luke - Devon County Council

Initially I agreed to do an element on Princesshay, this was soon cut up and boiled down to organising an interview with Land Securities. This interview is significant because up till now it is known that Land Securities don't give interviews and it couldn't be filmed till the end of the project because we need all the other information before we can go to interview. The long and short is I ended up with an interview at the end of the project which may never happen.

I would point out at this point that these are my feelings, I am entitled to them, but I may not be correct in my assumptions of how others have thought or acted.

I went to the toilet to have a think ... why do we do that, perhaps it's being closer to water or just needing a bit of privacy or something . I decided I wouldn't be left in a situation where I felt marginalised. So, I came back and said I'll do an interview with the Job Centre, a local training provider and a recruitment agency. I feel whether Exeter has gained jobs from the Princesshay project is an important point.

We spoke about the website. I mentioned including methodology - 'How we did it'. This seemed to be taken as a good idea.

The meeting went on for approximately two hours. We agreed to have a narrator - James and two presenters - Steve and Deborah. There was some discussion about what to film and when (see minutes 04/11/08).

All seemed to leave happy.

All Subjects Update Writers Block

2008-11-06T04:19:00.000-08:00

When I wasn't doing this course I would often put fingers to keyboard and write, comment on the web, send emails etc. Now I have actually got what I wanted - to be learning how to be journalist I can't write a thing.

I have writers block today, I'm not being lazy - I really want to get on with some homework and write some articles, but each time I sit down to do it either nothing comes out or I spend time floating from emails to the internet re-reading the tasks and feeling completely overwhelmed with what we have to do not just this year, but what I have to do before I return to college in four days time. I feel like I can't do it and instead of starting something I'm procrastinating. Even opting to do my blog rather than some work. Time to get on with it....

A Death,an Interview and a Move

2008-10-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

The 16th of October was one of those days...

Texting on MSN with a friend at 1am about her Father having a seizure and waiting for news while finishing homework due in 8hours - a rewrite of a review on Artspaces (a space for Artists in the city). I finished the rewrite, put my son's uniform in the tumble-dryer and went to bed unaware of how the day would unfold.

The usual desperate rush to get pack lunches ready, dress and get Cai to the childminder ensued and I drove into town. At 8:30am my Father rang to say my friends Father had died in the night (they worked together). I heard the hitch in his voice and my heart sank. I could feel the emotion of his workplace bleeding down the phone and we cut the call short so I could ring my friend. I'm supposed to be a journalist and yet I couldn't find words appropriate. Actions speak louder than words because actions convey true emotion when words seem to float in an empty space of insincerity. Useless was how I felt, useless to help a friend. So I rang. Bumbled my way through, offering the usual words bereft of hope and promises of help. My friend was strong in a way I'll never be able to be when the same day comes to me.

With wet eyes I got to class and Russ, our Tutor was waiting with a mission. "In twenty-five minutes you'll all (six of us) be interviewing Rapheal Ravenscroft, go and get equipment and information to support you through this press conference".

For those of you who can't place the name-the undeniably fantastic saxophone piece in Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street' is one of this man's creations. Part of Pink Floyd, played with Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, ABBA, Ray Charles - his My Space 'friends' reads like a who's who of musicians. So, although I'm somewhere on the second cousin's' guest list for Cliff Richard it's safe to say Rapheal has to be the biggest name I've met so far.

They all say 'he was really down to earth', but I've got to repeat it - he's really down to earth and it was great to briefly get to know the man behind the sax. (Full article and photo's to be posted at a later date).

We all went to the Angel pub and toasted our good fortune to meet such a lovely guy and then came a text. 'Hi it's Wayne, the house has gone through - you're moving!'. Yes! To a three bed house in a village near Exeter, next to water with a massive garden. The day was complete. A full gambit of emotions from helplessness, to awe, to joy and an amount of guilt that it all should happen on the same day as my friend's Father's death.

So I collected my son from the childminder, gave him the biggest hug, went home, left the TV off and sat to read with him.

It's strange how life works with its constant reminders of priorities, should we chose to listen.

Last thought:

A good medium will tell you:

- acknowledge and appreciate the important

and non-important people in your life everyday,

THEN, you will never have the need to see someone like me -

Love and laughter to you all. x

The first step....

2008-10-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

One day you wake up and everything's the same except you. You still love the same people, you still have the same things except you've woken up. Finally, you've put the star shaped peg in a star shaped hole and you realise if YOU don't do something you'll just burst.

This happened to me....

I've always imagined spiritual awakenings to come on a golden chariot led by a herd of white horses after standing on one leg and fasting for forty days, but not mine. I was parping around, picking things off the floor, thinking about the usual trash that scoots round our brains: food shopping; my social diary and how did that black mark get on the carpet, when a voice came from nowhere. A deep voice said, "The tribes must regroup".

As if I'd been hit in the chest with a concrete block I stood stunned. Wondering what it was and what it meant I couldn't move for the chills still spilling up and down my spine. The voice was so loud, so undisputable that it woke me out of a 36 year sleep. I couldn't work out what the message meant, just that I needed to go/do and find out what I've been missing..

Back then I was living with my young son as a single parent, a small number of key events have led me onto training for my life long ambition as a Journalist -Kate Adie will need an apprentice one day. A love for nature, the planet and mankind has led me onto becoming .... well wait and see, the story's still unfolding.