When did TV start?

(Adam Hart-Davis., History Channel) the first demonstration of Television was presented by a man named John Logi Bear who invented the Bear Televisor and an original still exists, one from 1930.

The Machine’s design was big, because it took a lot of mechanics to build it and the screen was about the size of a shredded wheat from the breakfast cereal.

The picture was crude but in those days people were amazed to see moving pictures on a screen and John Logi Bear took his invention to the BBC hoping it would educate the world.

But in fact he has been put into history as the first man who demonstrated television.

When television evolved further, originally there was only one channel, the BBC. ITV started broadcasting in 1955 and BBC2 was added in 1964. It wasn’t until 1982 that another television channel appeared – Channel 4, with its first programme being the popular, long-running quiz show Countdown. Colour broadcasts started at the end of the sixties. Now in the 21^st century we can access nearly over 900 channels at just a press of a button.

We also have HD sound and viewing systems that we use to make watching television a better experience.

There is also now 3D which makes us feel like we, the audience are in the film itself.

The sounds we hear today really captures us making us feel what the television show is try to represent.

In my opinion in media terms TV can be a great way to learn about different genres of films and shows. Also I think sometimes the best way to learn is to watch and listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6O_I9l1kok

http://www.retrowow.co.uk/social_history/britain_since_1948.php

Cinema:

Cinemas were created to show films that people have made from all over the world for people to view for their entertainment. It started as black and white films with only a piano man playing throughout the entire film but by doing so the piano man made people use their imagination to know how the character’s were feeling and what feeling is happening in the story.

For the first twenty years of motion picture history most silent films were short, only a few minutes in length. At first they were a novelty, but then increasingly became an art form and literary form, silent films reached greater complexity and length in the early 1910′s.

But now since technology has evolved, in the 21^st century we now have HD colour and surround sound for our new and improved movies to make our new generation just as imprested and entertained than ever.

Like TV cinema also has 3D entertainment so the audience can get the best out of any movie just by seeing things come out at them for example the character’s maybe flying straight at you when having a fight scene. Other examples are items being thrown, animals charging at something as a group. All these things can make any one jump or want to grab something as if it is straight in front of them but in reality it’s not.

In my opinion cinema is a great way to meet friends and to socialize. I also think it is a great way to spend time with family and friends just watching a movie and having a great time. From the movies themselves, it can help you learn about the world around you and see what achievements people have earned throughout making films.

Watching movie in 3D has really revolutionised the way we watch films, in the old days I remember one of the ways to watch films in 3D was to wear the old glasses that had the colours red and blue and to me it didn’t really work as well and I found it uncomfortable. But now we have new and improved glasses and technology that has made the 3D experience more comfortable and exciting.

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ryahnke/film/cinema1.htm

The Positives and Negatives of TV and Cinemas:

Internet	Positives: You have got unlimited access to nearly endless amounts of websites and material. You can watch it any time you want. You can search for information really easily. Also easy to use formats E.G. MP3s can be downloaded easily and played either on an IPod or laptop or even mobile phones.	Negatives: Some martial may not  be appropriate for not only grown people but children as well because they are more likely to be endangered by this. Many websites may contain viruses and annoying ads to get your attention. The viewing experience may not be as high-quality as cinema and TV. It’s affecting the film and TV industry due to all the illegal pirated material.
Cinema	Positives: You can have a film playing in 3D and it could be really entertaining. The quality of viewing is better. Surround sound is stronger and gives a better audio experience. The big screen makes it better for more people in one room to all view the same film without moving or fidgeting. You can see the latest movie realises.	Negatives: If the 3D glasses get up comfortable you would have to take them off but the 3d screen may cause you to have migraines and headaches. Other people may talk or sit in your view and disrupt your movie experience. The refreshments in cinemas are more expensive. The tickets can be expensive. The films are only realised at a curtain time and then not played again until it is released one DVD or Blue ray. The films are put on at curtain times that may not be right for you.
TV	Positives: You can have access to over 900 channels with just a remote. You can pause live TV, also record,      fast-forward, and rewind as well. There are different categories to watch like sci-fi, action, comedy, drama. You can watch movies and music videos.	Negatives: Advertisements can really make people bored. Lots of programmes are re-makes and repeats. TV shows have a set schedule.
Pay Per Veiw	Positives: Watch what you want when you want You have a wide choice of movies. The quality is high.	Negatives: It can be quite costly. The movie you may want to watch may not be on the list and therefore you may be wasting money.

Research Assignment

The purpose of audience, Market and Production research

Research is an important part of the media industry as it provides the information to create the things people watch on TV, at the movies, the theatre and even buy or take part in.

Stafford suggests that in researching an audience you have to consider many factors such as gender as assumptions as bias still exists (e.g. chick flicks); social class (not just middle and working class), lifestyles ‘DINKIES’ (dual income no kids).

Some professional tools are already available to help with research such as ACORN.  ACORN provides information on the UK’s population which segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households into 5 categories, 17 groups and 56 types (Branston and Stafford, 2003 p.276).

Audience viewing figures are also a way of seeing how successful shows are on television (BARB, online).

Audience Research:

Audience Research plays a big part in Media products because there are billions and billions of people in the world who are all different in many ways and all of them have their own taste of genres on TV like comedy, action, horror, sci-fi, drama, romance and many other genres you can think of.

For each media project you will always need a target audience so you know what material to put in your production (Stafford 2003). For instance if you were doing a teletubbies movie which you know children love, you would not put in monsters and blood sucking demons from hell to kill the teletubbies because that would just scare the living tubby custards out of the little children who like watching them.

Studying audiences can take many forms such as going to the cinema and watching the people in the auditorium. See who they are? What age they are? Are some in couples, in groups, in families or maybe alone? You might be able to suggest (depending on the above factors) what film they are seeing, however you have to remember that what you think the findings tell you will also be influenced by your own views and experiences?

For instance if I were with my group of my friends who are all 17-18 years old metal heads who mostly like wearing black and have long hair, it might be suggested that they would most likely be seeing a film full of action and horror because of their stereotype.  However, if you asked me, I would more likely want to see an animation film because I like them best.

Market Research:

Market research is one of the most important things in the media industry, because it is research aimed at the public itself so that the researchers can tell what the people like to watch on TV or see in a production such as a play or musical.

This type of research involves lots of different research techniques such as surveys and questionnaires, which are types of communication with other people to get the right information they need (Market Research, DVD).

There are also two words that help organize the way that the media and possibly other companies do research and those are Qualitative and Quantitative (Stafford, 2003 and Branston and Stafford, 2003).

Here are the differences between Qualitative and Quantitative:

Qualitative:

In my opinion, if you could get under someone’s skin and figure out what makes them tick or be able to hear what they are hearing and understand their opinions and points of view on things we wouldn’t need qualitative research.  Qualitative research is all about understanding people’s motivations and desires, finding out how they feel or why they do what they do. So it’s not about the amount of responses you have but the ideas and opinions that people interviewed or questioned express (Branston and Stafford, 2003).

Also qualitative research must have a decent amount of relevant questions and methods such as multiple choice might be good.

Some effective questions may start with either what, why, where, or how and sometimes from a survey or questionnaire we like to hear more from the person the researcher is interviewing.

Some questions must be open-ended which means the question must not have a yes, no or any one worded response, they must have an explanation.

Like these open ended questions:

What Makes home cooked meals better than restaurant meals?

Where do you think you will be in five years?

Why do you prefer the X-Box better than the PS3?

How is the fourth generation IPod touch different to the third generation?

There are problems with questionnaires (Berger, 1998), people might for example

• Lie
• Tell you anything or answer anything just to get rid of you
• Tell you what you want to hear
• They tell you their opinion but it is not useful to you

Quantitative:

Quantitative research is all about the numbers (Branston and Stafford, 2003); basically the numbers are determined by the amount of chosen answers from a questionnaire by lots of people in response to a media text (Stafford 2003).

Quantitative questions find out things such as how many people like this, how many people do that.

In this graph below we see an example of how 100 people spending their time might look like. Researchers could use this information to see what best way to sell a particular product and how many people would buy this product if they could.

What do people spend most of their time on?

Sometimes an effective survey or questionnaire in market research is depended on asking a lot of people to get great amounts of information.

Some target about 50 people but sometimes some professional researchers may target up to 100 to 200 or even more and that’s a lot and it requires patience and the courage to ask random people, whether they are in a nice mood or not.

Here is a piece of primary research I conducted through a survey of random students in Mid-Kent College during one day:

Primary Research:

I composed my own survey for 10 people with 10 yes or no questions (closed questions) about what they think about research.

Primary Research
Gender	Male – 5  Female – 5
Age	16-24
Do you think research in the media industry is important?	Yes: 9  No:  1
Do you think the audience’s opinions matter when conducting research?	Yes: 10  No:  0
Have you conducted research before?	Yes: 8  No:  2
Have you participated in surveys for other people?	Yes: 8  No:  2
Do you find research a fun activity?	Yes: 4  No:  6
Has anything interesting come up when you’re doing research?	Yes: 7  No:  3
Do you think research has aided stereo typical views of people?	Yes: 7  No:  3
Do you think research has revolutionized the way you watch the TV programmes that suit you.	Yes: 6  No:  4
Do you think that the internet has made research more effective?	Yes: 9  No:  1
Do you find different research methods are more reliable than others?	Yes: 9  No:  1

Production research:

Logistical issues concerning information needed by a production crew is one of the primary reasons for production research (Branston and Stafford, 2003).

But there are also research tasks concerned with the type of talent or personalities on a programme

• finding contestants for a quiz show
• compiling possible interview questions
• a dossier for a studio guest

Here, background research will be worked on to produce something useable in a live show.

Other forms of production research may refer to costumes and props and how these are to be used in the final programme or film.  E.g. swords and armour were made after considering drawings and illustrations from Alan Lee’s paintings for the centenary edition of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (Russell, 2002): You may have to find experts to show the actors how to use them. Production research in television especially requires high level communication and interpersonal skills as much of the working day is spent on the phone persuading people to do things for the programme.

Production research may also identify potential

• Permissions
• Copyright
• Legal and ethical and regulatory issues that may arise if research material is used.

From study I have begun to see how effective research informs the process of any type of media production and all the types of research discussed will support a commissioning brief (Branston and Stafford 2003.  The more accurate and informed the brief, the more likely that product is to be made.

References:

ICT sources:

http://issuu.com/louiseje/docs/booklet_1

http://www.caci.co.uk/acorn-classification.aspx

www.barb.co.uk

NON ICT sources:

Berger, A, A. (1998) Media Research Techniques; Second Edition: Sage Publications

Branson, G. and Stafford, R. (2003) The Media Student’s Book Third Edition: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: Chapters 9 and 10 (partial) pp 265-287

Russell, G. (2002) The Lord of the Rings-the art of the fellowship of the ring:  Harper Collins Publishers

Stafford, R. (2003) Audiences – an introduction, British Film Institute: ITP publications

DVD:

Market Research‘Key Stage Comedy’: Mid Kent College library: Library number: 658.83 MAR

References

BBC ‘One Show’ 25/2/2011: Mary Whitehouse profile: Clean up TV Campaign: Accessed 19.00hrs

http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2007/5/bestgaysexscenestv

Family research council: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02 :  Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples

http://www.forgottenword.org/group.html

Hart, G, J. et al., (1993) Risk Behaviour, Anti-HIV and Anti-Hepatitis B Core Prevalence in Clinic and Non-clinic Samples of Gay Men in England, 1991-1992,” AIDS : 863-869.

Hayton, B, P. (1993) To Marry or Not: The Legalization of Marriage and Adoption of Homosexual Couples: Newport Beach: The Pacific Policy Institute: 9.

Pollak, M. (1985) Male Homosexuality in Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times, ed. P. Aries and A. Bejin, translated by Anthony Forster :New York, NY: B. Blackwell: 40-61, cited by Joseph Nicolosi in Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 1991): 124, 125.

http://perezhilton.com/2010-10-02-korean_mothers_form_union_to_protest_gay_storyline_on_tv_drama_life_is_beautiful

http://socyberty.com/gay-lesbians/how-homosexuals-are-portrayed-on-television/

My debate is the banning of the same sex relationships on TV Dramas before the water shed:

Homosexuality is where two people with the same sex genders express themselves as lovers and some homosexual couples even get married.

Even some famous celebrities like John Barrowman plays Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who or Torchwood, is married to Scott Gill. Also a well known Actress and TV show presenter Ellen DeGeneres who also did the voice for Dory in finding Nemo is married to Portia de Rossi.

The media often portrays same sex partnerships in a relatively positive light and sometimes people see this sexual expression as a natural, beautiful thing.

In my opinion it goes too far in showing same sex relationships as normal every day thing on TV:

Homosexual relationships differ from heterosexual couples in several ways

• Levels of promiscuity (amount of sexual partners): Same sex couples are reported as not being interested in staying faithful (Pollack, 1985)

 

• Commitment: The meaning of “committed” or “monogamous” typically means something different than in heterosexual marriage. Homosexuals…are taught by example and belief that marital relationships are transitory and mostly sexual in nature (Hayton, 1993)

 

• Health risks: The evidence indicates that homosexual and lesbian relationships are at far greater risk for contracting life-threatening disease compared with married couples (Hart, 1993): unprotected sex with multiple partners increases the risk of great harm to our bodies from sexually transmitted diseases / illness and particularly AIDS.  Steady relationships do not necessarily result in healthier behaviour. An English study published in the same issue of AIDS concurred, finding that most “unsafe” sex acts among homosexuals occur in steady relationships.

 

• Religious grounds: Leviticus 18:22 – Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Many Christian factions find the promotion of homosexuality offensive and dangerous: Research shows that of the 8 million boys who are annually raped by homosexuals, 50 percent of male AIDS victims report being the trapped into sex with an adult male by the age 16.

Like this story I saw on perezhilton.com, as it went, there were a group of mothers in Korea who were really upset about the portrayal of a gay couple on a popular drama, called                          Life Is Beautiful. (SOUTH Korean drama, 2010) 

Because of their outrage the mothers then formed a union and released an open letter in protest of the series in an issue of the Chosun Journal.

This is what it said in their letter:

“If my son becomes gay and dies from AIDs after watching ‘Life Is Beautiful’, SBS must take responsibility! ‘Life Is Beautiful’ has glamorized the culture of gays against what is realistically, healthy and proper for the citizens of Korea.”

This shows how much people might be disgusted to see things on a TV show or drama people are interested in. Because of seeing explicit martial on TV, it can course people to react in a dangerous way.

Sometimes the most vulnerable to sex, violence, and drugs on TV are children. Knowing that a child’s mind is still fragile in early stages of development and maturity, seeing exposit material such as these could make the child think is what he or she should do even though it is the wrong thing.

That is why the Water Shed is in place, to ensure that children don’t watch material that is not meant for them. The Water Shed always starts at 22:00pm which is nine o’clock at night which is when the children are supposed to be in bed.

The Water Shed is best put in Ofcom’s rules and regulations, one example is in section 1 (Protecting the under eighteens) part 1.18 and it states:
1.18 ‘Adult sex material’ – material that contains images and/or language of a strong sexual nature which is broadcast for the primary purpose of sexual arousal or stimulation – must not be broadcast at any time other than between 2200 and 0530 on premium subscription services and pay per view/night services which operate with mandatory restricted access.

In addition, measures must be in place to ensure that the subscriber is an adult.

So often TV dramas have to be careful on the time they a scheduled because of children which is also in the Ofcom rules and regulations. Again in section 1 (Protecting the under eighteens) parts 1.1 and 1.3:

1.1 Material that might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of people under eighteen must not be broadcast.

1.3 Children must also be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is                                                              unsuitable for them.

Mary Whitehouse brought a prosecution under blasphemy laws against ‘Gay News’ (BBC, 2011) and fought to get the Protection of Children Act (1978).  She believed Broadcasters were abandoning family values and promoting unhealthy aspects of moral and sexual behaviour including homosexuality.  It has not ceased and since the 1990’s gay lifestyle has exploded all over the media (socyberty.com-online).

I do not think the life style and sexual behavior of this minority group should be promoted in the same way as male/female relationships and that continuing to do so further undermines the model of family life I am familiar with.

Now over to my partner Georgina to give you guys more info.

Questions for Debate groups

The banning of sexually explicit material in mainstream cinema/ television.

• Argument for the banning of sexually explicit material in mainstream cinema/ television.

Media is negatively influencing the sexual behavior of young people and the way they make relationships.

Early exposure to repeated sexual imagery is damaging.  They become desensitized to explicit material, and if not mentally stable, they could find themselves acting out what they had viewed and seen.

Social Cognitive Theory:  implies that the treatment of a character in the media teaches the viewer what is right and wrong.  So if sexually promiscuous behaviour typical of pornography is shown positively in the media and TV, the impact is an unhealthy desire and belief it is ok to behave the same.

46 studies looked at over time from 1965-1995 show that

“exposure to pornographic material puts one at an increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies, committing sexual offences, experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and accepting the rape myth”.

References:

Bingham, John. “Grand Theft Auto player jailed for sex attacks on women.” Telegraph.co.uk. 6 Nov. 2008. 10 Nov. 2008 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3393052/grand-theft-auto-player-jailed-for-sex-attacks-on-women.html>.

E, Keren, and D, Kunkel. (2008 “The Effects of Sex in Television Drama Shows on Emerging Adults’ Sexual Attitudes and Moral Judgment.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 52 161-81.

www.mediamarch.org.uk/howisthemedialinkedwithc.htm

Question:  If people really what to see sex on a media based project being old or young with a partner, how can you prove that their sexual urges will not entice them to just have sex when just seeing material they may find enjoyable?  Wont that to something dangerous to like a young couple having unsafe sex because they get too excited and the male partner forgets to put on a condom? Won’t that also lead into a STD or STI? So isn’t it dangerous not only to their minds but also their bodies?

Against the of sexually explicit material in mainstream cinema/ television.

The banning of anti war/military coverage

Against banning: Advantage

• Historically: Vietnam War

Anti war/military viewpoints can stir up public opinion which may be in direct conflict with government policy: It is every person’s right to express their opinion even if they are anti war and feel soldiers are in the wrong place.

Some theories of the anti war movement in America were that it exerted pressures directly on Presidents Johnson and Nixon and so it contributed to the end of their policies. The movement exerted pressures indirectly by turning the public against the war.

If the media had never reported, filmed or recorded these events this may never have happened.

“Youth is the first victim of war – the first fruit of peace.
It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man;
it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him”.

King Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)

Democracy wouldn’t be working properly.

Against banning: Disadvantage

• Historically: Wooton Bassett, Wilstshire: Islam4uk plan to march through the town which is famous for honouring service men and women killed in Afghanistan.  They want to highlight the ‘innocent dead’ murdered by UK servicemen and women’.

It was considered successful and highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan”.  But it also unleashed a tidal wave of disgust against the Islam4uk and a wave of support for the UK military in general.

For: banning: For a lot of Americans, the events were symbolized by television images of “dirty-mouthed hippies taunting the brave, clean-cut American soldiers”.

Backlash against the anti war supporters: unpatriotic.  Therefore should not be shown.

Unsuitable for young children and can be distressing for others to see and hear: depressing

Vietnam sources:

Gaullucci, R, L. (1975) Neither peace nor honour. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Gettleman, M, E.  (1985) Vietnam and America: A documented history. New York: Grove Press

Question:  Sure a young boy can dream, but if he dreams of war, who might say that seeing war on the News or internet can encourage the boy to grow up and go to do something that might get him hurt? or worse.

In the words that King Boudewijn, Youth is the first victim of war – the first fruit of peace.
It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man;
but takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him, and in my opinion seeing the events that have happened in Afghanistan, we have lost enough men as it is.

King Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)

The Banning of Comedy based jokes on Race, Sexuality, Gender and Disability.

Lots of comedy jokes are rude because it affectively makes people laugh, some comedy geniuses like:

• UK: Lee Evans
• USA: Dane Cook
• New Zealand: Flight of the concords

And many, many others, but sometimes jokes go just way to far by starting with topics that shouldn’t be joked about.

Here are some categories of some joke topics that according to (Craig Platt
April 13, 2010 12:36 AM) should be banned :

1. Redheads

2. Emos

3. Reviewers

4. Dangerous wildlife

5. John Howard

6. Mark Latham

7. Frankston/Moe

8. Adelaide

9. Avatar

10. Midgets

11. Scientology

Source:      http://blogs.theage.com.au/lastlaugh/archives/2010/04/comedy_topics_t.html

But as I recall there are lots of other categories that should be banned like race, sexuality, gender and disability.

Like this story By Anita Singh, Show business Editor 5:59PM BST 14 Oct 2009:

X Factor: Dannii Minogue prompts nearly 4,000 complaints over Danyl Johnson joke

Dannii Minogue’s quip about X Factor contestant Danyl Johnson’s sexuality has prompted nearly 4,000 complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.

Minogue made the faux pas on Saturday night’s show after Johnson changed the lyrics of the Jennifer Hudson song, And I Am Telling You.

“If we’re to believe what we read in the papers, there was no need to switch the gender reference in that song,” Minogue teased, in a reference to reports that the 27-year-old teacher is bisexual.

Johnson appeared shocked and said nothing in response, while Minogue’s fellow judge Simon Cowell was clearly furious and accused her of “playing games”.

Ofcom has received over 4,000 complaints so far, despite Minogue’s repeated apologies.

After her comment made headlines, she said Johnson was “an openly bisexual guy” and explained: “It was meant to be a humorous moment about the fact he had an opportunity to have fun with his song. Danyl and I were joking about the same thing in rehearsals on Friday, so it carried on to the show.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6328349/X-Factor-Dannii-Minogue-prompts-nearly-4000-complaints-over-Danyl-Johnson-joke.html

Question: How can you guys stop jokes like these from just slipping out of people’s mouths, if Ofcom will just get a complaint and do something about it like the X Factor joke that Dannii Minogue made that got nearly 4,000 complaints over Danyl Johnson lyric change in his song.

Task 2

Job: Video Editor

About the job:

A video editor is a person who has a vast knowledge of editing programmes and softwares to turn random footage into a finished film or a TV production. It is their job to make the footage look and sound better by adding music and cool graphics to make it look awesome for the viewer who is watching it. Some products may include corporate videos, advertisements and music videos.

In my opinion it must put a lot of pressure on the editor because he or she is responsible for the final state of the video or film, for ensuring that the director and producer like it, and ensuring that the public likes it.

To get the general idea of what the production should look and sound like the editor must listen carefully to the director so that he or she can get the general idea of the production that the director has envisioned.

Sometimes the editor can suggest ideas to the director and see what he or she thinks of it, sometimes working together with the director could make the finished production even better.

To be an editor you need a lot of creativity, a strong visual sense, an understanding of story-telling techniques and how to suggest different moods, emotions or themes though the use of different shots. An editor must also be confident with IT and have mastery of common software packages used in editing, and a passion for film and broadcasting.

SWOT analyses:

Some of my strengths are my strong creativity and my editing experiences with some professional editing programmes such as final cut pro.

Other strengths also include my work on my college course, the subsidiary diploma in media studies, and my professional flow with editing such as making one clip change into another clip. I also have a positive sense of editing because I had always loved making videos and editing them so I can learn.

My weakness is that I sometimes do not understand complicated media language and I would have to take my time trying to be familiar with them.

My opportunities would be learning new techniques and experiences so that means I would be even better at editing. But before I might become a video editor I would have to become a runner or a video editor’s assistant because it would be rare for me to just leave college and go straight into a video editor’s job.

My threats would be stress because I sometimes get stressed and I also worry and I sometimes would have to find a way to calm and de-stress myself.

I would also sometimes consider myself as quite sensitive because when I work I sometimes don’t know what to do and I become unfocused and  worry too much and my hand becomes really rough due to my asthma kicking in.

Job: Primary School Teachers Assistant

About the job:

A primary school teacher’s assistant helps with the tutors lessons and also helps with taking care of the children and making sure they understand what they have to do and helping them to get it right.

Also a teacher’s assistant needs to have good listening skills so they too can understand what the teacher is trying to teach the children so then they can pass that down to the children if they need any help with anything that they don’t understand.

Also a teacher’s assistant needs experience with younger children so he or she will know how to deal with their problems such as crying when hurt. If some kids are arguing over something the assistant needs to know how to stop them and sort out their differences and make up. The teaching assistant needs to know how to keep the children safe and must have an effective way to bond with the child so that the young ones feel comfortable around them.

The teacher’s assistant must also know what language to use because in my opinion a child’s mind is still small and fragile so you need to know the words that a child would understand so you can communicate with a child with no problems what so ever.

In my opinion the teacher’s assistant’s job is quite important because they are building up children’s minds and bodies to be prepared for  higher education and then building them up ready to take on the world.

SWOT analyses:

MY strengths are that for as long as I can remember I have always been great with kids because I would like to imagine myself as a kid so I guess that’s a method I like to use to communicate and get to know the child well.

I guess I miss being a kid so I would bring up my childhood memories and try to remember some of the words and language I couldn’t understand and try to make sure that I can say the right things so that the child can understand me.

My weaknesses are sometimes in having to deal with children’s problems because sometimes a child goes out of control and I don’t know how to deal with it. Sometimes I don’t know what to say in front of a child because sometimes what I say can confuse the child.

My opportunities might be having the experience to work more with children so I can be even better at learning how to take care of them. I could also learn to be more responsible around younger and vulnerable boys and girls so I can be a more mature adult.

Sometimes children can be quite aggressive and my threats in taking care of them might be in not knowing how to respond or react to them if they have decided to hurt me.

The children might become fidgety and become really hard to control and sometimes, if I don’t know how to control them, I would become stressed and freak out which would be bad for my health.

Task 3

Indeed.co.uk is handy website for me to use because it is quite easy to use, you just type in the job you’re looking for and where in England or the UK you would like work at.

I had chosen video editor as it was one of my jobs chosen on my tests I took in class.

I typed it in Indeed and there were a nice decent amount of editorial jobs wanted and what I also like about Indeed is that when you search the jobs you want the website does a salary estimate so you know what you might earn on some the jobs so you can pick the right one.

 Mediajobvacancies.co.uk is like Indeed.co.uk but in my opinion it is less efficient because you must input in right information to get the results.

I typed video editor job into the search engine and a random salary estimate and put Gillingham Kent as my location and this is what came up…

I didn’t really get the results I needed, maybe because there aren’t any video editing jobs vacant in Gillingham. It would have been a good idea to put in a wider location so that my results could have been better.

The Media Guardian has a section where you can check out some media job vacancies, but for me this doesn’t seem to have the media jobs I am interested in like video editors.

The Media Guardian doesn’t give you any valuable job vacancy information so I would rarely use this type of source for getting a job in media.

I found it better to just go onto jobs.guardian.co.uk to find the better selection of jobs for me.

Some even include the primary school teacher’s assistant jobs, so in my opinion the media guardian wasn’t quite as helpful as the website.

Task 4

ICT

Coussins Associates are looking for a freelance video editor to work on several projects.

The employer must have experience with several programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD, and Adobe Photoshop. The employer must also have knowledge of QuickTime, Encoding and for a bonus, Adobe After Effects.

I have some experience of Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop and QuickTime programs but as for after effects, Adobe Encore DVD, and Encoding I have no experience what so ever.

The job also stated that if I lived in the London area then I would have to work in their office which I think might be good if the environment I worked in was a clean, quiet and organized, but if I did want to work in the office I would have to send them a brief e-mail explaining about my day RATES and a link to my SHOWREEL.

To apply for the job you would have to click a link on the website.

According to the website Coussins Associates are a small, friendly consultancy working across the whole marketing mix: from market research and strategic planning through to positioning, propositions and branding, to marketing communications and advertising.

I think I may have a nice time working for them if I did apply.

Where I found the source:

http://www.mandy.com/1/jobs3.cfm?v=42048711

Why I chose the source:

Well this job seemed to be well detailed and most of what skills they needed I have all ready learned such as some of the Adobe Programs, also they explained they were a nice and friendly bunch which makes me more comfortable to work with them.

NON ICT

Children’s Community School needs a teacher’s assistant for deaf pupils and the employee has to have BSL or CACDP stage 2 in signing skills and although I am great with kids I really don’t have that much sign language experience.

The salary they offer is quite tempting starting at £15,039 and I can work my way up to £19,126 having to work 32.5 hours per week, 39 weeks per year.

Although the ad says I need good basic literacy and maths skills which I do have and I know how to explain that to children but deaf student may prove to be hard to control and teach for me, I do not feel this job is right for me but I would continue to look into more teacher’s assistant jobs. For this assignment this ad was as close as I could get.

Where I got the source:

I found this at my local Rainham Library which had a section on job vacancies and there was a bunch of flyers and this was the best one I could find.

Why I chose the source:

Because I wanted to do as least one of each job choice I did and I had limited time to go around my home town to find flyers was all I could find in my time.

Research for presentation video

What I wanted to research	What sources of research did I use and what did I learn?
How to present in the right way	Class notes: I learned to be a presenter you have to feel relaxed and use different techniques in order to be calm and focused. Source 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIGT6benUww I have learned that the introduction is really important thing while presenting. (First impressions count)
How presenters like to be prepared	Class notes: I have learned that lots of presenters have lots of different ways of getting prepared, but some like to engage their brains before going out to present, here are some I thought were useful to put in my video: Use deep breathing exercises Have a cup of tea Doing yoga Use tongue twisters  The possibilities are endless
How you should be presenting	Class notes: Here are some essential things that you should do while presenting: Back straight Smile Have a clear and loud voice Try and not to fidget or move to much Try and use hand movements to prove some of your keys point in your presentation

 

My comedy Presentation Video Script

Intro:

     *Fade in*

Scene: Control Room

Enter – Lawrence

“Hi I’m Lawrence Sedgwick and I am here to show you in this demo   video how to be a great TV presenter. In this video I will be showing you guys techniques, advice and ways of speaking in presenting, so are you guys ready? Then let’s begin…”

Title – PART 1 Getting Prepared

     Scene: Control Room

Lawrence:

“Getting prepared is one of the most important things in presenting as it gets the presenter ready for almost anything so that he/she doesn’t freak out.

Here are some things that a presenter does to get relaxed and prepared:

• Some use deep breathing exercises. (See SIMON CHAMBERS doing funny deep breathing exercises)
• Some use Tongue Twisters. (See SAM REEMAN doing tongue twisters.)
• Some even just have a cup of tea. (See SIMON CHAMBERS having a cup of tea.)
• Some also do yoga to calm the nerves. (See Sam doing really funny yoga exercises.)

Back to me:

“I myself however have my own way to relaxing before doing presenting, I like to look at my reflection and say lots of random garbage.”

See me looking at a reflection of myself:

“I am great, I am supreme, I am the most awesome of all awesome presenters, I am the best, I am your father, I am a god, I am Ironman.”

(Music plays) Ironman by black Sabbath

Title – PART 2 Ways of Presenting yourself

        Power of three:

Lawrence:

“The power of three is quite important in a presentation as it is giving the main points in three words.”

“Like this sentence, this car is, fast, stylish, and safe.”

“People have a tendency to remember things in threes, giving them three pieces of information will help them retain what you’re saying.”   

Title – PART 3 Ways of presenting yourself

        Inclusive language

Scene: Control Room

Lawrence:

“Inclusive language is a really important part in presenting because it makes the audience feel like they are a part of your presentation.”

“Using words like you, us, or our and I like to say ‘you guys’ because for me it sounds cool plus also it keeps your attention on the presenter like if I am talking to you.”

“Two cool examples of inclusive language is listening to radio and watching TV. Do you guys feel like the radio presenter is talking to you like telling you the time and date, what music is playing and giving out opinions even though you can’t see him/her?”

“Some great techniques that a radio presenter does is speaking at the beginning and end of the music being played because if it was just the music track being played someone could record it and download it which is illegal.”

“Chris Evans BBC Radio 2 presenter is a good example. What I like about him is he uses funny music in the background as he talks and says the messages that have been sent into the show.”

“Also another technique I like is that he uses sound effects to liven up the things on his show like competition winners, upcoming events, and also how he is feeling.”

Also his voice is really positive and jolly so the listeners “feel happy as well and I really like that about him.”

“Have a listen to Chris and see if he captures you with not just the music and his voice, but the techniques he uses as a radio presenter.”

(Short audio of Chris Evans)

“A TV example is Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear and what I like about him is that when he is talking about cars he likes to ask questions to the camera like he is talking to me.”

“What I also like about him is that he is a really funny presenter as he uses hummer to sometimes describe what he is saying and I find that really impairing.”

“Questions can also be a great piece of inclusive language and can capture a lot of people.”

“Well did you guy feel intrigued sometimes when people or presenters ask questions to you?”

“He he…*laughing* see what I did there? It is quite fascinating to just react to a question said by someone on your screen.”

Title – PART 4 Ways of presenting yourself

        Body Language

Lawrence:

“Well now here we are at the one of the most important things ever in presenting…

“Presenting yourself to the audience, did you guys know that presenting isn’t always talking through your mouth so the audience can just absorb the information that you say     oooohhhhh no.”

“There are a few things about your body posture that your need to understand, like for instance…”

“I am going to show you guys two examples of presenting and you guys have got to find out which one of my examples is the right one for presenting, demonstration A or B let’s begin.”

Me reading a random script:

(The way of presenting)

Demonstration A

“Coming up next on the show we will be talking about how picking your nose is good for your health, more after this.”

Demonstration B

“Coming up next on the show we will be talking about how picking your nose is good for your health, more after this.”

Back to me:

Lawrence:

“So did you guys get the right one…..?”

“Ok if you guys said demonstration A you are right!!!”

(So clip of example 1 but I do a voice over)

“My body is perfectly straight, note that I don’t fidget and that I also look relaxed and that shows confidence for a presenter.”

“Also I am smiling and looking at the camera like if I am interacting with the audience.”

(Show clip of example 2)

“As with this one I have a discussing temper and have a negative attitude and my body posture is absolutely appalling so you guys can expect quite disgusted feedback from the audience.”

Title: PART 5 The Conclusion:

Back to me:

Lawrence:

“Well guys there you have it, some key things to know when doing presenting. Learn from this and you too can be an awesome presenter like yours truly but you properly won’t be greater than me because, well, look at me I am just too awesome.” 

“Now if you excuse me I am now going to see my reflection and say random stuff.”

(See me looking at myself again)

“They are all weak, you are the only one who can beat them all, monkey’s have bottoms that can glow in the dark, Darf Vader is really Professor Hawkins in disguise, Jackie Chan can pick his armpits with his toes, I have got only a few seconds before this video battery runs out!!!”

(Show picture of a broken battery)

*Fade out*

END

Like I told you guys before I apsolutly hate research more than anything in the world, anyway here is my work of Steve’s assignment on the outburs on the Paul O’Grady show.

PART 1

Evaluation of the events that have happened leading up to the outburst on the Paul O’Grady show

Paul O’Grady[1], a TV and radio presenter, stand up comedian, writer, actor, and in my opinion a great guy, recently and publically performed a strong verbal attack regarding the recently announced Conservative government party cuts in public spending, on live TV.

Using his evening chat show ‘Paul O’Grady Live’ (ITV1) as a way of reaching a wide audience, his outburst seemed to be designed to fire up public opinion and also to express his very obvious anger and frustration at the Government’s Public Spending Review[2] which he says will target the “poor” and “sick”.[3]

So why is he so angry?

We are living in hard times.  The ‘credit crunch’ was caused by the Banks high risk investment in people with poor credit histories, which meant they couldn’t pay their mortgages; this has caused financial problems across the globe[4].

In the UK, the labour Government has also had to spend a lot of money on supporting three major banks (The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS);Lloyds TSB and HBOS)using 37 billion pounds of taxpayers’ money, this was unpopular but apparently needed to stop our whole financial set up collapsing.

The UK is also in a recession and the country has terrible financial problems and is massively overspent, Government spending cannot continue as it has been. The Chancellor, George Osborne has had to make some incredibly difficult decisions including raising taxes to increase funds and cut spending by 83 billion pounds by 2015.

Paul O’Grady’s outburst is especially critical of the Conservative party members of the coalition Government and seems to think they are happy to see the spending cuts, suggesting they are heartless.

The current Government is a coalition, formed from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.  This means that no one political party had enough votes to form a majority Government after the last election (May 6^th 2010.  Certainly the Labour Party is now in opposition alone in fighting what he may view as bad decisions.

Cuts in Public Spending will mean that the actual budgets that local Governments are given in towns where we live will now be cut.

According to my research, before his media career, Paul O’Grady lived in Birkenhead (a working class area) and worked in the Public Sector.  A public sector employee works for the Government in areas such as nursing, teaching, defence and the emergency services (many of which support the elderly, sick and needy that Mr O’Grady says will suffer).  Planned cuts will affect many public sector workers who stand to lose their jobs.

He may well have been over influenced by his own views and political viewpoint which was in my opinion clearly socialist and it will certainly have got him some publicity.  Whether or not it was wise or professional to use his show to express his opinion and encourage the audience to respond to the cuts, will be looked at further throughout this assignment.

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[1] Got  the information from: O’Grady,P.(2008)atmymother’skneeandotherlowjoints.bantampress

[2]  Got information from:  http://money.uk.msn.com/comprehensive-spending-review-2010/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=155021836

[3] Got information form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkqKbBVC09M

[4] I got the information from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7521250.stm

 Part 2

Task 2 “Vive La Birkenhead” Who is Paul O’Grady?

His full birth name is Paul James O’Grady[1], born on the 14^th of June 1955 in Birkenhead, England and his parents lived in suburban Tranmere.

His parents Patrick & Mary O’Grady were Christians so he attended a Christian Brothers School and he found an amusing habit of dressing up at his young age.

After his graduation Paul O’Grady worked as a clerk in a magistrate’s court.

He then met a woman named Diane Jansen who he had an affair with and when he was 17 he and Diane gave birth to their daughter Sharyn, who was born in 1974.

However Paul said he was too young to be a father so he went to Europe where he worked (among other occupations) as a waiter in a brothel in Manila.

In the 1980s Paul came back to England and in 1985 he created a drag character called Lady Savage (the “Birkenhead Bombshell”), a vampish Birkenhead woman.

Paul Character became really popular as Lady Savage worked in gay bars and lots of clubs all throughout London.

Infract the character became so popular that Paul was given the chance to have his own show for this character.

Live from the Lilydrome was the name of the show and it took off in 1995 and the Character retired in 2000.

I from what I saw on youtube the show itself is quite colourful background wise, but it had lots of adult content so it was not for children, content such as foul language and lots of rude jokes.

Paul then really started to catch people’s attention and so the next thing he did was host a game show called blankety blank and still using Lily Savage to do the hosting and it became really popular. [2]

Next in October 2004 Paul O’Grady got his chance to have his own comedy chat show, (The Paul O’Grady show) Broadcasted on Channel 4 and ITV and also a BAFTA winning award for best British comedy chat show.

My opinion on the Paul O’Grady show:

Well I think Paul O’Grady is a really funny guy and lots of people love his work.

His show is quite colourful so it can really capture the audience; also the show is quite mature because there are also some occasional rude words also some other things that kids can’t understand.

The show is show around tea time because some families like to watch this show altogether.

Also Paul is really fond of animals and on his show he would also bring in his pet dogs my favourites were Buster or Bullseye which are incredibly cute dogs who also help on the show by looking adorable which catches all of the audience’s attention.

What I like about the show are some of the special guests and how Paul gives question and a great casual conversations and games, comedy jokes, chats and also Paul playing on an organ.[3][4]

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[1]  I got the information from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767331/bio

[2] I got the information from: http://y2u.co.uk/sub029_famous/F_Paul_O’Grady.htm

[3] I got the information from:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431559/

[4] I got the information from O’Grady,P.(2008)atmymother’skneeandotherlowjoints.bantampress

 Part 3

the Outburst referring to OFCOM’s Rules on Political Impartiality

My evaluation of Paul O’Grady’s outburst about the Governments spending cuts on his live show is based on referring to the short video I saw on youtube.

Paul O’ Grady attacks the Coalition Chancellor, first you hear him say

“…talking of nits, George Osborne what do we think?”

He then goes on to be particularly anti-conservative making them out to be heartless by also saying that when they heard about the cuts they were “whooping and hollering” and agreeing with everything, he also swore several times during his outburst.

Under Rule 5.8 – Any personal interest of a reporter or presenter, which would call into question the due impartiality of the programme, must be made clear to the audience.

Whilst Paul O’ Grady said that he was feeling angry, “…you know what got my back up”.  He did not say that because he has a more socialist opinion about supporting the underprivileged, he was now going to rant about the cuts and his disapproval of the coalition Government.

He may also be on shaky ground under this same rule with his reference to Cilla Black, implying she is incontinent: OFCOM guidance for the same Rule 5.8, states that it would not expect that presenters make known private or medical matters to the public; someone might make a complaint about his comments if they were a fan of Ms Black.

OFCOM recommends in Rule 5.9 that

“…alternative viewpoints must be adequately represented” also “presenters must not use the advantage of regular appearances to promote their views in a way that compromises the requirement for due impartiality”.

Paul O’ Grady is in a privileged position to be able to reach an audience of some 4 million people according to recent figures (IMDb Internet Movie Database 2^nd October 2010) and OFCOM do state they consider the size, composition and expectation of the audience when a programmes’ content is planned.  Would an audience have expected Paul O’ Grady to react this way?

In my opinion he should at least have tried to say something about the labour ministers to try to bring some balance into the programme.

He further championed his socialist opinion by suggesting we should be more like the French by not just sitting there just accepting the way things are, especially if you don’t like it, but get up, take a stand and just do something about it.  This part was scripted because the French national anthem was cued to play so perhaps the producer did know about his emotional political feelings, they should have given clearer guidelines to him, which is also an expectation of OFCOM.

The audience reaction was very positive and supportive as he was saying what perhaps people were afraid to say.

However, it was not a balanced view of a major matter (Rule 5.11 and 5.12) but in using humour he did produce a quite entertaining part of his show which will certainly be remembered.[1]

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[1]  All information for this task was found from these souses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE88U5CocpM : Uploaded by aViableNinja

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/how-to/      

http.//www.organizedrage.com/2010/10/unlikely-hero-video-of-paul-ogrady.html

Part 4

Why the Outburst would not have been shown on the BBC

Mark Lawson suggests that Paul O’Grady’s attack on the Tory cuts would never have happened in this way on the BBC.

I believe that Paul O’Grady was in breach of several aspects of BBC editorial guidelines and OFCOM broadcasting codes, this may explain why Mark Lawson, believes the programme would never have gone out live on the BBC.

On the subject matter of Paul O’Grady’s personal insults about the Tories, he implied the chancellor, George Osborn was a ‘nit’, all Tories were heartless (as children) and then suggested that the couch (which was wet from the water he had spilt) was the fault of an incontinent Cilla Black. This made people laugh, but the BBC advise that “derogatory remarks aimed at real people must not be celebrated for the purposes of entertainment” (BBC Section 5: 5.4.32) It is far more clear from BBC guidelines where harm and offence is alleged to have happened. Section 2 OFCOM (Harm and offence 2.3) which is very confusing in my opinion and asks us to think about, lots of contexts e.g. (the time, the audience, the degree of harm that might have been caused).

He also clearly swore and said that the Tories were all “bastards” There were 2 other outbreaks of swearing and although he did apologise, he might risk breaking BBC Guidelines 5: Harm and offence.  In rule 5.4.1 we are asked to consider the expectations of the audience and this may have been challenged as they might not normally expect him to swear.  He had broadened his appeal by dropping the vulgar and comic ‘Lily Savage‘ character to show he could be trusted on daytime TV and in 2006 he was reported as saying he had never sworn on live TV (Express newspapers 2006).

Paul also encouraged the audience to rise up and revolt against the ‘cuts’. Again, under BBC Section 5: Harm and offence: 5.4.28 you shouldn’t broadcast material that could make others copy seriously anti-social behaviour.

Ofcom Section 5: Due Impartiality and Due Accuracy and Undue Prominence of Views and Opinions, expects a broadcaster to make its presenters aware of the impartiality guidelines (OFCOM 5.8). If it is proven that ITV did not know about his socialist viewpoint, then this would be taken into consideration.  Some scripting or rehearsing was already in the show otherwise the French National Anthem would not have been cued, so his producer must have had some idea.  In the BBC Guidelines it is much clearer. Guidelines 4.4.31 say it’s not appropriate for regular presenters to comment on public policy and 4.4.16 says that where political matters are involved, a broad range of views should be offered and this should be made clear to the audience. Both BBC and OFCOM expect personal views to be made clear or signposted to the audience and a chance to hear other views in following shows.

I think that The BBCs guidelines are much clearer to producers and presenters; it might also make the BBC more cautious about live broadcast programming and explain why producers and editors would find it much safer to ‘de-fang’ programmes like ‘Paul O’Grady Live’ as Lawson suggests. [1]

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[1] All References:

BBC Editorial Guidelines:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/guidelines/

Express newspapers (accessed online- 15^th November 2010)

www.express.co.uk/posts/view/200620/Paul-O-GradyFrom-drag-queen-to-housewivesfavourite

How to use the code: OFCOM

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/how-to/

 

OFCOM Broadcasting Codes:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/

http.//www.organizedrage.com/2010/10/unlikely-hero-video-of-paul-ogrady.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE88U5CocpM : Uploaded by aViableNinja

Part 5

Consideration of freedom of artistic expression

Artistic expression is an important and vital factor for any artist in creative media, as it is your way of showing yourself to the world in a beautiful, creative and sometimes powerful way.

In media I think it can be difficult to get the balance between the right of freedom of expression and the consequences of causing offence and breaking regulations.

People are often familiar with the style of a creative person (e.g. the author Stephen King is famed for his horror writing and a Damien Hirst installation may shock and challenge at an exhibition.  In the same way when people watch a media presenter, they expect them to stick with his/her style and express the personality they are familiar with or that the media industry has created around them. 

I believe that that makes the audience feel comfortable when see their favourite artist at work (e.g. Harry Hill on his TV Burp programme (ITV1).  However, bad choices of content can still be made and in 2007, OFCOM judged that TV Burp had breached guidelines by including clips from a Bear Grylls programme which showed Grylls cooking a turtle and eating a frog and so were ‘inappropriately scheduled’ as they could potentially cause offence to viewers when taken outside of the context of the whole Grylls programme.  One man’s comedy is someone else’s bad taste.

The presenter not only has the power to reach the audience in the studio but also the people at home watching or listening to them and the potential to reach massive audiences in a short space of time.  There is also the additional risk of people tuning in for the first time or accidently channel/station hopping and so broadcasting guidelines and regulations can be useful in controlling content with audience expectation.

If a presenter goes off script, swears or even does something out of character then it is not only the audience that risks being shocked and confused.  Personal comments can hurt and offend.  Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross both got suspended and the BBC fined for breaches in the OFCOM codes about deeply personal remarks and offensive language.  

James Whale who was a radio presenter, was sacked for breaking political bias guidelines by urging listeners to vote for the Conservative candidate (his personal choice) in the Mayor of London elections (BBC 2008).

OFCOM noted that broadcasters should be allowed to enjoy creative freedom to explore issues and ideas “without undue interference” (BBC 2009) but that the “creative risk” must be managed.

So even if broadcasters such as O’Grady say something which is positively received by audiences and reflected actual public feeling, they may still fall foul of the regulations.  In my opinion we risk losing opinions like his that are heartfelt and have personality.  

Broadcasting is becoming criticised for its ‘dumbing down’ (Fry 2010) and failing to provide challenging programmes.

The rights of artistic expression must be respected, without it TV and radio risks monotony and lacking in any variation.  [1]

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[1] All references for this task:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7981078.stm

bbc.c.uk/1/hi/entertainment/785370.stm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287141/Stephen-Fry-hits-dumbing-television–accuses-BBC-focusing-childrens-programming.html

Part 6

The Conclusion: My judgement and what I feel OFCOM and ITV’s response should be.

I found Paul O’Grady’s outburst really entertaining on one level but on another it was a deeply personal and quite controversial attack on the character of the Conservative members of the coalition government currently in power.   He also suggested it was the nature of the Tory members to be uncaring but this was not factual, there was no proof that they had laughed as children when Bambi’s mother was killed, and there was no evidence that they had cheered specifically about getting rid of wheelchairs and scrapping pensions during the announcement of the government spending review.  Whilst the audience cheered his comments, Paul did lose control which I do think was unprofessional. 

Because of his upbringing, which was working class, Paul was quite poor as a young lad and his parents worked really hard, they had little money and lived in a really cold house; it wasn’t nice for them at all.  So when Paul heard about the spending cuts I can understand he must have got really angry about the effect on the poor and vulnerable and wanted to express it on his show.  There was evidence that parts of the outburst were rehearsed as the French National anthem was cued.  This was when he wanted to say that we should be more pro-active like the French and make our unhappiness known to the government.  I do believe his producer would have had some awareness about his views and allowed him to broadcast.

This is where I feel OFCOM would have an opportunity to act against ITV under Section 5: Due Impartiality and Due Accuracy and Undue Prominence of Views and Opinions.  As Paul O’Grady failed to announce or signal to the audience that it was his personal opinion he was expressing at the very start, the broadcaster (ITV) would be in breach of impartiality guidelines (5.8).

They have a duty to make the presenter fully aware of these guidelines.  If I was OFCOM I would approach ITV and I would strongly advise that Paul O’Grady issues an apology on air at the earliest opportunity and ensure he makes it clear that it was a personal view.

ITV could advise O’Grady to re-visit the subject matter of the cuts in a more balanced way in a following show, if he doesn’t they risk remaining in breach under undue prominence of views. 

This would be difficult to do though, because of the format of the Paul O’Grady Live show.  It would be unworkable and make for poor content in going over previously covered topics that are not current news in a magazine style chat show.

ITV should issue a fine to Paul O’ Grady not only to show the importance of considering impartiality rules but also to reflect his use of foul language and his loss of professional control.  The management should also seek to discipline the producer of the show for failing to control the content better.  [1]

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[1]  All  references for this task:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkqKbBVC09M

AAAARRRRRRRRRRR I HATE REASURCH I HATE IT,   I HATE IT,   I HATE IT  I hate then all the govenments in the world put together, I hate it more than Tony Blur on Opra, I hate more than Milly Cyrus!!! YEAH I SAID IT I HATE IT MORE THAN MILLY CYRUS!!!

I HATE IT MORE THAN ALL THE PLANETS IN THE UNIVERSE BEING EMPLODED AND THE ALL THE GALEXIES AND UNIVERSES BEING DESTORYED AND EMPLODED AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!!

anyway…

Here is my reasurch for my essy on  Russell T Davies:

What do I want to find out	Where I looked	Brief details about what I found out
Things about a writers role	The internet
What does a writer do?	http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/careersandchoices/dreamjobs/mediaandentertainment/writer.shtml	A writer provides written pieces of work for a variety of uses such as publication, broadcasting, performance and filming. May write fiction and non fiction Scriptwrit-ing,  short stories,  plays, books, reviews and critiques (e.g. in a newspaper or journal),  writing for video game scripts
Qualifications to become a writer	My thoughts: (2)However my research has identified other useful qualifications and skills http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/careersandchoices/dreamjobs/mediaandentertainment/writer.shtml http://www.skillset.org/film/knowledge/article_5797_1.asp	Excellent English language skills and good grades in GCSE and A level Imagination Perseveran-ce to keep going and keep trying out ideas Research (2) Good IT skills with word processing programmes such as Word™ Good sense of language so as to get your ideas across to others Research skills on the internet and from books and other printed media One source of research states that no specific entry qualifications are required but short creative writing courses are also helpful Higher education courses such as those taken at post 18 years are suggested might be; English; Scriptwriting;  Writing for the stage, screen and radio; Media studies and performing arts; BTEC Higher (HNDs); Honours degrees are also helpful Contradiction: QUOTE: It’s life experience that sustains a writer’s imagination and therefore, their work, so that’s more important to me than a degree (Vicki Madden)
Salary	http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/careersandchoices/dreamjobs/mediaandentertainment/writer.shtml	This was difficult to research but some suggestions were from £5000 to £100,000 per year
Terms of working	http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/careersandchoices/dreamjobs/mediaandentertainment/writer.shtml	You may be paid per job, per episode or series or for a one of film or drama You might be freelance (take on temporary contracts that you might have to compete with others for) Set their own working time and be disciplined to keep their deadlines May be employed (like working for the BBC) and will be paid a salary

List of research Sources:

Bibliography

Davies, R, T, and Cook, B: (2008) Dr Who. The Writers Tale: BBC Books

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/news/080614_news_01

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/studentlife/careersandchoices/dreamjobs/mediaandentertainment/writer.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/russell_t_davies_1.shtml

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&rlz=1W1ADFA_en&defl=en&q=define:BAFTA+TV+Award&sa=X&ei=E5KTTI7aD9SN4Qa_-LnXBA&ved=0CAkQkAE

http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/interviews/43167-60-seconds-russell-t-davies

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0203961/awards

http://www.russelltdavies.com/#/biography/4514286107

http://www.skillset.org/film/knowledge/article_5797_1.asp

What do I want to find out	Where I looked	Brief details about what I found out
Things about Russell T Davies	The internet Books
When he was Born:	Internet: URL- http://www.russelltdavies.com/#/ biography/4514286107 11:30am  15/09/10	Russell T Davies was born in Swansea, Wales in 1963.
Where was he educated and what were his interests?	Internet: URL- http://www.russelltdavies.com/ #/biography/4514286107 11:30am  15/09/10 http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/1256045/index.html 15.18pm 18/9/10	He attended Olchfa Comprehensive School, he was educated at Oxford University, graduating with a degree       in English Lit in 1984. Illustrat-ion Student mags Cartoonist BBC His first step towards a career in television was when he enrolled in a Director’s Course at BBC Television.
His First Job	Internet: URL- http://www.russelltdavies.com/ #/biography/4514286107 11:30am  15/09/10 http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/featur es/Russell-T-Davies-interview-Feeling.5424809.jp 12:45pm        15/09/10	His first job was working in the theatre back in his native Swansea, but the lure of television was beginning to pull.
Any other significant work?	Internet: URL- http://www.russelltdavies.com/ #/biography/4514286107 11:30am  15/09/10 http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Russell-T-Davies-interview-Feeling.5424809.jp 11.30am 15/9/10	Russell’s big break came with his first television drama – a six part serial for kids entitles “Dark Season” (BBC1).  This had a very young Kate Winslett stretching her acting muscles, and was to be RTD’s first major success.  This led, two years later, to “Century Falls”, another science fiction drama which was well received and critically acclaimed.
What jobs in media does he do?	Book: Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook The Writers Tale The Untold Story of the BBC Series. Date accessed 18/09/10 Internet: URL- http://www.russelltdavies.com/ #/biography/4514286107 11:30am  15/09/10	Russell T Davis is a writer for the BBC series Doctor Who. He is a Producer as well and he did a directors course at BBC Television.
Did he win any awards?	Internet: URL- http://www.imdb.com/name/ nm0203961/awards 12:30pm  15/09/10 http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/news/080614_news_01 3:00pm    19/09/10	In 1993 he was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Children’s Programme (Fiction)for: “The Ward”(1989). OBE 2008
		In 1996 he was nominated for the BAFTA Children’s Award for Best Drama for: “The Ward” (1989) Shared with: Kieran Roberts Beryl Richards 1997 finally he won the award for the above series. 2001 he won the best writers award. Lots of his best awards were nominated and won when he brought back all time classic doctor who. In 2006 he was nominated for best writer for doctor who and he won the BAFTA TV award for best drama series for doctor who. 2008 OBE for services to drama.
What does the “T” in his name stand for?	http://www.metro.co.uk/ showbiz/interviews/43167 -60-seconds-russell-t- davies 12:15pm        15/09/10	The “T” stood for nothing he changed his named after when he heard there was another name of Russell Davies who broadcasts on radio 2 so one of his friends suggested putting “T” as his middle name.
What does he do now?
What made him  want to be a writer	http://www.bbc.co.uk/ writersroom/insight/ russell_t_davies_1.shtml 12:30pm        15/09/10	Interview with Russell T Davies: I was working in production in television, and I got an attachment to Manchester, and all I wanted to do was meet writers, because you just didn’t believe that they existed. They were like mythical creatures. And five hundred yards down the road, there was Granada, and I was just determined to get in there, so I did that thing that you’re supposed to do, knocking on doors and knocking on doors and begging for a job. And it worked. The first day at work there I was made the script editor on Children’s Ward and put in a room with Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor, and it was the best training in the world. You meet these people and you realise – well first of all you realise that they’re ordinary people just living ordinary lives and are completely sensible and ordinary, and then you get to know them a bit longer and they’re completely mad – barking! But that’s part of how brilliant they are, and how they live their lives. Before meeting them I didn’t believe it was possible, I didn’t believe they existed, so that was really pivotal for me.
What is the bafta award?	http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&rlz=1W1ADFA_en&defl=en&q=define:BAFTA+TV+Award&sa=X&ei=E5KTTI7aD9SN4Qa_-LnXBA&ved=0CAkQkAE 1:00pm      15/09/10	The British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs — or, to differentiate them from the BAFTA Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards — are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.

Yes filming once again to proove myself in my awesome creativity and great filming skills..

here is my script for the film called the convercastion:

Scene: The Control Room

Steven Stewart (Charlie)     Steven Fuller (Bilidge)

Panning shot showing the room and Charlie playing his PSP

Charlie: Ha finally time to myself no person to bother me how can it get better than this.

Enter Bilidge and he is full of enthusiasm and happiness.

Bilidge: HEY CHARLIE, CHARLIE!!! GUESS WHAT!?!?!

     Charlie: Hey Bilidge (in a moaning voice)

Bilidge: MY FOOTBAL GAME WAS APSOLUTY AWESOME!!! YOU SHOULD OF SEEN IT, it was like Jerome passed it to Geoffrey who passed to Michel who passed it to Oliver who booted it over to David who headed it all the way over to Paul who broke his neck. 

Charlie: Yeah, yeah really cool (sarcastically).

Bilidge: Yeah and it was like after Paul was sent off Simon came on with a giant sword and tried to kill a few people but the referee sent him off before he had the chance and so Sam came on instead as a substitute.

PAGE 1

Charlie: Ok, ok, ok I get it you have a great time now could you please leave, I was in a middle of a game here.

Bilidge: Oh and the funniest part was that Sam was doodling on his arm as he was on the pitch and I accidently kicked the ball at his arm and the pen got stabbed into him and he had to be sent off, then I had the ball and I was aiming at the goal and then…

Charlie starts to lose his temper and is about to blow

Charlie: SHUT UP BILIDGE, REALLY WOULD YOU JUST STOP WITH THIS, I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR STUPID FOOTBALL GAME, I JUST REALLY WANTED TO BE ALONE JUST DOING MY OWN THING YOU KNOW SO PLEASE I DON’T CARE JUST BE QUIET AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!

Then a hush of silence fills the air as the two characters stare at each other, Bilidge with a surprised look and Charlie with an angry look.

At a second Bilidge who was surprised suddenly bangs the table with fury and becomes angry and much bigger than Charlie.

Bilidge: SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY CHARLIE BUT AFTER NOW WHAT YOU JUST SAID I CAN NOT FORGIVE YOU PREPARE TO DIE!!!

Charlie: WOH!! Ok, ok dude I sorry dude I’m sorry.

Bilidge: SORRY WONT CUT IT CHARLIE!!!

Charlie: NO really I mean it I’m sorry please stop don’t hurt me.

PAGE 2

Then Bilidge’s anger melts away and then he turns all happy and kind again.

     Bilidge: OH ok.

Bilidge sit back down on his seat with Charlie looking really confused and surprised all at the same time.

     Bilidge: now about that winning goal…

     Charlie: NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

END

PAGE 3

Well hopefuly all goes well and I hope to acheve at least a merrit for creativity because many lazy bums didn’t want to change the original script but I did… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Right Asignment time first Sue gave us the Media heroes assignment (AGAIN) but this time we had to write 1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WORDS !!!!!!!!!!!!! in an EEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

hhfffff… hffff.. sorry about that I just had one of my angry moments.

Anyway Here is my essay I did on the one and only Russell T Davies:

Russell T Davies (the‘T’is added to distinguish himself from a fellow Russell Davies who was a broadcaster on radio 2) is a renowned Writer, Producer and Director.

He was born in Swansea Wales in 1963 and in my opinion is one of the best writers for television in the UK in the last 15 years.  Perhaps he is most recently known for his revival of one of the most popular UK TV Dramas Doctor Who. He did not start out initially as a writer in television but developed his career through a variety of projects.

As a young man he liked ‘doodling’ and creating stories in comic strip form.  His most recent illustrations can be seen within his recent ‘Writers Tale’ book.

He was taught at Olchfa Comprehensive School then went on to attend Oxford University, where he had continued to draw for student magazines, he graduated with a degree in English Literature in 1984.

His first job after he graduated was working in the theatre back in his native Swansea but he was lured to work in television.  He began to start work in television initially as a cartoonist for the BBC.  His other step for landing a career in television was when he applied for a Director’s course at BBC Television.

Working as a production assistant on Why Don’t You? (BBC, 1973-94) saw him graduating by 1990 to the producer of the show.  He also had a one off presenting role in BBC children’s television programme ’Play School’ in 1987 but he preferred producing, despite a reported ‘charismatic performance’.

He explored writing during his production time with Why Don’t you? and created sketches for “Breakfast Serials” (BBC 1, 1990).

Russell’s entire early career was within children’s television and he wrote and produced “Dark Season” (BBC, 1991) staring a young Kate Winslett which was one of his biggest early achievements as a writer.  This was quickly followed by the acclaimed science fiction series Century Falls (BBC, 1993).

I watched some episodes of Dark Season and in my opinion it was like an earlier version of Doctor Who as it had quite a lot of computers and effects.  It had a sort of mystery, Sci-fi feeling to it plus some of the actors characters were well developed in my opinion.  

I believe this is due to the quality of writing style as Russell T Davies has a really great imagination.  He has the ability to write mind griping stories like Dark Season and because he likes to end some episodes with a cliff hanger, it makes people want to watch more of the programmes to see what would happen next.

In my opinion Russell T Davis’s writing includes mystery solving as well as a horror edge in these episodes.  He is trying to strike a balance with his writing between being scared and enjoying being scared.  It must be family friendly because of the children’s programme schedule.  Later, Davies would say that his writing for Century Falls was “too dark” and admits it was a sign that he could write for a more mature audience.

“What distinguishes Davies’ writing is his ability to relate powerful universal truths through very specific and compelling human stories” (Rampton 2008, The Scotsman.)

This quote some years on, already states what Davies himself was beginning to realise, that he could tell good stories that dealt with very difficult and sometimes controversial issues.  This was certainly true of writing about sick and vulnerable children initially as a story editor on Children’s Ward (ITV, 1989-2000).  This inspired him so much he is quoted as saying it was “pivotal” in his writing career.

In 1996 he won a Children’s BAFTA TV Award (British Academy Film Television Award) for Best Children’s Fiction Programme for the 100^th episode of “The Ward”.

Many projects followed including a storyliner on “Coronation Street” and contributions to Channel 4′s “Springhill” in 1996. He earned a reputation for good writing and high audience figures for the hotel-set period drama “The Grand” for prime time (ITV, 1997).

He began his collaboration with the independent Red Productions company by creating the ground-breaking “Queer as Folk”, which was given much praise and a lot of comment when it showed on Channel 4 in early 1999.  A sequel followed in 2000 and an American version, runs successfully in the US to this day.  This was followed by “Bob and Rose”, (ITV, 2001).  “The Second Coming” (2003) a religious telefantasy drama starring Christopher Eccleston, saw his position cemented as one of the UK’s best writers of TV drama. Disappointment followed with, “Mine All Mine” (ITV, 2004), but re-bounded with the highly rated “Casanova”, before resurrecting “Doctor Who”.  In 2005, for his writing on this all time classic show, he won the BAFTA TV award for best drama series as well as the Dennis Potter award for ‘outstanding writing for television’.

An OBE followed in 2008 for services to drama.

He remained the writer of Doctor who for 4-5 years when he moved on to work for BBC America to continue to bring British programming to the world.

“Writers come from all walks of life and good drama reflects life in an exaggerated form. It’s life experience that sustains a writer’s imagination and therefore, their work, so that’s more important to me than a degree” (Madden, Skillset).

I am convinced that Davies’s life as a gay man, his affection for Wales and ultimately his skill at telling stories has had more influence on his success than his initial degree in English.  However, an appropriate education is helpful and respected by people who employ you.  It seems that Davies had more than one talent and was a good all-rounder and so I believe writers today can also be valued for more than just their qualifications.

In doing this assignment I have come to respect Russell T Davies not only for the work he has done but for his powerful writing about life and the universe.

MAN what a mouthful GOD I’m tired just by looking at it and also my brian hurts…

Well hoped you enjoyed taking about 15 minutes of your life to read this boring piece of hell, bye bye.