Audio Evaluation

I current work with other students on radio to produce content for a slot on smoke radio for an hour every Monday night. It’s the ‘punk and politics show’, whereby we cover student politics which included the recent Westminster Student Union elections. There has been recent controversy over our current University president Tarik Mahr, over his connections with the Islamic extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir. Tarik is a member of the Global Ideas Society, a platform for debate which invite academics and other students to give their views on a range of topics. Recently a scheduled debate was cancelled by the university, as a senior member from Hizb ut Tahrir was invited to talk to students.

Nevertheless, most of the research I conducted on the topic cantered around very right wing publications. The most detailed article was written by the Telegraph, which some argue promotes a very conservative agenda. I was planning to create a feature with an interview from Tarik, as well as other members of the Global Ideas society, giving their side of the debate. I was then planning to feature this on the punk and politics show; it would have been a contemporary story due to the ongoing student elections.

However, Tarik frequently pulled out of interviews; the Gobal Ideas Society also never followed through after asking for details about the interview. The debate eventually took place which had been cancelled, although without my interviewees it seemed pointless to go and get coverage of the event. I wanted my audio to still be based around contemporary politics, which is why I then decided to feature an interview I’d conducted with an activist I’d previously met whilst protesting. Recently there’s been a large increase in women’s alternative media, which I thought would been an interesting topic to cover. My interview was based around the objectification of women and how they are portrayed in the media. I found it interesting that Andy, my interviewee, considered himself to be a feminist, although had very new wave views on subjects such as pornography. I conducted the interview, but cut out my questions as well as number of his answers, as they hindered the audio’s quality.

Recently a band from my hometown, Basingstoke, released an EP which has received feedback from artists featured within high profile publications. I know the band personally, so getting an interview with the guitarist was a lot simpler than it initially was for my other piece of audio. I included a track from their EP, which they recorded themselves, for the background of my interview. Like with the other interview, I included an intro and outro to the piece. In hindsight, I would have liked to have included the questions I asked the guitarist during the interview for the pod cast. Both my audio pieces sound extremely similar, despite the difference in subject topics. The phone booth also created problems in the audio quality of the interviewee; neither of my interviewees were from the university or London, so I had to use the phone booth to conduct the interviews.

Occupy – Text

This is the text which I used to gain a better understanding of the political context for the protests. It was based around the occupation of Wall Street, although the same views could be applied to the London protests. It was extremely helpful, due to the different journalist’s perspective around the worldwide occupations.

Video Evaluation

From the beginning I knew I wanted to base my video assessment around the Occupation of St. Paul’s. The occupation protests have been taking place worldwide; they’re calling for stricter regulations on global capitalism, due to the current state of the economy and the cuts which are being implemented as a result. The occupation began in September 2011, nevertheless legal proceedings which were forced through by local businesses meant that they were evicted from St. Paul’s last month. The proceedings were taking place during the time that I was having my video seminars. I knew this could cause a problem; they could have been moved from the site at any time. However, this meant it was extremely newsworthy, and a very contemporary story.

Nevertheless, there were other occupations throughout London. On the way to my internship every week, I’ve passed a semi-large emplacement in Hackney, which I’ve visited frequently over the months. I also had friends from my college in Basingstoke who stayed at weekends, which meant that my contacts were stronger at Finsbury Square. It meant that it would be easier to gain interviews for my final piece, which I decided would be a two minutes video made up of vox pops from those camping in Finsbury Square. It would be in the style of a multimedia story package, including visuals of the site and its surrounding areas.

In preparation, I read a book which featured a range of perspectives from both journalists and those camping at Occupy Wall street. This is where the Occupy movement started, although like St. Paul’s they’ve now been removed from the site. The people camping at Finsbury Square were extremely passionate about what they were doing; but they were just as passionate about not talking to any form of press. For the first half an hour of being on site, it was difficult to find anyone who was willing to be interviewed. In the weeks before I filmed at Finsbury Square, many people had left because of the adverse weather conditions.

Eventually I did find people who were willing to speak to me. However, this was only because I’d explained how I’d had friends come and support the protestors at weekends. I also showed them we shared similar political values, which seemed to put them at ease. I gained interviews from a highly diverse demographic. I met a pair who’d become a couple after meeting at Finsbury Square; the first interviewee had a child of fifteen with his wife and was working a full time job. Not only this, but I also came across people from other nationalities working in their makeshift kitchen, who’d joined them from overseas after hearing about the movement in London The last man I interviewed described how he had to leave home because of poverty as a teenager, and has been a keen activist since then. However, he gave the impression that he was homeless, which meant he frequently took part in occupations.

After uploading my video online, there were technical issues which meant that the whole package couldn’t be posted. However, I learnt a lot when editing the original in terms of final cut pro and how to use it. This was the first time I’d tackled any video editing software, so the exercise definitely gave me the confidence to work with video again.

Follow the London occupation movement on Twitter

@occupylfs

Feminism Interview

This is an interview with political rights activist Andy. He’s asked for his second name not to be used in the interview. It’s based around how women are portrayed in the media, as well as their objectification. Andy describes how there is a market for the sexualisation of women, although the media isn’t shaping people’s expectations of women. Instead, it’s the media giving what their audiences want.

Blood of Spectre Podcast

This podcast features new music by the band Blood of the Spectre, a metal core band from Basingstoke. They recently released a new EP, which is available free online. Richard Jacobs, the band’s lead guitarist, describes what the band’s plans are for their next marketing strategy, as well as their hopes for the future.

Press Political Standpoints – Media Monitoring Piece

The David Zimmerman case has brought out a number of issues internationally about race relations and the criminal justice system. It’s interesting to see how different media outlets are approaching the case; especially overseas. A primary example of this would be a comparison between Fox News and The Guardian. US attorney Marc Fernich appeared on an interview with Fox News to discuss the case, this was before the CCTV evidence had come to light. He described how only recently, the new hate crime legislation which had just been passed was only a “novel law”. He further goes on to describe how this case was not the right time to test this law out, despite its racial implications. The presenter describes how the situation has only been “highly politicised”, which can be expected from the extremely right winged channel beneath the Murdoch empire.

On the other hand, The Guardian is almost as partial as Fox News, despite being on the other end of the political spectrum. The Guardian gives a wider overview of the political context of the attack; there’s also a broader variety of witnesses and comment from the black community, especially in the breaking story which covers the CCTV footage and Zimmerman’s lack of injury.

Marc Fernich on David Zimmerman Case

Multimedia Review – Twitter Turmoil

When footballer Fabrice Muamba collapsed during a live game on March 17th, my Facebook and twitter feeds felt the barrage of compassionate statuses. He was left fighting for his life in front of an audience left waiting with baited breath.  Nevertheless, like with any tragedy, the internet trolls who hide deep with cyberspace began to raise their ugly heads. In this instance, it was in front of my very eyes.

For me, it highlighted the real issues which are posed by sites like Twitter. One of my followers recently retweeted something which had obviously disgusted him: “Some ni**er named #Muamba is about to die. I reckon he shoulda stopped huffin that Jenkum a long time ago. One less jiggaboo if you ask me.” In turn, it was retweeted a further 155 times. This called users to ask Twitter to ban Texan Walker; although the abuse report form clearly states that “Twitter does not pre-screen content and we do not remove potentially offensive content”. Is this promoting freedom of speech, or does it just give prejudice a platform? Either way, twitter allows us to tap into a continuous flow of updates and information. But to what extent should this be regulated? This case emphasises one of Twitter’s major flaws; as well as why Facebook is still the leading contender for social networking sites.

Tweets from a similarly racist student in the UK. Was later arrested under UK law.