Vintage propaganda

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This Flash file uses Soviet Union propaganda footage. It is about the Red Army's invasion of Afghanistan and their attempts to fight insurgents and win The Cold War. Although the film exists solely to communicate a message and is very much of its time, it still has a curiosity value. It is also a reminder of Afghanistan's bloody modern history. This is now back in vogue, thanks to Mike Nichol's new film, Charlie Wilson's War. The movie is based on the true story of US Congressman Charlie Wilson, who ensured the Mujahideen had lots of money and guns.

End of term

Today was the last day of term at college. We return on January 7 2008, for a month of back to back examinations.

The Christmas break will present me with a number of challenges. Firstly, I have a lot of work to get through. Getting it done will be hard during the holiday period, with a full house and lots of distractions. With the exception of Christmas day, I intend to push myself hard for the next two weeks.

My first priority is shorthand. I am really struggling with this subject. This week I have crammed my head with as much vocabulary as is possible. I am now ready for serious dictation practice. I think I will need to do at least two hours a day, as an absolute minimum. On top of that there is law and public affairs.

Speaking of which, I have now received my first NCTJ exam result. I scored 86% in the law exam, which was a bit of a suprise. I am just relieved to have passed. I think the law and shorthand are two importants bits of this course, so at least I am heading in the right direction.

The changing face of Liverpool

A view of the Paradise Project in Liverpool. This photograph was taken at 17.10 today, from the roof of a car park.

A New York state of mind

I know that Bill Keller’s Hugo Young lecture was last Thurday, but I have just read the full transcript of what he said, and think it’s worth a post. And in the spirit of Bill’s main point – that journalism is about facts not opinions, I will not bore you with what I think. For those that do not know, Bill is the executive editor of the New York Times.

On the current president:
“He did not invent our great disrupter, the internet. (That, you recall, was Al Gore.)”

“As our media columnist David Carr once wrote: leaks tend to affect ships that aren't seaworthy to begin with.”

On what keeps the New York Times going strong
“and by executives who understand that you can't produce journalism without journalists”

“You turn on your computer and there is a media tsunami: blogs, Google News, RSS feeds, social sites like MySpace and file-sharing programs like YouTube.”

“When Saddam Hussein fell, there were more than 1,000 western reporters in Iraq. Today, at any given time, there are about 50.”

“The civic labour performed by journalists on the ground cannot be replicated by legions of bloggers sitting hunched over their computer screens.”

“Google News and Wikipedia don't have bureaux in Baghdad, or anywhere else.”

“(My own paper pretty much decided to overlook the Holocaust as it was happening.)”

“if I may borrow a phrase from the famous Downing Street memo, fix the facts to the policy.”

“The printed newspaper may eventually become a cult product, like vinyl LP records, but we are some years from that day.”

“If you want to sample the possibilities of high-quality web journalism, I invite you to go to nytimes.com, click on the word 'politics' in the left margin, and examine how we have been covering the 2008 presidential campaign.”

Dawn run in Dunham

This photograph was taken early on Saturday morning - a little after dawn to be honest. I live in Bowdon, and the Cheshire countryside is on my doorstep. This image is of path cutting through a farmer's field. The field is in Dunham Massey, which is also home to Dunham Park. These paths are for the general public to use, and provide the perfect gateway into the north Cheshire countryside.

My news quest

The course I am currently studying is a based upon a placement with a newspaper, which takes place each Friday.

My placement is with The Sale and Altrincham Messenger, which is my local paper. It is owned by a company called Newsquest, who are in turn owned by American media company Gannett.
The stories I write will form a portfolio, which will then be marked in January.

So far it has been fine, although I have had to re-write my fair share of press releases. Over the past few weeks I have been working on a story about the closure of a charity shop in Sale, which is on the paper’s doorstep. The shop has been there for forty years and raised over a £1 million for charity. Last week I visited it and interviewed volunteers and customers.

Today I wrote the story, pulling together all the quotes and making a couple of more phone calls. There is also a photograph, which was taken outside the shop last week. The story should be in next week’s paper, and will hopefully improve the quality of my portfolio.

Independent talent

The Independent has appointed 21 year old Mark Hughes, who is a University of Central Lancashire graduate, to be their northern correspondent.

Mark, who won a clean sweep of Press Gazette's awards earlier this year, graduated from UCLan with a BA in Newspaper Journalism.

He also spent his free time working for the News & Star in Carlilse. While at the paper he managed to sell his stories to a number of national titles, much to the amazement of his colleagues.

The Independent is currently edited by Simon Kelner, who also studied journalism at UCLan.

Mark's appointment can only add to the reputation of UCLan's journalism department, which last year sent a batch of newspaper graduates straight into The Sun.

An Englishman in New York

Scott directs Crowe and Washington on the streets of New York.

I had a quite a few reservations about the latest Ridley Scott movie, American Gangster, before seeing it.

I don't know why, but I was just not buying it. I think that my initial scepticism stemmed partly from the clumsy title. I also think that Scott’s own standards have fallen a little in recent years. The casting was also a little uninspired. Denzel Washington has never really done it for me. I have always put him in a similar box to Tom Hanks, in that both actors have featured in a lot of very formulaic, mainstream fare.

Then there is Russell Crowe. Is he half as good as he thinks he is? There is no doubt that he was magnificent in Gladiator, and certainly deserved the Academy Award he received for the role. Since then, I am not so sure.

Having now seen American Gangster, I am remain unconvinced. I think the first thing to say is that it is a fairly good film. Scott really brings 70s Harlem to life, although some of the set pieces are a little too stylized. On more than once occasion I did think we were veering too close to the territory of music video or fast food advertisement.

Washington is good, and so is Crowe. And so are the majority of the supporting actors. I just felt that there was something not quite right. Carlito’s Way seemed to cover similar ground with a little bit more élan and authenticity. The French Connection is the obvious point of reference, and I think Scott’s film comes second to that one too.

I know that Tarantino has very little reputation left, but I am slowly appreciating his point about certain middle aged film directors. There is something about their output that does not work. However, I do think that Mann, Scorcese, De Palma and maybe Spielberg would have all made a better movie than Scott. Perhaps this all comes down to where people are from. Scott is British, so how can he be expected to tell the story of a big American city with any degree of success. He grew up in Newcastle, not New York.

Friends in high places

It was nice to see Andy Dickinson, the man who taught me everything, blogging for the Telegraph. Andy’s own blog is now compulsory viewing for anyone interested in online journalism.

Trouble everyday

Apologies once more for the lack of content in recent days. I have been in the thick of exams. I sat a NCTJ Public Affairs on Wednesday and NCTJ Law on Thursday.

Wednesday was a bit of a blood bath. The compulsory question on local finance government finance was a horror show, because it was based largely on some very peripheral concepts. Revenue Sources anyone?

I just had to cope and move on. I realised the paper was based on four questions, each equally waited. I tried to raise my game on the next couple of questions, and probably peaked somewhere around the Ombudsmen and judicial review.

I obviously hope I did enough to pass. I certainly put the work in, so if there is any justice, I will scrape home.

The law paper went a bit better. I was a combination of short and long questions. The paper was based upon contempt, defamation, tribunals and a few other bits and pieces.

My knowledge of the PCC code is only general, so I had to skate through that area pretty quickly. I concentrated on the public interest angle, and then moved on. I finished with an essay on justification, which went fairly well. I think I passed the law paper, but I will have to wait and see.

Mock the week

Apologies for the lack of content over the last week or so. The pace at college has really picked up, with real exams now looming.

Today I sat a mock Public Affairs exam. Four questions in 2 hours. The first 2 questions went fairly well, but I struggled a bit with the second half of the paper.

The mock reminded me of just how peculiar and very specific the exam experience is. Knowing your stuff is only half the battle. Nerves, timing, structure and discipline are all relevant factors.

I find out the result on Thursday. The real exam is next Wednesday, so I have a little time to raise my game.

Next Thursday I face the first NCTJ law exam. This will be based upon defamation, contempt and copyright. A couple of other areas my also come into play, like breach of confidence, human rights law and tribunals.

This Thursday I sit a Teeline exam, although it is not NCTJ. I have forced to put this subject on the backburner for a week or two. Once next week is over, I will have to dive back into it.

I do not have much of a life at the moment, due to the demands of the course. However, I have noticed that the BBC has started putting advertisements on a couple of its websites. And why not? They are obviously under huge financial and political pressure, so why shouldn’t they earn some easy money. Surely this is an example of the beeb embracing the market, in the very way some of their critics wish they would.

The Queen’s Speech took place today, so I am looking forward to a row on Newsnight or something. Apparently I get study this type of thing in the second Public Affairs module.

New model army

I am not sure how I feel about Dan Kennedy’s comment is free piece on the future of journalism. Dan thinks that newspapers will simply disappear during the next decade and that online is the future. I have read a quite a few articles in the last few years that say a similar thing to Dan’s.

This type of argument certainly influenced my decision to become an online journalist. I completed a MA in online journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in 2006.

However, I am not sure whether Dan’s current article is encouraging or unnerving. Its basic premise is obviously good news for me. However, he also writes that : “that the old model is dying, and that the new model is taking its damn sweet time being born. The solution, though, is not to cling to what's dying. It's to embrace what's coming and work toward creating a new journalism that's every bit as vital as the old.” Since I am currently trying to become a NCTJ accredited journalist, I may be guilty of clinging to “what’s dying.”

One point may be that while the old model may well be dying, its demise does not necessarily mean that we should abandon everything that went with it. I think that the NCTJ accreditation I am currently taking will make me a better journalist. Surely that is a good thing.

I think that the NCTJ stand for accurate, responsible journalism, and I would have thought that the new model Dan alludes to will want to embrace some of their values.

Saving the internet from itself

Guardian Unlimited published an interesting article today about defamation law catching up with the world of blogs. In a recent case involving Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, a court has ruled that the owners of a website must volunteer the names of people who posted defamatory comments.

The website in question is owlstalk.co.uk. A small number of fans posted personal and defamatory comments about the people that run the club. The posts were attributed to nicknames such as “halfpint,” which are commonly used on the internet.

The point I am belatedly coming to is, “so what.” Anyone who is remotely familiar with libel law, from A Level students to QCs, can hardly be surprised by the news. The standard test in court is based upon the following;

1. Is the comment defamatory
2. Is the subject of the statement identified
3. Has the statement been published

The Sheffield Wednesday example ticks all the above boxes, making it an open and shut case. Now boorish football fans will be subject to the same discipline that constrains professional journalists working in the public interest. Perhaps good libel lawyers will do what others have failed to do and finally clean up the internet.

This is multimedia

Image credit to Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The New York Times latest multimedia package on pollution in China is notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it appeared directly on their home page, right above the video player. I have not seen them do this before. Secondly, the package is excellent.

The resource they have put together uses text, video, photographs and sound. The audio slide show really stands out. While video content is currently very popular, a set of good photographs tends to communicate more effectively than anything else.

The story is based upon the fate of Lake Tai in China. It is now infected with toxic cyanobacteria, or pond scum. Two million people depend on a lake which is now ruined by this thick green poison. A local man named Wu Lihong tried to stop the chemical factories from polluting the water. He is now in prison.

Reynolds defence resurgent

Today was a great day for the Reynolds defence and investigative journalism, after Graeme McLagan’s victory in the Court Of Appeal. McLagan won his libel case against former policeman Michael Charman.

The Court of Appeal reversed last years High Court ruling, which found for Charman. The defence McLagan successfully used is based on qualified privilege at common law, and enables journalists to publish defamatory material in the public interest. However, the Reynolds defence has previously only enjoyed limited success and has been surrounded by a lot of uncertainty.

The original action was initiated by Charman in response to McLagan’s book, Bent Coppers.

Today’s decision is also a rare reverse for the Police Federation. The organisation is well known for vigorously defending the reputation of police officers in England and Wales.

Investigative journalism has been harder to practice in recent years. The sheer complexity and cost of libel actions means newspapers and broadcaster are often reluctant to defend them. This has been exacerbated by Conditional Fee Arrangements and the unpredictability decision making of juries.

However, McLagan’s success may reinvigorate his profession and colleagues. Hopefully there will be more sleepless nights for the fat cat businessmen, corrupt officials and common criminals who profit from the misery of others.

NCTJ moving with the times

Andy Dickinson, who taught me online journalism at Preston, has an interesting post on his excellent blog. It is about the NCTJ’s attempt to update their photography and photojournalism syllabuses. The person responsible for the updating is Andy Bull, and he is blogging his progress.

The work Andy is doing does appear to be an attempt to embrace the online/multimedia environment. He is talking about video and multimedia presentations. While photographers once took photographs for a newspaper, they are now being asked to do a lot more than that. Since video and multimedia is becoming increasingly important to newspapers (and not just the nationals) this all makes sense.

Has Brown blown it?

Image credit to Jeff J Mitchell

Gordon Brown has told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that he will not be calling a general election this autumn.

The Prime Minister stated that he wanted time to demonstrate his “vision” to the country, rather than hold a quick election based upon “competence.” The news comes as an ICM poll of 83 key constituencies gives the Conservatives a 6 point lead.

This is all very dramatic, and can only be viewed as huge loss of face for the Prime Minister, the government and The Labour Party. The BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson views the decision as a: “huge embarrassment for Gordon Brown.”

Brown was clearly limbering up for a snap poll, and his decision to drop in on Basra during the Tory’s conference week was a mistake. A lot of people are very angry about Iraq. The last Prime Minister lied to Parliament about it, and Brown has previously intimated that his government will stamp out the spin and manipulation.

Most people know that all politicians look good when flying to dangerous places overseas and shaking hands with soldiers. Brown tried to exploit the Iraqi tragedy for short term party political gain.

While the Prime Minister is probably genuine in his desire to demonstrate his “vision,” events may yet wreck his plans. A lot of economic commentators are gloomy about the future, while Bush may be tempted to “do” Iran while he can. These two factors could yet combine to finish Brown off.

Abercromby

One of the good things about being back in Liverpool is Abercromby Square. The square is in the heart of the University Campus, and is the perfect place to relax at lunch time. Abercromby Square is Georgian, a Conservation Zone and named after General Sir Ralph Abercromby. Sir Ralph was killed fighting the French in Egypt, during the Napoleonic Wars.

The square helps define the University campus. The three rows of Georgian terraces are magnificent, and the perfect contrast to the 60s style architecture that dominates the rest of the campus.

I am also familiar with Manchester’s student land, and I sure that if this square was in that city, it would be ruined by drugs, users and crime.

Shorthand blues

Today was a big one. This morning I had four hours of public affairs and shorthand, followed by two hours of law this afternoon. The law class was the highlight of the day. For the first hour we watched a BBC in-house training video on contempt. The film was made in the 1980s, but it was still informative and entertaining. The second hour of the class was spent studying past NCTJ law papers. There is a lot of law to get through in a short amount of time, and I was wondering how the college would approach this problem. I think the introduction of past papers is a great idea; it allows the class to focus on what we specifically need to know. It also strips the exam of its mystique. It all reminds me of my A Levels. I remember seeing my first past papers a few months before the final exams. A few of my friends who went to Manchester Grammar School told me they were shown the past papers on day one of lower sixth. All their teaching was focused around the exam, not around the subject. They all did brilliantly, while I did ok.

However, today was defined by the shorthand class and that test. I scored 5 marks out of a possible 30. This was then followed by an hour of dictation, during which I struggled to keep up. I really need to knuckle down and understand this subject in the coming weeks.

Nick Clarke

While listening to Radio 4 on the way out of Liverpool, I heard about the launch of a new competition. It will be named after the late Nick Clarke, who died last year. The competition will award a prize for the best interview of the year, either on radio or television. Sounds like a good idea, and a worthy tribute to Nick Clarke’s work and life.

Big Wednesday

Conservative Pary Leader David Cameron, speaking to the press earlier this year. Photographer : Cate Gillon

It appears that David Cameron had a better day than I. Dave needed to put in a good performance, and he did. While "the big speech" was a little long, his ability to speak without a script or autocue is impressive. A perfect contrast to Labour's smoke and mirrors. However, will this speech be enough though to win a general election?

In contrast I had a very mixed day. My first class of the day was Industry. This class is taken by Nick Baty, who is currently teaching us Quark. Interestingly, Nick is in the midst of a spat with Telegraph blogger Damian Thompson. The class was fine, but my problem was with the Mac. I am very new to this hardware, so I was a bit rubbish this morning.

Industry was followed by a two hour Teeline class. This whole shorthand business is becoming a pain. I need 100wpm to pass my NCTJ exam in January 2008. At the moment, this seems a distant prospect. There is test or something tomorrow, so I need to revise tonight.

Hello world

Welcome to The NCTJ blog. Firstly, I am suprised that this url was available. Secondly, I will try and explain the point of this blog. On September 4 2007 I began a NCTJ fast-track course in newspaper journalism, at Liverpool Community College. This blog will hopefully document the next five months of my life. It goes without saying that I hope to pass, and receive that all important NCTJ accreditation.

The course is based upon the following core subjects;

Law
Shorthand
Public Affairs
News writing

There is also an additional set of Industry classes, where we use software such as Quark. There may be some feature writing.

Why am I doing this?

In September 2006 I completed a MA in Online Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire. This qualification is accredited by the BJTC, but not by the NCTJ. So, this is my attempt to become accredited by both bodies.

How am I doing so far?

Not too bad. The shorthand is hard, but the rest of the subjects are fairly straightforward. My most recent challege was a short but brutal bout of flu. I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in bed. I spent today recovering, eating some food and doing some shorthand. I return to Liverpool in the morning.