What books to read?

So I was trying the find some books to read for media on grassroots journalism. This was very hard to find a book for this so I tweeted the head of the exam board for OCR Media Studies and he tweeted me back as you can see in the pictures below.

These two books are Dan Gilmore's 'We the Media' and 'Misunderstanding the internet' by James Curran. I already have 'We the media' so that was a good start and in the February half term I will purchase the 'Misunderstanding the internet' in preparation for the exams.

Leveson inquiry

It’s very hard not to come across the Leveson Inquiry in the news with the past couple of months. It’s one of the biggest news stories this year in the UK

. What surprises me is not everyone actually knows what it’s about.
The Inquiry is looking at the culture, practices and ethics of the Press. There are four modules running in this inquiry; the first module is ‘The relationship between the press and the public and looks at phone hacking and other potential illegal behavior’. The second module is, ‘The relationship between the press and the police and the extent to which that has operated in the public interest’. Module 3 is ‘The relationship between the press and politicians’ this focuses on the news and the newspapers which where involved with the phone hacking case. The final module is ‘Recommendations for a more effective policy and regulation that supports the integrity and freedom of the press while encouraging the highest ethical standards’. The prime minster set up and announced that the inquiry was going ahead following all the exposure of the alleged phone hacking at ‘The News of the World’. The Phone hacking cases where awful, they hacked people’s phones just to get stories. They even tampered with peoples phones so they could get more information, which also affected some police matters. The inquiry started taking evidence on August of 2011 so this case has had a long time to build up a big report which recently has been published. The report was published on November the 29^th; it is a 2000 page final report. So you would hope they have taken all the concepts into consideration. The websites talks about their aim and it says, “The Inquiry aims to draw recommendations, if any, for the future, with particular regards to press regulation, governance and other systems of oversight”. So there may be a recommendation for regulation to be put in place so it will affect the module one behavior and others depending on the outcome.

So what did lord justice Leveson recommend? His recommendations where how the press was and is regulations. The recommendations were ‘Newspapers should continue to be self-regulated - and the government should have no power over what they publish’. The current system is PCC which is the press complains commission. This is needed through this ‘transitional phrase’ until a long term replacement can be decided. The chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Hunt, wants a new ‘Tough, independent regulator with teeth’. However the free speech network opposes this as it defeats the object of what they are, as they run of this and this will put a boundary on what they talk about. They’re made up from a vast range of publishers and editors. The press is scrutinising the people in power in this case as they don’t want a change so they can have free speech without the fear of getting punished.

Another side of this argument comes from the ‘Hacked off’ campaign which stands up for the victims of people whom were affected by this. They think that self regulations don’t work and something needs to be put in place that can protect and work. Hacked off are on Leveson side and are hoping for a secure regulation.

They got the evidence from the people who were affected by this. This helped them build up a case against the papers who was accused of phone hacking. The hearings for this were done at the Inquiry Room at the Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London
.  The Inquiry Room is located in what was formerly courtroom 73. They got evidence from many famous people including, Piers Morgan, Hugh Grant and many more. Also the general public could send in information, this information was only for module 4. This was done so they could get a wide range of evidence from everyone and not miss out any key parts.

Rodney King

Rodney Glen King was an African-American construction worker who became well known after being beaten harshly by Los Angeles police officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. George Holliday, a resident in the nearby area, witnessed the beating and videotaped much of it from the balcony of his nearby apartment.

This incident was one of the first cases grassroots media. This is because when 'King' was getting beat up there were people filming it. This footage first went to the police but they ignored it then the person who filmed it when to the news and they broadcasted about it. The footage then became an instant media sensation.

This event caused riots in Los Angeles in 1992. This riot happened because of the Rodney King accident. This event was the cause for 53 deaths and over 2000 injuries.

I watched the video of Rodney King and i was quite shocked on how brutial it was. I can now see why so many people upraged from this. It wasn't a fight it was a beating, 10 guys on 1. I think that the riots where justified for this reason, however the killings wern't.

There are many different views of this story, i was watching the film 'American History X' and this scene popped up which i found interesting. They start of talking about the roits. The people in this who are against Rodney King are White supremistists so that changes the view. However some of the points they talk about in this i agree with. This shows in there view, grassroots media can have a negitive effect.

Facebook and Twitter – Law and order

With the increase of people using social media at some point there has to be a law with what you can and cannot do on it. I have looked around on the internet and I cannot seem to find any rules. There have been loads of cases where people have won against ‘Internet trolls’. Internet Trolls seem to be the people who are the criminals on the internet. On the internet people think there is ‘Freedom of speech’, which now there isn’t with laws in place and people being taken to court over it.

I think with the law now doing this they think they will see a decrease in internet trolls. However I disagree. I think with this new law in place it will encourage Internet trolls to try it and get through the new barrier, it gives them a challenge. With social media websites now can identify the people who do this and unmask this people will trust the websites. This doesn’t mean what most people think it does. The websites can only find an IP address then they will go from there. Only the foolish internet trolls will get found this way. This is because most internet trolls are good at what they do and they will most likely have a fake IP address which will show that they live somewhere like Russia when they really live in England.

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, historian, political critic, and activist. He was born on December 7^th, 1928. He has written on war, politics, and mass media, and he has written over 100 books. From this you can see he is a very active person. In lesson we look at some of quotes and talked about him. These are the quotes that I liked and I’ll explain what they mean to me.

“If you don’t like what someone has to say, argue with them”

I agree with this quote hugely. There are too many people who sit and watch the world go by and don’t say anything. I think it’s quite strong to say argue with them, however in some cases it is needed. There are so many things in life which go past and no one says anything. I think a great example of people doing what Chomsky says is Penn, from Penn and Teller, in this video, if you watch this you’ll see that he does this well.

He is very opinionated but we need more people like this.

“If you are working 50 hours a week in a factory, you don’t have time to read 10 newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works”

This is another quote I agree with. I look at this quote when it comes to voting in elections as these people have no time to look in to the political parties and their policies. This is a huge factor as in the last election more people voted in the X factor final then the election. This shows that people who work 50 hour weeks who know how the way business works, don’t vote due to any interest. Even if they did it would be hard for them to look into it that deep so they usually vote for the same party every time whatever there manifestos are.

How to Exhibit my production

My production will be for a niece market so the exhibition will not be like the norm and in a Big Cinema chain. I will look at releasing mine into an Art house cinema which will be better for this film and hopefully make more money. An Art house cinema that I will ask is a local one in Norwich called ‘Cinema City’.

For the release of my film I will try get it premiered in a Ski and Snowboard Shop called ‘Snowfit’. They have a projector to show it on and it will get more interest and will be the perfect atmosphere for the target market to watch it.