Re- version of my Gatsby inspired photo shoot

This is a re-versioned video produced by a member of the features team using my 'Gatsby style' photo shoot that I organised and directed towards the end of last year.

Law Revision.

Court Structure

The court structure is set out like a pyramid with the Supreme Court being the highest court there is. This court has 12 Justices and is located in Central London, Parliament Square. Below the Supreme Court is the Court of Appeal which is split into two divisions, civil division and the criminal division. From the civil division is the High Court which is sectioned into three parts: the Queens Bench, Family and Chancery which includes business cases. Below the High Court is the County Court which deals with minor offences such as building contractors and suing people who have breached a contract. Both the High Court and the County Court are civil courts that have judges present. They are headed by the DPP (director public prosecution) who currently is Alison Saunders. Another organisation is the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) which decides the sentences in the magistrates court. These include:

• Up to six months in prison
• Community Service
• A fine up to £5,000

The magistrates court does not have a jury present and usually deals with things such as family issues and contractual land etc. The functions of the magistrates court is to:

1. Find liable or not liable in family court and youth court
2. Decide the damages a fine, jail etc through the licensing apparatus
3. Deal with disputes between couples and marriages etc

On the other side of the court structure there is the criminal division which is the Crown Court. This is where all of the indictable cases are which consist of the State Vs the Person. The functions of the Crown Court is:

1. Appeals passed on from the Magistrates Court
2. Sentencing
3. Hear indictable cases

Sources of the law include:

• Common Law
• European Law
• Statue Law (parliament)
• Judicial (case law)

Chris Grayling is currently the Minister of Justice and oversees the administration of the court system. Dominic Grieve is the Attorney General and oversees the government decisions such as the Iraq War.

The Public Interest is when information published provides a 'sufficient benefit' for society to know about and puts them at a fair advantage for knowing such things. This could include a bird flu break out in an area that could upset the locals due to stopping people from visiting their village however can put them at an advantage so they can prepare for it or try and prevent themselves from catching it.

Criminal standard of proof is based on the balance of probabilities- beyond reasonable doubt

whereas Civil law standard of proof is based on the balance of probabilities and is lower than the criminal side.

Reporting Crime and the Court

Prejudice is publication of information which will prevent the accused person from having a fair trial due to the potential jury knowing information before the trial. 

Contempt is information that is published in breach of the court reporting rules and carries a high risk of prejudicing the legal proceedings. 

The stages of reporting a crime are as follows:

1. The crime is reported and the police hunt begins, appeal for witnesses and issue a description.
2. Police make an arrest and issue a warrant or state that 'someone is helping with their inquiries', the case is now legally active and there is a risk of prejudice.
3. The police lay the charges and a trial could be the case so you should only report facts that you know to be true. 'Community colour' is usually a good thing to fill your package with at this stage such as how the community have coped and their actions of laying flowers etc.
4. The court case is here and there are only seven points which can be reported these are:

• The name, age, address and occupation of the defendant
• The charges they face
• The name of the court and the magistrate
• The name of the barristers and solicitors present
• The date and place to where the case is adjourned 
• If they were granted bail
• If they received any legal aid

The case becomes 'legally active' once someone is charged or an arrest is made.

There are three types of offences, these are: Indictable offences (the Crown Court cases such as murder), either way offences (can go to either Magistrates or Crown Court such a robbery and drug offences and summary cases (the Magistrates Court cases such as family issues).

A conditional discharge is where the court does not impose a specific punishment but gives a time period that if the person re-offends in they will be liable for both offences.

Section 39- gives anonymity to under 18s in adult courts and cannot be reported, for instance if they were a witness.

Section 49 gives anonymity to under 18s in youth courts.

Jigsaw Identification is where a combination of details are published which can destroy someones anonymity and lead the public to speculate it is a specific person. This can happen when many newspapers or broadcasters reveal certain information on a specific person but each company state different facts. The case that links to this is the McAlpine case where on BBC Newsnight he was not named however a report they gave set off a series of jigsaw identification on Twitter which lead to the viewers publicly identifying McAlpine.

When reporting in the Crown Courts you should not report anything that is said if the jury are not present in the room. You are covered in court by 'absolute privilege' as long as your report is, fair (balanced) accurate (the evidence you report is correct) and contemporaneous (you publish it at the first chance you get so that it is current).

Libel and Defamation

Libel results from publishing a defamatory statement which identifies a person or a specific company.

PUBLICATION+ IDENTIFICATION+ DEFAMATION= LIBEL

Published for the public to see, identifies the person or company, contains a defamatory statement.

To define defamation- it is a statement which a 'reasonable man or women' may think 'tends to':

1. Lower someone in the estimation of right thinking people
2. Cause someone to be shunned and avoided
3. Disparages someone in their work or profession
4. Exposes someone to hatred, ridicule or contempt

Picture libel is something that we need to be aware of especially when reporting out on the streets. Framing people or company logos in shots when talking about a paedophile or a negative story can link this company or person to it without you realising. It could contain inference (secondary meaning) or an innuendo (possibly defamatory).

The Defamation Act 2013 sets out some new rules in the libel defences.

1. People must prove that they have suffered 'serious harm' such as the losses serious e.g. losing a job or a lot of money because of it.
2. Truth- it must be the substantial truth
3. Honest opinion- it must be an honestly held opinion based on fact or facts that existed at the time, it no longer has to be in the public interest but must remain free of malice.

Publication on the matter of public interest must be 'reasonably believed' to be in the public interest and valuable for the public to know.

Qualified privilege gives journalists freedom to report what goes on in council meetings or in statements freely even if they are potential defamatory or untrue statements. It gives you legal protection from being sued as long as your accounts are fair, accurate and in the public interest without malice.

Qualified privilege without explanation or contradiction contain proceedings in the legislature anywhere in the world but must publish a letter or statement from the person defamed if requested.

Qualified privilege with explanation or contradiction does not need to publish this sort of material as it is covered by what was said in a public meeting.

Lee Clegg was a soldier that was jailed for killing two joy riders. However due to a campaign from The Daily Mail where 1.5 million readers signed a petition he was released as it was argued that he was simply doing his job. He was also allowed to return to the front line and fight again. 

Copyright

This is the exclusive legal right given to an organisation or person to print/ publish, film or record artistic or musical material. The purpose of copyright is to protect intellectual property of products and skill. Undeveloped ideas such as slogans or catchphrases are not protected.

You can use snippets of people's work through the use of 'fair dealing' if you comply with these rules:

1. Work cannot be passed off as your own therefore it needs to be accredited
2. Usage must be fair
3. Material must be in the public interest

Photographs and TV News pictures etc are not covered by fair dealing and it is important to remember that Internet material is also subject to copyright.

Confidentiality 

The law of confidence safeguards information obtained in confidential circumstances between individuals or a company and its employees. The three areas that are a concern to journalists are:

1. Revealing state or official secrets
2. Revealing commercial secrets
3. Revealing facts about someone that they would expect to remain in private such as NHS health records.

The Official Secrets Act protects state secrets (military or intelligence) and prevents people from publishing photos of sensitive military installations as it is a criminal offence to do so. However this act is rarely used.

Commercial confidentiality is protected by contract of employment laws such as not revealing finance information. At times these figures can be in the public interest and it is up to the journalist to decide on the risk of legal action if they publish something like this. Journalists must decide whether to risk an injunction by seeking a response to the allegation or publishing material and taking risk of legal action for breach of confidence or defamation. 

Important Cases

Max Mosley Vs The News of the World 2008, printed a story that Max Mosley had an orgy with five women and reported that it contained a Nazi them. The High Court ruled that there was no public interest in revealing activities and that Mosley had a right of privacy in which damages were rewarded.

Naomi Campbell Vs The Mirror is when they published photographs of her leaving a narcotics anonymous meeting and reported about her therapy for a drug addiction. The House of Lords ruled that there was a breach of confidence as she should expect privacy.

PCC, Ofcom, BBC Editorial Guidelines

These all decide what is justified for journalist behaviour. Ofcom rules that there should be an absolute requirement for accuracy and impartiality. The Ofcom code has statutory power and can impose large fines and even remove broadcast licenses. ITV were fined 5.6 million for abusing phone in votes for money on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

The PCC (press complaints commission) is now discredited as they did not do enough over the Leveson Enquiry situation. At present they are still regulating and making decisions on their website though. The BBC Editorial Guidelines is a system of regulation for people at the BBC to follow.

Reporting Elections

Accuracy and impartiality is important for reporting as the way you report can influence the public choice in voting. The danger areas for journalists are:

• False statements about candidates
• Maintaining impartiality
• Reporting on opinion and exit polls

To remain impartial you should assess your coverage each day and keep a log of the coverage for the parties to make sure they are all around the correct amount. Major and minor parties do not have to have equal coverage time. It is an offence to refer to exit polls (how real voting is going) until the polling closes as this could prevent people from voting if they think their party isn't doing too well. On polling day the coverage should remain minimal and there should be no reference to political issues or arguments.

Inquests

The function of inquests is to find the cause of death. This death could be due to: unlawful killing or an accidental death. 

They are conducted by the coroner who legally has to find the cause of death if it appears to be 'violent or unnatural'. There is a jury of 8-11 people with these cases and is covered by qualified privilege.

Birmingham Clothes Show Live 2013

Here are some images from the catwalk at the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham. We did have press passes for the event; but due to costings could not make it there! Kate Stafford the PR for the event gave me some images to use from the event. I specifically asked for catwalk images as they relate to my fashion director role that I had for WINOL. They can also be used without credit on the fashion magazine website to make it appear more professional. The majority of the images are long shot which is perfect for fashion as you can see every part of the clothing on show. They are also posed shots which works better in fashion journalism than action shots which are more suited to news.

Critical Reflection 2013

WINOL has improved significantly over the past two and a half years. This semester we have worked harder to interest our target audience of students and engage the local public by our careful choice of stories. Our Alexa Ranking, (04/11/13) shows that we are ranked 32,503 in the UK which is better than our local rivals, ‘The Hampshire Chronicle’ who are ranked 56,493. We are currently quite far behind ‘The Daily Echo’ that stands at 1,700 in the UK. This could be attributed to the fact that the Echo covers a larger area and has built up a bigger audience over the years.

WINOL is trying to widen its audience by varying stories from Marwell Zoo, to court reporting and covering events that are happening in the local community. We use the website to promote our stories, but also to cover other local stories that we may not be able to put into the bulletin.

We are keeping up to date with social networking by having our twitter account linked to the news site. This is important for reporters as they can keep everyone up to date with their stories and progress. It also works as a system to keep the site ‘alive’ whilst text stories are waiting to be published. We are moving further towards using social media to promote WINOL in order to get us recognised in the local community.

I think this is something that we could improve on further next semester; by making sure that we all use key words in our tweets. By getting people involved in the story to simply ‘re-tweet’ can multiply the people that can view it. The social media editor also needs to work on promoting WINOL further, by handing out leaflets or putting up signs around the campus to make people more aware of its existence.

Our WINOL team has improved vastly in terms of the stories we have managed to cover. We have had stories that the likes of the BBC cover such as the lamb story a couple of weeks ago. We even managed to use our social media to an advantage to tweet the verdict on cameras in court and scoop all other organisations. This is a great achievement and gained a lot of attention, as we were first to announce the outcome.

In terms of audience diversity, I would say the introduction of ‘Access’ is a great way to widen our current audience. The team go into the community and attend events that many people locally will be interested in. Gaining access to things such as the ‘Nutcracker on Ice’ and ‘Apps world’ reach out to different audiences such as families and the majority of society who will own an Apple product.

This semester, we changed the role of the news editor weekly. I think it was a good opportunity for everyone to experience the role; but I feel that the bulletin reflected the change in editor at times. I think by keeping the editor the same each week, the bulletins will flow better and the conferences will be better organised. It also means that all of the news team are aware of their news editor and how to contact them with any problems.

In terms of the bulletin itself, there have been a few production issues this semester. It is evident that our highest viewing figures are on a Wednesday when the bulletin goes out. If for any reason it doesn’t go live at 5 p.m., the audience will presume that it is not happening resulting in our viewings dropping. To prevent this happening, the production team need to be well organised and reporters need to check their work carefully to eliminate any possible legal issues. However if this is the case, we could distract the audience by putting up a game or a feature for them to enjoy whilst they wait for the bulletin.

I think the newsreaders this semester have been very professional. They have used their voices well and expressed emotion relating to the story. This keeps the audience engaged and eager to find out more. To improve WINOL’s presentation further, I would suggest updating the backdrop of the bulletin as it’s starting to look dated and makes it appear less professional.

The sports team have achieved in terms of getting the football highlights weekly. However, the viewing figures seem to have dropped to on average 150 per week for sports week. I think the packages need to be more engaging to encourage people to watch. However some individual matches such as the Basingstoke Town VS Hampton and Richmond have received over 400 views, which show there is a larger audience for Basingstoke Town. Therefore we should make sure we have good coverage for each of their games.

The sports team could improve by playing around with the highlights and making it more fun by adding graphics such as the league table at the side of the screen. They could even use a split screen and show two games at the same time and feature the full highlights at winol.co.uk. Getting interviews and footage of top local athletes would interest the local audiences but also increase viewing figures from their friends and families.

My role for this semester was the fashion editor for our Absolute:ly magazine. This magazine covers beauty, hair and fashion to relate directly to its target audience of young women.  I recruited my own fashion team and made sure that our site was updated with at least two articles a week for each category. I took over the twitter account and have managed to increase the followers of the magazine from 30 to 120 at present. This was by re-tweeting larger magazines such as Elle and by tweeting our work and any trends/styles we like this season. I think this could be improved on further by having a member of the team concentrating on the social media aspect and tweeting hundreds of tweets and images daily.

As the fashion editor, I made the decision along with the features editor and the web team to change the site. I wanted to get rid of the ‘gossip’ section on the site, as it didn’t really fit the style of the magazine, which is supposed to be more upmarket like ‘Glamour’.  We also made the images on the front page smaller as they were too big and meant the audience had to continuously scroll down to see each article. 

I was also involved in making the decision to move all features into one large magazine called ‘Here and Now’. I think this was a good decision as the editor can easily oversee what is being produced for each topic. It also means that all the magazines look like they are updated frequently as some were more than others. I think to make the site look more professional, we need to make sure each magazine has strong images, especially on the home page of the site.

As the editor, I made sure that I gave everyone a deadline to have work submitted by. If this was not met then I had to decide to scrap the work, as it would be out of date or no longer relevant. I did manage to find a columnist, ‘Pamela Davies’ who writes for ‘Essex Style,’ a popular magazine in Essex. She is an ex model who organises fashion shows and is also a stylist. Unfortunately she did not keep to deadlines or produce a regular piece so I had to scrap the column, as it was not frequent enough.

One of my biggest achievements this semester was managing to get four press passes for the biggest hair, beauty and fashion show in the country, ‘The Clothes Show Live’. This show suited our magazine perfectly as it covered all of our categories and gained great publicity around the country. Unfortunately, due to the show being held at the NEC in Birmingham, we could not afford the travel costs as it’s the end of term and funds are low.

I contacted Paul Manning regarding possible funding but there wasn’t anything that he could offer, which was a shame. I tried to get the names on the press passes changed for others to use if they were interested but it was too close to the event to be sorted out. I made the best of an unfortunate situation by contacting the PR Department to arrange to receive some images from the event, including the catwalk, once it finishes on Tuesday 10^th December. This means that the magazine will feature some brilliant images from a top fashion event that has been trending on twitter since it started and thousands of people are talking about.

 My biggest achievement this semester has to be the final photo shoot that I organised and directed. It was decided that the theme for this shoot was going to be existentialism and modernism as it links in nicely with our philosophy. I knew from that point that this shoot was going to be the hardest one to organise. I used the likes of Malcolm X, Audrey Hepburn and ‘The Great Gatsby’ that released a modern version of the film earlier this year to be the inspiration behind my shoot.

My shoots have produced some stunning images for the magazine in the past and I wanted to continue in the same vein. I decided to let my fashion team help out in trying to arrange the shoot, to understand how it works and the months of planning that takes place. I think this was a good idea in terms of allowing them to see the effort that goes into the shoots.

I usually have the shoot all planned and arranged 2-3 weeks prior to the date. I decided to give my team certain aspects to organise but unfortunately were not arranged a week prior to the shoot. I think this shoot taught us that there is no need to give up and that you should work with what you have and keep contacting people until the very last minute. The team learnt it is harder to get makeup and hair stylists booked in with little advance notice. I learnt that by having contacts such as hair stylists and makeup technicians it is achievable to get someone the week before the shoot date. I managed to get a Benefit makeup artist to do the different aspects of makeup and also a local freelance hair stylist.

 The clothing was the hardest to organise as the style itself tends to be quite expensive. We did have an appointment with Hampshire Wardrobe, however they wanted a large amount of money when they knew what we wanted. I managed to get a local designer ‘Airyn Erickson designs’ to make the flapper dress style that I had researched. I also borrowed other clothing from various contacts and was lucky that the male models used most of their own.

I feel that I really improved when directing this shoot. I was more confident and knew from my research the variety of shots I wanted to get. I also directed the hair and makeup to ensure it was the exact look that I had planned for. I found the shoot harder without the use of the infinity screen as it makes the floor appear darker when editing. For this particular shoot it suited the style so it wasn’t such a problem, but I think it is something the university should invest in again. I feel that I really improved in terms of editing the images and making the magazine spreads as I had more time after the shoot. I think this is an important aspect to consider when planning the shoot in advance.

Overall, this shoot was a success and has produced some stunning content for the magazine. Not only have we got the images, we have produced a video containing the history and inspiration behind the shoot. I have also created some magazine spreads that feature the images whilst explaining the history and the background behind the shoot. I really enjoy planning and directing these shoots and it may be something I look into doing in the future.

I think I fulfilled my role as the fashion editor as I made sure that the site was current and updated to interest our target audience directly. I also made sure that the team worked together to keep up to date on the newest trends and styles of both the high street and catwalk.

WINOL debrief & Absolute:ly 02/12/13

WINOL bulletin

Last week there were a few production problems which meant that the bulletin did not go out on time. Although this is not technically our fault it does affect the viewing figures quite dramatically as people see that the bulletin is not there and assume it is not happening.

There is still question about changing the news editor weekly. It is good to allow people the chance to experience it. However in terms of WINOL i have said previously that I personally think it would work better if the news editor was designated to one person. This would mean that they can improve each week on their role and be more organised in the way they go about it. It would also mean that the other WINOL reporters all know who their editor is so that they can contact them if they need any help. It would be a good idea to have a shadow editor weekly to still allow people the chance to experience being the news editor however they would work alongside the main WINOL editor.

In regards to features the new website is slowly beginning to come alive as people are moving their work across from the individual sites. By having one big magazine it makes it easier for the editor to see what is going on contents wise. It also means that magazines all seem to be updated even if one magazine is producing a lot more than others. I think that the images need to all be stronger both on the front page and in individual articles. Features should be image lead and by having a strong image it will engage the audience and get them to look at your article. Using an image to illustrate and decorate the site is not the type of images we want as they do not do anything visually e.g: the Google image. I also think it would be a good idea to have the individual twitter accounts featured on the front page of the magazine. At the moment it is all tweets from WINOL news that does not relate to the content in the magazine or show people what else is in the magazine and a link to it.

The WINOL website has a good layout and the quality of the writing is very good. We now have a better process of subbing stories which is good and works well for the site. The site is starting to become updated but this needs to be kept up especially over the weekend; even if it is just with sports stories. Social media needs to improve for WINOL as the followers since the start of the semester haven't really improved. Tweets need to be updated more regularly about what is coming up on WINOL and the sorts of stories people are going to be producing. It needs to reach out to the public more by using tags and tweeting about people you interview which they can them re-tweet and be seen by all of their followers. We could have WINOL campaigns and leaflets to hand out around the campus or locally to get people to recognise us and get involved. Images for the text stories on the site could improve which would make the whole front page look better.

The website that beat us at the BJTC awards, Lincoln website does not contain content like ours. The stories do not make sense and are not written correctly. Their images aren't good at all such as the image of an empty football stadium. They have used a posed PR picture which doesn't look right as there is no point of the image.

It looks as if they have lifted quotes from other websites as the quotes are perfectly punctuated and contain phrases such as 'he said in a press conference'. They also have long quotes that they could not have written down themselves in short hand. If this is the case, there are no accreditation on the quotes, they even use football footage from the likes of Sky and the BBC instead of getting their own footage.

Ray Gosling sadly passed away lately and we looked at some of his gonzo style journalism. He was very good at doing PTC and using the style of his voice to interest the audience and want them to watch. His typical audience was the elderly as his programmes used to be on during the day. He basically invented the use of sequences that are effective and keep us wanting to know more.

His scripting is very good for features and the bend in the words makes an interesting sound with his voice. He uses a drop intro quite a lot which works well in features but should not be used in news. he usually wrote about dull topics such as allotments but managed to make them interesting and appeal to the audience. In one of the clips he was holding a newspaper and simply stating that newspapers give us news and was talking about the story featured. This then linked with what his piece was going to be about but was a good way to start if you do not have a good enough image for it.

When filming in a supermarket, he got straight in there and had shots of him and the trolley as well as the checkout scanning his items. What he didn't do was spend time filming the outside of the building and describing where he was etc. This gives us very good natural sound of the scanners as well as being at the market and hearing the punters shouting their sales. At one point it included some good but humorous editing where he was made small and was sitting talking to the audience from the top shelf of a fridge. This was good as it was a different way to talk to the audience instead of having a simple piece to camera at the market.

This gave us a good idea for someone to do next semester where you go out and film yourself buying your own fruit and vegetables. You then get a chef to cook them for you in a restaurant and show the actions of them making the food and preparing it etc. You could then do a restaurant review and combine it with similar prices on the menu for the food that you bought cheaply at the market.

Absolute:ly

The modernism/ existentialism photo shoot for this semester was another great success. The photos produced were brilliant. It was a struggle in the last week leading up to the shoot as various people dropped out such as models and there was not a makeup or hair stylist sorted either. For this shoot I was trying to allow the second years to have a go at helping arrange it and see what needs to be done to complete one of these shoots successfully. I was very stressed out that the week before the shoot was due there was still no makeup or hair artist. This is because two weeks prior to the shoot I usually have everyone and everything organised so I know what is happening when. Plus, I am aware that trying to find a makeup and hair artist so near to the shoot is nearly impossible especially if you want to use a professional one like I have in the past as they are very booked up. There were members of the team that were happy to drop this shoot as it was organised. However in the last week, I managed to use my contacts to get a hair stylist and a Benefit makeup artist. 

I also had arranged for a local clothes designer to make us a simple flapper dress as we were having trouble trying to get a company to lend one to us. This dress was simple but actually looked really good in the photos and suited the design that I had asked her for perfectly. She also made us a hairband and feather bower to match which finished off the look. As for models, I think we did a great job in finding the exact style of models we wanted to pull off the look in this shoot. The rest of the clothing we had was donated to us from other sources and some were the models own clothing. We used a photographer from the university who was great in helping us take the pictures. It was harder to edit this time round as the infinity screen in the studio has been ruined meaning we had to make do with the white curtain. i think this is a big downfall for the photo shoot outcome as you really need the floor to match the background colour when editing the images. However this did not effect our shoot as the images still turned out brilliantly.

I feel that I really took control in directing this shoot to make it exactly how I had planned it to be. I chose the makeup and hair for each individual to suit their clothing style. I also directed both the models and the photographer to make sure I got the shots I wanted. I had looked at images of Malcolm X, Audrey Hepburn and researched other people as well as the eras of both the shoots. This enabled me to copy some of the famous poses that these people did to relate my shoot to the eras.

I think the shoot was a total success and I will post some of the images at the end of my blog. We are currently making a video with these images and adding in some history context. We are also making some magazine spreads using the images to make it look visually good.

We also have our Wicked makeup artist interview coming up on the site soon, as it is currently being checked by the make up artists PR to make sure it is all safe to go up on the site.

We are currently producing a video using our images from the shoot by adding music and some context of the times with the images. This will give the images some background knowledge and additional information on the inspiration of the shoot etc. We are also creating some magazine spreads using the images and adding information to make them appear more professional.