WINOL Critical Reflection - Year 2, Semester 1

WINOL (www.winol.co.uk) has gone through a vast transformation this term, the website to begin with was very up and down - it took some time to get it off the ground but now, I believe it's fair to say that the site is now flying high and will not stop soaring. The site has been changed to a broadsheet newspaper format, which was received as more appropriate for our news. The decision to change the site to Wordpress instead of Joomla is also a noticeable difference in the site, Wordpress does limit flexibility with what we can actually do and post to the site in terms of format, but it seems to be highly, if not more, fit for the purpose of WINOL. The massive overhaul of the website has been a fantastic move for the site and the results speak for themselves - the Alexa traffic rank now places the WINOL website currently 10,424 in the UK and 477,045 worldwide.

My role in WINOL this term has been the Entertainments Reporter and occasional presenter. I believe that this term I've done a good job, but, especially to begin with, there was and probably still is room for improvement. Overall, I feel that my contribution to WINOL has been of a good standard, every week bar 2 I have delivered a VT, which has then either been used as an OOV, been scrapped or used as a full package in the bulletin. My role as entertainments reporter has taught me that I need to be proactive; organisation is the key - insofar as if there is an event a few months away, depending on the event, I would need to get in touch with the event managers in advance, to ask for permission if necessary and to set up what I want to do with the event and how I want to report on it.

Along with going out and getting a story, I have presented the WINOL bulletin once this semester and I thoroughly enjoyed myself while doing it. I know that it wasn't the best but I had gone into this ordeal with no previous training, for example, voice coaching and I felt like I had been thrown in the deep end, especially considering that I only had about 15 - 20 minutes or rehearsal to get used to the setting of the whole thing, it really was a sink or swim moment, and I feel that I managed to stay afloat because I don't think that there was anything majorly wrong with it. That being said, I was picked up on my voice, I needed to change my tone according to the story, for example while reading out a link for a court report, I sounded strangely cheerful, contrasted to when I read the link out for the baby giraffe story where I sounded monotonous and uninterested. Given the circumstances, I feel that I did well presenting and I would very much like a chance to try again and do myself justice, as I know I can do better.

Over the course of this semester, I have produced 7 VT's, of these 7, 4 have been placed into the bulletin, usually filling the spot of "and finally” When I first started however, I was not very organised with my contacts and I failed to get in touch with a few people who would have been key to my packages being that much better and worthy of being in the bulletin, put simply, I was not proactive enough and thought that I could send an E-mail and maybe make a call, then just turn up on my own volition. With that in mind I feel that after I stopped only sending E-mails to people and actually started ringing and planning through my stories a good week or so in advance is when I got my real results.

The first ever story I produced for WINOL was the story of a willow installation being added to the Winchester Discovery Centre this package was not used for the bulletin and this is because I feel that I failed to hit the right angle with this story, instead of it being just about this woman, Laura Ellen Bacon, using twigs of willow to create works of art, I could have potentially taken the focus away from that and had a bit of fun with it, instead of taking it so seriously. This was my first story, it was not a good one in my eyes and I could have done a lot better, but that being said, I managed to produce a package for the first WINOL, regardless of if it was used.

The second story I did was the Chronicles of Light event at Winchester Cathedral, this was also not featured in the bulletin, this is because of many reasons, this package was somewhat doomed from the start because I couldn't get my hands on any footage of the event actually happening, for example I was not allowed to film the event happening in Winchester Cathedral, because of copy right issues. This means that my package turned into an interview with the event manager of Winchester Cathedral, Simon Barwood, which just told people that the event was happening. If I had been more proactive I could have done something more with it, but then again everything looks better in retrospect.

My third story was covering an event held by Naomi House Hospice they hosted a James Bond charity event in the shop to raise money for the charity, this was one of my better packages but it didn't get used in the bulletin or as an oov, this is because, I think anyway, that the other 'and finally' package that we had was just better in every way and far more engaging. I worked very hard on that package and was disheartened when it didn't get put into the bulletin or used as an oov, but as i said, the alternative story was better in my opinion, just because of content and the level of interest.

This is where I hit my stride, the story I covered was about pub owner, Colin Flitter, located in the New Forest, has converted a double decker bus into a mobile pub. This story was my debut into the bulletin as a full package. I thought that this went very well overall and the guest editor that week, Graham Bell, told me that it was a great story and just the kind of thing you want to see as an 'and finally' because it's just a brilliant, fun and light hearted story to end on. However, the package really needed to be more than just one long interview with Colin, and more me explaining the whole idea, with shots of the bus and then cut to an interview with him just for a fun little snippet just to make it a great light hearted story. The other thing I was picked up on was that during my sign off I took a sip of beer, which would make me appear highly unprofessional.

The next story of mine to go into the bulletin was the graduation ceremony at Winchester Cathedral. This could have been a lot better than it was, I should have gotten vox pops of the people there, even the graduates parents talking about how happy they are would have been good, but while I was there i only managed to get one interview and no vox pops - people just were not willing to talk to me or to be filmed which really impeded the progression of my story and made it less than what it could have been. The shots i took needed to have been better, for example I didn't get any natural sound of cheering or anything to that effect, the best i managed was to capture the all important hat throw, but that was not enough to save the package. It was used, but I feel that I should have done a lot better with this. This is where I had massive issues with my voice over, it sounded like I was under water at the least, it just sounded bad no matter what I did and I must have re-recorded it about 6 times to try and get it, but to no avail.

I covered the Winchester Christmas lights for my story and I had very good natural sound with this in the beginning, with the countdown and cheering. I was told that it was well scripted and I took on the advice of my peers to be more enthusiastic and assertive that it is now officially Christmas in my voice over, it really raised the tone of the news bulletin because it was all doom and gloom. However, the shots did need to be better, they were all very dark and I didn't get enough footage to match all the celebration I was talking about in my voice over, if I'm talking about people loving the event, I need to show it happening.

The Winchester Christmas Market was my final package for WINOL this semester and I thought that it was a very good package. The guest editor, Geoff Hill, the Channel 5 news editor, said that the camera work was fantastic because it was very dark and in the package the lighting was perfect, the focus was dead on and the camera work was just altogether brilliant considering it was pitch black when it was filmed, along with this, he said that it was also well scripted. However, this certain package was just screaming out for vox pops, I've said in the package that everyone was having a great time but I should have reinforced this with the stall owners or just people attending to voice this.

The issues that I have encountered during my filming have been: wind noise, not enough shots of the area or not enough relevant shots, for example I found that when it came to editing, especially in my first few packages, that I really did not have enough footage of people 'doing things' which made it difficult to get a good, solid VT out of it. Moreover, other issues include, filming in the dark (Christmas Lights and Christmas Market) I feel that the most trouble I've had through all of my VT's is my voice over. My voice overs have tended to sound dreadful, every time I tried to make them better they either sounded the same or they just deteriorated - I tried recording them with the gun microphone, the radio microphone, the lip microphone but nothing sounded good, the only time my audio has been good is when I've been out on location for my story. Perhaps in the future to remedy this I should plan and draft my script ready for going out and filming, just to avoid the terrible audio issues when it comes to voice overs I always seem to have throughout my video packages.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time on WINOL this semester and I am looking forward to next semester after Christmas and I plan on being far more efficient at news reporting and I will take all of this into great consideration to constantly strive to better myself.

Sigmund Freud

Here are my notes on old Freud, what a stand up guy he knew his stuff! Got Always Sunny on in the background, just enjoyed steak night and there will be a hilarious picture at the end very relevant to this topic courtesy of Cyanide and Happiness comic, so read on!

Freud: He had an all encompassing theory of everything. His work casts a long shadow as it addresses the whole human condition, which is highly contested. Freud states that we are always unhappy because we are divided, even alienated from ourselves - which correlates to what Marx says about the working class - we have no idea what we need but we have to work. Freud himself was a psychiatrist and claimed to find the reason we are unhappy. He claimed to have found away into the part of our brains that control us - the thing is that we don't know we are being controlled and we have no actual control over our actions. If we think that we are doing these things, for example, if I think I'm sitting in my room blogging on my own volition then I'm very mistaken, because it's actually my brain that is controlling me; basically we don't make our own decisions and we have no idea that this control is even happening. Think about when you choose what to wear, your subconsciousness will tell you to wear blue because you associate that with looking fierce. This is explored greatly by psychoanalysis which we will come to.

The most common aspect of Freud's work you will hear of is people talking about 'Freudian slips' this is when we say something that we didn't intend to, but these slips are supposed to be our real thoughts creeping through. This is linked in with dreaming - dreams are supposedly the royal road to the unconscious and they can explain some sort of deeper meaning within a person, for example if you have dreams of running away or 'running up that hill' then, this supposedly means that you're not having enough sex - dreams just express our true thoughts and this can only happen while we are asleep. Freud stated that if he didnt treat people then this would cause a downward spiral - this is because Freud would help you address these underlying feelings and if they were to go unnoticed then you would become greatly neurotic and life would just get progressively worse.

Freud was seen as a secluded renegade, he was a massive sex addict and thought that sex was the center of everything - which damaged the old view of ourselves as being noble creatures who were chivalrous and decent. Freud claims that we are brutal creatures that cave into basic desires and will not go out of our way for someone unless we benefit from it. This links into pessimism - which is seen as the center of all - Freud was highly pessimistic and he saw humans as having a little light but an overwhelming amount of darkness inside. This pessimism is somewhat understandable when you know of Freud's origins - for example he was lived through the first world war, general aggression from the German state, he was of Jewish descent living in Vienna so he would have been very fearful and if that wasn't enough, he lived through the Great Depression and would have seen a phenomenal amount of unemployment and strife. These factors and I'm sure more, are more than responsible for his dark and pessimistic view on humans.

Attack on Plato: Freud agreed with Plato on the idea that there is a tripartite self - a person is made up of three parts - reason, spirit and desire. Plato's example of a charioteer is used to explain this idea - there are two horses, which represent spirit and desire and then the charioteer at the reins is reason, dictating the actions of spirit and desire. However, Freud doesn't agree on the order that Plato put forward; insofar as reason is not in control as he thought reason to be the weakest of the three and completely unable to control desire or spirit. I believe that Freud would say that desire is the one in control of spirit and reason.

Attack on Marx: While Marx believed that humans have unlimited potential and that we can always become better version of ourselves, Freud believes that this is complete nonsense and this is because there is a part of us that we can never escape - our aggression. For example, if we were to live in a communist state Marx would say we would all get along just fine and would all be equal, whereas Freud would argue that we would still be ourselves, nothing would change and that deep down we are all just aggressive, we only ever want to hurt people or we want to goad people into hurting us so we have a reason to hurt them back, this is all we want to do deep down. This is linked to Hobbes and his state of nature, where life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short - we need the Leviathan to rule over us and stop us from being animals.

The Freudian Personality: The reality of human nature is pain - this is what it is to be human, to be in and feel pain perpetually. This is because we are divided in ourselves, we are always at war with ourselves and these divided parts within us are fighting themselves and the most dominant force in ourselves is the 'ID' which is and has been a part of us all since the very beginning.

The ID is sex and aggression, which is the most dominant part of us all which Freud called "a cauldron of seething excitation" always bubbling away, demanding to be noticed, demanding expression and fulfillment. The main thing is that we are never aware of the dominance of the ID and the problem is that the ID is essentially a spoiled brat in a toy shop that wants everything and wants it now - this is the ID.

The 'EGO' is the rational self, it is also supposed to be the weakest and least powerful part of a personality, which concerns the voice of reason, moderation and common sense - these rarely have an effect on our life decisions, says Freud. In terms of reality, we don't make choices based on facts - we are not rational beings in the slightest - for example with the charioteer, Plato's charioteer is not in control, the ego is just constantly embarrassed and is overruled by stronger forces within us.

The 'SUPER EGO' is essentially the nice parts of us, the part that wants to respect authority and be nice to other people. The super ego is the values that have been passed down to us through our parents and other outside influences. The super ego and the ID are just irrational and are always fighting with the ego. So really the super ego is essentially the parent who is screaming at you to do better, to revise more so you do well as it would reflect on them, the super ego is the guilt you feel when you don't get something right, when you don't get the right grades. It is equated to religion insofar as that sets very unrealistic demands - don't be a bad person, love thy neighbor and so on.

Why is society awful? 
1) Freud says that this is mostly because of other people - this is loaded with pain as they are always out to get us and other people are always trying to do better than you; just trying to get in your way, every single person is some sort of a road block on your path to success. When you see others you don't see friends or family, you see a multitude of people just trying to attack you. This is the greatest pain of all.

2) Because we are ever so slowly decaying. We are always getting older and with old age comes more problems, for example back pains, illness, dementia and so on, our bodies are going to run out some time and this is what adds to life being miserable and we are in a state of perpetual pain.

3) The external world - for example nature, you look outside to find it's raining again, you hate the rain as it makes you cold and soaks you through, this is just a daily occurrence to some people and it makes life that bit more of a chore and we just cant help it, nothing we do can change the weather.

Freud believes that the answer is 'psychoanalysis' which was an expensive treatment, not open to everyone. It is seen as necessary to strengthen the ego and it was just the answer to the people being upset. However, psychoanalysis is expensive and only a few people are trained in it, which means it is not an answer for everyone. This leads us to a way to contain urges, coping mechanisms for people who cant afford to go through psychoanalysis.

1) Isolation - just cut yourself off from the world and people altogether
2) Chemical Solution - this is reverting to drugs and alcohol to cope with the world
3) Religion as a type of sublimation - religion acts as a mass delusion
4) Sublimation -  is a type of defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior. However, the only real satisfaction is to beat someone you hate to death.

Civilisation is essentially a collective super ego, for example we are expected to respect authority, sit in rows, be respectful of others. Imposing moral limits, for example love your neighbor as yourself - unrealistic demand as we are animals, how would we do this? and even worse, we have to 'love your enemy', which is just insane according to Freud - again linked to religion placing outrageous limits on us and vast expectations.

Dreams are the royal road of the unconsciousness because while we are asleep the ego is like a sentry asleep at its post. this is when the ID would run rampant and the dreams we have reveal our true thoughts.

Attack on Freud: Popper and falsifiability would say that Freud's scientific predictions could be proven wrong, Freud was always vague, it can't be tested and he made up loads of his research and facts anyway. Furthermore, Freud claimed to be the only one to mention the unconsciousness but that is untrue, because Schopenhauer actually mentioned it in a round about way, insofar as he mentioned the 'Will' and so on, for example the will is the secret antagonist of the intellect.

Well there we have it, all my notes on Freud! Helpful revision session too as well as me now being up to date on my blog! FINALLY, took some time, but I got there. Hope you enjoyed, here's the picture I promised!

Freudian Ice - Comic Strip Courtesy of Cyanide and Happiness!

http://www.explosm.net/comics/2630/