Winchester Student Radio Presents - Sam Quested;Supreme Student. By Nicola South

Being involved in performance is just what Sam is all about!

Radio Documentary - Winchester Student Radio Presents Sam Quested by NiccySouth

This Radio Documentary, produced, is a high information piece about the next Amateur Musical at the University of Winchester; Spring Awakening.


In this personal profile,Sam Quested, a third year at the University of Winchester, talks about the show and where he finds the time to run a show as huge as this whilst juggling the responsibilities of being a third year. 
What is Spring Awakening about? What role does Sam have in this show exactly? How is he able to manage third year and this show? How are the cast doing?
Only this documentary can provide the answer.Perhaps it will inspire some of you to put on your own show or even just go and see the show. 


If the above Audio Document doesn't work you can try http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks. But you must be a member of Sound Cloud for this to work. 

Thanks! Nicola South. 

Totalitarianism

I will open my possibly confusing blog about Totalitarianism (a word in which I still cannot pronounce or spell correctly, ahh the wonders of Microsoft Word) with the same quote that Brian used to open our lecture;

                “Everything we know of totalitarianism demonstrates a horrible originality”

Totalitarianism is a form of political oppression, but it differs from other forms such as Dictatorship and Communism because Totalitarianism destroys the social, legal and political structures that the original state leaders had in place. Instead, Totalitarianism replaces these ‘structures’ with its own set of values and belief systems. They did this to irradiate any personal thought and replace it with their single ideology. Totalitarian states prefer members of society that have no intention of thinking for themselves, and would rather someone tell them what the right thing to believe was. 

Hitler’s Nazi regime is a great example of this Totalitarian way of ruling. Hitler used the totalitarian characteristic of citizens playing different roles in society; if the state says some citizens are enemies, it is the responsibility of the other citizens to determine who these people are and irradiate them. The Nazi party relied highly on the power of the people. When the Nazi’s were first seeking out the Jewish throughout Germany, very few of the Nazi’s doing the ‘searching’ were trained members of the Hitler army, majority of them were regular people that had been sucked into Hitler’s immoral beliefs about the Jews. Hitler’s regime was ultimately designed and fixated upon his fascination of Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Hitler really wanted to speed up the evolution process and create the perfect race, which he called the Aryan Ideal. Hitler believed that by getting rid of the undesirable races in Germany, he was making the rest of Germany stronger.

The true reason Hitler’s regimes worked in Germany were due to the struggles that Germany were suffering at the time. Before Hitler came into power in Germany, they had recently lost a lot of money to other countries from their failure in WW1, putting Germany into a great depression. The population of Germany were looking for a way out or possibly something to blame their failures on. Hitler provided this. No matter how extreme he was being, the people of Germany were so desperate they would believe anything, and I think Hitler knew that, he made his campaign at the opportune moment. And those who didn’t like Hitler’s regimes were executed. It could be argued that citizens in Germany had no real choice. Did they want to live? Or were they ok with dying for what they believe in? Well, I suppose that is down to how strong the individual is.

This brings me to Hannah Arendt. Arendt attended the political trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was a Nazi fugitive that was captured by the Israeli Secret Service. Eichmann was one of the Nazi soldiers responsible for initiating the Final Solution. He was put on trial in Israel and was sentenced to death by the court. Whilst watching Arendt said she understood why Eichmann did it. He claimed he was only doing what he was told because he had a family at home to feed. Personally, I think no matter whether you have a family at home or not, being in that way is not acceptable to any degree and a truly strong person would say no this wrong. I guess you’d only know how to react if you were put in that situation. Let’s hope none of us have to experience that. 

Economics

I’m sorry to say that for this blog I shall be opening with a quote from the musical Cabaret     “Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round.”

In Chris Horrie’s lecture the main theme was money and the economic system. Chris emphasised the idea, well his opinion, that to solve the economic crisis we simply need to print more money. Somehow, I think it’s a little more complicated than that. But one thing that Chris said that did make the world of sense is that money is possibly the most powerful thing in the universe, and in some aspects, it could possibly be more interesting than sex. That’s right, more interesting than SEX. Like Chris said “if you have a lot of money, you can have all the sex you want”.  And people wonder why people are so obsessed with money. If you look at it in this way, money can buy you anything.

Richardo

The process of getting money is initially relatively easy; it’s the work that you have to do to get money that’s the hard part. Every human has specific wants; some can be mistaken with needs. A human doesn’t need anything. The only argument you could make is if a human wants to avoid dying, but not every human has the aspiration to live and in that case, they genuinely don’t need anything. Economics ignores the “need”. Economics tests how much a person is willing to pay for things. Utility or utilitarianism is a word that links hand in hand with the economics of money. Utility is the fundamental, measureable phenomena of human wants. Every person, in a purchasing situation, automatically judges the way to maximise our utility.

Ricardo, an Economist, created the law of value. He believed that things are priced depending on the amount of labour it takes to make it. For example, a pen costs only £1 because it takes very little effort to make it whereas a piano costs over £1000 because it takes lots of hours and man power, with expensive materials used to make it. Another economist, Malthus, wrote the Iron Law of Population. He believed that the wants of people are more important, in that persons own mind, than that persons drive to repopulate. In this particular statement, Malthus is wrong because the human race have grasped the ability to stabilise the amount that they populate. China, for example, has derived the one child per family system in order to stop their population from rising too dramatically. But we have to give Malthus the benefit of the doubt; unfortunately he couldn’t predict the future and couldn’t foresee contraception and abortion being invented. These are main contributors to keeping the population from rising to ridiculous amounts.

Malthus

Today’s lecture also told me that the rates of wages go up and down dependant on the demand for that particular career field and how much profit that industry is currently making. The only problem with this form of working is that if a wage of a certain jobs goes down, people are therefore earning less, giving them less to spend and put back into the market. As a result, other businesses will suffer as they are unable to sell their produce. So clearly the wage system is a cruel thing to come under, it’s a shame that we all have to suffer at some stage. The only thing that can be learned from this is that to survive we need growth; nothing can come to a complete stand still. The economists that think in this order are known as Keynesian Economists.

The second type of Economists follows the works of Adam Smith, the mind that bought us The Wealth of Nations. These Economists are known as Monetarists. These people believe that people plan how the economy is shaped and make accurate assumptions about money. They believe that people instinctively calculate supply and demand. Chris went onto explain that when there is an economic crisis people just need to accept a decrease in wages but people become irrational when they are being deprived of the money they were once receiving. He continued to say that war is a good thing for the economy because it is a perfect way of getting rid of unemployment. £60billion is spent a year on the military, going to war is, therefore, a great way of boosting the amount of money going into the economy. Another great way of achieving this is increasing the amount of people working in systems like the NHS. Allowing more people to work in the health system benefits the people being employed, aiding them to gain some wages, and the people that need the NHS for their health problems because there are now more staff available to deal with their problems. When you look at it as being as simple as that, it makes you gain the outlook; that it’s better to have people doing small, menial jobs than it is to be unemployed.

Chris, at the end of lecture supplied us with an equation for how expenditure works, and with the equation I shall finish this post.
            Where ‘C’ is Household expenditure and ‘I’ is Private Investment and ‘G’ is Government Spending the equation looks something like this;
                                                       Y = C + I + G

If ‘Y’ decreases there won’t be enough money in the economy to keep the population employed.

Practise For Radio Documentary Upload

ZankRock by NiccySouth

A Random song just to make sure i know how to upload stuff properly

MARX + NIETZSCHE + FREUD = THE THREE GREAT SKEPTICS

These three giant names written above are the three greats that were considered to have founded modern hermeneutics. In case you are wondering what on earth that big long word means, it is the word used when talking about the science of interpretation.

The first of the three greats I shall talk about is Nietzsche. Nietzsche, a philosopher from Germany, was a subjectivist. Subjectivists believed in the fundamental experience of something to believe it actually happened. For example (the best example given by none other than Chris Horrie);

·         INCIDENT : A tree has fallen

·         THE SUBJECTIVE: Well it can’t have fallen because I didn’t hear it.

·         THE OBJECTIVE: Well, ok, it would still make a noise and could have still fallen even if I didn’t hear it.

Nietzsche used this subjective system of looking at things by combining it with Epistemology to question theories made by philosophers of the enlightenment such as Kant. Epistemology focuses on the nature and scope of knowledge and Nietzsche believed that in life there was no universal truth, just impressions of truths which have a relative value. Unlike that of the Enlightenment where they believed things were discovered and justified through reason and science. Other than rejecting ideas from previous philosophers, Nietzsche suggested that nothing in life is certain and as humans, we are unsure whether we will see a specific object or person more than once in our lives.

Marx on the other hand was not a subjectivist. Marx focussed his studies on human social development or the differences in Hierarchy. He claimed to have discovered the universal law of human social development. That just shows how certain he was that his theory on this matter was correct. He was a firm believer in that the ideology of the oppressed is different to that of the oppressor. For example; the conservative party, actually, David Cameron, being the egotistical idiot that he is, believes that further education needs a higher price tag whereas the students, who initially voted for the liberal democrats, believe in the exact opposite because it costs us enough as it is.  Marx believed, which I completely agree with, is that humans have different values and truths dependent to their upbringing and the society around them. To those from a third world country, things that we seem very everyday day, normal things, would amuse and amaze them for possibly hours at a time, giving us the impression that they are still stuck in this very tribal state of mentality.

I am afraid, however that I am now at the point in my blog where I must talk about Freud and yet again I have to talk about his theory of the tri-conscious mind that we all have. He believed that mental unhappiness came from this tripartite mind and that mankind is on a slow decline to death. Oh Freud, another one of your happy-go-lucky theories for us. According to Freud, humans copy each other and follow each other like a pack of animals and are born and will die in a state of depression. Thanks Freud, for making my life seems so worth it. Freud’s theories were however criticised by other theorists. Hardly surprising, if I must say so myself. Nietzsche argued that each individual person has a will which allows them to do as they please rather than follow the crowd. If they choose to follow society it is because they are doing so according to their own mental or physical choice/will. The seven deadly sins play a big role in this theory of Freud’s, as people of the time were particularly religious, regardless of their religion status. The seven deadly sins are virtues and we should all just express ourselves freely and evil is just what we as individuals disapprove of.

 

Following the lecture we watched a short operetta named “The Seven Deadly Sins” composed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in 1933. The operetta follows the story of Anna, a schizophrenia sufferer. Her split personality is her Anna 1 and Anna 2, her white sister who tries to be reason but often influences her to the wrong. As operetta states in its genre title, there is no spoken word, the story is told through song.  This operetta really captured how Freud’s tripartite self can work on an individual with the ego and the id and how they are in constant conflict with each other. 

Birth of the Modern Mass Media

On the 29^th September, our first lecture of the semester, we were introduced to Modernism and psychoanalysis. Modernism marked change. It was the time where people questioned answers; no answers were correct or incorrect. Things went back to a more scientific approach, like in the enlightenment, rather than looking at things in the passionate perspective of the Romantic Period.

Modernism in itself implied a “new era”, a new way of thinking. It wanted to get rid of traditions of the past and revolved around the findings of new art and literature. Modernism also brought us the big names of Freud and Nietzsche from the philosophy world and Wagner of the musical world. The lectures and the seminars in the next few weeks will be broadening my awareness of these great names.

Citizen Kane, the film screening for this lecture, is a film that notably showcases the characteristics of journalism. It can be argued that some aspects of Citizen Kane feature in modern day tabloid printing, eg. Rupert Murdoch. Unlike Kane, Murdoch didn’t write a list of principles for his newspaper to follow, he did however change the face of the modern day newspaper, what with the page three girls and the sordid stories that you find from page to page. But like Kane, he has/did have close relationships and friendships with some celebrity figures. And also like Kane, Murdoch will, if he already hasn’t, reached a not so pretty climax.

Tabloid Nation

Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie

For the first seminar of the semester, the reading was Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie (our lecturer). The first two chapters of this book focus on the development of thee tabloid newspapers in the 20^th Century. With the rise of the big name newspapers like the Daily Mail and The Sun, smaller newspapers such as the Daily Mirror were always going to suffer. The two chapters from Tabloid Nation follow the particular history of The Daily Mirror.  

Alfred Harmsworth, the founder and owner of the Daily Mail newspaper. He was the richest and the most powerful man in British Journalism of the time. It’s no wonder that he soon became Lord Northcliffe. Harmsworth introduced a women’s section which became so popular amongst the readers.  Because of this great success it was decided that a newspaper designed especially for women, this is how the Daily Mirror was created. At the beginning of its creation, the Daily Mirror sold very few copies, only 25,000 (that may seem quite a large number but not measuring up to the bigger newspapers it was up against).

 These figures could be due to the women that it was aimed at being too busy with their family-orientated lifestyles. In order to save this failing Newspaper Northcliffe hired the first lady editor and chief, Mary Howarth.  Under the reign of Howarth the Mirror sold nearly 290,000 copies a day. Her new style of printing full page spreads with pictures and very little text appealed not only to the original intended audience of women, but also to the male population. One particular issue, that featured a picture of King Edward VII resting in peace on the front page, sold 2,012,000 copies, a world record I must add. This single copy alone told the newspaper that their target audience had risen therefore indicating that as long as the paper continued the printing of big, shocking events on the front page, they’d continue to sell.

Despite the success of this newspaper, Northcliffe sold the newspaper to his younger brother. Under his reign the paper did not do too well at all until Harry Guy Bartholomew became editorial director. Whilst in power at the Daily Mirror, Bartholomew drew influence from the American Daily News and brought more scandal, more sex and more violence to the Mirror.  Basil D Nicholson, the features editor at the Mirror, brought the cartoon strip to the paper. This was such a popular feature it soon became a prominent piece in most British newspapers. Along with the brilliant idea to have cartoons in the newspaper, he was also the ‘great’ mind that came up with the idea that ‘if there is no news, make some’.   

The outbreak of war slowly affected the newspapers success. Hugh Cudlipp, a member of the Daily Mirror team was recruited to the army, leaving the Mirror team down a particularly important member. To ensure the paper never failed to sell, Bartholomew made the Mirror ‘the soldier’s paper’ featuring stories about the soldiers and photos from the front line. Of course, each and EVERY story took sides with the soldiers. The newspaper continued to grow in success, however, despite his success Bartholomew was voted out of the newspaper, leaving us with the Daily Mirror we see today. 

Seminar Paper - Philosophy of the Modern World.

Chapter 3 – Freud to Derrida

            Section 1 – Freud and psychoanalysis

• ·         In the nineteenth century, with the presence of Kant and Hegel, philosophy was at the height of interest. Each country in Europe spoke English at this time making communication with other philosophers was relatively simple. However, by the twentieth century all of this had changed. Most philosophers went their separate ways and separate countries began to establish their own ideologies. It is in this period that Bertrand Russell (the writer of our core text for year 1) became particularly dominant in academic circles in and around Britain & America. The attempt to bring together methods of philosophising throughout Europe had very little success in the second half of the century.
• ·         Sigmund Freud was a philosopher from the 1890’s. Freud, however, never classed himself as a philosopher, he saw himself as a scientist. He took this a step further and classed himself as ‘the inventor of a new science’. Freud’s ideas and methods were so influential that all those teaching philosophy of ethics, mind or religion were forced to take into account what he had to say.
• ·         Freud studied at a university in Vienna where he became medically trained specializing in Brain Anatomy. During his time here he spent some time working with neurologist Joseph Breuer, expanding his knowledge treating hysterical patients under hypnosis. A few years latter he then moved to Paris to further his studying under neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. When Freud’s studying in Paris came to its conclusion he went into private medical practise.
• ·         In 1895 together with Breuer, Freud published a book that explored the original analysis of mental illness. As his practise progressed Freud stopped using hypnosis as a method of treatment. He replaced it with a new form of treatment called psychoanalysis. This practise was described by Freud as “nothing more than an exchange of words between the patient and the doctor.” The reason for this new found method came from Freud’s realisation that the hysterical symptoms were a result of memories from a psychological trauma that the patient may have repressed. Freud says that these memories can be brought to light by a process of ‘free association’. The patient would lie on the couch and asked to say whatever came to mind. Freud convinced himself through many sessions that all traumas leading to hysterical symptoms came from infancy. He also convinced himself that they were of a sexual nature. These theories caused problems with Breuer.
• ·         Because he lost friendship with Breuer, Freud was in practise by himself. During this time wrote one of his well known books The Interpretation of Dreams. In this book he argues that dreams are nothing but expressions of hidden sexual desires. In this instance however, Freud concluded that this was not only applicable to sufferers of hysterical symptoms, it was also applicable to normal people too. H followed up this book with The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. This book and the many others to follow simply expanded and refined Freud’s psychoanalytic theories.
• ·         In 1923 Freud published a book that explored a whole new approach on the unconscious mind; The Ego and the Id. Freud separates psychoanalytic theory into two separate works. The first is that the big parts of our minds such as feeling and thought are unconscious. The second is that sexual impulses are not only important as the causes of mental illness, they are important as the mechanism for artistic and cultural creation. He believes that if the sexual element of a work of art or culture stays in the unconscious it is because socialization makes us think it must stay inside our heads. He goes on to say we channel these thoughts into socially acceptable activities and because we aren’t letting these thoughts surface they can rebel on us and lead to mental illness or some sort of disorder.
• ·         Freud believed that all dreams are a message from our unconscious beings. He believed, as I have previously mentioned, that these unconscious centred on sexual development. One of Freud’s weirdest theories was that every man, from the age of infancy, is attracted to his mother and therefore resents his own father for the ‘possession’ of his mother. I use the term ‘possession’ lightly as I do not believe a woman can be ‘owned’ because they are not an object. He follows this point by stating that because of the greatness of a boy’s hostility towards his father, his father will sense this fear and punish him by castration, causing the boy to fear his father. As a result, the infant boy casts aside any feelings for his mother and becomes close with his father during the growing up process. This is what Freud called the Oedipus stage, a crucial emotional point in a young boy’s life. Freud believes that people who become fixated on these thoughts from child hood will show signs of neuroticism. Freud was adamant that there was a female equivalent, but never fully worked it out or came close to explaining it in convincing terms.
• ·         The most famous of Freud’s theories was the three fold explanation and idea that he had complied about the unconscious. He wrote it all in a book called The Ego and the Id. He believed there were 3 main components to our unconscious; the Id, the part that is in charge of our irrational impulse thoughts, the super ego, the part that tells the Id that he can’t do all the things he wants because they are bad and the ego, the part that mediates between the two, that part that keeps harmony between the super ego and the Id. It’s when this harmony is lost that Freud believes mental illness occurs.

 It’s this theory that dominates the opinions people have of Freud today. 

Chapter 8 – Philosophy of the mind.
            Section 1. Bentham on Intention and Motive.

·         Bentham’s approach on Intention and Motive is sometimes related to that of Aquinas. In his book Principles of Morals and Legislation, he paid great attention to people’s morals and opinion, and why they say and do the things they say and do. Aquinas believed that actions made by a person are intentional if they are a ‘means to an end’. He also believed that there was a second reasoning for someone to do make an action. ‘Voluntary’ actions are actions we have to make in order to survive.

o   For example;

§  A intentional action – I’m going to eat toast this morning for my breakfast, I have to eat to survive but today I want toast.

§  A voluntary action – I’m going to get out of bed because I have to get out of bed.

·         Bentham didn’t like the use of the word voluntary because it is a misleading phrase. He said this because sometimes when an action is ‘Voluntary’ it is spontaneous, we don’t necessarily think about what we are doing, therefore making it non-intentional. Other times however other voluntary actions can be classed as uncohersed, willing to take the action.

·         Although there are a few disgressions between Bentham and Aquinas theories, they both distinguish two separate motivations for actions. Bentham took this one step further and said that each consequence is either ‘directly intentional’ or ‘obliquely intentional’.

·         Bentham used the death of King William II who died from a hunting wound caused by Sir Walter Tyrell. Bentham used his ideas on the consciousness and intention to conclude what Tyrell was thinking when the incident happened. He categorised and classified Tyrell’s thoughts in 5 different categories; unintentional, obliquely intentional, directly intentional, mediately intentional and ultimately intentional.

·         Bentham used terminology such as this to define intention itself. In order to understand why a person does the things they do, you first need to understand what that person what’s to come from the action. However, an action is only unintentional if the consequence of an action cannot be foretold or predicted. Bentham also goes on to say that a person can only be judged on how bad or good their actions are dependant on the consequence of their action.

·         Bentham establishes that although a man’s intention may be good, the motive for that said intention may be bad. This theory can also be reversed.

Section 2 – Understanding and Will

·         Kant’s ideas offer a clear distinction between understanding and reason. His studies focus upon the differences between human and animal cognitive faculties. Understanding and sensation are two traits that relate humans and animals together. Kant believes that because animals are capable of making casual relations they are therefore able to relate to sensation like humans. Animals differ from humans as they are unable to function the trait of reason. Humans can reflect on their own actions. This places humans above animals in both power and suffering. Kant says tat animal only live in the present but humans live in the past, present and the future. Reason also allows humans to obtain 3 ‘gifts’; language, freedom and science. The most important of the 3 is language as it is the most essential to everyday life.

·         Abstract knowledge is not always needed for everyday tasks. Humans do not necessarily need to understand the functioning of each task me partake in. Humans do however need to know how to make something work, not how it actually works. Both animals and humans have wills.

Section 4 – The Freudian Unconscious

·         Freud believed that everyone has a unconscious mind. He said there are 3 proofs that our unconscious mind exists; slight slips of the tongue, the recollection of dreams and neurotic symptoms. However he claims these are ‘parapraxes’, that these little slips and mistakes have a hidden motive. By understanding the beliefs of the person who has made the ‘Freudian slip' we can understand their motive for this slip.

·         DREAMS - Freud says that dreams are almost always the fantasy of a supressed wish. Good dreams that we remember are symbols of satisfaction whereas Nightmares are the exact opposite of these good dreams. Freud stated that every dream is specific to each individual dreamer, therefore making it impossible to uncode and figure out its true meaning. Only until you find out what each part on someone’s dream signifies to that individual, can you start to understand why they dreamt that way.

·         NEUROTIC SYMPTEMS – these symptoms can be revealed when you find the reason for doing something. Freud mentions a ‘friend’ that became obsessed with losing weight. Only until Freud found out that that his friend’s fiancé was staying at the same resort with a ‘attractive’ male friend, did he uncover that this was the unconscious reason that his friend wanted to lose weight.

·         There are three levels of Freudian unconscious; the ID, super ego and the ego. The ID is the part of the unconscious that is controlled by the principle. The ego is the part of the unconscious that focussing on common sense and reasoning. And the super ego is the part of the unconscious that punishes the ego with feelings of guilt.

Section 5 – Philosophical Psychology in the Tractatus

·         Wittgenstein believed that a thought is a logical picture of beliefs. He identifies thoughts as propositions. In his theories there are two elements involved. There is propositional sign or sentence. There is also what is expressed from the propositional sign.  

Documentary and Photojournalism - JM1303

A Day in the Life of Homeless Jack 

          A Documentary Photographic Profile by Nicola South 

A Day in the Life of Homeless Jack showcases my experiences with the homeless person that is Jack. I met Jack in my time of working in Winchester. My experiences with Jack have been very emotional for me and they have changed they way I feel about life day to day. I gained a particular appreciation for having somewhere to go at the end of each of each day, unlike Jack. I have learned that living life on the street is unpleasant and unsafe, as you probably expect. I hope my photographic profile will open your eyes to a new understanding of the homeless. I must make it clear that I had full permission from Jack before I made this profile.

A cold start to the day is something Jack faces every morning

Alone. . . 

Some people were generous. . .Today

When night falls, it becomes even more lonely.

Trying to find that moment of escape is the only way for Jack to get through

Sleeping rough really isn't comfortable or warm

I hope that my snapshots have given a brief understanding of homeless life.

William Cobbett

During the 19th century England was experiencing a period of great change which would lead to one of the biggest revolutions in history- the industrial revolution. Agriculture began to decline leading to mass famine and new cities such as Birmingham and Manchester started to emerge as the industrial centres. During the revolution nearly all traces of agriculture and farming were destroyed. The army known as the “Red Coats” destroyed the land all across Britain so that farmers were unable to produce crops or use the land for grazing. Scotland was particularly hit by this as most of their trade came from wool and hunting; when this particular industry was destroyed they were left helpless and forced many Scottish farmers to migrate to either lower parts of the country such as Hampshire to farm or to Canada and The USA.

William Cobbett who was an English Journalist produced a series of articles relating to this change which were published in his 1830 book “Rural Rides”. This article documents Cobbett’s journey around the lower parts of England detailing how bad the situation for farmers had become from the point of view of the farmer. He witnessed tens of thousands of peasants who were struggling to survive and had no option but to migrate to the cities to find factory work.  All this change was due to Corn Laws. Corn Laws were laws brought in to help protect the price of corn, barley, wheat and oats in Britain against that of foreign imports. Through the influence of his papers, he helped to change the Corn Laws and abolish them. In 1844 a law was introduced whereby people were forced to find work in cities otherwise they would be placed in a workhouse where they would eventually starve and die.

Also at the time of Cobbett, we see the growth of socialist philosophies and other movements.
Dickens's voice was one of many helped bring about these changes. He did this through many of his stories on London and how people lived, for example, workhouses and children’s lives in Oliver Twist and the state of the roads and buildings and the idea that people had to sweep the pavements so women could cross them, in Bleak House.

Prometheus? Beethoven? Shelley? Keats?

Having a guest Lecturer for today’s lecture gave me a new perspective on the history of journalism. In today’s lecture, Dr Gary Fennell explained how poetry, music and literature played a vital role in the development of what we call ‘journalism’ today.

A key point of his lecture was the mythological figure that is Prometheus. Prometheus, in Greek mythology, was the ‘Titan’ who created mankind. This was a task given to him by Zeus; he was to create a ‘being or person’ with clay and water in the image of the gods that could have a spirit breathed into it. Prometheus taught man to hunt, how to read and heal themselves if they were unwell. But Prometheus tricked Zeus into believing that mankind would be able to give the gods some sort of offering, Zeus kept fire from mankind. Prometheus, being the creature, took back the fire from Zeus to give to man. This is where he gets the name ‘Bringer of Fire’. Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock where a vulture would slowly peck out his liver for an eternal sentence, only would he be free when Hercules released him. Because Prometheus was one of the gods, he was immortal; therefore his liver would grow back each day for the vulture to peck away. Some see Prometheus as the champion of oppressed human kind and he was the saviour, liberating the people by giving them fire. The story of Prometheus is a central part in most important literature and musical works.

Beethoven, the German Composer, wrote a ballet called Creatures of Prometheus in 1801. This particular Ballet was highly regarded in the Romantic period. Some called it a master piece others said it lacked originality. The combination of devices that expressed classical style and devices that a commonly found in the Romantic period, I feel, links it to Prometheus because it is an expression of freedom and that is what Prometheus did for the people by giving them fire, even though the action of doing so got him severely punished. Beethoven could have ruined his musical reputation by experimenting in this way, but it didn’t stop him.

Mary Shelley was a substantial part of influencing writing throughout British history. Her famous novel Frankenstein was highly influenced by the Greek myth that is Prometheus as it is considered as a ‘modern’ Prometheus (it’s also the novel’s subtitle). This is due to the ‘warning’ that Shelley is alluding to throughout this novel to the Industrial Revolution and how intelligent mankind will become. This sort of intelligence is similar to that in which we gained form Prometheus giving us fire. Prometheus in the stories parallels Victor Frankenstein. Victor's work by creating man by new means reflects the same innovative work of the Prometheus in creating humans. Victor, in a way, stole the secret of creation from God just like Prometheus stole fire from Zeus to give to man. Both Prometheus and Victor were punished for their creations. Victor loses people close to him as a result of his ‘monster’ and has to suffer a death by him.

Mary’s father Percy Shelley was also an influential writer of this period. One of his famous works is the sonnet Ozymandius. Although this has nothing to do with Prometheus, Ozymandius was a powerful man and Shelley’s writings about him influenced journalism today. Ozymandius, or as we know him Rameses II, was an Egyptian ruler from the 13^th Century BC. He was a proud “King of Kings”. The British museum has sculpture of Ozymandius which was the inspiration for Shelley’s Sonnet. Because the statue in the museum is broken in places, this symbolises Ozymandius’ empire not being his anymore. It is a common quality of a sonnet to celebrate a subject, the celebration in this sonnet links to the irony that his empire is now a blank and empty landscape. Parts of this poem also allude to the power of the British Empire. The inspiration for this poem came from the British Museum, where this statue, a symbol of power has been encased like a prisoner, showing more power by the British. Lines such as “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies” could also be linked to the events in Egypt today with the Egyptian Revolution and the fall of the Egyptian Dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Thanks to another visit to the British Museum we have another influential piece of poetry, this time from the famous English poet John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn. This time however, the inspiration for this poem came from The Townley Vase, a Roman vase from the 2^nd Century BC found in a Roman Villa in Monte Cagnolo. The poem is written in the form of an Ode, divided into five stanzas made up of ten lines each. The ode contains a person’s perspective on a series of designs on the urn. A common quality of an Ode is to signify a self conscious cleverness and wit through artistic creation, it takes a great deal of skill to write a good one and Keats used this one as an opportunity to write a piece of poetry that would have the same value or purpose as a painting or work or art and demonstrate his poetic skills. The poem ends with the notion of beauty and truth. These last two lines are as if the urn is talking to the reader. And on a final point about the poem, it is, similarly to Mary Shelley’s poem, it is a response to the Industrial Revolution. 

The Dreyfus Affair and Emile Zola's J'Accuse

The news, especially lately with the death of Osama Bin Laden, is littered by conspiracy theories from various sources, some with evidence, others with some barmy – un educated - American telling us what they ‘think they saw’. From today’s lecture I learned that conspiracy theories haven’t just appeared in the last few years. Even back in the 19^th Century, they made something of an impact. The great farce that was the Dreyfus Affair, which I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of until today’s lecture, is a prime example of this. Whilst listening to Brian tell the tale of this disgraceful miscarriage of justice, I truly remember thinking “How can the French Government AND Army let this happen? More to the point, how could they be behind such a thing?” 

Alfred Dreyfus was at epicentre of possibly the biggest miscarriage of justice in French and European history. When important French documents were found in a waste paper bin in the German Embassy, the French Army knew they had a traitor amongst them; someone in the Army was giving away classified information to their German opponents.  To solve this case the French army looked for someone to blame. This is where Dreyfus comes into the equation. Although he was a hard working officer for the French Army because of his Jewish faith he was chosen to have the blame pinned on him. Alfred Dreyfus, once convicted, was to suffer some of the worst punishment any human being could endure, let alone an innocent man should ever go through.  He was sent to Devil’s Island, a deserted piece of land in which they’d built a roofless cell for him to rot in. In his time in the almost hellish prison, he was chained whilst he slept, fed appalling amounts off mineral-less food and was prevented the freedom to talk causing him to lose the ability of speech. To top it off for Dreyfus before being sent to what could have been his death, he was publicly humiliated. When he was charged, the French Army leaders took his medals away from him and broke his sword in front of the rest of military staff. This is possibly the most degrading thing for a soldier to endure. The sentencing of Dreyfus caused France to almost separate into two sides; the side to prove the innocence of Dreyfus, and the side against his freedom, the Dreyfusards and the anti-Dreyfusards.

Germany at this time, had just won the war. This, along with the problems amongst the French Army (the reason Dreyfus was wrongly accused and sent to Devil’s Island), would make France a very miserable place for a very long time. Germany wanted Alsace Lorraine, a place on the border almost in which was originally German owned but became French territory. During this time, the rich people of Paris fled to other places, leaving the poor people to survive and pick up the pieces of broken Paris. The poor people were being robbed of everything, forced to eat street animals such as rodents to survive. When the rich returned to France, the poverty stricken population were to take another pounding. The rich expected their tenants to pay rent for the time they’d been away and the up and coming month.  This led to the people starting a group called The Paris Commune. They did this as a way to find a new order of running things the way they wanted them to be run. This ‘council’ reminded me of the Bohemians from the musical We Will Rock You in that they were trying to rebel against the higher authority to stand up for what they believe in and do what’s best for the country. This Commune allowed the workers to take over and run the city. Socialists majorly made up the group and wanted to separate the state from the church in order to achieve things like making nurseries and abolish working at night. This didn’t sit well with the French Army and they targeted the working class when they went on a giant killing spree. They shot majority of the population but most of their victims were women, mainly because they were either a feminist or suspected of being a feminist, and even children. This is a fine example of how ruthless and cruel the state can be if they want to be. 

At the end of this fighting period in Paris, another officer in the French Army, Lt. Col. Georges Picquart, accused Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, another member of the French army, based on finding letters with the same handwriting of that on the important documents found in the German Embassy. Esterhazy was later taken to court based on this evidence.  He was then acquitted; regardless of the fact he was guilty. He was acquitted because the court in which he was put in front of were of French Army status and if he was found guilty the whole French Army, especially the top officers that were responsible for covering up this scandal and sending Dreyfus to that god-forsaken-island, would have to also be punished causing an even greater humiliation than they put upon Dreyfus. To achieve this, a member of the council forged documents to ensure his safety and Lt. Picquart was sent to serve in Africa to ensure his silence.

This is where Émile Zola, a French writer comes into the Dreyfus affair. Shortly after the hearing with Esterhazy, Zola wrote an article that would flip the case on its head and hugely impact journalism today. Zola was utterly infuriated by this miscarriage of justice and so wrote the famous article that is J’Accuse. J’Accuse, meaning I accuse, was aimed at the high officials that sent Dreyfus to Devil’s Island without finding true evidence against him accusing them of obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism. This article risked his entire career as he found out after the article succeeded on the front page of the Paris Daily L’Aurore.  Zola was brought to trial for criminal libel in 1898, and was convicted, sentenced and removed from the Legion of Honor (a legion established by Napoleon for those who show “excellent civil or military conduct delivered, upon official investigation”). To avoid going to prison however, Zola fled to England and returned to France in 1899. Because of all the chaos that J’Accuse had caused Dreyfus was ordered back to France for a re-trial. This re-trial was one of the biggest and most circulated of media events. Many countries had representative reporters to get coverage of the trial. It was so intense that Dreyfus’s solicitor was shot in the back during the trial; the culprit was un-obtained as the police refused to help Dreyfus’ supporters.  During this media circus Dreyfus was found guilty again with “extenuating circumstances” meaning there is no evidence to prove that he did or didn't do it. Eventually Dreyfus was pardoned but this left his followers in turmoil as they then questioned why they followed him in the first place as he accepted the pardon and fight even further for the truth to be found. This wasn't the end however, the far right part of France were to become even more racist than and just as cruel as the Nazis. They wanted to be as extreme as the Nazis were with the Jewish, Dreyfus was just the start. And just to add salt to the wound, later in the Second World War Dreyfus’ granddaughter died in Auschwitz.

The Dreyfus affair was a key example of how powerful the media can be and how the media is a voice for the people. One opinionated letter changed history. I don’t think one voice could be that powerful or influential today but i do believe the media educate and sway the minds of the public more than higher authority, like the government, do. Newspapers today were responsible for the MPs expenses exposé which changed the entire public opinions on our government. If the media didn’t do that, this country would be in more of a mess than they are now. The media may be cruel sometimes but it does what is needed, just like Zola did. He spoke up for what he believed in.