HCJ Exam Revision

1.Outline the verification principle on part of the school of thought known as logical positivism. How might this principle be applied in the work of a journalist?

• Verification principle proposed by A.J Ayer, but the core of the idea can be traced back to Locke and Empiricism.

• If a statement cannot be verified it is meaningless. It is neither true nor false.

• Most associated with the logical positivists movement which began in inter-war Vienna

• Leads back to empiricism, which believes that observation and experiences are the only way to acquire knowledge.

• Strong verification: statements which are directly verifiable.

• Weak verification: statements which are not directly verifiable but highly probable.

• Wittgenstein: “Of that which we cannot speak, we must remain silent”

• Comte put forth the idea that unverifiable sentences are not only meaningless but it is pointless to consider statements that cannot be verified.

• Karl Popper rejected the idea that meaningful sentences need to be verified, but must be falsifiable.

• Logical Positivism began with discussions from a small group called the Vienna Circle.

• The principle is applied to journalism because everything must be verifiable. It is all about facts. They must be true, and they must be verifiable.

2: What is phenomenology? Can there be such a thing as subjective reality or subjective truth? What sort of standards ought a journalist apply?

• Phenomenology is a doctrine proposed by Edmund Husserl based on the study of human experience in which considerations of objective reality are not taken into account.

• Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy that deals with subjective experience-your own personal reaction to something and why you react that way.

• Originated “phenomena”

• Immanuel Kant-Critique of Pure Reason. Believed that everything has a dual nature. Numinal-The thing in itself. Phenomenal-the unperceived object. His ideas have been proved by quantum mechanics.

• Phenomenologists believe that things aren’t there unless you are perceiving them. Empiricists also believe this.

• At the time phenomenology was founded, there were some who were idealists or rationalists, and some who were empiricists. The idealists thought that reality was all in the mind, whereas empiricists believed that perceptions are of things external to the mind, and that you acquire knowledge through experience and perceptions. Husserl was aiming to resolve this opposition. He believed in the power of intention: that if you want to see something, you will.

• Existentialism is a moral code concerned with phenomenology. Existentialists believe that each individual person is free and responsible for themselves determining their own future through acts of will. They make their own choices and deal with the consequences. An example of this is in Albert Camus book-The Outsider, although Camus does not consider himself an existentialist. The book revolves around a character, Mersault, who makes choices in his life and lives with the consequences, which results in his execution.

• Journalism is all about truth. According to Husserl, if you want to see something, you will. So you can choose what to see and what to believe. Therefore there is no objective truth.

3. Describe in broad terms JM Keynes ideas on monetary policy, with an indication of how the "Keynesian Revolution" came about. Does Keynesianism inevitably lead to social regression, moral failure and serfdom as Hayek suggests?

• Keynes believed that demand, not supply, is the driving factor determining levels of unemployment.
• The central theme was that the government could change the level of unemployment via tax cuts, changes in interest rates, and money supply.
• The driving force was the economic crisis of the Great Depression in the 30s, and consumer society later profited from this in the 50s.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc

4. "Facts in logical space are the world" Wittgenstein, Tractatus. Do you agree?

• Followed by the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle.
• Book begins by explaining what the world is made up of.
• Building blocks of reality are simple objects.
• Simple objects combine to create states of affairs.
• States of affairs combine to form complex facts.
• The world is a totality of positive facts.
• Logical Space is the space in which objects and states of affairs exist.
• Everything in logical space is possible, regardless of true or false.
• Links to phenomenology.

5. Choose one thinker we have looked at or one movement and explain why it is significant in journalism.

HCJ-Tractatus

The beginning of Wittgensteins' "Tractatus" deals with ontology, and what the world is fundamentally made of. The building blocks of reality are made up of objects. These combine to create state of affairs, which can be combined together to create complex facts. The world is a totality of positive facts. The space in which objects and states of affairs exist is called logical space.

The next part of the book describes how language works so that the world can be described accurately. According to Wittgenstein, language consists of complex propositions that are built from simple, elementary propositions. He believes that language mirrors reality by sharing its logical form. Names mirror objects, elementary propositions mirror states of affairs, and propositions mirror facts. Wittgenstein goes on to say that there are 3 types of propositions: Tautologies, which are always true. Contradictions, which are always false, and propositions with a sense, which can be true or false depending on what is or is not the case in the world.

Wittgenstein goes on to talk about pictures, and how in order to establish whether a picture is true or false, we must compare it to reality.

Logical Positivism

The Verification Principle was proposed by A.J. Ayer, but the core of the idea can be traced back to Locke and Empiricism. The idea is that if a statement cannot be verified, then it is neither true or false but meaningless. This idea is associated with the logical positivists movement in Inter War Vienna. Logical positivism came from discussions within a small group called the Vienna Circle.

Comte put forth the idea that unverifiable statements are not only meaningless but that it is pointless to even consider them if they cannot be verified. This links in with Wittgenstein who said "That of which we cannot speak, we must remain silent".

It is important to understand the different types of verification. Strong verifications are statements which are directly verifiable. Weak verifications are not directly verifiable, but highly probable.

Karl Popper rejected the idea that meaningless sentences need to be verified, but they must be falsifiable.

Logical positivists believed the universe was made up of meaningful judgements, and that everything else, such as religion and metaphysics, are meaningless nonsense.

HCJ Seminar: Tom Wolfe-The New Journalism

This weeks reading was "The New Journalism" by Tom Wolfe. Part 1 of this book describes how editors worked in the same miserable conditions as reporters. The reporters had no ambition to move up, and so the editors felt no threat from below.

Wolfe goes on to talk about an unspoken competition between the reporters to get a "scoop" meaning getting the biggest and best story before any of the others. An example of this is Mok, who jumps into the freezing sea, and swims over to a man in a boat in order to get an interview and meet his deadline.

The main idea in this section is that journalism is just a step towards the final triumph of writing a novel-a dream achieved by Portis, who quits his job on a whim, moves into a shack and writes a novel called Norwood, followed by True Grit.

Wolfe then goes on to talk about columnists, and how Breslin made the revolutionary discovery that it was feasible for a columnist to actually leave the building and do reporting on his own. Breslin would go out and cover a story as a reporter, and then write about it in his column.

The book then goes on to explain how most columnists run out of material after 8-10 weeks, and begin writing about people they overhear in the street etc.

The main theme of the book is how journalism changed. Wolfe identified 4 devices that were conventionally used in novels, that he began to use in journalism.

These are:

• Scene-by-scene construction
• Full recorded dialogue
• 3rd person point of view
• Recording gestures, facial expressions, manner, habits, clothing etc

Wolfe claimed "I had the feeling I was doing things no-one had ever done before in journalism, moving beyond the conventional limits of journalism-more ambitious, intense, more detailed."

However, this movement was attacked as impressionistic, as it was extraordinary for a new style to be created via journalism.

Novelists began claiming that their books were not novels, but a new literary genre they had invented so that literary people would take it seriously.

The second part of the book is a collection of examples of this "new journalism".

WINOL Week 5 Debrief

WINOL is improving every week, and is becoming even more professional. The news was well balanced this week, and appeals to a wide range of people, and the headlines were much stronger. One thing to remember is to be consistent with the sign off. Name, Winchester News Online, Place. Another thing is to make sure the script and the voiceovers are all written in the same tense.

The graphics were also very good this week, a lot more interesting and easy to understand.

Well done to everyone! I'm currently looking at the Guardian Media Awards and looking at suitable candidates...

Watch this space!

Albert Camus-The Outsider

The Outsider is set in French Algeria, and has been translated from French into English.

It is an example of existentialism and absurdism, in the way that existentialists believe that individual lives and human existence have no rational meaning, but humanity attempts to find rational meaning where there is none. For example, turning to religion to give their lives a purpose or meaning. They also believe that the only certain thing in life is death. This is shown in the final chapter, when the main character, Meursalt, gives up false hope of escaping jail, and becomes truly happy knowing he is facing death.

The book is written in the perfect present tense. Thinking about the past results in guilt, and thinking about the future results in dread. Meursalt does not feel guilty about his past, showing no emotion at his mothers funeral, or over the murder he commits. He also does not dread the future, he is indifferent about marrying his girlfriend, and does not worry about the consequences of his actions. He only feels through his senses.

Meursalt is completely honest throughout the entire book. He rejects religion, even when he is facing certain death, because as mentioned above, he believes as an existentialist, that human existence has no rational meaning.

The characters in the book watch and observe others, especially Meursault. He spends an entire afternoon watching out of his window at other people in the street.

In the afterword, Camus says: "A man who doesn't cry at his mothers' funeral is liable to be condemned to death. The hero of the book is condemned because he refuses to lie. Lying is not only saying what isn't true, it is also saying more than is true, saying more than one feels. Meursault says what he is, he refuses to his feelings and society feels threatened."

The text can be found here: http://www.macobo.com/essays/epdf/CAMUS,%20Albert%20-%20The%20Stranger.pdf

I would recommend it to anyone reading this blog, as it is an interesting read, as well as insightful into existentialism.

WINOL Week 4 Debrief

A fantastic effort this week! The bulletin is really improving, however the links and headlines are still weak. In sport, they refuse to show goals in the headlines, yet show the team celebration? Surely in matches with several goals, showing one as a tease would be more productive than showing the celebration?

There was another black hole after the opening sequence. The music has been left longer, but the picture hasn't. This needs to be corrected for next week.

We went to air 20 minutes late this week, because I received an email updating one of the stories, which caused a serious legal issue that needed to be resolved.

The only points I can really bring up about the bulletin is to keep consistent. Record all voiceovers from the same place, and check the levels of the sound, especially in sport, to make sure the natural sound isn't drowning out the voice-over.

The worst part of the bulletin is the failed Colin Firth story. There are several ways we could have find a contact for an interview, and it just didn't happen. Angus said in the debrief that the address of the parents can be found in the electoral register, but nobody checked, and the story was left as an OOV.

It wasn't a perfect week, but everybody did really well, and produced a very high-quality bulletin.