HCJ lecture 3 - Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist who invented psychoanalysis. He died in London and was a huge celebrity at the time. He believed that men's problems could be solved with psychoanalysis. He was also a cocaine addict, he praised the drug's antidepressant and stimulant effects.

He was seen as a sexual renegade at the time, he considered sex as a central motivational factor for many of our actions. He was influenced by Locke's idea of the "blank slate" - everything we know comes from our education and society.

He believed that women instinctively feel like they were castrated. They lack of power as they have no penis, therefore they love their father and reject their mother. This opinion is of course debatable since Freud is well known for being misogynist.

According to Freud, self love is a barrier to progress. He thought that to be able to scientifically analyse a case, the scientist should take a step back and observe the patient without trying to influence them in any way.

His main legacy is the notion of Unconscious: the conscious brain is not in charge, everything happens in an underlying part. His theory is that the mind is divided in three parts: the Id is the animal instinct, our most basic desires are gathered in the Id - desire for sex, violence, food etc. The Id is repressed and "censored" by the Super Ego, which contains rules and codes our parents and society taught us. The Ego is the conscious part of our mind, which is a sort of balance between our Id and Super Ego. There is a constant battle between Super Ego, Ego and Id.

Still according to Freud's theories, there are five stages of development during our childhood:

the oral stage: time when the baby is breastfed

the anal stage: time when the child learns to be clean

the phallic stage: time when the child is obsessed with his penis - this is also the time when the Oedipus complex appears: symbolically, the child wants to sleep with his mother and kill his father. The child usually overcomes this phase, realising that his father is stronger and could castrate him.

the latent stage: nothing really happens.

The genital stage: the child is obsessed with his genitals.

Men have found a way to hide their "Id outburst":

In order to burn sexual energy, people turn themselves towards a more "correct" activity - sport, arts, reading etc - this is sublimation.

Displacement is turning shameful thoughts into something/someone else.

Projection is sending feelings onto someone else.

Rationalisation is giving a more socially acceptable explanation for something you did that wasn't socially acceptable. If you hit your kid, you wouldn't say that you did it because it was stress relieving, would you?

The key to psychoanalysis is that you are hiding something from yourself. Freud believed he found the way people deal with the Unconscious part of their mind: hypnosis, pressure method, free associations and dreams. All these methods allow people to evacuate some pressure.

Freud was attacked by various people and he's nowadays mainly considered as a writer. Some scientists had a problem with Freud's theories as there is no way to prove them wrong/right.

However neuroscience later found out that the brain was disposed in a similar way, as there are three different layers:

the reptilian brain, which is in charge of motor movement, and basic needs/feelings. (Id)

The Limbic system, in charge of emotions. (Super Ego)

The neo cortex, in charge of language and communication. (Ego)

Reich disagreed with Freud, and in fact believed the opposite. He thought that people were genuinely good and that society was turning some of them into dangerous and violent people. He thought that repression of sexuality was what made people unhappy.

HCJ lecture 2 - Modernism

Modernism is an early twentieth century movement that reacted against realism. Modernism rejected the values of the Enlightenment and the idea of a Creator. This movement was mainly about changing the norms and rules of Classicism in literature, art and music.

Arthur Shopenhauer was a German philosopher born in 1788. He was a pessimistic who believed that physical, emotional and physical desires can never be fulfilled - desires are useless and illogical. He influenced many philosophers, including Nietzsche.

Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Germany in 1844. He was a very influential philosopher. He treated various matters, such as morality, religion, and will. He was against Christian morale and undertook the task of reevaluating religious values.

He famously wrote in Thus spoke Zarathustra "God is dead". This book mainly deals with the notion of Overman. Zarathustra has the revelation that God is dead, and therefore tries to convince people that they should overcome themselves in order to be better people. His aim is to improve mankind, and create a kind of "Superman". I personally think that this idea that people can overcome themselves is just another doctrine, and that it's not in any way better than any other religions. Christianity is also about being better people, and Jesus was leading people towards their truth. I don't think Zarathustra is different from Jesus. Unsurprisingly, Nieztsche's views were associated with Nazism, as Hitler - among others - tried to create a perfect human race, the Aryan race.

Another influential modernist artist is Richard Wagner (1813-1883). He was a German musician who broke the rules of classical music. He was a very controversial personality given his personal life and views on politics. He had numerous love affairs and wrote antisemitic essays. He wrote Jewishness in Music, in which he accused Jews of being a harmful and alien element in German culture. He also criticised Jewish music, saying that it was artificial and shallow, and that they produced music just to make money.

No brain, no gain

We've all been told many many many times by Brian and Chris that
being a reporter/journalist is hard work. But the thing is, you never realise how hard it is until you actually do it. Well, I have learnt a lot this week.

The first thing I have learnt is that you have to be organised. You need to know where you're going with your story idea, and you should have thought through every details of your news package. When reporting a news story (okay, I admit that my news story this week wasn't brilliant), I have the feeling that if I don't plan everything in advance, I am not doing my job properly.

My news story this week was about Student Finance.

On Sunday night, I researched some figures and the history background. I looked for the people I could talk to on the University website and prepared my interviews.

On Monday morning, I went to talk to the two people I wanted to interview. They both agreed to do an interview within 24 hours with me. I then started to think about the pictures I would put in the package, so I went to get permission to film from the Student Union president and the Catering Manager.

At 12:00 we had our first news team meeting of the year.

At 12:30 I had an interview with the Welfare and Equality Officer. Stu came along to help me with the filming, which was really helpful. It's really nice to be able to fully concentrate on the interview without having to worry about the camera. Thanks Stu!

In the afternoon, I filmed some pictures on the campus - students in the learning cafe, SU bar and SU shop.

I then carried on with some vox pops, helped by Madeleine with the filming. She gave me some very useful advice about the different angles you should take when doing vox pops. Don't film them all from the same angle. Each vox pop should be visually different and interesting.

On Monday night, I work on the editing. I didn't want to arrive the next day in from of my computer, not knowing how to start the package. Therefore I planned each picture of it, the voice over, where and how they would be etc. I didn't quite stick to this plan, but I thought it was a safer option to work like this.

On Tuesday morning, I arrived early at Uni to get more pictures to illustrate my package. It turned out I didn't use these ones because it just felt like it wouldn't fit well into the package.

At 10:00, I went to interview the Student Finance Officer. I was helped by Maddie once again, which explains the great quality of the picture!

At 10:30, I was ready to edit my footage. Don't worry, I'll spare you the long and painful -but necessary editing part. I left TAB9 at 18:00.

The next morning, I had to "polish" it. Catherine helped me to adjust the sound levels.

At around 11:30, my news package was finally ready.

This is how I produced my first news story. Many thanks to everybody who helped me!

HCJ Lecture notes - William Randolph Hearst

Historical context

In the 1840s, America considerably changed thanks to three main factors:
. The Gold Rush in California (1840-1850): Thousands of people travelled to California in hopes of finding gold. One in ten people died during the journey.
. Europe was ravaged by poverty and wars, many Europeans fled the Old World to find a better life in America.
. The Irish famine in the 1840s forced thousands of Irish people to emigrate to America.

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst's father, George Hearst, was one on the thousands people who went to California during the Gold Rush period. He became very wealthy thanks to his hard work in the gold mines and then went into politics. He allegedly won the San Francisco Examiner in a poker game.

In the early days of american press, there were two types of newspapers: political and commercial. Political newspapers were mostly propaganda and did not publish news stories without them being distorted. The Associated Press was created in 1846 in order to pass on news more easily to various newspapers.

William Randolph Hearst took over the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 and completely transformed it. He was obsessed with the newspaper's front page; he decided to get rid of the text and put pictures instead, as he stated:

"They attract the eye and stimulate the imagination of the lower classes and materially aid comprehension"

Thanks to this process, Hearst managed to gain a broader readership: immigrants and ineducated people. He also improved the writing, making the headlines shorter and more straightforward. Hearst is considered by many the father of tabloid newspapers.

The Yellow Kid

The Yellow Kid was a cartoon published in Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper New York World. The character was a working-class immigrant child who spent his time with his immigrant friends. The cartoon was very popular amongst the working class people. William R. Hearst decided to poach Pulitzer's cartoonist, offering him a much higher salary. Pulitzer hired another cartoonist, and for one year, the stories of the Yellow Kid were published in both newspapers. This type of newspapers were then given the name of Yellow Papers. Yellow journalism is the ancestor of British red tops.

Let's get started.

Welcome back!

After sixteen weeks of holiday (yes, sixteen!) we journo students are all back at Uni, finally ready to go out there and get news stories.

This year, I will be a finance and consumer reporter for Winchester News Online, a news bulletin will be broadcast live every Wednesday at three o' clock.

I shall keep this blog updated with my latest news stories, news packages and also with my history and philosophy lectures.

Enjoy!

HCJ revision notes: everything you need to know!

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist born in the eighteen century. She was a romantic, which implies that she was obsessed with the idea of human nature like her fellows Rousseau and Hobbes. She believed that women were considered inferior because of their physical nature (physically weaker than men).

She strongly rejected the system of education of the time which was based on Aristotle’s doctrine: he considered than women were a different/inferior specie to men, and that they had no role in reproduction. He also believed that some people are naturally slaves and it would be cruel to make slaves free as it’s in their nature to be slaves. Therefore it’s in women’s nature to be directed by men. Romantics have reacted against this misogynist conception.

Mary W. believed in the potential of education – she believed that education could free women from their status of slave.

Mary W. had a relation of love/hatred with Rousseau: she found his ideas inspirational but she disagreed with his views on women. Indeed, he believed that women’s duty was to please men.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is her most popular work. In this book, she was very critical towards women, she blamed then for letting themselves fall in their current status. With this work she wanted to show that women are human beings and that there should be no difference between men and women in the public sphere – they should have the same rights and the same ambitions. Gender isn’t relevant, it only limits women’s potential. The role of education is to change women’s view on the role society gave them.

Epistemology – Kant and Keats

Epistemology means philosophy of knowledge: how can we be certain about what we know.

Noumenal: parallel worlds that could exist outside our own perception. It also mean things in themselves, they don’t need people’s perception to exist. World beyond ordinary perception.

Phenomenal: An object becomes a phenomena when it is observed by somebody. This implies that objects have a dual nature, they are different depending on the possibility that somebody observes them or not.

John Keats was a poet from the romantic period. He was interested in noumenal. In the Ode on a Grecian Urn, he stated that beauty is truth. To understand this statement, we need to understand what he believed. The aesthetic response someone gets when he/she sees something really beautiful (subjectively) is a feeling that proves the existence of a noumenal world – this emotional feeling is a kind of communication with the noumenal world. Hence: beauty is truth.

Kant believed that the Universe was divided in two parts – noumenal and phenomenal.

Logic

Axiom: true fact by definition, beyond any doubt. It comes from Euclidian geometry.

Aristotle had a deductive logic: he invented the syllogism. The starting point of a syllogism is an axiom > All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal. A syllogism derives the conclusion from the original premise.

A priori: knowledge known without experience: “I think therefore I am.” from Descartes. You cannot check this fact. Hume says that any a priori knowledge is impossible; Locke believed that men are born with a “blank slate”.

A posteriori: it is the opposite of a priori; it means that knowledge comes from experience. Empiricist and materialist philosophers approach philosophy on knowledge that comes from experience.

Induction or synthetic logic: the conclusion is not contained in the axiom: it is necessary to add external knowledge to come to a conclusion. Scientists use this kind of logic. Before there was any scientific evidence about the Sun, Hume believed that we could never be sure than the Sun would rise/set because there was no evidence that it would happen again. He was a sceptical towards truth.

Materialism and idealism

Materialism: the theory holds that the world is made of sensitive matter.

Idealism: the theory holds that everything you see is only happening in your mind, it is a phenomena. The question of the tree falling in a forest: is it making a noise or not? Idealist philosophers would say not, because nobody is around to hear it.

Hegel was an idealist, he believed that everything was spirit – idea of Geist. He was a teleological philosopher, which means that he believed that everything has a purpose. The world is evolving towards a perfect society, and all the events that happened during History were necessary to achieve it.

Marx was a materialist, he believed that ideas have a material effects.

Development of newspapers and periodicals

Newspapers have developed between 1815 (roughly the end of Napoleonic wars) and 1915 (beginning of the First World War). This is the century where the world has become as we know it today.

Economy: the economy was evolving with liberalism and free trade. It was the golden age of capitalism.

Demography: people migrated towards the cities (urbanisation), the cities became crowded. This was a new market for newspapers: people were closer; it was then easier to sell them. Everybody was affected by the same problems and they also talked the same language.

Technology: 1830s: steam-driven press: it allowed a massive production of newspapers is a small amount of time.

Railway train: it allowed faster distribution

1860s: telegraph wire: allowed news to be transmitted on the same day.

Sociological: in America, liberalism was reformed and free trade was put in place.

Political: the fact that there were no taxes and no censorship was great for newspapers, they could print what they wanted and they didn’t have to pay money for it.

Innocence project & Forensic science

The Innocence Network UK is a British association that investigates court cases where it is believed that miscarriages of justice might have been committed. Nowadays many universities are part of this association, such as the University of Winchester. Our journalism course, unlike many others, takes part in the investigations, and the project has even become the topic of our final year project. Despite the fact that only the third years can really investigate and take decisions, anybody can get involved from year one.

To help us getting a better understanding of our case, we met Nigel Hodge, a freelance forensic scientist, expert in DNA profiling, bloodstain pattern analysis and crime scene investigation. He investigated more than a hundred murder cases, and we definitely needed his experience and expertise to understand the scientific side of our case.

His job

Hodge first explained us what his job is like: he has to collect forensic evidence to serve the case and to help juries take their decision. His duty is to remain impartial, he does not work for the defendant or the victim. He said that his duty was to the truth. This is one of the reasons why he doesn't want to meet the defendant, or even to see a picture of the person. According to him, it is too easy to be biased once you have seen the face of the defendant. He then explained the emotional side of his profession and the need to remain emotionally detached: "Violence does hit you, but you need to get on with it, or you won't do the job!". According to Hodge, the saddest thing on a murder scene is to see how people used to live before they died. He also confessed that he usually forgets the case once it is over, to be able to be fully concentrated on the next one.

What we've learnt
Hodge got then into more detail and gave us the information we needed to scientifically understand the forensic evidence given in our case:

DNA: there has been a great improvement in the methods used to detect DNA. The downside of this is that the devices to detect DNA are so sensitive that the results are sometimes unusable as evidence. DNA can stay several years on items, but it can degrade overtime, depending on external conditions (temperature, humidity, light). Forensic experts cannot date DNA.



Footprint: they can be very useful because they are unique and they do not disappear. However the shoes get worn and therefore they won't leave the same footprint, which makes the original footprint unusable if the shoe that made it is not found quickly.


Blood: using blood as an evidence can be tricky because if it's not frozen it is not possible to use it for anything. However if it has been frozen, you can re-use it fifteen years later without any problems.

How the re-open a case
Nigel Hodge also told us about the legal procedures to follow to be able to re-open a case.

- Getting a lawyer involved is the most important thing to do before starting anything else.
- Have your case reviewed by the Criminal Case Review Commission.
- Prove that the jury was mislead by the evidence used in the last trial.
- Show that some evidence should have been used in the trial.
- Have a good relationship with the police. They are the "enemy", but it is important to be nice and friendly to get what you want.

It can be really difficult to get evidence reviewed a second time as they might be unusable/destroyed.

Miscarriages of justice can happen because the legal team is sometimes poorly educated on forensic science. They do not always understand the forensic evidence, which in the end can lead to a poor defence.