General musings

Well have finally figured out how to post images after nearly a month of trying!! Of course the trick now is to avoid the temptation of plastering images all over the place.

I am 5 weeks into the course now and I have no idea where the time has all gone. I'm afraid that at the end of the course they're going to just spit me out and I'll be no wiser than when i started! My initial impressions of the course, the staff, and the other students all still stand (for the most part!). I'm very happy to be here and my only regret is that I didn't do this years ago - but there you go.

Shorthand is proving to be a real problem. I feel i've reached something of a "plateau" in regards to my words-per-minute speed. Have passed my 50, but have no idea how I'm ever going to reach the target of 100. Marlene assures us that it will happen, but i remain to be convinced! Other than that though everything is coming along nicely. I'm aware it's still very much early days and that the real work hasn't yet started, but so far so good.

Have sorted out a placement for easter with Cambria - Wales' National Magazine. Am still hoping to do a stint on a New York magazine ( I have GOT to live there!), but am very much looking forward to going to Cambria - should be interesting. And although a couple of weeks in The Big Apple (it used to be known as The Big Onion!!) sounds fantastic I really have to be thinking about a job when this course finishes. I think my funds may be running pretty low by then.

Talking of funds, I have the TV on in the background and there's a programme on about a 22 year old air-head model on over 40 grand a year! That depresses me SO much!

*Iain Dale. Internet TV*

The “A-list” Tory candidate, Iain Dale, took time out of his schedule to talk to us today about Blogging and Internet TV.

Trailed in the lecture notes as “…one of Britain’s leading political bloggers”; Mr Dale’s talk dealt with the phenomena of “the new media”.

As well as being an acclaimed blogger (The Evening Standard list him has being in the top 200 most influential people in London), Iain Dale is a founder and presenter of “18 Doughty Street”, the first online politics show. So whether you agree with them or not, his opinions on the subject are well worth listening to.

Iain Dale on 18 Doughty Street




While I found much of what he had to say very informative and interesting, especially his concerns for the standard of political debate on British TV today, the problem I have with Iain Dale and 18 Doughty Street is the unashamedly right-wing nature of his politics. To be fair, in neither his blog, nor on his TV station, he does not pretend to be anything other than what he is: a Thatcherite Conservative. Personally, such a political persuasion is an anathema to me. Anathema is probably an understatement! To me Thatcherism represents and extols the baser qualities in man; greed, jingoism, selfishness...! Indeed, one of the great ironies of Mr Dale's talk was that he continually banged on about "empowering the little man". To my mind Maggie did more to dis-empower "the little man" than any other British politician in living memory!

Though I disagreed vehemently with his politics, I did find him to be a personable and interesting character.

So will I be tuning in to 18 Doughty Street? Maybe
Would I want to go for a pint with Iain Dale? Probably not.

*Assignment ideas*

*Idea for Assignment 2:*

For my assignment I would like to do a feature on "War on the Web".

I will comment and reflect upon the effect that the internet, and UGC in particular, is having in changing people's perceptions of war.

After the first Gulf War in 1991, there was the impression (in the West at least), that war was clean, surgical, and precise. The growth of the internet and UGC has done more than anything to remind people that war is a terrible thing.

I wish to examine how UGC, and sites like Youtube, GoogleVideo, Military.com, and Ogrish, etc, are showing people the true face of war. I will be arguing that though many may find these sites and their content to be ghoulish and voyeuristic, they are very necessary, and that these sites are ulitmately doing the public a great service.

I will be examining the historical context of such sites, and their place in the pantheon of war-reporting.
During the Second World War, radio conveyed the horrors of war to the public back home. During the Vietnam War it was television. Now, it is the internet and UGC.

I will be researchng the Pew Internet & American Life Project who carried out a survey to guage the public's attitudes toward graphic internet sites, as well as conducting my own survey to find out how people in and around Cardiff feel about the issue.

Among others, I will be quoting Hayden Hewitt, co-founder of Ogrish.com, as he tries to justify his sites content.

I feel this ties in very nicely with "Topic Area 1 - Journalism: New practices, affects of new technology, old media in new media. Topic Area 2 - Citizen media (including blogging, user-generated content).

Amanda Powell. Behind the scenes at BBC online

Amanda Powell, Editor bbc.co.uk/walesnews, was kind enough to give us a talk today on online journalism in general and the bbc-online in particular.

A 'behind-the-scenes' look at the goings-on at BBC Wales' online service, Ms Powell's talk raised more than a few interesting points about the nature of journalism in the age of the Internet.

My first impressions of Ms Powell were very good. Like Charles Reiss, former editor of The Evening Standard, who came to give us a talk the week before, Ms Powell did not come across as an archetypal editor of myth and legend - all fire and brimstone! I have no idea from where, or how, I have come to form this opinion of Editors, but I always thought they were supposed to be, well...scary! Still, it's early days and maybe my theory will be proved correct in time. Ms Powell's talk was succinct and well presented. She said what she had to say and did not ramble on - I HATE it when they ramble on! And what's more - what she did have to say was interesting and informative.

As I have said, although the talk was primarily a behind-the-scenes look at bbc-online's Welsh output, it raised many points about the nature of journalism in general. Not least of these is the growth in recent years of "user generated content", or "citizen-journalism" to you and me. In an age of Blogs, phone-cameras, e-mail, digital recorders etc etc, is the journalist even relevant anymore? In spite of the trend towards news organisations sourcing the public for news material, Ms Powell is of the opinion that there will always be a need for the objective and dedicated journalist - Amen to that!

Welcome to the world!

Welcome to Melmoth's Wanderings. Over the next few months I hope to be sharing with you some of my many insights on life, journalism and everything.

Before I begin, I think some background information is needed: My name is Gareth Jennings, I am 32 years old and am currently enrolled at Cardiff University on the post-graduate magazine diploma course.

Prior to the mid-life crisis that prompted me to pack in a perfectly decent job in order to plunge into (unpaid!) student life again, I was gainfully employed by BAE Systems at their training college in Cwmbran, Gwent. The link between me working for a global arms-dealer, and wanting to become a magazine journalist is not as tenuous as it may at first appear. One of my many duties at BAE Systems was assuming responsibility for the college's in-house magazine, The Dundridge News. It wasn't long before the magazine became the aspect of my job I most looked forward to, and when an opportunity arose for me to enrol at Cardiff I jumped at the chance!

And so here I am. I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings as much as I (hope I) will enjoy posting them - have fun!