Katherineknox’s Weblog

Am now trying to fight my way through the works of Albert Camus and A.J. Ayer. I’m looking at them with a view to my essay – I think i’ll go for the ‘Why write? Is there any point to journalism?’ question and i’m still doing the background reading.

Basically Camus says in ‘Le Mythe De Sisyphe’ that something can only be truly good if it is doing the job that it was meant to do. What are journalists meant to do? Surely there’s such a difference of opinion out there that some of us at least must be ‘evil.’

In ‘Lauguage, Truth and Logic’ Ayer breaks down completely what a sentence is comprised of and if there can be any meaning in the statements we make. His verification principle is revised so many times that the criteria for a statement or sentence to have meaning are extremely stringent.

 This, along with the fact that journalism is already riddled with faults – see previous entry, suggests that the answer to the essay question that i have chosen is ‘no.’ Nevertheless i’m still looking into the possibilities and nuances for my assignment.

Katy

I’m just reading the Davies’ book and am being deeply disturbed by it. I suppose it is easy enough to envisage a world of error in journalism; despite our studies there are no doubt errors in all of our news stories  -  if there weren’t we’d all be getting 100%.

It is unsettling to think that these errors, that I see as a rife in this simple training phase, can carry through to ‘real’ journalism. Davies states that the fall of good and honourable journalism ‘begins with journalists who tell you that the Earth is flat, because genuinely they think it might be so.’

The examples that Davies gives, e.g. The Y2K bug, are startling. Especially when i read through the book and found that even i had not questioned some of those assumptions. The core of rotten journalism is truly ‘ignorance’ and i see how it could be so.

Yet i do not think it unavoidable. Maybe in a world where it is ‘heresy’ to say that the Earth is round there is a pressure and an unknowing submission to agree but this can be changed. [well, maybe not in tabloids but you catch my drift.]

Even when it is difficult to go against the flow there are always some nutters out there who will do everything in their power to ensure that their stories are accurate. [Maybe naively - if i were going to be a journalist that's the kind i'd want to be.] 

All these crazy guys have to do is reduce every story to the pure and unadulterated facts. [And when i say facts i mean real facts not everyday assumptions.] Although philosophically there is nothing of use that we can know in a practical world we can at least try.

After all, in the end someone did find out that the Earth was round – so there is hope for us yet.

Katy x

“The Photography Reader” is a comprehensive collection of twentieth-century writings on photography- its production, its uses and effects. Encompassing essays by photographers including Edward Weston and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and key thinkers from Walter Benjamin to Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag, the reader traces the development of ideas about photography, exploring issues such as identity, consumption, the gaze, and digital technology. Each themed section features an editor’s introduction setting ideas and debates in their historical and theoretical context. – An interesting synopsis of The Photography Reader

I’ve been checking out David Dunkley Gyimah’s website and i found it very interesting.

Because video journalism only started to emerge about 20 years ago it’s great to have a site where you can find info and insight from someone who has been in the field for the whole time and has experience in the UK and overseas.

Reading the view i like that he thinks that anyone with a camera can be a VJ. (although maybe not a good one) He says that the good vj’s understand the forms of film production and television and the best ones seek to expland past these conventions.

This means that getting well know for a piece of unique video journalism is not impossible. On the View he also recommends being multiskilled as it makes you more valuable and maybe this is evident from where he is in the world today.

Most importantly – Pompey won . Preston scored an own goal. Now that’s news.

 On a lighter note, Kosovo declared independence. Awesome!

 Also The Man has finally decided to do something with Northern Rock.

 ’Computer power will match the intelligence of human beings within the next 20 years because of the accelerating speed at which technology is advancing, according to a leading scientific “futurologist”.’ Writes Steve Connor, science editor in Boston. That’s my interesting fact for the day. Also I’ve learnt a new word – ‘futurologist’

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