UniBlog: A Rather Pleasant Start To The Week...

"Ugh. Monday, the depressing start to another depressing new week" one may grunt...

Me though? No chance! I've just had an absolute "banger" of a Monday - and here's a little blog to talk you through all the goings on

I woke up at 8, went on my laptop for a bit, got dressed, realised I didn't actually have time for breakfast and had Monday's News Writing Lecture.

Following this, I had a request (oooh) to make a Euro Truck Simulator 2 Paint for someone's racing team - just as I had done for my self.

This is where 3/4 of my time went, other than saving cod fillets (over a chicken fillet) and that was pretty much my Monday.

It's currently 2:06 as I type and I've got to still test the livery to make sure it's okay. Fish and Chicken went off today, and I'm afraid Stuart's gotta take one for the team. Sorry Little buddy.

Today (or Monday) was also a particularly good day - as after our class win in the ISRC (iRacing Sim Racing Challenge), we were put 3rd in GTE-AM Class - which gives us one HELL of an advantage when it comes to the rest of the championship.

In our other endurance series, Eleven9 (for the first time ever) is ever so slightly "in our reach" (due to our double win) - so I am really hoping that maybe in 2 years or so, we'll be at their level and have a fun little on track battle!

Tuesday 20th October

Tuesday 20th October marks exactly one month since I arrived at Wolverhampton University for my first night away from home - after a small breakfast of cereal and milk (ever so kindly provided by the heroes that are Andrew and Jya - I'd head off to my only on-campus lecture for the week.

Tuesday's Lecture: Documentaries VS Journalism

After a quick re-cap of the definitions of "Journalism" and "Documentaries", we went into why documentaries aren't actually a form of journalism - despite the fact that they are remarkably similar.

Going into this lecture, I thought documentaries were a form of journalism - documenting a particular subject or event - and going into detail about it - Planet Earth being about the planet and the habitat the animals live in and the struggle they fight to survive...but the difference between the two is very subtle until you begin to notice the impact it has. Ethic.

The National Union Of Journalists is a collection of journalists whom with a small monthly/annual fee, you can join.

Being a part of this group gives you a small card and access to areas that the general public are not allowed to go.

The reason I bring this up is because to be allowed in, you must follow a "code of conduct" - and this is not exclusive to the NUJ (National Union Of Journalists) - any company you start working for will have rules that one must adhere to be - and a remain a part of the company....

The same cannot be said for documentary makers - as long as they follow third party (OFCOM) Guidelines, the film-makers are pretty open to do as they please - this includes editing - and as learnt on previous lectures, the way something is edited can have a huge affect on the way that it is percieved.

Take Alieen: The Life And Death Of A Serial Killer for example - the film-makers frame her in an incredibly positive light, despite the heinous acts she did.

The film-maker never consulted or visited the families of the victims - giving a rather large bias towards Aileen.

OFCOM mainly deals with innapropriate and offensive content (nudity, drugs, sex etc.) - so the documentary wasn't picked up.

Journalists MUST be impartial, unbiased and balanced, yet there is nothing "governing" film-makers or documentaries from taking a bias or emphasising with the film-makers opinion.

After discussing Aileen (which we have just done), we watched a film screening - this week it was a documentary called "Page One: Inside the New York Times" and followed the New York Times as they covered some of the biggest stories between 2009 and 2011

And I think that covers it - I think that was my day - I picked up a pop-filter for my microphone (on my headset) which I bought online, but this turned out to be much, much too small.

So other than having dinner, that's been my day(s)