News Article 25

THREE CHILDREN DIE IN LANCASHIRE'S CARE SYSTEM



This is how BBC News represented the story:

Three children died during an inspection into a council's "inadequate" children's services, an Ofsted report has revealed.

An investigation into the deaths is ongoing, after "serious failures" were found in Lancashire County Council's child care services. The report said it was "too soon" to establish if the children's unrelated deaths could have been prevented. The council said it was addressing the concerns "quickly and effectively".

The report said all the council's child care services had "significantly deteriorated" since the last inspection in 2012, when the authority was found to be good overall. It said: "During the inspection, three children tragically died in unrelated incidents. "Their families were open cases to children's social care and they were receiving services as children in need."

The report said an investigation into the children's circumstances were at an early stage, but noted that records connected to the children showed inadequacies. "Some of this poor practice was seen in a much larger number of cases where children had not been harmed," the report continued.

The inspectors' widespread concerns include:

• A lack of effective management oversight
• A failure to involve key agencies in discussions at all stages of child protection
• Complex work allocated to staff with insufficient qualifications or experience
• Failure to give some children leaving care the level of support they need to enter adult life successfully

The report praised the council for the way children are listened to, and the way the risks of child sexual exploitation were tackled. The authority said it had begun implementing a number of changes, backed by a new £5m investment.

Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "The children and young people who need these services deserve the best care and support, and we are very sorry that in some cases they have clearly not been receiving it. "The council must now act quickly and effectively to resolve the problems identified during the inspection."

My opinion on the story:

I personally feel that BBC News represented this story well because they have included as much information as they can at this moment in time and the use of quotations and statistics means the viewer is gaining factual and important knowledge. It is also clear to read with the use of bullet points. My opinion on the actual story is that I was firstly very shocked when I read it because the fact that three children died in one care system shows that something is definitely very wrong and changes need to be made. It is a sad news story to read and to the three children that died, RIP. 

Mediterranea review- BFI Film Festival

On Friday 16^th of October, I went with my film and media class to watch a screening of Mediterranea at the BFI Film Festival in Brixton. This took place in a small arthouse cinema called ‘The Ritzy’ and it was followed by a short question and answer with the director, Jonas Carpignano who gave some useful information about the production of the film and on the characters which I found very intriguing. This was Carpignano’s first feature film but he has previously directed five short films: La Casa d’Argento Bava (2006), Resurrection Man (2010), Bayou Black (2011), A Chiana (2012) and A Ciambra (2014). A common similarity that I noticed between most of these films and Mediterranea is that they show the journey of the protagonist(s) and at times, the narrative is based upon the director’s historical and cultural background.  Due to this being his first feature and the actors being unknown, the director explained that it was difficult to fund the film and that he had to go to about five different production companies. Jonas Carpignano also wrote Mediterranea and it was produced in 2015 with End Cue and it was first released on September, 2^nd in France. The music was by Dan Romer, the director of photography was Wyatt Garfield, the editing was by Sanabel Cherqaoui, Affonso Gonçalves and Nico Leunen and the production design was by Marco Ascanio Viarigi.

Starring: Koudous Seihon (Ayiva), Alassane Sy (Abas), Pio Amato (Pio), Annalisa Pagano (Cristina Riso), Sinka Bourehima (Ahmed) and Davide Schipilliti (Rocco), Mediterranea is a social realism, documentary drama which looks at the dangerous life of refugees and it follows the journey of Ayiva and Abas as they make their way from Africa to Italy in the search for a better life. What stood out to me most in the narrative was the huge sense of realism which gave me a true insight into the migrant experience regarding their fear, exploitation and survival. Mediterranea developed from Carpignano’s short film, A Chiana which looks at the real-life events and characters leading to the Italian riots and it focuses on the story of Ayiva who of course is the main protagonist in Mediterranea. The cast for Mediterranea is un-professional and Carpignano explained in his Q&A that he met most of them in the small town he has spent a large proportion of his life in, meaning that what is seen in the film are their actual stories so it is a completely honest reflection of the events they have experienced in their lives so far. This really added to the realism of the film and it wasn’t until after that we were told the vast majority of the film was based upon true stories which I thought would have been good to know before so I could have emphasised with the characters to an even larger extent. However, I did feel a strong connection with the characters, especially Ayiva throughout due to such strong, emotional performances and after finding out that they are un-professional actors, I was even more impressed because they had such a powerful delivery.

The cinematography also added to the realism of the film because it was all filmed using handheld camera. I believe the director did this to represent how the lives of the migrants in this film are not constructed or carefully placed into a scripted narrative but instead, they are gritty and real. The camera was also quite shaky at times which symbolises how the characters journeys and experiences were unstable and they were forced to go through terrifying and emotional events which ‘shook them up’ meaning they have not been able to get their lives under control. Regarding the cinematography, there were some absolutely beautiful shots throughout Mediterranea, such as the amazing ocean shot below, with the strong inclusion of bokeh behind the night-life scenes which I found truly stunning and I believe Carpignano included this to represent how although the characters are constantly surrounded by harshness and negativity, they can still look to find the good and beauty in their situations. There was a recurring extreme close up shot that was used of Ayiva and Abas each time they reached a new location and this was an effective way of documenting their journey because the audience were able to see their reactions which were often a look of fear and helplessness because they were completely unsure of what to expect.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed Mediterranea because at times, the narrative was very emotionally moving and I was able to gain connections with a lot of the characters. The messages touched upon were clearly close to the director and a lot of passion and heart-felt emotion went into making Mediterranea which was definitely reflected throughout. Although I found the ending slightly confusing due to the ambiguity and enigma codes that it left the audience with, it was still very effective at expressing the main theme of ‘personal journeys’. The cinematography was incredible, the performances were outstanding and I am going to rate this film 7.5/10. It was not my favourite film from the collection I have watched at the BFI Film Festival (Ayanda was my favourite) but it was definitely impactful and I would encourage others to watch it.

^ The Director- Jonas Carpignano 

News Article 24

Abandoned James Bond screenplay?




This was a story I found on the Guardian and this is how they represented it:

A “lost” James Bond movie written by Peter Morgan, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Frost/Nixon and The Queen, would have seen Daniel Craig’s 007 forced to kill Judi Dench’s spymaster M in a shock finale, according to a new book.

Morgan’s screenplay for the proposed film, titled Once Upon a Spy, was turned down by Bond producers and director Sam Mendes prior to the release of 2012’sSkyfall. However, the script’s key elements, which included a mistake from M’s past coming back to haunt her and the MI6 bigwig dying at the end, were retained for the $1.1bn blockbuster.

Interviewed for the book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, regular Bond screenwriter Robert Wade suggested that Morgan’s mistake was to veer too close to the style ofJohn le Carré, rather than 007 creator Ian Fleming.

Once Upon a Spy would have flashed back to M’s days as an MI6 agent stationed in Berlin during the cold war. Her affair with a KGB agent has lasting ramifications three decades later when the man’s son, a Russian oligarch, surfaces to blackmail the spymaster. Bond is called in to tackle the villain, but is forced to kill M at the movie’s denouement.

“[Co-writer] Neal [Purvis] and I are pretty well steeped in Fleming. I think Peter was more interested in Le Carré. It just didn’t work,” said Wade, according to Digital Spy. “We always found [the script] really, really difficult to make credible or satisfying. It was very dark … The only thing that remained was that M’s past comes back to haunt her and she dies at the end.”

Wade and Purvis rewrote Morgan’s screenplay into a script titled Nothing Is Forever, which was finally retitled Skyfall. The latter film went on to be the highest-grossing film so far in the long-running spy series, and received excellent reviews.

My opinion on the news story:

I found this really interesting to read and I never knew there was an alternative narrative and title to Skyfall. It goes to show how much pre-production is involved with film-making and it may take numerous times to get the story 'perfect' and it is crucial to ensure that the script is to the best of the writer's ability. Although this alternative storyline does sound dark, personally I would have liked to have seen it and I think there are some really fascinating elements in there which may have improved Skyfall. 

#PrayForTheWorld

Although I have already posted my news of the week, after hearing about the devastating attacks in Paris, I thought it was invaluable to write about it. 

Key points to note about the Paris attacks:

Here is a video posted by BBC News regarding the response on social media:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34825501

There has been so much support across the world, #PrayForParis has been trending on Twitter, Facebook users can put the French flag over their profile picture. Paris turned out their lights in mourning, however, Cities such as London have been turning on their lights in support for Paris. 



Some responses to the event:

It is not just Paris. These are the devastating events that happened across the world in the same 24 hours. 



To hear all this terrible news is absolutely heart-breaking and I am honestly speechless about how awful it is. My heart goes out to everyone that was affected by these events and together, we need to create world peace because our freedom is under threat and innocent people have died because of evil terrorists and this needs to stop. Rest In Peace to all of those who tragically are no longer with us today. 

#PrayForParis

#PrayForJapan

#PrayForMexico

#PrayForBaghdad

#Pray ForBeirut

#PrayForTheWorld

News Article 23

Four in ten sixth form colleges could close due to education budget cuts?

This is how The Independent represented the story:

A crisis in education funding could see the closure of as many as four in ten sixth-form and further education colleges, according to a new financial analysis. Research by House of Commons library staff shows £1.6billion could be wiped off the budget for colleges next year if the Government goes ahead with 25 per cent cuts to the service. That, according to their analysis, would be the equivalent of closing four in ten colleges - threatening nearly half of England’s sixth-form colleges and one in three further education colleges.

“This is a deeply worrying report and confirms our fears that some sixth-form colleges could be wiped from the map after the spending review,” said James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth-Form Colleges Association said.

Labour’s Shadow Education secretary Lucy Powell - for whom the analysis was carried out, added: “It is simply not possible to build a 21st century on falling investment in education. Yet this Government is putting post-16 education on a cliff edge for the next generation - and holding our young people and our country back.”

Conservative party sources dismissed the figures as “back of a fag packet” calculations and accused Labour of “scaremongering”. However, one sixth-form college which has already had to make cuts is Barrow-in-Furness where A-Levels have already been scrapped in Spanish, religious studies, design and technology and religious studies. David Batten, its principal, said; “We have made many efficiency savings already: we have restructured management, increased workloads ... and have had to say goodbye to many good colleagues. “We are getting to the point where the funding available for sixth-form students, which is less than that available for a school pupil and far less than that available for a university undergraduate, is simply not enough to offer a good education to students and keep a small sixth-form college running.”

My opinion on the news story:

Firstly, The Independent is a centre-left wing paper and I think this is reflected in this report because when talking about the conservative party, they use negative language such as "dismissed" and then go on to immediately make a counter argument. This can therefore be seen as biased because the reader is not getting a balanced view of the events. Regarding the actual news story, I think this is shocking because 4 in 10 sixth forms is a lot and if this many were to close, it would have very negative effects on our education system. For example, the students would have to leave and join new colleges, which will result in an increase in class sizes which could impact the quality of their learning. 

News Article 22

Teenager in court for the second time regarding the death of Bailey Gwynne 


Bailey Gwynne 

This is how BBC News represented the story:

A teenage boy has appeared in court for a second time charged with murdering 16-year-old Bailey Gwynne, who was stabbed at his Aberdeen school.

Bailey died after the incident at Cults Academy on 28 October. The 16-year-old accused - who cannot be named for legal reasons - appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. The boy is also charged with having a blade or point on school premises. He made no plea, was fully committed and remanded in custody. Special assemblies were held on Monday as pupils returned to classes for the first time since the incident. Bailey's family issued a message of thanks for the support they have received.

Here are some pictures below that were shown in the news report that followed his death:

My opinion on the news article:

It is absolutely awful that this has happened and the fact this teenager has been taken to court for the second time, I think, shows that he most probably is guilty. The face that he was carrying a blade on school premises makes me question the safety of some schools and they need to ensure that every pupil is completely safe on school property because that is one of their roles as an institution. BBC news represented this story well however possibly they lacked some detailed information so audiences may not know enough about the story as they probably should. 

Stacey Dooley Investigates: Saving the Cyber Sex Girls

Stacey Dooley Investigates: Saving the Cyber Sex Girls was directed by Joyce Trozzo and produced in 2015 by Elena Andreicheva and Joyce Trozzo with BBC 3, Twenty Twenty TV and Watershed TV Production. Camera was by Steven Mochrie and it was edited by Badger Cooper. Presented by Stacey Dooley and starring Marisol Ayad and Larni, Saving the Cyber Sex Girls is a very emotional documentary about child abuse that is being carried out in cybersex dens in the Philippines. Stacey discovers that children as young as two are being paid by customers, who watch via webcams, to perform sex acts for their pleasure- they are forced into doing it.

The documentary explores very powerful themes such as trafficking, poverty, exploitation and sexual abuse. It was shocking to find out that the customers include 750,000 people online at any one time and that 139 Brits this year so far have been investigated for committing these acts so it happens across the world. I never would have considered these numbers to be so awfully high and this is an issue I was not entirely aware of previously so I am glad this documentary has been made because more people need to be aware of this. Stacey finds out that this issue has arose due to a simultaneous rise in both poverty and cheap, high-speed internet access and these girls are sexually exposing themselves online in an act of desperation because it is the only way they can make money to support their families, and sometimes even their families force them to do it. This was very horrifying to here because it highlights how these huge levels of poverty are destroying the lives of these young children and this really upsets me because I can’t even begin to imagine how it must feel and it is the stories of the underworld like these that the media seem to ignore and they shouldn’t.

Stacey also goes to a prison and talks to some of the inmates, including Marisol Ayad. On first encounter, Marisol lies to Stacey, claiming that she is innocent but after undergoing some further research, Stacey realises that she ran a cybersex den where children as young as two were forced to perform for the webcams and when confronting Marisol for the second time, she admitted to doing so. I believe this shows that she is ashamed and embarrassed as to what she is done but also that she does not realise the seriousness of the issue and I hope she realises that what she did is completely unacceptable and sickening. There was also a tear-wrenching scene in which Stacey visits an anger management/therapy area for the children who have been involved with sexual exploitation to let out their emotions and this really emphasised how much they had been hurt, mentally and physically and the heart-breaking reality of this scene really put it into perspective for the audience as to how serious this is.

In conclusion, I think this documentary is really important and I would like to see the media cover issues like child abuse in cybersex dens because it is something that so many people are oblivious to and it should not be this way and we need to make a change. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I felt so many emotions throughout such as anger, shock, horror and sadness and I would highly recommend this to anyone. 

Reggie Yates- Race Riots USA

So, I am a big fan of documentaries because they are engaging, informative and often cover serious issues that people need to be aware of. Reggie Yates-Race Riots USA definitely did not disappoint and I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a great amount of information from it.  

Race Riots USA was directed and filmed by Ruhi Hamid and produced in 2015 by Kandise Abiola and Sam Anthony with BBC Three and Sundog Pictures. Stephen Slator was the archive researcher, Russel Crockett was the editor and Gary Black and Matt Gettemieir were the sound recordists. Presented by Reggie Yates and starring Clifton Kinnie, Dorothy Kaiser and Brendan Roediger, Race Riots USA explores the position of African-Americans in America’s current society. This investigation was triggered by the death of black teenager, Michael Brown who was killed by white policeman, Darren Wilson a year ago in the town of Ferguson. This death led to rioting in Ferguson and when Reggie goes to visit the town, he discovers a new generation of young activists. He was led around by 18 year old, Clifton Kinnie who helps to unravel the story of Michael Brown and Kinnie was a big figure in this documentary because he emphasised that he just wants freedom and he wants himself and his younger brother to feel safe when walking down the street. This really highlights the issue of police brutality in America and how it is targeted towards race, conveying that the negative representations of black people in the media have contributed to the negative stereotypes that they are associated with (violent, always out to cause trouble etc.) and this is wrong.  

Some shocking statistics were mentioned in this documentary that help to back up these points. 70% of Ferguson’s citizens are black and on the day of the shooting, only 3/53 of the police were black. Michael Brown’s body was left on the road for four hours in front of his friends and family. Last year, 11,000 people in Ferguson were stopped for traffic violations and 9/10 of these people were African Americans. Ferguson police have spent more money on uniforms than on training. 280 million guns are owned by Americans. These really horrified me and by including these statistics, Reggie is providing contextual factors for the audience that can help them to generate their own opinion and for me, I thought it was absolutely awful Michael’s body was left on the road for four hours because that is extremely disrespectful and just imagine being there and having to witness such an emotional and heart-wrenching moment.

Furthermore in this documentary, Reggie covers both sides of the argument and talks to a wide variety of people so the overall experience is un-biased for the audience. He joins the new recruits on police training day and watches them undergo a traffic stop in which they almost immediately pull out guns and the situation escalates very quickly and their reasoning for this was because the citizens in the car are likely to also own guns. I really don’t agree with how easy it is for an American to purchase a gun and yes, although they have it to protect themselves, they are not exactly safer if everyone else also has one so I think something definitely needs to be done about this issue in my opinion. He also talks to a pro-police party who are in support of Darren Wilson and it was interesting to see that all but one of these people were white, emphasising that it is not their race being targeted by the police and this inequality needs to change.

In conclusion, I loved this documentary because it was strong, powerful and emotional and I gained a really beneficial understanding of the race issues in America. Reggie Yates covered the story really well and I thought it was great how he spoke to people across the argument rather than just one particular side because it gave the audience a more in-depth insight and this will definitely be great for a media case study due to its coverage on the representation of race. 

News Article 21

It's a box office battle between Star Wars and The Hunger Games!





It's tough competition regarding who will be most successful in the global box office between The Force Awakens and Mockingjay Part 2 but who will rise to the top? This is how The Guardian represented this discussion: 

The hype surrounding the release of both films is almost unprecedented and has seen the share prices of leading global cinema chains rise as analysts predict they are heading for bumper revenues.

Advance tickets for Mockingjay, which stars Hollywood’s highest-paid female star, Jennifer Lawrence, as the teenage archer and hunter turned rebel leader Everdeen, started selling online as far back as the start of October. Given that the previous three Hunger Games films have grossed more than £1.5bn, Lionsgate, the company behind Mockingjay, has spent heavily to ensure that few people on the planet are unaware that the final instalment of the franchise comes out in the UK on 19 November.

But The Force Awakens, which comes out in the UK on 18 December, has already broken previous opening day advance sales records. Cinema chain Imax collected $6.5m from ticket sales in a single day. Imax has never previously sold more than $1m in advance ticket sales in a single day. Many chains are screening a midnight viewing on 17 December, so that fans can see the film as soon it is released. “We’re seeing sellouts across the board – from Hollywood to London, to Sparks, Nevada, and everywhere in between,” Greg Foster, CEO of Imax Entertainment, said recently.

Some analysts believe that The Force Awakens may become the highest-grossing film of all time, eclipsing Avatar, which banked $2.8bn around the world.But Katniss could still be victorious. The Force Awakens has failed to secure a release date for this year in China, where it is not as well known as the Hunger Gamesfranchise, which is enjoying a surge in popularity. The first instalment of Mockingjay brought in $31.4m in its first eight days of showing in China. In contrast, 2012’s The Hunger Games and its 2013 sequel,Catching Fire, both brought in about $28m in China in total.

My opinion on this:

This was a relevant and interesting news article and I believe The Guardian represented it really well because they have included facts, statistics and quotations. Going by the evidence provided by this article, I personally feel that The Force Awakens will be more successful in the box office firstly because it has already broken previous opening day advance sales and also because the franchise started in 1977 whereas The Hunger Games began in 2012 so Star Wars has had a much longer time to build up a wider audience and fan base so there are more dedicated fans who will be guaranteed to watch the film.