During the ‘news agenda’ module I’ve had the pleasure of reading the Daily Star aka ‘25p’ on a daily basis. Actually I’m lying already; I’ve bought it now and again because the paper barely differs from one day to the next. At times I’ve even questioned whether it’s worth the 25p that I have to fork out for it. The 0.25 pounds would have bought me 25 penny tubes on my way to school just a few months back!
However I felt inclined to buy it today as the main front page headline wasn’t about Jordan, who had dominated the front page for well over a week because of her return to the ‘I’m a Celebrity’ scene’. However there is no need to panic Britain, as normal service will be resumed tomorrow as she left the jungle today.
Arguably the most bearable part of the paper is that of the sports section, but after reading it in detail today I realised that even that was way lacking in terms of content. For example in the match report of the Stoke vs. Portsmouth game, a game which finished 1-0 I found no details of how the goal was scored. Apparently the goal was a product of a ‘late show’ by Ricardo Fuller. What does that even mean?
Reading the paper backwards I stumbled across the sex adverts section. The biggest advert in there was titled ‘Give it to Granny’ and I immediately wanted to turn the page and forget I ever found it. However I’ve learnt that as a Journalist it is vital to investigate things, so through gritted teeth I had a further look.
I found that out of 35 adverts, 9 of them were of the ‘Granny’ genre of sex chat. Take from that what you want, as I’d rather not comment on this particular topic any further. However I will say that I am confident that this isn’t the reason why readership of the Daily Star have increased by 20% in the last 12 months while all other newspapers are going bust. But I’m sure it’d be amusing to be proved wrong on this one!!
Monday 23 November 2009
Thursday 12 November 2009
My old friend Rousseau and Romanticism
When I hear the word romanticism I immediately think of one man. And no it’s not Rousseau.
This all stems from A Level English Literature, when we had the privelege of studying ‘Lyrical Ballads’ by Wordsworth and Coleridge. My friend (who will remain unamed) claimed that just like the poets whose work we were studying, he was himself a traditional‘romantic’. This made me laugh at first, but I can see where he’s coming from in a way. He is forever talking about love, enjoys living a nice chilled out life of studying the arts, holidaying in Cornwall and smoking cannabis in the summer time. He also drives an original VW Beatle!
Hilariously the Rousseau lecture enabled me to draw upon even more comparisons to my pal. Rousseau gave each of his five children up for adoption, but strangely went on to write a book on how to educate children.
This strange hypocrisy is also shared by my friend, who frequently spoke about the importance of love, and the significance of losing ones virginity… before losing his own in a seedy brothel in Amsterdam. (Possibly a tragic case of choosing aesthetic over utilitarian standards...therefore romantic in a sense maybe?!!).
In fact I have seen arguments amongst this friend and another, which resemble a modern day battle between John Locke and Rousseau!
Locke, a man who strongly believed in the ‘state of nature’, and the importance of property reminds me very much of a chap who used to throw very frequent house parties. These parties would often come to an abrupt end because of damage or disrespect to ‘his property’. This would often lead to guests like my Beatle driving mate saying things like ‘The Earth belongs to no-one man’ before passionately kissing the sister of the host. This is exactly how I’d expect a man like Rousseau to react to such Locke-like hostility!
All of the above is of course strictly comment, and therefore technically bullshit. However Rousseau did direct the following quote at Locke when he said that 'Taking men as they are and laws as they might be' was an important factor in life.
This all stems from A Level English Literature, when we had the privelege of studying ‘Lyrical Ballads’ by Wordsworth and Coleridge. My friend (who will remain unamed) claimed that just like the poets whose work we were studying, he was himself a traditional‘romantic’. This made me laugh at first, but I can see where he’s coming from in a way. He is forever talking about love, enjoys living a nice chilled out life of studying the arts, holidaying in Cornwall and smoking cannabis in the summer time. He also drives an original VW Beatle!
Hilariously the Rousseau lecture enabled me to draw upon even more comparisons to my pal. Rousseau gave each of his five children up for adoption, but strangely went on to write a book on how to educate children.
This strange hypocrisy is also shared by my friend, who frequently spoke about the importance of love, and the significance of losing ones virginity… before losing his own in a seedy brothel in Amsterdam. (Possibly a tragic case of choosing aesthetic over utilitarian standards...therefore romantic in a sense maybe?!!).
In fact I have seen arguments amongst this friend and another, which resemble a modern day battle between John Locke and Rousseau!
Locke, a man who strongly believed in the ‘state of nature’, and the importance of property reminds me very much of a chap who used to throw very frequent house parties. These parties would often come to an abrupt end because of damage or disrespect to ‘his property’. This would often lead to guests like my Beatle driving mate saying things like ‘The Earth belongs to no-one man’ before passionately kissing the sister of the host. This is exactly how I’d expect a man like Rousseau to react to such Locke-like hostility!
All of the above is of course strictly comment, and therefore technically bullshit. However Rousseau did direct the following quote at Locke when he said that 'Taking men as they are and laws as they might be' was an important factor in life.
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