The final lecture of Year 2, Semester 1

The final lecture of the semester was based around the concept of Existentialism which was a cultural movement in the 19th and 20th centuries whereby philosophers  believed that human beings were the key to thoughts. Soren Kierkegaard who can be considered as the father of Existentialism, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl and Jean Paul Sartre were amongst this group of philosophers and their theories will be outlined in this blog.


Kirkegaard was a disciple of Friedrich Neitzsche and he wrote many works surrounding the feelings and emotions of human beings when they are faced with a choice. He had a very unhappy life and despised the fact that he was alive as life symbolised pain and suffering. He turned to religion and Christianity for guidance on how to live his life in a happy state. He also believed that every person should experience a "leap of faith" which described the emotions that would be felt when they fell in love or believed strongly in God. As humans we are better off putting our faith in Christianity as it is as valid as any other religion around the world, no idea is more valid than another as eventually everything in life mounts to nothing as we are all going to die. This discussion of Kierkegaard leads on well to the film "Wings of Desire" which was released in 1987. The film is a German black and white film that focuses on Kierkegaard's theory that Christianity is the saviour of humanity.The film is based around two immortal angels who populate Berlin help people who are in pain or are suffering. One of the angels  falls deeply in love with a trapeze artist. The angel chooses to become human so that he can experience human emotions so he can feel the power of love. 
<><><><><><> <><><><><><> <><><><><><>

Front cover of Wings of Desire
showing the angel who longs for
love

Heidegger is well regarded for his work in phenomenology and greatly explored the idea of the 'question of being'. One of his most important works, Being And Time was written in 1927 and outlined his concepts of "Dasein". He thought that a person's personality changes constantly from second to second and humans are simply a structure of time that are always looking ahead to the future to predict what will happen. Human thoughts are surrounded by a notion of dread , events in our lives cause us to feel pain and there is no escape until we die. This is also a key theory of German psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud who also believed that human lives were plagued with hurt and people needed therapy in order to help them to cope. Heidegger argued that the "dasein " is just a way in which humans are able to deal with dread, to question who they are. If we do not know who we are then we can not feel dread as nothing is for certain. He also devised a tri part theory for the existence of time
The past= guilt
The present= dread
The future= unknown
As humans we feel guilt about the past as we were not living, the present is unknown as we are unaware of our true identity and we dread the future as we do not know what will happen.


Husserl believed that humans have a subjective perception of objects, we choose what images we wish to see and in what context we wish to interpret them. We do not find a definitive explanation for what we see, merely a perception as different people interpret images in totally different ways. For example take a look at this image, people may see a duck or a rabbit, both interpretations of this image are true and there is no definite answer.


Sartre wrote the book La Nausee in 1938, outlining how our ideas are the product of real life situations. It is centred around a protagonist who constantly feels sickness and dread and attempts to resolve this by doing good deeds such as charity work in an attempt to find his true being. He believes that objects are an obstacle to his identity, both intellectually and spiritually and this is the cause of his near insanity. He eventually finds a revelation and is happy with who he is.  In the book Sartre uses the ideas of dread and "dasein" and implies that the only way to defeat dread it to be honest with yourself and have good faith. After all we are all doomed to death together so why not have good faith.

Seminar on Totalitarianism

For the last seminar of the semester we looked at Totalitarianism and Hanna Arendt and how her theories can be easily applied to many historical events. As a group we focused on Hitler and the Nazi Regime and how methods were enforced on the Jews that can be regarded as Totalitarian. Hitler used state terror in order to round up the Jews into concentration camps and then punished them with torture should they speak out. We also discussed whether there could ever be another incident of extreme totalitarianism, I argued that there could because it only takes one extremely power hungry dictator to introduce new ideology and terror to the masses within a country and then a totalitarian state to be formed. There will be no end to this method of rule as throughout the world today there are many dictators in countries such as Congo and Zimbabwe and it only takes new forms of repression for terror to spiral out of control.  The group also discussed how it is difficult for the masses to speak out against a dictator as they will get punished by either torture or death or a combination of the two. Totalitarianism can be seen as one of the most repressive methods of rule over the masses as it succeeds in destroying a whole group of innocent people who have a different way of life and religion to the ruling government who consider themselves to be the superior class. We concluded that everything should be done in order to attempt to prevent any more Totalitarian rule as the Nazi Regime and Apartheid in South Africa show the devastating effects of power with thousands of innocent people being killed as a result.

Totalitarianism and Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) can be regarded as one of the leading critics of Totalitarianism.  She was a German philosopher and politician whose theories on the structure of society are important to the present day. In one of her numerous books entitled, The Origins of Totalitarianism which was published in 1951 she outlines the ways in which Totalitarianism takes place and what effects it has on society.

Hannah Arendt speaking about her
political theories

She argues that each individual has their own unique personality, therefore it is impossible to predict what people will do. Everything is possible so people strive to seek as much power as they can as it is unlimited, however this power comes at a huge price as humanity will be destroyed. The methods by which leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin gained this power and control was to break down people's individuality using state terror and ideology such as Marxism or Communism. Terror is the most important method as it prevents the masses from rebelling against the government and you are punished for wrong thoughts or appearance. (for example target of the Jews and the master race of blonde hair blue eyed people during the Nazi regime). The combination of terror and ideology breaks down society as there are no laws or authority and people lose their human rights. This idea of giving up rights is similar to the theories of Thomas Hobbes who believed that society will always need a ruler to maintain law and order but consequently humans lose their human rights. People lose their individuality through Ideology but this must be embraced and celebrated and it is the masses who will fuel this ideology as they are weak and vulnerable.  Finally,Arendt believed that there will never be an end to Totalitarianism as it is one endless loop of destruction and there will always be groups in society than can be targeted such as the Jews and the disabled.

Arendt was so interested in the ideas of Totalitarianism that she published another book entitled Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1968which was based around a true story she witnessed in Argentina. Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi fugitive during the Holocaust in the Second World War and was captured by Israeli Secret Service Agents in 1960. He was tried for his crimes against humanity in Jerusalem to show the world that the Holocaust was never forgotten and Arendt sat in the courtroom listening to the trial. Eichmann was sentenced to death for his part in the Holocaust but he defended himself stating that he was simply a law abiding citizen. Arendt believed that his crime was not his status as a Nazi but an inability to think for himself, he simply obeyed the orders of his officers without questioning them. As human beings we make a judgement based on what we believe and in the case of Eichmann he just didn't think about his actions. Everyone should rely on their own personal judgements not what the law states and must be prepared to break laws if it is necessary.  Below is a video of a newsreel which summarises Eichmann's trial

Seminar based on classic economics

In the seminar the group discussed the monetary policy and how Keynesian economics still have a large relevance today. The Central Bank controls the interest rates on mortgages and loans which is currently 0.5%, the same rate as it was in the 1930’s following the Great Depression.   The best way to boost an economy is to print money and give it to the poor as they spent it on goods, going to the pub and having a generally jolly good time.  It is unwise to give it to the rich as they save money which lies stagnant in an account; therefore it is not circulating around the economy.  The way to solve this problem is to tax the rich in order to give money to the poor to spend quickly so that the economy begins to pick up.  

This is the case in Britain today where the wealthy people of society pay a vast sum of money each year in taxes to the government, which ends up being spent on benefits to help the poor. Referring back to Keynes, the government is spending large sums of money on wars such as Afghanistan and Iraq. However this is not a good time to fight a war as Britain is in a state of economic decline with record figures of unemployment and people claiming benefits.  As a group we discussed how it is a bad idea to fight a war at this time with the world economy on the verge of collapse and David Cameron should end this war as soon as possible to save money and more importantly lives.

Lecture on classic economics

The next lecture focused around classic economics and the theories of John Maynard Keynes, who can be regarded as a modern economist as his works were viewed as radical and different.  Keynes published a book in 1936 named The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, following the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930’s.The book outlined why it is demand, not supply, which controls the overall level of economic activity. The General Theory can be summarised in four main points as outlined by Paul Krugman in his introduction.

John Maynard Keynes
( 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946)

·        Economies can and often do suffer from an overall lack of demand, which leads to involuntary unemployment. People are not buying goods; therefore less profit is being made which ultimately leads to job cuts as companies are unable to afford workers.

·        The economy’s automatic tendency to correct shortfalls in demand, if it exists at all, operates painfully and slowly.

·       Government policies to increase demand, by contrast can reduce unemployment quickly. The solution is to employ a large number of people to build roads and infrastructure.

·       Sometimes increasing the money supply won’t be enough to persuade the private sector to spend more, and government spending steps into the breach.  The government’s money must be spent on buildings and infrastructure that do not compete with the private sector. The best way to spend money is to have a war as even though this is expensive, countries can gain wealth from resources.

These theories by Keynes are in stark contrast to those of classical economists such as Adam Smith who founded the phrase “hidden hand of the market”. Smith believed that the economic market will do its own thing whether that will be an increase or decrease and the government does not need to intervene. If people have money, they have the choice to spend it on whatever they need or want. Freud argues against this theory as he suggests that when people gain wealth they make irrational choices with their money, eventually spending all of it.

Freud’s theory of irrational decisions can be applied today in the case of Italy. The prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi led the country into a state of enormous debt and corruption by making irrational choices. He asked the Central Bank for a bond in order to borrow a sum of money to help the economy, which the bank agreed to as long as he paid interest on the bond. The bond had no monetary value; it was just a piece of paper that had a sum written on it. However, Italy is corrupt and people are not paying taxes like they should do, so the interest on the bond could not be paid using tax money. The country is unable to pay the interest back to the bank so the interest rates increase even further meaning cuts have to be made in order to pay the larger interest rates. As a result the economy begins to collapse meaning high levels of unemployment as companies cannot afford to employ workers. The economy becomes static as no money is moving around as people cannot afford to buy goods, leaving an even worse situation. Italy is unable to pay the higher interest rates back to the Bank; therefore the Bank refuses to give anymore Bonds to the country.  This is known as the Bond Market.

Frege and Russell seminar

The seminar based around Frege and his philosophy of language helped my understanding of the topic as chapter 5 of Kenny’s book really confused me. The sentences which the group discussed and analysed were “The present King of France is not bald” and “There was nobody on the road”. The first sentence regarding the King of France can appear to be either true or false. Without any knowledge you may think that the sentence is true, but there is no King of France as it is a republic so therefore the statement is false. This is one of the primary laws of logic as we need to have knowledge of an object or person before we can decide whether a statement is correct or incorrect. The sentence “There was nobody on the road” is an incorrect statement as you do not know if there is anybody on the road without looking to see if there is anyone.  You would have to use another sentence such as “I can’t see anybody on the road” in order to make a logical sentence.  We also discussed how a universal language would have to be created for the study of language as some languages do not have certain words or phrases that other languages do.  However there are some problems as languages such as Esperanto have been created to be a universal language but has practically died out as a language as everyone would have to learn the same language which would take time. A better idea would be to make a common language such as English or German the standard language as they have already been established and are spoken across the world.

Plato

From the seminar it was clear that language was an important topic for many philosophers during the 19^th century and it was analysed in great depth by people such as Frege and Russell. Language has been analysed for centuries by philosophers including Plato who argued that humans had a perception of an object and if the images all looked the same then we would assume it was the same object. For example if a man saw a chair that had a seat and four legs and then later on saw an armchair then he would assume that the two objects were chairs as they had the same characteristics and appearance.  The podcast below gives a good summary of Frege's works on the philosophy of language and is good if you are unsure of any of the concepts. It is 45 minutes long but worth a watch even if you watch a section each day.

Freud, Nietzsche and Marx

The third lecture of the Semester was focused around Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. These figures can be considered as the founders of modern hermeneutics.  Modern hermeneutics focused on the philosophy of language and semiotics, how the meaning of words affects our interpretation of life. Another philosopher who studied hermeneutics was Frege and his works on the philosophy of language are highly regarded to the present day. I will discuss Frege’s theories later on in this blog post.

Nietzsche undermined the theories written by the Enlightenment philosophers as he attempted to find the truth by using subjective epistemology.  Epistemology focuses on the nature and scope of knowledge and Nietzsche believed that in life there was no universal truth, just impressions of truths which have a relative value.  What may be true for one person is completely false for another as we are all individual and our minds think and perceive in a variety of ways. One example of this is a man has bright green hair, not everyone is society has green hair so it may be true for him but not for his wife lets say. These truths are found within ourselves and not in the physical outside world, which rejects the theories of Enlightenment philosophers such as Newton who believed the world can be understood using science.  In addition, Nietzsche suggested that nothing in life is certain and as humans, we are unsure whether we will see a specific object or person more than once in our lives.

Marx has similar theories to those of Nietzsche with regards to the idea of universal truth.  He believed that the truth from the oppressed is different to that of the oppressor. Truth is heavily dependent on your perspective of a truth, if you are in the ruling class and you believe that women should be equal to men then that is what is true. Different groups of people think differently to each other and this is known as having different consciousnesses.  Similar to Marx, Friedrich Engles presented a theory that truth and systems of morality are subjective and can change over time- they are temporary.  The subjective is on a social level, not an individual level and truths vary from one culture to another. For example, cannibalism is illegal and immoral in the UK but is widely celebrated in Africa.

Freud believed that mental unhappiness came from issues within the inner tripartite self and that mankind is on a slow journey to death. Humans copy each other and follow each other like a pack of animals and are born and will die in a state of depression.  There have been many criticisms of Freud’s theories by many philosophers including Nietzsche who argues that each human being has an individual will which makes them who they are both physically and mentally. This will is good and society should just be whoever they want to be. The seven deadly sins are virtues and we should all just express ourselves freely and evil is just what we as individuals disapprove of.

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege
(8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925)

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege can be considered as the father of semiotics and the philosophy of language and was particularly interested in what words and sentences signified. He suggested that there is a distinction between the reference of an expression and the sense of an expression.  The reference of an expression is the object which a word refers to and the sense is how way in which a word presents its meaning. “The morning star is identical with the evening star” is an identity statement as the both the morning and evening star refer to the planet Venus,  if a sign is squashed with two names with the same reference then the statement is true.

DVD cover of the operetta

Following on from the lecture the group watched a short operetta named “The Seven Deadly Sins” composed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in 1933. The operetta tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. Anna I is the main singing voice and Anna II, the dancer, is heard only infrequently and the two sisters are the same person but have a split personality. Brecht splits the personality of Anna into Anna I, who is the voice of reason, and Anna II who is emotional but acts impulsively.  This operetta really captured how Freud’s tripartite self can work on an individual with the ego and the id and how they are in constant conflict with each other. Below is a video of the prologue of the operetta which highlights the conflict between the id and the ego.. enjoy!!

Seminar based around Sigmund Freud

The second seminar of the semester focused around the theories of Sigmund Freud and whether they were still relevant today. The starting point for the discussion was focused around chapter 3 of Anthony Kenny's book, Philosophy of the Modern World. As a group we concluded that Freud was still influential and in our everyday lives we say "Freudian slips" for example a man says to his friend 'Would you like to eat bread and butter, or cake?' and the friend replies: 'Bed and butter please'.  After discussing "Freudian slips", Shira asked us our opinions on Freud's theory of the id, ego and superego and whether this theory can be applied today. I think that each human being contains an id, ego and superego as everyone has instincts to do something and our brain tells us whether we should do it and what the consequences are if we carry out that action.

Following this debate, Shira raised an excellent point by saying was Freud a god-like figure and had any other philosophers from history had any ideas that opposed Freud's theories. Freud believed that  the three structuress consisting of our id, ego and superego controlled and shaped us as human beings. Whereas Ancient philosophers such as Plato argued that society had a tripartite structure made up of the appetite, spirit, reason which represent appetite/spirit/reason arts of a human body. The appetite part of the structure represents the abdomen which are the workers and labourers. The chest represents the spirit and this is made up of warriors who are strong and brave. The final part of the structure is the reason which is represented by the head and this consists of rulers, Kings and Philosophers who are intelligent, rational and make decisions on behalf of the people. These people were considered to be special and have a God-like presence among society. Therefore, Plato's tripartite self was not solely based around the mind, but also the occupation of people in society, which is very different to Freud's interpretation of a tripartite self which was influenced by thought and expression.

Lecture on Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud
(6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939)

The second lecture of the semester was based around the theories of Sigmund Freud. He was an Austrian neurologist who developed a form of therapy where he accessed the mind of his patients. This therapy later became known as hypnotherapy and is still used as a popular treatment across the world today. Every human being has an unconscious mind which they are unable to control and are not aware of its existence. Freud believed that human beings hide things from themselves and hypnotherapy was a method in which the mind can be accessed to deal with the unconscious mind and this is a key feature in what is known as psychoanalysis.

Freud was an incredibly ambitious theorist who tried to find answers to almost everything in the world.  His ideas are still used today as it can be argued that we live in a Freudian world, from time to time we use “Freudian slips” or parapraxes, which are errors in speech, memory, or action which occurs due to an unconscious thought or memory. Freudian slips got their name from Freud’s 1901 book named The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, which analysed a collection of errors which he concluded were accidental errors of the mind. Freud’s ideas came at a time in history where society has strict moral values and directly challenged the ideas of philosophers such as Rene Descartes and John Locke during the enlightenment period.  Freud believed, like the majority of modernists that the world cannot be fully understood using science, but it can be analysed using the power of the mind.

In his essay written in 1920 named Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud suggested that the human mind could be divided into three parts called the id, ego, and super-ego which are all at conflict with each other.  The id is a group of instincts which aim to gain pleasure and to avoid pain and disregards all consequences for its actions.  For example a young child may ask her mother for a toy in a shop but her mother says no. The child will feel upset that she is unable to have the toy and may cry or have a tantrum in order to persuade her mother to buy her the toy thus avoiding pain. The ego is the voice of reason and is in a constant battle with the id and superego in order to make the right decisions about behaviour or thought. When the ego feels threatened by the id and superego, it may use defence mechanisms such as denial and repression. The superego develops through child development, parental rules and through social interaction.  It keeps your mind under control and sets targets throughout life, however these targets are often impossible or difficult to achieve. Freud believed that humans are divided within ourselves as we are not at peace with our minds and due to the conflict between the id, ego and superego our personality is confused and we are unable to release our true personality and identity. This battle between the three parts results in repression as humans are afraid to release their powers in case it has negative consequences.

I have found an excellent youtube video giving more detail about Freud's theory of the unconscious mind. Its very informative and well worth a watch.

Freud’s ideas can be viewed as being pessimistic as he portrays a fairly dark and dim picture of humanity and our lives are based around pain for three main reasons.  Our bodies physically decay over time causing injury and disease which eventually kills us. Events in our everyday lives cause us to feel pain as they can upset us or make us feel angry such as losing a loved one. Finally, and most importantly interaction with other people can cause humans a degree of pain. Freud believed that human beings were out to hurt each other both physically and emotionally and the way to cope with this pain is to gain access to the Id through hypnotherapy to make the ego stronger and more able to deal with pain.  

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the theories of Freud over the last decades which many theorists claiming that psychoanalysis was vague and there has been no definitive proof that it is successful. It has been argued that the unconscious mind was discovered long before Freud’s theories by the German philosopher, Sir Christopher Riegel during the 18^th century who coined the phrase. The 20^th century psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Wilheim Reich argued that human beings were good people but were oppressed by society; therefore they showed negative behaviour and violence. He also believed that sex was the way in which it was possible to measure a person’s happiness, what a man!!

Seminar based around Tabloid Nation

The opening seminar of semester 1 was focused around the book Tabloid Nation written by Winchester University's journalism lecturer Chris Horrie. I lead the seminar with my seminar paper which discussed the high and low points of the Daily Mirror newspaper and how events throughout the 20th century such as the two world wars and the General Election of 1945 determined the newspaper's future.  Following on from the seminar paper the group discussed how the book is related to the film, Citizen Kane which we watched after the previous lecture. We concluded that the film had similarities to that of Tabloid Nation, as the central character Citizen Kane (who was modelled on the real life American journalist William Randolph Hearst) ended up living his final years alone and died an unhappy man who had all the wealth in the world. In the book by Horrie, Harry Guy Bartholomew who took over the Daily Mirror was fired from the newspaper and ended up dying of alcohol related problems in a small country cottage in Norfolk. From this information, I personally concluded that the journalists do not always have a happy legacy and can be remembered for the wrong reasons.

With regards to Tabloid Nation, I felt that it was a very enjoyable read and parts one and two gave a through and detailed insight into the successes and failures of the industry during the 20th century. I will read the other books that Horrie has written about the journalism industry as if they are as good as Tabloid Nation then I am positive I will enjoy them just as much.

Seminar Paper based on Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie

The first and second parts of Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie focus on the development of tabloid newspapers in the 20th century and how the journalism industry was very volatile.  With the continuing success of newspapers such as the Daily Mail, other newspapers such as the Daily Mirror suffered setbacks which would make the road to success more troublesome. The following seminar paper based on Tabloid Nation will focus on one particular newspaper, the Daily Mirror and how events both within the newspaper itself and global events would determine its success as a popular national newspaper.

In 1896, Lord Northcliff began creating a newspaper publishing empire which included the national newspaper the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail featured a women’s section with articles based on fashion, decorating and cookery. These articles were so popular amongst women that it was decided that a daily newspaper should be published that was aimed at a female audience.  In 1903, a new newspaper was introduced named the Daily Mirror and this was targeted at a female audience.  Sales of the newspaper were low with only 25,000 copies being sold each day.  One reason for the low sales figures may have been that women were perceived to be too busy in their everyday lives to read newspapers. After the initial failure, it was decided that action should be taken to modify the newspaper in order to attract more potential readers. The newspaper began to print full page spreads with very little text and printed images of important figures such as King Edward VII in an attempt to increase sales figures by attracting both a male and female audience. By 1907, 290,000 copies of the Daily Mirror were sold each day but one photograph was about to change its success.  In 1910, following the death of King Edward VII, the newspaper printed a front page photograph of King Edward VII resting in peace and overnight sales of the newspaper soared to a world record of 2,013,000 copies. This increase in sales meant that the newspaper had increased its target audience, therefore as long as it continued to contain shocking images the public would still want to buy the newspaper each day to find out what the latest headline photographs were.

In 1910, Lord Northcliff sold his shares in the Daily Mirror to his brother, Harold in order to focus on the Daily Mail. Harold employed Harry Guy Bartholomew to take on the role of photography editor and the outbreak of war in 1914 gave Bartholomew the opportunity to secure the newspaper’s future. As events of World War One unfolded he seized the chance to publish exclusive images of trench warfare and as a direct result, sales of the newspaper increased to 1.700,000 making it the highest selling daily newspaper of the time.  The effect of the war was crucial to the newspaper’s popularity as people across Britain purchased the newspaper in order to receive the latest information about their loved ones. As the war progressed the Daily Mirror became known as the newspaper which represented the soldiers fighting in the war.  This offered a level of comfort to both the soldiers and their relatives on the Home Front as they felt that the newspaper was taking care of them by spending time gathering vital information. Newspaper companies today also use a similar method to those during World War One as they employ news correspondents to travel to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan to gather information for news reports about events such as suicide bombing and the violence of the Taliban.  However, this is slightly different to the reporting during World War One as censoring guidelines have been introduced in the modern day which prevents newspapers from printing shocking photographs which show death or horrific injuries.

As the Daily Mirror became the most popular newspaper in Britain, events within rival newspaper companies would put the Mirror under threat. The TUC publishing company purchased the Daily Herald and invested nearly £8,000,000 in order to outsell the Daily Mirror. In 1934, Bartholomew, who was now the editor in chief of the newspaper decided to take drastic action to save the paper and collaborated with Cecil Harmsworth King. The pair aimed to convert the paper from being a typically British daily newspaper to a modern New York style tabloid newspaper focusing on cartoon strips and letter pages for women. In 1938, an agony aunt was introduced into the newspaper to offer advice to women who were struggling with aspects of their lives. During the next few years the newspaper became one of the biggest selling newspapers in the world with 2,400,000 copies being sold each day. This was partly due to the fact that women were finally able to voice their opinions to a newspaper giving them a level of freedom; therefore it had mass appeal to working class women as well as men. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the newspaper used similar methods to those used during the First World War, printing articles written by journalists on the front lines which focused on conditions of the trenches and the progress made by the soldiers towards defeating Germany. The war played a major part in people’s daily lives, due to the fact that there was a great deal of worry about the safety of the soldiers and the fact that the Daily Mirror printed the largest number of front line reports of any national newspaper at the time meant that British people felt a certain degree of comfort and viewed the newspaper as a blessing.

After the war ended in 1945, the Daily Mirror continued to be a successful tabloid newspaper and was particularly influential during the General Election of 1945 where the Labour was voted into power by a record majority.  The newspaper printed large campaign articles and posters persuading the public to vote for the Labour Party as it would benefit the working classes of Britain. This was vitally important as the newspaper was aimed at the working classes which made up the high percentage of people in Britain. Therefore, it could gain access to the largest group of people meaning that with the correct style of articles, the Daily Mirror could help determine the politics of Britain gaining even more power. This run of success has continued from the General Election through to the present day where it still attracts millions of readers each day.

From reading Tabloid Nation, it is clear that the Daily Mirror suffered periods of mass popularity and also times where its survival and future as a newspaper was uncertain. One of the reasons why it suffered a period of decline was the fact that rival newspapers like the Daily Herald were gaining increasing power and money was invested in them to attempt to outsell the Daily Mirror, meaning sales figures of the Daily Mirror declined. Action was taken in order to improve the newspaper and these changes had a huge impact on its popularity. The newspaper overcame its periods of unrest and established itself as a popular national daily newspaper with a wide target audience. Over the course of the last 60 years it has emerged as one of the most popular daily newspapers and has continued to be successful to the present day.  In 2009, it was reported that the Daily Mirror sells 2,000,000 copies per day and due to its success it can be regarded in the journalism industry to be one of the most influential newspapers of the 20^th century.

Introductory lecture

Modernism introductory lecture

So as year two begins at university, so do the journalism lectures. The first lecture of Semester 1 focused around the subject of modernism in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Modernism was based around a concept that everything was in relation to everything else and there was no definite answer. For example, according to modernists time can only be described as relative as there is no certain answer to when time began or will end. This theory was controversial at the time as it opened up a whole new way of thinking which had never been explored before and rejects the ideas that were presented during the Enlightenment and Renaissance periods.  Around this time there were key figures such as Sigmund Freud who paved the way for a new understanding of the world from a psychoanalytical perspective. In addition, composers such as Wagner and Nietzsche created a new genre of operatic music which would revolutionise operatic styles forever.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who specialised in psychoanalysis and his 1899 book, The Interpretation of Dreams which highlighted how dreams are a strong medium for gaining access to our true thoughts and emotions. He believed that every human being alive had a subconscious where they were not in control of their individual thoughts and behaviour. Throughout our lives, we experience events such as dreaming in which we attempt to gain access to. These events are a sign of repression and as humans we attempt to block painful or traumatic memories and experiences. The next lecture in History and Context of Journalism focuses on Freud and his psychoanalytic theories so I will be able to write a blog based around his theories.

Wilheim Richard Wagner
22 May 1813  – 13 February 1883

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a 19^th century German composer who used erotic and sexual music in his operas in order to create emotion and expression. This is particularly highlighted in his opera Tristan und Isolde where the harmonies and tone of the music express sexual pleasures and fantasies followed by tragedy and death. The composition of his music was considered to be revolutionary during the century as music prior to this time was expressed happiness and love. Wagner’s operas had such a profound effect on audiences at this time that a theatre was constructed in Germany, named the Bayreuth Festspielhaus which stages his most famous operas for a period of time each year. The theatre is still open today and Wagner fans are prepared to wait years on a waiting list just to purchase tickets to see a performance.

Friedrich Nietzsche
October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900

Another figure of the 19^th century which influenced the modernist movement was Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was a composer who also studied theology and how mankind had evolved from being primitive creatures living in caves to civilised beings within a constantly changing society. He believed that mankind was destroying itself as it was keeping weaker people alive through the use of medicine contradicting Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that the fittest in society will survive while the weak die. As evolution had been halted by the introduction of medicine mankind had to find a new method by which society could advance. Nietzsche’s answer to this was for mankind to evolve through new technology and high education and breed a new generation of people that were superior (super people), while disabled and seriously ill people in society had to be killed. This process came to be known as ergonic breeding. Following on from his theories of ergonic breeding, Nietzsche became mentally unstable and spent his final years in silence staring at a blank wall.

Following on from the lecture, we watched a screening of the 1941 American film, Citizen Kane. The film follows the life of a character named Charles Foster Kane who is based upon the American newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst.  In the film, Kane is a young aspiring journalist who aspires to create his own newspaper empire and gain wealth and power. As the years pass he marries and divorces twice and his final divorce from his wife, Susan Alexander leads him to a life of misery where finally he dies a lonely old man in a mansion. I have posted a Youtube link to a video of a scene near the end of the film where Kane realises that all the fame and fortune he had of being a journalist and editor was for nothing as he is lonely and unhappy. He gets angry and destroys objects that remind him of the past as they are of no use to him now.  The film really gave me an insight into what life is like as a journalist and how power and wealth can have devastating consequences if you are not careful.

Link for the Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hfQ2IOc8s&feature=player_detailpage

Seminar based on Dreyfus and J'accuse

The final seminar of semester 2 and indeed year 1 of the History and Context of Journalism course was based around the Dreyfus affair and J'accuse written by Emile Zola. During the seminar there were two seminar papers which were read to the group both containing well contructed opinions of the affair.The papers sparked a very long discussion about racism and how people who have different religious beliefs can be targeted as the Dreyfus affair shows as he was blamed for the scandal because he was Jewish. The group decided that this kind of racism continued after the affair with Hitler and the Nazi party targeting Jews during the First World War. One of the main areas of debate during the seminar was to what extent did journalism play a part in uncovering the Dreyfus affair and the response by the French public to Zola's article. Journalism had a major role as reporters gathered stories from the courts, the army and the public and wrote articles which were published in a number of  French newspapers and also newspapers all across Europe. This level of press coverage had an affect on the public as during the affair they began to take sides with the left wing accusing Dreyfus and the right wing supporting him and this was not only happening in France but throughout Europe.

The Dreyfus Affair

The final lecture of semester 2 was based around The Dreyfus affair and J’ Accuse written by Emile Zola written in 1898. This affair can be seen as one of the most crucial events in history and had a huge impact on journalism. In order to fully understand the affair in its context we must look at the history of France during the 19^th century.

In 1871 the French army was defeated by the Prussian army during the Franco Prussian War and Paris was under siege. There was a severe shortage of food and the Parisians were forced to eat animals from the zoo and the rich merchants fled.  France was absolutely ruined as a country and the King, Napoleon III was forced to abdicate and a new provisional government was formed. The rich merchants returned to Paris and demanded rent with interest from the workers which they had no means to pay as they had just been freed from siege. In March of that year, the poor started a revolution whereby they took control of the state and the Paris Commune was set up to introduce new social reforms that would benefit the people such as improved working conditions. At the end of May, the French army stormed into the city and destroyed the commune executing nearly 30,000 people.

Alfred Dreyfus
9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935

The Dreyfus affair began in 1874 when secret documents were found in a rubbish bin at the German Embassy giving important information about the French army. The government immediately began looking for the culprit and Alfred Dreyfus was accused of supplying documents to the Germans. Dreyfus was a captain in the French army and was fully educated at a military school. He grew up in the town of Alsace which was German controlled and was raised by his parents as a Jew. During his trial in front of French army officers he was humiliated and his war medals were torn off his uniform and his sword was snapped in half.  He was judged to be guilty and was sent to Devil’s Island where he was imprisoned, had little exercise and awful food.  Following his exile a fellow French journalist, Emile Zola published an article named J’ Accuse in a newspaper claiming that Dreyfus was innocent and he named the corrupt officers who had actually been spying. The documents were found to be written by Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy who was a known spy. After much uproar he was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay huge fines.

When the French government changed, Dreyfus was brought back from Devil’s Island but he was a weak shadow of his former self. He was weak and could barely talk and his name was in ruins. It was ordered that he should face yet another trial and amazingly he was found to be guilty yet again with “extenuating circumstances”. This was one of the biggest trials in Europe and journalists came to France from all over Europe to report on events. Before the trail began his barrister was shot but police refused to help and he was robbed of all his possessions. He was eventually pardoned in 1899 but the events had caused a great divide throughout Europe between the left and right wing parties.

Seminar based on Rural Rides

The seminar this week was based around Rural Rides written by William Cobbett in 1830 which is essentially a collection of articles which were written throughout Cobbett's journeys across England. He wanted to witness the situation in the countryside for himself as the Industrial Revolution was having a massive impact on agriculture and trade and get opinions from the people whose lives it was affecting first hand. During the seminar three people presented a paper offering various interpretations and opinions of Rural Rides with one paper containing a set of questions which members of the group answered. I thought this was a good idea as it meant we had a clearer understanding of Cobbett and the context in which the book was produced. Overall, for me personally the seminar added further knowledge to my understanding of Rural Rides which will hopefully be important for the exam at the end of May.

William Cobbett lecture

During the 19^th century England was experiencing a period of great change which would lead to one of the biggest revolutions in history- the industrial revolution. Agriculture began to decline leading to mass famine and new cities such as Birmingham and Manchester were emerging as the industrial centres.  This change marked the transition from the 17^th and 18^th centuries when there was focus upon science and how this affected the world in which we live to the paradigm of change and how nature played an important part in society not just mechanics.  Philosophers began to interpret and understand the world through change such as Darwin’s theory of evolution in 1859.  He believed that all species evolved from natural selection and that only the best members of a species survive and reproduce to continue the process. Chemistry and geology were seen as important sciences as they were able to explain the development of the Earth through chemical change and not just science.  As the British Empire began to industrialise and develop it came into contact with the Eastern world and countries such as India. It became heavily influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism as these non Ibrahamic religions believed in a constant cycle of life and death whereby life was an endless process.

During the revolution nearly all traces of agriculture and farming were destroyed. The army known as the “Red Coats” destroyed the land all across Britain so that farmers were unable to produce crops or use the land for grazing. Scotland was particularly affected as it relied heavily on agriculture for wool production and hunting and when this industry was destroyed Scotland was left helpless and unable to export any goods. Many Scottish farmers were forced to migrate to the inner cities or to other countries such as Canada and the USA.  The few remaining farms that were not destroyed by the Army became large industrial farms under the Act of Enclosure passed in 1878.

William Cobbett
9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835

William Cobbett who was an English Journalist produced a series of articles relating to this change which were published in his 1830 book “Rural Rides”.  He travelled around many areas of Southern England documenting the conditions of these areas from the point of view of a farmer and a social reformer.  He believed that parliament should only enforce a law to help agriculture if members have witnessed conditions first hand. He witness tens of thousands of landless peasants who were struggling to survive and had no option but to migrate to the cities to find factory work.  In 1844 a law was introduced whereby people were forced to find work in cities otherwise they would be placed in a workhouse where they would eventually starve and die.

The Communist Manifesto Seminar

This seminar was based around the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 which presented and analysed the problems of a capatalist state. During this seminar three members of the group presented a seminar paper giving different interpretations of the manifesto. All three of the papers were highly informative and this led to a fairly intense group discussion where we were all able to share our opinions of Marx's ideas. The general feeling amongst the group was that even though Marx did not intend to create a plan for a new communist society it has been interpreted and adapted by dictators all over the world and used to suppress the masses in many countries such as Russia and China. This shows that a document which originally set out to solve the problems of capitalism within a country has been used in a much more brutal and controlling manner throughout the course of the 20th century until Communism's collapse in 1989.

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx
May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883

Karl Marx was one of the key philosophers of the 19th century and his ideas of creating a new state where everyone was regarded as equal has been adapted and used all across the world in many Eastern European countries such as Russia. He was born in 1818  in Germany to Jewish parents and he studied Law, Philosophy and Revolution but during his time at the University of Berlin he bacame increasingly fascinated by the works of Hegel. After he graduated he focused upon Revelation and radical journalism and his ideas were very controversial within society at the time so he was forced to flee from Germany and other countries before settling in London where he lived until his death in 1883.

In 1844, Marx met Fredrich Engles who published his works including the Communist Manifesto and in 1848 when revolution was spreading around Europe he pledged his full support. He wanted to change the world and move away from capitalism towards a new ideology where everybody is equal and working for the common good. The state would be destroyed and there would be no personal possessions, religion and countries would all unite for the sake of Communism. He believed we can explain everything in society by analysing economics and our society was economically determined. He took a very scientific approach into proving the world was economically dependant by studying tax records and commodity prices every day for several years. He thought that humans had the power to trigger a revolution as they were the most dominant species as they had the ability to produce tools in order to survive.

In order for a revolution to begin and trigger a change, the prolatariat who were the working class had to rise up against the borgoisie who were the elite class. Marx believed this would happen over time as the proletariat had nothing to lose as they had no property or wealth but everything to gain as if his theories worked the proletariat would have more wealth. Capitalism alienates people as we value some things over others and this causes a degree of inequality.

Marx thought humans have three needs within themselves, a natural self where humans need to eat, drink and sleep in order to live, an alienated self where the natural self is perverted for example sex is perverted as we live in a male dominated society and finally species self where everybody is part of one another and this self turned out to be one of the most important characteristics of Communism. He stated that humans are stuck in the alienated self as we do not get job satisfaction as we can see our collegues in higher positions and work in general causes an alienation of our self as it does not develop the mind or body.

Marx used Hegel's model of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis to explain how a new society would form. The Thesis was the dominance of the Bourgoisie, free market Capitalism, a liberal state and individual rights and this would be opposed to by the Proletariat and Socialism would be the result or Synthesis. This change would be inevitable no matter how hard states tried to stop it and a revolution by the proletariat was imminent.

Kant and Hegel Seminar

The seminar was based around the ideas of Emmanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and the seminar paper was read by myself and Asha and this gave the group a very good introduction to the discussion. We had a long discussion as a group about how influential Hegel's ideas were on other philosophers such as Karl Marx with his belief that history can be divided up into three stages, Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis and these stages allow human being to have self knowledge and understanding. A thesis is a proposition such as a fact or belief that a human believes and an antithesis allows the proposition to be contradicted or agreed up. The synthesis is the end product where either the thesis or antithesis is combined to create a belief. When humans have full knowledge of the world around them via this process known as a dialectic then they have full knowledge and Hegel thought that this is the point where history ends as there is no more to be discovered.

Romanticism lecture- guest speaker





Prometheus

The guest lecture was based around the concept of Romanticism and how many writers in the 19^th century were heavily influenced by the classical mythological God, Prometheus. Prometheus stole fire to give to people in society and was named the “bringer of fire”. For his actions he was punished by Jupiter and chained to a rock where a vulture attacked his liver for 30 years. It was this act of heroism that inspired many writers to celebrate his life and to an extent Prometheus brought together the ideas of Romanticism and shaped the way people viewed the movement. Writers such as Mary and Percy Shelley and also Ludwig Von Beethoven viewed Prometheus as the God of romanticism and there are many works of literature and art celebrating his actions. To them he symbolised freedom and resistance to tyranny and oppression as he tried to help society no matter what the consequences were and he can be seen as the spirit of “liberty, egality and fraternity”. This school of philosophy is called Promethenism and there are two main ideas: political and aesthetic Promethenism.         

Political Promethenism is best highlighted in the sonnet Ozymandias by Percy Shelley which was written in 1818. Ozymandias or Rameses II as he is also known was a 13^th century Egyptian ruler who was considered the “king of kings” due to his tyrannical approach to ruling Egypt. Shelley’s inspiration for writing the sonnet came from a visit to the British Museum in London where he saw a sculpture of Ozymandias. The sculpture was broken and stood alone in a cabinet and this is reflected in the poem. Instead of presenting Ozymandias as a hero and placing him on a pedestal which is a classical feature of a sonnet, Shelley undermines his strength and power as a king and highlights his downfall as due to his tyrannical actions he became a weak and broken person.

The Townley Vase, housed in the British Museum

Aesthetic Promethenism can be best seen in John Keat’s poem Ode to a Grecian Urn written in 1820. Keat’s inspiration came from a Townley Vase which he also saw in the British Museum like Shelley. The urn was a Roman vase which was found at a villa near Monte Cagnolo near Rome and can be seen as a paradox as the outside of the urn depicts figures and landscape which are typical subject matters of the Romantic movement whereas the inside of the vase shows images that can be associated with death and suffering.  The carvings on the vase demonstrate skill and Keats argues that this skill should be celebrated and this is reflected in the ode.  The urn is presented as having human qualities through the use of personification and it is suggested that the urn is a supreme object as it will outlive human mortality and its beauty will live on forever. The ode can also be viewed as a protest by Keats against the devaluation of art in the industrial society during the 19^th century when the industrial revolution was fully underway in England.

Seminar about Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft
27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797

The first seminar of semester 2 was based around chapter 4 of the essay entitled Vindications Of The Rights Of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft which was written in 1792. As a group we discussed how some of the ideas in her essay can be viewed by both society in the 18th century and modern day society. Women were percieved to be objects of beauty and their sole purpose in life was to marry and provide her husband with children to continue the family name. In comparison, women today are allowed to have very successful careers and are highly educated and this is accepted by society. I read the seminar paper to the rest of the group and was pleased with the feedback they gave me saying that I had managed to summarise the key points of chapter 4 very well and I hope to get a good mark for it! 

Seminar Paper (Semester 2)

Mary Wollstonecraft- Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Chapter 4)

In Vindications of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft argues that women are degraded in society and are to an extent powerless in decision making and are thought of as second class citizens. Men stand in the way of women and reason and due to the power of men in society; they have very little influence in daily living. Women are duty-bound to men in a variety of ways such as decision making, marriage and to provide their husband with children to continue the family name.

In the chapter, Wollstonecraft uses the example of birds to describe the socially accepted role of women. They are shut up in cages day after day with no option but to plume themselves to look as attractive as possible so that men will take an interest in them. Therefore, passions of men have placed women on thrones like queens and they are seen as idols that can be worshipped. Until mankind becomes more reasonable towards women, there is a possibility that women will always be considered the inferior sex unless attitudes within society change over time.

Wollstonecraft argues that idea of women being the property of men is one of the most important questions that we should ask ourselves about society. When a man lawfully marries a woman then he is obliged to take care of both the woman and her children financially. If the woman remains faithful to the father of her children then she should not be treated like a prostitute and used just to provide children. In addition, the man and woman should live together in order to bring up their children, and the man should remain faithful to his wife at all times as a man must never have more than one wife.

In one particular section of her essay, Wollstonecraft presents the idea that men are able to get a well-paid job as they have been highly educated unlike women who have no means of education. The only way a woman is able to rise above her social class is to marry a wealthy man who will provide for her. She challenges the views presented by the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau stating that being educated to the same level as men, women should not have power over men, only the power to be able to make their own decisions in life. This contradicts the viewpoint of Rousseau as he believes that if we educate men and women in the same way then men will lose some of their power and women may become the dominant sex in society.

Wollstonecraft concludes in chapter 4 that women should not be considered heroes for struggling and fighting to become equal to men. They should just be treated as normal human beings with rights and the freedom to do as they please without being under the strict control of men.  

Romanticism and Rousseau



Jean- Jacques Rousseau
(28 June 1712  – 2 July 1778)



The first lecture of semester two was based around romanticism and the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Romanticism began in the 19th century around Europe and it marked a shift away from objectivity to subjectivity. It was a reaction against the Enlightenment in the 16th century as it was seen as too scientific and the answers to life can be found within nature. Rousseau was a very influential figure throughout the movement and his ideas have been written about and interpreted by writers such Mary Wollstonecraft.

Rousseau was fascinated by nature especially mountains and he strongly believed that mankind could only find truth within nature itself and that everything before nature was lies and deceit. This idea was highly contraversal and Rousseau was forced to flee his town in Vienna and find refuge on an island off the coast of Vienna. He also argued that reason got in the way of human understanding and that the purpose of life is to experience nature and feelings and that civilisation had corrupted the purity of nature by evolution and development " man is born fre, but everywhere is in chains". Children are born as a free spirits but as they advance through life they are controlled by the rules of society and corrupted.  Primitive people who developed before civilisation are the the pure humans and that mankind today should behave in a more animalistic manner, however Rousseau realised that we couldn't move backwards and live like primatives as society was too developed in the 18th century. These ideas were written in a book and were sent to Voltaire, who was a prolific writer during the 18th century.  What Rousseau didn't expect was that his ideas about how the world could be changed were to be highly influential in politics to the present day especially during the French Revolution in 1879.

In his work The Social Contract,Rousseau outlined ways in which he believed society could change in order for humans to be allowed freedom. He argued that the government should not interfere with everyday life except when a person commits a crime and that laws should be passed which everybody agrees with. This means that freedom is not lost as everyone in society follows the same set of laws. On the other hand, this could be interpreted as an early form of dictatorship as anybody who disobeys the laws will forced to be free.

The ideas published in The Social Contract were put in to practise during the French Revolution. France was on the verge of bankruptcy and the King had become powerless so a meeting was called between the aristocracy, clergy and the common man in order to pass a law to raise taxes. The three classes in society were unable to agree on the amount of taxes so the people formed an independant assembly and announced their ideas (Declaration of the Rights of Man) which were largely based on Rousseau's theories. This sparked a revolution and at last it was time for the lower classes of society to rise above the elite and attack the old regime. Following the storming of the Bastille, things began to get out of hand as there was not a ruler in the country to take charge. People began to riot and kill each other (September massacres) and the government resorted to violence in what was later known as the Reign of Terror. There was severe paranoia as France feared anti -revolutionists mixing in society and people began suspecting their own friends and family and the end result was that tens of thousands of people were killed.

Mary Wollstonecraft can be seen as a key feminist during the Romantic period. She wrote a series of books in response to the ideas of Rousseau. She argued that poor women had no place in society and that education was the key to a woman's freedom as it made men and women equal and that they should just be human beings until they fall in love and only then can they be given an identity.