Phone Hacking.

We all know only to well the pain we go through when someone we love dies. It is a pain so strong we often don't think that we can carry on.

Fewer of us know the pain of a child going missing. Many parents have had the fright of their lives when their child has wondered off in a shop and they can not find them for a few minutes. The panic that builds up inside them in that short time must be immense. But in some cases when a person goes missing or is kidnapped the family are left in limbo, not knowing what has happened to their loved one, terrified that the next knock at the door will be a police officer bringing them the worst news imaginable.

And what about the hundreds of people who left their homes on July 7th 2005 and started their commute into London. That morning 52 commuters didn't get to their offices and families were left heart broken.

Being a journalist at times like these can be tricky. You want and need a story so you can inform the nation what is happening and allow everyone to become familiar with a missing persons face in the hope that someone will see them and provide the police with some new information.

Quite often a journalist will have to try to talk to a member of the family. I can imagine that this would be very hard. Journalists are offered guidance for this situation in Clause 5 of the PCC editors code which states:

"In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings, such as inquests."

I woke up to the news this morning that the families of the people who lost their lives in the horrific 7/7 bombings may have had their phones hacked. We have also heard that the parents of Holly Wells, Jessica Chapman and Milly Dowler have had their privacy invaded at the hardest time in their lives.

As a journalist I understand the importance of following the stories of missing people and terrorist attacks but to obtain information and fill the families minds and hearts with false hope as in the case of Milly Dowler is sick.

A statement made by Rupert Murdoch can be found on the News of the World website. In it he states:

"Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable. "

I fear the the phone handle scandal is only just starting and, like the expenses scandal, there are many more cases to be revealed. I am often proud and excited to be training to be a journalist but, to be associated with the handful of people who feel it is acceptable to intrude on a persons privacy in such a disgraceful way has left me feeling a little different. It is a shame that the actions of a handful of people in the industry have left the nation feeling this way about all journalists.

Time flies...

Then...

This is my last Friday as a teenager. Monday is my last day as a second year journalism student. I realise this post will make me sound really old but I remember being in Reception class - my dad (pictured above with me as a baby) stood at the back as I settled in to my first day. Here I am about to sit my NCTJ Essential Law and Court Reporting papers.

People have asked me so many times why I want to be a journalist. I always say that I have just always wanted to do it. Seeing my name in Print at the age of thirteen as a Young Reviewer for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle (the paper in the photograph above) made me determined to reach my dream.

On Monday I will be sitting my NCTJ Essential Law and Court Reporting exam papers so will be spending my birthday learning about contempt, defamation and the ethical considerations of the Journalist!For my third year at UCLan, I have picked to do the Magazine Route and I am very excited to say that I have two 2 week work placements arranged for either side of Christmas. My first two weeks will be at North East Lifestyle Magazine and the second two weeks I will be working at Accent Magazine.

I better get back to the revision and hope that the world doesn't end tomorrow as some are speculating so that all my revision doesn't go to waste!

...and now!

Is social media making us less social?

According to Facebook, there are currently more than '500 million active users' of the social network, 'the average user has 130 friends' and 'people that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

I am not about to preach that Facebook is the worst thing ever created or that we should all abandon it - that would make me a hypocrite. I am on Facebook and use it on my phone. As I am writing this post I have Facebook open in another tab. I have 313 'friends' on Facebook and spend my time looking at their photos and reading their status updates but rarely talk to them. When I bump into them while out shopping I find there is little to talk about as I have not seen them for years but just read that their boyfriend just did something amazing or they just split up with their girlfriend they have been with for years.

Don't get me wrong - in terms of Journalism, Facebook is a brilliant tool. It allows you to find groups of people who all feel the same way about something. It is a social networking tool, it allows us to connect with people all over the world but it seems that we are becoming less social. Facebook is an addiction. The only time I do not check Facebook is when I am at work, in university or asleep. I check it before my shift at work starts and as soon as I finish. I check it before a lecture and as soon as it finishes. I check it before turning my phone off at night and as soon as I turn it on in the morning.

The amount of times I check Facebook outweighs the number of conversations I have most days. When I do have conversations it is often about something a friend of mine has seen on Facebook and often I have already seen it.

When looking through various websites last night, I came across a very interesting video about Facebook and it really made me think about social networking in a new light. You can find the video here. I must warn you that it does have some strong language.

Every point the guy in the video makes is true. If someone asked me now how many friends I have I wouldn't count all the people I have on Facebook. I would count the important people in my life not the people from school who I haven't seen or talked to since I left there in 2007.

We cannot blame Facebook for becoming a less social world. Sites like myspace and Bebo were around before it and there will probably be more social networking sites in the future. I confess that I am a Facebook addict and I pledge that from now on I will try to be more social in the real world than online.

If you would like to contact me about anything in the post feel free to email me at FDent1@uclan.ac.uk.

The Future of Journalism...

Last year we were asked what we thought the future of journalism would be and I struggled to think about which way the industry was going but now, after all of the lectures so far this year I can see where journalism is going.

It is a fact that newspapers are dying. Sales have been decreasing over the last few years but the invention of new technology such as the iPad have meant that there are new ways for people to get their news.

Rupert Murdoch has announced plans to create a newspaper only accessible to iPad users. This announcement comes after claims that The Times is losing sales quicker than rival papers. Richard Branson is also planning on using new technology to make money.

Branson has set up a monthly magazine called Project. The magazine is currently only available on the iPad and will cost £1.79 in the UK and $2.99 in the US. It will be just like the magazines we are used to now but with one striking difference... it will update throughout the month!

A lecture asked us last week what we thought of consumers recieving a iPad from the news companies so that we can read what they are publishing. While I do not feel giving iPad is a good idea, maybe he had a point.

If we all had an iPad/kindle-like platform on which to view our news - newspaper companies would cut down on the costs of producing and transporting the paper in the long run. Obviously not every reader can afford an iPad or kindle but if newspapers developed their own version they could join together in a deal that could be more effective in the long run.

These are exciting times in the Journalism industry. Personally I do not worry about the dying art of newspapers, in fact I find it fascinating that I will be part of a huge media revolution. And as Nelson from The Simpons says - my medium is dying.