The times they are a-changing…

My interest in journalism started when I was 14, religiously buying the NME and following everything it said to the letter. From there I had decided that my dream job was to be a music journalist, fantasising about meeting different bands every week and getting paid to go to gigs. This led me to pay more attention to English at school and put more effort in to writing assignments, it soon became my favourite subject and the one that I would pursue at sixth form college.

Whilst my love of music remained, the bands on the cover of the NME started to change, I found myself disagreeing with the writers and eventually even feeling annoyed by the things they were saying. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is part of growing up, seeing the world around you change at a quicker pace than you can keep up with and so now my interests are quite different.

I have been volunteering for the British Red Cross for the last year and as a result I feel like I’ve learnt more in this year than I have in my entire life. Instead of writing about my favourite bands I instead want to cover international humanitarian law, human rights and global conflicts. I think that journalism is one of the most important tools in putting an end to  human rights violations, giving people a voice that speaks to the entire world and inspiring others to do the same this is why I’d like to be part of raising awareness of global issues.

deebarber’s photostream

deebarber’s photostream on Flickr.

Spin Vs Record Collector

Www.spin.com and www.recordcollectormag.com are websites within the genre of music journalism. They are each online, virtual formats of printed and published magazines.

The internet evolved from ARPAnet, created in 1969 (Hauben, 2006), and from there went on to change mass communication around the world. ARPAnet was created in order for information to be shared across different geographic locations through a Network Control Protocol (Bellis, 1997).

The most basic need for the internet is being able to share information across different locations effectively, in order for the information to be interpreted accurately and therefore understood.

Www.spin.com represents Spin magazine, a magazine targeted at a wide age demographic of perhaps 20 to 40. The website consist of information about artists of wide, varying musical genres that often differ greatly and includes a mashup of content from articles to videos to mp3s, offering a huge quantity of news and data. Www.recordcollectormag.com on the other hand seems to be targeted at an older demographic of perhaps 30 to 45. Again there is a mashup of data across different media however the focus on music genre is much more localised, with all the artists featured on the home page being from classic rock bands.

Consumer research has shown that users are five time more likely to purchase goods from a website if found through a search engine, rather than a banner, making SEO important to website success (Thurrow, 2003). Thurrow establishes three components that benefit SEO; these are text components, link components and popularity components. This includes effective selection of key words, having quality links to the site, persuading users to click on these links and then spend an optimum amount of time on the site.

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Timeline: The Red Cross movement and establishing the rules of war

• 1859: The Battle of Solferino sees around 300,000 French, Italian and Austrian men fight under the command of their respective monarchs, killing and wounding around 40,000 men in a brutal and bloody battle.
• 1862: Swiss business man and social activist Henry Dunant writes A Memory of Solferino after witnessing the brutality of the battle on a business trip. In this he describes the horrors of the particularly harsh battle and his desire to do something about it.                                                                                                

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Students battle the Lib Dems, but have they chosen the right target?

This year’s general election saw a shift in demographic interest in voting and politics. With social networking sites and the huge importance of the internet being at the centre of so many young people’s lives, much political debate occurred amongst the young people of the UK.

Earlier this year Facebook pages were bombarded with polls, groups and events encouraging young people to get politically active. Users could see who their friends were talking about, have key issues that mattered to them come up on their home page first hand and vote on polls before the election. One of the key issues that stirred a lot of interest amongst the young people was, of course, tuition fees.

Nick Clegg won his way in to potential student’s hearts as he promised to abolish tuition fees. This part of the Lib Dem manifesto worked brilliantly and masses of students couldn’t wait to offer their support.

An estimated 45% of 18-25 year olds actually voted in the 2010 general election (Harold Clarke et al, British Election Study, 2010) which does not seem representative of the sea of political support that flooded web pages across the UK.

Now it stands that students across the country are filled with venom and hate for the deceitful, backstabbing Liberal Democrats who went back on their PROMISE. Around 50,000 students protested in London alone with further protests planned. Other protests are occurring within pretty much every town and city that has a building of education.

Facebook pages are again swamped with political discussion, the vast majority of which is targeted against the ‘cowardly’ Nick Clegg and the false-hearted Liberal Democrats but are they really to blame?

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Is the internet killing music?

After researching music journalism for an essay in to web communication and website usability I stumbled upon Chris Weingarten‘s rant about search engine optimastion and the impact the internet has had over music.

The video is available here:

After watching the video I found myself agreeing with a fair amount of the points Weingarten brought up. He talks about websites like www.hypem.com that uses content generated by personal music blogs and works out the most popular and recent music being talked about on the internet, presenting it to users in a convenient format. He compares this system to math and argues that rock writers are doomed due to the formulaic way we consume music today.

This system of reporting on music allows for easy consumption and spreads the word of upcoming bands quickly and conveniently but is this a good thing?

Weingarten describes this as catering to the lowest common denominator, whereby music tastes become increasingly homogeneous through targeting demographics and offering users music that they ‘should’ be into.  Users are being offered what is described as ‘alternative’ music when in fact such music may merely be what is most popular.

He criticises Twitter, describing it as a “virus” for its promotion of ‘firsties‘. The more immediate and urgent a post or comment is the more important it is seen to be and therefore, the more it is circulated. The quality of writing or perhaps the actual content of the news itself are are no longer the attributes that give a post credibility.

The comment I really related to was about engaging with music through the unknown, stumbling upon a new band just by chance after reading magazines or watching TV shows. Being ‘into’ music was more about taking an active role and seeking it out than just sitting at your computer and being fed demographically tailored generic sounds. So many times Facebook has tried to tell me that I’d be in to this new indie band because of my consumer behaviour with other music and I’ll admit I have found myself thinking “well if they’re like them then I must like them”. Finding new music is incredibly easy but finding quality recommendations is becoming increasingly difficult.

I have read many comments of the video and they are extremely mixed, many believe that advances in technology only allow for more diversity in music and that having such large quantities of music so easily accessible can only be a good thing if more bands get listened to.

Weingarten argues however, that with bands having to work harder to promote themselves virtually and with more emphasis being placed on immediacy and number of hits, the quality of music is being compromised.

The talk isn’t really long enough to delve deeper in to all the issues surrounding this, but the points he raises have provoked a lot of responses.

It seems that only in the past few years there has been a change in the way we discover new music, just by comparing the types of artists magazines like the NME cover today and those of five years ago there is clearly more of a focus on popularity.

What do you think? How do you find out about new music and has this changed over the past few years? Do you think the change is a good thing?

100 Bands I’ve Seen Live

I’ve decided to compile a list of all the bands I’ve seen live, mostly because it’s just nice to actually remember them! Many were seen at festivals (including Benicassim, Reading,Isle of Wight, Wakestock, Glastonbury, Bestival) but I go to a gig at least every couple of months.

1. The White stripes
2. The Libertines
3. The Strokes
4. Mystery Jets
5. Stereophonics
6. Razorlight
7. Tom Vek
8. Larrikin Love
9. CSS
10. David Bowie
11. The Who
12. Blondie
13. Streetlight Manifesto
14. Kings of Leon
15. MGMT
16. Kimya Dawson
17. Faithless
18. Babyshambles
19. Dirty Pretty Things
20. Supergrass

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Camping made easy: Nature vs Technology

Over the past few years I have spent a good solid few months camping and this is why I’m going to pass on my valuable wisdom!

First things first; sorting out a tent. I’ve been through my fair share of rips and leaks and have even woken up with it covered in ice so I say it all depends on your needs.

If your going for a leisurely holiday in which the main purpose of your tent is to keep you warm and your stuff dry then I say go for something as small as you can bare and when it comes to brand names, find whatever is cheapest! Have a browse at your local recycling centre or car boot sale, here’s some beauties I’ve managed to pick up for under a tenner!

Image available from: www.outdoorenthusiasts.co.uk

Image available from: www.outbacktrading.co.uk

Some of these are very valuable tents so it’s well worth having a browse before diving in and buying something brand new, once these had suffered damage from my extreme camping I managed to sell them on for more than I paid for them so it’s saving you money too!

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Jarvis Cocker drags history in to the 21st century

I must admit I have a bit of a guilty pleasure. Not only do I  enjoy but love a look around a 400 year old country manor house or a clamber round an Iron age Hill fort and, I’ll be honest, I take pride in my hobby. So when this treasured past-time teamed up with music and not only music but the genius that is Jarvis Cocker I have to say I was pretty excited!

Image available here: clashmusic.com

Jarvis Cocker has created an album using natural sounds collected from a variety of National Trust properties, being a member of the National Trust I found the idea of being able to take a journey through  a collection of properties from the comfort of my bedroom quite convenient.

The National Trust is all about engaging with visitors and letting them experience what life might have been like in these historical monuments without the red rope holding you back. This is what Jarvis aims to do by “letting the tracks form a narrative”.

The album can be heard for free here. It may not be great for sitting and listening to on the train but creates a tranquil, relaxed atmosphere when played in the background and offers something a bit different.

Picture story: Climbing a mountain

This is me (incapable of looking like a normal person) and my lovely boyfriend Simon, standing in the amazing Brecon Beacons national park, preparing to climb Pen Y Fan (the highest peak in South Wales!)

As you can see the view is incredible even from down here, at the foot of the mountain, imagine what it’s like from the top!

For once we set off fully prepared with torch, map, water, jumpers and most importantly of all…food!

The mountain is 886 metres above sea level and sits alongside Corn Du (which we just had to explore too) joined by a long ridge which can kind of be seen here:

There is a lake hidden within the hills, this would be ideal for a bit of wild swimming however I think we’ll save that for the summer as it was FREEZING!

The route we decided to take was planned by the National Trust:) yes I do love me a bit of National Trust…

And here’s the view from around half way up, the path gets slightly narrower and the sheep get slightly more wonky…and it’s here where I realised my fear of heights!

When you reach the middle not only are you met by the stunning view but also an obelisk, placed in remembrance of a five year old boy who went missing in the mountains around a hundred years ago, quite a sad story that adds another dimension of interest by giving a sense of history to this already unique spot.

Simon nearly jumps off the side with joy at the prospect of stopping to eat…

As we approached the top a thick black cloud loomed over and started engulfing the peek of the mountain, moment by moment it seemed to disappear.

So we ran back down trying to avoid the cloud of doom and attempted to make a fire…this didn’t really work very well so we cheered ourselves up with some well deserved cake!