Christmas Carol Concert by Harrow Philharmonic Choir

Harrow Philharmonic Christmas Carol Concert 27/11/08,

by Yixiang Zeng

A LOCAL CHOIR is set to sing for commemorating an English composer Vaughan Williams' 50th anniversary of his death.

The Harrow Philharmonic Choir will be staged for its annual Christmas Carol Concert on December 17 at 7:30pm at St George's Church, Pinner View. The show will be last for 90 minutes.

The programmes includes William's the Fantasia on Christmas Carols,which belongs to classical music genre , and other two new pieces composed by one of its members, for cheering up audiences who are keen on hearing new music.

In addition, the performers will also include a brass group, a children's choir from Aldennham School and hanbell ringers from St. Mary's Church, Harrow. "Our concert is welcoming audience of all for celebrating the upcoming new year." said John Ling, chairman of the choir.

The Choir is expecting to gather a collection of donation for local charities, however, the choir has not announced this year's lucky charity yet.

The Harrow Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1959 and looking forward to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. The choir has been giving its majority of performances in Harrow, and contributes hugely for promoting cultural events for local community.

Ticket are £6 while children aged 16 or under get in free. Tickets can be bought in advance by calling 020 8904 4644, or can be bought on the door.

For more information please go online www.harrowphil.co.uk 27/11/08

Oriental Christmas

A feature writing for Harrow Observer

Oriental Christmas

by Yixiang Zeng

CHRISTMAS is one of the most popular holidays in western countries. It is a time for family members to get together and enjoy the kingship as much as they can.

This year’s Christmas is just around the corner now, Londoner are enthusiastically preparing for everything, searching gifts, setting up Christmas lights, and decorating Christmas trees. The city has already immersed herself in a festive atmosphere. 

Interestingly, not only is the Christmas nowadays celebrated in the West, but also fashionably sweeps the oriental countries, such as South Korea. 

Lee Jane Nae Ryung, a South Korean girl currently studying at Harrow Campus, University of Westminster, has talked about how she was celebrating Christmas back home. 

“Christmas is just such a wonderful time for me, it is a national holiday in my country and many Koreans are Christians, so Christmas is very important for us.” Jane said with a great excitement. 

“My whole family, including my brother, sister and my parents are spending the whole day together, and Korean people are very family-oriented.”  

“We went to the local church – Onnuri around 8am, and follow the pastor to pray – firstly pray for the world, then the nation, finally our family, afterwards if we want to be totally relaxed, the best choice is go for Sauna.” 

Jane explains that during the Christmas Eve, she also goes to the same church meeting her friends and other local youngsters, they are enjoying playing games such as “Secret Friends” to exchange gifts and best wishes, singing songs together with church band, and chatting, joking around with friends until late evening.  

She and her peers were doing volunteer works during whole Christmas period, such as taking care of orphans, helping around in the village hospitals, or donating to the poor. 

Jane is quite enjoying her student life in London, but she is still eagerly looking forward to going back home: “You know, I will be extremely happy to share my experiences here with my family, especially during Christmas.” 

South Korean’s family-oriented drive is strongly reflected during the holiday period, whereas Chinese residing in north-west of London is celebrating it in a variety of ways. 

A healthcare service San Sheng Tang Herbs & Acupuncture in Pinner, run by a Chinese therapist Tony Guan, introduced that during the Christmas period his shop will be serving the free therapy consultation for disabled people and senior citizens every Wednesday afternoon.

For him Christmas is not only a period for relaxation, but also a time to do some charity work, to promote traditional Chinese treatment. “As a Chinese therapist, I do feel I have the obligation to develop my own culture.” 

Mr. Guan and his wife have living in London for a couple of years now, his family love travelling, such as a Christmas visit to Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent last year. “The trip was wonderful, we especially enjoyed the city’s peaceful surroundings and the beauty of tranquillity.
 
“My wife and I also gradually believe in God in recent years, during Christmas we attend local church service, and pray for our families, friends, also the prosperity of our business.” 

Mr. Guan still keeps himself being a traditional Chinese food addict, “On the Christmas Eve, we usually have dinner with our friends in China Town, we chat in Mandarin and eat tasty food, the warm atmosphere makes me really feel like home.” 

While the Chinese like Mr. Guan an his family enjoying Christmas in London, the youngsters within China have discovered other charisma of this increasingly popular day.  

“We do not have official Christmas holiday, but it is definitely an excellent excuse for friends to meet up, shopping together for the good sales.” Mingzhu Chen said, a fashionable Shanghaies.  

“Or many couples just use it as another Valentine’s Day, restaurants usually promote special food items on 25th.” 

Is Christmas hurricane a good sign for the Asian to embrace multiculturalism and speed up its globalisation process? Prof. Michel Hockx from School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, gives his opinion on Asian Christmas trend phenomenon. “Asian country, especially China, embracing Christmas mainly because of the commercial reason, people are motivated by its stocking gifts, company goods promotion, it is hugely influenced by American commercial value, though to some extend, it does reflect some cultural integrating element."

Feature proposal

Yixiang Zeng (Intern)

Working title: Chinese's Christmas Exploration

Story idea: A close-up of how Chinese celebrate Christmas – through comparison between young British Born Chinese and modern Chinese youngsters.

Story Clue:

Christmas is the traditional and the most important holiday in the West, just the same as important as the Spring Festival in China.

Christmas is the time for family members get together in many Western countries, including Britain. Tam Emily, a British Born Chinese, originally coming from Hang-Kong naturally adopts this family concept, so how she prepares and what she does to celebrate Christmas?

On the other hand, Christmas hurricane arrives China and gradually sweeps those modern cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, but why those youngsters want to celebrate Christmas? And how they are going to celebrate it? Staying with family, friends, go for a trip, or attended church for religious reasons?

Mingzhu Chen, a posh Shanghaies talks about her Christmas experience and the reasons behind.

Apart from the above characteristics, the localised Chinese Christmas is strongly permeated a very special charisma, a boy from Beijing and currently studying in London shared his beautiful Christmas memory.

Though the localised Chinese Christmas is so popular among youngsters, Taiwai, an island will never forget its traditional mission.

China today is much more open-minded and tolerant compared with years ago, is Chinese's Christmas exploration a good sign for multiculturalism development within China? Can it play a role to inspire or stimulate young Chinese to make up their own mind? Prof. Xxxx from the School of Oriental and African Studies discusses the China's Christmas Exploration phenomenon.

Smoke Radio 5 p.m. news

Cue Yixiang

Good afternoon, I'm Yixiang, I'm zhou suo, reporting on 5 o'clock news.

Welfare plan

Plans to force lone parents, disabled people and the long-term jobless to seek work should be delayed, A senior government advisor has suggested.

Sir Richard Tilt said the reform in Wales, England and Scotland could "push people into poverty" as unemployment rises.

The plans will force parents to look for job or losing their benefits once their youngest child is 12 .

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said plans should offer support and not penalty.

Award

A Pinner secondary school has received a prestigious award for providing a culturally rich curriculum for its pupils.

Heathfield School in Pinner promote the internationalism teaching, which were handed the British Council's International School Award.

A detailed portfolio, containing photographs and evaluations from students and staff, was prepared as evidence to show how the pupils are taught about other cultures and nations.

The school official Michelle said this is the recognition of the hard work that goes on throughout the school for preparing students for global citizens.

Smoke Radio 3p.m. news

Cue Yixiang

Good afternoon, This is Yixiang reporting for 3 o'clock Westminster news.

Web campiagn crashed on baby P's death

An internet hate campaign is under investigation by police, which has breached an order preventing the identification of those convicted in the Baby P case.

Posts on social networking sites displayed the three's name who were found guilty causing baby's P death. the 27-year-old woman, her boyfriend, and her lodger.

The court has ordered to prevent the publication of the identities of the guilties, as well as the baby P. The police said they were in touch with internet providers to ensure everybody knows of contempt issues.

12% increase in home repossessions

The figures shows 12% increase in home repossession compared to the second quarter, which is more than 11,000 home were repossessed during the third quarter during the year.

The Councial of Mortgage Lender is still expecting 45,000 repossessions this year.
Howeveer, the CML also said that by the end of the year the number of household in mortgage arrears was likely to exceed forecasts as its figures showed 168,000 in arrears.

The house minister points out that the government will focus on helping household get as much access as possible.

BBC rejects local video scheme

a £68m network of local news websites with video content was rejected by BBC Trust, our reporter has learnt.

The Trust explained that the plan did not meet its criteria for offering value to public.

Newspaper publisher has argued that it will damage their local online operations, and express that the BBC should focus on its improving exisiting regional services.

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom finds that the rejected plan will cause 4% decrease of annual avenue of existing regional sites.

CNN International (London) interview

November 18 I attended the interview with CNN International (London) feature producer Steph Busari, it was amazing and exciting.

It's my first time to go to Turner Hourse, and we talked about CNN International features online, what my opinions are about? How it compared with BBC feature online.

She also asked me to introduce a bit of myself, I talked about my BA in Malta, cultural exchange in India, being learning piano for nearly 14 years, probably I have so much to say, and I even forget to tell her I was invited to attend "image of Europe" meeting in Brussels with the EU summer school I attended, anyway!!...

And one of her questions was "shocked" me, "Are you from Royal Academy of Music?" Royal academy? I'm a master degree student in Broadcast Journalism and special projects integrating multimedia, I was a bit confused from the beginning.

"Oh, I created a multimedia website on the subject of Classical Music, and I invited pianists from three Royal Schools of Music based in England, the Royal Academy is one of them." I said, "Oh, yeah, I see your website and it's quite engaging." Stephanie smiled.

She found also interested in web design and making video/audio stuffs, so asked me do you want to work on writing or production during the internship period?

My point of view is of course the technological side is amazing, it definitely gives a surplus for story telling and make the story more attractive, but the traditional print side, I mean to get the reportage, to write it as an article and to possess excellent news judgement is still essential.

"Sure, you will be helping around the production side, and we'll see if you feel to comfortable to contribute to writing."

Afterwards, she showed me around the newsroom within CNN International, I am amazed by its busy news gathering environment, what a exciting place!

First day at Harrow Observer

My frist day working at Harrow Observer (work placement) is quite exciting, helped with reporter Elaine Okyere to rewrite a press release as a short report within 200 words.

It's quite an interesting experience, indeed I'm not quite sure about the writing styles of Horrow Observer. Then Elaine explained to me how the first paragraph should look like and how it article should end with.

For me, of course getting real stuff to rewrite and to produce as the print article. it's just my dream job!

Frankly speaking, in order to working for Online journalism, there is no way I can do it professionally without print journalism background.

Having checked out with BBC new online/feature online, CNN International feature online, most of their stuffs have been working with local newpapers for couple of years.

So where I should start, It's quite obviously.

.

Should Leila be executed?

Leila, an Irani girl, who was sentencd to death at age of 18, because the judges found her guilty of prostitution, fortunately a laywer had finally saved her.

Should Leila be executed? Is she guilty?

In Iran, girls are considered as the first commodity can be sold or rent from parents' eyes, normally the families sold their daughters are poor.

leila was sold for sex at age of nine, and later on she continuously to be sold for dozens of men for supporting her family.

Leila's father and three brothers are all drug addtics, they are not working, the only income comes froms Leila's prostitution.

In Iran, father has the absolute power that he can do anything, even he decides to kill his child - the severest sentence he will gain is to sentence for couple of years.

Unfair judgement

The judges in Iran who handing this kind of cases were not educated, they saw women doing sex business were devils.

However, they would never ask why Leila started sex prostitution? Who are the people force leila to sell her body? And why women should be the person to be blamed?

This year, there are 7 women to be hangovered, and Leila would become the eighth one (if she was not saved by the Lawyer).

Leila's progress along with the whole legal system

Today Leila is 22 however, she is illerate, and she just started to learn things from scratch, and the progress is slow but she is happy that she is learning.

The Iran legal system had finally became much more sympathic towards women, and less women to be executed.

Let us pray for Leila, pray for those who had same experiences as Leila, and they are the people should be protected by the rule of law.

Why so many people died in Democratic Republic of Congo?

Why still so many people died in Democratic Republic of Congo even after six years of its civil war?

People died, not because of gun, because of disease and hunger

Followed the location recording, I saw the women got her miscarriage and watched her surrounded by blood, and heard her weak voice, it was a terrific documentary opening, I had to admit that.

The Democratic Republic of Congo ended its civil war in 2002, however, up to date six years later, lots of civilians were still living in a horrible condition and still were many people dying.

Like the women described at the beginning, she would died if there was no anti-biotic medicine which carried by the doctor followed by a BBC journalist.

People were dying not because of guns, because of diseases and hunger, there was no food. A family were described in the documentary, have already lost six children in the last couple of years.

Local people were difficult to access health care facilities, Malaria and other diseases frequently cause death.

That is reason why still so many people died even six years later after end of its civil war.

Should bring troops home from Afganistan?

After British troops being involved in Afganistan for several years, many people were arguing should the government bring troops home or order more troops to Afganistan?

What were people think?

During the debate on Radio 4, one of the Afgan said that at the beginning, when UK troops removing the Taliban goverment.

The locals were very positive, they were even over-expecting that Kabual would change in 24 hours, and Kabual would be quickly become London, Paris, and New York.

However, the west lost their chance during the first two years, and till now many issues were still remain unresolved, such as nation-building, education, heathcare.

A Afgan lady, who were used to be trained as a journalist, told BBC journalist that after the Taiban government were removed, she heard the music on the street, and it was banned for nearly 6 years after Taliban came to power.

More people thought Afganistan definitely need British troops to stablise the country, to assist nation-building, to train the locals fight with the Taliban power.

Smoke Radio 4p.m. news

Welcome to Smoke Radio 4p.m. news, I am Yixiang, Here is today's headline.

The Eurozone offcially slumps into recession; BT job cuts up to 10,000; Should UK troops withdraw from Afganitan, should other areas of Europe order more troops in order to reduce Burden from Britain. Changes comes to the universities, Two boys died at their home in Mancherster.

Eurozone slumps into recession

15 Euro-zone countries officially announced to slump into recession period, it comes after EU figures showing that the economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter.

The data shows Germany and Italy, two of the biggest economy within Euro-zone are already in recession.

BBC Berlin correspondent Steve Rosenberg said that major German economy depends on its export, and in the current economic downturn, even Germany is able to produce the best cars in the world, there is rare people can affor that.

Since 1999 Euro creation, this is the first recession Euro-zone met.

BT job cuts up to 10,000

The largest British phone company British Telecom has announced to cut 10,000 jobs this year from now to next year March.

The major job cuts will hit workers indirectly enployed by BT, such as contractors, offshore workers, who are outside of the agencies and which represents 6 percent reduction in BT's global work force.

Should UK troops withdraw from Afganitan?

Up to 2000 troops are likely to send to Afganistan next year.

The minister are considering to send more troops to Afganistan in order to meet the requirement of the US president-elect Brack Obama.

The turmoil emerged last Tuesday after two Royal Marines were killed in southern Afganistan Helmand. The Afghan leaders told Gordon Brown that there should be more troops to stablise the region.

Up to date the UK government has already ordered 8,100 troops in Helmand province and the British officials have publically claimed that there should be extra troops sent from other regions from Europe, in order to share the burden.

Changes comes to the universities

Major changes are expecting to happen in universities, through reforming the traditional academic calender year to transforming the current degree grading system.

The study shows the current traditional academic calender are unhelpful to part-time students who work while studying.

"Certainly traditional university systems, timetables and calendars are constructed with little reference to the world of employment," Professor Christine King said, vice-chancellor of Staffordshire University.

A paper suggest the newly system to allow students receive "credits" for every module they have completed, which will give them opportunities for later use, if they quit and return to campus later on.

Two boys died at their home in Mancherster

Two baby boies were stabbed dead at their home in Mancherster, one is aged 2 and his brother only 3-months-year old.

Their mother the 21-year-old was detained after discovering the boys' death, under the Mental Health Act.

The case was investigated by social service in Mancherster after leaving one of the baby at a surgery.

The services also revealed they became involved with the family after the three-month-old was briefly left at a GP surgery earlier this year.

They were also questionning why their mother was no longer assigned a social worker is now under way at Manchester City Council.

Is International Humanitarian Law strong enough to make good reporting?

Is international humanitarian law strong enough to make 'good reporting' feasible in war zones?

First of all, we should have some ideas of what International Humanitarian Law is? The International Humanitarian Law forms a major part of international law.

Here is the picture which indicates the role of IHL within international laws

In 1864 Geneva Convention laid the foundations for contemporary humanitarian law. It was chiefly characterized by: 1). standing written rules of universal scope to protect the victims of conflicts;

2). its multilateral nature, open to all States; 3). the obligation to extend care without discrimination to wounded and sick military personnel;

4). respect for and marking of medical personnel, transports and equipment using an emblem (red cross on a
white background).

And gradually the IHL has evolved in different stages, most notably known as the four Geneva convention of 1949 and additional protocol I of 1977.
These treaties are also the basis for the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) to carry out their duties.

Journalism practice during war period

The first topic: is it right to say that “it is often through good reporting that conflict is reduced'? For understanding this questions, we would better have a look of what conflict is first.

Conflict is a situation where two or more individuals or groups try to pursue goals or ambitions which they believe they cannot share. And also not all the conflicts are violent. Conflict is normal when a change comes. For a reporter, news is change.

Violent physical conflicts is easily to identify and described by journalists, like Iraq war. However, As said before not all the conflicts are violent, some of the conflicts do not include physical violence, but still can do a great harm in a society.

Such as cultural violence, including: xenophobia, hate speech, religious justification for wars, gender discrimination.

And structural violence: colonialism, institutionalised racism or sexism, extreme exploitation, structural segregation.

For a war reporters, not only need to understand what is conflict, also need to be aware what course conflict?

The International Relations theory defines that conflict comes 1). when resources are scare and not shared fairly, such as lands, food, shelters, or jobs 2). There is little or no communication between the two groups 3). The groups have incorrect ideas beliefs about each other. 4). Power is unevenly distributed.

The relations between journalism and conflicts are mainly through communication, which is the root of conflict resolution. For two sides in a conflict to move towards a non-violent resolution, they must first talk. That is where good journalism comes in.

Professional journalists do not set out to reduce conflict, but try to present accurate and impartial news, which help the communication between the two sides and in order to reduce the conflicts.

There are several elements of conflicts resolution that good journalism can deliver: such as confidence building, educating, channel of communication, framing the conflict.

What is the requirements for war journalism keep citizens well-informed and in the meantime melt the conflict.

Should not: defamatory, derivative, malicious, corrupt;

Should do: accuracy, impartiality, responsibility,

Accuracy + Impartiality + responsibility = Reliability of Journalism

It applies to every aspect of the job — assigning stories, editing copy or sound bites, writing headlines, directing, producing, or managing newsrooms.

Reliable journalism encourages, supports and stimulates democracy, because people's right of free speech and expression guaranteed by UDHR article 19 is fulfilled through journalism and different media outlets, TV, Radio and multimedia.

Examples

Americans elected their first African-American president Barack Obama

Last eight hours before the US election result coming out

The historic result will come out at 8:00a.m. 5th of November, 2008 on UK time. Many Americans felt they were voting for a historic election - the possibility of choosing the ever first African-American president.

Phenomenal turnout

The traditional Republican state Virginia created a phenomenal turnout, said reporters, and the democratic hopeful is hoping to capture its attention.

Another battlefield Missouri has reportedly possessed "unprecedented turnout".

In Ohio, officials are expecting 80% voters attendance.

130 million Americans are expected to turnout to vote.

Surprisingly, both John McCain and Barack Obama are continuing their campaign during polling day.

The hamlet, has alway been the first to vote in the nation for the past 60 years, has counted for 100% turnout.

And it is also the first time the town had voted for a Democrate since 1968.

In the meantime, the entire US House of Representatives and the US Senate are holding its elections.

Brutal cyber rumors kills South Korean celebrity

South Korean super-star Choi Jin-sil committed suicide at her Seoul home. the 40-year-old was considered as the "Nation's Actress".

Her death was linked with recent Internet rumor spreaded within the whole nation, which brutally broken Ms. Choi's reputation - the public published posts online that she had relentlessly pressed her fellow actor to repay a $2 million debt.

South Korean uncensored cyberspace

After Ms. Choi's death, the police, the media and the members of parliaments all pointed fingers at the Internet.

Cyberspace in South Korea possesses incredible freedom, public can post items without censorship, such a environment assists cyber bullying.

The South Korean government have indeed encountered public cyber protest earlier this year.

The vicious antigovernment posting and online rumors on the dangers of lifting the ban on American beef fueled the political upheaval, which forced the entire cabinet to resign.

Government implements new law on defamation

The South Korean President Lee Myung-bak insists to implement new law to regulate cyberspace and Internet, which on a collision over the opposition party accusing government "rule cyberspace with martial law".

The opposition says that the Internet volience has already dealt under exsisting laws against slander and public insults.

However the government says the new law will be better safeguard the victims and publich online abuse.

Presenters crossed the bottom line

Recently, two Radio presenters Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross from the BBC evoked public's condemnation.

During their latest weekly radio two show, the pairs crossed the line and joked that the 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs had sex with his graddaughter Georgina Baillie.

Final Warning

The coporates executive board have decided to suspend Jonathan for 12 weeks and Brand has already quit when the incident happened last Wednesday.

The major issue here is that why these two men had such a freedom? As anything always has a limit.

Mark Thompson, the director-general from the coporate has warned Johnthan for his utterly unacceptable behavior, and both of them reached the agreement that "nothing like this must never happen again".

What general public's opinion?

Some people think that it's only possible when you imagine a hypothetical situation where involved celebrities.

Two men in their thirties and forties respectively and bait someone, like in his late seventies, with comments referring him to have sex with his granddaughter, would the police not get involved?

As recently the main actor for Dr Who is stepping down, some audience also had mocked Russell Brand - such a daring, mischievous, cocky guy - is he the likely choice to play the next Doctor Who?

Global Campus

A web-based digital media company need a marketing researcher, I was pleased to hear from them and got an interview this morning.

What is global campus?

The company is planning to launch a new website which serves the triangle customers -university, students, and coporates.

Their main aim is to attract potential students finding their ideal universities and suitable courses, through user-generated content and interative content. The site will explore different universities from four countries, including UK, USA, Canada, and Australia.

In the meantime, universities from the globe also can search their potential students, and provide them related informations, such as how to encounter culture shock, where to get cheap discount, where to eat with a good price.

The company set their eyes on China market, and asked me how they should introduce their site to the vast Chinese market, what kind of methords they should use? How the Chinese mentality would be regarding choosing universities.

Corporates in the meantime, co-operating with the company, to provide internship opportunties and work placements.

I think the best bet is to encourage user-generated content, let the current students tell you OUR universites.

More specifically, let them upload their videos and photos and organise online chatrooms to explain to you what the real campus life.

But the problem is how to encourage them to upload their stuff.

The company need to win trust from browsers first.

Being short-listed from CNN International, London

Great news heard from CNN International, London - the world's most influential and authoritative news agency.

Hello

Thank you very much for your email and your query. I heard that Stephanie Busari from CNN Dotcom has send you an email a few weeks back. Did you get in touch with her?

Many thanks
Katja

CNN Internship

Hello

Thank you for your recent application for an internship with CNN.com. We have reviewed your application and are interested in meeting with you.

However we have no internship positions available until the New Year, (dates to be confirmed). How does this fit into your plans and availability?

If you are available next year, then it would be good for you to come in and be interviewed by the CNN.com team sometime in mid- November. Hopefully we can work out a mutually convenient date.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact on the number below, or email me.

Kind regards

Stephanie Busari
Digitial Features Producer
CNN.com International

For the latest in world news: http://cnn.com/international
Just Imagine:2020 http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/just.imagine/

CNN International Application

The application I applied at the beginning is "the International Correspondent" programme and "the Spiritual of" programme.

However, both of them are highly intellectual news/current affairs programmes.

Most probably my capacity still needs to be improved to match the standard of the above two programmes, otherwise I should heard from them.

Anyway all the internships offered there are brilliant, as long as I'm practising multimedia/online journalism, it will definitely good for my career.

CNN International Digital Feature Online

Online feature is the area that I'm quite familiar with, the experience worked with BBC absolutely gives me the advantage to work for CNN.

I'm so glad that the CNN digital feature producer Stephanie discovered my strength, now I could believe that how important the experience it is.

There might be other more competitive applicants there, most probably, but they might don't have the experience of working as a Online feature producer as what I did for BBC London, they might don't have the experience of working in CMS, they might not clear of the whole online feature production.

Develop my strength and discover my potential.

War in Afghanistan - discussion from The World Tonight

I regularly listen The World Tonight from Radio 4, and Newshour from BBC World Service, both of them are excellent news programme and highly intellectual, I particularly like the presenter Robin Lustig, his way of presenting is very engaging.

The World Tonight has more news analysis element compared with Newshour, which is pretty good , because we can grab more information of what's going on in this world.

I heard the analysis about current war situation in Afghanistan from The World Tonight, it drew me a much clear picture of Afghanistan's severe turmoil - corruption, lack of decent education, thousands of civilians being killed...Now the Bush administration is trying to redefine its strategy for the coming months in Afghanistan.

The programmes combined both feature and documentary story making approach – location reporting/recording background sound fade in and fade out, archive audio clips, experts panel discussion, one local interview etc. All these treatments and approaches helps story telling.

However, the panel discussion is quite long (25 min around!), though it's separated by the local interview (with some attractive background sound) in between, I still found a bit hard to follow. Maybe could change some of the answer into the script, and let the presenter explain.

BBC Talking America Bus 08

BBC Talking America Bus is an amazing programme. I just love it.

It crabs my attention mainly because I can hear America's real voice, what are their opinions about the presidential election, how do they react with the financial crisis, it brings listeners the real picture of American situation.

I also enjoy the special approach of story telling – contrast and comparing; producer use a wide arrange of treatments (location recording, background music fade in or fade out etc).

For example, when talking about one of the American state suffered seriously during the economic downturn, the feature starts with a group of pupils playing veteran's song which was quite engaging, and then introduced some Americans were questioning their life value (always seeking for money). And I was thinking the story will end up here.

Surprisingly, the story turns to another side – the real situation is about money – then it talked about business and politics in this state, involved local person's conversation with BBC journalist.

I want to suggest the programme should interview more young Americans, such as college students. They're the future of United State, they're the people four years later working in different professions. The BBC should get them involved!!

Britain's missing citizens & Britain's new comers

First story - “Britain's Missing Citizens” - working title

Story background: British Empire was the most powerful empire for centuries in history. Along with her colonies' expansion, many British merchants travelled to those expanded territories. They started trading, brought their culture, language, lifestyle and civilization to the new lands. Some of them were staying there, got married and had children.

The TV/Radio documentary series aims to feature the growing up generation of these British merchants. About their life, their identity conflicts, the images of their beloved father (grandfather) or rather than the colonizer? What history left behind us?

Audience: different communities, working/intellectual classes within UK and worldwide

Second story - “Britain's New Comer” - working title

Story Background: Thousands young foreign professionals settled in Britain recent years in the flood of EU expansion and growing global village. These young talents served in the vast sectors of Britain, business, computing, media, law, design etc.

The TV/Radio documentary aims to feature their efforts of finding themselves a proper role within British society. As an outsider, how them fight bravely in their professional career? What's their life value? How they perceive the world?

Audience: different communities, working class within UK and worldwide

Final debate

Zimbabwe power sharing crisis

The former South Africa president Thabo Mbeki mediates the Zimbabwe power-sharing crisis.

However, according to Mr. Tsvangirai, there was no conclusion for the first day discussion, and will continue tomorrow at 1030.

President Robert Mugabe said that "continuing tomorrow means we have covered some area today".

The US state department spokesman expressed his concern about "Mugabe's overstepping the bounds of agreement."

The European Union also condemned Mugabe's "unilateral decision".

Cabinet's imbalanced power-sharing

Earlier this week, Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai condemned the imblance of cabinate power-sharing, 13 out of 15 seats were allocated to President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

The most important posts including defence, home, foreign affairs, and justice were allocated to Zanu-PF party, the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai call for re-allocating the cabinate positions.

Can Mr. Mbeki solve the deal?

Mr Mbeki's spokesman said he was confident he would be able to rescue the deal, which he brokered just before he stepping down as president of South Africa.

And this is Mr Mbeki's first direct intervention since he resigned as South Africa's head of state.

At one moment in history, A black might win

US presidential election is around the corner now. Yesterday talking with a friend, he was firmly sure that outside of the America, Democrates candidate Mr. Obama must beat John McCain and possesses more votes (unfortunately, you and me can't vote!), Only Americans! Inside America, might be a different story (he thinks).

Today, talking with a pure American, his answer wows my attention. Yes, Mr. Obama will win! Let's get a close insight of recent race.

John McCain's financial crisis rescue plan

Both of the parties' presiditial candidates luanched their rescue plans. Republican dandidate John McCain unveiled his economic rescue proposal today which will mostly benefits the older voters.

He underlined that the market decline and value destruction were due to the congress failure and the timely rescue package coming out from the Administration.

John MaCain's chief economic policy adviser said that Mr. McCain's proposal was targeting people who were severely hurt from the financial crisis, such as works, seniors etc.

Huge loss compared with Obama

John McCain's proposal was unveiled a day after his rival, Senator Barack Obama's economic plan launch, the polls indicated that the continuous loss John McCain's votes compared with Barack Obama.

John MaCain has criticized Barack Obama for his proposal indeed will raise tax cut instead of reducing tax cut for American families.

Ideology revolution after Western financial crisis?

Various media outlets around the globe, such as newspapers, Internet, radios are expressing far-east citizens' concerns about the current financial crisis, which might cause the newly ideological transformation in our 21st century.

After world depression

During the inter-war period in 1930s, the financial depression and economic downturn severely led the occurence of extremist ideological movement, such Fascism, Nazism, and communism, all of these kinds of ideologies flourished into the different continents.

End of US age?

Today, cities such as Washington, London suffered the huge loss due to it's financial crisis, and does it mean the market economy truly can regulate itself? As the westerner always said for years of its advantage.

It's undoubtedly that many people would argue that the western economic policymakers should adjust its own policy in order to hinder such turmoil, and does the US financial crisis wil signal "the end of US age"?

It seems impossible to deny that China with its anthoritarian capitalism has succeeded in competing with the US's market capitalism.

Blaming of Bush administration

Bush administration and its military staff should be taking the main responsibility for current economic downturn and political setbacks on the world stage, according to an Syrian, countries, especially the major ones, which supported the Bush administration in its wars and policies also bear great responsibilty.

Changes happens to Washington, not happens from Washington!

US new presidential candidates foreign policy views

Recently reading Barack obama's "The Audacity of the hope", many thoughts are appearing during reading process.

What the US presendential election is all about? What are the different political views regarding foreign policy from both Republican and Democratic candidates? Gathered few points here to share with others

Foreign policy is one of the key battleground of the US presidential election, with Republican John McCain considering himself as the better commander-in-chief and Democratic candidate Barack Obama went on a trip to Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe in July.

Here are the comparison of both candidates' foreign policy towards different regions in the world.

Middle East

Iraqi war was one of the most prominent issue within the US foreign policy, Republican candidate John McMain was one of the prominent proponent of the original decision to invade Iraq.

He believes that the US troops should remain until Iraq has been stabilised, and the Iraqi government should be able to maintain order by itself. He predicted that most troops would be home by 2013, and he is also in favour of a permanent US military presence in the country.

The opposition candidate Barack Obama strongly opposed the idea of invading Iraq, and has pledged to begin removing troops as soon as he enters the White House.

But he mentions that he would take advices from commanders on the ground about the best way to remove troops.

He also expresses his concern of reduced military presence after most troops have withdrawn, in order to enforce counter-terrorism measures against al-Qaeda.

London Embraces Digital Media

I covered this story on 17th of September as a BBC London freelance, South Bank Centre, London.

Published on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2008/09/18/
london_embrace_digital_media_feature.shtml

A one-day digital design event which aims to help the public in their everyday lives has been held at the South Bank Centre.

Digital Design Day (D3) gathers together industry professionals, interactive designers, technologists, and emerging multimedia graduates to explore ideas related to the web, 3D, interactive design, the collision of art and digital technology, and how the modern digital media can interact with the public.

The event, held on Wednesday, was part of the week-long 6th London Design Festival
’08, organised by technology company Carrenza and supported by the London Design Festival and dynamo London.

Online projects promote museums

The idea of user generated content and a user-friendly interface was under discussion in a session called “3D to 5D”.

Colin Jenkinson, from Cogapp, introduced work his company had done in conjunction with museums. He discussed agile and creative online projects created by digital professionals aimed at attracting new audiences.

These projects hope to encourage audiences to share their thoughts and particular interests through the web.

“If the audience can upload the content they produced on the web for instance, after their visits to these museums, it could be a much stronger attraction for the new audience,” Colin said.

However, he also cautioned that larger museums might be put off and find it quite hard to react in such a highly interactive web 2.0 environment.

Avatars interact with public

Stacey Spiegel, the CEO and co-founder of Parallel Worlds Labs, agreed with Colin saying “sharing and re-creation is the root”. He discussed how the virtual world can positively influence people.

“For instance, utilising avatars (a computer representation of yourself) to assist older people is a very good example. These “avatar staffs” can help with their disabilities and mental health problems,” he said.

Second life is a 3D virtual world in which people can socialise with each other, create businesses and start to trade. To some extent it reflects their emotions and thinking, and this is what digital professionals are trying to develop by using these avatars more positively to help the public.

Bridging the gap between technologists and designers

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, CEO of technology and design consultancy Tinker, raised an interesting issue which currently concerns the industry; technologists and designers sometimes cannot communicate in the same language with each other.

She said: “60% of technologists come to us expressing an interest in design, however only 40% of designers show an interest in digital technology.

“The separation between design and technology can be tracked back from art schools and science institutes.”

Stacey Spiegel also expressed his concern: “It is a mental division and we should try to bring them together. Educational institutions should try to bridge the gap between design and technology.”

Portfolio clinic

The i-Design ’08 Portfolio clinic, held during the event, was designed to create opportunities for emerging designers, web developers and students to showcase their work to the industry professionals.

It attracts more than 20 companies based in London, Brighton, and other English regions.

“The work from the multimedia/interactive graduates certainly is not as professional as the industry people,” Malcolm Garrett, the creative director at AIG commented.

“However, some of their work possesses a strong creativity, which is crucial for the industry, and the content showed their particular interests in certain areas.

“What they should now try to think is how to present this fascinating content into a better structure and layout, and make the whole piece of work more dimensional.”

The design director, Steven Pearce, from Poke said the works on show were very diverse, and covered a wide range of design aspects, from print to multimedia, from interactive design to 3D, and demonstrated the younger generation’s strong interest on digital design.

When asked if it was ever possible to hire someone from the portfolio session, Malcolm said potential employers believed that as long as the graduates possessed the fundamental basics; certain skills, life-long learning drive, capacity to develop their skills, passion and enthusiasm – they certainly had enough potential to work in this field.

Go to the Web, young journalist!

A fascinating article forward by David, that's it -- a vivid description of Online journalism in the up coming decade!

Commentary: This is your chance to shape the future. An open letter to student reporters from an editor who's in a position to hire.

By Anthony Moor

Posted: 2006-03-16

Anthony Moor is Associate Managing Editor/Online at the Orlando Sentinel, and editor of OrlandoSentinel.com. He also serves on the board of directors of the Online News Association.

So ten years into the Internet revolution, you are beginning a career in journalism. Odds are that means you are looking for a job in either print or TV.

What's wrong with this picture?

One major newspaper chain was just frog-marched to the auction block by grimfaced money managers. The others have watched their stock price slide for two solid years like a metro daily tossed onto a pitched roof.

Network television doesn't even have all its anchor chairs filled -- forget about a clear mission. The cable outlets have hired talk-show screamers and now follow car chases and kidnap mysteries "live." Much of local TV long ago gave up the ghost.

Maybe it's time to consider the Web.

After a long freeze brought about by the dot-com crash and 9/11, Web editors are hiring and Web operations are expanding again.

Safa Rashtchy, a senior research analyst at the securities firm Piper Jaffray, recently predicted that online advertising will reach its tipping point in mid-2006.

That's prompting news organizations to realign their resources to focus more on Web journalism.

What's more, for a discipline with decades of tradition and well-defined standards of practice, there is a sense of excitement and rejuvenation about journalism as it is being practiced on the Web today.

The rules are still being written, so the practitioners, by and large, are following their own muse as they explore new ways to communicate news and information.

Innovations abound

We rolled out a blog at OrlandoSentinel.com for this year's Winter Olympics, and our three columnists became diarists.

They wrote about Big Macs, getting lost on the media bus and the fact that Florida's top football draft pick had given up the gridiron for figure skating.

OK, the last one was a fabrication, but they did own up to it in their post. They wanted to know whether anyone was reading their blog and would comment. The readers did -- heatedly.

We thought our bloggers would write about sports. But set loose with a new writing form in a two-way medium that allows readers to talk back, they invented something new.

"I enjoyed my first blog-o-rama," veteran sports columnist David Whitley wrote to me when he returned from Italy.

"If that's part of the next generation of newspapers, I could have a lot of fun. Unless I get fired first, I guess."

Our other online efforts are making newsroom staff happy as well. Sentinel photographer Ed Sackett practically crowed over the opportunity to capture the sound and movement of roosters at a county fair contest recently.

Online producers Debra Minor and Kris Hey relish scooping TV, radio and the Associated Press with news called in from the field by Sentinel staff.

It is true that at the major news organizations, much of the Web work to date has focused on repurposing content from the legacy newsroom for a digital audience. But that is changing.

In the same way that early television struggled to develop from radio-on-TV to something different, so is Web journalism.

Some are striking out in exceptionally creative directions. A young broadcaster in Britain melds magazine-style presentation with grainy, cinema-vérité video to create investigative productions of amazing depth and presence.

A Chicago journalist-programmer melds public police data with Google maps to present an on-demand visual map of crime in your neighborhood.

A pair of newspaper veterans dubs themselves "Baristas" and serves up a mix of community-contributed news and their own wry sense of humor to suburban New Jersey.

Preparing for the new job market

The privilege to innovate like this may come around only once in a lifetime.

If you talk to those of us doing news on the Web, you'll learn that we believe the Internet is finally beginning to deliver on its promise to transform journalism -- but we're also not sure what that transformation will bring.

So this is your opportunity to shape the future.

Interestingly, the skills you need are just what you have been learning. A soon-to-be released study finds that online managers are primarily looking for detail-oriented collaborators capable of editing and copyediting, not technical producers.

(The survey was prepared by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, in conjunction with the Online News Association, and will be published on the ONA website in the next few weeks.)

So what could you do right now at school to give you an edge with Web editors? When I examine resumes of recent graduates, I'm looking for the journalism skills first, specifically news judgment.

Have you worked as an editor at your college newspaper? Do you have clips that demonstrate a clear hard-news focus, in the classic, inverted-pyramid writing style? I want journalists who want to be editors.

Next, are you Internet literate? No newspaper editor would hire an applicant who didn't know the function of the A-section. No TV news director would hire someone who couldn't pick out a sound bite or define the term "B-roll."

While we don't need code monkeys, we do need people who understand the unique attributes of the Web as it pertains to journalism.

So, have you built a Web page as part of a student project or on your own? Do you know basic HTML? Do you work on the student newspaper website?

Do you frequent Internet news sites? Do you use an RSS reader? Do you podcast?

Did you ask to shadow the Web producers for a few days at your last internship? An affinity for our medium is essential.

I also need people who think in multimedia. So if you're a broadcast major, take print courses, or visa versa. Do a Web project.

Have you ever storyboarded a reporting effort for a Flash presentation? (In truth, we don't do much Flash at our shop, and you'll find that's normal at news websites, so Flash skills are usually a bonus, not a requirement.)

You have to know how to take anything that can be digitized and present it in a uniquely compelling way for the Web.

This is essential because you will be mentoring reporters from your legacy newsroom who need insight into how to present their work for a Web audience.

You must be the one who knows that source documentation can make a deep, rich Web piece or database. You should know how to write a TV-style voiceover script to marry to photos for a narrated slide show.

You must dream up the idea to take the sales tax data a reporter compiled and make an interface that lets individuals put in their own grocery bill to find out in which county they get the biggest break.

Do you keep a blog? Why not? There has never been an easier way to publish your journalism for an audience. So become a journalist online.

Blog your hobby or your summer in Europe -- like a reporter, not an opinion columnist. An understanding of how the blogosphere intersects with news is increasingly important as we tackle the two-way nature of the Internet today.

(One caveat: Your MySpace musings may make you a blogging expert, but it doesn't qualify as journalism. In fact, you can count on us finding that frat party confession and photo en déshabillé, so ask yourself whether that's the image you wish to project when seeking a job.)

There never has been a better time to get into Web journalism. We are making money, we are hiring, and we are actively searching for new, innovative ideas.

After ten years, there are no veterans in this field. This is your chance to be among the first.

Irish Voters Reject Lisbon Treaty

12th of June, Irish voters rejected Lisbon Treaty which's the successor of constitutional treaty proposed in 2002. The lisbon treaty is designed to ratified by the 27 member states by the end of year, however, it seems EU encountered a new "Treaty Crisis".

Why Ireland hold the referendum?

According to Ireland law, any amendment to an EU treaty requires an amendment to the Irish constitution and, all the constitutional amendments require approval by referendum.

Other EU membet states, so far there're 18 have ratified the Treaty, argued that Lisbon Treaty is like other amending treaties, which only requires parliamentary approval.

Why Irish voters were against the treaty?

The essence of loosing sovereignty. The no camp have argued that the new treaty will surrender the unanimity of voting, and adopt the qualified majority voting.

The amendments will weaken the Ireland's voice in Europe.

Will Irish vote again?

As commentator says that there is a precedent of holding re-run referendum in Ireland, in the case of 2001 Treaty of Nice, which ratified the year after.

However, if the elite from Brussels forces Irland to vote again, it could be portrayed as EU bullying of a small member state, especially when France and Netherland voters rejected constitutional treaty in 2005, and never asked to vote again.

The Apprentice -- the Final Five

The Apprentice -- the Final Five is featuring the final 5 candidates, how they have gone through all the difficulties of the tasks, and finally stand out as the most competitive candidates. lee, Lucinda, Claire, Alex, Helene.

My thoughts

I have watched at least three times for this piece of the Apprentice, I'm saying that how I'm interested in business, just because this time's the Apprentice does answered my question.

Why do these particular 5 people get thourgh?
What are their their strengthes and weaknesses?
What the main qualities these 5 candidates possess?
What the main qualities the big corporates, like Sir Alan Sugar, are looking for?

Obviously, these 5 candidates possess different significant qualities that drove them through the whole process.

Lee Mcqueen

A man in his 30's, mature, responsible, understand how to push the whole team towards the top.

He is swearing sometimes, he seems poshed but indeed he is rough, however, as Sir Ala's aide comment that "apprentice are raw and rough, as long as got other animal qualities, ambition, determination, he is the diamond of the rough".

I remembered the most descriptive narration about Lee is every task he's able to get himself involved.

Lusinda Ledgerwood

I like her, she is being determined, being organised, being very much lady-manner, though she is not, and she is extremely tough.

Lusinda is very different from others, as Sir Alan's aide commented, as every group always has a person who is different from others.

She fell, but she never fle, and she has her very much inner strength.

Online Feature Article Proposal

Online Feature Article Proposal
Yixiang Zeng
BBC Step Up Online Mentee

Working Title: Young Londoners Hit the European Culture
Story Idea: Close-up of individual teenager’s personal experience of European cultural exploration.

Story Background:

British Council launched the Youth in Action Programme, aimed to provide unique opportunity to young Londoners to explore Europe in the cultural perspective.

Plenty of teenagers are taking part in this programme.

I’d like to ask individual participates following questions:

Why do you participate in this activity?
What do you learn/benefit from it?
What’s the difference do you find between the British culture and the European culture.
Do you find any difficulties during the participation, like you might encounter some difficulties to accept their cultural habits, or you feel culture shock?
How would you consider this experience help you in terms of personal development?
Do you want to call yourself a European or Londoner? What do you think of it?

Audience: Young people aged 12-25. Parents

Resources and Contributors:

Individual Participates
Young London Teen http://www.london.gov.uk/young-london/teens/top-stories/youth-in-action.jsp
British Council: http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth-programmes-youth-for-europe.htm

Treatment:
Photos
Interview video clip

Tibetans' Cultural Identity Crisis

Working Title: Young Tibetans’ Cultural Identity Crisis

Suggested Outlet: BBC Radio 4 Crossing Continents

Idea: Close-up of how today’s young Tibetans consider their culture identity in the environment of the feud between China and Tibetan government-in-exile.

Story

The feud between China and Tibet always attracts the world’s attention; along with Beijing being the host of the Olympic Games in August and the protests to free Tibet is crossing the continents.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader has argued for Tibet’s autonomy, he also accused Beijing of committing “cultural genocide”.

What does this mean by cultural genocide? Is Tibetan culture being swept out by the Chinese?

How is China imposing its Han culture on Tibetan children at schools (both in Tibet and rest of China) – and how are they responding?

In the last two decades, a handful of new schools only for Tibetans were built up in the major cities in China.

I'd like to ask how these students' special experiences of studying outside of Tibet influence them later in life, especially regarding shaping their characters, religious belief and mentality?

Do they feel strong cultural conflict within themselves or is there a huge loss of their Tibetan cultural identity?

In the meantime, schools in Tibet have also implemented new syllabus.

I’d like to investigate in-depth of the school syllabus and its teaching methods, and find out how the changing system influence young Tibetans’ cultural identity.

Apart from school, what are families' attitude towards young Tibetans' cultural identity? What families have done about it?

Interviewee contributors

Chongqing Tibetan Secondary School, Chongqing, China.
Schools in Tibet, Tibet, http://www.tibetanms.cn/
A Tibetan family
Prof. T H Barrett, SOAS, http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff30627.ph,p
Prof. Xiaopu Wang, Uni. Peking, http://www.pku.edu.cn/academic/zggds/002/004.htm
School Syllabus Department for tibetan student, China, http://www.pep.com.cn/kcs/
Tibet Foundation, London, http://www.tibet-foundation.org/tf/index.php
Tibet Culture, Lhasa, http://www.tibetcul.com/

Treatment

At school: typing keyboard from computer, reading, taking part in activity etc
Daily life: shopping (shop background music)
Traditional Tibetan music

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC radio 4 From Our Own Correspondent is absolutely an amazing highly intellectual programme.

Critical Comment

Frankly speaking, it stands out among other current affairs programmes, because it truly relies on its very different approach of story telling – reflection of correspondents’ own personal experiences.

Many stories I found touchable, vivid and absolutely attractive, I realise that the triumph is due to correspondents’ frank revealing of their inner emotions and feeling – from their heart and soul.

I personally think it’s a huge breakthrough of traditional format of current affairs story telling. Personal reflection makes the hard news more interesting.

The programme is very creative and innovative. And brings listeners so much inspiration.

UN peace-keeper committed crime on children sexual abuse

It literally portrays the pictures and scenes through the elaborative and descriptive script, through presenter’s profound voice, which tends to create a kind of mysterious atmosphere.

For instance, when reporting in southern Sudan, I was shocked by the 10 Pakistani UN Peace-keepers committed crime on children sexual abuse, and I was convinced that hundreds, or maybe thousands children from the globe are suffering this unbelievable ordeal.

Who can save these vulnerable, innocent and powerless children? During the reporting, the UN department of peacekeeping operation in New York contacted the correspondent, saying this is intolerable and they will follow it up.

The world is shaking by these well-informed correspondents.

Criticism

The programme is purely voice and story details driven, sometimes I do hope a bit of background music, which could fade in to romance the atmosphere, and avoid the story becoming dry.

However, probably Tony Grant just desires this type of format and style, without any treatments, but sometimes I feel a bit of too much depressed.

Gordon Brown Leadership Attacks

Followed by Labour was defeated in the byelection, the party was questioning is there any necessity to change the leadership within Labour itself? Does Gordon Brown is trustful enough to lead the party to be successful in the next general election?

No appetite to challenge Brown

Several labour MPs express their feeling towards Brown, they fully support his leadership, and appeal Labours should pull together to stand behind this man.

These MPs include Health Secretary Alan Johnson, Health Secretary Alan Johnson, Former deputy PM John Prescott, they all agree that suggesting Mr. Brown should step down is nonsense.

Economy crisis

Brown's leadership attack due to several reasons, 10p income tax rate ban do affect Brown's symbolic figure, afterwards during the byelection, people from Crewe and Nantwich were voted for Conservative candidate Edward Timpson.

As Brown himself said after the election, people are concerned about the food prices going up, fuel prices going up, and worried about their income tax increasing.

China Earthquake Devastation

Tens of thousands people died in the Sichuan earthquake, up to 26th of May, 62,664 people are dead; 358,816 are injured; and 23,775 are still missing. these figures clearly conveyed how brutal the natural disaster is.

Earthquake Aftermath

The Earthquake happened in Sichuan province, south west of china. Wenchuan, Beichuan are the most affected cities from the disaster.

Aftermath, the whole country's implementing different facilities to aid victims, President Hujing tao went to the forefront to pray for Sichuan people, and encourage rescue workers.

International aid under UN is also access to China and provide civilian assistance.

China 2008

This year's china's going through a very difficult time.

Earlier this year March, tibetant demonstration under Dalai Lama's so called "genuine antonomy", but to what extend the spiritual leader really wants for the true autonomy? And Chinese government's very much concerned about his motive.

Later on, world Olympic torch relay was disrupted in the western world. Paris, London, San Francisco these major cities were surrounded by Pro-tibet protestors. They were arguing about human rights records in China, and use this opportunity to raise issues towards host country.

Middle of May, followed by this catastrophe of earthquake, thousands of people were dead,injured and missing. Undoubtedly, Chinese government were experiencing extremely pressure just head of Olympics games.

However, numerous news programmes recently from Britain were talking about China is changing, and does it mean to change towards democracy the western world wants? Let's be objective, listen and watch.

The Apprentice

An amazing programme from BBC iPlayer -- The Apprentice illustrates how cruel the competition it is within the business world.

The story is literally ture, a handful of experienced business men/women are competing for a 6 figure salary job from one of the business giant corporation within UK. Their stories are followed by media industry and reveal to ordinary people.

Tissue competition

Yesterday's story is to pitch tissue branding/marketing strategy during the meeting with the most influencial British business boss sir Alan.

Raef, the guy who was fired later on is the project manager of the failed team.

No one is thinking "I love my tissue" is the failed team, I'm a bit shocked that "Atishu" finally won the competition.

"I love my tissue"'s real problem

the real problem from Raef's team is they tends to be very artistic, very much emphasized for the imaginative image of producing the tele adv.

The bloody hell is no any indication of tissue and anti-bacteria which sir Alan is expecting from their product!

On the contrary, "Atishu" produces horrible box design, unprofessional presentation, but they won, because in their tele adv, the actor and actress mentioned tissue, mentioned anti-backteria at least 3 times, and consumer will remember oh, ok, this is for advertising tissue.

What I learn

In fact, I was wondering my website during watching the Apprentice, at end of the day, my web will be examined by my client, and do I need to be more business driven and less artistic?

Make it clear what I'm going to tell/sell to people from my website is crucial, and go straight to the point is key.

Eurovison '08

Eurovision Song Contest is considered as the most famous entertaining event cross European Continent every year. Not because how good quality the songs are. On the contrary, critics says that Eurovision famous for its questionable songs, bizzare performance, and political voting.

Along with the increasly joint new members, such as Israel, Ukraine, non-EU members play important roles in this year Eurovision Song Contest.

Eastern block ranked on the top

Unbelievable, these countries are just vote for their labours, vote for their allies, and some countries even not take it seriously, for example, like spain.

Seems making fun of Eurovision is quite common.

This year's Eurovision winner went to Russia, and then followed by Ukraine, in fact, for some time, Ukrain was competing with Greece (Who was ranked on the top from the very beginning) for the 2nd place.

However, no doubt that some of the eastern block countries voted for Ukraine and speed up her pace to ranked as the 2nd.

The point I can't understand that why Malta, the traditional meditteranean country, gave 10 points to Ukrain first, then gave 12 points to Sweden? I was hoping information literally coming from Valletta.

Loads of countries were voting for each other which is the famous joke, such as the Nodic countires, Norway voted for Sweden, then in aother way around, Sweden voted for Norway.

The backers were gently enough staying quite behind, UK was on the bottom line, France, Germany were all left behind, and spain's points was just so so.

Personally, I just love Greece, unfortunately she ranked only the 3rd.

What the fun Eurovision Song Contest is!

Dalai Lama's Visit to Britain

The Tibet spiritual leader Dalai Lama has a 10 day visit to UK, Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed him in the Lambeth Palace instead of Downing Street.

The packed press conference are arguing Gordon Brown's decision is to appease Beijing.

Dalai's pursuit of antonomy

According to BBC news and the Gurdian, Dalai Lama appreciated PM's invitation for his 10 days trip to UK, he expressed his view that persistence for Tibet antonomy rather than independence from China.

He said he agreed with Tibet's governed by Chinese government in terms of foreign affairs and defence, however, other issues such education, environment, religious work should be handled by Tibentans themselves.

He emphazised that Tibet's independance from China is not his concern, is out of question.

Dalai Lama's view towards Beijing Olympics and torch relay

Dalai Lama said from the very beginning, he made his attitude clear that he's fully supporting Beijing Olympics, and he appealled pro-tibetant shouln't disrupt torch relay, since it's part of Olympics, and should be protected and respected.

He also mentioned that he hasn't heard any invitation from Beijing for the August's Olympics. he'll wait for the talk in June with Chinese government, if the talk has a breakthrough and be constructive, he is willing to be in Beijing in August.

Lang dispute between Dailai Lama and central government

While Chinese government condemning Dalai Lama's independence attempt, he accused China's human right abuses.

Design into Practise -- from Photoshop

New Design for the Web

Content System Management

Last wednesday, we had a first practical session at Marylebone High Street with our online course leader, the interesting point is he explains us about the Content Management System.

During David's class, he mentioned this jargon before, I remembered I asked him as well, but still have no idea at all, until last Wednesday, I got some ideas finally.

Content System Management

It's a system that most of the news agencies updating their stories, for instance, Paul introduced to us that in BBC itself, there're more than 20 management systems already, because I was asking does each news agency in UK possesses its own content management system, in order to help their staffs update stories.

Paul showed us how to update pictures, how to insert texts, how to put article titles etc, I found out that it was so easy for them to work in this kind of system rather than the html in Dreamweaver.

It's just like the simple website that you need to click the icon, then you insert what you need to update, basically similar as using the blogger.

There's no need for them to check code, or write any code. Paul also showed us update picture, how to use photoshop to crop the picture and set the correct image size.

Paper Illustration For My Site

BBC Step Up Session -- Pitch Your Story!

It's a very interesting session I attended last Wednesday afternoon, Hazel, a broadcaster from BBC Scotland gives us a fantastic pitch session. I love the way she guides us into the session, particularly her opening film.

What makes a bad pitch?

I found out the film is so attractive, because normally people will talking about what makes a good pitch. However, instead of talking about what makes a good pitch she started to talk to us what makes a bad pitch.

1. No confidence, a man appearing on the scream with pale face and looks so nervous
2. Ridiculous concept, the idea should be reasonable, otherwise commissioning officer won't appreciate the ideas.
3. Poor appearance, when go to pitch your idea, of course you need to be careful with your dress, should be formal and serious about your story.
4. No head for figures. You have to understand that how much you're going to spend to make your story, and how much profits you will gain from the story making, keep economic concept in your mind.
5. No exclusivity
6. Props that let you down. This is a most funny thing, more mean technique stuffs, so always check before pitching with commissioning officer, otherwise could turn out that you can't show your work because technical reason.

What else Hazel talked about pitching a story?

We need to be very passionate about our story, confident of our ideas, and make sure we know what we're going to ask, who we're going to ask for during the story making.

Hook is a kind of question, the main thing we have to be very much clear what's the idea, mostly utilise one or two sentences to describe the idea, this I learnt from David.

We need to estimate that do people care? why should people care? then we know how many people will watch it.

Aa a story maker, we also need to understand that the commissioning officers are willing to know what they will watch from the screen, what they will hear from the radio, so the question will through to us how am I going to make the story?

Other thing such as be clear of the idea which has already been mentioned above, what's the big idea? what's the purpose?How will it works? what's in it for audience? close -- should be a very strong statement, and reflect something, because story maker need to convince audience what they're thinking about exactly.

The ending from Hezel's session is wonderful, she says a good pitch tells an engaging story with a beginning, a middle and an end.

BBC Digital Oympics Project 2012

I grabbed a very nice opportunity to talk about video online, multimedia, blogging etc from a student perspective, on the open-source ideas session from BBC Digital Olympics 2012 last Thursday afternoon at Media Centre, Lords Cricket Ground.

As a student contribute my own online experience

Today's journalism is more flexible in terms of using video as the story telling tool, and people are no longer attracted only by printed words, they prefer to watch more, listen more online, web is as a newly developed platform to combine video/audio/images/words together, and it's a tool to integrate different media outlets.

Technically to be active online, journalist needs to be familiar with new technology, such as Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, ImageReady etc, it's a creative concept to require journalists understand (at least have basic understanding) all of these graphic design tools, and then contribute to the web.

However, of course it's not an easy task to be familiar with all of these tools, it requires lots of learning and dedicated attitude, takes long time and patience to learn it.

What's BBC digital olympics all about?

People who're attending Digital Olympics Project are all full-time staffs from different sectors of BBC, for me it's really an eye-opener since I literally watch how professional works -- how them come up with different thoughts and finally pitch their ideas.

Regarding pitch an idea, I have learnt from my Uni course, as well as just learnt from BBC Step Up Training course, I could say I think I understand what does pitch means, how to pitch my ideas. Thursday's session is a chance for me to understand how professional work on their pitch.

An interesting thing I found that during the discussion, all the group members talked about an technical word, UGC which stands for users generated content, however, almost all the group members found this word ridiculous, they argue that here we're brain storming to find a friendly way to encourage ordinary people get themselves involved into supporting London Olympics 2012.

Imagine if someone is not working for BBC, how shall we ask them to contribute their sources into BBC platform, it's ridiculous because that person is simply not working for us, so how shall we use UGC to reflect these content? as well the questions will be do people literally contribute their sources to us?

Other point they're making is most of the Youtube videos're rubbish, and how shall BBC keep the quality if let general public to contribute their sources?

Struggling With My Homepage Design

I spent 8 days struggling with my home page design, honesly I have no design backgroud, and have no painting background.

So am I confident to produce such a crafted work?

Initial experiment

After doing theoretical research from library, I feel I literally need to apply what I have learnt to practice.

If I just imagine in my mind, and never playing around of Photoshop, ImageReady, I will never see my work.

Initially, I want to use dark-red colour as my site background, a colour that frequently appears in the old painting from 17th or 18th century.

I want to delivery a kind of serious feeling since the site is about classical piano music.

Then I tried the colour I want, but I feel it's so dull, and lack of living smell, and I just feel it's so heavy.

As well, the pictures I put there for giving kind of idea looks so unprofessional, the whole page seems childish, and I just hate it.

More experiments

Later on, I feel my home page should be more lighter and more elegant, simplicity is the key, then I decide just using black and white as the main colour.

Surprisingly, it works very well the background colour as black and white, I know the fonts might cause problems, because as david said such as Verdana, is good for online writing.

But obviously these normal fonts won't work in my site, as the main theme is classical piano music.

Ultimately I decide to use more artistic fonts.

Web 2.0 New Understanding

1st semester we did a lot of session with David about web 2.0, at that point of time, my understanding of web 2.0 is awaring that it's more interactive with browers, and more friendly with browsers.

But in a more concerte way, I won't say I understand much.

New understanding

Until yesterday I was searching in library for my final project, a book nemed web design -- a complete introduction.

There is 2 pages talking about web 2.0, I did have a look, and feel myself understand more of the concept after such a long time learning online.

The web as the platform

Many websites such as Flickr, slide.com, are providing browsers opportunities to store their photos, documents etc such datas, so browsers no need to install certain programmes on their own PC.

And browsers also could access these informations(photos, documents) anywhere in the world as long as the accessed computer got an Internet on it, therefore, you could literally store and access these data remotely.

Boris Johnson -- the Newly Elected London Mayor

Boris Johnson successfully take the post of London Mayor after 1 May's election, Labour has lost 331 seats in local elections in England and Walsh, seems the abolition of 10p income tax ban did let labour to suffer their local loss.

Boris' manifesto

During attending Sikh's new year festival in Trafalgar Square, Boris pledged to be a "Mayor for all London", and he said "I am going to be a mayor for all London and work to unite communities.

He also emphasized that one of the most wonderful things in London is fantasitic diversity -- having got whole world in London.

The Newly elected mayor said he will tackle severe issues such as violent crime, which is extremely important to grip, as well as the scourge of so-called minor crime and disoder on public transport.

The violence among young people is also put into Boris' concern, he wished better education and health activities will reduce teenager violence.

Labour's loss

Gordown Brown's 10p income tax not only badly influences labour party as a whole, but also reflects in Ken Livingstone's mayor election loss.

Though he did ultimately admit his wrong decision to axe the 10p tax rate.

Last Sunday, Brown also admits that he does understand voters' worries about rising petrol, food prices and utility bills.

From Boris point of view, the best opition for Labour to recover is to quietly remove Gordon Brown, however, himself doesn't think Labour will to do so.

Many Labour MPs claim that they were and are still think Mr. Brown is the best person to lead the party and the whole country.

Ken Livingstone said he cannot be a mayor for 8 years and then if he can't be a third therm say it was somebody's fault.

Visual Design Principle

These days I'm doing some research of visual design, because of my final project to create a web site, and what makes a site to stand out?

Grid Layout

Last Thursday me, yin, ying met David for discussing visual design, we go through different site and discuss why this site looks better than others?

He supervise us to find some common features that makes these sites stands out, from the research I did, the grid layout is important for a web design, how many grids a web page should possesses is an essential question web designer should ask us.

If looking at BBC website, the Timesonline, it's undoubtedly these branding possess quite similar traits, both of them only have three or four grids layout, in the meantime, they all can owe quite a lot of information.

David's viewmagazine also have three grids layout, and it's clean, tidy, and attractive.

Remembered on Monday afternoon I asked him about design issue, he drew me two pictures, one only have few grids columns and the other have a handful of grids columns.

He confirmed me that the few one is much better than the handful one.

Inverse L

Most web designers are puting important things on the top left, such as logo, titles etc, the navigation bar are on the left, and the jargon named "Inverse L".

This concept is related with first above the fold, which is term from Newspaper publication, as well related with first read or first impression.

According to the Design of Sites, 2nd edition, by Douglas k. vAN dUYNE, James A. Landay, Jason I. Hong, the first read is one technique that brings order to your web pages, think of it as an overall first impression, a gestalt feeling that sets the theme for the entire web page.

The usual mistake is some web designer put unimportant things on the top left place, so loose the chance to introduce most important thing to browsers.