The team reports on events within the Student Union, University and around Newcastle, as well as National and International news stories. Each week's show is made up of stories we think will interest Newcastle students, Comment pieces and voxpops offering student opinions and Editorials offering my own as Head of News!
We are closely affiliated with NuTV's News Team and so many of our stories and interviews can also be found as videos on YouTube and NuTV's website. So far this year we've been fortunate enough to film Nobel Prize Winning poet Seamus Heaney reciting his latest poem commissioned by Newcastle University, we interviewed world famous British photographer Martin Parr before his latest exhibition opening at the BALTIC and we reported on the recent student demonstration against the BNP outside of Newcastle's BBC building. All these films can be found at www.NUTV.co.uk.
In this week's show...
Jennifer Hudson reported on the government's recent decision to make sex education compulsory for all school children over the age of 5. Parents are however allowed to withdraw their children from these lessons upto the age of 15. Religious schools must teach pupils about subjects such as homosexuality and contraception, however are permitted to also apply their own values and ethos. Safe-sex campaigners hope that the new laws will result in a reduction in the number of teen pregnancies in the UK.
I reported on France's accusation of the Tories effectively 'castrating' the UK in Europe. This is after David Cameron reiterated his party's stance on Europe, which continues to be highly Euro-sceptic. He spoke of, 'strengthening British sovereignity'. France's Europe Minister Pierre Lellouche described Torie EU plans as pathetic and warned that under a Conservative government, 'Britain's risk is one of marginalisation. Irrelevance.'
Alex Bishop commented on media mogul Rupert Murdoch's plans to introduce charges for the online content of his newspapers, which include The Sun, The Times and The Wall Street Journal. Three months ago Murdoch claimed his websites would be charging by next June, however last week he admitted that meeting this deadline was now unlikely. There are still widespread concerns as to whether this is a feasible move or whether it is likely to result in a fall in readership. Murdoch has also threatened to block Google from his website and have all news content removed from the search enginge. He described Google as a 'parasite' and has accused it of 'kleptomania' in the past.
The NewsTeam also attended a screening of 'The Age of Stupid' in theStudent Union, and below is the review I wrote after seeing the film.
"Last night Newcastle University’s People and Planet Society hosted a screening of the ‘Age Of Stupid’ in the Student Union. The docu-film about climate change was directed by Franny Armstrong, best known for making McLibel, and stars actor Pete Postlethwaite.
The film opens with a scene of London, the Eye partly submerged in a flooded Thames, Sydney Opera House is consumed by bush fires, Las Vegas is crumbling in a windswept desert. The year is 2055, a date I hope we all plan on seeing. Pete Postlethwaite is ‘the archivist’, alone in his tower in a no longer icy Artic, he guards the world’s art relics, books and films, watches archive footage and wonders where it all went wrong. The message is clear – the planet is in tatters, most of us are dead and we brought it on ourselves... we ignored the danger of climate change.
Thus far, it’s what you would expect. Doom and gloom, the end of the world and some computer graphics to depict it that we struggle to take seriously. Animation has never really scared me into mending my ways, and anything set in the future I happily disregard as fantasy.
However the footage the archivist looks back at is genuine documentary footage, some made by the film’s producers, others from genuine news reports and headlines. Being shown news clip after news clip does bring home just how much climate change is discussed in the media, in politics and in science. Culturally, we are in fact fully aware of what could potentially happen to the planet, regardless of whether we choose to believe it or care about it. Not one of us could categorically claim that global warming is not occurring or that carbon emissions are not affecting the planet. Perhaps the situation is not as serious as some would have us believe, perhaps it is. But no one can claim blissful ignorance of the possibilities, particularly not in the media saturated West.
The film splits into various documentaries, different people’s stories from across the world. An environmentally friendly family in Cornwall who recycle, produce half their own food and have their own wind turbine. An Indian tycoon from a very wealthy business family setting up India’s first budget airline. A Nigerian woman who wants to train as a doctor because Shell oil halted the building of a medical centre that they promised to provide when they started drilling for oil. A man who lost everything to hurricane Katrina. An 82 year old mountain guide, in tears because the glacier is melting. They’re interesting stories, they really are, but at times it’s as transparently sentimental as it sounds, we are on heroes and villains turf here.
The most interesting of these stories for me was the Indian business man, Jeh Wadia, as his portrayal by the film’s producers was so ambiguous. The film never explicitly condemned him for setting up his budget airline, in fact it allows him to explain to us that his ambition is to combat the unfair wealth divide in India. We see him volunteering at charities that help the poor, but we see him fly there in a private jet. We see him creating a company from scratch, but his business style appeared to be quietly mocked. Throughout the film, flying was portrayed as the ultimate sin, the most heinous of crimes... flying is even likened to the holocaust... in a, ‘yes everyone’s doing it but we may look back and regret it’ sense.
Short of burning down an entire forest, travelling by plane is the most harmful contribution an individual can make to global warming apparently. Oh dear.
The film was clear in explaining that countries like India had no way near the carbon consumption of those like the US, and that it would be permitted to continue a controlled growth in coming years. However the Indian airline was clearly the villain of the piece and I thought this unfair finger pointing in a country where millions must spend days travelling on run down, slow and unreliable trains.
Ultimately, this is a film with a message, and a relevant and powerful one at that. As a result, it is bound to be somewhat one sided. It describes itself as a ‘cautionary tale’, its job therefore is to present a forceful argument. I may have my criticisms of the way in which the argument was presented, but I was convinced that to stick my head in the sand is not only naive but selfish and foolish. The archivist’s final comment is that we committed suicide as a race, the film certainly convinced me that we are heading for destruction and it is a harrowing thought."
Tune in at 12pm next Wednesday for our next News program, or check this blog for a quick summary of our stories each week. Remember to keep checking the NUTV site for our News videos as well. If you're interested in writing for the News Team, come along to our meeting at 12pm on Fridays in Committee Room A, first floor of the Student Union. Alternatively email us at nsr.news@ncl.ac.uk if you'd like to get involved or know of any stories or events that you think we should cover.
Beatrice Pickup
Head of News
No comments:
Post a Comment