Is the Department of Work and Pensions wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money?

This week, I came to terms with the fact that I have to start claiming jobseeker’s allowance. It was a disheartening moment for my never-claimed-before self but I always said that if I was unemployed for more than six weeks, I would have to bite the bullet and get some help (and of course, stop scrounging from my parents.) Last Friday hit the six-week mark and so I attended a meeting at my local job centre on Tuesday.

I mentioned to the gentleman dealing with my claim that I have a job interview lined up and he proceeded to tell me about the Travel to Interview Scheme; a fantastic incentive offering jobseekers help with travel costs to attend interviews.

Having already booked my travel tickets – a single train journey from Cardiff to London and a single bus journey from London to Cardiff totalling £21.50, I took the confirmation details to the jobcentre the next day in order to be reimbursed.

The lady dealing with my request said she had never before seen tickets to and from London at such a cheap price (I personally thought £21.50 was quite expensive as in the past, I’ve had a return for £12 on megabus.com) She said that in order for me to be reimbursed, she had to check that the job centre’s ticket price was more expensive than mine (usually they provide the tickets for you and don’t deal with reimbursements). What proceeded to happen shocked me. 

The lady called one rail enquiry phone number and priced a return rail ticket from Cardiff to London at £61.70. When I enquired about the cost of bus journeys, she said “Oh no, we only use rail.” No questions were asked about any railcards I hold in order to receive discount, and more surprisingly, she didn’t research the price further in order to find a cheaper cost. She took £61.70 as the gospel price for a return journey to London.

Basically, in buying my tickets in advance, I saved the jobcentre £40.20. But most jobseekers taking part in the Travel to Interview Scheme don’t pre-buy tickets and, understandably, wait for the jobcentre to provide the tickets for them. So, how much money is the Department of Work and Pensions wasting on buying full-price tickets and not shopping round for discounted rates on travel websites, such as Trainline, National Express and Megabus that regularly offer good deals on ticket prices?

Is the DWP wasting millions of taxpayers' money on the Travel to Interview Scheme?

Latest figures show that 1.46 million people in the UK are claiming jobseekers.  If I saved the jobcentre £40.20 on travel costs for one interview, then the scale of money being wasted on the Travel to Interview Scheme is likely to be gastronomical. 

Of course, in trying to find a contact address to write to somebody about the above, I was bombarded with email addresses for all types of benefit enquiries - but not one for the Travel to Interview Scheme and so in my frustration and utter disbelief, I have written to the Prime Minister!   

Whilst the incentive is great, the way it is being handled needs to be addressed in order to put taxpayers’ hard-earned money to better use.

Better luck next time England, really

So that’s it for another four years – England are out of the World Cup after a shameful 4-1 loss against Germany. Alan Hansen hit the nail right on the head when he described the English play as, “Four levels lower than abysmal.” Now that is a pretty bad level to be at. In fact, I don’t think there’s a word in the English language to define that level of abysmalness.

But why do I care? I was born and raised in Wales, a country that Anne Robinson put into Room 101 the same week that Jeremy Clarkson put a 3D plastic map of Wales in a microwave on his show, Clarkson. If I was a true Welsh woman, then surely I’d fight back to those childish, discriminatory actions and not support England in anything?

Well, quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to stoop to that level, as it is four levels below abysmal. But there is also a more valid reason why I support England in any tournament that Wales hasn’t qualified for.

Although Wales is a nation in itself, it is of course part of Great Britain, and so it seems only right to support our neighbouring country in an international competition that Wales isn’t in. Yes, we may have had our run-ins with the English (mostly on Six Nation rugby match days) but deep down, we want our neighbour to do well. Really. And that’s because we’ve been through a lot together. 

Step outside of the world of sport for one moment and think about what Wales and England have achieved. Yesterday’s Armed Forces Day celebrations brought a reminder that both Welsh and English troops worked together (along with Scottish and N.Irish) to win two world wars and are currently fighting hard in a third war. The scale of this partnership and achievement outweighs any Wales/England nationalist banter that takes place during rugby season. 

A quick look at my Facebook news feed from Welsh friends during today’s game reinforced the view that a lot of Welsh people wanted England to win today, with Karen Samuel from Aberdare claiming that Lampard’s goal was, ”Totally in. Unbelievable,” and Angharad Thomas from Newport voicing her anger at the referee’s decision, “That was IN! Right then England, just smash them.”

It would be easy for the Welsh to take England’s embarrassing 2010 World Cup defeat and throw it back in their faces for the next four years, but we won’t. And that’s because we feel defeated too.

Better luck next time England, really.

Welsh friends updating their Facebook status to show their support for England today

iPhone and long nails – recipe for text disaster

And so I have finally relented to the technological tyrant that is Apple and have treated myself to a nifty little iPhone. Yes, it’s lovely – looks great, feels great and I can now call myself a ”proper” journalist (Rory Cellan-Jones told us in a lecture last semester that noone would take you seriously in the journo world if you didn’t have one!) But I have also experienced some teething problems.

There's a gap in the market for a nail-friendly iPhone

Basically, my long nails are making it hard to type letters on the touch keypad and I’m finding myself looking like Mini-Me from Austin Powers as I use my little finger to type a text. Hardly the slick action I expected from my iPhone purchase. I’m frustrated that my index-finger nail can’t be used instead of the finger and my friend Lizzie informed me I’m not the only woman who has been annoyed by this. An article by the LA Times in June 2008 (OK, I’m two years behind but better late than never) says that nails can’t be used because the iPhone only reacts to swipes of the finger. This is not good for women with long nails, like myself, and the sad fact is, there doesn’t seem to be any progression towards developing a nail-friendly iPhone. What a shame – definitely a gap in the market. 

Although the iPhone has an automatic word search if wrong letters are inputted, there have been times where I’ve pressed the button that’s two buttons down to the one I actually want, and a random word comes up instead, so the word search isn’t always effective.

On the plus side, the apps are very impressive and I’m especially excited to use the aroundme app when I’m at work experience at new! magazine in London Bridge next week. And maps is a handy tool as I am not the best at directions, so I will definitely use that frequently. I also love the fact that you can see the message history you’ve had with somebody as sometimes you ask a question, forget what you’ve asked, they respond “yes” or “no” and you’re sat there for 10 minutes trying to remember what you asked. With the pretty colour co-ordinated speech bubbles containing past correspondence, I know exactly where I am.

Overall the iPhone is a sexy, useful accessory, even if my nails are getting in the way of typing coherent text messages. I may have to sacrifice long nails in my quest to become a “proper” journalist – “Such commitment,” I hear you ladies say. Absolutely.

Liz Jones – Should we be forced to care for our elderly mothers?

Hi people,

I know I have been unbelievably slack in updating my blog the past three months and I apologise profusely. I have many a lame excuse for my poor show including holidays, exams and loads of uni work so please be kind and show me forgiveness.

Liz Jones cared for her eldery mother for just two weeks

I am not required to write blogs on lecture topics this term so you’ll all be glad to know I will be talking about more fun/controversial/shocking things that have caught my eye in the media.

This week’s focus is on Liz Jones’ article Should we be forced to care for our elderly mothers? 

Much like writing a letter of complaint, I felt the best way to voice my anger and frustration to this article was to write Liz Jones a personal letter. See below:

Dear Liz,

I feel compelled to write to you to tell you how selfish and insensitive you have come selfish and insensitive you have come across to the British public with your shameless confession that you would not look after your mother when she became immobile, fragile and helpless with age.

Yes, credit should be given to you for bringing her into your home at the first signs of her needing you but after just two weeks, you gave up on her. You left the woman who cared, loved and nurtured you through your early years to be move into a nursing home.

And ok, this may be the only option for many people who do not have the time and resources to look after elderly parents but these are not your only excuses for not supporting your mother when she needs you.

You’re too wrapped up in the glory of your home and relationship to care for anyone else but yourself. To say that you didn’t want your Mum to live with you because her wheelchair left nasty tram lines on your Georgian wooden floor is obscene and you should be ashamed of demoralising your mother in this way. Your early childhood (from what we know) was a happy one, you says, “She was a proper, stay-at-home mum, the sort who made stews and ensured [we] never once made my own bed or ironed [our] own clothes. She sacrificed everything for her seven children: she would do housework after we went to bed.”

So for you to give up on your mother so callously is despicable.

To say that having “the strain of having an elderly, incontinent adult to care for does little for marital relationships,” is an absurd judgment to make after just a fortnight of you looking after her, or perhaps more fittingly, “accommodating her” because quite frankly, you did not look after her. You cared for two weeks, and failed. Change the weeks into years, and then it would be justifiable for you to give up and move her to a nursing home.

Yours,

Lisa

Capture Cardiff: Harmonica brings hope to stroke survivors

A local man has developed a pioneering method of helping stroke survivors in their recovery process; by teaching them to play the harmonica.

Derek Donovan, from Creigiau, near Cardiff , visits a local stroke patient weekly, teaching him to play popular songs on the harmonica. He has achieved impressive results leading to a new and successful method in music therapy for stroke survivors.

Derek, aged 69, met Charles Cottrell three years ago when he taught a group of eight stroke patients at a social services resource centre, Cordhouse, in Fairwater, Cardiff. There, Derek formed a harmonica band of stroke patients called Cord Allstars. He taught them to play popular songs such as Amazing Grace and When the Saints go Marching in, which they performed to other stroke patients at Cardiff’s Royal Infirmary (CRISP).

Derek Donovan has discovered a new and successful way of helping stroke survivors

During this performance at CRISP, Charles took an instant interest in Derek’s harmonica. Louise, Charles’s wife, says, “Charles always had an interest in music, he used to be in a band years ago. He saw the harmonica, picked it up and started playing it. That was the last Derek saw of it”.

Since then, Derek has visited Charles, who suffered a stroke in April 2006, at his home in Cardiff and has formed a special bond with him. “I’ve made a friend of him and I still play the harmonica with him. I’m sure he enjoys it and has achieved so much considering how debilitating the stroke has been for him.”

Derek began his teaching career ten years ago after retiring from his job as a logistics manager. He taught an evening class to members of Cardiff Council’s Adult and Community Learning sector for five years. After that, he was approached by Judith Godfrey, a member of Cardiff Council’s Disability Advisory Resource Team (D.A.R.T), and she asked if he would like to teach the stroke patients at Cordhouse. Judith says, “I worked with Derek in adult education and changed job roles to D.A.R.T. There was funding opportunity to incorporate music into helping stroke patients and I thought of Derek because of his personality and talent. He’s the type of person that motivates people and is very creative and imaginative.”  

  Listen to Derek talk about teaching stroke survivors

Derek’s creativity is apparent through the easy-to-read song sheet he designed to make teaching easier and more effective. He uses a musical stave, cuts out all the bars, flats, crotches and places blue and red coloured notes on the stave; blue to blow into the harmonica and red to draw. He says, “The holes in the harmonica are numbered so I put the number of the hole inside the note on the sheet. If you look at the blue note and it’s number five, you blow into hole number five. If you take a blues harmonica, you can play When the Saints go Marching in on three holes so I tape up the rest with insulation tape. I only show three holes so either the left, right or middle; it becomes very easy.”

Derek has devised an easy-to-read song sheet to help teach stroke survivors

As well as bringing something different to the stroke patients’ day at Cordhouse, Derek found that playing the harmonica encouraged them to be more in control of their breathing, concentration and co-ordination. Judith Cobbett from the Stroke Information Service of the Stroke Association says, “It sounds as though Mr Donovan is helping people to achieve their potential through an enjoyable creative outlet, with additional incidental benefits – a method that achieves this is really valuable to people in recovery from stroke. It is always interesting to hear of innovative approaches to stroke rehabilitation, and this is certainly a new one for me.”

Derek’s classes have also been proven to have a positive effect on patients’ behaviour. Charles’s wife, Louise says, “Charles’s stroke was so acute that it’s left him completely paralysed on his right hand side. He can’t talk and suffers from dysphagia, which means he struggles to eat. It can make him very agitated and frustrated, but when he sees Derek, he’s like a different person. Playing the harmonica with him makes Charles so happy. He always liked music and used to play in a group before the stroke, I think Derek brings back happy memories for him.”

Derek's teaching also brings back happy memories for patients

Although medically proven that music therapy helps stroke patients in their recovery process, the harmonica is certainly a unique and special approach that brings pleasure to everyone involved. “I just want to bring joy into people’s lives just like the harmonica brings to me,” says Derek. One thing’s for sure, Derek certainly brings a great deal of joy into Charles’s life.

See Derek perform Summertime below:

I have a confession – I am starting to like Microsoft Excel

After three years of my high-flying London friends telling me that Microsoft Excel is “amazing” because it can “crunch numbers” so much faster than anything else, making work a lot more efficient, accurate and accessible, I think I’m starting to believe them (and I hate admitting that I’m wrong.)

As you may have gathered from previous posts, I am a self-confessed techno phobe (which was evident again the other day when the mic I used on an interviewee had run out of battery and I had a mini stress), so being told I’d be using Microsoft Excel all day every day when I started at Arcadia was hardly music to my ears.

I spent a lot of time at work doing love charts instead of developing my excel skills

After a fortnight of inputting data in Excel and making it look pretty with different coloured fonts, fills, borders and font styles, I was instructed to perform a vlookup. “A what?” I said, greatly bemused. Let’s just say it was probably the best thing I learnt in my first month there – not just because of it’s funky name and because I could actually make the function work (a miracle), but because it made my job of searching through 400+ stores’ sales and stock information a doddle. And anything that made work a doddle had to be a good thing.

But my senior at the time, and my now good friend Sarah, dismissed the vlookups power, referring to it as “The poor man’s sumif.” And so she directed me towards the slightly more advanced function of the sumif; another handy way of collating data and relaying it back in a readable form (and probably a bit more reliable than the vlookup because if you insert extra columns, it takes note of this and changes the data accordingly – get me!)

So, when our lecturer Glyn told us that Microsoft Excel was a useful tool in making investigative journalism easier and more accessible, it fondly brought back memories of the software I had initially resented (my resentment wasn’t all Excel’s fault, I generally hate anything to do with numbers and computers – apart from Microsoft Word – love that.)

Admittedly, knowing how to perform a sumif, vlookup and how to sort data by a filter probably won’t help me unearth major stories based on government spending, but I feel it’s a good start.

Glyn told us that Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR), which refers to the tools and techniques that help you think up story ideas and research investigative stories, is a form of journalism which is still relatively new in the UK. It originally developed from journalists using tools used by social scientists and spreadsheets and database managers.  The tools include; email, internet browsers, search engines, spreadsheets and databases and will assist you in developing, evaluating and analysing data effectively; taking you a step closer to getting that elusive scoop that every journalist dreams about.

Lucky for us, there are public bodies available online with lots of government information such as the Electoral Commission and you can apply for membership to UK Government Data. These sources will provide figures on interesting topics which journalists can apply CAR to and hopefully uncover something of interest. 

I like the thought of detective work and achieving a scoop out if it, but I’m not so keen on the idea of working with numbers. Hopefully my high-flying London friends can brush up my excel skills before I enter the world of work again – and yes, that is me requesting lessons in excel. My old boss would be proud.

Would you pay for online news?

Today, media tycoon and entrepreneur, Rupert Murdoch, emphasised his belief that online newspaper paywalls must be introduced in order to protect news sources and increase digital revenues. He pledges that by Spring, we will have to pay to view his newspapers online.

A recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive said that if people came across an online paywall on a news site, 74% of them would find another site to get their news from, 8% would use the paywall news site for free headlines and the remaining 18% would pay the charge.

The reasons given for being unwilling to pay is that people feel they could find the same news for free on another website.

Leading provider of professional services, KPMG also conducted a survey that said 60% of people would rather consume videos with ads for free than have to pay for it.

Murdoch wants people to pay for online news

But how accurate are these poll results? Harris Interactive were also the researchers that claimed more than half of UK voters back the death penalty, when in fact they asked just 1800 British people; a tiny proportion of the 47 million UK voters. 

Similarly, they asked just 1118 people about their views on the paywall scheme, which again fails to offer a fair representation of the British public’s views on paying for news online.

There is a theory that Murdoch is introducing a payment scheme in the hope that it could be an exercise in promoting printed papers.

Murdoch’s British newspaper publisher, News International, last year spent £650 million on three state-of-the-art UK printing presses, suggesting he feels there’s longevity in print media. If this is true, then is this such a bad thing? Surely it would help new journalists in the job stakes?

Let’s see what you think…

Is getting a job in journalism about having qualifications, experience or being a blogger?

Despite really enjoying my postgrad study in journalism, last week, for a brief spell, I had second thoughts about whether I had gone the right way about achieving my future dream of becoming a journalist.

The agitation began on Tuesday when our tutor Tim Holmes showed us David Hepworth’s blog. Hepworth, most famous for launching The Word magazine says, “I spent years in a big company interviewing people for jobs and I never once looked at their educational qualifications. The tiniest bit of experience, whether it was professional or a student rag, counted far more than a wearying list of the modules they had passed (for passed read “sat through”.)

Hepworth believes experience beats qualifications in journalism

Journalism is about experience not qualifications. Hardly what I wanted to hear after forking out six grand on a postgrad course. For a moment I panicked that I’d made the wrong decision but then I composed myself and remembered why I applied for the course.

1. For personal gain - Although my time at Warwick Uni was an experience, I can’t say it was wholly enjoyable. Of course I made some fantastic friends for life, learnt how to live independently and how to be diligent and focused with work but the course wasn’t something I was passionate about. I was left with an educational void which I’m happy to say the postgrad is filling.
2. To prove something to my old school teachers – At 17 I was told not to apply for journalism at degree level as it was a “mickey mouse” subject which “wouldn’t get me anywhere in life.” Turns out that the friends who studied more focused degrees, such as occupational therapy, nursing, hospitality management are the ones who are sitting tight in jobs and more importantly, enjoy what they’re doing.
3. To get a job in journalism – For 18 months of my two and a half year stint at Arcadia Group Head Office, I applied for editorial assistant roles and received the same old reply “Your CV shows potential, however, there are other candidates more qualified than you.” 

All of the above made me realise that despite Hepworth’s statement, I’m confident I will achieve my goal with the help of my postgrad course.

Hepworth doesn't believe qualifications are important in journalism.

This positivity lasted until Thursday when I heard another disconcerting story from our guest lecturer, Joanna Geary.  Joanna is Web Development Editor at the Times and as a late-twenty something (can’t find her actual age), becoming an editor is quite an achievement. A further factor to her success, and here is where it becomes unsettling, is that Joanna has done it all without a journalism qualification. Instead she did it by blogging. After another mini panic about forking out all this money on a potentially useless course, I realised that Joanna was, unlike many, ahead of the journalist game. Blogging wasn’t a big thing in the world of journalism when she started in 2007, but she saw its potential for the future of journalism and used it to voice current, topical subjects that called for discussion.

Ironically, part of Joanna’s success came through her lack of knowledge on subjects. She would ask questions in her blog which spurred debates and created a community of people interacting. Jeff Jarvis picked up on her blog, offered her a job reference for a job she was applying for at the Birmingham Post and the rest is history.

Blogging is key for the future of journalism

So, after much deliberation on whether getting a job in journalism is about having qualifications, experience or being a blogger/social media fiend, I conclude that all three are vital requirements for the future of journalism (along with the undisputed need for enthusiasm). Lucky that the postgrad course at Cardiff offers all of that and much more. Money well spent I say.

Out with the old and in with the new

BBC Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones gave us an engaging and upbeat talk about the difference between old journalism and new journalism and how society is heading for a new era in reporting and writing. 

He said back in the 1970s, journalists would carry lots of kit, have a strenuous job of finding stories through lack of internet and getting from A to B logistically, and had little choice in what they wrote. 

1970s journalists had less power over what they wanted to report

But the journalists of today have much more scope – they are interactive, can act as both a ‘lone wolf’ and team player and are multi-skilled in terms of the use of video, audio and social media.

As well as this, Rory discussed the changes in audiences from the 1970s to today. He said in the 1970s callers were treated as mad because they were people who had nothing better to do with their time than ring up and moan. The difference today is that those with something to say about television/print/online have several ways of getting their view across – twitter, facebook, blogging, audio, visual, which they can access more readily on their mobile phones.  

Today’s audience are active, interactive, fragmented and citizen journalists. I really need to get rid of my Samsung circa 2005 mobile and embrace the eye opening world of the iPhone. It’ll make me a better journalist. Fact. Rory Cellan-Jones said so.

New age journalism is about being interactive

The new Quentin Tarantino?

Two weeks ago, the thought of making a short film scared the living daylights out of me. I’m not a techno phobe but I like to stick to what I know, which in the world of technology means Microsoft Word, iTunes and a mobile phone that you can text and make/receive calls on – none of that fancy sound/video recording stuff. So when I found out I had to go into uni on a Saturday for six hours to make a short film, I was far from ecstatic.

But, to my utter astonishment, I actually enjoyed it. I learned how to film wide shots and close ups straight (harder than you might think) and also the technicalities of shooting an interview (interviewee sits on the one side of the frame and looks into the other) and how to shoot four different angles of a person doing something (wide shot, close up, over the shoulder and close up of hands).  Before I knew it, I had made my first ever short film (albeit of random people in Cardiff city) and I was actually really proud of it.

So, it was great to have a follow-up lecture on Thursday lead by short film maker, Daniel Meadows. Daniel showed me a different way of film making than just live action shots. His films are made of  shots of photographs with a voiceover telling you a story.

Take a look at his Photobus film.  Through the use of powerful and emotive photographs, Daniel talks you through an intriguing story of the people he met when he lived and travelled around the UK on a double decker bus in 1975. Included in the film are photographs of the same people 25 years later, which provides the viewer with an interesting lineage and narrative to follow.

The lecture made me realise that a film doesn’t necessarily require movement in a collection of shots. The use of photographs is a way of capturing reality and is arguably as revealing and poignant as movement within a frame. Daniel said that the narrative should always be written first and the shots made up around it. He said attention should be paid to the speed, tone and timing of your voice in order to get your message across. Some short films his students have made can be found on the BBC Capture Wales website. One of my favourites is called Catching Up, a story about a daughter talking to her late father about their shared interest in photography. The collection of both her and her father’s photographs as she talks about his passion for photography tells stories that she doesn’t mention in her narrative e.g Her Dad’s military past, family holidays on the beach. So with the daughter’s voice over and the photographs, you get so much more out of this two minute film than you would out of a moving film.

Our course tutor has set us a task of making our own Capture Wales film. At the moment I have no idea what theme to concentrate on but I am surprisingly looking forward to making it. Maybe I’ll be the new Quentin Tarantino?

Or maybe not.