For the past 3 days I have had a very hard time constantly the Wilberforce Institute. I have emailed, rang and also left my number but didn’t hear anything back.
Luckily, whilst handing in today I got a phone call fro John Oldfield – the director of WISE and managed to get a good brief interview with him for my news story.
Modern slavery is a surprisingly unknown concept happening under the radar right now. Many people hear the word slavery and wouldn’t think it was a problem happening in today’s society. The Telegraph published statistics showing that there has been a 47% increase in slavery victims since 2012.
Obviously including forced labour, being a victim of modern slavery or ‘human trafficking’ also includes sexual exploitation and abuse. Slavery isn’t exclusive amongst adults either, statistics show that 1 in 4 victims are actually children (1). There is estimated to be at least 5 million children across the world that are victims of human trafficking.
Many organizations exist in hopes to educate people about modern slavery such as EndSlaveryNow and AntiSlavery. Although many cases are found within countries such as Romania, Nigeria and Vietnam human trafficking still takes place and is prominent within the UK.
Unseen is one of the UK based organisations that works to provide a helpline for victims of modern slavery. Unlike other countries, many cases of human trafficking in England happen in plain site. Every day business’ such as takeaways, nail salons and car washes use forced labour on many illegal immigrants.
Within Hull there is one prominent organisation that works to provide information on modern slavery. The Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (W.I.S.E) aims “produce high quality and innovative research on slavery in all its forms, historical and contemporary. Advancing public understanding of both historic and contemporary slavery, thereby informing political and social change.” (2)
Last year W.I.S.E the conducted a poll which showed that whilst most of the general public were aware of modern slavery, over half of them( 55%) admitted to not being educated on the most common warning signs. So whilst modern slavery is known amongst the public the scale of the issue in the UK today is vastly underestimated.
Speaking to John Oldfield, the Director of W.I.S.E he said their main aim is to raise awareness about modern slavery. “We run campaigns such the #hiddeninplainsight campaign, which we ran last year on Anti-Slavery Day (18 October) which reached 18 million people.”
The #HiddeninPlainSight campaign saw Hull University student’s leave ‘human packaging’ – cardboard bord boxes – marked with facts about human trafficking and how prominent it is in society. A survey taken for this campaign showed that 8% of the people that took park truly understood the true scale of the amount of victims of slavery today.
Other than campaigns W.I.S.E work alongside the government and public services, Oldfield said “We’re working with Humberside Police and the Humber Modern Slavery Partnership to raise awareness of ‘what to look’ for, at the same time raising awareness of potential ‘hot spots’, e.g. nail bars, car washes, building sites.”
The issue of modern slavery is only growing, but it doesn’t have to continue being that way. Some warning signs include confinement and appearing detached from others. Many human trafficking victims will rarely have identification documents or many personal possessions in general. Other warnings are signs of abuse and a fear/reluctance to seek help from others. Educating yourself and others around you on the warning signs is the first step to reducing the number of victims we see each year.
The specialism topic that I chose for my feature. Since I started in first year I knew fashion was the route I wanted to take so I am happy I could finally do something I wanted.
I chose to do a trend feature speaking about the trends of the festival season. I was going to try and make it local and base it around the Big Weekend happening in Hull however I couldn’t get the amount of words I needed to so I decided to make it broader and do trends in general.
I feel because this would be more of a regional feature as opposed to local it would best suit publications such as Grazia or Glamour magazine. When reading features to give myself inspiration I realised that these publication usually publish features such as this.
I am happy with the end piece I have however I believe I could have some stronger sources in there. I wish I managed to get in touch with a well known fashion blogger such as Sarah Ashcroft or Tasha Green or internet personalities that attended Coachella to speak about the trends. I also feel like I could have differentiated between trends within the UK and trends in America.
One thing that I struggled with at first was the structure of my article. I was finding making it flow very hard to do, when I looked at other similar features I realised that they were listed in terms of trends. When I tried doing this is didn’t read correctly and I found it hard concluding it.
When I removed the list I re-read it all and re-structured it and managed to make it flow a lot better and find a conclusion for it. I do believe though that my concluding paragraph is not as strong as it could be.
The specialism topic I chose for this news story is fashion, the same as my feature.
I found the news story harder to find than the feature, as I tried to keep it local. Not many things fashion related where happening in Hull at the time so I decided to base it around a shop moving.
Because it is so local and based around a store in Hull I feel this could only really fit within the Hull Daily Mail as it wouldn’t fit or seem relevant in any other publication out of Hull.
In terms of sources I have used the same source in this that I also have within my specialism feature, which I feel like could have been changed. However, I did manage to get an interview with a local fashion blogger and freelance writer that attended the event.
I feel like this is a good news story but I could have done with some extra statistics from Princes Quay to speak about the declining footfall in the centre, I also could have got an interview with a person of authority that could have added to the validity of my news story.
One of the biggest topics of discussion in the journalism industry at the minute is whether print is dead. Not only within the newspaper industry, over the past decade magazine sales have dropped drastically. Many magazines are having to either lower their prices or be given for free to keep people interested.
In February 2016 Cosmopolitan’s monthly circulation grew by 57%, which seems positive for the magazine industry. However, for this to happen they had to cut their price from £3.80 to £1. Many other magazines figures are constantly dropping every year, with ABC figures showing that “Print-only circulation for the period fell by 5.83% year-on-year”. The biggest fall in percentages throughout 2016 was to Heat magazine “which saw both its print and combined totals fall by more than 22% year-on-year”.
However, circulation percentages are not the only factor contributing to the death of the print magazine industry. Advertisers that would have once given magazines a lot of their money are now looking to advertise online or on social media with online personalities.
Due to the downfall in circulation and drop in ad pages many magazines many have opted to go online only. Jet magazine,which includes things from lifestyle, advice, fashion, health etc one of the first magazines to abandon print and go digital only in 2009. (Nicholas, 2017). Likewise, InformationWeek also went online only in 2013 after what they described at a “terrifically turbulent” year, recieving only 5% revenue from print ads.
Despite the drop in print magazines, there are also many new print magazines have launched within recent years. Coach magazine launched based around health and fitness and News UK launched Popcorn, a film magazine. The one thing all of these publications have in common that they are very niche, Joely Carey argued that magazines can only survive in specific niche markets as “they’re appealing to a smaller, highly engaged, often commercially sweet, audience and so their profitability and their chance of success is a little brighter.” (Carey, 2017).
Barbara Rowlands from The Guardian has argued that the magazines future will infact be digital, saying that print magazines are no longer interesting enough and that the “iPad edition and the app, with its galleries and high-definition videos, its exclusive offers and interactivity, is where the magazine’s strength now lies.” (Rowlands, 2013).
Carey, J. (2017). The magazine market isn’t dead, it’s different. [online] Journalism.co.uk. Available at: https://www.journalism.co.uk/news-commentary/the-magazine-market-isn-t-dead-it-s-different/s6/a698229/ [Accessed 18 May 2017].
Nicholas, D. (2017). 5 Pubs Who Abandoned Print For Digital-Only Magazines. [online] Mequoda Daily. Available at: http://www.mequoda.com/articles/digital-magazine-publishing/digital-only-magazines/ [Accessed 18 May 2017].
Rowlands, B. (2013). The fall and rise of magazines from print to digital. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/07/fall-rise-magazines-print-digital [Accessed 18 May 2017].
Stuart-Turner, R. (2016). ABC results show overall circulation decline but success for some sectors | PrintWeek. [online] Printweek.com. Available at: http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1158595/abc-results-show-overall-circulation-decline-but-success-for-some-sectors [Accessed 18 May 2017].
Throughout the second semester I was chosen to be the ‘editor’ of the self-initiated project. At first I believed this was a good idea, everyone was meshing well and we were coming up with some great ideas for the website. However, I then realised I was not the correct person to be editor. Personally, I don’t have the passion on the topic to be able to lead everyone. My motivation this semester was also at the lowest therefor I believe the group as a whole would have benefitted a lot more having a different editor, either Paul or Danielle.
I also believe that people in the group were getting very frustrated with myself as an editor and lack of motivation by others in the group however weren’t voicing their opinion clearly until the end so nothing really got done about it.
In terms of content, I was very adamant that I was going to do fashion based stories. After researching I soon realised this wasn’t going to be as easy as I initially thought. I couldn’t get in contact with any big high-street brands. There has also been a change in a lot of the ethics used within the fashion industry which made it a lot harder for me.
I wanted a lot of the content for the website to be very multimedia and immersive, this just hasn’t happened. The Heider documentary was one of my favourite story ideas however we never managed to get in contact with him or create it. The content that has been created feels very forced, especially the only piece I am going to be able to submit. My contribution to the website is definitely not my best work.
I did have other story ideas which I just never progressed, due to lack of motivation and passion for the subject in general. I now wish I had taken a head on approach to this project as a whole as everyone else has some really interesting stories and I believe it could have been a really great website with some interesting content.
I definitely feel slightly frustrated that I was once again not able to take the course the way I initially wanted it to go when I first started in the first year. I personally believe the self-initiated section of this semester should have been a lot more free-reign as that is what I was most looking forward to.
To conclude, I feel if this project had to be summed up in one word it would be lacklustre. It felt very uninteresting to me, everyone lacked the passion on the subject that I feel like we needed to succeed at it.
When Coachella kicks off in LA you know festival season is just around the corner. Everyone enviously stares at photo’s of the celebrities and gathers inspiration for their own festival outfits.
Festivals in the UK however are much less sunshine and glitter and more mud and welly’s. If you’re one of the lucky ones you might catch a good weekend where you get 18-20 degree weather and might not actually have to wear your Hunters (even though you secretly wanted to).
Other than the music and the atmosphere the one thing everyone looks forward to throughout the festival season is without a doubt the fashion. The cropped Levi’s and paisley print garments are a year in, year out staple for everyone.
But with the year changing so do the trends, here is a list of the 5 definitive trends you need to be wearing this festival season.
1) Vintage Classics –
With BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend being hosted in Hull this year many quaint vintage shops are flocking to stock this year’s must-have pieces. Although nothing can quite get you in the festival fabulous mind-set like H&M’s yearly ‘Coachella’ collection, timeless vintage pieces are perfect for that effortless, comfy grunge look.
Alfie Appleton, the owner of Hull’s infamous ‘Chinese Laundry’ said “Vintage fashion is ideal for festivals we can provide a full outfit from converse a pair of Levis shorts and an ethnic gypsy top”. When asked about his personal favourite key-piece for the festival season he chose a ‘US camouflage jacket’ as they are ‘ideal to layer on top of your outfit for a relaxed rock n roll style’.
2) 80’s Details –
Last year’s festivals were filled with flared trousers and hippie print dresses. Moving on from the 70’s the 80’s is the decade to watch this season. Long gone are the day’s of “all black everything” as orange really is the new black. Bright, vibrant colours such as yellow, pink and orange are taking high-street stores such as New Look and Zara by storm.
Although we aren’t going back to full 90 degree shoulder pads and fluorescent leg warmers, many 80’s trends are making a comeback. Over-sized denim jackets are the must-have jacket of the season. Graffiti, embroidery and patching are the perfect ways to give a unique edge to any jacket. Although many high street stores sell them, giving your own flair to a jacket makes it so much more personal and fun.
3) Denim –
That moves me on to the next major trend on the list. Denim is sweeping the fashion world, everywhere you turn is some form of either distressed, studded or frayed denim garment. From jackets to jeans, dresses, skirts and shirts. Even double denim is cool again! Although this is most definitely going to be one of the trends that you look back on in 5 years and think “why on earth did I ever wear that?”, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it whilst it lasts.
Festivals are going to be absolutely flooded with everyone wearing true denim pieces. Stylist Paige Newton, who also works for Poor Boy Boutique spoke on this season’s trends saying that “I think people are going for an edgier look this year instead of the cliché boho, Vanessa Hudgens style. Fringing is a typical festival trend, but this year it seems to have been swapped for studding. Studded denim jackets and skirts are something I see everywhere I look.”
4) The Ruffle –
It is no secret that ruffles are definitely the detail of the season. You can take any item of clothing, add an oversized ruffle and you are right on trend. This particular detailing was once branded as extravagant and childish. Who would dare wear a ruffled collar? Now the likes of Glamour magazine are branding it ‘elegant’ and ‘feminine’.
Perfect to split up your grungy casual pieces, a ruffled hem skirt or a bardot top is perfect to add a an innocent girly touch to a festival outfit. They are also perfect as their own accessory, there is no need for a dramatic necklace or an uncomfortable pair of earrings.
5) Athleisure –
One of the biggest trends of the past year has been ‘athleisure’. With the rise of brands such as Ellesse and Adidas Originals many people are going to be switching their brown suede boots for a pair of adidas Superstars. A pair of trainers gives any outfit an effortlessly cool vibe and there is so much choice from Stan Smiths to Nike Air Force 1’s.
Even designers such as Alexander Wang and Dolce & Gabbana showed an extensive range of modern athleisure in their Spring/Summer shows sporting retro colour blocking and skin tight bodysuits.
Nike released a collection dedicated especially to all the festival goers that want to look cool but still comfy at the same time. With a range of colourful sport’s bra’s and crop tops accompanied by a range of running shoes and everyones favourite ‘Classic Cortez’ shoes to add a retro look.
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