The SDC Newsroom

Constraints and Restrictions - Jonathan Ross / Russell Brand

All contracts are subject to constraints, there are three main areas of constraints that will affect you as a working individual.
Time
Resources
Money/costs
Professionalism - Legal and Ethical considerations.
Copyright
Personnel

1. What professional codes did the programme producers infringe?
 The programme presenters as well as producers certainly breached ethical and professional standards. Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand should have respected the privacy of Actor Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter.
2. Who do you think was responsible for these infringements?
The producers are more responsible for the penalty as they should have stopped the pre-recorded show from being aired as it was clearly breaching professional code. Even though the presenters should have been more mature and considerate while recording.
3. Could the Ofcom fines have been avoided?
After the radio show was aired, there was no way to undo it as people had already heard it so the fines had to be issued although they could have avoided the fines if the producers would have realised that the recording was obviously inappropriate.
4. What steps should a company take to avoid these problems occurring?
With such controversial presenters, like Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson, being hired to draw attention to shows, companies and broadcasters could hold yearly courses to remind presenters and producers of ethical and professional codes in the radio industry.

Proposal

Our group has came up with a phone/tablet application that we can publish our stories on. I think that this product is very practical as 7/10 people in the UK, between the age of 13-21, have a smartphone (via Ofcom). I think that this product can be extremely serviceable because of new media, not many people want to read a newspaper, or go to the shop and buy one, and to be honest most students probably don't even know there is a newsletter; this application let's the user (hopefully a student) get the news about their college/timetable/events easier and in a more practical way.

We think if we split the different sectors (that we think have the most potential stories with news values within the college) up and assigned one or two to each member of our group that would be the most efficient way to gather the most information for our stories. We don't think that the application would initially be popular as people our age might not want to read the college news, or even download an app although I think it would pick up as students will realize that it's only a few taps on their phone away to get all the information about events they might be partaking in and much more.

Importance of Working to a Brief

When working in the media industry, majority of work produced is produced for a client; whether it be a multi-million dollar company like the BBC, or a small, unheard of media company. When any company takes on new work, or they begin to create a new product, there will almost always be a brief. Briefs often come with a set budget, for someone like the BBC the budget could be as high £500,000 where as for a small company it'd be more in the region of 10,000-20,000 pounds - some contracts are non negotiable and you would have to work in line with what's on the paper although some are negotiable so you could talk things over with the client.

When presented with a brief, you and your colleagues (if you're not working freelance) need to confidently understand what is being asked of you as usually a brief is well thought out by a company and if you were to go out of line and make a mistake, or even went over the budget or time-scale of the brief they might not want the work that you have produced. When going over the brief, it's important that you consider the legal and ethical issues - some companies could even bring in a solicitor or a lawyer so they don't get into any trouble with the brief.

Different Types of Briefs

Contractual - A contractual brief exists when two parties are connected by a contract, if the contract is broken by either party legal action could be and most likely would be taken by the other party.

Negotiated - This contract exists when the two parties initially negotiate what's in the brief therefore leading to an agreement.

Informal - An informal brief is when two parties meet up face-to-face and discuss the contract in a social manner. It's a much more relaxed atmosphere where the two parties can negotiate and change the brief.

Formal - Formal briefs exist when a company uses certain, professional vocabulary to construct and the two parties would communicate via email/phone. Formal briefs are often ran by a consultant to make sure they're written within the strict legal guidelines; also to make sure there are no legal 'loopholes'.

Tender - This is when a client will pitch their brief to multiple different production companies and the companies will give an estimated cost and the client will then choose which company they wish to hire depending on the cost and what they can do for the client that differs from the rest of the companies.

Top Gear Ratings At An All-Time Low

With Clarkson sacked and his merry men going with him, Chris Evans has took the reins and it’s not going well to say the least. In the show’s 10 or even more, years running, it had an all-time low rating as of last week’s episode.

When the first episode launched, people thought it was going to be successful drawing in 10 million viewers, although steadily declining to 2.4 million (the all-time low).  The show’s consolidated audience for Sunday night will be substantially higher once people who recorded it and watch it in the next seven days are taken into account. Although, the ratings of the show are a huge indicator to the success of the show.

The BBC are saying that the viewing figures are so low as the European championship football match between Germany and Ukraine was aired at the same time as Evans’ show – which had almost seven million viewers. People are also saying Evans is not suitable for the role after being physically sick after being driven around at high speeds by his co-presenter.

Prior to this horrendous viewing figures last week, the lowest EVER viewing figure for a Top Gear episode – even in the Clarkson era was 2.7 million viewers back in 2003.

As some sort of consolation, Evans attacked critics verbally on social media saying that once recording figures come out the viewing numbers will spike suddenly.

Orlando Nightclub Shooting – Responsibility Taken By ISIS

At least 50, possibly more, have been killed in a nightclub in Orlando, USA with a possibility of over 70 more injured after what local authorities have called a ‘domestic terrorism act’.

Local police say that a security guard working inside the nightclub returned fire at the shooter at around 2 AM local time, which directly led to a hostage situation inside the nightclub.

A day after the attack, Police identified the shooter (who has now been killed by police fire) was Omar Mateen  - a 29 year-old who was born in the United States, despite his parents being from Afghanistan.

Authorities say that the male had been “leaning” towards Islamic State beliefs for months before carrying out this psychopathic act. There was a three-hour shootout with local police before SWAT came in and shot the man dead.

This is already being called the worst terrorist attack since 9/11 and ranks highest in the deadliest shootings in the USA. There were at least 350 people in the nightclub when shooting began, and at about 05:00 AM authorities decided they wanted to save the hostages and went in and shot the suspect. Locals and police are unknown when the shooter killed the hostages.

Witnesses inside the club said that the shooter had a pistol, a larger assault rifle and an unknown device on his chest.  Police are still looking into whether he acted as a ‘lone-wolf’ or if he had ties to terror groups. Police are still unsure at this point whether it was a lone act or not.

Hooliganism at the Euros

After the violent scenes in Marseille on Saturday following the Russia vs England Euros game, UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Russia and potentially England if this behaviour continues.

People are blaming UEFA for this as French authorities and locals were concerned about this prior to the game as it was held in a relatively small city and it’s not the first time that fans have fought between to the two teams. Furthermore, security is almost non-existent for such a huge event, but on top of that – both teams are playing only 25 miles away from each other on the 16^th of June with estimated attendance numbers looking to exceed the game prior.

“If you’ve not got a ticket, don’t go to Lens. Go to Lille instead, where there’s a bigger fanzone. We know Brits will get where water can’t in terms of sporting events but people will not get in stadiums without a ticket. If you’ve not got a ticket, don’t travel,” this was advise from the leading footballing security constable Mark Roberts. Although if they listen, they’ll immediately run straight into the Russians again!

Meanwhile in Leon, a much larger city, hosts a game between Albania and Romania whose fans seem to be much more intelligent and less hostile. When looking to assign blame it’s not hard to point of UEFA although hooliganism is extremely stupid and embarrassing for both countries.

The Growth in the eSports Industry

ESL, one of the largest eSports organisations in the world, has revealed that they’re going to bring one of the largest events to Barclays Center in New York City this year. The venue, which is globally recognised by many for different reasons will provide multiple stages for many different things – one being a Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament with a 500,000 dollar prize pool.

“The eSports industry is experiencing unprecedented growth and we are thrilled to be a part of it by hosting one of the largest tournaments on the East Coast.” Said Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment.

The event will be stretched across a span of two days, starting early on the 1^st of October and finishing the next evening.  ESL have stated that it will just be a competitive event, it will be more of a festival for gamers.

It’s bizarre how rapidly this industry has grown over the past 5 years. People who don’t play video games don’t really get to see it but really the growth is incredible. It’s been twenty years since the first gaming tournament, which only managed to bring in 500 viewers – a lot of people called it a joke and claimed it would never be a thriving industry. Now, top eSports event draw in live crowds and online audiences that rival the largest  traditional sporting events. Twitch.TV is a livestreaming website that allows organisations and individuals to broadcast their gameplay; this is where the majority of eSport competitive matches are shown. Figures from the website’s CEO show that the industry weekly attracts more than 200,000 viewers – and that’s not even the major events. Twitch.TV was recently bought out by Amazon for almost a billion dollars thanks to the gaming industry, although it could have never become what it is without this platform.

Companies that we all know and love in the sporting world are even getting involved in the scene, companies like Coke, Red Bull, Logitech and even Nissan are sponsoring events and even teams. This is something no one could predict and honestly it’s surreal.

You might already be surprised by some of this – but there’s even more. In 2013, the game that pulls in the most viewers, League of Legends managed to sell out a 70,000 capacity venue and also attract 27 million unique viewers over the week of the tournament. That’s more viewers than the NBA finals and almost a third of what the Super Bowl attracts.

Super Bowl 50 – A Brit’s Guide

So, the Super Bowl just passed, the 50^th nonetheless. With an astounding attendance of over 75,000, it’s by the far the largest and most anticipated sporting event of the year in the United States. It’s so big that most Americans consider Super Bowl week a national holiday. Although it’s extremely underappreciated in the UK; usually all you hear about is the latest footballing news.

So, what is the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl, or commonly called the ‘Big Game’ by other companies due to its strict copyright laws, is the American football game between the two top teams from the two conference leagues – which are the highest level of football in the United States. The first Super Bowl was played in 1967.

The Super Bowl 50 was played on February 7^th at the Levi’s Stadium in California. It was between the Denver Broncos, who were the champions of the AFC (American Football Conference), and the Carolina Panthers who were the champions of the NFC (National Football Conference).

The Panthers were favourites going into the game after easily their best regular season with a 15-1 record and demolishing the Arizona Cardinals’ defense – beating them 49-15 and qualifying for the Super Bowl for the second time in Panther’s history. Cam Newton, their QB, who was also drafted number 1 in the NFL draft was crowned MVP of the entire season. On the other hand, the Broncos finished their season 12-4, mainly due to their defense which is easily one of the best in the NFL (National Football League) at the moment. Superstar quarterback Peyton Manning, who is often named the best Quarterback to play, has had quite a tough season telling journalists “It could be my last rodeo.” To progress to the Super Bowl, they beat the defending Super Bowl champions The New England Patriots 20-18 in an extremely close game.

After an super anticlimactic first 5 minutes, the first real talking point happened. After a small drive from the Broncos, Brandon McManus, who is the Bronco’s kicker scores a field goal which gets them 3 points. The Panther’s then made a drive of their own, unfortunately only making 9 yards; just one short of what’s needed for a 1^st down. Carolina punt 48 yards and Peyton Manning catches on their own 25.

After a huge drive later on in the first quarter, Von Miller sacks Newton and the ball fumbles into Carolina’s end-zone and the Broncos recover it leading to the first touchdown and giving them 7 points – further extending their lead to 10 points.

Nothing else worth talking about happened in the first quarter, making it quite frankly an extremely underwhelming and quite frankly boring 15 minutes.

Early in second quarter, the Panthers got a first down and a huge 36 yard run from Mike Tolbert lead to a fumble where running-back John Stewart recovered it and jumped over what looked like the whole squad for a touchdown giving the Panthers their first points and relieving some pressure as this game could have got out of control pretty rapidly.

After a promising drive from Denver, they run it out and Punt it back to Jordan Norwood at the Panthers end-zone. A tackle onto Norwood ends in a fumble which gives the Broncos the option for a field goal. Brandon McManus comes up and scores his second field goal of the day, giving the Broncos a 13-7 lead.

With only three minutes to play, Manning throws a sloppy pass towards Emanuel Sanders, the Bronco’s wide-receiver, but Kony Ealy intercepted it and makes a rapid 20 yards – pretty fast for a 6’3 guy who weighs 285 pounds. His play on the night made him the first player in NFL history to make two sacks and an interception in a Super Bowl game. From this drive, the Panthers once again go three-and-out (this is when a team makes three plays and still doesn’t get a first down). It really didn’t look like the team who went 15-1 in the regular season on the night.

A pretty boring first half brought us to the Super Bowl’s notorious half-time show. This year we all had the pleasure of watching UK band Coldplay with assistance from Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. It was very good but me and other fans weren’t really interested.

Overall, in the first half, the Broncos were dominating because of their reckless defense which seems to be paying off.

After 5 unsatisfying minutes, Cam Newton makes an expeditious run and hits Ted Ginn 45 yards inside Denver territory. Newton fails to land the throw to Greg Olsen although the Broncos got flagged and the Panthers have their own attempt on a field goal. Unfortunately for them, another choked play from the Panthers, this time from the special teams kicker Gano, who hit the right upright which was a huge miss of 3 points for Carolina. To be fair to him, it was a long one from 44-yards.

After Manning hits Sanders straight down the middle, it makes you wonder how he managed to get there and makes you think the Panthers are extremely disheartened. Denver are already on the Carolina 41; maybe this Peyton Manning guy is good after all. Denver are on their third play and they need 5 yards, they fail to convert although they get an opportunity for a field goal from the fumble. Once again McManus scores another field goal, making it his third of the night.

Five more disappointing, action less minutes passed and brought us to the end of the third quarter with the score line at 16-7 to Denver – no thanks to kicker McManus who is 3 for 3 in field goals tonight.

Cam Newton and squad look stressed on the side lines speaking to head coach Ron Rivera, maybe there’s some panic coming out of the team. Don’t let Denver see.

Only 2 minutes into the fourth, Manning was slow on the throw and got the ball knocked out of his hand which led to a fumble which Carolina recovered.  Peyton Manning has had a terrible night although you can’t deny he’s led an excellent career. Nothing came of the recover and Denver got it back.

After Manning gets flagged, Gano gets another opportunity for a field goal maybe he can earn back the respect of his fans for his earlier miss – and he does!

The Panthers got within a single touch down score at 16-10.

With 3 minutes to go, Newton fumbles and Denver recovers and make a huge drive and Anderson goes over two players in the middle for two yards scoring a touchdown – extending their lead to 22-10. They go for a 2 point conversion and end up getting it too, giving them 2 points and a 14 point lead.

Once again Newton gets sacked, for the 7^th time this time. You can see his anger on his face as he takes off his helmet and throws it on the ground, it basically rounds up their performance on the night as it was quite honestly tragic.

With only a minute left and Denver just wasting time – you have your Super Bowl 50 Champions! Denver’s defense carried the team tonight although the story of the night will be the possible retirement of Manning especially after finishing his career on a high winning the Super Bowl.

In my opinion, I am happy that Denver won so he can end his career on a high although I personally wanted the Panthers to win even though watching they obviously didn’t deserve it. You can tell the disappointment in the Panthers team in the press interviews after the game with QB Cam Newton giving one word answers or no answers at all and eventually getting up and leaving without saying anything. Manning told reporters that it was their “hardest test yet,”.

ESL One Cologne Major Groups Announced

Following ESL’s Cologne qualifier, all games have been concluded and the CS:GO teams who are going to the Major tournament have been chosen. Today, on the 8^th of June, the groups have been announced for the tournament that will be held from July the 6^th to July the 10^th in Cologne.

As usual for a major tournament in Counter Strike, there will be a one-million dollar prize pool. $500,00 for the winners, $250,000 for second place and $125,000 dollars for both third, and fourth place.

The eight highest rated teams in the world were already invited but through a vigorous qualifier held in Germany over the last few days, 8 additional teams have fought to gain entry. Today the groups have been announced and they look competitive as ever.

Group A:

Team Liquid, these guys are probably the best team coming from the North American scene,                               Virtus.Pro, the team who have fell off recently although the best team coming from Poland and the team who have been together for the longest in CS history.                                                                           Mouseports, a fairly new German team who house one of the best players in the world right now, Niko.                                                                                                                                                                                           And finally EnVyus, major winners two years ago, recently changing their roster although still a very strong team.

Group B:

Luminosity Gaming, a team coming from Brazil. Currently crowned the best team in the world, winning the last major tournament in Sweden.                                                                                                      Fnatic, Crowned best team in the world for almost a whole year, although recently dropping off with their star player ‘Olofmeister’ out with a wrist injury. Although still a competitive team.                                                                                                                                                                                                     FaZe Clan, this organisation fairly fresh in picking up a CS:GO roster although they managed to get some great players, even getting KioShima from world champions EnVyUs.                                                  G2 eSports, home to two of the worlds best players Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrilton and Richard ‘Shox’ Papillon, they have recently been doing very well.

Group C:

Astralis, a unique team as they’re not owned by any organisation, they’re owned by themselves although formerly owned by TSM so they have a lot of experience and formerly called the best team In the world for a short period of time.                                                                                      CLG, these North Americans are climbing their way to the top slowly with some great performances although they are recently dropping off a bit although still managing to qualify over their rivals Cloud 9.                                                                                                                                              Gambit Gaming, one of the newer, more unknown teams creeping into the groups this year, although led by in-game leader Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev, they could be a suprising threat as he carries a lot of experience.                                                                                                                                              And finally, Team Dignitas, a Danish side who have been shuffling a lot of their players around recently, even getting rid of their star player “Pimp”, although the new roster looks very strong although I’m not sure how they’ll do in this group.

Group D:

Natus Vincere, or Na’Vi, are a CIS team made up of Russians and Ukrainians. They are competing for the title of best team in the world, although falling short to Luminosity in the finals of the last Major tournament. Obviously expecting them to easily get out of groups.                 Ninjas in Pyjamas, or NiP, are probably by far the most notorious Counter Strike team in the world. Most known for their incredible 87-0 game streak back in 2013-2014. Although, now they are not doing so great. Still an invited team who have recently been doing better with their new sniper ‘Pyth’.                                                                                                                                 OpTic Gaming, a new North-American team who have shuttled to the top of their region even taking some maps from the best teams in the world like Fnatic and Luminosity, expected to have a breakthrough performance here at Cologne.                                                  And finally Flipsid3 Gaming, by far probably the worst team here at the major, although they looked extremely good at qualifiers but I honestly don’t think that they are going to make it out of this group.

Team Liquid to sign Jacob "Pimp" Winneche 

Team Liquid is looking to announce the signing of its new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, former SK Gaming rifler Jacob "Pimp" Winneche, according to sources close to the team. Pimp will permanently replace Eric "adreN" Hoag, who was cut from the team last week due to unspecified reasons.

Pimp will join the team immediately, but will not compete with the team at the ECS Season 1 Finals on June 24-26 or the ESL One Cologne major on July 5-10. In his place will be former Team Liquid member, Ukrainian rifler and AWPer Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev. At those events, the lineup for the team will be s1mple, Kenneth "koosta" Suen, Nick "nitr0" Cannella, Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, and Spencer "Hiko" Martin.

The addition of Pimp may not be the only change the Liquid lineup makes. Sources say that koosta is also on the chopping block, with the team currently negotiating with Counter Logic Gaming AWPer Josh "jdm64" Marzano. Jdm64, for his part, has made a name for himself and is currently considered the best AWPer in North America due to solid performances with Counter Logic Gaming over the past few months.

Prior to joining the team, Pimp was a member of SK Gaming and Team Dignitas. Last November, Team Dignitas requested that Pimp step down from its lineup, but he wasn't without a team for long. Only a few weeks after, Pimp was announced to join SK Gaming and has played with the team since.

Now with Liquid, Pimp will look to be the saving grace of a team which has had mediocre results since bringing in koosta in the spring. Following a third/fourth place finish at the MLG Columbus 2016 major, Team Liquid entered an offline slump, taking 13-16th place at DreamHack Malmö, third/fourth at DreamHack Austin, fifth/sixth at ESL Pro League Finals, and most recently, last in its group at ELEAGUE after falling flat to Cloud9 and Renegades.