A Facebook Just For The Children

Social networking websites have never been more popular but how do parents know their children’s safety is not being put at risk?

A Brunel University graduate believes his site has the answer; by offering a service exclusively for the under-16s.

Former Brunel student David Strugnell, 23, created the website Jellysnap.com as his final year project, to provide a social networking tool for an age group otherwise forgotten in the wideness of the web.

With social sites like Myspace and Facebook being restricted to over-16s, many children are illegally signing up to fit in with the latest trend, leaving them exposed to unsuitable content and at a risk from preying adults. Jellysnap cleverly does not allow photo-tagging or adding of people without their specific e-mail address, providing a safe environment for children to socialise with their friends.

Dr Emmanuel Tsekleves, lecturer of multimedia technology and design at Brunel University said: “Parents should feel safer knowing that their children are actually networking with their friends rather than strangers.”

Mr Strugnell got the idea for the project when he noticed children of a similar age to his 11-year-old sister pretending to be 16 to join social networking groups.

He said: “I saw kids lying about their age and realised there was a gap in the market, Jellysnap gives them another option.”

The site features ‘snapbooks’ where friends can privately share photos with each other. Users can communicate with ‘comments’ and ‘messages’ features.

Since members are forced to invite friends to join using only their e-mail addresses their profiles are safe from the eyes of strangers. Mr Strugnell, who is now working as a media designer for IBM, said requests for an instant messaging feature is something he is considering. However, he described the site as a, ‘chicken or the egg scenario’, where he needs interest if he is to afford the time further changes will demand.

http://www.jellysnap.com

I found this story on the press-release page of the Brunel University website while I was working at the Uxbridge Gazette. As it was only one person who created the site it was not hard to perform the interview with him. Due to his location it was forced to be a telephone interview. I also had him email me a photo which was used with the story.

I chose the social networking for children angle as that humanises the otherwise technological piece. Also as Facebook and other social networking sites are often in the news, along with child safety online, I thought it an up-to-date and relevant case.

I was limited to around 300 words as not only did my editor request that but also if the story had gone on for too long it may have become too technical for local paper readers to appreciate, losing the human angle. For this same reason I tried to keep the vocabulary relatively low-tech and punchy so older readers could both understand and relate to the story.

My editor did not want the story without a photo and David Strugnell didn’t want to give one which proved challenging. I convinced him the story was in his best interests and therefore so was a photo, which he agreed to. The only other worry was by mentioning Facebook as a source of child danger might incur legal ramifications. For this reason I worded it “sites like Facebook”.

Boobs Or Brains

Katie 'Jordan' Price recently released her autobiography on the public. Most of the sales were made to women – men having had their fill of Jordan on Page 3 over the years for a more affordable 20p copy of The Sun. So, if Jordan is simply a piece of eye candy for gents to ogle, then why are women so eager to muse over her thoughts?

Freud would call discourse simply another means to manifest the sex drive leading to every human's ultimate goal of a little nookie. He believed that men would go for a beautiful form, if he could attain it, over an enthralling chat with a less sculpted female any day. This is in keeping with Darwin's ideology whereby every human, be they male or female, seek an attractive other so that their children are blessed with good looks and a running start in life. Why then isn't every man head over heels for Jordan like Peter Andre obviously is?

Perhaps there is more to love and attraction than simple looks, genetic drives and sexual goals. Perhaps Peter and Jordan are together not simply so that Jordan can launder infant Princess's baby-grows on Peter's washboard abs, but because they are intellectual equals.

For generations marriage has been a forced institution whereby men chose wedlock to achieve the physical closeness that was reserved only for married couples in times of old. Through that chase an intellectual war was fought and a bond achieved. Nowadays sex is not so difficult to attain and possibly as a result marriages all over the country are breaking down at a record rate. In 1921 divorce rates per year were at 558, in 1995 they stood at a staggering 77,636. Now that men and women can trade in their partners for younger models with looks that are easier on the eyes, why not? If marriage is built on love and love is simply about looks then love is transient, not eternal as the Bronte sisters would have us believe.

Men are attracted to women physically but in the long run it is character and discursive interaction that win out. The problem is not people's inability to stay attracted to one person, it is this consumerist society's inability to settle with what they have, be happy and make that work.

Boobs and bums may be what initially attracts a man to a woman but when he sees past the attraction he sees her for who she is and if the intellectual level is not compatible the attraction is lost. In the days of cavemen, women walked on all fours to present to a man that it was his job to club her around the head and drag her back to his cave to have his wicked way with her. In present society humanity has developed communication as a means to avoid violence and encourage compromise. Perhaps it is unfair that nowadays women are still presented to men everywhere he looks in a sex soaked society but he is left high and dry without his club. This is why communication and character are intrinsic in relationships; the move from those times of old proves there is more to what men see in women than just looks for the taking.

To borrow from Dr Freud once again, it is the oedipal complex that states a man seeks his mother in competition with his father and this is what builds his drive to go out and seek a wife, often similar to his mother. For this reason a man is not only physical but seeks a woman to listen to him, laugh at his bad jokes, look after him during a bout of man-flu and ultimately care for him. Perhaps love isn't found in the fast-paced battle for sex but in the hard times when one is at their weakest and finds themselves not alone but being cared for, being nursed back into the world.

As physical procreative beings, looks are a factor in attraction but are certainly not the be all and end all. In the long term, make-up runs, looks fade and vitality dulls; but what is hopefully left from the flames of passion is a burning ember of love that never dies.

This article was for a female audience which read ETP magazine online. The question posed was a very open one. For this reason my research specified on areas common in the public interest such as Katie Price and divorce rates. I mainly used the internet for research of facts and figures which I believed would be of interest to the women readers.

The article left a lot of scope for originality. This is why I tried to incorporate psychological references to provide structure to my argument. It was a very long piece compared to what I am used to so research was imperative to avoid unfounded, irrelevant comments.

One of the worries that arose while writing for a mainly female audience was appearing sexist. It did not worry me to the point of affecting my argument, but I was wary of the potential position of the reader throughout.

Legally speaking this one was a bit of a mine-field since a large proportion of it focused on the assumption that Jordan was less than intelligent. I believe that the lack of direct attack and side stepping of the initial point about her meant it could not be considered libel on the grounds that I genuinely believed what I was saying to be true at the time (Contempt of Court Act – Section 5).

The style in this was very different to the other stories as it was for an online magazine rather than a paper. It meant a much more slow paced discursive dialogue which allowed for opinion rather than pure fact after fact like a news story.

Bunny Breakout

Clumpy the bunny did his rabbit reputation well last week when he broke free from his hutch in search of love.

The little lothario was recovered by Thornhill Road resident and owner Amy Shaeffer, 14, at the Swakleys Road Veterinary Clinic after his stop-off at a female friend’s hutch.

Clumpy’s temporary landlord and vet, Sophie Ellum, was surprised to see a rabbit up to such mischief at this time of year when their usual mating season is from February to August.

The runaway rabbit was missing for three days before Amy visited the vet on her search and recovered him.

After Clumpy’s escape, which involved digging under his hutch, he travelled almost half a mile before shacking-up with a female rabbit in Court Drive.

Vet, Miss Ellum said: “Even for a rabbit, this shows quite a drive to make him travel so far for nuptial naughtiness.”

Owner, Amy said: “He’s always been naughty. I’m just happy he got back safely. My dad is working on making his hutch better so he can’t get away again.”

Bunny escapes are common and despite Peter Rabbit painting a picture with a happy ending, usually foxes ensure most domestic rabbits in the wild feel the full force of nature.

Amy and Clumpy were lucky to be reunited for Christmas. Anyone with a garden pet is reminded to make sure they are securely locked and have plenty of hay during these colder winter months.

A local animal story was easy to find as I live very close to a vet clinic. Due to the locality of the
clinic, the resident was also local.

An animal story, I found, is easier to research than a human story as people are more forthcoming
with details. In this case getting the owner's telephone number. Having a telephone interview was
straight forward as everyone involved revelled at the chance to be in the local paper.

The angle was not a problem as animal stories are heart-warming at the best of times so having
a child owner only compounded it further. I also thought that being near to Christmas would be
good timing as lots of people would be giving and receiving pets, as well as feeling compassionate
towards all animals living out in the cold climate.

The light-hearted nature of the story meant it was a humorous piece where vocabulary could be
varied and interesting, granting the piece character. However as it is not a story of major news
value the length was kept down to tailor to the short attention span of a local paper reader.

Due to a tight deadline I was not able to take a photo for this piece but because of the homogeneity
of a piece like this many a ‘googled’ bunny picture was readily available.

Dangerous Duo

A gun wielding father and son were convicted for armed robbery last Saturday.

The pair, who attempted armed robbery last October, were sentenced to a total of 33-years imprisonment.

Andrew Roberts, 42, and Mark Roberts, 23, were both convicted for possession of firearms with intent to commit robbery at Allied Irish Bank in Finchley Road.

The Central Criminal Court sentenced Andrew Roberts to a longer incarceration after his assault on a police officer during his attempted escape.

DS Neil Williamson of the Finchley Flying Squad, in reference to Mark Roberts firing shots while attempting escape said: “The sentence today should send a stark message to those engaged in this type of criminality".

This story was found through the local police press-release website which I was directed to after telephoning my local station. It was an easy piece to write as all the information necessary for short copy like this was already in the release.

One of the problems with this was that if I wanted more information I did not have access to it as the local police operate a no assistance to student writers policy. Next time I will use my part-time local Gazette paper position to extract more information.

The angle for the story jumped out at me right away as it seemed rather rare to have a father-son duo convicted of acting criminally together. Not only its rarity but also the tragic nature of a family in turmoil was a deciding factor in choosing this story.

My writing was as concise as possible due to the nature of the report. As it simply covered the court result and not the original crime story it would not be as interesting or the original, meaning the paper would not want as much of it.

Perhaps over sensationalising it by calling them a ‘duo’ sparked my ethical meter to life but not enough to warrant change.

Halloween Horror

Ghosts and ghouls are coming to town, but even these paranormal fiends don't scare the Metropolitan Police, who have issued a Halloween crime prevention guideline.

The Halloween Code states that children shouldn’t be out without adult supervision, and care should be taken to not scare the vulnerable.

Aviva Investor found that more than three-quarters of spooked out Brits admit to hiding from trick-or-treaters. Their fears seem well founded with Norwich Union figures revealing claims increases of 150% on Halloween.

The Halloween story was decided by the timing of the holiday event. The information was attained from the local police press-release bureau. It was approached with a relatively light-hearted nature but not too much so as to cater for the serious nature of the evening’s possible outcomes.

The police press release was very basic so the internet was use for further research to attain figures adding punch to the power of the story. Since this was a short story for a local paper the readers would largely be elderly which made this story perfect for their attentions. Also as it was a fairly simple point it was a short story so as not to milk too much the fear factor involved with a holiday experience.

The story avoided references to local areas and remained concise so as to afford its availability to all newspapers. Since it was a rather bland story without figures I added those and complemented them with a photo to further the attraction. I used a standard Halloween image so as to attract the eye of the reader to a topic that would be in their mind anyway at the that time of year.

I found keeping the issue concise and to the point rather challenging as it was tempting to use puns and jokes with regard to a holiday issue. However since the crux of the story was serious I endeavoured to avoid these things and stick to facts.

TV agony aunt takes a hand-on approach in battle to combat hospital super bugs

TV agony aunt Claire Rayner has joined the battle against super bugs by visiting the children's ward at Northwick Park Hospital.

Mrs Rayner joined nurses dressed in giant cat and dog suits to teach young patients the importance of washing their hands with a special hand wash to kill germs.

Mrs Rayner, a former nurse, attended the hospital in Watford Road at the beginning of the month as part of a three-year campaign to combat MRSA and other potentially lethal infections.

Mrs Rayner said: "Infections are a very real and current problem in hospitals. The weak, young and elderly are most at risk with the worst outcome being death."

She went on to say: "By encouraging patients to ask doctors and nurses to wash their hands, and staff to inform patients of the same, these unnecessary infections can be avoided."

The Harrow resident aims to raise awareness of the issue nationally.

Schools and old people's homes are her next priorities.

This story was something I found while trawling the local hospitals for press releases. They provided me with Claire Rayner’s telephone number so that I could conduct a telephone interview. Claire, a busy woman, was hard to get details out of initially but once I had her in the flow of conversation she forgot about the other issues she had to attend to and we had quite a long and detailed interview.

This piece was about the time of the MRSA scare so it was well suited to the local paper. Also the fact that she is famous further influenced my decision to choose the piece as one that would appeal to the local reader. Also the child angle was good since a large number of this suburban local paper readers would be families.

I tried to keep it concise and to the point while also being light-hearted where possible as it was a story about positive effort to make a change. The level of seriousness was maintained as the issue which washing hands aims to avoid, is a very sobering one.

The fact that this event was happening at Northwick Park Hospital which had just be in the news, with regards to testing gone wrong, made it more eye caching to the reader.

The length of the story was governed simply by the depth of the story. Since it held a certain value to the reader, but would turn into a health lecture if delved into further, the length of the story was kept short and punchy.

Interview with award winning 'Tracy Beaker' script writer Elly Brewer, printed in local paper about her new book.

BEING plucked from a peaceful nap on the bus to discover you have
been transported to a different world is a scary prospect, so imagine the horror of schoolboy, Jerry Patterson when just that happened to him.

Jerry's fear of finding himself in an alien world is matched only by his
shock of realising he has become the pet of his new alien family, the
Jannans.

Jerry is the main character in Elly Brewer's new novel, Jerry and the
Jannans. Elly, 50, who was born and now lives in Kenton, is best known for her work as lead writer on BBC1's Tracey Beaker.

Her jump from script to novel writing has resulted in the creation of a whole world of intricate alien detail. If you look close enough you may be able to spot a few choice local mentions, from Kenton road names, such as Ebrington and Illmington, which in the book are names for alien technical equipment; to Jerry thinking back to his Grandad playing bowls at home, the description of which is based on Elly's own memories of her father playing bowls at Woodcock Park in Kenton.

Jerry's home, where his mother waits anxiously for his return, is in Dovedale Avenue, where one of Elly's friends used to live. Elly took inspiration from everyday life when she wrote the book. Many waiting room visits at the orthodontist with her daughter led to the idea for a brace that works as a radio. A Tesco employee character was based on a friendly lady Elly was served by at the fish counter on one of her many trips during writing.

When asked about a sequel to Jerry and the Jannans, Elly, who has one daughter, Amy, 18, says: "I'm open to it but it's not planned. I'm currently two chapters in on another alien based story."

The original Jerry and the Jannans was 96,000 words long and she was told to cut it down by a third.

"Cutting it down," Elly says,"was a good process for me, allowing me to up the pace, while cutting down the overly detailed description."

When asked what advice she would give budding writers, Elly says: "Keep practicing to improve and be more concise."

She adds: "Find the names of who works where you want your work to go, then send it in. Don't be disheartened if it isn't wanted first time."

To join Jerry and the Jannans in this off-world adventure, pick up a copy for £5.99 at your local bookshop.

While working for the Harrow Observer I was given the opportunity to contact Elly Brewer. Having a little sister I had heard of Elly’s TV show Tracey Beaker and jumped at the opportunity to interview her. On telephoning her I found her very forthcoming, too much so in fact. This interview tested my ability to politely move the conversation on to issues I needed to cover in the story without offending her sensibilities.

Being a children’s novel I chose a very jolly and simple writing style so that it could appeal to adults and children alike. I tried to put emphasis on the book with links to Tracey Beaker as many younger readers would jump at the chance to read anything associated with such a hit children’s show.

This was a lengthy article as there was a lot of local information that related to the book. This is gold dust in the eyes of the editor who is effectively a local area pimp trying to link in as much as possible about Harrow, confirming it as the reason for great things growing from the area.

The introduction was of quite an off-world, story-like nature so as to interest children. It does not go into facts of the local area until a few paragraphs in so as to maintain that youth interest for as long as possible.

Research invested before the interview proved useful for linking her previous endeavours to stories related to this release. Especially in moments of silence having her information was useful in moving things forward. Also in writing up the story my background research helped place everything into an understandable context.