Module Documentary Skills
PUSH: THE TRUTH ABOUT OBSTETRIC VIOLENCE is a short documentary that brings an intimate view of what it’s like to experience obstetric violence in the UK. Featuring first hand accounts from two mothers who gave birth at NHS London hospitals, and interviews with activists, doulas and researchers, the truth about the roots and impact of violence during birth at the hands of healthcare professionals is explored.
Directed, edited and produced by Luiza Lanna
Co-directed, produced and audio supervised by Cynera Rodricks
Script and camera by Luiza Lanna and Cynera Rodricks
Directed, edited and produced by Luiza Lanna
Co-directed, produced and audio supervised by Cynera Rodricks
Script and camera by Luiza Lanna and Cynera Rodricks
Module Travel Journalism
DESTINATION FEATURE
São Paulo: the cosmopolitan polo where Brazil’s Independence took place
I am in São Paulo’s Independence Park, staring into the Monument to the Independence of Brazil. There’s no mistaking its Independence was a conglomerated of different revolutions. The more I stare, the more I shudder, half-expecting I can understand the Independence moment just looking at the monument. Why? Well, this isn’t only a monument or a portrait. Instead, it’s the embalmed body of one of the most notorious and messy moments in Brazilian history.
It’s all rather creepy, made more so by imagining the glamorous monument may not represent what exactly happened at that time. While I look, some children run up and down the stairs around. And the creepiness continues when I learn that there is an Imperial Crypt located inside it to house the remains of Emperor Dom Pedro I, and his two wives, D. Leopoldina de Habsburgo and D. Amélia de Leuchtenberg.
Even so, seeing a representation of Brazil’s Independence somehow shrinks time - especially since this is a significant year in Brazil’s history. On September 7 it will be 200 years since the then Prince Regent, Dom Pedro I declared Brazil’s Independence from Portugal, founding the Empire of Brazil. Exactly where I am stepping, on the shores of Ipiranga Brook, Dom Pedro proclaimed, in 1822, “independence or death!”, also known as the “Cry of Ipiranga” declaration. I’m here to explore São Paulo, which now is the most populous and cosmopolitan city in Brazil, but at that time was only a villa.
I’ll return to cosmopolitan São Paulo later, but first, join me on a 7-minute walk from the previous monument to the Ipiranga Museum, which is located in the same park. Trees, fountains, and a colorful garden follow this walk. In the end, there is the museum, a magnificent palace designed by the Italian architect Tommaso Bezzi, who chose to build a construction similar to the French Palace of Versailles. The site is closed since 2013, due to cracks in the structure, and in 2019 the restoration started.
I’ve come to the museum to meet Amâncio Oliveira, who is one of the directors. After four years of restoration, he said “the structure now is completely renewed and the collection has doubled”. I am here to see it firsthand, but it will only be open to the public on September 7. On the opening day, the exhibition “Memories of the Independence” will take place for 4 months. The exhibition “shows different angles of the Independence, including separatist movements”, Amâncio reminded, “it will receive paintings, maps, stamps, sculptures, and symbolic pieces”.
Yet a few hours in the noble hall gives some tangible background to how the Independence was. In this room, the painting “Independência ou Morte” - which has been restored as well - is located. It is immense, around 7 metres in length and 4 metres in height. It was painted by Pedro Américo and represents the moment when Dom Pedro, after receiving a letter demanding his return to Portugal, proclaims the Independence of Brazil. The painting is a romanticised version of this moment because according to historians, Dom Pedro was, unlike in the painting, with a small group, riding a mule, and having diarrhea.
São Paulo today seems such an agitated, prosperous and unequal city - its giant and modern buildings contrast with the wood and brick unfinished small houses, a type of slum, known as “favelas” - that I find it hard to envisage a prince riding a mule with diarrhea in 1822.
Now, leaving the museum which is in the South Zone to the old centre of São Paulo, Central Zone, a 25-minute drive by public bus or car takes you to the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo.
It’s lovely to look back to São Paulo from here - the cohesive run of shiny gold ornaments, red velvet textiles, and two large organs that frame the stage. And on the monumental Great Hall of the Theatre - where a Modernist event was hosted in 1922, known as “Semana de Arte Moderna” - one week full of paintings, drama, poetry, and music established modernist artists such as Anita Malfatti, Oswald de Andrade, and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
The "Balé da Cidade de São Paulo" is a classic ballet programme here, with presentations since 1968. The dance company of the Municipal has a repertoire contrasting the classic with Brazilian rhythms, such as funk. The next ballet season takes place during June, with the performance “Adastra” and “Transe”, which will reflect the world after the Pandemic. Tickets can be bought on the official Municipal Theatre website and the price usually varies between R$10 to R$80.
Dinner at "Bar dos Arcos”, under the Municipal Theatre stage, is a test of courage. The urban legend says the restaurant holds ghosts. The decoration was inspired by the movie The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick. And yes, you feel like is in the movie.
The dish of the day is “Nhoque Clássico dos Arcos”, a potato gnocchi toasted in butter with goat cheese, pomegranate, and basil. The dessert receives the name “Ababoru”, inspired by the most famous painting of Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral, a tribute to the modern art week in 1922. It has chocolate ice cream and a Brazilian classic banana jam that pleased my taste buds.
Our hotel is gorgeous and it is set in the middle of Paulista Avenue, the heartbeat of São Paulo; Rosewood Hotel was a former maternity closed in the early 1990s. My Paulista friend, Catarina, who lives in the city, tells me how significant this hotel is for locals. She remembers her family mentioning that many people from her mother’s generation were born here, including her aunts. Today its walls, rooms, floors, and even lifts were used as the canvas for 57 Brazilian artists to produce a collection of art featuring over 450 works. Room prices start from R$1800.
On the whole, though, I think it fair to say, the world interprets São Paulo chiefly as a kind of a mess, a mess sometimes hysterical and crazy, but essentially human: this unbreakable spirit of intense diversity tells us that São Paulo is unstoppable to this day since the Independence.
BLOG REVIEW
Museum of London Docklands: a place that recognises London's racist past
From a random view of an odd boat on the Thames - the boat looked like a jacuzzi - I was on a mission to explore the Museum of London Docklands at Canary Wharf. Even with this eccentricity, the boat on the river allowed me to imagine London's shipment activity in the past. The museum has this name “because this was the area of the docks and all the docklands”, Colm, a guide, told me.
Robert Milligan was a prominent British slave trader and at the main entrance of the Museum, there is a 1-meter concrete cube with a carved iron plate where a statue of him used to be on in the past. They took it off in 2020 before people toppled it. This first stop gave me a clue about what I was going to find inside the museum.
In general, the museum tells the story and development of the British Empire, and London’s city, more focused on the influence the trade had on it. Everything that affected London’s trade history is reported in the museum, including my next stop on the third floor: slavery.
Followed by a piece of melodic background music and darker lights, there was a panel indicating the port from where the slaves were taken, the quantity, and the final destination. Millions were transported, exploited, tortured, and killed. A punishment collar about 1800 made me get chills because it reminds me of the history of my own country, Brazil.
Slavery in Brazil was a period of history that has social, economic, and cultural consequences until nowadays. I had no idea that London’s slavery history has so many similarities with my country until this visit. At the same time I was learning about this period in London, it applied to Brazil.
The panels about terminology and racism are the high point of the visit. The museum was very cautious about how to refer to slaves, ”we have tried to be careful in our use of language in this gallery”. There was a word definition that was very useful for people, like me, who comes from countries where racism is giant. The reason for that is because some people use racist terms that the museum address explanations such as “negro” and “mullato”.
Sugar cane is also approached as a thick fibrous stem, and coincidentally it was one of the main sources of trade in Brazil as well. The museum described how to extract the juice of the cane, something I used to drink during my childhood. Also, London was the fourth biggest slave-trading port in the world after the Brazilian ports of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, and Liverpool.
From the second floor until the first floor, the ambiance comes back to the docks, trade, buildings, and ships. There are many interactive attractions for children, including a loyal reconstruction of a dock and a life-saving shelter, which made me feel inside a movie studio.
The cafe and shop are on the ground floor, where I finished my visit with a hot chocolate and a croissant. Considering it was a Sunday and the entrance is free, the museum was empty. Unless you don’t want to admit and assimilate the racist past of London, I strongly recommend going to the Museum of London Docklands.
Module Broadcast News
RADIO INTERVIEW
Vax has been chosen as the word of the year by lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary. The word was relatively rare reported before 2021, when it has spiked in frequency due to the progress of Covid vaccinations. Fiona McPherson is the Senior Editor of the New Words department on the Oxford English Dictionary and she has participated in the choice. Luiza Lanna asked her details about the decision:
TELEVISION PACKAGE
Module Multimedia Journalism Skills
Is your makeup bag cruelty-free?
13 December 2021 by Kloudia Sakowski, Tanya De, Madi Apthorpe, Luiza Lanna
The EU prohibited the sale of animal tested cosmetic products and ingredients on 11 March 2013 following its ban on animal tested cosmetics just four years earlier. We explored if these regulations are truly practised in the UK.
Image by Kloudia Sakowski
Brands marked with green star are cruelty-free. Our own research.
Walking down the aisles at Boots, you would assume the cosmetics brands you see are vegan and cruelty-free because of this law. Yet upon inspection, we found that the UK has plenty of makeup brands that practice neither.
Reporter Kloudia Sakowski compares makeup brands and conducts an interview with a Lush
employee.
employee.
Cruelty-free products are products created without the use of animal testing while vegan products simply do not use any animal-derived ingredients in their formulas, such as beeswax, carmine, or collagen. Brands such as e.l.f cosmetics and The Body Shop prove it is possible to be both cruelty-free and vegan. However, there are brands that practice neither such as L’Oréal, NARS, Chanel, and MAC – some of the biggest beauty names on the market.
Our own conducted research.
Compared to the results of the survey, other responses we got might be seen as contradicting. Jacob Sultan, 22, told Westminster World: “I personally wouldn’t stop using a product if I found out it wasn’t cruelty-free, especially if it works well for me.” While our research found that the majority of people are willing to make the switch, putting it into practice may be more difficult than expected.
The UK government provides rigorous guidelines about the necessary steps that makeup brands have to take before distributing their products within Great Britain. None of these rules include any information about animal testing.
According to Finder UK 2020 statistics, cosmetics were named the third-largest market operating in the UK. Globally, the country has the seventh-largest cosmetics market, with the US and China taking the top two places.
Image by Kloudia Sakowski
There have been many radical protests on the topic of animal rights. High profile figures have used their platforms in an effort to bring attention to these important causes. In November 2021, singer Will Young chained himself outside a beagle breeding facility that supplies beagles for the sole purpose of being used in experiments.
We reached out to Animal Aid but they could not provide us with a direct statement, instead, they pointed us towards other helpful information on their website.
Many activists are sharing petitions or creating Instagram pages dedicated to promoting cruelty-free products and urging consumers to make the switch to ethically sourced brands.
Here are some influencers you could follow if you’re interested in ethical consumption: @demicolleen, @kristenxleanne, @beckyaddams.
The solution seems to boil down to shopping consciously and making an effort to read up about the products and companies you use. If they’re not making necessary changes to be more ethical, it may be time to ditch them.
PETA has a feature that allows users to search brand names and see if they are vegan and cruelty-free. Leaping Bunny, the internationally recognized logo stamped on cruelty-free products, also had a list of approved brands you can find here.
You can also look at the cruelty-free checklist below.
Image created by Luiza Lanna, checklist based on our research.
Facebook: ‘We certainly don’t want our products to be addictive’
8 November 2021 by Hirna, Ting, Luiza, Neha
A survey by Facebook has found that around 1 in 8 of its users have addiction-like problems. The problems are related to the compulsive use of the social media platform on users’ sleep, work, parenting or relationships
Image: Neha Suryavanshi
Around 360 million people are affected by the ‘problematic use’ of the application. Several other researches have also revealed how some users lacked discipline when it came to the amount of time they were spending on Facebook. They also noted the excessive activities like shopping, sex and Facebook use. People are also found unable to complete tasks and lack of sleep in their lives because of the amount of time they spend on the app.
In some cases, parents were focused more on FB than caring for or bonding with their children.
The other social media applications owned by the parent company meta like Instagram and WhatsApp were also found to be used compulsively.
These apps were designed in a way to trigger addictive use by including the appearance of a red dot which signifies a new content. Even though the app allows to the turn off the notifications, these settings are not easy to find.
Reporters from Westminster world interviewed people in London about Facebook’s responsibility to curb down the excessive use of the app. People had controversial opinions.
Rainer Geelmuyden, 19, said: “As one of the biggest social media platforms in the world I would definitely say that they have some sort of role to prevent us, especially with younger people.”
Raquel Alves, 21’ said: “I think to some extent it is Facebook’s responsibility because they also created the interface that provoke that kind of addiction but at the same time its not only them, people should also be aware of what they are doing.”
Amana Jalali, 20, said: “I think everyone in the society is addicted. You wake up in the morning and you check your phone. I feel like this is the norm.”
“It does make me procrastinate my UNI work. Whenever I get notification I check my phone and forget about my work.”
Facebook has also suggested various ways to curb down the usage by reducing the frequency of user notifications and introducing tools that would encourage people to take breaks.
However, that team was disbanded in 2019 by a company spokesperson said that the social media giant was still dedicated to solving the problem.
The company has dedicated a team to ensure people are using the application in the most meaningful way including issues related to body image and mental health.
Despite the negative findings, the social media giant said that less use of social media can make people worse but those who use it quite often would feel better. They also said that interacting with people via posts, comments and messages will help improve wellbeing.
Mayor worries about “excess deaths” caused by the energy price crisis
18 October 2021 by Luiza Lanna
Photo: Luiza Lanna
Rising energy prices, especially during London’s winter, is the major concern of Sadiq Khan, as he demonstrated at Mayor’s Question Time, last Thursday.
According to Khan, this is, “the most important issue Londoners are facing over the next months, I worry about people choosing food over heat”.
London citizens will face record prices this winter and may mean that poorer Londoners experience ‘fuel poverty’.
British Gas explains that this issue is happening because there is high demand for gas and reduced supply behind the surge in wholesale prices. Whilst prices were at record
lows during Covid-19, now that vaccinations advance and countries are recovering from
the pandemic economic crisis, the demand for global gas rose.
The problem has a snowball effect “last winter was colder than usual and so was this spring, meaning that more gas was used”, British Gas said. Also, some power plants had to be closed for regular maintenance that couldn’t be completed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of the solutions would be to invest in renewable electricity and to lessen fossil fuel dependence. London’s Mayor said he is trying to improve fair, affordable and green energy, however, there are more problems related to these alternatives. For instance, wind power is not an efficient substitute as low winds in the past months generated less renewable electricity, creating more reliance on gas-fired power stations
According to the BBC News, wholesale UK electricity prices are the highest since the market was formed in 1990. Gas prices are the highest they’ve been for 15 years – up 250% since January.
Why do wholesale energy costs affect domestic bills?
Photo: Isadora Carniel
Domestic energy bills are linked to wholesale prices, which make up around 40% of a typical energy bill. These are the prices energy companies, like British Gas, pay for the gas and electricity supplied.
While London Mayor’s Questions, Sadiq Khan promised he will open a range of programmes to help reduce bills, including grants, funding, credit, discounts and retrofit homes. Additionally, he said there is a home advice service available through telephone and in-home to support low-income households facing high energy bills and also to help people to know their rights. Khan said: “Many Londoners do not realize the rights they've got and by giving this advice service, they can get the heating that they need and it won't be turned off by the energy companies.”
Ofgem, which is the UK’s energy regulator, has a channel to keep contact with consumers. Access this page to know all your rights related to energy, gas bills and all the help you can receive. British Gas also offer a webpage where you can find information
If you're struggling to pay for your energy and energy-saving tips for your home.
Module Issues in Journalism: Freedom, Ethics and the Law
ESSAY "HOW CAN JOURNALISTS OFFSET THE THREAT POSED BY FAKE NEWS?"
