Channel 4 and the declining influence of organized religion on UK television. The case of Jesus: The Evidence.

During the early 1980s, there was a high level of expectation attached to the provision of a fourth television service in the UK. Channel 4 was set up to be a publisher-broadcaster, commercially self-funding, but with a public service remit to cater for minority groups. For the churches, the new channel initially looked as if it might provide fresh impetus for religious broadcasting, believed by many to be moribund. The paper examines the circumstances surrounding Jesus: The Evidence, a highly controversial Easter documentary series commissioned by Channel 4 during its first year – not at all what the churches had hoped for. It is suggested that the public furore sparked by the series arose from an escalating sense of disentitlement related to a very particular earlier history. It charts the general shift away from the precedent established in the 1920s by the BBC’s first Director General, to the advent of Channel 4, by which time this earlier position had come to be viewed as less than impartial. The paper identifies the principal points of contestation at the heart of the controversy, and concludes that it was emblematic of a growing cultural dissonance between the religious and the broadcasting institutions

Jeremy Hunt’s vision for media literacy

Richard Wallis is a media producer at Twofour, with particular responsibility for the company’s educational work. He is currently investigating media literacy policy and practice with particular reference to primary education, at the Centre for the Study of Children Youth & Media , part of the London Knowledge Lab

Undergraduate students’ experiences and perceptions of dialogic feedback within assessment feedback tutorials

High quality assessment feedback is crucial to effective student learning, motivation and academic progress. It is one of the most important aspects of an undergraduate student’s study experience and acts as a critical factor in the way students perceive both their learning and learner identity. However, annual National Student Survey (NSS) results continue to reveal that undergraduate students are least satisfied with their experiences of assessment and feedback when compared to other areas on which the NSS focuses. These results have raised important questions within the higher education (HE) profession about the fitness for purpose of current forms of assessment feedback. As such, a reappraisal of assessment feedback policies and practices sits high within the sector’s improvement agenda. In response to these concerns, there is a small but growing field of research that promotes dialogic feedback and the inclusion of opportunities for assessment feedback discussions between tutors and undergraduate students. Framed by socio-constructivist theorisations of learning, proponents claim that such assessment feedback discussions benefit students through developing their personal confidence and capacity to self-direct learning. Paradoxically, however, in spite of research evidence showing that students support the inclusion of these tutorial meetings, personal experience reveals a reluctance by some students to engage in discussion about their assessment performance. Through a phenomenological research design, the thesis aimed to gain a deeper understanding of students’ experiences and perceptions of discussing their performance with their marking tutor. Research participants included eight second-year, full-time undergraduate social science students. Each student participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their experiences of assessment feedback tutorials (AFT). The transcribed data was analysed using a six-stage Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) model. The research makes an original contribution to knowledge relating to both the practice and theory of dialogic feedback in undergraduate study. Specifically, the findings posit that some students face a significant predicament when discussing weak and/or failed assignments. Their desire to self-promote and/or self-protect a confident and capable learner identity, not only conflicts with their own self-awareness of their poor academic performance, but also with the tutor's expectations that students need to undertake greater responsibility for their own learning and academic performance. As a means of managing this tension, and the emotional pressures that an AFT creates, students draw upon a range of self-presentational behaviours to manage how they project themselves to their tutor. The thesis concludes that such strategic management of their self-presentation restricts opportunities for the critical dialogic exchanges needed to create co-constructive student/tutor relationships and deep learning. As such, it is recommended that, within undergraduate study, there is increased focus on supporting students to understand the role that dialogue plays in engaging with feedback and the personal learning opportunities it affords

Plotinus and Paranormal Phenomena

The present paper is intended primarily for classicists who are not specialists in Neoplatonism and will therefore tell experts in Plotinus little of which they are not already well aware. Its purpose is to explain Plotinus\u27 views on a subject which finds itself, perhaps surprisingly, once again of some contemporary interest, and where misunderstandings and emotionally toned judgments are only too easy. It will be concerned as much with the reasons underlying Plotinus\u27 beliefs as with those beliefs themselves, and in particular will show how his views on paranormal phenomena spring naturally from some of the most fundamental principles of his whole philosophy

The Polonnaruwa meteorite: oxygen isotope, crystalline and biological composition

Results of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Triple Oxygen Isotope analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) studies are presented for stone fragments recovered from the North Central Province of Sri Lanka following a witnessed fireball event on 29 December 2012. The existence of numerous nitrogen depleted highly carbonaceous fossilized biological structures fused into the rock matrix is inconsistent with recent terrestrial contamination. Oxygen isotope results compare well with those of CI and CI-like chondrites but are inconsistent with the fulgurite hypothesis.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 4 table