Football Museum photos

Here are a selection of resized photos for JN2053 Digital Journalism module. The subject of these photos is the National Football Museum, who's Preston future is in doubt at the moment.


This image is 200x500 pixels big and has been cropped to show the entrance to the museum, to keep the photo as recognisable as possible


This version is 400x300 pixels and therefore can show more of the entrance to the museum.


For the 100x100 pixel i focused on the logo, which is located on the outside wall of the shop next to the entrance. I chose this because the logo was the most obvious and recognisable part of the photo compared to the building desgin.

This is the original photo, showing the complete image with all part of the museum and rest of Deepdale football stadium which could fit into view. From the photo it is possible to see where each of the small photos were cropped to.

Digital Journalism

Mark Payton is the Digital Editorial Director of Haymarket Consumer Media, owned by former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine.

Some of the titles owned by Haymarket include Autosport, What Car? and FourFourTwo.

In this video, taken from the Meld workshop at Sandbox, Mark discusses how online journalism has affected how the world of online has meant his publications have had to adapt to compete against the new competition.

Button - a deserving champion

It's very nearly been 24 hours since the 2009 F1 Championship was settled, and Jenson Button was crowned as Britain's 10th World Champion.

There are some people who say he does not deserve the title but to be honest, who out there did more to deserve it? The answer is nobody.

Winning six out of the first seven races, a record that betters those of Senna, Mansell and Schumacher, formed the foundations of his title challenge. And despite a mid-season blip which saw both Red Bull drivers and his team-mate Rubens Barrichello start winning races and picking up podiums while Button struggled with a string of poor qualifying sessions.

But over the course of the season, he has won the most races and scored the most points. You can't argue against that. Button has scored more wins this year than Hamilton did last year when he won his title.

Barrichello was the better driver over the second half of the season, buoyed by his victories at Valencia and Monza; his first for five years. But his terrible luck at Interlagos continues. His 17th race in his home city, and he has still not managed better than 3rd despite three pole positions.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the Red Bull's had fast cars but were hampered by poor reliability with the Renault engine not being as consistant as Brawn's Mercedes. Vettel will surely be a champion one day, he has time on his side as well as supreme talent. But this was Brawn's year.

A team which in December did not even exist. A team who didn't get to test the car until three weeks before the season. A team which had to lay off 200 staff to survive. A team which had to redesign part of the car to fit the Mercedes-Benz engine.

It is a brilliant story. This is only the third time since 1998 that a team apart from Ferrari or McLaren has won the Drivers and Constructors championships.

Even in the height of the Ferrari dominance in 2004, Button was 'best of the rest' finishing 3rd in the championship with 85 points and plenty of podium finishes.

The last two years he has been hampered by having two of the worst cars in recent F1 history but this season he got a competetive car and made the most of it. While Barrichello struggled with the anti-stall system which ruined many a race for him, Button charged off to victory after victory at the start of the season.

And despite the Brawn not having the advantage it did at the start of the season; as Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari close the gap, he got the points he needed to ensure his points lead was never seriously eradicated.

To crown his championship, a charge from 14th on the grid to a 5th placed finish at Felipe Massa's chequered flag with some feisty overtaking manouvers which showed the world he is not a conservative driver. When he needs to, he goes for it.

And he's got his reward.

Headline writing

According to Jakob Nielsen there are five rules that journalists should obey when it comes to headline writing, and in particular, headline writing for the web.

They are:
1. Keep it short. Don't use too many words because people read quickly on the internet and want headlines that are short and easy to read. Sky Sports' headline here is a good short story that will make people stop and read. Four words that will attract a reader because of who and why.

2. Summarise. Every word must tell part of the story so ensure that every word in the headline does its job and gives the reader as much information as possible. The Sun here have summarised up Alex Ferguson in an interview discussing the form of Rio Ferdinand after his mistake in the Ukraine on Saturday night.

3. Most important words at the beginning. Tell as much of the story as possible with the most important facts at the beginning. The BBC do a good job of this, as the headline shows. It gives away the most important part of the story at the start - Newsagents warn Labour.

4. Make it understandable out of context. The headline should be able to summarise the story so even without reading the article the reader knows the most important facts and has an idea of what it is about. Once again the BBC come up trumps with a headline that tells the reader the one fact in the article that actually matters.

5. Predictability. So the reader knows from the headline whether they will like the article or not.
This is the only category the Daily Mail succeeds in, giving its tendancy to write a headline that is so long, it's surprising they have any information left for the article.

The BBC headlines are the best. They tick all five boxes that Nielsen suggests the headlines need to follow. Reading various headlines, I do agree with Nielson that headlines should conform to the rules he suggests.

Nuclear Warheads

President Obama has recently abandoned the Pentagon's plans to build a missile defence system in Europe.

A meeting of the UN Security Council, also chaired by Obama, called for nuclear disarmament; with concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

However Iran's nuclear programme still has a long way to go if it is to get anywhere near those of America or Russia.

Despite calling for nuclear disarmament, America has only got rid of 1,000 nucelar warheads in the last decade, compared to Russia which has scrapped 9,000.

According to the BBC, America still has thousands more strategic missiles than the former Soviet Union and nowhere near as many awaiting dismantling.

At this rate Russia will easily be the first out of the two countries to cut their warhead levels down to 1,700 within seven years of a new nuclear treaty.

At least they are cutting down though.

Despite having nowhere near the levels of the Americans or Russians, Britain is the only country in the Western World to have increased its nuclear arsenal since 2000.

So when Gordon Brown says that he's willing to remove one of Britain's trident submarines, it is easy to understand why the reaction is not jubilant.

The Winton Train

Up until the beginning of September, not many people had heard of 100 year old Sir Nicholas Winton.

However one epic railtour which coincided with the 70th anniversary of World War Two soon changed all that.

I was lucky enough to be London Liverpool Street station on September 4 as the final leg of an 800 trip from which commemorated his actions just prior to the start of the war.

At the time Sir Nicholas was a 29 year old stockbroker whose action was to organise a series of trains from Czechoslovakia, which was threatened by Nazi occupation, to London to save as many Jewish children as possible.

In all eight trains carried 669 children to safety between April and August 1939, an incredible achievement. Running from Prague the trains ran south to Nuremberg before running North West to Cologne and onto the Hook of Holland. From there the children boarded ferries to the Suffolk port of Harwich from where they were taken onto London.

Not only did Sir Nicholas organise these trains he also found suitable families for each child as well as 250 more families for children of a ninth train which was due to leave on September 1 1939 but never did due to the outbreak of war.

To be in the presence, even in a media scrum, of a man who was personally responsible for the saving of so many lives was an awe inspiring moment and he deserves every bit of credit and attention he gets.

Talking to some of those from the original trains who retraced their steps across Europe this summer, it was clear the debt of gratitude they felt towards him which was lovely to see. One said he felt that Sir Nicholas was like a father to him.

Everyone admitted that without him they would not be here today. Neither would the estimated 5000 descendents of the 669 who made the trip 70 years ago.

Never seemingly one to blow his own trumpet, Sir Nicholas didn’t speak publicly during the ceremony which welcomed the train and its passengers after its arrival in London but he didn’t have to.

The smiling faces of those who had crossed Europe to recreate their life saving journeys said everything that needed to be said.

This year is the 70th anniversary of the start of World War Two and what better way to mark this by celebrating one of the true heroes of that time. War has its villains but it also has its heroes and Sir Nicholas could be seen as a definition of the word hero.

I am very honoured and glad to have been present for the arrival of the 2009 train and the subsequent greetings between the survivors and their life savour.

Despite being one of the media jostling to get photos and interviews with those connected to the train, I was still able to appreciate the work of this great man and what it means to so many people, who now live all around the world.

Having also visited Auschwitz earlier this year and meeting someone who survived six years in the camp I now have a greater understanding or what World War Two meant on a personal level.

It is easy to read about it or watch television programmes but you can’t get a full understanding of what war means to people without meeting people like Sir Nicholas or visiting locations such as Auschwitz.

Auschwitz is an immensely powerful place and it is difficult not to shed a tear when you consider what happened to so many people in that dreadful camp.

But thanks to people like Sir Nicholas Winton, there are also happy stories from World War Two where people were saved and to people like that we should all have the upmost respect.

Start of a new football season?

Yes it's that time of year again where the football season officially 'starts'.

I say officially because in reality, it never really ended. It doesn't seem five minutes since Newcastle went crashing out of the Premiership (oh how we cried!) or Barcelona putting one over Man Utd in Rome.

For the past 3 months or so we have been had the U21 European Championships, the Confederations Cup (just what is the point?), pre season fixtures and endless transfer talk mostly about some bloke called Ronaldo going to Athletico Madrid or somewhere like that?

It has never been away, and although I like football I do find it mildly irritating with it being in the news every day of the year.

There used to be a time where the football season ended in mid-May then wouldn't really reapper until mid to late August.

Not anymore.

There has been plenty of other sports to keep the public entertained over the summer. Formula 1 and the return of Schumacher, The Ashes, Tour de France, Wimbledon are just some of the many competitions that have taken place over the past two months.

And yet football still dominates, even when the game isn't being played.

Who will buy Newcastle? Who will Man City and Real Madrid go for next? New managers, new signings, new kits - on and on it goes.

In a way it lessens the excitement of the new season as so much football is played it is hard to get excited about something that never, ever comes to an end.

Don't get me wrong I like football, but you can have too much of a good thing. When the football season is in full swing it can be really enjoyable but there comes a time when I just want a break from it and I'm sure I'm not alone.