FOI Requests Make Front Page News

Yet again I read The Sun yesterday and felt a little guilty for finding some articles actually quite interesting. News is news after all isn't it? Well just like my last post I found this article interesting because the way in which they gained their knowledge. This was again, through a Freedom of Information Request.

The Sun wanted to know about 'primary school mums'. They requested information and they received astonishing figures of how many girls get pregnant every year and their ages. The article said that there are 23 girls under 15 expecting children every day. It also said that 15 girls that are aged 10 have given birth over the last 7 years. These figures are massive and are not ending.

This news was not over the front page, it was given a small corner but the front page is best no matter how small right? This started to make me think. The Sun has written two very interesting articles about society and both times have gained their knowledge from Freedom of Information Requests.

I have now decided that I want to submit my own request. The direct.gov website tells you how to apply for the requests, who you can apply to, what you should and should not write and all the details that go along with the act that you need to consider. All I have to do now is to think of what I would like to request and write the letter. I will, ofcourse keep you posted on my blog of the question I choose to send and the company I choose to send it to. If anyone has any ideas please let me know as it's taking me a while to think of a good question. I will then hopefully have information to write an article on.

Well, good luck to me and I'll keep you guys posted.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Yourrightsandresponsibilities/DG_4003239

Exam Scam and Law!

After reading the beloved Sun newspaper, I came across an article that took my fancy. As I am a student and have to take the dreaded exams after months of study, revision and worry I was shocked to see the amount of students that cheat...and dont get away with it. The way in which they try to cheat I found were quite creative however. Much better than any of my ideas.

They included, hiding the answers in the toilets and then taking a toilet break to revise the answers. Writing on skin and body parts, buying coursework from better students and from the Internet, stealing a memory stick from another student and passing it off as their own work and having a 'stand-in' take the exam for them. The latter I thought was the most interesting, not even turning up for the exam yourself. You could be out shopping with friends whilst the rest of your class sit in the exam. Being reassured that someone is in your seat and giving better answers than you could have yourself.

I was also quite happy to find that Winchester didn't make the list of the cheating students. The worst University was Teeside University in Middlesbrough, (17 students caught) Middlesex University expelled 15 students and Kingston University expelled 10. Either us Winch students know the answers or we're better at not being caught.

However what made me want to blog about this article was not the ways in which to cheat or the Universities that the culprits attend but the way in which The Sun came about the information. The paper actually showed that it can perform good journalism.

We learnt about this last semester. It was the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This makes information accessible to anyone from any company, when asked for. The Sun wrote, "we submitted a Freedom of Information request to discover the most popular ways of cheating - and which campuses had the most culprits."

So as you can see The Sun does have some rare moments of journalism but, they are rare glimpses. I found, just a page over from this article a strory about Celebrity Big Brother. I found 3 spelling mistakes and 2 punctuation problems. Happy Reading fellow Bloggers.