Evaluation

Evaluation

What were the main strengths and weaknesses of the Project?	Strengths – The main strengths of my project was my ability to do in depth research, for example finding out  about Hillsborough what not everybody knew about, and being able to be resilient in the process. Another strength of mine was time management and being able to prepare myself in time for the deadline. Weakness -  A main weakness of mine was being organised, towards the end I needed to make sure I was organised and this would-be helped if I was organised from the start.
What new skills did you learn/ what new technologies did you use?	The new skills I learned was being able to improve my speaking skills in front of a group of people, this was something I needed to improve, and it was challenging for me at first but something I needed to improve if I want to be a primary school teacher.
In doing the project, what did you learn about yourself and the way in which you learn?	From doing the project I learned that I prefer to read about a particular topic and do lots of further readings and then the information that I found to condense it down to make my dissertation.
Has the project helped in terms of your future plans?	My project has helped me for my future plans as I want to be a primary school teacher. To be a primary school teacher, you have to be organised and manage your time effectively and I believe this has set me up for what is it come in the upcoming years. It has also prepared me for my heavy research based university course, for dissertations and the preparation for this is something that I am grateful for.
If you were to start your project again what would you do differently and what would you keep the same?	If I was to start my project again, I would ensure by organisation levels were better. I would make sure I had a clear, concise plan to follow and in order to meet my deadlines efficiently. This would able me to not fall behind. What I would keep the same is the topic that I chose, my topic had such a driven passion for me and enabled me to keep in touch and be involved with my project.

 

Presentation pictures

These pictures are from delivering my presentation to a group of people. This especially helped me improve my confidence as speaking in front of a crowd was never a strong point of mine. Doing so, will help me in the future with wanting to be a primary school teacher, as I need to be confident in speaking in front of people.

presentation feedback

These pictures who the feedback from the audience for my presentation. Some of this feedback I will use to help me in the future for when I have to do presentations at university.

Research into the media aspects

Some of the research I have used in my dissertation comes from Domeneghetti’s ‘From the back page to the back door’ (2017), this research looks at the media and how sports journalists are dominated by football. This specific section of the book looks at the media effects of the Hillsborough disaster, including broadcast and print media.
In this section of the book, it looks at how the media on the time of Hillsborough represented the disaster, which helped as a researcher's could be seen to be very reliable.

source evaluation

Source Evaluation	What is the source? (Website, book, TV documentary etc.)	What have I learned from it?	Issues with reliability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_PA7YlJAHY	BBC Documentary on TV	I have learned about how the families of the time dealt with this tragedy, the emotions they went through, how they coped, who they were told was to blame in the wake of the disaster.	Issues with reliability are that the accounts of which were used in the documentary are from the bereaved families and witness testimonies from the day, the issue with this could be that they may give a biased story of events as they were the ones involved directly. However on the counter to   this it could give quite a fair judgement of what happened on that day because they would be able to go into great depths.
The Sun’s, infamous ‘The truth’ headline	Newspaper article/headline	From this newspaper headline I have learned of the huge impact that the media had on how people saw the tragedy, especially from Rupert Murdoch’s ‘The Sun’, I have learnt that the media has a huge impact on how people think and how the media can change the way people think about a situation.	The issues with the reliability in this sense is how reliable the content of the newspaper is. We can’t wholly trust this headline/ article due to how they obtained the information and how it was proven to be false in the future also, I used this information to show the comparison between how the media represented the Hillsborough tragedy at the time and the consequences   of this from 1989.
The Sun’s ‘The Real Truth’	Newspaper article/headline	As this was posted 23 years after ‘The Truth’ headline, I gathered that the media can gain a huge influence on the people, especially one of the biggest tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom at the time	Here you could agree that there is very low reliability due tot he sources of the headline. These sources were falsely made up by Sheffield police officers, and this was published to a huge audience with false information.
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/hillsborough/contact	Website for Hillsborough support group	From this source, I discovered the names/ages of all the supporters who tragically lost their lives. The website gives background knowledge of the support group, including how the group started and who the chairman of the comittee is, Margaret Aspinall.	This source has no issues with reliability as it is written by the founder of the committee, a parent of one of the sadly young boy James who passed away.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-shameless-smears-lies-cover-11245354	Website article by the Liverpool Echo	From this source, I first hand read the lies, and corruption that The Sun and the South Yorkshire Police had done to cover up and force a false misrepresentation of the Liverpool fans.	The issues with reliability is that there is a possibility of a potential bias as the article is coming from the supposed accused Liverpool fans, side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQrl5ivhLYU Andy Burnham	Speech in front of the houses of commons by Andy Burnham, in front of a vast group of MP's	Andy Burnham stands in front of the Houses Of Commons with an emphatic and emotive speech. I learnt about how the ongoing case took 27 plus years to come to a verdict, even though they had all the details in front of them from the very beginning of the investigations.	Here again you could argue that the reliability is compromised as you are only hearing from on side of the tragedy and only hearing one side of what happened in the day.
Lord Justice Taylor’s Report http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/taylor.shtm	The official Lord Justice Taylor's Interim Report	What I have learnt from this report is that the regulations what have been devised after this disaster will change the footballing world forever, and as heart-breaking the day on 15th April 1989, it still brings good to the football world.	High reliability as the report was made by a member of Law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjfxugkQ2qQ	ITV news broadcast from the day of the disaster	I have learnt how quickly the media are to act on a news story as this came just hours after the event unfolded at Hillsborough. Also from this news article I have learnt that the spread of fake news even without proof can be published on Britain’s biggest news broadcaster at the time.	Essentially low reliability as the content to which they are reporting has been proven to be false information.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Sources I've used from newspapers

These newspaper headlines i have obtained from the internet from, Sheffield Star which was the local newspaper to Hillsborough. Liverpool Echo, the newspaper of the supporters who died,both of these articles were published a few days/ a week after these disaster. Two newspaper articles from The Sun, one from 1989 and one from 2012.

I would come to the conclusion that me obtaining these newspaper articles would be seen as reliable, because the newspaper headlines were the ones which were published at the time. 

However what is questionable is the reliability of the content of the newspapers, for example The Sun's 'the truth' headline, which is what i will look to establish this in my dissertation.

Meeting with my mentor

Another meeting with my mentor allowed my progress to enhance even more. In the meeting I decided to slightly tweak my dissertation title, to just looking at how the print media affected the representation of the people involved in the the disaster. I have done this as I wanted to keep my presentation linear and I found with including broadcast widened the subject area massively. Keeping the dissertation focused on print media, and for example the tabloid newspaper, 'The Sun' and how they influenced peoples decisions, represented the police, the fans at the tragedy but also as a whole at that time, and also the support group for Hillsborough. 

I have also been looking at theorists to support why and how 'The Sun' we able to present these people in this way. 

Primary and Secondary Evidence

During my research and gathering information, I managed to find a lot of secondary evidence to back up my argument. Due to the fact that I have an extensive amount of secondary research, the need for primary research was not necessary. My secondary research includes research from BBC documentaries, Lord Justice Taylor's interim report, Guardian newspaper articles, and TV broadcasts (BBC, ITV, M.E.N, LIVERPOOL STAR) from the time of the disaster.
Using secondary evidence instead of primary evidence could be seen as unreliable because of the fact that it is data which is used as a substitute to primary evidence, however who the sources are from counteract the point to make the sources reliable, for example the BBC which is one of the oldest broadcasting channels and a well established company, which would make the sources I have gathered together justifiably reliable to include in my project, just like primary evidence.

The reasons why I didn't need to include primary evidence was because there was plenty of secondary evidence circling around, especially for example interviews of the people I was looking into, to research.

How this EPQ has helped me

From starting my EPQ, it has enhanced my ability to be organised and being able to meet the deadlines I have set. For me, being organised was never a strength of mine, however what my EPQ has enabled me to do is improve my organisation, and to plan ahead to be able to meet the deadlines in time. This was something I struggled with before, and now having built on this skill i will be able to use this to my ability when i go onto university.

2nd meeting with mentor

Meeting with my mentor for the second time enabled me to take a step forward in my project. I have been able to set titles to help structure my dissertation and doing this allows my to research different areas of my question and keep everything focused on one question instead of running wild with research what isn't useful.
Given the recent news on the courts trials ongoing with the Hillsborough this makes my project a lot more interesting as it is keeping it contemporary.

Structuring my Dissertation

planning & titles for project

• introduction to the dissertation
• personal views, how i personally feel about the disaster
• Introduction to the people involved and their roles, for example David Duckenfield, JFT96 support group, The Sun and their impact, Andy Burnham. ( 250 words each )

Topic Areas

• The media perspective, including what exactly The Sun said and what impact that had on everybody in the UK How Liverpool stood against The Sun and even now to the present day. ( aim for 1000 words )
• The persistence of the JFT96 support groups, including details from the court cases won by them, what its classed as now and how far they've come to reach the verdict that they wanted to. ( 1000 words )
• The injustice and the lies that the South Yorkshire Police brought across to try and cover their own backs. - David Duckenfield (1000 words)
• How it brought the footballing community together, memorial etc.
• What actually happened on the day of the disaster
• Conclusion of the whole thing - including where it stands now, ongoing debates, the sun still being banned in liverpool.