class notes

• a news report

• 3 speakers : a male presenter / a female reporter in the street/ a policeman's voice

• deals with security cameras (CCTV)

• in Middlesborough, UK

• over 4 million cameras in the UK, mostly silent

• 144 cameras in Middlesborough

• 7 CCTV cameras are “talking cameras”

• new system / pilote project = more effective than silent cameras

• this system spots / targets / cuts down violent crime and anti-social behaviour

• it's supposed to keep the town safer and cleaner

• it's a more effective system because it increases surveillance without increasing the number of police officers (they work from a control room)

• silent cameras have made it possible to arrest 678 offenders. More will be arrested.

• The mayor is a former police officer whose nickname is robocop.

• Some people think this is too much/ this is scary and the reporter talks about a “big brother society”.

Would you mind if your village / town were equipped with such cameras?

• I wouldn't like this to happen because cameras are not human and I don't want a camera to tell me what I'm supposed to do

• I think these cameras deprive us of our liberties and I find them very stressful.

• I think it's against human rights. (having these cameras, to me, is a violation of human rights) Everyone is entitled to freedom. Also, I think it might be more justifiable to watch dangerous criminals but when it comes to littering, I just think it's wrong and even ridiculous.

• I don't think this would work in my town because people would probably destroy the talking cameras. They wouldn't want to be scrutinized all the time.

• I would feel like I was spied on all the time.

The recording is a news report.

There's only one speaker.

The topic is cheating during exams and specifically a project initiated by an association of invigilators who want to install cameras in exam halls.

There are more and more complaints about students taking their mobile phones into exam halls, using special pens equipped with voice recorders and just generally cheating.

The association hopes that the cameras will help reduce / relieve / alleviate invigilators' stress.

They also hope it will stop students from thinking they can go unobserved.

These cameras appear as a measure to tackle exam cheats.