Critical Reflection 14/15 Semester One

How well did I fulfil my role?

This semester I took on more roles as I progressed. I started out as Director and Producer for WinchXtra, then I was assigned role as Producer of WINOL, and I finally took up the role of Producer and Presenter of The Tate and Zeena Show. I feel I have been very ambitious this semester, but I took it as an opportunity to expand my overall experience and to take advantage of the course as a whole before specialising next semester. On top of this, Chris and Brian expressed at the beginning of the year that Third Year Students are expected to do higher quality work, not necessarily every week, but we should take on ideally two roles, but three would also be great. I feel I took this on-board totally and aimed as high as I could, and exceeded my own expectations of myself.

WINCHXTRA

WinchXtra was a project that Lucy and I created. Although it took time to organise the formatting of the show, it turned out successful. We initially wanted to create a show like last year’s Access Winchester, but with a The One Show feel.

As Director and Producer of WinchXtra, I contributed heavily to the ideas behind the putting together of the show as a whole and helped the show come together each week. I produced a feature package for each of the episodes, and I felt I improved a lot over the semester.

I also produced content for the show, my packages being the Winchester Comedy Festival, London MCM Comic Con, Winchester Bonfire Night, and Battle of the Foods. In comparison to my previous news packages I produced last year, features was a challenge as you have to be more smart with the content and editing to create gizmos/gimmicks with the not so hard hitting footage. A great example of this was the Battle of the Foods package – the Winchester Christmas Market is covered every year multiple times, and we all know what a Christmas market is, so why walk around and film the same thing again and again? I focused on one aspect of the market and decided to make it exciting by putting the food stalls up against one another, and I have been told that it was genuinely entertaining, which of course is the ultimate goal.

I used Canon 650 DSLR cameras this semester, and there is a huge leap in film quality that improved my work tenfold. In my first Comedy Festival package the images were somewhat grainy, however if you compare it to the pictures later on in my Comic Con and Battle of the Foods packages, it is clear that I now understand the cameras and can use them effectively and successfully. I also ventured into hand held camera shots, which I believe work well in most of my packages as opposed to static shots.

Overall, I felt I fulfilled my role as Director and Producer of WinchXtra very well and to the best of my ability, especially since I had two other roles as well as this one. I helped create a new show and kept it going, and I produced quality packages for it.

WINOL

My role as Producer of WINOL consisted of very different responsibilities compared to my contribution to WINOL last year. I have been able to see the other side of the news broadcast, which to be has been valuable to understanding the workings of WINOL and news broadcast as a whole, rather than from my isolated view as Health Reporter.

Prior to my role implementation, WINOL seemed to have a missing link in communication and organisation between the newsroom and the gallery, and so my role consisted of correcting this. This was recognised after my week of standing in for Midoriko and Nicole, the two most valuable people on the features team. I agreed to stand in as director, but also unknowingly took on the role of production editor and producer. This meant that not only did I set up the studio, create the headlines, and collect packages, but I also directed the show and mixed it together at the end to upload it for five o’clock. It was very challenging and stressful, and it was a great decision by Chris to have a producer of the show to make sure things run smoothly and to concentrate just on headlines and putting it online, as well as keep the communication between newsroom and gallery.

I have improved in my knowledge of creating headlines, which I completely underestimated as the health reporter. I started off not having a complete clue as to how to make effective headlines, but then grew to understand, especially after Ian Sherwood, the Sky News Editor, sat down with me and discussed how to put together the images and sound. I also made decisions such as changing the sting image in between each headline clip from the woman on the camera to the WINOL logo. As well as this, I also mixed together WINOL and corrected anything that went wrong in the gallery.

I did odd bits here and there too for WINOL such as help and teach the second years, help others film such as Megan’s badger piece to camera, rework packages such as the Sajid Javid package in WINOL 151, and I also presented the episode with most unique IPs, WINOL 152.

RADIO

Tate and I took it upon ourselves to create a radio news show as there was a massive hole for one that was crying out to be filled. This was a massive skill builder, as I hadn’t ever done a radio news day. Tate and I formatted the show, with help from Annette, so that it would be a mix of BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. We took the target age, upbeat music, and language style from Radio 1, but kept it newsy and somewhat more serious like Radio 4.

The purpose of the show was essentially to make a show where the Masters students could showcase their packages, and so it was a perfect platform for them to do so. They took turns in being news editor which also included writing and presenting the bulletin and headlines.

We took it in turns to take on the production role and the scriptwriting role. So for example, if Tate produced the show, I would write the script. The production role consisted of collecting the packages, playing them while we were live, controlling the mixing desk, and to do all that was needed in post-production and put it online.

You can hear a clear difference between the first and last show, and we both improved incredibly. Problems I had at the beginning were that I had my ‘tv presenting voice’ and had to adjust my tone and volume to suit radio, and relaxing in the script and trying to make it more casual. I overcame both of these by the end, but of course there is also tweaking to be done.

I feel that taking on radio was a fantastic opportunity and choice, and also brought the MAs into the WINOL circle which will ultimately help with the show next semester as they now know and have worked with the second years.

Was WINOL / WinchXtra / Radio any good?

All three shows were fantastic and absolutely full of valuable teaching points.

WINOL improved greatly compared to last year due to the growth in volume of the team. More reporters meant more variety of news stories to choose from in the news conference each week. It also meant there was more space for people to specialise in more specific areas, such as graphics. There were incredible stories and interviews, such as the interview with Nick Clegg and the coverage of the Southampton house explosion. Unique IPs have grown, although it fluctuated towards the end, and by the end of the semester we moved up on ‘Alexa’. Also, Sport was incredible as they concentrated on the stories at the match rather than just covering each match.

WinchXtra went very well, with some great content and interviews such as Lucy’s Jacqueline Wilson, and radio was a great success although it will be improved and changed next semester.

What could be improved?

WINOL – As said above, WINOL has improved a lot and the views have generally gone up. However the age-old issue of target audience is always present. Especially this semester, we branched out and blurred the lines more so, especially with the Ferguson coverage, which while it was impressive, we had no reason and there was no chance to localise the story, however the Ebola story was successfully localised with an app that was made in Southampton.

WinchXtra – As it was a new show that was formed this semester, there is a great deal that can be improved – the next logical step would be to take the concept and form a features show that would go hand in hand with WINOL as a sister show. It would give the features department more of a link with news, and we could build a bridge over that gap that formed this semester. Also, it would give the feature packages more of a point, rather than packages that are aimlessly filmed with no story to them.

Radio – We need to make it more joined with WINOL so it compliments each other. If there are stories that don’t have opportunity to have pictures, then it can easily be done as a radio package.

Week 11 – W2 Features Special Graphics

Rather than creating a Super WINOL, it was decided that the Features team had produced such strong content that we should put together a special for the newly launched W2 website, where this production will be looped.

The initial idea was to make one hour’s worth of content, including the packages from throughout the year, however it was then extended to two hours because there was such a large volume of content.

I was asked to create the graphics for the show, which I took on jumping right into the deep end, exactly how I love to learn. I had no experience of After Effects prior to this role, but I took it on wholeheartedly, very excited to complete the project.

It was a real struggle getting to grips with the program, however after fiddling with adding in videos and text, inserting it into the template, and changing the timings of each transition, I felt confident by the end that I had basic knowledge of the program.

I used Adobe After Effects CS5, with the template ‘Fast Fashion Opener’ from Videohive.

OPENER:

TWO MINUTE ADVERT ADVERT (it was then cut down to 30 seconds):

Sound Women – Meet The Patrons Event

I attended Sound Women’s event ‘Meet the Patrons’ where notable female radio presenters attended to speak about their careers, and to other woman in the industry who also attended and essentially network.

The first question was on how they started their careers.

Magic FM’s Angie Greaves was particularly quotable and I found her inspiring from what she had to say. She started off saying that she ‘got the bug’ when she started working in radio and couldn’t stop. She started off at Capital, working with people such as David Jensen.

BBC Radio 4’s Jane Garvey recalled that she had started off in radio by promoting the station by selling car stickers in a shirt two sizes too small, which sets the mood and speaks volumes about the industry when she first started.

BBC Radio 1’s Annie Nightingale, the first female radio DJ on the station, told us about how she was ‘crazy about the music’, and how the males didn’t know that women would be interested in being music DJs.

They were then asked the inevitable: did you have support as women, and how did you deal with the sexism?

Angie Greaves gave a straight forward, and empowering answer: ‘I just got in the studio and did my show.’

‘Focus on your contribution.’

‘There were no women doing the drive time by herself… If she was there, she was there to giggle.’

Annie Nightingale shared what she was told at the beginning of her career: ‘DJs are husband substitutes’. She described this type of sexism as ‘ridiculous’ and said it was all part of the society in the 70s.

She went on to explain that she was ‘worries about playing the right record at the right speed at the right time’. There was pressure on her to deliver, and to deliver well.

Annie believes that we have ‘come a long, long way from then’.

Jane Garvey pitched in saying that ‘there were no women in the position to encourage you’.

The next question fired at the patrons made them think: would you give space for a man to have a show if the main slot was taken up by successful females?

Annie Nightingale jumped in and expressed that she ‘doesn’t like tokenism’, and even went as far as to say that she believes Sound Women should in fact be called Sound People.

Angie and Jane both agreed with the ‘tokenism’ comment, which pretty much shut that question down.

The last question of the night opened up for lighthearted anecdotes: What were your best and worst moments in broadcasting?

Jane Garvey’s comment sets the mood for the worst moments: ‘I’d rather take a sack full of politicians before an actress.’

She explained that she had gotten into a situation with an actress where she was then asked to apologise and send flowers, but she simply refused.

Annie Nightingale, being the well experienced broadcaster she is, shared stories about Steven Berkoff and The Beatles.

‘You don’t know whether or not to walk out or hang in there,’ Annie shared.

‘You have to be a psychologist sometimes.’

She said that when interviewing celebrities of any sort, you need to get their attention and ultimately their respect. ‘I said to John ‘you’re the difficult one”, speaking about John Lennon. Annie told us how John Lennon soon paid attention after that comment.

The three patrons then went on to share general advice.

Jane Garvey:

• Links on local radio, you should worry about ‘how you emphasise the end of a link’
• ‘Be utterly honest’. She described BBC Radio 4 as a ‘manicured garden’, and BBC Radio 5 Live as ‘an allotment’. BBC Radio 4 has packages pre made, and sourced from other broadcasters, whereas BBC Radio 5 Live is made in the moment, much like real radio.

Annie Nightingale:

• The most important things are being there on time, and being reliable – but of course we all have our moments. ‘Be the person you want to work with… be pleasant.’
• Don’t treat anyone as anything other than important.
• Don’t moan about new people – they critique you.
• Ask people how they are – it’s not about you the presenter, it’s about the people you are talking to/about.
• Silence – if the interviewee hasn’t answered, wait and let them fill it.

Angie Greaves:

• She referred to a Gandhi quote ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’.
• Always write a link that makes people smile and talk. ‘Every week I talk about scandal.’
• Just be yourself.
• ‘There’s a time to talk, and a time to be quiet. It’s not about knowing your place, it’s about being on a team.’
• ‘Be aware about the male ego and how to work it to our advantage.’
• But equally ‘be aware of your male energy’ – you will get back as much aggression as you put out.

As well as these powerful and seemingly personal pieces of advice, Tate and I went on to ask Angie Greaves for additional advice on our venture to create a radio show. She told us to 1. Make more news than you need – so for our hour show, we should have an hour and a half’s worth of content. 2. The first two shows should be podcasts and not necessarily live, to allow ourselves to listen back and asses ourselves.

She went on to say that she would be happy for us to send her our show when it is done, which would be incredibly valuable and helpful for our progression into radio.

Tate and I also went on to talk to a few women who were there until the end of the event, which was a fantastic eye opener for us into the industry, and we now have a couple more contacts to add to Twitter and keep in contact with.

Critical Reflection – 13/14 Semester 2

WAS WINOL ANY GOOD?

Compared to last semester, the standards of WINOL seemed to be ever growing and evolving, even though we were reduced to just half of the students from last semester. This reduction in students meant that the leaders of the course took the news editor role so that we were never short of one reporter each week, and this meant that the general expectation of quality shot up compared to when students had this crucial role.

Let us take a look at the top stories:

• King Alfred bones
• Floods – taken from different angles
• University strikes
• Crime – 999 calls and police cameras
• Farnham shootings
• One punch kill
• Cyclists in Southampton
• Southampton allergy centre of excellence
• The budget (the whole bulletin)

The majority of these stories were much more localised and less nationally based than those last semester. We took on more challenging stories, legally and editorially.

The start of the semester started off strong with the breaking national news that was in fact happening in Winchester – the finding of King Alfred’s bones. This was reacted upon instantly and it was great to see WINOL performing with other leading news outlets such as the BBC, ITV, as well as with all local newspapers.

With the Farnham shooting story I felt that we were much more confident in our ability to spot and avoid any legal issues. The story was an open case so there was great danger in committing contempt of court, but we avoided this by sticking to the facts rather than reporting that there was a murder.

The issue that I pointed out last semester with regards to the ambiguity of our audience was somewhat addressed this semester. I felt that we have chosen to stick as close to Winchester as we possibly could (applying the flood stories to Winchester, and the same with university strikes), but if there were bigger, more significant stories further away in the Hampshire area then we felt a duty to cover them (one punch kill, Farnham shooting). However, identifying our audience in terms of other demographic factors such as age has proven to be more difficult.

In terms of WINOL’s success as a teaching platform for us as students, it has definitely been positive. The range of guest editors made the reality of our end goal of becoming journalists much clearer and obtainable. The guests that especially did this were the alumni who came back (Sam Homewood, Claire Lomas, Joe Lipscombe) and shared with us how they went from our position to getting truly aspirational jobs (a children’s television presenter, an ITN video producer, and a journalist for Bloomsburg).

Sports has been incredibly successful this semester with an increase in quality of the production and content. The introduction of graphics for each football results package gave the overall production a great finish and an air of professional quality.

Features gained much more momentum, but I feel it should expand further than mainly fashion. The access of London Fashion Week was amazing, and the editing made on the package made it look very edgy and up to date, rather than formulaic and stale.

The statistics for this semester compared to last have increased substantially, which I do believe is due to the larger circulation of stories and the bulletin on our social media platforms. The twitter page was updated and made to look more alive, and all reporters concentrated on tweeting #WINOLliveatfive which should be expanded moreso next year. A large part of our traffic on the site however came from Facebook, which is where we personally share on our own pages amongst family and friends.

HOW HAVE I FULFILLED MY ROLE AND IMPROVED WITHIN IT?

I feel that over the space of this year, I have given health reporting in WINOL the well deserved boost it needed. I continued to build contacts that we just didn’t have, and generally expand the beat.

Each week I came in with a health story, but the main obstacle that was always in my path was the chance of getting access in order to produce quality pictures. Hospitals and care homes refused me access due to consent of patients and the apparently general disruption of the places. This made creating packages each week incredibly difficult, and I felt that I had to keep dropping stories due to the unlikely nature of producing quality packages.

However, despite these complications, I was still able to find some great stories that didn’t require directly contacting the hospitals. The most successful story of mine this semester has to be Southampton being named the only centre of excellence in the world for allergy and asthma research. I was able to film one of the head researchers in his office at Southampton General, and was able to get a few shots in the lab across from his office. I also bulked out the story by getting an interesting and unique case study: a woman who has 22 allergies. It gave the story a great personal touch and some great human interest, which is exactly what health reporting should always aim to do. As well as the great content of the package, each image I got was well shot, and the sound of the package was recorded well also. As a result of the Southampton story, I was able to obtain a helpful contact in Southampton General and make the presence of WINOL known within the press office for positive reasons.

A package that was a great learning curve for me was the fluoride story. I felt that I had balanced the package well by having the chairman of Hampshire Against Fluoridation and a statement from Public Health England to defend their stance. I thought that as long as you give the other side a chance to comment then it would be safe, but perhaps I took this message too literally. This issue aside, I felt that what I shot for the package was great as I was able to fulfil all requirements made by the news editor, particularly the filming of children brushing their teeth.

Other stories that I did try to cover were: Flu in January, two thirds of Southampton being classed ‘hazardous’ with their drinking, the major decision to join Winchester and Basingstoke together for an Emergency Centre, and the hero dog story that fell through due to the man falling very ill again before I could film with the family.

Overall, I do feel as though I have been very much successful in my role as health reporter for WINOL as the negatives that I experienced definitely made way for positives further down the line as I learned many things in terms of what it takes to be a health reporter, and obtaining great contacts in the process of it all. What I also keep in mind is how the health reporter for the Basingstoke Gazette expressed how she was impressed by the kinds of stories that I was trying to tackle, the Emergency Centre one particularly. This gave me a boost from knowing that someone who works this beat in the same area for a living is giving me positive feedback on the way I have gone about getting my stories and pursuing them.

PROPOSALS FOR CHANGE

Most of the negative experience on WINOL has come from the lack of reporters and general students, which was absolutely unavoidable. I felt that the role of news editor should in fact be given to the students as it allows the lecturers step back and see how we tackle our own problems, rather than them be involved as part of the team. Last semester was incredibly beneficial to me due to the role of news editor being fulfilled by students gave more room to bond as a team and learn from each other, therefore allowing us to gel better as a news team. Having course leaders take on this role split the team up and wasn’t necessarily allowing us to learn from each other’s mistakes as we had last semester.

Another thing to take into consideration is the dealing of text stories. A number of my stories were not put up as they didn’t have pictures, but the only way I could show that I did cover a story the weeks I couldn’t get pictures for was through text stories. I feel that the only stories that definitely need pictures are those that feature in the bulletin, not necessarily every single text story.

Review of HP at Winchester

Review of HP at Winchester

I have been reading over some of Harry’s blog posts as I’m starting this year, and I have found his reviews very interesting. I particularly enjoyed how current and targeted he is towards people of a similar age group, which gives his posts great consistency!

I really like how he gives reviews on such a large range of things that, even though I may not be initially interested about, I found to be really interesting and I became more and more intrigued and wanted to read on.

Keep up the fresh opinions! And to the rest of you: don’t forget to come by the Winchester Journalism site!