Friday 18 March 2011

My first published article!

So yesterday I was let loose on a program called inews which is the 'newscity' of the real world! I was asked to write an article on the latest happenings on Japan using the news wires coming in. My final draft was tweaked as there were a few stylistic preferences of ITN but here it is...

Radiation from the stricken Japanese nuclear plant will reach North America in days, a Swedish official has claimed.
The particles are expected to travel across the Atlantic to Europe but they are not thought to be harmful to health.
Meanwhile, rescue efforts have been hampered by a cold-snap which has brought heavy snow to some of the areas worst hit by last week's tsunami and earthquake.
Some evacuation centres are also experiencing water and heating shortages, and many parts of the country, including Tokyo, are bracing themselves for rolling blackouts.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Experiencing ITN...

This week I have left the safety of humble Winchester for the hustle and bustle of London to take part in a two week work attachment at ITN. Now obviously as I expected, upon entering the building on my first day there was one word on everybodies lips. Japan. Words cannot describe the devastation that has been caused and pictures say more than a thousand words.

One upcoming event I had let slip to the back of my mind until Monday was the Royal Wedding. Well that all came crashing back to the forefront of my mind as I was given the task of sorting through the ITN Royal Wedding Channel and changing the format of the public videos for SMS. Exciting stuff, until 5 hours later when I was still muddling through them and getting sick of any word even slightly associated with royalty. I guess the reality of it all though is that you do have to spend hours and days staring at the same thing in the journalism industry. The trick is to find ways to look at the material with fresh eyes every time you come back to it. I myself decided to imagine Prince William in his birthday suit and with a full head of hair...

Day two arrived, nerves were starting to subside and I felt a bit more at ease around the newsroom. While I was at a loss for something to do I took a walk over to the entertainments department and started talking to a guy called Johnny about his job. He is a games news reporter. Him and his side-kick make daily bulletins rounding up the must-have games and offering their professional opinion on them. We got chatting about how the games world is taking over the movie world in that the public excitement for upcoming games is absolutely phenomenal. At this point I was asked to let Johnny get back to his busy work. Oops!

I spent the rest of yesterday arranging showbiz tapes with the promise of being sent on a uber cool shoot on Monday... this has got me quite excited!

I'm not sure what today has instore for me but so far it has involved administrative tasks of ordering couriers and writing labels. After that I hope to have a bash at Avid which is the editing software they use here. I've been looking over peoples shoulders and in theory it looks very similar to Final Cut Pro, just with different buttons. How hard can it be?

Thursday 3 March 2011

Flawless UK Tour Review

Flawless UK Tour

When I was asked my friend Mike to go to Portsmouth and watch Britains Got Talent's dance reject act Flawless, I thought "Oh god, this is going to be TERRIBLE". However Mike promised we'd take a cheeky detour to my favourite restaurant first and I needed a good distraction from my dissertation anyway so I went.

When we took our seats there were a pair of white gloves on each seat - a sure sign that this show was going to involve the audience is some highly cringy way. I sat down and set the gloves a side and decided to open my mind like a parachute to the figures who were flip-flopping and sliding on to the stage.

What I was expecting was a group of young lads, slightly full of themselves, simply breakdancing for 2 hours. What I got was a production of emotions. Each dance telling a different narrative. Each dancer took on their own personal character – if you will – and in the audience I felt like I had gotten to know them on a personal level. Ok, they had all the components of a manufactured phenomenon, the cheesy catchphrase, “Chase the dream not the competition”, the flock of screaming girls and the general swagger of jesus at the second coming. Despite all this you could not deny they had such raw talent – and very desirable torsos but that is neither here nor there!

The team of dancers prove in their tour that they are not one trick ponies, with hints of disco, ballet and contemporary styles blended in with their own street dance genre came a fantastic hybrid of genius that got even the most huffy of grandparents squirming and boogying in their seats.

A big egg shaped face emerged on the screen in some sort of intergalactic theme and it became clear that the dreaded glove moment had come. Instructions boomed out throughout the theatre for a simple but effective hand routine to occupy us while the dancers changed for the next big projection they were about to give us. It was actually very amusing, and the screen threw back images of the audiences attempts which provided eruptions of laughter.

Despite my initial apprehension I would definitely recommend this show to people of all ages for a feel good evening – and if you're a student like me then it will only cost your Jaegermeister piggybank £5. Bargain! 

Magazine Journalism Lecture 4

Reviews and Critics

'Theatrical Viagra' - Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room

Basics - 

Simple format; What is it? Is it any good? Does it do what it says on the tin?

Subjects; Music, theatre, comedy, dance, food, books

Gonzo reviews - 
A piece where the reporter is so outspoken that it become mores about the reporter than the actual subject. Michael Winner - Sunday Times. AA Gill -The Sunday Times. Matthew Norman - The Independent.

Reader service - 
ie. Sight and sound magazine

Judgement - marks out of 10?

Literary Criticism -


The Quarterly
The Fortnightly
The Westminster
Edinburgh Review
Punch (Thackeray)
Household Words (Dickens)
Times Literary Supplement (Virginia Woolf)
Daily Telegraph (John Betjemen)

Book Reviews - 

Badly paid
Have to read whole book
Freelance
Experts in fields
Authors themselves
Perks - Gastons - send 3 copies
Staff - Booker judges


History


Crusading "consumer rights" movement pioneered in the US by journalist Ralph Nadar. 
Consumers' Association 1957


What not to do


Avoid personal preference, ie. "I like this because..." No good in serious consumer journalism.