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?
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
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.
'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.
Monday, 3 January 2011
2010... You've been wonderful!
It's a new year, a fresh start, a clean slate but I was just not ready to say goodbye to 2010 before a quick look back at the highlights...
January
This is New Years eve 2010 with my good friends Lorna and Mike. I don't know the other girl. 2010 was an important year for me from the start. I had closed doors in 2009 and was ready to move on. This night started at Mikes house and several bottles of Vodka and Archers and ended with us trying to 'interview' some Polish girl on her night - which she believed would appear on ITV news the next day. Amazing stuff.
February
This right here is my pre-drinks on my 21st birthday. Notice the disapproving looks from my peers. Their concerns were justified later that night....
March
Lucy's 20th Birthday... and what a fun night we all had! Each of us donning a different colour to transform into our favourite Mr.Men character... although I kept being asked if I was a sick smurf. I don't think I had the Little Miss Naughty look down :(
April
After what felt like the longest. winter. EVER... the sun made a cheeky appearance in April. And BOY were we pleased to see him!
May
Well, the results of the night may have left our country in a dire position but for us at WINOL as budding journalists we were given a golden opportunity by our lecturers to do an overnight 8 hour continuous broadcast covering the election. It was tiring but exhilerating and I'm so proud of everybody involved for pulling it off. We did good. BRIIIIIIIIIIINE! :)
June
June was a particularly good month for me so I have chosen two pictures! The first is of the stage at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on my trip to see Snow Patrol. I have family in Glasgow and had seen they had a date there so on a complete impulse I bought two tickets and phoned my auntie to let her know I'd be paying a visit. I took my crazy uncle with me and we had a great day making friends from across the country and drinking Gamers cider! The fact that Editors were one of the support acts was the icing on the cake and spending the rest of the week with my little cousins was the cherry :)
The second picture needs a little more background info. This is a picture of me and my friend Gabi on Bournemouth beach one night. After a lunch date where we both spent the afternoon moaning about life and how we needed to do something spontaneous... Don't Stop Believing by Journey came to mind and we both decided we wanted to get the midnight train going anywhere! She had to get back to work but we arranged to meet outside her work at 11pm and jump on the last train - which happened to be heading to Bournemouth! Our friend Marina met us at the station, a few cans of cider, couple of towels and a few hoodies in tow and we left to spend the night on the beach telling life stories and discussing the future and what-not. The next morning we were £30 worse off (we were mugged... don't ask!) and we got caught coming back without tickets so got fines too. Financially the worst spontaneous adventure ever but it was so much fun I don't regret it!
July
According to photographic evidence, July doesn't exist...
I do happen to remember this being an iconic month for me and one of my, at the time, very close friends. July was very fun!
August
In August I quickly went blonde... and then quickly went back again. The decision was made over a bottle of pear vodka with Gabi where she told me she had always wanted to see me blonde. It, of course, went orange on account of the redness before hand. There was some minor swearing and teary eyes. I stuck it out for a week or two though before going brunette again. August brought with it a very wise lesson for me. Don't make hair style choices when drunk...
September
September brought with it a new face for the Milner Place family. Katey Marshall joined us and the house was instantly a more homely place. Before Katey I lived with the two boys and another girl but she didn't socialise or even acknowledge any of us and so there was generally a bad atmosphere. Katey changed things and we've all become very good friends!
October
Anybody who knows me well will know I'm a bit of a fitness dodger... at secondary school I famously avoided football in P.E. for a whole term with notes written by my 'mum' telling of a 'bad back'. I hated it so much! In October my housemate Dom got all of us in the house to sign up for Hockey try outs. At first I was adament he would never find me on a hockey pitch, but I joined and I love it!! The above picture is me with the hockey girls on the high street during a stop, drop and roll on a social.
November
November... the month of Chesney Hawkes! November saw me ousted from my News Editor role at WINOL and plonked into a new one of Entertainments Editor and within 24 hours I had an interview with the one and only set up for the very next day. Probably my proudest moment of the year, academically.
December
December... my little sisters turned 18. I chose this picture because my sister Sammy's hair is absolutely outrageous where we are giving her birthday bumps. It always makes me laugh :) Unfortunately my other sister Danielled saw what was happening and ran out the room before we could catch her too! The disadvantages of twins... We got her in the end though... we got her good!
So this was my year! I've bid a sad farewell to 2010. It really was a pretty amazing year. Here's to 2011... and my New Year Resolution which I've just decided is to never stop making memories. Thanks for reading. Kisses <3 xx
January
February
March
April
May
June
June was a particularly good month for me so I have chosen two pictures! The first is of the stage at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on my trip to see Snow Patrol. I have family in Glasgow and had seen they had a date there so on a complete impulse I bought two tickets and phoned my auntie to let her know I'd be paying a visit. I took my crazy uncle with me and we had a great day making friends from across the country and drinking Gamers cider! The fact that Editors were one of the support acts was the icing on the cake and spending the rest of the week with my little cousins was the cherry :)
The second picture needs a little more background info. This is a picture of me and my friend Gabi on Bournemouth beach one night. After a lunch date where we both spent the afternoon moaning about life and how we needed to do something spontaneous... Don't Stop Believing by Journey came to mind and we both decided we wanted to get the midnight train going anywhere! She had to get back to work but we arranged to meet outside her work at 11pm and jump on the last train - which happened to be heading to Bournemouth! Our friend Marina met us at the station, a few cans of cider, couple of towels and a few hoodies in tow and we left to spend the night on the beach telling life stories and discussing the future and what-not. The next morning we were £30 worse off (we were mugged... don't ask!) and we got caught coming back without tickets so got fines too. Financially the worst spontaneous adventure ever but it was so much fun I don't regret it!
July
According to photographic evidence, July doesn't exist...
I do happen to remember this being an iconic month for me and one of my, at the time, very close friends. July was very fun!
August
September
October
November
December
So this was my year! I've bid a sad farewell to 2010. It really was a pretty amazing year. Here's to 2011... and my New Year Resolution which I've just decided is to never stop making memories. Thanks for reading. Kisses <3 xx
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Privacy/Confidentiality
Privacy
The UK has no written constitutions but the nearest thing to one is the Human Rights Act passed in 1998. Section 8 of the Human Rights act states that everyone has a right to privacy and the right to enjoy a private family life. This means that when a journalist reports on an individual, there are certain hurdles they face.
A person needs to give consent to have their photograph taken unless they are engaging in a public duty. The two types of consent are; explicet consent which is all very official with a signed contract or such and implied consent when the individual is posing in the photo or it is clear they had no objections to being photographed.
Other main areas a journalist should beware of is; revealing state secrets or ‘official’ secrets, revealing commercial secrets or revealing facts about a person they would have expected to remain private.
Confidentiality
McNae's states that traditionally there are three elements that work towards a breach of confidence. Namely;
One big case which reflects privacy and confidentiality is the Max Mosely case from 2008. Max Mosely was the head of Formula 1 racing and was caught to have hired five prostitutes for a Nazi based orgy in London by the News Of The World but the High Court ruled that this was not within the public interest and that Mosely had a right of provacy and so damanges had to be awarded.
The UK has no written constitutions but the nearest thing to one is the Human Rights Act passed in 1998. Section 8 of the Human Rights act states that everyone has a right to privacy and the right to enjoy a private family life. This means that when a journalist reports on an individual, there are certain hurdles they face.
A person needs to give consent to have their photograph taken unless they are engaging in a public duty. The two types of consent are; explicet consent which is all very official with a signed contract or such and implied consent when the individual is posing in the photo or it is clear they had no objections to being photographed.
Other main areas a journalist should beware of is; revealing state secrets or ‘official’ secrets, revealing commercial secrets or revealing facts about a person they would have expected to remain private.
Confidentiality
McNae's states that traditionally there are three elements that work towards a breach of confidence. Namely;
- Information obtained must have a 'necessary quality of confidence'. Information CAN be freely used if it is within the public domain BUT if it is obtained in a way that breaches confidence of a person or organisation then it cannot be used
- If there is an obligation to keep the information private then you cannot use it freely
- There must be an unauthorised use of the information to the detriment of the part communicating it. The person who the confidence is being breached must not suffer in any form of detriment as a direct result.
One big case which reflects privacy and confidentiality is the Max Mosely case from 2008. Max Mosely was the head of Formula 1 racing and was caught to have hired five prostitutes for a Nazi based orgy in London by the News Of The World but the High Court ruled that this was not within the public interest and that Mosely had a right of provacy and so damanges had to be awarded.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
WINOL happenings
A Ramble -
I haven't been blogging about WINOL of late, for many reasons. Mostly because after I leave TAB9 and go home I can't bring myself to write about the week as I'm usually low in spirits. However, I will be writing a critical reflection very soon so I thought I should write about the last few weeks.
The last time I blogged on WINOL was the really bad news week so to continue from that, the next day I was ushered into a meeting with the editor, Chris and Brian and stripped of my news editor role as 'didn't seem happy' doing it. This translates roughly to; 'You are shit and we're replacing you'. Fair enough. It was a very bad week but I think sometimes people lose sight that WINOL is a University course and everyone is on a learning curve. Never mind... I was given a new role as Entertainments Editor and as upset and embarrassed as I initially was I decided to get stuck in and try my best to come back from it.
Enter Chesney Hawkes...
I noticed that Chesney was due to play at The Railway Inn on Wednesday night, the day of the bulletin so I thought if I could only get hold of him I could ask him to come in before the show to promote it and talk to us about what he's upto at the moment. I emailed The Railway begging for contact details to no avail, and emailed a media officer in connection with him but still nothing. Then as a last resort I tracked him down to his Twitter account and found a personal email address. I sent a quick email asking if he would be interested and 'tweeted' him to check his emails. I didn't expect a reply but thought there was no harm in trying and of course there wasn't... in fact he replied within half an hour agreeing to come down to the studio before his sound-check. After ALOT of running around and organising here is the final outcome...
...needless to say it didn't go exactly smoothly in the live run and I'm sure I will have "Can I start again, oh are we live?" haunting me through-out my career. I definitely let nerves get the better of me but managed to hold it together for the interview.
I haven't managed to bag any other big names since then, as of yet. But as the saying goes - watch this space. My role as Entertainments Editor seems to differ each week depending on what I can get hold of. One week I was presenting 'What's On' which we ran into a package - by my entertainments reporter at the time - about the fireworks procession which worked quite well.
The Training Week -
As I have touched upon, WINOL morale was at an all time low recently and this started to show in the output that was being produced. Chris intervened and called for a training week so everybody could spend the week training up on roles they've been wanting to turn their hand to but haven't had the chance and there wouldn't be too much pressure to perform.
Initially I wasn't keen on the idea and thought it was pointless producing lots of bulletins of perfected old packages as I felt this was time we could be spending producing a fresh bulletin but the outcome was good. All the 2nd years got involved with different roles throughout the three days and some 3rd years dedicated the time to making a show-reel for their portfolio.
During training week it was decided that my 'What's On' section and 'Win With Winol' should collaborate with two presenters bringing an element of relaxed studio chat to the table. With Lucy as the 'Win With Winol' presenter we went out about ways to do this. In the end we decided on standing and addressing each other informally. It worked ok but I felt we rehearsed it too much and the end result looked a bit wooden. During this week I had a local band as a guest to interview who gave us a performance. Here is how it went...
Up To Now -
This week the dynamics of Win With Winol and What's On changed once more when I went out to film on location. I went down to the Winchester Christmas market ice rink to film it as I thought it would be relevant to what I was talking about and would look visually more attractive than yet another studio produced piece. I think the extra effort and time paid off and I'm quite happy with the out-come.
I am fast becoming the cheese queen of WINOL but to be honest... I'm quite happy with that title :) Bridget Jones eat your heart out!
Ciao x
I haven't been blogging about WINOL of late, for many reasons. Mostly because after I leave TAB9 and go home I can't bring myself to write about the week as I'm usually low in spirits. However, I will be writing a critical reflection very soon so I thought I should write about the last few weeks.
The last time I blogged on WINOL was the really bad news week so to continue from that, the next day I was ushered into a meeting with the editor, Chris and Brian and stripped of my news editor role as 'didn't seem happy' doing it. This translates roughly to; 'You are shit and we're replacing you'. Fair enough. It was a very bad week but I think sometimes people lose sight that WINOL is a University course and everyone is on a learning curve. Never mind... I was given a new role as Entertainments Editor and as upset and embarrassed as I initially was I decided to get stuck in and try my best to come back from it.
Enter Chesney Hawkes...
I noticed that Chesney was due to play at The Railway Inn on Wednesday night, the day of the bulletin so I thought if I could only get hold of him I could ask him to come in before the show to promote it and talk to us about what he's upto at the moment. I emailed The Railway begging for contact details to no avail, and emailed a media officer in connection with him but still nothing. Then as a last resort I tracked him down to his Twitter account and found a personal email address. I sent a quick email asking if he would be interested and 'tweeted' him to check his emails. I didn't expect a reply but thought there was no harm in trying and of course there wasn't... in fact he replied within half an hour agreeing to come down to the studio before his sound-check. After ALOT of running around and organising here is the final outcome...
...needless to say it didn't go exactly smoothly in the live run and I'm sure I will have "Can I start again, oh are we live?" haunting me through-out my career. I definitely let nerves get the better of me but managed to hold it together for the interview.
I haven't managed to bag any other big names since then, as of yet. But as the saying goes - watch this space. My role as Entertainments Editor seems to differ each week depending on what I can get hold of. One week I was presenting 'What's On' which we ran into a package - by my entertainments reporter at the time - about the fireworks procession which worked quite well.
The Training Week -
As I have touched upon, WINOL morale was at an all time low recently and this started to show in the output that was being produced. Chris intervened and called for a training week so everybody could spend the week training up on roles they've been wanting to turn their hand to but haven't had the chance and there wouldn't be too much pressure to perform.
Initially I wasn't keen on the idea and thought it was pointless producing lots of bulletins of perfected old packages as I felt this was time we could be spending producing a fresh bulletin but the outcome was good. All the 2nd years got involved with different roles throughout the three days and some 3rd years dedicated the time to making a show-reel for their portfolio.
During training week it was decided that my 'What's On' section and 'Win With Winol' should collaborate with two presenters bringing an element of relaxed studio chat to the table. With Lucy as the 'Win With Winol' presenter we went out about ways to do this. In the end we decided on standing and addressing each other informally. It worked ok but I felt we rehearsed it too much and the end result looked a bit wooden. During this week I had a local band as a guest to interview who gave us a performance. Here is how it went...
Up To Now -
This week the dynamics of Win With Winol and What's On changed once more when I went out to film on location. I went down to the Winchester Christmas market ice rink to film it as I thought it would be relevant to what I was talking about and would look visually more attractive than yet another studio produced piece. I think the extra effort and time paid off and I'm quite happy with the out-come.
I am fast becoming the cheese queen of WINOL but to be honest... I'm quite happy with that title :) Bridget Jones eat your heart out!
Ciao x
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Law lecture notes Week 8
Freedom Of Information Act
130,000 bodies covered by the act
100,000 requests a year - cost £34m
Journalists requests only accounts for 12%
Politicians claim the FOI has a "chilling effect" on government as they don't feel safe or free to discuss issues that could become damaging to them if they found their way into a document.
Tony Blair, who brought in the act - "FOI was not a good idea... makes it hard for government to have confidential conversations."
Basic principle of the FOI act;
"Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled to have that information communicated to him."
An FOI request must be in writing, email included and it is free.
If it costs more than £600 (£450 for smaller authorities) or if the information is EXEMPT. But you do not have to accept this decision.
Exemptions:
Absolute (eg security services, court records)
Qualified (eg ministerial communications, commercial confidentiality)
Where the information is covered by a qualified exemption, you should still be given it if the balance of the 'pubic interest' favours disclosure.
Public interest - within the publics interest, not just interesting to the public.
The public authority has to respond to an FOI request within 20 days unless there is a public interest consideration then they can take a further 40 days.
What if they say no?
Internal review
Information Commisioner
Information Tribunal
High Court
130,000 bodies covered by the act
100,000 requests a year - cost £34m
Journalists requests only accounts for 12%
Politicians claim the FOI has a "chilling effect" on government as they don't feel safe or free to discuss issues that could become damaging to them if they found their way into a document.
Tony Blair, who brought in the act - "FOI was not a good idea... makes it hard for government to have confidential conversations."
Basic principle of the FOI act;
"Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled to have that information communicated to him."
An FOI request must be in writing, email included and it is free.
If it costs more than £600 (£450 for smaller authorities) or if the information is EXEMPT. But you do not have to accept this decision.
Exemptions:
Absolute (eg security services, court records)
Qualified (eg ministerial communications, commercial confidentiality)
Where the information is covered by a qualified exemption, you should still be given it if the balance of the 'pubic interest' favours disclosure.
Public interest - within the publics interest, not just interesting to the public.
The public authority has to respond to an FOI request within 20 days unless there is a public interest consideration then they can take a further 40 days.
What if they say no?
Internal review
Information Commisioner
Information Tribunal
High Court
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