Friday 29 October 2010

WINOL Weeks 1, 2 and 3

WINOL or Winchester News Online is a weekly news bulletin produced by students at the University of Winchester. They're task is to produce the ongoing bulletin, which is a 10-minute program. It is put together the same way as a TV news program is created because everybody involved has a job to do. If reporters do their jobs in getting the stories and producing packages in time, then the production team are able to get the news together in time for our live broadcast every Wednesday afternoon.

My role for WINOL is Local Government/Regional reporter as part of the news team. At first I was a little sceptical as government has never been my strongest point. However, I've never been one to back away from a challenge, and I do see this as a challenge. It never has been my strongest topic, but journalism is all about trying new things, meeting different types of people and attaining new heights so the chance to learn this is something I am not going to back away from.
I have an impressive advantage finding news related to the role I have been assigned. Winchester is home of Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council, so news will always been around, and my job is to find it and work my very best to ensure it is presented the way I want it, as well as my editors and more importantly the audience.

My first piece for Winol was far from what kind of impact I had expected to make. I had a story. It was about job cuts within Winchester City Council because of the government's plans to reduce funding to national and local services. I managed to get an interview with city council leader Kelsie Learney, however it was not until Wednesday morning, so my ability to do that and get a package done in time was a tall order, especially as my editing skills were far from good. I made the 7am journey to meet Cllr Learney outside Winchester city Guildhall and after the interview I returned to the newsroom to make an attempt at editing within a timescale along with the many GVs I had taken the previous days.

The main mistake I made was my failure to obtain some kind of balance. I do not want to say it slipped my mind because it didn't, but where I was so focused on getting an interview with a councillor, I forgot about the workers themselves and what they'd think about their jobs being cut. I was impressed to get the interview I did on my first try, however my application and preparation could and should have been better.

My second week was a little more productive. I found a story about affordable housing and managed to get my general views and interview done by the Monday night. This gave me a day's worth of editing on the Tuesday as well as Wednesday morning to produce something constructive toward our bulletin. My piece was put in the bulletin as an OOV, not what I had hoped for but it was better than nothing. I felt pleased to have contributed something to the team regardless of the length or depth of the content.

My third week has probably been my most productive to date. I was following a story on the Winchester town forum. Due to a freeze on its budget, the forum is struggling, and one key issue between councillors is its lack of running in public debates. Some councillors believe the forum has run its course, yet others feel it has a future in the city. Again I made the long trek from Stanmore to the city centre where I met a councillor and asked some - what I thought at the time - pressing questions. I had the majority of my general views and the interview done and all edited by Tuesday night. I felt confident I would be able to produce some noteworthy and I slept well that night with the knowledge I was ahead of schedule.

However, I made the terrible mistake of failing to get a balance. Fortunately, my news editor Kayleigh informed me of my error sooner rather than later and after a few frantic calls on Wednesday morning I was able to get a balance from a member of the town forum, and henceforth I was on the road to producing something toward this week's bulletin other than an OOV. However, as we all know journalism is a game. It's a game of quality, and a game of who simply has the better stories. To say my story was not good would seem disappointing to me. However I am not going to question the people who know more than me.

Just 45 minutes before the bulletin was to be filmed my story was dropped because our news stories had overrun on its time allocation. This week was competitive. People wanted to get in the bulletin and there was a relatively high morale among the news reporters. I wanted to be in there, but this week I was not. To say I was a little gutted would be an understatement, however it has taught me that, like football, competition for places is fierce. This week inspired me to make my own youtube channel. With this I will put any packages that have not been chosen for the bulletin as a kind of portfolio for my own works.

The first few weeks as a news reporter have taught me many things. Journalism is a lot more to just sitting behind a desk writing. It's all good looking for the news, but trying to make news into something you want it to be is a challenge. I feel more confident with the camera and editing work than what I did in the first week. My decision to film my housemates in our very own "House Video" has strengthened my camera skills, and the editing can always be improved on. I feel confident in my ability to edit, but one downfall is my speed in the editing, I guess over time I will get better, but I should learn sooner rather than later, not only to better myself, but to compete with my fellow journalists.

To say I put myself under pressure would be correct. Everybody puts themselves unde pressure. Some people thrive on pressure some struggle to deal with the pressures of a work place. I've never really struggled under pressure, but it hasn't been my biggest asset performing at a high level under it.
Having this pressure, I see it as a great opportunity to prove the ability I know I have. To be the best, you have to work like the best.

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