My first week at the Daily Echo went really well. The team of reporters is a lot smaller than expected and it is painfully quiet but I am starting to see what they all mean about them being a family that work together. I was surprised to see that it is still a very male dominated world with just male editors and only four female reporters out of a team of 10. There is even only one lady on sports.
My first day was spent researching the Olympics and localising it by seeing what events were happening in Southampton. Unfortunately, after a day of chasing up councillors I was told that they were not going to reveal any list of events until they were all confirmed. Thus meaning that my story was dead until the council revealed the details; which may take a couple of weeks.
Due to being on a broadcast course I am not shy around cameras and so was intrigued when I was asked to present their feature, 60 second headlines. They do this every morning and it is a simple package of a reporter reading the headlines of the day whilst the stories are on the screen. I believe we could have done something like this at WINOL, simply read the headlines of the day. This may have allowed to have a larger audience as we would have something fresh on the website every day. You can view the headlines I presented here:
Due to being on a broadcast course I am not shy around cameras and so was intrigued when I was asked to present their feature, 60 second headlines. They do this every morning and it is a simple package of a reporter reading the headlines of the day whilst the stories are on the screen. I believe we could have done something like this at WINOL, simply read the headlines of the day. This may have allowed to have a larger audience as we would have something fresh on the website every day. You can view the headlines I presented here:
I also wrote a 250 word article about a new male childcare professor. The story came from a press release and was very simple but after doing broadcast journalism for the last two years I think I could have used a refresher in news writing. I finished and sent it in but I have a feeling that it may not be used or saved for a slow news day as it is all ready dated by three months.
Day two and I was all ready feeling more relaxed. Ian Murray, the editor and chief of the newspaper had a talk with me and the other work experience students that I actually felt was really empowering. He spoke of how he got in to Journalism, what he does, the history of the paper and the troublesome times that the paper is in.
After meeting with Ian I had a small meeting with Andy Bissell, the features editor and the managing editor when Gordon is not in. He was really nice and spoke about his career and what we hope to do when we graduate. He also gave myself and Rosie, the other person on work experience, two jobs to do. The first was for a magazine, Hampshire Bride. There was a column in the last issue on the prices of different parts of the wedding, done by a survey company. This year no one could find an up-to-date survey so my job was to find prices for each item. Such as tiaras, rings, honeymoons, the dress, shoes etc and to get a price for on a budget, average and luxury. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with the luxury price range. This also took a lot longer than I first expected and I had a couple of days to finish it up.
On my third day, was the second task Andy set us. There is a new theory test coming out at the end of the month with 100 questions on it. These questions are harder and there are more than there are now; only 50. We went to West Quay and got ten people to answer ten questions on the new test. We had to have six diverse people to complete it, along with a picture, a comment, their age, name and where they come from. We then chose the six best people and wrote up their captions. For example they sounded like, 'Domonique Jenkins, 21 of Southampton was at the top with 9 out of 10. She said: "I never thought I would do so well, I took my theory test with only 35 questions".' This was to accompany an article about the actual test itself.
Thursday was my finishing of the bridal research. I put in a lot of information and what to do if you were on a budget; how to save more money. I also contacted Dilys Gartside of Cyclewise to ask her to write two articles on cycling. The paper was doing a, 'new year, new you' piece and wanted top ten tips to get in to cycling and the benefits of it as an exercise.
The last day of the week was a welcome relief. I thought that I worked hard during the week and then worked hard at the weekend too with university and working at IKEA; but I have never been so tired. A 5 day week is a lot harder than I thought.
Day two and I was all ready feeling more relaxed. Ian Murray, the editor and chief of the newspaper had a talk with me and the other work experience students that I actually felt was really empowering. He spoke of how he got in to Journalism, what he does, the history of the paper and the troublesome times that the paper is in.
After meeting with Ian I had a small meeting with Andy Bissell, the features editor and the managing editor when Gordon is not in. He was really nice and spoke about his career and what we hope to do when we graduate. He also gave myself and Rosie, the other person on work experience, two jobs to do. The first was for a magazine, Hampshire Bride. There was a column in the last issue on the prices of different parts of the wedding, done by a survey company. This year no one could find an up-to-date survey so my job was to find prices for each item. Such as tiaras, rings, honeymoons, the dress, shoes etc and to get a price for on a budget, average and luxury. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with the luxury price range. This also took a lot longer than I first expected and I had a couple of days to finish it up.
On my third day, was the second task Andy set us. There is a new theory test coming out at the end of the month with 100 questions on it. These questions are harder and there are more than there are now; only 50. We went to West Quay and got ten people to answer ten questions on the new test. We had to have six diverse people to complete it, along with a picture, a comment, their age, name and where they come from. We then chose the six best people and wrote up their captions. For example they sounded like, 'Domonique Jenkins, 21 of Southampton was at the top with 9 out of 10. She said: "I never thought I would do so well, I took my theory test with only 35 questions".' This was to accompany an article about the actual test itself.
Thursday was my finishing of the bridal research. I put in a lot of information and what to do if you were on a budget; how to save more money. I also contacted Dilys Gartside of Cyclewise to ask her to write two articles on cycling. The paper was doing a, 'new year, new you' piece and wanted top ten tips to get in to cycling and the benefits of it as an exercise.
The last day of the week was a welcome relief. I thought that I worked hard during the week and then worked hard at the weekend too with university and working at IKEA; but I have never been so tired. A 5 day week is a lot harder than I thought.
I read the headlines again, and knowing what to expect and what the finished article would look like I think I did a lot better. Please find this one above. I also sent Dilys's articles in to be subbed and put in to the paper on the following Tuesday. Friday was my first interview of the week too. Rosie and I were sent to Fitness First in Shirley to interview a man that had drastically changed his lifestyle and lost a lot of weight. We also went to interview a lady about colonic irrigation. My interviewee was Barbra Perry, a colonic hydrologist. She explained colonic irrigation, the lifestyle, the different foods and what should be eaten with what and - no - I did not try it our for myself. Barbra says that it is very comfortable and not painful at all but I do not think that I will be giving that a go. I wrote up the article and sent it in to Andy. Sadly the interview did not make the paper as the interview was last minute and there was no room for it. However, you may find it on here in a week or so.
Overall, a really good first week. I have all ready learnt so much and seen how different a newspaper is to broadcast journalism. After studying broadcast for three years now I wanted to see what the written world was like. It is a lot quieter and instead of people running around panicking at 3pm, everyone looks very calm. News happens throughout the day and I have seen first hand that what the editor wants, the editor gets and I actually find it really interesting. I thought that I only wanted to work in broadcast but I can see myself working for a paper now too. I think I need as many options open as possible in the current economic climate.
Overall, a really good first week. I have all ready learnt so much and seen how different a newspaper is to broadcast journalism. After studying broadcast for three years now I wanted to see what the written world was like. It is a lot quieter and instead of people running around panicking at 3pm, everyone looks very calm. News happens throughout the day and I have seen first hand that what the editor wants, the editor gets and I actually find it really interesting. I thought that I only wanted to work in broadcast but I can see myself working for a paper now too. I think I need as many options open as possible in the current economic climate.
No comments:
Post a Comment