WINOL - 12 October

This week was amazingly perfect! Nothing went wrong. We stayed on top of everything and the first bulletin went up at 5 with no

problems at all.

I produced the WINOL bulletin this week as Jack was away. Justina was the director, Graham was on the sound desk, George vision mixed and Dan was on autocue.

We decided to bring all the deadlines forward an hour so instead of starting rehearsals at 2 we started at 1.15 instead. The script was still late, arriving at about 2 but this was not so much a trouble as normal as everyone was calm and had all ready started rehearsals.

We had Rachel Canter from the BBC in this week and she gave us some really great points to improve on. We always pre-record the headlines, which many broadcasters do but as they are pre-recorded we could make them punchier. They can made to be perfect as we have plenty of time to do them. This is something we need to take more care over.

We also made straps for the headlines this week that we need to make more 'tabloidy'. It has been said that if we make them too tabloidy it will make it easier to come down from but it is harder for us at the moment to make them more like tabloid news.

We had a sports graphic this week that we need to improve on. It was a little boring and stayed up for way too long so we either need to shorted the script or make the graphic do more and make it look better.

This week we had three OOV's. On the news board and on the script they were written link-OOV-link-OOV-link-OOV. This is how we did it too but Angus told us that we should have just done the three OOVs in row with a flash between each of them to indicate a new story. This should have done because all of the stories linked together and were essentially one whole news story. So it was a NIB. Our OOVs also need to be shorter as this week they were a little too long.

We recorded with the tape and the tricaster, which again helped us out as it took two and a half hours to upload to YouTube. This meant that we were able to put up the ustream version at 5.

There were not any law problems either and the reporters are getting better and better with their packages.

Next week should go just as well, if not better as everyone knows what they are doing. We are also filming WINOL Life next Tuesday as well as Sports week. We have guests for both so we should be bringing even more viewers.

Picture By: Winolnews

Law - 6 October

This week was, reporting crime in the courts. Everything results down to the following two risks, prejudice and contempt. Being prejudice means, writing an article that may not be in the defendants favour and giving the readers an opinion. Especially when it is before the defendant has been proven guilty or not. They have to have a fair trial and and being prejudice in an article is when anything mentioned contaminates the trial or the defendant.

Contempt of court is what happens when you actually are prejudice in your article. Contempt or court can allow a person to go free from the crime they may have committed as they will not be given a free trial. The person who wrote and published the article could then face jail themselves.

When a case becomes ACTIVE legally is as soon as an arrest has been made. As soon as this happens you can be in contempt of court. From here on you can be in contempt of court:

- When police make an arrest,

- When an arrest warrant has been issued,

- A summons has been issued by Magistrates,

- A person has been charged.

Detention without charge is when police have 24 hours to question a suspect. A senior officer can extend this by 12 hours and a terror suspect can be held for a limit of 28 days.

Before the trial you can report on the following seven points:

- Names, ages, addresses and occupation of the defendant,

- Charges faced or a close summary,

- Name of the court and Magistrates names,

- Names of the solicitors or barristers present,

- Any arrangement of bail,

- Date and place to where the case is adjourned, and,

- Whether any legal aid was operated.

The key stages of the trial are:

- The prosecution opening,

- Key prosecution witnesses,

- Defence opening,

- Key defence witnesses,

- Judges summing up,

- Jury sent out, deliberation and the verdict,

- The sentencing.

If you attend the prosecution opening you must then attend the defence opening. Whether you decide to report on it or not, you must attend both.

Other knowledge that you need to know when reporting on the courts are the categories of offence and the Magistrates power.

A Magistrate is a civil officer who lays out the law. They administer sentences and only deal with criminal law. Civil cases will not make it up this far in the chain of the courts. See previous blog, dated 29 September.

The categories of offence are, indictable only, which is a possible sentence of five years plus. Either-way can go to Crown or Magistrates court. Summary, stays with the Magistrates court.

At the Magistrates court, you can have the following sentences, these are the powers of the Magistrates.

- 6 months jail

- Fines up to £5000

- Suspended sentences. This is when the defendant would have been given their sentencing but when the Magistrate suspends it they are on probation. On this probationary period if they do not break the law the Magistrate will throw out the sentence.

- Conditional Discharge. This is when the defendant is not punished but they have to comply with some conditions. If these conditions are met the discharge will become absolute where the defendant can walk free. Even if they have been proven guilty they may not be punished if they meet their conditions.

- Community orders - binding over. This is where the defendant is forced to serve their punishment in the community. They are not sent to prison but if they do not meet their conditions they may then go to jail and be punished there. Sometimes the community order may also mean that the defendant has to directly amend their behaviour to the victim and change their own behaviour so that they do not re-offend. This could be rehab for a drug addiction.

- ASBO's, (Anti-social behaviour order) This is a civil order against the defendant, who has consistently shown anti-scocial behaviour in their community. It has many restrictions on the person with the ASBO.

Always have to report fairly, accurate and contemporaneous. This means that if you are a daily newspaper you have to report on the proceedings daily or if you're monthly you have to report on it in each issue unless the case has finished.

You can also not give any name or information that will identify anyone under the age of 18. This can be allowed if you go to the judge and actually ask. One example of this is the Jon Venables case.

Picture by: ex_libris_gul

WINOL - 5 October

This week was not our best week. I think everything will improve now as wehave hit rock bottom. Most of our problems were technical in the studio but the reporters packages were not too bad. They are learning quickly and are having fewer problems with the camera like white balancing and focus. To add to the worst week of WINOL this year we had Rachel Hepworth in from ITV Meridian. She was very complimentary and gave us some great feedback.

We tried to do an OB from the newsroom today which did not go to plan. Everything was set up but the sound was not checked until about 2, as we were starting rehearsals. This problem was not able to be fixed so we had to move the interview in to the studio. This was a decision made at 2.45 which I think was a little too late. It meant that there was not a full run through, the interviewee, Felicity did not get to have a full run through and although the sport presenter, Sam was really good, he too did not get much of a rehearsal.

We missed our first deadline of 3pm and decided to go 10 minutes later which also got missed and we finally went 'live' at 3.15pm. Which is extremely late for us. We can not miss our deadline of 3pm. We are imitating a live television broadcast and in reality if we were to miss our deadline we would be in deep water, it just would not be done.

The headlines were not recorded until 1.20pm which is over an hour late. This was due to bad organisation, and people not knowing what they were meant to be doing. I have always been completely organised and ready for any eventuality, like breaking news but that has come with weeks of practice and things going wrong that I have then learnt from and not allowed it to go wrong again. Jack is still learning and he will learn from the mistakes he has made from the last two weeks.

We have had an ongoing problem with the script. It is not laid out correctly, it does not work on the autocue so we have to type it up and this week there were not enough scripts in the gallery or the studio. We need at least six scripts for everyone but we only had three.

Reachel said that she had no idea who was in charge or who was doing what in the gallery and this was true. An outsider should be able to walk in to the gallery and know what job everyone is doing, it is that clear. However I was running in and out making sure everything was working and running to the loan counter to check on batteries and wires, when this should have been done earlier in the day. Jack should have been doing this instead of being director but due to a shortage in the amount of people on the production team he had to take up more roles. This did not help anyone in the studio and another person should have been found.

We can only get better from now on and I think everyone has now seen how hard they have to work to get the bulletin out. On the surface when it is good everything flows but when it is not flowing so well everything can fall apart. We have to be organised and stick to deadlines.

Law - 29 September

This week was my first law lecture for over a year and I am sorry to say my McNaes book was more than a little dusty. I loved law in my first year and I think I will this year too. This week we learnt mostly about the court systems and the courts themselves.

There are six main courts that are used. The main difference between them is whether they are criminal or civil. This website shows a diagram which shows the hierarchy really well, http://denning.law.ox.ac.uk/lrsp/overview/law_reports.php

The Criminal courts are (in order from the bottom up): The Magistrates court, The Crown Court, Court of Appeal, House of Lords. Criminal courts deal with cases of murder, theft, fraud etc and this where the cases are bought to be heard in front of the state, the DPP. (Director of Public Prosecutions) Since 2008 Keir Stammer QC has been the DPP of England and Wales.

The Civil Law courts are: County Courts, The High Court and then it goes in to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. It is at the Court of Appeal where criminal and civil law converge. Civil law covers divorces and consumer, agricultural and employment laws, etc.

The courts are different between England and Wales (being one system) and Scotland. Scotland have a lot of different laws. They are able to vote on most of our laws but England and Wales have no say on any of their laws which makes it very one sided and also does not help England and Wales vey much. Scotland could help pass through a law that most of England do not want or on the other hand could give more numbers to a minority that do not want a law to go ahead.

The only court that covers England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland is the Supreme Court which is at the very top of the chain.

WINOL - 28 September

So we are back for another term of WINOL. This year I am still production editor but for features instead of the news bulletin. Justina and I share the same role except that I am producing the every week shows of sportsweek and anything else we want to film in the studio on a Tuesday and Justina is planning and producing the shows of WINOL Life and anything else she has up her sleave.

I am also working on a fashion feature at the moment that I am hoping will be finished by the end of November and that will be great high street fashion but it is still in the planning stages. I am currently getting knowledge from YouTube fashion videos to put mine together.

This week was just a dummy run but we still wanted to get everything together so that everyone would be comfortable and will know what they are doing for next week; when we embed the show on to the new WINOL web page. View it here:

www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk/winol2011.html

This week I was director for the first time and did enjoy it and loved doing something different but I do not think that this is something I would like to do every week. The second years have picked up everything in the gallery really quickly so I relied on them knowing what they were doing to get through it. Angus told me afterwards I needed to be louder and communicate more with everyone in the Gallery as well as the studio. I agree with this is as I know I kind of just breathed through it thanks to everyone knowing what they were doing. If I direct again I shall try to remember this and take note to commnicate more with everyone in the Gallery.

The packages were not very strong this week. There was a lot of shots out of focus as well as not a lot of white balancing but this was to be expected as this was the second years first packages they put together. The main point is that this was a learning week and they learnt how to film and put the packages together in time for next week. I hope that they will take everything on board and will just go from strength to strength.

As the second years had never edited or filmed before it was really nice to see the spare third years helping them out and coaching them through it. I helped Felicity film her package and although it was not great I think I helped show her how to whit balance, focus, use the right microphone and how important it is to put your interviewee in the right spot. Due to being in a very sunny pub we had to move the interviewee round quite a bit and finally ended up in a spot that was not great but I think it will help Felicity in future think about the interviewee and the shot as much as the equipment.

As the show was a dummy run there is no show to watch this week but hopefully next week our official first one will be the best 'first' WINOL we have had yet.

We finished UK Today last week. It is not my best work but it showed me the amount of work that goes in to producing a whole new show, not least a show incorporating five different universities. Salford are looking to do the next one so I am hoping I can help concentrate on making our package one of the best. View it here: http://www.uktoday.org.uk/

With lots of different projects on the go I think this term is going to be a very busy one but I am looking forward to producing more content than just the news bulletin; however much I will miss it.

Thank You and Goodbye News of the World

Courtesy of PerezHilton.com

So it is farewell to the News of the World and bonjour to The Sun on Sunday. I have heard the stories, watched the countless amounts of accusations pile up and read as reporters from the drowning paper tweeted their good byes.

It is from all this that I waited outside my corner shop early on a Sunday morning to buy the last ever issue of the News of The World. Issue number 8,674. I am not an avid reader of the paper but I have grown up with it. Just as I have grown up in the media world of News International. As they hacked Milly Dowler's phone I was barely old enough to read a paper. I was at the same age as the girls that disappeared and died at the hands of Ian Huntley. I truly have grown up with this and many other papers throughout my whole life.

This is why I felt I owed it to myself to buy the last ever copy of the News of the World. I am a positive person normally and though I know that some journalists at the paper have done wrong I still like to believe that the majority did not know what was happening.; the paper and its employees were not to blame for the minority of wrongdoers.

As I open the front page and read the letter of apology I notice that there is no byline. The letter is written from every employee to every reader and wants to reach out and accept the wrong of some but also wants the public to realise and understand all the good it has done too.

As I read,

"It is Sunday afternoon preferable before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair, ad the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your spectacles on your nose and open the News of the World."

I have goosebumps, I read on,

"We [also] recorded the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, two world wars, the 1966 World Cup victory, the first man on the moon, the death of Diana... the list goes on."

Tears spring to my eyes that this newspaper has recorded a history of humanity. The huge events in our lives that affect so many. We will forever have this history and something to look back on.

The last paragraphs culminate in making me feel as if the British Public truly have lost an awe-inspiring news paper.

"You've been our life. We've made you cry, made your jaw drop in amazement, informed you, enthralled you an enraged you.

You have been our family, and for years we have been yours, visiting every weekend.

Thank you for your support. We'll miss you more than words can express.

Farewell"

My cynical side says that this true of any newspaper and that this paper has done not only the public wrong but had hurt families beyond belief. Every day it feels like more accusations are made and I wonder who was it that gave the nod to say hack her phone or hack his? Who thought it would be fine to hack a girls phone that was dead? To give her parents and the police false-hope that she was still alive? All that pain to find a story. I am a student journalist. I am not fully aware of how hard it must be to get a story or to the lengths some people would go to get one but I feel that no front cover is worth the pain they have caused. For the suffering families and for the thousands of journalists that today are out of a job.

It also did not go unnoticed that all of the advertising space in he final paper was given to charity. As well as all the money from the sale of the paper. This is an amazing thing for the paper to do but I do feel that it is a too little too late.

I am sad to see a newspaper go that has been around for 168 years, sad for the journalists and for the people that were helped by the News of the World but it will be replaced and I believe that within the next 168 years there will a lot less papers than there are now. The age of the Internet is growing all the time. I love reading newspapers, I love the smell, the status and actually holding and flicking through the pages but it will not win the race with the online stories.

Au Revoir News of the World

My Role - Production Editor

This is what I have been up to on WINOL for the past 12 weeks. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I loved putting it together. Please leave comments below on how I could improve or do better next time. Thanks.