Last years WINOL - a little journey back in time

Just sitting here, watching and criticising my news reports from last year.

My very first news report was made for the dummy run we had at Winol. It happened during the week when Armistice Day took place and I made a report on what was going on around campus on this day. It was a very nice ceremony that took place, and I learnt all about working under pressure. This mainly due to the fact that Armistice Day (11/11) took place on a Wednesday, at 11am, and my deadline for a finished story was for 1pm - I made it and was very happy with my outcome. But looking back on it, I know that with the knowledge I have today, I could have done even better!

First story I covered, that went on air, was about being homeless in Winchester and what the councils and the government are doing in general to handle the numbers of people sleeping rough. More than 500 people got turned away in 2008 from Winchester Churches Nightshelter, and manager, Michele Price, let's us know what they are experience through cooperating with the local council etcetera. A very interesting story where my views on society changed quite a lot, and also made me realise how organisations like this do incredibly much to be able to help the sometimes forgotten ones in society.

The following week I got trapped in the middle of a news story as a car smash happened right in front of the bus I was travelling in. Unfortunately I did not have any technical equipment with me and couldn't record anything, but was able to get in contact with the news room and get a few reporters out on the road to cover the story. I felt really excited, at the same time as I felt sick. A very weird thing but a very good learning experience. Instead, I covered the Christmas Lights being switched on in Winchester and from this I made a little interview with the people involved in getting this all together and angeled it with the huuuge amounts of money being spent each year to get this up and running. Quite interesting as I just a few weeks earlier explored the decline of money wihtin organisations that deal with major society issues such as homelessness and now finding this amounts of money going into sparkling lights...

I also managed to produce a report on how Winchester has been affected of the unemployment during the ongoing recession, and I interviewed Martin Tod and Steve Brine and got their views on the job climate as well as the publics. Interesting, but hard to find a proper nice angle, it's much easier to do that with fluffy news!

Throughout this period of time I also helped Maxine to puzzle together her news report considering mushrooms growing in students homes around Erasmus Park in Winchester, and yes, it was disgusting!! An experience that was everything but pleasent, but we were very pleased with the end product!

A period of time where I have learnt a LOT! But it seems I have still got some more work to do before I can feel 100% pleased about my contributions to Winol - if 100% ever will be reached as a journalist.. I think not..

WINOL - finally live!

Yesterday at 5 pm it happened. WINOL went live.

This week has been great. The more time I get to spend in the news room, the more confident I get and the more I want to do this. I still don't like the camera. I'm alright with video, can kind of manage to record things that are actually quality enough to put on air. But the audio lets me down over and over again. I just can't seem to understand how to get everything to work in harmony. Maybe one day. But that day is not here yet.

Also, this week we had a guest editor, Kay Oliver of GMTV, Sky and ITV, to help us with various issues and guiding us to improve our work to get even better.

Packages were done well in time this week. We decided to shorten the bulletin to 10 minutes though, so there would only be time for three packages in the bulletin. This week we led with Stu's story concerning the proposal on student fees being raised. In addition to this package, we had Martin Tod, lib dem MP, in for a live interview in the studio. Great to have someone else to talk in the studio, makes the entire bulletin feel more alive and buzzing. Homeless in Winchester was the second story which I managed to puzzle together after interviews with Winchester Churches Nightshelter, Emmaus Winchester and Councillor Andrew Palmer. I had a very interesting time meeting up with these people and got a few new contacts to add in my address book, which always is a really nice feeling. 

Veronicas story about parking problems around the University of Winchester went on as third story. A few NIB's (news in brief) were also included, followed by the Sports news. Catherine and Tom made a great job presenting the bulletin. I would love to give it a go at some point, but with a non-English accent I'm not sure I will be able to produce a final product as good as the ones we've produced so far. 

The production team made a good job, but as a reporter it's hard to realise what's actually going on with the other members in your big team, because you're so involved in your own work so you kind of forget what else is going on. But, since we managed to make it - even though the final live bulletin ran a bit late due to technical issues - they must have made a great job.

Overall, this week was far better than the two previous weeks, and it feels as if we're able to engage in a new, more exciting way than we actually were able to do at the start of week 1.

Bring on the weekend!

Bring on week 4!