Second week Winol - this is how it went

Once again we managed to produce a bulletin that we were all quite pleased with - still a few things that went wrong, but that's what we all learn from in the end - right?

The bulletin as a whole had a good balance to it with hard stories about tuition fees, international students and problems they face in Winchester, and the fluffier stories highlighting the Queen in Southampton and WINOL winning BJTC innovation award. A good mix with lighter and darker stories, and of course also the sports, which contributed to a well nuanced bulletin.

Mistakes that aren't allowed to happen, but did happen : Spelling mistakes! Spelling is a fact. A name, a place, anything you can prove is a fact and this cannot be misspelled. If it's a fact, check it or leave it out. Those are your only options. So misspelling three team names in a sports graphic is not acceptable...

One of the big things we're trying to keep an eye on is our Alexa rating- this tells us how big an audience we've got and how frequently our website is visited, and how it compares to other websites. Something that would spur us on even more would probably be a rival that works in a similar way as we do on a similar scale, so we could compare ourselves to how other organisations the same size as us get on out on the Internet - because after all, if there's no audience, no one knows you exist - and therefore you sort of non-existing...

We still have to work on our links and scripts and how we tie these together to make the package even better and especially tighter. With a tighter script the story is easier to understand for the viewer and the package as a whole seems to run smoother than it would with lots and lots of information that don't really connect to the core of the story. So, focus on what we actually want to tell - on the actual news! Remember, news is about people doing things.

Don't forget the W's;

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Eyes and ears of the general public - an introduction to media law

It is quite different having studying a year of History and Context of Journalism where we have been encouraged to think, philosophise and engage with the ideas of famous thinkers such as Nietzsche, Zola, Rousseau – then going on to our third year and studying Law for Journalists, where nothing is left to think and speculate about for yourself as everything follows strict lines and patterns; law.

It is essential to know how the law works in the UK, otherwise you as a journalist would probably defame and slander people, report illegally on court proceedings and other serious incidents, as you wouldn’t know how it all works with identification issues, the public’s interest, freedom of expression and so on. So this is what we will be focusing on throughout this semester, and make sure that we can be journalists of top quality and report fairly and accurately on what is going on in our society.

Our course book, McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists 20^th Edition, goes through the major points in law that is necessary for a journalist to know by heart before graduating as a qualified journalist. Obviously, law as everything else, do slightly change from time to time with new media expanding and as new ways of exposing people’s life become available – this is why we do law in our third year as well as in our first year – to properly keep updated with what’s the latest we need to know as journalists. Also, graduating from a university doesn’t mean that you can let go of the law and remember is at it was while you were still studying. You need to keep on top of it and make sure you always follow the latest changes as the outcome can be devastating if you don’t.

So throughout this semester I will keep my blog updated with the latest course material we have gone through, with ongoing cases that deal with the points of law that we are and have been taught throughout the lectures. I will also try to explore different areas within the law more than others with additional reading, as this to me is as important to me to get the bigger picture – otherwise it is much harder to understand the reading as a whole if you have nothing to compare it with or stand it up against.

Recap of major points from course book:

· The media are the eyes and ears of the general public

· A free media are an essential element in maintaining parliamentary democracy

· In general journalists in the UK have no legal rights to gain information, or to publish it, beyond those enjoyed by other citizens

· The European Convention on Human Rights has codified fundamental freedoms, including that of freedom of expression

· Journalists must be alert to challenge unreasonable or unlawful restrictions on this freedom

· Two constitutional bulwarks protect freedom of expression in the UK – jury trial and the rule against prior restraint

· Sources of UK law include custom, precedent, equity, statutes and statutory instruments, and European Union regulations

· The two main divisions of the law are criminal and civil law, and journalists need to use correctly the legal terms appropriate for the type of court they are reporting

· Codes of ethics guide journalists in their work

(McNae’s, p. 38)

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Week 2 - Crime and Court reporting

WINOL back on track

So third year is kicking off with some more WINOL action. This year we're joined by the second year students, and we are an even bigger team working with our weekly bulletin than we were last year - so potentially we can expand, improve and be an even better success than last year! With extra resources, we will also expand on features and make this an area just as intense and exciting as the news area.

When I myself started off my secon

d year I had basically no camera and editing skills and therefore WINOL couldn't take off until middle of October last year, and we all lost out on precious time where we could have produced material for bulletins, if we had only had the experience. This year the second years already have the technical skills and only after the first week of the semester we're off producing material. Very exciting and a lot of fun to be working with the new guys just joining our team.

This semester my role is chief news reporter. Sounds very fancy. Maybe. It b

asically means that I am the one supposed to cover the main stories of the week - hopefully I can turn them into good reports and be able to top the bulletins with them.. Expectations, expectations, expectations.. Should be lots of fun!

For the news meeting Monday morning I had a story idea I was eager to go for. Seeing that Primark opened in Winchester yester

day, I wanted to cover this event but not turn it into a puff piece - rather find out how local businesses look ahead on the future with such a massive low price company in town - would they potentially face a hard time loosing out on customers because of this? As Monday morning went on, we decided to pass on my story to one of the second year students Jack, as he was not assigned to anything, and seeing it is a dummy week we decided it is better the second years get the camera and editing training so they're all ready to go when the live version kicks off next week. So I ended up helping the news reporters out with filming, sound issues, editing skills and other tips and tricks I have come across throughout my last year working as a news reporter for WINOL.

I guess it's only Tuesday and too early to predict how this weeks bulletin is going to turn out, but I feel confident and hope that the reporters taking on this weeks stories realises how important it is to keep track on time, on all the technical things and practical things at the same time while putting your piece together. It is not an easy job, and I hope we all realise this during this week so that next week will be a success for us all.

Tip of the day: Save your editing in Final Cut every second. You don't want it to freeze on you. Again.

TV Masterclass - the do's and don'ts...

So, just a few important points made at the TV Masterclass

Overall:

contact book - contacts, relations - not only phone calls, face to face contact will give you more information and more detail straight away

targeted audience - think WINOL land - 500 viewers would be the golden target

be more ambitious than last year since were a bigger team - team work absolute vital!

Generally: sport - men, feature - women (balance)

Bulletins:

put work in before monday morning - always bring at least two stories - it's about people not an issue

press officers will not help you and call you back and won't be helpful

talk to the affected people first - for example the Union if job cuts - then council

hit problems and overcome them = success

no need to explain how we've done things or haven't been able to do something

we are journalists

persistance!

right place right time!

you need to write text stories and have photo to go with it this semester and publish on the site alongside with the VT

Harry Evans book! to get the style right

take still photos when you're out and about

fight for your stories to get them in the bulletin and justify why you want it in there

prep before output - watch and scrutinise daily TV bulletins - half hour every day

running order - why to put which story in what order - think of your audience (1,2,3 story)

organisation of bulletin

balance

reporters - hero reporter/presenter that you respect, story crafter

deconstruct, interpret and use in your own work

listen to links (!) - worst aspect at minute - ours are being overlooked at minute - not least important - explain it in link prior to it

*start piece with natural sound - not through reporter

*conflict = story = angle

*develop a story

*soften things - it makes things more natural

*humanise/personalise the story

*change camera around to get different angles for same shot (sequence)

*framing - we shoot in thirds

*best picture first to engage people in your story

*don't start with PTC (piece to camera)

*no guilty signs

Phrases to ban:

I couldn't find a story/feature (- lots of stories going all the time)

I want to do a story about the ... recession (worse than 1)

you have to talk to actual real people, most read papers - especially local ones, listen to radio stations, bulletins

I couldn't do the story cause they didn't ring me back - you can't be passive as a journalist

too little too late - don't use

remains to be seen - don't use

I spoke to (name)... / I'm at (place)... - don't do - use captions

Targets:

women sport and other sports (not only football) better mix

not rely on highlight packages every week

one featured team from campus in bulletin each week

cultivate sport

Production:

a bit more ambitious with production - especially since we've got the tricaster now so use it more from outside the studio (OB's preferably 1 a week etc)

work on projects, not only the bulletin, such as updating the intro, the look at the show, green screen

team has to get trained in using Joomla (CMS - content management system)

and also some Flash training to be able to make headers and such on website

Features:

a lot more pictures, photography, think visually!

feature program to go on back of WINOL bulletin

booker - someone to book guests etc - maybe a first year student?

need to be more fun and eye catching

cross pollination between departments to promote each other

Football, football, oh all this football...

Five weeks of football - a dream for me! But now, only two matches left...

Waking up this morning I just realised I've only got two more sleeps here in Doha before going back to England again. Can't believe that two nights and two games are all that remain of this major adventure. When going out here on June 9th I never imagined time to just fly by as it has done. I guess part of this is due to the long, long shifts we've covered, the chaos and stress that's surrounded us all along and also thanks to all the new people I've met here and learnt a lot from.

As a kid I used to watch football with my dad on TV, speak to my uncle about our local football team, ÖSK, and watch the live games with my friend at the ground. I used to dream about going to watch all these big games around in Europe, and the rest of the world once grown up – but never imagined working behind the scenes of big tournaments, such as the World Cup, meeting all the big names that you only see and hear of on TV.

85 million viewers!

My biggest dream has always been to cover major sports events, but when starting university I could never imagine doing this before not even graduating. But, here I am – covering the World Cup from South Africa, in Qatar for Al Jazeera with 85 million people watching our live coverage from around the Middle East and the northern parts of Africa. Unbelievable.

But with the final approaching we are hoping to be viewed by 100 million people... I can’t even begin to understand how massive an audience that is – seeing I’m from Sweden where the population is only nine million. But it is impressive, how a sport such as football can unite people from all around the world to watch and enjoy with one another.

To be honest, so far we haven’t really seen a cracking World Cup game, but hopefully we will see the best of games on Sunday. That would make my experience here complete.

Breakfast a la World Cup!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, we produce breakfast shows, preview (forum) shows and the actual main show with the games. The mornings include presenter Scott Minto and Hayley McQueen who every morning greet the new day of football along with one guest. Over the time guests have come and gone, but still remaining here in Doha with us are Terry Venables, Graeme Souness, Trevor Francis and Glenn Hoddle. Prior todays date we've been joined by Ray Wilkins, Mark Hateley, Iain Dowie, Peter Reid, Gus Poyet, Graham Poll and many more... As I've never worked with 'famous people' before, this has been such an incredible experience. I never thought when I started university and decided to go into journalism that this opportunity would come along after this little time. One of my biggest dreams is of course to cover the World Cup, and now I'm doing it, and I can't quite get my head around it. Next step on the dream ladder, Olympics 2012.

But back to the Breakfast shows, which are very enjoyable, mainly thanks to Scott and Hayley who have been great together. Every second morning either I or V have been in the studio working with the cameras, the setup and making sure that everything is working out alright and that guest/s and presenters are all on time, that the set has been cleaned and that the breakfast is nicely presented on the table and so on... Our set role, which is camera man (woman), has included so much more than just being behind the camera. This has been great for both of us as we have not only learnt about cameras, as we kind of first thought we would, but also about other things that you would have to know as a floor manager. Bonus!

The mornings not inside the studio we have tried to sneak into the gallery - which is miles more disorganised than any other gallery we have seen, or that people working with us have ever seen - just to get a good look on how the director, vision mixer, producer and everyone else work during a live show. For me, who eventually wants to end up directing preferably live shows, this has been a great opportunity. And being amongst people who have spent years and years in the profession, I have managed to snatch some good contacts and with some luck it seems as if I have some good opportunities lined up once back in England.

In the studio there's a total of six cameras, including the jib, but at the Breakfast show four of these are fixed and only the camera pointing at the guest is moving, which means only me or V, and the jib operator. In the preview and match shows all but two cameras (mine and V's) are fixed which leaves us two doing the camera work. And, as I mentioned earlier, this seems to have been a bit controversial as the staff working over here at Al Jazeera are not used to female camera operators, and it's quite hard to know how to handle this from times to times, because you don't want to get on the wrong foot with the locals, as they (read a few of them) know English and are your only life line to the rest of the people working in the studio, with make up, lighting and so on.

But a brilliant experience, and a very useful journey to learn how to handle obstacles that we are not used to in Britain, and definitely haven't yet come across at university - such as massive culture clashes and language barriers. That being said, my first language isn't English either but at least I understand when somebody asks me to move a camera, or to find the Al Jazeera badges for the presenters and such...

World Cup kicking off - in Qatar!

My summer was to kick off – and so was the World Cup. Both events taking place in different locations but with one purpose – football.

This is definitely the most exciting, interesting and most busy summer for me yet. Usually when school, college or university approaches the summer break my plans tend to be focused on doing as little as possible for as long as possible. But this year I got an offer I really couldn’t turn down. To cover the World Cup for Al Jazeera Sport in Doha, Qatar. So on 9^th of June, off I went...

Me and V arrived in Doha in the afternoon (Mecca time) and found ourselves in the middle of a massive climate change. In the early morning we had left a 15ish degree ‘lukewarm’ England behind to be met by a 40 something degree boiling Middle East. Pleasant – but only thanks to all the air conditioning running on full speed. Also, I was completely thrown by the massive culture clash, and I still find it hard to deal with it sometimes. For me, coming from Sweden, been travelling a lot – but mostly in Europe – and seen a fair bit of the continent, still can’t get my head around what it can be like living in these countries, and especially what it can be like being a woman... But more about culture clashes later on...

So after arriving safely in Doha we were, together with four other people who were to work for Al Jazeera as well, transported to our hotel where we would spend the following five weeks of our lives. After a well deserved dinner we all got informed that the following day would provide us with more information about our stay as we would go to Al Jazeera to meet up with the rest of the crew and also have a look at the studios we were to work in.
As this is my first real work experience within TV, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – but whatever I did expect it was not this. People who work with TV back in England say this is nowhere close to as professional everything is being run back in the UK. Here it’s all a bit ‘hakuna matata’, ‘take it easy’, ‘there will be time’, ‘don’t worry’, ‘there is always a day tomorrow’ kind of approach. If you want something and want it now, forget it. Nothing happens quickly. Unless you can make it happen quickly yourself. This was one of the first things to learn how to tackle without letting it affect your mood. How to get people (locals in the studio who obviously are used to their ways) to work with you and more effectively together, when they thought what they did was good enough. Another massive issue was, and still is, the language barrier. A few of the guys in the studio know some English – but the ones who don’t seem to not even be bothered about trying to explain or understand so when worst comes to worst, problems can easily appear from nowhere. Also, as the studio crew over here are basically consisting of 100% men, it’s quite hard to come in, as a woman from the Western parts of the world, trying to tell them what to do.

Throughout this World Cup, I and V worked in the studio mainly as camera men, but partly doing everything else as well that you need to do in the studio, such as making sure guests are at the right place at the right time with makeup and microphones ready to go, count downs from breaks, positioning of chairs and tables at the different sets and so on. I have learnt a lot from this, and as I didn’t see myself working with anything like this only a few months ago, my experience has made me a lot more secure and confident in what I can actually do, and what I would like to do in the future.

Over the time we have covered all but two games each, every breakfast show and also so far two forum-shows which mainly has focused on the guests, their opinions and views on what has happened so far in the tournament, and what might happen in the next round/s. As a football lover I have enjoyed every second of this tournament (even though Sweden didn’t manage to qualify!) and I have come to realise that I would definitely much prefer to work with sports and other live events from a studio rather than in the middle of all the action. I hope to find myself as a director one day, and probably working as a vision mixer before hand, as I believe it is important to learn how the vision mixing works before you tell people how to do it...

So far an incredible experience that isn’t quite over yet. I will update my blog and tell you more about everything, such as guests, culture, Qatar, language and of course football, as soon as I possibly can.

Until then, enjoy the summer and the football!