Magazine module- Confessional interview- Piers Dineen- Surviving Leukaemia

Magazine module- Written fashion feature.

Here is my written feature for my magazine module. It is a fashion piece for the WINOL magazine Absolute;ly. It is a feature about men's hair styles for summer.

Magazine module- Interview with Phil Walker; Editor of All Out Cricket Magazine

Documentary project- Behind the scenes at Al Jazeera Sport+3

Critical evaluation

I felt that WINOL was very successful as an editorial product this term.  The bulletin was only late once and this was on the first day of WINOL this term; so this is a huge achievement as in previous terms we have been late all the way through the year. I do feel however, that we started very slowly, getting to grips with our new roles; The 2^nd years had to become familiar with the styles, schedule and routine  of WINOL, but this happens at the start of every term, and was no worse this time than any other start. We also had to learn how to use the new equipment such as cameras and editing software which was a massive disadvantage at first as it took a very long time to understand how to use everything once it was installed; however throughout the term this proved to be a massive advantage and all of our packages benefited with sharper shots and better quality sound. We also made the late decision to change the website; this meant that our features did not really have a style to follow and caused them to be delayed at first; however once the transformation of the website was complete it was obvious that it was a very good idea, and it is now easier than ever to add content and the website looks the best it ever has.  We also has three separate WINOL specials this term which was a fantastic achievement as; the BJTC awards; where I was camera man using the fig rig, the HPCC debate, where I was once again a camera man for close up shots of the candidates  and the U.S. Election, where I took up the role of on-screen reporter;  were all fantastic pieces of journalism by the whole team.

WINOL was also successful as a result of the rivalry that we entered with East London Lines; we all put 100% effort in to ensure that we could be the best student journalism in the country according to statistics, and I feel this is now true. As well as our weekly bulletin; throughout the term WINOL also became available on various different mediums including radio; which was very successful to play out a news bulletin and to promote material on the website, but also through our daily news bulletin; WINOL 99 and through the website being updated daily and being easier to navigate on laptops, mobile phones and other portable devices. WINOL 99 brought viewers to our website daily; and was a first for student journalism.  As a result our Alexa ranking by the end of the term, which has been getting better and better throughout the year, was at 10,338 for the UK and 476,793 in the world; making us the most popular student news output in the country and more popular than our nearest rivals ELL by quite a distance in both the UK and in the world. I think this is a fantastic achievement in such a short space of time.

Analysing the news bulletin I feel that it was very good this year. Although we didn't have any fantastic, world class, global stories during this term that we have had previously, I still felt that the news we did have was put together very well. There were always stories available on the spike for the news editor to choose from if stories fell through and the bulletin was the longest it’s ever been;  15 minutes on some weeks. The stories were good local stories that matter to the people of Winchester and Hampshire. The structure of the bulletin was very good and I feel that the news agenda and running order; I feel that the news editor was correct every week with his selection of which stories should go where in the bulletin and which story should be the top story. I felt that we were a bit reluctant to change the structure of the bulletin and change  the running order at first, but as the term went on we experimented with the presenters standing up for the headlines, the bulletin in the newsroom, and oovs dotted around throughout the bulletin, rather than just in a news belt in the middle. We also experimented with graphics and a ‘coming up’ package to keep our viewers watching. All these elements helped to produce good bulletins editorially.

As for the news reporters themselves; they all grew in confidence as the weeks progressed and gradually they began to use sequences, and get closer in with their shots. Interviews and PTCs improved dramatically as did confidence on screen, scripting and writing news stories and headlines for the website.

Sport was also very good this year with a distinct increase and improvement in sports features and news such as wrestling, the polo team feature and the new defibulators at AFC Totton. This makes a change to previous years where there were just sports highlights from the local games. Sport always gets a lot of views as a result of the large number of supporters that want to watch their team’s highlights and this term was no different.  The team was larger this year which helped and I think the sports team did a very good job at maintaining the high standard of sport that has been set over a number of years.

As for the website, I feel that it is the best it has ever looked; I feel that it was a great decision to change to Wordpress and it’s a major factor as to why our circulation has increased this term. It is easier to navigate, it looks visually better as we have put a much greater influence in our pictures, the style and layout of the site mean that new stories and features are easier to find and to look at meaning that our average user time is higher than rival websites; users are coming to look at the news and bulletin but staying to watch the features and sport as they are all so visually pleasing. We have also put much more time into promoting the site, news stories and individual features on twitter and social networking sites as well as on the radio and through the bulletin. By constantly mentioning the website on these platforms we have increased our all round circulation.  The website looks more professional now and less like a student output. It did take us a while to get started with the website and it did continually change in style over the first few weeks; this probably should have happened over summer rather than at the beginning of term, but once the change was made it was the right decision.

The three WINOL specials were also fantastic and stretched our team, but I think we came out of them stronger as a result and helped the team to increase their ability. The BJTC awards were a chance to show other universities how good our journalism is and we did not make a single mistake which I felt was very impressive. The HPCC debate once again showed how good our journalism is but also increased our circulation; once again not making a single mistake and the evening passed without any problems. Finally the U.S. election went very well and I personally thoroughly enjoyed being in London alongside some of the world’s media at the U.S. Embassy; showing how high we aim at WINOL.

My personal role on WINOL was  Features Editor. I feel that I did a good job as the editor of features and by the end of the year we had an extensive features section on the website, with a mix of content for both males and females and  for both young and older viewers.  By the end of the term we had gone from the original idea of one magazine to one main male orientated features section, to a comprehensive female fashion magazine and an arts review magazine. This meant that we covered the interests of our entire viewership.

Features did start very slow however due to the constant changing of the website style, meaning that there wasn’t a style for features to follow and therefore they could not be created. This meant that for the first few weeks it looked as though we had very little content despite having lots waiting to be created. As the majority of the team were new to WINOL , it took everyone a little while to get used to their role and how features worked. Once we figured out a style and the sections that we wanted, how to create features and use different software, the features that were created were of a very high standard. Features were constantly being updated during the week and the features writers were creating their features to a deadline.

I feel the features section looks the best it ever has done with a good mix of harder and softer features. We had a series of different categories that had to be filled for one re-make of the features once a month; this gave the features section structure and allowed everyone to know what they were doing and to avoid any confusion. As time went on the team became familiar with the style and what was required from them, as a result the features themselves also improved. 

We put a big emphasis on pictures; which was a very good ideas as it has been one of the biggest improvements about the features and the website in general. We out an emphasis on faces and showing peoples features. We made the images on the website a lot bigger than they have ever been before meaning that they were more visually pleasing and therefore the number of views each feature got was more than ever before as people were more likely to click on more visual features. For once features became a focus point of WINOL and the website rather than being hidden. This is a result of the quality produced by the features writers and the pictures that accompanied them.

We made sure on features that we plugged our work as much as possible on social networking sites, getting influential people to tweet our features. I also set up a WINOL features twitter for viewers to keep up to date with what was coming up and what was already on the website. By the end of term this twitter account had almost 100 followers.

Some of the features that we created include an interview with Paul Blackburn which Tom arranged and set up and then I filmed. I think this was a fantastic feature and was highly popular due to the nature of the story being told. I also had an interview with Edgar Feuchtwagner who was Hitler’s neighbour. This is another example of one of our harder feature and confessional interviews that haven’t been seen on the features section before. I was very happy with both these interviews as they received lots of traffic and were both really well put together; receiving lots of praise from guest editors.

We did also have softer gonzo features such as my ‘Great Transport Race’; which was another very popular feature, and interview with celebrities such as Mark Watson and Dani King.  As well as this we created the fashion section of the website for our female audience, which included some of our best features such as ‘Dr Fashion’, ‘WINOL Merch’ as well as hair, make-up and beauty features. Some features did fall through however; such as the Nitrogen gonzo piece; I feel this was due to lack of confidence and experience using cameras and going to film.

During the U.S. Election I also took up the role of on screen reporter. A team of four of us went to London as spent the entire night recording from the U.S Embassy on the night of the election which we then turned into a ‘behind the scenes’ feature. I felt that the entire London team did a fantastic job to film and upload over 30 videos over the night to be used the next day. I felt I did my personal role very well, interviewing as many of the important guest at the event as I could, including Andrew Marr, then upload the videos and live tweet from the event as well. As well as this I had to ensure that I was up to date with information about the election so that I could do a PTC and send back the information to the newsroom.

Overall I feel that I had a good term on WINOL. The role on WINOL went very well and the features look very good. I made sure that my team were constantly updated with what was going on so that they knew what they were doing; I also staggered deadlines to ensure that we were updating features throughout the weeks. We managed to completely change the feature on the website by our November and December deadlines and have at least one feature on each of the sections on the board per month. The board itself was constantly updated, and we had a mix of different features for the main site and for the fashion magazine for all of our viewers. I feel that the WINOL website and in particular the features look very visually pleasing and therefore looks better than it ever has done before.

WINOL week 9

This wee's WINOL had very good content which was good, however I felt we were still a bit light on stories. Technically there were a few technical sound issues which is a problem but can be easily fixed as different people become more confident technically; therefore this isn't a massive issues. Geoff Hill, channel 5 news editor, who was our editor this week said that there was a good professional buzz in the news room and also a lot of team good team work which is a compliment to our hard work and professionalism.

As for the bulletin itself, our presenting was good but the presenter probably spoke a little too fast and should have stopped and looked to take in and digest each story by moving onto the next story. The headlines had a good mix of stories but there wasn't a real eye catching story this week which could have led the bulletin so that was a shame.

The top story was the sex hotel which was a good update of a story we have previously covered. The story was constructed very well. The Barton farm story was a good update but the union story wasn't very relevant to our audience and they wouldn't have been interested in that story. This story also had a lot of guilty buildings and wasn't a very visual story.


the sports demonstration story was good but it ended to early and the reporter didn't need to sign off after a soundbite, it would have been better to go to the stupid and let the presenter sign off; this is something we havent ever really experimented with but something that we should look into. the joiners pub story was too colloquial as well and should have mentioned that we have covered this story before so that the audience knows that its an update.

The court story had no pictures and there wasn't  a reconstruction or PTC at the scene of the crime either which is a shame because it adds to this piece which isn't a visual story. However the script was very good. The 'coming up' was good; this is something that we have been working on over this term, and as the bulletins are longer this term it works much better to have a 'coming up' to keep the viewers interested.

Sport was good once again, as was the presenter. There was a good economy of words in the sports packages which is good as the pictures should tell the story and then have the words explaining and adding to the pictures. The sound needed turning down on a couple of the stories though.

The Mumford story had too short a link but it was a well put together story and then christmas story was also very good but it needed a better link and more fun in the script and tone of the piece; it was too serious and could have done with some vox-pops.

we also experimented on a new structure to the bulletin as well based on the style by channel 5. Before this we always used oovs in the middle of the bulletin as a news belt, however this week we spread three oovs throughout the bulletin which I actually felt worked really well and broke up the bulletin slightly so it wasn't just news package after news package.

On features this week we had a feature interview with Paul Blackburn who was wrongfully imprisoned for 25 years; we spoke to Paul in Southampton, but he came to Winchester this week to talk to us about his experiences. It was a fantastic interview and will look fantastic once it is up on the site. Features in general are coming together really nicely and we have a great mix of softer fashion features and harder news features. As well as this the fashion section of the site also has some fantastic visual features such as 'Legacy' which will also be  on the website soon. the site is much more visually led now and is much more pleasing to the viewers.

Overall this was a successful week; next week will be our last WINOL so we will want to make sure that it is the best one of this term so that we go out on a high.

Law lecture 9- Investigative journalism

 Investigative journalism is journalism that is not on anyones agenda like the majority of news; it isn't in any meetings and isn't a scheduled event; it is initiated by the journalist and is more like a feature in the way it is set out than news. Investigative journalism can happen in a number of ways however, this could be through an FOI request like the 'WINOL Investigates news feature last year which was initiated by one of the team who decided to look into criminal convictions by members of the Hampshire police force.It could also be done by a tip off given by someone who knows information that will be interesting to the journalist; this could be information by a member of staff of a company or just someone who knows something that is news worthy, next it could just be a decision by the reporter that they want to go and investigate something via subterfuge. 

Investigative reporting can be very dangerous; for example taking on a source would mean that you have to stick with that source and not ever reveal them, as this would cause normal people and people who have stories not to trust the press and reporters as they that what they are saying could get them into serious trouble or leave them in danger, but they are willing to give you information as long as you do not reveal who they are. This can get the reporter in serious trouble if the story went to court for being such a serious matter and therefore by not revealing the source in court the reporter themselves could find themselves with a legal issues that could mean a prison sentence. Also this type of reporting is investigating and reporting things that are usually undercover and revealing illegal activity and therefore to find out this information the reporter puts themselves in seriously dangerous situations where getting injured or killed is a real possibility  as BBC reporter Claudia Murg was telling me when I interviewed her for WINOL, and as journalism legend Veronica Guerin also discovered.

 The subject of investigative journalism is something that I find very interesting and something that over the past semester I have been getting my teeth into with the Innocence project. I find it fascinating that someone could be innocent, yet still put in prison. I recently interviewed and hear a talk from Paul Blackburn who was imprisoned for 25 years but was found to be innocent; this is such a long time to go to prison for something you haven't done and a result of police corruption and failings. Therefore as journalism is the fourth estate I feel that it is so important that journalists are present in court rooms and in parliament and continue investigations such as the Innocence project to ensure that corruption is not present, but to also ensure that people who are innocent are not left in a horrible place like prison among criminals who they do not deserve to be around.

Other famous investigative journalism includes the Watergate scandal and is the reason than any important investigation where there is corruption or something unexpected is revealed in a scandal, the name of that scandal always ends in 'gate'. This particular example shows the importance of investigative reports so that when there is corruption involved even with the top and most powerful people in the world, they are eventually found out through these ever important investigative reports.

This is also why it was so important in the findings of the Leveson report, it wasn't suggested that freedom of speech is not restricted by over controlling regulatory bodies that could have stopped such reports taking place because it is against the conduct of the new regulatory body. It is essential to ensure that the press have freedom to report on what ever it is they need to report on with freedom to do what they need to do to make sure that as the fourth estate, the government and the legal system is being watched to ensure there is not corruption. Suggesting having the press regulated too much and by an independent body could see freedom of the press stifled. Saying this I still feel that it is important that the press and journalists keep to the codes and guidelines to avoid having such a bad name and intruding into peoples lives with trivial matters. This would ensure that there isn't a threat against freedom of speech.

Finally a note about 'off the record'. It is important to ensure that nothing is reported from a source that tells you something off the record. Anything reported has to be on the record, all though anything off the record can be important as a line of inquiry in your report and could also give some background information to a story to help the reporter understand the story.