The first week of winol was an intimidating one. With very little hands on experience in video journalism it was difficult to predict what exactly one was in for. The day started like any other; waking up late, rushing to get dressed and making sure the bf a.k.a Joey c was ok. The first news meeting was rather daunting, however I was prepaired with a story covering Chute house and its possible closure. The angle taken was that the staff there could loose their jobs as re-deployment to the king Alfred campus was not guranteed. The idea was pitched and the editors lapped it up like hungry houndogs fresh on the blood trail!
I started by first speaking to Seb miell getting the straight facts and writing them down, I also set up an interview for the next day. I then sent an e-mail to Lisa Simpkin who I was passed on to by the chute house manager as she would give me permission to speak to Joy Carther Pro vice chancellor. She was as useful as a headache. I now know that press officers are essentially a waste of what very little time I have. Unable to balance the story I tried speaking to the union leader representing the staff that could loose their jobs, who declined to comment as the situation was on going. This meant that the stories angle could effctively not be persued. The story had hit a brick wall, in hindsight I could of researched the story a bit earlier and maybe I would of made a bit more progress with trying to get interviewees. With only Seb Miell able to give his opinion on the matter it meant that I didn't have balance and had to drop the story. Leaving me with only a written peice on the story including the fact that Joy Carter and the union rep failed to reply.
Seb said that I miss quoted him saying that the chute house 'could close' as I could not put up the fact that it will close for legal reasons. I couldn't confirm it as a fact as I needed someone at the university e.g. Joy Carter to cover myself and WINOL legally. The story was spiked not through lack of effort as I worked extremely hard and stressed, and sent at least 10 e-mails to get my story set up. The only thing I could of done better is give myself more time to set up my story as Joy Carter may have spoke to me. The Union rep on the other hand wouldnt of helped me at all!!!
The moral of the story is; Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Tabloid nation
Tabloid nation, what can I say a superbly written peice with a comical twist and interesting look and the birth of todays tabloids. The book fives an in depth look at the history behind popular journalism or 'tabloid' journalism as we now know it today. Wait I am writing as if I am reviewing the book when im just posting my notes, anyway I digres.
Harmsworth Started the publication 'Answers', he was one of the first to start competitions in papers that seemed unatainable for example offering £200 life insurance prize; something you see in papers like the Sun's £10 holidays. Furthermore Northcliffe was very much like William Randolph Hearst and in that he aimed his paper towards people vulnrability with competitions praying on gread, and headlines to do with crime praying on fear. This sort of thing however made people by papers which acheived their objective.
The Daily mirror started off as a neche paper aimed at the womens market, Lord Northcliffe got rid of all the women writers however as they were causing a distraction leaving a lone women editor.
The Mirror was also the first paper to use pictures to boost the sales of its paper, with sales trebled by 71,000 overnight. Hannen Swaffer played a big part in this when he was appointed art editor. These pictures included pictures of the Kind and his family, this could be seen as the equivellent to the modern day celebrity culture. The Mirror and The mail saw the advantage of pictures and battled furiously to secure the exclusive pictures of the dead King, Northcliffe wanted the picture so much that he did not care that he could be in trouble for treason as circulation meant so much to him. The Mirror at one point had a story about a Pony they were trying to rescue making the paper look very sensitive and appeal to the audience. This is something we again seen in todays tabloids such as The Sun who are often running petitions about something such as petitioning to get the latest X-factor wannabe back in, or marching against the latest Big Brother race row. Although sometimes genuine campaigns such as 'backing the heroes' for servicemen in the army.
The Mail in its early days was aimed more towards the everyday reader with a 250 word limit on articles brought in to simplify it for their target market.
Alot of what you see from Northcliffes time you see in todays tabloid media such as the celebrity culture, cheap prizes that seem impossible to win ( and normally are). Northcliffe was a character significant in shaping todays tabloids, along with Hearst he is one in now what is a long line of charasmatic newspaper owners with crazy new ideas that launched todays fantastic tabloid journalism.
Harmsworth Started the publication 'Answers', he was one of the first to start competitions in papers that seemed unatainable for example offering £200 life insurance prize; something you see in papers like the Sun's £10 holidays. Furthermore Northcliffe was very much like William Randolph Hearst and in that he aimed his paper towards people vulnrability with competitions praying on gread, and headlines to do with crime praying on fear. This sort of thing however made people by papers which acheived their objective.
The Daily mirror started off as a neche paper aimed at the womens market, Lord Northcliffe got rid of all the women writers however as they were causing a distraction leaving a lone women editor.
The Mirror was also the first paper to use pictures to boost the sales of its paper, with sales trebled by 71,000 overnight. Hannen Swaffer played a big part in this when he was appointed art editor. These pictures included pictures of the Kind and his family, this could be seen as the equivellent to the modern day celebrity culture. The Mirror and The mail saw the advantage of pictures and battled furiously to secure the exclusive pictures of the dead King, Northcliffe wanted the picture so much that he did not care that he could be in trouble for treason as circulation meant so much to him. The Mirror at one point had a story about a Pony they were trying to rescue making the paper look very sensitive and appeal to the audience. This is something we again seen in todays tabloids such as The Sun who are often running petitions about something such as petitioning to get the latest X-factor wannabe back in, or marching against the latest Big Brother race row. Although sometimes genuine campaigns such as 'backing the heroes' for servicemen in the army.
The Mail in its early days was aimed more towards the everyday reader with a 250 word limit on articles brought in to simplify it for their target market.
Alot of what you see from Northcliffes time you see in todays tabloid media such as the celebrity culture, cheap prizes that seem impossible to win ( and normally are). Northcliffe was a character significant in shaping todays tabloids, along with Hearst he is one in now what is a long line of charasmatic newspaper owners with crazy new ideas that launched todays fantastic tabloid journalism.
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