Winol Week one

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.