Semester 2 Week 1

WINOL is broadcast every Wednesday at 5pm, but if you missed it you can watch the bulletin here:

David Hayward from the BBC College of Journalism visited us on WINOL this week, he was very complimentary of the work that we had all produced, hear what he had to say in the video below.

Reflection of Week One:

The first week back into court reporting brought me back face to face with Winchester Crown Court. This week I followed a story on a Southampton man who was jailed for three years for possession of crack cocaine and heroin. I visited the court on both Thursday and Friday, but there was little luck finding a hard hitting story. The weather conditions proved difficult as it caused delays down at the court, but the sentencing's still went ahead once people managed to get in to work avoiding the snow chaos.

Commonly with court reporting finding pictures to visually display the report is a struggle. With close contact with media relations at Hampshire Constabulary I obtained a convicted photo after filling out the form. However, it proved impossible to get hold of the officer in charge of the case as she was out of the office for a few days, missing the tight deadline we were working too. On several occasions I tried to get hold of her,  or even the duty sergeant  I was hoping to obtain some police photographs of the drugs found inside the property to add a more visual appeal rather then a solid piece to camera outside the court. I confirmed the legality of my report, by getting the identification of the defendant from the clerk of the court and speaking to court listings and the police media team.

This week I had a camera man, as I went down to the courts with former court reporter Luke Garratt. This allowed me to have my hands in shot, however I feel it looks quite stiff as I don't make full use of my hands free. However, before hand we had a lot of technical difficulties, the camera wouldn't turn on as the battery was temperamental even though it had been fully charged, loan counter have been notified of this dodgy battery.

I tried to open up the story by relating it to Operation Fortress which has been launched to tackle the issue of drugs in Southampton. This relates to the case I was covering as the man convicted was based in Southampton. However, as it was general comment I was looking for they wouldn't conduct a video interview, but the media relations team sent me a quotation from the lead of Operation fortress. Although I didn't use this in my news package, It added exposition and greater depth to a wider issue in my written story.