Winchester News Online is effectively a mirrored reflection of any other professional broadcast. Although it is on a smaller scale and run by students we take pride on our award-winning output serving a local audience with our news bulletin, and more recently reaching out to a wider, national audience with the new magazines such as NWR: Arts, and Fashion Absolute:ly. WINOL covers a large spectrum of content; we are divided into five teams - news, sport, features, online and production. People come for the news but stay for the features. The news has been of outstanding quality, mainly due to the extensive coverage of the Eastleigh by-election but a stand out improvement on the website is the launch of the new magazines which have targeted niche markets with a particular interest, such as travelling, culture, philosophy, music, or fashion. The standard of these academic reviews and interviews is extremely high, contributing towards the average 5.16 minute total for time spent on the website. [19/5/13 Alexa] WINOL continues to pull traffic towards the website through the increased use of social networking sites such as Twitter, led by our social media controller Hazny Hayesmore who targets those directly interested in the story, e.g. politicians or an organisation that the news relates to. We currently have 1361 twitter followers which contrasts the 276 followers of ‘NewsLabBU’ at Bournemouth University. [19/5/13] This is proof that we are regularly channelling out a ‘live’ feed of updates daily, and producing fresh content all year round. Jason French and Sam Ashton have together improved the website which is the core centre for all the work of the WINOL teams, I particularly like the sectioning of each relevant topic e.g. crime or campus, which makes navigating around the website easier. As advised by guest editor Paul Wood the web team have maximised the use of SEO to increase our readership and ensured there are no broken links. Our YouTube channel is also a vital tool for uploading content; it allows reporters to upload their individual packages which can then be put on the website alongside a written story separate from the bulletin. A successful example of this is the Boris Johnson interview which went viral receiving nearly 3000 hits. Alone this emphasises the number of views we receive through our video content, totalling to 722,522 YouTube views; this is a suburb achievement for WINOL which set up the channel in 2009. Similarly, JMU Journalism TV at Liverpool University also started their YouTube account in 2009 but has only received 85,848 views. [May 2013] This showcases how WINOL has produced not only quality work but that of great quantity to.
For the second semester of WINOL I was ‘promoted’ to Chief Crime Reporter, this allowed me to develop upon my skills as a news reporter, and continue to practise responsible journalism. Winchester Crown Court has been the most prominent source for my reports; attending court regularly has allowed me to develop upon my interest of law and the criminal justice system by experiencing active cases and sentences. The satisfaction of being in the court room and hearing the sentencing first hand is a very rewarding experience. Acting as the eyes and ears for the public is what I enjoy most about court reporting, it shows that I am capable of carrying out accurate, trusted and above most legally safe reports. I have covered a mixture of court cases including Robbery, drugs, fraud and affray. One of my main goals is to make it pictorially interesting, aside from the standard PTC outside court, I have done walking PTCs on location such as the Robbery in Andover which was praised for the strength of my delivery. Other pictorial solutions were the use of CCTV, access into press conferences and animation. The hospital scam was a package that stood out for me; the facts were illustrated through animation, superbly made by Jason French. This worked well as it was innovative and I think more animated content could be used in the future on WINOL. The idea of taking a story from court and making it more than just a standard court report is what I personally feel I have progressed with this semester. The hospital fraud story marked this realisation for me, I spoke with the fraud investigator in court and he gave me an ‘off the record’ briefing on the scam. Despite the intimidation of a court room it’s important to speak with the professionals to find out more.
Aside from reporting this semester, we rotated the role of News Editor, this was an exciting opportunity to be able to overlook the bulletin as a whole; a completely different angle to what I am used to as a reporter. It allowed me to make editorial decisions as to what would make the headlines, help coach the reporters with their packages, and liaise with the production team. This leadership role brought to my attention the importance of timings and organisation; I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of taking a more senior role, an interesting change from being out of the field. I had a strong mix of hard news stories in the bulletin, including two national stories: Chris Huhne pleading guilty and the new law of same-sex marriage. Both reporters Nadine Forshaw and Anja Elen Eikenes managed to localise these national stories and get reaction to the breaking news, two very impressive packages. Moreover, Matt Spencer delivered an exclusive local story about the new appointed chief constable which had strong interviews with both Simon Hayes and Andy Marsh. Luke Garratt presented a court report on Rape, and Ellen Millard did an update on the market, which meant the content I had was extremely strong, but it was all hard hitting news. I struggled for lighter and entertaining news, which Jack Webb delivered in future bulletins. Faith Thomas filled the ‘and finally’ slot with a new leisure centre opening up; this was the only bit of light news that I had and therefore had to be placed at the end of the bulletin. I decided to headline the two national stories and the court report; however, after hearing the critic I agreed that there should have been some lighter news in the headlines too such as sport. Paul Greer was the guest editor this week, he agreed with my editorial decisions of the running order: “I’ve been in this business for nearly 30 years, the stories were plum in the right order, the whole thing was tight, the whole thing was clever”. Greer from five live taught us a valuable lesson, that your story is not you, if people criticise your story they are not criticising you as a person. We have to be thick skinned in this industry and without doubt "be interested". If we are not interested in our story then no one else will be, and this was something I took forward with my own stories.
WINOL has also covered some specials this semester, the highlight being the live coverage of the Eastleigh By-Election. My role on the night was to present the first live hour and the results show with co-presenters. Presenting has always been something I wanted to practise and improve on, therefore I set myself this challenge, it was out of comfort zone, not only because politics is not my strongest point, but because the output was live. I am so pleased I pushed myself to do this, because it was a great learning experience. It allowed me to understand more about the production side of things: communicating with the director, dealing with technical problems such as Skype live on air and ad-libbing with the in studio guests. (Councillor Ian Tait and Ex-Councillor Eleanor Bell). The show was streamed online from 10pm to 3am which had 1600 unique viewers tune in, this was an incredible audience for a student led show, and the whole WINOL team were extremely proud of the success. The content of the packages was all our own footage, which is what we lacked, showcasing many of the big names in politics, including the Prime minister, Nick Clegg and Boris Johnson to name a few. This was fantastic journalism from all the reporters who covered the main parties, and particularly Nadine Forshaw who was live at the count representing Winchester News Online on Sky News. A great team effort from everyone on WINOL, and a highlight for the news team. The run up to the election was extensively covered, 2/3 stories were uploaded daily bringing a lot of traffic to the website; WINOL certainly took advantage of the fact London came to Eastleigh.
To avoid all the content being about Eastleigh I was continuing to deliver court reports weekly to act as the 'in other news' for the bulletin. Week 4 was a highlight for me; the common issue of no visuals for court reports was not a problem this week. I managed to get a copy of the CCTV footage that was shown in court during the sentencing from the CPS as I have built up a trusted relationship with the press office. My main focus was scripting to pictures, initially I still told the story like a court report, but with some guidance from Chris Ship the guest editor that week I changed the scripting to ensure it followed through and guided the viewer through what was being shown on the screen. In the debrief, Ship made a point of crime stories being difficult pictorially, “a lot of the times that can decide the difference between doing the story and not doing the story, just if the pictures are there, it’s not about the strength of the story itself”. This was illustrated in my case, as it was picture led, but not significantly hard hitting crime news. This package stood out for me, as it has got over 900 views on my YouTube Channel.
A personal achievement for me on WINOL this semester was being the first to broadcast the breaking news of the break in at the jewellery store in Winchester town centre. Fellow crime reporter Luke Garratt heard of the news from a passer-by, and without hesitation we both saw this as an opportunity to investigate more. We were the only journalists there, I took some still photography using a DSLR camera and video footage on our iPhones as this was the only recording device we had on us. I learnt from a mistake that I made earlier in the year by only taking stills of the bus that hit the boy near the market. Although it was good to have our own photos, lecturer Angus Scott rightly pointed out that we are working for TV and therefore moving footage is more suitable, a mistake I promised not to make again. Although the footage of the break in wasn't used in the bulletin, we were the first to get the breaking news story up online. This brought a lot of traffic to the website and no other local paper had photographs of the damage caused aside from WINOL.
Week 7 brought about a new experience for me; I got permission from Ringwood Police to go to the press conference where the family of a teenager who was killed in a motor crash were appealing for the driver to come forward. This was like no other story I had worked on, vast amounts of press were there such as BBC South, ITV Meridian, Heart Radio, BBC Radio Solent and local papers, being surrounded by some of the 'big guys' in news I regret shying away and not throwing out a question to the police officer in charge. This was a visually led package, containing raw content from the family themselves, the interview with the police officer which was conducted by BBC South, and cutaways of flowers and messages capturing the solemn atmosphere. This was a memorable week for me, it made me realise that as a journalist you have to detach yourself emotionally from what you feel.
Fleet street fox reiterated this point as she explained that as a news reporter you never get the right to your own opinion, you have to keep your thoughts to yourself and be objective, this is why new journalism is profitable, because it is objective and true. George Berridge conducted a brilliant chat show style interview with her, I was part of the studio audience as I had read her book. This was an enjoyable day, as she didn't shy away from telling us what to expect within the journalism industry, an eye opening useful day.
Towards the end of the year, the big news on campus was the student elections; after filming the speeches and receiving over 800 views I decided to follow it up for the bulletin. This was in the style of a feature, I arranged for all four students running for president to come in to the studio and sit in WINOLs black chair: mastermind style. As I am so used to dealing with the facts on crime news, I missed the point of making it entertaining and comical, so I had to reversion the original video, and include snap shots of the chair and a music bed to lift the idea of mastermind. This made me explore a more creative approach to news, and highlighted for me the differences between news and features.
A second semester on news has helped me develop as a reporter, aside from my own reports I have worked closely with the Chief reporter, attending high profile meetings such as the Hampshire Police and Crime Panel, and developing upon my camera skills by filming interviews at the launch of the Police budget. Attending events such as these was extremely encouraging for me, it ties in well with my news beat and helped build upon my networking skills, meeting other journalists and gaining contacts.
WINOL may not be above a student publication by definition, but it is treated as one by the team. We take every story we do seriously, ensuring there are no fatal errors, we don’t make room for excuses as students, we are trained to be have the mind-set of a professional journalist. WINOL has given us the platform and foundation to walk out of our newsroom and confidently walk into another. Every story we do, or event we attend we are not just representing ourselves, more importantly we are representing WINOL, and this semester I feel we have boosted the profile of WINOL as a whole, and made it known to many more.
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