Meeting 8

So here we are after Christmas and my first meeting back. This one took place on the 17th of January at 4pm in Sparkhouse studios with my editor Daniel Ionescu and Alex Coleman. This week we've decided in two stories for me to work on-

1. The footfall figures for the shops in the local area- Now the Christmas boom has finished local business concern Lincoln BIG will so be able to produce figures conveying how the shops performed in December and January. I have been asked to contact them and obtain these figures from this year and the previous two years to have some comparison. The treatment and the nature of this story is tricky. Former student and freelance journalist Tom Farmery mentioned that a top journalist at the Guardian struggled  data journalism which entails translating numeric data into something meaningful. However looking into ways people has transferred this in a meaning way I looked at Shane Crouchers work on translating figures (which can be found here http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/05/lincoln-mps-year-of-questions-cost-7-5k/) by using visual aids could help, going back to KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) could make it easier for the reader to digest.

2. Investigating how the RSPCA has copped with unwanted pets over the Christmas period- A lot of animal groups make it clear that a lot of animals which are given as presents for Christmas tend to get abandoned. I've been asked to make contact with the local charity shop and speak to someone about this. Currently their is no angle however I have complied a number of open questions on a range of subjects to help me develop an angle. Though I think doing the interview on a one on one basis in the shop may serve as good inspiration as Chris Frost says 'It is vital that the keen reporter keeps his or her eyes open at all time.' so hopefully something in the shop like a poster or small detail could lead me a strong angle.

So this week on my placement I've heard many remark how quiet it is in terms of news currently. Though this may seem like a negative take on a subject I feel it's in this kind of news environment that reporters have to be careful with the nature of their reporting. Looking at the theory behind news gathering the press play a huge part in creating a moral panic as they essentially create a 'folk devil' to get stigmatised.

So in a time when the news front is quiet it could be easy for news outlets to go overboard on the coverage of a story which could lead to it being perceived as a much bigger problem then it is. This could be traced back to fears over swine flu or the Hadron collider. Despite their being a very small chance of the experiment forming a black hole some news outlets choose to over empathise and panic causing distress in the public sector. So in times like this it could be more suitable to observe the smaller stories and try over turn the negative image that all news is depressing.

So from now on I'll posting a critique of my work afters it's published so check back here every so often.

The critique-

So since the footfall story has been delayed because the figures are not yet available that story has been put on a back burner, however my RSPCA story did go up (here's the link-  http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2012/01/fewer-gift-pets-abandoned-in-lincoln/ )

Looking back at my work I'd say the photo and is quite appealing and relevant, this is because I have a rabbit which the story revolves around partially. This also in a sense successfully coincides with the theory presented by lecturer Roger De Bank who believes the best kind of press photo is the one which includes something living. This idea is supported by Chris Frost who believes that 'pictures can add emotion and authenticity', which I believe the photo did since the rabbit could be considered 'cute'.  

Looking at the copy I was impressed with the detailed and quite memorable quotes Charlotte gave. On the other hand despite having one good interview it might have been suitable to have gotten a second one from an different source to help cement the story. Also on the other hand I have to remember every interviewee has their own bias. As Chris Frost writes on the subject of interviewees 'They may want to win public support', though the biased may be just it's my role as a journalist to produce a balanced and accurate report.

Meeting 7

This weeks meeting took place at 4pm at Sparkhouse studios with my editor Daniel Ionescu and reporter Elizabeth Fish.

Just as a note to everyone this meetings take place every Tuesday and usually write the post a few days later

This week the story ideas I pitched was to focus to try and practice my skills at taking a national story and localising it.

1. Ofcom speaker Lawrie Halden- As part of my course a provincial member of Ofcom came to talk about community media. Since The Lincolnite is a community media outlet with a highly specific target geodemographically determined audience his talk on regulation could be relevant. Especially with the Leveson inquiry bringing on debates of the press having a change in regulation. (Interested take a look at my course preparation- http://secondyearuni.blogspot.com/)

2. Local toyshop at Christmas- At the top of the hill theirs a local independent toy store which sells old fashioned toys. So with Christmas coming and with the media reporting on the economic downturn and the change in peoples shopping habits I thought it would be interesting to see what the shop was doing for Christmas.

Though we decided after discussion to not use these ideas but to however focus on upcoming Santa Fun run (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/12/santa-fun-run-will-raise-thousands-for-charity/ ). The brief for this story is to talk to the organiser, speak to runners and get photos of the race. The deadline for the story is Sunday night.

So this week I’d thought I would reflect on regulation. Mainly because of my guest lecture with Ofcom’s Lawrie Holden who talked about self regulation. He discussed the regulations surrounding how community and commercial radio stations go through various regulations and require the following things:

·        Experience- Someone on staff needs to have some training and knowledge of broadcasting

·        Benefit to the community and relevance- It helps the community out in way that strengthens the community and is relevant to people in range of the transmission.

With the Government encouraging platforms like TV to go into a community like format it’s possible that one day that hyper local community websites could be ran by community groups. So the future or a possible endeavour like this relies on some kind regulatory body possibly being created to do monitor them. However this all depends on how the Leveson inquiry impacts on press regulation, something again is a difficult minefield to tackle.

Meeting 6

This weeks meeting took place at 4pm at Sparkhouse studios with my editor Daniel Ionescu.

This week the feedback from the stories I wrote last week was positive but were going to be withheld until Christmas when the amount of news slowed down.

This week I pitched the following stories:

1.      Top ten forces discount- Again this appealing to our target audience of people who live in Lincoln. Lincolnshire is called ‘RAF county’ so this fits our target audience criteria stated in the mission statement which is ‘The Lincolnite aims to deliver timely, accurate and relevant information to everyone living, working or studying in Lincoln.’, and with an RAF base outside the city it seems relevant. However this story will be put onto a backburner to cover my next idea.

2.      Christmas market- On Thursday night I will be going to the Christmas market to create a top 10 of stalls. Each stall needs a photograph to help illustrate the story. The word count for each if 50 words or less. However the objective for this story is to obtain a strong photo demonstrating what the stall does.

To apply theory to this weeks meeting I’ll be using the most recent and probably best voice on local papers Jon Grubb. Jon was the editor of the Lincolnshire Echo for over 25 years and has recently started his own P/R company. He spent his entire journalistic career working in local newspapers.
His thoughts on local papers are best described with a multi pack of crisps. To bring this sentence away from the borders of madness and put it into context ‘Local papers are like multipack of crisps, you get a huge variety of flavors some of which you never thought you’d like’, now to reel this right in this essentially means local papers are filled with a variety of stories some the reader may have thought would have never interested them. To translate this to a online news paper like the Lincolnite perhaps (clever link, right ?) though the target audience is older students who are probably in college a story which exceeds this mission statement like Lincoln teens’ frenzy card-swapping hobby’ which follows the exploit of young teenagers playing card games was approved. This story could be described as the obscure flavor in the bag but is still in term geographical terms relevant despite it having little impact on any other the audience categories.

Meeting 5

This week the format for my usual meeting changed slightly (in a similar way the third film in a franchise shakes up the format). My meeting took place at 4pm at Sparkhouse studios however my editor was out obtaining materials for a story, this week my meeting was with reporter Alex Coleman.

Alex begun our meeting by telling me that NHS press office had contacted them about my stimulant story and an interview is arranged with a senior member of the local NHS which will take place after half 3. I plan to use the universities phone recording studio so I can possibly add a multi platform element my story. I hope this will add emphasis to the angle of my story which is the dangers of using them and add authority. According to Ceicle Wright ‘Experts can be called upon to add authority to a news item or feature. They are particularly useful of radio, which likes calling in experts to add an authoritative view to a major issue of the day.’ Hopefully the expert can add authority to the story and despite the theory going that is useful for radio I’m hoping this could transfer into a podcast like format.

So the stories I pitched this week were:

1. A feature piece on the University Library- Recently the public library has announced an amnesty on over due books. I want to investigate if this was the same for the university library and also look into if the library is open to the public and explore an angle from their. So to break it down further with some theory I’m borrowing the Jane Taylor’s feature structure to break down my planning and angle-

Publication- The Lincolnite and as discussed caters to the people of Lincoln in the C1 and above NRS categories which means they are savy with new technology, this opens up the possibility to uploading recordings I take from interviews.

Subject matter- The subject of the university library.

Approach and purpose- I’ll make contact with the university via it’s press office and ask to speak to the library staff and general information about the library itself like if it’s open to the public.

Narrative strategies- Of course I’ll keep the 5W’s but when I write for online I must take KISS (Keep It Simple Sweetie) into consideration. The format of online needs to be kept short to keep peoples attention.

2. Dick Turpin graphic novel- Mowhawk media (yes it’s related to Mr T, heres the link of where I found the story http://www.facebook.com/#!/official.dickturpin) is releasing a graphic novel revolving around the life of Dick Turpin, my early research shows he has some history around the local area. The boundaries of the story is to find out if it will be covering his time in the Lincoln area. However according the Chirs Frost I need to make sure the subject is suitable for my target audience, he writes ‘You need to know the target audience well to make decisions about the use of the story’ I feel my target audience are aware of Dick Turpin and local history with a dark twist could be interesting for them. Using Jane Taylor’s theory again I will break down my story-

Publication- As above

Subject matter- A graphic novel of Dick Turpin.

Approach and purpose- Looking into the history of Dick Turpin and interviewing someone from Mowhawk media to see if theirs an emphasis on the local area.

Narrative strageties- As above.

Meeting 4

This week our meeting took place on the 15^th of November at Spark house studios with my editor Daniel Ionescu and also present with reporter Alex Coleman.

This week our ideas centred on the theme of winter. I was asked if I would be available to cover the Lincoln Christmas market and compile a top ten of unique stores, in terms of photo opportunities I would need to get a photo which displays the stall clearly preferably without any onlookers.

The feedback we discussed was on my most recent story which was the Bishop enthronement story. The only problem encountered with this story was that the media office at the Cathedral did not send a photo thus the story didn’t go up when planned on the Saturday and they had searched the archives used a stock image of the bishop.

We also followed up my stimulant story which we concluded would take a lot longer. We also followed up on the comics in the world war story which we decided depended heavily on the responses; we hope that the interviewee would make the story local.

This week when I came pitching story ideas I pitched the following:

1. What does the ice cream shop do during the winter?- I noticed this story when I at the top of the hill and I noticed the ice cream parlour and it made wonder what the shop did during the winter since trade would be down. The treatment for this story is to talk to the owners but currently the shop is shut for a few days. The deadline for the story has been left in the air because I have to go home this weekend for family engagement.Additional requirements for the story is to think further seasonal businesses and get in contact with them. So far I’ve thought of:

·        Shops stocking solely summer goods

·        Calendar shops

·        Heavily themed Christmas shops.

Meeting 3

This weeks meeting took place on Tuesday the 8^th November at 4pm at Sparkhouse studios with my editor Daniel Ionescu.

This week I received feedback from Saturday fun day story (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/businesses-put-on-fun-day-for-lincoln-shoppers/), the overall feedback was positive however more on the purpose of the Feight on the Strait event could have been helpful. Next time to prevent such a problem happening again I will ask wider range of questions. It was concluded their was partial future opportunity to cover another Grindhaus story.

Also information from my Cathedral story was used in a similar story (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/lincolns-historic-buildings-at-risk/).

This week I pitched one new story:

1. Stimulant use among students- I’ve noticed that many students are using stimulants, Daniel told to research in a study done this year about the subject. For interviews I would need a student and someone in the medical profession.

This week however Daniel has asked to interview the new Lincoln bishop this Saturday. I was told to do research into the bishop and prepare 4 questions. One about the change in Cathedral allowing women priests, the link to youth and religion and Lincolns link to religion and one back up question. For the interview I was be researching the background of the Bishop and looking into local religion stories I will also take a marantaz to record as I will only be able to ask three questions. My deadline is 2pm on the Saturday and smart attire is needed. I will need to email Daniel later this week with my planned questions.

Meeting 2

So here’s the second week of my placement. My meeting with editor (Daniel Ionescu) at the Lincolnites home Spark house studios at the usual time of 4pm.

So the feedback for this week centred around last weeks story which was student discounts around the city of Lincoln. Me and my editor discussed how I found researching the story and how effectively I used my sources. Overall we found that I used a healthy balance. The sources I used included speaking to my friends who were students in Lincoln, using a coupon book which was given out to students during freshers week and walking around the city and looking shop windows for signs of student discounts.

The second topic of feedback was my cathedral pollution story after I had conducted an interview with a member of the cathedrals fundraising team. We concluded we were best off shelving this story as we had hit a dead end as the interview didn’t add any new insight or balance to the story. Also the content contradicted the original angle which was that serious damage was being inflicted when my research just showed it simply wasn’t, this meant the title and angle could be severely misleading and sensationalist.

This week I pitched two stories:

1. The Fete on the Strait This Saturday a collection of local business are holding a street party with a variety of entertainment acts and stalls on offer. Me and my editor decided the best method to cover this method to cover this story was to go for a more picture orientated emphasis. The rough word count discussed is 250 to 300 words. However I plan to cover this story by going to the fete, talking to the organiser, people who go, talking to stalls. For pictures the minimum I need to get is ten, I’ve been asked to get people to pose who go. In terms of questions I have to ask they need to be centred around if the event has improved trade.
2. Fantastic four hits 50 years- This month commemorates fifty years since the first Fantastic Four comic was published. To localise this story I suggested seeing what local comic stores are doing for the event and see if their selling any special related merchandise. My editor also discussed pictures and suggested trying to find anyone who’d be dressing up especially for the event. To look into this I will looking at the local comics forum (http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/thegamesstore/) and talking to the SC-FI society at the university.