Critical Reflection
WINOL overall:
This term, WINOL has
once again improved upon its news output, most notably in terms of quantity;
with stories being rejected from the bulletin, not because of a lack of quality,
but, simply because of the sheer quantity of alternative stories available to
the editor. Whilst this may be disappointing to those whose packages were
declined, it can only be seen as a positive. The choice available to the news
editors means that more care can be taken in what genres of story are to be
included in the bulletin, which gives a better editorial learning experience. This
increase in quantity is attributed to the ability of the news team to produce
newsworthy stories from what is available in such a quiet area, and shows a
great level of journalistic competence in all areas of the course.
Circulation:
This term our
circulation figures have steadily increased from the drought in traffic that
unavoidably occurs over the summer break, with the highest global and UK Alexa
rankings being on the 8th of December (776,668) and 30th
of October (27,807) respectively. Despite the positive trend, we are down by
comparison to this time last year when we reached an Alexa rank of 373,953 globally
and 12,025 in the UK. Whilst this could be seen as representative of a decrease
in quality or quantity, it is important to mention that last year WINOL had
easy access to interviews with top political figures such as London mayor Boris
Johnson and UKIP Leader Nigel Farage etc. due to the Eastleigh by-election
which generated a lot of traffic for the site. This year however, even though the
quality of journalism has remained the same, if not improved, the national
interest created by the Eastleigh by-election was not available for us to capitalise
upon.
Features this year have
been condensed into one online magazine ‘Here & Now’ in which the formerly individual
categories still have a space, but now it’s easy to browse the varying
categories from one place, which should serve to keep visitors on the site for
longer, as the technicalities of getting from one feature to another has been
simplified greatly. The content covered by features this year has been of great
variety, with travel providing light-hearted features following groups as they
partake in local pastimes to the serious comment on issues such as the
unimportance of Tom Daley’s homosexuality. Not to mention the great media
content provided by the fashion site.
My role:
This term, my role has
been mainly in production, being part of the team working behind the scenes on
WINOL, sports week and in-studio features.
My usual routine for
Tuesday and Wednesday involves setting up the studio as I enter the building,
sorting out the green screen, positioning the table and cameras properly and
making sure that the camera is focused etc., before heading up to the gallery
to apply the appropriate background on the green screen and making sure it is
functioning properly, e.g. cleaning up the background and foreground (I have
posted a tutorial on how to do this on my blog). I also provided this service
for the interviews of Labour's
Rowenna Davis and The governor of Winchester Prison David Rodgers as well as
the COMPASS meeting for the police and crime commissioner.
Once this has been
done, I enter the newsroom, aiding the news team until we are ready to begin
filming in the studio. Helping out has taken many forms, such as helping to
film packages down in Winchester, as I did in Harvey's package for WINOL on
4/12/13, writing the headlines on multiple occasions, phoning the courts to
verify details for packages and doing odd jobs to speed up the production of
packages, so as to increase the potential time for rehearsal in the studio.
At the beginning of
the term, due to technical difficulties when converting packages to the VT
machine in the studio, I also had the role of converting the packages manually,
once they had been completed, via the older versions of final cut in the MMC,
but this was later resolved, meaning that it was no longer necessary and upped
the efficiency of the process considerably (To do this, we consulted Corin the
technician, who often helps in the studio when there is a more technical
problem, from this experience, it would perhaps be a good idea to ask him to
join WINOL one Wednesday to look over the entire process of converting
packages, preparing the studio, using OOV’s and OB’s so that he might be able
to help the team become more efficient in terms of the technical side of production,
especially regarding OB’s, which we have yet to have complete success with).
Another improvement that
has occurred in production has been the use of the radio studio to record the
headlines. Whilst a simplistic change, it saves time and effort when going in
to film the rest of the bulletin, as headlines often aren't completed until
late on in the day. The ease of recording in the radio studio, which doesn’t require
the production team, also allows time for production to chase the last of the
packages and head into the final stages comfortably.
As for the production
of the bulletin in the studio, I have performed every role: The most demanding
of these for me has been sound, due to the sensitivity of the sliders combined with my
tendency to acquire shaky hands in high pressure situations, but, I feel that I
have overcome this issue quite easily and as a result I am confident in my
understanding of the role. The main technicalities when in the role of sound is
the multi-tasking required when bringing two sets of audio together, as is the
case in the opening and closing credits as well as any UPSOT in OOV’s.
Directing, as a role,
is fairly straightforward, providing adequate rehearsal time is available so as
to see the OOVs, in-studio discussions and other more technical features of the
bulletin prior to going 'live'. This is something I have learned from
experience, with my first foray into the world of directing being subject to
the issue of insufficient rehearsal time, this being said, the bulletin was
still out on time without any fatal errors which I feel is an achievement on
the basis that the production team managed to perform adequately with a
bulletin they had never seen before. I also learned from said experience and
applied a more hands on technique when making sure that those producing the
packages and writing the script etc. were motivated to keep to schedule the
second time round. My second experience as a director was much more successful
as a result, although the issue of discrepancy between the timings given by the
VT machine and the appropriate time to come out of a package in reality still
causes problems when counting down for the sake of those in production roles. To
fix this issue, I suggest a strict set of rules for reporters when filming
their ‘outs’ for packages.
Working on the autocue
is a role that produces little in the way of a challenge, requiring that the
user keep in time with the presenter and only causes problems when the script
has been submitted to the production team with errors, as was the case in the
4/12/13 WINOL. This issue was dealt with very professionally by the entire
in-studio team, with good communication being key to the resolution. With regards to autocue, I have been able to offer grammatical changes and alternatives throughout the year that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Working on the VT
machine is by far the easiest role in production, requiring only that play is
pressed on cue so long as the running order has been accurately applied. This
is a role I have performed but have chosen to avoid due the lack of a challenge
it presents.
The vision mixer has
been the most rewarding role in production for me, as I have enjoyed becoming fluent
in the technicalities of the green screen, as well as enjoying the creative license
afforded to the role during in-studio discussions as seen on the 20/11/13 WINOL
(http://m.youtube.com/user/Winchesterjournalism/videos?desktop_uri=%2Fuser%2FWinchesterjournalism%2Fvideos),
although, I did have the same opportunity in the discussion between Harry Parkhill and Nadine Forshaw during a bulletin that I directed, but in a more detached
sense.
SUPERWINOL:
For the final WINOL I
have produced a features package with Andrew and Emma, where I used my
knowledge of final cut, acquired from my editing of Matt Collinge’s acoustic
performance on VOLT, to edit the package, which can be seen on the final WINOL
of the year.
I also played my usual
part in the production process, this time being in control of the vision mixer
when it came to the filming.
Besides my role in
production, I have partaken in the filming of the Coffeehouse session involving
Stephanie Fraser (http://youtu.be/DmkKLe6jJ1I), the filming of
the aforementioned David Rodgers interview and the filming of Harvey's job
losses story in the 4/12/13 Bulletin, which contained what I believe to be the
most entertaining sign off for a package that I have seen on WINOL. This sign
off also aided our circulation, as the members of the public in attendance
questioned us on how they might be able to see the finished version of what we
were filming.
Advertise:
Advertising is a key
element in raising viewing figures and building the notoriety for any news brand.
WINOL is restricted in this respect due to a lack of finances, but, having
noticed the attention film crews receive when collecting footage out in the
field, an easy way to attract viewers would be to print branded stickers,
posters and business cards with all the necessary information so that we might
apply them to the equipment such as camera bags, tripods, cameras etc. when
venturing out to film, a point that was also raised by guest editor Paul Wood.
Another possible
improvement, that has been mentioned relatively frequently by guest editors, is
our lack of a defined target audience, as, whilst we are making packages of a
good quality, they are somewhat vague in terms of defining our target audience.
This being said, it is easy to see why this is the case, as our ‘beat’ is often
lacking in enough stories to pander to just one section of Winchester’s
population. It is a grave shame that WINOL cannot cover negative stories
surrounding the university (of which there are a lot) and hold them to account,
as this could provide a backbone to the bulletin that meant that students could
be sure that they would find stories relevant to them every week on WINOL. The
down side of this form of coverage would be that there would be less time to
cover stories of national importance, which are often our most impressive
packages.
This ethic could also
be applied to sports, as we currently cover the home fixtures of AFC Totton and
Basingstoke Town, which, unfortunately only generates viewers from the small
numbers of supporters and staff at those clubs. As an alternative, it would
possible to create a sports site that compiles all the information for all the
university sports teams in one place (much like the features site has done with
its varying genres), which is currently not available anywhere. This would mean
covering the university football as we do in Basingstoke and Totton, but at a
much lower financial cost to the reporters (which is quite restrictive to a
number of students in the WINOL team), as they would be able to join the team
on the buses to their away games. University sports teams would also be much
keener to take part in interviews and ‘Soccer AM’ style sports features than
staff at Basingstoke Town and AFC Totton have been, allowing for more in depth
content, player profiles etc. Applying this idea across the wide variety of
sports teams competing in national and regional leagues would address the
relatively huge potential audience as well as enhancing our presence around the
university campus through social networks involving sports team members. The
site itself could contain league tables and league news (which could be
commissioned, as I’m sure members of the sports teams would get involved) as
well as pages for more in depth coverage (features etc.) of the more popular
sports e.g. football, rugby, cricket and so on.
Overall, I have been
impressed by the professionalism displayed across the WINOLverse, it has fully
deserved all the awards and nominations it has received and it would seem that
it is set up very well for further successes in the future.
