Critical Reflection

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 8^th of December (776,668) and 30^th 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.