WINOL Critical Reflection [Year 3]

Critical Reflection

As News Editor this semester, I had a huge amount of responsibility to produce consistently good bulletins week after week.
My first week was very difficult as the majority of the focus was on covering the BJTC awards, which meant I was fully in charge of the first bulletin. Meaning I chaired the news meeting alone, with some help from the Year 3 reporters. After the first meeting, I decided the stories weren’t really good enough, so I gave them feedback on the ideas, and arranged another meeting 3 days later on the Thursday.

I printed off the upcoming meetings from Winchester City Council, Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council, and pinned them onto the news board for the reporters to get easy access to the information. This meant they always had a place to start when thinking of stories in the first few weeks. This seemed to help a bit, as my 2 political reporters Tom and Faith went to a council meeting early in the semester.
In the first few weeks, we had a large number of reporters delivering content that was broadcast-worthy. There were too many to fit all of them into the bulletin. So I decided to create a playout for the end of the bulletin where we would display all of the unused packages in 5 second bites to promote our extra content and direct people to the website where the packages would be featured. I feel like it was great way to utilise our overflow of content.

We planned to provide coverage of student protests that were happening in London. It would have been a great story to have, as it had protestors from Winchester. As the campus news service, we could utilise as the source for student updates. We had a live blog, but had no footage or images for the bulletin, which was a disaster. The two reporters I sent to London got their footage, but didn't give themselves enough time to upload any of it. Despite instructions to send us images throughout the day, they failed to do so, which left us with nothing to use, so we couldn't even make an oov out of it. The problem was partly that we didn't do enough planning on the Tuesday, and should have done a practice of uploading the footage on the Tuesday too, but that didn't happen. The reporters should have done this, but I feel that I should have been more instructive on the Tuesday to get it all planned out. Unfortunately I had to spike the story for the bulletin, however I found it to be a good lesson of how important planning is, particularly for a live story like this that we know is going to happen.

I had noticed that the bulletins were looking very overbearing, and had nothing to break it up. It was package after package. On the 4th WINOL of the semester, I decided to add a 'coming up' to the bulletin. It is something which I believe had never been done on WINOL before, and I consider it to be a good innovation as it has done a great job of breaking up the bulletin and promoting our upcoming stories. The top of the bulletin tends to be very heavy; the 'coming up' reminds the audience that there is lighter stuff still to come. I noticed pretty much every news programme, such as BBC South Today and Channel 5 has one, so it is now standard practice to have it in a bulletin. I also managed to get some of the reporters to record coming-up PTC’s at the scene of their stories, which gave it an even greater effect,

OOV's played a big role in the bulletins this semester. During the week that I introduced the 'coming up', it was decided to try and create an oov belt to follow straight afterwards, which would include graphics and a bed, providing the 'news in your area'. However, this isn't exactly what happened. We struggled to find a good bed, and settled for no bed at all, and used no graphics because it didn't really work leading into the stories. Instead we just had the 2 or 3 oovs connected together.
On other weeks, we had oovs that could stand alone as bigger news stories, such as the US Storm story, and the Jamie Dack court case, and the Barton Farm update that the campaigners and given up. These were moved further up the bulletin away from the belt, and were another way to break up the bulletin, giving it some light and shade and multiple layers.

I wanted to get some fresh stories from the Wednesday into the bulletin each week. To do this I put a reporter (sometimes 2 or 3) on the wires, checking to see if anything breaking came through on the day. This often led to update pieces such as Barton Farm, and the sex hotel story. This was great as it helped give us the live feeling, making it fresh and also showing ourselves constantly tracking the stories we cover. Which we have done a lot this semester with multiple packages on stories such as the Ford closure and the on-going wind farm debate.

We put new tape on the news board early this semester, green for these stories going into the bulletin, yellow for the finished packages that we can still use, and red for the spiked stories. On some weeks, the yellow was empty, which I didn't want, to combat this I sometimes took unused stories from sport (such as the Pompey news piece and the wrestling package) to bulk up the yellow so that we had back-ups in case something went wrong. This was another reason why I liked to try and have fresh stories from the Wednesday, to bulk up the yellow section of the board.

I got an idea from Claudia Murg when she came in one week and mentioned that reporters should be able to talk 30 seconds straight about their news story without any problem. I decided to try this at the next news conference, giving each reporter 30 seconds to explain their story and get the idea cross. However, when it came to do it on the 19th November news meeting, I could tell straight away that it wasn't working. It just made reporters stumble over their words and rush to fit everything in, which just meant they had to explain everything again anyway. The hope was to streamline the news meeting, and make sure reporters had researched their stories, but it didn't quite work.

Features were good this semester, a big improvement compared to recent years, because it had a schedule, monitored by lee Jarvis (features editor). The Paul Blackburn interview has been a huge success, with over 500 views in one week. I was asked by Tom to help film the interview, and controlled the camera facing Tom for the interview, and was pleased that it turned out well.
I was involved in the HPCC debate, which was organised by Louis O'Brien, and was a cameraman on the night, filming 3 of the candidates, which meant moving smoothly between each of them as they spoke throughout the night. It was a sold out event, and was a great way to showcase the candidates. It helped promote Winol, as a few members of the audience approached me after the debate, and asked where they could view the stream.

I wasn't too involved in the BJTC award ceremony, but I was in the audience when it happened, and thought it was a very professional production, and was a great way to promote ourselves.
I helped a bit with WINOL's new Tuesday Sound Radio takeover. For the first week I helped Nadine with some of the script work and story ideas, and also read out 2 of the news bulletins for that day.

The website was a massive improvement this semester. I feel that the switch from joomla to wordpress was the right decision, as it better fits what we are trying to do on Winol. We managed to feature a lot of content on the homepage, which was important because of our constant expansion. This has included a new fashion magazine, and a new arts part of the website. It is also easier to add new content, and meant that we could use pictures in better way.

Along with Sam (web editor) we have managed to improve the regularity and quality of WINOL's written articles, which were previously an afterthought in previous semesters. We encouraged written stories to be on the website by 5pm on Wednesday's to coincide with the bulletin. Gradually over the weeks, I eventually assigned reporters to days over the week to put content on the website. This kept it fresh and brought the site to life in a way it never really was before. This affected the type of stories that featured on the website, as we had a broader area of stories. Including many that wouldn’t make good packages. This meant we could cover more areas of news, and helped with expanding our audience.

The main issue we had with written stories were the pictures used. We mainly wanted action shots and faces. Although, this improved slightly over the semester, the best solution was to make the website less picture-dominated, and more about the text, which happened when we switched to broadsheet.

WINOL started with a fairly low Alexa ranking at the start of the semester (close to 2 Million) because of the website's lack of activity over the summer. However, the emergence of competition from other journalism courses such as East London Lines (at Goldsmiths University) was brought to our attention when they were second place for Student Website of the Year in the BJTC awards. We then began to track their site, and learn from it. Over the next few months, our Alexa rankings (both Global and UK) continued to improve week after week. By the end of the semester we had overtaken East London Lines, reaching the top 500,000 globally, and the top 10,000 in the UK.

We also have a better Alexa ranking than the Hampshire Chronicle, but are behind the Daily Echo. However, we have tracked the Daily Echo frequently over the semester, and have noticed spelling errors in headlines (including on the front page of the newspaper). We also beat the Daily Echo at reporting number of stories, including an arson court story which we reported a week before them, but it then lead their front page. Beating local rivals to stories is a good way to establish ourselves as one

We also kept an eye on other rivals such as Leeds, Westminster and Bournemouth. It was very useful, because it gave us ideas of where we could improve. Such as making our Twitter more prominent and also making sure that the site was getting regular updates to keep it fresh.

We also improved delivering the bulletin Live at 5 every week, which helped rebuild a viewership because they could start to expect the Wednesday bulletin to be up at 5 every single week.

Promotion for news stories is something that could have been improved. We made multiple attempts during news meetings to think of ways to get our best stories across to a wider audience. This included reporter setting up WINOL twitter accounts, which some did, but I don't feel they were interconnected enough to get the full benefit. We needed to contact more people influenced by the story, and maintain a good connection with the people we spoke to about the stories and send it to them.

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WINOL 28/11/2012

Overview
An ok week, although it seemed to be one of our weaker weeks in terms of story quality. It seems that people that don't have a story by the end of Monday, give up for the week, which isn't the way to go about it.

We had a number of items in the yellow, but hardly any of them came from the news team. Apart 2 oovs from when I sent out to of the reporters to get some GVs for them after they decided on them as oov options on the Wednesday. The other stuff in the yellow was 2 sports packages, and a feature back anno(which we used).

Focus, exposure, white balancing, and microphones all seem to still be a bit chaotic, which shouldn't be happening this late in the semester. You know what you need for a story now. So you need to put a bit more focus on the quality of what you film. If it doesn't look good, then you're going to struggle to get it into the bulletin this week.

People are still not using focus properly. Lighting is terrible at times, and their have been many interviewees either over-exposed or under-exposed.

We've been having less camera zooms, and while a few people are fans of them, I don't think they look good, and I think a lot of people agree. I think it has helped improve the general quality of shots.

 Feedback

George
A very solid package updating the Club Kiss story. Arguably this story could pass as just an oov act, but I think you did well to make it a solid package with interviews from both sides, and a couple of vox pops. One of my main disappointments was not having the councillor interviewed outside of Club Kiss. Also you could have pushed more to get a stronger quote from the owner.

Barton Farm OOV
This was a good OOV that was something I felt we should include once I was told that it had broke on Wednesday. Much like the Club Kiss story last week, it's always good to show ourselves reacting to breaking news. Especially for stories that we have covered in the past.

Tom
Certainly not your best week, it was visually very poor, and I could have dropped it for that alone, but I wanted a bit more political content in the bulletin. You really need to improve your shot and be more creative, especially with a beat such as politics. I think I now see the Southampton City council building when I close my eyes, because I've seen it so much.

Spence
You say olympic legacy just before Jonny Brason does, which seemed very odd to me, and I'm not sure why you decided to do that, sounds like an echo.

Faith
You had some great shots for you story, it was a difficult Wednesday though. You worked hard to try and make your story work, like you do every week, but after digging a bit deeper, it turned out that your story didn't have much substance and was a bit of a non-story, which was unfortunate, but that was just a bit unlucky.

Joiners OOV
Once again it's great we had a breaking update to a story we covered last week.

Christina
Far from your best package, literally you in vision throughout with a cut away of the court. I should have left it out of the bulletin, not really your fault you just had no pictures, which left your story stuck.

Coming Up
Once again a good 'coming up', no real complaints. It was interesting and had a good PTC one too.

Harry
I liked this package, it was great that we had a case study for this story. Something that our audience would be interested in. The statement was pretty long, and we toyed around with how to display it a couple of times, but perhaps we should have just tried to trim it a bit.
The lighting was a bit dark, but at least we were able to see the face of the interviewee. I felt like you could have got him to do a few more things, making tea, maybe a shot of you talking to him. I just felt like you could have made more out of getting a case study, it's not often that we have them.

Jack
A nice package, very similar to the Christmas lights story you did last week. It was a shame your dead camera meant you missed the opening, but I think you made the most of what you had. Considering it was night, you used the lighting to great affect, and the ice skating gave you more interest. It was people doing things.

'I was Hitler's Neighbour' back anno
This was great. It showed how diverse WINOL now is, and drives more and mroe traffic to the site.

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WINOL 21/11/2012

Headlines


Lou
It was great that we had the interview with Simon Hayes, you said we'd get an interview with the winner of the HPCC position the week after the result, and you delivered.
The package was structured quite well, you used the debate footage well, but could have used more shots to tell your story. It's a story revolving around police, but we saw no police at all. And we could perhaps have seen Hayes being more active. It would also have been good to get some shots of a polling station, and I think we could have gotten access to the moment the final result was revealed. It would have been a great opening shot.

Flick
It was a good package, a decent update. It was great that you showed where the designing of the wind turbines takes place, and speaking to someone involved in the process was great. The use of the EDF graphics helped make it more of a relevant update, because people would be interested in knowing how they're expected to look. A nice package.

Christina
One of your best packages. You made it more than a court story, it had multiple elements. Mug shot, reconstruction, and interview connected to part of the crime and a PTC at the scene of the crime. It was really well constructed and you told the story well. I was really pelased with it this week.

Coming Up
Our coming up is getting better and better, it's great when people can film a 'coming up' while on the road for their story. It really grabs the viewers.

Tammy
It's a shame your sound wasn't too good this week, because it would have been a decent package to use. In the end, it made an ok oov. Was a good effort, but just need to work on your sound.

Spence
The joiners oov is something that interests our audience, we spoke to many people that knew of it, so it was great that we could feature it in the bulletin. It's just a shame that you had some bad luck when trying to make a package out of it.

George
The Jamie Dack oov was good, arguably a bit long, but with this kind of complex story, it's important we cover all of the key information, and get the story across too.
It was great that we could update the Club Kiss story as it's something that was breaking that day, and it's always great to show ourselves  staying current and reacting to the very latest news.

Jack
It was a nice 'and finally', as it's something that a lot of people in Winchester know about and went to. You were told to slow down your voiceover, and cut it down a bit to let it breath, and you did a great job with it. You got some ok vox pops, and a good grab from the BID Project Manager. It was colourful and did what was expected from it.

Tom and Harry
I was pretty disappointed and annoyed that we weren't able to get anything of the Student Protests into our bulletin, especially after trying to big it up a bit leading into it. I'm glad I made the call early on to not wait to put something in the headlines. I was on edge all day, and was constantly pushing to get it uploaded as soon as possible. Even just 30 seconds of footage would have been enough, or some pictures. Instead we had nothing when we went live, and had to ditch it.
More preparation was needed which is not just your fault, but mine as well. However, you should have at least got some pictures to us, because that's something I requested on Tuesday, and was assured I'd get it. It wasn't a good week for you guys, you failed to deliver what would have been our big story that week, its something that the campus is very interested in, and we were at the heart of it in London, but had no way to show that off. Things like tweets and the written stories didn't go quite to plan, I think you needed to think things through a bit more or tell me if the things we discussed on Tuesday weren't going to work out as we thought they would.

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5 News Review and Analysis

Top of today's bulletin was the continuing floods. This was a repeat of yesterday, where the floods dominated around 11 minutes of yesterday's 5 o'clock bulletin, and was followed by a Flood Special at 6:30.
It was great to see a quote from David Cameron in the headlines for the flood story, and the fact he was filmed beside a river was great.
The norovirus headline had no real problems and is somethintg that channel 5's audience would likely be itnerested in.
The decision to put a still image of Nadine Dorries in the headlines was an odd decision, mainly because the story didn't have much depth when it happened. I imagine it was mainly because she attracts a lot of attention right now.
The 'Sports Personality of the Year headline was fine, although I was unsure of the decision to have a cliff hanger in the headlines, although I can see how that sort of style would appeal to the 5 News target audience.

The link to the first flood story was particularly long, and I felt some of the information could have instead been used in the news package, or said by the reporter during the live OB.
It then through to a Live OB with a reporter standing in front of an ambulance. I've noticed that many live obs are used for the stories. There were 3 for the floods yesterday, and 2 today. On top of this there were others including the Nadine Dorries piece.
The vox pops in this were fine, as these were people that were directly affected by the floods. It's a story almost completely about people, and the news package reflected that.

The graphics in the flood package, showing the UK was fine, and provided decent information, it was the same graphic that was used yesterday but with updated stats which I thought was good for regular viewers.

Going back to the presenter allowed a smooth transition to the second live OB, which then lead to the second package which I thought was well done. I enjoyed the interview with the man through his upstairs window. It was a technique which emphasised his unlucky position, although I'm interested to know how they managed to get great sound, I would imagine he was wearing a radio mic to get the good quality.

The norovirus was a solid report, although I wasn't too keen on the opening shot(which was strangely also the final shot) mainly because of the music that was in the background. I assume it was a way of creating natural sound, but just seemed to be an odd inclusion.
The graphic was good, I thought it was a good use of the still image of doctors, and placing the information on the paper was a creative way to display the stats.

The eon oov was fine, the story was put across quickly and with ok pictures. But I don't really remember much about it, which could suggest it was an easily forgettable story, although it might be of more interest to your audience.

The Nadine Dorries news piece was an odd one. There was a mini oov which was just the still shot of nadine, followed by a short 30-60 second live OB from Westminster. The story didn't have much to it, and could easily have been dropped as the OB didn't provide much to the story. It could have just been an oov or dropped altogether.

The 'coming uo...' was good, and is something similar to what we do for our news broadcast, to try and wake up the audience and let them know that their are lighter stories still to come. Although I suppose the channel 5 'coming up' serves a slightly different purpose, as it has to convince the audience to stick around through the adverts, and has to entice them to return.

The story about the ex-palestine president Yasser Arafat was something that many people would have interest in, in terms of an international story.
I think the footage taken from the Al Jazeera documentary added a lot to the story, and provided some good natural sound. The archive footage was also good and helped fill out the piece for something which would otherwise struggle visually. The grags were fine, of the journalisrt and the scientist, and gave decent quotes.

The coronation street package had a good opening line 'Millions grew up watching him', and yet it had a shot a family watching on, instead of a shot of a large group of people which I felt would have been more appropriate.
The style choice of having reporters in shot for most of the interviews is an interesting one. I find it slightly odd, but may be because I've never tried it while reporting. It seems to take up room that doesn't need taking up, but as an editorial decision, I assume that theirs a good reason, possibly to appeal to the target audience. The interviews were relevant and had recognisable faces.

The crane fire oov was a bit of a strange one, it was definately interesting, I just wondered what the alternatives were.

Sports Personality of the Year had a good opening, with footage from BBC and Channel 4 to illustrate the nominees, and they were all shown in a good space of time, and I felt the music did a good job of creating that slightly upbeat feel, awards are to celebrated after all. It was good that both Chris Hoy and Ellie Simmonds were interviewed beside the sport that they're known for. Chris had bikes in the background, while Ellie was next to a swimming pool. It was also a nice touch to include the current odds of who would win, it's genuinly of interest, and also linked nicely to the vox pops and athelete predictions.
I was a bit unsure of the vox pops, it seemed as though they were there to fill time, I can understand the desire to include some 'regular people' opinions for this sort of story, but seemed odd to go from that to the athelete's opinions.Not sure if both were needed, although their was no real problem with having both.

The coming up to end the news broadcast made sense, considering their is another news broadcast at 6:30, and it was good that fresh stories were showcased. And things like 'and I'll be quizzing Nigel Farage' made me want to tune in again.

Notes on Monday's bulletin
The flood package from Simon Lane, which had a misted lens throughout. It was a shame that he had that, but I understand why the editorial decision was made to keep the package into the bulletin. It was a strong piece that fitted well with the top news of the bulletin, and could also be defended by it's surrounding of high water.

The UKIP story had some of the same shots (at least 3) at the beginning and end of the package. The black corners at the start of the package was odd, and made things seem very eerie, I didn't really understand what it was for, except possibly to add some drama.
I didn't really like that a quote was lifted from the Daily Telegraph for the story, although I can understand if it was a last resort, such as the reporterer being unable to get hold of the Rotheram parents. The Nigel Farage grab was good, but it is to be expected as he is quite a good speaker.

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Crime - Court Reporting

Court reporting can be a great way to get good stories, and is a perfect example of potential great journalism. However, there are guidelines that you need to follow strictly, to avoid breaking any laws.

Prejudice and contempt are two big dangers when court reporting. You need to be careful of publishing facts or allegations that could lead to unfairness at a later stage in a court case. You also need to be careful of contested and uncontested facts. You should only publish uncontested facts, these are facts that can't be argued(usually meaning they've been stated in court by the judge etc...) These facts can't be argued as untrue.

Their certain points that you should (and in some cases 'can') mention when covering a court story. 

Name of the defendant

Their age

Address

Name of the court

What they've been charged with(or close summary of the charges)

Solicitors

Barristers

Dare and place of next hearing.

You can say about bail applications, but can't report the argument about it in court. You can only say if it's been granted or not. 

Privilege

Privilege is a form of protection for journalists and can come from court and the House of Commons. You can usually report defamatory statements if they have been said in the House of Commons.

To keep the privilege from court, you need to be fast, fair and accurate in your reporting.

Privilege allows us as journalists top write or broadcast material which may be defamatory, or untrue, or even both at the same time. it gives us protection from being sued.

Their are 2 types of privilege - Absolute and qualified.

Qualified privilege
Reports need to be Fast, Accurate and Fair.
Contemporaneous
Without malice
On a matter of public concern (public interest)
- Public forums/meetings are covered by qualified privilege. They are not absolute, as you need to have the other side of the story to make it fair and keep the protection.
Press conferences are public meetings(Lords 2000). Written handouts are covered, and risks of live broadcasting (eg- trying to name someone etc...) should be considered.

Two levels of Qualified Privilege
1 - With or 'subject to'
Explanation or contradiction. Eg - local council committees, employment tribunals.
2 - Without
Explanation or contradiction.

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Presenting Sportsweek

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WINOL 14/11/2012

Overview
A good week for stories, just technical things that still need working out, and also the amount of knowledge and research you have for your stories. You should have more interest in them, and spend more time on them. Also written stories need to be coming in more frequently


Individual Feedback

Headlines
The headlines were pretty good this week. Some of the more visually interesting headlines so far this semester which is a good sign.

Faith
I really liked this package. I asked you to look on Youtube to find some footage of ford striking that we could use, and you did that within a few hours, and it looked great at the start of the package.You also did great to get an interview with Steve Brine on Tuesday afternoon, and it helped lift your package. Without the strike footage, you would have struggled visually so if you want to continue with this story, you will need to continue to think of creative ways to carry your package visually.

Tom
Visually it was a difficult package, budget cuts are hard to visualise, but the archive footage was put to good us, except for the shot of the council building. If it's something you can film yourself, then there is no reason to use archive footage of it, especially when your filming of it would look better. You got the right interviews, which had opposing ideas,

Lou
A very solid package. Your profiles are now done, and I think you did a great job, and it's been rgeat to know I could rely on you each week. You seem to always have a technical problem when interviewing George Hollingberry, this time it was the colouring/lighting, but I think you did a good job of saving it, and it ended up not looking too bad. You also kept the text in the graphics up longer after feedback from the last one, which was a lot better. The sign off was very good as well, and you made the fact you were in London a big thing, which was great.

Flick
I liked the PTC at the start of the package, and thought the shot leading into the Thornber interview was very good. The cutaways and other shots in the package were good, making the most of the wind turbines, all relevant, and they're just visually interesting. A good package that we should definitely keep track of.

Ellen
Your voice over still doesn't sound right. I'm not sure what it is, maybe you're speaking too close to the mic? You had the chainsaw at the beginning, and I'm sure you agree that it looked great at the start of your package. Your PTC was fine, but seemed out of focus.
The Uldduz part of the package was fine, but obviously carried the usual problems of skype calls. The cutaways that you used during that part were way too short and needed to be longer, they disappeared within seconds.

Christina
Good to get the mug shot, and also the reconstruction added something different to the package. Your becoming very good at these now, this was a very nice court story.

Emma
Even though your package didn't work out, you were still able to get me multiple oovs that I could use which I was grateful for, because we were in need of some oovs. Although if you find out soon enough that your story is falling through, you should try and take on another story for a package.

Emma
I was happy to have this package in the bulletin, I expected it to be in the sports part of the bulletin, but when I found out it wasn't, I was happy tot ry and find room to squeeze it in. I really liked it. A nice light way to follow on from the sport.

Karina
It was a good 'and finally', but your picture quality was very poor, and on another day i might have spiked it. However, we worked on trying to improve the colour and general quality which helped a bit, but was a bit grainy. You did a good job to tell the story, and the coming up you did was perfect, although it unfortunately had to be dropped in post-production because of timing restraints.

Amy
You tried to get your package to work this week, but it really needed that interview to be able to get into the bulletin, and with us back to so many reporters  you really need to fight and go the extra distance to push your story into the bulletin. Not a bad week, but just need to have a bit more confidence to go that extra mile for your story.

Jack
I was disappointed that you came to the news meeting with basically nothing, that's never really acceptable. You should have a story, even if it means going off of your patch.

Harry
I know your story was the same as Amy's, but you should still have back-up stories, even if they're not always on your patch. You got given a different story late on Monday, and had to go to a meeting for it. But didn't, so theirs no real excuse for not having the story. You needed to work hard this week, I'm pretty disappointed that you didn't.

Spence
Your package wasn't terrible this week, it was just way too much of a promo piece, I dropped it into an oov, but it eventually got cut in post-production for timing reasons. Filming was fine, just remember to radio mic someone if you decide to film them from more of a distance, and if you do that, they should ideally be actually doing something instead of just sitting around.

Notes for next week

30 Second Pitch
This Monday, in the news conference, I'm going to be testing out something new, inspired by the talk from Claudia Murg. You will each get 30 seconds where you should be able to convey all of your story, including the top line, who you're speaking to, who it affects, what shots you plan to have, and some general facts about the story. I will explain it in some more detail on Monday. But essentially your story should be heavily researched, and you should be able to talk about it solidly for 30 seconds(which will be a way of knowing if you've just lifted it from the daily echo or actually put some work into it).

Camera zooms are now banned
You've been told in the past by Angus that the camera shots should reflect what the human eye does, and our eyes cannot zoom unfortunately. Also it's normally a messy shot when you use a zoom, and it can be difficult to get a good speed. It also usually means that you don't end up holding shots for long enough so this should hopefully help. You can still do pans etc... but if you want to move closer onto something, you should do it through a sequence. This will look much cleaner, and help you in the edit.
The only zooms allowed in this upcoming week are for still images.

Earlier starts on Wednesdays
On Wednesday, most reporters weren't in until 10/10:30 which isn't acceptable. Nobody had a finished package, and I know that because i didn't sign off any of them, which means they're not done. And if you don't come in until that late, it means everything clogs up. Production are in for 9am on Wednesday, and so should the reporters. It's not fair that we slow down the production team by coming in more than an hour later than you should be.

Voiceover Audio
The original plan was to use the sound booth that Angus has mentioned for a couple of weeks. Me and Graham went to get it, but it turns out we need training. So we tried a couple of areas, and this week we settled for the studio, and wrapping the curtain around you. It sounded better this week, and more consistent. But I don't think it will be the permanent solution, but it is something we can discuss on Monday.

Links
The links for your packages need to be in much earlier. Tuesday evening you should at least have a draft handed into the script writer/presenter each week. Your link should also be longer than one sentence. We should have a basic idea of your story even before your package is shown.

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WINOL 07/11/2012

Overview
A good week considering we were quite short on reporters. We still managed to almost go over 15 minutes which must mean we were still able to produce more than enough content even without all of our news team.


Individual Feedback

US Election In-Studio
Ali did really well here I thought. He made clear exactly what it was about. It was a shame the package wasn't shown beforehand, but was just a lack of communication. Myself and the other editors(particularl Graham the production editor, have agreed to meet for 5 minutes at 1pm every Wednesday to improve communication so close to the bulletin going live.

HPCC Debate
Arguably, I could have given you more time for this to fit in quotes for all the candidates, although i was told this wasn't an issue, and decided that to fit in more content in our show, we'd stick to the slightly shorter time, with less grabs.
Overall the package was good, and made the most of the debate footage that we had, with some good cutaways of the audience.

Ford Update
This wasn't quite as strong as last week in my opinion, but it's great to keep tracking the story, Also this package contained some very good quotes from the UKIP member, and it was good to get him outside the ford factory for the interview. So simple, and yet so effective. Was a nice update, and will be good to see how you continue to develop the story as you become more and more of an expert.

Ash Trees
This was a big story in the week, and is something that people may care about. It was important that you got shots of ash trees, and that's what you did. Your voice over audio was pretty poor again, an it's something you need to improve. The interview was good, got some good quotes. We had to trim some of your PTC because you made a fact that ideally should have been fudged, because it quickly became out of date. But luckily, it wasn't too difficult to take out.

Alton Town
A good package, although you were clearly lacking for shots, a sequence with your interviewee would definitely have helped to get something different visually instead of just the pitch. The statement was also a bt too long. The sign off PTC was very good. A solid package.

Coming Up
The coming up is working very well. But I feel like it needs more of a sting, so that can be something to work on.  I also felt like the graduation piece needed some good NATSOT, it felt too quiet. The football clip had some great natsot that peaked at the end.

OOVs
The oovs were fine. It was good that we followed up on the fluoride story, because it's come up a few times on WINOL, and the shots did the job. It was also nice to include the bonfire night event. It's very big in Winchester, with thousands going to it every year. It's relevant to our audience, and also looks good. Was also great to have natsot of the flame being lit.

Graduation
The graduation package had the hat throwing, which was essential. We needed some more vox pops, you had another but said the visual quality was incredibly poor, and it would have been odd to use just the audio. You also need to improve your voiceover audio quality, it was very bad this week. Wasn't the best package ever, but it did the job, n had the important shots.

Movember
I really liked this package, it was a nice fluff piece to end with. Considering the lack of shots you had to choose from, I thought you did well visually. The interview was good, and it told a nice story. The PTC was also very good with the moustache.

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WINOL 31/10/2012

Overview

This week we introduced 'Coming Up' which appeared midway through the bulletin. We used a bed throughout and a sting at the end. The aim was to refresh the audience, and to let them know that lighter news stories were coming up. This is bulletin places the heavier, political stories at the top to lead it. The 'coming up' injects a fresh bit of life, and shows that there's more to come.

After the sting, we lead into the News Belt. We'll be looking to sort out a bed for the news belt in the near future.

Individual Feedback

HPCC Debate In-Studio
I thought this was really well done. Lou, you were calm and clear about what the debate was all about. A good way to open the bulletin.

Ford
You did really well with this story, you told it well, got some good interviews, and when I said to you that it needed balance you were calm in tackling the problem. It's also a good running story that you have it, that you should track for the rest of the year for more developments.

US Storm
We did well to get some good shots of the storm through both fair dealing(being a current event that we were covering) and also images that George was able to get us. We also had an interview with a former student, who is from America, and it gave us the local angle that we needed, and made a really good OOV ACT to break up the bulletin, instead of 'package after package' like last week.

We also did well to use it as a chance to promote our election in a back-anno after the piece.

Car Park Boycott
It was a very dull story, as most car park stories are. But we needed it to bulk up the bulletin, and you delivered it, with balance, and shots of the actual empty car park. You tried to vary your shots and be creative, which is tough with this kind of story, but I think it was fine.

Coming Up
I felt that this worked well, it wakes up the audience, and shows them that theirs more 'interesting' stories to come. We need a new bed, and a good sting to end.

OOVs
First we had the gold colour oov. This was originally a package, but it was very dull, and when it turned out that you can't see the gold with the human eye, it became even more dull.
The library oov was pretty dull too, but it is something that would interest some of our viewers that live in Winchester, it affects the local area, and is information that some people might find useful.
The Royal mail didn't have amazing pictures, but that doesn't always matter with oovs, aslong as we have something to show. The story will affect many people, and links to the Ford story we covered earlier in the bulletin, and makes it feel more like a connected show, instead of separate entities.

Halloween Safety
This was a news story that didn't give you much to go on. Posters were being made available to tell trick or treaters not to knock on doors if they had the poster on them.
I feel like you did well with this piece, particularly with your opening(including the PTC). You had natural sound, and made the opening couple of shots flow together. The vox pops were fine, and you could have gone down two different routes to try and improve it a bit more. Either by making it even more cheesy, or by going down a slightly more serious route and trying to speak to a police officer.

Pub Bus
A perfect story for an 'and finally...' You told the story ok, but could have used a bit more voiceover to tell the story better, instead of relying too much on the interview. The shots were good, and I liked the sign off at the end.

This Week's WINOL News Bulletin

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Defamation

Defaming someone is something that journalists need to be very careful of, defame the wrong person and it could cost you a lot of money, but worse than that, it can cost you your career.

However, before you can start to understand defamation, it's important to be able to recognise what is safe, what could be dodgy and what could be defamatory. It goes back to being able to recognise risk.
If you have doubts, you can refer it up, either to your editor or lawyer. It'sd also a good idea to remember 'If in doubt, leave it out'. Balance is important, but it can't really combat defamation.

Defining Defamation

If what you write or broadcast about someone or a company tends to-

- Lower them in estimation of right-thinking people.

- Causes them to be shunned or avoided.

- Disparages them in their business, trade or profession.

- Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt.
 

Publication + Defamation + Identification = Libel

 

Defamation via pictures ('picture libel')

Careless use of background shots with voice over can be defamatory.

Eg- Making clear who the defendant is or showing a shop/company that you aren't directly referring to.

People or companies must not be identifiable, particularly when theirs is the potential of defamation.

Reputation and Meaning

Reputation is previous, especially if you are in public life, money or both.

Meaning is interpreted by a 'reasonable man'.

Inference - hazard

Innuendo - hazard

You should assess the whole context.

 

Libel Defences

- Justification - 'It's true and I can prove it in court'

- Fair Comment - Honestly held opinion based upon facts, or privileged material in public interest.

- Absolute Privilege - Court reporting (have to be in court for the sentencing when reporting it to have the privilege)

- Qualified Privilege - Police quotes, pressers.

Bane and Antidote - Defamation removed by context.

- Apologies and Clarifications

- Reynolds Defence (Includes material being in the public interest, a product of 'responsible journalism' and more)

No Defence

- When you have not checked your facts.

- When you have not 'referred up'.

- When you have not put yourself in the shoes of the person or company you write about.

- Got carried away by a 'spicy' story.

- Not bothered to wait for a lawyers opinion.

Recognise Risk

- Who am I writing about, and could they sue?

- Is what I'm writing potentially defamatory?

- Do I have a defence?

- Lawyers don't mind being asked, so if you're unsure, don't worry about asking them.

 

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Regulations and Codes

It's important to recognise risk. It is a key skill to have in the newsroom. You should get a sense of when you're in danger. However, the Codes of Conduct aren't laws that could see you sent to prison, but they are a set of rules that are in place to try keep journalists regulated away from the law.
The codes fill the space between criminal offences and the right things to do. It covers things that aren't quite covered by the law. It also guides us through ethical issues which affect how far we go to get a story. Such as what practices are legitimate and when different circumstances change how we approach certain situations. It is also important in helping build trust with the public.

There can be a temptation to 'dress up' a story which can occasionally lead to misrepresentation.
A good example is Peter Fincham, a former BBC one boss that quit after a story came out in 2007 that claimed he misrepresented the Queen in a documentary trailer. A sequence was edited to make it suggest that the Queen had stormed out, when she hadn't.

Key areas that the code covers
Ethical behaviour
Fair treatment for privacy
Requirement for accuracy and impartiality
Protecting vulnerable groups (such as children)

Codes of practice
The 3 main codes -
- PCC (Press Complaints Commission) - Newspapers and magazines
- Ofcom - Broadcasters
- BBC - For BBC staff and licence payers

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)
It is a self regulated.

Has a few sanctions, but not many. These include being verbally reprimanded, reported to an editor, asked for a statement to be released.
It can't fine people, or really ask for people to be sacked. This means it has limited power.

Ofcom
It has more power than the PCC, because it can fine people. (It can take upt to around 5% of a company's profit)

Powers includes
- Decision not to repeat programme.
- Corrections or findings must be broadcast.
- Can impose fines - up to 5% revenue.
- Can revoke broadcast licence. (It can licence broadcasters to operate and can also take things off air.)

A good example is the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand fining a few years ago. The BBC was fined £150,000.

BBC Editorial Guidelines
These guidelines are set by the BBC itself. Being such a big organisation, these regulations set their own expectations of employee's, but are generally not too different from other regulations. Being a publically funded means that it has a few different rules to other brodcasters and news providers.

When would you not adhere to the rules?
Investigative reporting - Such as hiding cameras, or posing as someone else(not a journalist).
Public Interest - The information would have a high value to society.(this could be a possible defence)

The Crown Prosecution Service
Explains when public interest is a valid defence.


Why has regulation been relatively successful in broadcast compared to print journalism?
Broadcast seems to have a much broader audience, and also it means TV shows like the news could be watched by anyway. It's easy to avoid the news in print, because you can either don't buy the newspapers or avoid the news websites. This could arguably make it feel like it has less attention and slightly less responsibility than broadcast.

Regime for broadcast. How might Leveson affect it. Is their a tougher regime for print journalists?
It's very difficult to predict what will come out of the Leveson Inquiry.


NUJ - The National Union of Journalists
It's Code of Conduct is still recognised, but is not as powerful as it once was. Some newspapers used to require journalists to be a member of the NUJ to work for them.
The NUJ is not as concerned about privacy, but protection of sources have more emphasis.

'Honest/Fast, Accurate, Fair' is a good rule to follow.

You should apologise immediately after an error.

You should also remember to differentiate between facts and opinions.

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WINOL 24/10/2012

Overview
This was a very good week in terms of story quality. We had some genuinely interesting stories, including those that didn't make it into the bulletin.

Also most of you seemed to work hard to try and get yourself into the bulletin this week, their is a genuine hunger, and I'm starting to sense more competition, which is ideal. It's becoming more and more difficult each week to decide the bulletin line-up.

You all seem to be throwing forward at the end of your packages now, which is great.

Please read the 'things to improve'at the bottom of this post, I will likely go over them again sometime on Monday, but it's still good to get

Individual Feedback

Flick
A nice oov package that could have been used this week if we had the room for oovs in the bulletin. However, the interview clip looks great alongside the written story on the website.

Lou
It's great that you've been able to keep up with these HPCC profiles, it's so important that we maintain balance overtime with this subject, and you're achieving that. A solid piece this week.

Harry
I really liked your package this week. It had some really good elements that will hopefully come naturally to everyone over the next few weeks. Things like natural sound at the top of the piece are so simple and yet this was the only package to have it this week. NATSOT starts a news package with a bang, and grabs the audience's attention. You had some really good interviews that added to your piece, and worked hard to get some sort of balance.
I also liked how your 2 PTC's connected in a way that told the whole story.

Faith
A very good week from you. You showed a lot of determination to make the feminist march story in London work. We did a skype call which seemed ok at the time, but after getting it edited, it was decided that it just wasn't broadcast quality. But don't be too disappointed by that, it was a great experience, and something that you can now say you've done. We'll be hoping to look into more skype calls in the future, and your now one of the people that have experience in doing it, which will be invaluable. You had a decent script, and knew what you wanted to get across. Time and video quality was our enemy this week, but I can see you growing in confidence as a reporter. You also did really well to get the written story up while in London. It meant that we had the written piece from when the story was fresh. A really good week.

Ellen
An interesting story this week, it's something that would turn a lot of heads, and would likely be talked about at the pub. You have a good voice, but it needs some work. You don't sound very interested in what your covering, and if you're not interested, then why should we be interested?
You had some good shots this week, and it was easy for anybody to understand what the story was.

Jack
It was a good piece this week, and it looks great on the website because the video footage tells the story a lot better than a written piece in my opinion. You did well with it, and had some good scripting, but I don't think you were cheesy enough. I think we needed to see you in the package getting involved. You said they asked you to do some serving, and it would have been great to have some footage of you doing it, maybe even doing a piece to camera too.

Spence
A solid package this week. You're very good at PTC's, but try to avoid making the story rely heavily on them. You won't be able to always rely on PTC's to save your package. However, I think they worked well this week, and you told a good story. You did the best you could with the pictures you had, and you did well to get the images and footage secured to use. Would be great if you can keep up with the story and see how  it progresses for a possible follow-up in the future.

George
You came in on Wednesday with the news that your story had to change after the inquest was launched, and you immediately had ideas of how it could work, which was great. I knew I could trust you to make the story work and sort out the majority of the in-studio discussion while I was busy with the 2nd years, particularly Karina and Faith in London. Looked great when recorded, and was a good way to start the bulletin.

Shona
It's good to see your keeping up with all of the latest news events going around. We need some more events for November, we only have two at the moment, but seeing as it is November in a few days it's important that we have a list of different potential news events on the agenda. So that's something to look at this upcoming week.

Christina
Your court story this week was your best one so far. You've been building up confidence, and contacts over the last few weeks, and it paid off for this story. You had all of the information that you needed, 

Tom
You worked hard to get your package done, but you struggled for shots, which can often be the trouble with political stories. You need to get creative. You zoomed on the same sign twice within about 15 seconds, which isn't good for tv. It was full of guilty signs and guilty buildings, which you need to try and avoid as much as possible. You had some good interview clips that gave the story some balance.

Tammy
You were ill this week and your story idea was out of your control. We can just move forward to the next week.

Emma
I am very pleased that you were able to deliver the scabies story this work. It's a perfect example of a story that directly affects our target audience. It's something that interests people and will get them watching. You also did well to get some pictures that we could use in the package showing the affect of scabies and what they look like, it was key to the package. We had an issue with your final line before your SOQ, you said the word 'pandemic' which it isn't (considering around 30 people have been affected). You also ended with a cliche' line, which you should try to avoid.

Karina
Much like Faith you did great to cover the feminist march in London, and you did a good job of it Your package had some decent footage, and a decent sign off. We removed one of the interviewee's, which made the package a lot tighter. Don't be too disappointed that it wasn't in the bulletin, the footage didn't reach us in time, and I had to make the decision to spike it, as we wouldn't have it in time even to slot in for the upload. However, it looks great on the sight, and compliments your written article well. Speaking of the article, you both did great to get it up on the website so soon, was on the website while the story is still fresh which is exactly what we want.

Amy
You worked to get a package done this week which was good, and yo got your written piece up pretty quickly. Although I'm quite disappointed that you didn't go to the meeting with the police, even though I told you to still go. It would have given your story a lift either with an interview or some extra background. There was no real reason not to go, you should be keen to make your package even better and to try and force it into the bulletin instead of giving up on getting into the bulletin on Wednesday morning after not going to the meeting.

Things to work on

Natural sound is still a rare sight in our bulletins. I think Harry's package was the only one that had it this week. You also should be putting your best picture at the very top of your piece, theirs no need to save it for the middle or the end, you should put it right at the front.

Wind noise. Headphones are very useful when filming, particularly for outdoor interviews, use them to make sure you're getting good sound from your interviewee and no wind noise. It can be really distracting and annoying. Angus said that it's best to use the gun mic, particularly in windy situations. I often try to shield the wind with my back while holding the gun mic for them, as long as it doesn't affect the shot too drastically. Alternatively you can ask to film the interview somewhere else if it's a big issue. Just think what will look best, and what will sound best. Both elements are important.

Also on the subject of sound, voice over sound quality still needs work. If it doesn't sound good while you're editing, film it again. Angus mentioned the sound booth we now have booked out, you can go there if you feel the lip mic isn't working for you. But we do have the lip mics which should provide good quality sound.

Sequences. I don't think I saw any sequences this week. The closest to a sequence has been the 'walky talky' which has been used to set up a number of shots. To be honest, I'm getting a bit sick of seeing them, so can you try and be a bit more creative with how you lead into interviews, and how you patch over a jump-cut. Sequences are a great way to do that. Don't feel embarrassed to ask, or to get in close with the camera. Even something as simple as 3 shots of the person working at their desk, or looking through a book is fine. It gives you more options during editing. Some interviewees(like scientists or carpenters) will be in interesting surroundings, utilise that and get some good shots, instead of walking away with not enough footage.

Pictures are getting better, but we're still struggling, particularly when looking at our headlines. All 3 were taken by us in the first week, 1 in the second week, and 1 in the third week. That's not always a bad thing, sometimes the pictures we've been given look better or tell the better story. But their wasn't even competition for a better shot. We need to be more creative with what we're filming, and think what kind of shots would compliment the story.

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WINOL 17/10/2012

Overview

Things looked a bit shaky at the beginning of the week, we had no real top story, however we settled on one before Tuesday was over, and it provided the leading piece that we needed. Overall, the bulletin had a good balance, and many of fulfilled what needed to be done to make your piece work.


Things to work on

Links continue to be a struggle. They need to be longer, and give the viewer a basic idea of what your story is going to be. More time needs to be spent on writing them.

Quotes need to improve. Remember - 'Facts in your voice. Comment in their voice'. It's good to get people emoting, instead of saying facts and providing expo all the time - that's your job.

Audio - Make sure all the audio in your package is hitting the same levels, because it helps the gallery to get a better balance when it comes to the bulletin.

For PTC's use a radio mic, because it provides much better audio. Although, you can use the gun mic if you want to pic up some of the atmosphere, depending on when you're filming it.


Also, PTC's are not a necessity for a package, I've seen a lot of PTC's in the first couple of weeks. The main reason seems to be a lack of pictures. They should only be used if they add something to the package.

Can you all record your voice-overs using the lip mic. We have them all day tuesday and wednesday, so there is no reason not too. Also, if the sound isn't perfect then just re-record it, there is no reason not to.

Individual Feedback

Flick
You did really great this week. We desperately needed a top story, and you were more than happy to take on the job once a story came up. It was a solid package for what was a difficult story to turn into a video piece. A good week.

Lou
Your consistency is great. It's been good to know that I can rely on you each week to deliver me something that I can happily feature in the bulletin. Your package this week was something different, that was good for promoting your upcoming HPCC debate. Wasn't too complex, but was put together well, sandwiched by two PTC's that looked good.

Liam
I know your not strictly part of the news team, but you produced a very solid news piece that I was glad to have in the bulletin. It was well constructed and creative. You did really well to get pictures of Fabrice Muamba it was very relevant to your story, and complimented it well.
At time's, it lacked shots, particularly when I wanted a headline clip. The choices were a bit restricted, but the package itself had very few flaws.

Harry
Your package had a lot of potential, and I can't help but feel it fell a little bit short. You did well to get the two interviews sorted quickly, you already had one done before the end of the news meeting. It was a story that would be of interest to students, and you quickly realised that your angle had to change after your first interview, and quickly worked towards reshaping your story, which was great.
Just a few points technically with your package.
Your piece to camera was fairly solid, although for a short piece you shouldn't have to look down at your notes. You should be able to remember the few sentences, even if it took a little while to film, you had plenty of time to get it right.Also don't get careless when editing, your 'walky talky' with the SU president should have been cut a bit at the start of the clip, as it started with you both static, instead of starting with you both walking. Just looks odd and clearly staged.
Also at the start of your package there is a massive audio change from when you had to correct 'University of Winchester'. Just something to think about.

Faith
A very good week for you. Last week you made a very solid package, but it was an dull story with dull pictures, and that made it difficult for your to get into the bulletin. However, this week you had a better story, and tried to get the best shots for the story that you could. You came in on Tuesday with one vox-pop, but you knew it probably wasn't enough, and when I asked you to get a couple more, that's exactly what you need the next morning, and it strengthened your package, gave it more balance, and made it usable for the bulletin.

Ellen
Another good 'and finally'. With these types of stories in particular, you need to be careful not to have too much expo in your package. It's important to tell the story. It's an interesting piece, so make sure the audience find it interesting too.

Jack
Not getting footage of the Cathedral's light show was what let down your package this week. With the beat of 'entertainment', it's important we see it happening. Forward planning is key for this. However, you still managed to get an interview and put together a package, which is great. Both weeks I've known that I have your package ready to slot in if needed.

Spence
We had big dreams for this package, but in the end, it just wasn't a strong as we had hoped. Your very good at PTC's, but remember that should only really be used if they add something to the story. The angle and story itself should be the focus. You did well make sure sure you had a package done, and it could have been used if needed.
Your voice-over had background noise(I'm guessing from the newsroom) which was very distracting. The lip-mic is very good at getting a good sounding voice over, but if things like that happen, definitely do it again, and just ask people to be a bit quieter if needed.
The interviewee said some ok stuff, but is just a homeowner, whom (while relevant to the story your trying to tell) doesn't have any real authority and is essentially just a random person. We needed someone that represents the area, a councillor or residence representative of some sort. If your unsure who to go with, feel free to ask me or one of the other third years for some ideas.
Also don't be too reliant on statements, they don't make particularly great tv, and are usually just there as a last resort.

George
Was a disappointing week, and nobody knows it more than you. Things didn't go your way, but as Chief Reporter it's important that I feel I can rely on you to deliver each week. hopefully you'll have nore luck for the next bulletin.

Shona
Hopefully you'll be in more this week. For the last two week's you've not been in on Tuesdays when I have more time to speak to you, you've been around on Wednesday's when I'm much more busy. However, it's great to see you've made progress in you're role.

Christina
You did really well to get a court story done and it was ready for the bulletin if needed. You worked really hard on the script, and it worked once it came to your PTC, which looked good. You also had some GV's to cover up any edits, and to simply break up the PTC a bit. Good job this week.

Tammy
Good job this week. You got more pictures, and the interviews were well framed. Your story lacked enough strength to get into the bulletin. You had too interviews, but they weren't the most interesting sound bites eve. However, it was something I could have used it in the bulletin which is always a plus.

Emma
I really liked your package this week, it had some great shots, and was one of the packages that I had in line to slot into the bulletin if any of the packages I had needed to be pulled out for any reason. You did discover that the warnings of certain  interviewee's was right. Scientists spend their whole time looking into these sorts of things, and will likely speak to you in a very scientific way. If you don't understand certain things, don't feel stupid if you ask them to explain it, or you can 'echo' them. It can also be helpful to ask them 'how it felt...' to be involved in whatever your stories involve. Remember that they should be emoting. Fact's in your voice, comment in their voice.

Karina
You had an idea this week, but it didn't happen in the end. You need to look more for possible packages. You did help out Sam with written articles which was good.

Amy
Your package idea didn't pan out once you realised that the story wasn't quite what you thought, and that it was more of a written piece. However you got the written story done with a picture too, and will hopefully do better with video content next week.

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Copyright - Guest Lecturer - Peter Hodges

I made a similar blog post quite a while ago, with the same guest lecturer. He came back to the University this week, to once again talk about copyright. As the laws are always changing, their was new things to learn, and we all had a better idea of what questions to ask.

As a journalist you will always be creating your own copyright. Copyright exists once it is published (meaning it's available to the public.

Pieces of work that can be copyrighted include:-
A dramatic work - such as dance or mime.
Musical work - This includes the lyrics and sound.
Images - Graphics, sculptures and even lighting design can be copyrighted.

Peter gave a good example of lighting copyright. The Eiffel tower illumination at night was copyrighted in 2003 by the lighting company that made the arrangement. They might object to the commercial use of photos of the Eiffel tower(but only when it is lit).

Copyright lasts for the entire life of the author plus 70 years after their death(50 years for audio pieces).
For movies it includes the principle director, the author of the screenplay and the author of dialogue.

You can be sued for civil damages, and also breach of statute law and can be prosecuted.

Fair Dealing

It is usually safe to use for research/private study.

Fair Dealing can be used for criticism and review pieces, and also reporting current events. This covers all except photography(which must have consent).

You can safely use up to 2 minutes(aggregate) of footage from a film, when using it in a review/criticism.

Fair Deadline for a current event can be up to 30 seconds, and you can also be protected with the defence of  deleting it within 28 days.

Moral Rights

These still apply until it is no longer copyrighted.

Rights to paternity - to be acknowledged for their role.
Right to integrity - Not to have work given derogatory treatment.
If they don't want their work treated a certain way then they can refuse. (eg- might not like interpretation)
Right to be identified

One case to follow in terms of copyright is Richard O'Dwyer. He created a website called TVShack.net, which was a search engine that claims to index links to pirated media on other sites.
The student from Sheffield Hallam University. Their is currently no outcome to the case.

Another case is the recent issue with 'The Hobbit' bar in Southampton. Their was a question over copyright. Does the public believe by deception etc... if the pub is based around the franchise. Which it was, however the issue was sorted, with the pub annually paying the Hollywood company that owns the rights.

- Must pre-clear through copyright societies before prominently featuring copyrighted content.

- BBC uses around 55,000 pieces of music a week across its output.

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Confidentiality and Privacy

Confidentiality includes the official secrets act and test of confidentiality.

Privacy is a disputed territory between Article 8 and Article 10.

Article 8 - Right to respect of privacy, family life etc...

Article - Right to Freedom of speech/ Freedom of expression

Vile piece of legislation  - new law - cancels out the defence of public interest.

Confidentiality - Common law secrets = laws made by judges.

Revealing secret information to a journalists is a third party breach of confidence. You should protect your sources, even if it means going to court.

The Bill Goodwin case is a good example of protecting sources. It was a victory for Article 10 when he won.

Breach of Confidence Defined
A person is in breach of confidence if they pass on information which covers ALL of the following:
1. Has 'the necessary quality of confidence'. - ie: it must be important.
2. Was provided in 'circumstances imposing on obligation'. - when a reasonable person would think it would be kept a secret.
3. No permission to pass on the information
4. Detriment is likely to be caused to the person who gave the information.

A good example is if a GP revealed something that happened in their doctors surgery, this would be a breach of confidence.

It can be difficult to separate both confidentiality and privacy, however the Michael Douglas case is a good example that shows the differences.
During his wedding, pictures were taken by both guests and the press (intruders).
Guest pictures - Breach of confidence issue
Intruder pictures - Privacy issue

Implicit and explicit consent
It can be useful to get consent on camera if you are unsure about the person you are interviewing. This can be done simply by saying 'thanks for the interview' while filming.

Princess Caroline case(2004) - Expectation of privacy. Updated in February 2012, their was a ruling by the European Court of Human rights which said the papers should be able to publish stories and photographs of 'well known people'. Pictures of Princess Caroline were taken in a public place, therefore it didn't infringe her privacy rights under Article 8.

Injunctions
Max Mosley case - regarding the News of the World.

Public Interest

This includes, but is not confined to:-
- Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety.
- Protecting public health and safety
- Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual organisation.

For example if a celebrity sold something based on an image that they are a family person, but the press reports something that suggest otherwise, then it is in the public interest (provided it is true).

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Media Law - A Basic Recap

In the first week of this semester's Law lectures, we had a recap of the sort of laws journalists need to be aware of.

Some of the key areas of law we should know about is:

- Defamation
- Contempt
- Privacy

What is Defamation?
For something to be defamatory, it must tick the following boxes-

1. It must be published (meaning available to the public).
2. The person must be identifiable.
3. It would have bad things said about the person, having the potential to be defamatory and could cause them to be shunned and avoided.

Defences for defamation
Their are a few defence's for defaming someone.
These includes justification, fair comment, privilege and public interest.

You could also use the Reynolds Defence.

Contempt

Contempt of court is a very important law to remember, not only because breaking it can be damaging to yourself, but it can also be damaging to court cases.

The main thing to remember is to make fair and accurate reports when covering a court case.

Chris Jefferies is a good example. A few articles were found to be in contempt of court. The court found that the reports created a big risk of'serious prejudice' for any future trials. Their reporting of Chris after he had been arrested had been found as contempt. He was later released without charge, and found completely innocent.
He also received libel damages from a number of newspapers.

Privacy

This area of media law concerns both Article 8 and Article 10.

A recent topic regarding privacy concerns the royal family. Images of Prince Harry naked in a hotel room ended up being published by The Sun. Whilst topless pictures of Kate Middleton were not published in the UK. The differences

Fatal Error System
1- Malice/conflict of interest
2- Dishonest presentation of sources
3- Causing disrepute/disruption
4- Reckless inaccuracy in basic expression
5- Legal problems (without justification)
6- Regulatory problems (without justification)

What to do
1- Disinterestedness/in the interest of the viewer/ reader/ public
2- Development of professional contacts/honest work
3- Professionalism/ responsibility (vs disrepute/disreputable/personalised)
4- 100 per cent factually accurate (including spelling, grammar and punctuality)
5- Up to date and working knowledge/ application of media law
6- Up to date and working knowledge/ application of media regulation

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Winol 10/10/2012

Well, that was the first WINOL of the semester, and overall it wasn't too bad. The majority of people worked hard and worked as part of the team, which is essential.

As news editor, these blog posts will mainly concern the news team, but might be useful for the whole WINOL group as a whole.

First a big congratulations to all involved in the first broadcast. I know that a lot of people were stressed heading into it, but personally it's something I love and thrive on. The atmosphere on Wednesday's is always great.

Individual Feedback

Tom
Good job this week. The package was a great first effort, you got relevant interviews that gave the story balance, and also included natural sound at the start of your package. You explained the story well,

Karina
You did well to produce a package for the first week, even if it wasn't used. You went out, got shots, got an interview, and even did a piece to camera. Overall it was a good effort for the first week, and you'll beenefit from it going into the next week.

George
A nice package this week. Good scripting and shots. The story is an interesting one. It had solid quotes and a nice touch of the hotel owner showing you around. The piece could have comfortably slotted into a local news programme. Some of the exterior hotel shots almost felt like images because of the very still movements, maybe more of a sequence with the shots could have changed that. But that is me being very picky.

Lou
One of your best packages. Your voice work has improved so much since you first started reporting, and you also structured and scripted this package really well.
Your interviews were well constructed, particularly the interview with Martin Tod where we saw him on Barton Farm, and he looks around as he refers to it. A good week from you.

Flick
As the presenter this week you did a good job of putting the script together, especially when the running order changed multiple times on Wednesday. Also you were very helpful to the second years, giving advice etc. A good, calm presence to have.

Shona
I saw you helping a few people on Wednesday which was great, unfortunately I was too busy to have a chat with you on Wednesday about news planning. Monday or more likely Tuesday would be the better day to talk about it.

Spence
A tough week in terms of making you're story idea work. But you made a great effort. The PTCs were good, and you thought up ways to break it up with other visuals. You'll need to look toward stories that have more of an angle to them, because it was difficult to target who could be interviewed for your story this week.

Jack
The story was a decent one, it was kind of interesting even though it seemed to be just sticks. You had a few stills in your package, which is fine if you are struggling for footage, or if the pictures add something which you otherwise couldn't have. But the pictures where ones you took, which is odd. Because you simple film a sequence with the video camera and it looks much better. The still shots are for the written article. Don't forget that the package is for tv, pictures shouldn't be taken for your package if you have a video camera with you too.

Amy
I'm a bit disappointed that you essentially gave up this week, as it would have been nice if you could produce something. You were concerned about turning around a story in such a short amount of time, but that is what news is all about. It's new. You can't always plan far ahead, so you'll need to learn to adapt. Hopefully in you'll grow in confidence in the next few weeks.

Ellen
A nice first story. I asked for rhinos and you gave me rhinos. Their was some conflicting ideas of whether the art piece or simply the real rhinos should be the focal point of your package, but I'd happy with the end decision. Generally animals are interesting, particularly to our target audience, but it's also good to see you didn't ignore the story which was the painted rhinos that aim to raise money for charity. You also helped out with making an oov for me. A good first week.

Tammy
You did well to get a nice package done. I think if you did the same package again in a few weeks, it would likely get into the bulletin and be a top package. However, the lack of shots made it very difficult to keep the story together and to explain to the viewers what it was all about. The interviews were ok, it was good that you spoke to the people directly affected. The story didn't have too much of an angle, was more of a piece of interest, and one that is people lead. Along with Ellen you helped put together an oov once you were done with your own package. And you were also happy to make an alternative oov for your homeless peice, which I was grateful for.

Christina
I think it's fair to say that you had a rollercoaster week. You were a bit concerned on Monday if things would work out. Turned out on Tuesday they didn't go too well, but you remained determined which I really liked. You got up early on Wednesday to go to Southampton and make a nice PTC package about cycling safety. If I had the time, it could have comfortably slotted into the bulletin without issue. You got shots of cyclists which was key, and it meant we could turn your story into an oov for the bulletin. You ended up with a good piece of work to show after a tough week. Hopefully the next week will go more smoothly for you.

Harry
You had many stories rise and fall leading up to this bulletin, but you continued to be enthusiastic and determined to get something done for the bulletin. When that didn't work out, you were still very helpful, putting together the playout compilation for the end of the bulletin, and also helped edit together the 3 oovs. Very helpful, and hope you get more luck for the next bulletin.

Sophie
A very good first package, especially considering you weren't too confident heading into this week. You was the first to get your package done, and also got a link done before Tuesday was done. You did really well tog et a range of different shots and make your package visually interesting. It came very close to getting into the bulletin, however it still went in as an oov. A very solid first week, I was happy with what you produced. I'm sure you've learnt a lot from the week.

Faith
Your effort towards making it the best package you could impressed me. You were determined to try and make it more interesting than a house story can be. Your story was close to being in the bulletin, but instead became an oov. However, it was a back-up which I was really grateful of, it was ready to step into the bulletin if a different story didn't work out for whatever reason. A very good first week, and you'll continue to improve in the next few weeks. And I'm sure you've seen the importance of filming sequences with the people you interview.

Emma
You told me you'd get me a liquid nitrogen face, but it seemed to fall flat on its face, which is a bit disappointing. You need to keep more communication with me on the Tuesdays and Wednesday. Don't remember seeing you around on Tuesday, but when I texted to see where you were, you was only in the SU, so don't know why you didn't pop in to see me. Also, it's more beneficial if you edit in the newsroom, otherwise it means people can't help you out, and also I have to be away from everybody else to check how you're doing. I had no idea you was there until someone else came and told me. Hopefully next week will be a better week for you. 

Sam
I know you're not part of the news team, but you did put together the top story for this week's bulletin. It was really well put together, and was a great example of telling a good story in a package.

Some notes for next week

Something that I think all reporters noticed this week was how important it is to film as many shots as you can. Otherwise you get to editing, and don't have enough footage to fill your package. So when you film for your next story, make sure you film as much as you can.

Make sure you have more than one story. You should be juggling ideas, having back ups in case your stories fall through.

We experimented with a 'playout'/compilation for the end of the bulletin, showcasing the stories that didn't quite make the bulletin but would be featured on the website. This will likely need to be edited by a reporter each Wednesday if we continue with it, which seems likely. So if you have finished your package for the week, or have little to do, you may be asked to put it together.

In terms of lunch on a Wednesday, at most lunch means popping to the SU shop and heading back, spending no more than 5 minutes. But usually we eat from the vending machine, or food we've brought from home. Because Wednesday is such a busy day, we tend not to have much time to eat and usually have food on the go(if at all). We need everybody's help, and sometimes need to make alterations to things you've made, or need to alter your script, or your link, or headline, or anything that requires your help. If your not around for an hour, or even half hour, it can make things very difficult.

The importance of headlines were raised this week. Sam is currently being assigned to help with headlines, but you should still think hard about a headline for your story if it is used. Remember, the headlines are laying out our stall, and trying to intice our audience to watch the whole bulletin.

It was great to see a number of reporters submitting their written articles by the 3 o'clock deadline on Wednesday. The website should be fully up and running for next weeks bulletin, so I hope to see the same again. We want the news stories to be written, sub-edited and up on the website in time to coincide with the bulletin. One thing to remember, is to take pictures, so that you can use one in your written stories.

I expect all news reporters to be in the newsroom throughout Wednesday, whether you have a story or not.  There are still ways to contribute to help us get the bulletin out, and we still have last minute stories come about on Wednesday that you might be asked to cover. On-the-day stories are always great to have.

It would be useful for both WINOL and yourself if you set up a Youtube account and upload your packages to your youtube account(this will make it easy to showcase all your work, and will also help us place it on the website if it's not featured in the bulletin).

I will have some more specific points to raise in Monday's news meeting.

Until then, have a good weekend, and keep looking for stories.

Dan

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