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...

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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,...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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....

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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