Winol 30th November National Strike Special

Warning, this blog post contains strikes of a positive natures and sleep deprivation that some bloggers may find disturbing. This sums up the most exhausting, stressful, but fulfilling two weeks of my times at the University of Winchester so far. November 30th, Winchester News Online plan to broadcast six hours of rolling coverage of the national strike over the changes in pension reform. 

We were filming on location at the Unite the Union Southampton. We were able to get four hours of rolling coverage out and it proved after the last few weeks of preparation and last minute change that we pulled off something that no other Journalism course has ever pulled off and we should be proud of this accomplishment. Now to cover the last two weeks for both my own personal role and the overall Winol output.

Initially my role was to be a OB reporter covering the strikes from Southampton, but it was clear that with the broadcast drawing ever closer three things were important to making the broadcast a success; the OB's, the packages and the guests (which we were lacking). It was decided by both our output editor Julie and Chris Horrie that I would become the Booker or guest fixer (we had thought of using guest editor, but that would be confused with being a guest editor for the broadcast). However, the only problem now was this was now Thursday night and I had a little over four days to book enough guests to cover the possibility of six hours of rolling coverage. But, after feeling a bit downhearted, as I wanted to report on the day, I realised that this was one of the most important roles to make the broadcast work and it would only be given to someone who could be relied on.

I was able to contact every Councillor, union member and potential affected group over the possibility of being a guest during the broadcast. This did mean I was not going to have town to put together a package, therefore I decided that any spare time I had, I would make the most of and helped out other with their packages. By Tuesday night I was confident, as I was able to book 9 in studio guests, as well as three pre-recorded interviews, which would be broadcast throughout the coverage. 

Wednesday was a very long and successful day and there is so many points to cover, so I will try and bullet points the key focus points of the broadcast and the day overall:

* It was a personal success that all, bar one of the guests turned up and were all very comfortable, prepared and gave very interesting interviews during discussion with Jake Gable and gave valid input into the overall coverage.

* The presentation of the overall coverage was very good as we had three presenters reversing every half hour and kept the coverage up-to-date and relevant and George was very good with his constant updates from twitters and Online. It made the coverage feel very professional and looked very similar to coverage you would see from the BBC or ITN on any important news broadcast E.G. General Election/The Budget. 

* Even with the technical difficulties, we continued broadcasting and for a student journalism course to be able to stream four hours of rolling coverage is unprecedented and we should be very proud as we kept going throughout even with the technical difficulties and problem in uploading some of the packages. 

* On a personal note, it was nice to finally get on the screen towards the end of the broadcast as I was able to take part in the final discussion with Councillor Keith House, leader of Eastleigh Borough Council and I felt that I did a very good job as the feedback given was that I was comfortable with my voice and kept the discussion rolling, however again it showed slightly with my non-verbal communication as I still get slightly nervous in front of the camera as it was live. 

This was a very successful project from an idea that was very ambitious and risky. I think that everyone gave 1000% effort from start to finish and that was evident, as everyone did not stop helping each other until we finished and left the Unite building. I think I succeeded in my role, as I was able to book the guests, get the right interviews and used my expertise local government and excelled. I feel that this will be able to help me as I did work well under pressure and when it come to my tutorial feel that I have got idea for which role I would like, which this week has helped me decide.

On a final note a big thank you to everyone who was involved in this project, we all worked together as a team and it paid off and a big thank you to the other universities involved for helping us supply content that helped the broadcast flow. Here is the best bit of the coverage and I feel confident now that the second years are reading to take the reigns from the third years and take Winol to the next level!

Winol Week 8.....Everything went right and then we had a wonky collar

Week 8 and I felt that this week was my best week to date as I felt that I took good story that after countless number of technical problems and interview time changes, was resurrected at the last minute.

The week started with the usual news meeting where I pitched my story, which would cover the plans for Southampton City Council to implement commissioning of services, but these changes were being seen as a chance to privatise the council, according to local unions. I was able to obtain an interview with Councillor Royston Smith, leader of Southampton City Council and Mike Tucker, Branch Secretary for Unison Southampton.

I had a series of problems on Tuesday with my equipment, which included my camera not working, the battery dying, not taking the right tripod and changing cameras. However, after 3 trips, back and forth from Winchester to Southampton, I brought Tom with me as I had arranged an interview with a local Green Councillor for his story. Luckily at the last minute, I received a phone call from Southampton City Council's press office and they had arranged for my to meet Councillor Smith.

I felt this was my best interview to date, as Councillor Smith was very vocal in his opinions to defend the council and attack the union's claims. This left me with Wednesday morning to do all my filming of my Gv's, my piece to camera and the second interview with Mike Tucker. Just your usual Wednesday morning at Winol

After a morning of rushing around, I returned to the new room with two hours to editing my piece together and hand a headline clip in.  I finished my package and was given in time. I felt that my overall package this week was my best to date as the interviews I had gave two very good soundbites, as well as continuity as this was the first time I used two part of one interview to use as counter balance to the ongoing debate between Southampton City Council and the local unions.

There was still some issues with the overall piece. I felt that Gv's I used could have been stronger, however I was on my own and worked to a very tight deadline, therefore it was good with the limited amount of time I had. My second interview with Mike Tucker was framed well, but he was looking directly into the camera as if he was being interrogated and I need to ensure that they are looking at me to make the piece look more natural. The final gripe I had was the most annoying as my piece to camera was confident, I kept constant eye contact with the camera, but my collar was wonky. This made me look scruffy and unprofessional and I may take Angus Scott's advice from now and take a mirror with me to ensure I do not look scruffy.

Now to the bulletin, I feel we are getting stronger with our overall content and focus to our primary and secondary demographic. In terms of the bulletin it was good to have the Vice-Chancellor, Joy Carter as it promotes the University in a positive light and in any news institution if you can have an important figure within the organisation (in this case The University of Winchester) in the bulletin, you do it as it the best way to reach your target audience. We also included an in-studio discussion about the rise in youth unemployment, which was again good as we were target the demographic.

However, we should of known in advance and made a package about an important topic to students, as they will be interested in job prospects after graduating. We finally had a court story, but it was not a broadcast news story as it was about a local paedophile and we only had a mug shot and as it involved a minor we could not divulge many details. This would of worked better as an OOV, but it was good that Flick found a story in her patch.

Overall Winol is going from strength to strength as we are targeting our demographic audience's and grabbing their attention with good stories. We just need to ensure that we are focusing on getting the most detail out of every story and keeping the audience engaged every week. With the impending and now success of the 30th November national strike protest broadcast in history, we did not have a Winol bulletin last week and therefore my next Winol review will be the rolling coverage of the strikes!