05 Feb Reflective log book of interactive journalism
WEEK 1: Monday 29th January – Our first day back consisted of a whole three year meeting with our peers and lecturers. The meeting was a welcome back and to showcase some of the work we’ve done over christmas and to offer internships across the three years.
We also spoke about how far we got with our journalism project over the christmas break and how to submit our draft the following day. Our tutors went through our draft’s with us and we looked at the marking grid to make sure we had everything included that would give us the correct guide lines for our project.
Tuesday 30th January: Draft submissions for our journalism project are due today. Finalisations are made and then submitted onto the submissions site. Today we also ran over everything for the upcoming live shows, such as how to use the autocue, the live desk, presenting, making the script and how to use the autocue; this depends on who is presenting as each presenter speaks at different speeds.
We also got given our schedules for live show which included what groups we are all in, (My group is Nosheen, Lucy & Jason) and the live show schedule. My role for the first two weeks is sofa presenter! We got into our groups and discussed the given topics for both TV broadcast and radio. The topics this year were all set by our tutors which meant our shows were more focused on specific news items instead of it being very sporadic. It also meant we had to interact more as a whole lecture group so that no same group were doing the same news story for one particular topic.
Friday 2nd February: Today we went into the radio studio with Michael and went over all the important features of the studio. Presenters were in the booth and practising for the show with an impromptu script. As I wasn’t assigned a role for this week I focused on my groups VT and audio. I also wrote the lead in line for our audio piece which went on the script.
WEEK 2: Monday 5th February: For our interactive journalism class we went over Charlie Brooker’s guide to the perfect VT so we could visualise how our projects VT and audio pieces were meant to look / sound. We then got into our VT groups and went through topic idea’s for all the live shows. We came up with our first VT piece that surrounds the topic ‘fake news’. Our idea is to create it around Buzzfeed and see which news is real / fake on there. Our group has planned to meet Wednesday to get the VT moving.
Tuesday 6th February: This morning we went over our roles for the live shows and got into our groups. I was with the presenters and we all went onto inception and did a refresher of how to create the script and then upload it into inception properly with all the correct features so we could read it properly on the autocue.
Wednesday 7th February: Today we have no class, however I met up with my VT group (Nosheen, Lucy & Jason) and went to film our Fake News VT for our show that goes live on Tuesday, February 13th. We went into the library and got vox pops from students who had to decipher which headlines were true or fake news. This was funny / interesting as some of the headlines were so bazaar yet some LSBU students still thought they were real. I did the PTC (piece to camera) and voiceover for the piece, Nosheen filmed my PTC’s, Me and Nosheen got the interviews and Lucy edited the piece together.
Friday 9th February: Today we went over inception for the radio show as it works differently from creating scripts for the TV broadcast and then we spoke about which voiceovers for the VT’s that we are going to be using for the radio show instead of creating new audio pieces.
WEEK 3: Monday 12th February: Today we had interactive journalism with Michael. We spoke about our VT’s that we had made in our groups and discussed how long they were in order to start creating the 15 minute show. We then went through and watched the groups who had already completed their VT packages and talked about how they incorporated fake news within it. We then spoke to our guest booker on which guests they had booked for the show and what they had to offer. We then made a list of questions / topics me and my co-presenter would be speaking to them about.
Tuesday 13th February: Today we have our first live show!!! We had a whole show meeting with the class, went through our VT’s and then started to write our SLUGS for inception so the editors could write the script in full.
Show time is 3 o clock. Surprisingly we only had enough time to go through the script once which was a little nerve wracking! We went through everyone’s VT’s and made sure we got the gist of the show so me and Georgie were ready to present the first 30 minute live show. The show ran smoothy with no major glitches however we had to ad-lib quite a bit as we couldn’t hear any of the sound via the Skype interview and one of our guests; Emily, turned up half way through the show so we had to slip her in at the end which wasn’t planned. After the show Me and Georgie both did our on the day reports which meant we spoke to viewers and recorded their answers on what they learnt from the 30 minute long show and what they think fake news is. Overall i think we did really well as presenters, the script was really well written by Jordan and he incorporated his sense of humour in too which was great. We also had quite a bit of audience participation which was a first … alongside doing the first 30 minute show!
Friday 16th February: Firstly we went over the past 24hrs news so we could find stories for the bulletins presenter for the on the day stories. We then narrowed it down to most important news (e.g – Florida shooting, UNICEF rights campaigner being accused of rape, and a lighter story, Jennifer Aniston divorces Justin Theroux) and put them in order of importance for the presenter to read out. Our radio show producers then did a run through of the show and went through exactly what everyone was doing. Presenters were happy with the script. Radio is great as its off camera so easier to ad-lib and move bits around as you can’t see the presenters facial expressions!
The show ran through great, presenters did a good job. The majority of the class stayed to listen to it after and upload it to soundcloud. We then watched Tuesday’s live show back and gave constructive criticism to those who produced and us presenters (me and Georgie).
WEEK 4: Monday 19th February: EDITORIAL MEETING: (TOPIC WAS OLYMPICS) Me and my VT group met in the morning to film at Canary Wharf ice rink for our project. Filming took about an hour. Me and Nosheen bought day tickets to go skating on the ice rink for filming. Lucy was allowed in but not on the ice just so she could film us. I also had a go-pro attached to me to get different angles whilst we were on the rink as we thought that would be great for some ‘birds eye view’ shots and real life footage. The skating was a lot harder than we remembered so it was great as we didn’t do very well at being a ‘professional ice skater’ for the day … or for the hour we were on there. We got a good interview with some professional skaters at the rink and they showed us some of their moves! Nosheen did the voiceover and Lucy did the PTC for this piece. It was a joint effort between us with the editing. Jason didn’t take part in the VT / editing despite him saying he would bring his camera and meet us at Canary Wharf … he didn’t show up on the day.
We then headed to class for 2pm and talked over what was in the show for the following day. We made sure everyone was on track to have everything edited for the following morning so that the show would be a full 15 minutes.
Tuesday 20th February: Today is show day! When me and my VT group got in we went back over our video and added in our lower thirds so it was clear who featured in the package. As a presenter one of our jobs is to go through everyone’s VT and audio packages which are being used for the shows and make sure we know them inside out and that we’re ready to talk about them when we’re presenting live.
We then went through the scripts with Jordan and added our own little bits throughout so it was more personal to us. We did a quick run through and then we got ready for the show, with our mic’s on ready for the live show at 3pm. This week’s show was a little easier than the first show as we didn’t have a live audience or any guests. It was also 15 minutes and jam packed with VT’s!
Wednesday 21st February: We didn’t have a class today, however I went to Kilburn Energie Fitness gym to interview a certified personal trainer and fitness blogger on her thoughts on using technology to train for my final project.
Friday 23rd February: Today was our live radio show. As I currently don’t have a role for the 2 week block of radio shows I have been helping anybody who needed a hand with any of the packages or scripts. The show ran smoothly with a great variety of content.
WEEK 5: Monday 26th February: We had our editorial meeting in the newsroom with Michael where we discussed what topics we were having in our upcoming shows. We are now only doing live shows every two weeks to make the VT flow easier for our groups. Our show topic is Local news in Southwark so we went to the Southwark newspaper and went through recent and ongoing stories that we could cover as groups. We have a few ideas, such as:
- The potential closing down of a mental health care home
- Fining people for engine idling
- Events for the elderly in Southwark
We then choose which topics our VT groups wanted to do and then planned how we will go about it.
Tuesday 27th February: The show for prospective students was cancelled due to snow.
Wednesday 28th February: Escape rooms
Friday 2nd March: Snow
WEEK 6: Monday 5th March: Me and my VT group (Nosheen, Lucy & Jason) met at 11.30am to start filming for our video package on Engine Idling at London Bridge. We had organised an interview with Ian Winfield at Southwark borough council who alongside London’s mayor – Sadiq Khan, he helped implement the fining system of Engine Idling within the borough of Southwark. We managed to get a 10 minute long interview as Ian was particularly interested in the cause. It entails of a verbal warning for an attendant and it the driver refuses to switch their engine off whilst idle, or continues to have their engine on after being asked, the driver will receive a £80 fine.
We then got GV’s in the area and I did the piece to camera and outro for the piece. We asked lots of people within the Southwark and London Bridge area about Engine Idling however not many people seemed to know much about the new implemented scheme. Mr Winfield told us even though the scheme has been in Southwark only a mere 5 days, they have already given out fines. Hopefully it will be introduced into the other 31 London boroughs to stop air pollution travelling around not just London but also the M25.
At 2pm we had interactive journalism with Michael. We went through our VT’s for tomorrow (Tuesdays) show and made sure we had everything we needed for the show to go out live. We then went over the following show’s topic which is homelessness within Southwark and how the council are trying to stop people sleeping rough. We got into our VT groups and then discussed how we could approach the topic.
Tuesday 6th March: Today we had interactive with Michael and our live show on Local news in Southwark at 3pm! As a group we showed Michael our VT so far although it wasn’t fully edited he gave us some tips on how to put it together in order for it to be aesthetically pleasing for the eye. This ended up being our favourite VT as a group, both to watch and to have filmed. Lucy did amazing to get us the interview with councillor Winfield. I did the PTC and outro. I also shot the GV’s that were used and Nosheen filmed all of my PTC’s. Lucy and Nosheen edited the piece together.
Many people didn’t turn up for this live show so all the roles were moved around slightly. I spent a lot of the day writing articles for my website and working on my submissions. I also helped get on the day stories for the bulletins presenter.
Jason only made an appearence and made no suggestions or contributions to our VT. It was solely a joint effort between Lucy, Nosheen & myself.
Wednesday 7th March: No lecture today so worked on my project at home
Thursday 8th March: No lecture today so worked on my project at home
Friday 9th March: Today we met at the newsroom at 10am. We have our live radio show at 3pm. I don’t have a specific role for this set of live shows so I was helping out to edit any content that anyone needed for the show. I wrote the slug for our audio that was being used in the show. For the show, me and Nosheen edited the audio from our Engine Idling VT package into an audio clip for the live show.
WEEK 7: Monday 12th March: Today we had interative journalism at 2pm with Michael. we went through last week’s show and how we thought it went. Pro’s / con’s of it. We then spoke about the topic for next week’s show and what subjects we could approach when producing VT’s for the live show. The topic is homelessness within the borough of Southwark. We then looked at some charity’s in the Southwark area which Michael had found and then looked through their bio to see what they did as a company to support homeless people. We then talked about The Big Issue and how they support homelessness by creating a magazine which homeless / less fortunate can buy for little money and sell onwards for a higher price. On Southwark news there’s quite a lot on homelessness. Elephant and Castle are fighting to knock down the shopping centre to create affordable homes for people. We also spoke about different types of homelessness, whether you’re legally homeless, sleeping in and out of hostels and bed and breakfasts etc.
One of the topics my group is looking at doing is talking about the London boroughs that have the highest rates of homelessness. Interestingly, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea is in the top ten. Newham is the highest with just over 13,000 homeless people.
Tuesday 13th March: Today we got in to the newsroom at 10am and started working on our projects. My group decided to do our VT on the contrast between the rise in wealthy persons in the West London boroughs and the Grenfell Tower tragedy. We went to Grenfell Tower today as got GV’s for our VT and spoke to protesters in the area about how we could help the Grenfell cause.
Thursday 15th March: Although we didn’t have a scheduled lecture today I came in and worked on my project. I spent a lot of the day recording in the radio studio.
Friday 16th March: As we now have shows every two weeks, we didn’t have a lecture today so I came in and worked on my project and the VT. We also started planning for the radio show which is next Friday.
WEEK 8: Monday 19th March: Flew to Australia. Class had an editorial meeting, i made sure all my content for the VT and audio packages was completed before I left. I was constantly updated my text from Nosheen.
TUESDAY 20TTH MARCH: My group had some audio problems with the VT, Nosheen did the voiceover, me and Lucy filmed and Lucy edited.
FRIDAY 23RD MARCH: cancelled show.
WEEK 9: Monday April 16th: Editorial meeting for the last ever show. We were able to chose our own VT groups. We were initially going to do the show on the upcoming royal wedding then we decided otherwise. My group was Ashley Georgie and myself. We decided to do it on our favourite t-shirts and why we love them!
WEEK 10: Monday April 23rd: PREP WEEK FOR LIVE SHOW. We spoke about our final projects and how we could have improved / what we did well and our interactive journalism submissions. There are no more classes this week as we had other submissions.
WEEK 11: Monday April 30th: FINAL SHOW WEEK; We went over our last final show as a year and gave out specific roles and group VT packages. My role for the show was director. This meant I had to organise everybody into their correct positions and get the presenters mic’d up and also seat guests and welcome them.
Tuesday May 1st: Me and my group met up and filmed for our VT on our favourite t-shirts and what they mean to us. My favourite T-shirt is my Coachella festival tee. Its a lineup t-shirt of all the bands that played Coachella Weekend 1.
Friday 4th May: LAST RADIO SHOW EVER!!! I didn’t have a specific role so helped write slugs for the audio packages. Not many people were in. Ashley & Georgie presented.
WEEK 12: Monday May 7th: Me and Nosheen came in and filmed some extra audio clips for our interactive audio piece we are submitting and then attended the meeting at 2pm.
Tuesday May 8th: We came in for the meeting in the break out room at 2pm. Me and Nosheen also got vox pops for our upcoming audio submission.
