Interactive Journalism Workbook

12 May Interactive Journalism Workbook

Week 1 – 28/01/2019

One of the main pieces of work for this module was to create a project that could be submitted as a competition entry. This week I did some research into some competitions that were available to enter. Some of the ones that seemed interesting to me were; Mind media awards and the new media writing prize.

The mind media awards are to recognise and celebrate the best representations of mental health across TV, radio, print and online. Due to there being a lot of negative portrayals of mental health in the media, mind like to acknowledge the positive depictions. Their research shows that the more mental health is reported in the media, the more people feel comfortable talking about it.

The new media writing prize showcases stories and poetry that integrate a variety of formats, platforms, and digital media. The prize encourages and promotes the best in new media writing and is leading the way toward the future of the ‘written’ word and storytelling. They offer a variety of prizes, including; a 3 month, paid work placement at Unicorn Training, development support and cash prizes. The work must be a great example of how new media can do things which the traditional media cannot.

All of these awards are ones that I feel I could create a good enough project for and think I could meet the criteria for each. I need to do some further research into each of these awards, and other ones on offer, to figure out which one I want to create my entry for.

Week 2 – 07/02/2019

This week we put on a live news show and radio show, but the elements that made up the show were different from what we have produced before. Normally the class is assigned to put together specific packages of news stories throughout the week. However this week, we had a discussion show, in which there was one presenter and two groups of people, each conversing about different topics that were taking up the news.

Throughout the morning we assigned roles and decided which topics were going to be talked about on the two shows. The two topics chosen were body positivity, presented by Safia, Delina, and Leanne, and the death of footballer Emiliano Sala, presented by James and Nick. Both of the points of discussion were presented by Liam, who acted as the main presenter in both the news and radio show. My role this week was on the soundboard in both shows, however, I also had to take on VFX in the news show, due to lack of numbers in this week’s class.

We started with the radio show. For this, I needed a quick refresher on the studio equipment however the show went well. Because there were no packages to be loaded into the system, it was easy to prepare for the show. Once the sound check had been completed and the voice clips from online were loaded, the show was ready to go live. Despite the lack of packages to play, the radio show was nothing irregular from what the class would normally produce. It did, however, give us the chance to refresh our radio studio skills.

The live news show, however, involved a lot more talking than usual, so, therefore, the presenter and the ‘expert’ speakers needed to be able to engage to the audience for longer periods of time. During the live show, as said earlier, I had the role of both soundboard and VFX. I have worked on the soundboard many times before, so this role was quite easy for me to complete. However, the VFX was completely new to me. We had a few still shots to play over some discussion points in the show and to cover the change of guests, so these needed to be uploaded onto the system. This is something that I needed some help with but was simple to do once shown how.

Overall, this week enabled us to continue developing skills that we have gained over the last three years of the degree. It also enabled us to learn skills from new areas that we hadn’t worked on before, such as myself on VFX. Both of the shows, in my opinion, went very well, and it was a nice change to complete more of a discussion piece, rather than the usual live shows we create.

Week 3 – 14/02/2019

This is one of the first weeks of the semester that we have been shown a new way to present news stories. Thursday’s lecture consisted of audiograms and creating short clips that told or introduced news stories. We were asked to pick a topic or news story that we were interested in, and using the website Headliner, create an audiogram.

The software used was very easy to understand and enabled you to create an audiogram of your choice in about 10-15 minutes, once you had sourced your images and linked up to the text to the correct graphic. I liked learning this way of telling news stories, as it’s different from the traditional way of a live news show. The audiograms are good for use on social media and enable more people to see what is going on in the news whilst they’re on the go.

Week 4 – 18/02/2019

This week consisted of learning another, different way of presenting news stories. Mobile journalism is becoming more and more popular, as it can be used by both professionals and amateurs. If people have no access to a news camera, they can easily capture the footage on their mobiles and edit it into a normal looking news package.

We were put into teams and given a list of news stories to get footage for. Once we had found out all the relevant information and had a rough idea of the shots we needed to get, we planned a route and headed out. We had to ensure that the phones recording the clips were set to the correct resolution, otherwise, when we would get to editing the clips and playing them live, they wouldn’t pay out correctly. Once all of this was done, we just needed to edit the clips together for a short bulletin package, which was a similar process to what we have done before.

This method of journalism is great for capturing the news as it happens. If you are live at a scene where a story is breaking out and you don’t have a camera, it’s just as good to capture the footage on your mobile. I would definitely use this type of journalism again, as it was very simple to understand and similar to what we have done before. It’s good to know that creating news content on your phone can be just as good as using a camera.

Week 5 – 27/02/2019

For my competition entry, I chose the Mind media awards. My topic is about how mental health and homelessness are interlinked with one another. There will also be a focus on how men and women approach the two topics, and if one gender finds it easier than the other to access help.

The criteria for this award is that the piece of work must have been produced between June 2018 and June 2019. The content should be relevant to mental health and challenge the perception of mental health in the current media. It should be produced responsibly and safe for the intended audience and must give a voice to people with mental health problems, including at least one first-hand testimony.

For my proposal, I either want to produce a piece of writing, possibly a long-form article, or a radio package, including key interviews from health professionals and personal stories. I want to get in contact with homeless shelters who might be able to give me some information on particular people who wish to tell their stories regarding mental health and homelessness. I want to gather a variety of people’s views about how men and women find these two topics, with maybe one or two people giving in-depth insight to their past with mental health and homelessness.

There is a lot of studies that show that women are worse off being homeless than men are and that their suffering is greater whilst they’re on the streets. I wanted to challenge this view, by doing my own further research into important statistics and gathering personal views from other people.

Week 6 – 06/03/2019

Key stats found for competition entry:

• In the UK 2015, there were 3,355 homeless people in 27 different local authorities. 71% of these were men. [Source]
• Poor mental health can be both a cause and consequence of homelessness
• A third of people who use ‘Crisis’ have a history of mental health problems.
• PTSD may have a substantial negative effect on the lives of already homeless men, especially those who are experiencing severe mental health illnesses or have addictive personality disorders.
• [Source]
• The big issue, 2018: 4 in 5 homeless people suffer from a mental health problem.
• Studies found that rough sleepers with psychiatric issues spend longer on the streets, with little or no effective targeted provision from mental health services.
• Mind recognise the problem of mental health and homelessness as a ‘chicken-and-egg’ issue.
• Mental health services are hard to access if you are homeless. There’s usually a long waiting list and you will need to offer a point of contact, so they are able to get back in touch with you once a slot is available.
• A study of 2,500 people around the UK, found that 45% had been diagnosed with mental health problems, 80% reporting some form of mental health problem.
• Soup Kitchen in London is now offering the worlds first drop-in mental health service.
• [Source]

Week 7 – 12/03/2019

Based on my feedback, I will be creating a 1,500 word article, alongside an audio package of at least two minutes long.

Further statistics on mental health and homelessness:

• Of the 13,972 suicides in the UK, between 2003 and 2013, almost 1/3 were patient suicides. Meaning that the victim had been in contact with mental health series within the year before their death.
• By 2030, it is estimated that there will be around 2million more people suffering with mental health issues than there was four years ago.
• [Source]
• 38% of people with mental health issues, say they’ve been treated negatively due to stigma. More than 50% of them have lost contact with family members or loved ones, and a fifth have lost their job.
• Studies from mentalhealth.org have reported a higher prevalence of mental health problems in the homeless, compared to the general population.
• Many people cite mental health problems as a reason for being homeless.
• The most prevalent health problems amongst homeless individuals are substance misuse (62.5%), mental health problems (53.7%), or a combination of the two (42.6%).
• [Source]

Questions to ask in interviews:

• Personal stories:
  1. Can you give a brief overview on your own experiences with mental health and homelessness?
  2. To what extent do you think homelessness and mental health problems can be linked together?
  3. Do you think that mental health problems have and impact on someone being homeless? Or vice versa?
  4. How easy do you think it is for men or women to find out about or access help for both homelessness and/or mental health problems?
• Survey Questions / Questions for therapist:
  1. To what extent do you think homelessness and mental health issues are linked together?
  2. Do you think it’s easy for men to access or find out about help for mental health problems? Why?
  3. In the UK 2015, there were 3,355 homeless people in 27 different local authorities. 71% of these were men. Do you think, in relation to these figures, there is enough exposure for mental health problems in men, both homeless and not?

Week 8 – 18/03/2019

The main focus of this week was the live news day, which we were assessed on for the interactive journalism module. For this assessment, I was an on the day reporter teamed up with Alice, and we had to choose a story from a pre-made list to create both a news package for the live show and for the radio show.

We chose to make a package about how the theatres in Southwark were giving free tickets to primary school children within the borough. We did some research into the story, decided on what video clips we needed to get for the live show, and what voice clips we needed for the radio package. We decided to use mobile journalism as the method for getting the video clips. We attempted to get a professional interview to include in the packages, however, due to the short notice, no one was available to speak to us.

Once all of the clips were filmed and recorded, we came back to the newsroom to edit them into both a radio and news package. We thought we’d play to what we knew best, so Alice edited the video package, whilst I put together the radio piece. Once I got back into the main process of editing the package, everything more or less came back to me on how to do it. It was nice to know that the skills were simple to recall, but the software also had little tips along the way if you got stuck.

Overall I think the live shows went well and all of the packages that were produced flowed really well, considering they had all been assigned, shot and produced all on the same day. I think if doing it again, I would have sent out interview requests a bit sooner so that people would’ve had more time to respond. I would also have liked to see if I found it easy to remember how to use the software to put together a video package.

Week 9 – 25/03/2019

Some of the responses received back from survey:

• No I do not think it is easy (for men to find help) since it seems most mental health advocacy is focused on women and a good portion of people think certain mental illnesses only occur in women such as eating disorders.
• Yes, I feel if a person really wanted to seek help then they can easily find that help through either the internet, family or friends. However I feel it’s more about people not being willing to seek help about their mental health and that’s when bad things occur such as suicide.
• Yes but many find that they are unable to seek help for the first of being judged.
• I feel that would be a link that can be made. I feel the circumstances that a homeless person would be in, would lead to mental health occurring.
• I believe a large percentage of homeless people have a mental illness.
• Not enough mental health support for homeless, not enough support for homeless in general.
• both Homeless and not homeless men Can have mental health problems. The homeless people will definitely have more of a reason to have mental health problems due to the circumstances they are in, however I feel they will struggle to find help more than non-homeless men as they won’t have the same resources( internet, family and friends). I feel that homeless people get isolated by non-homeless people and don’t get the sympathy that some of them deserve. This can be a problem as homeless people more than likely won’t be able to enter public buildings without being seen as a threat which in one case could be when they go to seek help for their mental health problems.

Problems with getting interviewees:

I had a man and a woman lined up for the interviews on personal stories involving their own pasts involving homelessness and mental health struggles. However, my male interviewee dropped out relatively last minute due to further events arising from his current living situation. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about it, in case it caused more issues, thoughts or memories to enter his mind. After attempting to get other men to tell their stories, they also expressed how they didn’t feel comfortable talking about it, even though their identity would be completely anonymous. This, I feel highlights the stigma behind men telling their stories on their mental health and homelessness, as many of them felt that they would be judged, and shows that they find it difficult to talk about their mental health.

Week 10 – 01/04/2019

In week ten we were given the chance to create content for a live event, below the surface. In the brief, we were told that we would be creating short videos of the music being played, writing up news articles about what goes on at the venue and the story behind it, and creating audio pieces made up interviews and song clips.

However on the day, no one had booked out any kit, therefore we were unable to record anything that we could take away. Everything that was recorded was put onto the cameras of the guys who had organised the event. This footage, I don’t think, was able to be sent away so we could edit it at a later date for them. There was also a lack of knowledge about the history of the venue and the guest who was performing. The two guys who were in charge were very busy setting up for the show and making sure that all of their equipment was set up and working correctly. The guests performing also arrived not long before they were set to do a run through, therefore there wasn’t much time to ask them any questions beforehand, and gather any information.

Because the venue was just starting up and was hidden in an old police station, there wasn’t much information about them on the internet. The same with the guest singers/band. Because they were fairly new to the scene there was little information to find out about them, without asking them in an interview. On the one hand, this was great because we could ask a wide variety of questions to find out all of the information first hand from them. However, it also made it difficult to get a rough idea of some specific questions.

Overall it was a good experience to see the live event and get an idea of what it’s like covering news stories like this. But I think that there should’ve been more planning involved, rather than one brief meeting telling us what the event would entail, and then us arriving on the day not knowing clearly what to expect. I think this might have been a reason that not many people turned up as well, as barely any of the class was there on the day. I also think it would’ve been better if we could have gotten some footage before and after the show, rather than just some brief interviews afterward.

Week 11 – 02/05/2019

One of the biggest pieces of work that we have produced throughout this degree was our journalism projects/papers. It was a piece of work to showcase an area of journalism that we felt most confident in. The majority of the class chose to do the journalism project, and there were about 4-5 of use to do the research paper. For my work, I did a research paper on the effects that magazine articles and advertisements have on young women’s views on their body image.

Overall I enjoyed doing the paper, as it gave me the opportunity to research further into a topic that I find very interesting and see how others feel about it. In week eleven, we were all asked to do a presentation of between 5-15 minutes, to show the second years what we have produced, and to give them an idea of what kinds of work is expected.

For the people who completed the project, this presentation was a little bit easier as they could use their time to show the videos, audio segments and other visual elements that they had produced for their final pieces. For those of us who did the research paper, we just had to make a short PowerPoint presentation and talk through the layout of the paper, why we chose the topics we did, and how we completed our research to come to the conclusions that we came to.

I think it was useful for the second years to get some feedback from us about what to do with their own projects and papers, and for them to see the variety of different kinds of work that they can produce. Even though we saw a few third-year projects before completing our own, it would have been nice to have the amount of feedback that they had.

Week 12 – 08/05/2019

As part of our final piece of work for the journalism degree, we have been asked to produce the end of year show, showcasing work from all of the different creative courses graduating this year. The layout will be kind of like a live show, with different segments for each of the degrees. As with a standard live show, we needed a production, editorial, and presentation team, so once these were assigned, we could start working out what we wanted in each segment.

For the journalism section of the show, we wanted different people to produce showreels of the work that they have produced throughout the degree. This would be played along with some interviews with members of the course, giving insight into how they have found their three years on the degree. The editorial team was in charge of speaking to people from the other creative arts degrees, and getting some footage from them to play and some guests to speak in their different sections.

This will be an entirely live event, which will be a great way to finish off the degree and showcase what everyone has done and created over their time at LSBU. All that is left to do is to ensure that all of the pre-recorded content is ready to play out on the day and that guests know what is expected from them.