I ensured that our Twitter feed was kept up to date throughout the online news day by notifying our Twitter followers every time a new article was posted on Buzz. I utilised the bit.ly website when including links in my Twitter posts, which shortens the links down and leaves more room to describe the content of the article itself. I also used Twitter to involve readers by asking questions relating to the articles. For example – when an article was posted about childhood toys of the 90s, I asked Twitter followers to share their favourite childhood toy. Twitter proved to be a very useful means of interacting with Buzz readers.
Every feature pieces posted on Buzz had some relevance to a current news story – we took advantage of the online medium by writing features that tied in with the very latest news (unlike magazines, which tend to be weekly or monthly publications). Additionally, we ensured that the multi-media capabilities of the internet were utilised by including video, audio and images along with the text, as well as hyperlinks to websites relevant to the articles.
My articles included two music reviews and a film review on Burma VJ – a film which was screened in university that day. I wrote the review in collaboration with a colleague which I found rather difficult, as it required us to compromise and agree on our opinion on the film. It probably would have been easier and quicker to have written the review on my own.
Monday 26 April 2010
Online News
As I was deputy editor for the online news day, I was required to attend a meeting the night before, at which the editors and deputy editors of each news team discussed possible news stories and potential opportunities for media convergence. We also talked about which members of our news team were to be sent into the town centre and other areas of Bournemouth on the hunt for stories. I felt that this meeting helped to prepare each news team, and ensured that the convergence aspect was pre-planned enough to occur smoothly on the news day itself.
Many of the stories written by our team that day were originally sourced – either from police voicebanks and council press releases, or by members of the team taking to the streets in order to find stories. We tried to avoid rehashing stories from the Echo or BBC Dorset website, and borrowing/sharing material from the other news teams helped to maximise the amount of original content we were able to produce and publish on the day.
I also edited the stories of other reporters, paying particular attention to messy grammatical structures and glaring spelling mistakes, as well as keeping the Twitter feed up to date with every new article posted on the site.
Many of the stories written by our team that day were originally sourced – either from police voicebanks and council press releases, or by members of the team taking to the streets in order to find stories. We tried to avoid rehashing stories from the Echo or BBC Dorset website, and borrowing/sharing material from the other news teams helped to maximise the amount of original content we were able to produce and publish on the day.
I also edited the stories of other reporters, paying particular attention to messy grammatical structures and glaring spelling mistakes, as well as keeping the Twitter feed up to date with every new article posted on the site.
TV
For the TV day, I filmed a package with one of my colleagues. The package was based on a statistic released by the Dorset Police that day, which stated that twenty Dorset drivers are caught without seatbelts every day. It was appropriate for the bulletin because of its localised topic, and enabled us to converge with the radio news team by using their interview with a police officer alongside the footage. Once the package was completed, we passed it onto the online news team to be put on the Buzz website. Creating this package helped to highlight the benefits of converged journalism.
After completing my package I helped the rest of my team overcome any editing problems. Our TV lecturer and Final Cut guru was absent on this day, so we encountered more editing issues than usual and took slightly longer to overcome them. Generally these problems involved the inclusion of text and graphics in TV packages and we managed to use our collective editing knowledge to deal with them.
I feel that the team worked together well. We arranged roles and organised ourselves prior to the day via a Facebook message stream which helped us to get underway quickly. Unfortunately we were hindered by the lack of sufficient TV cameras, which meant that reporters had to take turns in filming their packages, and the absence of our TV lecturer also meant that we struggled in transferring the video and the auto-cue to the studio. As a result of these issues, our packages were slightly rushed and the bulletin itself didn’t go particularly smoothly. However, I’m happy with the final product considering the circumstances – our packages covered a wide array of news topics, the script writing was strong and concise, and the presenters both retained a professional appearance throughout and read the script clearly and confidently.
After completing my package I helped the rest of my team overcome any editing problems. Our TV lecturer and Final Cut guru was absent on this day, so we encountered more editing issues than usual and took slightly longer to overcome them. Generally these problems involved the inclusion of text and graphics in TV packages and we managed to use our collective editing knowledge to deal with them.
I feel that the team worked together well. We arranged roles and organised ourselves prior to the day via a Facebook message stream which helped us to get underway quickly. Unfortunately we were hindered by the lack of sufficient TV cameras, which meant that reporters had to take turns in filming their packages, and the absence of our TV lecturer also meant that we struggled in transferring the video and the auto-cue to the studio. As a result of these issues, our packages were slightly rushed and the bulletin itself didn’t go particularly smoothly. However, I’m happy with the final product considering the circumstances – our packages covered a wide array of news topics, the script writing was strong and concise, and the presenters both retained a professional appearance throughout and read the script clearly and confidently.
Radio
I was responsible for creating the stings for our bulletins, and felt that my song choices were appropriate for the target audience, as well as merging nicely with the tone and pace of the bulletin itself. I chose “High Rise” by Ladytron for the intro (a high-energy, dance track that encompassed the urgency and serious tone of the news) and football crowd noise for the sports news.
Half an hour before each bulletin, my colleagues and I went into the studio to run through the script and make any last-minute adjustments – either because of inaccuracies or because the bulletin needed to be shortened/lengthened in order to reach the allotted time. We decided to do this after feeling quite disorganised during the mock bulletins on the first radio news day – changes had to be made to the script and we didn’t allocate sufficient time to make them.
I feel the bulletins were successful, largely because the entire news team retained an awareness of the target audience at all times. “Buzz FM” is aimed at an older (45+) audience across Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, therefore we ensured that local stories largely took priority over national stories and entertainment news was kept to a minimum (although it did feature as a “lighter note” in the afternoon bulletin, which had a more “relaxed” vibe than the 1pm bulletin). Clips were mostly original audio, from either vox pops around Bournemouth town or the university, or from interviews with people relevant to the stories. Both bulletins went out on time, although we were unable to rehearse for the 3pm one due to a slight lapse in organisation (perhaps due to complacency brought on by the success of the first bulletin). However, I feel that our editor Amber was successful in keeping an eye over the progress of the news team, assigning roles and ensuring that everything took place on schedule. As presenter, I feel that I fulfilled my role to a good standard. My delivery was clear (aside from a few small errors) and generally paced suitably (slow enough to appeal to our older audience).
Half an hour before each bulletin, my colleagues and I went into the studio to run through the script and make any last-minute adjustments – either because of inaccuracies or because the bulletin needed to be shortened/lengthened in order to reach the allotted time. We decided to do this after feeling quite disorganised during the mock bulletins on the first radio news day – changes had to be made to the script and we didn’t allocate sufficient time to make them.
I feel the bulletins were successful, largely because the entire news team retained an awareness of the target audience at all times. “Buzz FM” is aimed at an older (45+) audience across Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, therefore we ensured that local stories largely took priority over national stories and entertainment news was kept to a minimum (although it did feature as a “lighter note” in the afternoon bulletin, which had a more “relaxed” vibe than the 1pm bulletin). Clips were mostly original audio, from either vox pops around Bournemouth town or the university, or from interviews with people relevant to the stories. Both bulletins went out on time, although we were unable to rehearse for the 3pm one due to a slight lapse in organisation (perhaps due to complacency brought on by the success of the first bulletin). However, I feel that our editor Amber was successful in keeping an eye over the progress of the news team, assigning roles and ensuring that everything took place on schedule. As presenter, I feel that I fulfilled my role to a good standard. My delivery was clear (aside from a few small errors) and generally paced suitably (slow enough to appeal to our older audience).
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