WINOL: Critical Reflection 7/12/13

WINOL’s circulation figures improved at a much greater rate than they did this time last year. The website was competitive in the Alexa rankings within the first few weeks. Figures from the final week of October for the UK show that WINOL sat firmly in the middle of the highest student-lead news sites and Hampshire’s biggest news outlets, although the global position was more disappointing. The most recent figures show that WINOL is higher than East London Lines in the rankings but below JMU and Leeds Universities.

To improve on these figures the team will have to come up with a broader range of stories with a better style of writing. Although this has been improved upon over the last few months, the quality of the writing did not improve at the same rate as the quality of the video packages. There needs to be more of a focus on written stories and they can’t seem so slap-dash and be put up at the last minute. The subs had a tough job editing the stories with a lot of people turning in scripts. This problem persisted until they introduced a ‘Subs Bible’ that outlined exactly what the stories needed.

Another problem that affected the circulation was the lack of a clear target audience – were we aiming to be a local news outlet for Winchester, or should our output have focused on students? I feel that the WINOL news output needs to be a local news outlet and let the features deal with the student side of the target audience.

As a local output, WINOL hit the target on numerous occasions with most stories having a clear local angle although there was nothing as big breaking as the Eastleigh by-election. We covered the BAE job losses but I feel that more could have been made of it by being in Portsmouth at the time of the workers’ protests. This would have allowed to us to reel in some hits from Hampshire’s biggest news item. With that being said, the initial news broke on a Wednesday and although attempts to get to Portsmouth failed we did utilise a link-up from the studio to the newsroom to discuss the developing story. A story we did capitalise on was the Chief whip’s decision to retire. He is the MP for North West Hampshire so that provided a local angle to a national story.

The features side of WINOL struck the student audience with well-targeted material on fashion, technology and entertainment. Access Winchester was introduced this semester and I feel that it was a success. It had interviews with TV personalities, sneak peaks at theatrical shows and a look at some of the latest advancements in technology, all of which speak to a student audience. The fashion magazine, Absolute:ly, also catered for the audience with make up and clothing tips, as well as some interviews with well-regarded people in the business.

The quality WINOL’s video output was hit and miss until the last bulletin where people started to get the hang of things. Technical issues continued to plight VTs throughout the semester with shots being either out of focus or over-exposed. Reporters need to reshoot shots that have these issues. I understand that it’s hard to do this with interviews but with GVs there’s no excuse for them to look bad. If they don’t look like they do on the TV then something isn’t right and it needs to be changed. Other issues with VTs include a lack of shots and a lack of sequences, although this can be put down to inexperience.

As far as the news stories themselves go, the VTs, technical issues aside, weren’t that bad. There was an obvious improvement in story telling as the semester continued and eventually the graphics started to look better too. Interviews were an issue for a while as no real quotes were used; instead people opted for exposition that should be in their own voice. Towards the end of the semester cameras were renamed ‘quote-grabbing machines’. This had a good impact as it meant people now had to focus on getting quotes from interviewees rather than getting facts.

WINOL Sport improved after a very slow start. I gave a short tutorial of how to film football matches which lead to an improvement in the match highlights.

This semester I had a new role on the news desk as a technology reporter.

After a debate on whether or not my news package on the PC game Minecraft was a feature or a news item it aired on WINOL as an ‘and finally’. I feel that it was the right decision to air this on WINOL rather than Access Winchester as, although it wasn’t the heaviest of stories, a local man had created something on a game played by millions worldwide. I also produced an obituary for WINOL Here and Now on the life of Tom Clancy.

My first item for Access came in week two and was shot and edited in one day – a feature on the top five mobile phone apps for students. With the tight deadline in mind, this feature came out well. I tried to make it as entertaining and funny as possible as the subject matter was a bit thin. This week also saw me present the WINOL bulletin for the one and only time. Despite making a couple of mistakes I felt that this went well.

My news story for week three was well shot but out of our target audience as it meant travelling to Reading. It was on Wolf Awareness Week but I had to film the wolves from other side of the fence whereas usually I would have been allowed in with the wolves. I made a point of making a joke about this in my script to give justification as to why I was on the wrong side of the fence.

For week four I obtained press passes for Access Winchester to visit the Apps World convention in Earl’s Court where the latest mobile phone applications and gadgets were shown off. To avoid corporate speak and hit our target audience we chose to interview people with the most interesting gadgets. I also stuck a microphone in front of people who looked a bit weird and interviewed them. We framed the entire Access show from here with me and Jack dual presenting in an ‘Ant and Dec’ style, although this came across as a bit too cute.

Week five saw me take over as the news editor for WINOL. There was a good range of stories in the news meeting including a breaking story on job losses in Hampshire County Council that lead the bulletin due to the local angle. It contested the lead position with Ellen’s story on the large storm that battered England but I chose to put this second as the news wasn’t as fresh. I was a bit disappointed with the bulletin until I saw it go out. We had issues with timing as most of the stories were less than a minute long but the final product looked and felt like a news bulletin with a clear beginning, middle and end.

For week six I stepped up my game and produced what Angus described as the best student news package he had ever seen. It was on changes to scrap metal law. The natural sound was brilliant – it started with a car being crushed by a crane before moving on to the sound of a church organ. It also had natural sound of paper rustling in a three-shot sequence introducing the inspector. I had a piece to camera in a scrap yard that threw to a victim case study at the church. I also introduced the victim with a three-shot sequence - I asked him to play the organ. The victim gave me the holy grail of quotes not once but twice, using the words ‘horrendous’ and ‘disaster’.  The inspector was harder to get a quote out of but I eventually managed to get her saying that she feels that scrap yards will welcome the change in law.

Week seven of WINOL saw me return to the sports team as I had conducted an interview with Southampton FC legend David Armstrong, although without the link people may not realise that he’s a former professional footballer as it was shot in a bland office, as pointed out by Claudia Murg. I wanted to use AFC Totton’s stadium’s stands as a setting for the interview but there was a youth match going on so that would have caused legal issues. The feature interview itself is 15 minutes long but I made shorter cuts for WINOL, Sports Week and another website that I contribute to. I managed to get the interview by calling in some contacts that I had made at AFC Totton the previous season.

I was unhappy with the outcome of week eight’s package for Access Winchester. It was a nothing story about a new video game at Beaulieu National Motor Museum. I got access to the museum and got some great shots of some of the old cars but the actual package was a bit boring.

For week nine I produced another two stories, one for Access and one for WINOL. My story for Access was based on the word ‘selfie’ as it had been named ‘word of the year’ by the Oxford English Dictionary. I created a two-part feature where I went to Bournemouth in an attempt to take selfies with the general public. As I was having no luck I made a spectacle of the fact and tried to take selfies with squirrels and inanimate objects. Part one finished me chucking my ‘FREE SELFIES’ t-shirt on the floor, effectively giving up. Part two saw me take to the sky in a hot air balloon to try to the ‘ultimate selfie’ with all of Bournemouth below me. I felt that this package worked very well and I’m happy with the overall outcome. It’s entertaining and focuses directly on a student audience.

My story for WINOL was a look at how WINOL students performed in the BJTC awards. I was given two hours to make this package before deadline, with the final news of winners and runners-up not reaching the newsroom until half an hour before we went live. I quickly mixed a voice over to the sound on the packages and beat the deadline by ten minutes. Angus said that the turnaround was a real success.

Week 10 marked my final week as a WINOL reporter. I wanted to make the most of it so I produced three packages.

My first package was a review of the Playstation 4 for Access Winchester. I had a few technical issues with lighting so I opted to use a high gain setting. Luckily it doesn’t ruin the overall look and feel of the review. It’s well-paced and I made use of fair dealing by using videos of the games I review from YouTube.

My second package of the week saw me take on politics for the first time as news had just broken that the Chief whip, the MP for North West Hampshire, is to retire in 2015. It lacked images so I used some archive footage and created a graphic to show a timeline of his jobs in government. I also drove to London to film a PTC outside Westminster.

My final package for WINOL came in the form of a video interview with Southampton FC legend Matt Le Tissier for the website. I used the same contact I used to get the interview with David Armstrong and quizzed Matt on philosophy for my dissertation before asking him what he thought of UEFA’s idea of introducing sin-bins to football.

Overall I feel that WINOL has been a bit hit and miss for the last few months and that there is a lot of room for improvement, but that is a very similar position to last year; more care and attention needs to be given to the text stories. On a personal level I think I produced my best work for WINOL this semester.