30th Nov Union Strikes Coverage

In preparation for Winchester News Online's all-day live coverage of the Union Strikes on the 30th November 2011, Claire and I produced and edited three new sequences which are to be used throughout the day. We created a new opening sequence:

A 5 second opening sequence:

And a 1 minute countdown: (To be used after ad-breaks or if we have technical issues)

Features - W/O 21st Nov

This week, features due to be produced were:

- Games Review - Lifestyle special
- Restaurant Review - Buddy's Diner
- Music - Interview with Alex Eaden-Smith - Marketing Manager

These were the packages all due to be featured in WINOL Life.

The Games Review - Lifestyle Special - was not suitable to be broadcast. It was advised by myself and Chris to get an expert to at least gain some knowledge of the lifestyle of gamers, rather than just assumptions. The package did not make sense, it was a review of the latest game release Skyrim, tied in with the lifestyle of gamers, i.e. not eating healthily while playing games.
Having started the feature with searching the internet, nothing came of it, instead both Graham and Ewan began drinking raw eggs, raw brocoli and fruit, while reviewing the game. It wasn't stated where they were advised to eat these foods if anywhere, and although amusing, it wasn't clear. There was no summary or conclusion so it was not clear what they got/learnt from eating those foods while gaming, or what they didn't achieve if there was a goal, it was more a mock up of healthy eating, but not based on anything they'd read/been advised.
Due to the lack of angle and unclear presentation, I've asked if this can be re-edited with a clear angle. Good idea, but wasn't clear enough in the production. We could not use this in WINOL Life, we used their most recent Games Review Show.

The Restaurant Review - Buddy's Diner - This was Becky and Zoe's second review in which they followed a similar format to that of the Giraffe review. This one followed more of the review criteria so creating the balance of postives and negatives, forming a clear view of the restaurant.
When editing though, their sound failed and their voices were echoed. We couldn't use this in WINOL Life either due to the techical issues, so we used Giraffe Restaurant to introduce the first of the reviews, stating that this one will be available soon. To overcome the technical issues, I have advised that they record voiceovers for the whole piece in a similar way that they did in their first review.

Music Interview - Alex Eaden-Smith -
David's music interview was with the marketing manager for Coldplay, Tinie Tempah and others. This is very strong for WINOL, such a big name. The whole interview is 6 minutes, Dave re-versioned this for WINOL Life to 1 minute. We were able to show the guest editor this which was relevant to her field as Entertainments Editor to which she was able to discuss interviews techniques and names.

WINOL Life:
This weeks WINOL Life was the best show so far, in my opinion. It was very strong, and it makes such a difference not having a rehearsal with the guest in the studio as it creates a stronger 'chat-show' feel to it, rather than it being very scripted. The presenters, Hannah and George, did very well, ensuring they didn't stick to the script word for word and asking follow-on questions to the guest.

Our guest this week was Lorelei Reddin - Entertainments Editor from the Daily Echo.
Lorelei was very good on the show, giving us constructive critiscism good advise.

Features - Comment Column

Diary of a Winchester Lady is our very strong aspect of our written content on WINOL. Poppy Murray is the columnist for this, and has provided all the content for this comment column. Once the column was up and running and articles were being produced on a regular basis, I thought it would be a lot better to have all these columns on one page of the site. This is not only better layout for the website, but also our audience will see all the articles written for this column. Through this, Poppy will begin to build her own audience who know to come to the site for her content. This will also be enforced now that we have a cartoon image of her specifically for the site. I was able to get this through a contact from Winchester Fashion Week. This was produced free of charge, on the basis that we accredit them.

Poppy’s articles are very strong and all have a clear angle. Each week she emails me her draft copies of articles and I give her feedback on ways to improve each piece. Poppy has fully understood the key aspects of a column piece and has been demonstrating that through her written pieces.

This week Poppy has written an article entitled: ‘Would you Rather’. This piece explores the values and viewpoints of young people and what they would rather do given two choices. She ends with bulletin points of advice from her own point of view, as a young person, which are amusing and will appeal to our audience. The only issue I had with the piece was a spelling error of Baz Luhrmann, singer of ‘Wear Sunscreen’. If this hadn’t of been noticed this would have been a fatal error, and just goes to prove the importance of editing, and checking your facts.

Coming up Poppy is to continue with her comment column as well as producing two fashion articles. One will take on the research of transgender modelling, and the other the explore current trends within the UK and looking into the views of International students on these trends. This is all in preparation for Maria Milano coming in, and will also give Poppy an area to cover, which she hasn’t looked into yet.

This weekend, also, Poppy attended the Ideal Home Show Christmas Exhibition, of which she has taken the angle of hypothetically having £1000 to spend to make-over her student room.

Poppy has produced a lot of content for the site so far, and it is all of good quality. The only thing I would like is for Poppy to produce 2/3 articles a week, increasing content with her article and general articles for features also.

Features

Above is a plan for the next 4 weeks so you all know exactly what is coming up.
We only have a couple of weeks left for features this semester. Features are to continue running alongside 30th Nov.

Coming up we will have:

- Games Review - Ewan
- Restaurant Review - Zoe and Becky
- Behind the Scenes of WINOL - Cara & Jake
- Men's fashion - Cara
- Fashion (TBC) - Becky
- Fashion (TBC) - Zoe
- Restaurant Review & Christmas Fair - Angle TBC - Becky and Zoe
- Diary of a Winchester Lady, aiming to produce at least 2 each week - Poppy
- Fashion written piece - Poppy

What's On is not being produced this week, having discussed with Cara the lack of events this week, she will focus on the Behind the Scenes of WINOL and her men's fashion package.

This week I made the decision to postpone WINOL Life to this week due to lack of packages produced. I was not willing to produce a show with features already shown, so this Tuesday we are due to film WINOL Life with the features Editor from the Daily Echo.

Tuesday 29th Nov, we are due to have Maria Milano - Editor of InStyle website - coming in and featuring on the show. This show is going to be a fashion special, to which Becky, Zoe and Cara are all producing video fashion features, and Poppy is doing a written article for the site also.

Tuesday 6th December will be the last deadline for features this semester, so you all need to work towards this date for your last packages.

On Monday we will discuss everything for the next few weeks, and discuss all angles for all features due to be produced.

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Media Law

The Freedom on Information Act 2000 allows citizens to request public authorities to disclose information, which would not otherwise be published. This Act is very useful to journalists, as it gives them the power to uncover information about the way in which we are governed and communicate this information to the public. In some cases, that public authority won’t hold the information being requested, or the request exceeds the maximum cost limits for free information.

‘Information’ is defined under the Act as ‘information recorded in any form’. Once information has been requested, the public authority has 20 days to respond to the request either giving the information requested or stating why they are unable to obtain it.

The information should be disclosed free of charge, unless obtaining the information costs most than £600 – national government departments – or £450 – local councils and others.

A current example which we broadcast on WINOL was Julie's FOI story uncovering the truth about the number of local police officers to have had convictions themselves.

Under the Act, a public authority is known as:

- National government departments and ministries,
- House of Commons and House of Lords,

- The Armed forces

- The National Health Service

- Universities, schools and colleges.

The UK’s security and intelligence agencies – MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are exempt from the Act, meaning they are not required to respond to FOI requests. The Courts and Tribunals are also exempt.

These are a few examples, which, under the Act are not considered public authorities:

- Housing Associations

- Charities

- Private Prisons

- Members of Parliament.

There are a number of factors all to do with the public interest, and which all should encourage public authorities to disclose information:

• Furthering the understanding and participation in the public debate of issues of the day.
  
  – Promoting accountability and transparency in the spending of public money.
  
  – Promoting accountability and transparency by the public authorities for decisions taken by them.
  
  – Allowing individuals and companies to understand decisions made by public authorities affecting their lives.
  
  – Bring to light information affecting public health and safety.

In some situations, the public authority may withhold the information requested on the grounds of public interest. This is known as Qualified Exemptions. If withholding information has a greater public interest than releasing it to the public then the public authority can withhold the information.

Sources in relation to journalists are very important. Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources and information. This was stated in the Press Compaints Commission - Code of Practice.