The second semester of
Winol was always going to be difficult without the help of the more
experienced third years. We were used to relying on them to help us
with our roles as well as helping us put the finishing touches and
polish on our packages, well I certainly was anyway. So upon return I
was slightly anxious to see how semester two would pan out. Firstly I
was keen to see who would take over Henry's role at the helm of
Sports Week. There were people that seemed obvious choices to succeed
e.g Liam who consistently produced very good football coverage as
well as some interesting Sports features. Initially when I heard Sam
was going to be the new editor I was surprised but also keen to hear
the direction he wanted to take Sports Week. As well as loosing a few
people we also inherited some from other parts of Winol as well as
the Masters students. I was hoping that the new fresh faces would be
able to add something to the mixing pot and hopefully help Sports
Week get more views.
The first week I was
asked to take Kirsty along to my familiar saturday night hang out,
The Planet Ice Arena. In the first semester the Ice Hockey was my
beat and after going there week in week out in the first term I was
keen to pass on the torch and go out and get my own stories. I was
given the role of on campus sports reporter. I asked for this role as
I believed that we were missing out on a lot of views by never
featuring University stories, as students are likely to watch if they
themselves or friends were in it. My first story in my new role was
to cover an event called 'Technocise' in the Student Union. Various
clubs from around the University performed and because of the type of
event it was, a Techno music based exercise, the pictures came out
really well. I was happy with the interviews and the audio and I was
generally happy with my package. However on the whole Sports Week was
struggling as it seemed Sam was finding difficulties with his new
position. We were airing late and sometimes our show wasn't edited in
time for the recording of the bulletin. This was an issue that needed
to be solved quickly.
It didn't take long
for me to realise that covering University sports was going to be
tedious and hard work. The reason for this being that nothing was
happening. In order to get something for Sports Week I had to
interview people on nothing, it wasn't particularly enjoyable and
cutting the interviews to make them ready was difficult. I felt that
covering campus sports stories just for the sake of it was pointless
as it made Sports Week look like we were short and just trying to
fill some time. I wasn't totally closing the door on University
sport, just made a logical decision that I would only cover it when
something of note was happening. After making that decision I decided
that i'd like to cast my net a little further and as my best package
from the semester before was a story from Portsmouth I returned to
interview Olympic hopeful Greg Bridet. Greg had been shortlisted for
the Boxing squad in Rio and seemed very willing to be interviewed.
His coach also was very keen for his gym to get some air time. I have
noticed this quite a bit now, that people see us turn up with cameras
and think its a golden opportunity for them to get a bit of
publicity. I've realised the best way to get around this situation is
to be obliging and say you'll include everything they ask, and then
not. Anyway, this was my first decent/news worth story of the term
and I was determined to make it my best. I was allowed to go down and
film a training session with Greg as well as get interviews from him
and his Coach. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of my
footage and when I had finished also very pleased with my finished
product. I was looking forward to getting some feedback as my package
was going in the bulletin however sports week wasn't completed in
time for the bulletin. I was disappointed by this as I remember the
Guest Editor that week was a former student and as he was walking
around the room I had a good talk with him about Winol and had told
him about my package, so I was intrigued to hear his views. One thing
I did notice in
semester two was that
there wasn't as much communication as there was in the first. Usually
on Monday morning the Sports team would have a little meeting with
Brian where we would discuss our stories for the week. I always felt
these were useful as it meant that we could all put our thoughts
together with the long term goal being a better package. We also
didn't seem to get much of a mention in the Debrief which could be
frustrating when you felt you had put forward good work. I think in
future after the bulletin is filmed a separate talk with either Brian
or Angus would be very beneficial for Sports. Getting an opinion from
a seasoned Journalist like Angus could only help the sports reporters
with future packages.
On the whole the second
semester of Winol was a fun experience and some brilliant packages
were made. I think once he got into the swing of the things Sam made
a good Sports Editor. For me personally though I often found myself a
little frustrated, whereas before I had the simple task of turning up
at the Ice Hockey and filming the game, this time I had to hunt for
stories where often there was none. I tried my hand at presenting for
the first time which was interesting. Up until that day I had never
really been all that bothered with presenting but I knew it was
something I'd have to try. It turned out that I did enjoy presenting
and in my head I was very good at it, I saw myself in the TV monitors
and thought that I could get used to this, unfortunately I was hit by
a bit of reality when I actually saw my presenting and realised that
maybe it wasn't for me. This view was also shared by many of my
friends from home. I did however begin to feel myself becoming more
and more comfortable whilst co-hosting the Sports Week radio show. Me
and Harvey always met up the night before we were due to go on air
and always made sure we had a lot of material to talk about and we
had a lot of fun doing so. I had a good two semester run but I think
when we return in September I'll be looking for a new role, one with
a bit more freedom where I can be released from the shackles of
sports 'Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains'.
The Winol bulletin
wasn't something I had to much to do with this time around but I
always found the stories impressive. From my view from the back
corner of Tab I could always see a lot of people fluttering around
like they were desperately trying to make things come together. My
contact with the Bulletin was pretty limited to just watching it and
sometimes being involved in the discussions about stories etc.
Sometimes I find myself in awe of the content of the Bulletin as it
is always of the highest quality not dissimilar to what you'd watch
at 5 o' clock on ITV. I'm proud to be part of Winchester News Online
as it is starting to establish itself as the place to go locally for
news. The online website has reached new heights, quashing any
competition we had the previous semester. It is easy to see why as
well, with the introduction of the Fashion section and The New
Winchester Review, which both cater for smaller niches but are always
being updated with high quality content. Our online presence has been
largely down to Jason redesigning the site to give it a cutting edge
professional look. He targeted search engines so that we would gather
more readers using SEO's which has generated a lot views. Targeting
social networks was also a recent development that paid off as people
subscribed to Winol would be updated to new stories and linked
directly to them. As far as stories went its hard to see past the
Eastleigh by elections after Chris Humes resignation. That was a
national story that happened to land right in our laps and for a week
or so the usually mundane town of Eastleigh became the Political
hotspot of Britain. Winol provided great coverage of this as well as
a Winol special that everyone got involved in to help out despite the
antisocial hours. That is one of the perks of the Winol experience,
in times like this everyone is prepared to help out and there is a
big sense of comradery. I thought Spence did a good job as Chief
Reporter on this as he managed to gain access to people like Boris
Johnson, massive figures in Politics, and get great interviews which
is the type of thing that's really going to put Winchester News
Online on the map.
In my first year I was
battling with inner demons, Freud's ID, telling me that I needed to
go to a different University, one that had more to offer on the
social side of things. What kept me at Winchester was the fact that I
was enrolled in the best Journalism course in the country and I am
very glad my superego levelled my thoughts as at the end of the day I
want to leave Winchester with the tools to go on and become a good
journalist. For me personally I've always admired the work of Gonzo
Journalists such as Louis Theroux and I think that Winol and myself
would benefit from adding this type of journalism to our repertoire.
I am often misunderstood as being lazy but often it is actually due
to me losing my passion for a certain subject in this case Sports. I
produce my best work when I am doing something I am passionate about
and I feel that if I could produce short documentaries in my third
year I would achieve my potential, which has been threatening to
happen for a long time. In some ways my attitude towards the course
is selfish as I want to take what I've learnt and use it for personal
gain in the future. I have lots of ideas for features that I would
like to pursue and as I am hungry to clear my name and prove that I'm
not a dosser this would help greatly. I have spoken to Winol heroes
such as Andrew Giddings and he told me that if I wanted to make
things happen and achieve my goals studying at Winchester was the
right decision. Now that I have a clear head I feel that I am in the
right place to push forward and reach my goals. I am very thankful
for the opportunity I have been given at Winchester by Chris and
Brian and in my third and final year I just hope to prove they made
the right decision by letting me on the course.
