I’m doing Advanced Web Journalism, so on the news day I was a little bit confused. The broadcast people got their assignments loud and clear, and the role of web people was somewhat less clear. Still, as I understood it, there were 2 parts to the assignment. First, following one of the broadcast groups and posting updates about their work. Second, finding a story around university and writing it.
I think my post about the 3pm TV news broadcast was short but precise. I was running around asking people about their work, and some of them were less than helpful, and seriously annoyed. Still, I managed to get some pictures of both TV and radio people at work, and got some understanding of the stories they were going to air.
Second post was trickier. I was supposed to write about University’s F:Urban music label. Their website hasn’t been updated since 2009 and the office was supposed to be closed, so I contacted my friend who was creating a new website for them. I was hoping he could provide me with press releases and an artist roster, but the website had no content yet. He did, however, direct me to another person who sent me some documents and introduced me to Sharifa Marshall, the label director. I arranged and recorded an interview with her, and that served as a basis for my story. I wanted to fashion the interview into a podcast, but to my terror, the new microphone and recorder settings destroyed the audio quality. I had to amplify it 200% just to hear it, so it was unusable for my podcasting agenda. In the end I came out with a short, press-release style story.
The news day was a great exercise. Although the finished result wasn’t that impressive, I did a lot of running around, writing, and using multimedia tools. I even had a technical issue I had to work around, just like in real life. Also, it was very clear that while the broadcasting people work in teams, the web people work mostly alone. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but generally I have no problem with working alone. I do, however, need an editor breathing down my neck to be efficient. And I’ve certainly learned to check my equipment performance before I try to use it.
