YEAR 2 BROADCAST JOURNALISM | STAN ARMIT
UNIT 9 | NEWS DAY
Unit 9 first blog.
What does our audience expect from us and our content?
The audience expects us to be non-biased because if they don’t agree with our opinions particularly, they will not continue to listen; the opposite of what we want as a news outlet. Another thing our audience expects from us is guaranteed entertainment. When they turn our channel on they are looking for entertainment, hence why we need to provide that and fulfil their wishes.
What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are within broadcast journalism?
Firstly, a strength of mine is confidence. I am a very confident person and do not mind stepping out of my comfort zone when it comes to asking for interviews and vox-pops for example. Another strength I have is video-editing, I am particularly good at video editing, I picked up a lot of skills due to editing my final major project last year. A weakness of mine within broadcast journalism is being on-time with things, I struggle with time management, and it led to a minor setback with my work last year, I won’t let it happen again this year because I know what I can and can’t do in a certain amount of time, and if I time everything correctly, there should be no problems.
How will you use the news day project to enhance your skills and industry behaviours?
It will enhance my behaviours because I will learn to get things done quickly and efficiently while keeping my standards high. It makes me do a bit of everything which is excellent for my progress as a multi-media journalist.
News Day One
News Day 1 – Reflection Guide
My story was on a Philadelphia Rapper named ‘PnB Rock’ that had recently passed due to a failed robbery, this video is sad and impacts the watcher by making them feel mourning, I put in sad background music to make the video more intense. I chose to do a social media video because I think it is easier to get the news across and share some information about who he was without having to read a lot, he was a talented rapper and loved by many across the UK and USA, which is my target audience.
One thing that went well was the editing as I have a lot of experience from the FMP, I knew that this would go well, and I achieved everything I thought of, the product looks the same as I pictured it in my head. Another thing that went well was my research, I got all the information I needed to give an insight into who he was, and the details of his death including dates, times, location and things about his personal life. I got most of this information from reliable rap news outlets, and reliable journalists on twitter. This is where I thought I would get all my useful information from even before I had started, so all of my product went exactly to plan.
I had a script for the writing I put in the video, and I made sure it was all vital information to make sure I wasn’t wasting any time. I even included an interview from a few months ago where he explains that someone attempted to rob him while he was out shopping with his family, an unfortunate event which led to worse events.
News Day Two
For news day two, I chose to do an article. I don’t have much article writing experience, so I sort of took what I already knew and went with that. I did learn a few things from writing this article such as gathering information from the actual source, I will expand on this soon. My story for this article was on a local Food Festival at Elsecar Heritage centre in Barnsley called ‘Suppa Club’, which happens monthly. I gave both the good and bad aspects of the festival as there are some great reviews, and some that are not so great. I included this in the article, below. My target audience for this article is the locals from Barnsley and surrounding areas, any age or gender, as anyone can enjoy good food and drink!
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One thing that went well was the writing aspect. There was a lot to write about such as where it is, when it is, what kinds of food they have to offer, opening times, days it is in operation and reviews of both happy and disappointed customers. Another thing that went well was research from a social media perspective, because their Facebook page had all the information I needed to inform people about it. Something that didn’t go well was the research from an actual source, I gathered some questions I would’ve liked to ask the team at Elsecar Heritage Centre to find out how holding this event at their property impacts them. A question I wanted to ask was ‘financially, does it bring any extra revenue?’, Another one being ‘Does it impact the Heritage centre’s guests?’ but this was all quickly shut down as when I called them, they weren’t willing to answer the questions I had lined up as it would have to be their media team that answers the questions and none of them were free. This disappointed me as I needed to get the article published as soon as possible. So, I carried on with my regular research from their social media accounts.
Overall this news day was a success as I was able to write an informative article about the event, giving both sides of opinions from goers of the festival. Something for the future that I learnt from this was to plan ahead and get interviews scheduled as soon as possible.
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This project enhances my industry behaviours because I had a story that local people can get involved with, therefore giving me a new audience to write to as I haven’t wrote to a local perspective before, it also makes me do things quickly and efficiently while keeping at high standards.
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Here is the article.
Who doesn’t love street food? From Cheese pulls a mile long to Fried chicken. From Ramen to Pulled pork. They have everything. In Barnsley we have our very own street food market once a month at Elsecar Heritage Centre under the name of ‘Suppa Club’.
They have a DJ as well, so entertainment is guaranteed. An example of the vendors that will be there this month are Cookie Mumster, Patty Freaks, Kebab Cartel, Only Jerkin, Beef On The Block, Fat Snags, Goodtime Tacos and many more! As you can see there are many different types of food from the sounds of the vendor names. They also have drink stands for cocktails and local ales. Why not grab a cold cocktail with your food!
But I’m here to give an honest review. according to the Facebook reviews it only has 3.1 stars our of 5, with one review saying “Went last night as a group of 4 after we loved the one, we attended back in April, however it was a bitter disappointment and a huge waste of money.
We arrived to find a choice of only 4 food venders, 1 of which was desserts so we essentially had a choice of pizza or tacos, i decided on an option from yum yum manc only to be told 40 minutes later that they had ran out of beef and would be refunded for my order (I’ll not hold my breath!) , so then figured i would choose something else from their menu only to find it had been taken down from the app. So, it looked like I was having pizza ... i wish i hadn't bothered, without a doubt the worst pizza i have EVER had, the bottom was burnt black as coal and the cheese was practically non-existent as was any flavour due to the overpowering burnt taste.
There was no atmosphere, no live entertainment as expected, just a dj playing the usual corny 80s "classics".
Cocktails were an absolute joke, literally 2 mouthfuls served in what resembled a paper espresso cup for £7.50!
It seemed the only people getting it right on the night were the lovely folk from Maison du Biere whose service was fast, and drinks were great as always.
Wish we had just grabbed a table at their tap room n a couple of bags of pork scratchings.
So disappointing after a fantastic outdoor event back in April when there were at least 7 food vendors for probably only a third of the tables to cover due to the pandemic.
We were dubious after hearing the terrible reviews from Friday night but assumed mistakes would have been learnt from and rectified for night two ... how wrong we were. Never again!”. This is obviously hurting the reputation of the festival as someone bothered to give an in-depth review of how bad said festival was for them personally.
Considering the bad review, there are also good reviews of people saying how nice and pleasant their experience was. For example, someone wrote “Went today with my kids, it was so organised, the staff were lovely and the food and drinks came so quick after easily ordering on the app! Definitely Recommend!”. Anyways, I would personally have a go at it to see what it is like as an experience as a whole.
Local Food Festival, Try it!
News Day Three
For news day three, I chose to do another social media video as I know I am good at them and I’m constantly trying to better myself at every one I produce. My story for this is a worldwide topic which is Jupiter being the closest to earth since 1963. I especially found this story extremely fascinating as I am interested in astrology, as a lot of other people are. And even if they aren’t, its still an interesting watch. My target audience for this social media video was anyone of any age or gender that is possibly interested in astrology and outer space. I wrote about what an extraordinary event it is for the world, as anyone can see it clearly with just a pair of binoculars! I also wrote about how it wont be this close again for another 107 years, making it even more extraordinary as it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Something that went well for this social media video was the script I wrote for it. I explained clearly how to view the event and that anyone could view it. Another thing that went well was the editing, as I have a lot of experience with this. I now know my way around adobe premiere pro well so I can get these projects done quickly and efficiently while keeping high standards. Something that didn’t go so well was the rendering process. I was having some trouble exporting it as I wanted it in high quality but my premiere pro kept crashing. I eventually found settings that kept it good quality and exported easily, so I know for next time to use these settings in order to export efficiently.
Overall this news day was a success as I was able to make a high quality social media video with an interesting story that is also interactive and people can get involved with. This project enhances my industry behaviours as I am getting better and better at editing which is an ideal career path for me, so I am grateful to get these opportunities to improve.
News Day Four
For news day four, me and a fellow classmate chose to create a joint TV package. This is right down my alley as I’m experienced when it comes to editing and camera operating, while my classmate Alfie was the Presenter. Our story for this TV package was on how technology and culture has changed in our local town of Barnsley over the years. Our target audience for this project was the younger generation of the Barnsley (12-21 year olds) as these are the people that are possibly interested in how times have changed in our town and any gender as anyone can be interested in history especially of their own town.
One thing that went well was the planning. We planned well ahead of filming with the script, Alfie wrote it as he was the presenter and I supervised so we both could agree on the perfect things to say. The script went well and we stuck to it as can be seen in the video linked below, Alfie executed his role perfectly and we had on problems. Another thing that went well was the planning with the filming locations and permissions. We decided on these locations based on backgrounds, ambience and if the background made sense with the script, which ended up working out well for us. We got permission from the Barnsley town hall to film some B-roll in their museum which is open to public. We got this by calling them well before we began production and explaining our situation to them.
Something that could’ve gone better was the choice of interviewee and how efficiently we found one. We struggled to find a vox pop in Barnsley town centre which we were relying on so we had to rush back to college to interview someone we knew would be up to do it. We learned to always have a plan B from this, even if it seems you might not need one.
Overall, this news day was a success as we made a high quality, well edited TV Package. We made it efficiently as well as on a story that is interesting and watch worthy. This project enhances my industry behaviours because I edited the package efficiently and to a high standard.
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Here is the link to the TV Package.
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News Day Five
This week, my story was about the 66th Ballon D’or, which is the most prestigious independent award available to footballers. I did a Sports News Audio Package on the top 30 ranked footballers of the year. This informs the listener on who was ranked where, as this is the biggest football ceremony of the year, something in which football fans are interested in.
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Something that went well was the editing, I did every segment in different clips and named them in which place I needed to which made it very easy to put into Adobe Audition, all I did from there was clip it down to the length I wanted. Another thing that went well was setting the microphone and everything up.
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Something that could’ve gone better was the script writing, I wrote it in a way that was difficult to say which is no one other’s fault but my own. But now I know for the future that I need to write how I prefer to speak, in my own dialogue.