WINOL Week 1 Critical Reflection...

So, we had the first week of WINOL(Winchester News Online) last week, the first dummy run I should say before we get going properly.

WINOL is a news programme that is being run by second and third year journalism students at The University of Winchester. We cover news and sports in Winchester and the surrounding areas. Third Year students have taken on the editorial positions whilst second years have taken on the staff positions.

As I have taken on the role of Sports Editor, my main tasks include organising my sports team, deciding which stories we are going to run and ensuring that these stories are produced on time and to the required broadcasting standard.

I think as a whole the sports section of the news bulletin this week was good as we included a good variety of packages which included different sports. We had two highlights packages (one football and one ice hockey), one NIB (news in brief) about the local rugby team and a graphic used as a NIB to preview the local sides involved in the FA Cup first round this weekend.

As a sports team we are required to produce content for the sports section of the news bulletin and also produce content for the news website (http://www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk/). We managed to fulfill our duties on both parts and I am very proud to say that the first published content on the WINOL website was from the sports team. This week I will be looking to get more content published on the website and will be aiming to have more content written regularly.

I think that my sports team worked very hard to produce the content they did. One thing I will make sure of next time is that all of the content is produced on Final Cut Pro instead of Premiere Pro as this caused some problems when it came to stacking the VT's ready for the bulletin. I have also told my reporters for this coming week to have content ready earlier, not because they were late last time (in fact they were all near enough on time...ish!) but because it all became a bit of a rush when we were nearing live time so it made sense to ensure that our deadline was earlier so that the run up to live time was smoother and more relaxed.

I will also try to ensure that all of my sports reporters are made available to other teams once they have completed their sports requirements as WINOL is a team effort and it is important that once individual team tasks have been completed that we work as a team to produce the best bulletin possible.

I think the main points to improve are perhaps the commentary on sports highlights packages, ensure my reporters write their own links, make sure we have standby packages in case some fall through and also to make sure I give the production team the precise timings for each story including the in and out words to make VT operation smoother.

Drunken Mistake?

After reading an opinion piece in The Times today by Melanie Reid I was left in two minds as to whether or not I agree with what she was saying. She was discussing the recent pictures that were printed in the national newspapers of a drunk 19 year old student urinating on a war memorial.

Melanie Reid explains how this student came to be in this awful position, he had been on a pub crawl called Carnage, which if you're a student reading this, I'm sure you've head of and many have probably been on! In some respects, I feel sorry for the student as many people in Britain have been in the position where they've consumed far too much alcohol and have done 'silly' things but in the same respect I think it is an absolutely disgusting act.

She goes on to blame the drinks industry and with her last line asks the question "Why weren't Carnage in the dock? That they weren't says it all." This is a reference to the fact that the student who urinated on the war memorial has been in court and could possibly face a jail sentence. I think that blaming the drinks industry is a cop out when it comes to people facing responsibility. Yes these bar crawls promote drinking and many people get extremely drunk when on them but surely that is the choice of the person? They are not forced to go on these crawls and many people I know who have been on them have always had an excellent time. The act of urinating on a war memorial is perhaps a result of going on the bar crawl organised by Carnage but he himself got into the state he was in and he himself urinated on the war memorial.

I see that this student has been made an example of and is in someways a scapegoat for the binge culture that is often plastered across the tabloids but in the same way I think after such a disgraceful act it was just, a war memorial is a place of remembrance and place that deserves so much better.

You can see the picture here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220579/Carnage-Shame-drunken-student-caught-urinating-war-memorial-mass-pub-crawl.html

The Football Fan Always Knows Best...

Image:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/isriya/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

A lot of this weeks sports coverage has revolved around the security of Rafa Benitez's job as Liverpool F.C. manager. Liverpool have had a pretty bad run of results recently (if you take away the 2-0 win over Manchester United!) But as the tabloids were busy rolling out the Halloween puns ("Hell-oween" and "Liverghoul" were too crackers) after Liverpool's latest loss against Fulham, I was thinking about Rafa's Liverpool achievements so far.

This poor form has made a lot of people to call for Rafa's head as Liverpool lie in sixth place after 11 games. I agree their current form does cause concern and I can understand many Liverpool fans being gutted to see their side seven points behind Manchester United and nine behind Chelsea but at the same time Rafa Benitez has done a fantastic job for his side. I think too many people believe Liverpool have a right to win the league this year after last season. Finishing second last year was a fantastic achievement and to push Fergie's men most of the way is even more of an achievement and clearly shows the improvement under Rafa. Then there's the Champions League win in his first season at the club, the F.A. Cup win the following year which was followed by a Champions League runners up medal the following season (which was then followed by the already mentioned runners up Premier League season the year after!)

Rafa has clearly been a success at Liverpool and perhaps another huge success can be the signing of Fernando Torres, probably, if not, THE best striker in the world? An absolute bargain at around £20million. But that has also caused a problem for the Spaniard. Rafa's use of Torres when he hasn't been fully fit or use of him in his 'rotation' policy has also drawn criticism from fans and the press. If Torres wasn't fully fit then taking him off against Fulham was the right decision as even if it isn't the top priority of the Kop (compared with Premier League glory), The Champions League game against Lyon is financially very important for Liverpool and Torres could be vital. That is unfortunately the fault of money driven modern football, not Rafa Benitez.

Perhaps Liverpool aren't title contenders this season but I wouldn't say they are totally dead and buried, there is bound to be more success and improvements under Benitez at Anfield and I am sure if he is left to carry on he can improve on the second place in the Premier League that he achieved last season.

Football commentators, football pundits and more importantly football fans (myself included) always think they know better than the manager, and think they could do a better job. Clearly, I'd have Southampton F.C. in the Champions League by now, right?