The Solihull Observer:
The Solihull Observer is a weekly tabloid newspaper for the town of Solihull in the West Midlands, published by Bullivant Media. This paper comes out every Thursday and is also available online.My involvement:
I completed this work experience back in 2007, when I was first beginning to establish my interest in the media.
The week’s placement involved me shadowing a journalist and photographer, and it was a really eye-opening experience for me as I was able to soak up the working office atmosphere and uncover how professional newspaper journalists operated on a day-to-day basis.
Whilst partnered with the journalist and photographer, I was able to go out and assist in getting local stories that differed from a school quiz at a local fire station to hitting the streets of Solihull to get residents’ opinions on the smoking ban, which had just been put into place at that time.
During this placement I dealt with many press releases- sorting through the information, choosing what was relevant and writing up the key facts in an article style suitable for the newspaper. One of my articles was published online on the Solihull Observer website.
What I learnt:
From this placement I realised that when working at a newspaper, every day is different; we went to various locations and spoke to lots of different people to get the stories. I also learnt the importance of selecting the key details in a press release and writing in a concise, clear and easy to read manner.
BSkyB:
BSkyB is a satellite broadcasting company based in Isleworth, London. Following the equal merge of Sky TV and British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990, BSkyB is the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the UK with over ten million subscribers.
BSkyB is a satellite broadcasting company based in Isleworth, London. Following the equal merge of Sky TV and British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990, BSkyB is the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the UK with over ten million subscribers.
My involvement:
After applying for the scholarship scheme at BSkyB through university in my first year, I spent three days there as a result of getting to the interview stage. This is an achievement I am really pleased of, and the time I spent there was extremely valuable in helping me learn more about the organisation.Whilst in London, I had a tour around the various departments and spent each day in a different area, working with the VT library, traffic and stills team. At the VT and sports libraries I was able to locate tapes from the vault and scan them in and out.
My favourite task involved adding audio description scripts to an episode of America’s Next Top Model, which required creativity and precision.
I particularly enjoyed working in the stills department, where I was able to choose Getty images for TV listings, then resize, caption and add key information to them. I also emailed other departments.What I learnt:
This placement enabled me to explore each department and what working within each section involved, and I found out more about the roles of various individuals within the company. I found out how subtitling is done for Sky Sports, which was extremely interesting and not as I expected it to be. I realised working at BSkyB is very hands-on, requires lots of constant communication with the different departments, notably via email, and also involves a lot of I.T work.
I made contributions during the regular office meetings, and I created business cards voluntarily for the company because I felt it was necessary when undertaking the ‘Style on the Street’ task and getting people to ‘like’ the Facebook page.
Hello Birmingham:
This is a new, free magazine which explores what the city of Birmingham has to offer. The publication includes features on entertainment, news, dining, education and more. As well as informing residents and visitors about the UK’s second city, the company also promotes Birmingham businesses.
My involvement:
I contributed a great deal to this organisation, providing content for the magazine, website and Facebook page. I submitted several articles ranging from business, shopping, education, travel and holidays and sport (some of which have been published on the website).
One particular task I was responsible for was called ‘Style on the Street’, which involved liaising with a photographer. I was required to approach fashionable individuals in Birmingham and interview them about their style.
As an administrator for Hello Birmingham’s Facebook, I frequently updated the page, posting statuses, images and interviews from ‘Style on the Street’ and wrote about upcoming events. I also posted about events such as the Harvey Nichols fashion show and the Style Birmingham event (2011).
During one trip to Birmingham for ‘Style on the Street’, I met a fashion blogger and conducted an interview with her shortly afterwards. Therefore this task was also useful for networking purposes and gaining contacts!
I made contributions during the regular office meetings, and I created business cards voluntarily for the company because I felt it was necessary when undertaking the ‘Style on the Street’ task and getting people to ‘like’ the Facebook page.I also did some promotional work in the form of modelling in a Hello Birmingham t-shirt for the website. This was additional amongst the journalism but it was enjoyable to get involved with other aspects.
What I learnt:
I realised the importance of getting accurate and reliable information for my informative articles, and had practice in researching from relevant sources and writing articles to a specific word count. The ‘Style on the Street’ task was extremely valuable as I built more confidence in approaching strangers, which is a fundamental skill in this industry. This placement also gave me a greater understanding of the importance of online platforms in helping raise awareness of new, up-and-coming companies.
Aspire4u is an Events Management and Youth Training community interests company based in Digbeth. Talent UK is their innovative youth and entertainment project, where an annual Talent competition takes place, and project participants receive master classes and workshops from industry experts.
My involvement:
Working for Aspire4u/Talent, I make weekly contributions to the organisation’s website- I have submitted articles for the news page, but most of my features appear on the blog segment of the website. Within a team of 3 journalists, at the start of the placement we alternated 4 article topics per week, and these were: music, fashion, youth and general entertainment.
Now Talent 2012 is fast-approaching, my latest task as a journalist has been to capture the inside scoop from the auditions for this year’s competition. I was also required to interview two of last year’s winners- one from the lyricist category and one from the fashion designer category- to talk about their progressions since winning the competition and to reflect on their time with Talent.
I have also been involved with some of this organisation’s events, including the Talent 2011 graduates networking evening, where there were expert panellist for an industry discussion and a few contestants from last year’s competition performing.
Talent 2012’s auditions kicked off in March and I was present to assist with these events and get sufficient material for my articles. This involved interviewing the auditionees after watching them perform in front of the judges.
After selecting people to make it through the audition process, these individuals will then benefit from workshops in their talent area, and as a journalist it will be my job to build up a portfolio on each contestant for the website. I will need to find out more about them as I follow them on their journey with Talent.
For this placement, a lot of my communication with my employers is via email due to the fact I am producing weekly blog posts for them. However, I also regularly attend meetings at the Digbeth office where I make contributions and lend ideas, receive briefs for new tasks and we have catch-ups.What I’ve learnt:
At the start of this work experience, I was making hand-written notes when interviewing people. However, I soon realised how much more effective recording equipment is for capturing interviews, so I started using Ediroles when undertaking these tasks. As a result, I was able to reflect on my interviews more accurately due to being able to transcribe them, and I have now gained a new technical skill in using this recording device.
After sending my articles via email, I receive feedback shortly afterwards on a Microsoft Word document. This is extremely useful to me, as I can see what amendments can be made if necessary from any constructive comments. I believe I have developed a great deal as a journalist through these feedback sheets, taking the comments on board, and I really do feel my writing style has improved through the practice of writing articles and the feedback I have received and consequently noted. Furthermore, it is extremely rewarding when I receive positive feedback and see my pieces published on the website.
