On Presenting.

Well, this is it. My first (finished) piece of Journalism reporting. I didn't venture into a war zone, but I did the next most dangerous thing, and interviewed students on campus.

Please forgive the poor quality camera work, the poor quality sound, and the Welsh twang in my voice.

On Newsround.

As part of my Television lecture, I have to analyse a news programme. To invoke nostalgic memories of watching kids TV, I chose perpetual kids favourite, Newsround. As I write this, there's about an hour to go until the next bulletin, so navigating on the Newsround website, I found a bulletin from this morning.

The first thing I noticed when I watched the bulletin was the time in the top left hand corner. 8.31. I assume they broadcast it at this time because children will be getting ready to go to school, and if this is the last piece of telly they watch, it will be fresh in their minds, and they will be ready to discuss the issues raised in the programme.

As the programme is part of the BBC, the standard is of high quality, though there was a noticeable cut when the newsreader changed from one story to another. The two minute bulletin contained one main story (on the mine collapse in New Zealand), a preview of a special report broadcast later in the day (about kids growing up in a war zone), and a light hearted story at the end (about a Chihuahua joining the Japanese police force as a sniffer dog).

The show was similar in style to 'adult' news, which I suppose makes the transition for children who are going from one news programme to another easier. It included headlines, and a sign off from the presenter at the end of the show. The two stories lasted for about 20 seconds each, and the presenter talked over both of them from the studio. The main substance of the programme was a preview of the war report, which was over half the length of the programme itself.

In conclusion, Newsround hadn't changed much from when I remember watching it. The show doesn't patronise it's audience, unlike many other children's shows, and for this reason I think that it is respected by viewers and within the industry.

On Starting Work With Television.

We started the Television section of our course today. I didn't really know what to expect from it, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

We were introduced to our lecturer, Sean, whose first piece of information was to be on time, and never spell his name wrong. He ran us through the course, telling us what to expect from the three years to come, if we choose to do the television unit. Like all units, we were eased in. He listed off some technical terms, to which none of us knew the answer, and showed us a piece of second year work for us to critique.

I'll be fair, in my opinion, it wasn't very good. Though I understand the students making it only had limited resources and did the best they could with what they had. It would have been stupid of me to expect BBC News standard. The piece itself was a sports piece, and students went out to Twickenham to try and gauge post-match feelings, even though they weren't allowed to film there. To their credit, they managed to snag an interview with former England Rugby captain, Phil Vickerie.

We were split into groups of 3, and tasked with producing a short story relating to today's announcement that Prince William and Kate Middleton were to be married. Though the female of our group was the designated team leader, she had a more relaxed management style and pretty much let me delegate. I'm not taking credit for everything, but I feel I more than pulled my weight.

I wrote down an introduction to our story, which I then read to camera. Nobody in my group wanted to be the first to speak, but I was more than happy to. I managed to get a Vox Pop, and squeeze an answer from someone who didn't know about the announcement. When we couldn't agree on where to film as a team, it was I who made the final decision. I also did my best to encourage the other members of the team, and gave them my honest opinion whether they asked me for it or not.

Though our battery ran out halfway through filming, we managed to get another camera, and made it back to the room with over 15 minutes to spare. We would have got on with editing the piece, but for some reason, whilst the clips would play perfectly fine if we loaded them directly, when putting them into Premier Pro, they only jumped around, not playing very well at all.

We moved to several other computers, and had the same problem with each. In the end though, we had to concede defeat, and finished the lesson with only a few raw video files, and nothing resembling a piece.

What I Did - See the 5th Paragraph
What I Learnt - Many technical terms, including Rushes, B-Roll, and SOC to name three. I also learnt that technology can't be trusted, wheter it be batteries or Mac computers.
What I Could Have Done Better - I could have been aware of battery life in the camera. I could have left more time for us to get back to deal with the problems that arose when trying to edit.

On Farnham Police Station.

We asked members of the public how they felt about the news that Farnham Police Station was to close.

Police station vox by DSmith12

On Protesting.

Wow. What a day. To my shame I've never been to a protest before, but I'll put that down to previously having lived too far away from any major city to get involved. Of course, that's just a cowards answer, and obviously if I cared about a cause that much I should just get involved. I did care, but up until now, I just hadn't done it.


I'll admit, I don't really know what I was expecting from today. I kept updating throughout the day via twitter, posting pictures and generally telling people where the march currently was. Our first setback came when as we approached the tube station nearest to the march site, and was informed by the train announcer that it was closed. We hastily rescheduled our plans, and took a longer route.


I know as a journalism student, I should be impartial. But I abhor racism in all its forms, and would rather give up writing than compromise my stance.


We arrived at Malet Street, bang on midday. Milling around for a bit, my friend and I picked up leaflets, signed petitions and generally got a feel for where we were. There was a great vibe surrounding the whole thing. We bought whistles and hoodies, and were given a protest placard.

With music playing from out the side of a truck, and people dancing, the fun and friendly atmosphere was in full flow. Before long, the music died down and several key figures from Unite Against Fascism and Love Music Hate Racism came up on stage to talk. When the speeches started, I suddenly became aware of just how many people there were surrounding my friend and me. I also noticed there was a large number of photographers. Now, the EDL have a habit of being rather nasty to photographers, and I can't imagine how their cowardly minds would deal with such a heavy photographer presence.

                                       People milling around before the march.

The march got going, after a lot of stopping and starting. I'd been standing up for a long time, and ever since the Chuck Ragan gig a few weeks ago, my back has really started to play up. Still, I kept smiling and marching. The small police presence that was there when our demonstration was static became much larger once we were mobile. There was also a police helicopter that circled overhead. I felt that this was unnecessary. The majority of us were clearly content with shuffling along, chanting and singing to the delight of many bemused tourists.


Though we started towards the back of the protest, I guess we walked much quicker than most people, and soon ended up toward the front. As I passed through the crowd, it occurred to me that there was so much diversity here. Young and old, black and white, and people of all faiths. The demo itself was backed by the Muslim Council of Britain and the Trades Union Congress. But I saw much more than that. The were banners for the National Union of Teachers and National Union of Students, Unite Union, Socialist Workers Party, and a host of various organisations. This proved to me that there are so many opposed to the EDL and the BNP. It was an amazing realisation. The UAF website said that over 5000 people attended today's march.


A very heart warming thing happened when we passed by the picket line for the NUJ (Nation Union of Journalists). The procession stopped and we cheered, shouted for them, and generally made as much noise as possible in support of them. This especially touched me, as it's likely that I'll be joining this union at some point in the future. There's a picture I've seen that shows an NUJ member swapping a placard with a UAF marcher.

Passing the NUJ picket line

The procession moved past Downing Street and the crowd jeered and booed. Though I felt this detracted from the message of the protest, I couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, and joined in.


We ended up in Parliament Square, where a large Love Music Hate Racism screen was set up waiting for us. People applauded the protesters as we arrived. I didn't stay around much longer than this. I did watch George Galloway's speech, which I admit I was very, very impressed with, even if I can't shake the image of him dressed up as a cat on Celebrity Big Brother from my mind.


Leaving the carnival, looking for a place to sit down, my friend and I ended up in Trafalgar Square, admiring Nelson and his column. I was minding my own business, when a Muslim family came up to me, and told me that they were so proud of me. I almost didn't believe what I heard. They told me how important it was that all members of society came out and fought the menace of fascism. I agreed with them. They moved on, and left me with a big smile on my face.
 
 

                                           Passing the Houses of Parliament.


Like I said, I've never been on a march before, and now, I have no excuse not to go to many, many more in the future.

Update: Within about an hour of me posting this blog, the UAF website was running it as a story. I'm honoured. I'd like to thank again UAF and LMHR for putting on the march.