Full length interview with Rosie Mullender from Cosmopolitan magazine UK

Here is the full length interview with Rosie Mullender from Cosmopolitan UK. Visit http://www.journalism-now.co.uk/ 

Critical Reflection December 2013

 Critical Reflection

This year began with high expectations for ‘WINOL’ due to the success of the previous semester. In terms of ‘Alexa’ ranking we were beating local news sources such as the ‘Hampshire Chronicle’ and the ‘Basingstoke Gazette’. Therefore, it was essential to maintain this reputation of being a reliable news source for Hampshire. I believe we have managed to achieve this aim because our latest ‘Alexa’ ranking for ‘WINOL’ shows on the 8/12/13 was 34,210 in the UK which means that we are still beating other student Journalism sites like ‘Leeds Student’ and other Professional local news sites such as the ‘Hampshire Chronicle’ who have an ‘Alexa’ ranking of 49,025 in the UK. However, we have been unable to maintain our global ‘Alexa’ ranking, as the figures show that last semester we had a global ranking of 372,251 compared to our current global ranking of 776,668. For instance, on the 1^st of December only 8 people visited winol.co.uk through ‘Google’. I believe to help improve these rankings, we need to add more ‘tags’ onto our site which are relevant to what people will be searching for online.  Consequently more people will then be directed to the ‘WINOL’ site.

I also think the reason why we haven’t improved on our rankings is due to our summer break, there was a whole 4 months where no new content was uploaded to the website at all, so it is inevitable that people lose interest in the site. Once we were back up and running the content uploaded to the site has remained a slow process, I still think we are not updating it with enough new stories as quickly as we did last semester.

Another contributing factor could be due to various technical issues with production, the bulletin has been late most weeks. This is damaging to our reputation since our audience becomes doubtful that we are a reliable, creditable news source if we are not live at 5pm each week.

 I think the reason for us managing to still have a fairly reasonable ‘Alexa’ ranking in the UK, is due to an agreement made at the start of the semester, in our editor’s meeting. We agreed to focus the bulletin more on our local area. What led us towards this decision was the majority of criticism we received from our Guest Editors, which was that we were not keeping the bulletin local enough. Therefore, we’ve ensured that if we are covering national stories they need to have a local angle. I think our target audience needs to be Winchester, It makes much more sense to mainly cover local stories, however, this means that we are not to ignore the opportunity to cover national breaking stories too.

This semester ‘Access Winchester’ has worked well  as an additional weekly bulletin to include packages containing diverse coverage of local events such as new productions at the ‘Mayflower’ Theatre in Southampton, or ‘Coffee House Sessions’ being held at the University of Winchester Terrace Bar. ‘Access Winchester’ has brought a whole new audience to ‘WINOL’ due to the fact that it is local and consistent. It is produced and made available online every week just like the news bulletin.

The news bulletin itself has made vast improvements compared to the start of this semester but I believe that we are still not at the standard that we were at last May. This is reflected in comments made in the debrief of our last bulletin (4/12/13).   Angus explained how there is no such thing as a quiet news week and so it was down to the reporters to find the passion and the drive to ensure that their package is at the correct standard to be in the bulletin. This should mean that the News Editor has a tough decision to make as he or she then has too many packages to choose from.

A consequence of not having enough bulletin ready packages could be due to the fact that this semester the role of News Editor has been delegated on a rota system. This meant that no real relationship between the News Editor and the reporters was able to be established. Time was wasted each week due to a lack of communication of who was to be News Editor that given week and so reporters were unsure of who to contact with questions about their package. This meant that in the News Meeting it would be the first time that the News Editor had heard about the reporter’s story they’ve been working on and so if the News Editor is unsure about the story he or she is unable to give feedback beforehand. 

Another issue is that the news agenda is sometimes not strictly stuck to, in my opinion this is due to there not being enough drive to fight for your story to make sure that a package does work and that you’re able to overcome any foreseeable problems. If your package is turned into an OOV, this is the worst possible thing to happen but most reporters seem to have already given up on their work and don’t put the effort in to turn things around. All that said, package basics such as sound and shots have been greatly improved compared to the start of the semester where essential components of a package such as white balance and NATSOT were missing. The perfect example of this is Liam Garrahan’s scrap metal package.

Due to the effort of Social Media Editor, Georgia Spears, promotion for the ‘WINOL’ bulletin has been consistent and effective. The bulletin is back on top, with an audience for features being at a decline, in contrast to last semester when it was ‘the rise of the features’. I believe this is due to the lack of interest we have had from the team as a whole to produce any features. We have had all the magazines running throughout the semester without enough new content being uploaded apart from the fashion magazine ‘Absolute:ly’. This is because there is a team of four working on the magazine. I feel that each of the other magazines also need a dedicated team.

The decision to condense all the magazines into one magazine called ‘Here and Now’ is going to help raise the profile for features. I believe this to be the case because now that the magazines have been compiled into one there will no longer be any confusion of where to go to see the features and also the magazines will no longer look bare and lacking content. This transformation is still in progress but once the right look of the magazine has been achieved I’m sure that things will pick up from where things were left last semester in terms of traffic to the features. My suggestion is that all the editors from the magazines come together to work as one team to keep ‘Here and Now’ updated regularly.

The Sports Team has made an effort to produce packages which delve into different sports such as handball which has a big following and resulted in a vast amount of traffic being brought to the bulletin and ‘Sportsweek’. It is rare that in depth coverage is given to local teams and this is why so many people are drawn to our coverage which is promoted on Twitter.  All this considered I feel it is necessary for Sports to have a more dominant presence on the ‘WINOL’ front page.

My role on ‘WINOL’ this semester was Managing Editor; this meant it was my job to take responsibility for the marketing and promotion of ‘WINOL’. This is including both advertising and competitions for the news and features team.  We agreed that this semester we need to attempt to make more of a connection with our campus, so I came up with the idea of creating an advert for the bulletin to be displayed on the TV screens around campus. The reason I suggested this idea was because I believed our University campus didn’t know about the ‘WINOL’ bulletin.

The next step I felt was necessary to complete the link between ‘WINOL’ and the campus was to get into contact with the University of Winchester Design Team to discuss the possibility of streaming the bulletin live at five every Wednesday on the TV screens. It soon became clear that the Design Team believed this to not be possible due to the fact that the TV screens do not have sound and also the complications with streaming from the internet. I think that this is a real shame because students are lazy and if a bulletin is broadcast to them directly on the screens then they have no choice but to watch it.  Despite this setback I do believe that the ‘WINOL’ advert has still increased our traffic to the bulletin and the site.

Arranging competitions for the magazines was another one of my responsibilities. I phoned around companies such as the theme park ‘Thorpe Park’ and ‘Benefit’ the make-up brand to ask for prizes for our competitions. ‘Benefit’ sent make up samples which were perfect prizes for the fashion magazine ‘Absolute:ly’. ‘Thorpe Park’ also sent back a 2 for 1 voucher to the park which I thought would be great for the ‘Adventure and Travel’ magazine. I also arranged competitions and prizes for the ‘Volt’ and ‘New Winchester Review’ but unfortunately the Editors were unable to cooperative, so I decided just to go ahead with the ‘Absolute:ly’ competition. It was a great success with over 11 entrees for the competition which consequently brought more followers to 'Absolute:ly' and 'WINOL'.

The competition for 'Adventure and Travel' was a little simpler; all that the entrees had to do was re-tweet our tweet posted on the magazine's account to win the vouchers. Unfortunately the winner of the competition was unable to come onto campus to collect her prize. We felt it was necessary for the prize to be collected instead of posted so that we could take a picture of the winner with her prize. This is important because it proves to the readers that we are true to our word and that our competitions are real. I think this is why we don't have as many competition entrees as I would like, because we are only a student run site so the public don't seem to think we're legitimate when it comes to competitions. However, the more we run, the more we build a good reputation for ourselves whilst drawing more traffic to the site and bulletin.

Georgia Spears, and I agreed that we would both like to work on an exclusive interview for ‘WINOL’ using social media to conduct it. We decided the best way to go about this was to find and interviewee and ask the public to tweet in questions for them. Our followers on Twitter would be given the exclusive chance to put their questions to the interviewee. I decided we should aim high and so I emailed the Deputy Features Editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine UK, Rosie Mullender. Originally we planned to both do the interview but due to the lack of space in the office provided, there wasn't enough room to sit next to each other while we interviewed Rosie. We made the impromptu decision to just do the interview one on one which was a struggle as we had to fit two cameras into the room. I am really glad that I put in enough time to write the appropriate questions for Rosie as the interview just seemed to flow. It wasn't until we went to edit that we realised that due to the cramped conditions of the interview, we had made the error of 'crossing the line'. Luckily it was only the footage we filmed of Georgia that was affected and so to overcome this issue we used a voice over to ask Rosie the questions and flipped the screen on a cutaway of Georgia.

I believe that in order for things to improve next semester for ‘WINOL’, reporters need to follow on from their stories and report on any updates. Too often a story is reported on in the bulletin and then not revisited. Updates will secure a niche audience will continue to watch the bulletin to see if there is any updates on any particular story they are following.

Also all reporters need to update their twitter a couple times a day with pictures and ‘teasers’ of what to expect in the bulletin. This will keep the ‘WINOL’ audience interested in the up and coming bulletin all week.

Finally, all reporters need to ensure that they continue to film too much footage so that when it comes to editing packages they have plenty of footage so that reporters are not made to compromise on what footage they use in their end results.

 

WINOL Week 10 debrief

Angus' Feedback

Overall Angus felt that since it is our last WINOL of the semester that we all just kind of trailed off. Spence, who was News Editor this week, saved the bulletin with his range of ideas. We should have had a shed load of stories and also drive because this was our last bulletin and we wanted to go out with a bang! There is no such thing as a quiet news week, we are given a whole week to do a bulletin therefore it should be full to the brim with stories. There were some good stories in the bulletin but need to spice/sex up the headlines. The end title sequence has a glitch and a horrible jump cut that needs fixing. The 'coming up' needs extending.

-Callum's Uni lecturer strike story had a good use of NATSOT which really gave a flavour of what the story was about and also what was going on. In the first interview however, the eyeline was all wrong and also the gun mic shouldn't be in shot. If the interviewee is taller than yourself, ask them to sit down etc. don't be afraid to control an interview. It's your shots, make them good. Good angles/interviewees, needed just a bit more detail as to why the lecturers are striking. 'More flesh on the story'.

- Sam (presenter) The presenter of the bulletin should always have a copy of the script on his desk in the event that you are going live and the autocue fails. This is what happened this week and Sam carried on seamlessly. Was calm and collected and just read form the hardcopy on his desk. Well done. This does happen, technology can fail. It's life.

-Liam's Chief Whip Story still worked despite there being no interview. In the right place (Westminster) was worth going to try and get an interview. Very good graphics.

-Zeena's police on buses story was well thought out. The PTC worked well on the bus however, needed footage of the police actually on the bus. Good graphics. Maybe should have picked up on a more positive point in the recorded phone call with Policeman.

- Harvey's Unemployment package was a very dry piece since there was only one interview. The Christmas style sign off was a contrast to the seriousness of the story. Should have said soemething quirky to give a reason for the Christmas sign off.

-Tom's death row story needed to be linked to the Innocent Project here at Winchester. Interviewed Brian perhaps? Get some opinions from people in the audience of the talk. All these things would have added to the story.

Sport

Relax, 'lighten up' when presenting, soften it.

Drew- don't describe what's on screen but is nicely paced.

Laura- Handball- Like the idea of delving into different sports. Problems with the camera so must ensure you always have a spare battery. Needed to decide what your focus was going to be in this package and stick with it.

Poonam Bahal from BBC South Today was our guest Editor this week. She explained how she was very impressed with what we do here. Poonam said how at 2:30 (30 mins before our deadline) she felt the 'buzz' in the newsroom and this is what she loves about Journalism.

The headlines she thought had a good choice of stories. Always think what would make a good headline shot when you are out filming. This helps editors on the day .

Strike- Good top story- current, good actuality. Need to still know more about the story e.g. facts and figures. Needs to be relevant and verified.

Chief Whip- Very impressed with graphics, used to explain a lot of facts very well. Always check facts. Could have used vox pops to give it a local angle.

Buses- Forward planning of the story could have led to filming police on the buses. Good script.

Unemployment- Story is almost a month old so needed more content/developed more. Could have gone to Portsmouth to do PTC to break up constant screen time.

Death row- Good story but limited pictures. Could have got vox pops of students to break up interview? Needed footage for cutaways.

Sport

Need to introduce yourself when pass over to sport. Sport is important so it was the right thing to do to include it in the 'coming up' clip.

Ian's Feedback

Pleased to see that reporters are now at the standard where proper packages are being produced. We still need to film more footage than necessary though so that packages aren't left with limited shots. Too light on stories this week, without death row story bulletin would have been even lighter. Need to be 'News Junkies' and see what is going on out there that interests you or find a new angle to add to a current story. More effort needs to be put in to bring more to the table. Should be spoilt for choice with the packages, not just have the bare minimum for the bulletin. Any that don't make the bulletin go on the website.

WINOL Week 9

This week we were really lacking in stories for the bulletin, there was no actual news in it. As a news editor, you need to think of ways to overcome a lack of pictures, or simple ways to deal with this problem. When news editing, the shape and style of a package is as important as the news content.

Angus' feedback:

- It needed that bit of experience and sprinkle to make it a better bulletin. Quiet news week due to third years being away, this meant that it was down to the second years to step up and take control but this didn't seem to happen.
- The main issue this week was with sound, cannot empathise enough how important sound is. 3 packages in the bulletin had sound issues, also one clip used in the headlines didn't have good enough sound.
- Zeena's package - illustrating stories with human interest using a case study worked. Couldn't get filming in care home, so overcame this issue by using a family who are worried about it as a case study.  The piece to camera was an issue though, there was too much noise on piece to camera and the shots used were too wide so that you see the microphone. It looks cleaner if you don't see it. Go for an MCU and put the mic lower.

- Court story: Kate - two headlines with two stills in it. Headlines are about moving pictures, exciting shots, if you have no choice but to use two stills, you need to at least drop one of them. Or use alternative stories which have better pictures. This is a court story which has no pictures, we have a piece to camera and still of victim that's all, its an underlay, it needed to be a package.
- Alex - 'Save the rec ' story- had to take a load out from the package. Don't assume knowledge, explain everything in detail with your package.

- Lucy's world vision story was focused more on the interview which was great. She decided to focus more on the one to one exclusive interview rather than the speech the world vision man made. Angus advised us that if we do hear a speech before you interview someone listen to it and make notes as you can bring up the issues the person raises in the public speech in your own private interview. Lucy then voiced over the pictures which worked much better than just hearing him speak to the public. Her package included three SOT of the interviewee this was fine but it shouldn't be repeated in other stories and we shouldn't always make our packages like this.

- The Choir OOV - there was no sound in it which didn't work. My understanding is that the sound was left on the OOV and then when it was handed over to be in the bulletin the sound was taken off. It is unclear as to why this happened.

- Harvey - relax a bit you can be reasonably chilled out when presenting sport.

- Liam  - football - written well, turned it around quickly. 2 minutes in 2 and a half hours, that's quite good. Liam got on with it straight away and dealt with it. If we are getting national awards we need it in our bulletin and we really needed to think about what a huge story it is.
- For those who worked on the budget programme, congratulations. We could of won a couple more with the standard of work we do. The more recognition we get, the more chances we get.

Ian's feedback:

- Congratulations to all of us for the award.
- Quite nice that we put the award and the end of the bulletin.
- Thin day story wise, but the most impressive stuff was on stories that were turned around on the day and pushing the deadlines. However, we still got there at 3 o'clock.
- Overall, really pleased with seeing much more credible packaging. Shooting more, giving yourself more set up space, and two very good interviews.
- Get more stories, keep filming more and improve the sound! We must get the mic's in the hot zone, the way to get good sound is to wear head sets and headphones then we can hear the sound that's coming through. It's no good just looking at the monitor, we need to wear headphones and hear the real thing.
- Can see definite progress on the packages.

WINOL wins BJTC award

This week has been a triumph for WINOL as our team travelled to Coventry to collect a BJTC Award for Student Journalism team of the year.

We received this award based on our 'Budget Special' which was produced earlier on this year. Harry, Ellen and Kate went up to Coventry last Wednesday to collect the award on behalf of all the team.

See the full story here: http://winol.co.uk/2013/11/head-itn-news-praises-winol-another-national-award-7571 .

Here is the award winning 'Budget Special':

Limited progress on getting WINOL streamed live around campus

I have been in contact with Chloe Battle ( part of the Design team for University of Winchester) since the start of the semester. This is because I was hoping to organise with her a way in which the WINOL bulletin can be shown live at 5 on the TV screens around uni. It seems that I have hit a brick wall as although at the start of the semester Chloe was optimistic about the possibility of linking the bulletin to the TV screens, I have since received this email pasted below:

 

" Hi Shona

I didn’t say that we would have it working by the end of November, I said that we might have time to investigate the possibility further.

I have had a conversation with the head of Marketing (cc’d) meanwhile, and her concerns are that a) there is not any sound available on the screens, so nobody watching would be able to hear the broadcast (the screens are not intended for someone to stand in front of for 5/10/15 minutes at a time), and b) if we schedule the screens to switch over to an internet/TV feed at 5 o’clock, and the broadcast was late (which it sometimes is) there would be a period of time when there would be nothing but a black box showing… which just isn’t acceptable. If we were to consider adding the Winol bulletin we would need to be assured that the bulletin would go live at 5 without fail, and run to a standard length (15 mins?) as we have to set the schedule in the plasma screen master box to switch function at exact times, there can be no variation from week to week.

Therefore at this point in time I’m afraid we just don’t think it is feasible to make the live link to the Winol bulletin. I hope that you understand.

Regards, Chloe"

 

This is a disappointing setback as linking the WINOL bulletin to the TV screens around our campus is the obvious way to obtain a larger/ wider audience from our fellow students which I believe is still a potential audience that we are missing. It isn't all doom and gloom though, as a still image advert is still being shown on the TV screens for the WINOL bulletin and also the WINOL website.