The return post

So welcome back to the intrepid adventures I like to document on my blog (a slightly dated form of blog introduction but it just seems polite)

Today in our lecture Alex revealed the best way to enhance our marks was to dedicate sometime of our placement blogs (150 to 200 words) to critiquing our work. So the subjects for today will be an overall look at my performance in my blog so far.

So far the feedback from editor is that the nature of my ideas are strong subjects for features especially the ice cream story (which has yet to be published but will be in my portfolio), the type of stories my editor expects and I seem to be excelling at are off-diary stories. A definition to this is mentioned by Christ Frost 'These require the reporter to be more creative, thinking up ways to track down stories that are not going to be notified to newsdesk.'. When looking at the ice cream story I feel I've been creative enough to come up with a story no other outlet has covered. Though what has let me down for this story is not being able to find any other seasonal businesses to prevent the story from feeling like a promotion rather a then a look into the cities seasonal economy.

When looking further into what I could improve comes down to collating interviewee details. When it comes to interviewing I have found that in haste I have forgotten to obtain full names of subjects and various bio graphical information. According to Chris Frost 'interviewing allows you to find out the who, what, when where, why and how of the story', maybe with a little more detailed research into my subject could give my these details like correct spell, full name and job title etc. However for vox popping stories like I've recently done (but no currently published) in which I took to the streets of Lincoln and ask people did they feel the actions of the council are helping them feel involved in the 2012 Olympics I found that the ideas of Chris Frost explain clearly why I felt embarrassed and novice to ask for spelling clarifications of in haste forget to collate all details especially for one gentlemen who I forget to ask how his first name was spelt and what his last name was. What Frost said was 'The trite old phrase, 'There's never a second chance to make a first impression' is only annoying because it's true.'

Also maybe more persuasion is needed. Especially when it came to my interview with local author Hobb Whittons (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/06/blue-fire-burning-for-local-author/), the name is clearly a pen name and did not want to reveal his true identity. however conventionally editors like Andrew David recommend obtaining their name though respecting their wishes for it not be published to avoid any legal difficulties which may arise. This is even professionally recommended by the NUJ, point 7 of their code of conduct says- 'Protect the identidy of sources who supply information in confidence in the course of his/her work', though this is not on the level of whistle blowing it's still ethical to respect their wishes.

To ensure I do not continue to make these mistakes I will try to do more detailed research for pre-arranged interviews and ensure one of the first questions I ask are strictly biographical.

Now onto another subject I want to look a the unconventional skill set journalists may require.

Looking at the example of my work colleagues I am aware they quite up to date with modern technological trends and do freelance works for technology outlets thus they have another employable skill set on top of their journalism  and various other subjects degrees. Since my editor also has to deal with the business side of the website gives him another skill set.

This has now proposed the idea that maybe I should start cultivating a collection of unconventional but useful skills to help in my career. This could also lead me into a specialist subject though I will need to find a subject as Angela Rippon suggests 'That you know everything about', in a guest talk she described an encounter with a student who wanted to specialise in the entertainment industry but mentioned how they had limited knowledge of the later part of the 20th century something she believed to have limited their understanding as they did not know about what some people considered the best dancers of all time.

For skills however I believe my demonstration of photo manipulation has proven useful when I was on my BBC placement I was able to help a producer rotate an image when she was struggling to perform the task herself.

To conclude I need a specialist subject and skills. I think I will start to understand these slowly if I try to cover subjects which interest and try to experiment with different story treatments.