Geo-question-a-graphic ?

This week I've decided to look at the ideal location I should live in related to the profession of journalism, for the sake of the exercise we'll say I'm a freelance journalist of the print and radio platforms. To help me work this out I come up with some points I should think of:

-Is a city or town ? Considering that a lot of the amenities will be located in big cities like a majority of national newspapers are located in London it would be logical to live in a major city but what I should consider is:

-Do I have suitable mode or access to transport ? Sadly not every story fall onto your lap so I would need either a car or access to reliable public transport

-Is it near where I would work or could find work ?- Like with every other job it should be at least close enough for me to get their in time for the start of my working day.

- Would the place I would like to live in hinder my work ?- Could the area I live in be dangerous or unsuitable for my job, for example Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is a video game journalist who lives in Australia, though this slightly hinders his work as the country has very strict censorship laws so some of the games he wants to review are extremely difficult to obtain.

Now I was thinking about working abroad Chris Frost has suggested to 'make sure you don't need a visa- plenty of countries will not allow you access without one. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will give advice. Their web site is a wealth of useful information and has specific pages of advice on every country you are ever likely to travel to.'

Logically the US posses a hive of various media outlets one the like of Toby Young have used. If I ever planned to live their I must be careful concerning my job, Chris Frost says 'America requires you to apply for an 'I' via if you are working as journalist to media at home. If you are working for US-based media then you need a different visa.'

A speciality far far away

This week I'm going to look at a branch of journalism which seems to be quite appealing to me. Sci-fi journalism.
As wide sweeping as the term science fiction is this can cover a variety of subjects concerning games, comics and films, the standard palette of what could be considered a 'nerd' or 'geek'.

Looking at the teachings of Chris Frost 'reporters need to be able to think up good story ideas and develop them into follow-up stories, features or other stories.'

In my opinion this one of the genres of journalism with the most creative space. For example if you look at the reviews of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) the kind of descriptive reviewing techniques he employs are quite unorthodox compared to say a book review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/eddy-merckx-william-fotheringham-review). However this could depend on the site as Yahtzee reviewed the Darkness 2 (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5394-Darkness-2) and compared to the review of similar website Game spot (http://uk.gamespot.com/the-darkness-ii/reviews/the-darkness-ii-review-6349874/) does not employ any of the humours or descriptive reviewing techniques Yahtzee does.

Whilst were on the subject of this brand of journalism I've noticed some of the more prominent figures in this section of journalism tend to have a go to franchise, something their extremely knowledge and passionate about. Game journalist Jim Sterling has proven himself to passionate and knowledgeable about Kirby and Alien. Though it's been clear journalists should have at least beginners knowledge of a wide variety of subjects it could be beneficial for me to find a subject like this which could make me stand out from the rest, in a sense my own personal USP.

As Angela Ripppon mentioned at a guest talk at the University of Lincoln for your personal subject 'you must know everything about it', this will be difficult for me to pin down one subject I could be more knowledgeable then most in. I may have to lead this blog on a to be continued line until I can think of one..

How special should we be as journalists ?

This week after my brief wading into P/R I'm going to return to my safety blanket of journalism.

So if you read my Lincolnite blog I'm going to warn you what's coming up is going to be spoilers.

This week I had to attend a public admin lecture in relation to my course options. Feeling to polite to leave after the talk had finished I stayed for the lecture and it highlighted another philosophical journalism rhetorical question which I'm going to have a partial attempt of answering.

'Is specialising in journalism more of a career hindrance ?'

Looking at the subject of employability and how journalists are supposed to be the guardians of truth shouldn't we through our net a wide as we can or are we spreading ourselves to thin ?

As a local reporter I'm not able to specialise in one subject look for example Jim Sterling who is solely a video game journalist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/articles/Jim%20Sterling) or Gordon Smart an entertainment journalist for The Sun. When spreading your net out further could help with their reporting Jim Sterling recently did a piece about the ten worst video games and made a reference to the X-men game, if he had some knowledge about the comic franchise his criticisms could have been even further diverse. Though he did spread his net extremely wide when he reported on the SOPA act and as Christ Frost writes 'A good reporter is unavoidably linked with what society sees as important about journalism.'

As a local reporter I have to be as diverse as possible as my target audience is what could be considered the general public and have a huge variety of interests. This means I have to try and cater to them. Below I'm going to try and demonstrate this with the stories I plan to pitch for my Lincolnite meeting tomorrow and place each of them into a genre of news-

1. Kony coverage event- As a tie-in with the viral video concerning Joesph Kony I want  to report on the planned promotion event which is happening in April to see if it has the desired effect it outlined. Looking at this I think it could be placed in foreign politics because it revolves around  a debated controversy in another country

2. Finding the most interesting displays at the local museum- I propose the idea of going to the local history museum and compiling a list of the most interesting displays they have. I would place this story in the genre of history since I looking into in a sense the history of the city.

3. Bug wildlife- I've heard from friends their has been a bizarre shift in wildlife in the local area so I propose investigating to see if the shift in weather which is unnatural for this time of year has caused this. I would place this story in the genre of science/wildlife.

Here I'm covering a wide variety of stories. Though through writing this entry I've decided we should basically remember the standard ethical behaviour of a journalist in no matter what we cover and a specialist is useful but it's worth remembering to mindful of all news coverage. In a nutshell it's worth remembering Chris Frosts words 'We know that much is expected of us in terms of gathering the truth and presenting it to a public'

PRlogging (P/R blogging)

So last week I looked at the relationship between journalism and blogging. This week I'm going in the opposite direction and looking at how journalists can use P/R blogs as a news source and why it's more preferable.

 As Chris Frost writes that press releases are very useful and 'have grown in importance over the last twenty years as editorial staffs in many provincial papers have been reduced and more and more organisations have become media sensitive.'

This is beneficial as news teams get smaller and smaller especially in the situation with the Lincolnite in which the staff has tendency to be only two people  and can also be step in the right direction for researching a story. For example a few months ago I was sent a press release about a new texting service in which you text a question and they respond for an answer. I used this press release as part of my basic research for a story in which I researched if these text services have a more sinister side,  the story was rejected as it's didn't really have any geographic viability for the Lincolnites target audience.

However it's strongly advised not use this a your only news source. Chris Frost writes that press releases and 'handouts are a propaganda vehicle for the sender. No one sends a press release which shows them, their company or group in a bad light.' However the interactive nature of blogging could add some balance to these corporations unbalanced representation.

Mohammad Ahmadinejad the current leader of Iran who has been known manipulating his nations media to hide certain occurrences in his country has his own blog (http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/fa/) and thus has a commenting system, this then allows anyone to take a post and have a series of balanced comments to go on to do further research to back up their facts with solid research. Chris Frost however puts it better 'You must read between the the lines to get at the real story and you may need to ring the contact for further information.'

An example of when I had to do this is when I was sent a short press release from Grindhaus skate boarding shop talking about an event he was holding. If I hadn't gone I would simply written a short article about an event planned. However since I went to the event (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/businesses-put-on-fun-day-for-lincoln-shoppers/) I was able to discover a stronger of angle of the fact the shop has it's own skateboarding team and also I found a series of follow up angles including the underground nature of skateboarding.