Convergence, in terms of journalism means to ‘come together’, thinking of new and more exciting ways of delivering the news of the day. Journalism uses so many different kinds of media and this, convergence unit, really gave us the chance to use them all to their full ability and really make the best of them.
The art of converging is something that allows news delivery to reach a new level and it is definitely something that throughout this unit we embraced. Sharing my audio or video that I had worked hard to gather, at first, was at quite hard. It seemed as though all my hard work was just being passed along for everyone to use. However, after a week or so of this unit I soon began to understand that when I shared my work with others, they were just as willing to share with me. Ultimately, this leads to stronger journalism and that can only be a good thing.
The fact that material is shared so easily and put online quickly, may seem like a pitfall for quality journalism. This can mean that information or audio that you have got ready for a bulletin is online before your bulletin is even broadcast, so it may seem that you aren’t breaking the story. However, the quicker stories get published, especially with added attractions like a video or audio piece, the better. This is the way that, after some practice, I began to look at sharing work. Also some journalists find it hard to trust converging as it can seem as though they are promoting a ‘product’ and concentrating more on the business, marketing side of it, rather than the actual hard journalism. But we were working as one news station, and if converging is done properly, then it simply leads to stronger material being put into the public domain.
Throughout the 8 weeks of this converging unit, I tried to take on as many different roles as possible. I was generally a reporter writing up stories and getting them onto the Buzz website as soon as possible. It took me by surprise that I really enjoyed finding original news stories. At the beginning of our news unit this year we were told that we would have to go out and find original news stories, that hadn’t been published. This seemed like an extremely daunting challenge. However, after we were taught a few tricks of the trade, it began to seem like something that I could actually do, and enjoy. I have always liked talking to different people and finding things out, and this was simply another opportunity to do that. For a few of the news days, I was sent into town to try and find stories and I would like to think that what I found was of a high standard. Stories like those about skulls and guns being donated to charity shops, as well as a Bournemouth artist who is launching a new appeal for missing children, I was really pleased with. The convergence unit, really taught me that there are so many stories out there that nobody has uncovered and they are not actually that hard to find.
When I first found out that I would take on the role of editor for our television days I was rather nervous. However, the editors meetings the day before and on the morning of the news day, really helped me. Having all the editors gathered together meant that we could share our ideas, and we would all bring some different ones to the meeting. For me, in both the practice and assessed weeks, I felt a lot more confident and prepared after the editors meetings, I think they are very worthwhile. In the practice week, when I was editor, there were some little mistakes, for example clips being uploaded onto the Macs as HD. Other issues in that week were time keeping, as editing and sending some of the clips through on the Tricaster was a little bit tight to the bulletin broadcast time. This meant that in our 4 o’clock bulletin there were a couple of mistakes, because we just hadn’t had enough time for run-throughs. However, I was really pleased that these mistakes happened in our practice week, as that is what it was about, and it allowed us as a seminar group to go into our assessed day much more clued up to what could go wrong. I was thoroughly pleased with our bulletins on our assessed day, I think that the stories that we managed to get in that day and the footage was outstanding. As a seminar group I think we work extremely well together and the standard of work that we produce makes me very proud.
One of the main lessons that I learnt in this unit was in our second practice week. Dan asked me and Freddie to research a story about the university applying to build more buildings on grazing land. I went and took pictures of the area, so that we could upload a story onto Buzz. However, after some research we found that the Echo had already covered the story and decided not to run it. This decision was made by me, Freddie, our editor and deputy editor. However, later that week the Echo had that story as their front cover, as they had spoken to angry residents. In hindsight, we should have written something up for Buzz, as although it seemed as though the story was covered, we should have tried to take a new angle. This has taught me a hard lesson that I must follow all leads and make sure that I don’t miss anything at all; there is no room for error.
One of my biggest achievements, I feel, was my interview with Julian Fellowes. I had tried to get hold of him to talk to him about his involvement with the actress Carey Mulligan, but he had been very busy. I was persistent, and it paid off. I spoke to him about his past achievements, for example when he won an Oscar, and I asked him about what he had written recently and his plans for the future. He told me that he had written an article about the Carey Mulligan story and that he didn’t wish to talk about it, which I respected. This taught me a valuable lesson, that you should chase everything; even if it seems that you will never get the interview.
During the weeks of convergence, as I have described, I learnt a huge amount. In the first few weeks I think we were all settling into the news days and had we been more prepared, we could have used multi-media a lot more. But during the following weeks I really tried to embrace all the different technologies and made videos, audio pieces etc. We all started to share everything that we had managed to gather, from a really good video interview, to a strong quote. The fact that this makes for better journalism is another lesson I will take away with me. I think this unit was different from the TV and Radio units last term and last year, as it really made us feel as though we were a working news station. Overall, I found it thoroughly challenging, but completely enjoyable and I have learnt so many lessons that I will never forget.
