Jason - Digital Media Journalist

5 News Outlets

Sports related:

Sky Sports News Broadcasting:

This programme has no more than two presenters that usually adopt a formal but still approachable style to their presenting. It has both men and women working in presenting and gathering the latest news at different news areas across the country. The news is repeated often with the same style approach, and scripted language. It does stay away from gossip news, and news unrelated to the sports covered themselves, although if a topic does influence the sport, for example Tiger Woods’ affairs meaning he would not be competing, then they would air this with something along the lines of;

‘Tiger Woods will not be competing in professional golf for six months, as problems regarding his personal life have come to light and he has taken the decision to suspend all entries into competitions.’

Hull Daily Mail Local Newspaper Print:

This newspaper has the sports section regarding local sporting events located at the back, usually taking up no more than six pages. It covers the main sports such as Rugby League and Football, but also other local sports such as Ice Hockey, Boxing, and Speedway. It has a local writers approach with a chatty but impartial view from main editor or writer, but also has columnists such as Peter Swan giving their opinions, which can sometimes be subjective. The language used is informal, but also intriguing as it holds personal regards to the readers who would only read that particular section if interested in that area. Therefore, the style does not need to entice the reader as much as other subjects, but needs to deliver the news with a factual but detailed approach to satisfy the reader.

The Daily Sport Tabloid National Newspaper, Print:

This newspaper covers a range of stories and topics from different sports, but unlike others, it will bring unrelated items to sport into the fray. Topics such as affairs, scandals, fixing and personal lives of sports people are of interest to this newspaper. It will look for stories deeper into the personal lives rather than the sporting interest of the reader, and therefore makes the paper a god gossip read rather than a factual intellectual piece that engages with the sole purpose of the paper. The style is chatty, but subjective, and can also have opinionated views rather than factual truths, although it would be un ethical to print complete lies, so the stories are sometimes over exaggerated and prolonged to keep a story going and make it more widespread than it actually is.

Sky Sports News Online:

The Sky Sports Online website has a more accessible and discussion based approach. There are comment boxes for readers to leave their comments, and there are videos and pictures incorporated on to the site to entice the viewer to stay. The style of writing is very descriptive and formal with a clear underpinning and outcome of the action underlined. This style is almost a step by step talk through of the story, weather it is a game or a news story, it is always in depth and analysed and descriptive. The layouts don’t often change, and they keep sports and related topics grouped so that they are easy to find, and they have related articles placed next to each other for maximum choice to the user.

BBC Radio Humberside Sports Talk Radio:

The BBC sports talk radio has an informal chatty and discussion based approach. It will start by introducing the topics, the main news, and then ask the listeners to get involved, and encourage them to contact the show to have their say. The hosts are always chatty, informal, and listen to the listeners, and let them have their say without questioning their opinions. The show brings to light any local events, latest news, and does this with a fun and approachable manner which makes the show accessible for all to listen to, and is also very topical and factual to the sports discussed.

Piece for Humberside Radio sports talk 6 – 7 pm

‘Hello welcome to sports talk here on BBC radio Humberside, tonight we will be discussing recent events with regards to your local teams here in East Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire. So today there are reports that another Manchester United youngster, left back Joe Dudgeon, may be on his way to the Tigers to join up with many other youngsters that have come here from old Trafford, the likes of Corry Evans, James Chester and Cameron Stewart have already flown the nest and joined the Tigers on permanent basis’, another may be on their way, what are your thoughts on this?. Is it a good thing that we are catching the youngsters that are leaving the academies at top clubs, or should we be looking for more experienced players to aid the youngsters already here? As always we welcome your thoughts, give us your calls texts and emails to BBC radio Humberside sport, and we will be on air for the next hour or so discussing various other topics too.

Why have I chosen this style?

I have chosen to write the piece in this style as BBC Humberside sports talk is an informal chatty sports call in that is all about the listeners’ views rather than the host’s critiques. It gives background to the main news of the day regarding each topical sports or club, and then influences the listeners to get involved and give their thoughts by getting in contact. This is a style that is continuous, and the programme never runs with just the hosts talking, as this is the whole point of the show, to have debates and influence the public to air their opinions. I chose this to style to fit the market of listeners that have discussions, and want to interact with the show. The hosts speak in an informal and approachable tone and language style, quite the opposite to the usual BBC style and tone. This is because it is a local discussion based programme, rather than national news orientated factual scripted one, that doesn’t interact with the viewers or listeners.

Evaluation of Documentary

Evaluation

My 3 minute documentary was produced through using a story of one person’s life, and creating an interview style video. I came through a few different ideas to decide on my final idea. Some of these where mockumentary’s, as I was going to base an idea around family life, and compare this to animals in the wild, but as I became more familiar with the expectations, I decided that this may be quite difficult, although it would have been fun to produce and edit. My other idea was to do a documentary quite similar to my final piece, although it would have been about places, rather than a person themselves. This I thought would have worked, and I would have also had many opportunities for good General views, and cutaways. After some advice, I decided to go with an interview style, with the interview taking place in the person’s own home, to set a background of the person and where they live, and also make the person more comfortable.

After watching some videos on interview project, I had some inspiration of how to story the video, to set a scene, and create an impression using audio. I took some videos from the top of the Humber Bridge, as this is a high Viewpoint in Hull, and I wanted to try and gain some good views of the whole of Hull. This was more difficult than I expected. I had a tripod, and video camera, but unfortunately, I did not pick the best of days whether wise to film on top of the Humber Bridge, as it was quite windy. This I feel affected the quality of the videos, and also made it difficult to keep the tripod still and get a good video that was clear and with all the views I wanted to get. To aid the video, when in editing, I changed the tone of the scene to Sepia, as this gave the video a more colourful and old fashioned feel which I wanted to create. This along with the music of ‘We’ll meet again’ over the top of this I feel set a mood for the type of video it was going to be. Without seeing the rest of the video, the interpretation of it would have been about wartime in Hull, and this is the impression I tried to create.

I also shot some videos for cutaways at one of the places mentioned in the video, again to set a sense of place and how it would have changed from the interviewee talking to how it is now.

When it came to editing the video itself, I encountered quite a few difficulties. I wanted to Adobe premier pro to edit the video, as this is something I was getting use to using in the sessions. The file type the video recorded in was a MP4 format, and this would not play with audio using Adobe PP. So after attempting to use Windows live movie maker, I again saw faults with trying to use this, as I could not create the video as well as I would have liked using this. After seeking some help, I managed to convert the files into avi. format. Again, I tried to use Adobe PP, but this time the audio was fine, but the video had increased in speed which caused it to be out of sync. I again tried to change the file type, and I tried using a piece of software called Sony Vegas, but this made the quality of the video very poor, and blurred. After trying many other file type’s including Mpeg, avi. vop. DV. And then also WMV, this one finally worked and would let me edit without any problems. The video files would all play in the other formats, but when it came to editing, they would not work.

When finally editing my video, I decided to try and keep with the beginning theme to the video of old wartime Hull, and I tried to pick the parts of the interview that I feel gave insight to the interviewee as a person. I wanted to try and keep the video as direct and real as possible, without losing any sentiment or true feeling in the words of the interviewee.

Overall, although coming across many obstacles, I thoroughly enjoyed creating the video, and I learned some important aspects when filming, editing and trying to create an impression and mood with a film.

Evaluation of Emma Massey's sessions and work

Evaluation for Emma Massey’s Piece

Whilst visiting our seminars, Emma Massey set a piece of work, which was a treatment for a news story, of which we had two to choose from. I chose to do a piece on non-smoking day, which was underlining issues with underage smokers.

My original set up for this piece was just the treatment without a script or storyboard telling to accompany it. I started to think about how the story would be treated on a programme such as Look North and the approaches that the Journalist would have towards it. Such as would it be covered in a comical way or a more serious manner, would the journalist have Vox pops, or interviews, or would it be something with a piece to camera, or all of the mentioned? I also thought about the running times and the schedule or where it could be placed in a programme.

After submitting the piece in a seminar at the BBC building, I talked through these ideas and gained feedback and further suggestions through other members of the group, and Emma’s professional advice. From this I re-wrote the piece taking on board the feedback, and also adding a script and Storyboard to gain a more insightful projection of my ideas to the group when presenting. I hand sketched these storyboards, and gave copies to all attending people in the group, and in my presentation, discussed the sequence that I would have, and also read out the script with each scene numbered to the storyboard.

Aspects that were changed from the original piece or the orders of some sections to the videos made the piece more interlinked and flowing as a story. Changings aspects such as orders of sections, the affects in the videos, where the piece to camera was, and also adding a script gave the piece more realistic qualities. This gave me more ideas of aspects to change with the sequences, as the words spoken would also have to flow, and irregularities became more apparent when trying to fit writing together along with pictures.

The presentation of the piece I feel went well, the storyboards where a little comical with my artistic impressions of objects, and also the script gave the storyboard meaning, and vice versa. The sequence of the story flowed when reading the script and my ideas, which again I feel was helped by having both words and pictures, as I gained a clearer perspective of what linked within the piece.

Overall the sessions with Emma Massey were extremely beneficial to me, as they helped my understanding of how much operation goes into running a scheduled programme, and helped me to gain a better understanding of basic do’s and don’ts within broadcast Journalism. The task of scripting a news treatment with all the added aspects was the most beneficial part of the sessions, as this is as close to designing something that could be used in Journalism with the feedback of a professional Video Journalist.

Evalution of module

Designing for the User has enabled me to grasp a more adequate and tangible approach to design, understanding different users’ needs and how each individual matters when creating a site. The feedback I had received from a JAWS user helped me understand this more as it was a first-hand discussion on how hard it is for impaired users to enjoy the same things that non impaired users may take for granted. The module has enabled me to learn new skills, in using different software, thinking critically about my decisions, and putting a personal approach into my writing style, which I feel is imperative as a journalist, to be unique or have a particular writing style, so that as a whole, your work is comparable with other writing created. The module has also made me be more aware and critical of bad web designs, and understand why they are not as affective in their design. The module as a whole covered a lot of various aspects that cover not just this area, but can also be applied to other too. This way of critical thinking is something that will continue to develop, and expand throughout looking at other aspects of journalism.

Final Album Art cover

Change of Plan

After looking at my website whilst in the process of creating the structures and pages, I found that I had difficulty in pin pointing particular sports. Such as boxing or sports that are at present in the off-season, I found that news would be difficult to produce, as the whole basis of my site was to produce current, relevant, and main headline news with a more passionate and less formal approach. An example of a stumbling block I came across was when this week Brighton where promoted into the Championship, and I wanted to put this in some of my pages under this week in pictures, and J.R's thoughts. But my problem was, along with main NFL news, and Olympics, and opinions in the J.R's view that may be on worldwide topics, that the promotion of Brighton to the second tier of English football, was actually quite small and irrelevant. This prompted me to re-think the whole basis. Although I do think it would be a fantastic idea to produce a website under my initial proposal plans, but for the purposes of content, relevance to me and what I want to mainly do with my website, which is to be informal, passionate, and connect with the audience on a more approachable level, my ideas would be best suited to a more detailed and focused sport.
So, as my initial layout and plans state, nothing has changed under the structure, ideas for layouts, or any other original ideas, other than that now my site is solely aimed at football. This is still going to be a site which puts across my ethos on sport, passion for the topics, and content that is interesting to the reader, but more narrowed to this one particular area, due to the difficulties and mass content that would have been needed to produce my original idea to a high standard.
My logos, interactiveness through View-Flash, and all other aspects are still going to be in place. I feel that I can now concentrate solely on gaining relevant information, at a crucial stage of the season within this sport, and supply this with a professional and passionate approach.

My Logo, Title for the Website

My website has a simple and common theme running through it with the logo and branding associated with it. The simplistic design used to represent the name of the site is direct and doesn't confuse the commercial message with un-needed jargon or advertising.
I used this typeface to create an affect of conjoinment, as the letters are all joined through the bottom of each individual letter. Although at present, on my website the typeface is in a white colour on a blue background, I may change this, but only after deciding on my final layouts and content being completed.
I am aiming to keep the theme throughout the website of the typeface, here are the examples of what I mean:
If you go on the website, although incomplete, you will notice the title SportsFlash at the top of the page. Also by clicking onto sports, then QuickFlash, yo will notice the same typeface in the same style appears, to represent names with the common theme of Flash, at the end of the page name. This is also the same for ViewFlash.
If you click the link my web page will appear, www.wix.com/russell_1232/SportsFlash

Storyboard for Smoking Piece

This is the storyboard I used in my presentation, I handed each member of the group a copy of this whilst explaining the sequence of the story and reading out the script.

Guidelines the Governement actively supports

Disability guidelines the government actively supports:

The Equality Act 2010;
The Equality Act 2010 aims to protect disabled people and prevent disability discrimination. It provides legal rights for disabled people in the areas of:

employment
education
access to goods, services and facilities including larger private clubs and land based transport services
buying and renting land or property
functions of public bodies, for example the issuing of licences

The Equality Act also provides rights for people not to be directly discriminated against or harassed because they have an association with a disabled person. This can apply to a carer or parent of a disabled person. In addition, people must not be directly discriminated against or harassed because they are wrongly perceived to be disabled.

The definition of ‘disability’ under the Equality Act 2010

In the Act, a person has a disability if:

they have a physical or mental impairment
the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to perform normal day-to-day activities

Other aids the government will support disabled people with include:

Employment support such as looking for work, and the access to work grant which can be applied for.
Financial Support such as Disability living allowance, and employment and support allowance
Education and Training including Disabled students allowance
Rights and Obligations, like the Disability and Equality Act 2010
Mobility and Transport, the mobility scheme
Everyday life and leisure, such as leisure at home
Home and Housing, homes can be adapted for disabilities such as stair chairs and lifts
Health and Support, including mental health and social care
Travel Holidays and Breaks such as The National Accessible scheme
Disabled Parents, if you are about to become a disabled parent, or are a disabled parent with school children

All of these are guidelines that the Government actively supports, and some of these guidelines have Internet access included within them such as Everyday Life and leisure, and Home and Housing, and Employment support, where facilities needed to work are instaled at the home and in the work place whre reqiured.

References: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/RightsAndObligations/DisabilityRights/DG_4001068; Accessed 30/03/2011

Things I would do to Improve websites for Impaired users

There are a few issues that if building a website, I would consider vital to it being successful. All considerations for all users is a priority, it really must be accessible to all. Whether they are a first time web user, someone who has vast experience on the web, old or young, and also if they have any impairments such as sight or physical ones.
One of the first things I would ensure is for the structure to be the easiest and most freely accessible navigation possible. Having constants on every page such as keys and buttons being in the same place, using the same words, saying what the link actually means. It would be no good having the about us cleverly named what you need to know or something that isn't so obvious. A search bar also would be useful, as someone using systems such as JAWS can just type in the search box and know what they are looking for rather than searching through tab after tab to only get lost in a system of structural spaghetti where there are no alt tags and no inclination as to where the site is actually leading you.
From my feedback in the interview with a visually impaired user, it is apparent that the IPhone and Ipad are much more freely accessible for impaired users such as her, and also this would be less frustrating, and speed up the browsing. If i could adapt this feedback to use on a computer based system, I would ensure alt tags are placed at every opportunity, so that as when a user is on the IPhone and it tells them where there finger is hovering over, this would also apply for computers and the arrow key, so that it would make browsing on a computer as easy as the IPhone too.
For physically impaired users, such as people with cerebral palsy, whom may have difficulty using keys and navigating websites, if possible, I would simply make voice activated systems, as to understand their own unique voice, so that if their speech is also affected by disability, it would still understand the users needs and be capable of understanding what the user wants from what they are saying. This would be something where the speech form each unique person is encoded into their own unique machine that would attached to a computer, I would also make this device portable, and I would make this software a widely accessible and a necessity to have in public access places such as libraries and Universities.

First Hand Interview with a user of JAWS

I have gained an Interview with a first hand user of JAWS. The person whom the comments come from, is a female who is almost 100% blind in both eyes.
This is her feedback on JAWS:

"Jaws is a fantastic piece of software but, it can be very confusing learning all of the shortcut keys. The problem with Jaws when using it on a website is that you don't know how the page has been configured, so you don't know what to look for first. Do you start with the headers? or the links? The problem is that you can only look for one thing at a time which if you could see would not be the case as you can skim read the page making it quicker.

It can be very frustrating and it can take ages to try and do anything and most of the time I end up not using Jaws on my PC to look on the internet due to the problems you face, I tend to use the iphone or ipod as they have a built in voice over software which reads out everything you touch on the screen. This process is more like being able to see what is on the page and you don't have to remember all of the right shortcut keys.

The other problem with Jaws is the expense as it costs nearly £1,000 for the software and then you also need to purchase training as it is not a piece of software you can just pick up and use it has taken me about 7 months to learn Jaws so far and I am no where near an expert!!!

On a final note Jaws can be very annoying as the voice isn't exactly great, it is very robotic and doesn't always announce things correctly which can be very confusing especially when trying to know if you have spelt something correctly. I have found I have slowly got used to the voice but it really drives everyone else mad especially my colleagues in the office. The one thing is you are never lonely and always have someone to talk to !!!"

Video of short film Journey to Brotherhood

Ideas adapted for piece

For my video piece, I have had an idea of an opening scene for if I choose the documentary with my relative. I would open the video with a high viewpoint such as on top of the Humber Bridge with a view of the majority of Hull and surrounding area, in a monotone colour scheme, with old wartime music fading in and out over the top such as 'We'll meet again' over the top to set the scene, going into an interview in the home of the relative.

Genre of a short film

In researching the genre of the short film for ideas and guidance, I found a useful website that has some advice and pointers to consider. http://www.scribd.com/doc/13163411/Short-Films-Genre
A caption of this website states the following:

The great thing about shorts is that they can be anything – the only limit beyond the cost of production is that of your own imagination. So don't be hemmed in let your imagination fly. Play with your ideas. Play with the form. Every short can and should be a unique vision.

Film is about telling stories in pictures, which is the most economical way of
telling a story – and in the making of shorts, economy is everything. Remember
the golden rule of film making: show, don't tell. The idea and story can be focused
enough in scope to exist entirely in the viewer's head, and so logic and time can
play a much smaller role in the journey from beginning to end than in other
formats.

The best short films are often a moment that is played out, but one that has a
story at its heart a conflict that has to be resolved, where there's a deadline to
the action, where there's a choice that a character has to make. You should
always try to tell a story. Short films aren't an excuse to break all the rules – but
they are an opportunity to push the boundaries of what cinematic storytelling can
do.

Storyboard Pictures of website

Storyboard for website

Site Map

Original Site Map Idea

Final Submission and Evaluation

For the final submission, the album art created has not yet been sent to me. We had roles within the group, of which mine was research, and once the final piece has been finalised, I will post on my blog.

This module has enabled me to discover and learn new ways to think about photography and create an image from interpretation rather than representation. I have found the book I have used to aid me, 'The Complete Photographer' very useful, and there are some aspects from there that I have helped me to understand the art of photography in a more critical yet free way. A statement in the book by Barry Read epitomises the understandings I have developed about photography over the last few months;
'You can't teach someone to see.... I'm biased but I think being taught to shoot 'like this' and 'like that' stinks. Rules are there to be broken. Get a camera, go out there and shoot, shoot, shoot, until the camera becomes a part of you.'
This I feel is very true, and as part of this module I have developed a clearer understanding of principles such as lighting, camera angles, tones, affects and a picture not being so 'perfect', but an interpretation of design. Although some of these aspects have become clearer, I have not become so familiar with the software and digital remastering of photographs. I have not had as much opportunity to work on pieces alone, as I do not have access to the software at home, but when given the chance, I have tried to learn as much as possible when being able to access the software required, such as learning basic rules and tools.
Overall, I have enjoyed being able to look at portraits as a subject, and being able to experiment with researching techniques and styles used by professionals and experts, and it is something that I will continue to develop and add to, to gain even more experience and understanding in the future.