If anything my experience with the live rolling news days have taught me the stress of everyday news gathering, article construction, the strains that it can put on the reporter, indeed the whole news room and relationships that are maintained therein. There are many strenuous factors that play on the reporters mind, in each stage of the creative process- the initial idea, constructing metaphysical news narrative and background information as well as gathering quotes to support the narrative and finally creating the piece itself, ensuring the reporter words it in a precise, and professional manner.
There is a touch of opportunism in the news gathering. General news stories do not often just come along and are handed to the reporter, and those that do are often of questionable news value, barren of obvious and in most cases, any controversy. They merely serve to fulfil the sources own agenda-most commonly, I found, of the council and parliament. In the minimal sense the stories I picked and wrote are news worthy. The Edinburgh trams, public transport and other multimillion pound investments and developments are surely of significant importance to anyone, especially those within the city itself. However, despite this I found it difficult to find and construct an especially news worthy narrative therein.
I found myself constantly aware when writing my articles, of the importance of further investigation, something that online archives and even Wikipedia is a valuable asset with regards to. Though it may not make for the most exciting portfolio I did feel that following and reporting relatively similar news stories in many respects represents good, and even logical journalistic practice as information gathered from one article allowed me to better understand later and familiar developments in the same field, and those close to it such as the councils treatment of the tram and waterfront developments.
I also worry about the professional structure (the inverted pyramid) that my article were constructed and presented in, and the language used to convey the narrative unique to print journalism. Though I feel I may have been achieved this it still remains a worry as it is a process that can eat up a lot of time should you be less experienced as I was and because of it the articles lacked a certain bite that the introduction of an opposing view, quote from the opposing party and controversy could have delivered. Like the proposed use of TIF to fund the waterfront development which unfortunately had no obvious opposition as it was a generally sound proposition, if a bit risky idea in the current economic climate. Opposition was difficult to find and with the time constraints of the news room I was often unable to write the articles I really wanted, and had originally intended to.
Videogames are something that interests me. I am a fan of all mediums of entertainment and artful/crateful expression. I read numerous blogs, news sites and rss feeds on just videogames alone so the launch was something I was familiar with without further investigation. There had been a news worthy videogame related story earlier on in the week with the launch of the long awaited and record breaking ‘call of duty: Black Ops’ game, but I accepted that since the live rolling news day was two days afterwards and the nature of it, being such an obvious story, I felt that there would be no news worthy to be found within.
Instead I opted to write a report on the launch of Kinect, something that has similarly been long awaited yet treated with a healthy dose of scepticism by the news sites I follow. I found it difficult however, to construct the story I really wanted. The ‘midnight launch’ event held at a local game store to which I was an attendant for journalistic purposes , proved to be a disappointment, paling in comparison to that of Call of duty just two days before; and the actual construction of a narrative worried me.
I had originally intended to present both sides of the argument but I felt that doing so would put off and alienate our supposed target audience. There was a degree of controversy in that many of the gaming community were worried that it would lead to a ‘dumbing’ of videogames as companies further chase the honey pot that is ‘family’ gaming. Many game reviewers and even developers wrote articles with regards to how Kinect represents an non- immersive experience ( like one you would find in a good book or film) as it is difficult to capture while the player jumps up and down rapidly, punching the air without any physical feedback.
I attempted to get in contact with the manager of Princes Street Game but unfortunately he was unable to comment on actual sales figures and felt uncomfortable talking about the Kinect itself. However, unlike most other articles I didn’t feel the quotes were necessary or integral to the nature of the article itself. It was a small and light hearted approach to introducing video gaming itself to an audience who may or may not have had some contact with it in their lives, an approach that was in many ways similar to the Kinect peripheral itself. It was an impressive piece of gaming technology and I believe something that our target audience would have been interested in. My expectations for the articles I was writing changed as I found myself running out of time and new encountering obstacles. In many senses the newsroom can be a binding and frustrating experience at times. Perhaps that is why our group worked so well together as we all empathised with the difficulties we all were facing, and we felt compelled to offer some light and friendly advice, perhaps a fresh perspective, on stories were it was needed and time permitted.
In summary I felt I performed relatively well. Indeed, the experience has affirmed that I do not lack the creative spark needed to construct a good article, but I need to be able better seek stories out, get quotes to support the narrative I want, and that the ability to write in a concise and focused manner is not absent, but a skill that needs to be developed so as not to be an obstacle in itself, something that will only come with practice and work.
