My first outing 'on the patch!'

My first task this morning was to assist Zute on a photographic assighnment. We visited an elderly lady who contacted the newspaper after her cat went missing. A 'soft' story, but important for mainting links in the local community. I assisted Zute with the lighting for a couple of shots, and observered how important engaging with the subject is whilst obtaining the photographs.

We returned to the office where I began chasing up leads and ideas for a few news features, a vox pop, and a local profile. I also conducted an interview for the 'my pet' collumn, with a tourtoise owner! It would seem to be another 'soft' story but it also had a serious anglet; it would seem that global warming is affecting animals who hibernate, disrupting their sleep.

Another enjoyable day.

Finishing touches.

I spent today going over some of the articles I wrote earlier in the week ready for this Thursday's deadline. I also had a look at the 'style book' for the newspaper, and discussed livening up my links into quotes with Rebecca. I learnt that it is possible, and quite interesting for the reader to link to quotes using varied references to the interviewee, for instance their age, occupation, number of children etc.

I also wrote a few interesting stories about various charity events happening in the borough. It seems Ealing has number of very giving and caring residents. Two of the residents, friends from Hanwell, were organising a cook-off event in their local pub. I interviewed them over the telephone and booked a picture to be taken with our photographer.

I also wrote an interesting NIB about 3 local women all due to be ordained as priests in the borough, a historical local event for the church community.

Although there was no time left to go out on the patch with the photographers, I managed to watch them select and edit images for submission to this week's edition.

I learnt that it is important to balance the lighting levels in the images carefully for a print publication, as the printing process can over-darken the images. I also noted how little cropping was needed to finish off the images. This was due to the careful framing and preparation that Stan and Zute put into each image; It goes to show that a little thought and effort goes a long way to saving time during editing!

The calm before the storm.

The office was buzzing today as we prepared for the end of week deadlines. When I arrived everyone had at least one phone call on their hands to deal with, so I decided to follow suit and call back some of the leads that were unavailable yesterday. Afterwards I offered to help out Jane, who gave me a story idea that she was too busy to follow up, I gratefully accepted and made a start on it.

Minuets later there were a few NIBs (News in Brief) that needed writing up. However, I hadn't finished completing my first task! I felt a little concerned, and did a quickly calculated that the NIBs probably needed doing first, they were also shorter and so I estimated that I could probably round them up quickly providing I could gather the relevent details. Whilst I was weighing up each priority, Jane suggested that I put hers on the back-burner, confirming to me that my first instinct was right. This made me gather a little more confidence and momentum for the rest of the morning. I also learnt how to book staff photographers for picture stories, and organized an event in the photo diary.

For the rest of the day I continued to work on press releases, and tip-offs to the paper on stories in our 'patch'. Although I have previously found conducting interviews over the phone quite nerve-wracking I feel that I am beginning to feel a little more confident. Whilst writing up some of the stories I listened to Rebecca and Steve conducting their own telephone interviews, which reassured me that with a little more assertiveness I can develop my own interview techniques and skills.

I believe tomorrow I am headed out with one of the photographers on assignment. I am sure that I will enjoy the experience as it ties in nicely with my photography studies.

My first day at the Ealing Gazette

I began my first day of work experience at the Ealing Gazette today. I received a warm welcome when I arrived at the office, (to my immense relief!) and found all of the staff friendly and approachable, despite missing three members of the team who were on exam leave.

My first task was to read through the day's national papers, to see if there were any potential stories relating to our area of West London. Afterwards it was straight to the phone to call up leads for quotes, or details. It seems that there is not always a reporter with the Gazette's photographers, and so details for some images needed to be gathered, and written up.

During the rest of the morning I began researching and writing up stories relating mainly to local schools in the area - 'good news' stories! (I am already fed-up of people telling me that journalism is only about 'bad news', today has definitely proved it doesn't have to be.)

During the afternoon chief reporter Steve Still, and Jane Harrison gave me a few tips on how I could adopt the newspaper's house-style, And Sachin Nakrani (news editor) made sure that I had plenty of stories help out with and to sink my teeth into, something which I was more than happy to do.

Interestingly local crime news in the borough has become a talking point of late, with a bizarre succession of shootings, and an increase in hate-related crimes. Needless to say there was no shortage of press releases to read through and research today, which was very enjoyable.

I also experienced my first press office 'fob-off' at the newspaper this afternoon, however I managed to work around it, which was a challenge.

All things considered I think today was a great start to the placement - I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the day, and I hope that I have managed to make myself useful around the newsroom!