Responding to feedback: individual study.

Where or How can we find news?

Court Case,
committee meeting,
launch of a report of product,
new tv show,
sports events,
exhibitions,
celeb appearance,

NEWTWORKING AND CONTACTS ARE IMPORTANT.
This way you can link your self with a story or can grab an interview easier.

Actors or Celebs

•Find out what films/plays/TV Depp has been in recently or are working on 

•Wikipedia, IMDB, personal websites; get some basic biographical detail etc.

•Check social media

•Call their agent or press officer for further details

•Try the producers of the film/play etc

•Call the DL press office, ask them if they know any more: perhaps special arrangements or requests were made. When did this happen?

•Get quotes from the DL or perhaps a curator.

•If specific information is not available, get some harmless speculation or background information – what relevant books, documents, manuscripts might have been consulted.

Building. 

•What is the nature of the building: who owns it?

•What is it used for? What is its historical background? Was it once important to the community?

•Check social media

•What can people in the street/living/working nearby tell you?

•What is their opinion on the development? Is it needed? 

•What is the nature of the development – call the local authority press office

•They should be able to tell you who has lodged the development plans: which company, which architect?

•Are they protected by Listed Buildings regulations: call English Heritage

•What is the timetable for planning consent?

•Who are the objectors: have they formed a committee? Have they objected in writing to the planning committee? Objections are normally publicly available on council websites

•Can you contact them to get their views?

•Do you need a quote from a body such as Save Britain’s Heritage, the Georgian Group or the Victorian Society?

•Any other suggestions?

INVERTED PYRAMID. 

Who, What, Where, When, Why, How 

  Any of the above not in the Intro -

  plus, perhaps – its significance

  Quotes moves it forward

  More details, quotes

  So what? Next?

  Any holes?

  Extras



WHAT formula.

- W: What happened – plus elements of who, where, when etc.

- H: How – often the next tier of information. Develops story beyond intro, key elements.

- A: Amplification – details such as events sequence, supporting quotes & other specifics

- T: Tie-up – background info, loose ends, what happens next.

(Holmes et al 2013)

Who are you writing for? Audience engagement & Workshop on: Introduction to Pitching, Ideas generation and setting up as a Freelancer.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/open-journalism

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Networked.html?id=G72FUP5_238C&redir_esc=y

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/185746/6-questions-journalists-should-be-able-to-answer-before-pitching-a-story/

http://muckrack.com/daily/2013/10/17/the-7-deadly-sins-of-pitching-journalists-and-bloggers/

http://gangrey.com/?p=3902

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPfSrmzLo0

Becoming a Freelancer.

- Finding a nice working space

- Plan out writing for each day

-Comfortable chair, good posture

-Notebook, contact list, memory stick, backup

-Keyboard skills, short hand.

-Which genre

- Professional Road Map

-Research 

         "The way it works is that freelance journalists sell article ideas to magazines and newspapers, otherwise known as 'pitches'. It sounds easy in theory, but it's worth remembering that there are very few 'new' ideas - the trick is finding a original angles on topics or themes which may have been covered in the press time and time again."

"The best freelance journalists usually have a good knowledge of current affairs and read lots of newspapers and magazines, as they are always on the hunt for new ideas or fresh angles."

"Before you even think about pitching ideas, it is a good idea to spend some time reading the publications you would like to write for to get a good feel for the target audience."

        "It's also worth picking out individual articles and asking yourself why you think the editor ran that particular story and why it might appeal to their target audience. This should help you come up with original feature ideas which are well suited to the publication and should appeal to the editor."

  "Feature ideas come from a variety of sources: new research, events; such as. Cancer Awareness Week, news stories, personal experiences - the list is endless! Generally, those which are tied to some new research or a topical news story often have the most chance of being accepted – or ‘commissioned.’ 

"When pitching stories, it is really important to find out exactly who edits the section you are pitching to. This information can usually be found by telephoning the switchboard of the publication.

"Most editors prefer email pitches, but some get hundreds of pitches a week, so if you want to be in with a chance of getting published, you need to be willing to follow up over the phone. If your idea is particularly timely, sometimes it’s best to get straight on the phone with the idea and not bother with the email.

"Always remember that editors are busy and there are hundreds of people like you trying to interest editors in their ideas, so always ask if it is convenient to talk and offer to call back another time if not. 

  "Even if an editor doesn't like your idea and tells you so over the phone, this can be a great opportunity to tell them a bit more about yourself and maybe find out a bit more about what they're looking for - so that next time you pitch an idea they might remember you. Which is definitely a good start in this business! 

Jan Murray 

Developing Ideas. 

-Be specific with an idea

-Coming up with a title may help

-Having a subject and Idea

- Understanding what the reader wants

-Researching

“The audience is dead. Long live the audience.”

Jeff Jarvis 2004

Dan Gillmor: We the Media:  “the people formerly known as the audience”

Tom Curley, Associated Press CEO:  "The users are deciding what the point of their engagement will be -- what application, what device, what time, what place."

Mark Thompson, ex director general of the BBC, uses the term: The Active Audience ("who doesn't want to just sit there but to take part, debate, create, communicate, share.")

Rupert Murdoch, warned US newspaper editors: "They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it." 

(Poster in McQuail:119) enabling many to many conversations, simultaneous reception, alteration and redistribution of cultural objects, dislocating communication from territorial constraints, providing instantaneous global contact, inserting the ‘subject’ or person into the network.

“If the concentration and centralisation of editorial power are two distinctive features of the [British] national press, a third is the weakness of its professional culture. The British national press is strongly influenced by entertainment values and political partisanship, making it different from American print journalism, with its stress on balance, dispassion and a public duty to inform." James Curran: Submission to Leveson. 

The role of interviewing in feature writing. How to get the most out of your interview.

http://www.spj.org/rrr.asp?ref=6&t=

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

http://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/

http://journalism-education.cubreporters.org/2010/08/how-to-write-profile-story.html

Introduction to feature writing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25035280

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/magazine/casey-affleck-should-be-more-famous.html?ref=magazine&_r=0

http://longform.org/stories/zepps-last-stand

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21590100-after-dreadful-decade-abroad-americans-are-unduly-pessimistic-about-their-place

http://mediumutm.ca/medium-magazine

Feature writers.

•Lynn Barber – the Observer

•Patrick Cockburn – the Independent

•Deborah Orr – the Independent

•John Pilger

•Barbara Ellen – the Observer/Guardian

•Miranda Sawyer – various

•Simon Barnes – the Times

•Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

In features you cannot forget the...

WHAT

WHERE

WHEN 

WHO 

WHY

HOW

         When writing features think of news being a pyramid, most important information at the top as the story goes on it get more into details and is longer. Features are usually longer, they are more thought about and researched into, they contain comments, they are a form of entertainment but still have hard facts and allows the writer to write about theories aswell as facts. 

•Peg: how you lure readers in

•Angle: slant, approach, interpretation

•Quotes: bring feature to life

•Colour: detail descriptions

•Tone: how you say something

•Voice: words author, expert, friend, gossip

•Packaging: pics, graphics, sidebars, case studies, Q&A, audio, video

         Different type of features may include, profiles, trends, first person: eye witness, confessional human interest, news backgrounder/ colour, lifestyle, travel, follow-up news feature, leader/ analysis and a review. 

"Grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into the windpipe in the second and hold him against the wall unti the tag line." - Paul O'Neil - American Writer. 

Reading Week.

"Ask a journalist what a feature is and he or she is likely to respond: 'Anything that isn't news.'" 

"It is the journalist's responsibility to take control of the interview." 

"A common question that feature writers are asked is: where do you get your ideas? The usual response is that ideas come from all around you." 

"You have to be prepared to be unpopular if you're a journalist."

"When arranging deadlines, calculate the time likely to be required for the various tasks."

Journalism as entertainment, celebrity and commodity plus advanced news writing workshops on story telling.

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/62196/mod_resource/content/4/Herman%20Chomsky%20Propoganda%20Pdf.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/44703/mod_resource/content/1/Protecting%20the%20news.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/64107/mod_resource/content/1/McChesney.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/64182/mod_resource/content/1/Lords%20Ownership.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/64184/mod_resource/content/1/Media%20Plurality%20Lords.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/64092/mod_resource/content/1/Conboy%20on%20celebrity%20journalism.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/64102/mod_resource/content/1/Peppiatt%20chapter%20extract.pdf

http://mdx.mrooms.net/pluginfile.php/64093/mod_resource/content/1/Peppiatt.txt

"The Press endorse the basic tenets of capitalism - private enterprise, profit, free market, and rights of property ownership" (Curran & Seaton. 2003)

PR & Celebrity
Fulled by mass media, technological innovation and converging media platforms (particularly social media)  The masses are into celebrity and this is why it is so popular, with the rise in social media, celebrities have been able to become even more popular by connecting with fans via social media such as twitter, instagram etc. This is on a new level of how fans can get particularly close with celebrities they follow. However, how much privacy does this leave for the celebrity.

Celebrities commercialise themselves through promotion, publicity and advertising. Show like Big Brother and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, are ways in which people can see the celebrities out of there normal celeb state and in a new light, for most celebs this is good publicity and will another jobs from this like an interview in Heat Magazine. Whether it be for good or bad publicity it will be some sort of publicity.

This is where the narrative of public and private persona come in. What is authentic and what isn't. And that is part of the gossip fans will have, and is part of the fun in following celebrities.

The kind of figures of photo paparazzi is $50,000 for a picture of a celeb on their own, $100,000 of the celeb with them and their partner, and triple this if the photographer can catch one cheating on one another.

"A free and diverse media are an indispensable part of the demographic process... if one voice becomes too powerful, this process is placed in jeopardy and democracy." (Conservative Party Statement.)

"The expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important for our democracy. Dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet. (James Murdoch. 2009)

UK TV  Consolidation
There are only three in england -
BBC
ITN - who produce news for Channel 4 & 5
Sky - Produce news for their own channels.

US big media corporations
General Electric - 26 TV stations majority share NBC.
Walt Disney - ABC and 277 radio stations
News Corporation - Fox, Wall St Journal, NY Post.
Time Warner - CNN
Viacom - Global broadcast News (India)
CBS - CBS network.

Who owns world news.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KusZ29rZHYIC&pg=PA210&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

•AOL Time Warner: (Huffington Post and CNN)

•News Corporation:(news interests worldwide including Fox)

•General Electric: (49% of NBC)

•The DirectTV Group (US cable)

•Disney: (ABC)

•CBS

•Bertelsmann: Financial Times Deutschland,  Morgenpost Sachsen, Sachsische Zeitung TV across Europe

•Google: 90 % of world search traffic

•Cox Enterprises

•Advance Publications (local, magazines inc Conde Nast, Discovery)

 CNN is shown is 212 countries with a daily audience of 1 Billion.
The BBC is distributed to 361 million houses world wide.

Newsgathering: Sources,source relationships and workshop on developing sources.

             http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9034691/daniel-finkelstein-lord-of-journalism/

Sources or information are divided into two sections:

Primary source - an eye witness, someone who has revealed something to you first. 
Secondary Source - Everything else, so information that has already been published, like books, the internet, newspapers, magazines. 

Primary sources for example an interview from an eye witness is good as it will be a main factor that makes a difference to a news report, and can express opinions. 

With secondary sources there are limitations and also dangers of plagiarism. However when using secondary sources make sure that they are true sources like BBC, Times, Oxfam. Use Press Cuttings libraries, Reference books. 


Finding, networking and sources. 
A contact book - which I have on my emails, on my laptop I have a contact list of professionals and journalist I have connections with. It's always a good Idea to email these people every once in a while to keep that connection. Social media is also a big contributor to my connections and networking, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn I am always trying to expand my connection to people in the industry. 

Finding News.
- Developing a local 'patch' 
- News Diary
- Police
- Courts
- Blogs
- Social Media
- Newspapers
- Radio
- TV
- News Websites
- Web
- Ring Arounds
- Press Releases

Things to bare in ming when researching a news story. 
-Credible evidence
-Check it's true. 
-Documentary evidence 
-Primary Sources
-Press Officers
-Campaigns, Pressure Groups, Activist 
-Experts
-Secondary Sources. 

"News has a social role because of it's ability to inform"  (Tuchman, Herman & Chomsky)

News does rely on the council and the police, so it's important to build up your network and have good reppor with people like this. 

Things have to double check when using secondary sources are 
- Full Names (spellings)
-Background and Facts
-Company Info
-Political Info
-Team details, past record of mangers etc.
 -Chart hits and background to bands