Year One - Blogs and pictures

Chris Horrie writes: Blogs and pictures are up for most single hons students. Please send the URL of your blog and/or a picture of yourself if these are missing.Some of these blogs are very good - Ms Purnell on law, very useful... plus several others. I have left comments. This is a very promising start. The second years and third years will start blogging again soon (third years on law if nothing else; second years on HCJ year two).

Year Three and Year Two

We have slightly re-arranged the early 'set up' weeks of the WINOL project to include sessions on Final Cut Pro and - in addition - generic types of feature writing. Please check the new details and adjust your diary or let me know if there's problems (though there's not a lot we can do).

The notes for my venerable feature writing course can meanwhile be found by following this link.

YEAR TWO - history and context (Thursday)

Yale University lecture on Dreyfus case - 19th century French History. In the same series there are lectures on Anarchism, the Paris Commune, socialism, the radical press... Zola is normally seen as the father of investigative journalism, and Dreyfus the classic miscarriage of justice story. Attitudes to Dreyfus shaped the emergence of the political left and right through the late 19th century and early 20th century and the Yale lecturer traces it all through to the third reich and modern racial and non-racial politics. So this is interesting background. French press and politics in the Thrid Republic very influential in understanding development of the press in England and America later.

Year One: A message from the library: Re: Bertrand Russell

Russell, R., A history of western philosophy. We agreed to photocopy time but we now realise we have to withdraw it as it is in breach of copyright
regulations and students cannot photocopy multiple chapters. We are very sorry for that and apologise to the students. We do have some copies of the book in the library and we managed to save one which we have made a four hour loan, but, unfortunately, the others went out as standard loan. Once they come back, we will make another one 7 day loan, so we will have 1 four hour loan, 1 7 day loan and two standard loan.

CHRIS HORRIE NOTES: this doesn't matter because today I found the whole book free online at Google Books - go to: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ey94E3sOMA0C&dq=bertrand+russell+western+civilization+text+online&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=WOG9SumiGNzKjAf_kcg0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Year three: Innocence Project

We will have a briefing for the FYP innocence project on Monday afternoon (in TAB9 newsroom). There's a very useful video here on the Innocence Network UK website. Click here to see it.

Harry Evans on Journalism - excellent stuff

Harry Evans

First years: Harry Evans, author of the textbook we are using, talks about journalism and his career here on You Tube. Looks fairly recent. He's ancient now, but was a legend as the last editor of the Times and Sunday Times pre-Murdoch. Famed for investigative journalism re: Thalidomide scandal.

Ian Anderson

Years 2 and 3: Ian Anderson of BBC Breakfast News and BBC 6 O'Clock evening news has kindly volunteered to be the guest executive editor on the first WINOL scheduled webcast TV bulletin on November 12th. He will help coach through the day and will give the debrief after the broadcast. He will also assist in year 2/3 sessions producing packages offline earlier in the term. We will be bringing in other guest editors through the year, in addition to the already very experienced in-house team.

A message from Sheila Mutch (year one shorthand)

A message to first year students from Sheila Mutch: Please buy a copy of the Teeline Gold Course book (ISbn 435 45353) and bring this with you to the first session on Thursday. Also please make sure you bring with you a shorthand notepad, an indexed address book and a pencil. Shorthand is written using a pencil. Read the first part of the textbook if you can and try and master a few letters of the alphabet. Please do not attend the session without the textbook.

Induction questionnaire (for first year students)

Herewith the induction questionnaire for first year students. We will fill this in with you at the meeting tomorrow, but here's a spare copy for any stragglers. Download from here: Induction document.

Precision English

Very good site here for Precision English - via Walter Cronkite school of Journalism, University of Arizona. Powerful medicine.

BJTC work placement guidelines

Year three/ year two: Please follow this link to read the latest guidelines for doing a period of work placement with a commercial news operation (radio, TV or internet). The thing is that is has to be NEWS (not sport or features).

The main points are that you can only take part in the BJTC scheme if you are on the single honours course and if you are in year two or three. Also YOU MUST HAVE THE APPROVAL OF BRIAN OR MYSELF BEFORE YOU SEND THE APPLICATION. We will make a judgement as to whether you can benefit from doing such a period of work attachment or not. It is NOT the case that you can take part in this scheme simply by being on the course. That said the scheme is a very good one and if you have a decent shorthand speed, have been reading the papers every day and turn round stories quickly and are generally a 'news nut' then you will get a huge amount out of this.

But it is not 'observational' type work attachment - you will have to be gathering and writing news from the moment you arrive - although they will not expect you to be completely up to speed.

A lot of students have pointed out how important and useful the 'fatal errors' system is, and this is where it pays off. In letters of application you should attach the Fatal Error marking sheet and say that is what you have trained on (it is the best in the country).

If you don't feel confident enough about this, don't worry we can make other arrangements. You can still do a work attachment that will satisfy the requirements of passing the appropriate module, without having to do a BJTC type work placement (the BJTC validates the course as a whole, not individual students).

We will give you a briefing about this during the WINOL set up period in the early sessions of the new academic year.

The guidelines are here.

Update on the schedule for year 2 and year 3 - Winchester News Online (WINOL)

Year two and year three: Very slight changes to the schedule / timetable for WINOL. The launch countdown clock is ticking.

Changes to History and context of Journalism courses

Year one and year two theory courses have been updated in terms of reading and scheduling of lectures and seminars. Navigate to BA Journalism - course details.

Tip of the day
Contacts: Keep your contacts book up-to-date - no matter how specialised the contact, you never know when they might come in useful. Cross-reference entries by organisation and what it was you contacted them about.

Sky TV work attachment

SKY is able to offer a limited number of editorial placements in SKY NEWS and SKY SHOWBIZ ONLINE to talented students on courses aged 18 or over who wish to make a career in broadcast journalism. The scheme is open to first degree students and post-graduates determined to work in the broadcast industry – particularly online.
Placements can be arranged in various programme areas at the new Sky News Centre at Osterley, and in Sky Showbiz Online, based at nearby Great West House, in west London. There are also rare opportunities in regional bureaux. Most of the placement work involves research, planning and writing in the following areas:
* Sky News Online
* Sky News programmes, including weekend work
* Specialist areas such as Sky News Business and Sky News Sport
* Sky News Radio
* Five News.
* SkyNews.Com
* Sky Showbiz Online
Placements in other parts of Sky News might be available for suitable candidates, who indicate an interest in home affairs, world news, the environment or health and medicine.
Candidates for Online must be able to demonstrate a flair and commitment to on-line journalism and digital production techniques.
Candidates for Sky News Radio should ideally have some radio experience already, and provide an example of their voice.
Placements will normally last three weeks, and will be unpaid. Students are responsible for their own transport and accommodation arrangements.
If you want to apply, you should write to skynewswork@bskyb.com, with a full CV, and a 500- word thesis on 'Why Should Sky News (or Sky Showbiz Online) Offer Me a Placement?'
You should indicate where you’d like the placement – and why - and when you'd like it to happen; the more flexible the timing, the easier it will be fit in. Easter is very popular, and is booked well in advance.
Be aware that there are many more applications than Sky News can accommodate, and most candidates will be disappointed.
Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a clear understanding of what’s happening in the world, and a keen commitment to journalism, in the form of quality freelance work or other work experience. We are particularly interested in students committed to multi-media news, with a thorough appreciation of online journalism.