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| Some of the many people I've met during this year |
In March last year, the UK was put into lock-down and my
A-Level exams were cancelled. For me, I felt both lucky and unlucky; lucky as I
didn’t have to do the exams and unlucky as I wish I did to make my Sixth Form
work feel efficient. My future in education was in a strange place until I got
an e-mail from the University of Gloucestershire. They were my first choice,
Worcester being second. My feelings went from uncertainty to joy as my
placement was confirmed; they enjoyed my personal statement, interview and the
stuff I was interested in. From then on, I waited, for a few months.
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| Animal Crossing played a huge role for me during Lock-Down |
Then June arrived and that was when one of the students
decided it was a good idea to start a WhatsApp group. I agreed, even if it was
originally going to be on Messenger or even Snapchat. Unfortunately, I did not
have the latter and my Messenger account sadly got hacked. I felt lucky to have Snapchat and so did the other 20 in the group. A week later, Paul set up a Zoom
chat to welcome us to the course and just meet up. Everyone looked friendly and
knew this was the right degree to have chosen. And then came July, August and
then September; most of this time was practicing writing news stories and
playing the new Animal Crossing game that came out just before the lock-down.
Finally, the wait was over. My journey into Journalism was about to begin.
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| Nights out with mates in my course were enjoyable, especially the Lounge or Wetherspoons |
14th September. We all met on the first day. This
was where I met up with everyone, including Magazine Journalists. That week
would be the only week we would crossover with that group. That night, there
was an outdoor cinema that played ‘Jurassic Park’, one of my favourite movies
ever. Sadly, the night turned sour as my Dad felt sick and we went home late;
but hey, it’s the first day and that was a little blip in the night. The next
day arrived and we took a tour around Cheltenham & Gloucester. This is
where I really got to know my mates in my course as we trekked Cleeve Hill,
walked around the town & city, had banter on the double-decker and relaxed
at Gloucester Quays. Wednesday was the day the society fair took place and I
booked for the Nintendo Society as they were the only society to be based on
video games. The worst part? The society never took place. Well that’s £1
wasted, I could have been kicked out for wearing a PlayStation jumper and
praising the PS2 as the ‘King of Consoles’. Thursday was when we got to know
the nitty-gritty of the course. The only lessons that were face to face were
Journalism Skills, TV & Video and News Reporting. The rest were all on Teams
or Big-Blue-Button. And lastly, Friday was just a chill session, ending with an
organised trip with my journalism mates to Lounge and my first experience at
the Moon Under Water. And just like that, the induction was over. Next week
would be the real start of the first year.
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| One of the few Uni lessons on Teams |
21st September. Journalism in Context & Law
kicked off. The context lessons were basically about how Journalism is
important and what the ethics are when it comes to the world of news
broadcasting and writing. Our lecturer was Joe, an academic doctor from Wales.
Even though he was a Sports Journalist lecturer, he cared about the topics and,
honestly, was fun to teach. There was the time where I once spammed a dog from
a video game onto many Padlet sessions for the fun of it, but my interest in it
was developing. The entire context subject ended in December with 2 essays set
to be done around them, one on comparing news websites and one on Noam Chomsky
about media stuff with a sprinkle of a thing called Harvard Referencing. Oh
boy! That was crazy! At the end, I did well and we ended our context lessons
watching a movie on Journalism featuring Donnie Darko himself, Jake Gyllenhaal.
The entire movie was screened on Joe’s computer and a little glitchy here and
there. Overall, Journalism in Context was interesting, yet sometimes a little
difficult.
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| Law was a tricky subject, but also important for Journalists Picture by Bill Oxford from Unsplash |
Law kicked off hours later. Paul was the lecturer for this
topic. Law was understandable and boy was it both difficult and important at
the same time. From the editor’s code to contempt of court, law kind of melted
my brain a bit due to the many acts we had to learn and the many case studies.
In my regulation test, I barely got through with over 40% on the IPSO &
Ofcom test. Yes, I could have done better, but hey I passed. Defamation was
wild, the anonymity stuff was insane (especially remembering the difference
between Section 45 of the Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act 1999 and
Section 45A of the Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act 1999) and the
court contempt section was the hardest. All of this took place in the first
year and ended off with an exam in the middle of May. When I took the mock two
weeks before, it was a disaster! 27% out of 100 was terrible for me for a
closed book exam; after reading the confusing PowerPoints and even translating &
condensing them to my own presentations. Luckily Paul gave me some extra help
and that’s when I re-did my PowerPoints and listened to Paul’s podcast. In the
exam itself, it felt like an improvement. I haven’t got my results yet as I’m
writing this in May; but overall, it was way better than I expected. There was
only one contempt question, many defamation questions and a few on IPSO. Pure
bliss … hopefully. In summary, Law was both difficult and interesting. Learning
from home was a nightmare and learning face to face in class made it more
interactive. Fingers crossed for my results.
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| One of the many cameras used in the TV & Video Course |
On Tuesday, we had Neil for TV & Video. First of all, I
want to make this clear for some considering taking Journalism. Adobe Premiere
may look daunting at first, but trust me, you’ll get the gist of things after a
couple of sessions. Neil was a pro at filming and editing as he once worked for
the BBC on 'Countryfile'. So that’s a positive. A negative for me was the
assessment. We had months to record and edit a package for a fictional news
company to use to report on. December, tried to interview some fans for a match
between Evesham United vs Boston United; I got too carried away watching the
game where the home team lost 3-0. Not bad for a small team against another
that has had experience in the Football League with Paul Gascoigne. I then
tried to interview a person in Sports Direct. That too got shut down as I asked
the main store owner about it and respected their wishes. So, it was down to
one man, my Dad. Over the lock-down my Dad started playing on his keyboard again
through Garage Band; honestly, his songs are cool. Most of them are covers of
old or new songs (he even covered Dua Lipa’s ‘Physical’) and a lot of original
songs that might actually work so well in many role-playing games that the
gaming industry would enjoy. So, I asked and we started working on this hectic
assessment. When I finally finished recording my packages, it was then time to
move to Premiere. Oh boy, the first time I edited on Premiere on my own was a fun
disaster. Halfway there and I got blue-screened with a sad smiley face on my
Laptop. Luckily the worries were gone as I finished my editing and submitted
it. The end result was a score of over 60% on my package. Everything else on
the course included meeting Erika for the first time. She’ll be more important
to Radio. She introduced us to many things such as presenting and a little
thing called OOV, an out of vision package that basically plays when Fiona
Bruce reads something that basically links with it. So, I recorded myself
playing Animal Crossing and now, in hindsight, I should’ve done better than it.
Bless Scoot, he did his best singing to K.K. Jazz.
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| Shorthand, an interesting way to write for quick not taking |
Then there was Journalism skills, another face to face session and the first with Paul! Here, we learnt how to freelance, do well in interviews with a drama group sent in, e-mailing, an introduction to InDesign and the absolute inferno that was Teeline Shorthand. And yes, I have loads to talk about on that. Everything else was fun, especially the interviewing lesson. At first, Shorthand was all right. Our lecturer, Jeanette, was nice and knew her Shorthand. Learning the alphabet and many shorthand words was cool. However, the exercises and the 40 to 60 words per minute was when I started to lose faith in it. First off, the shorthand and its word groupings all felt like an alien language to me. As a person with Asperger’s, I find it difficult to learn languages such as French, Italian And German. Therefore, Shorthand was another level of absurd as it felt like I was learning hieroglyphics. Secondly, I found it no use to learn shorthand, feeling that it was out of date and was a thing in the early stages of Journalism. It’s mostly used for court reporting and I had no interest in doing any of that but had an interest in learning about it in Law. And lastly, I just couldn’t keep up. Even when I tried to remember the shorthand, it was absolutely difficult to put normal words into Teeline. As myself, it felt pathetic learning something as obsolete as it; but remember, these are my experiences in shorthand and some people might enjoy that technique. In May, I decided that I wanted to drop Shorthand; although, there may be a chance that I might have to continue it believing it was still essential in 2021. I asked Jeanette if I could drop Shorthand. Fortunately, she understood and told me to talk to Paul about it. After that, I asked Paul how I felt and he let me drop shorthand due to my difficulties with it and the fact that it was not essential to NCTJ but instead as a bonus. What a relief! And on that month, my experience with Shorthand was over and focused more on the assessments and exams that truly mattered.
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| The Radio assessment made me confident about my voice Picture by Jonathan Valesquez from Unsplash |
In January, Erika introduced me and the rest of us to Audio
& Radio. In the middle of the year, three people out of 20 left the course
for various reasons. Lucky I was still pushing on. We were introduced to Copy,
Cue and package stories; many of these were on the Olympics, the Weetabix
situation that featured the controversial merger of beans and Weetabix and one
package on Boris announcing the easing of lock-downs. All of these were done on
Audition. When I finished my package on Boris, the entire teams chat went
ballistic, including a GIF from Jack (the media technician guru) that featured
an entire audience clapping while stood up. But the ultimate software would make
its entrance when we went from Teams to face-to-face lessons, that software’s
name was Burli. This was how major news stations pick up stories and write them
for Radio & TV bulletins. Over time I got used to hearing my voice without
feeling nervous and awkward. Before, I refused to hear myself; now, I beat my
fear up and found out my voice was as clear as I imagined. Practicing in the
radio studio felt strange at first and then it became a ballpark as Jack was
there to help sort things out. April came crashing in after the Easter break.
This was when Erika released the bombshell, the portfolio assessment had
arrived. This was the first hybrid assessment I ever got. One half had to be
done at home and the other would all be done in class. The first three bits
were great and featured a news report on a couple getting the wrong baby; the
passports were easy as Jack had given us the answers during the lesson and the
Bulletin was a ride. One hour to construct a two-minute bulletin and then a
random time to read in the radio studio live at 11am. Only once did I stumble,
but I got up again like Muhammad Ali during a boxing fight. At the end, the
bulletin was finished and that was that. As of now, I just need to finish the
Prince Philip Funeral package and a reflection piece with sprinkles of Harvard
Referencing throughout. First off, the Funeral? OK. I guess that’s an
interesting choice but surely, I would have enjoyed something more positive
than a funeral. But hey, it is what it is that the portfolio asks for. But oh
boy the referencing is going to get crazy from now on in the next two years.
Overall, radio was awesome. Erika is amazing as a teacher and my student tutor.
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| News Reporting is mostly blog based, this was the origin of my blog-site |
Lastly, there was News Reporting with Paul. This was the most interesting and fun lesson out of all the topics. But that doesn’t mean every other topic was not fun. I came to University for another reason, to spread positivity in the class. As University is more relaxing with its rules, I finally had the chance to bring my inner banter out. It’s decent, I could filter the controversial stuff out of me and spread some needed joy to the degree. Once I left a news reporting session, I overheard one of my mates say that they were glad I’m part of the group with the positive attitudes. Besides that, News Reporting was mostly chill. Most of the lessons was about how to write well in news stories, what are the best topics to write about, how our skills come in handy, using photographs to convey the readers, what are the copyright laws that stop us from using pictures and lastly meeting new people and interviewing them. One of the most controversial interviewees was a University Lecturer named Adam Hart. What was controversial about him? Well, he was for animal hunting; it was something to do with keeping wildlife safe from new housing developments. To be a bit of a scholar, you should never disparage a person for one flaw or opinion. Try to balance the positives of a person with their negatives; a person with the most positive attributes is more interesting than one with negative attributes. Johnny Depp would be a perfect example of this, it’s good to have different views on things whether you are democratic or conservative. Out of all the interviews, he was the most interesting out of all of them. No offense to those who also came too. For the assessments, it was mostly writing stories with subjects from local floods to a review on a snowboarding game that came out 20 years ago. We were supposed to go to Birdland and along came another peak of the Corona-Virus. In a bizarre turn of events, the penguin feeder decided to send a Teams chat to us with the penguins peeking out during feeding time. Most of these penguins actually featured on ‘Batman Returns’ along with Danny DeVito as the Penguin. Overall, news reporting was the most intriguing subject, even if I was a fast writer and sometimes never read my news stories more than twice.
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| Celebrating the end of the first year of University, with help from someone on another table |
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