7 Hours To Create A Newscast: An Action-Packed Day at CNN’s Newsroom

“Budding journalists create their own CNN show” – see article and official CNN Newscast here.

When I received the news at work that I had been invited to take part in a CNN Open Day in partnership with the Creative Diversity Network, my first reaction was to jump out of my seat, much to the confusion of my colleagues. To be given an opportunity like this, to join 19 other budding journalists, producers and editors to temporarily “take over” a world renowned newsroom for a day, was something I hadn’t imagined possible.

The experience was a lot more hands-on than I thought it would be, and eye-opening, considering that it may not matter what your background is if you wish to pursue a career in news broadcasting. We may have only been at CNN’s London headquarters for a few hours, but boy did we manage to squeeze in a fair bit!

First of all, we met several members of the editorial team: Nick, Adam, Eve, Jill and Natalie. Each of us who had applied online to the news day gave them a little introduction. We were a diverse bunch – some of us had journalism qualifications, others had degrees in seemingly unrelated topics, others hadn’t ever been to university…but what connected us all was our shared passion for news, be it watching bulletins or producing content ourselves in the form of blogs, YouTube, radio and TV packages.

Introductions aside, we got started with pitching ideas for possible new features we could produce. Most of us had scoured reputable sources (*cough* Twitter and Facebook trending topics) for inspiration. Suggestions included World Toilet Day (hard to believe, but it does exist) and the recent medical reports that suggest coffee could reverse the effects of alcohol-related liver damage. In the end, we settled on 4 pretty diverse subject areas: Syrian refugees in the USA, Islamophobia, HIV awareness week and, to end the show on a more light-hearted note, the Black Friday sales.

We then took to the streets in groups of 4, with a professional cameraman, to capture the public’s opinions. This was a quick lesson in street casting for all of us – how to persuade the public that they should speak to us on camera, even if it wasn’t for a real live broadcast. This turned out to be much harder than it looked! Our group, tasked with producing a short report on HIV awareness week in light of Charlie Sheen’s admission that he was HIV positive, struggled to get people on board initially. The typical responses to our enthusiastic approaches? “Sorry, I don’t have an opinion on the matter” or “I’m not good at this sort of thing. You should ask my friend, they’re great at talking” (unfortunately so great that they were absorbed in their phone conversation and couldn’t take part!). In the end, we used what charm we could muster to encourage people to share their views on camera, ready for a member of our team to edit the soundbites on a computer for the reporter and anchor to discuss at the end of the day.

When we returned to the office, it was all hands on deck, working as a team to put together scripts for the anchor and reporter. The producers prepared for their roles in the gallery – to communicate with those on-screen and to operate the auto-cue to ensure the show could run as smoothly as possible. Much like the day-to-day environment of a busy newsroom, we had tight deadlines to meet. Before we knew it, half of us were getting nervous in the studio waiting for our turn to be an Anchor (myself included!), while the other half were no doubt quaking with fear behind the scenes.

It all seemed a far cry away from our relaxed lunch break, where we had been reunited with the editorial team, who shared their careers journeys with us and offered advice for taking the next steps in the industry. Gill Penlington, who is Director of Programming, told us that persistence is key. Coming from a state school background and with no previous media contacts, she had to work her way up to get to where she is today. Nick Hart, who had originally paved a career in the film industry, moved across to work in TV news and hasn’t looked back since. One thing that I took away from the Open Day is that it really isn’t important where you started out, but where you want to go and the creative skills that you can bring to the table.

On a guided tour of the office, we also spoke to members of the CNN Sport editorial team, including producer Zayn Nabbi and anchor Amanda Davies. Zayn has had the chance to work on a number of exciting projects, from the London Olympics to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Amanda who, like me, graduated with a degree in a seemingly unrelated subject – Geography – started out doing basic office tasks and is now the host of CNN’s Formula 1 Show!

As the end of the day grew closer, it was time to bring our news stories to life. As I sat down in the studio, I was miked up by a member of the crew and it dawned on me that, in a matter of minutes, I would be “live” on air. No room for mistakes – or so I thought! There were moments during the broadcast when a few things went slightly wrong, whether there was information missing from the script or the autocue was a bit delayed. However, I think we managed to deal with the situation extremely well for our first attempt and, with the help of Adam’s Jedi-like editing skills, we were able to create a piece of real online content, which is available on Turner Europe’s website.

During the CNN Open Day, we were all exposed to the range of roles available in news production – researching, reporting, producing and editing – and I think it is fair to say that our interest in gaining newsroom experience has grown. A huge thank you to everyone who made the day possible, especially Adam Dunnakey, Nick Hart, Gill Penlington, Natalie Orchard, Eve Parish and of course the Creative Diversity Network!

 

Celeb Masterclasses & Industry Visits: 12 Weeks with the Multi-Media Genius Trainees

(From top to bottom: group photo with poet, rapper and academic Akala; all smiles on a visit to one of Media Trust’s corporate partners, Discovery Channel UK)

Halfway through my 6 month traineeship at London360, 30 fresh new people, who were passionate about working in media, entered the Media Trust office. They had enrolled onto Multi-Media Genius Training, a 12 week fast-track course covering TV, print and online journalism, which would involve masterclasses from industry experts and special guests, visits to Media Trust’s corporate partners and one-to-one mentoring to guide them towards their dream jobs. The fantastic thing about this scheme is that it gives people aged 18-25, who are not in employment, education or training, the chance to get their teeth into the industry, with the perks of meeting inspirational people and paying visits to some of the most renowned media companies. What’s even better is that no experience was necessary to qualify – only a proven interest in gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to become all-round media jedis!

The first thing I noticed when I entered the boardroom for the first time with my fellow reporters during their first week here was the sheer diversity of people. It may sound a bit cliche, but everyone was so different it terms of their background, personality, interests and ages. While some people in the group had only just left college, others had previously worked full-time or already had children. Some were outwardly confident and keen to ask lots of questions in the first hour, while others were perhaps more reserved and contemplative (this is starting to sound like an analysis of human behaviour). Nonetheless, they seemed to gel really well as a group right from the get-go.

At first, I wasn’t sure how much I would be interacting with the “NEETS” (Not in Employment, Education or Training – it’s probably easier to say this for now rather than referring to them as “the 30 young people”). Working full-time, we have a lot to be getting on with, from researching new ideas for future London360 shows to shooting and editing our latest TV packages. Fortunately, on Fridays, we were invited to attend the corporate visits with them. These included trips to Google/YouTube (see my previous blog about the visit to Google’s London Headquarters), Discovery Channel, The Royal Albert Hall and Hearst Magazines, which owns publications such as ELLE UK and Cosmopolitan. At the end of each action-packed week, it was nice to have some down-time on these outings with one of the most fun-loving group of people I’ve ever met.

In addition to this, I also worked alongside some members of the group when I went on shoots which included an arms fair protest against the world’s largest weapons exhibition, a visit round award-winning houses for Open House London and a bike project for refugees. It was fantastic to have some extra support with filming and to work alongside people that I can now call friends. Most of the NEETS already had extensive filming experience, whether it was through managing their own YouTube channels or producing their own short films, but some of them had never touched a professional camera before. Regardless of their experience, all of them were keen to collaborate and to pitch in with ideas, a quality that will ensure they go far in life, whether they aspire to be an Oscar-winning director, an on-screen presenter, a multi-media jack of all trades…or decide they no longer want to work in media. Even for those who perhaps realised that this wasn’t the industry for them, it was no doubt a highly useful introduction to pitching stand-out ideas, vlogging, blogging and editing videos among other skills.

We also had the privilege of meeting some of the industry’s biggest stars: BAFTA winning actor and filmmaker Noel Clarke, singer/presenter extraordinaire Alesha Dixon, multi-talented rapper, poet, journalist AND academic Akala and hip-hop sensation Tinchy Stryder. But rather than just posing for photos with them (which we unashamedly did at the end!) we also had the chance to pose questions to each of them on a range of topics, from the biggest challenges and opportunities so far in their careers, to their thoughts on the most topical issues in the news, including the European refugee crisis and whether attitudes towards body image are changing in the worlds of fashion and music.

As their 6 weeks of intensive training at London360 came to a close, there was only one way to celebrate their time here and the new friendships it had generated:- a big night out! (When I say “big” night out I mean a sit-down meal at a local restaurant rather than hitting the clubs but in my “old” age nothing beats a chilled out evening). For the next 6 weeks they will be receiving one-on-one mentoring and CV guidance once a week, and already the office feels a lot emptier without them. I’m not too worried about it though. Reunions will undoubtedly be planned and I’m sure we will see many of their names on the credits for some of the nation’s most-loved TV programmes and films. Watch out!

Multi-Media Genius Training in pictures:

The group with music superstar Alesha Dixon

Posing with the boys on a recent visit to ELLE UK at Hearst UK’s headquarters

On a shoot for The Bike Project which helps refugees with Michael, Sarah and Susheel

Filming voxpops outside Open House London with Ranel

The “NEETS” giving excellent feedback on the London360 reporter team’s largest ever Monday morning pitch meeting!

Lights Camera Action! Selfie with the team that assisted me at a busy protest: Michael, Savan and Jodie

Having a tour of another of Media Trust’s corporate partners, The Royal Albert Hall

London360 sure know how to pose with rapper Tinchy Stryder

Some of the London360 reporter team, who shared their experiences of being on the 6-month traineeship, with actor/director Noel Clarke

Work hard play hard! Celebrating the last full day of the Multi-Media Genius Training course. Good luck everyone!

What the “Typical” Day of a Multi-Media Journalist Looks Like

ESSAY ALERT! Without an editor here to tell me to stop rabbiting on, I can write for England. As the cliche goes “no 2 days are the same” in media. This is largely true although once you settle in to it you get used to hopping from one task to the next!

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The saying goes that no 2 days are the same in the media industry. Having completed my first 2 weeks of training in the London 360 Reporter/Producer role, this couldn’t be more true! It’s tricky to sum up a typical day, as it can vary greatly from day to day, but I will try my best to do so in order to give a bit of an insight of what it’s like to be a journalist in training.

My day at work begins early, as I have an hour and a half commute into White City. Sometimes, with the nightmare rush hour traffic it can take up to 2 hours! (Word of advice: NEVER trust Google Maps’ estimation of time, particularly when using buses). I get to the office and usually the first thing I will do is check through my work emails, to see if anyone I have contacted regarding potential story ideas or filming dates that we find in local newsletters. I’ve made it my mission to keep on top of my emails, organising them into categories, from important documents to story contacts, in order to avoid ending up with a back-log of unread messages.

On a Monday morning, we will have an editorial meeting with the executive producer and project manager for London360, our show which broadcasts on the Community Channel and London Live. We talk through our new story ideas, pitching them to the group, talking about the 5 W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why). It may seem simple, but it’s an effective way of ensuring we have all the important details of our story covered. As soon as they are green lit, we get to work researching the idea in more depth looking at a range of sources for information. We then email or better still pick up the phone and make a research call to someone who can give us access to certain locations or people to interview.

Once the organisation part is sorted, and the dates for filming are arranged, I then begin writing up a call sheet. This is a simple but highly useful piece of information, as it states the exact location/s of the shoot (including a map of the area) as well as contact details for those involved in the filming on that day. This is followed up by creating interview questions for the people whos answers will form the basis of my feature. It will also feature questions to ask the public when getting quick-fire responses, often called voxpops. The final document to prepare before the shoot is the video grid script. This is essentially a plan of how the feature will roughly look like, from the types of shots I will use (e.g. wide, panoramic, close-up, piece to camera) to the script I will use if I am doing any presenting in the feature. I will also try to include a rough guide for the timings of each section of the feature, from the introduction to the concluding part. Once these are completed, I show them to my managers to go over them and they give suggestions for how my questions can be improved or suggest different angles that I could use to give my piece more originality.

Then next stage is the fun (and sometimes daunting!) part: – the filming I find someone on my reporter team, or a keen member of our work experience group, to accompany me on the shoot. We grab a camera and tripod kit and head down to our location. After introducing myself and my team to our point of contact, we go about setting up the camera on the tripod. We then browse around the site to see what we have to work with and what shots would look visually appealing, as well as location scouting to find suitable places to film interviews. One of the things I had taken for granted before I joined London360 was how long it can take to shoot in order to get 3 minutes worth of footage and interview soundbites!

By having all the camera modes set to manual, there are no shortcuts to getting that perfect shot! We are responsible for ensuring that the focus, lighting and framing of each shot is as good as it can be. This can be a difficult task when juggling other activities, including casting people for quick interviews, sound operating and choosing the right equipment for different situations (e.g. using a clip mic for professional looking interviews and controlled environments or using a reporter mic in uncontrollable and crowded outdoor conditions) and well as making sure that every different type of shot on the video script has been recorded. Even small details, such as getting a shot of a postcode of the local area, matter! It is also important that we obtain filming consents by asking people to sign consent forms and location agreements that give us permission to film without the threat of legal action against us!

Before we go home after a hard but reward day’s work, we hand out promotional material letting people know when our shows are going out on TV and how they can get in touch on social media. It’s important that we showcase what we do to as many people as we can, particularly to people that were directly involved in the events and stories that we filmed.

Every shoot is different. Depending on what kind of information is needed and how many of the interviews are organised in advance, a shoot will usually take anywhere between 3 and 8 hours to finish. For more in-depth features, a reporter will often go back out to a different location to get extra footage to add a different dimension to the feature.

The final part of the production process is the editing. We usually have 2-3 days to put together a “rough cut” or a timeline of how we want the feature to look, using the editing software we learnt about in our training, Premier Pro. We will add the images, sound and music we want to use and then, every other Thursday, will be the last official day to work on our rough edits to transform them into 3m15sec long features that are of broadcast quality. We sit in on the edit with trained professionals who tweak the sound quality and apply colour correction to some of our shots. We also record voiceovers to help to narrate our story.

For each feature we develop, from initial idea to production, we are expected to give it a “360” makeover. This means that we turn a 1-dimensional piece (such as  TV feature) into a story that can also be told through blogs and vlogs (or video blogs). So first of all, we will do a quick write-up of the piece, giving the low-down on what happened and why it was important. We will often come back to our first versions as we get more and more information. For instance, we usually put in a few of the soundbites that are unique to our features to add detail to our articles, which we then publish on the Community Channel’s website. We will often embed our finished TV packages in our blogs as well when they are finally edited. We are also expected to make a vlog, a shortened version of our TV feature (usually 1 minute or so in length) which can be put onto London Live’s website, alongside our regular TV programme.

Once our output is broadcast and online, the final thing to do is to go social media crazy! We tell all our friends and family as well as contacting all the people who we spoke to as part of our feature about when our programme airs (Mondays 7pm on the Community Channel and Sundays at 6.30am on London Live). If they miss the programme on TV, they can catch up on the Community Channel’s YouTube page as well which is handy, as I’ve often been told by people they’d missed it going out!

It’s fair to say that all of what I’ve just mentioned does NOT happen in the space of a 9.30-5.30 working day (if only!) However, we do fill out days with as much of these tasks as we can to ensure that we can meet our deadlines and get as much of our content out there. But although quantity is important, I think quality is even more so. The more time and preparation we put into our features before we even pick up the camera in terms of planning who we will speak to and what our angle will be for the piece, the better our finished output usually is. That is arguably one of the most important lessons I’ve learned since working at London360. That, and also not being afraid to make mistakes. You can learn a lot more about what works and what doesn’t work when things go wrong. One thing is for sure:- practice does make perfect and as time goes on, I hope that our Series 9 team will continue to grow and develop as budding reporters and producers.

10 Things A Young London Reporter Is Thinking

I’ve cheekily nicked some of my upcoming blogs from my work account on Community Channel’s website

More and more young people are trying their hand at journalism, from signing up to fast-track courses and internships to working freelance for a range of written and broadcast platforms. As a reporter for London360, a youth news show on the Community Channel, here are just 10 things that I feel resonated with the reporter team. How many can you relate to?

1. The newspaper is your Bible (or Koran, Torah etc)
You’re on the road to journalistic stardom. Research is everything. If you are a Londoner, The Metro and Evening Standard become your go-to sources of knowledge. You will be absorbed in their pages on the tube, in bed…even in the bathtub. Keep them close to you. You never know when they could come in handy for a story idea. Or as fuel for the fireplace.

2. You don’t have to run with every idea you think of…
So you’ve picked up your free copy of every media source you lay your hands on. You’ve grabbed your highlighter pens and enthusiastically circled every story that looks half decent as a basis for an article. It turns out that nearly everything, from the Greek crisis to the latest football signing, has grabbed your attention. Do you seriously have time to cover all of these? Of course you don’t. Be a bit realistic!

3. …in fact some ideas are almost completely unachievable (almost)
Traversing the Houses of Parliament to get a fantastic panoramic shot as David Cameron enters the building sounds like a good idea. So how are you going to coax the security guards into letting you do that? Exactly! Keep thinking.

4.  You don’t know how to sell yourself yet
How am I going to introduce myself to prospective employers or people I meet? “I am a London Reporter and Producer for a local TV channel”. But wait, we’ve only done 2 weeks of training how can we possibly be at this stage? How about “I am a reporter in training”? No, that sounds like those Baby on Board stickers people stupidly put on their cars. “I’m volunteering as a reporter?” That doesn’t sound authoritative enough. OK, so I AM a multi-media journalist. Sometimes you’ve just got to fake it ‘till you make it. I’ll run with that.

5. Having in-jokes with your fellow reporters helps
“Oh Akim, man he makes me laugh” says every reporter in the newsroom. “Who’s Akim?” says everyone else in the office, with perplexed expressions on their faces. “Oh no one! It’s just a joke that he’s the 7^th secret reporter”. Ha. Funny. But on a positive note, it can be good to refer to “jokes” from time to time that help the reporter team to bond…and leave the rest of the staff wondering who let you into the organisation. Bunch of weirdos.

6. Every event in your life becomes a filming or networking opportunity!
A media industry party did you say? Time to eat some canapés like there’s no tomorrow and mingle with the crème de la crème of the media industry. Going to Tesco’s for your lunch? You never know when you’ll bump into that all-important contact from across the road that will seemingly stumble into your world and give you that life-changing job offer you need to survive in London.

7.  Thought of a great idea? So have the top guns
So the BBC is just on your doorstep (or ITV, Channel 4, Sky or whoever) and you aspire to work for them one day. Yet at this moment in time they are your arch nemeses. Why is that? Because every time you come up with a GREAT news feature, one day later the biggest media corporations have gone and done that exact feature, possibly with less heart than you would’ve put into it, and broadcast it to millions of people across the country. Time to get those pieces turned around quicker than Usain Bolt can run the 200m (because the 100m wouldn’t give you nearly enough time).

8.  Spending the maximum lunch budget of £5 becomes a daily challenge
Who’s going to get the closest to spending the maximum of £5 on lunch? After all, spending less than £5 doesn’t mean you get more money in your pocket, so you might as well blow your budget on whatever you fancy: sushi, katsu curry, grilled chicken or avocado salad. It doesn’t matter what you pick, over the course of the traineeship you’ll no doubt try every single thing they sell in the supermarket. And never want to shop there again.

9. You begin assigning characters to each of your reporter team
Choose a popular TV show or film. A common one is Friends. In a team of reporters, one of them will always be the ditzy Phoebe or the joker Chandler. Stereotyping will happen at some point, even if it’s just a way of teasing each other and allowing “banter” to flow through the office.

10.  You wonder how you will survive financially until the end but smile and enjoy the ride anyway!
You’ve accepted that the nature of the scheme means that you’ll get fantastic multi-media journalist training but will probably be living off baked beans at home for the next 6 months. But the prospect of doing fantastic things, from interviewing high profile stars to attending events that bring the media industry and communities together, and growing personally and professionally alongside a team of enthusiastic young reporters makes it all worthwhile.

Wheel inspiration! Birmingham student’s week long wheelchair challenge in aid of spinal cord charity

University of Birmingham student Karen Thomas, 21, chose an unconventional method of fundraising when, as an able-bodied person, she decided to live life in a wheelchair, in aid of spinal cord charity The Back It Up Trust.

Over the course of 5 days she undertook a series of challenges, on the University’s campus and across the city centre, which she hoped would raise much needed awareness of those living with spinal cord injury (SCI) on a daily basis.

Karen, who is studying for a Masters degree in Physiotherapy, was inspired to undertaken this challenge when she experienced several of her closest friends going through the ordeal. In an interview with broadcaster Adrian Goldberg, which was featured on BBC West Midlands 95.6 radio, she said “they both had accidents and were in bed while they were suffering from their injuries”. They were fortunate enough to recover but Karen became aware of The Back It Up Trust and how it had supported her friends. She also talked about her personal experiences of being an able-bodied person in a wheelchair, and how she was having to wake up several hours earlier in order to do her usual daily tasks.

 

As part of her challenge, she also tried out wheelchair badminton and went on a lone venture to the university in order to test the accessibility of different locations, saying that “we noticed that the libraries were a bit harder to get into”. On a trip to the supermarket, she also found that the aisles were too narrow for her to navigate her wheelchair through, meaning she had to time her turns in advance.

She said the highlight of the project was achieving more than she had expected. She wrote on her WordPress blog entitled Pursuing Physiotherapy:  “having people from 19 different countries following my challenge really is an incredible thing and if I helped just a small handful of the 800 people who did have a scroll through learn more about SCI I am more than happy. In terms of the actual challenge, I think seeing how much more proficient and confident I was in the chair by the end of the week was something that made me really proud of myself”.

She said the most difficult part of her experience was the physical endurance. The constant use of her arms to drive the wheelchair left her feeling tired at the end of each day. With regards to discrimination, she said “some people didn’t want to be discriminating, so they would look right away. But I would rather be treated as if I was just walking along”. Some people would also move out of her way when they walked past, which she believed was unnecessarily. Nonetheless, she was grateful for the support she received from passers-by who showed a genuine interest in offering to assist her.

Molly Browne, the Vice President for Sport and Nutrition at the University of Birmingham, recently hosted a wheelchair basketball tournament on the campus and is delighted that the university now she its own wheelchair basketball team, in conjunction with a local community club. She said that “Having worked for the last 12 months in a students’ union, I’ve had my eyes opened to the difficulties other students face day-to-day on campus. The Guild is doing some brilliant work with its liberation associations to raise awareness and tackle some of the barriers that prevent students taking part in activities and having the same experience as other students but there is still so much more that needs doing”.

Ellis Palmer, a former Disability Officer at the University and full-time wheelchair user, added “It’s great to see somebody who is able-bodied actively engaging with access issues by taking up such a challenge. Whilst Karen can stop using the chair after five days, wheelchair users face access issues and social stigma and exclusion on a daily basis, and this is something that needs to be resolved by government and civil society”.

What’s next for Karen? She has raised over £600 to date, exceeding her £500 target, and hopes to continue to raise additional funds for the charity, whose services include mentoring, wheelchair skills training and activity courses as well as support for those getting back to work or school following an injury. She will be running the Birmingham Half Marathon later this year, also in aid of The Back-Up Trust.

To read Karen’s blog visit: https://pursuingphysiotherapy.wordpress.com

To donate to Karen’s Just Giving page visit: https://www.justgiving.com/Karen-Thomas18

For more information about The Back-Up Trust visit: www.backuptrust.org.uk

UnBEElievable! Londoners unite in efforts to protect the honeybee

It’s the latest conservation story to be hitting the headlines of newspapers, from the Evening Standard to the Telegraph. Attempts to save the honeybee are on the rise in the nation’s capital, as a increasing number of Londoners are growing aware of the problems facing wildlife and want to do their best to prevent the fragile bee population from dying out.

John Chapple from The London Beekeepers Association John installing a new beehive on an urban rooftop garden in Hackney , London

According to The Standard, the number of people in the capital who are hosting their own bee colonies in their back gardens has more than doubled in the last 5 years to 3,500. This, in part, is due to the success of several high-profile campaigns, for example The Co-Operative’s Plan Bee drive which was launched in response to the dwindling number of pollinating insects.

A promotional photo from The Co-Operative’s Plan Bee initiative

According to figures from the British Beekeepers Association, nearly 10 in every 100 colonies were lost between October 2013 and March 2014, claiming that habitat loss and rising pollution were the main factors in their demise.

Some have blamed the urban beekeepers for swarms appearing on London’s high streets. While bee swarms are generally considered to be harmless to the public, they still cause concern to the unsuspecting passerby. However this hasn’t stopped founders of beehive installation and management company Paul Webb and Chris Barnes from being inundated with requests to construct new hives, as the demand soars.

One thing is for certain. Londoners are taking the issue of conserving the honeybee population seriously and it seems many are keen to play their part in maintaining sufficient numbers of healthy colonies. After all, bees are vital to our food chain and at least one third of the food we eat would not be available if it wasn’t for the contributions of this highly underestimated insect.

A bee mural in London with the slogan “when we go we’re taking you with us!”

For more information about the importance of Beekeeping and how you can make a difference in your local community visit The British Beekeeping Association.

My #GE2015 Journey with Media Trust

It’s fair to say that, in the run up to and during the General Election process, I went a bit hashtag crazy on Twitter! I’d always thought that I was politically apathetic. This all seemed to change after going on an Introduction to Journalism course run by Media Trust at the Birmingham Mail offices in Fort Dunlop.

Armed with enthusiasm: Media Trust vloggers at Birmingham Mail’s offices

We started off the 2-day course with a few ice-breaker activities to get to know each other and then we got straight into debating different topics, from the ethnics of beauty pageants to whether or not old people are a waste of space (that’s the blunt way of putting it – obviously I was inclined to disagree completely!). We then brainstormed ideas for stories that could potentially feature online for Birmingham Mail’s website. One of the ideas I liked centred around Save IdeasTap, where people across the country joined together in order to try and stop the free arts and creative industries website from closing. Although it is sadly due to close in July 2015, a collaboration with organisation Hiive means that IdeasTap will still be able to provide some of the events and services it offers.

The most valuable part of the Media Trust experience was the chance to make my own vlogs about the General Election, which featured on several articles for the Birmingham Mail alongside other vloggers’ work. But what did I know about politics? At the time very little. But in order to keep up with the requests for videos, I decided to do my research! There is an overwhelming amount of information out there. A simple Google search of “General Election 2015” brings up 38.4 million results and quite frankly…

Anyway I watched a series of election-related TV programmes, from the 1st Leaders Debate broadcast on ITV to the full elections results coverage on BBC 1. I even attended a series of high-profile events at the University of Birmingham to broaden my horizons. From the BBC Asian Network’s Big Asian Election Debate (and yes I was the only white person in the audience!) and The Guardian’s live discussion on Immigration to Sky New’s Stand Up Be Counted van where I was able to voice my opinions.

Taking a selfie in the Sky News #SUBCTour van

Meeting Rick Edwards at the Guardian event

I wrote some summaries of the events for the university radio station, BURN FM. The Online Live Election Blog can be viewed here. I also went out and asked students around whether or not they were rooting for any party to win the election and if so whether it was an easy choice for them to make, with varied – and sometimes amusing – responses…

I even took the Birmingham Mail’s Who Should I Vote For? quiz in a desperate attempt to cure my political apathy!

In the end, none of it mattered because when it came to casting my vote (I’m starting to sound like an X Factor viewer now), I was in Birmingham and not London where I had registered and it was too late for me to register by proxy. So I didn’t even get to be a first time voter in the end. Which is ironic considering the number of “first-time voter” vlogs I did for the Birmingham Mail!

1 in a series of election-related vlogs I filmed

But in true cynical fashion, does one vote REALLY make a difference? On that note, I’ll leave you with my favourite video from the whole campaign which features on ITV’s satirical programme Newzoids. Enjoy!

Index of Birmingham Mail General Election 2015 vlogs:

What first time voters thought of The Battle for Number 10

What young people think leaders should say to win their vote

What young people think leaders should say in the TV debate

First-time voters reveal what they would do as Prime Minister

What first-time voters think of the new Conservative government