This semester saw me take on the position of Data Journalist/Graphics Editor for WINOL, which I would say has been my most successful position on the course to date. Having previously discussed with Chris my passion, at the end of last year, for Data Journalism I am extremely proud of the work that I have accomplished in this first semester starting off with graphics for WINOL with the climax come.
I’ll first reflect upon my own work before the whole WINOL production.
This semester I worked hard to provide graphics each week for the reporter’s stories after they had been commissioned. I can reflect positively on my approachability to reporters regarding their stories and believe I was always willing to help people with their stories and develop graphics for them/WINOL. This manifested itself in making sure everyone knew my contact details and knew that I was willing to help work with them as long as they gave me a reasonable time limit to create a graphic for them (both in features, news and sports). To this extent I believe I helped and supported the strong integration of graphics into WINOL and have also gotten the 2nd years more interested/knowledgeable in Graphics as well.
As I created my position, it was my responsibility to make a difference to the production of WINOL and justify me holding that position. But I would say I succeeded to make a difference to which has become a fantastic weekly production and a very strong well-rounded team of students/journalists.
Examples of this:
First week: providing 3 separate graphics for 3 stories.
I would say I have improved hugely as well in my position, not relying so heavily on just simple graph form graphics, but expanding to create what I’ve dubbed “Vector-based graphics” which use related objects/signs in graphics to further display a more clearer/relatable point. As well as this I have learnt to use a range of different applications to help create graphics, such as: Numbers/Fireworks/After Effects, which I would say, have single-handedly made vast improvements to graphics from the last year both in WINOL and in Politics and Power.
Example: From Isaac’s Ebola Phone App Package
If I was to highlight an area where I could have improved, I would say that I failed to take Brian’s advice, where he recommended that I create video demonstrations of how to create graphics for certain packages which could help students learn the basic skills on Fireworks/Numbers/Final Cut in order for them to be able to make graphics themselves.
Here I can hold my hand up and say I failed to do this, which I think would have been a very important process for both master’s students and 2nd years but have since given a small but concise class to the masters students, that I will in the new year give to the 2nd year students to give them a basic but helpful run through to graphics and how to visualize data in their packages.
Politics and Power:
Easily the production that took up the bulk of my time this semester, from planning to production this show has areas of groundbreaking graphics/production skills used in it and that is something Alex and myself are hugely proud of. This ranges from using/learning After Effects to create HD intro/transition shots made entirely on the computer, to creating moving green screens for our In-studios. Politics and Power is by far my greatest achievement at University to date, in it’s creation Alex and myself have learnt key skills such as script writing/presenting graphics based PTC’s and the production of WINOL’s first ever 4-way political debate and so much more. Needless to say there were some inevitable production problems such as sound and picture quality which could have changed, I take full responsibility for not filming the debate on DSLR’s AND studio cameras, and I am now confident that anything we film for the show should be done on DSLR’s to set it apart from what has become a standard of non-HD filming.
Problems with the production have also taught Alex and myself a lot about responsibility but also management: Upon receiving our first (and currently only complaint) about the debate, we responded in a very professional manner and explained our side to the complaint that little air time was given to the Lib-Dem candidate during the four way debate. We explained the lack of responses from the Lib-Dem candidate as well as the huge debate from other member’s of the debate regarding the Lib Dems had made it very hard to manage the time/discussion around her.
I would say that we handled this situation very well and professionally which then led to an apology from the person who had complained. But I would further say that this experience has actually improved relations with contacts and shown the maturity that Alex and myself have and the passion and confidence we had, in both ourselves and the show we aimed to create.
Working on this production has vastly improved my technical skill’s from inter-grating graphics into a green screen to using After Effects to create a pristine and clean looking intro/coming up/ sequence. But also I think we both learnt, and I know I did for sure, became more skilled at pre-planning as well as script writing and making clean and concise PTC for my Infographic VT.
Finally I would say I managed to balance a healthy amount of work between working on the politics show and helping out with graphics on WINOL including what I would say is my best piece of work regarding the Ferguson Riots which demonstrated (I believe) my ability to quickly grasp new graphic ideas such as Data mapping which could be vital for the GE2015. I take a lot of pride from the advice and support for my graphics I received from my lecturers as well as students and guest editors most importantly. With Laura Trant praising me for creating a modern looking graphic for Brookes gambling addiction piece.
In reflecting upon WINOL as a whole this year…
I can honestly say this has been in my opinion the most successful; the huge addition that the 2nd years provided to the production of WINOL has been 2nd to none. I think we’ve got a clearer idea of our target audience, more so than we did previous years at least! But I think where the real improvement has been made is the almost innate ability the team has adapted to shoot with DSLR’s, use rule of thirds, get GV’s and also really have a good grasp on sound in their VT’s. This meant that at the end of the 2-week ‘dummy run’ period, the team as a whole was already ready to create VT’s that were technically strong, if not for a few weekly hitches.
Production was smooth as well, slipping a couple times with green screen problems, which I think should now be updated to follow how we (Alex and myself) put the green screen into the post-production which enables it be a better quality and leaves the door open for moving graphics in the background. As well as this, the cameras in the studio don’t seem to be filming in HD quality, so as usual I’d suggest that we convert to DSLR when shooting in the studio and synch the sound in post-production. However these are all rather fine points but I do think that being rather anal in the production of WINOL can only help it’s end result.
Reporting: As previously stated, I think the reporting was very strong, stronger in certain areas that it’s ever been! For instance the really good sports packages such as walking football and Tough Mudder were really fantastic pieces which were both filmed very well with multiple angles and great use of GoPro’s. Interviews were shot very well through out the semester as well which is very important in my opinion. Overall a good standard to VT’s was constructed early on in the year, which I think both 2nd and 3rd years followed well as well as following an up to date subbing bible which has helped produce just as much text stories in relation to VT’s coming up on the site.
Website:
A huge change to the website gave the whole production a sleeker and more professional look.
The updates to the website made an immediate impact on the level of pages views and unique IP’s we got, with record breaking levels recorded in October then again in November with a huge 5932 page views on the 19th of November (a Wednesday bulletin day) with a further 512 unique IP’s on that day as well, a record in itself.
I also think the change to the website has helped birth other successes such as W2, Winch Xtra and of course Politics and Power. This in turn has helped bring different audiences to the website with a range of news/features and sports like any other professional news website would be providing as well.
Calum Warren-Piper Journalist 