Website Manager: Week 2

The website has seen a massive change in appearance this week as Glenn and I have been working hard to format the entire site so that it looks both eye-pleasing and professional. This was done by deciding upon a standard layout default for each article, which we would follow in every article without exception.

Each article now has a picture or video, or both, which looks a lot better, and also helps me, as the Website Manager, to align all articles in the same manner i.e. line the text up with the picture/video then insert a "Read More" at the bottom of the photo/video to create a consistent look. Once I have conquered the Sport layout - which is difficult to make it look visually pleasing - there will be only two types of typographical format on the entire website - articles with videos and those with pictures.

In addition to this, the amount of articles a viewer can view per page has been altered so as that it aligns with what is displayed on the side-bar; this leaves no gaps or areas on the site which appear empty.

The above image demonstrates the consistency in overall look, which we wish to maintain.

The screenshot shows how we have changed the amount of articles present on each page so as to neatly align the side-bar content with the articles.

On top of changing the overall look of the site and deciding which articles go where (they are placed in order of importance), I have also been sub-editing with the team of sub-editors. This has been a great learning curve for me; just when I think I have correctly subbed an article, I get another sub to check it out, only to discover some glaring errors (granted these errors mostly occur after hours at looking at the computer screen). I feel there is now a more efficient system of getting the articles on the site as now there is a Website Manager, there seems to be a greater sense of urgency to get articles subbed as quickly as possible and get them uploaded; before it seemed there was a somewhat more blase and laboured approach with getting articles on the site.

On Wednesday I helped out in the studio from midday. I vision mixed the feature which included Laura Barton and then also vision mixed the bulletin. Unfortunately, I messed up a crucial handover for the first time in weeks, but I'll put this down to lack of communication in the gallery (that will remain the party line haha). All in all it has been a successful week, I just wish I had more time to embrace and excel in my newly appointed role as Christmas fast approaches.

WINOL: Website Editor

At the mid point of this year's first Semester we were given the opportunity to change roles (those of us who wanted to). I decided to resign from my position as Managing Editor as I felt I had got all I could from that position and believed that it needed a fresh head to provide some new impetus. I certainly felt that my time as Managing Editor was successful but believe that it was time to give up the role and try something new.

I am currently Website Manager. This is a position which I am not entirely thrilled about acquiring as the same problems seem to be present in this position as with the position of Managing Editor; that is to say that other people can do your job, which makes you feel rather irrelevant.

My duty now is to decide how the website looks and to say what content should be included. The Website Editor position, seems to me to have been created without any real need to have one; Chris and Glenn can decide the overall look of the site, and Veronica decides the content- so I don't honestly see that there is a requirement for a Website Editor thus leaving me very disappointed with the overall WINOL experience I have encountered this semester. I have strong convictions that if it weren't for me putting unessential and unrequired work into the project, I might as well have been absent this term.

Nonetheless I wish to make good use of the couple of weeks I have left before Christmas to make the best of the newly created position of Website Editor. My new position has given a certain air of clarity to the layout of the website as Glenn and I have tidied it up and made it look a lot more presentable e.g. we made all articles appear the same lengths on the site, changed the overall typography, and made the site look more smart in appearance.

In addition to my job I also did sub-editing this week (I felt my role requires me to do so), which helps out with Glenn and Cara etc. I Discussed the use of photographs to improve the site with Veronica and also conferred with Jason as to the essentialness of having photos for the site.

As my role appears to give some free time, I offered my assistance to production. On Tuesday I helped out with the children who came in and alongside Paul, Josh, and Rob, demonstrated and let them use our gallery facilities for their own production. On top of this I filmed the band Davis who came in as part of our What's On Winchester production. Also, on Wednesday I ressumed the role of VT operator, for the bulletin, on the newly improved VT software.

On Friday we finally got to record our bulletin live at the Southern Daily Echo. This was a privilege of which I had arranged as my time as Managing Editor for WINOL, which had finally come to fruition. This was a great experience, as it gave all WINOL's executive team the chance to go down and take part in producing a bulletin the like of which we have never done, and so I am particularly pleased with myself and the team as a whole, who, in visiting the Echo, got to "show off" what we can do, and hopefully retain close links we made that day with the Echo in the future.

Media Law and Ethics: Codes of Practice

Codes of Practice are the very rules which keep us, as journalists, in check and should be followed in order to protect both ourselves and others.

There are four main codes:

-NUJ Code of Conduct. This is outlined in the 12 point guide NUJ Code.

- PCC: newspapers and magazines. This covers the areas below:

Accuracy

Opportunity to reply

Privacy

Harassment

Intrusion into grief or shock

Children

Children in sex cases

Hospitals

Reporting crime

Victims of sexual assault

Discrimination

Financial Journalism

Confidential sources

Witness payments in criminal trials

Payments to criminals

Sometimes there are exceptions to the way in which each area is dealt with when public interest is cited

- Ofcom: broadcasters. There are lengthily guidelines for broadcasting on Ofcom's website under "Broadcast Guidelines"

- BBC: for their staff and licence payers. There is an extensive amount of information under the BBC's Editorial Guidelines.

Why do codes matter?

- Guide us through ethical issues

- How far we can go to get a story

- Guide us to what practices are legitimate

Key areas the codes aid:

- Ethical behaviour

- Fair treatment

- Respect for privacy

- Accuracy and impartiality

- Protecting vulnerable demographics

Currently in the media this week, Ofcom revoked the licences of four Adult premium-rate phone channels. The channels "Tease Me" have all been suspended as they have been ruled as "no longer fit and proper" - Ofcom said that the various channels' daytime content was 'the equivalent of hardcore pornography'.

Ofcom hopes the removal of the Tease Me channels will act as a warning to other channels of the same genre, and the broadcast regulator is set to meet all Adult licencees to ensure that they are adhering to the regulator's rules. Over the last 18 months the network had breached Ofcom regulations more than 60 times and had repeatedly breached the rules regarding protecting children from inappropriate material.

Media Law and Ethics: FOI continued

After previously having a Freedom of Information Act lecture, we then had another one which consisted of a more in-depth analysis of the act, plus we put the FOI act into use as a classroom exercise.

The learning task we undertook was to make an FOI request ourselves. Firstly, we had to learn how to properly construct and implement a request. Here we discovered that precision is key for finding the information the individual requires. The more specific the enquiry, the quicker and less likely the respondent will be in postponing the request.

Below is a screenshot of the acknowledgment from an FOI request Rob and I put in. We contacted the Young People's Learning Agency to enquire how many young people who receive government financial aid go on to complete their respective studies.

The response was met quickly, and I was told that they would get back to me as soon as possible. I am fairly convinced that my request will be answered as I have made two previous requests and both were met within the time limit stated in the 2000 Act.

WINOL: Week 6

It was a good week this week as I encountered WINOL's first complaint of the semester. The complaint followed a live studio debate, which focused around tuition fees and budget cuts. The format consisted of a presenter posing questions to three studio guests (two of which were left and one right of the political spectrum). From the offset we were rather dubious about appearing bias due to us only having one Conservative guest, so we payed close attention so as not to appear as we were attacking him in any way. Oddly it was not this individual who filed the complaint.

The individual had complained that he had been unfairly treated as he was misrepresented by the way the final edit was put together; his complaint wasn't that there was heavy editing, but that it had been edited in a way which he felt misrepresented him.

All involved, and I saw this was the case, did everything in their power so as not to cause controversy and remain impartial and fair, however, due to inexperience, we made a fault and duly and graciously accepted this. In response we wrote an apology to the studio guest, and offered him a chance to reappear as a guest. In addition, we are also going to publish an open letter of apology on the website to acknowledge our mistakes and present the fact that we have nothing at all to hide in coming forward to receive criticism.

My duty was to offer the guest our condolences and offer him a chance to appear as a guest again (an offer to which I am yet to receive a reply to). Also, Veronica and I worked together to write the apology letter. I strongly believe that everyone involved worked quickly and efficiently to amend the problem (i.e. I took the video down from YouTube), and appease the studio guest.

Although the aforementioned was the highlight of my week, other tasks were undertaken by myself which included: reviewing the bulletin, publishing the stats, thanking the IT staff for the improvement on our network, distributing the bulletin running orders in the newsroom, and helping with filming.

Media Law and Ethics: Copyright

Copyright is, in a sense, theft. It is classed as a theft because it is making use of someone's work without that person giving any sort of consent of permission. If an individual can prove that their 'intellectual' property has been stolen then they have grounds to sue the person/persons who have stolen their intellectual property.

Copyright is a fast growing law area, and the lengths that people are willing to go to protect their intellectual property are huge as the world makes technological advances in media.

All work an individual produces belongs to the individual until they sell the results and rights of the work to another.

Intellectual property has as much copyright solidity as something produced by hand. When someone sells their property, there are differences between the two types, as property produced by hand's rights is likely to be sold of completely whereas intellectual property is far more likely to be licenced in exchange for payment, with the original creator still holding ownership; this is particularly true for freelance media work.

There is no Copyright for ideas. One can only claim copyright breach when there is already clear evidence of an idea. If one wishes copyright protection then there property must be of substancial detail and not infringe on any copyright itself (i.e. be original).

Lifting. There is no copyright in the facts of a news story, but everything about the news story is copyrighted... even down to the very words the reporter uses. Any interview or quotes in a story is copyrighted, but the barebones and facts of a story is free from copyright issues.

Fair Dealing. Through fair dealing, copyrighted material can be used in the following ways: Private study purposes

Performance, copies or lending for educational purposes

News reports

Lending by libraries

Official proceedings

"Time shifting" for convenience

Producing a personal back-up

Playing a recording for a non-profit organisation

Fair Dealing allows wider reporting of stories in the public interest, criticism and review of coypright material, broadcast of news obits of film stars can use famous movie clips for free. Photographs, however, are NOT subject to fair dealing.

The best defense of breach of copyright is that one can lift quotes etc from a publication through fair dealing if it is in the public interest. However, the extracted copyright material must be acknowledged (that it is the work of somebody else) by it's extractor and certainly not be passed off as their own work. One does not have to specify where the source was from exactly, i.e. if the Daily Mail revealed some info, it could be said that 'a newspaper revealed', but one should never pass the work off as their own. By doing this malice can also be avoided if the 'news exclusive' transpires to be of a malicious nature.

The length of time property has copyright protection is very peculiar. The 1998 statute states that art work, music scores, drama, film etc is free from copyright 70 years after the death of the particular author/performer. And for music, sound, and broadcasts, there is no copyright after 50 years.

Recently the government has proposed to lower the restrictions on 'intellectual property' to that of the US. The lowering of restrictions, it is argued, is to help economic stimulus and stop creativity being impinged and restricted. The business and economic argument for lowering current UK copyright law is that there is a neccesity for creative people to take already existing concepts and rework or better them for greater creative purposes and economic stimulus.

David Cameron commented that a huge company such as Google would have been unable to originate from the UK with the current restrictions the way they are. If more relaxed copyright laws come to fruition then technological businesses will benefit from a clearer vision and certainty as to what can be patented.

Hopefully, more relaxed copyright laws will be met in the UK, which will bring both economic and creative advantages.

Media Law and Ethics: Freedom of Information

Since the Freedom of Informations Act's introduction, investigative journalism has experienced a major breakthrough. It is now easier than ever to acquire previously unattainable information from public establishments - with most institutions having their own FOI sector and being legally obliged to respond to a request within a specified time limit.

This is an exceptional gift for the investigative or Gonzo journalist, who now can now expose miscarriages of justice and public interest material without going to enormous lengths to obtain the previously repressed information.

It's significance can be seen, with an example that I'm sure everyone is familiar with, in the MP expenses scandal. The Telegraph exposed the information after it had made a simple FOI request.

The 2000 Act, which came into effect in January 2005, makes it mandatory for a public authority to disclose whether or not it has the information the enquirer wishes to know. This includes Government departments, police, and hospitals.

"Information must be released UNLESS it is judged that the public interest in NOT disclosing it is greater than the public interest in releasing it".

The exemptions of the Act includes things such as special forces and trades secrets etc (not public sector).

The individual seeking information is not obliged to reveal why they require the information, and the institution's response must (usually) be within 20 working days.

Right now in the media there is an amusing example of the use of the Freedom of Information Act in Sussex, where the local Brighton newspaper (The Argus) has exposed that "an OAP crimewave is washing across Sussex". It details that hundreds of old age pensioners have been arrested in the county for an array of offenses including fraud, assault, and serious sexual offenses.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8629391.OAPs__Sussex_crime_wave/

WINOL: week six running schedule

NEWS

Lead Story

Student Fees Demo (consists of two packages)

Preemptive package about demonstration (VT Jack Courtez)

Tuition fee report from London (Live OB with Will Cooper and Maddie Klippel)

Total Length: 2 mins 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Second Story

Tuition fee rises will force poorer people to look for cheaper Universities (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Third Story

Budget Cuts (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Social Zoning (Joey Lipscombe)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fifth Story

Poppy Appeal (Michael Connolly)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

And Finally...

Bird Seed Cake (Gareth Messenger)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: 12pm Weds

SPORT (2 mins)

Short highlight clips - football

- rugby

What's On

Fireworks VT

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: WEEK 5

It was an amazing bulletin this week, consisting of strong stories and a celebrity guest. The large choice of stories this week enabled us to pick and choose which packages we used and also didn't affect production when some packages failed to meet their deadlines. In addition, the green screen has been improved enormously and now gives a really professional feel to the whole WINOL setup.

The criticisms have diminished so much that analytically, it is very hard to give negative criticisms... However there are some, and here they are:

- Reporters need to use better headline clips.

- White balance needs to remain consistent.

- Gun mic was in shot in places.

- A greater variation needs to be put in place for interviewing sequences.

- More even length for all interviewees.

- Poor graphic image.

- Expected package lengths were not what they were originally set as, which caused confusion.

- Presenter talking over people speaking in headline clips.

- Lack of sound in GVs.

- Jolty cuts in interview audio.

- Overuse of walking shots.

- Some voiceover soundtracks sounded echoey.

All in all, the bulletin was arguably the best yet with a professional and compelling bulletin having been produced, which would have appealed to all demographics.

WINOL Stats Update

We are now finally in the top million websites - according to the Alexa ranking - with WINOL. We are currently ranked at 996,112, which is an excellent position to be in and any further ranking improvements will be nothing short of exceptional; in the past three months we have moved up well over one million places. The sheer velocity at which the site ranking has gone up has been astronomical, and is really everything we could have hoped for given the reality of the situation i.e. we are a non-funded, student-based publication.

The reach percentage has improved again and has gone up 180% in the past month. The percentage of global users who visit winol.co.uk has now reached 0.00031% in the past month, which I know sounds very small and is difficult to put into perspective, but it is a grand improvement from 0.0001% which is where were at at the beginning of the semester.

Despite being able to draw many positives and improvements in traffic, there are numerous negatives which can be interpreted from Alexa with regards to WINOL's impact and significance. Firstly, the daily page views per user does not have appeared to have changed in the last three months, with viewers viewing just one page per visit (presumably the homepage). The fact that the traffic has increased but the number of page views remains unchanged implies that promotion and word of mouth is significant in bringing people to the site but perhaps the content or image of the site is rendering it as not worth staying on by users.

In addition to this, the bounce percentage has risen in the past month by 6% giving an overall percentage of 73% of single page views on WINOL. This again shows that people are checking the site out but immediately leaving, although it could mean that people are coming to the website and leaving soon after, it is far more likely that people are just viewing one page because the bulletin is embedded on the homepage. The fact that the site's traffic has increased, along with the amount of time people stay on the site, indeed suggests that people are coming for the advertised bulletin.

This brings me nicely on to the amount of time users are spending on the site. The time is now set at about 4 minutes per user. This is very good, but most people would visit the site to view the advertised bulletin which is 10 minutes in length. When you consider this, it could be interpreted that a lot of people are tuning out half way through the bulletin, but the fact we have retained their attention for that long is in itself impressive. Also, much of our traffic comes from the competition, which is only two minutes in length, so when you take an average from the bulletin, competition, and other articles, a good estimation would be around 4 minutes per user, so...

Search Engine Optimization has again soared, going up by 22% in the last month alone. This demonstrates that people are both searching for us, and, that where people are not, the fact that the traffic is going up gives us greater improved search optimisation. In addition to this, the top three search engine query increases which bring traffic to the site all have the word "winol" within them, which is excellent.

With regards to article hits, the competition still remains the most viewed, with features also dominating the top positions. The studio guest interview with Chesney Hawkes has brought us a significant amount of hits, and I am sure it will take the top spot away from the competition due to the fact that it's impact is so great already and considering it has only just been uploaded to the site. So a good point to take on board would be to increase the number of studio guests we have in the broadcast.

To conclude, even though the majority of analysis is highly subjective by it's very nature, the overall signs suggest that the site and it's success is moving in a positive direction.

WINOL: Week 5

Week five began with receiving our first complaint of this semester's WINOL. The complaint was from a studio guest who felt he was misrepresented in the final edit of a political debate. It seemed that what it all boiled down to was a lack of communication between those running the discussion and those participating in it. To me, it didn't really feel like anyone in particular was to blame, as those who made the production told the guests that the final piece would be edited, however, I digress. I had to email the person who put in the complaint to offer an apology on behalf of WINOL but the individual wasn't too forthcoming in accepting the apology; after all, he felt he had been massively misrepresented so.... It took an email from Chris to diffuse the situation, however I feel that if we asked the guest back for another studio chat, that he would respectfully decline.

The whole setup had a re-jig this week as Claire became the new News Editor. This gave a fresh feel to the newsroom, and freed up Kayleigh to become Entertainment Editor. To help Claire I gave her all the contact details of the beat reporters and Sports team, which then led to me reworking the news schedule and distributing it around the newsroom to give a sense of change with Claire as the new News Editor.

Again, as with previous weeks, I mostly just undertook my various Managing Editor responsibilities to ensure the smooth running of operations i.e. continuing to complain about the state the computers are in at the moment, changing the flyers to attract more viewers (include Chesney Hawkes).

On Wednesday we had a mass push on all flyers as we had the biggest guest we have ever had on WINOL. This meant producing and distributing around 400 flyers, and giving them out further than just the campus limits. After this I went to do Vision Mixing again for the second time. This went far more smoothly than last week as the reporters had left their packages long so as not to leave any black holes. However there were still problems with timings, which meant that when I mixed the vision the packages often didn't start for a split second and that looked rather unprofessional.

Next week I will discover what I can make from my contacting the Daily Echo...

Media Law and Ethics: Privacy and Confidentiality

Privacy and Confidentiality in the UK is both good and bad. It is good in the sense that we have amazing privacy laws within the UK, which is in a sense quite reassuring for the public. However, for the budding journalist, the issue of privacy can often prove somewhat of an Everest obstacle.

List the notes.

Breach of Confidentiality And Secrecy

-State Secrets: This covers the Official Secrets Act. Problems for journalists are that they could inadvertantly divulge information about the military through filming etc, which could be used by an enemy.

-Commercial Secrets: Common Law Confidentiality.

-Privacy: Human Rights Act Section 8 'normal enjoyment of family life'.

Breach of Confidence is information which is unfairly passed on that:

-has the "necessary quality of confidence" - not just heresy.

-the individual would expect the person being told to keep to themselves.

-there was no permission to pass on.

-will cause detriment to the person who gave the information.

-If any of the above criteria is not met then there is no breach of confidence.

Gagging Clauses in Employment Contracts

If an individual is employed by someone or a company then they owe their employer a "duty of confidence". This stands even if there is no agreement to this within the contract, or even if there is no contract of employment.

An employee can be dismissed without compensation if they break a gagging clause. The public interest defence is very limited when complaints can be dealt with internally.

Professional Confidentiality

Information shared with a doctor should remain confidential unless the doctor has been given permission by the patient to divulge the confidential information. If an individual puts out confidential information about a person or a company then they are in 'breach of confidence'.

If a journalist publishes confidential information they have obtained then they have committed the crime of 'third party breach of confidence'.

Confidentiality in UK law is a residual right.

Section 8 of Human Rights Act (Family Life Privacy)

This issue of privacy tabloid journalism, particularly when pictures are taken of celebrities etc when they are unaware of their photo being taken. Journalists only have the right to publish persoanl photographs if there is consent given and/or the images are in the public interest (not to be confused with 'interest by the public').

In addition to this the act is also concerned with the publication of the details of anyone's family life.

Current Privacy issues in the media

Presently in the media, Google are under fire from British Privacy laws, and is the first company set to be fined under the laws, after it downloaded private passwords and emails. Google said they involuntarily collated payload data from unprotected wireless Internet networks while they sent round cars photographing residential areas for it's Street View Project.

Although Google alerted authorities when they realised what was happening, and insisted that they never intended to use any of the acquired information, the already privacy-intrusive scheme may possibly be fined, and although the fine will make no difference whatsoever to Google's finance, it's reputation will most certainly be dented.

The UK law criteria for breach of privacy are a bit shakey here, as no one has been directly identified through the "inadvertent" data collection, but there a firm grounds for missuse of private information.

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: WEEK 4

Despite initial signs pointing to there being no bulletin produced whatsoever, the team produced quite a plausible production - helped mainly by the quality of Andy's crime report. All the stories were quite strong and engaging yet there were massive problems, and tension was very high.

The most significant point was that many of the reporters had either not delivered, or their stories had fallen through at the last minute. The problem was that the production team was unaware of this and this slowed up and unnerved them (I was on vision mixing so I was in a prime position to witness this). Further problems were that the reporters weren't meeting their deadlines despite being prompted to hurry up, and although this did not turn out to hinder the production, I'm sure that leaving editing so close to the bulletin being put out will prove fatal if repeated.

There are still problems with the bulletin, but other than lack of content, problems are being reduced on a huge scale. However the problems which are not being resolved are the ones which appear week in week out:

- blackholes: both within the packages themselves and in the live production due to the fact that VTs haven't been left long so that gaps appear in the vision mixing between VTs and presenters.

-varying audio levels. Even if the levels were consistent within a package, the audio levels of each package are always different to the next or the volume of the presenter.

-audio between reporters and interviewees (in VTs) has no gaps and feels too continuous. This makes it feel like the viewer is being overloaded with information as there are no gaps and time to interpret the information.

WINOL: week five running schedule

News

Lead Story

Lack of Graduate Careers (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min 20secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Second Story

Rugby Bible Hate Crime (Andrew Giddings)

Length: 1min 10secs VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Third Story

Fireworks Undercover (Jack Courtez)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Southampton Council redundancy payout (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fifth Story

Bar End Parking Permit Extortion (Gareth Messenger)

Length:

Deadline: Weds 12pm

...And Finally

Winchester/Westminster Restaurant Award (Aimee Pickering)

Length: 1 min VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Sport

Eastleigh bounce back

Length: 40sec VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Winchester V Brading Town

Length: 30secs VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Women's Football

Length: 20secs VT

Deadline: Tues 5pm

Roundup

Graphic

POSSIBLE SOUTHAMPTON OLYMPIC TORCH STORY

REVISED WINOL SCHEDULE

MONDAY (planning day/ early writing)

09.30: Attend for de-briefing and planning sessions – read the papers


10.00: De-brief re: previous edition (Ed)
12.00: News desk - research prospects


02.15: Features conference (Feats Ed)


02.15: News and Sport conference (News Ed)

03.30: Main editorial conference (Ed)

04.30: 2nd Features conference (newsroom) (Feats Ed)


04.30: 2nd News conference (Feats Ed)


04.30: Management meeting (Learning Cafe) (Editor/Man Ed/ Prod Ed/ CH)

TUESDAY

Writing and early production day

WEDNESDAY (production day/ publication)

09.00: Editorial Conference – Editor, News Editor, Production Editor, (Chief Reporter) – sort out the running order for the daily bulletin.

10.00: Subbing news pages/creating pages
01.00: Deadline for finished news pages to chief sub

02.00: Subbing/creating features pages for next week (deadline 5pm)

02.00: Write/Edit News Index (deadline 4pm) NE/CS
02.00: Write/Edit Features Index (dline 4pm) FE/CS


02.00: Write/Edit Listings Index (deadline 4pm) AEE/CS

03.00: Write/Edit Front Page (deadline 5pm) Ed/CS

04.00: Live broadcast (on days when this is happening).

WINOL: Week 4

Week four of WINOL was fairly beneficial for me as far as Managerial Editing experience goes. As well as my usual administrative responsibilities being undertaken i.e. making sure that temporary news running orders and features schedules are circulated and made readily available, I also have been enjoying the position and freedom to promote WINOL to the best of my ability with the resources available to me.

On Monday morning I was in the news room early and then began to prepare notes for Catherine's debrief. We usually go through the bulletin before she gives her debrief, and today was particularly significant as I wasn't sure if she would make the debrief... Fortunately she did; I say fortunately as she is a far more confident public speaker than I, and I would have been the one who stepped in to give the talk.

In an attempt to further boost viewing figures and traffic hits, I began conferring with the Southern Daily Echo. They are very happy to allow the WINOL team to come down and discuss ways in which we can work together. At present I am in talks to getting the team to broadcast the bulletin from the Echo. It looks highly likely that we will be able to do this, however, the fact that we have many guest editors for the next for weeks means that we will have to postpone this until we are free.

A further promotional aspect I had to overcome this week was the fact that WINOL had - despite me giving all the relevant information - failed to be advertised by the hampshire.gov website. This site has a list of events on it that happen in Winchester, so listing our WINOL will certainly bring traffic to the site. It was seemingly difficult for them to put up something which was fairly easy - in my opinion - to do.

Standard Managerial roles I undertook this week included: publishing the WINOL stats, trying to resolve the issue of slow computers, help reassign a member of the team unhappy with their current role, enquire about PC advertising.

On request, I wrote a comment piece on the Guardian Awards, which I put up on the wall for students to read, as well as my two blogs, to encourage them to get involved and nominate themselves and others.

Production-wise, I helped Andy film his package this week, took part in the production of "Hot Topics", and for the bulletin I controlled the vision mixing.

At the end of the week Winchester News Online was now officially advertised on the Winchester City Council website.

WINOL: week four running schedule

News

Lead Story

GBH (Andrew Giddings)

Length: 2mins VT

Deadline: Weds 12pm

Second Story

Depression jobs (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min 15secs NIB

Deadline: Weds 1pm

Third Story

Gower Graduation (Aimee Pickering))

Length: 1min VT

Deadline: Weds 9am

Sport

Winchester Comeback
Length: 50secs VT

Guy Butters Interview

1min

Totton
Length: 22secs OOV

Basketball

Length: 28secs VT

WINOL STATS

With the Third week of WINOL now safely under our belts, the amount of traffic has risen considerably. Both the Alexa Ranking and the GB Ranking has gone up again, giving an obvious indication that the amount of activity WINOL is experiencing has increased. I predict, and would be very disappointed, if the rankings do not continue to rise in the next few weeks as WINOL enters a period of stability and routine.

Now for the real stats, the percent of global Internet users who visit winol.co.uk has risen by 30%, and although the percentage is very low for overall internet traffic, for it to rise by such a percentage is no mean feat. In addition to this, the percentage of visits to winol.co.uk that consist of a single page view has also gone down. This can be interpreted in a number of ways: people are actively seeking out and are thus navigating the site, or that people have accidentally stumbled upon WINOL and are genuinely interested and intrigued by it's content.

The time spent on the site has risen dramatically by 165%. This is simply because we have added new content etc, but I am sure that promotion and competitions have had a huge effect on the traffic hits. On top of this, the bounce percentage has fallen again, and by 10%. The fact that the bounce rate has reduced, by no matter how much, is very positive and speaks volumes for us as a publication; people are logging on and not leaving the site on first glance.

The percentage of visits to winol.co.uk that come from a search engine has gone down again by 85%. This is very positive as people are going straight to our URL- meaning that people are taking note of the various mediums of promotion made available. Increased promotion brings people straight to the site, making the use of a search engine redundant. Despite the fact we have made our URL noticeable, the concept of search engine optimisation needs to be looked at, as even if people are looking for us, they may not find us. A negative factor in less search engine searches reaching us is that it doesn't bring WINOL higher on Google and others, which is a problem.

More notes of positivity can be taken from the Search Query Results. More direct searches for WINOL are bringing users to the site i.e. the most common search that brings people to the site is 'winol tv'. This is particularly interesting as it shows that people know we have a bulletin and that these people are not people who are overly familiar with us (meaning unique viewers), because our own students, and people who regularly use WINOL, know that we are not called "Winol TV". Furthermore, "Ba Journalism Winchester" has gone down in regards to the search enquiries which bring traffic to WINOL, which means people are searching for us as an independent news provider as opposed to a University-based publication.

As far as what content users are viewing when on WINOL- our top three most viewed articles are made up of our competition and two features. This would reaffirm the saying that 'people come for the news but stay for the features'. Clearly features are a vital tool in increasing traffic flow. It was obvious from the start of WINOL that the competition would bring the most traffic to the site, but it is now clear that features are bringing more traffic than news, so ensuring that they are of a high quality is imperative.

National Student Journalism Awards

The number of awards for journalism excellence are certainly on the rise. With the Guardian Journalism awards increasing their categories of awards, and other establishments initiating their own prizes, there has never been a better time to celebrate journalistic achievement.

For Journalism students at the University of Winchester to win any of these awards would be hugely significant for a manner of reasons. As far as publicity goes, to win such a prestigious award would direct attention towards the University of Winchester's Journalism courses, and drive focus and crucial traffic towards our deservedly treasured Winchester News Online publication.

As I write this, many people's faces spring to mind, who, I feel, could easily put up strong competition, if not, win, any of these awards. Despite the shortlist consisting of mostly Russell Group Universities, there are a few educational institutes which are certainly on a par with the meagre reputation of that of the University of Winchester e.g. Nottingham Trent University who have two entrants this year for the category of Broadcast Journalist of the Year alone! I mean, come on, if we can't muster up one credible journalist for the Guardian's shortlist, and Nottingham Trent have two, then there is something seriously wrong.

The notorious Guardian Student Media Awards are unfortunately now closed to new entries, but if we prepare now then we can triumph in every category next year. This year there are six categories of awards, which include: Publication of the Year, Reporter of the Year, Writer of the Year, Photographer of the Year, Digital Journalist of the Year, and Broadcast Journalist of the Year.

For Publication of the Year, there is indeed some very credible entrants this year. The University of Manchester's The Mancunion, and Kingston University's the River, offer very good arguments for claiming the prize, with both being very content-rich and engaging. However, Winchester News Online offers a greater sense of interactivity as well as consisting of intriguing content. Both these challengers offer very little in the way of video; they certainly don't produce live news bulletins, but where they come up trumps is that their writers are clearly gifted wordsmiths who produce content thick and fast. If Winchester News Online improves it's feature content and reputation, it would easily take the prize as Publication of the Year due to it being both more attractive and user-friendly than potential rivals. To get noticed we need to promote and nominate WINOL, or it will be forever condemned to the depths of obscurity and anonymity, while lazier and archaic publications reap the rewards through lack of evolutionary competition.

On an individual level there are also some very gifted people who could enter and win the categories of Reporter of the Year, Writer of the Year, and Photographer of the Year. As proved with the Gonzo pieces - where the third years followed an MP on their campaign trail - we can make great copy and I strongly believe that some of the footage would not look out of place on a television programme such as Channel 4's Dispatches. And what's more, with the dedication and lengths that many reporters are willing to go for a great story for WINOL, what excuse is there not to nominate yourself or for others not to nominate you? The same goes for Writer of the Year and Photographer of the Year - Many writers and one particular photographer spring to mind as I write. It's all about putting yourselves out there!

As far as Winchester News Online is concerned, it will win next year's Publication of the Year- If it doesn't then then justice has not been fulfilled.

Media Law and Ethics: Defences

Despite Defenses being one of the briefer areas discussed in Mcnae's Essential Law For Journalists, let that take nothing away from it's significance and importance in Journalism law.

As with other lectures, we were given a written task, which depicted a situation that could cause controversy (i.e. libel) in being published. The task was to study a series of quotes with regard to the topic of the planning permission for wind turbines, and decide which quotes were safe to run and what sort of privilege protected us Journalists.

Here is an example of one of the quotes which gives balance and fair comment (defence) about the erection of the wind turbines:

'Mr Wagstaff isn't at the meeting, but one of his employees Geoff Salt is. He says: "I'm no expert on green energy, but Mr Wagtaff has told me that without the income form the turbines, he might have to pack it in, and I'll be on the dole. So I think it's a good idea."' Including this quote gives balance, as such a quote defends Mr Wagstaff, who is under attack form other people, with regards to him putting up the wind turbines. This would be an essential quote to include in any article publication as it would stop the article being one-sided.

An example of a quote which should only be included in an article after being deemed safe was: 'After the meeting has ended, Mr Eagle comes up to you and says: "The truth is that Wagstaff was black-balled by the committee last year and this is his revenge. Not a lot I can say, but many of us think he was routinely handing in falsified cards. Never settled his bar bill either. Not our sort at."' Using this quote could prove very dangerous indeed as it is highly defamatory of Mr Wagstaff. The points that Mr Eagle make about Mr Wagstaff cannot be classed as being of public interest as they are irrelevant with regards to the wind turbines being built. Also, the quote contains malice and prejudice throughout, which are aspects that make such claims hard to defend if they were to come to print. This is a very hot topic indeed.

The main points of discussion this week was that of Privilege. Privilege allows journalists to write or broadcast material which can be defamatory, or untrue, or even both at the same time. It gives us protection from being sued.

There are two types of privilege:

Absolute Privilege - where it is applicable, is a complete answer and bar to any action for defamation. It does not matter whether the words are true or false. It does not matter that they were spoken or written maliciously. Absolute Privilege applies to court reports, but reports must fair, accurate and contemporaneous.

Qualified Privilege - is available as a defence where it is considered important that the facts should be freely known in the public interest. Qualified Privilege is available on many occasions under statute (e.g. for a report of a public meeting). The defence is qualified because it is lost if the motive in publishing is malicious.

WINOL: Week 3

Third week in and I am now very aware as to my responsibilties as Managing Editor. First thing, Monday morning, Cat and I went over the bulletin together to prepare for her debrief to everyone in the newsroom. We went over the notes from my blog, which I had written the night before so we left no stones unturned and all problems with the bulletin were noted to give the best possible feedback.

As far as directing people to the site goes, this week's progress is worth taking note. I sent endless emails to valued websites who could link us to sites, which in turn will increase our traffic through the accumulation of more back links. As well as sending many emails, I also added an an event to the Winchester City Council website so that anyone visiting the site will see our website advertised (winchester.gov.uk). In addition to this, I requested advertising at the Discovery Centre in Winchester.

For the first time I published our statistics for www.winol.co.uk. The statitics were accompanied by a detailed analysis as to where we are at the moment as far as traffic stats and page rank etcetera, and also what we now need to do to improve the number of hits and unique users we receive. From the analysis of lasts year's Winol and that of the previous week, it was blantantly obvious that most of our traffic was coming from people visiting our competitions, so it was clear that we needed a big drive in competiton promotion for this week (my area); I decided we needed double the amount of flyers than the previous week. The analysis of statistics led to me making a new blog - on Chris's requests - that would detail all of my notes, which I thought would be of use to everyone on the course (www.winolinformation.blogspot.com).

At the editor's meeting I had to stand in for Kayleigh, which meant I had to take notes and discuss the strength of the stories, with the other editors, that the reporters had offered earlier that day. This was simple but good experience for me for the future when I have to stand in for others again. After this, I made my usual notes on the temporary running orders, which would be put on the wall and made available to people (who wanted them) in the newsroom.

After discussing the issue of promotion with Brian, we decided that radio could be a good path to go down. Most local radio stations didn't get back to me, however I got in contact with South Today (ambitious, I know) and they suggested that Winol could try and get some promotion on BBC Radio Solent. They suggested that I could try and get on the Nick Girdler programme to talk about Winol - this an area I am definitely going persue in the next few weeks. Local Radio would be a great way to promote us as people respect the honesty of radio, and if we could get someone on from Winol, our traffic would easily double.

Other Managing Editor responsibilties I had to do this week included: helping to write the competititon script, making all hard-copy advertisment and leaflets, intervene in disputes between one of the section managers and one of their writers, keep the news room tidy and equipped with essentials (i.e. newspapers and paper for the printer), emailing Keith to put the word out on Wednesday, and run and edit the autocue script.

The achievement I am most pleased with this week is an email I received on Friday from Ian Murray (Editor of the Daily Echo). As with many other publications, I had asked if we could promote ourselves via there publications and establish links with their sites, and Ian had got back to me and said that there would be a posssibilty of Winol working with the Daily Echo and that we should come to the Daily Echo to discuss working with their paper.

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: WEEK 3

It was a highly satisfactory bulletin this week, with everything running far more smoothly than it had in the previous two weeks. Despite major changes and updates to the bulletin at the last minute, we were able to film with one attempt, which bodes very well for us producing live bulletins in the future.

Our guest editor was South Today's Editor, Lee Desty. He commended us on many aspects of the production, including the discipline everyone maintained throughout the day - he was very impressed with the direction and attitude of the gallery and studio floor. It was good to have a different and insightful perspective, as his input and feedback was somewhat of a change from the normal feedback, and as it came from a person who produces news bulletins daily, was invaluable.

Particular points he picked up on, which I now whole-heartedly agree with, was the fact that our headlines were not engaging enough and had low impact due to their short nature. He stressed the importance to make our headlines more catchy, and reaffirmed that if our headlines are not catchy then a news bulletin loses its appeal.

Another point he picked up on was the fact that sometimes we don't remain impartial in reporting and convey far too much opinion. This is a key point, and one which is often, wrongfully, overlooked. I believe that our packages refrain from malice and libel but sometimes too much comment creeps in. The overuse of comment will only lead to more serious consequences such as contempt of court or alienating viewers.

Further points he picked up on was the length of sport in the bulletin. I acknowledge the fact that sport is an essential part of the bulletin, but I have thought for a long time now, that it is far too dominating - making up 30% of the bulletin. I feel that sometimes the news part of the bulletin acts as merely a warm-up act for the sport as far as it's importance goes.

Personally, this week, I felt like there was a distinct lack of communication between the gallery and the studio floor. This point can be best summed up by the fact that there were changes in the script at the last minute which were not mentioned to anyone on the studio floor; this meant that there was no changes in the autocue. An even more freightening point was that those in the gallery had made a decision to cut a package from the bulletin but the presenters and those on the studio floor were unaware of these changes. This simply would not fly in a televised studio news bulletin. If it wasn't for the run-throughs, the presenter would have read a link which had nothing to do with the VT that followed.

Further points of consideration:

- Audio problems

- Dominating actuality over voiceovers

- Audio overlapped: interview and voiceover

- Problems with wind

- Oddly positioned interviews (not at eye-level)

- Bizarre cutaways with no relevance to story

- Overuse of GVs

- Strap lines appeared whilst interviewee was performing tasks, not talking

Overall, I think I speak for the whole team when I say that I'm very pleased with this week's production. With the all-round improvements in content and production, and improved promotion, I would be very surprised if our traffic has not improved greatly this week.

Media Law and Ethics: Libel

Although already having written a blog on libel and defamation, I stumbled upon an article on The Guardian website, and felt compelled to blog on it.

The article's tone discusses the inabilty of the average person to be able to persue libel action as the risks of entering a libel lawsuit costs, usually, a minimum of £150,00. The article is very much of the opinion that the libel law is one which is merely reserved for big businesses who can afford to sue for libel. This is terrible! The very laws put in place to protect the INDIVIDUAL's - as well as business' - public reputation are simply useless with such financial restrictions put upon those who may have been publicly mistreated.

The article goes on to argue why the issues of libel is reserved to being heard at the High Court when compared to other more serious issues which are heard at less important courts. The argument is that libel cases should be heard in lower courts (County Courts), which don't entail massive fees associated with the High Courts.

See the full article below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2010/oct/18/libel-reform-high-court

WiNOL: week three running schedule

Lead Story

Cutting funding to homeless charities (Jack Courtez)

Length: 1min 15secs VT

Package Deadline: Weds 10am

Second Story

Court Report (Andrew Giddings)

Length: 40secs NIB

Package Deadline: Weds 10am

Third Story

Council Take Away Allotments (Stu Appleby)

Length: 1min 10secs VT

Package Deadline: Weds 12pm

Fourth Story

Train Fares Rise (Julie Cordier)

Length: 1min 10secs VT

Package Deadline: Weds 11am

Written Deadline: Thurs 12pm

Fifth Story

Public Debate (Gareth Messenger)

Length: 1min VT

Package Deadline: Weds 10am

Written Deadline: Thurs 10am

And Finally

Bishop Doctorate (Michael Connolly)

Length: 1min VT

Package Deadline: Weds 12pm

SPORT (3 minutes)

East Cowes V Winchester (Grant Payne and Karen Purnell)

Length: 30 secs VT

Package Deadline: Weds 4am

Women's football: Winchester V Eastleigh (Rebecca Gray)

Length: 30 secs VT

Package Deadline: Tues 5pm

Basketball (James Fraser)

Length: 30 secs

Package Deadline: Tues 5pm

Ice Hockey

TBA

PLUS GRAPHICS

WINOL: STATISTICS AFTER SECOND BULLETIN

WINOL has slowly but surely begun to move up the Alexa ranking after a dormant summer of complete inactivity. We moved from something like 12,000,000 up to the current 1,414,368 in a few weeks of resuming the activity on the site via updating the site and promotion.

Although it is to be expected that our Alexa ranking would increase now we have resumed production again, it is nonetheless encouraging, and somewhat of a morale-booster, to see that the site is gaining more traffic. In addition, some very important factors to take into consideration include the fact our bounce rate % has fallen by 18%, meaning that people are actively seeking us out to view content, or that those who have accidentally reached the WINOL site have not immediately clicked off. Equally impressive is the fact that in one month, the amount of time people stay on the site has risen by 124%, which is nothing short of exceptional.

Furthermore, the percentage of people who have visited WINOL by using a search engine has decreased by 61%. This can be interpreted in two ways: either people are responding to the advertising and are logging on by going straight to the website, or, alternately, that it is simply people who know the WINOL address well (e.g. journalism students) who are visiting the site as they have no need to use a search engine - I choose to acknowledge the former interpretation.

When analysing the data from Joomla with regards to traffic and hits etc, it is clear that competitions are a huge factor when determining the amount of traffic, which Winchester news Online receives. At present, the Win With Winol competition is the second most viewed feature of the site.

Such competitions are integral for both bringing and maintaining traffic numbers. The screenshot below reveals the hits on WINOL from last year, and it is clear that the majority of traffic brought to the site was from competition appeal; both the first and second most viewed features were competitions. SO it is essential to continue to promote WINOL through competitions as well as other forms of advertising.

WINOL BULLETIN REVIEW: week two

Another cracking bulletin this week, with interesting and engaging stories throughout. I can honestly say that I was interested in every story this week. The scripts were strong (both the presenter's and reporter's), which is far better than last week, as often I felt a tad lost when trying to grip the essence of some of the stories, or felt that the presenter's script told too much of the story - this was not a problem this week.

However - as we experience in the debriefs - it is far easier to criticise for errors, as they are much more obvious than the good points, which are taken for granted. The fact that there are few points to pick up on this week, implies that the bulletin is moving forward in quality, however, some mistakes are so easily rectified, and so glaringly obvious, that it ruins an otherwise quality bulletin through negligent inconsistencies.

Personal points I noted include:

- Rushed opening sequence. The first headline felt like it was squeezed into the opening sequence. It's only a minor thing, but it's points like these which distinguishes the likes of professional bulletins and our own.

- Audio was another massive issue this week. Some packages even had numerous different audio levels to them.

- Some voice overs were too quiet, and had to compete with background actuality sound.

- Audio merged in two different interviews.

- Cutaways would often happen before we really got to see what an interviewee actually looked like.

- Again, strap lines were too brief.

- Jumpy shots. (It is easy to get a tripod)

- Overexposure of shots. This looks absolutely terrible.

- OOV didn't work and felt cringe worthy to watch due to poor timing.

- A point which I noted on the noticeboard, was that the first years believe the voice overs to be unenthusiastic (a view which I share).

As far as content goes, the bulletin this week was top notch. Journalistically, it was of a high quality as everything was interesting and news-worthy, but the simple things let the production down; eradicate these, and our bulletin is perfect. Then the only problems we have is studio production, which will get better with time as people become more acquainted with their responsibilities in both the gallery and the studio floor. For me to only be able to find flaws in the list above is something of an achievement in itself, I feel.

Media Law and Ethics: Defamation

In the same vein as last week, the beginning of the lecture consisted of us undertaking a task to assess the area of law we are studying. This week, the topic of the lecture was Defamation. We were given a series of statements made by people about a housing company, who it would appear is not fulfilling its duties and responsibilities properly.

One statement read, "They keep making promises they will fix things, but nothing happens. There's definitely something wrong with this company. I reckon that boss of their's John Smith is raking off all the cash and hiding it from the council - how else would he be driving that Bentley of his?" This is a highly defamatory statement and s

uch a statement is very libelous due to the fact that it would cause harm to John Smith's business, and he could possibly be shunned and avoided via these unfair comments. The fact that the words 'raking off' are used, implies that he is partaking in some sort of illegal operation. As these are merely uninformed personal opinions, they don't have any libel defences i.e. justification, as they have not checked the facts. So this is an example of libel.

Alternately, an example of a 'safe' defamation statement we examined in class reads, "If you ask me most of the problems seem to be with this sub-contractor they've been using - Peerless Plumbing. Totally incompetent and haven't got a clue what they are doing. I wasn't at all surprised to see that Hampshire Trading Standards took them to court last week for making a total mess of an old lady's house and then overcharging her for the privilege". This is entirely justified defamation on the speaker's part. He is giving his ho

nest opinion which is a clear defense against any libel issues which may crop up. In addition to this, he is also basing his opinions on facts and public interest as it is fact that the Trading Standards took Peerless Plumbing to court, and it is in the public interest that an old lady was financially exploited.

PUBLICATION + DEFAMATION + IDENTIFICATION = LIBEL

Defamation

- Lowering someone in the estimation of right-thinking people.

- Causes them to be shunned or avoided.

- Disparages them in their business, trade or profession.

- Exposes them to hatred, ridicule or contempt.

Defamation via Pictures

- Common danger in TV

- Careless use of background shots with a voice over.

- People or companies must not be unidentifiable in certain contexts e.g. fraud news package. (Juxtaposition).

- Imprecise shots e.g. filming a business premises that has been investigated for fraud, but the shot includes other businesses in close proximity of the one being investigated.

Reputation and Meaning

- Reputation is important if you are in public

life, have money, or both.

- Meaning as interpreted by reasonable man.

- Inference and Innuendo are both hazardous.

- Asses the whole context.

Libel Defenses

- Justification - it's true and we can prove it.

- Fair comment - honestly held opinion based upon facts, or privileged material, in public interest.

- Absolute privilege - court reporting

- Qualified privilege - police quotes, pressers.

Further Defenses

- Bane and Antidote - defamation removed by context (balancing).

- Apologies and clarifications.

Reynolds Defense

- Material must be : in the public interest

product of reasonable journalism.

NO Defense

- Not checked the facts

- Not "referred up"

- When you haven't put yourself in the shoes of the person/company you write about.

- Got carried away with a juicy story.

- Not bothered to wait for lawyer's opinion.

Recognise Risk

- Who am I writing about, and could they sue?

- Is what I'm writing about defamatory?

- Do I have a defense?

A famous libel case was the case where the Sunday Mirror (2008) ran an article claiming that Kerry Katona (formerly of Atomic Kitten) worked as a prostitute before she became famous as a performing artist. The story was based on the Mirror claiming that Katona's mother was to release a book which would have detailed such claims. However, Katona's mother has not written an autobiography or is even set to publish.

This was highly libelous on the part of the Sunday Mirror as the results of these unfair claims would have unfairly caused Katona to be defamed. Much of her finances comes from advertising, and such media coverage would - if it wasn't to be found untrue - have caused her to be shunned or avoided, damaged her profession, and exposed her to ridicule. (However I'm not sure that such findings would have lowered her in the estimations of right thinking people HAHAHA).

For this particular case there are no defenses, and after being taken to court, it seems that the Sunday Mirror had merely fabricated such a story to sell papers... NOT A VALID DEFENSE.