Improvement with street style

Going out for the street style feature is now becoming a regular thing, as two are used each week so they are used up quickly. Once again I went out with photographer Kate, who is really enthusiastic and makes me enjoy going out more.

This time I found that I didn’t need to keep looking at my questions, which meant I could keep more of a conversation up with the people we were asking.I also learnt, from watching Kate during asking the public, to compliment them whilst asking them to stop and speak with us. This makes us seem more friendly, so they are more likely to stop and have a chat.

Although I don’t particularly enjoy stopping people in the street, I am becoming more familiar with it and I feel a bit more confident when doing so. I know that this may be a major part of being a journalist and perhaps part of my job when I graduate so I make sure I put my all into it and try my best each time we go out.

Self initiated- Photo copyright

In the first session back we looked at photo copyright, about what we can and can’t use.

Photographs are a subject of copyright, and you can’t just use anyones photo whenever you want. To be able to use someone’s photo you need to ask for permission, which can sometimes cost. Also, if a company or individual finds that you have used their photos they can make you pay for it.

This can be from £40- £500,000!!

However, you can find photos that you can use on website Creative Commons, which lets you use photos as long as you give credit to the owner.

This lecture was of great use to me, as I didn’t previously know that you can’t use other people’s images! It means that I can save myself from large bills, and can now upload photos and credit the owners of the image in the right way.

Also, it means that when I am in employment as a journalist in the future I can’t get the company in trouble by using photos that don’t belong to me. Finding out about Creative Commons was a great help so I now know I can find images from here on both my personal and professional blogs.

Documentary and Narrative Video- 16/12

After missing a session due to illness, the next lesson I was in we discussed our assignment in more detail. We are to create a three minute video on whatever subject we choose.

We then went on to look again about the differences between video journalism and documentaries in more detail. Whereas documentaries are more based on facts and giving information, video journalism pieces often have a story. However, a good video journalist can employ both factors of these.

After this we looked at parallel editing- which is when two different scenes run side by side, going from one to the other. They are often completely different scenes. A perfect example of this is in the film The Godfather. Whilst the main character is being baptised, cleaning him from his sins, he has members of his group kill all other mafia bosses.

For the final part of this lecture we once again went out to record. We had to record the same scenes as we had in a previous session, but this time give them a different meaning. working as a group, we decided to focus on how Hull’s old town is suffering, for example shut down shops.

This session gave us a more in-depth knowledge of video processes, which is useful as a journalist. It also gave us ideas for our assignments, and more experience with the video cameras.

Documentary and Narrative Video- 02/12

For the first part of this session we had to write a short piece about Hull City Centre. As it was December, I decided to write mine about how the centre was full of lights, and about how people were getting ready for Christmas day. I then added my piece to my classmates, which was about the architecture in Hull’s old town.

For the second part of the session, we took the video camera out to try and capture what we had written on video. We created a shot list of places we wanted to film, and spent the rest of the afternoon doing this.

Recording skills are necessary to know as a journalist, in order to be knowledgeable in all areas of the industry. We learnt how to relate two different mediums, the written word and video, in order to describe the same thing in different ways. this session also gave us the chance to become familiar with the video camera and tripods that we will use for our assignment.

Paul on Hull

This is a perfect example of Paul’s love of Hull. Both he and the journalist interviewing him are from the city, and they speak of reminiscing about the well known people that everyone from Hull would know. He speaks of the City of Culture title, and ideas that he has for 2017.

It also speaks about politics, which Paul has a strong view on.

Joseph Pulitzer

Joseph Pulitzer was born on April 10 1847. Born in Hungary, his father was a wealthy grain merchant.

As a young man Pulitzer tried to enlist in a number of armies, including the Austrian army, but he was always turned away due to his poor eyesight and all around frail health. However, he didn’t give up and eventually enlisted in the U.S Union Army as a substitute for a draftee.

After this, he decided to join the Lincoln Cavalry, before moving to St. Louis carrying out little jobs such as baggage handling and working as a waiter. Whilst in St. Louis he ‘immersed himself in the city’s Mercantile Library studying English and Law.

He was then, out of luck, offered a job in 1868 at the Westliche Post, a leading German Language Daily newspaper at the time. Four years later he gained controlling interest in the paper. At this time he had built a reputation as a ‘tireless enterprising journalist’ (Pulitzer.org).

At the age of 25 Pulitzer became a publisher, and gained ownership of the St. Louis Post, before moving to The World. Here he was said to ‘work at his desk from early morning until midnight or later, interesting himself in every detail of the paper’ (Pulitzer.org).

It was after this he became prominent, being one of the first to use sensationalising articles and using illustrations in the paper. He created ‘yellow journalism’, and caused the paper to become the largest circulating paper in the country.

A year after Pulitzer died, in 1911, the Columbia School of Journalism was founded, with $2,000,000 left in his will for this purpose. The first Pulitzer Prize was awarded in 1917, to recognise achievements in Literature, Poetry, History, Music and Drama.

 

Information found online from http://www.pulitzer.org

Journalism Day- 20/03/14

The Hull School of Art and Design had organised a day full of speeches from different industry professionals.

We had some great speakers, such as Stuart Heritage, a journalist at The Guardian, and Rosie Millard, who has worked in several different areas of journalism.

I learnt some good tips for the future, and enjoyed listening to people who work in the industry in which I would like to work.

Bill Coles

This article is about the Journalist Bill Coles, who came to give a speech to us about life as a news reporter. I had a great afternoon and found everything he had to say very interesting.

 

One of the main points Bill Coles makes is that in order to be a successful reporter, you need to be charming. And Bill Coles is definitely a charmer, this is apparent from the moment we meet him.

Coles travelled down from his home in Scotland this November to give us students at the Hull School of Art and Design a talk on life as a news reporter. He is certainly experienced, with 25 years in the Journalism industry, he was The Sun’s New York Correspondent, Political Correspondent and Royal Correspondent, and has worked for different newspapers around the globe.

As soon as he enters the room, it is obvious he practices what he preaches. After introducing himself to each member of staff, and the students as a whole, he begins talking about many of his colleagues being involved in the phone hacking scandal, which is and has been all over the news in recent years, and about how so many of them are going to jail. Without us realising it, Coles has begun to charm his audience. One ways to charm, which he mentions in his newly published book, ‘Red Top’, is to start on a separate subject, something interesting that people enjoy talking about. This ‘forges a connection’ between the reporter and the interviewee. Has he done this on purpose? Or is he just so well practiced that it has become second nature? Either way, I believe it worked.

Throughout his speech he gave us many tips on how to become a newspaper reporter. How to act with interviewees, how not to act, even giving physical demonstrations on how to shake a person’s hand. At the end he gave each of us a shark’s tooth, which he had brought in himself. This was to remind us of what he said next, about what he described as ‘Cage Life’. Whilst travelling he saw the shark teeth in a completely deserted area, far away from the ocean. His story concluded that life is short, and that we need to enjoy it whilst we can, not living a ‘Cage Life’ in which you are stuck doing something you do not like. This related to any audience, not just us studying journalism, and was a great end to his speech.

After signing our copies of Red Top, we carried on talking at the pub. Coles bought each of us a drink, which must have been pricey! I was surprised, his personality did not change at all, he was just as charismatic as he was to a whole crowd of people, even when the group dissolved into just four or five students. It was as if he was interviewing each of us separately, asking what we were interested in and giving us ideas for us to write about.

It was clear he was used to a more casual setting than the classroom. In his book he mentions often taking PR and interviewees to the pub so maybe this is why. Here, Bill was at ease and knew exactly how to fill an awkward silence. The full two or more hours here are filled with more advice and stories from his life as a reporter, and time flies very quickly, so much so that our tutor realises she is late for her meeting! Bill says goodbye much the same as he introduces himself, politely thanking each of us separately for listening. I leave in a good mood, feeling much more knowledgable and regarding him as a very pleasant individual. Is this how his interviewees feel after leaving his company? If so it is no wonder he is such a successful journalist.