WINOL Week Four!

I love it when a plan comes together. This weeks edition of WINOL was by far the best we've done. This was easily due to the amount of practice that we got before we actually recorded it. The headlines were done early, packages were in on time and the timings were accurate. Success!

Despite our obvious brilliance there are still things that we can tighten up on. We still need to remember what the story's about and not lose focus. Our stories are still pretty waffle-y at times. If we can maintain the high production values that we had this week with a concise method of storytelling then I see no reason why we can't rival the local publications. 

On a personal level, sport was again good. We need to focus on women's sports apparently, which should be interesting to say the least, but we've really got our stuff nailed down. There's a few minor production issues we can improve on, such as maybe ball watching a bit too much, but content wise we're spot on.

Next week we've really got to ensure that we don't drop the ball. The last time that we did a great bulletin we cocked up the following week. The fact that the BJTC are in next week means that we have to do an even better bulletin than this week. 

WINOL Week Two!

Well this was an improvement over last week, albeit by the skin of our teeth! I really thought this was going to be another disaster week but I was thoroughly impressed by the professionalism that everyone showed. We went through the bulletin with little to no rehearsal, the technology being a bit shitty and people not being quite sure how it worked or what they were supposed to be doing and still managed to get a decent bulletin out on time!

I like to think how we would've reacted in our first year if we'd been given responsibility like this. I think it shows how far we've come in so short a time because we'd have panicked like there was no tomorrow!

The stories this week I felt were stronger as well. We had a good exclusive with the man from the Orange Wednesday adverts revealing that they wouldn't be running them. Our stories were generally stronger overall and there didn't seem to be a weak area at all.

I was personally a bit disappointed with our sport coverage this week. We had a major problem with the football match that we'd put all our work into actually being cancelled. This left us with very little content for the bulletin besides the non-league round up and the (now very short) report on the cancelled game. However, getting the news story about the collapsed player at the Totton vs Gosport game was something I'm rather pleased with.

Hopefully next week we'll be more confident, know how to use the equipment more and have settled fully into our roles. One thing's for sure, I'm not working the sound desk in the studio!!

This is the end, beautiful friend.

It's hard to think that WINOL is almost over for the year. We've a special bulletin tomorrow, showcasing the best of our work but after that it'll be a new decade before we're on air again!

It's a shame it has to end so soon, especially as we've really settled in our roles and got comfortable with what we're doing. It's been a really useful exercise, I certainly know now what I want to do in journalism, which is become a sports photographer. Oringally I wanted to work on features but since working on WINOL I've realised that's not really for me. Hopefully I'll be able to sort that out after Christmas as I'd like to join the sports desk and get some first hand experience.

I think we've made the most of the opportunity and have come up with some cracking stories such as our most recent gem, which was the Lib Dem poll rigging on our site. Without the third years after Christmas the pressure's on us to maintain such a high quality of work. Personally I like to think we can do it. We know how this works now and while there may be less of us, I think we know enough to keep the WINOL machine ticking over.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1! We have lift-off!

Yesterday saw the launch of the second and third years collective baby; WINOL. After two dummy runs the previous two weeks, confidence was high in the newsroom of a fantastic first live airing. I'm glad to say we didn't disappoint and all went well! Word on the street (okay, the word of my girlfriend) is that it was a good broadcast so it's not just me being big headed.

Despite being beset with difficulties and unexpected problems (such as our main presenter being ill, network and loan counter problems etc) we soldiered on and put out a news broadcast we can all be proud of.

It's weird viewing the bulletin from the point of view of a feature writer. The news, sport and production desks and the people who work on it are a flurry of activity trying to get packages done and dusted. However, us feature writers aren't quite as pressured. Sure, we have our own stories to get in and editing and the like to do, but it seems we spend a fair whack of time on a Wednesday trying to assist the other desks in any stuff they need doing.

Obviously the more we do this the better we'll become. I just hope that we don't get really settled into our roles just as we have to leave them after Christmas. Not quite sure how we're going to be running it all on our own as well. Oh well, we'll manage, we're journos.