Directing WINOL for the first time

This week I directed the WINOL news bulletin for the first time ever. I wasn't expecting it to be easy but it was a lot more stressful that I thought it would be. The main problem was the lack of time for rehearsals. This was no one in particular's fault as the news reporters had to keep adjusting the lengths of their pieces due to other stories falling through and I appreciate that but having no news packages at 3 o' clock for a bulletin that's supposed to be recorded at 3 left me just a little bit panicky to say the least!

When we eventually had time for a rehearsal the main things that I wanted to practice were the handovers so both the camera operators and the presenters were happy with them. Chris Ship (ITV's Senior Political Corespondent) was the guest editor for this weeks bulletin and was really helpful in the rehearsal stage of the bulletin. In an ideal world we would have prerecorded the headline because then they would be 100% correct and as Chris said, if the top of your programme is wrong then why would the viewer want to watch the rest? We got the headlines spot on in the last rehearsal and they looked really slick however in the live bulletin I cued the news anchor, Jake too early and he spoke over the soundbite in the headline. I did think when I got the headline with a soundbite in it was a bit adventurous. When there are soundbites in the headlines there needs to be a lot of attention to detail because they have to be spot on, unfortunately due to time constraints we didn't give the soundbite the necessary attention that it needed.

As far as the rest of the bulletin went, I think it went really well. Because of the lack of stories we were quite ambitious and had a live link to Joey in the newsroom during the bulletin which I think worked well and looked really professional. We also had a live studio guest, Guy Butters, the manager Winchester FC which also went well but as Chris Ship said it did look a bit like a game of musical chairs!

The handovers went really smoothly and the presenters knew exactly what camera they were looking in to at all times. There was only one bit where I forgot to get camera 1 to get a close up of the sport anchor, Karen, and then when she introduced the Totton highlights the camera was still on a two shot and the guest was still in shot and this looked very silly.

I don't think I gave the vision mixer, Jon, enough direction during the bulletin as it was his first time doing that job and I was more concerned with VT's and the presenters and making sure they knew what was going on and Jon just had to follow me and this is why there were a few black holes in the bulletin. Luckily we were able to remove them in post production though. However the main problem that caused the black holes was yet again the timings. My role for the last two weeks had been PA and I had a massive problem with the timings then and this week it seemed a lot worse. None of them were correct and this is why I had to keep a close eye on the VT's so I knew roughly when to cue the presenters. This is something that could have been addressed had we had more time to rehearse.

Next week I hope for a much more technically better bulletin with no black holes and rehearsed so well that it looks highly polished and professional. The main thing that I want to get right next week are the timings because if the presenters are given an accurate count down from 10 then they will be less likely to panic and feel a lot more comfortable about when they are to start talking.

Finally, I would like to thank my team in gallery and on the studio floor and the presenters who all did a brilliant job of bringing the bulletin together in a very short space of time. WELL DONE TEAM!

Here is the WINOL news bulletin for 27th October 2010:

Media Law - Privacy and Confidentialty

Privacy

Under Section 8 of the Human Rights Act (1998) "Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." This basically means that everyone is entitled to private enjoyment of family life. This affects taking photographs too because unless the person you are photographing is engaging in a pure public duty then now because of section 8 of the Human Rights act there has to be consent!

There are two types of consent, explicit consent and implied consent. Explicit consent is where a contract has been signed to agree consent. Implied consent is where for example there are posing in front of a camera and it is obvious that they know they are being photographed.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is the right to tell somebody something and they won't disclose it to anyone else. It depends on the importance of the secret and the relationship with the person. To sue on breach of confidentiality the information must have a quaility of confidence, it must have been said in confidential circumstances, there must be no permission to reveal the secret and it has to cause actual damages when told.

The Official Secrets Act is used by the government to protect secrets to do with military operations or intelligence that might help enemies.

Media Law - Qualified Privilege

Privilege allows us as journalists to write or broadcast material which may be defamtory,  untrue, or even both at the same time. It gives us protection from being sued. There are two types of privilege, absolute privilege and qualified privilege.

You have qualified privilege as long as your report is fair, accurate and contemporaneous. Fair would mean that in a court report you would report everything that was said that said in court that day and if for example the prosecution were giving evidence, then you would report all the evidence giving a fair account and then as long as you write/say "the trial continues",then that gives balance and makes the report fair. Accurate would mean that you have to accurately report what was said in court not just roughly what was said- this is where the skill of shorthand comes in very handy. Contemporaneous means that the report must go out in the first available bulletin after the events in court. For a newspaper this might be the following day. However for a news broadcast programme this might be that evening. The report must also be without malice and on a matter of public concern.

There are two levels of qualified privilege -

1.Without explanation or contradiction such as -

• Public proceedings in a legislature anywhere in the world (For example Russia)
• Public proceedings in a court anywhere in the world
• Public proceedings of a public inquiry anywhere in the world
• Public proceedings of an international organisation or conference

2. With or 'subject to' explanation or contradiction such as -

• Public meetings - Findings or decisions are also covered
• Local councils and committees - Findings or decisions are also covered

Findings or decisions in these meetings are also covered, as are written handouts.

In summary your report must be fair, accurate, contemporaneous, without malice and on a matter of public interest. It is also worth noting that you have NO privilege outisde main proceedings, so no protecion for speeches outside the court/meeting or phone calls etc.

Media Law - Defamation and Libel

Defamation is all about the meaning of words in the eyes of a 'reasonable man'. The criteria for defamation is that you what write about the person you are defaming 'tends to' -

• Lower them 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 is also possible via pictures and is common danger in TV. Careless use of background shots with a voice over can be defamatory- for example a voice over could be talking about paedophiles and there could be a clearly identifiable man in a background that is then libeled as a paedophile. People or companies must not be identifiable in certain contexts for example child abuse or fraud. Care must be taken when using 'imprecise' shots.

If you defame someone you are more likely to be sued by them if they have a reputation at stake. Reputation is precious, especially if you are in the public eye, have money or both. If there is a possibly of defaming someone by inferring something or through an innuendo then don't do it. You need to assess the whole context of the story before publishing. When you publish something is when you libel someone.

Publication + Defamation + Identification = Libel

However there are defences against libel - 

• "It's true and I can prove it" (in court)
• Fair comment - This is an honestly held opinion based upon facts, or privileged material in the public interest.
• Absolute privilege - Court reporting
• Qualified privilege - Police quotes, Council meetings etc

There are the main defences but there are others -

• Bone and antidote - Where defamation is removed by context
• Apologies and clarification - Rarely accepted
• Reynolds defence - Journalists have the right to publish an allegation even if it turns out be wrong
• Public interest
• Product of 'responsible journalism'

You will have no defence -

• When you have not checked your facts
• When you have not 'referred up'
• When you have not put yourself in the shoes of the person or company you are writing about
• If you get carried away with a 'spicy' story
• If you have not bothered to wait for a lawyers opinion

Again it all comes to recognising the risks and asking yourself questions -

• Who am I writing about and could they sue?
• Is what I'm writing potentially defamatory?
• Do I have a defence?
• Don't forget that lawyers never mind being asked!

Media Law - Reporting the Courts

If there is a risk of prejudice then this could lead to contempt of court. Under the 'Contempt of Court Act 1981' journalists are not allowed to report an material that might prejudice a trial. By the time a case is in court there are very few things that you can report. When the case is 'active' no details of the case may be reported but the following -

• Name
• Age
• Address
• Occupation
• Charge(s)
• Date/Place of Crown Court hearing
• Bail 
• Legal aid conditions
• Names of counsel

Police normally have a maximum of 24 hours to question but this can be extended by 12 hours by a senior officer and then a further 36 hours questioning time can be granted by a magistrate but the overall questioning time cannot exceed 96 hours. The only exception to this are terror suspects, where the limit is 28 days.

There are three different categories of offense - 

1. Summary - These offences stay in the magistrates court and are things like driving offences.
2. Either way - These types of offences can go to crown court or magistrates court
3. Indictable - These types of offences are for the crown court only and carry a sentence of 5 years and above.

Magistrates have limited sentencing powers and they are as follows -

• 6 month prison sentence and/or fines up to £5,000
• Suspended sentences
• Conditional discharges
• Community orders
• Binding orders
• ASBOs

The key stages that take place in a trial i.e. important things to report during a case - 

• Prosecution opening
• Key prosecution witnesses
• Defense opening
• Key defense witnesses
• Judge's summing up
• Jury sent out, deliberation and verdict
• Sentencing

The main points to consider when reporting about children and young people are that children are legally juvenile until they are 18 and most under 18s enjoy anonymity, this means that you must be extra careful about accident identifying them.

The following court report shows examples of how a court case can be reported when a case is over and also has an example of juvenile's that are under 18 and therefore cannot be named and how to report that - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11564234

Media Law - Overview of the court system

The key skill for journalists when it comes to law is to learn to recognise the risk. For example recognising when something could libel someone as they could then sue you. People with reputations are more likely to sue.

I have made a diagram to illustrate the  hierarchy of criminal and civil courts -

There are many sources of law but the main ones are as follows -

• Common law tradition - This comes from ancient law.
• Statute law - This is when the government actions new laws.
• EU law adding to British law.

Court reporting used to be a big part of journalism but is becoming less and less popular. I found the following article about how court reporting is a dying trend, which makes for a very interesting read - http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/oct/19/court-reporting-dying-art-lawyers

Video - How to submit an article on Joomla to the WINOL website

(Watch it in full screen so you can actually see what's going on!)

Production Meeting Notes - Introduction to Joomla

Flash/PHP - Part of the WINOL website is produced in flash and the whole magazine will be created in flash. Flash is a very powerful program that mixes visual images and text. Chanin Lloyd will be in charge of flash. As far as the magazine goes, the picture editor Jason Curtis will take thousands of fantastic images to go in it and make it look brilliant. Most of the site is made in PHP, which is a modern version of HTML. The HTML program Dreamweaver is also sometimes used, with this program you can hand make websites. Not many people really use it anymore because there are so many templates, for example there are loads right here on Blogger, etc.

Joomla - This is a content management system (CMS), most organistations have their own CMS that is customised to them, for example and at the BBC their CMS is called CPS. Joomla is fairly robust at enabling people to submit articles and then the sub editors can they receive, check and put them on the website very quickly. The pages do look a bit boring and its quite hard to put pictures on and make them looks nice therefore it is quite hard to create designed pages on Joomla.

Live bulletin - We mainly used LiveStream last year as it gives us the capability to stream the bulletin as live. The only thing that can stream the bulletin as actual live is UStream, which we need to set the Tricaster up for, we did this for out General Election Coverage. We have four LiveStream channels for news, sport, community and entertainment. This enables us to loop a verity of content across these channels.

The website - www.winol.co.uk is a forwarding address domain name and the actual resident URL of the site is www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk/joomla_1.5_winol/. If you are not an administrator then you will need to log in from the WINOL homepage. However if you are an administrator when you log in this the screen you will be greeted with - the control panel.

Add New Article - Does exactly what it says on the tin, allows you to add a new article.

Article Manager - Displays all the articles on the site at any one time. Allows for quick publishing to the site and/or front page and the ability to change the order that the articles appear on any page. You can also control who has permission to view certain articles. It also displays the section of the site that the article comes under (news, sport, etc) and then categories within that (football, cricket, etc). It then displays who wrote it, making you personally liable for suing purposes - however you hopefully won't get sued. You need to know when there might be problems, you don't really need to know the law, just recognise the risk. The date the article was last edited, the amount of hits it has had, and it's unique id is also displayed.

Front Page Manager - The front page is the first page people will see when coming to the site and in most cases the only page they will visit and so it's absolutely crucial and you need to have lots of hooks to draw the reader in. Good sub editing will help with this. We also need barkers that display content on the site. The whole magazine business works on churns and uses barkers to sell the magazine content using the front page. Three vital words for the front page are WIN, FREE, SEX for tabloids. We should operate under a similar scheme. Maybe not sex though, the law on pornography is that the material has been produced with intend to create sexual arousal. So legally we could have our own Page 3 WINOL girls. Essentially all we really need is WIN and FREE. So we need a good competition like 'Date with Fate' last year when anyone has the chance of winning something for free.

Section manager/Category Manager - Already set up. The separate section and catorigories of the site.

Media Manger - This is where you will upload any type of media (pictures, music, video, etc) to include with your article and to put on the site.

User Manager - Keep your password safe and don't tell anyone else so you someone else can't make you appear liable and frame you as it were. The permission or articles that you have access to are also displayed on this page. When you log in to the user manager it will show you everyone's status. Chris can control what access that you will have to the site. Here you can also change your password. When you're logged in you can see who else in online and when they were last on, etc. You won't  be able to log in to the administrator page if you are not an administrator and will only be able to log in on the homepage.

Barking Mad?!

I have seen some pretty ridiculous things before but I think this beats them all. Many video games have been blamed by the media for making people act violent or engage in some other form or illicit behaviour because they saw it in a video game, but this is something else. Now, the fun innocent virtual pet game 'Nintendogs' has been blamed for making a dog turn violent and attack a nine year old girl!

The incident allegedly occurred when the dog heard a virtual dog barking on the video game and then proceeded to drag the girl by her foot and then bite her face tearing part of her lip off! The lip has now been reattached but the victim's grandmother has seriously said that she wants the game banned. The dog has also now been put down. The owner of the dog has told police that the girl may have kicked the dog and that is why he attacked her.

Is there anything video games can't be blamed for?

Nintendogs: Butter wouldn't melt?

Terrified schoolgirl, 9, has top lip ripped off by dog after it heard barking on her Nintendo DS (Daily Mail)

Gonzo Journalism - The General Election Night

Fear, excitement, surrealism. The elated interest of the general election had brought us all together. The six-hour live broadcast encompassed our minds. Preparation the previous night was definitely essential for this mammoth task and my night wasn’t without a calming hot drink and hours of sleep. As for the day itself, I was welcomed by a punch in the face from the sheer amount of notes I had to process and learn. This obviously overwhelmed me. Although like most, I couldn’t wait to tackle the election from a journalistic perspective. My role was a political editor. What exactly does that mean? I don’t know. But I needed to know a lot about politics

The newsroom felt extremely professional. There was no mucking around today. A Facebook page wasn’t in sight. It was clear everyone was particularly conscientious about this broadcast, as it needed to showcase the best of our abilities, in the studio, newsroom and outside broadcasts. The strain of the night that was to follow was evident upon the creases of everyone’s’ foreheads. The only audible sounds were the clicking of mice, tapping of keyboards and printing of paper. There was a pleasant breeze blowing through the window that provided an element of calm for the headless chickens.

The feel of immediacy in the afternoon was peculiar for a deadline that was a long way off. The ten o’clock kick off time seemed a lifetime away but the hours were dropping like flies. Before I knew it, it was seven thirty. The first scheduled rehearsal time. In spite of this, many of the team were nowhere to be found. Their hunger needs had to be satisfied. It wasn’t until eight thirty that the team had finally assembled ready for the first dress rehearsal. If this were a play, I hadn’t learned my lines!

As the team rehearsed I looked on, half concentrating on them, and half concentrating on communicating with a first year, out on an outside broadcast from the New Forest. I had sent him off on his way earlier in the afternoon after vigorously testing his equipment and it looked like he was all set to go. As it turned out, the internet connection out in the sticks was poor. Communicating with him was hard, even at the best of times.

My shift on screen was not set to be until midnight but midnight crept up on me like a cat stalking its prey. I was not prepared in any shape or form. Panic had set in. When the changeover was set to happen, I was still running between the newsroom and the studio, hopelessly trying to communicate with everyone on outside broadcasts. There was only so much that could be done in the studio since outside broadcasts were going live almost all the time. So, at the last minute I called upon the other political editor that was set to take the stage at two o’clock but had to step up two hours earlier.

At every advert break the anchor would mop his sweaty brow with a towel. That’s how intense the heat beaming from the lights was. I was to take to the sofa to showcase my ‘political expertise’ at any moment knowing full well that I was going to melt the second I got to the other side of those lights. It was time. Make or break. Or rather make or melt.

As I crossed the line of cameras and took my seat on the sofa, the camera lens looked like the eye of a gun staring down at me. I knew that when the red light on the camera appeared, it was aiming at me. This was something I did not want to muck up. I’m almost sure that the feeling of being held at gunpoint wasn’t too far from the feeling I felt at that exact moment. I’ve never really been one for nerves and I felt that my confidence in front of a camera was beginning to increase. It wasn’t. I felt awfully uneasy. The sofa I was sat on would look comfortable to anyone, but to me, it was the most uncomfortable place in the world.

The not knowing didn’t help. I had just a few seconds to prepare before going live and the anchor would throw me a question. I had no idea what I was talking about. I was just talking, and talking, and talking. The words just came out and I’m not sure if they made any sense at all. I had narrowly crossed the line between feeling anxious to feeling natural in front of the camera. There was still a huge sigh of relief when I knew the camera wasn’t on me though.

It was ironic that on election night I would use a technique that many politicians use, not answering the question, but instead talking about what they want to talk about. I would always bring in topics that I was knowledgeable of and confident to talk about. The longer I sat on the sofa the more comfortable I got. Although, I made sure I never got too far ahead of myself, knowing full well what was at stake.

As the broadcast went on, hour after hour, it still did not become a formality. The constant struggle against technology was a recurring problem that the anchor had to constantly apologise for. Repeating the same packages every hour was slowly driving everyone insane. At this stage, I don’t think anyone had quite realised just exactly what we had managed to accomplish tonight. What we had produced was unimaginable just a month previous. Journalism students at other universities could only dream of having the facilities and opportunities to experience something as comprehensive and fulfilling as this.

In the final stint I was asked to be the outside broadcast presenter. This is essentially speaking at a television screen in the hope of having a conversation with the person on that screen. The technology baffled me. So it was no surprise that when I first tried to communicate with someone it was to no avail. However, after repeating myself with increasing volume each time, I eventually solved the problem and I was almost able to engage in a full conversation.

Our historic broadcast had come to an exciting end at five thirty in the morning. Everyone was physically and mentally drained. The sun was rising. It was time to go home. The success of our broadcast had not set in at all and most people were just glad it was over.