Critical Review.

I think all of the adjustments to the WINOL site have made it look more professional and resulted in us gaining a regular audience. WINOL is now regarded as a worthy news source for the local community with an Alexa Ranking of 9,258 in the UK (13.03.13) and a greater audience figure than ‘The Hampshire Chronicle 39,654 UK (20.03.13).  We are also catching up with the ‘Daily Echo’ who’s Alexa Ranking was 1,653 UK (20.03.13) and cover news on a greater scale than us.

Our rival student bulletin ‘East London Lines’ have been left behind with an Alexa Ranking of 783,444 globally (27.03.13) WINOL is ranked around 373,953(27.03.13) globally making us a very successful student news site. Our packages have all improved largely with camera angles and opening sound being worked on to make them appear even more professional. The politics team created a brilliant package when they interviewed Boris Johnson which was full of strong quotations. Many other large broadcasters didn’t even achieve this during the Eastleigh election period making the package an overall triumph.

We received a tip off by a source in the industry (which emphasises our growing reputation) who informed us of David Cameron’s trip to Eastleigh. Our own politics reporters ended up in the press pen amongst the likes of the BBC and Sky News. We even managed to get the Poole footage from Sky who spent many hours transferring it to us. One thing I think we could have done at the event was to get a female reporter (minority) to shout a question at David Cameron which would have strengthened the package further if we gained a response.

I think the best thing to come from WINOL this year was ‘The South Decides’ Eastleigh By-Election live show that was produced.  It was planned well with pre- recorded packages that helped us fill the time before the results were announced. However, there were problems with this show and many things that WINOL can improve on for the future. The gathering of the OB’s from locations across the South were outstanding, but when people were trying to get their footage to the studio, it appeared to be a struggle. On location there were no plug sockets which meant that we were relying on batteries to run the equipment. The wireless at the location was also very low and technology crashed. WINOL learnt; that in the future we need to get to the location early and test out all of the equipment.

Despite this, the live show was a great success with it receiving over 500 views some of which lasted over twenty minutes long. Our Alexa Ranking also rose by 60% in viewing figures that month as we started to build our own audience.

Sports Week produced some good local sports coverage and discussions in the studio this year. However the viewing figures of Sports Week haven’t reached the usual 1000 viewings that they used to. I think the stories could be made more dramatic and interesting to the audience, so that it makes people feel that they need to watch them. The stories that feature on Sports Week also need to be promoted more via the Twitter Account to make people aware of what is coming up weekly.

I think that Sports Week may also benefit from being on the site more obviously as I think that some people may not be aware that it is there. It also needs to fight for the space on the barkers to gain additional viewers from the home page.

WINOL as a whole would benefit from additional marketing such as on billboards around the university to encourage students on campus to get involved with us. You Tube is a new way we consume media and it would be good to have all of our work on there so the audience can choose what they want to watch according to their interests.

I think everyone needs to use the Facebook and designated Twitter accounts to promote their work. This could mean writing regular updates when we are going to film a package/interview as well as posting links once the work is up on the site. This will gain us extra views from people that may be interested in certain topics.

WINOL, have built up our own viewers and are viewed as a reliable news source in Winchester; however we aren’t as consistent as other news sources. During the long holidays that we have the site is not kept updated. I think we need to decide weather we can keep regular written stories up on the site, or if we can shut the site should be shut down during these periods. This would prevent the site looking like it has been abandoned and out of date.

Overall I think this year WINOL as a whole has been set to a very high and professional standard. We have managed to gain a reliable audience who come for the news but stay for the features and created an online news source for the local community. We have also overtaken our student rivals who back in September 2012 were strong competitors, making us the best student online journalism around.

My Features

This year the WINOL Feature team decided to make a positive change to the Feature site and the way that it is presented. We produced a separate website for each feature categories such as ‘fashion’ ‘arts’ and ‘music’. In the conference meetings held on a Monday we discussed with each team what would be coming up on the sites. This was successful and well planned as it made sure all of the sites were regularly updated with fresh, relevant material. This meant that the public now have a particular place on the site where they can follow interests at their own leisure.

Having our own Twitter accounts to promote our features worked well specifically with our fashion team for Absolute;ly magazine (a female fashion and beauty magazine) as we launched regular competitions that enticed people to enter and resulted in us building our own audience.

 My role for the Absolute;ly team was ‘Fashion Director’ which put me in charge of organising the main fashion photo-shoots for the site. This semester I chose the theme of ‘prom fashion’ as it is relevant to the upcoming prom season in June-July.

I began to plan this specific shoot around three months before its date in May to make sure everything would be sorted out in advance. However this decision didn’t work out too well as it left too much time for things to keep changing. This made it very difficult for me to have a definite plan until a couple of weeks before the shoot.

The fact that this shoot wasn’t until May also made it harder for me to find models that were able to commit in advance. The models that I had carefully selected ended up not being able to do the shoot due to exams and work. This meant that I had to keep trying to find people who would be available and couldn’t be as specific as I wanted to be when selecting the models. I also learnt that the month when the shoot takes place is also important if I want models to be committed

The actual prom dresses were very hard to get hold of as shops were reluctant to lend them to me in case they were damaged. A dress shop in Chichester called ‘Mouse Trap’ was the shop I originally chose but they wanted all models to go to the shop to have the dresses fitted properly. This didn’t happen because of the distance and the constant changing of the models right up until the day before the shoot.

 Fortunately, ‘Tiffany's’ dress shop were interested in providing the dresses from the beginning. I was pleased with this brand as they are one of the most popular prom dress shops around. I contacted the bigger shop in Southampton as they stock a wide range of colours and styles for the upcoming season. The jewellery and accessories appeared very hard to get hold of because of their price and delicacy. But on the day with a little pleading; Tiffany'ss reluctantly lent me a few hair pieces which completed the look.

I was especially pleased with the change of location as I was able to try out a different studio and have a professional photographer take the images. The shoot would have usually cost at least £160, so I was privileged to have received the services for free. I learnt from this shoot that I can’t rely solely on specific people and that I need back ups for models, hair and makeup to avoid the stress of trying to replace people last minute.

Overall, it’s clear that I performed my role well when directing this shoot. I was more confident in directing the photographers to achieve the images I had planned. I also learnt to cope well with the stress of cancellations such as the models and hair stylist and managed to find alternative arrangements right up to the day of the shoot. I think this shoot could have easily been cancelled or not been as professional if it wasn’t for my organisation and willingness to succeed.

The write up along with the pictures can be found here: http://www.winol.co.uk/absolute:ly/2013/05/prom-night-2013-photos-and-analysis/

‘Festival Fever’ Feature

When the festival headlines were revealed and the tickets went on sale; I decided to produce a festival ‘must have’ feature that was current and appealed to the majority of the Absolute;ly audience.

I enjoyed doing this feature as I visited the high street, finding the best festival outfits at the cheapest prices. I managed to avoid copyright by getting my own images. I recommended specific types of clothing to wear along with different colours and prints that would create the best look for festival goers. I researched the type of things celebrities wore to festivals and had a look at the cat-walk to get ideas of the outfits and prints this season has to offer. I also learnt how to produce a different type of fashion feature on Fireworks by creating a collage of images that draw the reader in.

 I found this feature fun to do but also successful as it gained a lot of hits on the site due to it being current and interesting to many women. It also made the barkers on the WINOL home page which I was pleased with this as barkers are the prime place for gaining additional viewings from the home page.

Portsmouth Sportsman/Women of the Year Awards

To keep up with my previous sport theme I decided to do another sport-orientated feature that linked with the news story. Portsmouth held their 11^th Sportsman/women of the year awards in February and I managed to contact the winners for an interview.

 If I wanted to improve this piece of work, I would have produced a video interview with the athletes too. However due to tight training schedules I was unable to do this as they both went straight back to Bath University after the awards. I was fortunate to get an in depth written piece that contained strong quotations and information similar to the newspaper write up it gained. The images were not my own but were given to me by the athletes (cleared from copyright) and made the piece visually stronger.

If I wanted to improve this piece, I would have attended the event and got my own images. I would have also spoken to the athletes and Olympic guests that were there. This means that in the future I need to forward plan and look for events that are happening in Hampshire to make sure I can produce the best quality work.

This piece of work also reached the barkers for over a week on the WINOL home page and gained over 120 views, which I was really pleased about. The fact that the piece was local and the winners were both from Southampton made it relevant and a strong piece to have up on the site that the Daily Echo and Hampshire Chronicle didn’t cover.

Overall, I think that features as a whole made the most improvement this year. This is due to the fact that back in September the feature site was barely known and had a basic and very different approach to the way it is now. We now have different sites for certain interests and specific feature teams who keep the sites regularly updated with brilliant content.  The features look really professional and inviting and are one of the main reasons why the WINOL Alexa Ranking has risen over the last few months. I think to improve further, feature teams need to make sure that each member communicates outside of the conferences so that everyone is aware of what is coming up on the site in advance.

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