305MC – An Exhibit

 

By NotFromUtrecht (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

 

For the final part of my 305MC summer task, I visited New Walk Museum in Leicester and in particular, visited the Ancient Egypt exhibit to discover what stories from the past were being told. Overall, the exhibit is very engaging and, as I outline below, effectively conveys fact about a very important period in history.

A lot of the collection focuses on general stories about the Ancient Egyptians and their way of life. For instance, visitors have the chance to see what tools were used in Ancient Egypt and how they adapted to their living conditions. An important part of the exhibit is a mock-up of a typical Egyptian kitchen and the cutlery they had available to them. The exhibit itself is open planned, with informative descriptions about smaller collections from Ancient Egypt and allows the visitor to discover a wide range of information. The exhibit also has a collection of mummies and these are the main attraction of the exhibit in my opinion.

The stories that are being conveyed are relatively easy to read. As well as having text to inform the visitors about Egypt, the exhibit also makes use of the phrase ‘if you were an Egyptian’ to encourage visitors to imagine themselves in Ancient Egypt. This method also coincides with facts about the Egyptian people’s religion and way of life. The mummification process, which is a major part of Egyptian culture, is also described in this way as well as important facts about religion and the famous Egyptian gods. Visitors are also encouraged to interact with parts of the exhibit, including the kitchen mentioned earlier. There are question wheels which reveal basic facts about Ancient Egypt and there is also a chance for visitors to practise writing hieroglyphics. However, they are still expected to behave respectfully towards the exhibit, especially as some parts are considerably fragile.

One reason New Walk Museum chose to host this particular exhibit is because it has a connection to Ancient Egypt. In the 1880s, Sir William Flinders became the first person to scientifically excavate in Egypt. In order for Flinders to do this, he obtained funding from New Walk Museum and now has part of the exhibit dedicated to his methods and how he studied Ancient Egypt. Some of his tools are on show as well as some of his notes.

On the whole, New Walk Museum’s Ancient Egypt exhibition portrays the Ancient Egyptians as very resourceful and religious individuals. It also reminds the visitor of how much respect the Ancient Egyptians deserve and how they managed to survive without the modern conveniences we possess today. The experience was very enjoyable and informative and explains all the information in an engaging way, with particular emphasis on encouraging the visitor to put themselves in the mindset of an Ancient Egyptian.           

305MC Summer Task – Sentimental Object

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a hard bound copy of a novel I have written during my time at university, called ‘Heartbound’. Writing is a huge part of my life and this particular object holds many emotions for me.

‘Heartbound’ is important to me as it a novel that details my own experiences. It has taught me how to persevere even when things are incredibly difficult. When I look at this object, I always get a sense of achievement and pride as it took me around six months to complete. Those who have read ‘Heartbound’ have also given me very positive feedback and this has made me feel confident about my ability as a writer. ‘Heartbound’ also makes me feel very emotional as I relate to the main character and how he is feeling throughout the novel.

My object evokes many memories as I have used them throughout the story. It reminds me of a very difficult period in my life and how my friends and family supported me through it. It also brings back memories of spending time with my closest friends before I came to university. These memories are very important to me as they pick me up when I feel low and have helped me realise how precious friendship is.

If ‘Heartbound’ was lost, I would turn to the comments that other people have made about it as these would remind me of how hard I worked to get it to where it is today.

 

 

 

305MC Summer Task: Spectacles

“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.”

In this quote, Guy Debord could be suggesting that all spectacles have emptiness at their centre. I will explain this quote with references to the 2008 anime film ‘Origin: Spirits of the Past’, directed by Keiichi Sugiyama.

‘Origin: Spirits of the Past’ is set in a dystopian world in the future, after an environmental disaster almost destroyed civilisation. After a boy named Agito inadvertently finds a machine containing a girl called Toola, the secrets of the past start to come to light and threaten their future.

Debord could be suggesting that all spectacles, in the modern era, are primarily done for profit and their original meaning could be lost. ‘Origin: Spirits of the Past’ is a good example as its main objective is to entertain the audience, however there is still a hidden message within it. This message is a warning to humanity that if it keeps going the way it is, the world may suffer as a direct result. Debord could be arguing here that even conveying a warning about our way of life is seen as a production.

The use of the word “spectacle” suggests that Debord feels the representation of life in the media has just become a performance. Again, in ‘Origin: Spirits of the Past’, humans are represented as inferior to Nature. Sugiyama’s dramatic screen play also shows this as the forest in which this film is set is feared by the humans. As anime films are a major part of the culture in some countries, Debord’s argument could be valid for this particular example.

To an extent, I do understand what Debord means; he is clearly concerned that modern production has meant that life is becoming represented more and more in spectacles such as films, media reports and news stories. However, there is still some confusion as to what is “directly lived”.

The Learning Curve

I learnt a lot following my experience at iCov. The experience has opened my eyes to what I could potentially do in my future professional life and the difficulties I could encounter along this path.

Firstly, iCov has given me the chance to put my editing skills into practise. I experienced what it was like to be the editor of a news site and how to manage the level of articles that were being uploaded. As several articles were being uploaded daily, I had a lot to work through and this provided a challenge. However, I felt that I was able to manage these effectively and I also learnt how to be more critical of the work in front of me. Even though I had to be critical of the blog posts from the first year students, I always ensured that I pointed out what they did well as I did not want them to become demoralised. Editing the posts for iCov also assisted me with my own journalism work; for a separate module, I had to write my own blog posts and so, as a result of my experience with iCov, I have become more aware of incorporating by-lines and featured images, as well as using these skills for my own personal Tumblr blog.

In addition to this, I feel that I have now developed my own style for writing articles. I believe that writing in the style of a magazine article, which is more informal than a newspaper article but just as informative, suits me very well. The features that I wrote for iCov were, at times, very analytical but I felt that my style was suitable for this sort of article. iCov has also taught me how to approach the more challenging articles, such as the one I wrote on the Budget, which has ultimately grown my confidence.

I have recognised that in the early stages of my professional life, I will possibly be writing on a freelance basis, potentially for a weekly magazine or news site. iCov has given me a taste of what this could entail and as a result, has prepared me for the beginning of my career. The articles that I wrote for iCov will also enhance my CV, and this will hopefully allow me to find an organisation that will suit me.

Finally, I have learnt how to cope when I start struggling to find stories to cover. This happened when I was writing the features for iCov and was a demoralising period of my placement. Despite losing confidence, I consulted Coventry City Council’s website and found a press release that I could use for a feature and also spoke to my mentor, who gave me some ideas. I also did some research on Coventry and whether there were any events coming up as I could do a preview of the event and possibly interview the people involved. Even when I was struggling on my placement, I persevered and still produced good quality articles.

My placement at iCov has taught me many skills that will be beneficial to me in both my professional career and my personal skills. I also feel more prepared for when I start my career as a journalist and author.

 

Decisions, decisions

There were many different factors that persuaded me to choose iCov as my placement. On the whole, I feel that I made the right choice with iCov and this post explains the reasons why.

I first became aware of the possibility of working with iCov after receiving high praise for a separate module. My mentor asked whether I would consider being an editor for iCov and I decided that this would suit me very well. Following a discussion about the role, in which I learnt that I would be working closely with the first year students, I began working on the draft posts on iCov. At the time of my placement, I was editing a novel I had written so I was already used to checking for grammatical errors and altering sentence structure.

Another key factor in my decision to choose iCov as my placement was the opportunity to educate the first year students. During my time at university, I have always attempted to assist others where possible and I enjoyed giving the students advice. My role meant that I would have to alter and improve a number of articles that were uploaded to iCov, however I felt that explaining to the students the reasons why I made the changes would benefit them in the future and they appeared to appreciate my input.

As mentioned above, I was writing a novel at the time of my 201MC placement. I decided to find a placement that would still allow me to continue and possibly assist me with this, and iCov fell into this bracket quite well. I was able to work on my novel during my spare time, while still working on the blog posts from the first years and the features that I wrote in the second part of my placement. Writing will ultimately be a huge part of my future profession and I felt that writing for iCov would give me a chance to improve my ability further as a writer.

The final key factor in my decision was the fact that iCov was based at my university and in a patch I knew well. I had previously applied to other organisations in the Coventry area as I felt uncomfortable moving to a new patch. iCov proved to be the ideal placement as I already had contacts that I could use for the features and I could work with my lecturers to build my ability, which is a key part of 201MC.

I believe I made the right decision to work with iCov. My time on placement has taught me a variety of skills as well as developing my existing abilities. Working with the first year students allowed me to refresh my editing skills as well as refreshing my knowledge of journalism law. The praise I received during my placement has given me more confidence and the belief that I can achieve the goals I want to.

What Does the Future Hold?

201MC was a module that was designed to make me consider my future professional life. I chose a placement that would suit me both personally and academically and I felt that I enjoyed this module as well.

My ultimate goal is to become a professional author; I have always had a passion for writing and, as I explained in my video presentation for 201MC, I feel that this is the area that I excel in the most. I have already realised and accepted that my career path will be long and difficult in the early years so I need to prepare for this. The placement at iCov allowed me to improve my writing ability still further and also assist the first year students who were looking to develop on their course in the same way I have.

iCov has also allowed me to see how far I have come during my time at university. I discovered that, in educating the first years with their work, I was able to see that I have developed quite rapidly in terms of my ability. For instance, I now feel that I am at a standard where I can help others improve and develop as journalists and this is one of the main parts I enjoyed about 201MC. Having the first years come to me requesting my help and advice made me a lot more confident in my skill as a journalist and also made me feel a sense of pride.

The feature writing that I undertook also made me realise that I have a talent for writing. I believe a career in online journalism would suit me very well, as I feel I could post articles regularly and bring a dynamic writing style to an organisation. A career in this industry would also still allow me to concentrate on my author career too, as I can build up my writing whilst reporting.

In conclusion, 201MC has given me a much clearer insight into the career I could potentially have in journalism. This career ultimately will assist me in my ambition to be an author but will also allow me to put the skills I have learnt during my journalism assignments into practise in a professional organisation.

The Thought Process

Writing features for iCov provided unique challenges. One of these was planning which features to write and whether or not they have a news angle to them. This was a key part of my placement, as I still needed to produce stories that were newsworthy.

The articles that I wrote all had a news angle to them. For instance, I covered a story about the 2014 Budget statement as this would be a challenging story to write for me personally but it also was a major national story. I decided to cover this story because I have never written a story of such an important issue and I also felt that I could write an analysis of the Budget in an effective way. As a large proportion of the audience that iCov targets might not have known about what the Budget means, I decided to include a short video of Chancellor George Osborne delivering the statement, which would clearly explain the key points of the Budget alongside my bullet points.

Many of the other stories were more like magazine articles than news articles, however I found that this suited my style of writing. The article ‘Within Temptation – Hydra on Tour’ was an article that I really enjoyed writing as it focused on a band I greatly admire. This meant that I already had good background knowledge of the band and so could provide details of their music. The angle that I chose for this particular article was the fact that Within Temptation had a new album out, called Hydra, and they would be performing in Birmingham to promote it. As I already owned a copy of Hydra I decided to write a review and highlight the upcoming performance. I also attempted to contact the band’s management for an interview, however I was unsuccessful in this.

Being a feature writer also gave me the freedom to cover stories that were important to me personally. This was true with the article entitled ‘Is Technology Killing the Book?’ which explained how tablet devices such as the Kindle Fire were impacting on the writing industry. As I am targeting being an author in my future career, I had a personal connection with this story and I also used my contacts (for example authors and readers) to get a balanced article.

I carefully thought about how I would write the features that I did. I considered the images that I would use, who I would interview and the information I would convey. The feedback that I received from my mentor during this phase of my placement with iCov suggests that I was largely successful at writing these features to a good, professional standard.

Part Two

My 201MC placement with iCov was a twofold placement. Once the first year students had completed their news days and had written enough articles, I was set a new task. For this, I had to write news features on events in Coventry or major national issues. I also had to work to a deadline of one article every other day.

Even though I had a deadline of one article every two days, I largely worked ahead of this deadline and produced in-depth features on a daily basis. These features covered a wide range of topics; from a local Coventry musician launching her new album to a review on the latest ‘Hunger Games’ film. I also decided to cover more topical issues, one of which was the 2014 Budget announcement made by George Osborne MP. This particular feature was very challenging as I had very little knowledge about what the Budget would mean for Britain, however I researched the topic thoroughly and produced an informative article on the main points of the Budget. To show how the Budget worked, I found a YouTube video of Mr Osborne making the announcement as this would clearly explain the Budget statement to any audience members who may be unclear about it.

Another feature that I covered centred on the use of technology in the reading industry. I asked the question ‘is technology killing the book?’ and asked my friends on Facebook what they thought. I received a variety of answers, but to further balance out the issue, I sent some questions to an author who has had work published in both paper and electronic format. His answers provided me with a balanced view of his industry and how technology (for instance, Kindles and iPads) had affected it. Due to my ambition to become an author, I felt that this would be a topic that I could provide a lot of information about.

Writing features for iCov has developed my ability as a writer and has also given me a lot more belief in my ability as I now feel confident enough to write any story regardless of its context.

Editing Issues

By Roger469 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

During my placement, I encountered a number of issues that I needed to address. This blog post explains what these issues were and how I overcame them.

Firstly, at the beginning of my placement, I felt very out of my comfort zone. The main reason for this was because I was in a more senior role than I have been used to whilst at university and due to me still being a student, it was unusual to go into an editor role. Having said that, the students appeared to respond well to me and appeared to appreciate why I was there.

As the students were preparing for a news day, I had to ensure that their work was suitable for broadcast. This meant ensuring that the written articles were written in a way that did not breach the various libel and defamation laws as well as making sure they looked visually appealing on the blog itself, i.e. having the featured images and other pictures accredited and putting in by-lines. The issues with featured images and by-lines were the two most common issues that I had; some articles did not have the proper accreditation and many did not have a by-line. As this appeared to be a recurring issue, I spoke to all of the students as a group to highlight why these were important for online news texts. Again, the students appeared to appreciate my comments and this issue was largely reduced.

Being an editor also meant that I had to improve pieces. I did this in two ways; firstly, I read through the articles that were saved in draft form and made any necessary changes. These changes were mostly restructuring sentences and correcting grammar, although I did have to put in the by-lines and featured images myself. The second way that I improved the texts was a more effective method; I sat down with the individual students and discussed the improvements I made and why I made them. I was always keen to point out what the students did well first of all but then explained what they needed to do for next time. As I had been in their situation with the news day preparation last year, I could sympathise with the students and offer them guidance where needed.

I also needed to talk to some of the students about the software that they needed to use to create their packages. As they were preparing for a television news day, the students needed to use PremierPro and Adobe Audition, both of which I have used often during my time at university. Again, as some of the students were not comfortable using the software, I sat down with some of them and gave them a brief explanation about what the software does. I also created some help sheets that both the students and the lecturers could use for future years, as well as forming a style guide that the first years could work from.

By and large, I felt that I dealt with the issues that arose during my placement very capably. Even my mentor stated that the students looked up to me as a role model and greatly appreciated the knowledge that I could bring to them.

My 201MC Placement

By Daniel R. Blume from Orange County, California, USA (A stack of newspapers) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

For my 201MC placement at iCov, I worked with the first-year journalism students at Coventry University. The students were preparing for an upcoming news day and were producing content for the news blog. As part of my role, I had to read through the articles that were being produced and edit them accordingly. The placement ran from 31 January until 4 April, which easily met my minimum twenty day consecutive journalism that I needed for this module.

To begin with I felt very nervous as I had never been in an editor role prior to my 201MC placement. After discussing my role with my tutor, Shelly Stevenson, I began working through some of the draft articles that were already posted on iCov. This involved checking the articles for grammatical errors and ensuring that the images that were used in the posts were credited appropriately.

Alongside my editing role, I also spoke with the students about how they could improve their work. I sat down with some students and amended their work with them and explained what the issues were. For example, the inclusion of a by-line was a common issue and I often had to speak to the students about putting featured images on their work. Having experienced this in my own university career, I felt that I could discuss the issues with the students on a level that they could understand.

As I was working for an online site, the content was posted in a variety of formats; video, audio and written pieces. This meant that I had to edit the pieces according to the format they were in. There were some issues that I had to resolve with these pieces, such as the framing of certain shots and the quality of the audio, but I felt that I dealt with these issues appropriately.

On the whole I enjoyed working with iCov as the placement suited me. It was based at university, around a patch I knew very well and it gave me the opportunity to utilise the skills that I learnt in lectures to benefit the first year students who are starting out as journalists.