Feb
21
In the past two months I’ve spent time at Media Wales working on one of their print titles, the South Wales Echo, as well as a trial day at the Manchester Evening News.
While I’ve been delving in local news throughout my time at University – in my involvement with the student newspaper and in my role as co-editor of Blog Preston – a few home truths hit home in the recent weeks.
Expect the unexpected
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to many, but a reporting job in journalism certainly won’t provide a repetitive daily routine.
During my short stay in the Welsh capital, I covered a range of topics, events and stories.
One day I found myself wandering around the Welsh Assembly with the First Minister Ieaun Jones, the next I was in Cardiff Dogs Home watching locals shamefully dumping new-born puppies.
No two days were the same, and it certainly kept me on my toes.
Enjoy the highs, prepare for the lows
With anything in life, success can be followed by failure, and my time at Media Wales wasn’t without fault.
I experienced some thoroughly enjoyable moments, like my first regional front page splash – a in-depth look at Cardiff council’s plans to build on greenfield sites across the city.
But I also had some lows; with a councillor complaining about an article of mine – I was accused of changing a quote, but fortunately I had the sufficient shorthand notes/audio recording to back up what I’d written.
The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes, take it on the chin, and move on.
Use the contact book
I’ve always taken the idea of a contact book for granted.
During my first year at University we were given the ‘assignment’ of filling a contact book with 50 useful contacts and, in truth, since then I’ve had turned my nose up at the idea of a hard-copy list of names and numbers.
While at the Manchester Evening News, it became apparent to me the ever-present need to have a list of names relating to a topic/place at your fingertips at any given time.
While working on a story about the police.uk crime maps, I needed to get in touch with residents from two separate areas – and with a deadline approaching I didn’t have the time to get down to the area to knock on doors.
Fortunately, an on-the-ball colleague had an address book rammed full of appropriate members of the community, and I ended up getting some decent reaction, which ended up as a page-lead in the following day’s paper.
Shorthand is vital
There has been much discussion and debate about the merits of shorthand in modern journalism.
Is it an outdated skill which can be readily replaced by a dictaphone or tape recorder? Is it really necessary when you can now tweet in court?
In my opinion, and from my experience, shorthand is a necessity as a journalist in local news, and a skill that will be used constantly on a day-to-day basis.
Be it quickly jotting down notes in a council briefing, or canvassing residents’ views when out door-knocking, there are times when shoving a dictaphone under someone’s nose just isn’t appropriate.
Shorthand is ideal for moments like those, and in local news, those situations aren’t rare.
I’ve been doing local news wrong
While I’m incredibly proud of how Blog Preston has grown since Joe and I took over almost a year ago; I can’t help but feel I could have done a better job.
Working for YourCardiff, as part of my time down at Media Wales, reinforced some of the key principles of local news.
It’s all about meeting councillors and local people face-to-face, cultivating your contacts so that you can call on them at any time, and knowing your patch inside out.
My resolution, as I return to Preston for the final part of my degree, is to get stuck in with Blog Preston and make sure it is a constant stream of relevant and interesting news – something I’ve failed, at least on a personal level, to do so far.
I’m hoping to change that – and make it something that I can look back on with pride when I step away from it.
All in all, working in locals news is an overwhelmingly positive experience.
It’s an age-old tradition that any budding journalist should cut his teeth in local news, and I stand by that advice wholeheartedly.
You may find yourself underpaid and overworked, but there’s no doubt you’ll become a much, much better journalist in the process.
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What are your experiences of local news? Do you find it as rewarding as I do, or perhaps the opposite? Let me know in the comments below.
