The phoenix (Sport)
The Phoenix newspaper provided me with an opportunity to get a feel of being a professional journalist, while still studying at university. I was part of a small group which helped to set up the newspaper back in the summer of 2012, where, as Sports Editor, I was tasked with assigning certain roles to fellow students, and ensuing that every issue had seven pages of sport with content that I would be happy to send to thousands of readers each and every month.
In total we produced five issues of The Phoenix, with each allowing me to hone in on certain journalistic skills, to ultimately allow me to improve my own skills as a journalist. The final issue of the newspaper, much in the same way as the previous four before it, allowed me to interview a range of different people from different backgrounds - enhancing my knowledge of certain sports along the way.
I have always been interested in the sports side of journalism, and The Phoenix has allowed me to not only take up an Editorial role to help run a newspaper – albeit monthly, rather than daily – but also work as a reporter collecting various stories. I have taken every last ounce of experience possible out of the project to help extend my journalistic skills – such as my writing ability, my interviewing skills and also my ability to work as a leader with a group of reporters working under me.
Whereas before I was perhaps a little weak when it came to writing about sports other than football, or perhaps a little nervous of setting up interviews and meeting different people, I now thrive on the different challenges of writing articles on sports such as netball, volleyball and water polo, and I am confident of interviewing people face-to-face. I have shown that I can adapt my writing style – whether it is an interview piece, a column, a long feature, or perhaps a match report - with this newspaper allowing me to switch in and out of these different forms of newspaper articles, to showcase my ability.
Examples of my work can be seen below where I have gone into some more detail on each particular article that I have produced, I will however now go into some further detail with regards to my Editorial duties, which has pushed me to the maximum of my ability, though was something that I truly enjoyed.
As Editor I would begin each month by producing a flatplan which would inevitably change many times before I reached a stage where I was happy to send out reporters to interview various sports stars and cover different matches. Once these articles had been sent to me, I would give them a good proofread – a task which I would replicate a couple of times to ensure that every article and report in the sports section was error free. After proofreading the articles I would then hand it over to the design team who, across every newspaper, done a fantastic job of making this publication look as professional as possible. With regards to this flatplan, I have learned through various newsdays across my three years studying journalism the importance of planning ahead. I would therefore have two flatplans on the go at any one time – one for the issue I was currently working on, and one for the following month’s newspaper.
Over my eight months working on The Phoenix, I have picked up a lot with regards to what it is like to work in the professional industry, such as: The importance of deadlines, setting up interviews, the importance of communication and of course, dedication. The fact that I was balancing work on The Phoenix with my own personal studies meant that I would have to go the extra mile so to speak in terms of producing a high-quality newspaper, without affecting my own personal grades – though each and every month deadlines were met without fail. Of course, like with all newspapers, I was grateful to have such a strong team of reporters who were happy to cover matches (sometimes on short notice due to postponements) and compile various articles which were always within the deadlines that I had set. This in turn has allowed me to showcase an important skill in the world of journalism - working alongside others. My small team of reporters were happy to work with me week-in week-out to compile match reports for the university website to go alongside The Phoenix work, so it was important that I kept them all motivated and made them feel part of a team.
It was also my role as Editor to help arrange interviews with different students and lecturers. A big lesson I have taken away from this experience is the fact that communication is vital in this industry – thankfully I maintained a strong relationship with the university’s PA manager, Tom Griffin, as well as Head of Sport, Tudor Williams – the latter of which I have stayed in regular touch with to ensure all angles were covered when it came to the university’s sports coverage. Though I would also have to contact photographers and web publishers to ensure the process was constantly running. Hearing the regular positive feedback from the likes of students, staff members and also fellow journalists, made all these tasks worthwhile.
I hope that the dedication that I have shown is truly reflected in each and every issue of The Phoenix. I would be lying if I said it was all smooth-running, but what I have taken away from the project is priceless – it has certainly given me an experience of what it is like to work within the professional industry of journalism, and is something I am grateful of having played a part in running.
In total we produced five issues of The Phoenix, with each allowing me to hone in on certain journalistic skills, to ultimately allow me to improve my own skills as a journalist. The final issue of the newspaper, much in the same way as the previous four before it, allowed me to interview a range of different people from different backgrounds - enhancing my knowledge of certain sports along the way.
I have always been interested in the sports side of journalism, and The Phoenix has allowed me to not only take up an Editorial role to help run a newspaper – albeit monthly, rather than daily – but also work as a reporter collecting various stories. I have taken every last ounce of experience possible out of the project to help extend my journalistic skills – such as my writing ability, my interviewing skills and also my ability to work as a leader with a group of reporters working under me.
Whereas before I was perhaps a little weak when it came to writing about sports other than football, or perhaps a little nervous of setting up interviews and meeting different people, I now thrive on the different challenges of writing articles on sports such as netball, volleyball and water polo, and I am confident of interviewing people face-to-face. I have shown that I can adapt my writing style – whether it is an interview piece, a column, a long feature, or perhaps a match report - with this newspaper allowing me to switch in and out of these different forms of newspaper articles, to showcase my ability.
Examples of my work can be seen below where I have gone into some more detail on each particular article that I have produced, I will however now go into some further detail with regards to my Editorial duties, which has pushed me to the maximum of my ability, though was something that I truly enjoyed.
As Editor I would begin each month by producing a flatplan which would inevitably change many times before I reached a stage where I was happy to send out reporters to interview various sports stars and cover different matches. Once these articles had been sent to me, I would give them a good proofread – a task which I would replicate a couple of times to ensure that every article and report in the sports section was error free. After proofreading the articles I would then hand it over to the design team who, across every newspaper, done a fantastic job of making this publication look as professional as possible. With regards to this flatplan, I have learned through various newsdays across my three years studying journalism the importance of planning ahead. I would therefore have two flatplans on the go at any one time – one for the issue I was currently working on, and one for the following month’s newspaper.
Over my eight months working on The Phoenix, I have picked up a lot with regards to what it is like to work in the professional industry, such as: The importance of deadlines, setting up interviews, the importance of communication and of course, dedication. The fact that I was balancing work on The Phoenix with my own personal studies meant that I would have to go the extra mile so to speak in terms of producing a high-quality newspaper, without affecting my own personal grades – though each and every month deadlines were met without fail. Of course, like with all newspapers, I was grateful to have such a strong team of reporters who were happy to cover matches (sometimes on short notice due to postponements) and compile various articles which were always within the deadlines that I had set. This in turn has allowed me to showcase an important skill in the world of journalism - working alongside others. My small team of reporters were happy to work with me week-in week-out to compile match reports for the university website to go alongside The Phoenix work, so it was important that I kept them all motivated and made them feel part of a team.
It was also my role as Editor to help arrange interviews with different students and lecturers. A big lesson I have taken away from this experience is the fact that communication is vital in this industry – thankfully I maintained a strong relationship with the university’s PA manager, Tom Griffin, as well as Head of Sport, Tudor Williams – the latter of which I have stayed in regular touch with to ensure all angles were covered when it came to the university’s sports coverage. Though I would also have to contact photographers and web publishers to ensure the process was constantly running. Hearing the regular positive feedback from the likes of students, staff members and also fellow journalists, made all these tasks worthwhile.
I hope that the dedication that I have shown is truly reflected in each and every issue of The Phoenix. I would be lying if I said it was all smooth-running, but what I have taken away from the project is priceless – it has certainly given me an experience of what it is like to work within the professional industry of journalism, and is something I am grateful of having played a part in running.
November
The first issue of The Phoenix was launched in November 2012, giving me a month to hold meetings with the university's Head of Sport and other key figures in the running of the sport department. This issue - and the newspaper in general - offered me the chance to interview some sports stars who have a big future in a range of sporting events - one of these students being Carys Jones who I managed to arrange an interview with for the inaugural issue. I was always looking ahead with regards to the fixtures to see if we could set-up certain interviews to go alongside match reports - this month’s issue helps highlight that with the Carys Jones article alongside a women's rugby match report.
For the first Phoenix I decided to include my own personal column on an issue which was in the news at the time - racism in football. I was happy with my column, though I took the decision to cut this segment out of future issues as I felt that with just seven pages of sport, I couldn't afford to have one taken up by a column. The November issue also allowed me to conduct an interview with a student who was at the time looking to set up a Gaelic football team - I came across this story by sourcing social network sites to find potential stories, and as this article shows, it pays to go the extra distance in order to find a story.
With this being the first edition of The Phoenix, there was always going to be certain issues, and this was the case when it came to the deadline for the November newspaper. It was always my aim to make sure that the match reports included in the newspaper were from the first available opportunity, i.e from the Wednesday before publication. However, the first deadline happened to fall on a Thursday morning, so I had to work around the clock on the Wednesday to attend the football match I was covering, write the match report under similar deadlines that those in the professional industry would face, before proof-reading the days other match reports and filing them for copy. I was also tasked with producing the back page splash for the first month's edition which was a great experience.
For the first Phoenix I decided to include my own personal column on an issue which was in the news at the time - racism in football. I was happy with my column, though I took the decision to cut this segment out of future issues as I felt that with just seven pages of sport, I couldn't afford to have one taken up by a column. The November issue also allowed me to conduct an interview with a student who was at the time looking to set up a Gaelic football team - I came across this story by sourcing social network sites to find potential stories, and as this article shows, it pays to go the extra distance in order to find a story.
With this being the first edition of The Phoenix, there was always going to be certain issues, and this was the case when it came to the deadline for the November newspaper. It was always my aim to make sure that the match reports included in the newspaper were from the first available opportunity, i.e from the Wednesday before publication. However, the first deadline happened to fall on a Thursday morning, so I had to work around the clock on the Wednesday to attend the football match I was covering, write the match report under similar deadlines that those in the professional industry would face, before proof-reading the days other match reports and filing them for copy. I was also tasked with producing the back page splash for the first month's edition which was a great experience.
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December
After each issue of The Phoenix had been distributed, I would sit down with a couple of members of my team and look at ways we could improve the newspaper - something which we replicated throughout the course of the project. It was decided that for the December issue we would like to find a better balance between news and match reports. Though the match reports would be a main part of each issue (sports players love reading about themselves, after all!), we decided to cover a big event which was approaching - the university merger.
I set-up an interview with Tudor Williams, Glamorgan's Head of Sport – someone who I had a strong relationship with right from the start of this project. We sat down and discussed the merger in full so I could write an article (with the aid of another of my reporters, Tom Parry) which would inform readers on all that they needed to know regarding the merger from a sporting perspective. This article certainly took me out of my comfort zone because I knew I was writing about an important issue and couldn't afford to make any mistakes (not that it’s okay to make mistakes in any other articles, of course). Thankfully the article went down a hit and I was praised by various staff members for the quality of the article.
I also had the chance to meet the New Zealand rugby team who visited the university in late November - a definite perk of working in the industry of journalism. As part of this New Zealand article I was asked to be at the Sport Park at 9am the following morning - short notice, but as previously mentioned, something which I know will be asked of me in the industry should I be lucky (or unlucky) enough to make it into the world of journalism. I also recorded my interview with manager Darren Shand for the university's web team which can be seen here. Finally, I also attended another Glamorgan match, though I made sure that each month I watched a different football side to help ensure I conducted plenty of research into the different sides for my articles.
I set-up an interview with Tudor Williams, Glamorgan's Head of Sport – someone who I had a strong relationship with right from the start of this project. We sat down and discussed the merger in full so I could write an article (with the aid of another of my reporters, Tom Parry) which would inform readers on all that they needed to know regarding the merger from a sporting perspective. This article certainly took me out of my comfort zone because I knew I was writing about an important issue and couldn't afford to make any mistakes (not that it’s okay to make mistakes in any other articles, of course). Thankfully the article went down a hit and I was praised by various staff members for the quality of the article.
I also had the chance to meet the New Zealand rugby team who visited the university in late November - a definite perk of working in the industry of journalism. As part of this New Zealand article I was asked to be at the Sport Park at 9am the following morning - short notice, but as previously mentioned, something which I know will be asked of me in the industry should I be lucky (or unlucky) enough to make it into the world of journalism. I also recorded my interview with manager Darren Shand for the university's web team which can be seen here. Finally, I also attended another Glamorgan match, though I made sure that each month I watched a different football side to help ensure I conducted plenty of research into the different sides for my articles.
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February
After a one month break over the Christmas holidays, it was back to business as my team helped me put together what I personally rate as my favourite issue of the newspaper, simply because so many reporters pulled together to ensure a mix of different articles. It was important to me right from the start that this newspaper wasn't just about football and rugby - the two most popular sports in the university in terms of numbers - but I would also cover the likes of volleyball, water polo and netball for example, as can be seen in this particular issue.
I interviewed Sports Scholar Cathy Bastian who has a strong looking future ahead of her. This feature pushed me to the maximum of my ability as I had to conduct research into the sport and make sure I asked her a range of different question to help me with my knowledge of the sport - it's no good having a great interview, but not having the ability to turn this into a great feature to go with it.
When we were compiling this issue of the newspaper in the month of January, we hit a problem which I had not experienced until this point working on the newspaper - the Great British weather. More precisely, the havoc the weather caused in terms of event cancellations My flatplan was essentially void with the deadline date drawing nearer and nearer. With the snow showing no signs of stopping, I managed to secure a couple of interviews which would help take up space from the missing match reports. Though stressful at the time, this taught me a valuable lesson – always have a back-up just in case!
I interviewed Sports Scholar Cathy Bastian who has a strong looking future ahead of her. This feature pushed me to the maximum of my ability as I had to conduct research into the sport and make sure I asked her a range of different question to help me with my knowledge of the sport - it's no good having a great interview, but not having the ability to turn this into a great feature to go with it.
When we were compiling this issue of the newspaper in the month of January, we hit a problem which I had not experienced until this point working on the newspaper - the Great British weather. More precisely, the havoc the weather caused in terms of event cancellations My flatplan was essentially void with the deadline date drawing nearer and nearer. With the snow showing no signs of stopping, I managed to secure a couple of interviews which would help take up space from the missing match reports. Though stressful at the time, this taught me a valuable lesson – always have a back-up just in case!
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March
The March issue of The Phoenix involved me interviewing Glamorgan men's football 1st team Coach Steve Savage, who was another member of staff whom I formed a strong relationship with over the course of this project. I produced the back page splash, the opening DPS, a half page match report and a full page match report for this edition – it was most certainly a busy month!
The men's football feature was possibly my favourite piece for The Phoenix, simply because it allowed me to truly showcase some of the writing ability I had picked up across the three previous issues, as well as during my work experience across the last two years. The feature (along with the back page splash) went down a hit with 'Sav' and the football team who were grateful of the coverage throughout - something which the university has perhaps lacked over the previous years.
The full page match report involved me travelling to Jenner Park in Barry in Baltic temperatures, which offered for a memorable experience. There are certain valuable tips you pick up over the duration of your course, such as taking spare pens for example, but after the cold weather meant both of my pens no longer worked, I resorted to a modern method of journalism - typing the match report straight into my phone (at an incredibly slow speed thanks to the cold air's ability to take over my body). The match report made it into the following day's newspaper to round-off another strong month.
The men's football feature was possibly my favourite piece for The Phoenix, simply because it allowed me to truly showcase some of the writing ability I had picked up across the three previous issues, as well as during my work experience across the last two years. The feature (along with the back page splash) went down a hit with 'Sav' and the football team who were grateful of the coverage throughout - something which the university has perhaps lacked over the previous years.
The full page match report involved me travelling to Jenner Park in Barry in Baltic temperatures, which offered for a memorable experience. There are certain valuable tips you pick up over the duration of your course, such as taking spare pens for example, but after the cold weather meant both of my pens no longer worked, I resorted to a modern method of journalism - typing the match report straight into my phone (at an incredibly slow speed thanks to the cold air's ability to take over my body). The match report made it into the following day's newspaper to round-off another strong month.
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May
Despite all the deadlines catching up with me at what was an understandably busy time of the year, I went all-out for the final Phoenix to ensure the newspaper's sports section went out with a bang. I conducted interviews with members of the Glamorgan water polo team and football teams, as well as two future hockey and badminton stars.
As mentioned above, The Phoenix allowed me to really push myself to the maximum of my ability, and in the process build up my knowledge of a wide range of sport. By compiling features on volleyball, water polo, badminton, hockey and football in this issue alone, I have certainly extended my knowledge on a wide range of sports thanks this this project.
Conducting the interviews and putting the articles together was challenging simply because of the time of year, but I had great fun talking to some future sports stars, who were all grateful of the coverage. Across the five issues of The Phoenix, the feedback has been fantastic, and it really has made going out of my way worthwhile. I am grateful of the opportunity, and would like to thank each and every person who has helped compile the newspaper, and to those who picked up a copy. This was my first real taste of the journalism industry in terms of a mass audience - I hope I can now build on this with my future work.
As mentioned above, The Phoenix allowed me to really push myself to the maximum of my ability, and in the process build up my knowledge of a wide range of sport. By compiling features on volleyball, water polo, badminton, hockey and football in this issue alone, I have certainly extended my knowledge on a wide range of sports thanks this this project.
Conducting the interviews and putting the articles together was challenging simply because of the time of year, but I had great fun talking to some future sports stars, who were all grateful of the coverage. Across the five issues of The Phoenix, the feedback has been fantastic, and it really has made going out of my way worthwhile. I am grateful of the opportunity, and would like to thank each and every person who has helped compile the newspaper, and to those who picked up a copy. This was my first real taste of the journalism industry in terms of a mass audience - I hope I can now build on this with my future work.
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