Exams, dissertation and jobs update

I have again neglected this poor blog as my course at Sheffield drew to a close: June passed in a flurry of deadlines for coursework, portfolios and exams.

There is one last deadline to meet: my dissertation is due at the end of August. I'm producing an 8,000 word feature on youth politics and government, so if anyone has useful contacts please let me know!

My apparently never-ending stream of job applications paid off and I've just started training as a production journalist. I'm very aware of just how lucky I am to have a job at the moment, so I won't bang on about it, but because I have had to move house I now have no internet access.

So the blog probably won't be updated very often until I get fully connected once more.

Just, you know, if anyone was wondering. :D

Vanity publishing

A council story I covered for my course is the front page splash at the Gainsborough Standard!

Oh, the giddy heights! I am particularly chuffed because this is the first West Lindsey District Council story I've written: my previous council stories were generated by Gainsborough Town Council.

For non-Gainsborough residents, basically the district council wants to knock down the Guildhall, a prominent town building.

Pictured is Cllr Chris Underwood-Frost signalling his vehement intention to demolish the Guildhall.

Old-fashioned American reporting: cigarettes and beer chasers

Wasting time reading film reviews (I want to take my brother to see Coraline in 3D, but only if its good) I stumbled across film critic Roger Ebert's blog via his quantum physics analysis of Watchmen.

I was particularly taken with a reminiscing entry about his early years as a reporter on the Chicago Sun-Times.

Ebert says journalism is 'the best job in the world', but what he describes is a world apart from modern newsrooms - almost mythical in its antiquity. Having seen so much change and remained on top of his game - I wonder how he feels about the current crisis American newspapers are struggling to deal with.

'Fat' Beyonce: puppy fat or sheer stupidity?

I don't usually care about celebrity news/gossip, but some things irritate me enough to make me comment.

Apparently, Beyonce Knowles used to be so fat it took four people to get her jeans closed.

Now I don't know about anyone else, but to me that screams BUY BIGGER JEANS.

Lets face it, Bee probably isn't talking about having her familly force her into size 22 trousers, is she? Most girls get puppy fat, especially around 10-11, so my immediate mental image is a normal kid trying to squeeze into size six jeans.

It's all overblown nonsense, I'm sure.

The Importance of Shorthand

I took my second shorthand exam today: and failed to pass the 100wpm test for the second time.

It's incredibly frustrating, because outside exam conditions I can write at 100wpm. More importantly, I can transcribe at 100wpm too. I've done it over and over.

But in the exam, both this time and last, I just couldn't perform under pressure.

I had adrenalin rushing through my bloodstream, my hands shook, and although I knew I could write faster, was willing my pen to move across the page and keep up, I could only scream inside my head as I lost track of what the reader was saying.

So I submitted another 90wpm transcription, muttering darkly to myself and feeling utterly useless.

Perhaps it's how men feel when the worst happens?

The problem is I'm not used to failure. I passed my driving test first time, never failed an exam in my life and before this year only had one job rejection. I'm usually confident in exams, secure in my ability to succeed - not necessarily with flying colours, but always to pass.

I don't need 100wpm to pass Sheffield's course, but I do to take the NCE when I get a job in regional press. Damnit, I need 100wpm to have a fighting chance at getting a job in the regional press. And I need to prove I can do it - my word is nothing to an editor compared to a certificate.

So I'll try again next week, of course. But I can't stop thinking about the waste of £11.24...

The long wait for NCTJ journalism qualifications

When I started applying for masters degrees in late 2007, one of the key requirements was National Council for the Training of Journalists accreditation.

Only certain institutions can afford (and can be bothered to jump through strict hoops) to achieve NCTJ accreditation, but I was certain that without an industry-recognised course I might as well not bother postgraduate study.

What I didn't realise when I started at Sheffield was how slow the NCTJ is with its marking. I sat two Media Law exams in January 09, and still, four months on, do not know if I passed or failed.

The wait is ridiculous.

Not only do students not know whether revision is needed for a resit, we are now applying for jobs for the summer: we need to prove our legal knowledge to prospective employers - we need the certification!

To add to my frustration, it is only the law results which take so long. I took shorthand exams earlier in the year and knew the result within a week. Today, I got my grade for the NCTJ Newswriting exam I sat in March (I passed :D).

For journalists sitting their NCEs (the second stage of qualification, for journos actually working) the waiting time is seven long weeks. Listening to reporters agonise over the wait during work experience, I thought that was long enough - but I am now on my fourteenth week of waiting!

Sheffield's law tutor, Mark Hanna, assured us that results will be with us by Friday. The reason is, apparently, that there are not enough markers in the country to get the results back any faster. In that case, perhaps the NCTJ should hire some more staff?

Gainsborough mum 'cracks' at Severn Trent

My work experience story about a single mum trying to get compensation from Severn Trent after outside seage works caused cracks all over her living room appeared on the Gainsborough Standard website.

I was amazed at how evasive press officers can be: it took me the best part of three days to get such a bland quote!

Other stories include a GP text messaging service, a local charity car wash and parents worried about an absent lollipop lady.

Gotta love local journalism!

Standard stories and complaints about my research skills

A story I wrote about the Gainsborough District Scouts St Georges Day parade appeared online today.

Also, a one about fundraising runners presenting a cheque to a Reading MS society.

Over at Sam Ellis' blog, the chairman of Retford Model Flying Club attacked my research skills for a critical comment I made about the club's objection to Cottam Wind Farm proposals.

I particularly like the polite address to Sam: "It's so easy to say 'they could easily find another flying site' before you make comments like that you should do your research."

As opposed to the, erm, less polite address to myself: "Suggest you get your facts right, then again I suppose journalists are notorious for getting it WRONG!"

It's taught me that, as a journalist, even when voicing my own opinion and not attempting to report facts, I must still expect to be thought wrong. Useful to know!

Encourging jobless journalists

I subscribe to many mailing lists (too many really, they clutter up my inbox) but I was particularly taken with the subject line of today's journalism.co.uk emailshot.

Celebrate! Your new journalism job is here it boomed jovially as my inbox loaded.

Indulging its marketing lure, I clicked the email open. Unsurprisingly, my new journalism job was not there. I didn't have an offer from any of the many jobs I've applied for, nor was there news of a miraculous new training scheme.

The only actual jobs in the email were the financial reporter in Frankfurt gig they've been pushing all week and managing editor for Singapore magazine Flight.

J.co.uk often have come-hither subject lines: Your new journalism career starts here and Journalism job du jour regularly crop up.

But the order to Celebrate! made me wonder why recruitment agencies and middlemen like j.co.uk feel they need to generate enthusiasm for jobs.

Yes, the industry is struggling, but that doesn't mean that jobs aren't being filled - quite the opposite. Students on my course scan j.co.uk and holdthefrontpage daily for new vacancies, as well as trawling media guardian and countless agencies. Demand is most certainly not the issue.

Are they trying to lift our spirits? Or do they really think we are gullible enough to believe a personally tailored job is waiting just behind a weblink?

Self-justification for Newsbeat's tabloid behaviour

At the BBC's The Editors blog, Newsbeat's Rod McKenzie defended his decision to constantly refer to Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle as a virgin.

He said:

"This is not some salacious reporting of sex lives or lack of them. It's a crucial part of her back story and one she herself has highlighted on many media interviews. She's never had a boyfriend and these details are unusual and interesting. Worth reporting, I would argue."

Cue vitriolic comments about Mr McKenzie's "fatuous self-serving nonsense", "peice[sic] of pathetic drivel" and "constant pandering to the salacious, vain and vacuous elements of our culture".

One poster, Dotconnect, said:

"Absolute rubbish Rod. You're not fooling anyone, other than perhaps yourself. She's not had a boyfriend, so rather than referring to her as a singleton, you hone in on the 'lack of sex' angle? What's wrong with just saying "who's never been kissed", which is how others are more respectfully describing her, and how she described herself? Please don't tell me time constraints mean you have to be more succinct than that.

Just be honest. This has everything to do with "virgin" being a more direct statement of her sexual history, and that being more "sensational" to a youthful, more sex-obsessed audience. Absolutely no different to kids brought up on Skins, insecure of themselves, and laughing at "the virgin" in the playground."

The commentators are genuinely angry, seemingly more so by Mr McKenzie's blogpost than the orginal sexual definition.

I have very little interest in the private lives of contestants on any reality TV show, but it's true to say that without an interesting background they get far less airtime. Newsbeat was capitalising on this, as they often do, to get the attention of Radio 1's 'young' audience. I wonder how old all the commentators are?