Media City UK visit

Pods, hot rooms, preparation areas, hero suites and Christie tiles. It sounds like the blue print for a new spaceship being launched but no, this is what is making it’s way to the students of the University of Salford in September 2011.

Unfortunately for me I have just completed my three years of study here but it didn’t stop me from having a little poke around the rapidly finalising MediaCityUK on Thursday.

Until now the MediaCityUK was an area kind of near me that I’d been hearing about for three years, the main reason I ever chose to come to Salford to study and the thing that lecturers were always saying would be our big opportunity. It had never solidified itself in my mind that this really was going to be a hub of media creativity right on my doorstep.

But a ten minute taxi ride later I was starting to see just how within my grasp this really was. With four other Student Reps, two members of staff and the Vice President for the schools affected on board (pictured above, picture 2), we went on a tour of the University of Salford floors in a bid to get a better idea of the transformation of the Salford Quays taking place.

Taking us round were Andrew Cooper, Academic Director of MediaCityUK, Callum Macdonald, Site Manager for Overbury and newly appointed Operations Director for MediaCity Nick Horan.

Overbury are the refurbishment specialists in charge of making Andrew Cooper’s dream a reality. They were given the shell of the building, and an impressive shell it is too (pictured above, picture 4), and are basically interior designers en masse, boasting sites such as Canary Wharf before winning the bid for this project. With 236 builders working on our four floors alone, it’s easy to see how the building site we visited will be completed in 11 weeks ready for the handover on August 29th.

As we walked round each floor the areas in front of us were brought to life with a little imagination (which shouldn’t be hard with so much creativity flowing all around). For me personally I was obviously most interested in finding the journalism suites and I was not disappointed.

For those of you not familiar with the University of Salford I’m going to give you a little bit of background at this stage so that it puts the MediaCityUK area into perspective for you. The current building that houses the journalism courses used to be a factory several decades ago.

The most infamous thing about the Adelphi building is that it is a maze. For my first year of university I would walk through a door expecting to know where I was and find myself in an entirely different section of the building, I could never find the canteen two days in a row and the school office was an absolute mystery to me. After three years I can still be led to a brand new room that I never knew existed and not be able to find it a few hours later. For the journalism rooms you had to find your way to the basement. I know it sounds easy, just keep going down, but the basement is blocked off into various sections. The costume department for the performing arts students is apparently down there as well but being an old factory all the sections of the basement cannot be connected so they could be next to each other but you’d still have to go all the way upstairs and find a new set of stairs to lead you down there. And of course in the basement there is no natural light.

Contrast this to what I am about to tell you and you can understand why exactly I am awed by MediaCityUK to this extent. On the third floor, in a corner overlooking the MediaCity Studios there is a News Preparation Area, fully equipped newsroom which can connect to the TV and radio rooms in the other floors, a presentation space with adjoining control room with specially made state-of-the-art equipment that wouldn’t be out of place in the BBC and Sky studios and a huge newsroom, the biggest room on the floor (pictured above, picture 1). All of these have floor to ceiling windows, air conditioning and every software you could possibly want as a trainee journalist.

But don’t worry, if journalism isn’t your cup of tea the other floors have something for everyone, after all the four floors are going to be home to 39 Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in a few short months. The third floor is also home to the video editing suites, the ground floor has three black-walled studios which can be used for vocal recordings, filming, theatre productions and so much more.

By the entrance to this magnificent building is one of the most exciting aspects of the move- the Egg. The Egg is an oval stage in the centre of the ground floor, unmissable and therefore the perfect place for displays and performances. What makes it so exciting is that a wall can be built in the centre of this zone to make a room used for seminars or two stage areas. It is the wall that is most interesting because it is built out of Christie tiles, I fairly new invention that act as a projection screen. Films, Twitter feeds and much more can be projected onto the whole wall or onto one tile of it, making it part of the enticing technological developments within the complex.

And this development is not all about the students either. The staff at the University will benefit from magnificent views over the Quays, the 9,000 seating piazza and all the attractions of the area (pictured above, picture 3) as well as a transformation of the way they can work. Floors two and three are open plan areas, with pods for semi-private conversations and hot rooms for entirely private discussions.

Andrew Cooper said that the floors were designed as such because he wants “everyone, including staff, to feel they can move freely” and it certainly does give that impression. On the third floor there is a huge open space with the above ITV floors looking into it. This, Andrew Cooper says, is to help staff and students alike to “use this building as much as possible to display the talents” and who wouldn’t want to with such an important audience on their doorstep?

The original statement about the partnership between the University of Salford and the MediaCityUK was: “It will be an extension of the university’s main campus, acting both as a showcase for cutting-edge projects and exhibitions, and a hub for research and teaching activities.” and it certainly seems to have delivered so far.

Such a good investment, I am sorely tempted to return to education just for the perks of the building which, just with those four floors, is bigger than any other building on the Salford University campus. Watch this space!

Opportunity Knocks

Okay so I know I said it would be a few days until I wrote again but my life is VERY hectic at the moment so once again my apologies!

In the time I have been away from my blogging duties I have had several journalism opportunities practically land at my feet. My mother always used to say to me "Jobs don't just come knocking on your door" but the past week would beg to differ I would say!

The final two days of work experience were really good. I feel like the week really gave me some insight into my future and I definitely liked what I saw! I got to finish up early on the Friday because there was another work experience guy so there weren't enough press releases to go around! Chris, the man who gave me the opportunity in the first place, was really kind when he left, said it had been nice working with me and saying I should email him the week after to find out if any of my byline requests on lead stories were granted.

Well I emailed him a few days ago and hey presto! I have a couple of lead stories so he is sending me a copy of last week's paper and I will have some actual proper newspaper clippings! Not to say that the uni paper isn't real, it just doesn't have a big readership like the Sale and Altrincham Messenger!

So that was one opportunity knocking- the opportunity to improve my portfolio, which I also need to sort out with Steve because that is one component of my NCTJ Diploma which I have completely ignored! It will also improve my CV. Since graduation is looming "It'll look good on your CV" seems to be everyone's favourite phrase! Maybe they should have started using it at the beginning of university because then our CV's would be outstanding! Although mine doesn't look too shabby I reckon!

Another opportunity that came knocking was in the form of an email from a young woman inviting me to blog on a Manchester based student blog, much like the unitown website opportunity in the summer. Apparently my blog gets read by more than just my most loyal friends on Facebook as they read this and asked if i'd like to write for them. It's always a nice boost when someone thinks my writing is good enough for their own project. I know how protective I would be if I were setting up a multi-writer blog so i'm touched.

The third opportunity was one I had completely forgotten i'd applied for in all honesty! On one of my days of panic where I thought I wans't doing enough to realise my dream I applied for work experience at ITV, not really expecting to hear anything back because TV isn't what I want to do. However, there were chances to do writing behind the scenes so I applied with no expectations. That was probably six weeks ago and yesterday, in the same batch of emails as the blog opportunity, was one from ITV saying I had got through to the second stage of the work experience selection process.

Now it is yet more waiting, they have workshops in June in Leeds, Manchester and London and in the first week of June I will find out if I have a place. The best thing about this is, my friend Hayley from my course also applied and she also got through! So June could be a very busy but very exciting month!!

The final opportunity is obviously the best. Although something which I thought inevitable (not being big-headed but I did fulfill all application criteria), it has been confirmed- I have an interview for Editor of the uni newspaper on May 6th. The interview includes a 45 minute written test which seems to alarm people when I tell them but that's the part of the interview I know I can do! If i've learnt nothing else about myself in the past three years, i've learnt that I CAN WRITE!

I always used to think I had no talent so now I know that I do i'm hopefully never going to doubt it again! My worry is in the interview. I tend to say the wrong thing, can't describe what I mean, and get a bit flustered. Hopefully i'll be calm because this is something I do genuinely believe I can do, and can do well! But I know how nervous I get before interviews so i'm not certain!

One other thing, which is much less good news... I didn't win Student Journalist of the Year. I was disappointed because I did feel like I had a good chance this year but I did get awarded Gold colours for my dedication to the paper so I can't complain too much :D

The next few weeks will be dedicated to writing my final two assignments of my degree and revising for my final degree exam, as well as the rest of my NCTJ exams. So now I have a reason for not blogging for a few weeks!!

Over and out!

Work Experience Week

Firstly another apology that I didn't keep up with the writing every day this week as I said I hoped I would. But I did make no promises!

It doesn't make much difference actually because i've had three days of pretty much the same experience and press releases are now my friend!! I don't mean that the same thing was a bad experience, in fact the opposite is true. Writing fillers for 90% of my time is really making me hone my writing skills. Having to fit an entire press release into 50-100 words is tough. Okay so some of the fillers were a little dull but journalism can't always be about police chases and bombs going off.

Someone has to be left behind at the office filling the rest of the pages with things people need to know, and this week, that's me. I am really enjoying the experience, the time goes very fast, I am almost always busy and when i'm not writing i'm talking to the other people in the office about their stories, or last nights football (aside- SO happy Real Madrid showed Tottenham why they should stick to position 4-8 in the Premiership, they needed putting back in their place!)

I'm also perfecting the use of is and are, which and who. I've always given company's an identity and said "The Red Cross, who helped people in Libya" when what I should write is "The Red Cross, WHICH helped people in Libya" so it's good to be sorting these things now, when people are expecting me to not be perfect. Let's hope i've actually got that right here now!!

And it's not all been fillers, i've had few side bars, a couple of sport, some business and even two page leads, with a possible byline! I've even had to call a few people which is helping with my fear of the phone, always good to conquer it early on. And when I get a bit down that i'm writing non-stop and most of the stories will never be able to be credited to me i just tell myself that the reason i'm doing this is so that i have the best chance of getting my very own newspaper. Not just a story, column or section- the whole thing! And that most definitely perks me up. The thought doesn't even scare me any more so I guess I really have grown up!

In other news, the Graduation Ball is really coming along. A very successful meeting on Monday saw decisions on venue, price, date and DJ which is all promising. I am now in the middle of bossing someone else around who is very kindly designing the tickets and poster for it so by the weekend we will be selling tickets and it's crunch time- will it be a success? Will we sell enough tickets? Will anyone really want to come or are 405 members of the group just joining for a laugh? EEK!!!

Tonight is the USSU awards where it will be announced who has won Student Journalist of the Year and i'm laying in bed waiting for someone to tell me if I win!! Not that I am expecting to- I was in the collective that voted on the winners and although there was no discussion, if I hadn't been in the running I would have voted for Mark. He's a first year, already News Editor and he really has done wonders for the news section. He deserves it at least as much as I do!!

I'll report back in a few days to let you know if I am an award-winning journalist (!!) and how the rest of the week goes. Thanks for reading.

Gemma

Growing Up

It's once again been a long time since last wrote but i have very valid reasons this time.

The last few weeks my stress levels have been through the roof! I had three assignments back to back and rather than cleverly plan ahead I thought I could do the impossible by starting each one a week before it was due in. Start, research, write and finish three 3000 word assignments in a week each.

The most amazing part of this decision is that I managed it! I'm not sure I had enough references on one of them, definitely didn't have enough analysis on the second but the third one, which I found the hardest to begin with, I was really pleased with. Of course this means that i've probably got the worst mark on that one! But that's a worry for another week.

Two days before the final assignment was due in I went to a house party (I know, I should have been at home working but, well, I wasn't). And it was there that I decided to take on yet another task which I probably don't have time for, and definitely not organised enough to handle but that I simply could not ignore:

I am organising the University of Salford Graduation Ball 2011.

And before you ask, yes, I am mad! A friend of mine helped organise last years and I love balls. I love an excuse to go out and buy a brand new dress. I love having a three course meal and a night out which I can guarantee won't get messy. So when I found out that the Students Union weren't organising one for us this year, and hadn't for a few years, I was outraged.

Finishing university without the grand send off is like doing 50 years in the same job and being given a card rather than a gold watch! It's just not on. So I, somewhat drunkenly, decided I would make the ball happen myself.

That was a week ago and since then we've decided dates, looked round venues, met with events managers, rung round chocolate fountain rentals, begged for sponsorship and informed everyone of the news. I honestly believe i've done more growing up in the last week than I have ever done before.

Ordinarily I am terrified of phones, it's the unknown of what will be said on the other end that scares me. But this week i've just done it without hesitation. I also get nervous when meeting a stranger. This week i've met a stranger every day and survived. I've grown in confidence, something which was essential to getting good deal offers from the various venues, and i'm now prepared to go into the unknown until the ball happens.

In the next two months I will meet strangers, make dozens of phone calls, beg for money from anyone I think will sponsor the event, haggle costs with several different people and take charge of hundreds of students until they each buy a ticket. If you'd told me that's what i'd be doing this time last month I would have laughed in your face or hidden behind the sofa.

And next week I get even more grown up- I get to do work experience with the Sale and Altrincham Messenger all week. This is more growing up still because it's early mornings for an entire week, something I haven't done for almost three years, travelling to unknown areas of Greater Manchester, and I can imagine there are going to be many phone calls throughout the week.

This time next week I will be unrecognisable from the version of me that started the year! And the other difference might possibly be that I will be an award winning journalist... Yes, that's right! I am up for Student Journalist of the Year once again, having lost it to a good friend of mine last year. I don't expect to win it, the team on the Salford Direct this year have been fantastic and they all deserve an award but it's possible!

Since work experience next week is very journalism-related I will be trying to do a blog every evening of next week but I make no promises so keep your eyes open!

Domestic Violence + Lent

*DISCLAIMER- This may offend the deeply religious among you, but it is just my opinion, so, sorry.*

In order to fully understand what I was undertaking by giving up cake for Lent I went off on the Internet in search of the basis for it. I have always been an atheist, reluctant to believe in anything bigger because I think that life is ultimately in our own hands and we make of it what we will.

Don't worry I know the basics- six days, day of rest, Jesus was born, there was a donkey, he died, he came back again etc, but Lent was one of the stories that I had never fully known. And for those of you that are in the same boat (surely i'm not the only one?!) here it goes...

Lent lasts for 40 days and 40 nights because that is how long it is said that Jesus spent wandering through the desert. So for 40 days and nights people are meant to give up something very tough for them so they can understand the trials and tribulations of being Jesus. Or something like that. Except, whatever we choose to give up we can indulge in to our hearts content on a Sunday because apparently every 7 days Jesus was allowed some water.

As i've made clear, i'm not all that religious, but I really don't understand this part of Lent. I can understand with Ramadan that they can eat once the sun has set because they have to eat. But the point of Lent is to understand the suffering and surely everyone would understand it better if they couldn't indulge in a sneaky cigarette at the end of each week?

So, for Lent, as some of you may have read, I am giving up cake and doughnuts, baking and eating. Which is a lot tougher for me than it sounds. But by my reckoning it's going to be very easy if I am allowed to bake and eat an entire cake each Sunday! So my house mate and I have agreed that we will not have cakes, even on Sunday. So we're actually going to have to go 47 days without cake. So technically, we're going to be better than Jesus yeah?

Unfortunately for me, Lent has come at a very bad time. In the next three weeks I have three assignments due which add up to almost 9000 words. And they are all Sociology so it's a lot of reading, a lot of understanding and not a lot of enjoyment on my part since I have completely lost the "buzz" for sociology.

I am currently in the middle of reading up on domestic violence and why it happens and if there is one thing you need after a day of reading about how "all men are potential rapists" it's a cup of tea and a slice of homemade Victoria Sponge. So, needless to say, i've been finding the challenge of Lent very difficult, especially since we have some cupcakes left over from our last baking session that I am not allowed to eat!

But I am determined to complete this challenge. I am well-known for being a person who gives up, unless it is something that i desperately want. For example, when i was 11 and had to choose which secondary school I went to I would only let my parents put one school on the list which was a grammar school, for which I of course had to pass an 11 plus to get into. But, because I wanted it badly enough, I did it and got in.

When it came to making the decision about what I wanted to be when I grew up, as the name of the blog suggests, I was determined that my future was in writing and journalism was the home for me. And here I am several years later, still holding on to that dream no matter how many people try to shake me off it!

Now, I may not have the same amount of determination about this cake business as I did about my education but I am determined enough that when a cupcake is waved in my face to say no (some people are as determined to see me fail!).

But it is only Day 2 so we shall see!!!

Gemma

Lent and the F.U.T.U.R.E

In three months I graduate from university. The plan for my life is to then get a job as a junior reporter, slowly climbing the ladder until someone lets me into Features and I eventually become an Editor. The reality is journalism jobs are dwindling, but more people are turning to it as a profession. Which means that for every job opening there are hundreds of applications. And much as I hate to admit it, my CV would not stand out.

So, I need a new plan for the future. And here's where my problem lies. There is a very good opportunity for a very good job as the Editor of the the university newspaper. I have been involved in the paper for two years now and the previous Editor told me I should go for it and at the time I really wanted to. But a year has passed since then, I've seen from the current Editor how much work the job is which i'm not sure it is the ideal job straight out of university.

I am also unsure I want to be an Editor, it was never part of my plan to do Editor first then go back to reporter. I'm not even sure that would be possible. I don't want to get pigeon-holed into an Editor position without ever having the experience of court reporting or a junior reporter. This is how people get their contacts and their tales and these are the experiences which shape you as a writer. I really don't want to miss out on that.

But the alternative is to get any job that will pay the bills and freelance until someone realises my potential which could be years and I might lose the thrill of journalism. Something else which I definitely don't want to happen. So i'm going to at least go for it- what's the phrase? "Throw my hat in"?

That was a whole lot of rambling for a decision wasn't it?!

Today is Pancake Day, so I had the customary body weight in pancakes, sugar and lemon juice. That makes tomorrow Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. I've never been much of a Lent person. I don't have any addictions, nothing which I could really do with cutting out of my life so my usual Lent line is "I'm giving up giving up, i'm very good at it."

This year however i am partaking in Lent in order to help out a friend. My friend wants to quit smoking but he can never manage it. So my housemate and I have decided that we will give up baking and eating cakes, including doughnuts, if he gives up cigarettes. Nobody quite understands what cakes mean to us.

Almost every weekend since the beginning of third year we have made a cake. If we are bored, or meant to be working, or there is something to celebrate, we make a cake. It's not the face that we then eat them that is the hard part, I can cope with not buying a flapjack when I go to my Monday lecture. But baking is my stress relief and final year is a lot of stress!

In the next 47 days (Lent, it turns out, doesn't count on Sundays) I have four deadlines. So ordinarily that would be 8 cakes, one while reading and preparing, one whilst writing or finishing. So I am officially in the market for a new stress release. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Well, that's me for the night!

Gemma

Journalism vs Sociology

Oh dear- it has been an entire month since I last wrote my blog. And I have hardly any excuses. In mid February I had my NCTJ Essential Law exam and the NCTJ Reporting exam a day later. But apart from that I have frivolously wasted away my time, neglecting my poor blog for more exciting reading and writing, such as my experience of speed dating (I did it for my career and I won't hear any more about it!).

So the Essential Law exam... Honestly it has been that long that I've forgotten what happened with it! There were a couple of short answer questions which I had never known the answer to- the head of the judiciary and what "taking the silk" means. But thankfully I feel like the other questions were passable at the very least. In the week leading up to the exam my brain had no capacity for anything other than McNae and even on the day of the exam I felt like I had not done enough. But the questions fell in my favour and I feel i've done enough for the pass at the very least.

The next day was the NCTJ Reporting exam and what a kerfuffle that was! The problem was we needed computers for the exam, obviously, and apparently had not booked a free computer room. Thirty minutes after the exam was meant to start we were still trekking round the maze that is the media building at Salford University trying to find a room to do it in. Eventually we came across a room of Mac's and with one guy in the group owning one we were soon all set up. This was a 2 and a half hour exam and after 90 minutes I was finishing up, went to add a header to this (bearing in mind I don't know how to use a Mac) and the computer crashed. I had saved it after the first of two questions, but not since so I had a major, but silent, meltdown. Thankfully the technician came and saved the majority of it, missing off the last ten minutes of work. So I finished up and got out of there before anything more could go wrong!

Since then I have thrown myself into my final semester which consists of entirely Sociology modules, apart from shorthand. Unfortunately I chose to do a course including sociology on a whim because I had discovered I was good at it during A-Levels. Let me tell you, for a journalist who wants to be writing news stories and features, not essays, five years of sociology is too much! It is becoming harder and harder to switch my brain between writing stories and writing essays and the harder it becomes the less I wish to do it.

Since the exams I have learnt that I passed my NCTJ Court Reporting exam. With a low mark but a pass is still a pass and that's all that matters. It worries me slightly that the one I was confident on came back with a lower mark than I was expecting, makes me nervous about the other law exam which I am far less confident about. But only time will tell now!

As for shorthand. Well! I had originally planned to take my first exam tomorrow, the 3rd of March. Unfortunately, despite my commitment to working at home this semester, I still do not feel ready, still yet to continually complete passages at 60 words per minute. So my teacher and I have agreed to postpone my first exam by a month, by which time I am hoping to sit the 70 instead of the 60. Then the 80 in May and 100 in June. Right? Right!

Anyway, very little to report, unless you want me to rant about the unreliability of Arsenal but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that!!