This is my platform, to do with what I please.

LATELY I've been looking for a way to voice my many and varied opinions on subjects from X Factor to the Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately moving flats left me with no internet for quite a few weeks but I now have it so I am back. There's far too much to catch up on so I'm going to concentrate on this weekend of television so far.

Well last night was the second week of live shows of the X Factor after four acts were sent home last week. Now, I am usually a huge fan of X Factor. I always have a favourite, last year was Matt Cardle, the year before Joe McElderry (I also have a knack for picking the winners!), and this year is Sami Brookes. So when Louis Walsh had a completely senile moment and sent home the best acts, keeping some of the worst, I lost all faith in the programme.

Thankfully someone in the viewing figures department picked up the general vibe that the audience were not happy with his choosing Goldie Cheung over Sami, forced Goldie to quit (family issues my a**e) and invited Sami back. And in one swift move I genuinely believe Louis had put himself back in the running.

And then the live shows began and as expected, Louis was the laughing stock of the show. Or rather, his acts were. Kitty is a self-obsessed, over-bearing, chubby-looking Gaga-wannabe, Johnny is camper than a pink row of tents queueing for Elton John tickets and Jonjo was painfully aware that he'd taken the place of a far superior vocalist in the form of Terry. Louis' only hope is Sami.

But once again he is stealing attention from his fabulous acts with his joke acts and his own appalling attitude. This year his sparring partner is Gary Barlow who is doing a very good impression of Simon Cowell at his meanest. Now as you may or may not know from my blog, I am a huge Thatter. That is to say I flipping LOVE Take That! So I would defend Gary Barlow to the hilt and never hear a bad word about my boys kindly. So when Louis starts making boy band digs by saying "ALL of you can sing" then pointedly looking at Gary I get riled. If it continues I'm going to feel compelled to go down to London, search Louis out and teach him a thing or two about great boy bands.

His whole purpose as judge on X Factor is to prove to himself that he still knows a thing or two about music. Now he's got competition in the form of someone who has been in a boy band, won an Ivor Novello award for songwriting, reformed now the best man band ever to have graced Britain and looked sexy doing it, Louis is showing his true catty colours. And it's getting tiresome.

Because of their petty squabbles alone, this year, for the first time, I find myself preferring Strictly Come Dancing. A lot of this is due to the fact that I know almost all of the celebrity dancers for once, some of it is due to the fact that Harry Judd, the drummer from McFly, looks very handsome in a penguin suit and none of it is due to Brucie's "jokes". The judges have a deserved respect between each other, Bruno makes it comical, Alesha makes it real because she really has been in their shoes and Len brings a bit of decorum to the whole affair. X Factor bosses should take a leaf out of their book next year and get judges who care about finding a star rather than proving their own skills. Then the show might not get so slated for being generic and predictable.

Now as promised, I also want to talk about the Rugby World Cup. I've always watched rugby but never as intently as this before. I think the change came at the beginning of August when I saw a game in real life. I was lucky enough to go and see a World Cup warm-up between the England first team against the Welsh "second" team at Twickenham. Before this experience I had never fully appreciated the beauty of the game. On television it's difficult to see the lines and the way they move together, it's like a well choreographed ballet and it was magical to witness. So since then I have sacrificed sleep, lie-ins and holiday lazy days in order to witness some of the best rugby I've ever seen, and some of the worst.

Worst has got to be the Quarter final between England and France. It's very easy to admit that England did not deserve the win. Messy lines, terrible hands and no atmosphere meant that even if France had brought their poor form of late, I still don't believe we could have won it.

And best has got to the Wales vs Ireland Quarter final. The skill of both teams had me completely gripped despite the 6am start. It was very tough to call almost all of the match but Wales just kept up the pressure and eventually the Irish started to crack.

Which leads us to this weekend and the semi-finals. Sadly work yesterday morning prevented me from watching any of the France vs Wales match but I am aware it was a very close match and many are of the opinion the result was decided very early on when the Welsh captain Sam Warburton was sent off for a dangerous tackle. Having read many opinions on the matter and listened to many more, I decided to watch it for myself and make my own decision.

And I must admit, I fully support the referees decision to award an instant red card. Now I won't claim to understand every rule in this beautiful game, their offside rule still alludes me (and before you think it, no, I do not have the same problem in football) and many penalties I just accept that the ref is probably right. But even I could tell that the tackle was extremely dangerous. To lift a guy off the floor and then drop him could have caused an extremely serious injury. As Captain of the Welsh team one would expect Warburton to know the rules.

He did have a press conference where he stated it was not malicious but the three week ban, which means the captain will miss the third place play off match, is not being contested by Wales which answers all the critics of the decision. They clearly accept that the tackle was dangerous and deserved a straight red.

As for the final, I am writing this as Australia play hosts and neighbours New Zealand and I for one hope that the All Blacks are successful. The reason behind my aspirations? I want to see that Haka again!

For now that is all the opinion I have. Enjoy the rest of X Factor, Strictly and the World Cup and I'll write again in the week!

Many things I expected, and many I didn't.

A lot has changed since the last time I wrote in my blog. I suppose the biggest change is the good news that I now have a job! Well, I've been offered a job, I haven't actually started it yet. One of the things I didn't expect is that, despite it not being a journalism job, I am really looking forward to starting work. I will be working as a Sales Consultant at Phones4U and have training all next week at a fantastic technological base in Birmingham, no expense spared. Although phones have never been more than just a way of keeping in touch with my friends and family for me I am looking forward to learning all about them.

Another thing that has changed about me is that I am now a graduate! Yes, last Thursday at the Lowry Centre on Salford Quays I managed to shake the Vice Chancellor of the University of Salford's hand without falling over or hurting anyone. Up until the moment we had to leave our seats and go round to queue to the stage I was fine, then suddenly the nerves just hit me and I was imagining everything that could possibly have gone wrong. Thankfully and unexpectedly, it was all fine and I had a fantastic day celebrating with friends and family. As was expected, I had a bit of a cry when I eventually got five minutes to myself. It was an emotional but fabulous day.

Having done all of these very grown up things and seemingly entering the adult world these past few weeks, it is rather unexpected for me to find myself once again sharing my house with ten strangers. Yes, I have come full circle and am now living in the student halls I started my student experience in. It's only a temporary measure while I was looking for a job and it's been fine but this is not the time of my life when I would expect to be writing notes on the fridge saying "if the bin is full, empty it, don't fill it with more rubbish." I mean seriously, that's common sense right?? But my nocturnal housemates all seem to think if we have cleaners we don't need to clean. So they don't wipe the sides after they've made toast, they don't put away their clean stuff when it's dry so it just gets dirty again and i'm pretty certain i'm the only one who empties the bin. It's infuriating that i'm back to this stage in my life but I keep telling myself that it's only for a few more weeks!

As for journalism, don't worry the name of the blog isn't going to change to "when I grow up I want to be a sales consultant". Journalism is still the aim, this is just a stop along the way. In my own time I'm going to be writing all the time, hopefully writing something I think is good enough to be paid for. Freelancing is the best way to get noticed in the field when you're first trying to break in so i'll just freelance for a year or two and it will pad my CV out a bit, I'll complete my NCTJ's at the same time and in a couple of years I'll apply for roles in journalism with a little more confidence than I currently have. I know it sounds like a bit of a basic plan but I believe it will work.

I'm not quite ready to give up on my dream just yet.

The beginning of the end for journalism?

One of the few things I never expected to happen in my lifetime has just been broken on BBC News. A national newspaper is being closed down. Not because they are making no money, nor because journalism is dead.

The News Of The World has not just been reporting the news this week, they have BEEN the news. For just over a week now the phone hacking scandal has been the hot topic of conversation. Needless to say phone hacking is illegal and the people it has arisen that the NOTW have hacked is part of what makes it so disgusting. They have hacked the parents of murdered children Milly Dowler and Sarah and Jessica, they have hacked parents of people who died in the 7/7 bombings six years ago today.

They have also been found to have paid police officers for information, also illegal in case you were wondering. The list of people hacked is extensive, with over 4,000 being contacted by the police force investigating the newspaper. Today News International Chairman James Murdoch has given in to the tirade of abuse being launched their way- this Sunday, the 10th of July, will be the News Of The World's last publication.

Obviously such a step is a response to the calls for such a thing, but is it the right thing to do?? Does it really solve anything? As someone who is trying to get into the journalism sphere, and struggling I might add, all I can think is that surely not every member of staff knew what was going on so why should all of them suffer? At the moment we don't know what will happen to the staff but you can imagine it's not going to look on their CV in the future because NOTW will only ever be remembered for the huge scandal that destroyed it. There is already talk of an alternative Sunday tabloid, a Sunday Sun as it were, but nothing is confirmed.

And many are being more suspicious of this turn around. Rupert Murdoch had said several times that the paper would not be closed down because of calls for it. He now claims he did not know the extent of the problems when he made such a statement but it is a complete 180. Many are saying the move was made in order to save the deal for a majority share of BSkyB, a deal which looked set to fall apart following the scandal.

But is this the beginning of the end of journalism? If a few weeks of scandal it's easy to see how some people believe journalism is dead. Combine this with the wikileaks scandal its hard to see a bright future for the "4th branch of the state". Arguably the NOTW is just one paper, and not exactly the classiest to begin with, but if a paper that has been running for 168 years can be destroyed over one scandal does it show a lack of support and faith in journalism?

Obviously for years the NOTW have had some shady dealings but they haven't always been involved in disgraceful behaviour. Many of the staff who have lost their jobs today were not involved, in fact most of them were not even working in the paper when it happened. Yes journalists should be held accountable, yes it is illegal and court proceedings should take place, but does that mean shutting down the most widely read paper in the Western world?

I for one am sad to see this day. One newspaper turning against another, one team of writers being hung out to dry for previous writers decisions, a popular newspaper being removed from the public. Yes the phone hacking was the most despicable thing any human being could ever do, not just any journalist, but removal of a newspaper is not the answer- removal of the people that made the choice to cross the line is the answer.

On the plus side, I daresay this Sunday will break the record for most newspapers sold in one day- I'll certainly be purchasing the last ever copy of the News Of The World.

A Nation of Strikers

Napoleon once said that the United Kingdom was "a nation of shopkeepers" something he meant as an insult but which we took to heart and are proud of. Now I wonder, if someone remarked that we were a nation of strikers would be hold the title as proudly? Strikes seem to be rife in the last few decades- tube workers, public sector workers, miners. You name the job, they've probably striked.

Striking seems to be the first port of call for any dispute and is something which not only disrupts that particular area but can have a knock on effect for the entire country. Today the topic is once again in the news as public sector workers downed tools over rows about pensions. Among the picket liners were teachers, customs officers and job centre workers. The row, as far as I can gather, is because they are expected to work for longer, increase the amount of money they put into their pension and not have a pay increase. These are necessary measures for the future. The pension age has not been reconsidered for many years but the age at which we are dying has risen substantially. So the state is paying for people to be retired for longer.

In case you hadn't noticed, we are in a recession. The only way we can get out of a recession is to save money and it seems billions a year being saved by raising the retirement age seems like a small sacrifice for those of us it will affect. The one thing you should know about me before we get into my whole argument is that I am not political. At least I wasn't until I came to university. I got caught up in the politics of our students union for two years, then the general election came along and being one of the most interesting and closely contested in years, it was rather gripping. Ever since, I've paid a lot more attention to the world. I still have no political leaning- I wholeheartedly hate Nick Clegg for reneging on his promise to students that got him into government in the first place, but that doesn't mean I support all of Labour's policies, nor do I support all of Cameron's.

But on the pensions and retirement argument I can see the logic in raising the age of retirement. All the health freaks out there that made us panic about eating too much red meat, white meat, fish, eggs, ice cream, tea or any other such ludicrous idea they come up with next (I'm sure the Daily Mail will have one for us in the morning) now have to deal with the consequences of making us all much healthier. The consequence is that we are living longer but working the same length of time we were working a decade ago.

Therefore, we need to work for longer, stop relying on the government to keep us going until we pop our clogs. Unfortunately that means that some people, myself included, are now looking at an extra four or five years of work. And for some people retirement was close and now is much further. But, someone had to make the sacrifice, and would we rather be selfish now and argue the point so that our children and grandchildren have to work an extra ten or twenty years on top of what they will have to now? Wouldn't we rather make the small sacrifice ourselves than see our country bankrupt just in time for our future generations to pick up the pieces??

Personally I think that future generations have enough to deal with- global warming is supposedly going to drown the entire world in their lifetime, the apocalypse will be coming during their time and now we want to dump an extra ten years of work on them just so that we can have 30 years of retirement, rather than 25?? Not for me. I'd rather take the plunge now, stop whining and build a better future for my children, and their children and hopefully their children too.

The strikers today are the most selfish of all. They have pensions, they will have a comfortable retirement while people in the private sectors- the writers, the cleaners, the shop assistants, the people who keep the country ticking over- will be wondering if next week's pension will be enough to keep them warm in the winter. The knock on effect of their day off to complain about how an extra four years of work might lead them to an early grave (when actually statistics show that people who are active, i.e. doing labour every day, live longer) is that the queues to get into the country were twice as long (as if that were even possible), the school children did not get taught and the private sector workers had to lose a days pay to care for their children who should have been in school. And lets face it, their days pay is much more valuable to them than an argument against a government who are happy to negotiate ever could be.

I may not be the most political of people but I know the type of world I want my children to grow up in and I want to know that I have done everything in my power to be the best it could be. Perhaps the teachers should be thinking about the children rather than their retirement fund as well. That's what they're paid for after all.

Life after an Undergraduate Degree

Well it’s finally over. Time to enter the real and very scary world of jobs, homes and pets. After three years of dedication I am coming away from the University of Salford with a 2:1 (almost definitely) in Journalism and Sociology.

For the past four weeks I have been applying for any job I think I have a chance of getting. Originally the plan was to apply for as many journalism opportunities as possible but I soon realised that doing so was limiting my chances of getting a job. So I widened my net to retail, media and anything I think I could do.

Another week later I realised I had to cast my net even further. So now I am applying for jobs in towns I am 400 miles away from, my hometowns of Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

Now, I am a fairly optimistic person but four weeks of rejections is enough to get Little Miss Sunshine herself down. At this point I am considering anything. And yet somehow I still have hope that someone out there MUST want to hire me. So I’m not letting it get me down too much.

So other than searching high and low for the elusive job, what else is there to look forward to once your degree is over?

Well, you get to pay ridiculous amounts of money to hire a silly gown and hat (I’m trying to sound nonchalant about the mortar board when in all honesty I’m hopping with excitement in my head) to the only company in the country that provides them to almost every university.

You also get to have the debate with your parents about how much they are allowed to clap/cheer/cry during the Graduation Ceremony. My thinking is my mother is allowed to clap normally, not open her mouth and save the tears for the car journey home as she drives away from me. My mothers thinking is she isn’t bothered what everyone else thinks, she’s proud of the first family member to graduate from university and she doesn’t care how much she embarrasses me! Great.

The only aspect of life after a degree that I am looking forward to is simple- I get to get my very first pet of my own. As it stands I don’t have a job, therefore I cannot get a home. Without a home I should not get a pet but in my head I have already pictured the perfect cat and I know that I will get it in the next year. It is ginger and white, with little flecks of black through it, a very playful cat who will cuddle up with me when I get home from a long day in the office and stick a lasagne for one in the microwave. That is the dream.

For some of you reading this you might think it sounds depressing. You might be wondering why I am choosing to enter this adult world when technically I could stave off adulthood for another year with a Masters. The truth is, though I was tempted by a Masters in Social Media (being the perfect complimentary Masters to my course), another year of education sounds banal, and a little like I am hiding from the inevitable.

For many it is the perfectly logical next step but in the past six months I have really outgrown education and to continue with it, I fear, would make me disillusioned with the system (more so than I am already) and would set me back in life, rather than propel me forward.

No doubt in six months I’ll be screaming for the days when I didn’t have to think for myself, I just had to listen to the adult stood in front of me and repeat what he said in an exam.

Good luck to those of you brave enough to tackle an MA, and to those also in the throng of graduates trying to find a job in the impossible market. Until I get a job there will be little for me to say so thanks for listening and hope to have some good news for you soon!

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!