The second half of M42MC was more focused on what the expectations are of us this year when it comes to assignments and presentations so it was less of learning discussion.
We did discover a few things thought that in local governments there will be recommendations given which will appear in a leaflet or newsletter. This can end up on the local paper’s editor’s desk, and from here it is not a bad idea to report this news as ‘recommendations’ are likely followed through. This then brought up a discussion about whether this was true or not and ultimately it is probably worth checking and investigating further.
We also got told of a few books that are essential reading.We found McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists but couldn’t find Morrison’s Essential Public Affairs. Although after looking in the library I think it might be under a different name.
Even later in the afternoon we attended our first M42MC lecture with Andrew Noakes. We too discussed what was expected of us this year but also discussed the structure of magazines and newspapers. I’ll try and break it down here.
Chief Exec
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Publisher __________
/ \
_____ Editor ______ Ad Manager
/ | \
Art Editor Deputy Editor Production Manager
/ |
Designers Section Editor
/ : | \
Sports writer : News Features writer etc.
:
Freelance Contributors
A word of helpful advice from Andrew is that if I am a regular writer and I want to be a Section Editor, I have to do their job meaning either take on some of their responsibilities when they’re on holiday or ill or anything else, and take on responsibilities outside of my job description.
In the second half of the lecture we discussed people like Galtung and Ruge and about News Values. I looked at a breaking story from the conservative party conference about George Osbourne’s announcement about the council tax price freeze. A bit more about this will be put up on moodle which I will hopefully link to here once found.
We have been given a bit of homework by next week which is to read a chapter from two different books; Universal Journalist by Randall (2000) and Information Age Journalism by Campbell (2004).
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