C4 Pop Up Day!

The future can be a scary place, we all know that. My future changes all the time! In the space of four years I've gone from wanting to be a photographer, to a multimedia journalist, to a journalist, to a full time blogger, to running my own magazine- deep down always wanting to be a radio presenter. I applied for uni, deferred for a year, went to college instead and gave up my place. I literally just go with the flow, doing whatever makes me happy at the time. I'm very fortunate to be in a position where I can do that.

Today, I attended an event with Channel 4 in London, completing a workshop in journalism with a broadcast journalist from the BBC, Jules McCarthy. I was so thrilled to be allocated to journalism, rather than TV Production or Digital Marketing, as obviously this is what I want to specialise in. 

I learnt so much about journalism that I never knew before! I wrote endless pages of notes in my notebook and have read them over twice already, trying to absorb all of the information into my brain for good! The most challenging part of the day was trying to create engaging news bulletins. We were provided with press releases that were either completely minimal or that were five pages long (or so it seemed) and crammed with info. Regardless of which we received, we had to turn the story into three, fifteen word long sentences. That's just 45 words to get in all the key information an audience will need- it was gruelling work and much harder than it sounds! 

My favourite part was definitely making a 45 second video in the style of a news report, talking about ourselves. This was tricky a) because it's so hard to big yourself up without sounding vain and b) hitting exactly 45 seconds, not 44 or 46 was seemingly impossible! Luckily it only took me four attempts! (I say 'only'...)

Another highlight to my day was listening to Miles Otway tell us about his journey into the media industry, having started out at uni studying politics, and informing us about the job he has now- a Continuity Announcer. I had never heard of this job before, but when he explained it we all went 'OHHHH'. A continuity announcer, for those of you who don't know, is the person who does a voice over between programs on TV, like a link. Miles has done some of the Big Bang links so you may have heard his voice! 

As a trained TV and Radio Presenter, I love speaking to audiences, but not necessarily being seen by them, and so I feel that this career is definitely one I should consider, now that I know about it!

Some food for thought for the day definitely came from Jules during the journalism session. As a group, we were discussing whether print journalism in it's traditional form (e.g. newspapers) still has a place in the media industry, when people can read online and this is obviously easier and more beneficial to the environment too. Jules made an observation about broadcast journalism and print journalism. She said that people often preferred one or the other, and so chose the relevant course at uni...and yet the uni courses are almost identical. She had observed that the people who chose print journalism were often less confident about themselves as a person, be that down to how they feel about themselves or their confidence in their appearance. I can't help but wonder if this is why I like radio presenting and magazine writing more than TV presenting- because I am insecure about my looks!

Overall, the day was really beneficial to me. I've found out about an ideal career I didn't even know existed, picked up some brand new journalism tips and, most excitingly of all, started to make a big plan for the near future... but more of that will be revealed soon! 

Over 500 applicants applied for this event. I am so lucky and grateful that I was selected to attend. I've applied so many times before, so maybe they were just sick of me, but I like to think it's because they saw something in my application that really stood out...!

Thank you to Channel 4 and My Kind of Future for hosting such a great event- I hope I'll be back really soon!

Love from,

Florence Grace

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