Convergence Production Blog

Producing a well balanced and expansive news service across all media platforms, on the day is very difficult to maintain. The stories that break each day sometimes don’t lend themselves to certain mediums and this can make developing prospects difficult.

As an example, our TV team decided to cover the story that had occurred in Florida, where a whale had killed its trainer. The only way we could shoot our own, original footage was to go to the aquarium and talk to some of their staff. When they refused to pass comment, we had few alternatives to fill the space in our bulletin.

Adapting to these developments as roving reporters and using alternative sources has huge benefits and feels very rewarding. Discovering an original news story, conducting interviews for it and publishing it onto Buzz is also a fairly accurate representation of the 24-hour newsroom. Working as a larger seminar team means that you can assign more students to individual projects (proportionate to its importance) and often produce better journalism.

The distance in between newsrooms can often make it difficult to communicate between the teams during convergence days. Despite having convergence co-ordinators assigned to each team, the group working on radio struggled to know what the other groups on the third floor were working on.

The ethos of sharing material became slightly unbalanced throughout the eight weeks. Audio can be embedded into news stories, underneath image slide shows and behind images in television, so there was always a lot of pressure on the radio team to deliver. Conversely, work by the features team was rarely needed by the other convergence teams and meant that they were often isolated from the day’s proceedings.

Although I never took on an editorial position for my group, the roles I played varied considerably throughout the eight weeks. As a sports enthusiast and presenter on Nerve Radio, I felt that my performance as a sport newsreader was particularly strong. Although the segment is only a proportionally small part of the radio bulletins, it was important that they were accurate and balanced, maintaining the listener’s regional interest and offering appropriate clips. My delivery on air was strong and lecturers commented that my running order was appropriate.

Once original journalism was highlighted as a necessity for our output, my role in online news as a roving reporter became increasingly beneficial. Throughout the eight weeks I volunteered to go into town on five different days, developing original news stories that I either discovered myself or was notified by editors on campus. Although my work didn’t always end with a lead story for the Buzz website, they were always fresh, original stories that supported the rest of the team and had appropriate multi-media features. These often included my own photographs and audio interviews.

The contrast of a fast, motivated approach and patient mind is key to achieving good interviews and finding original news stories. Throughout the eight weeks I felt that I consistently put myself forward in this manner, often moving out of my comfort zone in order to gain material for our news output. Over time I slowly became better at finding my own leads in town and persuading those relevant to the story or in a position of authority to speak to me. My willingness to work in small teams and share my material with the other convergence groups meant that they would easily trust me with breaking stories and lend their share of media when I needed it.

From regular use of Wordpress for my own online blog, I felt that one of my strengths lied in effectively using the newsrooms’ technology. A basic understanding of HTML coding meant that I could alter the aesthetics of my posts in minutes and move onto other, more pressing jobs for my team. Adapting quickly to Final Cut Express meant that I could edit my packages easily and re-edit them if they needed to be extended or reduced at the last minute.

Despite my desire to find stories with strong news values, I felt that many of my articles were too ‘soft’ in nature. I was weak in uncovering stories that had large-scale conflict or negativity, which meant that they would never be considered as a story for the top of the running order.

My convergence skills could have also been improved dramatically if I had carried more equipment with me. I was narrow minded in considering the other convergence teams and often only used the equipment that I would need for my own group’s medium. As an example, if I had taken a video camera whilst I was recording a radio interview, I could have given the material to the TV team and saved them sending one of their own group members.

The eight weeks of convergence taught me how to get into a regular rhythm of researching, writing and delivering news. The experience of working in larger teams and a much wider newsroom environment made me think creatively about how my journalism could be produced for different platforms.

Working to tighter, staggered deadlines meant that I had to look ahead and consider when to drop stagnating leads. This could mean abandoning the story completely or choosing back-up interviews to get a quote.

Learning to forward plan also became increasingly important to ensure that there were plenty of stories in the morning’s prospects. The eight weeks taught me how to organise interviews and research potential articles that would emerge on the day.

During the first couple of convergence days, I had a few minor inaccuracies in my copy and script. From this weakness, I quickly learnt to sub my own copy and double check it with other members of my group before printing it out or publishing onto Buzz. Constant vigilance with spelling, punctuation and factual errors meant that my work slowly improved toward the end of the two months.

To improve upon my work, I would have liked to have been more creative in the way I conveyed and delivered my journalism. The idea of using interactive slideshows that could incorporate photographs, audio interviews and music seemed like a fascinating concept in our initial tutorials. Unfortunately, I didn’t spend enough time getting to grips with the software and gathering the appropriate material on our convergence days, consequently making it a missed opportunity. Rather than simply opting for the traditional structure of TV packages and online news stories, my output could have been improved by using a more dynamic, appropriate and engaging presentation.

My experience in convergence would have also benefited from a greater variety in roles and responsibility. I was hesitant to volunteer myself as an editor or producer because of the additional demands it would bring each day. Looking back retrospectively, working as a deputy editor or convergence co-ordinator would have given me the chance to learn more about team management and content organisation. Although everything I worked on during the module improved my skills as a journalist, pushing myself to experiment with new roles and practises would have taught me even more.

By thinking more openly and creatively about the best way to tell my news stories, the work I produce will improve in the future. One of the concepts behind convergence is that stories can be better in different formats, and that journalists should consider these before publishing their work. As an example, some articles might work better online with a video component, but others might be more effective with just photographs or an audio interview.

Weighing up a story’s characteristics and then producing it for the most beneficial platform will improve my work considerably. By sharing material with other students and helping one another with our own various areas of expertise, it will develop my team work and the quality of my journalism. By planning early and moving quickly, I should be able to find and produce better stories with greater ease.