Portfolio: Minor Changes

As I’m very near completion of my portfolio, I’m at the point where changes I make are just minor ones.

One of the things I wanted to do was make the home page look less busy. I had already done this before but I could see more ways to make it look a bit more open and less cluttered, albeit a very minor change.

The change I made is at the top of the home page where I have a little introduction to myself and the heading, Journalist. I got rid of the grey box and introduced more white space. I also put my contact details onto one line so they also take up less room, as can be seen in the image below:

Another change I’ve made is removing the footers, which had my name, location and contact number on them, and can be seen below. I removed them because they created unnecessary clutter and because they didn’t follow the consistency of the colour scheme which I mentioned in previous blog posts.

Portfolio: Embedding My Curation Article

The final piece of work I have to put into my portfolio is the curation piece which is one of the pieces we had to compose for the module’s assessment.

I chose to stick with the same topic I’d used for my test piece – The conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Obviously, tensions have deepened since the writing of the original article, giving me new material to write about.

In terms of the actual embedding the piece into the portfolio, I had to decide which section to put it into; Celebrity & Entertainment, Business & Technology, Gaming and Lifestyle or Broadcast. Naturally, I was drawn towards business and technology because even though it doesn’t describe the topic of the piece, it’s the closest fitting section I have for that subject matter.

I displayed it in the same way I displayed my other articles – With a simple link. However, because it’s more than a simple news piece, I have put in brackets that it’s a curation piece, as can be seen in the image above.

Portfolio: Constructing my About Me page

I left my ‘About Me’ page till last because I’m absolutely useless at writing stuff about myself!

As you can see below, I did eventually find stuff about myself to write. I focused mainly on my journalistic skills as opposed to random facts about my personality.

I also decided to embed a Twitter feed on this page as someone’s Twitter is always a good indication of their personality, and as far as I’m aware, I don’t tweet anything NSFW! An embedded Twitter feed is also a good bit of HTML to have on the website.

I also thought it’d be nice to add in a bit of Photoshop to the portfolio. The image of me on the right was taken at the beach, but as you can see, I’ve cut out my image so it fits in with the white background. I feel as though having an image of myself on the page just adds a bit more of a personal touch.

I didn’t want to overcrowd this page with as it is really supposed to just focus on myself, and I want the work to be the main feature of my portfolio. However, having created this page, I think it’s one of my personal favourites!

Portfolio: Presenting My Broadcast Work

One of the pages which was slightly easier to present was the section showcasing my broadcast work.

Although I did play around with a few other designs, I decided a list was the simplest, easiest to navigate way of presenting the work.

I used work from the broadcast module at university along with the video footage of my interviewing guests at the O2 Media Awards.

Portfolio: Colour Scheme Consistency and White Space

One error that I’ve noticed when looking back over my portfolio is the inconsistency in colour scheme.

Although the difference in colours is not dramatic, it is just noticeable. For example, the blue on one page is lighter than the blue on another page, which takes away from the professional look.

I’ve also made all heading font is the same font – Georgia.

Because I keep getting distracted by one page, I think I sometimes forget to keep the consistency going throughout, which is something I need to keep my eye on.

Another aspect of the portfolio I’m wanting to improve on is the white space. Some pages have ended up looking rather clustered so I’ve tried to find a way around this.

To start with, I took away some of the articles I had links to so there wasn’t massive lists of text taking up so much room. It doesn’t matter that I have less articles on my actual portfolio, as on each of the websites I’ve linked to, you can click my byline and see a full archive of the articles I’ve written for that website.

Also, on several pages, I’ve got rid of the grey background and replaced it with a white one. This makes the page look easier on the eye due to the white space, as can be seen in the screenshots below.

You can also see in the screenshots that I’ve changed the colour of the testimonial header backgrounds accordingly, so it is now the same colour as the masthead, with slightly more transparency.

For comparison, I’ve inserted a screenshot I took a couple of months ago of my testimonials page when I first created it. From this picture, you can see I’ve made a lot of changes. It’s a lot cleaner looking than it previously was, when the colours were very in-your-face.

Week 10 – Work Experience

EntertainmentWise – July 2013 – April 2014

I wrote for EntertainmentWise between July 2013 and April 2014, a total of 10 months.

I produced content for the website’s 16.5million strong audience on a weekly basis, covering and reviewing various TV shows for the site. I was also taught how to use the company’s CMS systems.

Contact Details:
Deepika Rajani – deepikarajani@giantdigital.com

Evidence:

Digital Spy – September – October 2013

I wrote for Digital Spy for a month in September – October 2013.

As a leading source for entertainment and technology news, it was a fantastic opportunity to gain experience in a number of fields. I wrote over 80 articles for them and was sent to cover press events around London, whilst also interviewing celebrities.

Contact details:
blee@digitalspy.co.uk
hskipworth@digitalspy.co.uk

Evidence:

O2 Media Awards – September 2013

I was given the opportunity to represent the university at the O2 Media Awards, which celebrates regional journalistic talent.

Throughout the night, I interviewed all the winners and celebrity guests whilst other students filmed and other students edited the videos together.

Contact details:
j.kean@leedsmet.ac.uk

Evidence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx8rcsNjbXY

BounceSIN

As my first work experience in Journalism, this was an invaluable experience which gave me the opportunity to write content and improve my skills dramatically. Working in the company’s PR department and also interviewing guests and celebrities also was a fantastic opportunity I had when working here.

Contact details:
nimabaniamer@gmail.com

Evidence:

Portfolio: Rethinking the sorting of my content

As mentioned in a previous blog post, I had sorted my work by publication, as can be seen in the image below, with each logo on the homepage linking to a catalogue of articles from that particular publication.

However, over the course of the module, I’ve been reconsidering how I’m going to sort my work. Luckily, because I started work on my Moonfruit portfolio almost immediately when we started the module, I’ve had time to assess the advantages and disadvantages of various designs.

On my portfolio, I want to showcase only my best work, and I found that over the past few years my writing skills have developed and improved a lot. This means that the work I did earlier on in the course or on earlier work placements isn’t as good as more recent work.

Personally, I would rather not have the weaker material on the portfolio, and therefore, if I do it by publication, I would have a section that showcased weaker writing from an earlier placement than the section with, say, my work at Digital Spy which is more recent.

Therefore, I think that dividing my work by genre (Eg. Entertainment, technology, etc…) would be more beneficial. This means I can pick and choose my best work but still have sufficient content in each area.

Below is a screenshot of the revisions I’ve made to the home page:

As you can see, I obviously had to change the images. I had previously got permission from the respective companies to use their logos in the previous design. However, I can still use them around the website even if they’re not on the home page which is useful.

All the images I’ve used in the new design are also creative commons. However, the picture I’ve used in the ‘broadcast’ square is only a temporary picture as I intend to take a picture in the Leeds Met news studio next time I am in there and use it on the website.

The only thing that would tempt me to stick with the original logo approach is the look of it – It looks cleaner and crisper. However, functionality and ease of navigation are more important in my opinion, and the new design doesn’t exactly look bad!

Week 8: Pitching a story

This week we learned the ins and outs of pitching story ideas to editors.

Firstly, we looked at what sort of publications will accept pitches from start-up journalists. It’s advised not to pitch to large publications such as Empire or Marie Claire as they’re less likely to commission the story.

In terms of actual material to write, you have to determine which parts of the publication to write for – is it a feature? A news story? Front of book? Sidebar?

Always try and look for a peg for your story. For example, use Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow splitting to do a ‘top 10 celebrity marriages we didn’t see coming’.

List articles always do well. They’re easy to construct, easy to read and easy to research.

When actually pitching, you have to address the appropriate editor (Sub-editor, section editor etc…) on a personal level. Avoid using greetings such as ‘Dear Sir / Madam’ and opt for something more personal, such as ‘Dear David’.

The pitch should never be too long, maybe 150-200 words. It needs to be straight to the point, laying out your idea in a clear way.

A very short paragraph saying who you are followed by detailed summary of your idea and then a description of the structure of the piece is the best format to use. #

You can always include more than one pitch in an email, but it’s recommended that you submit no more than two or three at a time, and never submit the same pitch to two publications at the same time!

Below is an example pitch I put together:

Week 7: Covering Budget Day

This week was Budget day, when chancellor George Osborne announces how the government will be spending the country’s money.

To take advantage of this opportunity, we simulated a news room experience and all contributed to a rolling news feature,  with each of us taking on a different role.

I was responsible, along with Alex Price, Fern Crawley and Chris Hitchings, for the data and infographics side of the features.

We had to find stories that could be presented particularly well via charts and data graphs.

I decided to cover unemployment in the country in the run up to the chancellor’s announcements that day.

This made particularly good material for a graph as I used it to show how the levels have fluctuated accordingly to the financial crisis since 2008. The graph sort of reinforced what people will have expected, that it peaked in late 2011 and has been on a steady decline since, but we still have a long way to go before we’re back to the levels of pre-recession unemployment in 2008.

An interesting fact was that unemployment is at its lowest point since that peak in 2011, which is always a good sign.

Overall I thought the experience was rather enjoyable. It was a fairly good simulation of a news room environment.

One problem I did face was that unless I zoomed into the chart it didn’t look as though unemployment levels has changed that much. However, they had, I just couldn’t find a way to start the Y-axis at 1 as opposed to 0, which would’ve helped a lot.

Week 6: Using Storify

This week, we learned how to use an online publishing platform called Storify. The tool essentially allows you to create content whilst also making it easy to embed various types of media, from Tweets to YouTube videos.

We were given a list of current topics, such as the missing Malaysian jet and the unrest between Russia and the Crimea. We then had to choose one of the topics and write a “dry-run” feature of approximately 300 words, and include social media in it.

This acted as preparation for a 1000 word feature which we will include in our professional portfolio for assessment.

(Click here to view the feature on Storify.com)

I chose to write about the Russia and Crimea situation. Not only because I find it extremely interesting, but also because social media has played a key role in the release of news regarding the situation, and seeing as though one of Storify’s main features is the incorporation of social media into stories, it made sense to go for this topic.

Overall, I was surprised at how good Storify is. It presents an easy, straightforward method of incorporating social media and links into your stories, something that can sometimes be a bit more complicated when you have to use HTML.