So this our prize at the top of the hill was meeting with BBC Lincs news editor Maggie Curtis.
Like any good editor Maggie was well prepared and seasoned enough to give us a few tips and shiny learning things. Would you like to know some ?
Well tough luck because with scrolling down you'll see them.
1. News sources. Every journalists needs these, like fish needs water of builders need bricks or Michael Bay needs an 80's kid shows he can douche up. These come in many shapes in sizes like:
The Internet and conventional media like newspapers and controversial press releases- Maggie made it clear BBC journalists do not churnelise stories and everything must be original. Their may be similar stories with rival outlets but rarely and with the BBC doing their own ground.
People- People are key to journalism just like a door. Maggie encouraged us to get on the phone and talk. Local journalists will make relationships with people which hopefully lead to future stories. Cue the importance of a contact book.
Social network- That's right a way to be legitimately on Facebook and Twitter and you boss not getting upset. Keeping an interesting set of friends could rustle up new stories or good commendable contacts. For Twitter following someone else then a D list celebrity like Stepehen Fry or BBC news could you keep you close to the breaking news of the world. A sentence of warning though, not all sources and friends are reliable. So be careful not to like or retweet everything, double check with over sources, wrong information could lead to a lot of things going wrong.
2. The Beebbook- That's right to score even more bonus points with your boss at the BBC use their own special social network program/ online diary- ENPS. ENPS is the BBC personal social network in a digital nutshell. The programme provides breaking news updates from all the BBC journalists, an example would be whilst Maggie showed us said programme news broke. The system files important breaking news in red, so guess what colour came up ?. It may have been the most dramatic thing but it was a big key thing for that day. As the Chancellor was on the way to deliver his budget a journalist reported via an instant messaging like function the fact people were laying down in front of his car.
3. No more 9-5, it's infinity to infinity- The confines of 9 to (well I've never had this because I always worked till 3) 5 and comfy office is just a dream. To be a good journalist you need to be on alert all the time. Maggies said any journalists which didn't turn up to a news meeting without an idea or had been talking to people over the weekend in case of it being a Monday weekend was not doing their job and shouldn't be inside the building. Also you must be ready to get up in the night if code red news came in and more importantly preparation was key. Maggie told us two hours before she started she'd consuming news via the net to keep up and be ready, knowing what will be on the bulletins. She even listened to her own station to keep up to date.
4. Soft soft software and the curse of magnetic hardware- Another lesson Maggie imparted onto us was that your use of software will explode as a journalist. Maggie had ENPS and Radioman (sound editing software, very similar like many sound editing software systems to our own Lincoln one Cool edit). Though here's the downside Maggie hinted that maybe be higher up the journalist food chain you come a bit reliant on technology as your only news source. Maggie recalled what was a dark incident that morning when she had no access to her PC for 2 hours and compared it to missing a vital limb. So key a thing as editor is to never let your feet leave the ground and leave your precious news sources slip away.
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