Reporting on football

Yesterday was my first day reporting on the football. The match was a league 2 game, Hartlepool United vs Wycombe Wanderers. 

My press pass meant I sat in the press box with the other reporters and gained entry into the match for free. I felt very professional. 

My job was simple. Use the Radio Hartlepool account to live tweet the game while Mark writes up the match report. 

What I realised, quickly, was that football is a very fast paced game. The whole swing of the match can change in a matter of seconds and you have to pay attention to every little detail in order to be able to report well on it. 

The problem came with knowing what to tweet. What are football fans interested in? Do they care about almost goals? About who get’s subbed? About who is injured?

I decided to stick with a very basic format. Tweeting when anyone got subbed or injured or a goal was scored. If nothing dramatic happened I would just tweet every ten minutes with the minute and the score. 

Unfortunately my home team didn’t win and the match finished Pools 1 – 2 Wycombe (although Pools did score an impressive goal in the last two minutes – their first goal of the league). 

After the match we waited around for an hour hoping for an interview that we never got. A shame, but that’s just part of the job. Some weeks we’ll get an interview, other weeks we will go home empty handed and disappointed. 

Now I have to be honest: I am not a major football fan. However, reporting at the match was exciting and new and something I found myself really enjoying. I can see myself taking a keen interest into football in the future and will enjoy reporting at Pool’s home games. 

I’m really grateful for this opportunity because let’s be honest: how many other 17 year olds get to report on football matches? 

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Media Accreditation

I now have an official press pass.  Through working with Radio Hartlepool I have received this brilliant opportunity. When Hartlepool FC play I have the chance to go see the match from the press box and then speak to the team / manager ect. afterwards. I then will report on the match on an hour segment on the Radio after the match. 

This is brilliant as I think it shows my dedication to be a journalist. I will happily dip into any area of reporting as it means getting my name out there and doing what I love best – reporting on things people actually care about. 

I think having media accreditations at 17 is pretty impressive if I do say so myself. I’m hopeful this will make potential employee’s or universities view me as someone who takes this seriously and is dedicates, because I am. 

This is a really exciting opportunity for me. 

Sitting in the offices of Radio Hartlepool

Th experience thus far has been.. interesting to say the least.

I am yet to be on air but I have wrote press releases.. something I’ve never done before but something I’ve found to be quite easy and maybe I have a talent for? We’ll see. The press released will be said on air on Lee’s show.

The people here are all lovely people… yet once again I find myself the only female and also the youngest person in the group. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. People are more eager to help me because I am younger (and possibly because of the female part).

But I can’t help being a little bit offended. I am very capable of looking after myself when given the opportunity. I just need the chance.

Yet I have learnt a lot about radio. The group is close, funny and always willing to lend a hand. I find myself fitting it and enjoying myself. I do quite like it here and hopefully when given the chance will be able to prove my abilities.

 

Radio

So today was my interview for Radio Hartlepool. They told me all about the station, showed me around and were generally really nice to me. They told me they needed someone to do local news as no one had done it for over a year – asked me if I was interested. 

Hell yes I’m interested. This kind of work experience will be so beneficial in the future. It will help me get into university, get a job and teach me loads about how radio stations work, how to put together a news bulletin and present it. 

The whole team seems really nice and I’m really grateful for this opportunity. 

Will keep you updated on what happens there 🙂 

The Beauty of Twitter

Today I tweeted ‘need some work experience #please’ 

Within a few hours one of the DJ’s at my local radio station replied with ‘where are you based?’. Within minutes I was offered work experience. 

Throughout the day emails and tweets have been sent back and forth and I start work experience at Radio Hartlepool next Tuesday. 

People often say that social networks are killing society – that they prevent us from communicating face to face – but for people trying to get the career they want they are nothing but useful. I have a twitter, a facebook, a blog, a tumblr, a linkedin and when it was popular I had a myspace. 

Point being that twitter and other social networks can be the most powerful weapons at our disposal – whether we use them for good or bad is up to us. In this case twitter has only brought about good things for me and I am hopeful that it will keep doing so. 

Exploring Journalism

This weekend has been spent at Nottingham University attending a journalism conference. It has made me more determined than ever to succeed as a journalist whilst supplying me with the skills I need to make it. I have always wanted to be a journalist but until now this ambition has been undermined by other things – but no longer. Now I have the skills, the recourses, the ability to make my own future.

Why the blog?

One of my lectures told us to create a blog. So I did. But what do I write about? Anything.

This blog will be filled with article’s I’ve wrote, articles that have been published, work experience, contacts I’ve made – my journey to where I want to be.

What I have learned from this weekend is that only I can be the catalyst to my success. Cheesy, I know, but true. Nobody else can get me work experience. Nobody else can get me contacts. Nobody else can run my blog.

I will do this, and I will do it well.

“Make success a habit”