I recently got accepted on the Young Journalism Academy (YJA) annual summer camp located in Canary Wharf. This scheme provides young budding Journalists with the opportunity to learn and experience more about the industry through skill workshops, talks and many other useful sessions. This week I will be writing daily reviews of the camp and the sessions I enjoyed the most.
This year, the scheme began on Saturday 17th August. To begin the day, we had an introduction of Canary Wharf and the plans that it holds for it’s hopeful future, from Howard Dawber. During this, we also took a look at the exclusive models of London and the potential future of Canary Wharf. All of which I must say, was very interesting!
After this informative talk, we then headed down to the training center- where we will be spending most of our time throughout the week. Here we began our first session of the day with Editor of Spiked Magazine, Brendan O’Neil. In this workshop, Brendan provided advice on how to write different styled articles, such as News Reports, Opinionated Pieces, Reviews, Features, Blogs and so on. He also made the session interactive through letting us write articles within a short amount of time- which is one thing he told us to be especially prepared for as a Journalist, when it comes to deadlines.
Brendan also provided the group with a crucial acronym that is useful to keep in mind whilst writing articles – ABC.
A – Accuracy
B – Brevity
C- Clarity
He explained that these practical rules are not to be followed religiously, but to be used as a basic guide to make sure that you are on the right track when writing. There was one thing in particular that Mr O’Neil said that stood out to me, which was ‘Avoid being snobby about Tabloids’. He then went on to speak about the unique way in which they portray a story in such limited amount of words. As an aspiring Broadsheet Journalist, this made me consider the different ways in which stories can be told and that I can experiment with various writing styles to develop my own individual approach. At the end of this session I was blessed enough to ask Brendan a few questions, and give him my card containing the link to my blog and email address!
The next session was held by Patrick Haynes, who is also from Spiked Magazine. In this workshop, Patrick spoke on the topic of how to interview as a Journalist. Below I have listed some of the key points that he provided the group with:
Put the interviewee at ease- Make sure that your interviewee feels as comfortable as possible. This means you should consider the location, dress code, arrangement etc. of the interview. This will also make it easier to build a rapport with your interviewee.
‘Play dumb’ – Even if you have done all the research you need to know about this person. Ask basic questions such as ‘how do you spell your name’, just to clarify any information that you may or may not already have.
Bring a Recording Device- It will make things much more easier if you do this, as you won’t have to rush writing everything in your note book. However, you should also ask the interviewee if they’re ok with you recording them.
Another session that took place later on in the day, was led by Wall Street Journalist Anne Jolis, who has bravely traveled to several war zones, including Afghanistan and Mali. This session was particularly interesting as it provided insight into a war zone environment from a ‘westerner’s’ perspective. It also gave us the opportunity to ask questions as well as take on any advice that she had for those who are interested in this field of Journalism. One tip that Anne was particularly keen to get across was that, you should not just chase the, and I quote, ‘BANG BANG’. By this she means not to get too caught up in the hype of the moment when things are at its peak, but rather to look at why things are as they are; because ‘there is more to life than the BANG BANG’.
In regards to preparing a story, Anne advised us to be sensitive when interviewing certain people, particularly those who have just witnessed or experienced a horrific event. In addition, she told us to be careful with naming people in articles as it could put them in danger. Furthermore, Miss Jolis informed us of the after effects of being at a war zone and that it can take time to adjust to the safe environment that you are in when you are back at home. She says that getting to and from the conflict zone are the hardest parts of the journey.
I would like to thank all of the Journalists who led a session on this day and I look forward to the upcoming sessions that are due to take place throughout the week!
To find out more about YJA, follow them on twitter @young_journos or visit their website http://yja.org.uk/.
Watch this space for my next blog post on the YJA summer camp!
