My week in media (again)

Inspired by the writer of this blog, who got her inspiration from the writer of this blog, I then wrote this blog post. Now I’m going to do it again.

In the last week I have watched…

Not a great deal to be honest. I’ve tucked into a fair few episodes of The Wire which are stacking up on my beloved Sky + box – truly top programme – and I can see myself becoming a fan of True Blood which started on FX the other week. Apart from that, nothing much floats my boat on TV at the mo but I’m pleased to say I’ve been cured of my Hollyoaks addiction. I attempted to watch an episode today for the first time in yonks and have seen it for what it really is – utter shite. It reminds me a little bit of the shire, where everyone knows everyone’s business, everyone is sleeping with everyone and everything is so dramatic. Tiresome trash me thinks. What I’m also pleased about is that I haven’t watched a single episode of Big Brother since the show where the freaks… erm, sorry, I mean housemates, entered the pit of doom… erm, I mean the BB house. Crap.

In the last week I have read…

It goes without saying that I’ve had my daily fix of gloom and doom which jumps out from the pages of The Daily Mail. Love it. I always pass the more intellectual rags – The Times and The Guardian – over to my colleague while I pour over stories about Kate Middleton’s less than savoury relatives and how Simon Cowell got sun burned on holiday. Journalism at it’s best (insert irony here). Well, it is silly season as we say in the trade, so news is thin I guess. On the book front I’m reading a novel by Lola Jaye, who was one of the panelists at the London Book Fair literary masterclass I went to. It’s not what I’d usually read so I’m picking it up in fits and starts but I’m mostly reading my friend’s novel at the mo, a racy little book with a sharp plot, literally. On the blog front, I’m dipping into my former boss and good friend Jane’s attempts to be Someone Nicer, this post about how I’ll consume media in 18 months’ time and my mate Lorna’s blog on life after breast cancer.

In the last week I have surfed…

The usual suspects like Facebook and Twitter, the website I work on – Platform – and BBC News is a daily click for me. I also stumbled upon Urban Retro, thanks to a colleague, which is pretty cool and I’ve been browsing websites related to all things New York ‘cos that’s where I’m jetting off to next month (this warrants a blog post of its own me thinks, coming soon).

In the last week I have listened to…

Radio 1 in the mornings, Chris Moyles is back on form I think; some Michael Jackson classics; three wonderful and nostalgic CDs full of 90s dance tunes; a lot of people moaning about swine flu (get over it, you just sneezed) and friends’ feedback on my novel.

The “write” career move?

Happy Monday folks! Apologies, I feel I’ve been neglecting this blog a little of late and posting pretty crappy content, but I’ve had my reasons. Apart from writing at work (it’s what I’m paid to do so I kinda have no choice there) I’ve been investing my spare time in writing…writing a book. Eek.

I’ve wanted to write a book for yonks, in fact I’ve started but not finished on many occasions. When I was clearing out files on my old PC over Christmas I came across something I’d started writing five years ago. I read it, having little memory of what it was all about and I thought: “You know, Robyn, this ain’t half bad.”

Writing is difficult and re-reading your own stuff over and over tends to mean you can’t see the wood for the trees. So skimming my own prose five whole years after writing it made me realise I can write and, actually, it was pretty funny stuff.

So, this year I enrolled on a Start Writing Course with The Open University to spur me on. In fact, what I write best isn’t actually fiction as such, more like real life stories and experiences gelled together, so this course will hopefully encourage me to focus on characterisation, plot and feed me some good writing tips.

Us journos write fact, fact, fact so it’s a bit hard to jump into fiction and knock out an award winning novel just like that. My friend Rhubarb Ruby has done just that though; I’m proud and jealous of her at the same time as her book is sitting in the laps of no less than three agents as we speak. Nice one.

So, I am 25,000 words into the first draft of my booksy and have another 50,000 to go I reckon. I’m not gonna tell you more than that, the rest’s a secret. Who knows if the finished product will even get read by anyone other that my journo/media mates but I have to at least give it a try.

So watch this space folks, will this be the next “write” move on my career ladder? Here’s hoping!

My relationship with newspapers

I owe a lot to newspapers. I spent the best part of a decade working for them – writing, editing, subbing, designing, training,  managing – and learned a whole lot along the way.

That said, I’m not too sad about my decision to move into communications/PR/new media. My former editor and mentor wrote in his recent Christmas card to me: “It’ll be a tough year for the paper this year. You’re best off out of it.”

And indeed I am. Although I no longer work for newspapers, my relationship with them has changed more than I realised. When you’re on the news desk you feel you have to defend your content against the criticism of a very unforgiving audience.

Now, I’m the one doing the criticising, well some of it anyway. For example, today’s Daily Mail has run a front page teaser about “Cheryl Cole’s battle with the bulge“. She wouldn’t know a bulge if John Wayne Bobbit’s crown jewels turned up in her tuna nicoise! Apparently, at one point she tipped the scales at nine and a half stone and she cried. My heart bleeds.

I know from experience that this time of year is difficult in terms of quality hard news, just like the summer months when not so much happens in the way of creating content for print. But come on, Cheryl Cole fighting obesity? Hardly newsworthy. Hardly even true.

This is why news online appeals so much more. There aren’t pages of print to fill by a certain deadline, news is posted as and when it happens. It’s immediate, it’s newsworthy (usually) and with the power of RSS feeds you don’t even need to go looking for it, the news comes to you.

I still prefer sitting with a newspaper sprawled across my lap as a method of soaking up the headlines, but hopping onto the BBC News homepage usually gives you what you need in one brief glance.

While I enjoy the lengthy news features that newspapers have the time and space to explore, I could to without the celebrity skinny versus curvy debates, the double page spreads on the latest detox diet and articles like this one which totally miss the point of social networking. Grrrr.

What do you think? Is print dead? Have newspapers had their day?

Changing media (i’m trying to keep up!)

Ooh, I can remember back in the day when I was a junior reporter knocking out stories on a dusty Mac and conducting interviews by phone and in person. Oh, how times have changed. And that’s just in the last 10 years.

When I was on the first rung of the ladder into a journalism career there was no internet, there was no email, no Wi-Fi, no broadband, no touch screen technology, no iPods and no satnav.

Now kids are downloading podcasts, creating web pages and posting blog entries as easily as we tie our shoelaces. And my attendance at the Media Guardian’s Changing Media Summit in London yesterday reminded me of this fact.

There’s a huge generation gap when it comes to digital technology and a lot of us are playing catch up. The internet generation is just as comfortable with uploading videos onto YouTube as we were playing hopscotch in the school playground.

Despite the incredibly early start yesterday – 5.30am, yawn city! – my work buddy and I attempted to take in a whole day’s worth of interviews, panel discussions, speeches and question and answer sessions with some of the biggest names in media. And it was a tad mind-boggling.

We’re both relieved that “the print is dead or dying fast” rumour won’t put us out of a job; the internet has opened up a lot of journalistic opportunities according to Guardian News & Media managing director Tim Brooks, so there’s hope for us print hacks yet.

We both agreed that writing for the web, be it websites, online newsletters or blogs, isn’t much different to writing for newspapers and magazines, and we’re excited at the prospect of getting to grips with all this digi stuff.

And just as I thought social networking was fading out, Travis Katz of MySpace showed us what’s in the pipeline and how it will keep on expanding. He also came out with this lovely quote: “Social networking is where people, content and culture collide.” Ah, ain’t that nice. Not a fan of MySpace myself; I prefer Facebook ‘cos you can choose who views your profile and avoid random messages from whacko strangers at the same time. But that’s just my preference. My ickle sister (aged 13, going on 21) prefers Bebo.

Anyway, enough of my media ramblings. If you want to learn more about this changing media business and yesterday’s summit, read my work blog Getting to knOU.

PS Here’s a random thing - I only bumped into one of the lovely Essex girls I met skiing in France a few weeks ago at this Changing Media Summit. Small world or what! 

Spring clean

I don’t know what it is about holidays, but I always feel motivated to sort my life out a bit when I get back. Tomorrow I head to France for a week and already I feel that the fresh mountain air will be enough to blow away the cobwebs and inject a bit of enthusiasm into Robyn’s World.

I’m looking forward to putting the following into action in March:

• Start volleyball training again, as ankle should be back to normal, and also go to korfball on Monday nights with the girls from work.
• Run (at least three times a week) to the newly opened Tesco Express store on my estate to pick up a morning newspaper – a 10 minute injection of exercise, fresh air and chance to catch up with the rest of the world.
• Use the medicine ball which is sitting on the floor at home. It’s not going to help me tone up unless I actually use it.
• Use my lunch hour to catch up on reading – CIPR reading list/PR Week and Media Guardian. I will become a font of all media and public relations knowledge.
• Eat better. The last few weeks have seen me shovel all sorts of edible evils into my mouth. It’s time to stock up on the fruit and veggies.
• Take a packed lunch to work. The cafeteria is costing me a small fortune.
• Make a list of all the unwanted things in my flat (two TVs for starters) and try and shift them on the work intranet site.
• Book my next holidays – it’s always good to have some guaranteed sunshine to look forward to. In the meantime I need to ditch the pasty look and get busy with the fake tan.
• Be more efficient at work and try and establish a proper routine.
• Make plenty of time to go dancing with the girlies and catch up with buddies back in the Shire

My week in media

Inspired by the writer of this blog, who got her inspiration from the writer of this blog, I am going to write about my week in media. Here goes…

What I’ve read

• A few chapters of Book of the Dead, by Patricia Cornwell
• A backlog of issues of The Journalist (NUJ publication)
• Flicked through MK News (the local rag)
• Heat magazine. Essential for latest celeb gossip and fashion disasters
• Re-visited Bill Bryson’s Troublesome Words
• And I’d like to say The Guardian’s media section but I just haven’t got round to it

What I’ve listened to

• Radio 1 (Moyles in the morning, Mills in the evening)
• Clubland CD (for bopping to in the car and pretending I’m young enough to get away with it)
• A few tracks on a Party Hits CD which my mate left behind when she last visited

What I’ve watched

• BBC One’s Sense and Sensibility on Sunday, lovin’ it, lovin’ it, lovin’ it
• Hollyoaks (the only thing I watch with any regularity these days. It’s easy, no-effort TV for people in their 20s. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway!)
• Wire in the Blood. Just a one-off I think but I loved the series.
• Mistresses. Well, not watched it yet but I’ve recorded it. S’posed to be the UK version of Sex and the City, and I love anything with Sarah Parish in.
• PS, I Love You at the cinema. Proper girly film but plenty of eye candy. Dark hair, blue eyes, toned arms and Irish charm. What more could a girl want?

What I’ve surfed

• BBC News to see what’s going on in the world
• Various Open University web pages (research for work)
• Learning/literacy websites (research for an article I’m working on)
• My friend’s blogs
• Facebook. Yes, I’m another addict.
• CIPR website to remind myself about the diploma I’m starting next week. Eek, studying!