ThreePointsClear.com- Cricket

Andrew Strauss believes England are ready to take their rightful place as the world's number one cricket side by defeating England. Read why it is vital that England get a good start at Lord's:

http://threepointsclear.weebly.com/cricket.html

Season Preview Part 3: Manchester City and Manchester United

Who will get the edge in Manchester this season? Find out if Man City's money can compete with Man United's history here:

http://threepointsclear.weebly.com/football.html

ThreePointsClear.com- Football

http://threepointsclear.weebly.com/villa-get-given-not-a-world-class-player.html

Aston Villa have signed Shay Given. But, is he still a good player? His new manager says he is world class.How can he be if he was second best at Man City?

ThreePointsClear.com- Rugby

The Mad Rucker: New Zealand to Crash and Burn at Rugby World Cup

http://threepointsclear.weebly.com/rugby.html

New Zealand might be many people's favourites for this the RWC, but the Mad Rucker thinks they will crash and burn. Read all about it here.

ThreePointsClear.com- Football

Premier League Season Preview- Part One

http://threepointsclear.weebly.com/football.html

Kieran Brannigan takes an in depth look at this season's Premier League. Who will be the forerunners for the title? Who will face relegation to the Championship? Today, he assesses the chances of Arsenal, Villa, Blackburn and Bolton.

ThreePointsClear.com

Check out www.threepointsclear.weebly.com for expert knowledge and opinions on the sports that matter. We cover everything from Football to Horse Racing, so you are bound to find something of interest. Feel free to comment on our blogs, we are always looking for input from anyone.

LANDLORD FURIOUS AT ROAD CLOSURE

A Hampshire landlord is angry that road works have closed the road leading to his pub.

Beaulieu Road in the New Forest is closed during the day until Friday, but is still open in evenings and at the weekend.

The pub's owner says that his takings are down by as much as 50% and that he may have to sack staff in order to stay open. Reginald Chester-Sterne, the pub's landlord, said: “I have to lay some staff off. If I do not take money I cannot pay staff. So this week there will be at least five staff affected.”

The pub depends on the summer season to survive, relying heavily on tourist trade to Exbury and Beaulieu Motor Museum. Chester-Sterne asked: “Why couldn't it be done earlier in the year?”

He claims that it is the third time that roadworks in the area have affected his business, and that Hampshire County Council should plan all their roadworks to happen at the same time.

However, Council leaders say they have done everything they can in order to stop disruption to local businesses.

Councillor Mel Kendal, Executive Member for Environment and Transport at Hampshire County Council, said: “The work being carried out on Beaulieu Road is part of “Operation Resilience”- a multi-million pound, long term investment to strengthen the country's rural roads and make them more resilient against the effects of extreme weather and, therefore, less susceptible to potholes.”

“Access to the pub is being maintained while work is in progress and we suspended work over the weekend, as we have been doing in the evening, to minimise the disruption for local residents and businesses. I appreciate that the works cause some inconvenience but would ask people to bear with us while this essential work is carried out.”

It is expected that work will finish this Friday, in time for the weekend trade.

WINCHESTER LEAPS UP UNIVERSITY LEAGUE TABLES

The University of Winchester has rocketed up the Guardian University league table, climbing over 25 places. The University now sits in 69th place, up from 96th last year.

The newspaper rates Universities on a variety of factors, including satisfaction with teaching and the chances of getting a job on graduation.

It appears Winchester's rise was mainly down to an increase in it's “value added score,” which rates a university's ability to turn students that have a low entry score into a student that leaves with a good degree.

The league tables not only show how good a university is overall, but also how good individual courses are. Some subject areas at the University scored particularly highly. Sport came in at 25th place and the teaching department came in at 11th.

A spokesperson for the University said: “The University of Winchester has risen 27 places in the latest Guardian University Guide 2012, published yesterday. The results showed that the University has gone from 96th place in 2011 to 69th in 2012, being one of only four universities in the benchmarking group to improve their ranking.

At subject level there has been improvement for Archaeology, Education and Sports Science. The result reflects the University’s continued focus on delivering an excellent student experience and improving programme delivery.”

Cambridge came top of the Guardian poll, displacing arch-rivals Oxford who spent the previous six years at number one.

WINOL Week 10

WINOL Week 9

WINOL Week 8

How to get noticed by the world's media: Pretend to be a psychic.....

A country house in rural Texas became the scene of a huge police investigation last night. The world's media was drawn to the scene. Soon, reputable news outlets were reporting a mass grave had been found. CNN and the BBC were alluding to dismembered bodies of children. Was this the unearthing of a new mass murderer?

Well, no.

The major news outlets were getting seriously ahead of themselves. There was no grave. There are no bodies. Instead, there was a tip-off from a psychic that there was a mass grave. Surely the world's respected media were not going to repeat the ramblings of a lunatic as fact? They wouldn't devote wall to wall coverage on their 24 hour news channels to it?

Well, yes. Yes, they did.

Going on no more than the report of a psychic, respected channels devoted their entire coverage to this story.  It turns out police found little more than some blood on a door and the stench of rotting meat.

Good journalism must be based on fact. Not on the ramblings of someone of questionable mental faculties.

CALL FOR CLARITY OVER FUEL FACTORY

A group of angry residents has called for the company behind a proposed fuel factory in Southampton to clarify their plans.

The No Southampton Biomass (NSB) campaign describes the latest press release from the company behind the scheme as “wooly” and “non committal.” 

Helius, the developer behind the plans, announced last week that it would extend its public consultation period over the summer. 

But the campaign group has called upon the developers to clarify their plans before they are submitted to the Infrastructure Planning Commission.

Orlanda Cooper, one of the lead campaigners, said: “We are still a little concerned as to what their new proposals are going to be. Whether this is just a small change or whether they're actually going to look at the whole project.”

The group was set up in an attempt to stop construction of the fuel factory. Large scale protests earlier in the year were followed by smaller scale demonstrations outside public exhibitions. If the plans are approved the factory will be built on land in the western docks, near the Freemantle area of the city.

Biomass plants burn wood to produce energy. The station planned for Southampton could produce enough energy for up to 200,000 homes. Biomass plants are seen as an environmentally friendly option as the wood used is usually sourced from sustainable forests and emissions produced are less than that for burning oil.

In a press release last week Helius said: “In response to the public feedback received, Helius has commenced a review of the siting, form and external appearance of the scheme. Opportunities to provide more detail on the design approaches for the project will also be considered. Helius will also review and update air quality, noise and traffic assessments.”

“In order to allow the public and other consultees the chance to comment n the proposed amendments to the scheme, a further round of public consultation is now planned, prior to submitting the application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission later this year. It is anticipated this will take place over the summer and Helius will announce the details in due course.”

But, NSB said: “We feel this is another example of a “wooly” and non committal press release that has the potential to be read and interpreted in a number of different ways.

WINOL Week 7

WINOL Week 6

WINOL: Week 5 Review

This week I knew I would be presenting the news. It seems to be an unwritten rule in WINOL that the person presenting does not do a full video package, but instead does an OOV (Out of Vision-pictures with the presenter speaking over the top.)

My story involved Joy Carter (Vice-Chancellor of the uni) signing up to an open letter to the Government in an attempt to persuade them not to change immigration rules for foreign students. This is quite an important story in education as many universities rely on income from foreign students.

I interviewed the head of the International student society as part of this but decided against using it as no strong answers were given. I was also supposed to interview the university's foreign student officer but she cancelled on me after her boss told her not to speak to the press. So my OOV only consisted of shots of the uni again. I did try to be quite innovative this week; I took shots through flowers and shots of reflections in order to make the uni look more interesting.

On the day there was some confusion as to who whould be presenting what as Katy also thought she was presenting news. I settled the problem by saying I would present sport if the managing director (Karen) guaranteed me another chance at presenting news after Easter. This felt like my first real deal within the newsroom environment.

Part of the job as presenter is scripting, writing links etc. I would have to write a script for an OOV of a streaker at a local football game. I managed to work the pun “bare-faced cheek” into the script, and although it was massively cheesy I think it worked well. Thank to Jake Gable and Gareth Messenger for help with the scripting (having been on sport all term they know more about the local teams than I do).

I think the presenting went quite well for a first go. I only stumbled over one word and that was a double-barrelled name in a long list of names. I must admit to being quite nervous beforehand but once the cameras were rolling that all disappeared. I think I came across quite naturally on screen although I could have relaxed my posture a little and given my eyebrows a bit of a rest!

I also spent much of the week helping Sam shoot his story. His story involved a protest by mums against the closure of their Sure Start centres. We took two cameras down to the protest and got some superb footage, managing to interview the head of Hampshire County Council, a man who manages a budget of over £1Billion.

Sam's package was brilliant this week, he did really well editing it. I'm sure he won't mind me saying I came up with his outline about the centres floating away as he cut to a shot of a baloon floating away. It may have been a cheesy line but I think it worked in this situation and didn't step over the line into cringe worthy. It was perfect for local TV.

WINOL: Week 4 Review

I found my story on Monday morning in a small piece about tuition fees in the Times. In a box that accompanied the story they revealed the amount Winchester University would be charging for tuition fees in the future.

This was obviously a massive story for a university news service, one that would interest staff and students alike and I was given top story for the week.

My first step was attempting to varify the claims with the university. I attempted to speak to Tommy Geddes who is in charge of finances, but he refused to speak to me. I later emailed him and was given a rather swift “no comment” in return. This was great news as effectively the university was refusing to deny the story.

As I am education correspondent I am more often than not using shots of the university. It is becoming quite tough to not just use my standard “shot of student without revealing the identity” so I had to find some new shots of the uni. These included a blurred shot of students in the learning cafe (blurred in post production) and some zooms and pans to make buildings and signs more appealing.

My interviews this week were with students at the university. I asked them if they would still be here if they were charged £7,500 a year. One of my interviewees gave a particularly good set of answers. After some advice from our guest editor (Tom Hepworth from South Today) I now think it would have been better to have used him in a case study, perhaps highlighting his financial situation by going shopping with him or cooking baked beans to produce a good shot sequence.

The backgrounds to my interviews were again poor. I placed my interviewees in front of a window and therefore there faces looked quite dark when I got the footage back to the news room. Again, with the help of FinalCut I managed to make them look half decent by making their faces lighter.

I worked with Sam Harper this week to produce some graphics to illustrate how much the fees would be in comparison with now. I was really happy with the outcome, Sam had done a great job. But, as Tom was watching it back I could see the confusion on his face. Basically, I had asked for too much detail on screen at one time. He advised me to keep them much simpler in future.

During the week I actually managed to find the source of the leak of the Times but decided to keep that under wraps.

All in all a good week editorially, I'm more than happy with getting top story, but still a lot to work on technically.  

WINOL: Week 3 Review

News broke on Monday morning that the president of the NUS (Aaron Porter) would not be standing for re-election at the end of his first term. As a controversial national figure on the student scene it was vital that we covered this story. It was a story that was covered at a national level by the BBC so I decided to put a local spin on it by evaluating the effect it may have on Winchester students.

I tried to get a hold of Aaron Porter through his PA. Unfortunately he was too busy to do a phone interview. (However, I continued down this route and managed to get an interview for Colin with Porter a few weeks later that he did over Skype.)

My interview with Seb, the Student President at Winchester, was good. However, he was very polished and unfortunately did not say anything controversial. Again, I have to work on the backgrounds for my interviews. This one was too white, we were in an all white room and perhaps should have asked to do it somewhere else. When I got back to the news room the colours were off as well, so I really must remember to white balance etc. This was sorted out in post-production using coulour corrector on FinalCut with help from Andy Giddings.

The voxpops I got were OK. I had to go through a ridiculous amount of students before anyone actually recognised the name Aaron Porter, which was pretty frustrating. As I was shooting on my own I framed them with quite a bit of headroom. I squeezed the shot closer to their faces, again in post-production with help from Andy.

I tried to get some new and innovative shots of uni. I did this my using zooms and pans. A shot I like a lot was the one of the canteen zoomed in through a window before zooming out to reveal the main university building. I also liked the shots of students that I took without idntifying anyone (Human Rights Act) showing people and movement, which is always more interesting than a shot of a building.

Thanks to Julie for helping me with the archive footage of Aaron Porter and the strikes. This really helped colour the story, as well as give it some context within other news stories.

"UNFAIR" FUEL FACTORY FOR SOUTHAMPTON

Angry residents have protested against plans to build a new biomass power station in central Southampton.

Local people are angry at “completely unfair” plans that could see a 100m chimney tower over the city.

Campaigners have set up the No Southampton Biomass group in an attempt to stop construction of the fuel factory. Protests over the weekend have been followed by smaller scale demonstrations outside public exhibitions. If the plans are approved the factory will be built on land in the western docks, near the Freemantle area of the city.

The company behind the scheme are Helius Energy,who admitted there are “understandable concerns” from local residents but that they will press ahead with the scheme. They have held public exhibitions this week in an effort to calm fears that the plant will cause excess pollution. Helius insist that the plant will meet environmental standards.

But Eloisa Gil Arranz, one of the leaders of the campaign against the plant, said: “To take away a landscape that we've got and put something else in it's place to me seems completely unfair and I don't know how they can think that that's anything that we're going to look upon positively.”

“I really don't think they understand what people of Southampton actually want. We don't want this, we don't want it on our doorstep, we don't want it on the gateway to our city and we'll never be proud of it.”

Biomass plants burn wood to produce energy. The station planned for Southampton will produce enough energy for 200,000 homes. Biomass plants are seen as an environmentally friendly option as the wood used is usually sourced from sustainable forests and emissions produced are less than that for burning oil.

Paul Brighton, Helius' Planning Director, said: “There are understandable concerns about traffic movement and impact of the plant on air quality, visual impact, noise issues and so on, but we have addressed all of those through very detailed environmental studies as part of the ongoing work.”

Helius say that production of the power station will create hundreds of jobs during construction and then around 40 permanent jobs when the plant is up and running.

In a statement to WINOL Southampton City Council said they would not support the plans in their current format. Councillor Royston Smith, Leader of Southampton City Council, said: “I have reviewed these proposals in detail and I share the concerns of residents. We will oppose the plans if they are submitted. The public has reacted passionately about this issue and I completely understand why. Green energy creation and jobs for local people could be good if done in the right way, however in this instance we agree with residents that the current proposals would not be suitable for this area, particularly for those residents living close by to the development site.”

In response, Helius have now said that they will attempt to rework plans to make the plant smaller, minimising the visual impact on the area.

CAREERS ADVICE CUTS TO AFFECT YOUNG PEOPLE

Thousands of young people in the area could go without careers advice as the Government plans to change its current advisory system.

The warning comes from the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), who say plans to change the system could leave “a big cohort” of students without professional advice.

Currently careers advice for young people is given by the Government's Connexions service, they provide information for those aged 13-19 in schools and in individual centres around the country.

But with funding being withdrawn from services there is a risk that young people will be left with no advice at all.

The Government plans to introduce a new universal advisory system in April 2012, but the ASCL fears that cuts to funding will leave an advice gap before the new system is up and running. Sara Gadzik, Communications Director of the ASCL, said: “In a lot of places that service is being withdrawn by local authorities that just can't afford to fund it anymore. There's a new service coming into effect that the Government is putting into place but that's not going to be in place until April of 2012.”

“There's a year gap where there is just really nothing in place and schools are scrambling around trying to fill that gap. There is a real risk that there is a big cohort of students who are just not going to have access to good professional, impartial careers advice.”

Although it is a national scheme the funding for Connexions services is decided upon by local authorities. Hampshire County Council say that no decision has been made on the future of the it's scheme.

UNIVERSITY BOSSES WARN AGAINST VISA RESTRICTIONS

The Vice-Chancellor of Winchester University has warned that courses could close if student visas are restricted.

Winchester's Joy Carter is one of 16 university bosses to sign an open letter to the Government predicting financial hardship if proposed limits are enforced.

The fears are a response to measures proposed by Home Secretary Theresa May after an extensive consultation process. Her plans will limit student immigration by imposing strict new guidelines for possible students. These include restricting places to those who fall below new english language standards.

The letter, published in the Observer, includes a stark warning for the future of science and engineering courses. There are fears this will cut the selection of courses available to British students. They said: “Without international students, many university courses, particularly science and engineering ones, may no longer be viable. This will in turn reduce the courses available to UK students.”

The vice-chancellors insist they appreciate concerns that immigration rules could be misused but believe the overwhelming majority of international students are blameless. The letter said: “Universities are fully aware of public concern about abuse of immigration rules. Any abuse must be tackled robustly and Universities UK will co-operate fully in ensuring that cases of abuse are minimised. But evidence shows that international students in universities overwhelmingly do not abuse the system.”

In a statement the Home Office said that no final decision has been made. "Any criticism can only be based on speculation as no decisions have yet been made on the changes to the student visa route. However, universities that are confident in the product they have to offer genuine students should have nothing to fear from policies that root out abuses in the student visa system."

WINCHESTER UNIVERSITY FEES LEAKED TO NATIONAL NEWSPAPER

Governors at the University of Winchester have refused to deny that students could pay £7,500 a year for tuition from 2012.

Speculation in The Times suggests that the amount has been agreed on, despite no official word from university officials.

When quizzed by WINOL Vice Chancellor Tommy Geddes refused to comment.

The news follows a tumultuous few months for universities, in which the coalition government has come under increasing pressure from students following the publication of the Browne Review.

Students at Winchester University currently pay £3,290 a year in tuition. Under government plans universities could charge up to £9,000. Many are unsure they would be at the university if they were charged the proposed amount.

Josh Finch, an accounts student, said: “It would be too much to come to university. You could look to do something else like get an apprenticeship, where it would be cheaper. And you're actually learning the skills day to day, instead of actually paying to learn and then coming out with the debt.”

Tom Mereweather, who is studying for a business management degree, said: “I wouldn't be here if I was being charged £7,500. It's really too much for a university like Winchester.”

However, some students are worried about getting good value for money, not increased fees.

Steven Phillips, a sports science student, said: “In the long run even though the fees are quite high the university itself is quite good so hopefully the quality of degree I would get would help me a get a job.”

An official announcement is expected in the next few months. Any final decision on fees will be subject to approval from the Office for Fair Access.

By Kieran Brannigan

LOCAL STUDENT PRESIDENT DEFENDS NUS LEADER

The controversial head of the NUS has been defended by the President of Winchester University's student union.

Seb Miell was responding to claims that Aaron Porter has failed in his job as president of the National Union of Students, after failing to stop tuition fees from being trebled.

Miell was quick to defend the outgoing president: “I think NUS leadership was very good this year. It's been a very difficult year. He's been shoved into the spotlight more than other NUS presidents would have been.”

Aaron Porter, 26, led students through an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to stop the coalition government from raising tuition fees.

He is to stand down as head of the NUS after a turbulent few months which saw students hit the streets to campaign against a proposed raise in tuition fees

The decision comes after increased pressure from students within the organisation. The student president has suffered abuse in recent months and had to be escorted from a protest by police.

Planned protests in November descended into chaos when protestors stormed Conservative headquarters at Millbank Tower. Porter attempted to distance the NUS from the violence, but in doing so attracted criticism from more radical students.

Much of the anger was directed at the coalition government. Liberal Democrat leaders came under criticism for going back on a pre-election pledge not to raise fees.

When asked about Porter's decision to step down, Isabel Heslop, a student at Winchester University, said: “Because of the bad organisation and the violence at the protest, maybe it's a good idea.”

In his blog Porter said that it was a “tragedy” that many aspiring students will now decide that higher education is not for them and that the new president will face big challenges getting a good deal for students.

Aaron Porter's successor will be appointed this April at the NUS National Conference.

COUNCIL CUTS COULD CAUSE CLOSURE OF CHILDREN'S CENTRES

Hampshire County Council will axe almost 1200 jobs as budget cuts force a massive shake up.

On Friday the cabinet met to discuss financial plans for the next couple of years. County Treasurer Carolyn Williamson warned that the County is 'facing changes of an unprecedented scale.'

This decision has been made after it was revealed the Council is facing a funding gap of £55 million. Job cuts will take place and final redundancies are expected to be announced by the end of March. Overall 1,171 members of council staff will lose their jobs. Several departments will be affected, losses include;

• 458 from children's services
• 378 from adult services
• 111 from environmental services

Hampshire County Council Chief Executive Andrew Smith said: "The impact on senior management will be significant."

Cabinet member Councillor Mel Kendal believes that most cuts will be part of the natural cycle. He said: "Most people that will be leaving will be senior management, people towards the end of their careers anyway. They will be offered voluntary redundancy and that will cover most of the posts. Obviously we will still have to make some other redundancies, and that is always sad. We think though, that these are skilled individuals who will hopefully be able to find new jobs with out to much difficulty."

The number of people that need adult services has increased, and although the department faces heavy lay-offs Councillor Ken Thornber, Leader of Hampshire County Council stressed: "In the midst of cuts, we will still care for the vulnerable."

There was some good news for Hampshire residents, it was confirmed that council tax will not increase. “The people of Hampshire will not be asked to pay more for council tax next year, which I feel is quite an achievement.” said Councillor Thornber.

By Kieran Brannigan and Sam Homewood

Hampshire County Council's plan to cut 458 jobs from Children's Services means that many Sure Start centres could close for good.

The centres provide educational and healthcare support for pre-school children and their parents.

“I'd spend my whole week there if I didn't have other commitments.”

“To a lot of people I've met through the Sure Start system these places are vital.”

“Single mothers rely on the Sure Start system. It is a big part of their life, it is very important for them.” Ayisha Tryhorn, a mother from Shirley.

“I am just one of many parents upset at the possible closure of my children's centre. We are angry at the prospect that our centre may have to merge with another, or at worst close.”

“People rely on this service, it's been there for me through some difficult times. It's really important to us.” Tracey Watts, from Holbury, near Southampton.

“It has really helped me meet new parents and friends. I'd be really upset if it had to close.” Chloe Phillips, also of Holbury.

By Kieran Brannigan and Sam Homewood

WINOL: Week 2 Review

Another entertaining week working for Winchester News Online. As the weeks go by I feel the team is growing in confidence, which can only lead to better results. Once again there were some great packages and a brilliant link to the news room involving Julie (our news editor).

On a personal note I still have a lot to learn when it comes to putting together a great news package.

I have been given the job of education correspondent on the team, and I cant say I was particularly excited by the prospect of this. However, my first assignment was actually quite enjoyable.

I began the week struggling for a story, but after a little research found some that I thought had legs. The story I decided to run involved budget cuts at Hampshire County Council and how they could affect education in the area. At last Friday's budget meeting it was decided nearly 1200 jobs would be cut, with 458 to go in children's services (thanks to Sam Homewood for the info from the meeting).

After emailing most of the county's Sure Start centres it became apparent that many of them may be forced to merge or to close in the foreseeable future because of this. One set of parents contacted me to tell me about a protest they are organising in a few weeks, and that I should come down and speak to them.

I proceeded to interview the group outside a set of school gates. I was extremely happy with the answers they gave me, both informative and full of emotion. They really seemed to care about the future of their centre. As soon as I got home I realised I had made an absolute rookie mistake. I had accidentally filmed my footage in HD and in wide-screen, therefore, I wouldn't be able to use it as WINOL works in DV and 4:3.

I had another interview arranged with another concerned mother an hour later. This time I made sure all the setting were correct before going out. I managed to get some great shots of her kids, as well as some good footage in the kitchen for a sequence. The interview again went really well, although I think I need to work on where I interview people. The background looked quite messy and the sound had a bit of an echo to it.

At this point it was decided that I probably wasn't going to have enough footage to make a package of my own, as unfortunately no Sure Start centre would allow me to come interview staff, or film inside at all. So me and Sam Homewood were partnered together, he focused on the Council cuts, whereas I brought an interesting case study to the table.

We set out and got some good Gvs of the Council (as well as a few poor ones; signs and a bronze pig, which in retrospect we really shouldn’t have used!) and then worked on the scripting of the piece together.

Sam's piece to camera was good, straight to the point and not overloaded with info. I made the recommendation that he should look at his piece of paper when reading a quote. I think this would have worked if we had done it properly, but unfortunately you couldn’t see the piece of paper on camera. So, it ended up looking like he was taking a shifty look to try and remember his lines. I'll take the blame for this one.

I was really happy with our scripting, especially at the start, where the words really worked with the pictures. The links between interviews also worked really well.

What I'm most proud of this week is the way the sequence and interview linked together. It was edited together in a very interesting way, including some good cutaways. I really like the idea of hearing someone’s voice on screen before you see them. We actually used it twice in this package, doing it for the piece to camera as well, which in hindsight may have been overkill.

One thing I've learned this week is that even if I know what my pictures mean, the viewer may not. An example of this is the GV of the pig at the end of the package. For me, the bronze pig outside the Council offices is an obvious symbol of Hampshire County Council. But I quickly found that most people didn't have the same opinion. We ended the package on a shot of the pig, and looking back on it really shouldn't have. At best it had nothing to do with the content of the package, and at worst it could have been construed as an attempt to paint Council bosses as swines.

A pretty successful week, but a lot to work on.

WINOL: Week 1 Review

First week back after Christmas and we have been thrown straight into WINOL. I have been given the “beat” of education. However, we had other stories prepared so we will start those jobs next week.

For my first news story of the semester I attempted to put a local spin on a national news story. The new government website www.police.uk has received a lot of negative press because the servers running it were overworked, causing the site to crash. My take on the story would be to see how much crime the site recorded for Winchester city centre in the last month, and consequently, if residents were worried about the results.

I used voxpops to gauge the mood of the people of Winchester in response to the new site. I don't really like the idea of voxpops in general. They seem quite weak to me, and often don't add any real insight or important information. But on this occasion I thought they were appropriate as the public were an integral part of the story.

Another issue with the voxpops this week was that I ran the risk of identifying people in the background. Obviously we have to be very careful with privacy of people when we don't have permission for them to be on camera and I shall endeavour to avoid having people in the background in future.

I decided to use a piece to camera (e.g. me on camera) to help explain my story. I felt it was appropriate as I was talking about a particular area of the city to be on the street in question. The first attempt I had I walked straight down the road. I took this in for editing but Charlotte (our editor) didn't like it as I had walked straight down the street. She wanted me to do it again, this time walking at an angle, which I was more than happy to do. I realised I wasn't happy with what I had said on tape so I re-scripted and headed back out. The result was much better this time, it looked more natural walking at an angle. Looking back there is still a problem; I left too much headroom, making me look even shorter than usual.

This was also the first time I had used a radio microphone (the ones you see on peoples clothes on TV all the time). This went really sucessfully. The quality of the sound really is much better than using a gun microphone. Much less interference and background noise is picked up, leading to much cleaner and crisper sound.

I'm grateful to MP Steve Brine for getting back to me and providing me with a quote, even if he didn't have time for an interview. It was important for me to get a quote from somebody who supports the scheme in order to provide balance.

I'm realising how easy it is to get in contact with people, but tying them down for an interview can be a different matter altogether. In order to use the quote I thought it might be a good idea to put the words on screen and read them out in my voice. I have since learned that this technique is only really used when people are making a statement defending themselves or their company. Therefore, from an editorial point of view it was not the best idea.

However, from an aesthetics perspective I think it came across quite well. My skills on Final Cut Pro are coming along and I think I showcased them here.

I'd just like to thank Ian Tait for once again taking the time to meet me, and for summing up the mood of people he has spoken to so well.

Overall, a pretty solid effort first time out. Especially considering the time constraints we were under this week. Roll on next week.

WINCHESTER MP PLAYS DOWN CRIME FEARS

A local MP has dismissed the view that a new Government website does not achieve its main aim.

Steve Brine, MP for Winchester and Chandler's Ford, has hit back at claims that www.police.uk could create a climate of fear. 

The website has been introduced by the Government as part of their plan to cut crime levels. It allows the user to input a postcode and view the amount of crime that took place in that area in the previous month.

It is reported that Winchester city centre had 251 incidents of crime in December. This figure included 41 violent crimes and 72 occurrences of anti-social behaviour. The city centre was rated as "above average" for crime levels.

Steve Brine MP said: "I am of course concerned that the city centre has higherthan average inciednts of criime, but I know that this website will serve to empower local residents to contact their local police teams and discuss ways of combatting crime as a community.”

However, residents have a different view. Conor Power, a student from the Stanmore area of the city, said: “It's shocking really. I'm always cautious out anyway, but this highlights places that I wouldn't like to go on my own.”

Michael Howell, a pensioner from Abbotts Barton, said: “I think the public should know but now I wouldn't feel at all safe here in the evening or at night, which I find quite awful.”

Despite the concerns Hampshire Police urge the public to continue reporting crime. A spokesman said: “Tackling anti-social behaviour is a priority, and we encourage the public to contact us whenever they see activity of this kind taking place.”

This is not the first time that police.uk has caused controversy. On the website's launch it was beseiged by up to 75,000 hits per minute. This caused servers to crash and many people were unable to view the crime in their area.

http://www.winol.co.uk/