Work Experience Diary

On Sunday night, just hours before starting my work experience at Channel 4 news, I was in a relaxed mood and looking forward to the week ahead. I was somewhat stepping into the unknown, I had never worked in a broadcast newsroom and Channel 4 is one of the biggest news broadcasters in the country. But one thing I was sure of was this would be a very interesting week and I was right…

Monday 1st September, ‘Circumcision’:
I arrived just before 11am at the ITN HQ at Grays Inn Road, nervous, but looking forward to experiencing the highs and lows of broadcast journalism.
The first thing I did today was watch the 12pm programme go out live from the gallery. Before going on air I had a good chat with the vision mixer, a friendly Australian chap. He was a Portsmouth fan and being a Southampton fan myself we discussed, among other things, football rivalries. I explained to him how important football is to people in this country and some take it more seriously than others. I was happy to give him some advice about how to avoid running into trouble over footballing matters, as he hadn’t been living in England for long. Rule number one was never wear your Portsmouth shirt in Southampton.
After the 12pm news I was taken to meet the more4 news team, who I would be working with for the duration of the week. A few members of the team are Arsenal fans so enjoyed the banter with Alex Thomson (Channel 4 news presenter and Newcastle fan) about the Gunner’s 3-0 win against Newcastle over the weekend. This would be the start of the misery for Newcastle supporters as manager and fan’s favourite Kevin Keegan resigned later in the week.
The big story of the day was the Hurricane in America, which looked set to cause havoc in New Orleans for the second time in three years. I was allowed to sit in on the team meeting, which editors, producers and presenters talked about how Hurricane Gustav would be reported. It was set to strike between 7 and 9pm GMT, when Channel 4 news would be on air.
Later in the afternoon I went to an East London surgery to get footage for a story about circumcision with more4 reporter Nina. We had to wait for about four hours in the surgery waiting room before we could film anything and it was here I learnt how many hours journalists have to put in just for a news feature of a couple of minutes. I was back at my Nan’s in Mill Hill by 11pm, absolutely shattered, but with a lot of new knowledge about the journalism trade stored in my head.

Tuesday 2nd September, ‘Trevor Francis cut-out’:
Today was my second day of work experience at Channel 4 and would be working on a football story concerning Man City breaking the British transfer record by signing Robinho for £32.5 million. It’s amazing to think that in 1979 Trevor Francis was the first million pound player whereas today a million pounds in football will only buy clubs a championship standard player at best; this was many times above the inflation rate (£1 million in 1979 is about equivalent to just under £4 million today) and we wanted to illustrate this with a light-hearted segment on tonight’s show, using every day items such as eggs, cigarettes and a pint of beer. I researched the statistics in the morning and then was later sent out to get the props for tonight’s show. I had no problem getting the eggs and cigarettes, but then had to go to a nearby pub, order a drought pint and a bit of beer and carry both glasses back to the newsroom. I received many strange looks walking down the road with a full pint in one hand and 100ml of a pint in a full glass in the other hand and then had to convince security at 200 Grays Inn Road they were for television purposes only!
But the award for the most bizarre prop of the day goes to the blown up almost life size image of Trevor Francis, whose leg would be torn off by presenter Kyle Morris on tonight’s show. We had fun sticking this huge picture onto cardboard and then I went back to Mill Hill to watch tonight’s show with my Nan. It may sound a bit silly, but I felt a surge of excitement watching the props I helped organise earlier being used live on television.

Wednesday 3rd September, ‘By Golly We Miss Olly’:
Today marks the 350th anniversary of the death of Oliver Cromwell, perhaps the most controversial character in British history. I would be working on the story about the Cromwell commemoration service outside Westminster this afternoon and we were looking to get a guest to talk about Cromwell live tonight. I spent the morning reading up about Cromwell’s legacy whilst on the phone trying to arrange an interviewee for tonight’s show.
In the afternoon I went with Harriet to the Cromwell statue outside Westminster, where the ceremony would be taking place. We were unable to film the service due to strict Westminster recording rules, but got some good shots of the statue and some characters dressed as Roundheads posed for us after the ceremony. It was here we managed to get Tony from The Roundhead Army Civil War Re-enactment Society to come into the studio tonight to talk about Cromwell. I was given the task of picking up our Roundhead-dressed guest from the reception, keeping him company in the green room and then escorting him to the studio. I was interested listening to Tony telling me about the civil war re-enactments he participates in all over the country. Tony was extremely laid back considering he was about to be interviewed live on national television for the first time. I thought he was the perfect interviewee, his knowledge of Oliver Cromwell was impeccable and it looked good having a Roundhead live in the studio.
The big talking point in the newsroom today centred on Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in the presidential elections. American politics is so different to ours and today was when I realised this. Abortion is perhaps the biggest issue and the issue surrounded Palin’s 17 year old daughter, impregnated by an “f’ing redneck”. British politics may be brutal at times, but at least there isn’t much pressure on the politician’s families, who spend as much time in the public eye as the politicians themselves. Could anyone imagine Sarah Brown giving a speech at the upcoming Labour party conference?
The general consensus in the newsroom was that it would be a political disaster if Sarah Palin ever became the first female president (which is very likely if the Republicans get elected, considering Senator McCain’s age) and a certain Mrs. Clinton would be quaking in her boots!
On the subject of teenage pregnancy, today I read an informative article on the BBC magazine website about the stigmatism attached to it. This is a very contentious issue and I feel if the teenage mum has the right support from the family and takes responsibility of the child they shouldn’t be looked down on.
I left Grays Inn Road at 8:30pm feeling I had settled in the newsroom and looking forward to my last day of work experience.



Thursday 4th September, ‘Two teas, one coffee, one sugar’:
This was my last day of work experience at Channel 4 news and I felt honoured to be in tonight’s programme. We did a feature about the death of the office and planned a light-hearted sketch involving me as the work experience lad, fetching teas for two colleagues ‘working’ in the park. It was great fun filming these humorous scenes on location in the office, the park and at Rag’s flat. I didn’t want to get my hopes up by thinking I would be appearing in tonight’s programme, but when it became clear they would be using this material I struggled to hide my excitement. I appeared on TV four times, answering the phone in the kitchen and taking the orders for teas and coffee, crossing the road with the teas/coffee, getting out of a taxi then finally delivering the teas/coffee to Simon and Rags on a park bench at the end of the feature. I’m extremely grateful to Simon and Rags for allowing me to make my (albeit brief) television debut and hope it’s the first TV appearance of many!
It was an awesome experience working with the more4 news team; they taught me a huge amount about the broadcast journalism business and gave me the opportunity to get involved with the making of the show.