I'd just like to take a moment to post a response to some of the accusations thrown out in Rhoda’s awards blog post.
She's getting a bit of an official reputation for libel and inaccuracy this week.
Eight of us made the trip for the awards: David, Marie, a rep from each post-grad course and a single hanger on.
We rose early for the train to London where we were unfortunately placed in the quiet carriage. This went so badly that one gentleman put earplugs in while Broadcast girls discussed midget sex-tapes. Peter Cole travelled separately in a pink stretch Hummer.
David's comment about our lack of newspapers and the death of Print media was well founded. Rhoda's suggestion I pay for the Mail is not. While we didn’t have a paper between us all day, I had a freshly updated RSS feed of BBC News on my phone and a Hemmingway novel stashed in a fag packet, while his printed bog-roll Guardian was already dated.
To be fair though, the man had a yellow plate of pure future strapped to his bag: A solar panel charging up his camera.
The problem with the Awards reception, the difficulty that led Rhoda to accuse me of "an eating competition" with Matt, was the difficulty of obtaining the promised "lunch".
Patrolling the stiflingly hot reception room were twice as many wine slaves as there were Canapé bitches, and the Chardonnay girls were much more attentive to my needs than the oiks who couldn't ensure a reliable supply of tiny burgers.
It was a case of more top-ups than tasties, and this meant we had to keep snatching at any passing morsels to soak up all the free wine.
Free drinks were a theme of the day and I’d like to thank all those who kept up a constant supply of offers for over 13 hours, including David, Peter, and the editor of the Press Gazette who didn’t bother to get my name but passed over a beer anyway. Special mention to the very generous Marie Kinsey for the fizzy.
I’d dispute Rhoda’s suggestion that our esteemed tutors are "immune" to alcohol. Immunity doesn’t breed the kind of desperate dependency that leads to a huddle in the corner of the restaurant car at 8pm drinking warm cheap wine from stolen Champagne glasses. They’re as guilty as the rest of us.
I think I’m the only person who noticed a rival journalism award nominee push past muttering that it wasn’t a bloody bar on the train.
When we eventually got back to the beautiful North, Rhoda spent some of her winnings on more wine for us, which was very kind.
If I was her, I’d save it for the courts…
The Blog
Rarely updated now, used during Journalism MA at the University of Sheffield.
Showing posts with label Rhoda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhoda. Show all posts
The Press Gazette Awards
Sunday, 29 June 2008
I went to London this weekend for the Press Gazette Student Journalism Awards with the reps from Sheffo.
All the post-grads had been shortlisted as a team for our local election coverage, and Rhoda was up for Best Student Interviewer.
Rhoda won, which was excellent, and then proceeded to amuse us all by clambering across the lighting rig to reach the stage. We cheered her desire to venture where no other student journalists dared, clapped her efforts to take the path of most resistance, and hi-fived her refusal to look happy about the award on stage.
The rest of us, the Election Team for which I was simply a reperesentative, lost out to Homefront, a glossy magazine. On reflection, we didn't really have a hope in a category where every other finalist was a highly polished showcase periodical. Our huge cross platform effort, produced live and unedited over two days of elections, was probably just too sprawling to be taken in by the judges. It's a shame as it's some of the work I'm most proud of this year, and the closest we've come to real newsroom pressures.
I hope that doesn't seem too churlish. It's a shame we didn't get to see the other entries properly and I'm sure they were fantastic and well deserving. I just don't feel like we were really in the same contest.
The idea of entering each medium separately next year was discussed with perhaps the website or magazine alone standing a greater chance than the whole cross platform extravaganza, but this would destroy the whole purpose of converged work.
Still, we discussed our loss on the way home and concluded you can still put "Award winning" Election Project on your CVs, as the tutors at least won awards for it. And when you talk it over at interview, they never need to see all the typos that spoiled the final product.
All the post-grads had been shortlisted as a team for our local election coverage, and Rhoda was up for Best Student Interviewer.
Rhoda won, which was excellent, and then proceeded to amuse us all by clambering across the lighting rig to reach the stage. We cheered her desire to venture where no other student journalists dared, clapped her efforts to take the path of most resistance, and hi-fived her refusal to look happy about the award on stage.
The rest of us, the Election Team for which I was simply a reperesentative, lost out to Homefront, a glossy magazine. On reflection, we didn't really have a hope in a category where every other finalist was a highly polished showcase periodical. Our huge cross platform effort, produced live and unedited over two days of elections, was probably just too sprawling to be taken in by the judges. It's a shame as it's some of the work I'm most proud of this year, and the closest we've come to real newsroom pressures.
I hope that doesn't seem too churlish. It's a shame we didn't get to see the other entries properly and I'm sure they were fantastic and well deserving. I just don't feel like we were really in the same contest.
The idea of entering each medium separately next year was discussed with perhaps the website or magazine alone standing a greater chance than the whole cross platform extravaganza, but this would destroy the whole purpose of converged work.
Still, we discussed our loss on the way home and concluded you can still put "Award winning" Election Project on your CVs, as the tutors at least won awards for it. And when you talk it over at interview, they never need to see all the typos that spoiled the final product.
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