London International Summer School
I did not expect these three weeks would end so quickly. It is the best experience I have ever got about basic journalism skills.
I had been interested in London International Summer School since last winter. I knew that in the UK there is another approach to journalism, especially to new multimedia, which is only developing in Russia. People still respect only newspapers and magazines, but I realized that you can make good content using a blog and sharing your articles on the internet.
I believe that this course was useful for me. First of all, I improved my writing skills. It is important to write short and informative sentences based on facts. On the other hand, I realized that your material should be creative and new for an audience. You should add some pictures, video and audio to attract attention to your texts, it makes your blog more interesting and diverse. Also you should add some tags and links so it would be easier to find your media content using search engines.
I ran a blog when I was 14-16 years old, but it was just like a diary with my thoughts about everyday problems etc. Now I know that a blog is a good platform for developing your journalistic skills and writing about something new you saw, something that can be useful for other people.
Here, in the University of Westminster, we were taught how to make a vox pop. Actually, it was a bit difficult, because almost all strangers on the street did not want to answer our questions. But it was an important experience, because talking with people is the base of a journalist’s work. I did a vox pop about London Parks and Places and asked people, in which places they prefer to relax.
I learned how to edit your multimedia project using Final Cut Pro. I used Windows Movie Maker for my slideshows before, but Final Cut Pro gives you more opportunities and features in editing, it has a lot of special effects, but it is easy to use this program. I did a small multimedia project about Queen Mary’s Garden in Regent’s Park. I like this kind of multimedia files, a mix of videos and pictures with music, and I tried to create the same.
Also, we did an interview with Rohan Daft, a director of communications at Richard James. He is very interesting person, and we told about his career in journalism and his journey to Spain. I am happy about this part of course, because we practiced our interviewing skills, which is also important in our profession.
I liked to write a review and an opinion piece. It was difficult to find a topical theme for my opinion notes, but I decided to choose a sphere about disabled people, because it is always significant for society. My review is about the world’s longest running musical “Les Miserables”. I was excited when I was writing it, because this theatre performance plays a big role in my cultural life, and I wanted to explain all my thoughts and emotions about it.
Also, we wrote a news story about travelling, using different media sources. I made my news update about Red Sea resorts, using The Telegraph and Travel More. It was useful to try to make a story, which includes all details from different sites about this subject.
All in all, this course affected on my plans of a career. Now I study at Moscow State University on Faculty of Journalism, and this summer’s experience will help in my further studies. I wish I could return to London one day and take another course about journalism. I found blogging interesting and useful thing, and I want to keep running my blog. Actually, I am interested in magazines, and I want to work there as a journalist, but maybe it would be online version or even magazine’s special blog.
London International Summer School 