24 hours of Cardiff

This is our latest group joint project for my degree. It’s called Cardiff: A Life in a Day. The project is about what happens in a day within the city of Cardiff, which you could probably guess from the title of the project. The project focuses on different workers, business and industries in Cardiff and each person was allocated a certain business. We then had to spend at least an hour with our allocated businesses and industries; interviewing them, seeing what life is like for them in their eyes and describing their atmosphere. Each feature is provided with all different types of media from photographs, audio and video. Here is my own personal feature on the wholesale markets.

Goodbye student life and hello working world, or is it?

After years of being in full-time education since forever. It’s finally all coming to an end and it’s time to start climbing that dreaded career ladder. It’s a sad, but an exciting and scary time for me. Not just me, but for all other students around the world too. The safe bubble that all students have managed to crawl into; the bubble being a secured three-year degree and freedom from parents is just about to pop. After three years of studying, all-nighters of essay writing and last-minute cram revising it’s finally time to step into the ”so, what’s next?” stage.

Forevershoes

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the best and comfiest pair of leather shoes around, that are not only unique, ethically made and so durable that it lasts a lifetime, I give you Forevershoes. Only kidding. This is my made-up scenario presentation for the Press Relations module part of my journalism degree, which you can download the presentation here. The task was to present to our lecturers and other fellow students our fantasy scenario using PR tools in maximising publicity for your own specialised campaign. From using press releases, fashion shows, press conferences etc. This particular presentation was very enjoyable for me, as I’d never really done or experienced any kind of PR before. But it was great to learn about the subject and to dabble in PR. If journalism fails me I believe PR would be my second career choice.

The dreaded ‘d’ word

After endless months of planning, sleepless nights, probably my body weight in coffee, 2 breakdowns, 10,969 words and 60 pages later. I finally have myself a dissertation. My research question for my dissertation was ‘How has British Vogue responded to the rise of fashion bloggers?’ Basically meaning that how is print journalism coping with the expanding online presence? But the topic was targeted towards a more specific area of fashion. The reason I chose this topic was because this was a subject that deeply interests me and having specifically choosing fashion I wanted to delve a little deeper into the industry and this research can be applied to other genres of journalism also. The journey of this dissertation was an emotional roller coaster for me. At times I loved doing it and I’m so passionate about journalism and fashion. However, at other times I hated doing it and I never wanted to throw my laptop out the window more. Overall, I think after months of writing and planning I think it’s been worth it.

Let them eat cake

Apologies for such a major hiatus. But I have been a busy bee slaving away to create a 32-page magazine for my print major module of my journalism degree. which you can now have a gander here: Baked Magazine. The aim of the magazine was to target it at a niche market, bringing something new and unique to the already saturated magazine industry. I decided to opt for something a little bit different from my usual tastes, which confused a few fellow students asking why I wasn’t doing fashion, which would naturally be my first choice. I wanted to think outside the box a little bit and besides baking is one of my hobbies, which I used baking as an excuse for ‘research purposes.’ The magazine is different from other baking magazines. You still get the recipes and the how-to’s, but the magazine offers more. It includes features about real-life people who’ve started their baking businesses from scratch, baking news stories, the history of baking and more.

Work experience diary: Media Wales

So, I’ve just literally finished my work experience at Media Wales and WM Magazine. I kind of knew what to expect, having worked at other Media Wales places before, but I can definitely say that I enjoyed this experience much more than the others. Not just because of the ridiculous amount of Christmas bakes and chocolates I got given during the week, I’ve probably gained about a stone from it all. But, the feature side of journalism is much more suited to me than the hardcore side of news. It appeals to my interests more, being able to write lengthy travel pieces and fashion pieces is just SO much better than writing news stories about angry old people complaining about a park. (Yes, I did write a story about that.) Not that I’m complaining about news journalism entirely, I’m just grateful for the experience. It was such a relaxed week it almost felt as if I wasn’t even working at all, so I thought I’d give you the lowdown and show you what I got up to.

Angela Hui, The brand

Dave Dolak says that: ‘A brand is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value.’ And he could not be more true. Building up a portfolio site is essential nowadays, not just in journalism, in any field. Having that well-known personal ‘brand’ as a journalist is very valuable, as authenticity is key. Creating content online that has value to your readers is also important.

Branding is very important to create familiarity with the public, most people aren’t very creative and usually just stick with their names. (Well you are kind of literally selling yourself.) And I’ve led by example with my website and ‘brand.’ Having that online portfolio is vital, not only does it provide a whole platform to sell yourself, it gives you a place to project your image, thoughts, mood etc. to others all around the world.

But however, there is one little thing that annoys me. I just wish there was a better word than ‘brand,’ sounds too much like selling a product (Stuart Baggs, the brand. style.) But I digress.