And we’re off… #limerickvoicelive

image courtesy James Horan

Reflection

Limerick Voice Live Green Team Blog Post   17181755 Alison Carr

Reflection, the good the bad and the ugly

The saying “you can never be too organised” is incorrect.  My live Newsday did not go plan.  Why?  I over-planned and in doing so perhaps lost sight of the task.  A LIVE NEWSDAY.   Perhaps in the overplanning when my news story clashed with other teams it threw me.  I had interviewed and edited several pieces of audio we didn’t use.  I had recorded a video call with Fergus Tighe filmmaker about the Richard Harris film fest that was scheduled then cancelled for Oct 19, 2021, our designated entertainment correspondent never materialised, he more than likely didn’t take this module. 

What I did well:

• Found stories for two of my colleagues
• Sourced numbers and names for interviewees for myself and colleagues
• Encouraged and supported my colleagues to make phone calls to get interviews done
• Scanned press offices of Labour Party, Green Party, Fine Gael Party on Monday eve for

 upcoming events that could be correlated with a Limerick angle. 

Tweeting

What I didn’t do well:

• Assert myself enough with my colleagues and insist going to radio studio and do a brief news roundup
• Adapt fast enough to the change of direction to my story
• Upload my audio files I had put so much effort into.

A motto in our family passed down through generations is, “do your best and forget the rest”.  I have listened to and recited this phrase often.   Alas on Live Newsday I did not do my best nor did I forget the rest, I became distracted and unfocused.  My underperformance continued to gnaw at me for several days afterwards. 

What the live Newsday did was compound was my love of journalism especially radio.    After contributing to the workforce for thirty-two years in various jobs I didn’t particularly, I am now in a privileged position of being able to educate myself to pursue a lifelong passion for Journalism.  #LimerickVoiceLive although not my finest day at work reminded me how I love working, that I have skills (albeit dormant) I can bring to this profession. I am comfortable with people and they with me.  Finding news and shoehorning it to a local angle is also something I am good at.  Many of us have been under pressure the last two years, physically, financially, mentally, limiting time constraints.  The Newsday was not my finest hour but upon reflection it made me realise I can and want to work in a newsroom professionally.

Synergy is a word you’d expect to read on a sports drink, a nasty one that masquerades as healthy. This word best describes the last few days working on #Limerickvoicelive

The team I worked with were incredible. Keen, diligent, smart, talented and supportive.

• 

  Lynda Carter Wonder Woman

My Strategy…

delude myself into believing I’m Diana Prince

courtesy of the Atlantic.com

What I was really like on the day…

Limerick Voice Reflection

My Heart is a bloom

What was unique about this semester? I fell in love with Limerick City.

This was definitely my favourite module so far. Being on campus was crucial for me. I hate to seem ranty, I am also aware this is challanging time for all. However, digital inequality is a reality for many students. UL received full fees from students and many do not have access to broadband. Hotspotting on limited data incurs further costs on the anxieties on students. Dongles are expensive, raising more expenses on top of fees that have been paid.

Since starting the access course in UL in 2017, I have slept in my car some evenings too exhausted to drive or because I didn’t have money for pertrol or the price of a coffee. I never felt the need to complain about this it is my choice to be in UL and am so grateful everyday that I am on this course despite the challenges. Lack of access to internet is avoidable and UL should take on the cost, or provide space for those students driving hours to use the internet by perhaps listing rooms available. Sending an email advising students to use Cafe spaces is not fair it feels uncomfortable exposed and curtails your engagement with lectures denying students a environment to ask questions.

This module of blended learning that may be adapted permanently, may be preferable for many that have barriers in acquiring accommodation, childcare and transport but we cannot leave some students behind albeit a small amount. UL must find a solution for these students.

• Skills acquired this semester;
• To be able to find a local angle for a news story
• Creating a news story quickly
• being able to switch direction and adapt a story if it clashes with someone else’s
• My fear of approaching strangers has subsided
• Building up a strong source base, contacts and networks
• Sharing my contacts with my colleagues
• Defining a possible direction or role for myself after graduating.
• Learning to adapt to the speed of digital media and step back and question “am I in a filter bubble of my own preference?”

Things I was disappointed with

• Not taking on board a more audio role. Some of my interviews for the Voice were facinating but the content was not suitable for written material nor pertinent to the subject being covered. However listening to this content in podcast form would have been great. An example of this is when I contacted one of my Artistic Idols, Fiona’O’ Dwyer Visual Artist. She told me a story of when she was in Art college in the 80′ in Limerick, carrying a car door from a scrape yard that would furnish the students with Materials. She passed a teenage couple with a baby. The buggy precariously laden groceries and parcels the couple struggled toward her and stopped and asked her if she wanted help she could throw “up there too”. My time with the voice this semester was full of encounters with Citizens of Limerick that made me view the City from a whole new perspective. Next semester I want to proceed with this project even if not used by the paper. I would love to be a conduit for Limerick Voices it redefined how I view this City. So much so Limerick is now my favourite City in Ireland.

At last, the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit

Sometimes I wonder how to connect our course modules. As much as I know they are all facets of Journalism that must be covered I struggle to pull them together. We are told they are related but often they spin-off in isolated tangents.

Find the local angle… has been a reoccurring theme on the Limerick voice. I’ve struggled with this. I reside 1.5 hours away from Limerick. Going out finding the story in an unknown city has been daunting.

When I find a topic to cover, often I’m piped at the post and it’s already been covered locally. I didn’t want to just check out a Limerick website and regurgitate, what’s the point?

Recently in our Investigative module I was introduced to my new best friend…Nexus Lexus. A news database. Also discovering Ken Foxe’s gift of how to negotiate F.O.I’s and the politics surrounding garnering information from Government depts have been invaluable tools. That will allow me to prise open the door to Limerick issues and let myself in,

Social Justice and regular people inspire me daily. With that in mind, I found myself going to social issues that were covered several years ago in Limerick. Were solutions found? What are the new challenges? Out of this inspiration, often unrelated to the issues I researched came to me.

For me personally, the most valuable knowledge acquired this semester in JM4041 is how to find news from a local angle. I’ve gained confidence in finding news, able to adapt quickly if my initial idea or angle doesn’t pan out and switch direction quickly. In Sept I was focused on having to drive up to four hours every Tuesday to attend the Limerick Voice Lab, the narrative in my head “I haven’t a clue about Limerick.” Now…This lazy ass rhetoric is gone. You could throw out of a helicopter anywhere and I can type up 700 words by lunch.

https://headway.ie/i-have-a-brain-injury/planning-organising/