ALICE WASS
Exploring Media

This week has been a combination of further induction activities and starting to have some of my own responsibilities. This has been a nice way to ease myself into the company and begin to find my place within it.

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I spent time shadowing the presenters on the afternoon and evening shows. I now have a strong understanding of how the different presenters structure and plan their shows. In the future if I was to present I would take different aspects from each presenter to develop a way that best suited me. I also spent time this week with Social Media, learning about their role within the company and how they overlap with the Radio team. Also, I shadowed UCBTV which was highly interesting and I would like to try and become more involved in as TV is something else I would explore as a future career option. However, the UCBTV team has been downsized over recent years. I also met and shadowed the person in charge of audio, who showed me the process of making the jingles and the Godspots.

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The first solo task I was given involved two spreadsheets of hundreds of endorsements about how UCB has affected people which was collected back in April and May. I searched through these and found the ones which I believed would be most impactful to someone listening on radio. Once I had selected them and they had been approved, I wrote to the people to see if they would give permission for us to use their testimonies and also for permission to record them. The purpose of this was to try and get impact stories which could be used during the November appeal. Even though this was not the most interesting job, I understand its importance and how this will benefit the company in the upcoming months.

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Last week I mentioned I learnt how to use one of the company’s databases where they put in all of the testimonies and permissions information for everyone who contacts their company. This week I was given a list of people to input on my own. This was nerve wracking as I did not want to make mistakes and mess up the system for the rest of the team, but everything seems to have been fine!

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Another task I undertook was looking online for potential guests for Ruth O’Reilly-Smith’s show on UCB2. I got a potential lead on one, and managed to organise Ruth an interview with the head of the Church of Scotland. I felt so proud as this is the sort of task that Producers do and I was very glad that I succeeded in it.

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On top of all of this, I have started my ILM: Level 2 Certificate in Leadership and Team Skills, as well as completing vital GDPR training to help with my job. Overall, a busy week but I am excited to become fully immersed in my role as a Broadcast Assistant next week!