ALICE WASS
Exploring Media

This week has ended up being shorter than I expected, as I had to take Monday and Tuesday off due to sickness. However, the time off made me realise what a supportive team I am working in. On my return on Wednesday everyone was asked how I was and Ruth was especially excited to have me back. There was no pressure to catch up on the work that I had missed, but rather they cared whether I was feeling well enough to work. I believe that it is this supportive working environment which has really helped me during my placement. I feel that I am in an environment where I am safe to learn and make mistakes.

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The days I did work had some slightly stressful moments, such as interviews that had been booked and agreed upon where the person being interviewed did not turn up, or there were technical difficulties which delayed them. However, I am aiming to be more like Ruth and just accept that sometimes interviews do not work out how you imagine and you just have to take it in your stride and not interview that person again due to unreliability.

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I have also spent time organising more interviews for Ruth, and November is now fully booked up, which I view as a huge success. I am now working on content for December and January, and although it feels strange to be working so far ahead but it is a necessity.  I have also been catching up with Rebecca over the testimonies work I was doing whilst she was on holiday. I have also gone through the 2017 Impact Stories to find one which are self-contained and could be played out overnight. Rebecca listened to the Impact Stories which I had edited and informed me that she really like them, and only had to make minor changes on two of the stories. I was half expecting her to come back with a long list of ways to improve them, as I had never edited anything like this before. I am so glad that I have learnt to edit to a high standard for broadcast and that I understand the structure of the Impact Stories well enough so that I can take a phone conversation and edit pieces together, to create a well flowing story. I also attended a meeting about God Content with Mark, Shaun, and Sam. Sam who is leaving has therefore had to do a hand over of all his work. I must admit I am not completely clear about why I was a part of the meeting and I will enquire further in the coming weeks whether they would like me to take on Sam’s role of having a relationship with the creators of the God Content.

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Also this week I had ILM training, in this session I had to hand in my ‘Solving Problems and Making Decisions’ assessment, and started the new topic of ‘Giving Briefings and Making Presentations’. I am really enjoying the ILM work, as the topics are interesting and are delivered in a fun interactive manner, which is helping me get to know people who work in different departments much better. Also, the studying aspect reminds me of university and helps me to maintain the skills of researching, studying, learning, developing and independent work outside of my job. I think this will be helpful for when I return to university to do my final year as I will not have had a long break from studying and completing assessments on time.

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Overall, it has been a good week at work, and I believe that because I missed being in the office when I was off sick, instead of dreading coming back, proves that I am having a really enjoyable experience.