Live Reporting Training

At the ITV training in Leeds, we also had a go at live reporting. One of the difficulties during the live is that you're constantly being updated in your ear piece with the amount of time you have left and have to be fairly strict about finishing on zero.

For me, this is the most challenging and nerve-wracking part of reporting but I'd love to be doing lives all the time. It brings back the rush of excitement I felt when I was a sports reporter for BBC Radio Oxford; doing live updates from a freezing cold non-league game on my mobile!

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Milkshake

At the ITV training fortnight in Leeds, we (the trainee journalists) made a second programme. I reported on a story in Sheffield. Look out for a cameo appearance from my girlfriend!

Here's the link into the package that the presenter reads:

"There's hardly a section of society that isn't feeling the effects of the recession. A recent survey questioned thousands of students in Sheffield, York and Leeds about their career prospects. Only a third of them said they expected to find a good job when they graduate. So, some students are finding different ways to launch their careers. Mark Ansell reports."

ITV Trainee Programme

I’ve finally got round to uploading the ITV trainee programme that I and the seven other trainees worked on. It was originally twenty minutes but I’ve had to cut it down as YouTube has a maximum upload of ten minutes. The edit points are marked with a ‘dip to white’ (a flash of a white screen). Each of the eight ITV regions has a trainee. We met in Leeds in April to produce two trainee programmes. Although the programmes weren't broadcast, they were assessed by some of the top brass in ITV.

We were each assigned different roles including Programme Editor, News Editor, Assistant Programme Editor and Reporter. My co-presenter was ITV Anglia trainee Lauren Carter and Balvinder Sidhu, the ITV West trainee, was programme editor. As ever, feedback will be gratefully received.

Blunkett interview becomes volunteering story

On my placement at ITV in Leeds last month I interviewed David Blunkett about the Prime Minister's latest cabinet reshuffle. He was at a volunteering event in Sheffield. I realised the volunteering day would make quite a good story itself so I got enough material to make it into a package.