Sheffield United v West Brom Lives

I reported live at Bramall Lane ahead of their match against West Brom which they won to gain promotion to the Premier League. Here's my as live for the BBC News Channel programme Sportsday...

And this is my live on BBC Look North with the brilliant former Blades striker Carl Asaba...

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Reporting During Lockdown

My work life has changed a lot since the start of the coronavirus lockdown. Journalists are key workers so I'm still allowed to go out reporting on stories. To restrict the amount of time we're outside, we're only deployed when our programme producer is sure s/he wants to run the story. I recently reported on the attempts to get homeless people to self-isolate by being housed in hotels, B&Bs and hostels. This photo shows some of the precautions we are taking when out reporting. I wear rubber gloves and use a long mic pole to do interviews to ensure I keep at least 2 metres away from people.

I obviously have to keep my distance from my camera crew too and that includes after filming, when we edit the story. With the homelessness story, my cameraman colleague Malik wanted to try out editing from a distance via our laptop screens. While Malik was editing from his van in the BBC Radio Sheffield car park, I went back to my makeshift office at home and we worked together to edit the report with screen sharing on Zoom. Malik played me the interviews so we could choose the clips which he spliced on the timeline. I recorded my voiceover on my iPhone and emailed him the audio. As you can see I had some help from my little assistant who has agreed that her room is mine by day and hers by night!

When reporting live on the BBC Look North set in Leeds as I did last week I have to keep at least 2 metres distance from the presenter. To minimise risk we also do not wear personal radio mics - you can probably just about see the microphone we use which is by my knee in the photos. Luxmy and I kept a safe distance from each other!

I normally film the majority of my stories myself using a camera, tripod and personal radio mic which I clip on the interviewee's collar. However because I need to keep at least 2 metres distance from everyone, I have been given a mic stand and a long cable so that I can use my gun (fluffy) mic instead of a radio mic. I've been testing this at home with my other slightly bigger assistant!

I'm doing the majority of my work from home which is very different from being around my colleagues who I'd often bounce ideas off and socialise with. When I am in the newsroom at BBC Leeds or Sheffield we keep our distance from colleagues by only using every other desk.

Despite the changes to the way we're operating, the team at Look North is pulling together and working really hard. We're determined to bring our audience the best possible coverage of the biggest story of our lives and I feel privileged to be a part of it.

Trump Demo Live

I reported live from a demonstration in Sheffield against the visit of Donald Trump to the UK. It was very loud where I was standing (hard to heard the presenter in my ear) and the live link dropped out just before coming to us but that's irrelevant to the viewer - you have to deliver regardless of any stress behind-the-scenes!



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Mobile Journalism

Here's a good example of how journalists can use their mobile phone to help tell stories. It involves my work iPhone and a huge fire in Sheffield.

As I was about to cycle home from work in Sheffield city centre on Sunday 14th July I got a message from a friend with a photo of a big fire in Sheffield. I turned my back and saw behind me a huge thick black smoke cloud coming from the East of the city so (being a journalist!) I cycled towards it. After calling the newsroom to let them know, I took some photos on my phone and tweeted them and before long I was broadcasting live on my phone, describing the huge smoke cloud which was continuing to grow. I used the Google Maps app to find out which road I was on and then looked for updates on Twitter. South Yorkshire Fire Service were tweeting that the fire was at a plastic recycling centre in Attercliffe and that people nearby should stay indoors – this allowed me to update our audience live with the latest news. When I got closer to the scene I saw one of my old colleagues at ITV Calendar filming the fire and decided to do the same with my iPhone and I then uploaded the video to the BBC Look North system. Next, I recorded vox pops on my phone and sent them back to BBC Radio Sheffield to be used on air.

So in summary I used my work iPhone to call the newsroom to let them know about the story, broadcast live, record studio quality vox pops, take photos which I tweeted, find out the name of the road I was broadcasting from, check Twitter for updates from South Yorkshire Fire Service and record video for Look North.

In order to do our job as well as possible, journalists need to become really comfortable with using our phones to help us tell stories. 

You can listen to my first update below...

listen to ‘Sheffield Fire’ on Audioboo

Reporter's Dream - BBC Radio Car

I've been working on the radio car shift at BBC Radio Derby recently and it's been really enjoyable. I've learnt loads about the patch - Derbyshire and East Staffordshire - and met some great people. I can broadcast live from almost anywhere in the patch by putting up a 30 foot mast from the car.

One of my favourite radio car reporting jobs was at a sweet shop in Alfreton. I found this story while out on another story - the most effective way of discovering new ideas in my experience. I was in Alfreton voxing locals about the success of the town's Football Club. If I'm struggling to find people to speak to me on the street, I resort to going in shops to vox pop and the first one I went to was Anne's sweet shop. There's nothing better than reporting on a story that you've found, especially in a sweet shop!

Click play below to listen to my piece.

Live Reporting under Spaghetti Junction

On my last get together with the ITV News trainees, I had one of my first opportunities to give live reporting a go on TV. We gathered in Birmingham to make a not for broadcast programme covering the Midlands. For the trainee programmes in Leeds in June 2009 I was a presenter and then a programme editor, this time I was a reporter and was given the top story to work on - an independent report on the murder of a policeman by a paranoid schizophrenic.

In the morning I went to the canal tow path under the spaghetti junction in Birmingham, where the Detective Constable was killed, to film some shots for my package. ITV Central correspondent and king of self-shooting stories Keith Wilkinson came with me to film my piece to camera and give me some tips on camera work.



















For our programme, I decided to go back to the spaghetti junction to top and tale my package with 'a live'. With seconds to spare Keith and cameraman Mark managed to get the satellite truck working and I was ready to go live. It was a nerve-wracking but thoroughly exhilarating experience and I can't wait to do it for real.

Unfortunately, the video above cuts out before the end of my live report, just before I handed back to the studio.

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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