MA Sports Journalism – Easter Report

We were an optimistic bunch...

The Easter holidays, the spring holidays, or whatever you choose to call these two weeks away from school/college/university, has always been a welcome break following the winter term.

This has sometimes been punctuated with revision (not a lot) and often ruined by the English weather, but rarely has it seemed as far from relaxed as this time.

Not only have I got to continue to try and tackle shorthand, something that I’m sure was invented as a form of torture with me specifically in mind, but someone had the foresight to arrange an exam during the break.

Shorthand aside (that could take decades to master) the course is all-but finished. We’ve had our last Reporting session and have only one session each left for Media Law and Sports Journalism. Final projects have been set out and all that is left to do aside from this is fill portfolios with passable stories to eek out as many marks from the NCTJ as possible. (Roughly 60% if we’re lucky).

At the moment I have a week to remember everything we have been taught about structuring a match report, quotes based re-writes and round-ups, and intend to practice the first of those later, so keep an eye out if Everton v Palace interests you at all!

I’m also in the process of learning that contempt is not just something I hold for much of society, but also something that can get journalists into a lot of trouble, be careful not to risk influencing the jury when reporting court cases…

Looking back at my own start of term blog, and those of a few of my friends, the positivity was titanic… Seriously, read this, this, this or this.

Some chose to write once, some slightly more frequently, and in the case of Emma, who chose to serialise the journey, even more frequently still.

Whether all the positivity was bluff or true optimism then, it feels like a long time ago. And yet, it has also gone very quickly.

I won’t miss the 6.41 from Shenfield, which rarely manages to arrive dead on 6.41, along with other elements of this year. But despite my moaning, and borderline permanent residence in ‘the pond’, I’m sure it hasn’t all been bad.