Notes on Politics

Politics is a challenging subject that requires us considerable effort. Despite encountering some issues along the way, everyone's dedication deserves recognition.

As the upcoming general election approaches, we've been covering stories for The Breaker from various angles, highlighting issues in Bournemouth and emphasising the importance of politics in people's daily lives.

A poster of Kellar levitating a woman in a red dress

This week, we successfully published a Q&A, a feature, a news story, a podcast, and social media content. While we met the deadline in terms of timing, we didn't produce enough quantity. However, this experience has taught us valuable lessons on how to improve our work processes.

As the editor, Uyen remarked, "I believe everyone did a good job, but we need more time to practice. What's missing among us is effective communication. If we clarify everything, the process will run more smoothly."

Jennifer said: "Being the deputy editor was good because I had a good editor who put me through and working together with Uyen was both fun and rewarding. My teammates are hardworking people too and put their best into what they had to do which is amazing to witness."

From week 1 to week 2, we experienced a significant change in deadlines, which required us to develop more critical thinking and writing skills. Adjusting to the increased workload was challenging, and it took time for us to gain confidence in our writing abilities.

On a positive note, we've consistently shown our dedication to supporting one another and operating efficiently as a team. and work well as a team.

A special thanks to Chindu, our true Editor, who followed every step of our progress and encouraged us along the way

The biggest story in this News Day is Q&A with Jessica Toale, a Labour MP candidate in Bournemouth West. By conducting this interview, we were able to delve deeper into important issues facing our community and shed light on the perspectives and proposed plans of a prominent political candidate. The Q&A added depth and relevance to our coverage. Interviewing Toale is an invaluable learning experience that contributed to our growth as journalists.

Q&A team

Nichola

"Despite the daunting task of transcribing and editing over 10,000 words, I am pleased with the substantial amount of content we gathered. It provided us with ample material to craft an engaging Q&A session with a local parliamentary candidate."

Marco

"Preparing and talking with the Labour Candidate gave me a chance to dig deeper into the current political situation in The UK and critical thinking in English, and it made me realise how vital young voters are for this country."

Uyen

"Initially, I felt nervous about interviewing someone as important as Jessica. However, I'm relieved that everything went smoothly. Jessica was lovely, and her demeanour made us feel comfortable throughout the interview."

This is our 1st podcast publication. While there's room for improvement, it's noticeably better than our previous attempt. Additionally, we greatly appreciated the significant support provided by Jason.

Maria, as the lead of podcast team admitted that: "It was hard to work on the same topic again and come up with something new."

"We struggled to get answers from specialists on the topic, due to lack of availability.

"The biggest issue this week was the need to change the podcast direction very late on the timeline, due to some interviews planned not being conducted.

"The team also struggled with finding a middle ground between formality and casual when writing the script, dealing with rejection when trying to interview people. And I myself, with creating a backup plan for the podcast and managing to make sure the other members got the feedback and directions in the right way."

Working as a member of the podcast team, Marco faced his biggest challenge - facing rejection.

"I was a member of the Podcast team and had a task to interview older people (50-80-year-old people). I felt pretty confident initially (since I just had an extensive interview with a Labour candidate - Jessica Toale). Still, life slapped me hard since no one volunteered to answer any questions.
I was desperate. I doubted myself. I doubted the idea of asking people about politics. And why me? An Asian guy just arrived here who knows nothing about the current situation in the UK."

Megan contributed significantly by assisting with interviews, script editing, podcast planning, and audio editing.
"This week I felt a lot more prepared as we had completed the majority of editing before the day itself."

In our feature on voting behaviour among young people, we encountered a diverse range of perspectives. While some youths express disinterest in politics, we also had the opportunity to engage with individuals who are genuinely excited about the upcoming election. As individuals from different countries, we initially may not have paid much attention to politics back home. However, through our exploration of the election here in the UK, we have come to recognise the significance of our involvement in shaping the political landscape.

We should have published two more features but we couldn't make it.

Syed, who continued to delve into the issue of homelessness, said: "It was better experience than earlier news week. It was very nice visiting Boscombe and Bournemouth Square for interviewing homeless people and the difficulties they are facing on the daily life.

"It was very hard to extract information from them about the government because they were fear of that something will happen to them if they say against the government.

"For the upcoming news days, I would like to take more interviews from different officials to create balance in the story."

Gokul also talked about his struggle: "The main struggle I found in writing my feature up as it should have included bit more interviews. Since most of the interviews i conducted was not on record or the interviewees didn't agree to go on record. So writing up with i got was a difficult task for me."

Next time, he will identify main angle and ensure that the narrative remains focused on it, avoiding any unnecessary deviations from the main storyline.

Gift took charge of the news story, and although there was some miscommunication initially, she effectively managed to get things back on track.

"I couldn't get people to interview. Most of them didn't want to talk about politics. It was not so easy but I pulled through."

We also published social media content on Instagram, which involved a lot of work from Jennifer and Gift using Premiere Pro, with assistance from Daniela and Wayne.

"What made you proud?"

Inspiration

"Getting an interview secured with a local parliamentary candidate and seeing the feature come together at the end. I was also very proud of Marco and Uyen for conducting the interview and getting a lot of useful insights for the feature." - Nichola

"I learned how to overcome the situation, which was the biggest thing for me last week." - Marco

"One that me made proud was that i did write the story even though i lacked with more keen information and interviews. I tried my best this week." - Gokul

"I am very proud we improved compared from last week, I also learned a lot more and got more comfortable with the overall process and understanding each step that takes to create the podcast." - Maria

"Even with the challenges of not being able to achieve the original plan of the podcast, we were still able to create a story with what we had." - Megan

"I was made proud because after corrections I was still able to meet the deadline." - Gift

"The final work. I wasn't expecting the result. it was nice when everything fell into place." - Jennifer

"I have approached more sources than earlier week." - Syed

"I stepped out of my comfort zone and took on the role of Editor, something I used to feel apprehensive about. Additionally, I made an effort to multitask and manage various responsibilities to the best of my ability." - Uyen