tomworman's diary

Well hello all, i've been told off inspired by Mr Fred Bradley's blog to actually keep you guys up to date with what is happening in the world of UPSU Media and I'm sorry but this is gonna be a big blog now as it has been so long since I last posted something...

Training

Well, obviously all of us Sabbs have been off doing various NUS training courses over the Summer. I'll be honest NUS offer very little media training that is of any use to myself - in previous months I would have slagged off NUS and what they do (this is not to say I entirely support the vast amounts we pay) but people such as Steve Topazio in his role of Education and Representation Officer gets alot more out of it.

On the 1st September I took Jacob Leverett (Pugwash News Editor) and Caroline Arthur (Pure FM Station Manager) up to London with me to a media reception held at Amnesty International in the hope that we could network and learn a lot from other student unions - whilst the content of the seminar for me wasn't that interesting the contacts I gained were invaluable and I hope Jacob and Caroline got the same out of it.

Last month we put our senior staff, sabbatical officers, and senior volunteers through a Media Law training workshop with Bernie Saunders from the Journalism school - after previous legal issues with our publications this is an absolute essential and there will be 3 further workshops for all of our media volunteers coming up in November starting on the 12th. Over the next few months we hope to have a whole host of training going on for all our volunteers in the media from Press Release writing through to design and photography.

Media Elections

We had over 360 people sign up to UPSU media at Freshers Fayre, which I believe is one of the best ever successes, however due to some mix ups with the new room booking system we had to split into various rooms for our elections, which whilst hot and sweaty in one of the rooms proved successful for the elections and i have to now say congratulations to the following print media electees:

Design Team:

Sophie Colverson (Magazine Design Editor)
Sarah Matthews (Magazine Design Sub-Editor)
Christina Eland (Magazine Design Sub-Editor)
Sophie Abbott (Newspaper Design Sub-Editor)
Oaha Berdah (Newspaper Design Sub-Editor)

Life & Style Team:

Elke Morice-Atkinson (Editor)
Nina Tennant (Sub-Editor)
Sarah Beer (Sub-Editor)

News Team:

Will Hobson (News Editor)
Amiar Kamal (News Sub-Editor)
Henry Tipping (News Sub-Editor)

Arts & Ents Team:

Dominique O'Mahoney (Arts & Ents Sub-Editor)
The hip-hop guy [didn't get your name] (Arts & Ents Sub-Editor)

Sports Team:

Carl Jackson (Sports Sub-Editor)

Comments and Opinions Team:

Tom West (Comments and Opinions Editor)

Meanwhile on the Pure FM side of things; there have been a few issues within the committee but nothing that can't be overcome and I have all faith with what they are doing and how they are doing it. The first members meeting was a huge success with plenty of people turning up and what seemed like a great pub crawl afterwards - it's all about the socialising! Make sure you check out the new photo galleries on www.purefm.com. If you still need to get trained you can email Gabriel, at training@purefm.com. If you have got trained but still need a Programme Propsal Form (PR1), then you can come into the office and grab one at any time. If you need to hand in a form, you can put it underneath the office door. (If the main door is shut, and you can't get in, then please to and ask me and i'll open it up for you!)

Pugwash News

We will be continuing with the success of Pugwash News this year with a revamped paper which will be produced in full colour - new design and new content already issue 16 is out and at the time of writing this issue 17 should be winging it's way straight to the Union doors. The sports section of the paper this year will take a very much more professional appearance with feature articles rather than reports of “who slept with whom”. The purpose of the paper is to offer up interesting articles which we hope will stimulate debate and ideas that you guys as students can push forwards and openly discuss - please send any content you have to pugwashnews@upsu.net or register your interest in the media at www.upsu.net/getinvolved/media/register

Facebook

We all know how successful social networking site Facebook is for connecting with the student market. This year there has been a dramatic rise in University of Portsmouth Facebook groups of which I have tried ensure I am an administrator on all groups in the aim to promote student union events. I also launched a group aimed at getting students involved with UPSU media and the success of this has been fantastic with several new contacts each week requesting information on how to get involved with our various media outlets.

Pompey Guide

The Pompey Guide got a total overhaul this year. I have to offer major thanks to both Gamel Oki,Steve Jones and everyone else who got involved - it is absolutely amazing. I dunno what to say other than make sure you grab your copy now!

Pugwash Magazine

The content of the 5 future issues have been set down with the following themes:

• Summer Special (issue#1)
• Body Issue (issue#2)
  
• Money Matters (issue#3)
• Going Green (issue#4) 
• Now you’re graduating (issue#5)

It's an all female design team this year - first time in 3 years (!) and I just hope they will continue to push the standard of the magazine and hopefully it will resemble a magazine this year more than previous years where whilst i appreciate it was an outlet for designers to showcase there work have no real continuous style or similarity of design throughout to draw the publication together

UPSU.net

It’s all change for UPSU.net with a new homepage now almost finished and site-wide changes ranging from the new sports clubs site to the new academic representation pages. The website will keep growing from strength to strength becoming the one stop portal for students in Portsmouth. It is also my aim to get a link on the University of Portsmouth homepage and working with Andy will be asking them to restructure the UPSU section of their website which is currently very hidden away.

Keep up to date on UPSU.net changes at my development blog . 

UPSU.tv

For those of you who don’t know UPSU.tv is our new web TV channel which users can select a video from our archives to view and download a podcast. Already the interest in volunteers for this has been vast and I am submitting a request for funding towards a high quality video camera which can be used to develop our membership’s skills using professional equipment to accompany the professional industry standard software we use.

View all the videos online right now at: www.upsu.tv you will also soon be able to see our content on channel 666 with the CTV channel broadcast via Freewire TV in all halls of residence. 

Pure FM

Finally Pure FM are integrating with UPSU, for a few years they have remained a separate entity and therefore will gain a much larger presence with regards to advertising. The new committee have some fantastic plans this year including the proposal to run the stage for Fresher’s Fayre, charity events and the new Pure presents which will see our DJ’s in nightclubs around Portsmouth promoting PURE FM.

Media Executive

The media exec were all elected this year providing a broad background covering all our media with the chair being Sarah Dray winning with a unanimous decision from all members.

Comments have been closed for this article

 

 

Very Inspiring Mr Worman! :)

Fred Bradley - Thu, 16 Oct 2008

 

 

oo btw - the new pugwash online... doesn't at all look like errr.... hmm... ahh... Times Online or Guardian Online. ;)

Fred Bradley - Thu, 16 Oct 2008