Hello!
Super duper keen on an update?
I was in journo hell for the last week and I thought of you lots! I hope semester one is going swimmingly?
Ah so sorry Elyse - I didn't even see this because I have been so busy! Why was it journo hell!?! You must tell! Anyway:
Did my first university test last week for Self and Society and it was all online including the essay writing! Very weird but I was able to just look up answers to a lot of stuff haha. Probably why I finished with 4 seconds on the clock and was freaking out as I submitted it.
I also have completed my first assessment for Stories from the Street! We basically had to find a story in our local area. My first story didn't work out so I had to ditch it but I love working under pressure as it brings the best out of me and I was really pleased with the story I finished with!
Yesterday was a MASSIVE day. I have been prepping for Assessment 2 of Stories from the Street. One part requires us to find a live event in Sydney like a press conference or expert talk and find a news story in it and get two sources. I was initially going to a 2 hour presentation given by Nick McKim on the situation at Manus Island until the best thing happened. Our lecturer advertised a media opportunity in Penrith for NRL. Penrith + NRL = Penrith Panthers - surely. I was a tad late to reply (only 2 could go and 3 had already put their hand up) but I straight away commented on the post and mentioned the fact that the night before I had been out and went to bed at 3.30, woke up at 6 to go to work and then went straight from work to the Panthers game at Cronulla. So based off my dedication I was chosen to go cover it. It was a dream and I seriously had to remain professional because having all the players so close to me was surreal. The opportunity was four players who were answering questions from journos for 5 mins or so each. There were three other journos (Channel 9, Fox Sports and NRL.com) there who were really nice but I think they expected I was just there to watch and so when it came to questions they blitz asked questions and didn't even think of giving me a chance to say anything despite the fact I had so much to ask as a fan I know the intimate details of the club like the back of my hand. Long story short I needed a story out of this and the journos were asking boring cliche questions and so I was like fuck it and just jumped in before one of the journos could ask yet another question.
You can hear my shaky af voice from 3 minutes:
https://www.penrithpanthers.com.au/news/2018/04/23/mixed-media-trent-merrin/The journos there said it was a really good question and in fact both NRL.com and Fox Sports used my question and the response from it as the basis of their stories from the presser!
Afterwards I still needed one more quote for my story so I asked the media manager and was able to land a solid 1 minute interview with James Tamou. The other girl I was with from UTS knew nothing about the NRL but she was really smart because technically the rules of our assessment stated we needed a photo with one of our sources as proof so she took a photo but really as a fan I just wanted the photo with him haha.
Anyway after that I had to navigate my way through Penrith to ask questions to shop owners and locals about a small park being upgraded which is 4 months behind schedule and economically destroying the small businesses that are on the road where the construction is taking place. I have pretty much finished that story so I am way ahead on this assessment which is really nice.
Also an update with the live blogging I do - the editor was really impressed with my work so he is now offering to pay me $20 for each blog I do!
However, I am still going to blog and write for the other website as I always said to my mum that despite it being voluntary, the main guy there is really nice and understanding and also the website has 20k twitter followers and always gives me shout outs. Behold, after receiving a shout out last week, Yvonne Sampson, the main female NRL presenter at Fox Sports follows me and I was not even following her (she has 21k followers and follows just 1k) so I felt pretty special!
Anyway that is all for now! A hectic week but it's not over! Thankfully I have this week off uni!