https://www.instagram.com/p/BdpzniXABBM/?taken-by=emkedigitalpublish
Final reflection
All of the assignments are now created and uploaded and it’s time for a final reflection, as this module has now come to an end.
The main challenges that I’ve encountered while producing the main assignments have, ever since the start, been to determine whether the subject I wanted to write about was newsworthy enough. And, once I actually decided on a subject, the same “problem” emerged once again, yet in a different form – when I was going to prioritize the information I’d gathered.
Through feedback from my tutor, discussing with my classmates and through reading more about the inverted pyramid of journalism, I eventually became a bit more certain of what counts as a newsworthy event or subject and how to prioritize its content properly.
The second problem I encountered was when finding primary sources for my features. Finding and making contact with the proper primary source for a specific article was time consuming. However, sending an extra email or calling the person in question harms no one and in this case it saved the interview with one of the sources.
This module has been very rich of content, fun and straight forward. I have learned so much because, rather than stating what you can do with digital journalism, we’ve learned how to do it. This includes how to work with WordPress, SEO, collecting sources, copyright as well as good tips for social media optimisation. All of this will be so valuable for me in the future.
Cat Person: The short story that never ended
Here is a link to my curated feature on Storify, Cat Person: The short story that never ended
Protected: Evidence post
15 minutes with a dog can save your life
Guide dogs
improves lives each day
Studies show that a few minutes with a dog will increase your well-being, even if just for that moment. The student accommodation provider, Campus Living Villages, have proven this to be right. For the last couple of years, they’ve gained over £1 800 from donations of people who’ve attended their ”Meet a guide dog” event, across the country.
By Emma Kjellin
It all started in January 2016, when Campus Living Villages initiated a collaboration with Guide Dogs UK, the world’s largest breeder and trainer of working dogs. The initiative entails students to get the chance to meet guide dogs for a period of 15 minutes, dogs that are either actively working or who are retired.
It’s a great cure for homesickness
At their very first event, over 1 000 students showed up.
”The events are very popular”, says Rebecca O’hare, the event organiser and manager of Campus Living Villages. ”A lot of the students have dogs or other animals back home, and can be a bit homesick”, she says. Meeting the guide dogs seem to be a great way to decrease the feeling of homesickness.
The same kind of interest was shown at the student accomodation Arena Village in Leeds last week. Four dogs showed up at noon in the accommodation common area and was soon accompanied by students who immediately started to cuddle with them.
The “Meet a guide dog event” is popular among students.
“We always get good feedback from people attending the events as it gives them time to relax and make a fuss of the dogs – which most people love” says Thelma Wilson, volunteer for Guide Dogs UK. She and her husband, have adopted two dogs from the association and brings the dogs to events just like the one at Arena Village.
But other than homesickness, what is the reason so many people are so keen on getting a 15 minute opportunity to pet a dog they’ve never met before?
Dogs are life changers
Studies show that dogs have a positive effect, both for the psychological but also physical health of humans. They don’t only prevent us from being ill, but also speeds up our recovery process from illness. Based on this there’s no surprise dogs are used as assistants for people, and there are countless stories to show for it.
Other than providing students with a stress relief and a cure for homesickness, the strongest response comes mainly from the thousands of people who enjoys the true benefits of having the help of a guide dog.
”We say that the dogs are life changers” Wilson says.
According to Guide Dog UK, about two million people live with sight loss in the UK as of today. About 10% suffer from depression and rarely leave their homes. With the help of guide dogs, however, thousands of people have the chance to gain more independence which has proven to increase the living standard. Ever since Guide Dog UK first started in 1931, they’ve helped over 29 000 people to improve their life.
It’s a fun experience for the dogs as well.
The dogs lie on the floor and gets cuddled with
Sponsor a puppy
So far, Campus Living Villages have gained over £1 800 in donations through their events.
”Our goal is to have gained up to £2 500 until the end or 2018”, says O’hare.
Reaching this limit makes it possible to name and sponsor a puppy at Guide Dog UK. This counts for about half of the cost of the 24 month long training that the dogs will encounter during their first months in life. After this they’ll be assigned to a person whose life they’ll help to improve for the next six to eight years.
Assignment 1 reasearch (Workshop #6)
Initially, I had several ideas for the first assignment of this assignment, however I came to a dead end for the majority of them. At first I was thinking about writing about the Leeds international film festival but found it to be a bit too promotional rather than journalistic. I then planned to write about the Switch On event in Leeds, for when the Christmas lights were to be switched on, but found the same problem there.
Eventually I decided on writing about an event that I had attended in October. The event had been held at my student accommodation and was called “Meet a guide dog”. The event is exactly what it sounds like; you get the chance to meet and pet guide dogs. I remember, even at the actual event, that I though it was a great initiative, and also a bit different. Perfect for an article idea!
I knew I was going to have access to several kinds of primary sources, both from the student accommodation organisation and also from the organisation that was responsible for the guide dogs. Not only that, I also knew I would be able to get quotes from the students attending.
I will attempt to contact the following primary sources:
Rebecca O’Hare – Resident life manager at Campus living Villages
Contact details: Rebecca.O’hare@clvuk.com
Background: The event organiser
Interview questions:
How/why did it the initiative start?
How long have you been doing this?
Which organizations are you working with?
How is it beneficial for you to invite these dogs?
What do you think it means for the people that meet these dogs?
What are the most common reactions that you get?
Katie Young – Customer Service Officer at Campus Living Villages UK
Contact details: Katie.young@clvuk.com
Background info: Event organiser at the actual accomodation
Interview questions:
How many attended the event
How much did you collect?
How did it start?
Guide dogs UK
Contact details: guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk
Background info: Guide dogs UK is the world’s largest breeder and trainer of working dogs, ever since the beginning of 2016 the organisation has been cooperating with Campus Living Villages as a way to spread awareness of the organisation and to attend events arranged for the students living in the accommodations in the UK.
Interview questions:
Can you please tell me about your organisation?
How important are these kinds of events for you as an organisation?
How big part of the general funding, does these kinds of events contribute to?
Why do you think people enjoy going to these events so much?
What is the most common comment that you receive from people attending these events?
How does the life of a guide dog look like?
How important are guide dogs to its owners?
Can you please give an example of how a guide dog might affect someone’s life?
Student from the event – Annika Baltes
Contact details: Facebook profile
Background info: Erasmus student from Germany, had been in Leeds for 2 months at the time for the event.
Interview questions:
Why did you go to the event?
What did you expect from the event before you went?
Afterwards, did you your experience meet your expectations?
How did you experience the event?
Why do you think so many people went?
Background of the story:
The student accommodation provider Campus living villages, active in Australia, New Zealand, United States and United kingdom initiated a collaboration with Guide dogs UK , the world’s largest breeder and trainer of working dogs, in the beginning of 2016. The initiative entails students to get the chance to meet the guide dogs that are currently working, or have been working for the organisation. The event is also a charity event and has gotten a widely positive response. So far, they have managed to gain £ 1 800 from donations, heading for the goal of £ 2 500 in the beginning of 2018.
Individual research – Assignment 1
Below I’ve listed secondary sources for my first assignment (see pitch). My ambition was to find general information, firstly about the two companies that will appear in the article, Campus Living Villages and Guide dogs UK. Apart from this I wanted to find articles about how people’s lives might have been affected by guide dogs. I also wanted to find reliable research to prove that dogs have a positive effect on our health.
1.On Guide dogs UK’s website there’s a lot of information. What will be interesting for this article is a brief paragraph of their history, how widespread their organisation is in the UK, how the life of a guide dog might look like and what the vision of the organization is. This can all be found under “About us” on their website. Rather than setting several links to the same website, I’ll collect them attached to this link. http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/aboutus#.Wja1v7p2uUk
2.I will use Campus Living Villages website to back the story up with background information about the company that initiated the cooperation with Guide Dogs UK. Other than the information I’ll receive from the interviews, their website is a great source for further information.
https://www.campuslivingvillages.com/about-us/
3.A YouTube video where you are able to visually see how one of the events plays out and where students comment on their experience.
https://youtu.be/vtjiv9vIwTs
5.An article from BBC about the life of a guide dog and how they can affect your life
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42028076
6.Article from The Telegraph on how the role of working dogs has changed over time and how broad their spectrum of responsibility has become.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pets/essentials/jobs-for-working-dogs/
7.Press release from APA (American psychological association) presenting findings showing that pets have positive effects on your mental health.
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/07/cats-dogs.aspx
Article from The Guardian commenting on how pets have positive effect on mental health
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/02/dog-positive-impact-mental-health
8.Article/journal from author Deborah L. Wells, showing that dogs have a positive impact on human health
Wells, D.L. (2007). Domestic dogs and human health. British Journal of Health Psychology, 12, 145–156
Individual research – Assignment 3 (Instagram story)
Below I’ve gathered my research for secondary sources and primary sources for assignment 3, the Instagram story (see pitch).
My intention has been to gather material that covers the history of self driving cars and what other countries, such as the UK, has done so far to incorporate self driving cars in their cities. I have also gathered material from the companies mentioned in the press release from Gothenburg City to get an overview of how the project will affect the city and what comments they have made about the project so far.
Further down I’ve listed three contacts for potential secondary sources.
1. Press release from Gothenburg City, Sweden, stating that they are the first city ever to city plan for self driven cars. http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/goteborgsstad/pressreleases/goeteborg-foerst-med-att-stadsplanera-foer-sjaelvkoerande-fordon-2331885
2. The planning, mentioned above, is financed by Vinnova within the frames of the Drive Sweden program, which is a strategic innovation program launched by the Swedish government with a vision of making the transportation system within Sweden more efficient, with regard to self driven cars. This is their website that includes more information and videos that visualises their vision:
https://www.drivesweden.net/en/organization
3. This is an article from Swedish public service (SVT) on the threats and possibilities of self driven cars within Sweden (Swedish). They talk about how we will get used to the fact that we will have self driven cars in our city in the future.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/sjalvkorande-fordon-bade-hot-och-mojlighet?cmpid=del:tw:20171216:sjalvkorande-fordon-bade-hot-och-mojlighet:nyh:lp
4. This is a 5 page paper that “summarises some of the major issues and opportunities from the shift towards self-driving cars”. The document is from the UK government website.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-driving-cars
5. Article from The Guardian where they do a deep dive into the functions of self driving vehicles and also of the history of the autonomic car. There’s also a great amount of usable statistic in this article.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/13/self-driving-cars-bmw-google-2020-driving
6. The history of BMW autonomic cars. It all started with the Eureka Prometheus Pan-European project, with input from Ernst Dickmanns, in 1986.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/a-short-history-of-mercedes-benz-autonomous-driving-technology-68148.html
Listed below are the primary sources I aim to contact for this feature.
Anna Svensson – Project leader at the City Planning Office (Stadsbyggnadskontoret) in Gothenburg
Contact details: anna.svensson@sbk.goteborg.se
Main interview questions:
1. Gothenburg city has already invested billions of the tax-payers money as part of the “Västsvenska paketet” project – an investment in the infrastructure of the city that started just about 7 years ago. A majority of the inhabitants of the city voted no to this project, but it was still carried out. How will these new plans of adjusting to self driven cars, affect this project?
2. Why weren’t these plans part of this project before we invested billions?
3. When do you believe it to be relevant to start bringing the plans into reality?
4. How do you think it will affect our citizens?
5. How do you think people will adjust to a society with self driven cars?
6. Why do we need self driven cars?
Christina Terfors – Press contact
Contact details: christina.terfors@sbk.goteborg.se
Main interview questions:
1. What are the most common requests from the inhabitants of Gothenburg regarding this project?
2. What will the greatest challenges be to get these plans into reality?
3. Which parts of Gothenburg will be affected?
Jan Hellåker – Program Director for Drive Sweden
Contact details: jan.hellaker@lindholmen.se
Main interview questions:
1. Please, tell me more about Drive Sweden and your vision.
2. As part of the plans, several parking lots will be removed to give way for more parks and social areas, where are you planning on building new parking lots for the self-driven cars?
3. How will the rest of the public transport be affected?
Individual research – Assignment 2 (Curated article)
Below I’ve listed my research for secondary sources for assignment 2, the curated article, (see Pitch)
Since Twitter allows me to get shorter, direct comments and reactions towards the article “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian that was published last week by The New Yorker, my intention with this research has been to find articles that are a bit longer. I wanted to get different perspectives towards the lead characters and also understand what other parallels people did to our society today.
1.New York Times interviews the author of the short story “Cat person”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/books/cat-person-new-yorker.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
2.The BBC’s effort to make the same story but written from the other lead character, Robert’s perspective.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/d0ef8a0d-82c6-4df7-acb4-8688b514cd32
3.Article from Village Voice on how the discourse in journalism has changed to a point were we as readers can’t differ journalism from fiction any longer. The author uses this as one of the arguments of why the short story has become so popular – or unpopular.
https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/12/15/our-reaction-to-cat-person-shows-that-we-are-failing-as-readers/
4.Article from National Review. Author Kylie Smith writes Dear cat-person girl as a message to the lead character, Margot. It is critical towards her “loose” behaviour and claims that she easily could have gotten out of the destructive dating situation sooner than she did.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454624/pervasive-culture-sex-drunkeness-regret
5.Article from the Washington Post about the fact that it’s the younger generation, the millennials, that is drawn to this article the most – and why. He also comments on the fact that even though there is no abuse in the relationship of Margot and Robert in the story, the pressures surrounding sex that is portrayed in this story, is still a result from the same broken system.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/12/11/why-cat-person-went-viral/?utm_term=.79af873f5d62
6.Article from The Guardian, briefly listing some of the different types of reactions that the Cat person story has generated.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/13/cat-person-short-story-that-launched-thousand-theories?CMP=twt_books_b-gdnbooks
7.Article about who’s really the victim of the story. Another comment on the fact that people couldn’t differentiate between fictional and actual debate and that this was what resulted in the rapid spread.
https://www.avclub.com/the-reaction-to-cat-person-shows-how-the-internet-can-1821229253
Pitch for assignment #3
Headline: “Gothenburg is first to city plan for self driven cars”
The city of Gothenburg. Sweden, announced earlier this week, that they’ve initiated a city planning project that includes planning for self driven cars in the city.
The concept of self driven cars is not new, it has been a hot subject for a long time and several companies, such as BMW and Tesla have already revealed that they will release vehicles that has some sort of autonomic driving function in the near future.
However, so far there hasn’t been any city that has research the interaction between self driven vehicles and a sustainable city planning, which makes Gothenburg the first city to do so.
Gothenburg is the original home of the production of Volvo and has been in the forefront regarding production of vehicles for ages. It’s now time to look into the future. And what the future holds is self driven cars.
My angle will be “Gothenburg is the first city to plan for self driven cars”. I will include details of what this means for the city itself. I will also include quotes from the project leaders from Gothenburg city what this means in general for the industry and for the future.
The copy will include:
* Comment from project leader from City planning office of Gothenburg
* Comment from city planning director from Gothenburg City
* Research about development of self driven cars
The article will be an Instagram story with 10 slides, including one shorter video. The pictures will show different parts of the city that would be affected as well as brands who has revealed that they will release self driven cars in the future. The associated caption will be a minimum of 200 words.
Kjellin journalism 