Racing for Life.... a Charity Spectacular!

Blessed with beautiful weather, the sunglasses were out, the sun-cream was on and the, second, now annual 'Race For Life' event held at St Pius X Catholic High School, in Rotherham was well underway on Thursday afternoon!

In memory of past student Curtis Allen and staff member Marie Beevers, both who tragically lost their lives to cancer last year, it was an extremely touching event.

With a special guest performance from 'The Voice' semi-finalist, Lucy Milburn, she was able to open the event with a special rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone". Club anthem from Curtis' favourite football team, Liverpool FC. Before later showing off her vocal range in this years song of the year "This Is Me" from musical phenomenon "The Greatest Showman".

Lucy's jaw dropping performance was a strong contribution toward the buzzing atmosphere which lingered around the school on Thursday afternoon, and it definitely didn't go unnoticed! Everyone's smiles and positivity was incredibly infectious, with staff and students echoing cheers booming around the school as they supported one another, whether they ran, walked or even skipped the course, the school was enveloped in community support. And even when the heat was unbearable, it was definitely the well wishes from on looking supporters that kept many of the staff and students going.

A Facebook post by St Pius X Catholic High School to announce the guest appearance of Lucy Milburn.

Many of the students (and some staff!) didn't let the mini heatwave get in their way, as they absolutely flew around the course, in impeccable timing! Before then being presented with their official 'Race For Life' medals as they crossed the finish line by Curtis and Mrs Beevers close family, who were invited as special guests to the event.

Sports wear was the official given dress code for the event, with many of the staff sporting their pink personalised 'Race For Life' t-shirts as they made their way around the course

My Snapchat story from 19th April 2018, published on YouTube.

With Cancer Research UK being a charity extremely close to the schools heart it was not only a sponsored race which took part on Thursday, from a penalty shootout in one corner of the playing fields, to a bake sale in the other, the sole aim of the event was to raise as much cash and awareness as possible, with all proceeds being donated to the cause. 

Remembering those they had lost, the day was an astounding success and it goes without saying that the school raised a substantial amount for 'Cancer Research UK'.

The Huddersfield Examiner: An Analysis

Website

A number of advertisements have been placed around the website which is the way in which the online website would make its money. Its basic structure makes it easy to navigate for users providing easy access to all stories.


Twitter

The Huddersfield Examiner twitter page is home to all things Huddersfield. With 56.1k followers each having access to its 70,000 tweets, followers are given exclusive news stories, sports and traffic updates and even deals and discounts for some of the most popular and upcoming restaurants and bars in and around Huddersfield. The Examiner has no limit on the amount of posts it creates per hour, sometimes tweeting over 10 ties an hour.

Facebook

The Huddersfield Examiner Facebook page is in complete contract to its Twitter page however in terms of post frequency. A lot of the content is the same however they will only post a couple of times an hour to avoid clogging up their followers timelines. If the Facebook page were to over post however this could lead to a decline in followers.

Facebook Live

Facebook Live is the latest revelation taking the Journalism world by storm.

The user holds the ability to go live anywhere in the world at any time with no editing being able to take place after the broadcast has ended.

The Facebook Live in which I filmed, was broadcast around the University of Huddersfield campus. Facebook Live is a fantastic was to create live broadcasts, quickly and easily and is the latest method to broadcast news for journalists.

The Facebook Live feature is extremely easy to use and takes only a few moments to set up. 
The user is able to add filters and effects before going live and is even about to write or draw text on the screen, almost like Snapchat!

I can see why this method of broadcast is becoming so popular, for journalists especially. The simplicity of it means that the person producing the broadcast is able to quickly whip their phone out at the scene of an event and produce live footage for people to tune into and watch live!

The audience are also able to communicate back and forth with the creator of the live. Being able to answer questions and watch the person answer the question as he/she sees it. 

Overall, Facebook Live is a very effective source in which people can communicate with their audience, as these events are taking place.

Below I have included a number of screenshots of the first Facebook Live I conducted.

The Kindle Application

The Kindle App is the new revolutionary way of reading. Its ability to be used anywhere and everywhere is what makes it so appealing to its users.

 “How Twitter is being gamed to feed misinformation” published by The New York Times was the article in which I accessed and read via the Kindle App.

It speaks in great detail about the worlds latest addition, Twitter and the effect in which it is having on journalism. Speaking that its “making the news dumber.”

Much of the article is extremely negative towards Twitter and talks about its effects on news, a lot of the statements not being overly positive which is expected when discussing that Twitter is the foundation of fake news!

I am a huge believer in that books are one of the best pass times. However, as time progresses and technology expands, it is saddening that there has been a decline in book sales over the recent years since applications such as the Kindle were launched.

Kindle, although, is a fantastic application which ensures users can read anytime, anywhere from their mobile device. You can either download a free sample book, access online materials, such as the article stated previously or even buy or lend a full novel!

You can read the article here

Review: Blame Game - Season 1, Epsidoe 8

Gripping from the very beginning, the episode of Blame Game captures the audience by including a clip of a recorded phone call.

A very dramatic one at that, which, of course, grips the audience from the get go, just like it did me. The podcast is scripted in a way which is very engaging as a listener. It seems he is not talking at us, only with us and the simple lexis meant that although I know little to nothing about cars, it was easy to follow, which suggests that the podcast is not just aimed at one particular audience.

A lot of repetition was made about the manufacturing of the car in question. Which is why the “plot twist” was so shocking. Much of the podcasts focus was put on the car manufacturers throughout the whole of the podcast so when it was revealed to the audience that it was in fact human error. By focussing so much on one thing and then it turning out to be another is what keeps the audience guessing not only in a podcast but also through television.

Overall, a very detailed, in depth podcast which at points was engaging. More towards the beginning and the end however.

This podcast cannot just be a piece of back ground sound when listening though, as I feel it requires concentration to be able to be completely understood.

I was never a podcast listener before listening to this podcast, however I did find it rather enjoyable and I have since started listening to a few more in my spare time.

You can access the podcast here

Twitter, the biggest news platform?

It’s becoming evidently obvious that Twitter is beginning to take over our lives... well it is mine anyway!

I, like many others, use Twitter to express all sorts of opinions on anything and everything, as well as communicate with people I wouldn't normally have the option to, like celebrities etc.

When your iPhone or iPad dies half way through your Netflix series and you have to wait the 10 minutes for it to turn back on again once you've plugged it in!! 👎

— Chris Ingham (@Chris_Delonge) December 11, 2017

 
Take this tweet above! A perfect example of how Twitter is used by the majority of its users! We all tweet unnecessary thinks like this do people care? Probably not, but we tweet about it never the less!

Although the majority of us use Twitter to rant, complain and express mostly negative opinions it is a very useful platform for Journalists especially!

It is a new platform in which we are now able to produce live news updates for followers. It is a much faster way of being able to source live updates.

A lot of news outlets are now able to use Twitter user’s material in their news bulletins. For example, if we take into consideration the Manchester Arena bombings, news broadcasters were able to access the almost-live videos published by Twitter users in order to broadcast these images to the world.

The simplicity of YouTube...

  Angry Pony, posted 24th                                                                                                                           November 2017
YouTube itself is a rather simple platform to get your head around.

Once you have the video ready to upload the process is rather simple. Once uploaded, you have the opportunity to select or create thumbnail for the video in which you posted. As well as select a title and description for the video. You can also add tags to the video, enabling people to find the video by searching for the certain tags you have attached to the video.

The whole concept of YouTube is new to many people although it’s a very easy platform to use. Proven by the millions of people who upload on the platform every single day!

The video itself was rather easy to create! I just so happened to visit a farm one day in the summer and come across an angry pony! But seriously, the whole concept of uploading, editing the video, as well as adding titles and descriptions etc.

The process is delivered by a step by step method, so it’s very hard indeed to go wrong! 
Although we were offered guidance whilst uploading our first video to YouTube, I am confident I would be able to upload it without help next time!

It’s very simple!