Joanne the Coach

Daily Mail Stolen LapTop - Freelancers Beware

News reaches my big flappy ears that many UK freelance journalists have had a letter today, confirming that the latest institution to have lost a laptop containing confidential information is...the Daily Mail. 

Apparently names, addresses, account numbers and sort codes have been sucked up into laptop Valhalla.  Though the letter was sent on the 2nd, so maybe they're not that worried.

So if you're a freelancer who's worked for the Mail, check out your bank account to make sure no-one's been truffling around in it.

Seven Day Special

In case you missed it, last night's Radio Coaching show is available to listen to for the next 7 days.  I had an interesting chat with host Erwin - coaching, the media, and marketing your coaching business all came up to varying degrees.  Never did find out the price of fish, though.

The Ten Commandments of Media Work Experience

So Princess Beatrice is off to the Financial Times for a stint of work experience.  Good on yer Bea.  Work experience is the shitty end of the stick when it comes to media careers, but I'm sure you won't have to hold it for long.  Just follow the 10 commandments of work placements and you'll be fine. 

How To Make A Success of Your Media Work Experience Placement

NO 1 - GO FOR WHAT LIGHTS YOUR FIRE
Only go for work experience on the kind of programmes/publications etc that you feel a genuine enthusiasm for.  This may seem like wishful thinking when all you want is a job, but since you'll be working for nowt you may as well aim to have fun while you're doing it. 

Princess Beatrice is apparently off to the affluence and fashion sections of the FT (well I guessed they covered affluence, but fashion?  In the Financial Times?  Maybe it's how to make a thong out of a load of pound coins?  Hopefully Bea will enlighten us)

NO 2 - SUCK UP TO EVERYBODY (EXCEPT THE STARS)
Whilst you're on work experience, don't make the mistake of just sucking up to the boss - suck up to everybody.

Be especially nice to the runners and researchers because when they leave they may recommend you to take over from them.  They might be on the bottom rung, but it's still a rung up from work experience, so watch, worship and learn.

The big exceptions to this are the stars - on no account suck up to them because they get that all the time anyway.  Just treat anyone famous you meet like a normal person and you'll do fine. 

Sometimes this is easier said than done.  I was once at lunch with the production crew of a programme I was producing.  The presenter was regaling the assembled masses with the story of a dream he'd recently had which involved himself in sexual congress with the recently deceased Princess Diana.  Just as he reached the crescendo of his story ("And, y'know, we were really fucking…like animals..we were really going for it"), I caught the eye of a pleasant, shy girl who had joined us for work experience.  She looked like this was a shock it would take her a long time to recover from but at least she had the sense not to say a thing. 

NO 3 - DO WHATEVER YOU'RE ASKED
When on work experience, never refuse to do anything, no matter how mundane or personally humiliating it might be. Once, at Anglia TV, we needed someone to dress up as the mascot of the local football team.  There was no way any of us hired hands was dressing up as Captain Canary, so you can guess who did.

The costume consisted of a bright yellow body, designed to make the wearer look like a huge ping pong ball which had been dipped in custard.  An unfortunate work experience bod was sent to put it on.  He was away a long time.  When he returned, the producer laughed uproariously at how ridiculous he looked then bollocked him for keeping everyone waiting. 

It turned out that he'd had a bit of a mishap in the changing room, tripping over the huge, claw-like boots, then falling over like a beached Tellytubby.  He'd had to drag himself over to a table and haul himself upright again, because he'd realised that no one was coming to help.  This woeful tale got no sympathy.  Then we noticed that the head part of Captain Canary's costume whiffed a bit, to say the least.  So we sprayed it with a dollop of Mr Sheen, plonked it on his head, and sent him out on to live TV. 

Said workie was last heard of producing a prime time ITV show. 

NO 4 BUT MAKE SURE YOU DO IT RIGHT
Ask questions about whatever you're given to do if you're not sure exactly what's required.  It's much better to do this and get it right than be shy about it and cock up.  That's the fastest route to not being asked to do anything else.

NO 5 - DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY IF YOU'RE NOT TREATED WELL
My worst time on work experience was when I went to a BBC local radio station and found that they didn't even have a spare chair for me to sit on - so I was told to stand in the corner of the newsroom. 

After about 8 hours of this I was feeling rather faint, so I went home.  The paid incumbents looked a bit surprised that I was leaving.  A friend of mine spent a week in the same place and found it equally grim, although she did emerge with some well-toned calf muscles from standing up all day.

A common complaint amongst work experience detainees is that you get given very little to do.  Don't be surprised if you're told to read the newspapers and get coffee - after a week you may be trusted with the photocopying.  This is because your new workmates simply don't know how talented and fabulous you are, and they're usually too busy to try and find out.  Remember that although this is a momentous event in your life - your big chance to make an impression - to them you're just the latest in a long line of weekly slaves.  Many media companies will have different people in on work experience every week, so that after a while the staff don't tend to register the new faces or bother to be friendly to them.

NO 6 - DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF THE EXPERIENCE
You're likely to get more to do if you go somewhere smaller, especially outside London.  But then again, even if you end up running the station, putting Radio Pisspot on your CV doesn't quite have the same attention grabbing kudos as BBC Nine O Clock news.  Do as many placements as you can at different places, or go back to the same place a lot so that they get so sick of the sight of you they have to give you a job.

NO 7 - IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START
Of course, all of this takes time, which is why it's a good idea to start trying to get work experience as early as you can.  That way, by the time you leave college you'll have racked up a few things to put on your CV.  And by being in a real media environment you'll have an even better chance to decide whether or not you like it.  This could save you a lot of time later if you eventually decide that there are easier and more lucrative ways to earn a living.

TV is a young business and entrants are likely to be in their early twenties. (Although I did once work with a fantastic researcher who was 67.  But he was very much a one-off)

NO 8 - KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE PEOPLE YOU'VE WORKED FOR
Send a thank you letter or card to anyone who was particularly helpful.  Ask for feedback on what you did that was right and where you could have done better.  Offer to come back and do better next time.  Let them know how you're getting on when you start getting paid work.  With email there's no excuse for not keeping in touch.

NO 9 - OFFER TO HELP OUT BUT DON'T GET IN PEOPLE'S WAY
You will get far more out of the placement if you use your initiative rather than waiting to be given things to do.  Look around for anyone who seems to be particularly busy - could you make a few phone calls for them?  Do a bit of research?  Cup of tea?  The more useful you make yourself the more useful you will be perceived to be.

NO 10 - IF IT DOESN'T WORK OUT IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD.
So you pissed off the producer, spilt tea over the presenter and sat on the office cat.  We learn through the mistakes we make - "that which does not kill us makes us stronger" said Goethe, as he returned from a week's work experience on his local paper.

And Today's Award for Most Random Case Study Request Goes To....

...freelance journalist Sarah Ewing, who's looking for a swimsuit-clad nurse called Colleen.

Sarah also wins a special mention in the Positive Attitude in the Face of Ludicrous Requests From Editors category.

Top Ten Bad Ads: Me Against the Fish Hooks

The Advertising Standards Authority has announced its 10 most complained about adverts of the year.

I am not by nature a complainer - the coaching way is a practical one, so we aim to look for solutions rather than whinge about stuff.

But then my child started having nightmares about people with fish hooks in their mouths.

This notorious anti-smoking ad was everywhere in 2007.  We saw it on billboards on the school run.  Go out for a day trip and there it was on the back of the loo door at motorway services.  Turn on the telly on Saturday afternoon and there it was again, popping up in the breaks between an old movie.  You couldn't have avoided it if you'd tried (and we really did try).  And over a year later, I still have to check there are no nasty fish hook faces lurking in public loos before my children will go in.

So for the first time in my life I made an official complaint to the ASA.  So did 773 others.

Would you believe that this was a Department of Health campaign, funded by public money?  Well thanks a lot chaps.  If I want to scare my children I am quite capable of putting on a scary face and doing so myself. No fish hooks required.

But if it stops people smoking, is it worth it?  Does the end always justify the means?

Television - Is It Ever What It Seems?

I have to own up to a bit of TV fakery.  You see that dashing cravat I was wearing on Between The Headlines last night?  Well, it's not mine.  It's the make-up lady's.  Despite having written an article on what to wear on TV, and a book on how to do a good TV interview, I still managed to pitch up to the studio in a top that was deemed too racy for the Press TV audience.

This was something of a surprise, as I have long been a fan of the 'wear as many clothes as you can, then pile some more on' style of dress.  (It keeps you nice and toasty in the winter, but can be something of an endurance test in the summer).

Ah well, I still maintain that it's good to get things wrong on a regular basis.  Making mistakes is a vital sign that you're alive and not just a robot in a wig.

Also on the box, it's good to see Ant and Dec back on Saturday night ITV.  During their short-lived pop career, I was once assigned to look after them when they came in to This Morning to promote their latest single.  Old hands at TM gave me the same advice repeatedly - Watch out for The Girls.

Apparently A & D were notorious for their band of female followers who trailed them everywhere they went.  One sniff of the boys in the studio and we would be beseiged by hundreds of screaming females.  Extra security, dogs, tanks etc would be needed for the imminent invasion.

So when I was talking to the duo's management about the arrangements for the appearance, I mentioned that I'd heard that they were usually followed by a manic fan gang.  Exactly how much extra security did they think we'd need?  "Oh don't worry about that" came the reply, "I haven't told the girls to turn up this week."

So it was all a trick!  A management ploy to give Geordie pintpots a Beatles-esque air.

And then the backing band turned up to mime to the track, and the drummer asked if he could borrow a copy of the single they were promoting.  Not only had he not played on it - he'd never even heard it before either!  Another trick.

I doubt if the lovely A & D were ever aware of the amount of camouflage surrounding them.  Or maybe there's only actually one of them, and the whole smoke and mirrors thing goes deeper than we thought.

Which Came First, The Story or the Case Study?

Getting Ink Requests is a new blog designed to help journalists and case studies meet in perfect harmony.  Hurrah say all the freelancers, and thanks for making the gnarly task of finding case studies that bit easier.

Not so says student journalist & blogger Dave Lee.  (I do love a Student With Something To Say, almost as much as I love Students Who Shrug and Mumble.  You have to watch out for the S & Ms, they are slow burners who will eventually come to great things).

Writing in the Press Gazette student blog, Dave laments the outrageousness of looking for people to fit the story you're writing.  He feels it's downright unethical to look for case studies to fit pre-conceived stories.  Instead he pins his hopes on finding "extraordinary people around every corner".

I once worked for a TV show editor who believed, like Dave, that there's a story round every corner, and it's just a case of going out and finding them.  So we were banned from advertising for case studies, and were instead dispatched around the UK to approach people in shopping centres etc to ask if they had a story to tell. 

It was a HORRID experience, a poor use of time and ultimately worthless in terms of actually finding people for the programme.  Imagine you're out doing your shopping and someone from a TV show approaches you and asks (a) if you have a story and (b) are interested in talking about it on TV?  Naturally you'd tell them to eff off immediately.

Now of course everybody's got a story of one sort or another, but where does a researcher start to find it if they've just randomly stopped someone on the street ('Anything happen in your childhood? No? Umm...how about adolescence?  Any teenage traumas? etc etc ad feckin' infinitum). 

It took days and days and contributed absolutely zipola to the programme - not one interviewee was found via these stop and search tactics.  All it produced was an exhausted and demoralised production team.  And in the end we did have to advertise for case studies, in order to avoid producing a chat show without any guests.*

The only way this research method could possibly have worked was maybe with an enormous staff of people approaching vast quantities of people.  A bit like...oh yes...distributing case study requests via a website.

The more specific you can be about what you are looking for in a case study, the easier it makes it for someone to put their hand up and say 'oh yes, that happened to me'.  Of course there will be times when you find the case study first and the wider story follows later, but in general this is not how the media world works.  A Thing happens, a journalist researches and writes about it, and in the process looks for case studies to prove that The Thing is real (and to make it less of a snore if it's an economy story).

The times when you find the case study first and develop the story from there are in the minority.  I guess the answer is always to keep your ears open because you never know if your next case study will find you or vice versa.

~~

*  The TV programme in question only lasted one awkward series.  Several of its staff left the television industry soon after making it.  The production company in question prospers on and is now making the bogglesome Lily Allen show for BBC3.  Go figure. 

Journalism in Ancient Times

When I did my journalism training, one of the most exciting tasks we were given was covering a simulated plane crash.  This was a training exercise at Cardiff airport so that all the emergency services could practice co-ordinating in the event of a real plane crash or some random alien invasion. And we could practice reporting it.

To help us cover the story, we were issued with mobile phones and, bizarrely, a double decker bus.  This being away in the ancient swirling mists of time (1994), the mobile phones came with a battery pack in a shoulder bag, to be shared between about a dozen of us.  We sat on the top deck, swigging cider and taking turns at phoning our loved ones ("Helllooooo....you won't believe this, but I'm actually calling you from a BUS!").

The plane crash itself was surprisingly scary, as there really was a fuselage on fire on the runway, and assorted St Johns' Ambulance volunteers looking green.  At one point we hitched a lift with a policeman to a press conference.  There was a brown envelope on the car's back seat, which we immediately pinched.  We had no qualms about doing this - as students at one of the finest journalism schools in the country, we naturally assumed that nicking stuff was an essential part of getting the story. 

We hid behind an airport outbuilding to rip open the envelope and find out what the scoop really was.  Secret operations plans?  Police theories as to the reason for the fire?  Well no, actually.  It was the police tea break rota.  But you know..we nearly had a story...

You will be glad to know that the Cardiff Journalism School class of 1994/95 are mostly doing senior things in media and are much more honest these days.  Honestly.

I was thinking about story-gathering ethics after watching the video of Amy Winehouse wobbling round her flat in search of kittens and crack. The Sun's story says nothing about how this footage was obtained, but it looks like a classic case of secret filming to me.  Never trust anyone in a denim jacket, unless they are on their way to a 1980's theme party.

I was once offered £1000 to secretly record someone, by a freelancer working for a tabloid (not saying which one, but it rhymes with Gnus of the Swirled).  This was in 1995, so I guess the going rate for this kind of thing will have increased by now. (I said no by the way).

Does the end always justify the means when it comes to getting the story?  Now that Amy's in rehab, could this secret filming be said to have saved her life?  Or is it just somebody making a few quid off the back of a troubled individual?   

Going Underground: More on Searching For Case Studies

The good thing about looking for case studies is that you'll rarely reach a dead end.  Yes, sometimes it might feel like you're wading uphill through custard, but it's rare to come to a complete stop.  Obviously some stories are easier to find than others, but in general there is always somewhere else to try, another number to call.  Don't just give it 15 minutes' Googling then give up.

But what if you've got a particularly niche topic to research?  Say you're looking for people who believe themselves to be descended from lizards, and www.lizardgrandad.com happens to be offline.  What's your next step?  Well, you could always think about:

• Special interest groups your potential case study might frequent - seach under Google Groups or Yahoo Groups , Facebook or MySpace to see what's out there.
• Do an archive search to see which articles have already been written about the topic you're researching.  LexisNexis is great for archive searches, but you do need to be a subscriber - if you're a freelancer it's worth asking if the publication you're working for has a subscription.  And the BBC News archives are always worth a shuffle too.
• Think about which professionals your case study might work with, like coaches or psychologists.  A decent professional won't put you directly in touch with their clients, so don't even ask.  But they may be able to pass on a message to their professional network, or give you some useful pointers on where else to try.
• Have a look on Amazon to see who's written books on the subject you're writing about.  Many authors now have their own individual websites, so they're fairly easy to track down.
• And there will always be blogs, the safe haven of the new millenium for thoughts that really should have stayed in your own head.  If you can think of it, somebody somewhere will have blogged about it.  You may have to do some persuading to get your happily anonymous blogger to talk to you, but rest assured that you'll never be stuck for a case study whilst blogs exist

Digging For Gold - Useful Links for Finding Case Studies

When I worked on TV chat shows, finding case studies was a fairly straightforward process.  An appeal would be broadcast at the end of each show.  People interested in taking part would call in and leave their details.  A researcher would ring back and do a quick interview, and from that we would choose interviewees to film.  It's amazing how the people who think they have a great story, rarely have one, and the people who think there is nothing remarkable in their story usually turn out to have the greatest stories of all.

But if you don't have access to lists of people eagar to talk to you, where is a freelance journalist to start on their hunt for the perfect case study?

First of all, set up your own email group of people who won't mind you asking around for case studies - build your list as you go along, maybe including people you have interviewed before.  Think about the people you know that The Tipping Point calls "connectors" - people who know a lot of other people.  After all, it's not so much about who you know, but about who you know knows (if you follow me).  Each person is estimated to know at least 200 people, so you don't have to have a big list to be reaching out to thousands.  But as much as possible fill it with non-media people.  Always look to widen your circle of connections.

Use your list sparingly - your friends are going to get mightily hacked off if the only time they hear from you is when you're after something.  And make it easy for people to remove themselves from your list if they want to.

After that, try some of these avenues:

• Many websites like this one or this one exist specifically to broadcast case study requests from journalists.  The down-side to these sites is that they do tend to attract the sort of person who is actively seeking fame for fame's sake (think Big Brother contestants).  But depending on the story, that could be what you're looking for. 
• You can send a request round a variety of PR's using ResponseSource.  This won't put you in touch with 'real people' case studies, but rather those with something to promote.  But if that sits well with your story then it's a useful resource to reach a lot of people at once. 
• This website is along similar lines, but exists to broadcast your appeal to a wide variety of charities at once.
• There is a media request section on the talk boards at the parenting website Mumsnet.  Actually, many forums (fora?) have media request boards, but this is one of the busiest sites if you want to reach women with children.  You do have to pay £30 to post a message, so it might be worth saving until you have a few requests to make at the same time.
• If you're a member of MediaWomenUK or Journobiz, you'll know that members have a huge variety of life experience and are always happy to help with case study requests.  Just make sure that sometimes you help others as well - groups like this work best when you give as well as take.
• There is a journo case study request group on Facebook which is growing quickly in membership (about 500 last time I looked).
• Some journalists distribute postcards like this one as a way of gathering real life case studies.
• Others operate websites like this one as a way of trawling for stories.
• If that's too elaborate, try adding a line about who you're looking for to your email signature or blog.
• This may sound shockingly retro, but one of the best ways of all to get stories is to TALK TO PEOPLE.  Or, more importantly, listen when they talk to you.  Case studies are all around you.  I wrote this story for The Guardian's Experience section, after a friend casually mentioned his mate who'd come back from the dead.  Like you do. 

The big caveat with all of this is that if you are using predominantly online methods to find your stories, it's important that you pick up the phone and talk to your prospective interviewee as soon as possible.  Often people will email a journalist on a whim, and won't have considered the reality of talking publicly about their experience and being photographed until you mention it to them.  If you want case studies who will not pull out, it's important that you speak to them ASAP and ensure that they're clear about what's involved.

And above all, thank the people who help you when you're looking for case studies.  It's disappointing how many journalists don't.  It doesn't take much time, and it will make a difference when they choose whether or not to help you next time.