Keith Hackett Evaluation
For this story I contacted Keith Hackett who is a former Premier League referee for his opinion about the use of VAR in this seasons competitions. I felt that Keith would be a good person to interview as he’s someone who has actually refereed at the highest level such as the Premier League and in cup finals. Keith also is very opinionated on twitter as to how VAR should be used and how he feels about the technology so i felt i could get a lot of content out of him to use for a story.
One thing that went well with this piece of content was the interview itself, i got around 20 minutes of content from Keith. the questions i asked allowed him to go into detail, and i didn’t allow just one word answers.
I also contacted Kieth quite early on into the FMP to make sure i wasn’t cutting it close to my deadline. i felt i was quite prepared in terms of wha i wanted to create, who i wanted to talk to and what sort of research i would need to do.
One thing that didn’t go to plan one actually getting Keith on the phone. although he had agreed to have a phone conversation with me, i had to find a time where he was available as he still has responsibilities such as radio appearances and other commitments.
I first planned on interviewing him on the 9th of march as that would have given me a good amount of time to get my piece written and evaluate it. Unfortunately he didn’t reply to my messages or answer is phone until the next day so i had to organise the interview again for the Friday morning which wasn’t ideal but it was something i could till work with. Keith then had to re schedule for the Friday afternoon as he was on call for a radio interview.
Although i managed to get my interview with him done in the end it still didn’t leave me with much to to transcribe, write my article and then evaluate. In the future i would like to get my interview done earlier and if someone cant do it when needed then i will maybe have to look for alternatives. i would like to get my interviews done early so that i can put more time into my actual articles or pieces of video.
Another thing that didn’t go to plan was finding a way to record my conversation with Keith. I spent quite a lot of time trying to find an app to record the phone call in which i wasn’t successful. Many apps wanted me to have a paid subscription which i would have preferred not to do. Instead i decided to use a zoom mic and put my phone on speaker. I found this was a good way round paying for an app as i had the equipment available to me for free.
My story did get quite a few views mainly through twitter however i did expect it to do better before i published it. I feel a big reason the numbers being unsatisfactory was i published it quite close to the deadline so i didn’t have chance to get it shared and give people time to read it. the content in y article was good however i uploaded later than was first planned which meant it didn’t have the reach that i expected to.
I did however reach a couple of different countries and around 30 people had read the article at the time of evaluating. I would have preferably liked to have been in the hundreds in terms of how many times it was read however this is something i could improve on for my next piece of content.
Next time i would like to have my interview done and transcribed at least two weeks before the deadline. This then gives me chance to spend the time thats needed to produces a good article or video. This would also give e chance to promote it on twitter and give people the opportunity to read it and give feedback.
Next time i would also not spend as much time on trying to find recording softwares and just use the equipment that his already on hand for me. i feel this was a big waste of time and something which could have been spent on research or producing my article.
In conclusion i feel this bit of content was quite successful in that I managed to get a good interview and a good piece published however I would have liked the opportunity to get feedback and to have reached more people as it was a topic of interest.
Infographic Evaluation
For my second piece of assessed content i decided to do an infographic attached to an article about the numbers that are involved with the production and use of VAR.
I decided to do this as it’s something different to a normal article and gives the reader some different content that they wouldn’t normally see. i felt as thought people were giving their opinions on social media however didn’t know the actual facts behind what they were talking about. An infographic was a good way to show people what effect VAR is actual having through hard facts and statistics rather than just talking about it.
The research i did went very well i felt. When looking for statistics i found that there was a lot of websites with the same facts all the time. i wanted to give my audience something else as that’s what would make my website stand out. This was successful in my opinion as I spent a long-time doing research to get some stats that you can’t really find on other websites. Things such as costings for VAR don’t really pop up on other websites so the fact that I could find pieces of information such as that was a positive.
One thing i feel could’ve gone a little better was the designing of my infographic. I did spend quite a lot of time looking for a suitable design in which I had to restart my infographic three times. I wasn’t satisfied with the first two that i used so I decided to keep going to find one which would fit my work better rather than going with something that didn’t fit the topic. The design is a big part of an infographic as you can have a lot of great information however if the graphic is hard to read and it is hard on the eye then the viewer would probably not want to read it.
The time spent looking for a new design could have been used more efficiently for writing my feature or finding new statistics for the graph. Although in the end i was happy with my design, if I would have done more research, I could have been saved a lot of time and this is something I will do in the future.
In terms of how my article did, I felt it could have done better statistically as the feature only got 15 views. I am still trying to build a following on social media and through this my views will start to build. The time that I posted the article could have something as i posted it late at night when people may have been in bed and not on social media. This is something i will do differently for my next piece of content on my website.
From reading social media the theme of my content is of interest so i don’t feel that is a reason for the low views on this certain piece.
Next time I would use my time more efficiently. For example, when choosing a design I will do that in the time i have for research rather than choosing it when I’m supposed to be filling it with content. I will also get my article up at a peak time for social media use to reach as many people as possible, this way views should go up and i should be able to gain more of a following.
In conclusion I was happy with the level of content that I produced however I would’ve liked to have reached more people and for my feature to have got a more views, however that is something I can work on for future pieces of content.
Fan opinion video
For this piece of assessed work i decided to produce a short video to attach to an article with different sets of fans voicing their opinions. I felt that making a fan opinion video featuring fans from around the country would be a good idea to see how people felt about VAR and would be interesting for viewers to watch. As everyone is currently stuck indoors and living under strict social distancing rules i knew that it would be difficult to get people to be in a video while being on camera however something that i knew i would be able to overcome.
One thing that i thought went well was the fact that i was able to actually produce a video under extremely difficult circumstances. Considering i didn’t have the usual equipment from college that i am used to such as cameras, tri-pods and microphones i felt i used my initiate well to come up with alternatives when it came to capturing the footage. I decided the best way to get my footage was to have the interviewee film themselves answering questions that i had sent them.
This was successful as i received a good reply and got the in depth answers that i had hoped for.
A thing that didn’t go so well and something that i hope to improve on in the future was sourcing people to do the interview. I tried several different outlets such as fan sites, and supporter groups however the people that were willing to film themselves and answer questions on camera were minimal.
I understand that it is currently a stressful time for people and many have better things to be doing, however i thought i would get more than one person that was willing to do it prior to making the decision to do this for a piece of assessed work.
Although i was disappointed to only get one person for my video i was still happy to be able to produce some sort of video for my viewers rather than just a standard article
When it comes to analytics i feel there is still room for improvement but there has been an increase in views, especially on youtube. For this video so far i have just over 30 views where as with my previous videos i would be lucky to get 10 views. Although this is only a small improvement, it is a step in the right direction.
Next time i would do some research before hand and make sure i would definitely be able to get 4-5 fans to be in the video rather than just having one. if the circumstances were different i would be able to stand outside football stadiums and capture the footage myself which would allow for more people to take part.
By the time i got round to asking people to answer my questions i had already done my research and planning for my piece of writing where as in hindsight i should have done it the other way round. the fact id already done my research meant i wouldn’t have time to do all that again with another idea without missing my deadline.
Although there is still room for improvement i feel i used my initiative well and was creative with my ideas in difficult circumstances. the fact i was able to get any video was an achievement even if it wasn’t what i first envisioned.
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