Our group made a trip to the suburbs of London to the Sky Media Complex for tours of Sky News and Sky Sports. Our group split up and toured Sky Sports first. While we were there we got to see galleries, the English term for control rooms, and the different studios for each sport. While there was taping going on in the main studio, we got to visit the studio used for their golf shows, complete with a virtual driving range, and top of the line cameras. (Our tour guide made us very informed on the cost of the equipment used.)
A highlight of the tour was meeting Jim White, a commentator for one of their many soccer programs. He was wonderfully welcoming and funny, and he told us some inside knowledge about the workings of the program he worked on, and talked about what it was like to be on camera.
After lunch, the groups switched and we went to Sky News. Sky News, however, was a lot busier than Sky Sports and was in the middle of covering the Charlie Hedbo story that had broke two days before our visit and was still unfolding. We toured the studio in under ten minutes with one of the producers who was more than happy to answer our questions, but did rush us through the building, as he had to get to a meeting about how the station was going to handle the new stories that were coming out of France.
Something that we thought was important to keep in mind is that the safety of London's population is at risk with the threat being so close to where they broadcast from and where their viewers live. More than just reporting the news fast and first, Sky News had to make sure they were always up to date on what was going on. While most of the activity was in Paris, other people involved with the terrorist group could be anywhere. Today there was a arsonist involved with the group who set a newspaper publisher on fire because they printed Charlie Hedbo's cartoons and expressed grief and outrage about the original attack.
After our tours, we reflected on how amazing the whole complex was, but felt disappointed that we didn't get to have a full tour of Sky News. We did appreciate their dedication to journalism and to their viewers. You could feel the energy in the newsroom; there was an all-hands-on-deck attitude. There was a backup newscaster sitting behind desk, ready to go, just in case any of the live feed from Paris went out. Although we personally didn't get as much out of it as we had wanted, we understand that the news can't just pause for a moment so that a group of students can have a tour of the facilities. It really made us realize how important news organizations are to their audiences. They are the first source of information, and their dedication to their work is amazing.
We found that Sky News was very different from the BBC. BBC covers much more content and has a much wider viewership than Sky. BBC creates original series that have international followings, while Sky is much more focused on their UK fan base. The two are actually hard to compare because the BBC has so much history as a leader in the industry and has stayed at the top of the game, being the largest news provider in the world, whereas Sky is relatively new and is making leaps and bounds to try and catch up, but still can't reach the audience that follows the BBC. Both are putting out news on all platforms, yet Sky didn't stress on their tour the importance of social media in the newsroom. The BBC mentioned that they have people assigned to collect local news and international news from Twitter, so that they can break the story by incorporating user generated content. With the changing of media and less reliance on traditional news programs, and even less on radio, social media is emerging at the forefront of breaking news, and news stations who want to stay relevant need to address this. Overall, we had a great experience and we learned a lot more than what we expected to on these tours.
Written by Jordan and Katie
A highlight of the tour was meeting Jim White, a commentator for one of their many soccer programs. He was wonderfully welcoming and funny, and he told us some inside knowledge about the workings of the program he worked on, and talked about what it was like to be on camera.
After lunch, the groups switched and we went to Sky News. Sky News, however, was a lot busier than Sky Sports and was in the middle of covering the Charlie Hedbo story that had broke two days before our visit and was still unfolding. We toured the studio in under ten minutes with one of the producers who was more than happy to answer our questions, but did rush us through the building, as he had to get to a meeting about how the station was going to handle the new stories that were coming out of France.
Something that we thought was important to keep in mind is that the safety of London's population is at risk with the threat being so close to where they broadcast from and where their viewers live. More than just reporting the news fast and first, Sky News had to make sure they were always up to date on what was going on. While most of the activity was in Paris, other people involved with the terrorist group could be anywhere. Today there was a arsonist involved with the group who set a newspaper publisher on fire because they printed Charlie Hedbo's cartoons and expressed grief and outrage about the original attack.
After our tours, we reflected on how amazing the whole complex was, but felt disappointed that we didn't get to have a full tour of Sky News. We did appreciate their dedication to journalism and to their viewers. You could feel the energy in the newsroom; there was an all-hands-on-deck attitude. There was a backup newscaster sitting behind desk, ready to go, just in case any of the live feed from Paris went out. Although we personally didn't get as much out of it as we had wanted, we understand that the news can't just pause for a moment so that a group of students can have a tour of the facilities. It really made us realize how important news organizations are to their audiences. They are the first source of information, and their dedication to their work is amazing.
We found that Sky News was very different from the BBC. BBC covers much more content and has a much wider viewership than Sky. BBC creates original series that have international followings, while Sky is much more focused on their UK fan base. The two are actually hard to compare because the BBC has so much history as a leader in the industry and has stayed at the top of the game, being the largest news provider in the world, whereas Sky is relatively new and is making leaps and bounds to try and catch up, but still can't reach the audience that follows the BBC. Both are putting out news on all platforms, yet Sky didn't stress on their tour the importance of social media in the newsroom. The BBC mentioned that they have people assigned to collect local news and international news from Twitter, so that they can break the story by incorporating user generated content. With the changing of media and less reliance on traditional news programs, and even less on radio, social media is emerging at the forefront of breaking news, and news stations who want to stay relevant need to address this. Overall, we had a great experience and we learned a lot more than what we expected to on these tours.
Written by Jordan and Katie