Placement Report

This is a report I wrote for my Professional Studies module. It was reviewing my placement I undertook with Rev-Alt. 



Details of Placement Organisation 

The organisation I completed my placement with this year is called REV-ALT. REV-ALT is a up and coming website bringing the alternative community together, which is set to air mid-December on the internet. The contact I made in the company is Jenn Hukins. Jenn is the main person behind the website, she created the idea, and she is putting her idea into motion with the help of website producers, photographers, writers and models. Jenn herself organised my two weeks writing for the company and website, so she would be the person to contact to organise other placements with them if it was possible. She is very friendly, and helped me an awful lot throughout my experience of working with her and the team at REV-ALT, and I am very grateful for the experience and the work placement that the team at REV-ALT could offer me, and that they are happy to keep me working for them ready for when the website is launched mid-December. Currently the company does not have a permanent address as they are a relatively new and independent website yet to be aired on the internet. The address of the website, which is currently unavailable as a whole, but does have a promotional video on the homepage to draw the readers and viewers in for when the website does launch is, http://www.rev-alt.com/ . The nature of the business is a new website to bring the alternative community together, with their slogan ‘The Alternative Revolution’. They aim to offer the readers more information and content on the website over any other competing website available. They offer you information and interviews with bands, tattoo artists, skateboarders, bmxers and much more. They aim to steer away from your old boring interview questions, and ask the questions the fans really want to know. They are to have a lot of videos and photos included on the website. They hope to be the best website out there in all other competing markets, offering the best content, with the best interviews and the best models.

An Analysis of the Organisation

The purpose of REV-ALT is to provide the alternative community of Birmingham with more content on the things that interest them, than any other competing website following the same kind of brief offers currently. They aim to be the best out there, and have the best out there, when it comes to content, images, videos, models, and the people working for them, writers, photographers, models etc. They aim to bring the alternative community together through the success and content of their website. They aim to be as successful as possible, as at the moment they are unable to fund anyone who works for them, so they hope that with the success of the website, this will change. When looking at the structure and hierarchy of the business of REV-ALT, Jenn Hukins, who I contacted regarding my two week work experience placement, she is the main body of the hierarchy of the business, as she is the Management of the company and website, she is in charge of organising all the photographers, writers and models, and hiring them, and making sure everything runs smoothly in the company. The idea for the website REV-ALT, all came from her, and she put her ideas and plans into motion by teaming up with others in order to make her ideas and plans become a reality. The next in line would be Sam Jones. Sam is the website editor. He is in charge of putting everything together, the images, videos, text etc. all together on the website to make it look smart and interesting to look at for the readers. Other people that work for REV-ALT, the photographers, Dan Fellowes, Edward Robert and Jemma Dodd. They are responsible for photographing everything involved with the website such as the models, the people that are interviewed for example the bands. The models that are featured on the website, are photographed to represent the site, they are also used to conduct the interviews, and are the main basis for the website. Their names are Ashley, Tarrie, Klemmie, Roxy, Kay and Amie. As a new and upcoming company and website, REV-ALT hasn’t established itself in the market place as of yet. But I do feel there is a gap in the market for a website similar to REV-ALT to bring something new and alternative to the alternative community society. I think it follows some social factors, as it showcasing the alternative genre in music, fashion, sports, hobbies etc. It isn’t a social type everyone follows, hence why it’s called alternative. It probably has to follow technological factors too, because it is a website, and as technology changes and develops, REV-ALT’s website, will also have to change and develop.

An Evaluation of Your Role and Tasks Performed 

The specific tasks I was set during my two weeks work placement with REV-ALT, were I was given briefs every few days to complete tasks that I was set by Jenn for the website. I was set tasks to write introductions to the website that would be featured on the homepage. I was given briefs of what the website was about and what would be included in the websites. I set out to write what I had been asked to do, and at first I was a bit nervous with what I had to write, and just wrote what we had been discussed as a basis and sent them back to Jenn for her to look over. She pointed out these were good attempts, and they included everything that needed to be in there, but they had no life and fun to them, which is what the website was about. So after a discussion with Jenn and talking through how to ‘liven’ my work up the website, I went back to give my writing some more energy. I applied this theory to everything else I wrote for REV-ALT, whether it being bits to be put on the actual website, or ideas of questions for the models to use in interviews, I always chose to reflect the fun and lively side of the website into my work to make it appeal to the readers more so they’d want to read on, and look at the website in more detail. I definitely feel while completing my two week work experience placement with REV-ALT I have improved my writing skills, and that you don’t always get to write what you feel comfortable writing about, and you have to leave your comfort zone and experiment writing in different ways and for different topics that you feel you wouldn’t have approached by yourself. I felt this was a great skill to learn as a practicing journalist as I will be put in this situation often, and it is great to expand your horizons and look at different themes, and learn about them and start to enjoy writing about which I have done from my work in REV-ALT. When looking at my own performance I think I did quite well working for REV-ALT, my skills have progressed and I’ve started to become a lot more confident in my writing due to have to tackle challenging topics I wouldn’t have approached by myself when writing. I think I tried really hard to at first to get all the detail and information packed into my writing that they wanted and from the briefs, that I ignored the idea of the website, and to come across friendly and make the website sound really good to draw the viewers in. But after discussing Jenn, and re-evaluating my own work, I realised how easy it was to re-write my work in this format, and then to apply it to every piece of writing I produced for REV-ALT. I really enjoyed completing my two weeks work experience placement with REV-ALT, and have asked Jenn if I could carry on completing work for them over the future, as it would be nice to see my work featured on the website when it airs in mid-December. All of team at REV-ALT, especially Jenn have agreed that I can continue working and adding to the website in the future.

Reflections on the ‘World of Work’

My work experience placement with REV-ALT, gave me more of an insight into media industries, to see how they work. Even though told before, I can see that having media experience, over just what you learn at University, even though the knowledge is important to get you far in this industry, experience is crucial to get you through the door. I had a lot of trouble gaining Work Experience, as I had two organised and they got cancelled very shortly before I was meant to start them, but this just made me even more determined to get out there and try and make something of myself and experience the media industry first hand while I am still continuing my studies. You start to learn that you won’t always be able to write about what you want to, as when you start work, you won’t always have a choice, and this I think was a crucial learning curve to me, as I have started to broaden my horizons when I look at my writing, and I’ve realised that if I put my head to it, I can write about a theme I wouldn’t choose, and I can move out of my comfort zone with my writing. I think there is a big difference between work experience placements and the rest of the course. Where the course might give you all the knowledge, nothing is going to prepare you for going out into the world of work when we graduate next year, so having that extra little foot in the door with a few weeks work experience, so you know what is going on, and you have experiences to reflect on when you go to job interviews, will help a lot. I think the two weeks work experience placement has really helped develop both my personal and professional skills. For personal skills, as mentioned before, I think my writing skills have improved immensely by being put under pressure to write inside deadlines, and write about topics and themes, I wouldn’t usually choose. I also think I’ve grown a lot more confidence to approach people to ask for help, and even to ask if they take on work experience students, which will help me a lot over the next year or so, and especially when I start a career in the media industry. In the terms of professional skills, I think I am a lot more prepared to enter the media industry, than I would have been without of having this two week work placement experience. I think after doing another three week work experience placement next year at a minimum I shall be even more prepared to head into the big wide world of the media industry.