Author: Katherine Purvis

Venice, exams, work experience

On By Katherine PurvisIn Holidays, MA, Work ExperienceLeave a comment

After my two-week work placement at BBC Newcastle (where my chocolate brownies went down a treat), I went to Venice for a few days with my Mom and Stepdad. We stayed in a lovely hotel on the Grand Canal called the Al Ponte Antico Hotel, where we enjoyed this amazing view of the Rialto Bridge every evening as we sipped apéros on the terrace.

Venice is an absolute wonder of a city. I found myself fascinated with every aspect of it and asking so many questions; where is the nearest hospital and how do they get to it? How do they collect rubbish or deliver big items? What happens when it rains? All things people living on mainland take for granted.

We did so much in Venice but my favourites were the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Dorsoduro. The gallery is Peggy’s old home and features her personal modern art collection and temporary exhibits. There are some beautiful works by Kandinsky and Chagall, as well as some bizarre sculptures in the garden and landing deck on the Grand Canal. The Cimitero di San Michele is a lovely place to visit, despite being a graveyard! It is beautiful and tranquil and nothing like as eerie as say Père Lachaise in Paris. Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Ezra Pound were laid to rest there.

We ate so much seafood! We found an amazing restaurant off the main drag – definitely one not known to tourists but full of Venetians – called the Al Fontego dei Pescatori. The owner and chef is called Lolo and he was so attentive, telling us what was best on the menu that day and recommending some amazing wines. I ate scallop and courgette gnochetti and then a gorgeous tuna steak with a sesame crust.

There are some beautiful islands to the northeast of Venice too, and these are definitely worth a visit to get away from the main hub. Murano is famous for its glass and is absolutely bursting with shops selling jewellery, bowls, glasses and much more. It has become just as touristy as Venice, though, and much of the glass is actually mass-produced in China, but it’s lovely for a stroll around and to look in the independent showrooms.  

Burano, further afield, is absolutely gorgeous. All the houses are painted different colours – supposedly so that fishermen can recognise their homes after a day out on the water.

There is also a sense of sadness, though, about Venice. Many of the buildings are sinking into the water and have become crooked and creaky. It initially adds to the ethereal feel of the place but when you think that in however many years, it may not be possible to live in or visit Venice anymore, it’s really quite sad. But it is absolutely a must-visit city, definitely before it’s too late!Exams

And then after our beautiful holiday in Venice came the horrible mundanity of three weeks of revision and exams. All in all, I think they went well and that’s the MA done and dusted. How time has flown.

Work experience at BBC Radio Newcastle

On By Katherine PurvisIn Work ExperienceLeave a comment

Tomorrow is my last day of work experience at BBC Radio Newcastle and as my freshly-baked batch of thank you chocolate brownies cool off in the kitchen, I thought I’d take a moment to gather my thoughts and write about my experience. I’m feeling a little sad about leaving. The past two weeks have gone by so quickly; I have done so much, yet I feel like there is still so much I could do there.

For the last few days, I’ve been working on the Jonathan Miles mid-morning show, which has been great fun. The style of the show has allowed me to be more creative than working on the drive-time show, which is very much an extended news programme. The team has so many amazing ideas for future shows that I really want to be a part of developing them and seeing them go out on air.

My first few days at the station were spent going through many online modules, teaching me all about editorial guidelines, health and safety and breach of confidentiality. After all that came the good stuff. I went up to Holy Island in Northumbria with one of the Breakfast show reporters, Fiona Marley Paterson, to see what residents and visitors thought of the big, electronic signs at either end of the causeway placed to display safe crossing times.

I’ve done my fair share of gathering vox pops too, on the Olympics, plain cigarette packaging, and children not playing outdoors enough. I’ve done a decent amount of phone-bashing; following up ideas for stories (some that worked and some that didn’t) and asking guests to come on the airwaves and speak with Alfie and Charlie, the lovely Breakfast show presenters.

And of course, I’ve met some truly lovely people at BBC Newcastle. People have gone out of their way to help me and make sure I’m coping with editing clips on RadioMan and not getting lost in the (at first) terribly confusing ENPS system. (I think I can consider getting used to ENPS one of my biggest achievements from my work placement.) I hope my chocolate brownies go some way to expressing my gratitude for all their help and I really hope I can stay in touch with everyone.

All in all, I have really enjoyed my time with BBC Radio Newcastle and I’m going to miss the buzz of being in a newsroom as breaking news stories come in, as people secure that all-important interview or as a whole day of phone-bashing and cutting audio pays off to form an interesting and entertaining news feature. My work placement with the Kentish Gazette cannot come round quickly enough.

April Fool’s in the news

On By Katherine PurvisIn CommentLeave a comment

This morning I woke up to a report on BBC Radio 4 describing how pensioners may soon be expected to prove a certain level of fitness in order to claim their pension. One suggestion was to install treadmills in post offices around the country – elderly people would have to walk for three or four minutes on the treadmill before they would be allowed to pick up their pension.

The report then included some vox pops. Young people seemed to be fully supportive of this idea. One girl said that if police officers have to prove their fitness, then elderly people should too. Another said something along the lines of: “Old people have worked hard for their pension so they should make sure they stick around long enough to enjoy it.”

In my still-sleepy state, I thought: “Are these people mad?!” My own grandparents are relatively fit for their age but many older people struggle with health problems. And besides, why should they prove their fitness to claim money they’ve worked their whole lives for?!

And then I looked at my phone and saw the date: April 1st. Good one, Radio 4.

While April Fool’s Day has long been an opportunity for people to play pranks on each other, media organisations have also taken on the tradition and, over the years, have produced some rather humorous reports.

Today, the Guardian has an article about Downing Street calling in Shaun Ryder, lead singer of the Happy Mondays, to be a special advisor on social class, and to help banish ‘Pasty-gate’ by launching a T-shirt campaign entitled ‘We’re all eating this together’. The newspaper also conveniently has a photo gallery of celebrities wearing a range of t-shirts from the campaign (with apologies to Sport Relief 2012).

But maybe the best is the 1957 report by Panorama, which told us that an unusually mild winter had resulted in a bumper spaghetti harvest on the Swiss-Italian border, and the disappearance of the spaghetti weevil. The video sparked a barrage of questions to the BBC, with viewers asking how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. The BBC replied: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato juice and hope for the best.” Apparently, only a select few journalists at the BBC knew about this package before it went on air. And no doubt the voice of Richard Dimbleby gave viewers a confusing sense of authority. It seems totally ridiculous now, but would you have believed it at the time?

So, while the rest of the year may seem all doom and gloom. April Fool’s is a great opportunity for journalists to show their humorous side. I just hope other people get the joke!

Let me introduce myself…

On By Katherine PurvisIn LifeLeave a comment

Hello.

Thanks for stopping by.

My name is Katherine Purvis and I am a trainee journalist. I am currently studying for an MA in Multimedia Journalism at the University of Kent. This WordPress site serves an online portfolio for all my work; print, video, radio and online samples. (Bear with me while I upload everything!)

I am also really, really going to try and keep up with this blog and write posts regularly. I’ve had blogs in the past but I’ve always stopped writing after a couple of posts, but I think it’s really important that I write about things that interest me personally, rather than always writing essays and articles for university.

I’m not going to set myself limits on what I write or share here – this blog isn’t going to be just about journalism. I’ll be writing about International Development and Global Health (areas I hope to be writing on professionally in the future) and whatever I get up to with the Stop AIDS Campaign. I’ll also probably be posting things about travelling, photography, music and film, as well as whatever might come up in my day-to-day life – either at university or in my quest to find a Real Job in journalism.

Anyway, I hope you like what you read and that you’ll come back regularly for a catch-up!