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CRITICAL REFLECTION #3

The decision mid semester to combine each individual features magazine into one had a profound effect on my role as Editor of WINOL Travel and Adventure. In my previous Critical Reflection I outlined the pros and cons of maintaining a magazine in relation to it's navigation and target audience. With my initial struggle to manage and upload content on a regular basis, I supported this decision wholeheartedly.

Near the start of the semester, www.winol.co.uk ranked *1,309,425 globally and *38,579 in the UK [16.10.2013] peaking on Thursday 10th October with *67 page views. This was most likely the result of the weekly WINOL News bulletin aired on the Wednesday prior. Compare this to the end of the semester and we see a steep decline (see graph 2). According to www.alexa.com, however, WINOL's Global Rank has increased to *773,133 and *30,063 in the UK* From my point of view, "Here & Now" has played a specialised role in maintaining this. 

(1) Number of page views 9th-16th October (Google Analytics).

(2) Number of page views 25th November - 1st December (Google Analytics).

WINOL’s relaunched “Here & Now” magazine* has worked hard to improve the organisation of Features as a whole, with the installation of a modernised, user friendly ‘Gabfire Theme’ for WordPress (which I will have to be familiar with for my fast approaching Final Year Project). Each market now has its own subcategory, with the main slider situated at the top of the page. Being its most redeeming feature, this aims to promote some of the websites top highlights. Like with News, there is constant competition between magazines to get their pieces mentioned in the ‘barkers’ as they act as the highest form of promotion. You can see in the image below, both the Paintball package and the World Travel Market overview have appeared under the slider subcategory of “Events” and if you scroll over the “Travel” tab further above, invested in the world of adventure are a number of written articles, as well as a couple of video packages managed, produced and edited by myself*

WINOL Adventure; A Work In Progress.

For the second semester running, my role as Editor of WINOL's Travel and Adventure Magazine means that over the past few weeks I have been working closely with the Web Editor to make the website more user/navigator friendly (outlined in my Critical Reflection) and making it one of WINOL's most viewed magazines to date (see post). 

As the magazine is very much "picture led", the decision to keep the main slider (above) aims to advertise all the best features in a way that is very valuable in grabbing the audiences attention. When it comes to improvements, we have added less subtle side tabs that lead to the main WINOL news site and to all the latest Adventure features content.

From the main slider, you'll be transported to the written website (we're working on adding video - baby steps) which has undergone a major overhaul. The live Twitter feed has been added and as you can see at the top of the page, there are tabs aimed to make the website more specialised and structured.

WINOL (13/03/13)

This weeks WINOL News Bulletin, featuring Adventure Promo (11:47) 

WINOL Review (26/10/11).

My task today was to review the latest WINOL news bulletin.

Broadcasting every week, award-winning WINOL enables students to get a taste of what it is really like to work in the Broadcast Journalism industry.

It is key to remember that Journalism is always planned. Although lacking in a deeply compelling story (unlike last week) there was good justification of statistics to coincide with the amount of fair comment provided, coupled with the relevant general view. By doing this, WINOL has followed one of the critical rules that "justice has to be seen to be done".

Winchester's local unions were quite clearly libelled during the bulletin with the expression of their "outrage" over the live streaming of their meeting, which intended to show the public the "transparency of public authority." Here, they have been identified and the story has been published, therefore through the eyes of the public they have been defamed.

Identification ---> Publication---> Defamation = LIBEL.

The choice to make their meetings public could lead to them being shunned and avoided. Or open to hatred and ridicule. However, the degree of public interest within this story is what makes it newsworthy.

For more information on WINOL visit: http://winol.co.uk/.