Overall Evaluation

Overall Evaluation

The process of creating a piece of content for a client as a group has been one that has been difficult, but I have also learned a lot of useful skills in working as a team. I felt that I have been forefront in leadership within the project, and this has also helped me to develop some skills, and learn how to manage projects in the future.

One of the main concerns that seemed to be raised is that ‘we do not work well as a group.’ I do not agree that this was the case though, as I think if people had of communicated more efficiently, and used the tools at our disposal, and worked more as a team, rather than a group of individuals, the process would have been far more eloquent and progressive.

I feel that a lot of people used this notion of not working well, and made it difficult to work together, as they did not listen, communicate or get involved when needed.

I took a more forefront role within this project as I wanted to produce something positive, and strong to place in my portfolio, and I also felt that we could have kept this publication going and turned it into something more regular, rather than just a piece for the purposes of study.

This was extremely disappointing for me, as I had tried, and spoken, and done as much as I possibly could to ensure that this project moved forward, ran smoothly, and made progress, to try and produce it for a date, and for a purpose. I specifically wrote content for it to be produced in the beginning of December, of which by this time, I had finished all of my content ready for the publication, and I had also edited what I had available to me.

The problem was that I did not have a lot of the work available to edit, nor did it seem that a lot of people had done the work for this period.

It wasn’t that we needed to have it produced for this date, as the deadlines for submission were weeks later, but I did ask, and say, and people agreed, that we could have printed and distributed the publication for Christmas. If I had of known that this would have not been the case then I would have not made extra time and effort for getting the work done and helping people with their work, as well as my own, to work to the deadlines of the first week in December, as we would have had more time.

The team as a whole let themselves down, as there was no reason that we could have not produced something to a very high standard, just as high as it would have been for the official deadline, if people had of communicated better, worked harder, and made more effort.

Making an observation, I had done five main journalism news pieces, for the begging of December, as well as edited, and found images, designed pages, and organised timescales. From the pieces I had edited, I did not see why it was not possible for others to do the same, and therefore we could have produced something together as a group.

The main ideas for design were that we would all do the content, then come together 2 weeks prior to publishing, to look at designs, and discuss ideas. I had raised these points on basecamp and in college too. This did not happen, as I and one or two other members of the group did do this in the college building, when others were present, but chose not to give their input. This is a prime example were people did not communicate their ideas or input work to the group.

Content, editing, and putting the initial ideas together took a lot longer than it needed to. In simplicity of just researching stories, looking what was out there, writing it, editing it, and then making it available to put in the publication, could have been done in a matter of weeks. Although it was important to make sure that everything was to a high standard and done properly, I don’t feel that this was impossible to do for a distribution in December.

In my honest opinion, I feel that people did not pull their weight in making sure that as a group, we did the best we could. Even if the work was to a high standard, or if there was a lot of it, if the group can’t see it and it’s not available to look at, then that is not good communication.

It was very difficult to say this to the group, as I found it could come across bossy, or aggressive, but it is a piece of work that I personally would have liked to have given a real go at trying to produce for a real client. If we said that we were going to do a publication for Hull, the people of Hull should have been able to view our publication, otherwise there is no client.

This was the most frustrating part of the project, when I felt so passionately about producing something for other purposes than just the work. It was an opportunity wasted and for them reasons I am very disappointed.

I enjoyed the process of doing the work, researching, finding stories, coming up with ideas, and having input with other areas too. I wrote various articles, all of which were different, and this allowed me to really express and try new ideas with writing, and creating stories, from basic ideas, such as the main news story.

Overall, I feel that my experience would have been a lot more productive if the team had worked better, but this didn’t stop me from enjoying and making the most of putting something together as a group, and experimenting with new ideas and roles.

Editing, and putting a publication together is definitely something that I would look to do in the future, and the project had underlined the value of good honest teamwork, and just how important that is to being successful.