Review [Issue 27] The Life of a Reporter - Behind the Scenes

[hogree 4,179]

 

Ever wondered what us reporters get up to behind your backs? Ever thought what working as a reporter actually involves? Ever considered what it might be like being in a chat with MadDog21? Well, you might just find your answers here. It's time to take a look behind the scenes and see what really happens in a month of the life of a reporter. You may be surprised...

 

A minute after Release.

 

As Lham eventually moves all the topics across from our treasured little "Newspaper Material" section to the big wide world, the party begins as we all expectantly wait for replies on our articles, glad of another successful month's work completed. Brownie points always goes to the first topic replied to. As reporters, the reaction to most of our articles are treasured quite deeply due to the amount of time put in to them - so getting honest good feedback is something worthy of a mini fist-pump.

 

The release doesn't mean that the work's over though - it's just the cycle beginning again. Conan or Lham set the dates for the next issue deadlines in the Skype Chat Title [see more in the spoiler below]. The rest of us begin a vague plan for our articles, confident that we'll do more than we did last issue, foolishly calculating that the distant deadline will enable us to have piles of time to write. Kirby and Gold even create their article templates in the vain hope that they will start writing before Deadline Day.

 

 

As for me, to make this a bit more personal, I brainstorm what would be useful for the month immediately after release. As for this month, I shotgunned to do an article entitled: "Hazel Talks - More on Smart Cooldowns". You can probably guess why that wasn't published - the update's already been released. And so, inspiration for other articles has to be sought for - later in the month.

 

Halfway through the month.

 

Mid-month, and you'd expect some writing to be in progress, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, bar the Arabic writers and the abnormal article from Kirby, the fingers haven't jumped into action as yet. Well, what's happening in the reporter team then? Very little "reportering", to be fair, even though we do have regular conversations on highly intellectual subjects such as Chicken; and of course, civil war has naturally broken out from time to time. This month, it was Willie, Fen and Lham VS Gold, Kirby and Hog - and Val was the random guy in the crowd encouraging both sides to annihilate each other. As Kirby phrased quite rightly, we had a bit of . More under the spoiler!

 

After five minutes of caps-lock anti-hamster allegiances, the events climaxed to the below. If you're interested, Arya Tandon is GoldRock. So. Yeah.

 

The reply was simple.

 

MD21 was unimpressed when he logged on later.

 

In all seriousness, mid-month may not be as active as it could be in terms of writing, but plans begin to be made by the reporters with slightly higher intelligence. Meanwhile, Fen. Conan's always on hand for moral support in his occasional Skype check-ups during the middle of the month; whilst Lham watches all the goings-on like a hawk on the Skype chat. Rumour has it he installed Skype in his textbook to keep up with things during his lectures.

 

For me, I begin to brainstorm a bit more for title subjects for my articles in the coming issue. I always try to do one guide, one "series article" and a humour, interview or story piece. Almost always, my smartest article ideas come not when I'm sat at home on my computer, but when I'm standing in the shower, sitting on the toilet, or even lying down in bed. Once I come upon a brilliant idea in my head, I have to immediately note it down on my phone notes in case I forget - yes, I've even had to jump out of bed, take my phone out of the charger, switch it on, write down my idea, switch it back off, plug the charger back in and climb up back in, in order just to remember the title of an article! Sometimes it's even harder than that - especially when I had to think of the "A-Z" for my XP Guide a while back. That took serious shower-thinking to get round! Hard work, the life of a reporter eh?  :lol: 

 

You may be thinking "Why such a fuss over an idea for an article? Surely there are loads of things to write about." Well, it's actually getting to that stage in the life of the Newspaper where it's suddenly so much harder to think of things to write about - because most of the topics have already been written about! I remember a couple of years ago when I became a Reporter and had so many ideas I all wanted to publish at once. Part of the reason some of the reporters don't manage to produce many articles each issue is they simple can't think of some. Here's where you can fit in - you can simply suggest an article topic over in the "Newspaper Requests" Topic in General. It honestly does help us gain inspiration for articles - in fact this one was prompted by a couple of ideas posted on that topic itself! So, if you have an idea of anything - absolutely anything - you would like to see in the newspaper, just go over and post it.

 

A week before Publishing.

 

With the publishing date within sight, things begin to heat up for many of us. Action begins to be taken in organising interviews, planning guides and researching for historical articles. Almost all the reporters begin to start tapping their fingers and get their articles churning. Meanwhile, Fen.

 

Writing the articles is something fitting for this point in time for me to talk over. Now, writing can be extremely difficult. Concentration levels waver - there's no doubt about that. Procrastination, unfortunately, is the name of the game. But the nature of working with a deadline means you have to sometimes grit your teeth and get on with writing. Sometimes, me personally, when I seriously need to get writing, I actually get off my own computer and use my Dad's PC since it's impossible to do anything on it except write.

 

So, with a week left, the reporter life gets a bit more serious. At this point, I would still go out with mates and carry on with normal routine, but time begins to be put aside to start writing. On the reporter chat, we have to put our picture requests in for Lham, so he can get them done before starting on the Main Topic. MD21 makes sure he checks with us the deadline even though it says in the title of the Skype Chat; as he is, to quote him, a "technophobe". The Forum Section begins to warm up as people start posting their article topics, ready to edit in their works. In the spoiler below is a picture of our forum during the last week, as preparations get serious.

 

 

Deadline Day.

 

D-Day is the most dreaded day of the month for all reporters. As Lok, my former colleague, phrased quite rightly, it's not uncommon for us to just have to stay up till midnight to finish off the articles. The irony is, as I write this, it's Deadline Day. And I've still got more to do. And even then, we're not done. Almost all the reporters finish and polish off all our articles on D-Day. Meanwhile, Fen starts writing.

 

Deadline Day is the real Reporter day of work. The winners of the main contests from the previous issue have to be decided, and proofreading is always on-the-go. Conan does his major proof-reads, while others like MD21, Lham and I also help out with checking grammatical mistakes around the block. Feedback is constant. Article makeovers are common, as those who have managed to complete their writing decorate their articles to make them look more appealing. Lham's cover pictures headline our topics whilst the rest of us attempt to get all of our work completed. 

 

Honestly, if publish day was the day immediately after Deadline day, half of our articles wouldn't be shown to you. Luckily, there's a day in between the two, and it gives us the ability to use "Deadline Day" as two days, for the more procrastination-friendly reporters. All the same, all of the articles to be published that issue have to have their topics posted and ready to go in the "Newspaper Material" section of the forum by the end of D-Day, in order for Lham to know exactly what topics are to be put into the Main Topic. (Although sometimes Val does bend this rule. =P)

 

Often, we get the news of Best Helpers on the Deadline Day of the month - in which case, the winners bribe Conan and Lham with compliments and thanks. The atmosphere in the chat helps provide a great working atmosphere - although it is not uncommon for chat to go off on a tangent; normally hilarious but imagine it when you realise after half-an-hour of banter that you've just wasted half-an-hour of writing time on showering puns on Lham, and then maybe re-consider the vitality of the previous conversation. As a general rule, however, when deadline day disappears at midnight, the work is almost done.

 

Publish Day.

 

Ever since I joined the Reporter Team nearly 2 years ago, I've always been really excited on the day of publication, as the world finally sees my efforts. Yeah, even though only twenty people may actually read my article, I still always feel that buzz whenever publication comes as a month of work finishes.

 

Thankfully, in the current team, it is rare for any of the writers to need to finish any of the articles on the publication day. I have once been caught napping, and conan has published the newspaper without knowing that I had not completed one of my articles. Embarrassing moment, but I got it all done in the end.

 

Final day proofreads happen, and once everyone has confirrmed on the chat that they're good to go - and Lham's MT is complete - we shift across the articles into the light of the world. Happy days in the Reporter Chat, as work is finally done, and we eagerly await feedback on our articles. 

 

And then we remember that the cycle begins again...

 

Feel free to ask any questions you wish below about the life of a Reporter, and I'm sure I (and the other reporters) will be able to tell you more about what the life of a reporter entails. Thanks for reading.

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[lordmostafa 3,821]

Ah, it is really sad to know that only few people actually read the other news rather than the contests, anyways, awesome work m8 (also referring to some article by you :ph34r:).

I really enjoyed reading this (also the Skype conversations were hilarious :lol:)

[GG_reg 1,521]

It's obvious you guys work very hard. Want some more irony?? Only 2 people have posted in this topic so far (you could have been polishing/writing ready for D-Day :D)

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

Seems like a lot of you are masters of procrastination. Still, you pull off a lot of stuff that would be considered impossible; you somehow manage to put an entire newspaper together in about 2 days or less.

[Rob 141]

+1

[MA3CTPO_HA_XAHTEP 832]

Uhh, nice article. I'm impressed.  :D

[Valletta 834]

You revealed a bit too much of our dark side MEHT  :lol:

[Lankbouv 6,347]

Nice hog. Enjoyed that. 

[blackopspaul 753]

Nice hogree, long read but it was interesting! 

[Superlative 500]

You revealed a bit too much of our dark side MEHT :lol:

With a T. I think hoggie's vomiting at the screen now. Like Goldy said: Saves time :P!

[Superlative 500]

I'd suggest you correct Hall of Fame instead of Helpers of the project.

[MyLife_MyReign 256]

Great article! That was fun!

[naca7 143]

Great Article! 

[MarineMan2 1,164]

You guys are like elves, you work all month long to put out this amazing newspaper and then, upon publication,  just as happily you resume your work for the next newspaper. Thanks for all the work you guys, to Hog and all of the Reporters! Give yourselves a hearty pat on the back. :)

[aBdUlLaHkInGg 39]

I appreciate all the reporters work :).

[7919zola 252]

Perfectly named, "The Life of a Reporter." Enjoyed the skype chat's comments greatly, as well as your attempts to distinguish Fen from among the other reporters.  ;)  :P

[Pathfinder 1,690]

Fen is a special one

[red_tank_the_best 300]

It was a bad new for me when skitee left. Husto and Hog, rulerz d:

[Truthteller 4,204]

I appreciate all the reporters work :).

[cenanation 3]

thanks for all the news yeat keep going!!

[cenanation 3]

thanks for all the news yeat keep going!!

[Raging_Rabbit 1]

great article, hog, i really enjoyed the skype conversations!

[AbsoluteAlphaZero 2,027]

Awesome! I want to be a reporter in the future :)

Edited January 24, 2015 by AbsoluteAlphaZero

[loktinho 62]

haha I just read this

Looks like Fen stepped into my place of over-procrastination :D #badhabitsneverdie

 

That was a really fun read, especially when I can relate to a lot of it lol