July 2, 2009

Luke’s top ten tips for taking better photos

photo

WRITING stories is the bread and butter of the working journalist, but you may find yourself sent out with a camera to take the photo as well all too often.

In my experience, the ability to capture a good photo can sometimes be the difference between your story being the lead, or a page three.

We all know how to point and shoot (hopefully!), but I want to give you my top ten tips and tricks which will help you make those shots count…

Keep reading →

June 10, 2009

NZ police radio goes digital to curb scanner crims

Police scannerNew Zealand media are reporting that the police are switching to a new digitally-encrypted radio network to make it impossible to listen in on their operations.

As a scanner owner myself, I understand why they have made this change, as you could quite easily figure out the location of crimes in progress, patrol cars and officers once you did a bit of research into their communication codes system.

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May 26, 2009

‘Crusher’ Collins cracks down on boy-racers in NZ

seizeanddestroyIn a press conference today (May 26) Police Minister Judith Collins along with Transport Minister Steven Joyce announced that much tougher anti-boy racer laws would be introduced in New Zealand – including the crushing of repeat offender’s cars involved in street racing.

Keep reading →

May 25, 2009

From J-student to J-tutor – The next episode

Today was the first day of the 2009/10 National Diploma in Journalism (Multi-Media), which saw me positioned squarely in front of a class full of novice journos, as opposed to amongst them.

Learn Faster

Hoping lessons like this will not be necessary (FYI - I don't think any of the new students are idiots).

As you may have gathered from past posts, I have taken on a job as a multi-media tutorial assistant, which includes teaching the video module, assisting with radio story production, teaching the web-journalism module, co-teaching the photography module and taking control of NewsWire.co.nz  (although JT will continue to edit it) to develop it and create new avenues there.

Keep reading →

April 16, 2009

TNTJ April: What are your Summer/post-graduation plans?

gradThis month, Tomorrows New Tomorrow’s Journalists are talking post-grad plans and prospects, so here’s a brief outline of where I am right now:

I have just completed a National Diploma in Journalism (Multi-Media) at Whitireia Polytechnic in Wellington, New Zealand. Read my review of the course here. Our class was the first ever to graduate with the new (Multi-Media) unit standards in a New Zealand journalism course.

I like to call myself a multi-media journalist.

Keep reading →

March 22, 2009

Whitireia journalism school diploma review

cloudWell, what a year it has been – elections, scoops, lead stories, internships, awards and finally my National Diploma in Journalism (multi-media).

I have to start by saying thanks to all of our tutors at Whitireia: Jim Tucker, Virginia McMillan, Destina Munroe, Faye Harrison, Queenie Rikihana, Dave Lee, Bill Southworth and Terry Brown.

The course which I received has been enlightening, empowering, entertaining and expertly taught.

Keep reading →

January 25, 2009

Hawke’s Bay Today internship debriefing

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS (high quality recommended) :

My internship in Napier involved a high speed police chase, coming face to face with NZ’s only crocodile (Izzy), writing 25 stories and getting the front page lead in the Napier Courier.

Keep reading →

January 10, 2009

2009 Internship @ Hawkes Bay Today

InternshipAs of next week i’m starting a two-week internship at the Hawkes Bay Today daily in Napier.

I’m pretty excited I guess, maybe a bit nervous, but looking forward to seeing a different side of Hawkes Bay and telling some stories.

Keep reading →

December 29, 2008

Merry Christmas blogosphere!

First up, here’s a video I shot of a dog opening Christmas presents, just to get you warm and fuzzy:

Well, this is unrelated to my normal rants about media and technology, just my Xmas shout-out I guess..

Keep reading →

December 13, 2008

NZ political comic strip mark IV

Pseph Episode 4

Pseph Episode 4

Bowing down to pressure from a certain Reesh Unleashed, here’s the link to my latest NZ political comic strip:

This is what happens when you get addicted to Photoshop, have too much spare time and just feel like ragging on some politicians. Enjoy!