With Ice Hockey being a new event for Varsity this year it attracted a massive crowd of over 950 Coventry students alone, all geared up to bring the Coventry boys to victory.

Varsity began with a very exciting game at the Skydome, after 2 intense periods of hockey, with it all coming down to a nail biting final period. With only 5 minutes left it was anyone’s game with both teams drawing 3-3.  Yet Coventry stepped up to the mark and smashed a goal home to make the final score 4- 3 to Coventry, giving them their first two Varsity points. 

Dave Brewis, Vice President of Student Activities said, “This is the first time we really marketed Ice Hockey and bought it in as part of Varsity, which is great for the club and a really good opportunity.  It seems the American sports are very much spectator sports and are very much driven by that side of it.  Ice Hockey has proved so popular its not just watching good sport, its real entertainment and a good night out.  It draws a very different crowd than the main Varsity day would.”

Over the last two years Warwick have walked away as the Varsity winners, yet with the performance on Monday it seems Coventry are determined to not go out without a fight.

Varsity is a great opportunity for clubs within the University to get involved and compete against Warwick for the Varsity winner’s title.  This year Varsity is taking place over a series of days of fixtures and events to give the opportunity for more clubs to get involved and play in front of a large crowd. 

The main Varsity day is being held Wednesday 16^th March with tickets still on sale at the Student Union.  With fixtures being played throughout the day and various events around Coventry, transport is being provided, included within the ticket price, making it easier to see as many sporting events as possible.   It’s a chance to get behind your teams and bring the Varsity win back home to Coventry University this year.  Other events include the basketball and netball tournament taking place Sunday 13^th February as well as the Rugby tournament taking place Sunday 13^th March.

I am also an enthusiastic and dedicated person and I am eager to succeed in all that I do.

Education

2009 to date         Coventry University

                                Studying for a degree in Journalism and Media.

Journalism is a subject that I have always been interested in and enjoy both reading and writing articles, finding out the news first hand and being able to present it is something that I look forward to doing. Whilst a newspaper article or magazine report feeds my curiosity it does, at times, produce more questions. I would love to be the person to whom the original story is told, the person who has the opportunity to question and delve deeper in the story, the person with the full facts, the person who doesn’t have any unanswered questions

From my degree I hope to learn many skills and techniques and gain first hand experience that I will be able to use in order to achieve the highest grade possible.  From here I would like to establish myself within a company where I can put in to practice and again continue learning new skills and better myself throughout my career in the industry.

 2002  to 2009      Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School

Grades achieved at GCSE   

Mathematics                                                                        B                                            

English Language                                                                                A

English Literature                                                                B

Double Science                                                                    C

Geography                                                                            B

French                                                                                    B

Performance Technology                                                  B

Religious Education                                                            A

Food Technology                                                                                B

• I studied at Brentwood Ursuline for a further 2 years where I undertook A level courses in Media Studies, Photograhy, English Language and Literature and an As level in Psychology.

Grade achieved at As level

Psychology                                                                           D

                                                                                Grade achieved at Alevel

Photography                                                                         A

Media Studies                                                                      B

English Language and Literature                                     C

1995 to 2002        St Bede’s Roman Catholic Primary School

Part Time Work

Wallis Concession in Debenhams Romford                                2008 to date

Work Experience

During 2006 I had the opportunity to gain work experience at St Teresa’s Primary school in Dagenham and assisted class teachers in organising various activities for the pupils. This was something that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Skills

Communication skills: During my time at St Teresa’s I displayed excellent communication skills with both the children and the teachers and this is also a skill set that has been assisted particularly by my Performance Technology course whereby communication with other students is essential when producing performances and displays.

Customer Orientation: I understand the importance of offering excellent customer service and intend to treat customers, as I would wish to be treated if I were the actual customer myself.

Teeline Shorthand:  Whilst studying at University I have been able to achieve skills in Shorthand, completing the first level with a mark of 100%.

Technical Skills:  I am confident in using Adobe Audition, Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Elements as well as Microsoft word and Power point on the computer 

Reporting from Court: Whilst studying I have been able to write for Broadcast Journalism with the appropriate legal and ethical requirements needed when writing court reports.

Writing for Radio:  At University, modules that I have undertaken have enabled me to write reports and magazine shows for the radio that have been recorded and presented live.

Writing for Government:  I am able to identify the key elements of law which affect the working practices of journalists; the role and function of local, regional, and central government.

Interests

• Ice Hockey, supporter of the Romford Raiders.
• Cinema
• Shopping        
• Fashion                                                          

In order to pursue this Work Experience placement I will research lots of different media organisations who offer work experience as well as magazines and radio stations and will write to as many as possible.  I wish to be able to get a placement for twenty days before May so that it allows me time to prepare my presentation on the placement.  In contacting the media organisations I will send them my CV and a covering letter which will highlight why I am writing and why I want to be able to have the opportunity to carry out my placement with them.  I hope to have emailed all media organisations by November 1^st 2010.

In helping me gain work experience I will get in contact with my cousin who works for The Times advertising department and see if he has any contacts that I could pursue, as working for the fashion department supplement magazine would be my first choice work placement. Being able to have the opportunity to do a work placement at such a large, well known media organisation such as The Times would give a great experience and feeling of what it is like in the industry, being able to work with experts in this field and create contracts for the future.

A back up plan from this would be to work at a smaller corporation, my local radio station Time FM who I will also contract along with my local newspaper and other national media organisations. 

I am aware that The Times are a large organisation that may not be able to offer work experience at the time I have available to do the placement, so although hopeful, I understand that a smaller organisation is more likely to be able to assist me in this project.  I hope to have a solid confirmed work experience placement, either it being my first choice or my alternative option by December 1^st 2010.

In doing the work placements I hope to learn new skills and be able to get hands on experience in the media industry.   I hope to begin the work placement by April 1^st 2011 and complete it by April 27^th 2011.   In doing the 20 days placement I feel that it will give me a definite idea as to what I want to do in the future and if whether my placements is the right career choice for me.  It will give me a chance to see what it is like to work in the environment and the opportunity to speak to those that have made the industry already, seeing what it takes to get to where I want to be after I finish my degree.

I am willing to get involved and take a hands on approach to anything that is given to me whilst on my placement.  I know that I will put in 100% in to it and show the commit and determination that I show and have shown throughout my life so far.   I will keep a log book everyday of the new skills and jobs that I have learnt during my placement to help assist me in my presentation on May 5^th/6^th 2011.

Sophie’s Revenge

When comic strip writer Sophie is dumped by her fiancé, Jeff, just two months before their wedding, Sophie plans to get him back in anyway possible, and in doing so making the girl who took him from her, Joanna’s life very hard as punishment.  After the split Sophie meets Gordon, an ex-boyfriend of Joanna’s who wants to split the pair up, so the two join forces.

In spending most days together Sophie and Gordon form a great relationship with each other, with lots of laughter and tears along the way. At the end of the film, Gordon and Sophie are together at a photography exhibition they have organised together when to Sophie’s surprise he announces his love for her just as Jeff arrives asking to take him back. 

Sophie’s plan and hard work has finally paid off and she has got Jeff back but plans change and love hardly ever runs as smoothly as people expect it.  Should Sophie follow her heart and be with Gordon, after realising she loves him as well or marry Jeff, what the whole family is expecting?  Only Sophie can decide!  I won’t spoil the ending for you but it is definitely a film not to be missed. 

The film takes on a typical Hollywood style romantic comedy, something similar to ‘Bridget Jones.’  Although the film’s ending is rather clear to an audience (even if not to Sophie) audiences still want to watch and are still fully engaged from start to finish.  I think that romance and comedy are a great combination together and are presented very well in Sophie’s Revenge.

I would rate this film a 7/10.

well what a year I’ve had – it’s been very busy just like you said it would be! 

I can still remember my first day moving in and meeting my new house mates.  The first week was mad, getting loads of new information and meeting new people.  I will admit the first few days were hard but I got through them and settled in to my new Uni life in Coventry.

I have really enjoyed my first year studying Journalism and Media, particularly enjoying all the practical work this year the most with the radio in Broadcast Journalism 132MC and the media modules, 100MC and 122MC.   I went in to my course with an open mind on the sort of work I would have the oppportunity to do and put 100% effort in to everything.

I have meet loads of new people on my course and similar courses through group work and made some strong friendships within them that I will cherish for a long time.

I still continued to work at home and travel back every weekend, enjoying spending time at home.  Although at times this was hard I continued to maintain it and look forward to time at home.

Throughout the year my confidence has increased and I know a much more confident person than I was before.  Being on a course like Journalism and Media you have to have the confidence to get out there, find a story and talk to people and although this was hard at first I am more confident now.  The idea of interviewing people doesn’t seem as daunting now and I was able to interview those for my news package for 132MC successfully.

Although it feels like yesterday that I moved in to Sherbourne I will soon be moving out and moving in to a house with three friends, which I am looking forward to.

I can’t wait to see what coventry has in store for me next year but until then I shall enjoy my long summer break!

Speak soon,

Clare

At school I was part of the netball team. Learning to work as part of a team and being a good team member has also been useful in working within groups at university and the work place.
Listening to others ideas and suggestions brings with it good team leadership skills that are important within the media industry.

Throughout the summer break and next year I hope to part take in work experience throughout the media industry, both in local and national newspapers and radio shows but also magazines.

I am hoping to be able to complete work experience with The National Magazine Company which is one of the luxury consumer magazine publishers in the UK. It publishes 20 magazines, some of these being:-
Good House Keeping
Country Living
Harper’s Bazaar
Esquire and
Cosmopolitan

In gaining work experience at Natmag I will be able to get hands on experience and see what goes on in the making of a magazine.

I feel work experience is very important in any chosen field but in particular Journalism and Media with the high demand of applicants.

In gaining work experience it will show and demonstrate my commitment for the career and field I want to go in to, giving that me that extra edge that employers want from an applicant.

Our second task was to create a film trailer made for Global Care Charity. It had to be 1-3 minutes long targetting students, using raw footage as well as any extra filming, audio or added text we wished to include.

In our trailer we needed a narrative running through it, and incorporate ideas from the lecture in terms of theorists and concepts.

With Global Care primarily focusing there work on poor and orphaned children who have been left or ran away from home. Therefore we as a group decided to adapt this to make our narrative for our film trailer.

Our film is a story based around a little girls life who regularly witnesses her father beating her mother. Wanting to protect her daughter and prevent him turning on her she tells her daughter to leave and run away. She leaves and runs in to the arms of the Global Care Charity and they help her restore her life, educate her and giver her the best chance in life. Years later she returns back to her old home seeing her mother and a close friend (who she falls in love with within the film) again since she left.

Below is our final trailer, I am really pleased with how it looks. The only thing that I would change is the quality as it is very fussy in certain parts. However I am pleased with how well as a group we worked and I think that this is reflected in the final piece.

• Commerical
• Political
• Artistic and
• Popular Culture

The module looks at the way moving and still images, sound and music are able to combine within different media formats to give specific meaning.  Each week we will be introduced to the four purposes of media text and given media objects to be produced focusing on each one.

In our first lecture of 122MC we looked at how media text create meaning and communicate that meaning to an audience.

Any media text even before they are produced bring with them a set of predetermined meanings and expectaions before they are even seen by an audience.

All media texts have:

• a context
• an institution
• a text and
• an audience.

We was organised in to groups and our first task for the module was introduced.  We as a group had to produce one radio advert which was no longer than 60 seconds.  In the lecture we were given five questions/points that we had to think about before production would take place, these were:

• Decide on a product
• Name the product
• Have a unique selling point
• Choose a line of appeal
• Give the project meaning

Decide on a product

When we was thinking about products we could advertise we came up with chocolate and beer.   However we wanted to target a male audience between 18 and 25 years old, therefore we decided beer would be the best product.  We believed that men would choose beer over chocolate if they were given the choice.

Name the product

We decided to name our beer ‘T-Max’ short for ‘The Max’ because we felt it was straight to the point and a beer that would be remembered by men and also something that they wouldn’t mind asking for behind the bar.

Have a unique selling point

Our unique selling point and catchy slogan line was ‘The one that every man wants.’ This slogan shows gives the impression that all men are drinking it and want it, there fore they should.  Our slogan also goes well with the advert idea, where the audiences first impression is that the lads are talking about a woman in a sexual way, yet they are actually describing a beer.

Choose a line of appeal.

Our advert uses many elements of appeal:

• Sex
• Desire
• Want or need
• Humour

All four work well together in making the advert sell the product and attract our target audience.

Give the project meaning.

As our  advert can only use audio rather than visual images it is important that the audience still understand where the scene is taking place with the use of indexical and symbolic signs that are used.

The indexical signs used suggest something in our advert – the background noise suggests a bar, the heels suggest a woman and the drinking noise suggests drinking.

The symbolic signs are learned and associated within a culture, therefore the bar noise would  link with all the connotations associated with lads in a bar.

Reflection

I really enjoyed making our radio advert, I felt that we came up with a really strong idea and it reflected in the end result.  Rebecca and I were able to edit with adobe audition and with all the clips together I felt sounded really professional.  The only thing I would change is the bar noise in the background of the advert as it is quite quiet in some parts and I would have made it louder for the audience to hear better.

With so many celebrities deciding to have plastic surgery it is becoming the norm within the Hollywood life style but why do so many people like this plastic look?

In a survey taken by 3,000 women 90% of them were not happy with their body and two thirds of women were so unhappy with themselves that they would undergo surgery to get the ‘perfect’ image.  One celebrity who had plastic surgery and due to the terrible outcome is now laughed at through the media is actress, Leslie Ash, former star of Men Behaving Badly.  Leslie Ash had an allergic reaction to collagen lip implants and as a result has swollen lips that are the jokes of cosmetic surgery.  However, in an interview with Leslie she said that although she didn’t need it doing in other people’s eyes she felt that being 43 and with the top lip disappearing, she needed to have the surgery in order to maintain a certain image.  So is this the case with all celebrities, are they only having the plastic surgery to maintain this image that the media has created, should they be represented like this?

With the plastic surgery there is not just the ‘plastic’ looking effect but also the side effects and dangers of having plastic surgery.  There was a documentary on ITV ‘Facelifts from hell’ which followed a group of women that went to have cosmetic surgery in Poland signing up for eye, face and stomach surgery.  All the women were left in agony after the operations and one women claimed that she was unable to open her mouth fully for 18 months after! Is it really neccessary to go through all that pain?

In today’s society is it right for women to believe and depend on what they see in the media when these images arent true to life?

Instead there are images that have been digitally enhanced and photo shopped to make models appear thinner and more beautiful than they actually are.  This simply encourages the likes of cosmetic surgery and very often eating disorders.

Many celebrities are the first to say that they feel under lots of pressures to lose weight and be thinner as they feel that this is what the media focuses on and feel that they are criticised by how they look.  Because of this many celebrities work out at the gym to maintain their skinny frames and to have this ‘perfect’ size zero figure, otherwise known as a bag of bones.

Most of the time celebrities are criticised as to the way they look with slogans such as ‘fat day’ or ‘a rounded stomach sparks pregnancy rumours.’ But neither of which are true – they are just normal people who have been caught from the wrong side bending over or have eaten an extra chocolate bar as they are simply behaving like any other human being does.  Everyone has an off day but the idea of the media taking these pictures of celebrities and criticising them makes us feel as if we are not allowed to have these fatter days and not allowed to have days with no makeup on or without our hair being perfectly in place therefore creating this perfect image that unless kept will be criticised.

A lot of people in this world look up to celebrities that we see in magazines and newspapers in everyday life.  If people see these as role models and see the tiny figures as what everyone is ‘meant’ to look like then it is no wonder so many women do not like the way they look.

I personally do not know anyone that is completely, 100% happy with their body.  Why don’t you quickly think about it now? How many people do you know who are completely happy with their figures?  Can you think of anyone? I can’t.  However, it is understandable that nobody likes their figure seeing all these images of women in magazines that we see as right when they have been digitally enhanced and photo shopped.  

Many years ago the image of women was very different and cosmetic surgery was very uncommon.  It is only recently within the 21^st century that the increase of having cosmetic surgery and perfecting a certain image that women all over the world believe that they should have.

In the 18^th Century, women who were seen as attractive were those ones that were large, muscular and strong, as you can see in the images. All of these qualities showed the women were rich and could afford food which showed wealth and good health.  Pale skin was also attractive as these were the women who wouldn’t have to work outside again highlighting how rich they were.

In the 19^th century women’s weights decreased and were much more fragile and thin, they usually wore corsets to gain the ‘right’ shape and even went as far as breaking their ribs to achieve the right look.

As corsets started to go out of fashion in the 1920’s curvy Hollywood actresses started to appear in the media in the 1950’s and showed that to be glamorous meant that you had curves and a size 14/16 was the size to be.

However, when Twiggy arrived in the 60’s the woman’s model image changed yet again.  Twiggy had a very boyish figure and was very thin, with Twiggy modelling for all the latest magazines women started to want to achieve this look and to this day it is fashionable to have this thin shape.

Being perfect and having the right image to go with it is all that the media seem to focus on now a days so it is no wonder women feel the way they do about themselves, unconfident about their body if they don’t feel they have this image.