MA Media Suite - Production Lab

Production Lab

Towards the MA by Practice

How we will organise ourselves

Example of a Lab project

MA by Practice

Plan and implement an appropriate production project.

Utilise a knowledge and critical understanding of professional conventions and possible innovations.

Solve contemporary problems of professional practice.

Deal creatively with complex issues.

MA by Practice

Critically evaluate project products and processes

Communicate their conclusions clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences

Reflect and evaluate

Towards the MA by Practice

Production Lab:

Testing stuff out

Space to get things wrong

Emphasis on process and critical reflection

Stepping stone to MA by Practice

Organising yourself

Undertake a placement– spend time in an organisation

Work on a ‘live’ brief– produce professional work for a client

Work on an industry-focused project– Create a project related to your sector

Phase 1: Audit

What have you learnt so far on the course?

How can you apply that to a new project?

Submit an idea for a project (project initiation)

Phase 2: Exploration

How can I use my skills to innovate?

How can I create a lab for myself?

It shouldn’t matter if things go wrong.

Phase 3: Consolidation

How can I learn from what I did?

How can I apply it in a bigger project context?

How can I articulate this to my peers and to industry?

Timetable

Feb 8th - Phase 1 (class)

Feb 22th - Phase 2 (class)

Project management workshop

19th April - Phase 3 (tutorial)

May 10th - Lab conference

tutorials

Assessment

Lab report and evaluation (60% 14th May 2010)

– Project Initiation Document– Highlight reports– Blog posts– Evaluation

Proposal for a MA by Production (40% 4th June 2010)

What’s your lab?

Bournville is my lab

http://bournvillevillage.com

Bournville is my lab

Undertake an industry placement

Work on a live brief from an industry client

Develop an industry-focused project

Initiating the project:

http://bit.ly/plform

Project summary

“Edit a local website for a period of time; try to innovate around content; shape an editorial stance; consider how to make the blog sustainable”

Context

Lots of debate (research)

Different Models (example)

Independently Funded News Consortia

Objectives

Experiment with different media

Make an attempt to get readers more involved

Create a clear editorial stance for the blog

Project Approach

Create a small team to help me work on the blog (especially as Cadbury story is about to go HUGE)

Partners

Other than co-workers? None.

Risks

1. My day job gets in the way.

2. A stronger editorial style puts readers off.

Mitigation:

1. Work as a team.

2. Consult locals before publication.

Exploration & Reflection

Use bournvillevillage.com for exploration

Use daveharte.com for reflecting

SUCCES

S

Gritty Bournville

Applied new skills (Google maps)

Innovated around user needs

Took a current issue (data re-use)

Reflection and discussion with peershttp://daveharte.com/bournville/data-is-the-new-grit/

10 comments

Wide-ranging debate

Linked from other blogs

FAI

L

Cadbury takover Coveritlive

Applied new skills (aggregating content, covering ‘live’ event)

Identified gap (no-one else ‘live-blogging’)

Failed to understand event-blogging

Failed to understand the story

Failed to engage readers (stats)

Highlight report

Let my tutor know what’s happening with my project. What’s changing on it:

Project status:

Produced x amount of stories. Cadbury thing increasing attention.

Highlight report

What you’re going to do nextTry using videoAvoid standard news reporting style

Risk updateFailing to engage a team - out of scopeDifficulty in identifying an editorial

stance - need tutor support

Turing this into a MA by PracticeHow do I make this blog a sustainable hyperlocal news blog for Bournville?

How do I ensure that it continues to innovate going forward? (examples + strategy)

How do I get it noticed by industry?

Production Lab

What you need to do now:

Join the ‘Production Lab module on Moodle

Talk to your peers, your tutor, yourself…

Submit Project Initiation Document by February 19th 3pm - http://bit.ly/plform

Be here on February 22nd – Phase Two