Student in focus: Will Payne (Star and Crescent)
In the first of our series of posts exploring the journalistic work that our students complete alongside their studies, Will Payne offers an overview of his role at the Star and Crescent.
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Hi, my name is Will and I am the Rugby Correspondent for the Star and Crescent. The Star and Crescent is a hyper local site, which reports on local news and more recently local sport, which is where I come in.
In a Web Research workshop, Sarah Cheverton, the editor at the S&C, came in to give us a talk on hyper local sites and how they operate. At the end, we were set a task to write a piece for the S&C, in which I wrote a match report on the recent Portsmouth rugby game, and the rest is history. Since then I have been writing the rugby read weekly for the S&C, in which I look back on last week’s game.
As the Rugby Correspondent, it is my job to report on everything that happens with Portsmouth RFC. Since I stared, the only news I’ve had to report on is the recent games, in which I go through minute by minute of the actual game, I give my own analysis and sometimes provide a few quotes from the Head Coach or players.
Unfortunately, most of the games I’ve had to report on have been played away, and as the team are quite good they play all over the country, meaning it has been very difficult to get to the games. If they’re not playing away and are at home, I usually have no way of getting there.
I source my reports from the website, my own opinion after talking to players/coaches, and pictures supplied by the club photographer. In the new year when I have a bit more flexibility I hope to be able to go to every game, and maybe employ some of my shorthand ‘skill’.
As for my actual work, each post comes out around the Wednesday after the game, as of the slow journalism approach the S&C take, considering its quite hard to get the post done as soon as the match finishes.
Writing for the S&C has really helped me develop my skill for writing, which has also really helped in my actual degree.
I really started becoming interested in sports journalism around the age of 16, when we had a talk from a local sports editor form the local paper. Since that day, I’ve been growing my knowledge of sport and journalism, and writing the rugby report for the S&C is something I would love to turn in to a career. It’s the perfect stepping stone in the right direction, coupled with studying journalism at UoP of course, to my dream job.
