Cosmopolite: The work of Matt Tucker

I am keeping my promise of updating my blog with news of my NCTJ Magazine Journalism course.

This is the third week. So far the classes have all been about settling into the college with introductions between classmates and tutors, but now I can see the hard work ahead of me.

Today we had a Feature Writing class with an exercise in the final 45 minutes. We had to write two short pieces about a television programme, each in the style of a different publication. One article had to be written to be published in The Economist and the other had to be in the Broadcast Magazine. This meant writing in two styles on either end of the spectrum: factual and informative with The Economist, and colourful and conversational with Broadcast Magazine.

I wrote about the BBC's The Apprentice show and Lord Sugar's promotion to a government post earlier this year.

Here's what I produced (hastily written!):

Lord Sugar not so sweet

The hard-to-please man behind the Amstrad Empire and the BBC’s The Apprentice has come under fire for trying to juggle his glamorous television career with his new government position. Promoted from Sir Sugar to Lord Sugar in the latest Cabinet reshuffle, Gordon Brown has made the businessman 'Enterprise Tsar'.

The Apprentice has enjoyed national success, with its infamous phrase present in many a bantering conversation. You drop your pint in the pub: “You’re fired!”. You miss a goal in your local Sunday five-aside match: “You’re fired!”

With television awards on his mantelpiece, Lord Sugar may move from sweet to bitter if he is forced to choose between his Bafta-winning show and his government responsibilities.

It isn’t the first time the tyrannical boss has come under fire: last year he was accused of endorsing work place bullying.

Can he juggle the glamour of an award-winning reality television show with the pressured responsibilities of a government post? We’ll find out in the Government Board Room of the next election.

TV Programme to Parliament Seat

Sir Alan Sugar has been made a Lord this week as Gordon Brown announces the businessman an 'Enterprise Tsar' in the latest Cabinet reshuffle.

Lord Alan Sugar’s reality television programme, The Apprentice, takes 12 aspiring business men and women and puts them at the mercy of the formidable entrepreneur, taking them to the edge of their abilities.

The phrase “You’re fired” has become synonymous with the tyrannical style of the boss who only wants the best-of-the-best to work for him. Doubts have been cast over the show’s future, amid calls for Lord Sugar to choose between a government position and his prime time award-winning programme.

A NEW city, a new life. I have relocated to Brighton to attend the UK’s best-performing NCTJ course in Magazine Journalism at City College Brighton & Hove. The course is full-time and intense, but I am loving the challenge, the new people and the change of scene.

With two to three hours of shorthand a day, I am falling asleep with shorthand lines and squiggles in my head! I also have tutorials in Media Law, Sub-editing, Production & Design, Feature Writing and Public Affairs (my favourite so far!). The course is an intense blitz of learning for five months, followed by accredited exams next January.

City College Brighton & Hove is spread across one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the UK: a venue to music, comedy and art festivals all year round.

The main campus, Pelham Tower, is adjacent to Brighton’s famous The Lanes, the place to get your supply of tie-dyed shirts and herbal teas. But it was the remote campus of Wilson Avenue that became my first acquaintance with the college. I made the journey to Brighton on the hottest day in July with no air conditioning and an unwilling sat nav. I was not feeling ready for the two-hour exam and interview ahead of me.

But with bottled water and a walk around the area, I discovered why the college would be an ideal place to study and learn. A mile inland from the sea and above the city, the views are inspiring for any aspiring journalist stepping into the spotlight of one of the shortest and intense media courses in the country.

Now, in my second week of the NCTJ in Brighton, I have no regrets. Whether you are fresh out of school, or coming from the rat-race of employment, City College will give you the time and space to find yourself in a full-time education environment.

The fantastic photo above is Brighton’s West Pier. The pier is a steel wreck but looks beautiful in the evening with the sun setting - absolutely unique to Brighton.

I will be updating my blog with progress on the course, and with the articles and features I produce. All comments are welcome. I hope you enjoy the journey with me!

Matt

Flickr image from Dominic's pics' photostream

I am a marooned Plinth Heckler. Poor planning for my house-move has meant that the Internet will not be in my new home until a week Friday; I have no Internet platform from which to hurl encouraging and constructively critical remarks from. Plinth viewing is out of the question. For all I know, the Plinth could have been sabotaged by a rowdy group of protestors waving banners, or the Plinth has been shut down by a censoring government. Or it has been host to a succession of phenomenal Plinthers who have redefined Gormley's 'One & Other' through incredibly thought-provoking plinth activity. I suspect there has certainly been more nudity.

So, being isolated from the compulsive plinth-viewing that has gripped so many, one alternative is to move into the National Portrait Gallery (but I've heard the rent is quite high).

Such is the power of the Internet: without it I am a stranded Heckler. This is part of the modernity of 'One & Other'; it could only exist now, in this age of Internet globalisation. Would the Victorians have put the logistical effort into such an Artistic statement? Not when the only viewers would have been passing bankers and nannies with prams. Even fifteen years ago, before social networking and the rapid boom of the Internet, this project would certainly not have had the mass appeal it has received.

Gordon Brown said earlier this year that "a fast internet connection is ... an essential service, as indispensable as electricity, gas and water." The Private Eye poked fun at this statement by publishing a cartoon of two men begging on the streets of London, one holding a sign saying 'homeless', the other holding a sign saying 'slow broadband'. A cynical view indeed, but now that I don't have the Internet I can certainly see the logic behind Brown's reasoning. Internet may not be able to compete with food and water in the survival stakes, but it is needed to function and live in 2009 Britain: in employment and in social interaction.

oneandother.co.uk was reported as the most visited arts site of the month of July. A blog article by Lee Bryant published on the Headshift website this week sums up the integral part that the Internet and social media has played for One & Other, declaring that "The project has taught us some useful lessons about online engagement and what we mean by 'social', but overall it has boosted my faith in (online) humanity."

Many Plinthers have themselves explored the use of the Internet in original and creative ways. Here are just a few:

Plinthipaul used Twitter and his website to request suggestions on experiments he could conduct on the Plinth, including: "How far will a bouncy ball bounce? It's all very well chucking toast off a plinth, but what about something bouncy - will a ball leave the Square?!" and "Nudity on the plinth: How long can Paul spend naked on the plinth before being made to dress again." Smartly dressed and equipped with an array of crazy props, Paul's Plinth hour looked like a cross between the old TV shows 'Tomorrow's World' and 'It'll Never Work' - and just as entertaining!

Twitter users Dave Piper (@ontheplinth) and @peregr1n enjoyed delivering 'live on the plinth' updates to twitter and skype. Julia Gilbert (@catnip) also wanted to "demonstrate the benefits of web technology" by tweeting throughout her hour.

Poet Karen Head (@poetphd) combined creative writing with Internet technology by crafting a real-time poem with tweets. You can watch a report about Karen on American website time.com or watch Karen's full poetic hour here.

Two Plinthers recommended to me by hecklers on Twitter are Gunter and Jen Evans; let me know what you think.

The oneandother.co.uk site has been as much a platform for Plinthers as the Plinth itself; I hope it continues to be a fundamental and fun part of this project to the end. I leave you with a few quotes on the World Wide Web:

"The Internet is the world's largest library.  It's just that all the books are on the floor."  ~John Allen Paulos

"Looking at the proliferation of personal web pages on the Net, it looks like very soon everyone on Earth will have 15 megabytes of fame."  ~M.G. Sriram

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true."  ~Robert Wilensky, 1996