Data Skills Test - Unemployment rates

2009 was the worst year for UK unemployment in the decade, according to new figures.



These new figures show that the average UK unemployment rate in 2009 (from January to July only) was 2,333,000 compared to the lowest figures in 2004, 1,422,000.
This is due to Britain being in the middle of a recession, so obviously many companies downsizing has had an effect on the number of jobs available.
When the unemployment rate was much lower, the economy was doing a lot better.
Perhaps the most surprising figure is the sharp increase from 2008 to 2009, as in other years there had been a steady increase.
Hopefully when the UK emerges from the recession, the unemployment rate will also improve.

Link to the Guardian Datastore chart here.
Link to my edited chart here.
Link to information on unemployment benefits here.

Video Skills Test

This is an interview I did with Hannah Pedley, a member of the UCLAN badminton club and riding club, for an assessment. I asked about the different sports clubs she is in, and her role as the social secretary of the badminton club.

Maps Skills Test

Here is the map I created for my skills tests. It contains links to four news stories from Thursday, 7th October issue of the LEP.


View Skills Test Map in a larger map

Digital Newsroom- Threat or opportunity?

A presentation answering the above question.

Follow the Prezi link below the presentation to view.

Copy of Digital Newsroom Presentation on Prezi

All images were labelled for re-use.

Chart on litter penalties

This is a graph I made as part of an exercise for my Digital Newsroom module, on the difference between litter penalties paid, and cancelled.

Image Skills Test

My original photo:




My 200 pixels by 500 pixels edit:




My 100 pixels by 100 pixels edit:




My 400 pixels by 300 pxiels edit:

Media City Photo

Courtesy of EG Focus on Flickr.

Here comes the Summer...

The other week, I was one of 70,000 or so people who parted with £180 for a ticket to the Leeds music festival. A lot of money, but it's the main event of my Summer sorted out. Though it seems ridiculous to have a ticket for an event that's - at the time of writing - 129 days away, I suppose I can at least be grateful that Britain's major festivals aren't now, in the midst of the Eyjafjallajokull (a good word for Scrabble) ash cloud troubles.
So, anyway, the big news for Leeds festival is that The Libertines are reuniting to play it, and I have to join all the people who are proclaiming what a brilliant event this is. Obviously I'm too young to have properly appreciated them the first time round, but I've followed all members' separate projects, and have wanted it to happen for so long. It's a shame it has to happen on such a big stage, where the crowd is so far away from the band that there's not much of a connection, but I suppose that's the way it was always going to be - a band with as big a following as The Libertines would never be able to just play the tiny, illegal shows that they were known for back in the day. Though saying that, it's really not that long since they split up, and that's perhaps why it can work - it's long enough after the fall out for the hard feelings to dissipate, but close enough to it for the band to still be relevant.

The Future of Journalism is...

What the future of journalism will be is a question that no one can answer confidently. Journalism is usually a volatile profession to be in, but recently it has seemed ever more unstable, due to the rise of the online media.

It seems obvious that the media needs to harness the power of online journalism better, and there is a chance that this may be done through the use of ‘pay walls’.

A pay wall is when a reader is required to pay to access online newspaper content – currently most newspaper articles published online are free to view. The introduction of pay walls would change this, and may make the online media more profitable.

It also may discourage people from reading articles online, which would bring readers back to the print medium. The idea of pay walls is –obviously – quite unpopular with readers, so if they become more widely used by newspapers on their websites, the use of online media may decrease.

Also, it seems inevitable that convergence will be an important part in the future of journalism. Online media could be seen as the medium where convergence works best, as it features print journalism and elements of broadcast: videos and audio podcasts.