Help Me Investigate Testimonial

After completing my two week work placement at the company, Help Me Investigate's Co-founder, Paul Bradshaw, gave me some positive feedback:

"Abbey expressed an interest in learning more about finding angles and leads in information, and subbing stories. A large part of her experience, then, was based on sub-editing submissions from contributors so that they were more compelling and easy to read. This she did increasingly well, developing a strong sense as well as skills in structuring longer narratives such as real life stories."

Paul went onto say:

"It's been good to see skills developed significantly over a fortnight and I hope Abbey continues to get involved in the site."

I am very happy with these comments and am very pleased that Paul saw my skills improve and develop. I am also flattered that I am welcome back to work with Help Me Investigate.

Abbey Hartley

Help Me Investigate Work Placement Report

Between July 8th and July 19th, I gained work experience at Help Me Investigate - a website which helps people and journalists investigate topics in the public interest. After conducting investigations as part of my university degree, I wanted to experience this practice in the working world. Investigative journalism is a possible career choice for me so it is important to build up knowledge in this area.

As part of the placement, I helped sub-edit a number of stories. This involved me improving the writing of other Help Me Investigate contributors so the work was more interesting to read. Click here to read an investigation into the London 2012 Olympics, which I edited.

Furthermore, I attended the CIJ Summer School (discussed in my previous post) as part of my work placement. I live-blogged and tweeted for Help Me Investigate during the investigative journalism course. Click here to see my live blog. I believe this exercise helped improve my social media skills and gave me an insight into conducting live blogging. After returning, I wrote up the classes from the CIJ Summer School and summarised them into 'top tips' and 'how to' posts. Click here to read my finished articles from the CIJ Summer School.

Attending this event as a Help Me Investigate contributor also helped me with my communication skills. I used the CIJ Summer School to network and create contacts in the investigative journalism industry. I handed out business cards and discussed Help Me Investigate's work with various individuals. This made me more confident to speak to others and really pushed me out of my comfort zone, which I found exciting and intriguing. 

To add to this, I assisted Help Me Investigate with ongoing investigations. This involved me chasing stories and quotes from a variety of individuals and companies. I found that this task helped improve my telephone communication, which I feel I need practice in. I believe my confidence has grown when speaking to professionals in regards to retrieving quotes and information.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Help Me Investigate. I think my knowledge of investigative journalism has significantly grown and conducting investigations outside of university has definitely benefited me. I wish to gain more experience within this industry in the future.

Abbey Hartley

The CIJ Investigative Journalism Summer School

This weekend, I attended the Centre of Investigative Journalism's Summer School at City University London. The three day course focussed on high risk investigations such as taking on greedy corporations, secretive governments, cheats, criminals and predatory celebrities. I learnt a lot at the CIJ Summer School which I believe will benefit me in my future journalistic career. 

Workshops I attended:

- I took part in a workshop led by successful journalists Melanie McFadyean, Robert Miller and Martin Tomkinson, which taught me the tricks and tips needed to conduct serious interviews for print and broadcast. They also demonstrated to the class what necessary skills are needed to avoid pitfalls when interviewing.

- I also attended classes about company accounts. In these sessions, I learnt how to access company documents and what to look for in them when writing a news story. I found this extremely helpful and will definitely come in useful.

- Professor Mark Lee Hunter led a workshop about story-based inquiry where he explained how to frame, sell, write and promote a story. I learnt how to use hypotheses in the method of investigation and how to write up the best story possible.

- To add to this, Court Reporter, Paul Cheston, taught me how to do court reporting and get the best stories. This class was a practical guide on everything you need to know when doing court reporting. I now can't wait to put this new knowledge into action!

- Famous journalist, Andrew Jennings, led a workshop called 'How to Write Stories Readers Will Remember'. I found this workshop very beneficial and believe I have gained crucial knowledge to help me improve my writing.

Keynote speeches I attended:

- As well as workshops, there were a number of key speeches from guest speakers which I found extremely inspiring. There was a panel discussion, speaking of the case of Jimmy Savile. This gave me an insight into how stories are broken and how they are brought to the public domain. 

- US Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, offered tips on how to make news stories more important. He shared his own personal experiences of how he dug deeper for a news story.

- Ioan Grillo talked about investigating Mexican Drug Cartels. He discussed reporting on dangerous subjects and the personal risk involved, which I found very fascinating.

Overall, I am pleased that I spent time and money on attending the CIJ Summer School. I learnt many more skills and gained crucial knowledge from the industry's top professionals. I am looking forward to putting my new found expertise into action.

Abbey Hartley