The New Job

I’m aware that my new job is still a mystery to some people as I didn’t get it until after I left Newcastle.

In fact when I left the Toon it looked like I was destined to live with my parents or move to New Zealand!

However I am incredibly fortunate to be working as a Video Journalist at Mustard TV,  part of the Archant organisation in Norwich.

To give you a bit of context, a while back the government approved a new channel for Freeview.

Known generically as channel 8, it will allow local broadcasters to put on programmes for people in a small area.

In Hull the channel 8 broadcaster is Estuary TV, in London it is London Live and so on and so on.

In Norwich it is Mustard, which will be putting out new bulletins at 5.30pm and then on the hour until 10pm, alongside showing documentaries and a daily magazine programme called The Mustard Show.

My role as a VJ will be going out to a story every day, filming it, editing and voicing it and then preparing it for broadcast, all pretty much entirely on my own.

Part of our broadcasting licence means that we send the BBC some of our footage every day, which means that my work might get onto any Beeb programme.

Which is kind of cool.

Hopefully I’ll also start presenting the bulletins but that will come with time.

I’m very fortunate that the editing software Mustard uses is the same one we used on my Masters and that I’m still able to use the shorthand and legal knowledge I got on my PA training course.

Basically it is the ideal job for me and exactly the kind of thing I wanted to get into when I started considering the future and looking at journalism two years ago.

In short, I’m very blessed.

If you want to find out more I’ve set up a Facebook page which I’m posting my reports on so you can ‘Like’ that to keep up to date or you can see all my reports here. 

I’m also on Twitter - @marksummers24

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to visit Norwich and say hi then I could do with the company.

Drop me a message if you’re interested!