My Wicked Interview

 

I was keen to get some video content onto the Absolute:ly site as the pictures we were using felt amateurish and we wanted something to really pull in the audience.

I spent a few weeks in contact with the PR company gaining access behind the scenes of the West End musical ‘Wicked’, this allowed me to establish a good relationship with the theatre and consolidate WINOL’s award winning reputation. This contact could be useful for future features students as they are more than willing to work with us again on other projects.

Overall, I was pleased with the output I achieved; planning was such a big factor in the interview’s success. I envisaged my end product so knew exactly what shots I wanted when on location and how I was going to edit the package. I asked a variety of questions ranging from career based ones to the show’s secrets. The use of the SLRs achieved the best image quality possible especially with the location of the wig room – there was bright lights, mirrors and it was white so pictures needed to be clean and crisp. I did find research difficult for this though because there wasn’t any examples on youtube or other magazines to use a template from. If I was to do this again, I would change my questions to purely based around make-up but I was only given a day to prepare and, I needed to relax into it more. However, I feel that Liv had a great camera presence and looked relaxed when being quizzed so it was a very natural style for features.

Unfortunately, cut-aways were not as effective as I could have achieved because of the limits placed by the press officer but I did manage an introduction sequence before the interview.

Editing was a bit of a struggle as this was the first interview I’ve done for WINOL and it was a lengthy package but I achieved the best result I could have in the end.

Chapter 28: Data Protection

Data protection law safeguards personal information stored on computers and filing systems. There are three ways in which this law affects journalists:

• Using underhand methods to gain access to personal data can lead to prosecution unless journalists can be protected under the public interest defence
• Institutions sometimes misunderstand data protection law when claiming it stops them releasing information to the media
• Journalists create and store data so we must be lawful in how they process and publish sensitive data to avoid court cases

A data controller determines the purposes and manner for which any personal data is processed. Media organisations and freelance journalists are data controllers and must be on a public register. A data subject is a person about whom the information is held.

Data handlers must comply with principles under the 1998 Act, for example data must be:

• Fairly and lawfully processed
• Processed for limited purposes (provided for a specific purpose)
• Processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights
• Secure

Section 55 states that ‘a person must not knowingly or recklessly, without the consent of the data controller’ obtain or disclose personal data or provide the disclosure to another person.

‘Blagging’ by a journalist to gain personal data could be an offence under this section and it might also be an offence to persuade or pay someone to leak personal data.

Defences are available to those who act in the reasonable belief that they would have obtained permission from the data controller for their actions including the public interest clause and that obtaining the information was necessary for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime.  A conviction under section 55 can impose a £5000 fine or up to two years imprisonment.

Data is only personal if it can lead to an individual being identified.

Requests to the police can be made to withhold information from the media; this can be treated on a case-by-case basis. However, victims, witnesses or next of kin are not entitled to ask for information not to be released.

Guidance for court staff in regards to the Data Protection Act states that legislation ‘must not be used as a blanket excuse for withholding information’.

The Act provides particular privacy protection for sensitive personal data, including information about:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Political opinions
• Religion
• Trade union membership
• Physical or mental health or condition
• Sexual life
• Criminal offences and any proceedings for an offence alleged to have been committed

Sensitive personal data can only usually be processed lawfully if two conditions are met: there must be explicit consent or the data subject has deliberately made the information public; or the purpose of information was necessary for the administration of justice.

Confidentiality lecture notes to compliment reading

Confidence and secrecy are classed into three sections, these being: state secrets, common law secrets and commercial confidentiality. Confidentiality relies on an individual’s own reasonable expectation of confidence.

There are three main dangers when breaching confidentiality and secrecy.

• Contempt of Court
• Libel
• Privacy – Human Rights Act

Unlike libel laws, for a confidentiality claim the claimant must prove that the accused has breached all of the clauses:

• ‘the necessary quality of confidence’
• Provided in circumstances imposing an obligation
• No permission was granted
• There is detriment where proof of damages must be presented