11/12/2020

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My Final Conclusion

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This task has been much more difficult than I expected it to be. Lots of things have gotten in the way such as Covid, Lockdown, Injuries and Meetings because of Covid. The world has not been our friend at all. Resources that I had access to mean that the amount of work that I accomplished was depleted and as a result I became behind on work. I feel like the world's events also impacted the team work of the group as not everyone could get in touch with each other; they also couldn't research that they would have liked to do as well as not being able help one another when we found things slightly difficult, Things I found difficult were Premiere Pro and Photoshop, I also know that other class members could help me work on both these programmes, I feel with a bit more time and a few sessions face to face I could learn the basics.

Being allowed to focus on an area that I loved, allowed me to work with people that I cared about and also had wanted to get to know better for a long time, however it also made me realise just how complicated it was to get interviews. Where people might say they would do it, it doesn't mean that they would always be able to. There were occasions where I would be able to do an interview but the interviewee wouldn't be able to or lockdown would make things so that we were unable to do it. A lack of knowledge of technology meant that I couldn't record facetiming or record voice interviews, These are things that I would like to improve in the future.

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21/12/2020

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The past few days I have been working on pages for my university choices. I have been looking at costs to get there through train and coach along with how far away they are. Also, I have been researching the partners the university has along with what their Disability and Equality rules are like. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find much that I could put online. I fear that I may have to change Solent's page as I'm unsure on whether the course is running. As this is so, I have been unable to actually put my application through to UCAS. I'm hoping they will get back to me so that I can apply.

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When I get back to college I will need to sort out my first video for MET Connect as I wasn't able to edit it so that it could be put online. For this I will need a mac and premiere pro. On the last day of term I couldn't find the started video so I may have to start again. I will also need to slightly edit the pages for my universities as the set up doesn't seem to be working at the moment. I will also need to look for clearer pictures that surround my personal statement.

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I have been planning a Christmas meal with ESTEEM, but I feel that because of the recent events with COVID and a Tier 3 introduced with our rates increasing quite heavily that I need to pull out. I will offer to help with ideas but I will not be attending the actual meal.

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25/12/2020

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Merry Christmas!

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Yesterday I sent off my application for University, I heard back from Solent University and they aren't running the course, therefore another choice has been added, that is the reason for six university choices on this site. I have ordered them into alphabetical order so its not possible to tell, and there is no particular order on the home page of the section either along with a link to the university website when you click the university logo on the page. I also made a link on the home page for my personal statement. This was made up of a random picture of someone writing along with 'My personal statement' layered on top in a font that could be passed as writing... to be honest I'm quite proud of that.

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Our area has been introduced into Tier 4, this will make things a bit more challenging and any interviews I do in the future will have to be over zoom. This means I'm going to have to figure out how to record on zoom. Good luck me.

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29/12/2020

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So Christmas was great, but Tier 4 has entered a few more questions to my work such as 'Will we be returning to college?' and 'What if I can't get hold of the people that I wanted to interview?' Looking at my original plan I should already have posted my second interview and I haven't even released the first one. This had led me to rethink my plan. Instead of doing local women, no matter how much I would love to support them, maybe I could focus on those who are already big names, and those who should be big names.

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My plan is now to research the athletes history, looking at the successes that they have had in their sport and perhaps even the failures. I would like to look at what medals and awards they have been achieved by both them and their teams if they participate in team sports. I would also like to do a vlog on how I feel they have impacted their sport. I will also be posting songs that came out in the year the athlete was born and when their career professionally started. 

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This morning I sat down and wrote an A-Z list of sports- some letters where more challenging than others. I then decided that maybe that wasn't the  best way to achieve my goal. Therefore, I changed my search to both disabled and non-disabled female athletes before finally finishing on 'controversial female athletes'. I found after this that I had a list of twenty six athletes with only eighteen weeks until May. With this in mind I cut the list down to the eighteen athletes that both I would like to research and I think that others would find interesting.

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To continue with this plan I will need:

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• A Computer

• The Internet

• Sports Webpages

• My Phone

• Premiere Pro (not essential)

• A quiet space with a plain background

• Spotify

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What to do next:

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• Research the first Athlete

• Research songs from when the athlete was born and their career started

• Type up everything on MET Connect

• Record how I feel the athlete has impacted the sport

• Edit the video (if needed)

• Post video online

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What's important to get done:

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• Research the athlete

• Type up research online

• Record my thoughts

• Post video online

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30/12/2020

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Today I have been looking at the American Gymnast Simone Biles, researching her life before she was a gymnast. I have also researched the awards that she has to her name, the gold, silver and bronze medals along with other awards outside and inside of sport. She didn't have a great start to her life, but there are many things that helped her become who she is today. I will be looking into this on the MET Connect website. I have used both Wikipedia and her own website to support my research. I also looked at articles about her beliefs and her support for others.

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Tomorrow I will be re-designing my page on the MET Connect website for release next week after I have filmed my thoughts, write out the biography or the athlete and researched the music to be put on Spotify.

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31/12/2020

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The last session of 2020. Today I redone my plan for MET Connect, altering some of the details. The layout is pretty much the same apart from this time I have altered my logo and added in a section for pictures of the athlete. I hope to find pictures of their main accomplishments and them taking part in their sport. If they take part in more than one sport, I plan to have a photo of them taking part in each one of them. I have decided that I could add in videos from other people to add to the information provided, interviews that others have done or videos of them competing in their sport. On the right of the page will now be a table of their awards. Depending on the athlete, this may reduce the size of the music provided or push it down next to the video of my thoughts and feelings. This means that this video will move further to the left.

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This page can be found under the title 'New MET Connect Page Plan'.

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I have also created my home page for Unit 9, creating links to all pages involved. However, I feel like something is missing from this page. I am planning on asking my family and friends about how they would improve the page as I really can't tell.

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2/01/2021

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Today I added the photos of Simone Biles onto the MET Connect Page, along with two tables (that appear as one) that shows both her competition awards and other awards received outside of competition. Within the tables are circles to represent whether she received Gold Silver or Bronze, this took a while to do as I had to get them as straight as possible. I decided to draw out a line to connect the words either side so it would be as centred as possible. With shaking hands its not easy.

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I found that following my idea of adapting the logo, I haven't been entirely sure on it. Because of this I asked my family for their thoughts. They believe that I should change it to have 'Women In' sport as this makes it clearer to them about what my page covers. Therefore I have decided to stick with my alternate logo on my MET Connect Page.

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I have had mixed responses from my friends and family on my Unit 9 homepage. A few of them could not understand the font that I was using, others seemed to love it. They were also asked if the page was missing something, but they disagreed. As those viewing it had this opinion I have decided to leave it as it is.

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Tomorrow I will be continuing with my page on MET Connect, adding the biography of the athlete onto the page.

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3/01/2021

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I am quite happy with the work I have done today. My first page on MET Connect has been completed and published. I typed out Simone Bile's biography and followed her journey with both The University of the People and looked at the problems her ADHD gave her after the Rio Olympics.

I also found four songs to represent her within the Playlist, these included her walk on song and a song that was within the top twenty during the Olympics and have called it Simone's Songs.

I found two videos from Youtube to be added to the page, one showing her skill in athletics and the other, an interview looking at why she is so good.

I am happy with the layout of the page and look forward to the release of the next page in a week's time. I am hoping to get my thoughts and feelings on the athlete into the next page.

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I will need the internet to research the athlete, Spotify to add in their songs and my phone to record my thoughts. I will also be looking to see what else I can complete/ make better on this wix page.

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09/01/2021

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Today I have been busy, I have finished my page of Steffi Graf and created a page to link both of them together. I also managed to find a website that will help with my playlist as it contains all the songs and when they were in the charts: Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts Company. 

The past few days I have been looking at what musicals were in the West End over the year of 2010, figuring this out wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be as I had to search all the things I had never heard of individually to see if they were normal plays, comedians or actually musicals. 

This week I will continue to research the musicals for my Unit 11 as well as researching Kelly Holmes for next week's page on MET Connect.

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26/01/2021

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Its been a while since I posted, I have been involved in the Vaccination Process in Lancing and therefore have spent a while on that. From this I am getting a fair amount of event experience (as this will continue for 6 months), and have also made connections with an event manager. I have asked him if I could perhaps join him for work experience when Brighton and Hove Albion is allowed to have fans back within their stadium and he said yes. He followed it up with the offer of a weekend job for a festival in July (if it goes ahead).

  

As well as this I have managed to get a fair amount done yesterday and today. Yesterday I spent the day working on editing the conversation I had with my sister about Zencastr as a practice to recording and editing any future work I will be doing.  I am still not 100% sure on the sound of it but now I know how long it takes to alter things. We recorded around 20 minutes of conversation which has now been cut down to 4 minutes by taking out parts of the conversation that were not relevant or perhaps could not be aired online. The ums and ahs have mostly been taking out apart from a few, I felt if they were all taken out then the conversation would not seem as natural as I would like it to sound. I found gaps between people talking are important as no-one ever reacts the second after the other person stops talking. I feel like getting the correct music is important to the conversation; however, this isn't that easiest thing to do, especially to someone who doesn't really have an ear for music.

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Today I have done my brief for the Women in Sport MET Connect page and podcast. Finding two podcasts that were completely different has helped me to establish how I would like the conversation within my own podcast would sound. The first I found dull and not that interesting, the tone of the voice was on one level and didn't excite me. The second was the complete opposite, the host was interesting and really launched herself into the conversation. The introductory music was upbeat and really got you ready for an interesting conversation.

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I have also edited what the Women In Sport page looks like after seeing the second podcast's webpage. It was fresh and got you into the same mood the podcast did, mine was originally dull and not that exciting to look at.

From there I went onto looking at the home page of MET Connect which was all over the place and included big gaps. I used buzzfeed.com as a guide as to how things could look within a culture channel, and believe it looks a lot better. Things will obviously change with both my the home page and Women In sport as more content is created as I feel that was really the main issue in the original image of both pages. I have emailed Emily (from college) to ask if I could do one of the podcasts with her, fingers crossed.

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I have set up a meet on Thursday morning with the University College of Football Business at Etihad. This is to discuss their support for people with mental health and physical needs.

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28/01/21

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The past few days I have had post positive negative experiences.  The reaction I got from the rest of my class about the MET Connect Home Page was not quite what I wanted or what I expected. So far we have always been quite supportive of each other and I also knew there was going to be something they wouldn't like about what I had done, everyone in my class are their own person, and indeed a lot younger than me. Trying to be on the same wave length of people almost 10 years younger than me is not easy, things are very different to when I was their age, but to be honest I wasn't the most 'With It' person when I was their age. I was expecting creative criticism but that was far from what I got. I'm learning to take their opinions on the chin, and that is what I'm going to have to do.

The home page was discussed in our class and it has now been edited. Its not a huge different from how I created it, its just been rearranged. All my writing is still on the page and my 'Exclusive' box still remains. I'm actually quite pleased with it. Its nice to know that even if my class don't like what I do they will still use it in the final work. This isn't the last time the home page will change, I'm sure of that, but it will be interesting to see how things grow. Apart from that I was able to add my page button in with everyone else's at the top of the main page and although it is quite simple I really like it. Below is an image of what it looks like.

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I have joined groups on Facebook for freshers at all the Universities I am applying for, everyone seems nice and I have already started talking to people looking at taking Events Management at one of them. There is a lot of support when I comes to housing online, and lots of people advertising spaces in student houses for both this and next year. I feel that those pages may come in helpful next year when I am looking for a place to live in my second year of university.

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My meeting with Rachel Kenworthy from University College of Football Business had its difficulties today and in the end I used my phone to talk to her. It was hard to get my parents in, but I feel like it was positive. She is finding out if doors can be altered in the accommodation and has sent me a list of the local doctors and chemists. Having them early will mean I can ensure a smoother transition to Manchester (if I end up there). We discussed my mental health and physical issues and there is lots of support available, and I would be able to get days off for any appointment I may have in the south (if I were to attend them, they are quite far away and expensive to get to). My mum and sister have suggested changing my application to Wembley as it is closer to my appointments and easier for my family to get to if they are needed.

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The rest of the day I have spent working on both this diary and the Vaccination Diary. Its been nice to go through my pictures and make sure everything I have had everything I wanted.

Hopefully my UCAS application has finally gone through. I have attempted three times now (at least) and its really starting to annoy me. I want to get it in.

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I tried to send an email to Brighton LGBTQ+ Sport Society (BLAGSS) using their contact form but it was unable to send, therefore I sent the same email (but altering who it was to) of to the Chair. The email was an invitation for those in BLAGSS to get involved in my podcast, I'm hoping there will be some uptake, I am interested to hear their views on the big questions in sport.  

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I need to set up an appointment with a friend of mine to record their podcast and add my brief onto this site, where or how I place it online I am unsure of yet. On Saturday I will need to update 'My Vaccination Diary' and put in my next shift if I am aware of what it is. Other than that I need to work on my pre- final major project essay.

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31/01/2021

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Yesterday I sent my sister a link to this site, she's always great at creative criticism. In response I got a text saying 'The background and writing are almost the same colour and the plans and review page looks like the info been repeated. I would get rid of the bullet points and the button have the text anyway'. There are a few issues with the text... but its a text. I looked back at my pages and for the most of it she was right. The bullet points have been taken of in the review page and only buttons remain, this might change at some point. The text was quite small (my mum couldn't read it) so it has been increased and also changed to this colour (orangey-brown)on some pages, in some cases the backgrounds have been lightened. I have tried to at least stick to the same colours but I'm still thinking about whether or not I should change the bulk of the text in my University pages. It looks ok to me but I'm not sure if it will to others, I think I may need to send the link to some friends for more creative criticism.

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Last night I also changed the lay out of my pages slightly. I had a lot of pictures each side of the text on my University pages and I hadn't realised that they would be seen as I can see it on my computer. I have now changed them to galleries before the text starts. I think I like it better now than I did before.

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I have a list of things to do this week. It still includes making the podcasts and its starting to stress me out. I really want to get at least one done and I'm just not able to. I'm going to have to send a blanket message out on University group pages on Facebook and to any women's football groups I can think of, I am worried that I am running out of time. I also need to add my brief to this site and continue with my essay. I need to double check if I have put my job application online as well. I have at least forty-four more things to do before my submission date. Fingers Crossed.

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01/02/2021

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I have finally managed to add onto the website my brief for MET Connect's Women In Sport Page and Podcast along with my job application letter. I have also added in what each section is about and what has been put in each. I think that gives the page more context than just a load of writing. I have added in a decorative line to break the explanation from the Brief/E-mail.

I also altered the way the website is set out slightly. My '1st year review' now comes off the main page with My Brief just before 'My Project', it seems to fit better in there. My 'Job Applications' page has been slotted in after the Winchester Uni and Personal Statement Pages and 'My Vaccination Diary' now comes off this Page. This means that all sections can now been seen in the top Menu instead of having 'Other' or 'More' at the end which was really annoying me.

Next I will looking at the way they are perceived at the beginning pages to see if anything needs to be altered (I know there is at least one thing that does).

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03/02/2021

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I didn't realise there were so many female football teams in the local area. Yesterday I looked on  the local women's league table: Sussex County Women & Girls Football League (thefa.com)

Starting from the very beginning of the first 'Ladies Division 1' in 2005 I made a note of all the teams that took part so that I could get in contact with them. Many of the teams from the earlier years don't exist anymore or have blended with other teams or rebranded. Some email addresses provided online aren't 100% accurate and so more research is needed but I have managed to sent messages to quite a few. Below is a link to a table of the teams that I have been in contact with/ will be getting in contact with along with the email that I have sent them.

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04/02/2021

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Yesterday morning I literally how no idea how I was going to get any of the podcasts done, but today I have people coming out my ears wanting to help!

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I have 3 booked times to talk to people today, 5:30pm, 6:15pm and 7pm. The person who is at 7pm wanted to be early because Chelsea are playing today and I can't blame her for that. I have edited the button above labelled 'Who have I been in contact with?' to show who the sessions are with and what time they are and hopefully by tomorrow I will have something to edit.

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I have been working on my essay whilst waiting to hear back from the other four on my list, with two back-ups just encase. I believe the essay is going alright. I cant wait to read it back again. I have split in into sections: Introduction, Topic One, Topic Two, Topic Three, Evaluation, Bibliography, Re-read and edit, Submit.

So far I have done Topic One and Two whilst creating the Bibliography (on a separate page that is attached) and keeping an eye on the word count. There has been times so far that I have struggled; its been a long time since I wrote any essays and getting that flow isn't easy. I'm still not sure on it really.

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I want to get my 3 podcasts recorded and edited by next Monday, and my essay ready to be re-read and edited by the end of the day.

 

I speak with Phil in fifty minutes...So I better get on with it!

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05/02/21

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Yesterday didn't quite go according to plan. The people I had booked in for 5:30pm and 6:15pm have re-arranged and the one at 7pm couldn't get through with Zencastr. Ok, it was a little bit more than 'quite'. I am changing things around so that I don't use Zencastr anymore, it was too selective on who can use it so now I'm going to use Zoom. Hopefully that should make things a little bit easier and I can catch up on the work. 

 

When it comes to my essay I'm hoping there are enough quotes within it, there are two within my first topic and two within the third one. I need to look at my conclusion again as it might be a bit short and I'm not sure if there is a massive jump between the introduction and first topic. I'm going to get my dad to read through it to see if it makes sense, missed out any words or anything. Fingers crossed it makes sense.

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08/02/21

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The past few days have been difficult. I still haven't been able to sort out a zoom discussion, I am going to try another one with the same person I was supposed to have had a call with on 5th at 7pm. This time I'm hoping it will be more successful because we can use Zoom. I have been in touch with a member of staff at Esteem and they have said they have two mentors that I could get in contact with. Whether I will have more success with them I'm not sure but it's worth a try.

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I have been writing and re-writing my essay for days now. It's tiring work. Below are pictures of my work whilst on the computer today and what it looked like yesterday morning after I printed it out for me to read through it.

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I found that I used the word 'and' quite a lot, so this has been altered throughout, as well as the word 'spaces'. I am currently within the 10% barrier than an essay normally allows, although this will probably change at least once by the time it is actually handed in. I have found that I find essays a lot harder to how I used to find them. I don't know if this is because of my Epilepsy or simply been out of education for so long. Maybe its a combination of both. Hopefully this will spark my brain into assessment writing again.

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11/02/2021

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Its been another long but successful day doing coursework. I managed to get my first episode of Women in Sport Podcast out and live. It has access points on Spotify and through the MET CONNECT website. I believe it can also be accessed through Anchor themselves. I found that it took a long time to edit, and thought that maybe I was taking most of the content out. I also managed to edit my second podcast today. I changed things around a bit, this time I left most of the content in. I don't know if this is a good call of it maybe I should have made it into two separate podcasts because it is twice the length of the first one. I think that in the next episode I will need to keep more of a time limit on it, but I think I shall keep it to the length of the second podcast as it seemed a lot firmer in content to me.

 

I need to arrange the next two podcasts to be recorded but I have a list of people I can turn to now. Fingers crossed that the rest of it goes ok! 

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16/02/2021

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I have had confirmation from Brighton Seagals FC for an interview with a few members of their staff about an interview on Thursday. It will be first interview I have planned to be multiple people at one point so I may need to cut it in half and use it as two podcasts. Below in the pictures are photos of the email conversation which led to this happening. Unfortunately the very first message I sent them was through a request form on their website, therefore I do not have a copy of that, in the future I must remember to make a copy of that before sending it off.