In the middle of March 2022, I undertook a two week attachment with Dai Sport. Having already produced several pieces of work for the site already, Graham Thomas offered me the chance to work for the site on an attachment period as part of my placement module. This placement offered me the chance to make up the remainder of my 120 hours and enabled me to see how running a professional sports news outlet works. I believed that this placement would be very beneficial to me as I it would offer me the chance to produce more written pieces and offer me the chance to attend press conferences/sport fixtures.
Throughout this placement I shadowed Graham to get the full experience of how a professional sports journalist operates. I attended two EFL Championship fixtures and got to learn what life is like for club correspondents, journalists working for companies like BBC and freelancers working at the games.
I did player ratings for the first time and got to learn how Graham writes different match reports for different outlets on the same game. I also learnt how to edit, and then post work from other people onto the Dai Sport site. This is something I had never done before and it was good to read work from the point of view of an editor.
Throughout my time with Dai Sport I received feed back and was told how to improve and I believe that my work for Dai Sport improved significantly throughout my time there. This placement was an ideal opportunity to become a better sports journalist and I have learnt things that will help me to prosper when I graduate.
Personally, I think this placement was probably the most beneficial I undertook as by shadowing Graham Thomas I was able to learn how he manages to run a successful website whilst also doing freelance work for Westgate Sport agency. I also picked up some useful interview technique tips that will help me in the future.
AWC SPORT 