Candidate 1
My main manifesto points are as follows:
- Encourage more participation in media throughout the year- more events like Make Your Mark as there is more outreach needed.
- Increase YouTube viewership and upload- lots of untapped potential in this market
- Promote LSU Media in and around campus- use TVs around the union and campus to play LSU media content
- Create more correspondence between Hall media and LSU media
- More uniform Hall marking system for Hall media
- Better content tailored to students- follow on from the success of match report by perhaps creating other shows along the same lines.
Candidate 2
Training
In previous years, volunteer training has been primarily re-created from scratch each year by the new committee members of each section or individuals. Therefore, I propose to work with the current and future committees to develop a comprehensive LSU Media training programme throughout all the sections.
The result will be a programme that allows new volunteers to know immediately from the onset of joining what there is available to learn and how to progress within the section.
Handbooks
As an extension of the training platform, a series of ‘handbooks’ can be introduced. These handbooks will be similar to a diary for each committee position, in which they write about what worked for their position and what didn’t. This will help to improve and inspire future committees, who will be able to learn from the detailed mistakes and successes of their predecessors.
Recruitment and Marketing
To improve the visibility and reach of LSU Media, I plan to introduce periodic workshops within the Union and Halls throughout the year, these workshops will help to attract new volunteers by getting a taster for Media.
Improving upon the LSU Media marketing forum that was setup this year, a full marketing committee will be established. Alongside each section’s marketing committee members, there will volunteers responsible for certain genres of content and mediums. The marketing committee will almost act as its own section within media.
R.O.N
Hi, I’m R.O.N and I stand for Re-open nominations. It’s my job to make sure you’re aware of candidate shortcomings. If you don’t feel that the candidates are applicable to the role, have a read of MY manifesto, and vote R.O.N.
Both manifestos show an idea of what the candidates wish to achieve, but with little explanation of how, and also with a lack of knowledge about how the section already runs.
Candidate 1
A key issue in this manifesto is the point around YouTube. It’s not a viable option for LSU Media output due to licencing, therefore more explanation on the use of YouTube is required. Furthermore, a point about more ‘student friendly content’ is key, but there’s no explanation of what the candidate proposes to put in place in order to make this happen. Huge amounts of work go into making shows such as Match Report, it’s a 30-person production process. A large focus goes on Hall Media. Suggesting that the hall media needs a revamp is a common occurrence in Media manifestos, but the issue lies deeper than just the marking system; the whole of Hall Media needs rethinking if it is to become more integrated with LSU Media.
Candidate 2
Points are made but with no research into how they are viable or even necessary. Training isn’t broken, a peer mentoring scheme in place works well, so focusing one third of the manifesto on fixing it seems like a waste of the strict word count. With over 50 committee members a ‘series’ of handbooks could be a bit cumbersome, volunteers may not also welcome the idea of handbooks and this could end up being a lot of work for a short term endeavour. Recruitment and marketing is necessary, but for marketing to work you need to be producing high-quality content and this candidate fails to mention the most crucial element of media which is the creation of content.
A failure from both candidates to look at fundamental factors of media such as funding and volunteers. With media having to bring in one quarter of the budget through sponsorship, memberships and corporate projects finance and Aura are totally missed out. Volunteers are required to make media work and then from there you can start to create content, but it’s a shame that these necessary elements to make media work have been overlooked.
