Editor Week

I decided to take the role as an online editor for the second print day. Beforehand, I expected to proof-read articles and to simply upload contents onto the Spoiled Nation website. However, on reflection I’ve learned that there is a lot more work that goes into editing. ‘Journalistic skills and management are key to the role of the editor…it’s important for the editor to be able to write copy, subedit and draft headlines or captions; with this comes confidence but also an understanding of how these different elements work.’ (Whittaker, 2009) I had three articles to sub-edit, one of which I set a day aside to edit, this was due to a large amount of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, missing hyperlinks and the article seemed to be extremely rushed. As an editor, I knew I had responsibility for the content to be accurate, consistent and communicate the message to the audience clearly. ‘A sub is more concerned with clarity and consistency, and very often that content fits with other parts of the magazine and deadlines’ (Whittaker, 2009) Moreover, the additional articles I was in-charge of editing were not accompanied with images, so I had to source this myself. In hindsight I should have reached out to the writers to source images for their articles as it’s typically not the responsibility of the editor. ‘We define reflective learning as an intentional process, where social context and experience are acknowledged, in which learners are active individuals, wholly present, engaging with others, and open to challenge, and the outcome involves transformation as well as improvement…’ (Ramsey, 2006). In order to understand fully what was done well and what could have been done better I had a discussion with my peers about the role of the editors. It could be beneficial to the publication if in the future there were an assigned group of students that edit Spoiled Nation throughout the entire module as this would ensure consistency week on week as every student’s style of writing and layout preferences differ so much. There could also be a meeting set up between editors and writers to communicate if any further information and references are needed.