29th November marked the start of our Conflict Project, and five busy news days, seventeen stressed journalism students and countless bags of Percy Pigs later, we made it.
There were moments of complete and utter panic and frustration, don't get me wrong, but a news project isn't complete until someone's video footage has turned blue mid-edit or a journalist has threatened to "pack in" their degree in a brief moment of despair - it wasn't me, I swear...
The website alone doesn't quite do justice to the group's efforts: half-hour long interviews have been carried out all across the county, hours of excruciating research into statistics and figures has been painfully completed, and all the behind-the-scenes work has been cut down and squeezed into the 1500 word features or short videos you see showcased here on our website.
There's been questionable encounters with modern-day witches and heated debates between town councillors, but The Conflict Project team has created topical and unique pieces of work that explore the all important issues of conflict that occur in day-to-day life, be it local or further afield. Though the project has been slightly less group-work orientated than past news days, the team has still worked collaboratively throughout the process, from giving lifts to interviews (bet Ollie doesn't mind failing his driving test now), to spending hours helping edit footage or proof-read work.
Cups of coffee, daily refectory breakfasts and inspirational quotes from Paul have all helped us to create the website you see here, but we wouldn't have been able to complete such thoughtful and fantastic pieces of work without our own determination, and encouragement from each other. The motivational speech is over now, I promise.
We hope you enjoy our stories and the way in which we illustrate them here, and, as always, please feel free to engage with us on our social media platforms! (Link in the Contact tab). We'll be back in May for our final news week (*sob*), so keep up to date with our Twitter and Facebook nearer the time for updates!