Wintec journalists celebrate 10 years of the Fieldays Exhibitor
2012 marks the 10 year anniversary for the Fieldays Exhibitor; Wintec tutor, Charles Riddle has been there from the start.
When Wintec students and their tutors first started producing the Fieldays Exhibitor in 2004, it was only four pages long. Now, a decade down the track, it’s a 20 page publication run by entire classrooms of journalism, photography, and graphic design students – a far cry from the 10 who created the first edition.
It’s the Exhibitor’s 10 year anniversary, and Wintec journalism tutor Charles Riddle couldn’t be more pleased.
“It’s a strong, good-looking, professional project now that I think provides students with lots of opportunities to develop their skills,” Riddle said.
In the early days they had no onsite newsroom or internet, he said.
“We used to drive out in a van and everybody used to scatter and go and collect stories, and we had to come back to Wintec and everybody would sit in the newsroom and frantically type up all these stories.”
The paper, which is distributed daily at the Fieldays, was started as a way to give students practical experience.
“We wanted to give students an opportunity to try something in real life that kind of closely copied what they would get in the media industry,” he said.
“It offers the opportunity to practise all the skills they’re learning in the classroom like interviewing and writing under pressure, learning how to work as part of a team and work alongside photographers, and the importance of getting things right.”
The paper was given an award by Mystery Creek in 2009 for Outstanding Contribution to the National Fieldays.
They now print 3000 copies of the Exhibitor a day
and distribute them among stall owners and Fieldays visitors.
This year will be the first time that copies are distributed in central Hamilton, Riddle said.
An online edition of the paper was set up three years ago. Riddle predicts hard copies will eventually be phased out and the entire publication will be online.
He jokingly referred to the Exhibitor as a time for tutors to “get stressed”.
“I think it’s really fun and kind of encouraging to see people actually producing something that’s real.
“It probably is the best coverage of Fieldays,” Riddle said. “Nobody does it better.”
