About the project
Role for Constitution is an independent journalist project exploring the impact of COVID-19 on RPG communities, particularly the post-lockdown return to events. The project has a primary hyperlocal focus on the community in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK and surrounding areas, but also explores aspects that have more international impacts. The project will focus on five stories, exploring the experiences of players, businesses, developers and other communities.
The project was also submitted to Newcastle University as part of my MA International Multimedia Journalism degree, as the final project assessment. The project was returned with a distinction grade, which also contributed to an overall degree grade of distinction.
Additionally, the project proudly was awarded the Academic Prize for Best Overall Dissertation.
About the author
Haaris Qureshi is an independent journalist, broadcaster and videographer, with a strong interest in RPGs, in particular Dungeons & Dragons. Haaris had heavy involvement with student media, in particular the student TV station which he ran for most of his University career, and also films and streams in his own spare time. After many years of interest and learning about the hobby via web comics and memes, Haaris took the plunge into the world of regular RPG play late 2019, less than six months before the pandemic hit the UK.
Haaris holds a BSc in Computing Science and an MA in Film: Theory and Practice and an MA in International Multimedia Journalism, all awarded from Newcastle University.
University Context
This website was initially published as part of my MA International Multimedia Journalism, hosted on a Newcastle University hosted WordPress site, on the 12 September 2022. Following the completion of its grading (which was a distinction!), the site was copied over to my own personal website network where it will remain, the original University hosted site will be closed at the School’s discretion.
The original scope of the assignment was a news website multimedia journalism project which contained no more or less than 5 individual pieces, and used text, audio, video, images and other multimedia technology. Audiovideo content within a piece couldn’t exceed a sum total of 3 minutes (+/- 5%) and text couldn’t exceed 600 words (+/- 5%).
At the time of copy (18 October 2022), the site is nearly identical from the original version, with the main changes being:
- The lack of an image carrousel for article contributors, which was supported by the Aesop Character plugin the University paid for.
- Improvement to the glossary sidebar – we were limited to only using plugins pre-installed or approved by the School. Rather than wait for the School to review available plugin suggestions I provided them, for the sake of the submission I created my own floating glossary sidebar via CSS coding. This has been replaced by the Ultimate Floating Widgets plugin, which allows the glossary to hide when not in use and for that space to be used for other content (at the moment, to display latest comments, something disabled on the University site).
- The removal of University-mandated disclaimer text and the addition of this bit.
- Moving the video from this article from the body of the text and into the header of the article, using the VideographyWP plugin, consistent with my main site.
Going forward, I may do some further improvements to the site, including refining edits to the video and adding additional contributor input that was submitted to me too late to be included for the assignment deadline, however no new articles or significant content will be added to this project which to all intents and purposes complete.
My personal blog and journalism platform can be found here and will be updated. 🙂