Researching for a Multimedia project

For this project I did extensive research though looking at past articles on the rise of women’s rugby and on the red roses. I really found a big gap in the market for an article that compared experiences. I wanted to bring a human angle to the growth of the red roses. Many articles on this topic were data articles and I believe a deeper and more emotional, human angle will work best.

As well as articles some main research I did for this project was reading and annotating these two books:

-              The Red Roses by Jessica Hayden

-              Mud, Maul, Mascara by Catherine Spencer

Jessica Hayden’s book follows the Red Roses through their journey from professionalisation in 2019 to their run up to the 2025 world cup. It gave such in detail information on what it is like to be Red Rose in this new professional era it also had interviews with players such as Marlie Packer who spoke about their experiences before being contracted to England and after as well as their come up to England.

Mud, Maul, Mascara is a brilliant memoir by Catherine Spencer who played for England in the early 2000s. It gave me descriptions on what being a Red Rose was like then. It outlined the struggles of having jobs as well as playing for England and how the sport was viewed then vs now.

Both books were as useful as they were inspiring for my project and gave me points to write about that I hadn’t considered before.

Will all of my research I was now clear on my story and could create my website to showcase my project and its journey. I created my logo through Canva and my website through Wix. Now I have something to promote! So through my Instagram (@20yearsoftheredroses) and Tiktok (@darcyjournalism) I have been posting about my project but also about why I believe this topic is so important. So stay tuned for more!