Journalism & Communication

Two BA Multi-Media Journalism students have been awarded £1000 bursaries from One World Media to each produce features in developing countries.

Owen Evans and Lottie Gross, both second year BAMMJ students pitched their stories to One World Media who provide support to student projects every year.

The money will go towards food, accommodation and transport, as well as insurance for the kit that will be rented from the university.

Lottie Gross plans to use the bursary in her project named ‘Dating in the Desert’. The project compares how relationships are formed in the UK, to those in tribal communities in North Kenya.

“Dating in the Desert is a short film about how tribes in Northern Kenya develop intimate relationships,” said Lottie. “The UK, it seems, has a rather relaxed take on what love is, what relationships mean and how we should build (or dissolve) them. We are less traditional in our methods and I wonder if we are losing sight of what’s important by using mediums such as internet dating. My film will explore what we can learn from African love.”

Owen Evans will travel to film his work in Somaliland.

During her trip Lottie will be blogging and tweeting. Her progress can be followed at www.lottiegross.wordpress.com or follow her on twitter at @lortusfleur.

Bournemouth Media School sponsored two sessions at the ‘So You Want to be a Journalist’ conference at City University in London last week.

Aspiring journalists who attended the conference could get tips on broadcast journalism from Tom Bradby, political editor of ITV News, and video producer John Domokos who works for The Guardian.

And experienced journalists such as Simon Hattenstone, Janet Murray and Camilla Long were on had to give advice on how to write the perfect feature.

Liisa Rohumaa, who teaches journalism at Bournemouth University, chaired a special session called Data is Sexy with James Ball of The Guardian and Helen Lewis of The New Statesman who were on the panel.

Also on the panel was Paul Bradshaw, an expert on data journalism and co-author with Liisa Rohumaa of The Online Journalism Handbook. He said: “Data isn’t sexy. But journalism is. Its looking at the data but the story is about what it says is going on and how it affects people and policy.”

The NCTJ Student council meeting took place at Salford MediaCityUK

Student representatives from NCTJ accredited journalism courses met this week to give feedback on the NCTJ training and examinations.

Just over 40 students from around the country attended the 4^th annual NCTJ Student Council meeting, held this year in Salford University’s new MediaCityUK campus.

Samantha Herbert, third year BA Multi-media Journalism student attended the event as representative for Bournemouth University.

Tasked with relaying the opinions of their course mates, the students spent the first portion of the day in discussion with the staff of the NCTJ led by NCTJ Chief Executive, Joanne Butcher.

During the session students were also informed of progress made following on from the 2011 Council meeting. This included the move to have more information on the NCTJ website for students, increasing the direct communication to students studying for their qualifications. This is set to include a student newsletter – the first of which should be received by students in the coming weeks.

Due to concerns raised last year that students were being given too little opportunity to specialise in subjects, the NCTJ have also been looking at new options such as financial, business, health and international journalism as possible new specialisms to introduce in the future.

The word from the NCTJ staff was to watch this space, as much change and progress is in development and will be implemented soon.

Following the morning feedback session students then attended a ‘Meet the Editors panel’ chaired by Chris Elliott, Readers’ Editor, Guardian News and Media. Alongside Elliott was Lynn Ashweel, Deputy Editor Bolton News, Eamonn O’Neal, Managing Editor MEN Media and Michelle Mayman, TV Editor BBC North West Tonight.

Students were able to pose questions and seek advice from these industry professionals on a broad range of subjects, from how to write a stand-out CV, to what they saw as the future of the media industry.

To finish off the day, a tour of the new BBC MediaCityUK buildings was organised which visited the Match of the Day studio, the practice space used by the BBC philharmonic orchestra and brand new BBC newsrooms.

Five representatives from the February’s student council meeting will meet later this year in London to communicate the main concerns and suggestions raised at this week’s meetings to the NCTJ board.

 Freelance journalist and scriptwriter Mary Evans lectured BA Multi-media Journalism students this week on the life of a freelance.

 Entitled ‘Always Say Yes’ – the life of the freelance, the lecture gave students an insight into the rewards and the pitfalls of freelance journalism.

As a TV critic for The Daily Mail, TV Times and Daily Telegraph as well as a scriptwriter for Casualty, playwright, lyricist and an individual who regularly appears on TV and radio to air her views on the latest offerings on television, Evans gave students advice on a vast array of industries.

Sharing how to be an entrepreneurial journalist Evans explained much about the need to “sell not tell”. “Writing is a gift” said Evans, “but journalism is a skill. You are a company and your writing is your product.”

Drawing on a Primark analogy Evans suggested that like cheap clothing, “writing is everywhere, it’s cheap to produce and it’s hard to find the good stuff” suggesting that students must write about what they know, demand a fair price, and if they are good and stick at it, success will come.

The guest lecture was part of a series of lectures this term in which industry speakers are visiting Bournemouth University to speak with final year BA Multi-media Journalism students on a variety of issues facing journalists.

The next speaker is renowned and anonymous blogger ‘Fleet Street Fox’ who will provide insight into the world of blogging.

Roman Gerodimos, Senior lecturer in Global Current Affairs at Bournemouth University was interviewed live on BBC News on Sunday.

As Founder and Convenor of the Greek Politics Specialist Group – a network of Greek political experts, he provided commentary on the Greek debt crisis talks.

Gerodimos suggested that despite difficulties so far in the talks, an agreement will soon be reached by the Greek coalition government in order to secure the second bailout.

Watch the full interview:

The Breaker website gets active

The Breaker, a news website launched just before Christmas to showcase the work of Bournemouth University MA Multi-media journalism and MA International Journalism students is thriving.

Set up only 2 months ago, at the end of November ‘The Breaker’ website is now active and full of great journalistic work.

“The site is being used as a hub for students to showcase their Journalism skills and is being run in a way to mirror industry practices, giving the students an introduction to the inner workings of how websites and content management systems operate” Said Rob Munday, Demonstrator in Online Journalism Production who supports the site.

Students can upload their own news stories and features either written for assignments or simply some of their own work.

So far the website has 29 active student users.

This week is convergence week for those on the MA Multi-media and MA International Journalism courses meaning students are busy at work, producing high quality multi-media content all of which will be featured on The Breaker.

To access the site, and sample the fantastic work of MA Multi-media journalism students go to: www.thebreaker.co.uk

MA students from Bournemouth’s International journalism, Journalism and New Media and Multi-media journalism courses went to London this week where they visited a variety of the city’s top newsrooms.

Students of the MA International Journalism course visited Reuters, the BBC, Sky and Al Jazeera.

The MA Multi-media journalism students also visited the studio of Channel Five’s The Wright stuff where they were able to sit in the audience for a show.

One student, Dominic Buchan even took part in the show – commenting in a debate surrounding a Daily Mail story on women who wear too little in the winter.

The students also visited Bloomberg, where Paul Addison, Head of News, told the group about their current training programmes. He said that every year at least one Bournemouth Media school graduate is recruited, and they have always done well within the company.

Students were able to gain lots of inside tips of all aspects of working in TV news, as Debesh Banerjee, a MAMMJ student explained:

“Overall, the trip was constructive and useful in giving us a first hand knowledge about how TV studios are operated, and how news is produced round the clock, across multiple platforms. What was particularly interesting from our perspective was to see how the online and digital platforms are getting integrated in the newsroom of today – and it is exactly what our course is teaching us.”

“The broad range of organisations chosen for the trip catered to a variety of interests among the students, from news, entertainment and documentaries. I think it has given everyone the impetus to work harder as we now have a taster of what TV journalism entails.”

Dr Einar Thorsen

A research grant was secured this week by Dr Einar Thorsen and Sue Wallace of Bournemouth University’s Media School.

The bursary, from the AJE (Association for Journalism Education) is for a research project into the use of news websites in journalism education.

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The Bournemouth Rock newspaper launch

The Bournemouth Rock – a brand new student newspaper was launched by Journalism students last week on Talbot Campus.

The 40-page tabloid was distributed across the campus with very positive feedback.

The paper covered a range of topics – both relating to the university and to the broader Dorset area with stories including a rise in phone thefts in Bournemouth nightclubs, to the success of students who talked their way across Europe for free in aid of the annual Leggit challenge.

Interviews are to be held this week to decide on editorial roles, which will come into action in the first issue of 2012.