Journalism & Communication

Karen Fowler-Watt, teaching at Elvebakken High School

Karen Fowler-Watt, associate dean of journalism and communication, has returned from a trip to Norway, after attending a student recruitment fair.

The fair, which took place in Lillestrøm between the 7th and 9th January, is the biggest education fair in Norway.

Karen spoke to students who were considering studying at Bournemouth University and met with other academics from universities around the world.

The Media School lecturer also visited a media-focused high school in Oslo and caught up with a couple of BA Multimedia Journalism graduates.

Sverre Holm Nilsson, who graduated in 2008, is exposing scams and championing the underdog for a consumer affairs programme on TV2, a Norwegian commercial television station.

Meanwhile, Kjetil Lier Svensden, who graduated in 2012, is now producing video content for a government information website in Oslo.

Karen said, “Both are on great form and very glowing about the experiences that they had as BAMMJ students and how it is helping them in their jobs.”

Whilst visiting Elvebakken High School, in Oslo, Karen gave a lecture on autobiographical journalism and met a number of students interested in studying at the Media School.

Karen made the trip to Norway for a second year in a row, providing a talk on creativity and radio journalism at the same high school last year.

Commenting on Norway’s media landscape, Karen said, “It’s interesting to note that the main newspaper in Norway still occupies a central location in prime real estate in the heart of the city.

“It’s very different to the situation here, where Fleet Street has moved out to Canary Wharf.

“Despite being a highly tekkie society, [Norwegian] people still buy and read papers!”

In between representing Bournemouth University and discussing journalism, however, Karen did find some time to enjoy some of the local sights.

“I managed to fit in a walk to Oslo’s beautiful harbour – where there was less snow than we have just had here – to see the sculptures and admire the views across the bay.”

If you wish to find out more about studying abroad at Bournemouth University, more information can be found by clicking on this link.

Karen lecturing at Elvebakken High School, Oslo

Journalism and Communication’s Associate Dean, Karen Fowler-Watt has just returned from a trip to Oslo on behalf of Bournemouth University to recruit Norwegian students to study at Bournemouth.

Whilst there Karen met up with former BA Multi-media Journalism student, Sverre Holm-Nilsson, who is now an investigative reporter working on a programme for TV2 in Oslo.

“Sverre is a brilliant ambassador for the course in his home country and a number of his friends and colleagues have followed his example of studying journalism at The Media School.  He is enjoying his job and using all the skills he learned on the course, which he graduated from in 2009″ Said Karen.

Karen attended a recruitment fair in Lillestrom, where temperatures dipped to minus 10 and also delivered a lecture on ‘Creativity and Radio Journalism’ to sixth form students at Elvebakken High School in Oslo, which specialises in media and arts subjects.

“I was aware that the students had not yet had a chance to make any radio pieces” says Karen “so I was keen to emphasise the importance of good writing, using examples from Alastair Cooke’s ‘Letter From America’ to a recent ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ report by Stephen Sackur on how one restaurant in Denmark is serving up pine trees as a delicacy!”

The students also participated in an interactive workshop on developing ideas for radio features and seemed to enjoy the session.  After the lecture, some of the staff at Elvebakken said that they are keen to come to The Media School to experience our teaching methods and the University plans to host a visit in March.