At Bournemouth University we have Nerve Media, a society that is a student ran media network. There is Nerve Radio, Nerve Magazine, Nerve Podcasts, Nerve Sport, Nerve News and Nerve Now. Each one providing different experience and opportunities. I personally have been part of Nerve Radio and Nerve Magazine in different roles.

Nerve Radio

My time with Nerve started with the radio station. Two of my friends and I did a radio show called The Student Bible, where we discussed current trends, gave student tips and played games to sum it up in a few words. I absolutely loved doing the show and hope to be able to do it again this year. When I first started, I was quite nervous about filling gaps and saying the right thing but every show I got more and more comfortable in chatting and presenting to an audience. We got to plan the show’s content allowing me to be more creative and have fun. Also, learning how to use the equipment was very helpful as I can put this along with the show on my CV. There is also FM week, which is a week where you go live on an FM radio station, so anyone in the area can listen in their car rather than through just the website or the Students’ Union building. Doing the show has opened up the possibility of working in radio once I have graduated.

There are so many opportunities with Nerve Radio, even if you aren’t that keen on doing a radio show. Whilst on my placement year, I applied to be on the committee, successfully getting the Head of Marketing for the radio station. Unfortunately, a large chunk of this was affected by Covid-19 meaning I didn’t get to do the role to my fullest. But, juggling this and a full-time job pushed my time-management skills, similarly to how doing a radio show or committee role does alongside your degree.

Nerve Magazine

I hadn’t worked with Nerve Magazine before but my placement year encouraged me to apply for the role of Fashion and Lifestyle Editor. After successfully getting the role, I was in charge of coming up with content ideas, finding writers for articles, checking them, editing them and finding any images if ones aren’t submitted. This has allowed me to gain experience in fashion, an area I would like to work in and is a role I haven’t done anything like before. This, along with my marketing role for radio, have really improved my management skills.

Other sections in Nerve Magazine include: features, sport, entertainment and comments.

Radio and magazine not your thing? That’s okay as there are so many other Nerve opportunities with the platforms I have mentioned above. You could start a podcast, do a news or sports segment and Nerve Now is the website covering multiple topics. If you are thinking of doing a media degree, Nerve is a great way to build your portfolio for the industry. But, if you don’t do a media degree, that doesn’t matter, join anyway! There will most likely be something you’re interested in or you could write about for the magazine or talk about on the radio.