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Journalism

GCU Graduate Niamh Anderson Scoops Young Journalist of the Year

May 21st, 2013 · No Comments · News

Niamh Anderson, Young Journalist of the Year 2013

Congratulations to one of our MA graduates, Niamh Anderson, who was crowned Young Journalist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.

The 24-year-old, who graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism in 2011, works as a features writer with the Scottish Sun.

Speaking before the ceremony, Niamh told GCU: “The Masters course at GCU prepared me well for the world of journalism. All of the lecturers are respected journalists who between them have years of experience in the industry. Every aspect of journalism was covered, including digital, radio, TV and print. The lecturers prepared us for the reality of job seeking while encouraging us to do our best.”

Niamh beat off strong competition from a shortlist of talented journalists from national and regional newspapers, including Paul John Coulter, who graduated from GCU in 2011 with a BA(Hons) Journalism and now works at the Greenock Telegraph.

 

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And the nominations for the Scottish Student Journalism Awards are…

May 20th, 2013 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Well our students have done it again with a record number of nominations on the shortlist for this year’s Scottish Student Journalism Awards – an impressive 21 out of 47 nominations in nine categories.

The Scottish Student Journalism Awards are backed by industry and are open to journalism students from colleges and universities across Scotland. The judging panel includes Allan Rennie, editor in chief of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail; Magnus Llewellin, editor of the Herald; Douglas Alexander, chief sports writer for The Sunday Times Scotland; Kirsty Scott, journalist and merger communications manager; and Campbell Gunn, former political editor of the Sunday Post.

Categories in which GCU students are nominated are:

  • Column of the Year – Colin Stone and Holly Lennon
  • Scoop of the Year – Courtney Cameron, Lesley Roy and Calum Leslie
  • Arts and Entertainment – Marelle Wilson
  • Feature of the Year – Hayley Parr, Gillian Lambie, Lesley Roy
  • Sports Story of the Year – Andrew Skinner, Sahil Jaidka, Sean Lafferty and Gillian Lambie
  • News Story of the Year – Courtney Cameron, Lesley Roy and Calum Leslie.

A team of GCU students has also been nominated for the Calum Macdonald Memorial Award for their video documentary investigation into legal highs, GCU’s The Edit is in the running for Publication of the Year and two GCU entries – Jumpers for Goalposts (a team-produced podcast and website about world football) and Lesley Roy, (for her personal blog Lroyjournalist) – have been shortlisted for Multimedia Publication of the Year.

The winners will be announced this Thursday, May 23 at an awards ceremony in Arta, Glasgow, hosted by BBC investigative journalist Mark Daly.

With the champagne chilling, the only question left is what to wear?  (Ken, we will be checking out the socks!)

Good Luck everyone!

 

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Young Scot Awards

May 20th, 2013 · No Comments · News

GCU Journalism students at the Young Scot Awards 2013

The GCU Multimedia Journalism students enjoyed a glitzy night out at the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards 2013,  and were treated to a night of big name music performances and guest appearances from stars including cast members from The Only Way Is Essex, X Factor stars Shayne Ward, Jayhmene Douglas and headline act Misha B, actors from Waterloo Road and Britain’s Got Talent Judge Alesha Dixon.

The highlight for the post-graduate and third year students was seeing their videos of 13 of the Young Scot finalists played on the big screen at the Clyde Auditorium, and later broadcast on STV.  You can see their work on the Truth About Youth section of the Young Scot website by clicking here.

After cheering on the finalists, it was time to mingle and celebrate…

With STV Weatherman, Sean Batty

The TOWIE cast proved a big hit

This project was a great opportunity for our students to showcase their skills and talent to a huge audience. It was made possible through the close ties GCU has established with industry and its high standard of teaching by experienced journalists.

 

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NCTJ Student Council

February 25th, 2013 · No Comments · News, Uncategorized

by Lesley Roy, MA student

Each year as part of our accreditation from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), both the MA and BA Multimedia Journalism courses are invited to send a representative to the Student Council meeting in London. I, along with the undergrad rep Sahil Jaidka and our course leader Claire Dean, travelled down to the Big Smoke on a flight that was far too early to comprehend so we could  air our views with fellow students as well as network with editors and alumni at the MSN conference centre near Victoria Station.

[Read more →]

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GCU Student Scoops NCTJ Video Journalism Award

February 25th, 2013 · No Comments · Broadcasting, News, Online, Sport

Kenny Crawford wins national Video Journalism award

We’re celebrating again…this time toasting the success of another one of our MA students.

Kenny Crawford, who graduated in November, has won the Archant award for top performing videojournalism student.

It was presented by Archant group editor Malcolm Starbrook at the NCTJ Student Council at MSN in London.

Kenny impressed adjudicators with his performance in both the editing exam and his coursework.  His footage was praised as “well structured, clear and communicative” as well as being “highly accomplished” and editorially strong.

Now working for BBC Scotland as a freelance sports reporter, Kenny completed the BBC Kick-off Sports Reporter Scheme and spent time with BBC Radio Cumbria.  He writes feature pieces, sports news and match coverage for the BBC sport website.

Kenny said: “I enjoyed putting these video packages together while at GCU and I always tried to achieve the highest standard. Hopefully it’s a side of journalism I can remain involved in as the years go by, thanks to the skills I acquired at GCU.”

Archant chief executive Adrian Jeakings said: “We are delighted to sponsor this award as it highlights an important element of what we can offer readers of our news websites. Good video enriches our online audience’s experience and makes our content more engaging.”

We’re all very proud of Kenny, who worked extremely hard, embracing every challenge and opportunity with great enthusiasm.  He was very quick to pick up the concept of creating a strong visual narrative to engage viewers with the story and spent time using the facilities here to develop his film and editing skills. He has a very bright career ahead of him and this award proves he has the full set of multimedia skills needed to thrive in the fast changing journalism industry.

 

 

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GCU and STV To Launch Glasgow’s First Local TV Station

January 14th, 2013 · No Comments · Broadcasting, News, Uncategorized

GCU and STV combined for the successful bid

Champagne corks were popping this week with the exciting news that GCU and Scottish Television (STV) have won the licence to deliver Glasgow’s first local television station.

GTV, broadcasting through Freeview, will be the first of a new type of hyper-local TV channel and is set to provide valuable front line experience for the university’s Multimedia Journalism students.

Working side by side with STV’s seasoned professionals in a live broadcast environment, students will contribute to peak-time news and current affairs programmes as well as magazine shows with special features and local guests.

Julian Calvert, Media and Journalism leader at GCU said the winning bid had placed a lot of emphasis on helping local communities make their voices heard:

And the type of programming that is being planned further enhances the University’s reputation for community engagement and reflects GCU’s commitment to the common good.

GCU’s Principal and Vice Chancellor Professor Pamela Gillies was equally delighted with the news from Ofcom.

We have always placed great emphasis on employability and the launch of GTV will give our talented and committed graduates even more of a head start.

GTV is due to start next October. Expect many of our students to become household names.

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MA Multimedia Journalism – Class of 2012

December 3rd, 2012 · No Comments · Uncategorized

MAMJ Class of 2012

Congratulations to the Glasgow Caledonian students who have been awarded Masters degrees in  Multimedia Journalism. The class of 2011-12 graduated on November 28th,  the majority having already secured full time positions in print, radio and television with top British media organisations. Employers include STV, SKY, Clyde & Forth Press and the BBC. Pictured from left to right: Stephen Walsh: Reporter,  Clyde & Forth press; Craig Telfer: Corporate Communications, Glasgow Caledonian University; Craig Turnbull: sports reporter goal.com; David Lyons: reporter, Highland New; Maria Smith, reporter, MediaScotland; Andrew Chamberlain: freelance;  Sian Davies: Communications and Marketing, Besdforshire University SU;  Nicola Shepherd: freelance at BBC Scotland;  Harriet Brace: reporter, Carrick Gazette; Rachel Fulton: reporter, STV online.  Also successfully completing their Masters degrees were Naomi Mills currently working with SKY news in London, and Collette Cullen, now a full time  reporter at Central FM. Kenny Crawford secured his diploma in Multimedia Journalism and is now freelancing for the BBC.

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GCU Journalism graduate shot at point blank range – all in a day’s work at STV Local

November 7th, 2012 · No Comments · Broadcasting, News, Online

The life of a journalist is certainly never dull.  One of the best things about the job in fact is that you usually never know what the day ahead holds for you…as this STV Local video report by Rachael Fulton (MA Multimedia Journalism 2011-12) proves.   Enjoy…

Special Effects with Rachael Fulton

P.S. Rachael…perhaps you should rethink heading off to a war zone!

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Students test Scottish Parliament

October 24th, 2012 · No Comments · News

Colin Stone, Stuart Martin, Calum Leslie, Rebecca Williams, Karen Thomson and Colin Armstrong in the Chamber at the Scottish Parliament

A team of six journalism students from GCU enjoyed putting top civil servants from the Scottish Parliament under pressure this week.

Two 3rd years, two 4th years and two post-grads took part in a live Business Continuity exercise in which they played the role of professional journalists reacting to a disaster – bombarding the media team with calls, demanding interviews and attending a press conference.   The final participant to be grilled by the students was Paul Grice, the Parliament’s Chief Executive.

Putting the pressure on during a press conference

Prior the event managed by business continuity consultants Glen Abbot, students had prepared media inserts which were broadcast during the exercise to provide new information to the Incident Management Team, continually testing the resilience and response of the Parliament staff.

While the exercise was designed to test the Parliment staff, it also proved to be a test of the determination of the journalism students as they tried to keep “the public” informed.  Everyone who took part agreed it was a great experience and they had learned a lot.

Following the exercise, Senior Media Officer, Eric MacLeod, gave the student team a tour of the press facilities in the parliament and took questions on the relationship between journalists and the parliament’s media team.   The day finished with a tour of the whole Scottish Parliament and the chance to take in the incredible architectural features of the still controversial building.

In the Press Gallery at the Scottish Parliament

 

 

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Covering International News

September 24th, 2012 · No Comments · Broadcasting, News, Uncategorized

Sam Robertson, News Editor, AP TV

Kabul Cops, a documentary on Kabul’s Criminal Investigation Department for BBC News Channel’s Our World series, was screened at the opening of a special One World Media workshop this week.

Post-graduate and third year multimedia journalism students were challenged by AP TV News Editor, Sam Robertson, to log the programme and consider the characters, the sequences, news angles and the difficulties faced by the crew when making such a programme.

While using the example of a foreign documentary, Sam explained all the same editorial and production processes apply when working on domestic news.  He also encouraged students to think more about how to cover global stories from within the UK.  He ighlighted the importance of using contacts abroad (especially NGOs and charities) and social media to source the story, and stressed the importance of keeping the story relevant to the domestic audience.

After the workshop,  Sam spoke to MA student, Calum Leslie…

samrobinterview (1)

Thanks again to One World Media for providing this special workshop.

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