[news] Photo: the Guardian
Founding fathers of City journalism die Jemima Johnson-Gilbert
City goes to the Games Ianthe Butt
U
p to 200 undergraduate journalism students are hoping to gain broadcast work experience at the London 2012 Olympics, which will take place in July. City University students have been invited by the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) to apply to work as paid professionals at the Olympics on its Broadcast Training Programme. Successful applicants will take part in training sessions in the latter half of 2011, to be considered for a position during the summer Games. There are a variety of assistant roles on offer including archiving, audio and camera
work, equipment set-up, video logging and production. OBS will film all events which take place during the Games, ensuring that it can supply relevant unbiased content to any broadcast organisation worldwide with television and radio rights to the Games. Undergraduate student Kamilla Nyegaard-Larsen, who has been accepted on to the training sessions, said: “I’m very excited. Imagine how it will look on our CVs. It’s going to be really great for future sports reporters.” Head of undergraduate journalism programmes Anna McKane said it was “a brilliant scheme and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” In total OBS are looking for about 1,000 students and McKane believes that many City students will be accepted.
TWO key figures involved in the creation of the journalism department at City have died in the past year. Gerard Mansell died on 18 December, aged 89, two days before David Jenkins who died aged 88 on 20 December. In 1976 Jenkins played a key role in persuading the then vice chancellor of City, Edward Parkes, to set up a journalism faculty at City. Jenkins, who at the time was the director of general studies, helped put together the programme. He undertook this challenge alongside Tom Welsh, who went on to become the first director of journalism at City University. Welsh said: “Jenkins gave steady support to me in the setting up of the courses but, thankfully, though he was in overall charge of the operation, once the courses started he did not interfere and left me to get on with it.” Mansell played an important part in setting up and supporting the broadcast course at City. He had a distinguished career in radio, but was best known for his role as a BBC executive. He was responsible for transforming stations such as Light Programme, Home Service and Third Programme into what we know now as Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4. He retired in 1981 and was approached by the Joint Advisory Council for the Training of Radio Journalists (JACTRJ) to become its first chairman. This came at a time when the NUJ were pushing for a structured training course for broadcast journalists. Mansell worked closely with them to instigate a broadcast diploma programme at City.
Student is first past the post in receiving political hack award THE political journalism MA has launched a new student award in memory of Jack Amos, a union activist and film maker. The prize will be awarded annually to an outstanding student on the political journalism MA course. Amos, who died in January 2010, was the husband of City’s public administration and political reporting lecturer Joy Johnson. Professor Ivor Gaber, head of the political journalism MA, named the award after Amos as a gesture to all of his hard work in journalism and his dedication to political activism. Later in his career, which spanned over 40 years, Amos combined his passions for broadcast and activism and set up Red Flag Productions, which made educational videos for trade unions. Johnson said: “Ivor thought, as Jack had worked all his life in the industry, that it would be a fitting tribute.” 0
0
8
XCITY
Jack Amos
The inaugural Jack Amos prize went to Veronika Oakeshott, a graduate of City’s political campaigning and reporting MA in 2010, now called political journalism. The exam board commended her final project, which reported on the UN’s eight
Millennium Development Goals. Oakeshott said: “It was a real honour to win the prize. Jack sounds like such an interesting man. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to meet him.” Aleeza Khan