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Presidential Memoirs Iain MacKinnon is a former President of Dundee University Students’ Association (DUSA) (2013-2015) DUSA’s Honorary Secretary (2011-2013), and a former contributor to DUSA Media. As current Senior Project Manager at the Parliamentary Digital Service, he took me on a journey through his career and his outstanding relation with media. with media. At the end of your second year of Politics and The following year was especially productive for you. International Relations, you were elected a Honorary You ran your Radio Show, fulfilled responsibilities of an Secretary at DUSA. It was only six years later that you Exec, wrote for the Magdalen, and you also launched worked on the 2017 General Elections at Westminster. your website, The Scooby Gang. In partnership with Did you see that coming? the DCA, you created weekly reviews of the movies they played. Were you trying to get as much as possible done No, not at all! I studied Politics but I never had a great ahead of the infamous end of the world in 2012? desire to work in that field and certainly not doing behind the scenes projects for the Parliament. I’d gone from I really liked writing for The Magdalen and I wanted to do running a small student election to helping to run the UK more, but there is only so much space the DUSA Media can General Election. Back in Uni, I wanted to do things that provide. I launched the website because I wanted to write looked interesting to me and that I enjoyed. I was very reviews of everything that I got my hands on. There was a envious of people who knew they wanted to be a police period when I saw and reviewed almost every single film officer, a doctor or a CEO. I never had a career goal. that was released in the DCA, who provided me with free entry for the plug. Reviewing films is something that I don’t do anymore and although a part of me does miss it, there is a danger that it can turn into a chore sometimes. When “I’d gone from running a small student election I started working a full-time job and had to go to a cinema to helping to run the UK General Election.” on Friday evening to see 2-3 films in a row, drinking far too many energy drinks to keep me awake, it was challenging. Around the same time, that is 2011, you launched Though, I became very quick at writing. Maybe that was your own show in DUSA Radio. What prompted you it, maybe I was scared that the world was ending and just into the media? threw myself into everything. My friends were involved in DUSA Media. My best friend helped set up DUSA Television and started his radio show and then another friend and I set up ours. That opened the door for other DUSA Media stuff. The one advice I would give to Freshers is: Get involved in stuff early. Sometimes all it takes is to send an email or knock on a door.
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When you were elected President of DUSA in 2013, did you feel that the experience you gained within media helped you in the role? Yes, it did. When you write or broadcast it makes you think of your audience in a specific way. The same people I was