News 19
Courtesy of BBC
City takes on University Challenge
From left to right: Zing Tsjeng, Martha Spurrier, Joe Crowley and Sebastian Payne represent City on the BBC quiz show
By Caitlin Barr
H
ere’s your starter for ten. How many City journalism alumni featured in the Christmas University Challenge? For a bonus point, did they lose? The answer is three, and sadly, yes. But not by much. The team, composed of journalists Zing Tsjeng, Joe Crowley, and Sebastian Payne, as well as lawyer and campaigner Martha Spurrier, went up against Kings College for the programme which aired on 18 December 2023.
They lost with 120 points to Kings’ 155, with BBC host Amol Rajan suggesting to the City team that it was “more of a Christmas conversation than a quiz from your point of view”. Team captain Mr Crowley, a 2007 alumnus of the Broadcast MA, who now reports for One Show, and has presented several Panorama programmes, said: “We had all sorts of fear going into it, but it was so fun, and we came out absolutely buzzing.
“We knew going in that as three journalists and a lawyer, we didn’t have the greatest depth of knowledge, but we did pretty well. We got enough points to be respectable.” The team answered questions on a wide range of topics, including French dishes, UK plays from 2023, and scientific anniversaries. The show marked the first Christmas special with journalist and broadcaster Mr Rajan at the helm, following his succession to
the role in July 2023, taking over from Jeremy Paxman. Ms Tsjeng, who graduated from the Magazine MA in 2012, and was most recently editor-in-chief of Vice, said: “Amol was a delight to film with, cracking jokes while the cameras were off. He made us all feel very comfortable.” She added: “I hit up a former University Challenge champion I knew for advice. His words of wisdom were: ‘Press hard on the buzzer, it is surprisingly sticky!’”
Courtesy of Charlotte Wace
Courtesy of Connie Dimsdale
News reporters win awards for work with sexual abuse survivors
From top: Dimsdale, Wace
Two City journalism graduates have been recognised for their survivorinformed reporting at the 2023 Write to End Violence Against Women Awards. Newspaper MA alumna Connie Dimsdale, who graduated in 2021, and is now a reporter at The i, won in the ‘Best News’ category for her piece titled: “‘I was groomed on Facebook’: Child abuse victims demand action to tackle targeting of girls online”. “It was such an honour to win,” she said, “particularly
given how much amazing work was in the category.” The piece featured a sensitive interview with a child sexual abuse survivor urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to bolster protection for women and girls in the Online Safety Bill. Ms Dimsdale added: “Frida was very brave to share her personal experience of being groomed on Facebook by a 30-year-old man when she was 13, and the piece would not have been the same without her testimony.”
Charlotte Wace, a 2015 Newspaper MA graduate, shared the ‘Best Investigation’ award with colleagues at The Times for their reporting of the Russell Brand sexual assault allegations. “I can definitely say that awards never even crossed our minds while we were working on it,” she said. “We just wanted to get it over the line and tell those stories - but it’s obviously really nice that the work that went into it has been recognised.” Caitlin Barr