Student Media Day: next generation

The National Union of Students (NUS) held a Student Media Day in London last week. Attendees were treated to the opening speech, given by Jimmy Leach, the current editorial director of _The Independent_’s online service.

The event was an opportunity for aspiring journalists and broadcasters to take part in different workshops on a variety of different aspects of the journalism trade.

The opening speech put across the challenge that media distribution faces today. Information is more readily available than ever before, and with newspaper circulation on the decline, editors have had to adapt to the demands of a changing audience. Rather than breaking news, print journalism offers more in-depth reporting and analysis and while some fear that it is a dying art, we have not yet seen the death of cinema with video and dvd and as yet, the new electronic book reader poses little threat to books. Newspapers may be fighting a hard battle, but statistics show that magazines have actually seen an increased readership in recent years.

While Leach began the day by pushing ‘new media’ and the idea of ‘blogging’ information online, discussions between students showed that there is a strong opinion that newspaper and radio still have a huge advantage because they serve such a wide audience. A person selecting only the news that interests them online is limited to one subject, while listening to the radio on a long car journey or perusing the Sunday paper over breakfast is a far more informative experience. Research shows that people who go online more frequently will also read the most. But as online media develops, other forms are still highly valued.

The Independent’s online editorial director also addressed the way in which advances in communication have restricted the number of services providing information. To cut expenses, media companies collect news from the huge media organisations like Reuters who can afford to supply information ‘in bulk’. This ultimately diminishes the diversity of information available.

Also attending the Student Media Day, author Heather Brooke provided information for investigative reporters on the Freedom of Information Act which is underused in the UK given it is largely free of charge, while teachers from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) ran interactive workshops on news presentation. Editor of Times Higher Education, Ann Mroz, also talked about the challenge of retaining the individuality of an author within the ‘house style’ of a media product and the importance of commissioning, “an article will fail or succeed from its inception”.

There was a strong presence of students from universities of London, as well as college students interested in journalism qualifications with the NCTJ.

Some undergraduates were there to help start up newspapers and broadcasting at their universities, while like Warwick, others came from universities with well-established publications like York and Southampton. Anna Simmons a new member of RaW, felt the event was a “little unprofessional” and while “some of the speakers made good points, others had ulterior motives such as selling us their books.”