Leeds Trinity Journalism Week – Day Three

Journalism Week is really heating up on day three as we welcomed home Gabby Logan as well as a few other brilliant faces from Look North, the Dewsbury Reporter and BBC Sport…

Another sports enthusiast took the 09:30 spot in the Mary Halloway Lecture Theatre, this time in the form of BBC Sport’s Ben Smith. He had been to Leeds Trinity previously as a deputy football editor for The Times but after wanting to move away from newspapers. Largely due to the massive changes the media was undergoing, having to approach the audience from all bases: television, radio and online content, he felt The Beeb was the best place to do this. Speaking to us as a person who got into journalism ‘late’, he hadn’t been interested until he was 26 when he felt incredibly enthused by the books and newspapers he read whilst bed-ridden in his early twenties.

Lo, a NCTJ qualification and a stint at The Buckinghamshire Advertiser later, here he is. He advantageously took a week of sick leave to work for The Times and it turned out to be the best white lie he’d ever told. He pointed out that he had previously done a little bit of work experience with The Independent but left after the second day (this pained me greatly) – he found it to be absolutely rubbish, his placement guaranteed simply to tick their widening participation box.

Smith’s journalist tips have reflected those of many of our previous speakers: communicating with others, and that means any sort of others so it’s massively importantly to adapt so that you can get on with everyone. He also showed us a clip he is embarrassed by being interviewed as a sports correspondent – he commentated saying how good posture, clear speaking and the ability to relax are necessary to convey professionalism in all interview scenarios. Be on time, be polite, and be respectful to everyone were the words of wisdom Smith left us with, and also that although journalism is incredibly challenging, it is also incredibly rewarding.

Sarah Goldthorpe joined us at 10:45, an enormously important woman being the editor of Look North. She began by giving us an idea of how hard her job is with long, unsociable hours and showed us a video giving us a tour of the Look North studio and offices.

A great and recurring theme in BBC regional news is the quirky and interesting stories, and ones that feature actual input from the public. These are the stories that the audience take notice of. This proved to be very true as we were shown a news package about serious footage about flooding but was lightened by the amusing interviews conducted such as a man from an upper floor window, or via telephone to a woman in a barge.

Smartphone footage sent into Look North can be priceless – both for humour and actual news-worthy value! Twitter and Facebook are now the main means of finding and sharing stories. Thanks to social media they have been able deploy their crew effectively and contact the right people, and can even lead to exclusive access to stories no-one else knows about yet. In addition to this, allowing the audience to contribute to the programme’s content involve and engage them, employing them as voluntary, community investigators working together to get the full story.

As well as engaging those around you, technical skills are also vital said Goldthorpe with audio and video editing being top of the list to possess in this day and age. Having these skills allow all Look North staff to have input and nurture creativity in what they produce which is what drew Goldthorpe to Look North from ITV where she very happily worked previously. She also threw in the standard “get a good degree, get some work experience” line but it’s still important no matter how often it’s said.

Unfortunately Kate Russell from Cosmopolitan Magazine couldn’t come due to illness which was a great shame as I had many feminist-fuelled questions for her. Nonetheless, we were still graced with the attendance of Joe Cooper – Leeds Trinity alumni and National Council of Journalist’s Student Journalist of the Year. An incredibly modest fellow working for the Dewsbury Report, he told us of how he’s just at the beginning of his career in journalism and shared his experiences of being a student at Leeds Trinity.

Surprisingly, this modern-age journalist recommended learning short-hand to us before even beginning to look for a job – something which had everyone sharing anxious looks including myself (my hands are built for typing, not awkwardly holding a tiny writing implement!) In a similar vein he warned us that we will be spending plenty of our working days on the phone to relevant contacts, laying the foundations of potential stories, and stresses how crucial it is to maintain these contacts – their reliability is key to getting in there first!

Cooper assures us that even just getting the basics right in writing and communicating, as well as having experience behind you is an easy way to get your foot in the door. For those wanting to work in print, he told us that the nature of the industry is indeed changing but the opportunities are still there and shouldn’t give up in the face of modification.

At the end of the day when you get your first journalism job it’s important to remember that this is what you wanted to do, and it’s your job to do it. With this positive attitude, nothing is in your way. However, it’s key to note that you will make mistakes along the way but this is how you learn, and you will improve on the job.

Introduced as a behemoth, expectations soared before him as he introduced himself. He started by talking about how the Pork Pie Scandal of the 1970’s inspired his interest in journalism. He established himself as a man with very high standards, confirmed why he said “You’ve either got it or you don’t” (something I remember talking to Phil about just a couple of weeks earlier!)

He added to that saying you need real spark and a natural curiosity of what’s going on in the world to have even the slightest chance of making it in the industry. Oh, and teamwork. Teamwork is essential when working as part of a news team.

Luck came up for the umpteenth time and followed that same message: luck is nothing to do with your success in journalism. Only when a person works extremely hard for a potentially really long time will they get the ‘lucky’ break that they will then deserve. Betts says the best way of demonstrating this is putting in the hours, and in journalism there are many, Irregular and unsociable! The longest shift Betts has worked was 28 hours without a break whilst Raoul Moat was on the loose…

He went onto explain that employers in TV journalism Very rarely recruit people without experience or straight out of university, and at Sky News don’t usually consider graduates until they’ve had at least a year of full-time experience in the field on their CV. Once you’ve reached that point, Betts stressed to not be afraid to be a bit different, bring something new to Sky News! However, you’ve got to do what’s best for you in your development as a journalist, demonstrating this to potential employers greatly improves your chances (although apparently “writing passionate about journalism” on your CV instantly gets you written off).

Our very own Gabby Logan arrived to an at the point packed lecture theatre at 2pm to talk about her journalist journey. She got all the innate passion for sport out of the way first as an international gymnast (and her dad used to play for Leeds United for anyone that didn’t know). She then moved on to talking about her time at university with sport still sport being in the back of her mind. Whilst at uni she got some experience reading news on Metro Radio. Once she’d graduated she got her first bit of TV broadcasting experience with ITV’s Tyne Tees.

After this point, she wanted to utilise her love of sport with new journalistic skills, and become a sports presenter working at Sky Sports before being offered a job presenting with BBC Sport in 2007! Her career wasn’t always smooth-sailing as she relayed a time at the beginning of her career telling us of the public’s confusion and cynicism as to why a woman wanted to present football news and shrugged off any assumptions that she just wanted to bag a rich, handsome Premier League player.

None of this doubt stopped her and Logan got her first experience presenting live ice-hockey (the first woman on British television at this time), and laughed at the inevitable mishaps that come with the format as she got stuck by the rink as the fire-alarm went off. Being an attractive woman and sports reporter instantly gained her celebrity status and made us all chuckle at her astonishment that her life had for some reason become just as note-worthy and interesting as the news she presented herself.

Having not met Logan before the thing that surprised me the most was just how ballsy she is. She expressed herself in a variety of convincing accents and cracked jokes – not afraid to shock and entertain the room – unlike anyone that had spoken before her. I suppose that’s what comes with being both a top BBC journalist and national celebrity.

Feel free to return here tomorrow for a round-up of tomorrow’s talks at Leeds Trinity Journalism Week – you can follow the event on Twitter @JournalismWeek and #ltjw.