JMU Journalism hosts BBC Young Reporters

Written by Annie Williams, JMU Journalism
June 28, 2019
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JMU Journalism graduates share their experiences as LJMU hosts a BBC Young Reporter day for Merseyside schools . Pic © BBC Young Reporter Twitter

JMU Journalism joined forces with the BBC Young Reporter scheme this week in a bid to encourage more people to get involved in the thriving media industry.

The partnership involved a ‘real news day’ event which saw 10 schools across Merseyside attend Liverpool John Moores University on Wednesday for a day packed with journalistic and media workshops designed to offer diverse insights.

Over the course of the last 13 years, BBC Young Reporter has worked with thousands of schools to tell the stories that matter to youths – and this year is no exception.

BBC Radio presenter, Ngunan Adamu, ran one of the day’s workshops at Redmonds which focused on interviewing techniques and offered a taste of working in radio.

She spoke about her academy, iWoman, which gives unemployed women to use radio as a means of helping them with their communication skills.

Ngunan said: “There’s so much support in Liverpool, you can literally just run with it.”

The group participated in various activities to develop their skills, including a question game in which they would have to guess Ngunan’s ‘secret profession’, to demonstrate the ‘QAQA method’ of starting with an open question then moving onto a closed question i.e. why/how.

Twitter: BBC Young Reporter

Other workshops included digital animation, hosted by BBC employee, Helen Jackson, where the students were given plasticine in a range of colours to create mini-creatures.

The guests didn’t hesitate to get stuck in and created a range of monsters, from a big eye to a Mike Wazowski-esque creature. After making their models, the students worked in pairs to create a video using the Stop Motion Studio app.

LJMU Journalism lecturers, Tim Abraham, Polly Sharpe and Pete Leydon, hosted workshops focusing on working in live TV and journalism ethics.

Reflecting on the day, Max, 17, said: “It’s given me an insight into John Moores University, which is not something I was looking at but I might consider now. With the animation workshop, it’s something that I want to go into, so it’s been a big help getting a bit of experience in that industry.”

Ava, 17, added: “Today has given me a new appreciation for the skill that goes into producing the world’s media.”

To conclude the day’s events, the students attended a careers session hosted by a panel of professionals, including JMU Journalism alumni Jenny Kirkham, Bethan Tolley and Sophie Corcoran who shared their experiences and journeys into becoming journalists.

Hailed a successful day by both hosts and all who attended, the university hopes this is the start of an ongoing partnership which will see many more real news days and events going forward.

Additional reporting by Scarlett O’Toole, Toni Brown, Isabelle Cairns, Ruairi Walsh & Reece Pape

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