For the past three and a half years I have been studying Journalism at Napier University. I now find myself in my final semester, with a dissertation deadline hanging over me and of course the pressure to graduate with a good degree. In an ideal world I would be sliding straight into a journalism job upon graduation, however, I realise that gaining employment in this highly competitive field can be very challenging indeed.
I was further discouraged when I recently read an article in The Guardian concerning the employment options for University graduates in 2009. The article claimed that this year’s graduates faced the toughest battle for jobs in over three decades, as employment options are drastically cut as Great Britain battles the recession. The article even encouraged graduates to seek ‘lower end’ jobs such as stacking shelves or pouring pints as opposed to simply giving up and joining the dole queue. Having spent the last three years doing part-time bar work, the article certainly dampened my spirits. Surely I won’t have spent four years at University only to move into full-time bar work upon graduation?
But having reflected upon the situation, I reminded myself that for every company that goes bust there are more journalists required to report on it. All newspapers, be it local or national, are currently having a so called field day with the economic crisis. There’s breaking news every day it seems, and if there’s not then it’s just another opportunity for a columnist to produce a full spread doom and gloom feature on how we’ll all be spending the next three years eating baked beans and holidaying in Fort William. I therefore choose to remain upbeat about my chances of employment, perhaps someone can pay me to tell the nation about the mess we find ourselves in. And if not, then I’ll gladly take a job reporting football !
Over the past three years I have learned the key skills required to be an effective, confident and capabale journalist. In addition to the numerous assignments and news stories I have produced as part of my course, I have also had work experience in ‘the real world’.
In May 2008 i spent a week with the Edinburgh Evening News. I sat next to the news desk and had a great overview of the entire news room, and it proved to be an invaluable experience for me personally. Not only did it give me the oppurtunity to gain proper insight into how a newsroom works, but I was also able to write several pieces that made the final edition of the paper. You will find links to three of those articles on my blogsite, so please feel free to have a look. During my week there i did everything from writing small notices from press releases and contacting petrol stations across the city for a price check page that the paper was running that week. I also conducted interviews over the phone, in addition to driving out to a location for an interview alongside a photographer. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the paper and it added to my knowledge of the newspaper industry.
I am currently writing for Setanta Sport’s Online, which is an on-going placement lasting the duration of the Scottish football league season and hopefully beyond. I am responsible for attending Hearts and Hibs home games and writing a match report, as well as conducting post match interviews with players and managers. I also write reviews for two Fotball-related discussion programmes that are broadcast on Setanta Sports every week. In addition to that I have contributed several stories on Scottish football to the website, as well as having filled in for the staff when they were unvailable. My duty then was basically to monitor radio stations, newspapers, televisions and reuters for any breaking news that concerned Scottish football. I produced several stories in one day and helped ensure that the Scottish Premier League section of the website was kept up to date with all the latest stories throughout the day, most of which were written by myself. Links to several of my articles will be updated continually and can be found here on my blogsite.
My placement at Setanta is a hugely enjoyable experience for me, as I have a great interest in all things related to football. It should therefore come as no surprise that a job as a sports journalist would greatly appeal to me. I am hoping that the experience I am gaining from Setanta will aid me in fulfilling my ambition of carving out a career in the field of sports journalism.
I have also participated in a series of ‘live rolling news days’ at University. This constitutes me joining a group of fellow students in producing live news for the Napier Dunedin News Online site. Video and radio packages as well as written content are all loaded up between 8.30 am and 2pm. It has been a great way to experience a ‘proper’ news day and it proved to be a great test in terms of fulfilling the tasks and sticking to the strict deadlines. We set high standards for ourselves, with the goals being to aqquire original quotes, images and story ideas in order to compete with the national media. The site has been hugely successful and we have had feedback from several newspapers whom have been impressed by the stories we are producing.
I believe I have gained a fair bit of experience both in and out of the classroom, and I shall spend the next months striving to gain as good a degree as possible. Upon completion of that I remain hopeful that I can get my foot on the ladder and begin my career as a journalist.
