journalism – School of Arts & Creative Industries

TALENTED media students have received prizes at Teesside University’s annual Journalism Awards.

The event, which was hosted by Jeremy Armstrong, The Daily Mirror’s North-East Correspondent, took place at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art as part of Teesside University’s School of Arts and Creative Industries’ Degree Showcase week of events.

Journalism and Fashion degree students received awards based on exceptional work produced during the past academic year.

The winners receive a week’s work experience at the company which sponsors the individual award.

Winners were commended for the skills learnt on the BA (Hons) Journalism; BA(Hons) Sports Journalism and BA (Hons) Fashion degrees

Among the awards were Multimedia Journalist of the Year, Best Sport Feature Writer and Blogger of the Year.

Prizes included a number of work placements with Teesside Live, The Hartlepool Mail along with work experience at BBC Tees and Bauer Media.

A number of special academic awards were also given out, including the award for the best degree Final Project.

Award’s host Jeremy is based in Newcastle upon Tyne and reports on the North East region for the Daily Mirror.

He is also sports news correspondent and has worked around the world covering football World Cups, and Olympic Games, since 1998.

Jeremy was sent to report on the war in Afghanistan in 2001, covered the 2009 trial of Josef Fritzl in Austria, the story of canoe man John Darwin, and the hunt for Raoul Moat.

In 2020, he broke the scandal of Dominic Cummings breach of lockdown rules. Last year he travelled to Israel to cover the war in Gaza.

Jim Entwhistle, Course Leader for Journalism and Sports Journalism in the School of Arts and Creative Industries, said:

“These awards recognise the hard work and excellent calibre of our current journalism students and the students were thrilled to be awarded their prizes by Jeremy.”

“I would like to thank all of the media organisations who generously contributed prizes to this celebration of our students’ achievements.”

Here are the winners:

Vlogger of the Year – sponsored by Teesside University Communications and Development

Winner: Kanye Ochieng- Chambers

Content Producer of the Year – Sponsored by Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA)

Winner: Thomas Hodgson

Feature Writer of the Year – sponsored by The Northern Echo newspaper

Winner: Roaa Mohammed Elhag

Multimedia Journalist of the Year – sponsored by Teesside Live

Winner: Ben Sedgwick

Community Reporter of the Year, sponsored by The Hartlepool Mail newspaper

Winner: Rory Clark

Rory Clark with Hartlepool Mail Editor, Gavin Ledwith

Audio Journalist of the Year, sponsored by Bauer Media

Winner: Ashley Stone

Ashley Stone with Eleanor Kumar from Bauer Media

Video Journalist of the Year, sponsored by UK Local TV

Winner: Ella Wilson

Ella Wilson with The Daily Mirror's Jeremey Armstrong — Ella Wilson with The Daily Mirror’s Jeremy Armstrong

Digital Communications Student of Year, sponsored by Harvey and Hugo PR Agency

Winner: Gemma Woolston

Ali Brownlee Sports Coverage Award –sponsored by BBC Tees

Winner: Ben Rowell

Creative Communications Campaign – sponsored by Durham County Cricket Club.

Winner: Danny Nicholson

Public Relations Student of the Year – sponsored by DTW PR Agency

Winner: Maddy Hockborn

Maddy Hockburn with Karen Westcott from DTW

Portfolio of the Year – sponsored by Great North Air Ambulance Service

Winner: Jacob Raw

Fashion Journalist of the Year – Sponsored by Sunday Girl Magazine

Winner: Eleanor Cork

Best Newcomer – Sponsored by Teesside University

Winner: Melissa Wade

Melissa Wade with Senior Lecturer, Paul Bailey

Best Final Project – Sponsored by Teesside University

Winner: Josef Murray

Find out more about studying journalism at Teesside University

BA (Hons) Journalism

BA (Hons) Sport Journalism

Is experience more important than qualifications?

That’s a good question isn’t it. Can we do what we want to do without qualifications? Can we work as a lawyer; a doctor; an architect without qualifications? Of course not, but we certainly couldn’t work in those professions without some experience as well.

by Paul Bailey, Senior Lecturer in Media

As Julius Caeser once said: “Experience is the teacher of all things.” And he should know as he conquered country after country. Clearly for Caesar simply having a qualification in Latin was not enough. Most successful job candidates have both experience and qualifications, and both contribute to their ability to perform their job well. Qualifications show that you have the knowledge necessary for your profession, whereas experience proves that you’ve practiced working in your field. Which brings me to an anecdote about a boy from South Shields who wanted to go to university but hadn’t quite figured out what career he wanted to do. He did get to university – the first in his family to do so. He studied politics and history because that’s what he was good at while studying his A-levels. While at university he had to complete a 12,000 word dissertation for his final project. He decided he would write about the recent miners’ strike that had just finished. He thought it was a good idea to spend summer in South Shields talking to former striking miners, newspaper reporters, the general public and many other people about their experiences of the year-long strike. He came away thinking how much he had enjoyed meeting these people and listening to their stories. What job entails meeting people, interviewing them and finding out about their lives? Well journalism of course. So, after three years at university studying politics and history he decided he was going to be a journalist.

But how do you become a journalist? The university career advisor was very helpful. “It’s very hard to get into”, he said.

Student in the recording booth at Radio Tees — Student gaining work experience at Radio Tees

Undeterred the youngster went along to the nearest college offering journalism qualifications. He was accepted for an interview to get a place on the course. Things were moving in the right direction – it wouldn’t be long before he was reading the news on television to an eager audience.

“What journalism experience have you got?” asked the tutor.

“None whatsoever,” the youngster retorted.

“Sorry you can’t have a place on the course then. There’s plenty of other people who have done work experience who want to come on the course,” the tutor replied.

The youngster had the right degree qualification but didn’t have any experience. So, he spent a year working for any media organisation who would take him – radio, television and newspapers.

He returned to the college a year later and was offered a place on the course.

One year after that he got his first journalism job as a trainee reporter on a local daily newspaper.

So – two years after graduating and five years after starting his degree he was finally a journalist.

Student in our recording studio at Teesside University

Wouldn’t it be good if you could get a degree and do some work experience at the same time? Doing it all in three years instead of five.

The BA (Hons) Journalism and BA(Hons) Sport Journalism degrees at Teesside University allow you to do just that.

Just look at what’s been on offer to the students since September:

Working with BBC Tees
Working with Reach plc – publishers of The Mirror
Working on the university’s in-house radio station – Tuxtra
Working with the commercial radio station Radio Hartlepool
Working for an international news website with a chance to visit America.
Three journalism students recently flew to Spain to report on an international quiz event – producing videos and written news stories about the occasion.

All great work experience opportunities available to students in first year; second year and third year in the last three months.

Ultimately, neither experience or having qualifications is more important than the other. But having them both can really make you go places.

Courses in the School of Arts & Creative Industries

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

BA (Hons) Comics & Graphic Novels

BA (Hons) Fashion

BA (Hons) Fine Art

BA (Hons) Film and Television Production

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

BA (Hons) Illustration

BA (Hons) Interior Design

BA (Hons) Journalism

BA (Hons) Music Production

BA (Hons) Photography

BA (Hons) Sport Journalism

POSTGRADUATE COURSES

Art & Design

Media & Journalism

If you’d like to speak to a member of our team to find out more about studying in the School of Arts & Creative Industries, email saci-school@tees.ac.uk and we’ll get straight back to you.

Art & Design Facilities video

Media Facilities video

Jam Jars, Judges and Journalism

Jim Entwistle, former journalist and head of comms and now a Senior Lecturer in Digital Journalism at Teesside University, reflects on the important role of journalism in society

To the side of my new home is a mouldering garage containing all kinds of odds and ends left by the previous owners – rusted tools, yellowed sheets of newspaper, jam jars filled with obsolete metal fittings. We’re renovating the place and it feels at times as if these remnants are breeding. We’re four skips in and counting.

I was in the garage last weekend, desperately looking for something with which to write a note to the plumber. Among the cluttered shelves sat a yellow pencil with black writing on the side. I plucked it from the dust, wrote the message on the back of an old till receipt, and then went on to the next job.

Later, at lunchtime, I pulled the pencil from my pocket and looked more closely at its inscription – WILL HIRSTWOOD – EASTBOURNE JOINERY WORKS AND GARAGE – DARLINGTON 2498 – knife-sharpened at one end and teeth marks at the other. Idly wondering about Will, and if he might like his pencil back, I ran his name through Google, and found a good match in an article by Chris Lloyd of the Northern Echo: The ‘despicable, revolting and repugnant’ coffin lid scandal of Darlington

The story details how a William Hirstwood, a joiner from Eastbourne in Darlington, caused national outrage when he was discovered to be running a macabre scam. Will and his accomplice worked at the town’s crematorium in the 1940s. During a service they would wait until the coffin had passed behind the curtain, out of sight of the mourners, before removing the lid. They would then load the rest of the coffin – and its contents – into the oven before leaving in the hearse, ‘loot’ in the back.

When detectives visited Will’s depot, they found some 30 coffin lids stacked up, presumably ready for reuse and resale. Will was sent to jail for 18 months for his part, although there was some debate in court about the severity of the crime, if indeed it was one.

Chris’ feature, and of course the original court report it was drawn from, perfectly illustrate how much journalism contribute to our society. It is about open justice and holding power to account. But there’s more to it than that. It’s also about the scandal and the salacious and the threads that connect us with each other and that connect the past with the present.

Journalists play a key role in documenting our social history. As people and events come and go, and everyday life rushes by in a blaze of micro-drama, we rarely get chance to stand still and truly absorb the moments that make life interesting. But in the middle of all this flux, journalists through their daily work give permanence to the otherwise transient.

Jim Entwistle, Senior Lecturer in Digital Journalism

In March, I joined the team working with the next generation of reporters on Teesside University’s Journalism course. Clearly, times have changed since the 1940s, when the Northern Echo reported on Will’s appearance at Darlington Magistrates’ Court. On top of the fundamentals, our students produce news websites, make video and write for social media. The channels may have changed somewhat, but in essence, the job is much the same. It’s about rooting out those stories and presenting them to the public as a matter of record, however despicable, revolting or repugnant they may be.

I’m very much looking forward to working with the next intake of Journalism students in September and would welcome queries from anyone thinking about a career in the trade, which is every bit as important now as it was in the days of the Coffin Lid Scandal of Darlington.

Read all about our Journalism students

Journalism experience leads Holly to her passion

Journalism graduates went from course to career at Teesside University

2022 Journalism Awards

Teeside University’s partnership with news publisher, Reach

Truth is the first casualty of war

Paul Bailey, Course Leader for Journalism awards in the School of Arts & Creative Industries, discusses the role of journalism in times of conflict

“Truth,” it has been said, “is the first casualty of war.” When hostilities break out the one object of each belligerent nation is victory. “All is fair in war,” and to secure and maintain national unity in support of the war every means are taken by the respective governments to suppress criticism.

Little did we all think that in 2022 we would be witnessing the horrors now unfolding in the Ukraine. We have seen the images of war on our television screens, the bombed out buildings and the streams of thousands of refugees fleeing to safety. But what is the truth? How authentic are the things we are seeing and hearing? What is false and what is not?

It’s been reported that Russia has closed down social media sites like Facebook; Instagram and Twitter to stop the flow of information. Russian state media journalists have also been told to tow the party line, to obey authority so as not to cause trouble, or face severe punishment. George Orwell’s statement that “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want published; everything else is public relations” has never seemed so apt.

Honest truthful journalism is the backbone of any country that wants to give a voice to its population. In peacetime it can hold Government to account – How did we know Boris Johnson allegedly attended some parties during the Covid lockdown? Would we have found out without journalists asking questions?

In wartime we rely on honest truthful journalists to tell us what is happening on the frontline. It does not go without its dangers. Already we have seen US journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud killed in Ukraine as he reported on the conflict.

Here in the UK we have a tradition of having journalists that are professionally trained and understand that ethical unbiased reporting is what is important. Anyone can go on social media and comment about the war in Ukraine but comment is not reporting.

That is why in times of crisis we can turn to the BBC; Sky; ITN and watch television reports and listen to radio broadcasts we know have been produced by professionally trained ethically unbiased reporters. We can read accounts of the Ukraine war in national newspapers because we have confidence in the journalists bringing those stories to us.

That confidence comes because of the training those journalists have received. If you think you have what it takes to become a professionally trained ethically sound and unbiased journalist then click on the links below.

BA (Hons) Journalism

BA (Hons) Sport Journalism

Paul Bailey is a Senior Lecturer (Media) in the School of Arts & Creative Industries at Teesside University He is the Course Leader for our Journalism Degrees