Tag: sport journalism

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.

Host Jeremy Armstrong

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