Premier’s TAFE English Literature, Language and Communication Scholarship

Keeble’s pedagogy of journalism and journalism technology in the UK

Carla Edwards TAFE NSW - Hunter Institute

Sponsored by With thanks and gusto I am honoured to be awarded the 2005 NSW Premier’s TAFE Scholarship for English Literature, Language and Communication. When informed of being the 2005 recipient, waves of fear and high expectations swept over me. But as always, I rose to the occasion, learnt so much and interacted with wonderful educators and practitioners. The Diploma of Media and Communication was offered at Hunter Institute TAFE for the first time in 2005, and I was to teach on this course. In 2004 I took the TVET Media–News Journalism courses at Newcastle and Wyong Campuses and was offered the same in 2005. My experience in English Literature and Humanities has been utilised by teaching in these areas as well. My teaching philosophy is to educate students in the theoretical while providing as many practical experiences as the course structure and content allows. Students who pass through any of my classrooms are provided with self-motivated and useful experiences, which in turn allow them to achieve their objectives. This 2005 study tour has increased my experiences at a personal and professional level. This in turn now allows me to equip the students with valuable industry information as they learn a variety of facets of the media and communication industry, at both the TVET and Diploma level. I endeavour to provide the students coming to TAFE with a holistic experience of classes with current knowledge and easy-to-approach exercises. Enter Professor Keeble’s text, The Newspaper Handbook, for my media and news journalism subjects. With an abundance of headings and easy-to-grasp definitions, Keeble’s text is practical for both the TVET and Diploma students. Professor Keeble is well appointed in the education of journalism students and receiving an invitation from him to be attached to the Lincoln School of Journalism was a privilege. The information sharing I received on this tour was fantastic from every person I’ve interviewed, and I am thrilled to share this with other educators or instigators of Media/Journalism/ Communication. In this report I have included comments from a few educators, journalists and editors as a taste of the wealth of experience and knowledge the interviewee’s shared. I believe other educators and facilitators will benefit from this report or anything else I can assist in. This in turn is passed to the students and so the cycle of information sharing continues. A learning experience at Lincoln School of Journalism As the Lincoln School of Journalism (LSJ), Lincoln University, England, was opened in November 2004, it is consequently well appointed with facilities and educators. LSJ students have access to six industry-standard newsrooms and the broadcast journalism students have radio and television presentation studios. On day one of my study tour, Professor Keeble introduced me to his staff and I was quickly booked up to experience as many different classes as my time in Lincoln allowed. Sessions included: practical journalism tutorials and ‘news days’ with students from Levels One, Two and Three across print, radio and television broadcast; photography excursions; a broadcast sound recording workshop and time at BBC Radio Lincolnshire with the early morning show with Dylan Roys. I maintain a link with the audience with phone-ins from Australia discussing the seasons, culture and other tidbits from my locality. The energy of the educators and the enthusiasm was infective. I watched the student’s blossom with new knowledge and experiences from their practical news gathering, writing and recording over the course of the days and weeks I spent with them. Through my time at LSJ I have been inspired by the broadcast journalism staff, headed by Ms Deborah Wilson, Senior Lecturer and Teaching Fellow in Broadcast Journalism. Observing, interacting and learning in these tutorials has spurred me on to utilise my talents and become more involved in TiNRadio (This is Not Radio, www.tin.org.au) and in doing so, provide further opportunities for my students in this medium. Deborah Wilson Deborah Wilson, Senior Lecturer and Teaching Fellow in Broadcast Journalism at LSJ and news journalist at BBC Lincolnshire, believes that with ‘having guest lectures, master classes and guest editors, not only are the students getting different professionals, the outlets can “cream off the top”. [that is] if they see anyone with real promise they may offer work experience, and then paid work experience, and when finished their degree—jobs.’ Roger Debank Roger Debank, Journalism lecturer with 35 years experience including assistant editor, news editor and featured editor, gives pertinent advice about the type of part time job which will assist in being a diplomatic journalist. He says how one learns to deal with people is primary as a journalist. Roger gave me the following example of a workshop session in which he asked if the students have a job and one woman said: It’s not much of a job, it’s working in a bar,’ and I (Roger) said, ‘That’s a great job, an absolutely class A job for somebody who wants to go into journalism and why? Not because I want to be an alcoholic but because you meet people all the time. Your job as a journalist is that you can go into [a] crowded room of people, find the person you’ve got to speak to, introduce yourself to a stranger, get the confidence of that stranger, get the story and then go on your way. Richard Orange Richard Orange, freelance journalist, political correspondent and senior lecturer at LSJ, cites the most frustrating aspect for journalism students as: When they are making contact with organisations, and working on stories which could be published or broadcast in the media generally, but because they’re journalism students they aren’t necessarily getting the same access to information as perhaps journalists from the local papers or regional broadcasters. Nevertheless, it’s a good learning curve, as the pushy ones will succeed. As the work placement coordinator for the students studying the Media and Communication Diploma at the Hunter Institute TAFE, I all too often come across a ‘degree of negativity or exclusivity’ with regards to various media industries willing to offer a work placement opportunity. Often I’m told by the outlet they will only take students from a particular, and sometimes private, university or the outlet already has a contract with [particular] universities to take their communication/media/journalism students. Thus, I try even harder to achieve a great work placement experience for the diploma students and for the second year running have achieved this with placement at Channel Nine’s A Current Affair and News Room, Pacific Publications, Emap, Australian Consolidated Press, Community Radio at Port Stephens, Newcastle’s Music Week, and Helen Duncan Promotions, to name a few. I thank all outlets providing placements for this opportunity and some students have been successful with ongoing contact with their placement in a voluntary or paid position. When discussing the difficulties of maintaining students’ interests in the very dry but necessary subject of legal and social issues, Richard suggests giving students some newspaper articles telling the students there are various legal problems with the article, then dividing the class into ‘lawyers’ working for the newspaper or the prosecution then battle it out in a moot court. He says: That’s how it happens. You have to work as a media lawyer when you’re writing stories and interviewing people and submitting material to your editor and you have to think, ‘Hang on a minute, can I say that?’ You can’t rely on the editor or news editor, subeditor or even the company lawyer to spot a problem. Only you know what’s in the story and the background to it. Ron Fowler Ron Fowler, lecturer in media production at LSJ and a sound recordist for film and video for over 20 years, talks about the importance of hands-on workshops: I try to give them some sort of clues as to how to proceed in documentary sound recording at location and in the studio. In [this] sound workshop I break them into groups and they devise [within a chosen scenario] half a dozen questions to ask me. I will play straight to them the person they say I am and conduct the interview as if it is real. I expect the students and challenge the students to be just as committed to the situation as I am. As they are progressing with this, I ask the remaining students in the class to silently critique their colleagues: how efficiently they are working, how clear they are in their instructions, how they deal with me, as the talent, before the camera. As the interview progresses I may, from knowledge of these situations, throw a little bit of a ‘wobbler’ into the situation to see how they cope with it. [This is to test their] professionalism of how they regain their composure, how they support one another and how then they come back to me as the interviewee to calm me down and keep me on track. Ron believes engagement in the activity of this type of workshop is far better than reading texts or giving handouts, as they experience the, good or bad, ‘real life’ situation of ‘scenario, interviewee behaviour, camera and action’. Peter Dewrance I also spent time with Peter Dewrance, a senior lecturer in broadcast journalism. He demonstrated an e-learning program called ENG Matters, which has more recently, in October 2006, been redesigned as TV Reporting Matters. With Peter Dewrance’s permission, the link for perusal is: http://eng.lsj.lincoln.ac.uk/reportingmatters/foreword/intro.htm. Information gathering in Cambridge and London When my time in Lincoln came to an end, I travelled to London via Cambridge. At Cambridge I interviewed Jason Horton, Managing Editor of Local Services at BBC Cambridgeshire. In London I interviewed teachers at the City of Westminster College, London College of Communication, Radio Academy, the editor of the TNT Group (Maitland-born Lynette Eybe), ABC London journalist Kerri Ritchie, station managers of Resonance FM—London’s oldest underground community radio station, and Alex Gerlis, manager of Virtual Education at BBC London. City of Westminster College, London I visited two campuses of City of Westminster College in London, Maida Vale and Paddington Green, to understand how they teach media and communication across A Levels and Levels one through three, which in turn leads to the National Diploma. Graham Garguido Graham Garguido (Maida Vale) teaches A Level Media and Communication at the Maida Vale Centre of City of Westminster College. His students are aged 16 to 19 and are from mid-range academically and often from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds. He says: Media is one of the most important subjects as the students from about the age of three or four have very clever and very well paid intelligent people targeting them non-stop in all these different forms; advertising, television and cinema. So my job, I think, is to equip them with critical literacy so they’re at least able to say ‘hold on a second here’ so they see the mechanics behind the thing [being advertised]. Ana Guimaraes Ana Guimaraes (Paddington Green), Deputy Director, Division of Arts with a background in news journalism and directing for BBC television and theatre, says: Being a good team player and knowing how to communicate and knowing how a team works—that is the key thing. That’s what industry wants. [The industry will teach them] the software and equipment, but teamwork, knowing how to work as a team, knowing to have the initiative and how to have initiative of knowing how to communicate, is the key. It [doing a vocational course] pulls away the layers and [students] come in from an audience point of view—sitting at home watching the news, serials or in the cinema. It does look glossy and what the course does is to take them behind that and show them that you never actually get to see a glossy side and it’s a hard graft. London College of Communication I spent a day at the London College of Communication with Kathy Hilton and Martin Shaw and interviewed them regarding the education of media and journalism students. Kathy spoke about the print journalism side and demonstrated an interactive print journalism program in which students work to a deadline with information coming in at random, much like the real news rooms. Martin Shaw gave insight to educating students in radio broadcast at a postgraduate level. Kathy Hilton Kathy Hilton talks about the Foundation Degree’s, which I understand is a slightly higher level of academia than the current Diploma in Media and Communication offered at Hunter Institute TAFE: Foundation degrees are a new thing, they’re a governmental idea. They’re meant to increase participation [with the] government’s aim to get over 50 per cent of students over 18 into higher education in the next [10 years or so] and [the FDA at LCC] is part of that plan. The FDA replaces the old higher national diplomas and it’s a link to life long learning with the opportunity of a roll-over to the BA. TNT Magazine, London I organised to speak with the editor at The News and Travel (TNT), unaware of the direct links to where I teach, the Hunter Valley. Twenty years ago when I moved to London to study at Horrow College, I read TNT for travel tips, accommodation and jobs. I knew the magazine to be the most important magazine for new ex-pats arriving in London and would encourage students from my classes to consider it, not only to read but perhaps as an opportunity for work when they land in London. ABC Radio London I aimed to interview an ABC London correspondent to determine the path they’ve taken to work in a ‘coveted overseas’ media outlet with direct links to Australia. Kerri Ritchie files stories for ABC radio news and radio current affairs programs. She comes from Tooleybuc on the NSW/Victoria border, which she says is so different to London, and spoke fondly of how she (and by chance her co-worker Raphael Epstein) was knocked back from RMIT. She also wanted to share that: [In broadcast journalism] you’ve got to be able to write, but it’s more important to be able to get people to talk to you who most of the time don’t want to. It’s about connecting with people and getting them to trust you—that you’re not going to do a job on them. So the idea is that you might go to Newcastle TAFE, you might go to Adelaide (a uni that a lot of people have never heard of), or you might go to Bathurst and do communications there. You’ve got just as much chance as anybody else at getting jobs at the ABC and jobs at the BBC. You’ve just got to go for it. You’ve got to make the most of what you’ve got that makes you a little bit different, and if that’s Newcastle or Tooleybuc … I worked at community radio and worked at a magazine for people with disabilities when I was at uni—I saw what I could do while I was at uni, I talked to people in the industry. I used to ring people I didn’t know, which is very daunting, but you’ve just got to do it. When asking Kerri the highlights working as a journalist, her reply is full of passion about the opportunities or perks that present itself in the course of her day. But she says the best thing is reflecting on the farm story where the farmer lost everything in a fire: When you get cards from people saying thanks so much. The worst point? It is cut-throat and competitive, but you have to be competitive … and the dirty tricks. Conclusion I came away from this study tour with a wealth of information on teaching suggestions to maintain student enthusiasm and tips from journalists, editors and educators to pass to students about how to get to their goal or to just hang in. With effort and hard work the goal of being a journalist or working in the communication industry, even on Australian soil, is achievable. And with a little more effort, getting a position in the industry in London is not beyond any student coming from a TAFE course. I came away eager to try new practical sessions in my TVET and diploma classes, to study further and be involved in community radio and publishing to provide the students with opportunities. I’ll campaign that the TVET and diploma classes should be more practical and advocate that students learn associated software for audio (Audacity) and video editing (CyberLink Power DVD, Pinnacle, Final Cut Pro). That way, at the end of their module they’ll not only have knowledge and experience in writing for news media, but have a fun and creative aspect and a CD or DVD to take home with them. I’ve been invited back to Lincoln University for an International Radio Conference in July 2007, and Deborah Wilson, very tongue in cheek, suggested co-writing a paper about setting up a community radio station. I am considering this, utilising my experience with TiNRadio. Grasping an understanding of how the different courses are run in the U, I see there are many opportunities to extend the current TVET course, to increase the hands-on experiences in the TVET and diploma courses with the aim of spreading the word of how good the courses are, thereby increasing interest and enrolments in subsequent years. If there is not one available in Australia, a trial of either Peter Dewrance or Kathy Hilton’s software designed for students learning about broadcast media and writing for print media, respectively, would add another dimension to our courses. Again I thank the Premier and the TAFE sponsor for this wonderful opportunity. I thank everyone who shared their time, talent, enthusiasm and gifts of knowledge not only with me but the readers of this report, students and teachers I speak to about what I’ve done and learnt.