NATIONAL QUALIFICATION IN JOURNALISM

REPORTERS

Examiners’ Report

November 2013

NATIONAL QUALIFICATION IN JOURNALISM FOR REPORTERS

November 2013

In November 88 candidates sat the National Qualification in Journalism (NQJ) across nine centres. The NQJ was awarded to 54 candidates – a pass rate of 62 per cent.

AWARD WINNERS

TED BOTTOMLEY AWARD (MEDIA LAW AND PRACTICE – £250) Sponsored by Midland News Association

Lizzie Dearden Ilford Recorder

This paper was a joy to mark, not only for the knowledge displayed but also for the crisp and easy-to-follow writing style. The winner showed an excellent grasp of the law and how it applied to the scenarios posed in the exam questions. When it came to the ethics question, the candidate produced a near-perfect answer that was well-argued, with sensible and workable decisions.

ESSO AWARD (NEWS REPORT – £250)

Emma Rigby Wirral Globe

Emma delivered accurate content to the reader in an informative and easy to understand report. Part B was well thought through and demonstrated the candidate’s ability to think through all aspects of news coverage.

SOCIETY OF EDITORS’ AWARD (NEWS INTERVIEW – £250)

Ramzy Alwakeel Romford Recorder

Ramzy's story was precise, concise and accurate. He had good linking paragraphs, a great use of colour and captured the drama of the incident. A very readable piece.

NEWSQUEST AWARD (LOGBOOK – £250)

Jonathon Taylor

Overall Jonathon produced a high scoring logbook with a number of particularly strong key tasks. His news backgrounder submissions clearly demonstrated both dedication and personal passion and his trainee’s choice submissions were very well written and scored highly. Jonathon is clearly a competent member of the newsroom and a deserved overall winner.

The following candidates, listed in alphabetical order by surname, have now gained the National Qualification in Journalism for Reporters.

Forename Surname Company

Matthew Abbott Thurrock Gazette

Ramzy Alwakeel Romford Recorder

Gemma Angell Courier Newspapers

Ellis Barker Newbury Weekly News

Kathryn Cain Bedford on Sunday

Johanna Carr

Elise Chamberlain Sutton Coldfield Observer

Marcus Chippindale Bucks Herald

David Cosgrove

Robin Cottle Bexley Times

Jessica Cree

Robert John Dalling

Lizzie Dearden Ilford Recorder

David Doyle Rotherham Advertiser

Anna Dubuis Barking & Dagenham Post

James Dunn

Alexander Evans Weston Worle & Somerset Mercury

David Freezer

Sam Inkersole Courier Newspapers

Ben James The Argus

Laura James The Sentinel

Nicola Jaques The Garstang Courier

Lydia Sofia Johnson Hereford Times

James Johnson News and Star

Alex Johnston Ackrill Media Group

Craig Jones Wiltshire Times

Luke Lambert Evening Echo Newspapers, Basildon

Lucy Elizabeth Leeson

Samantha Lewis Herts Advertiser

Stephanie Manley Westmorland Gazette

Katie Mansfield Essex Enquirer

Michael John Marsh Somerset County Gazette

Hardeep Matharu Epsom Guardian

Daniel Robert Milligan Somerset County Gazette

Sophie Morgan Western Gazette

Samuel James Morris

Andrew Nowell Wigan Evening Post

Amanda Nunn Ilford Recorder

Lisa Porter Target Series

Thomas Potter

James Preston Maidenhead Advertiser

Jonathan George Pritchard

Jason Pritchard Banbury Guardian

Emma Rigby Wirral Globe

Alexander Robertson Courier Media Group

Sarah Robinson Whitehaven News

Daniel Robinson Henley Standard

Anna Slater Hendon Times Group

Sophia Sleigh Sutton Guardian

Francesca Taffs

Jonathon Taylor Western Gazette

Christopher Terris Taylor Warrington Guardian

Sarah Trotter News Shopper

Emma Walker

CHIEF EXAMINER’S SUMMARY

Candidates sitting the November exams for the National Qualification in Journalism (NQJ) achieved the highest pass rate in more than two years.

Fifty-four of the 88 candidates were successful – a pass rate of 62 per cent. It was particularly pleasing to see a 26 percentage point rise in the pass rate for the Media Law & Practice section, from 43 per cent to 69 per cent.”

In the previous sitting there had been evidence of a lack of understanding and knowledge on some areas of law and a lack of confidence on ethical questions, but results this time around are very encouraging.

The Logbook section was passed by all candidates for only the second time in nine sittings, with a handful of candidates submitting the new e-logbook.

Weak shorthand leading to inaccuracies was highlighted as a likely contributory factor to the 66 per cent pass rate in the News Report section – the lowest of the pass rates for individual sections.

Shorthand and questioning technique were considered to be the main issues in the Interview section, leading the moderator to question how often trainees actually carry out face-to-face interviews.

The four award winners were Lizzie Dearden, of the Ilford Recorder (Media Law & Practice), Emma Rigby, of the Northwich Guardian (News Report), Ramzy Alwakeel, of the Romford Recorder (News Interview) and Jonathon Taylor, of the Western Gazette (Logbook).

They each receive a £250 prize.

MEDIA LAW AND PRACTICE – 86 candidates; 59 passed – 69 per cent

After disappointing results from the July exam, this set of answers was far more encouraging, especially in the way candidates tackled the ethics question. This was primarily about breaching Clause 3 of the Editors’ Code of Practice and some of the answers were spot-on and most showed sound understanding of the problems faced when going on a police raid. The fact that the failure rate for this question was below 25 per cent shows that candidates are far more in tune with ethical problems than in the past.

In the law questions, it was candidates who had the knowledge and knew how to apply it to the scenarios posed who did the best. A good writing style also helped and it is recommended that candidates use a bullet point approach when answering these questions.

As usual, these questions tested areas all candidates should come across in their normal working lives: defamation, contempt and reporting restrictions in court, plus a little bit on copyright and privacy.

One of the questions also brought in some new law, the Education Act 2011, and candidates are reminded of the need to keep up-to-date of changes in the law that may affect their work.

Examiners recommend that future candidates return to Essential Law for Journalists to brush up on defamation and contempt dangers and defences. Regular visits to the PCC adjudications and the Editors’ Code Book, along with the Judicial Studies Board’s Reporting Restrictions in the Criminal Courts, would also be helpful.

For those of you who passed, congratulations, and for those who did not, plenty of revision and good luck with your future attempt!

NEWS REPORT – 79 candidates; 52 passed – 66 per cent

Despite the generally good pass rate in this section, accuracy is still eluding many of our aspiring young journalists.

The News Report paper featured the Ashworth Valley Caravan Park which was proposing to spend £1.2million of its record £3million profits for the year on improving access for its holidaymakers.

Candidates were told that the current one-way narrow entrance road to the site would be rebuilt as a two-way road and that as part of the project the park would pay for resurfacing the adjacent two-mile stretch of the B2049 which was riddled with 500 potholes. The council did not have the £250,000 needed for the repairs and details were given of the compensation already paid out to road users who had damaged their cars in the potholes.

The News Report traditionally contains statistics and figures and these must be reported accurately and in context, in the same way a trainee would be expected to record information they obtain on the job. Too many candidates wrote stories saying that the park was spending £1.2mllion on repairing the B2049 and some did not mention the access road at all. This lack of attention to factual detail may, in some cases, result in a correction being demanded if it were published.

Weak shorthand is a likely contributory factor, as this prevents candidates from getting down the statistics during the speech, but a good reporter will also listen to what is being said and should be able to rely on memory as well as their notes.

There is also a tendency among trainees to tell a partial story, assuming the reader already knows the basic details. This is not always the case and a good report will contain enough background information to set the story in context for anyone who wants to read it.

In Part B there are more marks to be gained if candidates carefully think the scenario through. The ideas must be practical and have merit and depth. For example, was it really practical to suggest illustrating an immediate web story by gathering people who had suffered pothole damage to their vehicles and asking them to pose on the B2049? Part B should provide some easy marks, but disappointingly the average candidate scored around 10 of the 20 possible marks available.

NEWS INTERVIEW – 71 candidates; 54 passed – 76 per cent

This was a story about a firefighter being critically injured when a batch of illegal and faulty fireworks explode at an industrial unit. He is well known in the town as he is a semi-professional goalkeeper for the town’s football club. He was dragged unconscious to safety by his injured colleague who also suffered burns. There was added drama as one of the main roads into town had to be closed and six families were evacuated at the height of the blaze.

The other strand to the story was that it was suspected that there were still illegal and dangerous fireworks in the town and more bonfires were planned for the following night.

Many candidates went for the rescue line, but others came up with drop intros and some odd angles for a hard news story. Few candidates got to grips with the drama of the story – the firefighters in a building with fireworks exploding around them and the roof collapsing.

Firefighter Morrison was a well-known person in the town – as a fireman and as a goalie for the local football club. Many candidates failed to ask for details about him and his character and missed opportunities to find out about his wife and daughter.

Some candidates failed to mention the fireworks until a long way down the story. Others missed the illegal, faulty Chinese line.

There were some good quotes to be had:

“This was a very serious incident which could have resulted in the death of one of my fire fighters.”

“The people who have brought these fireworks to our town need to be caught before anyone else is injured or even killed.”

“These fireworks are ticking time bombs.”

And for those struggling with shorthand there was a readymade quote in the briefing notes.

Some strange words occurred in candidates’ submissions, probably due to poor translations from shorthand: “bombfire”, “ric shaking” and “smoke bellowed”.

Candidates who were borderline or fails lacked attention to detail. Some did not mention the severe injuries and some did not ask the cause of the fire. While some candidates failed to get a grip of the incident, overall the standards had improved on the previous NQJ and some of the passes were well-rounded stories.

Again shorthand was an issue as was interview technique. It does raise the question of just how many trainees actually carry out face-to-face interviews these days.

LOGBOOK – 51 candidates; 51 passed – 100 per cent

This was an excellent submission of logbooks and it is pleasing to note that on this occasion there were no failures.

Candidates appear to be getting clearer guidance when compiling the logbook as there are far fewer issues regarding the actual content and signing off of the physical submissions.

There were some areas where markers have questioned the quality of stories and the distinctions of the politics and council key tasks does need to be assessed when candidates are looking through their portfolio.

There were more ‘electronic’ logbooks submitted in this sitting and it is very pleasing to see that this appears to have caused very few issues for candidates and they have quickly taken to this new format. The e-logbook does require some changes within the marking process and while this will be addressed by our markers it is not something that will cause any issues for candidates.

There has been a rise in the number of candidates who raised questions about the logbook with the NCTJ. This is to be welcomed and we would encourage candidates to get in touch if there are any matters which they are unsure of.

National Qualification in Journalism for Reporters Comparative figures (Pre March 2013 figures are for the old style National Certificate Examination)

MAR JUL NOV MAR JUL NOV MAR JUL NOV 2011 2011 2011 2012 2012 2012 2013 2013 2013 TOTAL ENTRY No of candidates 79 80 101 107 100 106 110 102 88 No of passes 49 38 53 48 43 56 59 50 54 No of failures 30 42 48 59 57 50 51 52 34 % passed 62 48 52 45 43 53 54 49 62

FIRST-TIMERS No of candidates 51 53 63 63 53 54 66 51 49 No of passes 32 27 35 30 20 28 33 32 32 No of failures 19 26 28 33 33 26 33 19 17 % passed 63 51 56 48 38 52 50 63 65

RE-SITS No of candidates 28 27 38 44 47 52 44 51 39 No of passes 17 11 18 18 23 28 26 18 22 No of failures 11 16 20 26 24 24 18 33 17 % passed 61 41 47 41 49 54 59 35 56

Analysis of figures for each exam section (first-timers and re-sits) (Pre March 2013 figures are for the old style National Certificate Examination)

MAR JUL NOV MAR JUL NOV MAR JUL NOV 2011 2011 2011 2012 2012 2012 2013 2013 2013 NEWS INTERVIEW No of candidates 64 67 88 96 92 89 99 89 71 No of passes 51 37 53 40 57 52 53 58 54 No of failures 13 30 35 56 35 37 46 31 17 % passed 80 55 60 42 62 58 54 65 76

NEWS REPORT No of candidates 74 77 94 95 87 98 103 96 79 No of passes 48 42 58 50 40 55 49 57 52 No of failures 26 35 36 45 47 43 54 39 27 % passed 65 55 62 53 46 56 48 59 66

MEDIA LAW & PRACTICE No of candidates 65 63 86 89 89 91 97 86 86 No of passes 52 37 60 39 48 55 55 37 59 No of failures 13 26 26 50 41 36 42 49 27 % passed 80 59 70 44 54 60 57 43 69

LOGBOOK No of candidates 53 55 63 64 54 56 66 51 51 No of passes 51 50 62 62 52 56 65 49 51 No of failures 2 5 1 2 2 0 1 2 0 % passed 96 91 98 97 96 100 98 96 100 © NCTJ 2013