Welcome to our journalism masterclasses for 2020-21. he masterclasses comprise a programme Tof weekly talks from established journalists – many of whom learned their craft right here in the Department of Journalism Studies at Sheffield – and other figures with unique and valuable perspectives on the media. They represent a place where the academy welcomes key players from the media industries, and students who engage in journalism practice and study learn at first-hand about their preoccupations, concerns and experiences. Those who report, present, manage, regulate or simply reflect on the rapidly changing media world give an insight into the industries our students aspire to join. We regard the masterclasses as an essential element of your applied journalism knowledge, and students taking BA Journalism Studies and MA Journalism are expected to attend. Students on other degree programmes are also very welcome to join. How to take part For the 2020-21 academic year the masterclasses will take place online. They’re scheduled for 12 noon on Tuesdays throughout term time. We’ll email you a link to join shortly before each session begins. We encourage students to engage with the masterclasses using social media. Please use hashtag #jusmasterclass and feel free to tag the department (@sheffjournalism on Twitter, @shefjournalism on Instagram). Week 1 Tuesday 9 February Subhajit Banerjee Head of Digital Transformation at 10 Downing Street ubhajit Banerjee is a journalist turned civil Sservant. He is currently working as the Head of Digital Transformation & Rapid Response Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office & Cabinet Office digital communications team and was the Head of Content prior to that. He joined the civil service after a career of 15 years in journalism with stints at the Guardian, the Telegraph, Conde Nast and news outlets in India. He did his masters in broadcast journalism as an international student at the University of Sheffield in 2007. Week 2 Tuesday 16 February Terri White Editor-in-Chief, Empire erri White is an award-winning Teditor with 20 years’ experience working for publishing companies on both sides of the Atlantic. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of film and entertainment brand Empire, having joined in 2015 from Time Out North America. Terri is also a writer, having been published in The Guardian, Guardian Weekend, The Sunday Times Style, Grazia, The Big Issue, Q, Red, Elle, Caught by the River, Refinery 29, Hole & Corner and The Observer magazine. She published her first bookComing Undone, A Memoir (Canongate) in July 2020 and production company Bad Wolf has optioned the TV rights. Terri is the current Entertainment Magazine Editor of the Year and was named one of the 150 female leaders redefining the creative industries in 2017 and one of Folio’s Top Women in US Media in 2015. She is also a broadcaster, regularly appearing on Radio 4, Talk Radio, BBC London, Sky News, BBC News, ITV News and LBC and is co-host on the weekly Pilot TV Podcast. Terri is a BAFTA member and was recently made a Fellow of the RSA in recognition of her work in print journalism and contribution to the magazine industry. Week 3 Tuesday 23 February Callum Hancock Victim of male sexual abuse allum is a professional boxer Cfrom Sheffield but states his biggest fight to date is one with life. Although he grew up in a loving environment, outside the family home life was completely different. In 2015 Callum sat his parents down to tell them he had been sexually abused and raped as a child by an older individual who made his early life a misery. Callum is currently the only active professional boxer globally to speak out about lived experience of male abuse to create positive change. Callum has shared his experience with the media, governing bodies, schools, universities, prisons and the NHS, among many other avenues where audiences can listen, learn, engage and understand, to break a silence that society has kept for far too long. Lesley Card Week 4 Tuesday 2 March South Yorkshire Police esley Card, Amy Nagy and Gael Lesley graduated in 2009 after LStigant are all graduates of the studying BA Journalism Studies University of Sheffield’s journalism alongside Gael. Upon finishing her department. studies, Lesley’s ultimate ambition was to work in the police press After graduation, they took different office, but there were no jobs career paths which all eventually led available! to the Corporate Communications department at South Yorkshire Police. Lesley spent several years working Corporate Communications facilitates in B2B marketing and PR for a range effective communications and of industries including engineering, engagement to help the force deliver architecture and IT. Finally, in 2012, the best possible service to the public. Lesley secured a role working as a Media Officer for South Yorkshire The team operates a reactive press Police and has spent the last nine office, promotes proactive news years working in the Corporate and activity and delivers a variety of Communications department. campaigns throughout the year. The team is also responsible for internal While at SYP, Lesley has held communications across the force. various specialist roles, including overseeing force communications for child sexual exploitation and abuse – most notably the press and communications around the Rotherham CSE trials. She is currently the force lead for communications relating to domestic abuse, honour based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. She has also provided communications and media support to all four districts in South Yorkshire throughout her career. Amy Nagy Gael Stigant After graduating in 2011 with an MA Gael has been the Communications in Broadcast Journalism, Amy spent Hub Manager for SYP for two years. seven years working as a journalist in Prior to this, she spent more than local radio. a decade in newspaper journalism, starting off as a trainee reporter Her career began over in at the Barnsley Chronicle and then Lincolnshire at commercial radio working for a number of regional station Lincs FM, where she was a titles. In her time as a reporter she newsreader and reporter, covering covered high-profile court cases major incidents, local politics and including the Rotherham CSE trials farming. Highlights include being and reported from the Hillsborough first on the scene at a gas explosion, inquests. interviewing then PM David Cameron and visiting the country’s largest In 2016, Gael became Head of News pumpkin producer. for the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds. She managed a team of Amy then moved back to Sheffield reporters as the title covered major to take a three-month contract with events such as the Jo Cox murder BBC Radio Sheffield. Five years later trial, and was heavily involved in she was still there, co-presenting the transition to a truly digital-first and producing the daily breakfast culture in the newsroom. show with Toby Foster and waking up South Yorkshire every morning. In her current role, Gael is responsible for the day-to-day Amy joined SYP in 2018. Over management of the media team. the last couple of years she has She is the force’s comms lead for been the district communications fraud and cybercrime and has also officer for Sheffield, supporting co-ordinated the communications the city’s command team with around high-profile incidents communications around such issues including the devastating murders of as gun crime, organised criminal two young brothers in Shiregreen, gangs, Page Hall and the police Sheffield. response to the 2019 floods. Week 5 Tuesday 9 March Dan Walker BBC Breakfast, BBC Sport an Walker is an award-winning the broadcaster’s Open golf coverage DBBC sport presenter and anchor for 11 years and was an integral part of BBC Breakfast. He hosts BBC of the BBC’s Olympic offering in both One’s Football Focus and the NFL 2012 and 2016. Show and regularly presents Match He is also the author of Dan Walker’s of the Day. Dan studied history and Thronkersaurus: Football’s Finest then journalism at the University of Tales and Magic, Mud & Maradona Sheffield and helped to set up the and most recently Remarkable People: University’s radio station. He then Extraordinary Stories of Everyday moved to Hallam FM before spending Lives, where he recounts the inspiring four years at Manchester’s Key 103 as stories of the courage and selflessness a presenter and commentator. Dan of people he has met throughout his then moved into television – initially career. at ITV and then the BBC. He’s covered Wimbledon, the Grand National, Dan lives in Sheffield with his wife Royal Ascot, the Derby, and the Six and three children and has set up a Nations. He has continued to work on bursary scheme in the Department of domestic, European and international Journalism Studies which sponsors football (including every major two MA students every year. tournament since 2004), co-hosted Week 6 Tuesday 16 March Chi Chi Izundu Senior Digital Reporter BBC News hi Chi’s career began at the controversial police risk assessment Cage of 17 as a columnist for Girl form 696, Chi also exposed links About Town magazine. She worked as between grime music and gang a researcher and producer with the violence in the UK and profiteering on BBC, studied at City University, then the resale of gig tickets. Chi has also joined Virgin Radio’s entertainment worked for the BBC’s Newsgathering news team. She freelanced at Sky team as a correspondent for their News and worked at ITN before flagship six and ten o’clock evening returning to the BBC as a reporter on news shows, travelling to Jamaica Radio 1Xtra, where she presented the to cover the Windrush scandal and two-hour news magazine show TXU reporting on Black Lives Matter and entertainment news on the Trevor protests in the UK and the coronavirus Nelson breakfast show.