ELECTION WINNER FOR HUDDERSFIELD JOURNALISTS
Wed, 14 Jun 2017 10:46:00 BST
THERESA May might have been less impressed, but the General Election proved a good result for Huddersfield’s journalism students.
Dozens of students from our Journalim courses got some great experience on general election night, covering counts across England for the likes of Sky News and ITV.
Twelve of our Sports Journalists were involved in the ITV election coverage, working through the night on 14 different constituency counts.
The students filmed all the declarations as they happened and immediately sent the footage to ITV Yorkshire’s studios in Leeds, as well as conducting interviews with the winning and losing politicians.
They were at various locations from Boston in south Lincolnshire, up to York in North Yorkshire and over to Grimsby on the east coast, using the University’s broadcast-quality camera kits to film shots and interviews for the ITV network.
Dave Devenport, the Sports Journalism course leader, said: “The fact that our students were trusted to do a professional job for a professional broadcaster is testament to our reputation in the industry and the quality of our students.”
It was a dramatic night for the students. Among the highlights:
- The Lincoln crew captured the moment when the Conservative MP lost his seat.
- The Rotherham crew were there when Labour retained their three constituency seats, to make it a clean sweep across south Yorkshire for Jeremy Corbyn.
Chris Ward, the News Editor at ITV Yorkshire, said: “The students did a good job and I'm really grateful to them. Editorially, they were spot on. They got the shots and the interviews with the candidates and the new MPs.
“They also rang in to alert us when the counts were about to be made and they weren't shy when it came to ringing if they needed advice or help from us. It went really well.”
The students who were working for ITV were made up of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year Sports Journalists.
Dave Devenport said: “It shows how versatile and knowledgeable our students are, across all our years.
“They may be studying Sports Journalism, but they recognise that to be a sports journalist, they need to be able to report on news and have an understanding of news as well.”
Huddersfield’s Sports Journalism students worked for ITV during the 2015 General Election and because of their success, they were asked to help again this year.
Also working on election night were a number of Huddersfield’s Sports Journalism graduates who are now working in the industry like Ben Turner and Arif Ahmed who work in television and Ricky Charlesworth who is working at the Yorkshire Post newspaper – all involved in covering news as well as sport.
ITV Yorkshire already gives Huddersfield’s Sports Journalism students full-year placements with a number of successful students going on to work at ITV Yorkshire and other TV stations.
Here’s what the students say:
Adam Percival – 3rd year Sports Journalist
"It was interesting seeing the developments throughout the night, working alongside the professional media. We got a good position to film the declaration and we were able to quickly swivel around to new angle to do the interviews."
Molly Marrison – 1st year Sports Journalist
"Yes it was a very long night in Halifax! But it went really well; working with ITV’s Hannah Miller was a great experience! I learnt a lot from her, watching her edit together the video clips and being a part of asking questions and interviewing candidates was really good!
Joe Neadley – 2nd year Sports Journalist
"The night was exciting and a great experience to be involved in real journalism surrounded by major news corporations."
Patrick Moore – 2nd year Sports Journalist
"It was a great night. As Labour's Karen Lee won the Conservative Lincoln seat it turned out to be a great story and there was a massive buzz around when it came to interviewing. I'd highly recommend it to absolutely anybody, even if they don't enjoy politics as much as they ought to."
Craig Draycott – 3rd year Sports Journalist
"The night went really well. I worked with ITV’s Kate Hemingway who’s a fantastic professional to learn from and she allowed me to do so much."
Ben Armitage – 2nd Year Sports Journalist
"It was good to do something away from sport, and possibly out of my comfort zone, because it provides you with that extra bit of experience in the real world."
Craig Bratt – 2nd year Sports Journalist}
"I loved election night and would definitely do it again. We did some great interviews in Rotherham, especially with a very giddy Sarah Champion. All in all, a really fun night."
