UCLan students are roving reporters for Society of Editors conference

27 October 2016

Student journalists break news on industry conference as it happens

Journalism students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) enjoyed a successful two days at the Society of Editors conference in Carlisle earlier this month.

MA Broadcast Journalism students Hayden Atkins, Steph Gabbatt and Fiona Kinloch were joined by undergraduates Laura Creighton, Jade Taylorson and Emmi Bowles to provide extensive online coverage of the event.

Over 200 media and journalistic delegates attended the annual conference, and it was the role of the UCLan team to assist in the social media activity and running of the online blog over the two days.

The students utilised mobile journalism (mojo) technology to conduct interviews, whilst radio pieces were also completed and quickly turned around into copy for the rolling blog.

A number of exclusive stories were broken by the students at the event, including BBC Editor Matthew Barraclough’s claims “white paper” reporters could be trialled as early as May 2017.

In what was a thoroughly interesting and insightful experience for all involved, MA student Hayden Atkins believes the conference was best for networking and building contacts.

He said: “The chance to mingle with Editors from some of the biggest publications in the country was an absolutely fantastic part of the whole experience.

“We met the likes of Ian MacGregor (weekend Editor of The Telegraph) and Sir Alan Moses (Head of IPSO) to name a few, and the chance to quiz them on their pasts and our futures was invaluable.”