The Week of Media & Journalism

I remember my eyes beaming at the idea of a week solely dedicated to Media and Journalism — two amazing areas oozing with creativity and discussion…and I wasn’t let down. Leeds Trinity University hosted this one of a kind festival for all students which contained 45 minute long talks, interviews, Q&A sessions, film previews and even free Prosecco! Today, I will be sharing my top experiences of the week with you.
Monday
I attended three of five scheduled talks on Monday — all of which offered interesting perspectives; however, one talk stood out for me, personally. “Breaking the Mould: Channel 4 in Leeds” was an in-depth overview of the exciting relocation of Channel 4 HQ delivered by Emma Hardy and True North producer Sallie Leak. One key point they discussed is how there are not enough people from the North writing and creating content and they would like to make it easier for indie companies to approach Channel 4. It gave me fresh hope to maybe one day work for Channel 4, a company I have always admired thanks to Shameless, The Circle, The Inbetweeners and Fresh Meat to name a few.
Tuesday
‘Championing the North’ was an informative talk by last-minute speaker Carl Stroud — Colleague of the PR agency W Communications. He offered an honest insight into what it was like going from music journalism to newspaper journalism to a PR and Marketing expert. He offered some eye-opening stories on celebrity encounters, past career choices and his journey to where he is now; which was inspiring, especially as he spoke so passionately when explaining his current projects. I asked a big question — “How do you stand out in such a saturated area?” and it baffled him, which I was quite proud of. His answer was to simply persevere and keep at it even when you feel kicked down. A great bit of advice, I thought.
Wednesday
Wow! What a session this was. I attended the 6:30 pm Trinity Talk ‘Challenging the Stigma of Sex in the Media’ with Dr Kate Lister. Kate was funny, admirable and highly engaging in her presentation. She outlined facts and figures about sex workers, the stigmas attached, how the stigmas are statistically wrong, and what we can do to reduce the stigma. She reflected over how women tragically killed whilst at work were only seen as ‘the prostitute’ — and their killers are given ‘exciting’ names such as the Yorkshire Ripper which offered meaningful insight into how the media comes into effect. It genuinely did make me come home with a refreshed outlook. The refreshment room afterwards greeted guests with a flute of Prosecco and contained several canvas-sized newspaper clippings of victims and their families pleading for their child to be seen for their name, not their occupation. A great talk which I simply couldn’t praise enough; I even tweeted Kate and she retweeted it… result!
Thursday
The last day of Media and Journalism week offered some great events. “Squaring The Circle” was an interview by Nick Crossland — producer of online content for Channel 4’s ‘The Circle’, a new and exciting social media-based game where not everyone is who they say they are. He opened up about technical difficulties and glitches that nearly ruined the game, and how they resolved this. He discussed the importance of talkative players, and how 10 hours+ of footage per player, per day had to be edited into one hour within 24 hours — which seemed impossible! It was great and included some behind the scenes information of what goes on to keep the show up to standards.
At 4:30 pm, I and many others had the privilege to attend Ricardo Barker’s film screening of Re:Tension — a short film about living at University and noticing racism, micro digs/aggression and the stigma of talking about racism openly. It was emotional and offered a reality check to a stunned audience when it was time for the Q&A. The panel was more than passionate and answered any question with heartfelt responses and detailed explanations. I left that auditorium thankful to be further educated on such an important topic and with a changed perspective. Every person in every workplace should have access to this film, and it was disappointing to see only a few teachers attend this event.
It was the cherry on top of the Media and Journalism cake!
