The Reporters' Academy

I have been attending The Reporters' Academy for around a year and have taken part in many opportunities with them. I have conducted many interviews and attended many events which have helped me to broaden my skills and expand my portfolio. The Reporters' Academy is a youth organization that offers media training to young people and is based at Media City UK in Salford. It is also a media production company that has worked on the Olympic and Commonwealth games among other prestigious sporting events.

This was an interview with Salford City College's sports academy coordinator Neil Hayden. The purpose of the interview was to gain an insight into the academy as well as to provide  an update on some of the sporting team's results and performances.

Test Match Special

Warm pies and pasties greeted us at the entrance to the room, along with a plentiful supply of orange juice and water. In order to enjoy our meat-filled treats, we wandered over to a long bench, where we obliviously sat between ex-England Captain Michael Vaughan and Test Match Special commentator Jonathon ‘Aggers’ Agnew. It was only until the two cricketing legends were called up to their seats at the front stage and Michael Vaughan complained about his inability to finish his pie did we realise who they were!

The two men were joined by TMS producer Adam Mountford and were in conversation with one of 5live’s reporters- Eleanor Oldroyd. Humorous tales were recounted from their times both on and off the pitch, including fellow commentator Henry ‘Blowers’ Blofeld’s unique approach, Agnew’s seemingly constant ‘accidental’ innuendo and Geoffrey boycott’s love for Katy Perry.

The three men spoke highly of their jobs and their love of the game and commentary. This included their love of the provision of cake and how they are paid to watch cricket.

“ Everyday I go to work, I look forward to it” – Adam Mountford.

The men also spoke at the changing face of technology over the years. When Agnew was beginning in broadcasting, his commentary had to be relayed several times across different countries, before reaching England in a distinctive crackly, grainy sound. Now, you can broadcast from a mobile phone, as Adam Mountford recalled an awkward interview with a dressing gown wearing Geoffrey Boycott and how ‘certain things were visible’.

Michael Vaughan believed that helping people to visualize the game helped make TMS a success and a tip he provided for any up and coming broadcast journalist’s was “Try to bring life to the game”. Aggers followed up on this, stating that

“Radio communicates with people”.

Salford Sports Hour

The following is a piece of radio work I created for Salford City College, in order to promote their SCC Reporter's Academy. Callum Wallace and I are the two presenters featured in the show, in which we use a mix of previously recorded interviews and live ones. People who are interviewed include: Damen Bramwell (media tutor at Eccles Sixth Form Centre), Dom McGuinness (talkSPORT reporter), Alex Harvey (Manchester FA), Ryan Kidd (ex-Preston North End footballer) and Steve Davis (6 time world snooker champion). 

I am the first to speak in the radio show.

Golf Day

The following is a video of a charity golf day for the Paul Hunter Foundation. A fellow student and I from Eccles Sixth form Centre attended the event and interviewed many of the professional snooker players who were taking part. I also interviewed the organiser of the event and the chairman of world snooker.







https://www.salfordcc.ac.uk/blog/2014/03/10/students-putt-media-skills-test-golf-charity-event/

Berlin

Having thoroughly studied the workings and infrastructure of English media, it was a genuine treat for us to witness a city with a rich, cultural media background and a history filled with drama, sadness and ultimately, joy and relief. We were in the German Capital- the booming city of Berlin.

Currently studying media at Eccles Sixth Form Centre, we all understood how huge and significant it is in our present lives with all of us using it on a daily basis, whether in the form of TV, radio, film or the internet. Thus, we all looked forward to experiencing another country’s media in our 5 day trip from the 28^th of April to the 2^nd May. The trip to Berlin consisted of first year and second year media students, accompanied by Media Tutors Damen Bramwell, Iain Goodyear and Study Support Assistant Jessica Elsey.

Amongst a packed itinerary were trips to the Babelsburg film park, the Berlin film museum and a tour of Axel-Springer, one of Europe’s largest publishing houses. While at the museum we learnt of German movie stars to rival those of Hollywood, witnessed some of the curiosities (such as the death mask of an actor) and read about the anti-Semitic propaganda films released during the Nazi party’s reign, due to the Third Reich’s grip on the media.

An open top bus tour allowed us to view the historic sights of Berlin, including the Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin Wall, covered with amazing and thought-provoking graffiti remains as a poignant and thoughtful reminder of the Cold War and provided us with some interesting photographs.

A trip to the Berlin TV tower which stands at a staggering 328 metres (1,207 feet), provided an amazing viewing platform for our final day, with informative boards placed below the windows giving us a brief history and profile about the wide range of buildings that surrounded us for miles.

The trip provided us with a wide range of knowledge of how the media works in other countries and how their rules, history and culture differs to ours. A very successful trip overall- with plans for a possible trip to Budapest next year already on the radar.