There’ll be a briefing for all Year 3 students at 12noon on Monday 3 December in the small newsroom. It’s vital you all attend. We’ll be briefing you on the online news day on Friday, and also giving important information about your NCTJ diploma.

Returning students will be able to access the newsrooms from Monday, September 23. The undergraduate newsrooms have been locked this summer while Gerardo has installed the new iMacs, and will continue to be out of use until the start of Welcome Week while software is uploaded to them. The postgrad Macs are also receiving a […]

My first news editor didn’t like to see his reporters consulting the newsroom dictionary. “If you’re having to look a word up,” he’d growl, “then it’s too complicated for the readers. Use a simpler one.” I always felt uneasy about the reductive nature of his argument. If everybody followed his logic, wouldn’t the English language […]

 Hi guys,  Conference is at 8:30 am. Can you please send your ideas to us on Facebook or email beforehand so we can go check through in more detail during conference. The programme will be 20 mins and we are going to follow the style of Channel 4 News. We are aiming to include live […]

  I was going to blog this last night but… something came up.. so here it is today. You look at Stephen Fry and you see the personification of most, if not all, British stereotypes. He is polite, charming, well spoken and I’m sure if you gave him a bowler hat and an umbrella he […]

Tonight is my last night in Kent, and there was a beautiful sunset, so I thought I’d share it with you all now that everyone’s scattered around the world. Fingers crossed that I didn’t get a speeding ticket whilst racing to catch it… Anyway, it’s been a lovely year. So I’ll see all you second […]

Another coup for the social network.

For those of us stuck at Gillingham and sick of walking down its dog-poo littered streets, I have recently found a perfect place and would love to recommend it to you. Last weekend, a flatmate and I went running at the Strand Leisure Park, a short 5 minute jog away from Liberty Quays. Once the […]

Thank you all for volunteering to help out at the Open Day.  Helpers for Saturday are:  Alan McGuinnes, Nick Poskitt, Becci Hughes, Daniel May, Nikki Sturmey, Angela Davey, James Averill, Eva Tsipi, Marina San Miguel, Alex Dack, Ella Copeland. Harriet Robinson and Beth O’Leary.  The event takes place in the Pilkington Room on the ground floor […]

There’s a brilliant feature on The Guardian’s website today about Brentford FC: apparently the owners of the only football ground in the country to have a pub on each corner. It’s the kind of quirky fact that could form the basis of a great soap-opera style print feature about the regulars and the characters in […]

Paul Staines a.k.a. Guido Fawkes has been summoned to appear before the Leveson inquiry to answer questions relating to his advance publication of a version of Alastair Campbell’s evidence to the inquiry. Staines says he obtained the document legally. I think it is worth reading and that it makes some powerful arguments, but you can no longer […]

Earlier in the summer I saw a post on my Twitter feed about online portfolios. I meant to post it on here sooner but I got a bit side-tracked. Seeing as journalists seeking employment are effectively selling themselves to prospective employers, usually through CVs, it isn’t surprising to see how useful a good online portfolio […]

MA students please come to the undergraduate newsroom after conference today and I will train you up as sound/camera assistants for today’s third year TV reporters. 

Hi everyone, I recently started writing again to a long running blog of mine. If anyone is interested then have a read, make comments, and tell me how wrong and biased I am. http://jwarner-reports.blogspot.com/ I look forward to hearing your views…  

Attachment Size Welcome Week timetable 2009.doc 50 KB

Edward Leigh, a Conservative, has denounced the Alternative Voting system as “unsatisfactory, un-British, and causing frustration and anger“. He is also strongly opposed to the referendum as it falls on the same day as Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh elections arguing that although it will save us nearly £8 million, “let’s not sell our political […]

Reporting Conflict students will find the full text covering the conflict in Northern Ireland in Module Notes, as well as the reading I asked them to do for tomorrow and reading for next Thursday’s class on the frontline reporter as eye witness.

I’ve only just caught up with this New York Times series from last week by David Rohde, the reporter who was held for seven months by the Taliban last year but made an unlikely escape. It’s a gripping tale on many levels, but I thought I’d highlight here the techniques employed by the newspaper to […]

Since Monday I have been closely following the trial against Anders Behring Breivik. It has simply been impossible to avoid seeing the pictures and footage of the Norwegian mass murderer smiling with satisfaction before his deeds were read out or the headlines “I would do it again”.  It has been the top story in most […]

After seeing friends sharing the pictures claiming to be the killers of 2-year-old Jamie Bulger, I waited for something to happen about it. So last week Neil Harkins and Dean Liddle were given nine month sentences (suspended for 15 months) for publishing the photos – http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22310412 Of course, everyone who shared the pictures were all potentially […]

The CfJ’s Shorthand Hall of Fame continues to fill up, following a successful set of results from the February exams. Congratulations to: James Averill, Sophie Jackson, Simon Jayawardena, Tom Ruzyllo, Nicola Sturmey, Eva Tsipi and Melanie Wimmer who all passed at 80wpm; Danielle Cheney, Joe Cladingboel, Alex Dack, Alister Houghton, Dean Kilpatrick, Sara Malm, Dan […]

Please could all students return and sign in all kit by next wednesday at the very latest. I need to audit/fix/account for all of our equipment before the end of term. This is very important. If you have lost or broken anything please let me know. Kit can only be returned by it’s original borrower […]

If you’ve not already done so, please go to Lesley’s office and pick up the EML test paper which we’ll be working through next Friday. (I only have this one in hard copy so can’t e-mail it to you.) In preparation for the EML exam on January 25th, over the Xmas break please work on […]

 Hi guys,    We are going to be following the same format as Five Live Drive for the half-hour slot so could everyone please listen to a couple of the shows on the website so that you know how they do live links etc. The emphasis will be on live material for the reporters to […]