MA Journalism students hear from heavyweight politicians and journalists on campus at City and at Westminster.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published
"As a journalist, you want to open the world’s eyes to what’s going on and hopefully change the outcome,” said Esme Wren, Editor of Channel 4 News to students at City, University of London.
She spoke to nearly 100 journalism master’s students as part of the highly popular “Political Headlines” module.
Over the course of a week, the MA in Broadcast Journalism and MA in TV Journalism students heard from heavyweight journalists and politicians on campus at City and in Westminster about what makes the news.
Students heard their perspectives on finding a scoop, what makes a good story, how to report with impartiality, how to use data in reporting, what the role of Prime Minister Questions (PMQs) are, how journalists and politicians work together and what it is like to be a Lobby journalist.
Politicians from across the political spectrum included former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP; Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Gove MP; Lord Newby, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at Westminster; Ian Blackford MP, former leader of the SNP at Westminster and Lord McFall, Lord Speaker of the House of Lords.
“Be clear on your purpose”: Ros Atkins, Esme Wren, Michael Gove MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP speak on Political Headlines module
Top journalist speakers included Kate McCann, Political Editor and Co-host of Times Radio who leaked the full Labour manifesto in print in The Telegraph in 2017; City journalism alumnus and BBC News’ political editor Chris Mason; award-winning documentary-maker Michael Cockerell; BBC1 Presenter Laura Kuenssberg and many more.
The weeklong schedule is organised by Professor Barney Jones, who launched the The Andrew Marr Show and ran the BBC's flagship political programme for ten years.
City journalism alumna Esme Wren helped orchestrate the infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrews which discussed his links to Jeffrey Epstein. The behind-the-scenes of the viral interview most recently was dramatised in the Netflix film Scoop.
Now the Editor of Channel 4 News, she described the broadcaster as a disruptor. She said:
Discussing news trends in journalism, she said: “On occasion we use AI as a tool, but we don’t give it complete trust. Our journalists cross-check everything.”
Fellow journalist Ros Atkins has a portfolio career, holding the roles of BBC News Analysis, The Media Show Host, occasional DJ and author of the book The art of ex.plan.ation.
He reminded students that to communicate effectively as journalists, they needed to be able to explain why their story was important.
“Journalism is about collecting information on issues that matter to your audience and then passing that information on,” he said. “Finding the story is part of the equation - but so is successfully communicating the story."
He gave five top tips for effective communication:
Lewis Goodall, Podcast Co-Host of The News Agents and previously Policy Editor for BBC Newsnight, described political journalists as “intellectual magpies.”
He shared that The News Agents were in the process of launching a digital operation with a news website.
Discussing delivering news in the form of a podcast, he said: “Launching The News Agents podcast feels like being in a startup. This is the most editorial role I've ever held."
He added:
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