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MA Multi-Media Journalism Students Win National Awards
17 March 2009

Three students from the MA Multi-Media Journalism course have won top national awards from the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC).

The BJTC, an accreditation body comprised of employers such as the BBC and Sky with university representatives, gives annual awards to the best student work in Britain and Ireland.

The Bournemouth University course scooped all the awards for online journalism among the UK universities with BJTC accreditation.

The awards announced early 2009 include Best Website, which went to Kyriaki Karadelis, and Best Multi-Platform Story, which was jointly won by Simon Essex and Verena Vogt. The Best Multi-Platform Story prize is sponsored by Sky Television.

All three students, who completed the MA Multi-Media Journalism in 2008, were judged on their Production Project websites which were part of their coursework. The three said they would benefit greatly from their awards.

Kyriake, who came to the course after a job with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, said "I came to it with no journalism and I left with a varied and broad knowledge. It's allowed me to apply for a wide range of jobs. My dream job would be with a multi media component such as podcasts such as working for the BBC". Kyriake gained first class honours at Durham University in ancient and modern history and her website showed how people give less to charity than they did.

Simon Essex, now working shifts for Sky sport, said "I think the course was the best choice for someone like me, who had not worked in the industry before and wanted to learn a wide range of journalism skills. I learned a vast amount about television, radio and web journalism from my tutors in a short and busy space of time. As a result, I left the course with the confidence to apply for jobs in any one of these three areas. My dream job would be either as a foreign correspondent for a news channel, a film critic for Sight and Sound or as a football commentator for Radio Five!". Simon's multi-media website showed and filmed the threat to humans from the decline in the bee population.

Verena Vogt who joined the Bournemouth course from Germany looked at the impact biofuels may have on living in the future. A graduate of Cologne University, Verena said "I had completely forgotten that I had applied when they rang me and said I had won. I am thrilled I am sure this will help my career".

MA Multi Media Journalism is a programme educating journalists to work in three news media – television, text, and radio – and publish them on the Internet. Course alumni have jobs with media across the world and two have won national awards in their own countries. In addition alumni work for many UK local and national media.