Game on! Graduate’s Sun job spawns a dream Olympic future
4 May 2012
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MA Multi-Media Journalism graduate working in his dream role covering the Olympics for The Sun. |
Alex Terrell, a BU graduate from 2010 gained a dream Olympic sports job at the Sun in London within weeks of leaving MA Multi-Media Journalism.
He is developing a specialist role at the hub of the online department which takes him to exclusive launch Olympic meetings and gives an inside look at facilities as they unfold.
He’s gained some of the best contacts in the business with international athletes and Alex says the best thing about the job is that every day is different.
He says: “The Bournemouth course exposed me to a range of areas and skills that apply in the real world.
“It’s such a spectrum of skills and this is where the jobs and opportunities are now. You are not restricted to just Broadcast or just newspapers or magazines - the skills are all so forward-thinking.
“For example I sometimes now work as a sport reporter interviewing Olympic athletes and writing it up for the Sun online or the paper, and other days I am working in the heart of the technical areas, tidying up HTML, or setting publication times, and this range of activities are all things I got experience doing on the course newsdays.”
Alex’s job took him to the opening of the Olympic Velodrome and he’s already been to the Olympic Park half a dozen times.
“Studying at BU brought together my life as a sports enthusiast and joined it up to journalism and a career. I have a niche in Olympics now, and surprisingly few people are in this area. I have built up so many contacts. The course has been a really nice bridge.
“I am now also working closely in the integration of the new platforms which is where the future of journalism lies, in iPhones, iPads and Androids as well as the papers and websites. This is where journalism is going.”
Alex’s dream job at the Sun began with a Facebook development - he worked to create content and help sports stars like Chris Hoy and Jessica Annis to build their image on social media, a job he applied for and landed soon after leaving the course.
Alex credits BU’s open and flexible thinking for helping him to be adaptable in his approach to work, where he works creatively between commercial and editorial roles.
He states that these skills are essential in his unique bridging role, where he can be called on to operate in unexpected lines of his profession. He added “Legal training on the course has been really useful. You wouldn’t believe it but there is much more legal controversy in the celebrity side and PR side of journalism than in the much more publicized news stories.”
Alex keeps a sharp eye on the core mission of journalism - despite Twitter, social media and their often frivolous material, he plugs the need for journalism to stay centred in the public interest. “But it’s funny, the social side is where the hits are,” he added. “We used Twitter on the Bournemouth course - it came in the year before us - and it has just been developing since.”
In Bournemouth, Alex had already been to the Olympic sailing area at Weymouth. He’d also published in the course news website, Bourne Free, an exclusive story on policing plans for the Olympics, two years ahead of the games.
