Why study BA (Hons) Sports Journalism transcript

Image of student presenting to camera in the newsroom at university

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00:00

I kind of, chose Sports Journalism through my A-Levels, I really enjoyed doing sport, I really enjoyed doing media, I did a bit of photography as well as another A-Level, kind of merged them all together, found sports journalism, looked around loads of unis at journalism, sports journalism, sports media, but definitely came across this course and thought this was definitely the one for me.

Student of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Daisy O'Reilly is sitting in the radio studio at university talking to camera.

0:22:17

I would say that wouldn't I of course, being the Course Leader of the Sports Journalism degree! But the great thing about sport is it's at the centre of every culture, at the centre of every community, at the centre of all the sorts of things that you like to do. So studying Sports Journalism for me, is a real way of engaging in a passion, engaging in a hobby, but also getting you ready, all being well, to get a job in a professional industry, an industry that you're interested in, an industry that you're passionate about and an industry that can be very very rewarding.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Will Cope is stood in the newsroom at Solent University, talking to camera.

1:00:09

I love the creative side of the sports journalism, definitely going in, creating like a news bulletin, or coming out and doing a piece to camera, something more where you're doing a few stages of it like, you're doing, you're making your script and then you're speaking and then you're editing it all together. Yeah I definitely love more the creative side of it.

Student of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Daisy O'Reilly is sitting in the radio studio at university talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to groups of students working in the newsroom at Solent University in a variety of roles from presenting to camera, live video mixing and working in groups

1:20:20

It's important to us to do as much as we can to replicate a professional environment, so we have things like news days where we put our students under a little bit of pressure, get them to work to a dedicated deadline and ask them to produce content that is fit for purpose for hourly, or sometimes two hourly bulletins. We do this in radio, we do this in tv, we broadcast live to the internet, on YouTube, on Facebook. We get them making sure that they use social media to promote their work, their content, their brand, and all these sorts of things they'd be expected to do in the professional workplace as well. So we're looking to produce multi-talented, multimedia sports journalism students, that are comfortable using audio, video, social media, websites, text but also have an understanding of the context and background behind sport.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Will Cope is stood in the newsroom at Solent University, talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways to groups of students working in the newsroom at Solent University in a variety of roles from presenting to camera, live video mixing and working in groups

2:22:08

Everything in Solent, all of their updated media, everything just felt so brand new, felt very modern, I think Solent's radio studios, the actual camera studios, everything like that, it just felt very modern, it felt like you were going into what actually probably is going to be the real world almost. Definitely going into the actual workplace.

2:44:00

The Sports Journalism degree here at Solent is the oldest and biggest accredited Sports Journalism degree in the country. Now a lot of people might say well okay, 'well so what, what does that mean?', but what it means, is that we've got the experience, the academic know-how, the practical know-how and also the tutors that teach the students here on this degree, are vastly experienced -not only in an academic setting, but also in a sports journalism setting.

3:09:15

My lecturers because they worked in the industry, or are still working in the industry, it's very helpful because we get to kind of, see how the working is still going, because they can come back and feed back to us. Yeah definitely because of the fact that they have been in the work in the past is helping us all go into it and I think they're also creating the next sports journalist for the future.

Student of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Daisy O'Reilly is sitting in the radio studio at university talking to camera.

3:31:17

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Will Cope is stood in the newsroom at Solent University, talking to camera.

3:50:02

So coming and doing Sports Journalism here at Solent means that the students would get a really fantastic educational experience, an academic experience, but also, the know-how of how to deal with a practical environment once they've graduated from university. The most important thing is definitely learning with others because then going into the industry, that is you do you don't ever do anything really by yourself, you've always got a team around you, so I think working with other students in my class especially, it creates that good bond that you're going to have with other people because you've got so many people in like, say doing a camera piece, you've got someone behind the camera, someone doing the script, so working together to make sure you're all comfortable and all know what's going on. So definitely the teamwork.

Student of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Daisy O'Reilly is sitting in the radio studio at university talking to camera.

4:20:12

We place a huge amount of importance on our students doing work in the industry, so yes it's important that they attend classes, they do assessments, they meet deadlines of course it is. But it's also important for them to get an exposure to working in the industry outside of university. Anyone can graduate with a bit of paper that says they've completed a degree, but what we want students to do is, complete a degree, but get experience of working in the sports journalism industry, again, so employers can see that they are fit for practice at the end of it.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Will Cope is stood in the newsroom at Solent University, talking to camera.

4:54:20

So I had the opportunity last year to work with a Sunday league team here in Southampton called Infinity FC, doing just a little bit of media for them, updating their twitter on games, or even filming the games and then editing it after, putting a little post-match up interview or something, all up on YouTube. This year I'm working with Solent Ladies, going, watching them going to their training and then going to their games every Wednesday, so like, last week I was in Gloucester filming them, a few weeks time I'll be in Cardiff filming them. So yeah, it's definitely getting you out and about, seeing different people, seeing different players and all of that.

Student of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Daisy O'Reilly is sitting in the radio studio at university talking to camera.

5:34:10

Having that exposure to the workplace they then understand what it means to be a professional in the sports journalism industry. So it's important for us, it's important for employers, but it's also important for the student to be able to get that exposure and realise the sorts of things that they need to do to get on in the workplace.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Will Cope is stood in the newsroom at Solent University, talking to camera.

5:58:18

That's one reason I chose this uni as well, because Sports Journalism was so broad. A lot of other unis didn't offer just sports journalism as a whole, you had to kind of know what you wanted to do. I think that's one reason why I chose Sports Journalism because I'm still, I don't know what path I want to take yet, that is definitely why I took it because I've got everything on my C.V. I can show that I can do a lot of different things.

Student of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Daisy O'Reilly is sitting in the radio studio at university talking to camera.

6:18:02

Many of our graduates have gone on to do some fantastic things at some fantastic organisations, whether that's broadcasters like Sky Sports, Talk Sport, Amazon Prime, ESPN, big production companies like IMG, companies like Premier League Productions, or whether it's on the written side, so The Athletic, The Times newspaper, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, we have a number of alumni that have gone and worked at football clubs like Southampton Football Club, Brighton, Watford, Chelsea, we've had people that have gone and worked in rugby at Bath rugby, and Saracens, we've had people working for the RFU the Rugby, Football Union, the ECB, the lTA, The Lawn Tennis Association, so not only broadcasters and traditional media organisations, but also sports organisations. We've had people that have gone from here and worked in in those environments and that's because of the teaching that they get on the degree and it's because of the professional standards that we maintain here on the degree.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Sports Journalism, Will Cope is stood in the newsroom at Solent University, talking to camera.

7:26:03

Upbeat music plays, then fades out. Cuts to graphic of animated colourful graphic, that fades down, and Solent University logo fades up as well as text, www.solent.ac.uk. [Video ends]