Cue the mics, University of Northampton journalism students gear up to deliver local election coverage

With the local elections set to take place on 1 May, a team of Multimedia Journalism and Sports Journalism students at the University of Northampton are getting set to go live and deliver the election results as they happen to thousands of listeners across the county.

A total of 18 Multimedia Journalism and Multimedia Sports Journalism undergraduates will be at the heart of the vote count, broadcasting a six-hour election programme via local radio station NLive Radio, while simultaneously delivering breaking updates to a live blog and social media.

To capture the full scoop on the vote counts for all 76 hopeful councillors, the team of students will be divided between reporting live from the count itself, while others will be supporting the council media team during one of their busiest times.

The reporting set to be delivered by the students will offer the most extensive coverage of the local council results, casting a spotlight solely on the vote count taking place within Northampton and dedicating their full six-hours of reporting to bring updates live and direct.

This will be the latest in a long line of professional reporting delivered by students on the University of Northampton’s Multimedia Journalism course, following in the footsteps of their coverage on the US elections – both in 2020 and in 2024 – as well as their coverage of the last local elections in 2021, and of the UK General Elections of 2019 and 2024. It was for this which their reporting won a Silver Award in the 2024 Community Radio Awards.

The team will be led by the University’s Senior Lecturer in Journalism – and former Westminster political journalist – Kate Ironside, who recently appeared as a special guest on local radio station, NLive Radio’s new weekly politics show, sharing her expertise and insight in the political background of the area, as well as discussing the pressing issues that voters might be considering when casting their vote.

Reflecting on the value of the planned coverage, Kate said: “Not only will this be a moment of high employability value for the students (as well as an assessed Newsday), it will also perform an important public service for the residents of West Northants.

“Our students will be working with local stakeholders to provide real social impact, as well as interviewing prospective and winning local politicians live on air as part of the programme. These are experiences which can’t be taught in a classroom, and is one of many opportunities we offer our students to build experience and get stuck-in with local journalism.”

The local election vote count will take place on Friday 2 May, from which the results are expected to be announced between 3pm and 8pm.

Members of the public interested in following the students’ full coverage can tune-in via 106.9FM across Northampton, online via nliveradio.com or the dedicated smart phone app, or by asking your smart speaker to “launch NLive Radio.”

Find out more about studying Multimedia Journalism and Multimedia Sports Journalism at the University of Northampton.