Journalists’ capital climate news trip is caught on camera

Journalism students spent a day of newsgathering climate change stories in London – and you can see how they got on with a new video from the University of Northampton.

The camera followed Multimedia Journalism and Multimedia Sports Journalism undergraduates as they made their way around the capital to gather content for a special news day to mark the COP26 climate change summit.

The second and third years’ assignments saw them visit West Ham United’s London Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Westminster.

They gathered material for stories on environmental issues in sport as well as in several aspects of everyday life, including electric car use, the disadvantages of major sports events and recycled cups at football and rugby grounds.

They then headed back to Waterside campus in Northampton, to edit their packages into two separate programmes for radio and TV.

The students also used their news radar to track down political campaigner, Richard Ratcliffe, who was staging a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office. Multimedia Journalism student, Jessie George, was one of the trainee hacks who interviewed Mr Ratcliffe.

They also interviewed the leading Green member of the House of Lords, Jenny Jones, with former BBC political correspondent and Senior Lecturer, Kate Ironside, providing crucial guidance.

“Reporting is often like jumping into a cold swimming pool — you often feel uncomfortable at first but you gain in confidence once you get going,” said Senior Lecturer, Adrian Warner. “Once they jumped in, you could see the students gaining in confidence both in London and in the TV and radio programmes.”