Mics at the Ready: UON Journalism students stay up till sunrise to report on UK General Election

University of Northampton Journalism students worked through last night to bring the nation the General Election results, with breaking news and updates as they happened.

A total of 22 Multimedia Journalism and Multimedia Sports Journalism undergraduates* were at the heart of a UK-wide collaboration, broadcasting an election results programme from 10pm on Thursday 4 July until 6am this morning (Friday 5 July) on Northampton’s local radio station, NLive Radio.

In the studio, UON students were responsible for producing, presenting and reporting the Northampton counts, while students from more than 20 other universities live reported from counts across the UK.

The results programme was broadcast in conjunction with the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC), which accredits journalism courses in the UK, including the ones at Northampton.

This collaborative student project was devised and led by UON’s Senior Lecturer in Journalism and BJTC Deputy Chair, Kate Ironside.

“This is the fourth time we’ve successfully run this collaboration,” Kate reflects. “The students replicate what the broadcast news organisations do on the night, and this year’s reporting went off without a hitch – which is a true credit to our students.

“The whole experience offers brilliant industry practice for them, which in turn provides a real boost to their employability. They too, as we now know, were part of a very memorable night of election results which they won’t forget anytime soon.”

The home station of the UK-wide collaboration was Northampton’s local radio station, NLive Radio. Station Manager, Martin Steers celebrated the success of the project: “This was a fantastic example of the huge learning benefits NLive Radio delivers for UON students.

“The journalism students staged an eight-hour live broadcast to a genuine audience – our valued Northampton listeners. This is a real test of employability which we know instils industry values.

“What’s more, through being one of the Directors of the UK Community Radio Network, we were able to ensure the programme was taken by community radio stations across the UK – so students can tell prospective employers they have staged, produced, presented, and reported for a nationwide broadcast on this historic general election.”

“Today, I’m a mature student reporting from a count – and I couldn’t be happier…”

Second-year Multimedia Sports Journalism student, Andy Durrant was one of the team of students responsible for reporting the voting counts within the county on behalf of Sky News. The experience offered him a valuable opportunity to look back at where his studies at UON have taken him so far.

“In the last general election, I went to vote on a cold, wet and miserable morning in December before going to do a 2-10pm shift in a factory,” reflected Andy. “Fast forward to today, and as a mature student I’m reporting from a count – and I couldn’t be happier.

“It has been a fantastic experience to report on my first general election and I’ve learnt so much. I had the opportunity to interview two of the winning candidates in Northampton North and Northampton South, as well as work for Sky News as part of the collaboration between BJTC, UON and NLive.

“I have learnt the need for patience on nights like this – there’s a lot of waiting around, avoiding rumours of when seats will be declared, but it’s an experience I’d repeat again in a heartbeat – though maybe once I’ve had some sleep.”

“Reporting live on the vote count has been a great experience…”

Multimedia Sports Journalism student, Ciara Steward, was working hard behind the scenes at NLive, making sure the UK-wide reporting took place without a hitch.

She said: “It’s been a busy week in the lead-up to this general election. Only last Friday (28 June), I hosted my first hustings – a meeting at which candidates in an election address potential voters – for Northampton South, which was very nerve wracking, but a great opportunity to widen my skillset and build my confidence within the field.

“General elections only come around every four years, and having the opportunity to be part of the team reporting live on the vote count has been a great experience, and one that I won’t be in any rush to forget.”

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

*The full team of reporting students was as follows:

Editor – Cameron Watson

Presenters – Will Oelrich, Cole Mason, Sophie Smith

Count Reporters – Jessica McLoughlin, Andy Durrant, Dante Grey, Fran Roche, Alistair Jardine, Oziel Cabady, Kehinde Taiwo, Victoria Machar, Justine Larter, Ben Grundy

Producers – Anna Fogden, Ciara Steward, Dan Moore

Social media team – James Logan, Liam Soanes, Callum Cosford, Abi Richardson

Bulletins – Tom Toseland, Thomas Harrington, Olivia Hermans.