Tag Archives: Sheffield

Journalism Daily: Council newspapers, INMA/OPA event and more editorial outsourcing

Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features:

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On the Editors’ Blog:

Sheffield photojournalism students refuse exam retake

As reported by HoldtheFrontPage yesterday, some photojournalism graduates from Sheffield College have been told they must resit one of their end of year exams after a mistake made by their college. More than half of the students are reportedly boycotting the proposed retake.

The college recently wrote to around 20 students to inform them that they would need to resit a law paper taken on June 4 2009.

The National Council for Training of Journalists (NCTJ) invalidated the paper because of a ‘procedural blunder’, it told Journalism.co.uk. This is thought to centre around the fact that the computers used to sit the exam had access to the web. This is the first time the college has used computers for the law exam.

In a press statement given to Journalism.co.uk, Andrew Cropley, executive director of the Norton College campus, which is home to the photography, media and journalism courses, said an investigation into how this error had occurred had been launched. He emphasised that the students were in no way to blame for the mistake.

“The college will ensure that future exams are taken in strict compliance with NCTJ procedures,” added Cropley.

“The college is totally committed to getting this right. We are proud of our press photography and photojournalism course, which has a national reputation for training some of the best media photographers in the country.”

Many students are now busy in full-time jobs, some are even thought to have left the country. Paul Johnson, now working as a press photographer at the Times and Star in Workington, told HTFP: “I am supposed to be doing my NCE in November, but I don’t now when I’m going to be able to fit it all in.”

The Sheffield course is thought to be the longest running photojournalism course in the UK.

To reduce inconvenience as much as possible, the college will reimburse all travel expenses and will create individual exam dates for students. Despite this, students are forming a protest against the ordered retake including a Facebook group against the move.

A spokesperson for the NCTJ gave the following statement to Journalism.co.uk: “In fairness to all candidates, and to protect the integrity of the exams and the industry’s standards for journalism, centres must ensure candidates sit NCTJ exams under the required conditions.”

As of yet there is no further information regarding the status of the protest.

If you are affected by the exam retakes please do get in touch with either office [at] journalism.co.uk or laura [at] journalism.co.uk.

Express & Star using Qik for football reports

The Express & Star is using Qik, allows reporters to live stream video footage from a mobile handset on the paper’s website, to produce post-match video reports from football games

The resulting videos offer a short, sharp analysis of the games, and their immediacy – they’re clearly filmed just after the final whistle – will surely appeal to football fans.

Reports this weekend came from Wolverhampton Wanderers’ victory over Sheffield Wednesday and West Bromwich Albion’s opening Premiership game.

Five libel

Football club chairman David Allen has started libel proceedings over comments made on the message boards of BBC radio’s Five Live show, the Press Gazette reports.

Allen, who is chair of Sheffield Wednesday, says defamatory messages have been left on the forum connected to the channel’s weekend football programme 606. He also alleges that ‘the BBC has become mixed up in the wrongdoing of some users’.

According to Press Gazette, he wants to sue two individuals, who go by the online usernames of ‘enchanted-fox’ and ‘Rocker’, for comments made about him in August. The popularity of online casinos is growing every year. And although in many countries the authorities are trying to ban gambling, but modern technology allows you to access any online casino with a click in a VPN application.

Allen has asked London’s High Court to order the BBC to reveal the names, emails and postal addresses of the individuals concerned.

On a quick scan the comments have been removed, with entries on Sheffield Wednesday only going as far back as September.