MA/PGDip Journalism: Salford

I've been getting very excited this week by the prospect of Journalism. Out with writing for fun. In with writing for money. I'm putting together the final thoughts on an MA/PGDip in Journalism at Salford, starting September 2008.

With mediacity:uk open for business in 2011 (check progess of building works here), I hope that this degree will open up some major networking opportunities in journalism in Great(er) Manchester. Training is absolutely essential to becoming a journalist. You need the NCTJ qualifications - along with any subbing/layout, proofing and interviewing skills you've picked up along the way - to be taken seriously.

I did look at other MA Journalism providers in the North West. They included the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston, which has a very strong website, and an impressive Online Journalism course, and Sheffield Hallam, which came top of the NCTJ rankings recently. Both centres are highly rated and have very positive alumni progress stories.

I have to admit I was less sure about Salford. My initial interest was sparked by seeing that the MediaGuardian columnist and all-round media hero of mine, Steve Hewlett, was a Visiting Professor there. Fourth place in the above NCTJ rankings did Salford's reputation no harm either. But Salford itself, which as I learnt on a fact-finding pootle around Outer Manchester, is not the prettiest place in the world. Salford Quays, the apple in the architects' eyes, is an overwhelming sheen of glass and expensive lighting. The imposing Imperial War Museum and the Lowry, however, do a good job of outshining Salford's more outre architectural behaviour.



Staying in and around Manchester was a big draw, as I've settled in very well here in the leafy paradise of West Didsbury - The Chelsea of the North.

Moving to Manchester was a big step for me; goodbye farms and running over phesants, hello live poetry and big, big gigs. It's a wonderful, complex, dirty, beautiful contradiction of a place, and it's just inspired so many thoughts and ideas since moving in Feb 2006. The arts scene is fookin mint, which helps. Some of the amazing things I've already seen in Manchester include:

Paul Hartnoll (one-half of Orbital) playing electroacoustic techno with full band (electric harp, drums, flute, cello) to an assorted crowd of curious stoners, sharply dressed ex-ravers with kids in tow and beardy middle-aged nutters. All the better for taking place in that achingly divine structure, the Bridgewater Hall.

Finding out a guy I work with in Moss Side is a genuinely talented guitarist and songwriter - Kamal Arafa.

Seeing Whitworth Park in glorious sunshine, and knowing that Moss Side's not the rat-infested crack den the national media claim it to be.

And this, my personal favourite; you don't often see a company willing help itself to acres of bad press. Redstone, building student flats in Moss Side, wagered on a completion date of 2006, a splashed it across a big beige sign:

It is now 2008. Yes, they are still building. Yes, the sign is still there. I have thought about pointing it out, but I don't think they'd buy me a pint for doing so.

Also worth considering was Aphex Twin (9th December 07), playing a blinding set underneath Piccadilly Train Station as part of The Warehouse Project. It was freezing cold, with a smoking ban imposed, but brilliant all the same; the underground space set out for the gig was enormous, cavernous, with films, graphics and animations playing out the jagged brick walls. Luke Vibert weighed in with a funky IDM set which was also very good.

I may also have scored some work experience for the well-reviewed community magazine the Salford Star. To read editor Stephen Kingston's inspirational piece on Salford and community journalism, click here.

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Internet "the future" claims journalist

Yes, this was an obvious conclusion from the Future of Journalism debate, held in John Rylands Library as part of the Manchester International Festival. The two hour session was chaired by Media Guardian columnist and local legend Steve Hewlett, all joviality and bulldog nous, allowing this four way tete-a-tete to flow. The subject focused on Journalism in the "new media age", dramatised with some aplomb by the cheekily journalistic title:

"Has the advent of citizen journalism made the traditional media obsolete?"

The focus fell on the shifting interplay between traditional news-providers, such as the BBC, and their audience. When anyone around the world can write, respond and add to your debate, they asked, what does the journalist offer? Is everyone a potential journalist now? And with no implicit control over what is who writes, or what is written, how can editors steer an issue?
As Comment is Free editor Georgina Henry pointedly remarked, "All of us in the [print] sector are losing readers. Advertisers are shipping over to the web. It's inevitable."
She went on: "You can't have total reign over what people write. The idea's absurd. And in encouraging free debate, you can only have measure of control on your own site, nowhere else."

The thing is, when you allow readers to comment, you implicitly support their viewpoint's validity. And when stuff like this gets posted to Henry's own site, you have to wonder how to control people without the dreaded word censorship:

Noah88 writes:

You can hardly blame the politicians for trying to exploit the media. With the exception of a few, most journalists are lazy incomptent [sic] wankers, only too glad to take a spin-doctor generated press release, copy and paste it into the paper and go to the pub. The miracle is that anyone still pays to read such crap.

I suppose you can excuse some of them on the basis that ratings/circulation are everything, but places like the BBC have no such excuse. Sadly they're usually the worst culprits, shamelessly broadcasting the latest government propaganda in double-quick time so they can get onto the real issues like Big Brother and Paris Hilton.

Yes, this is an extreme example, but you get my point. By allowing free comment, you leave yourself open to one-sided or exaggerated arguments, you affect the balance of your story. Again, inter-connectivity of your debates can be your downfall. By quoting Noah88 out of context, I've done the same disservice to him as he did to the original article. So, how to control the flow of argument and relevance is one of the hardest questions facing editors today.

Again, it was Hewlett asking the most relevant questions: trying to assess in what way "the Great Unwashed" - as he disingenuously described them - could affect the news agenda.

Could there be, and should there be, points when non-journalists can influence the angle of a story? At what point does the news-provider throw its cards in and allow its audience into the commissioning process?

The questions posed by the panel did somewhat conjour up images of shell-shocked, Luddite journos of the old school, warily eyeing RSS feeds, twitching into their typewriters and downing another pint. Journalists have had a long time to get used to the internet; providing multimedia angles to their stories will, I think, be a requirement in the near future. You only have to look at America to see where, technologically, our media - and therefore our journalism - will be.

As homework, I want you all to check out the following links. Honestly, they're ace. Some great video and animation, advice on writing your blog and plenty of "research" for writers to while away the hours with. Enjoy.

http://www.move30.com/- an online community of video- and photo-journalists

www.mediastorm.org/0014.htm - the best animation "cover" of a music video, and some really beautiful in-depth cross-media journalism

www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html - beginner's haven - web writing 101.

www.press.umich.edu/jep/07-01/al-hawamdeh.html - seminal essay on web journalism

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