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Journalism students are on the ball with work experience at Wolves

06/01/2023
Journalism students are on the ball with work experience at Wolves

A group of University of Wolverhampton Multimedia Journalism students studying in the new £5 million Screen School at its City Campus in Wolverhampton were gifted the chance to report on European football in a Premier League press box recently. 

The Undergraduate degree students have been accredited to work on Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Premier League International Cup campaign, giving them access to the Molineux press box as Wolves Under-21s took on their counterparts from German team, Wolfsburg, in December. 

The students live-tweeted the match, filed online reports within minutes of the final whistle and gathered material for TV and radio. They chatted with fans as they arrived at the stadium and interviewed manager, James Collins and player, Jack Scott, pitch side at the end of the match. 

Course Leader, Gareth Owen, said this sort of experience is vital preparation for a career in journalism. He said: “It’s one thing, practising skills in the classroom, but there is nothing quite like doing it for real. These students had to work quickly as part of a pool of professional reporters and needed to think on their feet during post-match interviews. And there’s nothing like the experience of typing out copy in sub-zero temperatures!  

“They did themselves, and the University of Wolverhampton, proud.” 

Benedict Ferriby, one of the students who took part in the work experience, said: “I found the night very eye-opening. I have always had an interest in sports reporting from a young age and to finally get an opportunity like this in the environment of a Premier League Football Club meant it was an amazing experience. 

“It was also very demanding regarding the quick turnaround of publishing work, but I feel that if I was given this chance again, I would only improve.” 

Unfortunately, the team did not have a home win to report on. Wolves lost the match 2-0 despite a strong second-half performance. 

This is the first tie up between Wolves and the University’s Journalism course with many more such events planned for the future. 

The University officially opened its new Screen School in March, an extensive refurbishment project at its City Campus in Wolverhampton that has seen £5 million invested in new facilities for students studying for digital arts and media production courses.  

The new Wolverhampton Screen School has been transformed with investment in industry-standard, state-of-the-art equipment with the aim of boosting skills in the digital arts and media industries.   

Students are benefiting from a new production space, an equipment media store, a video studio with movable partitions and a large multipurpose studio. There are also new Mac labs, edit suites, staff offices and a production base room.   

The facilities also include a green-screen, three-camera TV studio with an adjoining production gallery alongside a new radio studio which reflects the layout of BBC local stations. News readers have access to a second bulletin studio and the technical kit and software will enable the replication of the workflows of national news journalists and the running orders of professional news programmes.   

The core courses taught at the Wolverhampton Screen School are animation, computer games design, film and television production, multimedia journalism, computer science, cyber psychology alongside proposals for a new course in visual effects. 

Find out more about Screen School courses on the website or visit one of our Open Days for more information about studying at the University. 

ENDS 

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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