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Journalism course based in daily newsroom welcomes first students

A journalism course based largely in a regional daily’s newsroom has welcomed its first group of students.

As previously reported on HTFP, the Southern Daily Echo has teamed up with Portsmouth’s Highbury College to run a ‘classroom in the newsroom’ based at its Southampton headquarters.

It follows a similar project launched between Highbury and The News, Portsmouth, three years ago.

The students spend four days a week in the Daily Echo newsroom where bespoke facilities have been created for both teaching and work placement requirements, while one day a week is spent at Highbury.

The first group of students, aged between 18 and 30, have now started on the course, which has applied for accreditation from the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

The diploma covers the essentials of journalism and includes reporting, public affairs, media law, court reporting, video broadcasting and shorthand.

Daily Echo editor Ian Murray in the newsroom

The course is over seen by a senior member of the Daily Echo editorial team, David Brine, who teaches some elements of the course and oversees the students hands-on work experience.

Echo editor-in-chief Ian Murray said: “We could have taught all of the elements of the course in-house at our Southampton offices but we felt that it was important that the students spent at least one day a week at Highbury to meet other media students attending courses there and also enjoyed that college student experience.

“I’ve been very impressed with the first students to join us. It is going to be interesting to see how they interact with the newsroom and what they can bring to us also.”

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  • October 13, 2016 at 3:00 pm
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    This is the best and cheapest way to train. I have spoken to many Journalism students at Uni who don’t have a clue, and will have £30-£50k of debt.

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