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Regional press news - this story published 04 June 2009

Sports journalism degree praised by broadcasters

by holdthefrontpage staff

A specialist training course for budding sports journalists has become the first of its type to be accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council.

The sports journalism BA (Hons) course from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) covers broadcast, online and print media.

The BJTC – a partnership between major broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky – gave unanimous approval for the accreditation after visiting the university last month.

Its accreditation panel met staff and students from the course and viewed a selection of work, including live sports shows, news bulletins and recorded documentaries.

The panel praised the course's "high standards of delivery, quality of technical resources, tutor experience, graduate achievement in the professional world and its relevance to sports journalism as a whole."

Commenting on the accreditation, course leader Charlie Lambert said: "We are very pleased to be receiving the accreditation, which shows recognition of the quality of the course and its relevance to the needs of the industry.

"The popularity of the course is going from strength to strength as its reputation is established. Two years ago we had just 15 students enrolled on the final year of the course but this year there are 50, with applications for next year promising to be even higher."

Oldhackandproud (04/06/2009 10:58)
Well, I hope this turns out OK, but the last trainee I had with a degree in 'sports journalism' had no shorthand training and was told it was 'not needed' as he could do everything on a recorder. Also had no idea how to write copy - printed or web - and no legal training. Thought he could write what he wanted about a football referee, describing one as "a disgrace to the human race." Went through his modules, and none of it had any relevance to journalism at all. But he could discuss the relative merits of various websites, though not the merits of Cardusor Allott.

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agedhackette (04/06/2009 12:03)
Presumably they explain to them why when they reach the nationals they can ignore just about every rule about proper journalism- accuracy attributable quotes right of reply etc. Sports hacks on the nats use the scattergun technique- make it up and repeat it enough times and at least one story from the torrent of drivel printed every day must eventually be half-right. How many "exclusive" stories have we seen about Billy Bigmouth signing tomorrow for Moneybags FC and it never happens. I don't blame the hacks in a way. They have mortages to pay and there plenty of mugs who buy tabloids to read their fiction and are dumb enough to believe it. Local papers may be more humble in their sports coverage and reporters poorly paid but at least readers know they are not making it up or lazily re-hashing agency (or players agent's!) copy. Graduates in sports hacking trying to reach the nationals should be prepared to be ultra-cynical. Unless, of course, they manage to reach the heights of the few quality writers like Henry Winter who can be trusted.

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Andy (04/06/2009 14:31)
I would defend the quality of our sports Journalism Students. Not only do we hold them to the same journalism standards as all of our other journalism students but they also learn a lot about the business of sport. That gives the broader context of the area they are looking to work. I'm often told that journo students have little understanding of things like finance or business issues and I think the students get a good bias. As for the motivation of students taking the courses - lack of experience aside - they build their expectations on what they see in industry. Some more role models other than the always cited Mr Winter wouldnt go a miss.

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agedhackette (04/06/2009 16:48)
It's not so much a problem of the quality of training. Are they warned that they will have to forget almost everything they have been taught as soon as they join the well-paid but fantasy world of the tabloid sports departments where just about anything goes. Role models? I admit Winter is an excellent writer rather than story-breaker but what's the point in the so-called big names on tabloids breaking "exclusive" stories that are simply not true. I know it's all about fierce competition but if its mostly rubbish it's not much of a service to readers, is it? Good luck to the trainees anyway. The real world awaits.

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OldSportSHack (05/06/2009 12:31)
Football journalists run in a pack and seek comfort and stories in a pack. But more often than not it's the club's own media people who are to blame for the so-called non-stories. They offer relatively poor service to journalists, attempt to supress stories, happy to feed non-stories and generaly attempt to manipulate the press for their own end. As a result, clubs get the journalism they deserve and can't complain about stories sourced from players, their agents and quite often other disgrunted club officials. Long may tabloid journos exist. Otherwise we would just get total propaganda released by clubs printd in newspapers. The recent Michael Owen case where he sued for libel tells us more about the lack of law amongst sports desk editors than it does about the obvious lack of legal knowledge, in this case, from the journalist.

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