Would-be sports journalists at a South Coast college are to get the chance to train in football, rugby and cricket-writing from this autumn.

City College Brighton and Hove has become the latest training centre to be offering sports journalism as one of its modules.

From September, students will be offered the opportunity to train in football, cricket and rugby reporting as part of their NCTJ journalism diplomas.

News course leader Peter Lindsey, who started his career as a trainee sports journalist, will be running the sport sessions.

He said: “City College was delighted when the NCTJ announced that sport was one of its new options for the Diploma.

“Learning to be a sports journalist, either in 18 weeks on our fast-track course or 36 weeks on our September-June course is sure to be an exciting experience.’

More information is available by calling Peter on 01273 667788 ext 432 or emailing [email protected].

Comments

Harold (25/05/2010 11:10:42)
This really frustrates me. So many people want to do sport this type of course is just raising expectations. What is wrong with the old way of doing it? Doing your time on news, offering to cover matches/ events when you can, proving you can write and are prepared to cover pool presentations, understanding community sports clubs etc etc. I used to to write cricket reports while doing news on my own club. I used to type in equestrian reports etc. It’s nonsense.

Sly Dig (25/05/2010 13:02:06)
An 18 or 36 week course? more like about two days if most of the sports writing I witness is anything to go by. Hackneyed phrases and cliches, they can be taught in two days.
As Harold says, what is wrong with getting a grounding in writing news first and taking it from there.
Most these aspiring journos will want to be covering England in 3 seconds flat, not realising the depth of sport knowledge required just to get by. I have been a Sport’s Ed on a number of titles and the number of sports I’ve covered is immense, from the staples to the lesser known, like rifle shooting. Whatever you are writing about, knowledge is required.

Paul Jones (25/05/2010 14:20:27)
Trouble with most sport reporting on the nationals is that the writers are spoon fed stories of questionable truth by players’ agents out to make a fast buck for themselves, and by clubs who want publicity. There’s not much you can really believe. Local papers though do stick to the truth because their reporters actually speak to the people involved. anyone want to contradict that?

Disheartened senior (25/05/2010 18:58:53)
It’s not just the increasing number of places offering sports courses that frustrates me. The growing number of places one can take the prelims is surely almost immoral. How can the training industry be growing so fast as the number of jobs is rapidly shrinking? Even worse, some of these places will charge about a quarter of a trainee’s annual wage. I wanted to be a reporter to do a worthwhile and fulfilling job that would allow me to get by. Turns out I can’t afford to rent a place and there’s no hope of progressing to a better position. What a crappy industry to be in.