Emma Andrews is a regional journalist of nearly 20 years and currently writes for the Hexham Courant. She has won the Tom Cordner Women’s Writer of the Year award three times and a BT Feature Writer of the Year award. At the University of Sunderland, Emma offers her advice to those wanting a career in journalism.

Picture the scene. It’s your first interview for a job at your local newspaper and you are desperate to make the right impression.

On paper you are feeling pretty confident. You have a good degree and an eye-catching portfolio. You’ve also notched up an impressive amount of work experience to show just how passionate you are about the industry. But then so have the other 10 applicants on the shortlist.

Then the Editor leans across his desk, fixes you all with a stern look, and says: “You have an hour. Go out and find a story. Impress me.’’

This is it – this is your chance to stand out – to get the job. But can you do it?

It may sound obvious but if you are going to make it in the tough, competitive world of journalism you have to be able to find stories – and once you’ve found them, make the best of them.

Yes, a story needs to read well, to flow, to grab attention but it also needs to be accurate and well balanced. And woe betide anyone who doesn’t check their copy before sending it through to an often harassed and extremely bad-tempered news editor who is just waiting for a typo, or spelling mistake, to send him over the edge.

I will never forget my first interview at my local paper. On paper, I was feeling secure. I had an English degree from St Andrews University and a long list of work experience placements at newspapers across the country. I had edited an arts magazine at university and had a file full of cuttings.

But also, and perhaps most importantly, I had a natural love of a good story, of people, of what makes them tick, of the quirky side of life.

So when the Editor leaned over his desk and issued his command for us to go forth and find stories, I was excited. Adrenaline racing, we dashed out on to the streets.

Our instructions were clear – don’t go to anyone official – the police, fire brigade, council offices were all out of bounds. Just find a local character and chat.

I struck lucky with a barrow trader whose constant, loud, rallying Arthur-Daley style calls had sparked an official complaint from nearby shopkeepers and office workers keen to embrace a quieter life.

I got the job.

I was now officially Westbury and Warminster’s district reporter for The Wiltshire Times with my own broadsheet edition to fill every week. And with five stories alone on the front page, including the splash and a strong second page lead that was no mean feat.

Since then I’ve worked as district reporter for the Bath Evening Chronicle, district and education reporter for the Telegraph and Argus in Bradford, news and Chief Features Writer for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle and features writer for the Hexham Courant – with a few spells in PR along the way (just to keep me off the poverty line).

I’ve won awards for my feature writing, most notably Women’s Writer of the Year, three years running at the Tom Cordner awards, and BT Feature Writer of the Year.

I’ve been in the industry nearly 20 years and I can honestly say I still get a buzz when I go to work. I love it!

The pay is terrible and, in the current climate, it’s not exactly secure, but I would still rather be a feature writer on my local newspaper than anything else.

Now, as a writer on the Hexham Courant, working primarily on the supplements and magazines, the pressure is on to come up with ideas, profile pieces and news backgrounders, week in, week out. Don’t make the mistake of thinking feature writing is the soft option.

I have spent a week in prison, reporting on life behind bars at Low Newton, and a week “Behind the Wall” in Byker for another feature series. I have written travel articles, profile pieces and colour features on local events as well as backgrounders to hard-hitting news stories and court cases.

You have to be a self-starter in journalism and you have to have your eyes and ears open for a good story.

Yes, occasionally a news editor or features editor will ask you to take on a specific story but more often than not you have to come in with your own ideas.

So keep your eyes open for a poster on the wall at the local post office advertising a new group or event – read the nationals and think about local follow ups – make a regular appointment with your local councillor, police inspector or busy-body to see what’s been going on – and go to every single meeting going.

The local WI may not be your idea of a good night out, but just turning up, showing an interest and chatting to people can reap rewards.

District reporting was my first love – and I still believe it’s the best training ground for any other job in journalism.

If you can work your patch, bring in stories, discover local characters and nurture good contacts you will have the essential skills that form a secure foundation for any job in the industry.

You have to like people, to be interested in them, to want to find out more about what they do and why they do it. And you have to be able to talk to them, to put them at their ease, to draw them out and to listen carefully to what they have to say.

The best interviews aren’t focused on a carefully prepared list of questions that you follow rigidly, in strict order, from start to finish. The best interviews are often carried out over a relaxed coffee in the local café. They are grounded in good research, good listening skills and an ability to follow up leads as they come up, however unexpectedly.

Journalism, essentially, is a mirror on society – a reflection of life in all its joys, tribulations, tragedies and achievements.

How fantastic that we, as journalists, can actually get paid to show an interest in what’s going on around us, to talk to people and tell their stories.

Emma Andrews supervises the Media Centre Newsroom, St.Peter’s Campus, on Mondays.

I’ve come here to interview Ben, the man who once faked his own death to publicize an exhibition, because of his use of Disney characters in his art. He points to another. “The child in the foreground licks her lips, fork aloft to her own little plate of ’shit’ that she will happily devour,” he says cheerfully. “This painting accurately depicts any hour of programming I would see on television.”

That’s some upbringing Ben has had. This definitely was not the television and entertainment that Walt Disney had imagined he would be providing to children. Walt Disney held entertainment for children with great importance. He famously said, “I think of a child’s mind as a blank book. During the first years of his life, much will be written on the pages. The quality of that writing will affect his life profoundly.”

As we walk through the exhibition the heavy sound of rain reminds me of the bleak and dreary weather outside. Ben’s art contrasts the scene outside with his use of vibrant colours. We stop in front of a painting titled ‘A Few Good Clones.’ In the foreground is the prominent image of Mickey Mouse. Ben explains, “It references the 1992 Tom Cruise film ‘A Few Good Men’ and critiques the ethical response to our consumerist and environmental world situation.”

With a market value of $72.8 billion the Walt Disney Company is one of the eight major global media corporations. In 2004 it was recorded as having annual revenue of $30.7 billion. As a corporation Disney has a definite presence in China, Japan, Europe and Latin America.

Disney is popularly associated with children’s television programmes and its ‘classic Disney’ animation and films. However, behind the lovable friendly image, as Ben’s art suggests stands a stern multi-billion media corporation. After establishing its reputation in the field of animation, in 1984 it bought out ESPN international and it currently broadcasts in 21 languages in more than 180 countries. By 2006, ABC Television, Miramax and Pixar Films had merged into the corporation.

Eyes Wide Shut
Having such a strong hold within a range of media outputs has meant that without being consciously aware, we are daily consumers of the Disney brand. The corporation-owned ABC produces all blockbuster television shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. Branching away from media it has its reach into the oil and gas businesses, corporation as large as this isn’t built in a few years; it all began with one friendly mouse called Mickey Mouse.

Walt Disney, has become synonymous with the notion of childhood and innocence. Mickey Mouse is central to the image of Disney. He came onto our screens at a time when there were many questions being raised about children’s leisure and the role that the cinema played in influencing them.

Merchandizing Mickey
Along with Disney and Mickey came the market for merchandizing. It all goes back nearly 80 years as Richard deCordova highlights the three key events that influenced the creation of the largest consumer markets. It began in late 1929, when Walt Disney the rights to use Mickey Mouse on school tablets to a New York company. Then in January 1930 Charlotte Clark began the small-scale production of Mickey Mouse dolls in a house rented by the Disney Company. And most importantly in February of 1930 Walt Disney signed a contract with the George Borgfeldt Company for the international licensing, production and distribution of Mickey Mouse merchandise. With this came a great boom to toy industry, previously sales only peaked in the time coming up to Christmas.

This culture feeds the Disney Corporation as its products are an extension of its reputation as a beacon of family values. Through the children the company aims to create lifelong consumers of the Disney brand and its growing range of merchandise. It has created the image of a company that promotes the safeguarding of innocence, while as a business corporation it sentimentalizes childhood and innocence, making a saleable commodity.

Disney films define fairy-tales
Disney has a major cultural impact as it holds the responsibility of informing and entertaining the future generations.  “The intimidating thing about it, when you re going to design a Disney character, a Disney heroine, a Disney something that’s classic like a fairy-tale character, the Disney version becomes the dinifinitive version.” Glen Keane the supervising animator for Beauty and the Beast, emphasized the responsibility on their shoulders when developing Disney characters.

The former Disney executive, Michael Ovitz said,  “Disney isn’t a company as much as it is a nation-state with its own ideas and attitudes, and you have to adjust to them.”

Over the years the Disney brand has evolved. They have adapted their styles and narratives in animation film as is exemplified in the Pixar film The Incredibles. Fairy-tale classics are nowhere to be found. The heroes are modern, much closer to the notion of a working class family we know. Over the years the fantasy lands far far away have got lost amidst the real world and entertainment industry. More recently we have seen the emergence of a new genre of ‘tweenager films’, films that amalgamates the children’s entertainment with the ‘teen film’ genre.

Post release there will be mass marketing, a range of merchandise relating to the film. One of the biggest successes recently has been the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, which has gone on to expand the Disneyland franchise having a pirate themed park. The High School Musical trilogy has boosted the young consumer market further with its box office success with an array of merchandise being created, from clothes, bags, pens, to bath gift sets. It has also been adapted to be performed on ice.

No more childhood?
Is Disney  still the emblem of innocence and childhood? Disney is known for creating a world under the sea filled with mermaids and a land where we never have to grow up. All these fantasies seem to have gone. To be replaced by high school teenagers and their lives. The intentions of educating the blank minds of children seem to be long gone. The need for corporate success and increasing revenues year by year are the driving force and so they regurgitate similar films like Camp Rock and High School Musical. These concerns seem to be core to Ben Frost’s work. In particular he addresses the move towards commercialisation and mass production.

As he explained, “With my painting and sculpture ‘Self Regenerating Bambi’, it becomes a metaphoric Western-Asian hybrid that can recreate itself endlessly. It is inferred that each Bambi that it then spawns is also another self regenerating creature – an infinite tirade of mass produced clones that joyously spill into the aisles of our Walmarts, Starbucks and Kmarts.”

In what may be taken as offensive, ‘Don’t Have A Cow Man’ accurately depicts the influence and power of the media and advertising. It addresses social excesses in the form of the desirability of women and juxtaposes this with images of popular children’s characters.

“Hello Kitty overlooks the scene in control of the situation with the swastika representing fascism and in this case the way we are dictated propaganda in our every day world through media and advertising,” says Ben. Other paintings highlight gender ambiguity and suggest these vignettes are ongoing in our disposable culture.
Disney is developing as a brand to reflect the attitudes of society. This year Pixar released the hugely successful Wall-E. Ironically , the backdrop for the film is the complete degeneration of civilisation. It criticizes our consumerist society. When in reality it plays a major role in feeding it.

In the last couple of years media advertising and the film industry have focused strongly on the child market. The need to increase revenue and break into new markets is replacing the social responsibility of the media to educating the future generations.

The thoughts of Walt Disney seeing children as innocent and blank books is lost amidst advertising, product sales and annual revenue figures. Does childhood and innocence really only exist in fairy tales?

The Equestrian Club has been set up this year thanks to an enthusiastic student and the support of the new sports officer.

When he arrived to Sunderland  from Nottingham Uni the first thing that Richard Hudak noticed was that there was no club or society to serve equestrian loving students. Having made enquires last year into interested students and the sports office, Richard then set about looking for a riding centre for the club to train if the club should form.

Richard said, “ The main problem was actually finding somewhere to train…. We found this little yard at Bolden that has only been set up for about four months so we managed to get in there and everything has been going well there since.”

Gavin Barnes, University of Sunderland Students’ Union Sports & Activities Officer, who is no stranger to horses himself as his parents own some, was keen to introduce new Clubs to the Uni when he took over his post.

“The University Equestrian club hadn’t ran since the academic year 2004/5, and when I got voted in as the new sports and activities offer i wanted to be able to offer the students more variety of sporting and non sporting activities rather then the “norm” activities, I had planned to start equestrian, archery, futsal and finally pole dancing.”

By the beginning of this academic year the club was formed and it even has it’s own team ready to compete in the British University Sports and Colleges league.  BUCS equestrian competitions are not all about who has the best horses on their team but more focuses on the talents of the rider as Richard explains.
“You have to ride a horse you have never sat on before and you have seven minutes to get to know the horse and get him working for you.Testing the skills of the riders.  Seven minutes to ride a horse that you have never ridden before and then compete it is a task for an accomplished rider so it will be a good challenge on the day I think.”

The Club train every week at Field House Riding Centre under the watchful eye of the owner and instructor Donna Lillie. Donna herself is no stranger to competitions having competed at a high level in showjumping during her twenty three years of riding experience.

She gives lessons to everyone in the club and feels that the arrangement is working. “It has been a successful arrangement and their are some very talented riders amongst the group, which is nice to see.”

Donna’s experience is invaluable when it come to training the team for the BUCS events. She says: “My competition experience will definitely benefit the team because there’s nothing like first hand experience, that’s something a book cant teach you! The team are willing and enthusiastic and most importantly want to listen and learn. I have high hopes for them.”

Interest has been gathering on the internet social networking site Facebook for at least a year, and there are hopes of attracting the much needed attention of avid climbers to go to the Students’ Union with the proposed society.

if the society were to happen then students would be entitled to discounts, outdoor expeditions and teaching from the wall’s highly trained staff. Students could benefit from the society as it has huge health benefits, in that it keeps you fit and is good for all round strength.

You can do as little or much as you want and it is a fun activity to get into. As well as having these health benefits, it’s also really cheap to do. You don’t to buy all the equipment as you can hire it out for a small fee.

One student urges people to get involved: “If you join the society not only will you get fit and become stronger, but you’ll meet other students that you might never have met before, it’s a really fun activity to do!”

The Sunderland Wall has been successful for the last five years, and is getting better and better with plans for improvements, and is the tallest wall in Europe. The staff have seen the wall getting busier and busier, particularly amongst students.

The climbing walls are changed all the time, the bouldering wall once a month and the rope lead wall every three or four months. The walls range from easy to hard and aren’t difficult to get into, so anyone can go.

Another student who is really keen to put together the society said: “You don’t need to be good at climbing to join. We’re looking for people of all levels, as training is provided. The staff at the wall are highly trained and willing to get involved.”

The society really needs the support of the students to get it off the ground, if people were to join then the society would be able to take part in competitions, and get special discounts. If you want to get involved then join the Facebook group and help them become a society and you might just enjoy it.