Lizzie Dearden

If you’ve been following the Leveson Inquiry, a discussion that happened on December 8 on the types of journalism training on offer may have passed you by. But for the journalism industry it was hugely important. University lecturers were brought in on the day to discuss ethics training in the industry. In the morning, their discussion turned to types of training and the standard qualification from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) came in for a hammering.

Despite the panel’s obvious invested interest, their criticisms have been levelled for years against the board, which runs the qualification I am taking. Young journalist website Wannabe Hacks tweeted asking for a person on one of their courses to write about its advantages and disadvantages and I jumped at the chance. You can see the article here.

Just to clarify, I attempted to be balanced in the article and the criticisms I assessed were not necessarily my own. I’ve enjoyed my course immensely and have no complaints about the teaching. For me, the NCTJ is still the fastest, cheapest and safest qualification in journalism and gives a solid basis in all areas. I hope that came across.

In response to the creation of Cosmo on Campus, which I wrote a comment piece on earlier in the year, I started a project with the university’s Women’s Committee to create a women’s magazine parody. The original deadline passed at the end of term and we didn’t have enough submissions for a print run, so The F Word kindly invited me to write a guest blog calling for more writers. As I’ve now graduated the committee has taken over submissions but hopefully I’ll see the final product in the Autumn.

Submissions are completely open to anyone with a funny, feminist article that parodies Cosmopolitan and glossy ‘women’s magazines’ like it. If you’d like to write something, send it to womens@yusu.org.

In other news, I am now a graduate. My final result was a first, which I’m chuffed about, and I’ll be going back up to York next week for the graduation ceremony. At the moment it’s all a bit surreal, but real life is approaching, along with the start of my journalism NCTJ. I won’t be writing much over the summer but I’ll keep the blog posted with anything interesting that happens.

Sorry for another long break between posts, considering my degree has ended it’s been a surprisingly stressful couple of weeks. I handed my final work in on the 23rd of May and have been battling all the important things I’d put off ever since. But it’s all sorted now, including my work experience placement for my NCTJ. As part of the course I need to attend a weekly work experience placement on a paper and I’ve finally managed to get a place at The Richmond and Twickenham Times. Should be good!

I’ve got two and a half weeks left at university and am making the most of the student papers while I’m still here. It’s production week for my last issue of The Lemon Press, I’ll be sad to leave it behind. Moving to London and starting the course still doesn’t quite seem real but I’m already getting excited.

Term’s started, the student media is gearing back up and I’m writing again. In light of the upcoming referendum on electoral reform, I wrote this article for York Vision about why we can’t let the ‘no’ campaign’s use of Clegg bashing blind us to the real decision at hand.

The latest edition of The Lemon Press was published last week, including an article I wrote in response to David Willetts’ absurd claim that feminism causes male working class unemployment. And a rap by Brian ‘banter’ Cantor. Being involved with the editing for the first time was great fun, can’t wait for the next issue. Unfortunately the magazine hasn’t been published online yet, but I’ll add it to the catalogue when it appears.

Ill-advised rambling, apparently. All is explained in my most recent article for The Lemon Press. Assuage your curiosity here.

In slightly more sensible news, I had my entrance test at News Associates today for a NCTJ in Newspaper Journalism. I really enjoyed the interview and I think the exam went fine so fingers crossed! Hopefully I will know the result by the end of this week.

…is a new(ish) off-shoot of the Cosmopolitan family aimed directly at female students. I came accross it at university last week and was so appalled that I immediately wrote this comment article for York Vision. I’m also heading a project with the University of York Women’s Committee to create a spoof version of the magazine with a mix of satire and serious articles within a classic ‘women’s interest’ format. Unfortunately we can’t get it completed until next term, but hopefully I’ll be able to get it online.

Have a look at the magazine’s website to see what the fuss is about. Or better still, get hold of a copy. If you’re anything like me, it won’t be in one piece by the time you’ve finished reading it.

As of last night, I am now Deputy Arts Editor of The Lemon Press. Unfortunately it’s only for one term because it’s my last at university but I’ll be working with the Arts Editor to select, format, edit and maybe even write satirical poetry, stories and reviews for the section. Should be fun!

…is the title of a feature that I’ve just had published in York Vision. It explores this history of annual women’s event Reclaim the Night and its transformation over the years. It discusses its relevance today in light of the police response to the murder of Joanna Yeates and the way the event can be used to draw support for many causes. The University of York’s Reclaim the Night event is happening tomorrow night as part of a campaign for better lighting around the campus.

As promised, I have typed up my notes from the student protest in London on 24th November 2010. At points, I’ve had to insert comments in italics to make events clearer, but everything else was written on the day. Unfortunately, the coverage ends quite abruptly as I had to leave to appear on Young Persons’ Question Time for BBC 3. I was only at the protest for about 4 hours, but I’d say it was a defining day in my life.

Look out for the encounter with the injured student at 14.40 and the police medic’s refusal to treat him. See 15.15 for a policeman’s view on journalism and a baton charge.

I’ve also included some pictures I took in a gallery at the bottom.

On the (newly modified) ‘Unpublished articles’ page, you’ll now find ‘Placards, police and partying: My day at Millbank.’ It is the original eyewitness report on my experience of the first student protest in London on 10th November 2010. I was unhappy with the very revised version published by a university newspaper so have published my original here in full.

Soon I’m going to write up the notes on the 24th November protest. Regrettably, I never wrote them up into an article, but I think it’s important to record the events of the day from eyes on the ground rather than those in the Sky.