The mics go live

The UK’s frst MA in Podcasting is to launch at City in September along with a Centre of Podcasting Excellence.

Pioneered by Sandy Warr, a multi award-winning broadcaster and fellow of the Radio Academy, the MA will train a new generation of podcasters. Ms Warr is currently in active discussions with a variety of podcast frms about the creation of bursaries and sponsorships that will run parallel to the course.

The MA will also be taught by Emmy awardwinning journalist and City lecturer Fernando Pizarro and podcast producer Mark Sandell from 6Foot6

Productions. Taking on the role of Director of the Centre of Podcasting Excellence will be former BBC and Bauer Media executive, Brett Spencer. The programme aims to tap into a market which lacks trained podcasters.

Ms Warr said: “As much as City Journalism School has this brand-leading reputation, one reason for that is because we keep reinventing ourselves. We keep going: ‘What’s happening in the world?’. We need to be ahead of it as much as possible”

The LBC News presenter recognised the demand for podcasting education within the university three years ago when 140 students signed up for the podcasting elective the department offered. It became apparent that there was a real desire from students to learn beyond what the elective could teach them.

While this new MA will contain traditional City journalistic skills such as media law and ethics, Ms Warr is committed to changing the standard mould. “What will be unique about it is that it won’t just be journalism. We want to create a much more creative space for people to be more imaginative.”

The programme will include topics ranging from the history of storytelling to media management and even guided meditation to learn about immersive audio experiences. There will be a heavy focus on branding and audience engagement, something Ms Warr believes is vital in the podcasting industry.

With a predicted 28 million podcast listeners in the UK alone by 2026, the new MA refect’s City’s adaptation to the changing face of journalism more broadly.

The Centre for Podcasting Excellence will run alongside the programme, hosting monthly events, speakers, and short courses about podcasting.

City already has a vast alumni network of podcasters from Dino Sofos to the Atlantic’s Ben Green, but this specialised course hopes to train the next wave of industry experts.

Unlike other MA courses, the Podcasting programme will also be available for students to take part-time. Ms Warr said this will help bring in a more diverse cohort of students.

She said: “It’s partly a refection of the fact that the podcast industry tends to be demographically a bit different from linear broadcasting, newspapers, and magazines. It’s more entrepreneurial, and we’re seeing voices that are not being heard anywhere else fnding a platform because of the very nature of the medium.”

The frst cohort of Podcasting MA students will start in September 2023.

Ella Gauci