Your needsCityyou!

Anetworking group for journalism alumni and former staff is being set up to help disadvantaged students become journalists.

The Friends of the Journalism Department will connect former students and staff and help raise funds Professor Lis Howell

The co-founders of the new group are City teaching legends Dr Barbara Rowlands and Professor Lis Howell.

Dr Rowlands, MA magazine journalism course director from 1999-2018 said: “It’s a fantastic networking opportunity for journalists who normally wouldn’t meet.”

Professor Howell, the Director of Broadcasting from 2009 to 2018 and Head of Postgraduate Studies from 2016 to 2018 added: “We are also looking for former contacts of the department to provide support for potential students who may not be the obvious candidates in the school.”

Dr Rowlands said: “We’re well aware journalism and newsrooms need more diversity. Whether ethnic, minority, BAME, LGBTQ+. We want to help people who might not have the money to come to City otherwise.”

In a 2021 report from nongovernmental lobbying organisation The World Economic Forum reported that “a diverse newsroom is essential for media institutions that pride themselves on providing well-researched, complex stories that explore different perspectives and voices”.

Both said the Friends of Journalism Department would be an “enormous

Five wins for alumni at Press Awards

resource, particularly for former staff”. It will reconnect people who once taught at the university or were students.

“It would be great to get former staff back in touch and involved with the department,” Professor Howell said.

The frst move is getting in touch with former staff members stretching back “as far as we can go”, who are a repository of information about journalism alumni, said Dr Rowlands.

They will be invited to City in the autumn for a celebratory lunch and a guided tour of the department. “We believe there is enthusiasm for a project like this among our former colleagues,” Dr Rowlands said.

City has a powerful alumni spread across print, digital and broadcast media in the UK and overseas. At a meeting with the head of the department, Professor Mel Bunce, it was agreed that a similar tour and event for student alumni in 2024 to network and raise money for bursaries would be arranged.

“They are loyal to the department and understand that journalism needs more diversity in the newsroom,” Dr Rowlands said. “City has helped many people in their careers, and we hope people will want to give back.”

The UK Press Awards was a successful night for City, with alumni collecting fve awards and three high commendations. Recent graduate Shayma Bakht (MA Broadcast, 2020) won Young Journalist of the Year, while Isaan Khan (MA Investigative, 2019) took home the award for Sports Journalist of the Year.

Other winners included Megan Agnew (MA Magazine, 2018) who won News Feature Writer of the Year, Ian Birell (PG Diploma, 1986) who won Feature Writer of the Year, and Joremo Starkey (PG Diploma, 2004) who won News Editor of the Year

Adding to her winning streak, Pippa Crerar (MA Newspaper, 2000) picked up the prize for Political Journalist of the Year.

Ella Kipling

The same report showed that “journalists are more likely to come from households where a parent works/ worked in a higher-level occupation”, one of the key determinants of social class in the UK. Additionally, 80 per cent of journalists had a parent in one of the three highest occupational groups, compared to 42 per cent of all UK workers.

Junior journalists in the UK also appear to be less diverse than their more senior editors, according to NCTJ fndings. There is also an increase in the proportion of people in journalism coming from the highest social classes, with 75 per cent in 2020 to 80 per cent in 2021.

“This combination results in a narrow viewpoint of the world, and we need to widen it out to give different stories in different ways,” Dr Rowlands said.

Eoghan O’Donnell