We offer each of our trainees a summer bursary of up to £1,000 every year of their degree to spend on journalism work experience or a journalism project, giving them the unique opportunity to travel and explore the areas of journalism they are passionate about.
Here, 2021 graduate Matt D’Henin tells us about how he spent his summer bursary on an internship with an extreme sports media network.
The £1,000 summer bursary awarded to me whilst studying with The School of Journalism opened huge doors and kickstarted my career.
In May 2021, the funds exclusively given by The School of Journalism gave me the financial security to take on a game-changing internship with sports media network Extreme International.
Whilst studying for my first-class honors degree, I gravitated away from written journalism and towards visual storytelling, culminating in my award winning honors project ‘The Island Dweller’.
I knew from year two on the degree course that I actually saw my career in factual film, so this role with Extreme in their video department excited me a lot.
Extreme is a 25-year-old brand that has been at the nexus of sports, entertainment and lifestyle since I was a child. Having launched the Extreme Sports Channel in 1996, the sports media brand has since moved on to host spectacular events, design innovative extreme sports destinations, and put together engaging brand campaigns.
In 2021, they wished to return to screens around the globe by launching two new streaming channels – building on from their successful social media brands UNREEL and Auto Allstars – which both have a combined 10 million fans.
I joined a small, dedicated team looking to acquire content for the channels, so my first tasks involved contacting a range of TV distributors, production companies and producers across the adventure sports sub-genre.
From here, I arranged meetings and negotiated the rights to a wide selection of programmes and films.
I would then liaise the digital delivery of content, transcoding the files to the correct broadcast spec before ensuring all the metadata was correct.
So, in layman’s terms, this meant I was the one making sure each programme looked as it should when a viewer clicks onto it with their remote; with adverts, subtitles and all that other lovely stuff in the right place and at the right time!
The freedom and trust I was given continued to present me with more responsibilities – and with it more tasks!
From showbiz to exclusive news, second year trainee @lily_jobson sheds light on her summer work experience at @MailOnline! 📺 #StartedHerehttps://t.co/yTmYV3KxEc
— School of Journalism (@TheJournoSchool) November 18, 2021
I was now editing trailers, designing pitch decks and concept logos, plus, I was even editing full-length episodes for broadcast.
By the end of my internship, I was hired by Extreme as a freelance camera operator and video editor at their Hangout event in Glasgow during COP26!
I hope that my experience with the bursary not only encourages those leaving college to seriously consider a degree course with The School of Journalism, but also the alternative professions you can reach with a degree in journalism.
A journalism degree not only shows your ability to source and submit stories to press, but it also demonstrates an ability to work independently and to tight deadlines, an ability to understand the world around you and communicate with a range of interesting characters – plus, an ability to use a host of creative software.
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Oh, and we can take notes in shorthand!
Thank you to The School of Journalism for supporting me financially so that I could undertake this life-changing internship. Without it, I would not have the essential experience which landed me my new role at Little Dot Studios in Shoreditch, so for that I am beyond grateful!
Click here to join our free taster events to experience what it’s like to be a journalist and study on our BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism degree.