We offer each of our trainees a summer bursary of up to £1,000 every summer 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.
School of Journalism trainee Macie Lewis shared how she used her bursary completing two different journalism work placements in Manchester.
Normally I would only look for industry work which is in a close proximity to my house to avoid travel fees adding up, especially when the work is unpaid.
The School of Journalism’s bursary gave me the opportunity to explore the industry outside of London, making two weeks working in Manchester possible.
My first week was spent with Kennedy News and Media in the Northern Quarter.
I spent my week with a small team of around 10 journalists and searching for human interest stories on social media.
Once I had a story pitch, the editors were helpful and advised on how to approach and conduct the interviews to get the best story as possible.
I never felt left behind in the office. This was a great hands on experience, where I felt kept in the loop at all times and definitely learnt a lot.
I was so grateful and excited when I found out that one of my stories was published in The Sun and the Daily Mail.
I also had the opportunity to explore a new city and take myself over to Media City to see the BBC offices and ITV Studios.
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In September, I went back up to Manchester to join the Manchester Evening News team for a week. The team were great in guiding me through stories while giving me the freedom to source them myself.
I was asked to plan two stories before arriving to the placement, with one of the interviews completed.
During the placement, I was able to interview lots of different people for stories and I was even praised for my speedwriting, with the editors saying that it was tricky to keep up with me!
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During the week I wrote stories across many topics, including a comedy festival, Katseye’s headline show at Co-op Live and even a bakery making it to BBC Countryfile.
I even spent a day at the Crown Court watching proceedings commence with a court reporter and used the knowledge taught in my media law module to report key emotive details – it was fascinating.
Overall it has been a great summer of writing, interviewing, and networking. Thank you To The School of Journalism for proving me with this opportunity!
Macie used her bursary last year to create a documentary about attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on a budget.
You can read more of our summer bursary blogs here.
Sign up to our free The School of Journalism taster sessions here.