Gareth has worked tirelessly over the past year for the Glasgow Journal to uncover stories that are both in the students’ interest and which directly affect them. He has uncovered exclusive after exclusive, often revealing things that have yet to be picked up by any national news outlets and his stories have then been picked up by the Herald, the Scotsman and the Huffington Post.

Gareth has highlighted and overcome a lack of transparency and shady goings on at a number of students’ associations, as well as some of the biggest education stories in Scotland. He has led the direction of the news and sports team at the Journal and is more than competent in his ability to do research reporting, local reporting through vox popping and always uses his thorough knowledge of Scots Law to report ion difficult subjects, all while keeping students at the heart of the story.

Gareth has also opened doors for student media to be recognised as a legitimate media outlet that is on par with regional and national newspapers by securing accreditation and access with a number of national organisations off the back of his high quality coverage of big news, political and sporting events.

Some of the many examples of Gareth’s high quality investigation and research reporting are listed below:

  • An exclusive on universities in Glasgow not prioritising participation in sport. Gareth did his own investigative research as well as conducting interviews with current sports participants – http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9068-exclusive-universities-hampering-sports-teams
  • Gareth headed up the research into the legal element of Galloway-NUS legal action, one of the biggest stories to face the student movement with potentially expensive consequences. This was a national exclusive that the mainstream media didn’t get. http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9484-gallowaynus-libel-row-likely-to-prove-long-and-expensive-legal-experts-say
  • Investigative work in uncovering how much Strathclyde uni were spending on moving students to Cineworld with the closure of Jordanhill. This story showed the lack of resources available on the main campus and the affect this had on the quality of teaching. http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9350-cinema-trips-cost-strathclyde-45k http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9120-further-disruption-for-strathclyde-teaching-students
  • Exclusive revealing the full election results that City of Glasgow College tried to suppress after the omnishambles of an election that saw results delayed by six weeks and the frontrunner withdraw for ‘personal reasons’. http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9113-exclusive-full-citysa-presidential-election-results-revealed
  • Exclusive on City of Glasgow College forcing through a new SA constitution without student consultation and ignoring recommendations made by the outgoing executive http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9098-city-of-glasgow-college-force-through-new-students-association-constitution
  • Exclusive on CitySA trying to suppress equality on campus by restricting representation on its executive. http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9169-exclusive-student-campaign-highlights-inequality-concerns-at-citysa

Gareth has also allowed other journalists to take the lead on stories that he has gathered the data for.

  • The story into the true cost of the Edinburgh merger could not have been written by Marcus if Gareth had not had the foresight to submit a FOI request. http://journal-online.co.uk/article/9249-revealed-the-teething-pains-behind-18m-edinburgh-college-merger
  • Another national exclusive and one of the biggest examples of lack of transparency within the student movement, this was subsequently reported by HuffPo, BBC, Guardian, Press Gazette and others. Gareth led the legal side of things and did additional background reporting and facilitation of sources. http://journal-online.co.uk/article/10093-student-paper-silenced-by-legal-action
  • Gareth has become the standard that all student journalists aspire to; he never fails to get the best possible story while simultaneously looking out for students have giving a helping hand to other student journalists. I personally find it an honour to work him and can think of no better student journalist working today.