Newcastle University Students’ Union

Student Media of the Year goes to Newcastle University Students' Union

Student Media of the Year goes to Newcastle University Students’ Union

NEW-NUS-Awards-2014-winner

Student Media of the Year
Newcastle University SU

““The three arms of the student media at Newcastle University Students’ Union have one core objective and that is to serve the student community as best as possible. They are comprised of The Courier, the student newspaper, Newcastle Student Radio (NSR) and The Courier Television (TCTV).

Over the last academic year all three have reached new heights in meeting this objective and serving our target audience, the students.

Last November NSR was selected to host the Student Radio Association’s annual conference for the first time in the station’s history. For what is a relatively small station this is a massive achievement as it doesn’t get near the funding and facilities of other student radio stations whose universities offer radio broadcast as a degree. The bid was compiled and then sent during Summer 2013 and was primarily based on huge student enthusiasm, the increasing role NSR is playing in campus life and the delights only the wonderful city of Newcastle can offer.

After months of organising and fund raising the event came to fruition in April 2014 as they welcomed over 400 student broadcasters and industry professionals to the Students’ Union. Hosting the event gave the NSR volunteers and listeners a chance to learn from, and be entertained by, the nation’s best radio operators including Radio 1 DJs Greg James and Scott Mills as well as controller Ben Cooper. The event lasted three days and received rave reviews from attendees which is a testament to 100 NSR members’ collective enthusiasm who have consistently tried to make NSR a more important and engaging part of student life.

This consistent effort can be seen throughout the year where they hold outside broadcasts throughout Freshers’ Week, open days and generally any time it’s sunny and people are outside. This increased visibility not only brings in more listeners, so they can be entertained as well as informed, but helps lots of different students feel part of the community by getting involved with the station itself. The airwaves don’t discriminate on background, ethnicity or sexuality and such important student issues are a regular part of the NSR schedule in the discussion panels and news shows.

This unrelenting commitment to talking about, investigating and covering important student issues is the hallmark of The Courier. One of the country’s last weekly student newspapers it prints every week during term time, with at least 40 pages in each issue, put together by a team of 35 sub-editors and over 300 writers, illustrators and photographers. They are all full-time students, except for the Editor who also serves as a sabbatical officer, and for the last two consecutive years it has been named ‘Student Publication of the Year’ at the Guardian Student Media Awards. The newspaper’s commitment to student interest journalism is unparalleled and engrained in the fabric and culture of the office.

During this academic year alone it has published investigations into first year students without university accommodation, a controversial deal between the university and Adidas, the highest paid university employees during the lecturers’ strike, animal testing tourism by a university professor, extortionate student noise fines, cockroaches in halls and the scrapping of security in halls as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

We believe this kind of accountability journalism is the central justification as to why a Students’ Union should fund a student newspaper and that will only become more important as we enter into a future where students become the main source of revenue for universities. However, this commitment to hard news is necessarily tempered by the Culture and Sport sections, which take up the other three quarters of the paper, as it seeks to entertain students by looking at contemporary student life. It’s important to have that balance and over the weekly 40 pages The Courier does that whether it be through the ever popular blind date to the latest fashion trends on campus or seeing your name in the paper after scoring a blinder in intra mural football.

The impact of the work The Courier does can be measured in the 4,000 copies it distributes every week, the 12,000 unique users it gets each week online but also in terms of student participation. This academic year has been the best yet with over 300 contributors and over 80 applications to be part of next year’s sub-editorial team of 35. The Courier has been written for students, by students since 1948 and aims to continue doing the good work that has made it a campus institution.

TCTV has only existed for a few years but has continued to go from strength to strength producing more regular programmes throughout the year thanks to some new equipment. It’s ‘Newcastle On’ series has proved particularly popular as the crew goes round campus asking students for their thought on the issues of the day whether it be Blurred Lines, women in the media or a university scandal. This year it did tremendously well to sign up over 50 members.

Student media at Newcastle University Students’ Union is unique because there isn’t an undergraduate journalism course in either print or broadcast offered by the university. All the hundreds of volunteers across all three arms of the student media are an eclectic mix of Arts and Science students. For example, one news editor is an economics student and another is a biologist whilst one of the NSR station managers is a speech and language student and a TCTV production editor is an English student.

We don’t have a huge pool of journalism students to recruit from or lots of academic funding for our activities. We work off small budgets and are powered by enthusiasm and a sense of community, and it works. We have the best student newspaper in the country, one of the now most well known radio stations in the country and an up and coming TV station. Between us we engage thousands of students per week and, hopefully one day, all of campus.”

Nominated by George Sandeman, Students’ Union Officer

What some of the judges said…

“Newcastle’s submission fulfilled all three criteria across a range of different media, from the inclusive approach of The Courier (with over 300 writers) to well thought through strategies to increase access to Newcastle Student Radio (such as its outdoor broadcasts). It also demonstrated campaigning journalism on behalf of students, and clearly fulfilled the criteria of encouraging students on non-media courses to contribute. ”
John Gill, Times Higher Education

Some comments from the night…