Five aspiring journalists and media fanatics from City of Bristol College had the opportunity to go behind-the-scenes of ITV News West Country to see how the news goes from an idea to the headlines last week.
Students jumped in the deep end at ITV News West Country’s headquarters in Bath Road as they sat in the presenters’ chairs and took turns reading headlines.
The Creative Media and Production students saw and experienced every step of the process to get the news on the TV, taking a seat in The Gallery with Producers and Directors from the ITV team to learn how to change the sound, input clips and run the teleprompter.
ITV News West Country are the last remaining news outlet to run the tradition Open Newsroom Days. They operate the same day across the country to students from year nine through to college age, giving students an insight into the work of TV production and journalism. Having the opportunity to shake hands and pick the minds of ITV’s presenters, Eli Wringe, Jonty Messer, Alex Beresford and Charlie Powell throughout the course of the day the students also valued the chance to hear about how they got into the profession.
City of Bristol College student Isabelle, who dreams of becoming a travel journalist, said: “I really enjoyed being behind-the-scenes of ITV and it’s always been a big question of mine as to what happens and how the system works. I also found I gained confidence in my skills after having this experience.
“It has given me perspective of what I would like to do in the future which is travel journalism and presenting and documentary making.”
Luke described the open event as a ‘very valuable experience’ and said: “I loved seeing the inner working of how live news is made as it happens, seeing the responsibility of those on air and the chance to ask them questions was one which I couldn’t oversell.”
The students then moved outside to try out some on-location reporting using the ITV News West Country van. Amelia and Isabelle took a turn in front of the camera to report on the made-up stories about the rising price of burgers at the near by Burger King and mythical plans to transform a community church into a Nandos’.
The day ended with a final few words of wisdom from the ITV team before they were handed goodie bags with the news station’s merchandise.
