This year, I attended a Camden Summer University course for the first time.
I signed up to the journalism course as I am very interested in journalism, reading and writing. Our venue was at Highgate Youth Academy and twelve members of the journalism course were taught by Kyri and assisted by university student Nye.
Monday
We began the day by introducing ourselves and explaining why we picked this course. We were then put into groups and were asked to write down ground rules for this course, such as respecting one another, giving constructive criticism and being enthusiastic and motivated. After that, we were put into groups again and challenged to write as many different types of journalism there were. Examples included travel, financial, entertainment, sport and fashion journalism. After a while, we had to stand up and explain what type of journalism we preferred and why. I said that I preferred political journalism because the world is never a peaceful place and also current affairs because it’s interesting and informative. I enjoyed learning about which types of journalism people from my course preferred as it was all very varied. We then spent the rest of the day split into groups, discussing what types of different sections were in magazines and newspapers, such as fashion, travel and sports. A member from each group spoke about the differences to the class and explained which they preferred.
Members of the journalism course
Tuesday
We were allocated a magazine or newspaper and asked to select a photo. We then drew a spider-diagram titled ‘Image’ and wrote down anything we noticed in the photograph. Each one of us made up a story regarding the photo and told it to the class. After a while, we began to write up our story in draft. The person next to you was then told to cut out any parts of the story which were unnecessary. After lunch, we each had to read our story aloud and mark it, one being fantastic and five being very bad. Examples of stories included Buckingham Palace being haunted, a punk ending up in a group of hippies and a group of robbers. My story was about rivalry between two women. I enjoyed having to write up a story from scratch as well as listening to other people’s stories as they were so different. Whilst Kyri was calculating who had won, Nye sent round three copies of draft newsletters and we were asked to vote for the best. Five minutes later, Layla Haidrani’s story about a girl cheating her way to stardom won.
Wednesday
Every member of the course had to select what they wanted to write for the magazine, be it winners of the Beijing Olympics or a travel review. I chose to write about Autumn/Winter 2008-2009 trends and a recipe. We were allocated a minimum number of words; for example, I was given 200 words to write for my fashion article and 150 words to write for food. We were also instructed to finish it by the end of the day otherwise it wouldn’t be included in the newsletter and once this had been announced, the pressure had definitely settled in! I enjoyed having to stick to a minimum number of words and trying not to go over the word limit as well as having to go at a fast pace in order to finish the articles! Towards the end of the day, the group had to pick a name for the newsletter. Examples included Pen It!, Youth Times, Down with the youth and Youth News. After a vote, we settled on Youth Times.
Thursday
We began to prepare for our trip to Bella Magazine by writing down questions for Eleanor Levy, the Deputy Editor of Bella Magazine. After lunch, we took the bus and walked to Bella Magazine, where we asked Eleanor Levy questions about journalism. An example of a question we asked was how much does an average journalist make and the answer was, for a real life story, a journalist would make £800 for a double-page feature and £400 for a single page. After the questions had been answered, Eileen, the editorial assistant, took us on a tour to the various departments such as features, beauty and fashion. We even got an exclusive preview of next week’s issue of Bella magazine! Some of us were even lucky enough to gain a week work experience placement there! I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Bella magazine as I learnt how magazines are put together and how departments such as beauty operate!
Friday
People were allocated to write a thank-you letter to Bella, to edit the newsletter and to type up the answers to the questions Eleanor Levy was asked on Thursday at Bella Magazine. Along with members of the course, I was assigned to write a review about our day at Bella magazine. After lunch, we were shown our finished product: the newsletter. I enjoyed seeing how all of our articles were put together in one newsletter and I admired the way the newsletter was well-edited and presented in a clear and attractive way.
Members of the journalism course at Bella Magazine
Overall, I enjoyed the course very much as I learnt new skills such as how to write to a minimum number of words as well as to write articles with a time limit. I also enjoyed our visit to Bella as it made me more motivated to pursue a career in journalism. Thank you to Kyri and Nye as well to Camden Summer University for offering such a valuable experience and an insight into journalism!
