An award-winning journalist returned to his former training centre to give today’s budding newshounds a masterclass in digital techniques.
Paul Lynch is now one of the top journalists at the Northampton Chronicle and Echo, having earned his professional NCTJ qualifications while studying at De Montfort University’s Leicester Centre for Journalism.
Earlier in 2016, he was awarded the accolade Weekly Journalist of the Year by Johnston Press, one of the largest regional newspaper publishers in Britain.
He was invited back to run a series of masterclasses for DMU’s first, second and third year journalism undergraduates, to give them a flavour of life in the modern digital newsroom.
WATCH: Paul explains how digital technology can be used in the newsroom.
Second year student Harry Rogers.
Paul talked through how a reporter tells stories in different ways, not only in print newspapers and on news websites, but also by using social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
He showed a range of examples from his own newsroom, including how he recently spotted on social media a photo of the Manchester United football team training in a hotel car park near Northampton.
Students were given a taste of how analytics are used to shape the work done by digital journalists and some were also sent out to produce Facebook Live broadcasts on the Leicestershire Press page.
Second year Journalism student Chloe Hewitt said: “We learnt about the importance of digital media and how we can implement these videos and such into our stories, using these different techniques to expand our journalistic skills.”
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