Black History Month speaker hopes to inspire change in media industry

By Matthew Chandler

BHM DMU

Beverley Cooper-Chambers (left) and Yvonne Connikie (right), who gave talks at the same event

Changing the way Black Caribbean families are represented in British media is the ambition of a speaker at a De Montfort University (DMU) Black History Month event.

Beverley Cooper-Chambers, whose family are of Jamaican descent, spoke last week about the stereotypical portrayal of British Caribbeans in UK television and the media.

In her talk, Beverley referred to Channel 4’s crime drama series ‘Top Boy’, about a London gang comprised of predominantly black members, to explain how prevalent this stereotype is in mainstream media.

“I’m black 24/7, 365 days a year. It must be that we’re part of the mainstream”

“You get to the situation where they get the guns, the drugs, the money, they’re having kids left right and centre without any responsibility,” she said.

“That image now is coming on the TV screens, so you think all black men are wearing hoodies and taking drugs and that’s not the reality. So my idea is there needs to be more positive TV drama.”

Beverley, former editor of Jamaican newspaper Love Herald, is doing a PhD at DMU on ‘The creation of a blueprint for television drama series that elevates the perception of British Caribbean families beyond the historical and sociological trauma of ‘fictive kin’ and the psychological manipulation of social engineering’.

bev

Beverley at her graduation

But she hopes to offer viable solutions to these well-documented issues. She said: “I want to be able to create a solution so it stops happening. We know what the problem is. What we need to do is how to solve it.

“It’s all very well that you have Black History Month, but guess what? I’m black 24/7, 365 days a year. It must be that we’re part of the mainstream.

“In reality the people that control the mainstream aren’t going to do that – they don’t have to. We need to do it ourselves and stop waiting for other people to do it for us.”

While she also feels there are similar issues in the education system – saying it’s like black people “didn’t exist” before slave trade – Beverley is concentrating her efforts on changing the television industry, with her philosophy entitled ‘transform your viewing’.

She added: “I’d want us to have a British Caribbean television network where we have a similar thing to Sky, but it’s British Caribbean, so we have our drama, our own news, we have our reality shows, we have everything, and we are the gatekeepers.”

“I’m not saying I want to isolate us, but you need to have a base from which we can work.”

Game of Thrones 7th Anniversary: What do you think?

GOT photo

By Ruairi O’Connor

Game of Thrones celebrates its 7th anniversary today, so we asked a few De Montfort University students what their favourite moments from the smash-hit HBO show.

“My favourite moment from Game of Thrones so far was when Ned Stark was killed because it was a massive shock. I haven’t read the books and they built him up to be a main character and had a great story arc, bit of a surprise.”  – Talhah Mulla, 22, Biomedical Science student.

“My favourite moment from Game of Thrones is when Jamie Lannister pushed Bran Stark from a window, after he found Jamie and his sister Cersei, having sex. It was two shocking revelations in one!” – Kiran Bal, 20, Accounting and Finance student.

“My favourite moment from Game of Thrones is the ‘Battle of the Bastards’ because it was the culmination of events that were building for multiple seasons. It was visually stunning and a kept you on the edge of your seat.” – James Sampson-Brinkley, 19, Games Programming.”

“My favourite moment from Game of Thrones was when Ramsay Bolton is finally killed because Sansa gets her revenge on him by making sure he is eaten alive” – Ali Morgan, 20, Mechanical Engineering.

DMU journalism graduate racks up 1.3 MILLION views with viral video

matt-wolstenholme

A De Montfort University graduate has become an internet sensation by sprinting 100m while juggling a football.

Football freestyler Matt Wolstenholme filmed himself doing kick-ups while running along an athletics track and the video has more than 1.3 million views.

The clip of the 34-year-old Londoner went viral when it was shared by popular Facebook page The Sport Bible. Watch here.

Matt, who graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism in 2004, also holds a Guinness World Record for the longest distance juggling a football. He did kick-ups for 20km, which took him five hours.

He said: “It’s strange to think that more than a million people have watched a clip of me kicking a ball around for 100m. I’m really chuffed by the reaction – the comments and feedback have been great.”

One of the thousands of Facebook comments read: “Hope it is an Olympic sport in the future.”

Another said: “Your turn Usain Bolt!”

Matt has featured on national television and performed his skills around the world. For more about his exploits, visit his website.

Social Media Success for DMU Graduate Champion

By Natalie Whitehouse

Journalism graduate Georgina Baker found herself remaining a part of De Montfort even after leaving, when she undertook an internship through the university’s DMU Graduate Champions Scheme.

The 21-year-old has this week completed a six-week placement with Media Board International, a Leicester-based marketing company, where she has been enjoying her role as Social Media Marketing Officer and Journalist.

Since graduating last summer, Georgina has applied for “no end of jobs in journalism,” but says she wasn’t too disheartened that the applications, thus far, have been to no avail:

“I was ready for a little break, so I wasn’t too downhearted at my failings for finding something permanent.”

Georgina has since found herself back at her local pub, in the part time job she has had since she was fourteen, before getting a letter through the post advertising DMU Graduate Champions, tempting her to look into the internship scheme and apply:

“I got a little letter through the post and to be honest I actually didn’t think they would have any positions for me, as I didn’t think there were any journalism postings about.

“I left the card on my desk and for a few weeks it kept staring at me, so one day when I was writing a blog post I bit the bullet and applied – not expecting to hear anything at all!”

Gee Baker

Georgina’s application was thankfully successful, undertaking her internship at the beginning of the year. Her role at Media Board is diverse and enjoyable; providing her with a whole host of tasks to keep her busy from day to day:

“I have been involved with setting up Media Board’s official blog where I write all the blogs, which have included an ‘About Media Board’ one, as well as personal blogs from myself tracking my time here. I’ve also been let lose editing content already on the website.

“I’m involved in planning content for Media Board’s clients, which we then draft and schedule to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. This sort of stuff can be anything from opening hours of the restaurants we work with, to coming up with competitions and special offers.

“Because no one client is the same it has been really interesting to see how ideas can be adapted for each business, and it’s great because you meet so many different people.”

Georgina has also praised the internship scheme, ran by DMU, which enabled her to gain this vital experience in an industry she wishes to work in, in turn hopefully giving her the extra push she needs to secure a full time role:

“I really would [recommended the scheme to graduates], especially if you are like me and find job searching a minefield! For the sake of going online for ten minutes tops and filling in the application form, it is so worth it. DMU does all the hard work once you’ve submitted your application, and you just say yes or no to the jobs they find you. Whatever job you end up being assigned to is all experience and will look great on the CV!”

With regards to the future and her hunt for a job, Georgina would ideally like a job in journalism, PR or marketing, noting that she’s “not fussy” as to where she ends up; as long as it gives her the chance to do something she loves, as well as passing some personal milestones:

“I’m hoping to still do stuff with Media Board from them such as blogs and I will keep up my own personal writing too while I look for a full time job in the journalism industry, but while that happens and while I’m still at home I am going to try and get my driving test passed as soon as possible, and keep working at the pub to stop myself going bored and provide me with money and a bit more of a social life!”

DSU role for NCTJ qualified journalist

By Natalie Whitehouse

Journalism graduate Jonathan Whitney has found himself back on the De Montfort campus, returning to the university in a role at De Montfort Students’ Union as Media and Communications Coordinator.

The NCTJ-accredited journalist stumbled across the vacancy by chance, and knew instantly that it was a job he could see himself succeed in:

“I knew it was exactly what I was looking for so I applied straight away. I got an interview and heard back the next day that I’d been successful! My first day was during Freshers – the busiest time of the year for us – so that was a bit of a baptism of fire, but I haven’t looked back since.”

Being thrown in at the deep end, Jonny began his role four months ago at the beginning of the academic year, and pays testament to his course and experience gained at De Montfort for assisting him in successfully securing the role at DSU:

“All of the skills I’d learnt on my course were big factors in me landing the job, but my previous experience was crucial. In my final year of study I was a Frontrunner in the press office at DMU, and the skills I learnt there in sourcing and writing news stories more tailored to a commercial setting was really important, and it was most helpful to me in learning how to write for different audiences.

“I was also a Media Intern at Leicester Tigers during that time, and spent the season honing my skills across a wide range of areas including press releases, social media and a little bit of video content.”

This vast amount of experience put the journalism graduate in extremely good stead for the position at DSU, which have allowed him to flourish in his role, as well as learn new skills on the job:

“I work in a small team, so I can find myself turning my hand to anything during a normal working week. I coordinate all of the news content that goes up on the DSU website, most of which I write myself. I’m also in charge of all of the main social media channels we have, so scheduling messages for, and monitoring, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others can take up a large part of my day.

“I’m also getting more and more into video content, which is one area that I didn’t cover so much on my course, but it still uses all of the traditional story telling techniques I learnt during my time studying at DMU.”

Jonny Whitney

Having previously wanted to get into sports journalism, the 21-year-old realised early in his time at university that his career path may change, as he began to lean more towards a career in communications:

“I wanted to be a sports journalist for a long time, but quite early on during my course my eyes were opened to the opportunities in PR and Communications and my goals have changed to suit. At some point in my career I’d love to work for a communications team in a sporting environment, but right now I’m really happy at DSU!”

Jonny seems to have found his ideal career – or along the lines of it. He fully enjoys his role, the projects he has been involved in thus far, and also the interesting people he gets to meet along the way:

“The most interesting bit I find is when you get some weird and slightly quirky stories coming out of the woodwork. I was writing one about a student, Maddison, who is BUCS champion in her category of Karate as our sports department gives her funding towards her training. Only as I was interviewing her did it come out that she was not only BUCS champion, but a double European and triple world champion! That was fascinating and made for a brilliant story.”

And as is the consistently fast-paced nature of the communications world, there’s always something to keep him busy, and most importantly happy:

“Right now is a really busy time because we’re in the middle of planning comms. around elections, Varsity, RAG week and a whole lot more. But I’m really enjoying it!

“I get a real buzz out of actually seeing the effect my work has – whether that be more engagement with a certain campaign, or more student sign-ups to one of our services.”