Owain:
I’m so pleased to be here today to help you explore the huge range of jobs that could be available to you in media and journalism. I’ve spent many years working in the industry as a journalist, a broadcaster, and a weather presenter for the BBC. Or you might know me best as the drumming weatherman. Now the media industry is changing all the time. And I’m sure our guests today will agree that every day is exciting and different. And you know what’s really important to me is that it’s an industry where you can fully embrace being yourself. It’s been an amazing career for me so far. And, uh, I’m excited for what lies ahead. We have some great people here today to help us explore media, journalism, and the various jobs within these industries to give you an insight of what might be available to you when you leave school. And hopefully give you some career inspiration as well. So, shall we meet them? Alright then. Everyone, please meet our fabulous panellists.
Niall is here with us. And we also have Elizabeth here. Elizabeth, hello.
Elizabeth:
Hello.
Owain:
And Joe is here as well. Hello, Joe.
Joe:
Hello.
Owain:
Hello, you three. (All: Hello.) Oh, it is so great to see you here today.
Niall:
Thanks for having us.
Owain:
I hope you like the orange set.
Joe
It’s pretty good.
Owain:
Orange of course is our colour. So why not go for it?
Joe:
Matches the suit very well.
Owain:
Well, you know, I didn’t want to say anything. Yes, it is a complementary tone. I would tend to agree. Um, so let’s hear a bit more about you and what you do. Joe, I’m going to start with you. Tell me a bit about yourself Joe and what you do.
Joe:
So, I’m the BBC’s, uh, Cyber Reporter. I work for BBC News. Obviously bringing news to the UK and around the world. And my job is to look at basically all things internet. So, anything to do with internet connectivity, I’m trying to explain to, uh, readers and viewers around the world how that sort of thing affects their lives. I look at hacking, cybersecurity, gaming, uh, social networks. All that sort of stuff that we all sort of take for granted.
And we love. But also, it comes with dangers as well. So that’s my job.
Owain:
Absolutely, yeah, sounds, sounds so interesting. Looking forward to hearing more about that. Um, Elizabeth, tell me quickly about what you do and who you are.
Elizabeth:
So, I’m Elizabeth and I’m a script editor at EastEnders. Um, which is a continuing drama that is produced at BBC Studios. And my role is to liaise with our commissioned writers as well as our production departments to ensure that we’re creating not only an entertaining script, but a script that can be done and achieved.
Owain:
And for us watching at home, it’s so interesting because obviously we don’t see any of that side of it. So, I can’t wait to hear more about that. Niall, how about you? (Niall: Hello.) Tell us a bit about you and what you do.
Niall:
So, I’m a presenter on Capital Radio. Uh, so I play the songs. Simp-simple-, simple as that, really.
Owain:
Oh, you do so much more than that.
Niall:
Ahh, yeah, well, I try. laughs I talk as well. There you go. (Owain Great.) (laughs) And I’m also a content creator online, mainly for TikTok and sort of other forms of social media as well.
Owain:
Mm, fabulous. Well, again, you three, thank you for being here. Um, Elizabeth, I’m going to turn back to you now. And, um, tell us a bit more about your job. What does the kind of day to day look like and you know, w-what does your working day comprise of?
Elizabeth:
That’s a really, really difficult question, because it is something new every day. Um, you can plan, you can have a schedule of how you intend things to go. But um, I guess that’s part of the excitement. You don’t know what’s going to happen. So, one day could be me, um, receiving scripts from our writers and just giving them to our script coordinators to distribute to the rest of the production teams to see what stories are coming up. Or, um, how they can plan for the production of these scripts. Another day could see me actually helping out on set. Um, people asking me about lines that want to be cut or things that need to be added in. So, it’s a real mix, but, um, it’s really fun and exciting. And you do have to be on your toes.
Owain:
Yeah, I bet. And actually, I think we’ve got a little clip here of an episode of EastEnders that you worked on. Let’s have a look at this.
(CLIP STARTS)
Keegan:
It’s too hard being near Anna.
Patrick:
So, what, you’re going to leave her here on her own?
Keegan:
She’s got enough people looking out for her. She don’t need me here.
Patrick:
You don’t know that. So, before you turn your back on someone, be a hundred percent sure here and here.
(CLIP ENDS)
Owain:
Ooh, Elizabeth, very dramatic scene that, wasn’t it? Do you remember that one?
Elizabeth:
I do. Um, I worked with a really great writer who had so much flavour to inject into the story.
Owain:
For those who are watching this and think, ooh, Elizabeth’s job sounds so cool. How do I get into it? What were your first steps in leading you to where you are now?
Elizabeth:
I think the main part, um, is watching TV, talking to people, and making sure that you inject your passion at every stage. From pre-interview to interview to you becoming a part of the production itself.
Owain:
Mm, and of course, apprenticeships are, are a great way of getting started in that kind of industry and many as well. So, I suppose there are lots of different pathways in, aren’t there?
Elizabeth:
Absolutely. I was a trainee, actually. So, um, I was a rookie and they do acknowledge that. I mean, sometimes it’s intimidating ’cause you’re part of something so important and everyone’s working hard. And of course, you will work hard, but if you do make a mistake, they realize, look, this is your first run. It’s ok. And they really help you and guide you through.
Owain:
I-I love to hear it. It’s so interesting. I could chat to you all day about your job, honestly, but I know we’ve all got to chat about our jobs here today. Joe, let me turn to you now. Your job also sounds absolutely fascinating. What does a day in the life of Joe look like when you’re, you know, going into the office and doing your work?
Joe:
It always starts at about the same time, about half past eight in the morning. And I furiously read the news. You’ve always got to be on top of what’s going on in your area. My area’s cyber, so I spend the first sort of hour or so furiously going through the, uh, Twitter is a big source of news. Um, Apple News. I-I subscribe to loads of different technology, emailing, email, mailing lists, so I go through those as well.
Owain:
So do you find a lot of the time, Joe, that you’re, you know, working on something and you’re thinking oh, this is nice. I like this project. Then all of a sudden, there’s like a breaking news story. And as you said then, you have to kind of JOE: Yeah. put that stuff aside. How do you juggle all of that?
Joe:
You have to learn to be able to just drop one project and pick up another one. I call it, um, becoming an instant expert. Because sometimes you, you’ll be in the news room, particularly in my last job when I was at Sky News as a general correspondent, uh, you’ll be looking at something and working on something. And then they’ll say hang on a minute, um, every airport in London has said they can’t land any planes. There’s a crisis. There’s an emergency. We need you on set. So, I’ll be like, well, I know nothing about laughs landing planes. So, you sort of like, quickly, you know, furiously researching, calling people. And then they’re like, we need you on set, we need you on set. So, I’ll be on set sort of like, having no idea what I’m talking about. Um, so you have to be an instant expert. Um, and that’s a great thing about being a specialist. If you have an area of journalism which you know you’re good at, you know you’re sort of an expert in, then you can kind of talk all day long about your area. And you can have some idea of, you know, your skills and expertise in that area.
Owain:
I suppose the big question for me is now, having you said about that story, can you land a plane, Joe?
Joe:
Of course. (laughter)
Owain:
Brilliant.
Joe:
Give me ten minutes in Google, I’ll do it for you. (Laughter)
Owain:
Amazing. We’ve got a clip of some of your work as well, Joe. Let’s have a quick look at this.
(CLIP STARTS)
Joe:
Johan Sundstein has climbed some of the highest heights in gaming. He’s lifted the most valuable trophy in e-sports not once, but twice. We join him on a busy weekend of competition, four online matches in a tournament, with half a million dollars at stake. Well, Johan’s team manager has just kicked us out of the game room. The players need complete focus. They don’t want any distractions, including cameras and us in the room. So, we’re watching it next door on a projector. This is the feed that’s being pumped all over the world.
(CLIP ENDS)
Owain:
Tell us a bit about what we were seeing there in that clip, Joe.
Joe:
So that was, um, a year ago we went to Portugal to, um, Johan Sundstein’s, uh, gaming house. His, he’s, he’s a gazillionaire. I think he’s earned seven million, uh, dollars since he’s been an e-sports player. He’s the most successful e-sports player of all time. And we chatted to him about his life and how he’s become such an incredible, you know, uh, figure in esports. And we did a did a feature for, um, BBC News YouTube and the website. Um, and then we wrote up a kind of, a feature report and I did radio piece. ‘Cause everything I do, um, we have to get value for money out of it. So that trip, I went to Portugal with a producer. Cost a bit of money, obviously. So, we produced lots of different formats. There was a, you know, social media Instagram cut. YouTube, uh, radio piece, written piece, and we just try and get, drain as much goodness out of every story that we do as we can.
Owain:
Yeah. Yeah, of course. How did you get into this, Joe? What was the career path for you like?
Joe:
Well, I’m afraid I’ve always been, uh, a massive geek. So, um, I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a journalist. So, I did lots of work experience at the local, um, newspaper, which is the Slough, uh, Windsor Observer. And I kind of just went and made the tea, uh, for a week. And then went back and the next time they let me in, I made the tea and I wrote some tiny articles. Next time I went back, uh, they gave me more responsibility. So then I went to university and did English. And then after that, I did broadcast journalism. All the way through uni, I’m afraid I was one of those real sad people that was in the media centre all the time. So, I’m a real sad act, I’m afraid. (laughs)
Owain:
You know, I, I think that’s such a positive thing, because, you know, if it wasn’t for that time that you’d put in then, you probably wouldn’t be doing what you love and what you do now. So, it’s all worked out alright, isn’t it?
Joe:
Yeah, yeah. I’m enjoying my job, that’s for sure.
Owain:
Oh, that’s, that’s great and well it’s, it looks great as well. Joe, thank you very much. Niall, hello again.
Niall:
Hello.
Owain:
You’ve told us that you, you love to chat. You love to play us all the hits on the radio. And of course, you know, you’ve got a-a big presence on TikTok. But tell me more about your, your job, Niall, and what you do.
Niall:
Yeah, so sort of day to day, I, well, unfortunately like Joe, I can’t land a plane. (laughter) Uh.
Owain:
Oh, what a disappointment.
Niall:
I know, but we do start our days off in a fairly similar way. Yeah, I would start the day off by scrolling through social media. A hard start to the day. Probably, probably th-the same way that a lot of us wake up as well.
Owain:
It’s how I start my day as well, actually.
Niall:
(Laughs) Exactly. Uh, so then yeah, I’d sort of get into the studio with the producer as well. We go through the show and sort of see what competitions we’ve got coming up. Go through the songs, sort of plan the show. But not too, not too much, really. Sort of leave, leave some links free, because you never know. It’s al-always fast moving. Something could, something could change at the drop of the hat, really. So, throwing that in last minute as well is always, was a nice way to do things.
Owain:
Mm, you said that, um, earlier on, that, you know, personality is a part of what you do. And I, I feel really lucky, because in my job, you know, I can inject a bit of personality into it. And I think I said at the start that I feel like I can really be myself now when I do my job, which I think is really important. Do you find that you get a lot of freedom to be able to put some of you into it?
Niall:
Completely, yeah. I think when, when I was in school, I was sort of hoping to be an actor and I was sort of thinking this is what I want to do when I leave school. And then I realized with presenting, like, you can, you can sort of do the same thing. You can learn scripts, perform on different sets and studios and things like that. But you can be yourself. So, I thought that was quite exciting. And just sort of pursued that. And, uh, cracking on with that, yeah.
Owain:
Yeah. It’s going well. It’s going well. And of course, also, TikTok, let’s have a look at one of your, uh, clips on TikTok. This is one of the ones that went viral. I know many of them have. Let’s have a look at this.
Niall: (CLIP STARTS)
Ok boys and girls, welcome to the annual disco. We’re going to be partying in until seven o’clock tonight. That’s right, forget the bedtime. We’re having a late one. I’ve got my spiky hair. I can see that you’ve got yours as well. Let’s try this right now, year five and six I want to hear you make some noise. Ok, let’s try reception. They’re not here. Cool kids only. Alright, make sure you get your tuck shop tokens off of Vicky. Ms Robinson, sorry. So many snacks here tonight. We’ve got wagon wheels. We’ve got refreshers. And of course, jammy dodgers.
(CLIP ENDS)
Owain:
Haha! Brilliant.
Niall:
Never forget the jammy dodgers.
Owain:
Of course. An underrated snack, I would say.
Niall:
Oh, massively, massively.
Owain:
So of course, that was you doing your thing on TikTok. Tell us a bit about that video. What was going on there?
Niall:
Uh, that was one of the first videos I actually posted on TikTok. Funny enough, I filmed that about two years, maybe a year before posting it on TikTok.
Owain:
Really?
Niall:
And this is sort of the, the weird thing where all of these sort of different social media platforms have, are sort of set for different audiences. I put that on Twitter and I think I got about ten likes from just people I know. And then when TikTok sort of started becoming a thing, I was like oh, I’ll just chuck it on there. And it seemed to do really well. So, um, I don’t know why that was, but it was obviously the sort of the right audience for it. Uh, but yeah, the way, the way the video just came about, um, I was just talking to a mate, uh, about primary school discos and sort of remembering how good they were. (laughs) They were so good.
Owain:
They were great. The best disco that exists, I think.
Niall:
And then we’re just talking like, they, they always sounded the same though, didn’t they, the DJs, they’d have that same ‘OK voice’. And I was like, th-there’s a video in here somewhere.
Owain:
Oh, brilliant. Elizabeth and Joe have both told us how they got into the industry and how it kind of started for them. Um, hearing their stories, was it a similar kind of thing for you, Niall?
Niall:
My sort of way in was I noticed a lot of people were sort of getting spotted through YouTube. So, this is about, about seven years ago now, I sort of thought this is a great way of sort of using YouTube as a bit of a portfolio. Rather than trying to become a YouTuber, really, that wasn’t sort of the, the sort of mindset I had, but just using it to sort of get some stuff out there. Uh, I knew I wanted to get into presenting, so I started doing some street interviews. And, uh, tried to sort of like, showcase sort of my presenting skills, in a way. And learning presenting skills. That, I think that was a great way of training, really. Talking to people on the street, you sort of never know what they’re going to come out with. So (laughs) that’s a great training ground. Put it out on YouTube. And then lo and behold, somebody from Heart Radio sort of found, found me on there and asked me to come in, uh, and do what they call a radio demo. Sort of hear how I sound on, o-on air. And they seemed to like it. And then they put me in touch with Capital. And it all sort of went from there, really.
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