If there had been a bingo sheet made for the events of lockdown, nestled amongst baking banana bread or learning a language or new skill, zoom would be on there.
Empoword Journalism was created back in May after a zoom workshop with guest speaker Kay Burley, run by the journalism school, News Associates. Burley encouraged all attendees that they should document their covid-19 and lockdown experiences with young journalists. Realising the lack of opportunities we have all had this year, and the desire to create a platform for like-minded women to unite, Empoword Journalism was formed.
Seeing as our whole group and project was started after a zoom workshop, we decided to contact a number of journalists and figures within the media industry and start our own. We organised a number of workshops on a variety of different topics with 27 guest speakers.
In Conversation With…
Our first zoom was in conversation with Naomi O’Leary, the European Correspondent at the Irish Times. She was able to share with us the ins and outs of what it is like being a correspondent whilst also sharing an insight of her route into the industry.
Alongside this workshop we hosted a number of more intimate one to one workshops as part of our ‘In Conversation With…’ series. We spoke to BBC Political journalist and producer Lucy Webster about not only her career but also her experiences as a disabled journalist. Within this series we also spoke to journalist Lydia Wilkins, documentary maker and investigative journalist Tamanna Rahman, and BBC News Specialist Disinformation and Social Media reporter Marianna Spring.
Panel Events
Not only have we spoken to journalists individually, bur we have also hosted a number of panel events with a handful of these being sold out events. One of our most popular workshops was entering the world of journalism with Jem Collins (founder of Journo Resources), Lucy Dyer (News Associates), and Laura Garcia (PressPad and First Draft). These panel events allowed us to gain a range of perspectives from our guests as well as tackle topics within the industry such as freelancing and how to gain experience.
We were lucky enough to host two regional journalism workshops which focused on what we can be doing locally rather than focusing our attention solely on the opportunities restricted to London. Joining us was Laura Collins, Emma Meese, Annie Lewis, Faye Jessica, Liz Green, Anna Whittaker, Charlotte Vowles, Amelia Beckett, and Amy Orton.
Going into the journalism industry, there is a huge emphasis on freelancing and how we as young journalists can increase our bylines. This was a workshop that provided that much needed insight into the world of freelance where we were joined by Nicola Slawson, Grace Holliday, Emmie Harrison-West, Jenny Stallard, and Diyora Shadijanova.
Through these workshops, we helped young journalists not just with advice on getting into the print journalism industry but also into broadcast. In the summer, we hosted a broadcast journalism workshop where we spoke to Megan Lawton, Sarah Julian, and Shamaan Freeman-Powell. More recently, we held a producers panel with Elly Blake from Sky News and Priscilla Ng’ethe from BBC World Africa.
These workshops were not only beneficial to every single person who attended but also to our Empoword Journalism contributors who stepped up to not only organise these events but also host them.
These events were not possible without our speakers, Empoword Journalism contributors, and everyone who came along. When we started the project, we never could have known just how much we would grow and be able to give opportunities to other young journalists. As we go into the New Year with plans on more events, we hope that the advice and information so far has been invaluable.
Neve Gordon-Farleigh
Photo by Thought Catalog via Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license available here.