Young Journalist 2008
TALENT KNOWS NO LIMITS
As a media company, Sky is acutely aware that the future belongs to the younger generations. Inspiring young people to become media savvy is thus a key concern.
CELEBRATING THE GOOD STORY
Encouraging young people to create stories like journalists helps them understand better how the media delivers news. The Sky Young Journalist Awards aims to find and celebrate the very best journalistic talent across television, online, radio and print. The competition encourages young people between the ages of 14-19 years old to report on local, national or international news stories that matter to them.
Sky News presenters Eamonn Holmes and Kay Burley were on hand with tips on journalism.
The competition required entrants to really think through their chosen subject in light of the category they entered – print category entrants needed to visualise what their article would look like on a page and how well a reader would flow through the text and images.
2008's overall competition winner for her online category entry was Phyo Khaing, age 15 from Warrington. She won an iMac for her school and an iMac, tour of the Sky News Studio and a journalism workshop for herself. You can read her wining entry about Chinese logging in Burma and Africa on Sky's website here.
The judges said "The writing is mature and she shows an excellent appreciation of how the report might look on screen, with good use of pictures and captions, pulled-out quotes, hyperlinks to other websites and streamed video."
TV category winner, Matthew Blow, age 14 from Surrey, wrote about UK credit card fraud.
The judges said "Very intelligent treatment of important story, with good suggestions touching all the right 'bases'"
Radio category winner, Emma McMullan, 19, from Co. Down, wrote about the collapse of Zoom airline.
The judges said "The issue affects tens or even hundreds of thousands of people and she was asking a question to which they would want an answer. Her suggested interviewees included those I would want to hear from."
Print category winner, Connor Sephton, age 15, from Lancashire wrote about profiteering from the credit crunch.
The judges said "A very good story to select - 'Profiteering from the Credit Crunch' - with an interesting look at what's happening with the supermarkets, energy companies and share speculators. Nice use of graphics and captions, and a good appreciation of lay-out."
LESSONS LEARNED
Journalists need to be highly media literate. The qualities that make a good journalist - an enquiring mind, an interest in people and their stories and the ability to listen attentively – naturally increase their own media literacy. Journalists also have to learn to report on all sides of a story, even when it seems obvious that one side is 'right'.
The competition encouraged these qualities and skills by ensuring the entrants looked at their chosen topic from a variety of angles and analysed the many ways in which they could construct and present their story.
This specific initiative has now come to an end but Sky are looking at news ways to keep engaging young people with the media and igniting excitement in future talent.
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