Budding journalists receive prizes from industry veteran

Veteran journalist and broadcaster John Sergeant presented talented students with prizes at Teesside University’s annual Journalism Awards.

The event, which was sponsored by EDF Energy, took place at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and journalism students received awards based on exceptional work produced during the past academic year.

Winners were commended for the skills learnt on the BA (Hons) Journalism and Multimedia Journalism degree courses.

Among the awards were News Reporter of the Year, Best Feature Writer and Blogger of the Year.

Prizes included a number of placements with The Gazette, The Northern Echo and The Hartlepool Mail, along with work experience at Sky Sports News, The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine, The I, Global FM, BBC Tees and the new TV station Made in Teesside.

A number of special academic awards were also given out, including the NCTJ Prize, for the student with the highest overall marks while training for the National Council of Journalism qualifications.

John Sergeant, an honorary graduate of Teesside University, started his journalism career as a correspondent for the Liverpool Echo where he worked for around three years before joining the BBC as a radio reporter in 1970.

He joined the international desk, covering stories in over 25 countries.

He then worked as a war reporter in Vietnam and Israel and reported the death of the first British soldier during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

He later covered the opening sessions of the European Parliament and became a Political Correspondent in 1981.

Having progressed through newspaper, radio and television journalism, he became the BBC's Chief Political Correspondent from 1992 until 2000.

In 2000, he joined ITN as Political Editor before retiring in 2002.

Since his retirement John has appeared on television programmes such as Have I Got News for You; The One Show and a memorable stint on Strictly Come Dancing.

Jonathan Brown, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Teesside University’s School of Design, Culture & the Arts, said: 'These awards recognise the hard work and excellent calibre of our current journalism students and the students were thrilled to be awarded their prizes by John Sergeant.

'I would like to thank all of the media organisations who generously contributed prizes to this celebration of our students’ achievements and especially our main sponsors EDF Energy.'

Full list of winners:

NCTJ Prize, sponsored by NCTJ and the Daily Mail, Emily Conyard

Blogger of the Year, sponsored by Teesside University, Izak Boyes-Jackson Content Producer of the Year, Sponsored by The Creative Alchemist, Frankie Ahmed Feature Writer, sponsored by The Northern Echo, Alex Watson

Multimedia Journalist of the Year, sponsored by Evening Gazette, Courtney McCarten

Community Reporter of the Year, sponsored by Hartlepool Mail, Lucy Tyreman

Sky Sports News Award, Josh Frankland

Lifestyle Reporter, sponsored by Fabulous Magazine, Beth Hughes

Entertainment Reporter, sponsored by NE Volume, Jake Graham

News Reporter of the Year, sponsored by The i newspaper, Neil Fatkin

Broadcast Journalist of the Year, sponsored by Global FM, Kristyn Higginson

Video Journalist of the Year, sponsored by Made in Teesside, Jack Franks and Dan Bullock

Communications/PR sponsored by Harvey and Hugo, Hannah Maloney Outstanding Contribution to Campus Life Award, sponsored by Teesside University, Sam Bradley; Melissa Major; Eleanor Anderson; Emily Conyard; Jemma Ferguson-Gale; Kristyn Higginson

Award for passing 100wpm shorthand, sponsored by Teesside University, Courtney McCarten

Ali Brownlee Award, sponsored by BBC Tees, Josh Frankland

Final Project, Sponsored by Visualsoft, Miss Represented – Emily Conyard; Jemma Ferguson-Gale; Jessica Dixon and Natasha Ashby.

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