Sports journalists give Varsity the multimedia treatment

Journalism students pulled out all the stops to cover the University of Northampton’s Varsity clash with the University of Bedfordshire this week.

Fifteen first-year Multimedia Sports Journalism students crossed the border to Bedford to cover the annual inter-university sports tournament on Wednesday 3 April.

They reported on 19 sports in all during an eight-hour period, broadcasting live on Northampton’s community radio station, 106.9 NLive, rival student radio station Radio Lab and also filed Twitter updates of live scores and videos from the scene.

Multimedia Sports Journalism Course Leader, Marc Webber, said: “From cheerleading to swimming, football to netball, our students got the real-life experience of reporting on a multi-sport event.

“Broadcasting live did not faze them at all and it was great to see the variety of content on social media, from pictures of the tennis to celebrations at the rugby.

“The deadlines they faced and the challenges they overcame reporting from different venues are exactly what they will face when they graduate. Varsity was a classic example of how we believe in giving our students real learning experiences when they study Multimedia Sports Journalism at the University of Northampton.”

It has been a busy time for the students. As well as working towards their end-of-year assessments, they have reported from the Northants Cricket pre-season media day, covered a cup-winning Northampton Saints rugby side, and they are set to report on a night of British title fight boxing in Northampton this month.

You can catch up with the Twitter updates using the #NVBVarsity hashtag.