Student journalists win GOLD at national radio awards for local election coverage

A team of student journalists at the University of Northampton have been recognised at the 2025 Community Radio Awards for delivering gold-standard political reporting earlier this year.

The award for ‘Elections & Political Coverage of the Year’ was presented to the student team by representatives from the Radio News Hub in recognition of their delivery of  ‘VOTE WNC,’ a six-hour broadcast of West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) local election count in May which was produced and presented by the University of Northampton’s Multimedia Journalism and Multimedia Sports Journalism students in collaboration with NLive Radio.

Their coverage reported live and direct to communities across the county, alongside rolling social media updates which announced when Reform UK had taken control of West Northamptonshire Council.

One of the students representing UON and NLive Radio on the night was Multimedia Journalism student, Justine Sawford, who said: “On the train journey over, the six of us were constantly hoping that we were going to win gold. Even in the five minutes before heading into the venue, we all had our fingers crossed. When the moment came where we heard our show announced as the winner, we sat for a couple of seconds in shock because it felt very surreal.

“Covering the election was a lot of hard work. We sat in small groups doing as much research on different wards, councillors and political parties as possible to make sure we had everything covered – and we were so glad we did. It was so much fun. I cannot wait to do more live coverages.”

Working under the guidance of University of Northampton’s Senior Lecturers in Journalism, Kate Ironside, Hilary Scott and Adrian Warner and NLive Radio’s Station Manager, Rebecca Steers, the student team split roles to ensure full coverage. Some reporters were based at the count itself, while others supported the council’s media team during one of their busiest times of the year.

The broadcast featured live interviews with candidates, including former West Northamptonshire Council leader Adam Brown, as well as candid conversations with both winning and losing politicians as they reflected on the results.

Senior Lecturer, Kate Ironside said: “This was a fabulous opportunity for the students to put their learning into practice. By delivering a comprehensive, engaging live programme of the results of this extraordinary election, they also performed a major public service to the local audience. This award was well-deserved.”

NLive Radio Station Manager, Rebecca Steers said: “This is a prime example of the partnership work we do with the University of Northampton, providing opportunities for students to get involved in real world radio broadcasting and journalism experiences, especially at a time of momentous political change in the UK.”

Anna Earnshaw, Returning Officer for West Northamptonshire’s elections and WNC Chief Executive said: “I’d like to congratulate all the students on winning this well-deserved national award. Their hard work at the elections count was apparent to everyone who attended, not just their excellent reporting on the results as they came in but also in lending their support to our media team on what proved to be an extremely busy day and eventful day and evening.”

The Community Radio Awards were setup to celebrate, promote, and champion all the work of the Community Radio Sector, it’s hundreds of stations serving local, diverse and communities of interest or identity and the thousands of volunteers who give up hours and hours a week to serve their audiences.

Find out more about studying Multimedia Journalism and Multimedia Sports Journalism at the University of Northampton.