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The University of Huddersfield's
Chancellor Professor Patrick Stewart
launches new media facility
Journalism students in Huddersfield are being taught with technology so advanced, it’s even ahead of most of the industry.
The University of Huddersfield has just taken delivery of £750,000 worth of new technology, making it one of Britain’s most advanced centres for journalism.
And the ‘out-of-this-world’ facilities were officially launched by the University’s Chancellor, actor Professor Patrick Stewart, at a ceremony held on campus yesterday – 19 November, 2009.
The new kit includes the latest ‘tape-less’ cameras. The Panasonic P2s, which have just started being used at Sky News, operate with a flash card instead of tape. This means images can be imported for editing within a matter of moments instead of transferring tape footage in real time.
The BBC is just starting to use this technology in London before being rolled out elsewhere. But sources at ITV say that a spending freeze means they could have to wait another 18 months to two years before they get it.
The major investment in Huddersfield’s Media and Journalism Department also includes:
The Mayor of Kirklees, Councillor Julie Stewart-Turner,with students
in the one of the state-of-the-art digital radio studios.
Meanwhile all students on Huddersfield’s media and journalism degree courses will now be taught how to use cameras, edit and produce video news.
Head of Media and Journalism Alistair Billam said: “In this day and age, journalists need to be multi-skilled. Newspapers are increasingly sending out reporters with video cameras to shoot video-news for their web-sites.
“We have a partnership with the BBC and they say that they want our journalism students to be multi-skilled when they go on placements. They need to be able to write for the BBC web-sites as well as film and use radio.
“It’s important that we give our students the very best chance of getting into the industry and to do that they need to be able to use the very latest technology which is being used in the industry.”
The spending on the latest technology is bucking the trend as a number of other universities are looking at tightening their budgets because of overspending.
Muj Rahman, a 23-year-old student from Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, said: “It’s brilliant that this is the latest equipment for the industry. It puts us at an advantage when we go for jobs because we will already be familiar with the kit and we won’t have to be re-trained.”
Fellow student Matthew Nash, a 20-year-old from Dewsbury, said: “The new cameras are amazing. They are better quality and easier to use and the fact they do not use tape makes it easier and so much quicker to load the images.”
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