BCU students take top media awards.
Students from Birmingham City University carried off three trophies at the Midlands Media Student Awards, held in Birmingham on Wednesday 10th April.
Victoria Oliveres (pictured), who is now working for a media group in Barcelona, won the Data Journalism Category, Wan Ulfa Nur Zuhra was awarded the News Category trophy, while Lucy Ryan won the Broadcasting (Radio) Category.
The awards, organised by Birmingham Press Club to acknowledge the achievements of next-generation journalists, broadcasters and photographers, attracted several hundred entries from universities and colleges from the East and West Midlands. The event was held at Mama Roux’s in Digbeth, hosted by BBC Radio WM presenter Alex Noble.
Headline sponsor was Amazon UK Services Ltd, whose Community Relations Manager, Neil Williams, presented the Student of the Year trophy.
He said: “This has been a tremendous opportunity to work with the Birmingham Press Club to both encourage aspiring journalists and recognise the best emerging talent. It’s great to see the world’s oldest press club looking to the future with the Midlands Media Students’ Awards which we’re delighted to support.”
Further sponsorship support came from HSBC UK, the Press Club’s overall sponsor, and the Universities of Birmingham City, De Montfort, Gloucestershire, Northampton and Worcester.
Victoria, using Freedom of Information details extracted from 26 police forces, produced a well-researched and comprehensive piece of work to reveal that online disability hate crimes had tripled in three years, while the judges said that Wan’s entry stood out for its powerful mixture of investigative and data journalism on topical public interest issues.
Lucy’s portfolio turned a tragic series of events into a compelling broadcast – using first-hand accounts and expert analysis to put the spotlight on the ‘Lonely Death of Janet Parker’, who was the world’s last recorded smallpox fatality, having died in Birmingham in 1978.
Birmingham City University students Hafsa Naveed (Broadcasting, television), Anisah Vasta & Abigail Nruah (Culture), Lydia Johnson (Culture) and Sania Aziz & Calum Archibald (Data Journalism), were all highly commended.
University of Gloucestershire student Hesham Abdelhamid took the Student of the Year accolade after having collected the Features Category trophy earlier in the evening. The Media Student of the Year was chosen from the ten category winners.
Birmingham Press Club chairman Llewela Bailey said: “Many well-known names in the media world have kick-started their careers after having successfully negotiated their courses at Midland universities and colleges. And I have no doubt that those who entered our awards will be following in their footsteps. The standard of submitted work was truly outstanding – a real credit to the lecturers who are helping to craft their careers.”
