Students working in London College of Communication’s newsroom
London College of Communication BA (Hons) Journalism graduates are everywhere, working in every form of journalism. Recent guest speaker Charlene White, an LCC alumna, who reads the news to London on ITV London, is one of many examples. Jenny Purt is another. She graduated four years ago and now writes for the Guardian Online. Gerard Starkey graduated in 2012 and has already been a reporter for Legal Week and eGaming Review. First-year BA (Hons) Journalism student Joshua Potter reports on the rise and rise of LCC’s graduate journalists.
The Guardian, the International New York Times, Metro, Vogue, MTV, 1883, BBC and Sky are just a few of the places where the graduates of London College of Communication are found. Their jobs range from reporter to editor. Many of the graduates have secured jobs in the year after leaving university; some have been employed before they even left. The BA Journalism programme at LCC prepares its students for every aspect of the world of journalism and starts to set them up for success the moment they walk through the doors in Year One.
During their years spent studying journalism at LCC, the students are encouraged to take internships, gain work experience, and set themselves up so they aren’t completely on their own once they leave university. This encouragement leads to cases like that of Mikkel Stern-Peltz and Shereen Lawrence, both of whom graduated last year. Mikkel has interned at The Independent, the London Evening Standard, and the Telegraph, three incredibly sought-after newspapers. Shereen, aside from being a radio presenter, got herself a place as an Editorial Intern for Touchline Media. Touchline Media is a sports and lifestyle publisher, with magazines ranging from Men’s Health to Runner’s World.
The LCC journalism course prepares its students for the real world. That includes real-world jobs like being a writer for London’s popular mid-market newspaper, the Metro (Emily Hewett, graduated in 2011). Adam Leyland is another who, after walking out of LCC’s doors last year, went on to report for TNT, the London Evening Standard, and the Liverpool Echo, to name just a few publications.
Newspapers are not the only places LCC Journalism graduates are finding work either. The magazine market is immense and the graduates of this school seem to be in all its corners. Vanessa Smart has written for the magazines Get Out UK and This Is Money. Verity Nelson has written for Shine Aloud, Live Magazine UK, and Fluid London. Francesco Buonasera is a writer of WatchMePivot Magazine and Elspeth Merry has worked on the magazines 1883 and Zink. All four of these alumni graduated last year.
Increasingly, more and more people are turning to freelance journalism. Jennifer Logan graduated last year and is a freelance fashion writer who has written for the likes of Trend Magazine. Kati Chitrakorn, who graduated two years earlier, took a similar path. Not only has she been able to land an internship with Vogue and work on the fashion desk for the International New York Times, but she is also currently working as a freelance editorial writer for WWD.
The world of journalism is vast and writing for newspapers and magazines is only one part of that world. Many graduates of the BA (Hons) Journalism programme have gone on to have careers in other aspects of journalism. Take, for example, Matthew Sanderson and Emma Bower, graduated 2012 and 2010 respectively. Matthew was a Copy Editor for BRICS Media Network and Emma was a Copy Editor for IPC Media. Emma is currently a commercial writer for News UK, the company that publishes The Times, The Sunday Times, and the Sun.
Melissa Quashie, 2010, along with being an online writer for MTV, is a BBC Communications Trainee. Rivalling the BBC is Sky News, where Isabella Rolfe works as the current Sub-Editor for Sky Sports News. Isabella also graduated in 2010.
Many graduates of London College of Communication’s Journalism programme have gone on to work on newspapers, magazines, online news sources, broadcast channels, and even freelance. But several of those graduates have taken those skills and used them in other fields of work. Take Laure Fourquet for instance. She hasn’t even graduated yet and she is already a volunteer writer for Request Initiative, a non-profit organisation working on behalf of other non-profits and charities acting in the public good.
Kenny Wastell graduated last year and is using his writing skills in his work with 3Monkeys Communications, and Rianna Raymond-Williams, also graduated last year, is one of the founders of Shine Aloud, the magazine for Shine, the social enterprise that aims to help people under 24 years old with health and relationship decisions. Rianna has also been a writer for the MTV Staying Alive Foundation and was a freelance writer for The Voice Magazine. The skills learned as a journalist are skills that cut across numerous different fields.
Words by BA (Hons) Journalism student Joshua Potter.
Read about BA (Hons) Journalism
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