Ever since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to work in the media industry and have been fascinated by the broadcast side of things. Starting out on student media laid the foundations for my radio work and when I graduated I was fortunate to earn a place on ITV’s Runner Pool. I was based in Leeds and at Granada working as a production assistant for factual / entertainment programmes and got a real buzz from working in such a fast paced environment. Since enrolling on UCLan’s Broadcast Journalism masters I’ve been able to create content for all broadcast mediums, as well as learm a new journalistic skill. Now I’m looking forward to beginning the courses’  BJTC work placement period with the BBC at MediaCity.

Any big change prompts me to get wistful about where it all began. I can remember vividly where my inspiration to work in media comes from – it goes back to when I was in primary school. My parents’ friends, Mavis and Laurie, owned a company that got commissioned to make TV sets for lots of different programmes. At the time they’d just finished the set of a new Sooty show for Blackpool Pleasure Beach. You can imagine my excitement when they said I could see Sooty’s set… Come to think of it, I’d probably still get excited about that now!

It was an amazing experience to see the sets I’d seen on TV  in front of my eyes. As we walked along the shopfloor I did get to see Sooty’s new lodgings, alongside a fascia from Coronation Street’s Rovers Return and Gordon Burn’s new North West Tonight desk. When the show got re-branded there was the desk that Laurie had made on the screen!  I’ve been a fan of NWT ever since. I love regional news and have watched the programme for years, so I think it must go back to that moment.

It’s been great to have been taught by a producer and cameraman from NWT while at UCLan. The packages that I’ve filmed for our news days are all available for you to watch on my YouTube channel. To quote Blue Peter – here’s one I made earlier! It’s my latest TV report about the Book Cycle project in Wigan…

More of my reports are available my YouTube channel: youtube.com/katybooth

I’ve enjoyed both our UCLan radio and TV news days, where we got the chance to broadcast news bulletins for both mediums as well as creating web content. I already had a lot of radio experience prior to joining the course but it’s definitely sharpened my skills and the voice training has been beneficial – especially in getting, what the vocal coach described as, my “lazy tongue” into shape!

I learnt new skills as well as lots about myself with our TV news days too I can now self shoot my own reports. This was an ambition of mine and I’m glad that I can say I’ve achieved this and can put it on my CV. Having made my own videos for years with a camcorder it’s been good to learn how to professionally edit reports too. These are all skills that I will be using on my work placement with BBC North West Tonight. The news desk that I saw and even the studios where the programme broadcasts from have changed over the years but I’ve watched the programme throughout, so it will be a privilege to spend my placement with the NWT team.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to sign off with my own standard out cue, but until then here’s a photo from our course trip to MediaCity…

The post-grads on our trip to BBC North West Tonight with Roger Johnson and Annabel Tiffin