Department orders Avid newsroom system

By UKJournalism

The Department of Journalism is set to become the first in the country to own Avidís latest newsroom production system.

Senior lecturer in TV Journalism Paul Egglestone is delighted at the prospect of installing the new system: "The order for Avid iNews with its Newscutter editing facility represents another major step in our move towards digital integration," he said.

"Using iNews students will be able to create scripts, audio and video packages and eventually publish direct to the web. And they'll be doing this on kit that's used by professionals in the industry."

Avid Technology, Inc. is the world leader in digital non-linear media creation, management and distribution solutions. Their track record on innovation coupled with their reputation in the broadcast industry were just two of the reasons the department opted for iNews.

"Avid's student support and mentoring scheme was the deciding factor," added Paul. "The main aim of the scheme is to provide students with an accelerated start to their media career and give them a better chance of finding a job when they finish their studies."

Work experience

As well as supporting them through exclusive access to the Avid Student Website and offering career advice to students from the Department, students studying TV in Preston will have the opportunity for short and long-term work experience provided by Avid.

Head of Journalism Mike Ward said: "The combination of excellent quality teaching, new digital facilities and input from one of the industry's most innovative technology companies firmly secures the Department's position as a premier provider of cutting edge Journalism training.
 
"The iNews system will be a prominent feature of our existing undergraduate and postgraduate courses - and it'll have an important role in our new Digital Journalism Production BA (Hons) course in September.

Great news

Andy Dickinson, BA (Hons) Digital Journalism Production Course Leader said: "This is great news for the new course. In a fast moving industry the Avid system offers us the perfect platform to expand. It's key to us staying at the cutting edge."

As the media industries converge the nature of the job changes. Employer expectations for a multi-skilled multi-disciplined workforce look set to become the order of the day.

Paul Egglestone believes the departments latest acquisition will provide the industry with the workforce of the future: "We've been practising multi-skilled journalism in Preston for over a decade," he said.

"Creating a multidiscipline journalist capable of producing video, audio and written content for a whole range of media, whether on-line, TV, PDAs, wireless devices or mobile phones - is what were about now. And as the industry follows suit well be supplying them with suitably qualified and trained professionals."

More info:
BA (Hons) Digital Journalism Production >
Postgraduate Diploma Broadcast Journalism >
Masters Broadcast Journalism >

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See also:
Avid Technology, Inc. >

Extra and related information

Our print and broadcast courses are accredited by the The Broadcast Journalism Training Council and the National Council for the Training of Journalists. Our MA Magazine Journalism is accredited by the Periodicals Training Council.