EXCLUSIVE interview with Six-D!

Being described as the streetdance version of Glee comes with very heavy expectation, yet the aura surrounding this six-some hasn’t stopped. I caught up with Six-D backstage at Future Hits Live and we chatted everything from how they all met to working with Lady Gaga’s choreographer!

SixD Interview from EQ Video on Vimeo.

Yvette Cooper: “I support gay marriage”

The Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has told the the annual TUC LGBT Conference in London that she supports gay marriage.

Under current UK law, same sex couples may enter into only civil partnerships, with marriage reserved for heterosexual people. The Labour spokeswoman’s comments will be welcomed by gay-rights campaigners have been calling for full marriage equality for many years.

Speaking to delegates at Congress House in London, Yvette Cooper stated that she supported gay marriage and that she would pressure the Con-Dem government on the issue:

“The debate has only just started around gay marriage which I support but we should be having a proper debate around the table. I think we should be looking for further progress.”

Government needs to do more

The Labour party spokeswoman attacked the Tories’ record on gay rights, declaring that the coalition government needed to do more:

“I’ve not heard Theresa May say anything on LGBT issues. I think the Home Office under her leadership is shocking.”

During her speech, Yvette Cooper highlighted how far the fight against homophobic bullying had come:

“Some schools are doing fantastic, but there are a lot more schools who could do a lot better.”

“David Cameron said in a recent interview in a magazine that Labours LGBT equality has gone far enough. I don’t agree, I think if you still look at the pressures on many teenagers in schools, they still have to deal with homophobic bullying.”

Yvette Cooper’s comments on gay marriage were applauded from all sides of the hall; she was booed and jeered when she criticised the strikes in the public sector.

Student addresses NUJ Delegate Meeting

Student Daniel Richardson was chosen by the Student Reporters to address the 2011 National Union of Journalists Delegate Meeting.

“We are the people who will eventually be sat in your seats”. Daniel Richardson’s statement of intent represented the passion for journalism that has been displayed by all students over the DM weekend.
As part of the Delegate Meeting, a student reporter was invited to address the conference on how the student party has involved itself within the ongoings of the DM and reporting what happens inside the Floral Hall. They have done this through various forms of media, such as updating a live website with the latest stories and events with pictures, audio and video taken by students; live twitter feeds (search hashtag #nujdm for examples) and live blogging.
In his speech, Daniel addressed the problems with internships and the issues many students have had in obtaining work placements. He said: “Many of us here have done internships and they were and are priceless experience’s, but they are not valueless”. He also addressed the perception that interns aren’t as skilled or as revered. “It may be as interns we are not as productive as the experienced journalists we work alongside; but neither are we useless. We do work hard and publish work that is good enough to be printed or broadcast. We should be paid”.
Whilst students should be paid for work experience, many, including some of the Student Delegation who are on placements elsewhere, are not. Daniel added that student journalists won’t be walked all over: “It’s about time employees take internees seriously and recognise our work with at least the minimum wage”.
Daniel was democratically elected with a vote amongst the Student Delegation after a hustings took place.
This experience has proved to be a very productive one for all of the students, with many students going that extra mile to get a story. Student reporter Samantha Newsham said: “It’s been a great chance to do fast-paced reporting and to see what the NUJ deals with. It’s also eye-opening to see what pressures real-life journalists have to face on a day-to-day basis”. Most students have been based either in the main hall, or in the underground Bunker – the self-christened base of all student activities.
In the conclusion of his speech, Daniel thanked all of the respective branches on behalf of their nominated students. All of the branches have paid for all of the students to attend the DM. Dan said: “We are the people who will eventually be sat in your seats, by extending your hand to students and encouraging our involvement you’re ensuring that we will continue to be a strong, pro-active and effective Union for generations to come”.

NUJ photographers gain a seat on NEC council

Photographers of the National Union of Journalists have won their fight to gain a seat on the National Executive Council after the Delegate Meeting passed a motion.
Motion 57 was bought to the fray after many years of debate as to whether or not photographers should have a seat on the National Executive Council.
After feeling under-represented and considering themselves overlooked for many years within the NUJ, the photographers saw their motion passed and subsequently gained a seat on the NEC.
Jess Hurd from the London Photographers Branch believed that all the hard work had finally paid off. “This is what we have been campaigning for on the ground, within the grassroots and the successful ‘I’m a Photograher, Not A Terrorist’ campaign and all the work we have done so it’s great that we have representation at the highest level”.
Under previously existing rules within the NUJ rules, it was possible for decisions directly effecting photographers to be passed within a direct representative of photographers.
Whilst the motion was passed for a seat on the NEC, a motion that suggested the creation of a Photographers Council was opposed by the DM after a vote that the scrutineers had to act upon. Whilst she was obviously disappointed, Jess said: ”I don’t see it as a vote against photographers, I see it is a review of the council and why set up a council if after year you are going to set up another structure?”.
James Doherty of the NEC argued that photographers would be gaining special representation.”There is every opportunity for photographers to be represented within the current structures. We should not be considering another industrial council and associated time and financial strains”.

LGBT Forum Launched

History was made today at the Delegate Meeting as the launch of the first ever Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Forum of the National Union of Journalists was held.
At a forum held today by the Equality Officer, Lena Calvert, members were invited to discuss action plans for the forum and how it is going to function. This was seen by members as a step in the right direction as there is currently no official representation of LGBT members within the union. It will receive the backing of the Equality Council to establish, support and promote the forum.
The debate began with Equality Council Chair, Mindi Ran announcing that “LGBT people have not had their own voice”. A motion was passed in the Delegate Meeting that approved the forum which wouldn’t require any funding beyond existing NUJ budgets. This was followed by James Doherty of the Glasgow Branch and former NUJ President who said: “We’re here, we’re queer, get on it.”
Engaging
Michael Birtwistle of the National Executive Council said he was pleased the wheels were finally in motion. “We are always talking about making the Union more interesting and engaging for all. The LGBT members of the Union are quite aware of people who don’t engage in the Union and the image of the trade union isn’t appealing to all members of society. We think this will be an interesting platform for members”.
The forum will be organised under the umbrella of the Equality Council which will be primarily web-based networks and physical meetings when needed. It has been proposed that the online forum will utilise a public section and a members-only section which allow members to discuss personal issues whilst remaining anonymous if they prefer. This allows for instant access to guidance from other members and an attitude-free discussion whilst maintaining confidentiality.
Awareness
The aim is to promote awareness of LGBT issues and to try and dismiss any prejudices that still remain. There are many journalist’s that encounter problems within newsrooms, studios and on the front line.
Yet still for the younger generation, the attitude appears to be more carefree. Student delegate Nic Robinson agreed that a forum would be a good place for people to share their views. “It’s never been an issue for me personally, but it’s great that I have somewhere to come and talk”.

How I went from being a tourist to being a BBC journalist in NYC

Being in the middle of Times Square in one of the world’s most populated cities is mesmerising in its own right. Try being there after the piece of news we were about to get.
If you ask any member of family who lost a loved one in 9/11, they will tell you that justice hasn’t been done. They will tell you that the heartache will live on forever. They will tell you that they have to wake up every morning knowing that their loved ones won’t be there to sit down at the breakfast table with them. It is a heart wrenching feeling.
Yet what was about to happen, would not only change the world, but would also give these families a little sense of comfort after 10 long years of hurt.

Sunday May 2nd, President Obama interrupts an episode of Desperate Housewives just before I was about to nod off in our hotel room. “Osama Bin Laden has been killed”. I jumped up out of bed and woke as many people up as I could. Within 15 minutes of finding out this news, we were in Times Square.

Now, anyone who has been to Times Square will testify, it’s a pretty mind-boggling place. Fluorescent video screens dominate a high-rise ménage cascaded by a serenade of honking taxis and sirens. New York is hustle and bustle; everywhere you look you cannot help but see people on the move for one purpose or another. Unless you come across the tourists.
As we ran up Broadway, it was like walking through a ghost town fresh from being filmed in a Spaghetti Western – dead. No one to be seen, not even the infamous yellow cabs were to be found. This was serious. As we made our way to Times Square, what emerged was something that only American’s could do. Thousands and thousands of people pouring out on to the streets, many travelling from inner state. It was like the US had just won the World Cup. You had to see it to believe it.

I quickly called BBC Radio Oxford, where I’m currently on a placement, and spoke to Phil Gayle live on air. Within 5 minutes, I had calls from BBC WM and 5Live. I spoke to a troop who had not long returned from Afghanistan. His reaction struck a chord. It was a complete juxtaposition for him; whilst he contributed to the War on T error, he lost many friends in the process.

I then spoke to the Breakfast Show on BBC WM and pre-recorded an interview on 5Live. To my understanding, this was broadcast the following day.
It really did put things into perspective; how being in the right place at the right time certainly helps and how the role of a journalist is ever-changing. The process of getting to Times Square and getting live on radio was real-time. It was phenomenal.

The Future of Local Radio

For many people across the UK, settling down on a Saturday afternoon and listening to how local teams have fared has become a staple part of the week.
Presenters like Hedley Feast, who has spent many a Saturday afternoon trailblazing the length, breadth and cold blizzard openness, reporting on Oxford City, could soon disappear from the radio waves without a solitary final score. All those polystyrene cups of tea and dashes back to the studio to collate the local scores in time to read them live on air could all disappear too.
In an attempt to find some of the £400 million worth of cuts required following the tighter than hoped for licence fee settlement, the BBC has brought a series of ideas to the table. One particularly controversial one, is to merge the local radio with the output of Radio 5 Live, whilst allowing the local radio to keep their breakfast and drive-time shows.
This is currently just a proposal but it is a worrying one for the people who rely on local radio. While 5 Live are pretty efficient at what they do – providing expert commentary of live Premier League, European and International football, major golf tournaments, athletics meets and their legendary phone-ins – there’s not much else that they can cover.
Sport threatened
For every 1,000 Man United fans, there is one Didcot Town fan. This is where local radio is so, so important. Radio Oxford covers local football – not just Oxford United, but Oxford City, Banbury Town, Didcot Town and all the other non-league clubs – and all of the local rugby and cricket fixtures.
Whilst local radio isn’t so important to those 1000 Man United fans, it is essential to that Didcot Town fan. Nowhere else on radio is that fan going to get regular updates from their fixtures. Every Saturday, without fail, providing there is a fixture, you are guaranteed to be kept up-to-date with all the action for Didcot Town.
As part of the BBC’s Delivering Quality First review, which is a review to restructure the shape of local radio and proposes the merger of output outside of breakfast and drivetime, this type of local sorts coverage could be a thing of the past.
For many years, local radio has been an essential part of the community – I can vouch for this. I have heard about local Oxonians calling in to ask when the next bus is, to find out whether there are any old photos in the archives and whether Banbury is chock-a-block with traffic.
It really puts things into perspective; people depend on local radio to help them through the day. It’s a bold statement, but it’s the truth. Even Nick Clegg describes it as “unbelievably important”.
If the merger was to take place, the National Union of Journalists says that the plans could lead to the loss of 700 jobs and the closure of some local stations.
In a public statement, the NUJ condemned the proposals, saying it “could kill local radio”. The NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, says: “Local radio plays a crucial role in keeping local communities informed. These proposals would rip the heart out of local programming and effectively sound the death knell for local radio.”
Launching careers
Now don’t get me wrong, there is some right tosh on local radio, stuff that insults people’s intelligence, incessant phone-ins that have one’s head banging off the wall just to make sense of them.
Yet, what local radio does do is provide a training ground for new journalistic talent. It also provides news content that often becomes a part of the national agenda. Cutting local radio output would strike a detrimental blow to an industry that young journalists thrive on.
Should this proposal go ahead, a whole host of sports – surfing and sailing reports at Radio Cornwall, rugby union in the south, rugby league in the north and county cricket – could all of a sudden become extinct to many a radio listener.
To destroy local radio, especially local sport, would be an absolute catastrophe on the BBC’s part. The BBC is actually good at providing a public service that isn’t available on commercial stations.
What is clear though is that the licence fee isn’t just paid for by fans of Premier League clubs, it is also paid for by the listeners of BBC Radio Oxford who tune in especially to listen to Hedley Feast reading out the county-wide scores. If it takes away sport from local radio, the Beeb might find more than a large chunk of its 7.4 million listeners vanish.

Big Apple, Big Opportunity

Students from across the media spectrum will be heading to New York City in April as part of the Professional Experience module. The lucky students who travel will utilise their experience of being in New York to inspire them to produce a media artefact that they then can use as part of their portfolios.
The Big Apple, as it more commonly known, is not only the media capital of the world; it is the most populated city in the world. For any budding filmmaker or photographer, this is a once in a life time opportunity to enthral yourself in the city that never sleeps.
For Pete Woodbridge, a lecturer in Open Media and trip organiser believes that the pull of NYC is something that no one can refuse. “New York is one of the powerhouse cities of the world; it’s very diverse and is an amazing place to visit if you are studying on a creative media course. As well as working on Professional Experience opportunities, we will be visiting loads of different places in the city – it’s very exciting!”
As part of the Professional Experience module, students have to complete up to twenty days working within a professional environment. This can range from working within a newsroom at a news agency to shadowing a photographer. After this, they have to reflect on how the experience will help shape their future career within their chose field. Students also have the option to apply for funding directly from the International Experience and Mobility Service – a University-derived programme which allows students to acquire the skills and attributes to gain international experience and become globally-employable.
The idea of the trip is for students to produce an artefact without the constraints of briefs or guidelines. In addition to this, it is also used for preparing students for life after university. It ferments the idea that global experience is a must have on your CV. Pete adds: “It’s really important in such a globalised climate that students get the opportunity to have international experiences while studying, so the New York trip is a great way for students to practise their skills in another country”.
Previous trips to New York have produced significant pieces of work. Coventry Journalism alumni Alice Pugh and Gemma Louise Johnson both defined last year’s volcanic ash fiasco to interview key health experts about President Barack Obama’s health reforms.

A New Era For CUSU

Opposite the Ellen Terry building, a new phase in Coventry University’s long history will begin. September 2011 will herald in a brand new era for Coventry University Student’s Union. Not only will it see the opening of its brand new £35million pound Student Enterprise Building, it will also open its doors to Square One, Coventry University’s all new venue ready in time for Freshers’ Fortnight.
The new build will not only house the Student Union, but it will also become the home to Student Services, who will be moving in from their current home in Priory Street. It is projected to become a landmark building that will rise from two to four storeys high, facing onto University Square next to the brand new extension of the Herbert Gallery.
The building, which is being built by BAM Construction, will feature a state of the art venue that will provide a vital space for students to showcase their skills ranging from theatre to stand up comedy.
It is part of a £160 million pound plan to develop the campus over the next twenty years to provide a first-class setting for students for across the world.
The outgoing President of the Student’s Union, Rob Wilson has played a key part in the evolution of the building. He believes that this will shepherd in a new era for the Student’s Union. “Students have got the best student building that I know of in the Midlands to look forward too. The new building is going to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all student needs; combining all Student Services and the Sabbatical Team with all that the Union has to offer such as the volunteering and sports and societies team”.
The exciting feature of the building is not just the architectural design; the building is to house all that the Student’s Union has to offer. “There will be a brand new venue and bar called Square One, a food court with various different outlets, a faith centre with prayer rooms, a GP centre and a health and wellbeing centre. Also, the size of the informal learning space is the size of 3 football pitches so what that gives students is an environment to work in that is more informal when you compare it to somewhere like the library. There are pods that can seat up to twenty-five people and combining that with LCD screens that enable students to plug in laptops and get together to develop team projects, it provides a great advert and a great reason to come to Coventry University”.
Evidently it promises to provide a fantastic facility for students who are at Coventry University to enjoy. Furthermore, the building is also going to house the new CUSU venue, Square One, that open in time for the Fresher’s Fortnight in September; however, the building won’t just be used for club nights. Phil Pilkington, the Membership Service’s Manager for CUSU, claims that the new venue is going to more than just your average venue. “It’s going to be a multi-purpose venue with tracked seating so we are looking at getting all sorts of different concerts and not just bands, but for comedy and theatre too. The venue has been acoustically designed by specialist acoustic engineers for everything from speech and drama to live music so we have something quite incredible”.
It allows the University to provide a recreational facility that isn’t just for students, but also for the wider community. Located perfectly within the heart of campus, Phil believes that a legacy is about to be created. “We see this as a great opportunity to energise the city centre and strategically, it allows us to create a cultural quarter with the art gallery and museum and the School of Art and Design opposite in the Ellen Terry building. If we can create a kind of synergy between those different areas in terms of performance and the arts, it would be a tremendous thing for Coventry.
Yet as one new era begins for CUSU, another will sadly end as the ever-popular student venue Bar54 will be closing its doors for the last time and will be demolished having been earmarked for further redevelopment plans.

A new dawn, a new day

It’s cold. It’s bloody cold. And when you’re trying to think of ideas on what to write for your first blog post, it’s not exactly the easiest thing to do. Considering I’m bunged up as well with only my vast collection of ponderous electronic masterpieces to keep me coming on iTunes and keeping in time with Glee in American time, I don’t really have much going for me at the moment. But hold that thought for just one minute, a lot of you may feel like gleeking out on the sofa to catch up on Kurt’s constant gawking at Blaine or how Sue Sylvester’s one woman crusade to take over the world is coming along a good night in, but for me, I’m not that type of person..yet. So I decided I would try and make myself better by sifting through my iTunes and seeing what was hot and what was simply shite. And boy did I disappoint myself.
Now after deliberating long and hard over what to keep and what to send to the recycling bin, I felt a sudden urge to do something off the cuff. Girls have these moments where they suddenly decide to just clear out their wardrobe and start again, or like a druggie fresh out of rehab smelling that fresh air once again. I decided it was time to do the unthinkable – delete every song on my iTunes and start again.
My iPod collection has fared me well over the last few years. It follows you through lives trials and tribulations; the good and the bad; the up and the down. It gives you things that you can relate to when you feel things are against you and of course, going for you. Following the trends; the shock horror of skater rock to the implosion of indie and the eternal damnation of emo are obvious staples of teenage life. Yet there was no feeling that could ever match that feeling when you first discover that band or that song. You feel like you have created a new race. On top of that there are odd songs that casually stumble across your collection without you even knowing. Showing your mom how to copy over her Michael Bublé albums onto the laptop and forgetting to delete them is never a good thing when you’ve got tunes pumping out on the PA at a best mate’s party. Not a look you’ll be seeing other kids copying.
It’s a sad, sad day and yet it’s a good, good day. The first album I decided to induct into Jordan’s hall of musical fame is Hurts’ debut album Happiness. Yeah it’s personal, but it is also a resonance of emotion and elation. A virtual emphasis on life is pretty much placed on your iPod. It is a matter of life or death. It’s like losing your best friend and meeting him again after all these years.