Your Noon Briefing: ‘Learn-as-you-work’ TV course issues applications invite, Blair Jenkins, etc

APPLICATIONS are being invited for places on a course that seeks to provide newcomers to TV production with camera operating, directing, editing and other skills in return for providing material to be broadcast on any of several online TV channels.

Called ‘parallel university’ and operating out of the Summerhall arts complex in Edinburgh, students will learn as they work on the likes of Art in Scotland TV, WriterStories TV and Craft Scotland TV – each produced from Summerhall.

Says the ‘parallel university’ leader, Dave Rushton, who operates the Institute of Local Television from Summerhall: “We will run a course of 40 hours in duration – running part-time over three or so months and to suit student availability – to fine-tune TV skills among students studying TV and journalism, in preparation for work in local and community TV.

“Students will get the opportunity to make eight clips, 2-3 minutes in length. To successfully ‘graduate’, the student’s TV clips will need to be accepted for screening on one of our several approved .tv sites.”

For more information, email here.

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THE head of the campaign for a Yes vote in the recent Scots independence referendum, has said he doesn’t believe broadcasters were ‘systemically biased’ against the campaign.

Blair Jenkins – a former head of news and current affairs at BBC Scotland – told STV News: “I think there were mistakes made by the broadcasters, and I think there were omissions and I think sometimes – because broadcasters are not always as well-resourced as once they were  – there is a tendency to pick up the newspaper agenda unthinkingly more than was perhaps the case in previous decades.”

During the indyref, the BBC was frequently accused of being biased in favour of the No campaign.

Added Jenkins: “We had issues from time to time, but I don’t myself that we faced a systemic bias if you like, that there was some corporate intent to disadvantage the Yes campaign.

“Knowing how both STV and the BBC operate, and knowing a lot of the people involved, I don’t think that’s a credible view.”

View the STV broadcast – and read an accompanying report – here.

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BEGINS the website of the National Union of Journalists: “Women working in broadcasting say sexist attitudes are still prevalent in the workplace. A survey of NUJ members disclosed unequal pay rates and women being overlooked for promotion.

“As part of its evidence for the House of Lords Communication Committee’s inquiry into women in broadcasting, the NUJ surveyed its female members working or have worked in TV and radio.”

Read more, here.

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A BOOK by The Scotsman sportswriter, Alan Pattullo, has been longlisted in a prestigious awards competition.

‘In Search of Duncan Ferguson: The Life and Crimes of a Footballing Enigma’ has been named among the longlist contenders for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2014.

The shortlist will be revealed on the 24th of this month, with the winner announced on the 26th of next month.

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A RADIO show that had been broadcast most nights of the week from the loft of a Glasgow-based broadcaster and media trainer has produced ‘staggering’ results, being picked up in 51 countries.

During the run-up to the Scottish referendum, Colin Kelly hosted a live, online 30-minute programme, four nights per week, called ‘Live from the loft’. And it cost him virtually no money.

He is quoted – here, in an article by James Cridland, on media.info – saying: “I was staggered with the results I got.”

He is continuing the broadcasts, but on a weekly basis. Tune in, here.

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AN account executive is being sought by PR agency, Spreng & Co, as advertised here on allmediascotland.com and repeated on the twitter media jobs feed, twitter.com/allmediajobs.

Also, a business journalist is being sought to work on the website, Out-Law.com, operated by Pinsent Masons.

The vacancy is advertised here on allmediascotland.com

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VARIOUS congratulations on twitter, for the design of an indyref retrospective, produced, online, by The Scotsman newspaper.

And it is, indeed, a beautiful thing, as can be seen, here.

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