First festival of sports journalism held at MMU
- Flagship event celebrating achievements of sports department and how it was captured by journalism department
- Films featuring olympic hopefuls, horrible injuries and disabled sports were shown
- Tech department highlighted for creating exciting ways to cover sport
Manchester Metropolitan University held its first festival of sports journalism celebrating the achievements of both departments.
The festival was put together by journalism lecturer Vince Hunt and featured films from students covering various aspects of the University’s sports teams.
The event was opened by the head of the languages department which includes journalism, Derek Bousfield, who thanked the tech department for all the support they had given the students and staff in creating these opportunities.
This included the creation of a pitchside rig set up for filming, interviews, punditry and live commentary.
Journalism student Stephen Haydock made what was judged to be the best film which was about the women’s rugby captain, Amy Clarke.
Amy suffered a career-threatening ACL injury and was unsure whether she would be able to walk again, let alone play rugby. The short film focused on her road to recovery and how the MMU sports staff supported her. “You get a glimpse into what happens,” said Amy, who also highlighted how much mental health played a part.
“I was embarassed at first,” she said when talking about mental health as she’d never realised how much of a toll it could take after her injury but was supported by MMU staff and is now expected to make a full recovery.
In a show of the technical department bailing out the journalism department, they managed to fix the festival’s final video with minutes to spare!
It featured master’s student and United fan, Joe Chorlton, working through gritted teeth to cover City’s victory parade to celebrate their domestic treble winning season.
The work combined by the journalism, tech and sports departments is providing great opportunities for sports coverage at the University which in turn should help students break into the industry.