MUHAMMAD HAMID

For a week in November, I had the pleasure of doing work experience with Sky News, a world-class media organisation based in Osterley in London. Sky News is part of the larger Sky Network which is a division of Comcast. Sky News is a national and well-respected broadcaster throughout the world and I felt very privileged to work with them.
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I was fortunate enough to have experienced first-hand and learned the many different stages of what a news story goes through, the general process of how stories are initially found, planned and presented; as well as how much work and detail goes into every stage. Another valuable lesson I had learned during my week there was that there were many different types of roles a journalist had to do, which in turn, provided me with more insight into the various roles and responsibilities I could perform, as a journalist.
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Reflecting on my first day at Sky News, it was one of my most memorable days while I was there. When I arrived at the news centre, I was greeted by Natalie Anderson who was very helpful with any queries I had. She led me to a runner (a media assistant) named Georgia who was very nice and gave me a tour of the whole Sky campus and answered all the questions I had. I also attended a few meetings which gave me an insight into how the news agenda for the day is set and what stories and ideas make it to the big screen, and which don’t.
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Over the days I was there, I was placed with the many different teams/desks that existed in the bustling newsroom which included the planning desk, foreign and home news desk, radio desk, and social media and mobile team. The people who worked in those desks were all welcoming and very informative. They all explained the roles that they did in the newsroom and how their contribution affected the news and how it was delivered to the wide range of audiences that Sky News serves.
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I also had the chance to accompany Kit Bradshaw, a reporter at Sky News to a press conference at the NSPCC building in central London. It was a really interesting day as I got a first-hand look at how reporting and interviewing people works. Kit himself was very helpful in explaining his role and gave me many tips on what he did to make his news packages more interesting and intriguing.
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I was given a few tasks to do during my time there. My first task was from the planning desk where I spent the day shadowing planning producer Helena Lambert who was planning the stories for the weekend. I had to find a couple of stories which would be suitable for the weekend and one story about how the harsh winter can destroy some churches in England impressed her. My second task had me reading news agency scripts and summarising them so they can be short and appropriate for radio bulletins. My final task saw me assisting news reporters with coming up with titles for social media posts and reading articles to check for any mistakes with sub-editors before they were published on the Sky News website.
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Overall, my work experience at Sky News was very positive. I was very happy with the number of things that I learned and experienced in the week of being with them. I ended up learning a lot more than I thought I would be able to in the time, creating some crucial contacts and getting a clearer vision of what I want to do in the newsroom as a journalist. It was a very informative and beneficial experience and I’m greatly appreciative for Laura Scott and Georgia Arlott, the two journalists who made this all possible.