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‘News on the Street’ – a unique live journalism event has been hailed as ‘a great success’

An NTU student graduating in journalism was among the journalists who told their unpublished stories directly to the public in Nottingham on Saturday 18th May as part of a joint NTU and City University research project.

    The News on the Street team after the event
    The news on the street team following the event

    The face-to-face event at Speakers Corner, just off the Market Square, involved four main speakers – 3 female and 1 non-binary journalist - who stood on soapboxes to tell their exclusive and unpublished stories to passersby. The 9-strong production crew were all NTU students on work experience. The public were encouraged to chat to the journalists and share their own stories as part of the event’s aim to democratise the news.

    Co-creators of the event, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Society, Catherine Adams (Nottingham Trent University) and Head of Journalism, Dr Glenda Cooper (City University, London), took turns to ring a town-crier style bell to alert the audience to breaking news of the day. Stories new that morning included the King’s D-Day visit to France, Notts losing out on a government fly-tipping campaign, Take-That’s concert in Notts and the final Women’s Superleague match of the season. Part of the event was livestreamed on Instagram.

    Just over 150 members of the public stopped to watch the event, which took place from 12-2pm. Dr Cooper said: “This event allowed the public to speak and question journalists and share their own stories”. The unique experiment aimed to promote female and non-binary journalists and rebuild the public’s trust and engagement in journalism, as part of the News on Stage research project (follow @newsonstage1 on X)

    One local man in the crowd praised the event saying, “News started on the street and it’s good to see it being put back there again. Journalism still tends to be male dominated so it’s good to see this being challenged”.

    Speaker Jess O’Thomson, who told of their experiences of violence against trans journalists, noted that, “Working within our communities like this is vital to ensure we are doing journalism well.”

    The event encouraged the public to step forward and reveal any stories of their own and to freely engage with and ask questions to the journalists. Veronica Munoz, whose story was about the lives of refugee women, said she felt the event was ‘a great success’. Her conversation with a mother and daughter resulted in a letter from the young girl saying, “Thank you for stepping up for people’s rights and how you try and try.”

    Catherine Adams said, “The success of this event means we hope this will be the first of many events in different areas around the country”. The project is now looking for sponsors or collaborators to expand.

    The event was interpreted by British Sign Language member, Emilie Sands.

    Contacts:  glenda.cooper@city.ac.uk or catherine.adams@ntu.ac.uk

    The project website is https://newsonstage5.wordpress.com/

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    Published on 6 June 2024
    • Subject area: Media, journalism and communication
    • Category: Current students; School of Arts and Humanities