Educators ahead of the Industry in Multi-media.

Educators ahead of the Industry in Multi-media.

Paul Macbeth has wanted to be a journalist since he was young. The path hasn’t always been straight, but he is now a qualified graduate, thriving in the industry with a great job and planning to stay there.

Macbeth was one of 16 students to graduate from the first offering of the National Diploma in Journalism (Multi-Media) at Whitireia Community Polytechnic in March 2009.

The National Diploma in Journalism (Multi-media) is taught and was developed by journalist Jim Tucker.  Tucker has 42 years’ experience as a journalist, editor, journalism lecturer and education administrator and is editor/author of the two basic journalism training textbooks used throughout New Zealand since 1991.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at Victoria University and working at Media Monitors, Macbeth cites Tucker as ‘the clinch’ in his decision to study at Whitireia. “Jim is an industry leader, with so much respect and knowledge. He is an idealist and knows what he’s talking about, yet tempers it with realism.”

In October 2008, only half-way through his journalism course, Macbeth was hired as a part time journalist at Businesswire – an online site for up to the minute business reports. After graduating in March, Macbeth was offered more hours at Businesswire and now has a permanent position there.

The National Diploma in Journalism (Multi-media) provides students with the ability to write for and with a number of multi-media tools. 

“The industry is behind the educators with multi-media at the moment, says Macbeth. This course has set us up well for the future, as we have all the skills we need to deal with changing media.”

Fellow student Luke Appleby has blogged his thoughts on the Diploma and current media industries. “Ideally, a newsroom should be able to present news in any conceivable medium, but I feel that some newsrooms lack the fundamental technological skills to present them quickly and effectively. Hopefully, the influx of these newly-trained journos will contribute to news being presented in the most effective medium.”

Both Appleby and MacBeth attribute their industry jobs to tutors Tucker and Virginia McMillan’s extensive industry knowledge and contacts.

Appleby has also just been named at the Qantas Media Awards on Friday 15 May as one of three finalists for the annual Don Milne Award for top print student, sponsored by the NZ Journalists Training Organisation.

“I was pretty honoured to be nominated as a finalist in this year’s Qantas Awards, says Appleby. I didn’t end up taking home a win this time, but I’m actually just grateful to be entering an industry which I am so passionate about, and which seems to suit me so well.”

Other students who benefitted from the tutors industry links include Jennie Myer who is working part-time at Radio New Zealand and Laura Frykberg who received an internship at TV3.

 “Just as the news media industry was undergoing significant change in the internet age, so journalism training needed to adapt to some exciting challenges, said Tucker. That, and the need to address the lack of diversity in our newsrooms, are opportunities that lend a new dimension to journalism education.”

Reflecting on his studies MacBeth says the Diploma has taught him “the ability to talk to people and process ideas in a direct manner, analysing what they say and being able to discern the important information quickly and do something constructive with that.”

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