Kirsty Hemming: Broadcast Journalism MA graduate
MA Broadcast Journalism - 2005
I needed to do a BJTC-accredited course, and Falmouth seemed ideal because it had the best facilities. I certainly made the right choice because I was offered a job as an investigative journalist on ITV Westcountry’s West Eye View current affairs programme before I finished the course. I applied for a three-month trainee position, which I was lucky enough to secure but I wasn’t due to start until my course finished. Then they rang me to ask if I could do an undercover job, working as a hospital cleaner for a month to expose malpractice.
This programme, Germ Ward-Fare, was shortlisted for the Norwich Union Medical Journalism Awards and was the beginning of my career as an investigative journalist. I went on to be a producer at ITN and win a string of other awards – including Best Newcomer, Best Television Journalist and Best Television Documentary at the South West Media Awards – before starting as an investigative journalist and undercover reporter for the BBC in September 2007.
Falmouth was a fantastic start. We felt like we were in a job. We’d go in at 8.30am, have a news meeting, and then go off and do our stories. It’s hard work but it prepares you for what it will be like – I didn’t have any nasty surprises when I started my first proper job.
On the course, I produced a radio documentary about people with learning difficulties. I explored the problems these people faced, and the provisions they needed that weren’t available. That gave me a real taste for investigative journalism.
The newsroom skills, local government training and media law I learnt at Falmouth were also invaluable. The first couple of years after I left I was doing a lot of secret filming, and it’s so important to know about the legal issues. If you’re given responsibility early on, you need to know exactly what you’re doing and have everything covered if you have to defend your story. If I had gone into my job at ITV without having studied at Falmouth, I wouldn’t have felt as confident dealing with all the legal issues, and knowing what was expected of me. The course meant I was able to hit the ground running once I started working.
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