Media Release

Dream interviews for journalism students

By BEN MORGAN
UOW Journalism student

2 November , 2006

Turning a journalism student into a journalist is not a simple task.

Nothing beats real life experience, with all the pressures that it brings. So when the Illawarra Academy of Sport approached the University to write a series of 20th anniversary profiles, journalism lecturer Marcus O’Donnell jumped at the offer.

“It’s pretty unique that a starting out journalism student can interview someone like Brett Lee or Josh Kersten and people of this calibre,” says O’Donnell.

The second year students met the challenge head on. They plundered the IAS archives, organised themselves into work groups and set deadlines. They also arranged interviews with stars such as cyclists Josh and Ben Kersten, cricketers Brett and Shane Lee, and St George Illawarra’s Shaun Timmins, who all cite the Academy as the starting block of their careers.

“It definitely forced us to be more organised. You’re not just interviewing friends or family, these are busy professionals,” says student Maria Mourikis, who co-ordinated the cycling group.

But the process was more than simply a chance for students to talk to high-profile people.

“It’s that whole sink or swim thing. I mean, I think they did face some challenges. Some people had to come up to speed with sports they’d never really had much involvement with.

“But that’s something that journalists confront every single day of their working life- working with stories that are new to them,” says O’Donnell.

Elyse Denman, who wrote a profile on Ben Kersten, found the task enlightening. “It’s good to know about what’s going in the community, I’d never heard of the IAS before,” she says.

The project gave students a real opportunity to work in the community that a lot of them will be working with professionally.

“It felt more practical because it actually had a purpose unlike when we do assignments that we will never get published anywhere,” says Brett Lee profiler Joe Millman.

The exercise was not simply one for the students to gain real life experience, but one that benefited everyone involved.

“I think it’s been great for the students, it’s been great for the university and it’s been great for the IAS, it’s kind of win win win all the way,” says O’Donnell who will now work with students over summer to produce a website for the articles.