“We decided to help CJET do this to support the long-overdue campaign to get more Black people into the media. News rooms have never been more full of white middle-class male graduates and British journalism is the poorer as a result. We have gone backwards since the 1980s and now is the time to do something about it,” said Marc Wadsworth, editor of the-latest.com, which put its weight behind the initiative.

He added: “You only have to look at the biased “us and them” coverage of the riots in 2011, after young Black man Mark Duggan was shot dead by the police. Some of the reporting demonised the young people involved as ‘the enemy within’.”

“We tackled this bad journalism head on by organising a conference in 2011 that brought together young people from riot affected areas, journalists, scholars and members of the public.”

Conference organisers CJET and The-Latest produced a report titled Media and the riots – A call for Action, which was written by leading social scientist Dr Leah Bassel that resulted from the frank, robust and extremely useful exchange of views. One of its several practical recommendations was that a writing competition should be held to aid the much-needed process of making journalism in Britain more racially diverse.

The subject tackled by competition entrants was an issue that was important in their locality or a topic about which they felt strongly. They were told their opinion or editorial piece should be between 450 and 500 words in length, use at least two sources and could be illustrated with photographs or a short video clip.

They were able to find useful advice on sources and writing style in the Journalism Tips section at the foot of the home page of the-latest.com.

Prizes

A cash prize of £250, donated by CJET chair Martin Shaw on behalf of the trust, will be awarded to the winner who will also get a final interview at The Guardian for a place on the exciting positive action internship programme run by the national publication that has been voted newspaper of the year and won the prestigious Pulitzer prize. The runner up will win £150 and third placed entrant, £100, both sums donated by The Guardian. The winning columns will be published on The-Latest.Com and other news outlets.

Entries were submitted to competition@cjet.co.uk by 5pm on Friday, May 9 2014.

Judges

The judges are Dr Leah Bassel, University of Leicester, Dr Margaret Busby OBE, a CJET trustee, writer and former book publisher, Hugh Muir, diary editor of The Guardian, Yasir Mirza, head of diversity and inclusion at The Guardian, and journalist Samia Rahman, deputy director of the Muslim Institute.

Competition held to showcase young Black writers
CJET - Citizen Journalism Educational Trust

Karin Askham, Media School Dean at the London College of Communication

Lots of journalists and politicians have had their say about the bad state of the British tabloid press after the phone hacking scandal that closed down the News of the World, the country’s biggest selling newspaper. But, until a conference held on Saturday, June 8, nobody had given the very public the government’s Leveson Inquiry into press standards was all about the opportunity to hear from leading journalists on the subject and discuss solutions with them.

Tabloid defender: James Anslow

After Leveson, is Citizen Journalism the Answer? at the London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, London, was hosted by the Citizen journalism Educational Trust and The-Latest.Com, Britain’s first dedicated citizen journalism news portal, and built on the success of their Media and the Riots conference that brought young people from riot affected areas and journalists face to face. The Leveson Inquiry accepted the Media and the Riots – A call for action conference report as evidence.

As we know from the shocking images, citizen journalism trumped big media when video cameras on phones captured the only recordings of the horrific scenes at the Woolwich murder of soldier Lee Rigby so it’s currently at the fore of the debate about news coverage.

Activist: Althea Grant

Top bloggers, campaigners for greater press regulation, those opposed to it, citizen journalists, scholars, trade unionists, students and members of the public will be at the one-day conference. Speakers include Karin Askham, Media School Dean at the London College of Communication, Laurie Penny, the popular New Statesman columnist, blogger and author, Angela Phillips, of EastLondonLines and Goldsmiths College, Dr Evan Harris, associate director of Hacked Off, the campaign that’s successfully championed the cause of the victims of phone hacking, James Anslow, an ex-News of the World and Sun production journalist, who mounted a brave defence of tabloid newspapers, Althea Grant, a

Campaigner: Evan Harris

Tottenham community activist and lawyer and Marc Wadsworth, the editor of The-Latest.Com.

In the wake of the outcry from Fleet Street’s finest about them not wanting to be regulated by law, the debate has turned to online news and comment. Will bloggers and sites like our, face draconian fines if lawyers are set loose on them? Or, should they be excluded from new regulation?

After the 2011 summer riots, some police and politicians, aware that young people share a lot of news using social media, urged the closing down of internet services including Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, during times of civil unrest. Yet the post Leveson Inquiry debate seemed to have by-passed discussion that the way forward might not be with “big media”, whose circulations are tumbling, but with alternative reporting by the people for the people in the shape of citizen journalism.

Lecturer: Angela Phillips

Could newspapers recapture the vast space now occupied by a growing army of online bloggers and other members of the public publishing news, views and images unhindered by the demands of rich, powerful and partisan proprietors whose biased publications support big business and the Tories and rubbish trade unions and the Labour Party? Then again, maybe “big media” need not fear citizen journalism because it was a passing fad unable to uphold professional standards in an unaccountable wild west that is the World Wide Web.

Blogger: Laurie Penny

These important questions and more were discussed in a lively debate between key figures in the news media industry and the public that has already started on Twitter (hashtag #afterleveson). You can still “like” the conference on Facebook.

* See this must-read preview piece about the conference by Britain’s foremost media commentator Roy Greenslade.

After Leveson, is Citizen Journalism the answer?
CJET - Citizen Journalism Educational Trust

Did newspapers report fairly? Was the TV coverage truly balanced? Were journalists guilty of provoking trouble?

One important area for discussion was the claim that reporters on the ground failed to interview enough of the people involved, lazily preferring to follow the official line peddled by police and politicians.

Were the voices of the rioters and looters themselves reported?

There was a widely-held belief among many black people, particularly young ones, that the news coverage was biased and stereotyped them.

Was that the fault of the media or poor police PR? And was that error a key reason for the sparking of the disturbances? Perhaps the most interesting question of all was how the incident that started the rioting – the fatal shooting by police of young black man Mark Duggan in Tottenham, north London – was initially reported so inaccurately.

In the hot seat: TV reporter Tom Parmenter

These were just some of the questions debated at the lively conference attended by more than 150 people.

Among the speakers were Professor Gus John, the educator, activist and government advisor, David Hayward of the BBC College of Journalism, Sky News reporter Tom Parmenter, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president Donnacha DeLong, community activists Maxi Hayles (Birmingham) and Stafford Scott (Tottenham) and veteran journalist and anti-racist campaigner Marc Wadsworth, editor of The-Latest.Com.

The conference was generously supported by the London College of Communications, the London Freelance Branch of the NUJ, Trust for London and Unite, Unite London and East 524 branch and the Metropolitan Housing Trust..

CJET, in association with The-Latest.Com, produced the following year their Media and the Riots – A call for action conference report authored by leading social scientist Dr Leah Bassel, of the University of Leicester. It contained positive recommendations they hope will have a positive impact on future media coverage of communities.

Media and the Riots conference and report
CJET - Citizen Journalism Educational Trust

Photo by: Sarah Sperber

CJET successfully ran its inaugural Street Photographer of the Year competition in 2011. This exciting event won backing from Time Out magazine, Olympus, who donated the camcorder top prize and Guardian News & Media.  Judges were award-winning photographer Eamonn McCabe, former Picture Editor of The Guardian, renowned publisher Dr Margaret Busby, a CJET trustee, Allyce Hibbert, Picture Editor of Time Out and Brian Usher, Picture Editor of The-Latest.Com. Entrants to the competition, a high proportion of whom were young people, took images with their mobile phones which told a unique story about their community and region. An exhibition of the competition photographs was held at the London College of Communication at Elephant and Castle, south east London, in March 2012. This allowed these visual narratives from the competition to be shared with a wide audience, many of whom had not seen an exhibition of this kind before. Among the visitor was a senior representative of Getty Images, the world’s largest stock photo agency.

Street Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition
CJET - Citizen Journalism Educational Trust

Around one in four people fall into this group. This serious issue of educational and skills attainment sits directly alongside a thriving knowledge based economy which requires higher level experience and qualifications. It was therefore essential for the local authority to work with strategic partners and organisations in the borough to offer solutions and that was why Southwark Council’s Economic Development Department helped fund the project.

Students on the course learnt about news gathering, including the use of social media for this purpose, blogging, photography, video shooting and editing and improving communication skills. Among the field trips they made was a visit to Sky News.

At the end of the course each students was given a certificate of achievement and some of them went on to do work experience at Time Out and the South London Press.

A key goal of future CJET courses is the removal of obstacles to participation faced by previously excluded, disadvantaged young people. CJET courses endeavour to help disadvantaged young people come forward to take part in focused, work-related programmes and activities designed to assist in their development as adults. The trust’s training fills the gap where there was little on offer to previously excluded individuals in their locality or what was on offer was not relevant to them and their interests.

These examples give a snapshot of the student/learners helped by CJET:

BRADLEY: a young jobless black man from Brixton, south London, with learning difficulties. He has a keen interest and practical aptitude for filmmaking and working as a camera operator. Although Bradley struggled with writing assignments on the CJET Awards for All introduction to journalism course, his passion for film was met with CJET course modules in film and photography. Through CJET Bradley earned an internship with BEN Tv as a camera operator.

GRACE : a mature part-time worker of Ghanaian descent living in Croydon, Surrey, who wanted to run her own business. Grace was clearly dispirited as a university graduate who had found it difficult to get a full-time job. She was concerned about her financial situation. An able student of CJET’s, Grace now has a working slot on the popular community radio station Colourful radio.

ANTHONY: a mature, white working class father of two from Camberwell, south east London, who had recently separated from his partner and was made redundant from his job as a printer.  He was eager to find employment again and wanted to explore the possibility of becoming a reporter for a local newspaper.

Anthony said that training gave him the opportunity to explore journalism as a new career option and the Trust got him work experience on the South London Press.  All CJET student/learners are trained so that they can go back to their communities with a much improved knowledge base and media and other skills that will help them to find employment and get involved in creative pursuits.

CJET’s pilot Journalism for All summer school course used The-Latest.com website as a training platform for its student/learners.

Here’s a video of a CJET students visit to Sky News in west London. They were taken on a tour by Rob Kirk, the broadcaster’s editorial development manager, who referred to Marc Wadsworth, editor of The-Latest.Com, in this short clip. When Rob was editor of Thames Television’s Thames News programme, Marc worked for him as a reporter-presenter. The video was created by CJET student Guy (Mulongoy) Momat.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Journalism for All courses
CJET - Citizen Journalism Educational Trust