Meet the media: Ruth Rodgers
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Farming Life editor Ruth Rodgers took up the post almost three years ago following the retirement of David McCoy, who had served as editor for 25 years. Farming Life made its first appearance as a supplement in the News Letter in 1953 under the editorship of William Warren. It has grown to become a twice weekly supplement (Wednesday and Saturday) and is now firmly established as Northern Ireland’s favourite farming newspaper. In brief, what does your working week involve? Farming Life is published twice a week within the News Letter, so every day is busy. Most of my time is spent dealing...[full story]
Meet the media: Michael Fitzpatrick
Monday, October 10th, 2011Michael Fitzpatrick is a duty editor and reporter at Downtown Radio and Cool FM. He joined the station after completing a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism at the London College of Communication and has worked in a similar role at another commercial station in Northern Ireland. He has a keen interest in politics and was based as a reporter at Stormont during the last Assembly’s first few years. Briefly describe how you got started in journalism. After completing my undergraduate degree at University of Ulster I applied to a post-grad course in broadcast journalism in London...[full story]
Politics: Assessing the new Assembly
Friday, September 2nd, 2011An agendaNi seminar considers the prospects for Stormont over 2011-2015, from the perspective of MLAs and analysts. “Positivity, strategic thinking and collective thinking” are needed in this term, according to SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone. He had no time for “silly debates” over accepting £400 million from the Irish Government for roads. People on the ground need hope, he emphasised, citing a school leaver whose family could not afford to send him to unvirsity. A shared future needs to be taken seriously, Alliance’s Chris Lyttle contended: “This is not an aspirational issue....[full story]
Meet the media: Gail McGreevy
Friday, September 2nd, 2011This month, agendaNi asks a press officer about their work and interests. Gail McGreevy is Head of Communications for the Probation Board and previously worked for the PSNI, SDLP and Fianna Fáil. Outline your career path to date. I always had an interest in journalism and politics but thought lawyers made the big bucks. So I graduated with a law and politics degree from Queen’s University, hoping to ‘keep my options open’. After graduating, I went to Dublin and worked for the Insurance Ombudsman of Ireland which was a terrific first job to land as a graduate. The Ombudsman was...[full story]
Business: Jim Fitzpatrick
Monday, June 6th, 2011Jim Fitzpatrick reflects on covering local politics as he moves to being BBC Northern Ireland’s new Business and Economics Editor. If you’ve ever been to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, you will doubtless remember the weird and wonderful walkways and escalators that transport travellers around this futuristic space. You don’t get much time to decide which walkway to choose, and once you’re onboard there’s nothing you can do to alter the general direction of travel until you can jump over to another. Pressing the emergency stop is an option, but rarely a good choice. Since...[full story]
Meet the media: Jim Fitzpatrick
Friday, April 15th, 2011How did you get started in journalism? It was a last minute change of mind which took me towards journalism. I’d always enjoyed writing and was very interested in current affairs but was initially planning to study law. Once I realised that I didn’t want to be a lawyer, the only thing I could think of was journalism. I managed to get a place on the old NCTJ pre-entry course at the old College of Business Studies and went straight into this practical training course after school. My first full-time job in journalism was as the news editor of the first community radio station outside...[full story]
