Journalist Laura Snapes has written a great article on her blog about why BBC Blast, a paid work experience scheme, should be saved from the corporations cost-cutting axe.
It gives opportunities to young people right across the country to make their first steps in journalism… and no doubt played a founding role in landing Laura her dream job at NME.
This is what she has to say about her experience:
In May 2005 I was appointed BBC Cornwall’s Blast Reporter, which entailed spending the summer running my own section of the BBC Cornwall website. I interviewed bands, jewellery designers and the inventor of the first biodegradable surfboard, took photos of the Eden Sessions and played at being a real journalist for the summer. The same scheme went on in the majority of the BBC’s local newsrooms. With our sections being primarily arts-based and aimed at fellow teenagers, our duty as reporters was to file at least one article and diary entry per week in exchange for rigorous BBC training in internet content management systems, professional recording equipment, and safety procedures.
And this on the real impact of the BBC decision:
… the people who will miss Blast – in particular its work experience placements and free event and workshop tours – are a group chronically underserved by commercial media, which is in complete antithesis to the BBC’s justification for proposing various closures on account of intruding on the competition. That group includes young people in geographically remote areas, away from the London-centric media world – regions like Cornwall, where there are very few other opportunities for teenagers to get experience in the limited local press that exists here. It includes kids whose parents/aunties/godfathers aren’t industry highflyers, able to wangle their progeny work experience placements on account of the family name; kids who wouldn’t make it to Oxbridge – still renowned for giving applicants a leg-up into the Beeb – but who nonetheless have incredible skills to offer. Blast is open to kids from any social background, making them feel comfortable in a very middle class industry, and the application process is the same as any fair, equal opportunities job application – proving that you’re worthy of the job because of your enthusiasm and achievements.
Why would the BBC be cutting BLAST at a time when job opportunities for young people are so limited and the current internship culture so often benefits those with money or geographically based in London? Also why did 6 Music get so much attention and this didn’t! Read the full article here. And if you tweet (we really should more.. then join the twitter campaign here).
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