At this time of year, deadlines are fast approaching and students at Leeds are storming Edward Boyle for some hardcore studying. You can see the panic in their eyes as everything just gets too much to handle. This is not the case for Ruari Anderson, a second year Broadcast Journalism student who manages to juggle his course deadlines with being the News Editor at Leeds Student.
HC: Tell me a little about yourself:
I’m 19 years old and I study Broadcast Journalism at Leeds University. I’m originally from the Wirral which is pretty close to Liverpool and I’m from a big family of journalists. You can follow me here: @ruarianderson
HC: What does the role involve?
I’m the News Editor of Leeds Student newspaper, which basically means that the front 7 pages, the news section of the paper, are my responsibility. So each week it is my job to fill those pages with news which I think will interest the student population of Leeds. This means I constantly have to be on the look-out for any potential leads, whether it means trying to chat to the taxi driver on the way home from a night out who may know something about a student that has been attacked in a local nightclub, or speaking to the University cleaner who says someone at the University has been taking bribes. Once I’ve found those stories, it’s my job to hold a meeting at the start of each week and hand out the topics to the writers, who will then go out and cover the stories in detail for me. The writers will then file their stories to me later in the week and I’ll go about editing them, so that they fit in with our style, and laying them across the newspaper. I’m even partial to writing a couple myself when I’m not too busy…
HC: What made you want to join Leeds student?
I chose to join Leeds Student because I was fed up of having to wait all week to read the latest stories in the newspaper. Instead, I wanted to be directly involved in that process of finding the news and reporting on it. Leeds Student was not only a chance for me to improve my style of writing, it was a chance to work in a newsroom amongst fellow journalists which is an experience I’ll be able to take with me into the future.
HC: How did you become News Editor?
Last year I started attending the weekly news meeting, and I think I impressed the last bunch of editors with my eagerness to take any story they had going, my writing style and my punctuality. I was then asked to apply for the position, so I filled in a C.V. and had an interview, and was lucky enough to get the role.
HC: What is the best part about being involved in Leeds Student?
There are so many things are incredible things about this paper but for me it is the feeling I get each time I walk round the University and see someone reading a story that I wrote, and actively engaging with it. You can’t buy that kind of thing.
HC: What made you want to come to Leeds?
I knew I wanted to study journalism from a very young age. I was fully aware of the reputation my course at Leeds had across the country. I knew it was the place for me.
HC: Do you think being part of your paper will really benefit your course?
I hope so. My course is obviously Broadcast Journalism, and the work with the paper is in print, but I like to think that any skills I learn here will be transferable. There are so many skills I’m learning, whether it be how to deal with a contact, how to operate in a newsroom, how to write interesting stories that are still accurate and sensitive or even just understanding the world a little more.
HC: Describe a good night out in Leeds.
I’m a bit of boring kind of guy, so I guess a good night out for me would probably involve having a nice meal, with a couple of glasses of wine, then going to the cinema with someone and making it back for the shipping forecast on Radio 4 and the one o’clock headlines!
HC: Do you find it hard to juggle your studies and work for the newspaper?
Really difficult, I do find some weeks that I’m getting close to five or six hours sleep a night, every night, and it can take its toll. One of the worst things is that when you’re a journalist, you’re kind of tied down to this idea that every sentence has to be short: every word has to be simple and every phrase has to have a sense of drama. It’s difficult, then, when you’re asked to file a 3,000 word essay in an academic style. I try and keep myself sane though by trying to exercise lots and keeping a life outside of journalism. Otherwise you sort of never turn off.
HC: What are your career aspirations?
I really hope I can work in journalism in the future, whether that be in print, radio or television. I guess I’d always dreamt of myself as the next Piers Morgan or Michael Parkinson figure though, a famous interviewer with lots of good contacts.
HC: Is it a stressful role, and why?
There are lots of things we have to consider each week and you can make mistakes sometimes and the consequences can be serious. I spend a lot of time dealing with people who feel we haven’t treated them as well as they should have been, and I have been shouted at when things go wrong. But it’s worth it because when it goes right you feel on top of the world.
HC: Sum up Leeds Student in three words.
A fine institution.
I think will leave Rory to get back home to catch the Shipping Forecast.