Helen is a second year Broadcast Journalism student who manages to find time in her busy schedule to also take charge of the news at Leeds Student Radio alongside recent Campus celebrity and co-Head of News Jessica Bland. She works hard to find interesting news stories that affect you and your everyday life and keep you updated on what’s going on around campus. Her Campus caught up with Helen to find out how she got involved and what stories have caught her attention recently.
Why did you decide to become Head of News at LSR and will you be running for the position for the next year?
I began doing the news on LSR in my first year. To start with I would come along with some exceedingly questionable news stories but I was still allowed on the show nonetheless and slowly started to learn a bit more about the notion of newsworthiness. I wanted to try my hand at being one of the Heads of News because it was a good way to be more involved and it looked like it was lots of fun as well. I won’t be running for the position again though as it’ll be good to pass the torch; we’ve got loads of people on the team who would do a great job and it’ll be exciting to see what they do with it.
What does your role as Head of News involve?
Jessie and I have two main jobs. One is to sort out bulletin readers for the Breakfast and Hometime shows and the other is to put together the weekly hour long news show ‘Newslink.’ The team is great so things tend to run smoothly, Jessie and I have been very lucky in that respect! We also get involved helping to organise various other one off broadcasts such as the live coverage of the US election which means there is never room for boredom!
What news stories have caught your attention around campus recently?
The big stories going around campus at the moment are all about the LUU Leadership Race. There’s a lot going on with all the various campaigns, and it’s great to cover as the outcome will in some way affect all the students at the university. The news team and lots of other LSR members have just finished, in the last couple of days, interviewing all of the candidates which was quite the achievement.
Why should current students and freshers next year at Leeds get involved with LSR?
LSR is a very laid back, friendly society to be in. If you like radio and all that goes with it, there are loads of different ways to get involved. It plays from 9am to midnight every day meaning that there are so many slots for people to apply for their own shows. Aside from just radio, LSR DJs certain nights each week at the union so before you know it you could be playing the tunes for the Old Bar Fruity warm up on a Friday night. A position of power! There are specialist areas in music, news, speech and production so loads of potential to get stuck into a variety of things and meet lots of people interested in the same subjects as you. Come into the office, upstairs in the union, and say hi!
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Helen’s Own