Jonathan Foster

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Jonathan Foster

Jonathan Foster joined the Department in 1995 from the staff of The Independent, where he was north of England correspondent. After training, he began his career on the Morning Telegraph, Sheffield, and worked at The Sunday Times before joining The Observer. He covered the 1984-85 miners´ strike for the paper, reported extensively on Militant Tendency´s influence in Liverpool politics, and filed major exclusive stories revealing the background to suspension of John Stalker from command of the "shoot-to-kill" investigation into the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Foster joined The Independent sports staff at the paper´s launch, contributing to coverage of major events including the World Cup, European football championship, The Open championship and Wimbledon. During 1990, he reported from South Africa in the months before and after the release from prison of Nelson Mandela. Back in Britain, he broke stories about illegal UK arms sales to Iraq, including Supergun and the Matrix Churchill affair. Foster was in court throughout the trial for the murder of James Bulger of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. After the trial, he became closely involved in the legal moves which established that Thompson and Venables did not have a fair trial.

Foster teaches mostly third year undergraduate and postgraduate students. "I build on the grounding in hard news reporting which they gain earlier in the courses," he said. "Students must first become fluent in understanding what a story´s about, and telling the story concisely and in a compelling style.

"Then they can spread their wings, read more widely, and accept the challenges of more complex and demanding assignments."

Foster still works as a newspaper and television reporter, covering stories including the Bulger affair, and corruption in the police and Customs.

He is a principal investigator for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), working with colleagues in the Department of Computer Science on artificial intelligence projects applicable to journalism. One current project, which drew a £3300,000 grant from the EPSRC, is a collaboration with the Press Association (PA) news agency.

See http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/nlp/meter/
http://nlp.shef.ac.uk/cubreporter/index.html