Students from the School of Journalism, Media and Communication have broken new ground by creating an entire eight-page campaigning supplement published by the Sheffield Star newspaper.
The group, studying for the University of Sheffield's MA Journalism degree, discovered a worrying trend of assaults taking place around the city's green spaces. Their work leads a call for the local council to install better lighting and make these areas safer.
The students devised, researched, wrote and edited the content for the supplement in just three and a half days.
The Park Light campaign arose from a piece of multimedia content created earlier in the course – with the concept researched and flexed to make it more impactful with a broader remit.
Analysis
The work brings together community voices from across the city to urge Sheffield City Council to improve lighting across the many open spaces in the local area, reducing the threat to people who use them after the hours of daylight.
As part of their research the students used detailed data analysis to reveal the extent of the problem. This informed the campaign and was used to garner support from a number of concerned community groups and campaigners. It was brought to life with wide-ranging interviews covering the topic from all angles.
The endgame for the campaign is to push a petition to gather more than 5,000 signatures of Sheffield people to force this issue to be debated at the city’s full Council.
Print and digital
The Park Light supplement was published with an eye-catching bespoke cover, art-directed by one of the team and designed by their contact. The cover showcases the whole concept of the campaign in one illustration which works well across both print and social channels.
The work is also being supported by a comprehensive range of multimedia assets for the Star’s social channels and some online-only content which again reinforces the campaign’s aims.
It has been great to work alongside such talented and enthusiastic future journalists. The standard of their reporting – from first coming up with the project idea to finishing off the pages and videos – has been far higher than we could have imagined
Nancy Fielder
The Star
Nancy Fielder, Editor of the Star, said: "It has been great to work alongside such talented and enthusiastic future journalists. The standard of their reporting – from first coming up with the project idea to finishing off the pages and videos – has been far higher than we could have imagined.
"This has been an exciting project for both the Star and the University. I am sure our readers will enjoy every word of the special supplement and I hope the campaign is successful in making our parks safer."
Empowerment
The students' work was overseen by tutor Joely Carey, who told the Hold The Front Page website: "This is regional reporting at its best. The student journalists worked hard to deliver quality reporting which is borne out by the fact that the campaign was intended as an in-paper supplement – but ended up carrying the front page.
"The campaign took in an issue that was of real concern locally. The team took a topic and then researched and investigated it further to uncover some data that needed more expert analysis which gave some hard-hitting detail.
"They then used their journalistic skill to empower and amplify local people’s stories and concerns. This is the epitome of great journalism."
