Sports journalism "in good hands" at LJMU

The Eurovision Song Contest may be the most famous continent-wide event being staged in Liverpool, but it is not the only one, as this week LJMU played host to the European Journalism Training Association's 10th annual conference.

The three-day gathering, held at the Redmonds Building, attracted around 50 educators from as far afield in Europe as Georgia, Finland and Portugal, with a particular focus placed on the development of sports journalism teaching.

Alongside addresses from those most closely involved in higher education, one of the keynote speakers was Helen Brown, the sport news editor for the BBC, who gave interesting insights involving storytelling in the digital age, creativity, resilience, employability skills and diversity.

The headline guest on the final day was David Conn, the investigations correspondent from the Guardian newspaper, who made his long-standing reporting on the business of football and the Hillsborough disaster the focus of his engaging talk.

Journalism senior lecturer, Jackie Newton, who set up and organised the conference, said it had been hard work but well worth the effort, adding: "It's great and really rewarding to see the EJTA family all together and we are proud to show off our home city of Liverpool.

"I think everyone was particularly impressed by the night-time view of the Liver Building and waterfront at our social evening that followed the formal opening of the conference."

Head of Journalism, Fran Yeoman, said: “It has been fantastic to welcome journalism educators from right across Europe to Liverpool to share ideas on how best to train our students for successful careers in industry.

"Aside from our high-profile speakers, I am most proud of our student Melissa Edwards and recent graduate Beth Lindop, now a football writer for national and local newspapers. They spoke brilliantly about issues of diversity in sports journalism and I think we all learned a lot from them. They are great ambassadors for the department and LJMU.”

IMAGE: The Guardian's David Conn, author of 'The Fall of the House of FIFA'.