The University of Lincoln was treated to a journalism master-class yesterday as Angela Rippon OBE shared her thoughts on the broadcast industry.
The multiple award-winning journalist and presenter, 69, held a guest talk at the university as part of the LSJ Presents series on Monday February 17.
During her captivating lecture, she touched on subjects such as how the broadcast industry is changing, and how advances in technology and electrical equipment means that journalists don’t have as much time to think about things as they used to.
She said: “The luxury of time has gone. If you’re a reporter in the field, you’re not going to have much time.”
“You’re going to have to think on your feet and carry a tonne of information in your head. As a broadcast journalist, your brain is your personal computer.”
During her glittering career, Rippon has won countless awards, including more recently, a lifetime achievement award at the Sky Women awards.
She was a regular newsreader in the 70s, becoming the first female journalist to present the BBC national television news on a permanent basis. She also hosted the first two seasons of Top Gear among other shows.
Currently, she presents the BBC show, Rip Off Britain. Speaking about the show, she went on to inform the audience of some useful tips in to avoid becoming a victim of scams.
She said: “There’s too many people out there who are rip-off merchants and will gladly take your hard-earned cash in a variety of ways.”
With regards to cold-calling, she said: “Never ever ever, be taken in by anything that comes across to you as a cold call—nothing they offer you is ever free.”
She added: “It’s also terribly important to read the small print in any contract that you sign.”
Towards the end of the talk she embraced the young, aspiring journalists in attendance with a handful of key tips to succeed in the field. She said:
“Research is absolutely fundamental to everything that you do as journalists, and everything that you read—gather something from it—because you never know when you’re going to need that fact, that information or that piece of news.”
The next guest speaker in the LSJ Presents series is Sarah Jordan, assistant editor of Professional Jeweller and professionaljeweller.com, on Monday 24 February.