Bournemouth University journalism students won two major honours at the 2024 Broadcast Journalism Training Council Awards on Thursday night, reinforcing the reputation of MA Multimedia Journalism to produce high-calibre reportage.
The Breaker, the multimedia news and features site run by master’s students, won the Best Online News Site. Judges praised it as a “captivating” site, offering “an enjoyable read”, with “a variety of compelling content that keeps people clicking”.
In 2024, the site covered topics ranging from the Gaza crisis and Ukraine war to dowry-related deaths in Kerala and the transformative role of AI in fashion.
This marks the second Best Online News Site win for the Breaker in three years. It had claimed the top prize in 2022 for its reporting on the Ukraine war.
The University of East Anglia’s UEAjournalism.com took second place this year.
In the Best TV News Feature category, Natasha Salloum’s documentary, Four Years Forward, took the top honour. The film tells the story of survivors of the 2020 Beirut blast, capturing the resilience of a community rebuilding in the aftermath of a devastating tragedy.
Judges highlighted the strength of Salloum’s work: “The winner shows great promise to deliver thought-provoking work, drawing the viewer in with great camerawork from the outset.”
Runner-up in the category was Cut Short by Freya Fraser of Nottingham Trent University. Fraser’s film explores the rise in knife crime in the UK. Through the story of Josh, it examines the social issues driving the crisis.
Salloum, who was inspired to make Four Years Forward by her own experience of nearly losing her father in the Beirut explosion, said the award meant more than she could put into words.
“This is so overwhelming because of the personal connection,” Salloum said from Riyadh, where she works as Digital Content Editor at MBC Studios. “This means so much to me, to my family, especially my dad, who almost did not make it.”
She added: “I had felt that I had already won when I got to make this film. I thought I had already won when I got to talk to people who had never shared their stories. Now I am thrilled because this award means this story has a chance to get to more people.”
Speaking about the team effort behind the Breaker’s win, Thanh Nguyen, the student rep of MA Multimedia Journalism, said: “I think I am speaking for the rest of my class when I say we never expected to do this level of journalism. We published some exciting work, which was very difficult and frustrating when we were doing it. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to work with team mates who pushed each other to achieve more.”
BU is a regular finalist at the BJTC Awards. Two years ago, the Breaker won Best Online News Site for its coverage of the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Last year, the programme was runner-up in both the online category, with My. Choice, an exploration of how the hijab can be empowering; and in audio feature, for There Goes the Neighbourhood.
This year, the programme put forward several significant pieces of journalism:
- Inside the Protests, a multimedia feature on anti-immigration violence in the UK.
- Behind the Laughter, an audio documentary exploring the hidden pain of stand-up comedians.
- Unreal, a multimedia reportage on a ‘zombie attack’ in an underground car park.
- Forget Me Not, an investigation into the lives of carers supporting people with dementia.
- Dressed in Data, an exploration of AI’s transformative role in the fashion industry.
- Fear in Silence, a documentary on dowry-related deaths in Kerala.
- Beyond the Delhi Riots, which captured the fear within the minority community as Narendra Modi returned to power in India.
Professor Chindu Sreedharan, the Programme Leader for MA Multimedia Journalism, said the ethos of collaboration and teamwork the students showed was critical to their wins.
“What makes the Breaker stand out is that it enables students to tackle complex global stories, as one editorial team,” he said. “From covering the Gaza crisis to exploring AI’s role in storytelling this year, they had the opportunity to experiment with tools and techniques that reflect the changing face of journalism. It becomes doubly rewarding for us, as their mentors, when all their hard work is also acknowledged externally.”
Held at Sky News in London, the BJTC Awards celebrate excellence in journalism training across the UK, selecting winners from approximately 3,500 students enrolled on its accredited courses nationwide.
