Sunderland Echo reporter and former teacher Neil Fatkin heads back into the classroom to speak to youngsters about journalism.
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00:00I'm here at the Academy at Shotton Hall, where I've been asked to come in as part of a careers day.
00:04I'm doing a lesson with the kids about what journalism is, what news is,
00:08and they're also going to be putting together their own news reports,
00:11which are eventually going to get published in The Echo.
00:13As you know, I used to be a teacher for 16, 17 years, although geography was my subject.
00:18So it's not unfamiliar to me, coming into a classroom,
00:21but with five or six years out of the classroom, I must admit,
00:24I was still a bit nervous coming in this morning.
00:27Even when I was teaching, it was always a little bit daunting before you met the kids
00:31and met your new classes, but hopefully it's going to be a great morning
00:35and I'm looking forward to it.
00:37What else must a story include?
00:39Like a big, bold title.
00:41What's it called? Is it called a big, bold title in a newspaper?
00:44A headline.
00:45Good, so we've got a headline.
00:47It's not just words, is it? We had stewing before,
00:49because this is going to be a story as well, just so you know,
00:52about me coming in and doing some work here in the school,
00:54so you'll all be in that story.
00:56All right, Graham's getting some video.
00:58We can't put video in the newspaper, though.
01:00But what else do you need to go with your story?
01:02A photograph.
01:04So when you do your stories, that's one of the things you've also got to get.
01:08In school here, if you do something wrong, is there a consequence?
01:11Yeah, you don't just get away with it, do you?
01:13So what do you think it means if you hold someone to account?
01:16If you make someone accountable?
01:18You make it so it looks like it's their fault.
01:20Right, yeah.
01:21All right, so you make sure people are aware if they've done something wrong,
01:24it's their fault.
01:26For example, if you had a big power station on the north-east coast here,
01:29and were pumping loads of pollution into the sea,
01:31is that something they can do?
01:33No.
01:34Is there regulation to stop them doing that?
01:36No.
01:37Yeah.
01:38But if they were doing that, part of my job is to investigate it,
01:41find out the truth, and hold them to account.
01:44You have to make sure that things are interesting.
01:47Interesting, definitely.
01:49The word I'm thinking of that begins with an E.
01:51Entertaining.
01:52Entertaining, good.
01:53This is a big part of what we do now as a journalist as well, all right?
01:56We get to go and do lots of fun stuff.
01:58I say fun, I was going to tell you a couple of examples.
02:00Graham actually did the video, and Stu did the pictures.
02:03But one of the things I've done recently, I did a pizza,
02:06these eating challenges.
02:07I was going to eat a 24-inch pizza in 20 minutes.
02:10Another one was a beastie burger challenge, a burger that sort of size.
02:13You're going to be going through the rest of this session with your teachers
02:16at some point, and you're going to be putting together some news stories,
02:20the best of which we're going to publish in The Echo.
02:23I spoke to the editor, to Ross, our editor, and he says,
02:25yeah, we can do that.
02:27So you're going to have a think about things in your school,
02:30in your local area, which you could do news stories on.
02:33Okay, it might be a success story, it might be a community initiative.
02:36It might be an issue in school, I don't know.
02:40But you're going to put together some news stories,
02:42which we're going to use in The Echo.
02:44Yeah, so as I mentioned, I was a bit nervous about coming in this morning
02:47after five, six years out of the classroom.
02:49You never know quite what to expect.
02:51But, yeah, I actually really enjoyed it.
02:54It's quite surprising actually how, I suppose, yeah,
02:57you just slip back into how you used to do things when you were teaching.
03:01Kids are really responsive, seem to enjoy it.
03:04And as I say, they're all going to be putting together some news articles,
03:07which the best are going to be published in The Echo on our website.
03:10So they're all excited, and I enjoyed my time here.
03:13So it was a good experience, and one I'd like to do again.