Journalism Academic Placement 2022

Job Introduction

This is a new opportunity to get real world experience in a busy News environment. You will gain experience working in Radio, Television and with our Online services whilst being mentored by BBC journalists. If you are already on a journalism course, have an interest in regional/local politics and finding stories in all the communities of Yorkshire, this could be the opportunity for you.

This placement has been set up in memory of BBC Yorkshire’s late Political Editor Len Tingle. Len was from Cudworth, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire and started his journalistic career in 1981. He had been BBC Yorkshire’s Political Editor for 17 years when he died in 2018. Len was passionate about journalism, about Yorkshire and in particular about giving opportunities to young people from less privileged backgrounds. He would have been delighted to have this placement set up in his name.

Main Responsibilities

You will receive a full BBC induction and be shadowing BBC political journalists who work across Radio, TV and Online services. Your aim over the eight-week placement, will be to work alongside reporters to develop your own stories and produce Radio and TV packages – with the aim of getting one of your ideas featured on a local Radio Station, the regional Sunday Politics programme and/or BBC Look North. We hope that this placement will make you more employable as an entry level candidate to Broadcast Journalism. So by the end of the eight weeks, we hope you will have a small body of work which you can show to potential broadcast employers, including the BBC and others.

Are you the right candidate?

We are looking for someone who is currently studying Journalism and loves engaging with people to find out their stories. You don’t have to have your finger on the pulse of Westminster - we just want you to focus on the stories affecting every day people, living in communities right across Yorkshire.

As part of the application we will ask you to send us a story idea, which you think could make an interesting Radio, TV or Online news piece. If successful at this stage, we will discuss your story with you in your interview.

We particularly welcome people from traditionally under-represented groups to apply for this, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds.

About the BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC.  We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles.  The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, social background, religion and/or belief.  We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.