Newspaper Journalism graduate wins double NCE award
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Tara Russell has won two awards at the NCTJ's National Certificate Examinations
Tara Russell has become the School's third Newspaper Journalism graduate to win a National Certificate Examination (NCE) award this year, following Gemma Casey and Rob Alderson’s double success in March.
Tara, who studied at Cardiff in 2008/09 and is now a senior reporter at the Southern Daily Echo, scooped two awards for her exceptional performance in the recent NCE by winning the Ted Bottomley Award, sponsored by Midland News Association, for her performance in the newspaper practice exam and the Newsquest Award for submitting the best logbook.
She said: “Never in a million years did I expect to win an award, let alone two.”
“Winning the prize for the logbook feels great, particularly because it represents all the work I have put in since joining the Southern Daily Echo. Everyone at the paper has been very supportive – particularly the news editor here, Gordon Sutter, who has trusted me with some cracking stories.”
The National Council for the Training of Journalists’ (NCTJ) examiners said Tara demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of the law which she expressed very clearly. They said her answers on how to develop stories in the second section of the paper showed she would be contacting a wide range of sources, asking the right kind of questions and utilising the opportunities presented by social media.
Her logbook was also judged to be of a very high calibre by examiners, who added that she had submitted some excellent key tasks. “Her human interest submission in particular was a highpoint, although there was a good level of consistency all the way through.”
This summer the NCE, which is acknowledged by editors as the industry’s national standard for professional journalists, passed 38 candidates to become senior journalists - a pass rate of 48%.
Related Links
The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ)
National Certificate Examination (NCE) Awards
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