Hands Up For Democracy
Take a good look at the faces in the photograph because you might just be looking at some of tomorrow's top media stars.
They're all students drawn from colleges and universities as far apart as and . They'll be out and about across Scotland on election day, recording material for a special documentary that will be broadcast on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland a week after the vote.
It should provide a snapshot of Scotland on the big day and our student reporters will be covering all angles. We'll follow a parliemnatary candidate all the way from breakfast to the declaration....we'll hear from party workers, polling station police officers and from those whose job it is to cover the election for radio, TV and newspapers.
The students spent today at Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow as our production team (Stephen Hollywood, Karen MacKenzie , Karen Falconer and Lucy Adam briefed them on their various missions. I was invited to say a few words and field some questions about careers in radio.
I resisted the temptation to recite my usual eight-hour autobiography, but told them that any practical experience would give them a clear advatange when they went to look for jobs.
To that extent I was astonished to discover that ten students from one particular insitution failed to appear today. A pity because we had been turning away others just to keep the numbers under control.
Still, those who did turn up seemed very switched on and an interesting question came from Zab Mustefa, who asked whether a person interested in a career in, say, radio, should bother doing a stint in, say, newspapers. I told her that any practical experience was valaubale, especially in an age where multi-media skills are required.
"Soon, " I said, "you'll need to be able to find stories, write them, record and edit audio and video, take photographs and get them all of that up on a website before the competition beats you to it."
And to prove the point, I produced my little camera and explained that she would now be featuring on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland website.
And so she is.
