journalism

“It’s an all-consuming job which can be immensely satisfying, but it demands a great deal and you have to be prepared to make that commitment… Sounds awful [but] it’s a lot of fun and you get to travel and someone else pays for it.”

Bowen has become a household name during his 33 year career at the BBC, reporting from conflict zones across the world. He can still reel off the names of the hotels he’s stayed in while reporting from El Salvador, Bosnia, Croatia and Iraq. “I’m a bit obsessed with hotels,” he admits.

BBC News’ Mobile and Online teams will create twelve new positions across a wide range of content for people with disabilities, including broadcast journalists and assistant editors.

The scheme will include bespoke training and a mentoring programme, and at least half of the roles will become permanent at the end of the year.

Information about how to apply will be available shortly on the BBC Careers website.

Benjamin’s career began while still at university where he launched a travel website, Informed Explorer and began producing video content. He is now the editor of BBC Pop Up, a mobile bureau which travels the world making current affairs documentaries, as well as a programme maker for Panorama, the BBC’s long running investigative series.

Born in Liverpool and without any connections in journalism or the BBC, Zand has forced his way up through hard work and talent, and along the way he has picked up a lot of handy advice.

Zika

The first big story of the year was the Zika virus. It yielded moving pictures of troubled mothers and their babies, with malformed brains. It prompted near pandemonium, however, when speculation spread that it might disrupt the Olympic Games. 

There was also the continuing Ebola virus outbreak which had, in 2014, seen British servicemen and women come to the aid of folk in faraway places. That included the building of hospitals, which were staffed by brave medics, many taking time out from the NHS. 

The comment came from Sky’s assistant editor (mobile), Peter Diapre, who said that bulletins are good at visual storytelling. He added that the same techniques apply across a range of platforms, even for bite-size news on smaller screens.

Eighteen experts from the BBC, ITV, Sky, Olympic Broadcasting, local TV and press, including a range of freelancers, were on hand to reflect on changing industry practices as well as outlining the unchanging skills required for visual journalism.

In an interview with Journalism.co.uk, director of editorial video Micah Gelman explained that The Post's viewers prefer videos shot to match the dimensions of their mobile phones when held upright.