Harmful Opportunity

Autumn's here again. The nights are getting longer. The trees are turning golden. And my inbox is filling up with wonderful 'opportunities' for journalism students to generate free copy for speculative startup websites.

Now I live in the real world, and I know how important work experience is to getting a job.

Getting graduates into jobs is, in fact, the only reason I do what I do. The joy of reading endless platitudes on the state of the news industry dutifully cut, pasted and Harvard referenced in the 'reflective reports' appended to otherwise straightforward practical assignments doesn't come into it. No really. It doesn't.

But I do get pigged off when I see students exploited, especially when the supposed 'opportunity' is actually harmful to their prospects of getting work later. Here's why.

Made in Leeds. Make it Happen.

After much anticipation Leeds' own local TV service 'Made in Leeds' will launch .. soon.

It was due on air in November last year, a test card gave a tantalising flash early in 2014, then it all went a bit quiet. Now, with artfully-shot time lapse pics of city landmarks looping on Freeview Channel 8 it appears a launch is, well, imminent.

What's important now is that we give Made in Leeds a warm welcome. For better or worse it's ours, and it's here. What's absolutely certain is we'll never get another go if this fails, so Leeds needs to get behind the project.

The following was originally posted on the Leeds Culture Vulture website.