Industry Day:
Reporting with Impact

3-7pm, Tuesday 26 February 2019  |  Hosted by Channel 4
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Media has the power to shape the agenda and provoke change. But at a time when the news cycle is overwhelmed by fast-changing international events or is heavily focused on domestic themes, it can be difficult to know how to get your story noticed.

As a journalist or filmmaker you may have access to a story with the potential for impact, but how do you ensure it will get picked up by commissioners, engage audiences, and in turn, shift opinion?

Join us at Channel 4 headquarters for a day of sessions exploring these questions by bringing together leading industry experts to discuss social impact and media.

This year’s event will be focusing on environmental reporting, with special guests including Gethin Chamberlain, Tom Clarke, Monica Garnsey, Phil Harding, Craig Hunter, Nicola Milne, Rosamund Pearce, and Sue Turton.

Find out more about the event sessions

Book Tickets

Event Sessions

STORIES, NOT ISSUES

3pm-4.15pm

People connect with people, which makes stories that connect climate change with real human consequences the gold standard of environmental reporting. This session will explore the traits of environmental stories that grip audiences, and look at the how-tos of environmental reporting from seasoned experts.

Book Tickets

Panellists:

Gemma Bradshaw

Director, One World Media (Chair)

Gethin Chamberlain

Freelance Photojournalist

Tom Clarke

Science Editor, ITV News

Rosamund Pearce

Multimedia Journalist, Carbon Brief

CAN YOU BE AN ACTIVIST
AND A REPORTER?

4.30pm-5.30pm

What is the role of environmental journalism in a time when we’re seemingly inundated with ever-increasing environmental threats? Are environmental reporters in a different position then other journalists – ie. should they/can they push people to act? Should they be advocates for change fighting the destruction of our planet while reporting the facts or should they remain neutral? Journalists covering increasingly overwhelming environmental stories will debate how to grapple with these issues while on the job.

Book Tickets

Panellists:

Phil Harding

Journalist, broadcaster & consultant (Chair)

Fiona Harvey

Environment Correspondent, The Guardian

Alex Kirby

Journalist

Karl Mathiesen

Editor-in-Chief, Climate Home News

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING:
MEET THE GATEKEEPERS

5.45pm-6.45pm

For the last session of the afternoon, a panel of top editors will detail their remit for commissioning reports and documentaries on environmental issues. The panel will share valuable insights into exactly what they look for when commissioning, from the optimum length to the specific form and content that they aim to produce for their diverse audiences. You will learn how to best pitch your ideas, as well as inside information on how major media outlets work with freelancers.

Book Tickets

Panellists:

Monica Garnsey

Monica Garnsey

Executive Producer in TV Current Affairs (Chair)

Craig Hunter

Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual Formats, BBC2

Nicola Milne

Head of Documentaries, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Sue Turton

Sue Turton

Series Editor, Unreported World

Get your tickets now

Discounted tickets are available for students.

Monica Garnsey

Monica Garnsey is an Executive Producer in TV Current Affairs, specialising in international and hostile environment projects, currently working on films for October Films, BBC Current Affairs and PBS Frontline. She has directed numerous observational documentaries and current affairs films for the BBC and Channel 4 in the UK, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and elsewhere. She was awarded an Emmy for BBC’s Death in Tehran, an Amnesty International Media Award for Execution of a Teenage Girl (BBC) and a RTS Award for Help Me Love My Baby for C4.

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Sue Turton

Sue Turton has been a TV reporter for 27 years, and has now diversified into documentaries and writing. She covered conflict for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Egypt where she and her colleagues were convicted on terrorism charges. Sue began at Sky News, and after reporting for ITV and GMTV she moved to Channel 4 for 12 years, winning two RTS awards.

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Gemma Bradshaw

Gemma is the director of One World Media and is responsible for the growth and success of One World Media’s programmes, particularly focused on supporting new talent covering global stories. She is passionate about the power of media to open minds and create space for conversation and change. Before joining One World Media, Gemma was working in the US documentary film industry. Most recently as Director of Programs for the Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA), and prior to that as COO of San Francisco Green Film Festival.

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Gethin Chamberlain

Gethin Chamberlain is a freelance photojournalist specialising in human rights investigations. He covered South Asia for The Observer from 2008 to 2014 and was previously a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and The Scotsman’s chief reporter. Now based in Scotland, he works as a freelance reporter and photographer for a range of international publications. His Brides of the Sun collaboration, revealing the impact of climate change on rates of child marriage, was published in the UK, Europe, Australia and the US. 

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Rosamund Pearce

Rosamund is a multimedia journalist for Carbon Brief, a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate change. Her job includes making maps, data visualisations, animations, interactives and infographics. Her work has been picked up by a number of other publications, including the Guardian, the Independent, Vox, the Sydney Morning Herald and Scientific American. Prior to joining Carbon Brief, Rosamund completed an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London, and has worked for the Science Museum and the Wellcome Trust.

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Tom Clarke

Tom leads all specialist science and environment coverage for ITV News, providing original journalism and detailed analysis of complex scientific thinking and environmental issues. He was previously Science Editor at Channel 4 News and nominated by the prestigious Royal Television Society Journalism Awards for his investigative work on Tamiflu

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Fiona Harvey

Fiona Harvey is an award-winning environment journalist for the Guardian. Prior to this, she worked for the Financial Times for more than a decade. She has reported on every major environmental issue, from as far afield as the Arctic and the Amazon, and her wide range of interviewees include Ban Ki-moon, Tony Blair, Al Gore and Jeff Immelt.

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Karl Mathiesen

Karl Mathiesen is the editor of Climate Home News. He was previously a freelance reporter and an environment columnist for the Guardian. He comes from Tasmania, Australia, where he was a keeper at a sanctuary for injured wildlife and threatened wildlife.

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Craig Hunter

Craig Hunter has been part of the BBC’s Factual Commissioning team for more than 4 years and he is currently the Lead Commissioning Editor for Natural History and Specialist Factual. Craig works across the full range of Specialist Factual subjects for all BBC Channels, including ‘Inside the Factory’, ‘Twinstitute’, ‘How to stay Young, ‘What’s the right diet for you?’. In Natural History Craig has commissioned big single subject films, for BBC ONE: Drowning in Plastics, as well as LIVE Natural History: Big Blue Live / Wild Alaska Live and formatted shows like Animals with Cameras. He is also the lead commissioner for Factual in Scotland.

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Nicky Milne

Nicky Milne is Head of Documentaries at Thomson Reuters Foundation, , the philanthropic wing of Reuters global news network who specialise in under-reported stories world-wide. She films/photographs across the globe, executive produces and develops the small multi-media team, as well as commissioning and overseeing a range of freelance shoots around the world. Prior to TRF, she worked as head of film/photo at a global NGO, Christian Aid, and has many years’ experience in TV production.

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Phil Harding

Phil Harding is a journalist, broadcaster and media consultant. Previously he was an award-winning producer, editor and senior executive at the BBC where he did a number of high profile jobs. Among other jobs, he was in charge of the BBC’s Editorial Policy overseeing the Corporation’s most difficult ethical editorial dilemmas.  He was also editor of the influential Today programme and in charge of the news and English language output on the World Service.   

In recent years he has worked as a consultant and executive coach with various international media groups and senior leaders.

He has written a lot recently about truth, trust and fake news. He has just written a book chapter about the regulation of social media companies and is chairing a Media Society event on this subject later this week.  

He also facilitates and chairs conferences and events. He is a regular chair and interviewer at the Edinburgh International  Book festival. 

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Alex Kirby

Alex Kirby is a former BBC journalist. He was acting Cairo bureau chief in 1986, then environment correspondent for BBC Radio and TV News, and latterly for the BBC News website, from 1987 to 2005. In 2013, with three former colleagues, he launched the Climate News Network. He was named environment journalist of the year at the UK regional press awards in 2017.

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