Students face a grilling in tough interviews from Today Programme Editor

Over 50 Post Graduate students at the Business School are having their creative campaign and communications skills fiercely tested in media workshops this semester when they face the “Humphries treatment.” In what’s proving to be a an unforgettable learning experience, Dave McMullan, one of the Editors of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, is interviewing students on the MSc Marketing Communications programme at the University’s Media Centre, as though for the Today programme. Students from the MBA elective business Communications will also work with the Editor this semester.

Meeting one of the Editors of the BBC’s flagship programme and experiencing how to deliver key messages in the face of tough questions is a part of experiential learning for Marketing and Communications students. The experience includes interviews with print, radio and TV journalists allowing students to develop the skills needed to devise and deliver a Public Relations campaign whilst applying theory. The workshops at the University’s Media Centre build advanced interview and media engagement skills, working with national, senior journalists in the real media setting of the Media Centre.

The Business School’s Hazel Westwood, who spent 18 years as a reporter for Sky News, designs and leads both modules. She said, ‘Even the most creative of campaigns can fail if the media landscape is not fully understood. But the experience of an interview with one of the editors of the Today programme tends to ensure students prepare well for this exercise. If you have a pro-active PR campaign for a major supermarket today, it’s also necessary to prepare for potential challenging questions on the horsemeat scandal.’