The Guardian's Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner gives Media students industry insights
Aspiring York College journalists were given a fascinating insight into the industry during a Campus visit by Katharine Viner – the only female Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian during its 204-year history.
Ripon-born Katharine gave two 75-minute talks to learners on the our A Level Media Studies courses and answered questions from the audience in the Lecture Theatre.
Having also worked for Cosmopolitan and The Sunday Times, Katharine performed senior roles for The Guardian in Australia and the USA before becoming Editor-in-Chief – a position she has filled for the past decade.
In 2005, meanwhile, she co-edited the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie with legendary actor Alan Rickman, famous for roles such as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films.
During the talks, Katharine outlined how her career started despite initial reservations about her suitability to the profession, which she was given the impression was the preserve of “posh white men” at the time.
She assured the students that the industry is now more diverse, which is reflected by the make-up of The Guardian’s workforce.
As she fielded questions, Katharine revealed what, in her opinion, makes a good Guardian journalist, answering: “Somebody who is relentless and never gives up.”
She went on to reason that AI has proven a useful tool for journalists to “speed up research”, but not for writing articles, as is being experimented with by other news organisations, asserting: “Only human beings can hold people to account and inject humour, personality and insight into their words.”
Katharine admitted that one of the biggest challenges of her job is making decisions that are unpopular with staff, specifically citing the sale of The Guardian’s Sunday sister newspaper The Observer earlier this year.
She stressed the importance, meanwhile, of fact checking and correcting any mistakes as quickly as possible, as well as balanced reporting in the current political climate, adding: “The Guardian is about ideas and policies and not parties and people.”
The talk ended with Katharine informing the students about The Scott Trust Bursary, which provides an opportunity for applicants to secure funds to cover post-grad fees and living expenses, along with a year’s paid work experience at The Guardian.
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