Media City Trip

This week some of UCLan FoundationCampus' aspiring journalists went on a day trip to Manchester's Media City. 

Media City is a 200 acre site on the Manchester Ship Canal which is home to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), ITV (a network of television channels in the UK) and a vast number of other media related businesses e.g. casting companies and TV equipment hire but is also home to various other tenants such as museums, sports companies and private housing.

Five lucky MFP students who are due to progress onto media related Masters programmes in September, including MA International Journalism, MA Animation and MSc Applied International Communication, received a free ticket from their MFP Research Methods tutor Kelly, to watch 'Countdown,' one of the longest running game shows in the world, be filmed.

The students told us they were surprised at how small the studio was with only 3 rows of seats in the audience.  They saw three shows filmed on the day with hosts and contestants changing their clothes in between filming each episode.

An added bonus for our international students who are studying English with us alongside their academic subjects is that the game show is related to the English Language as contestants have to create words using given letters receiving points for the longest word.  Each audience member was given a pad and paper to play along and we hear Leo was a dab hand at solving the Maths problems.

Students had a great day seeing a very busy, thriving media hub and the inside of a television studio, an environment which they would like to work in in the future.

Deng, Leo, Meng, Hana and Lynne with
hostess Rachel Riley (far left)