After obtaining an undergraduate degree in Nigeria, Hannah moved to Aberdeen to study a Master’s in Journalism at RGU. She spent four weeks on placement with STV, where she had the opportunity to work as a journalist and learn a wide variety of skills.

Can you tell us more about yourself?

My name is Hannah, I am 24 years old and I am from Nigeria. I studied Performing arts at the University of Ilorin in the northern part of Nigeria.

I have always been someone who feels uncomfortable with lack of progress. After my undergraduate studies, I ran my own business for almost two years, but I still felt stagnant and like I was not making any progress with my life. That was when I decided to pursue a postgraduate degree.

Why did you decide to study a master’s in Journalism at RGU?

I selected RGU because its great reputation precedes it, ranking high in employability and student satisfaction ratings. Apart from this, Aberdeen is a beautiful and peaceful city and I was just lucky to get both gems in the same place.

My passion for media started during my undergraduate studies. I did work experience at a radio station and that’s where I developed the interest. Knowing what I wanted made it easy for me to decide which course to go for.

I have enjoyed my course so far because of the challenges it has thrown my way. In the past few months, I have been able to learn and understand the basic pillars and skills of journalism. This includes print, digital and broadcast.

Can you tell us more about your placement with STV?

I was lucky that RGU had a work placement relationship with them. Through the module tutors, we were all given access to a reasonable number of placement opportunities. The process was quite straight forward and luck was on my side when I got called for an interview with STV! The university supported me by giving me the necessary tools needed for building a professional resume and preparing me for a job interview.

The placement was an amazing experience. I worked with reporters and shadowed them to cover stories. I was also allowed to be creative with the stories and create my own news packages. Additionally, I learnt how to use their editing software, took shots with the camera and I was also occasionally assigned to pick up interviews for news stories.

With all this, I have been able to improve my technical skills, which include script writing, video editing, filming, and creating a piece-to-camera. Moreover, I had a lot of support from the members of the news room, as they were all kind and willing to teach me all they could.

My favourite memory was when I completed a reading of the news bulletin successfully after several trials. Being in the studio in front of all the cameras and being able to pull up enough confidence was the highlight of my experience.

I think the placement was very useful and took place at the best part of the course. Now I understand what it is like to be in a professional news room!

What is your main takeaway of the experience?

It reinforced my belief that being a journalist means being the voice of the voiceless. It is a great privilege to practice in a place that has freedom of the press, and it means a whole lot to me to have been given this opportunity.

My placement has been a life-changing experience. If I was to do this again, I would pick RGU a million times over.

Hannah Faleye

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