My name is Luke Collins. I am 17-years-old and I have just completed Lower Sixth form at Our Lady and St Patrick’s College Knock having studied History, Politics, Drama and Sociology.
I am at Belfast Media Group on work experience because I have a keen interest in journalism and have been considering pursuing journalism as a career for a long time now.
I have always been into writing as I enjoy writing about my interests and there are no wrong answers; you can write about whatever you want. This has influenced my subject choices which are more literary based and require lots of essay writing and coursework.
I can remember writing a match report after I had been to Anfield to watch Liverpool lose to Crystal Palace seven years ago. My dad told me it was very informative and that I should pursue a career in journalism and since that day I have tried to follow what he said.
I enjoy writing about sport particularly football and basketball which I watch regularly and keep up with news about the sports. However, sport is not my main writing interest – that would be politics. I keep up with politics around the world through the news whether it is by going on to news websites, following news organisations and independent journalists on social media or by watching the news on TV. I am particularly interested in British, American and Northern Ireland politics.
This is why I have respected journalists for a very long time now and why I want to have a career in journalism.
I remember first becoming interested in politics around the time of the EU referendum vote in 2016 as my primary school, St Joseph’s Carryduff, let us watch news reports on it and encouraged active discussion on the issue. In that same year, the US presidential election – in which Donald Trump won – took place and once again my primary school encouraged discussion on this and showed news reports from many different organisations so we could form our own opinion on who should have won.
Since the Stormont Executive collapsed last year, I have been particularly interested in the dynamic of the Northern Ireland political system. I am interested particularly in the parties: what their policies are, what their relationship to other parties are like and what their stance is on fundamental issues such as Brexit and climate change. I have also noticed that more people my age are more interested in local politics as they realise that the collapse of devolution directly affects them.
I think that the news has contributed greatly to the increased political awareness among people my age as the news keeps young people informed of political developments and how it affects them and this can not be done without the incredible work of journalists researching relevant topics and producing reports on them. This can also be contributed to the rise in social media and journalists being able to adapt to a digital world to report.
This is why I have respected journalists for a very long time now and why I want to have a career in journalism. I enjoy topical research and whenever there is an issue in school that I have to write about or just a general issue that I would like to find out more about, I like to carry out my own research on the topic and sometimes write what I find down in a booklet. I know that research is a key skill necessary for a career in journalism and one of the reasons why I think that it is the best career path for me.
I also know that writing things down and making notes on the go helps in journalism as most journalists need to make notes when conducting research or interviews to have as much knowledge as possible to produce a report. I have great respect for the work of journalists in seeking the truth to each story and keeping the general public informed of ongoing events.
I hope that I become a journalist in the future and am able to report factual stories to the public.
