CASH COMPETITION - excellent chance of winning if you've got a decent blog

£800 in Prizes and Work Experience offered to the Winners of VLV's 5th Student Essay Competition in 2010

Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) is pleased to announce the launch of its fifth Student Essay Competition. In association with Channel 4 and with support from The Voice of the Listener Trust, two winners will each receive £400 and a work placement with a leading television or radio production company. The runner up in each category will be offered work experience with leading content providers. The judging panel will be lead by distinguished journalist, Jon Snow, presenter of Channel 4 News.

Broadcasting is changing more rapidly than ever before. Digital television and broadband have already brought an explosion of new services which threaten the survival of the commercially funded public service broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Five, with implications for the BBC. At the same time, new technology enables more and more people to generate their own content through podcasts, webcasts blogs and vlogs. So does the concept of public service broadcasting any longer have meaning?

VLV invites entries for its 2010 Student Essay Competition from students studying for a UK registered undergraduate or postgraduate degree, or similar professional qualification, on the following subject:



‘In the world of internet blogging, anyone can produce a news story. Assess this view in relationship to the standards demanded from professional journalists and explore the prospects for traditional news providers.’

Entries should be submitted as a written essay of a maximum of 2,000 words. The closing date for entries is Tuesday, 1 June 2010.


Jocelyn Hay, VLV Hon President commented: “The theme for this year’s essay looks to the future and the impact that the explosion in new means of communication is having on traditional media. New ways of exchanging information, provide opportunities for anyone with access to a computer to report and influence not just politics, but fashion, food, the arts, sport, science and the environment. But can this tide of personal views replace the need in an informed democracy for measured, impartial reporting by trained reporters?”


Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) is an independent, non-profit-making association, free from political, commercial and sectarian affiliations, working for quality, diversity and independence in British broadcasting. VLV represents the interests of listeners, viewers and new media users as citizens and consumers across the full range of broadcasting issues. VLV is concerned with the structures, regulation, funding and institutions that underpin the British broadcasting system. VLV does not handle complaints. The Voice of the Listener Trust (registered charity 296207) supports the educational activities of VLV that fall within the scope of its own objects.

Full details and entry form, which must be completed, are available at www.vlv.org.uk or in writing, enclosing an SAE from: Linda Forbes, Conference Administrator, VLV, PO Box 401, Gravesend, Kent, DA12 9FY.