Celebrating 30 years of Journalism at Sheffield
It was three decades ago this September that 45 students stepped through the door of Minalloy House to begin their studies in a brand new department. Established by former Observer editor Donald Trelford, Sheffield’s Department of Journalism officially opened in 1994. Hoping to find out more about life as a Sheffield journo in the mid-90s, two of our current undergraduate students Charlie Fenton and Sebastian Jones caught up with two of that first, fresh-faced cohort: True North Creative Director Christian Hills and former Comedy Central Commissioner Chris Curley.
Chris begins by admitting that moving to Sheffield was very much out of his comfort zone: “After my A-Levels, I had meetings with production companies for runner jobs. They said go to university and get some life experience. I had no idea what that was, so I came here to find out.”
In contrast, Christian is a Sheffield native but had only a casual interest in sports reporting: “I hadn’t given Journalism much thought, but over the three years at Sheffield, it changed my life.”
Looking at the two successful alumni now, it’s hard to imagine them as inexperienced students – but like all of us, Chris and Christian learned from failure as much as from the expertise of their tutors.
“I remember a lot of things going wrong!” says Chris.
“We were filming our pieces to camera one day. Our friend Kelly did hers in front of the big Christmas tree, which looked like it was coming out of the top of her head. Then when we got back, we realised we hadn’t switched the microphone on… It was embarrassing, but it certainly never happened again.”
Alongside brutal grammar corrections from veteran journalist tutors, Christian recalls handing in his final year portfolio, only to find the floppy disk was corrupted. Looking round at the new facilities in The Wave, it’s hard for him not to feel a little bit envious: “The equipment was a world away from what you have now,” says Christian. Chris agrees: “You’ve got an absolute playground of facilities. If I was here now I’d definitely have a podcast. Up early with Curley!”
Though the kit might have been different, the quality of the teaching and the opportunities – like a once-in-a-lifetime work placement at the LA Times for Chris – meant both graduated with skills they needed to carve out an exciting career. “I spent four years working as a sports journalist at Granada TV in Manchester,” says Christian. “That was an exciting time… and getting paid to watch football felt like the best job in the world!
“After that I sort of just worked my way up through the industry. Now I work in factuals [documentary and factual programming]. Meeting interesting people and telling stories is the best part of the job.”
Like Chrsitian, Chris worked his way up: “I started off making the tea and coffee, climbed the ladder to become a commissioning editor and produce programmes,” he explains. And, just like the School of Journalism, Chris is still building on those founding principles: “The things I learnt then, I still use now. And the fact I’m doing this job, 30 years later, is probably my biggest achievement.”
