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Nick O’Malley
Lonsdale
More collaboration between student medias
Promote a ‘team spirit’ between SCAN, Bailrigg FM and LUTube.tv
Utilise SCAN website for up-to-date coverage
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Nick O’Malley is currently one of SCAN’s Sports Editors, a role which he says gives him knowledge to take into the Full Time Officer position. “I do realise that the role is not all about SCAN. However I think I am suited to the role of Editor, following on from my role as Sports Editor. I now understand exactly what an editor’s job entails,” he says.
As a student member of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), O’Malley says he has a “genuine interest in journalism”. He sees the importance of this in providing useful contacts, which he hopes will allow him to provide media events at Lancaster in the vein of this year’s Making it in the Media Day. “I’m a member of the NUJ and obviously have contacts there. It’d be great to have more of the [NUJ media] days and promote awareness.”
O’Malley admits to his experience being predominately founded in sports. “I obviously know what being an editor entails but maybe not exactly what goes into the other sections; that’s something I can learn from speaking to the other people involved. I know each [current Section] Editor now from going to Editorial Committee and then the new Deputies who are more likely to be the Editors of each section next year”.
O’Malley has little experience of the design element of the remit, though he is keen to address this. “Although I’m able to, I haven’t actually got involved with laying up the newspaper yet. It’s something I’ve seen done but not done myself.”
He appeared keen to learn from current VP (Media and Communications) Lizzie Houghton by “shadowing [and] working out exactly what I’d have to do and then seeing how I could improve it from there.”
Despite a lack of experience working with Bailrigg FM and LUTube.tv, O’Malley’s main idea is to use the Vice President remit to push for collaboration between media. This he particularly relates to sports coverage. “It’s obvious that at Roses they’re able to cover sporting events. That can obviously be done throughout the year as well, and this can be applied to other sports and to LUTube.”
He outlined the benefits of this to students. “People are interested in how the sports teams are doing, sometimes they can’t make it down to the match […] but they can listen while they get on with their work, for example.” This increased unity across student media would be all about creating a “Lancaster identity”, he says.
O’Malley also sees the importance of creating a “team spirit” within student media, and would like to see investment in team-building and creating a united brand awareness. “It’s good to have a good team spirit and to see an identification between the three student medias,” he argues. “I think it’d be important to spend a bit of money at the start of the year, promoting it.”
So what direction would he like to move student media in? O’Malley sees the potential for SCAN‘s website in particular. “I don’t see an online-only SCAN, but I see the website as a useful extra because it can be updated throughout the two weeks. SCAN’s only fortnightly, but it can be updated throughout, keeping people updated so they don’t have to wait until SCAN comes out, they know stuff straight away.”
Once more he links this potential to sport. “As soon as a sport happened, within a couple of days you can read about exactly what happened […] the same with news, if it’s important news that needs telling straightaway.”
