The project saw these young people, from Park View School and Biddick School Sports College, take part in three days of reporter training at Emirates Durham’s state of the art Media Centre and the Learning Beyond the Boundary Education Centre. The sessions were led by Supporter2Reporter trainers from the RadioWaves organisation and looked at many aspects of reporting, including writing match reports, interviewing skills and techniques, filming techniques and also social media and other communication avenues.
In addition to the reporter training the participants had the opportunity to interview Durham CCCs Media Manager Yvette Thompson about her role at the club and reporting cricket at Durham CCC and Yvette was on hand to give a few hints and tips to the reporters. On the final afternoon Newcastle Falcons Media Manager Stewart McCullough came to meet the participants to chat about reporting and to brief the young people about reporting on a match for real.
The sessions at Durham is just the start of teh programme, as the participants are visiting BBC TV studios next week for a look around and to see the filming of Look North and meeting lead sports presenter Jeff Brown.
The final visit takes place next Friday where all participants will be at Kingston Park to report on Newcastle Falcons Aviva Premiership fixture with Gloucester.
Two of the young people taking part in the programme have also been given the opportunity to interview Lord Sebastian Coe. With only months to go before the London 2012 Olympics one of the key players in London winning the chance to host the games, Lord Coe will be in the region next week where he will be interviewed by the Supporter2Reporter duo.
The teams have been making their own blogs through the programme and also have their own twitter accounts: @S2RBiddick and that you can check out around the game. To see what the reporters got up to during their training and to see how they get on at the game simply click on the following link to their RadioWaves blog pages: Radio Waves blog
If you have any further questions about Durham County Cricket Foundation or may be interested in getting involved in some of the Foundations Activity, simply contact Foundation Manager Richard Hopper: richard.hopper@durhamccc.co.uk