BELFAST Metropolitan College has relaunched its college magazine.
Met News and Sport is written and edited by first year students studying foundation degrees in journalism and documentary production as well as in sports media.
Speaking to The Irish News, course director Lynda Bryans said: “Belfast Met has always had a student magazine; it’s run by the students’ union but traditionally it’s our journalism students who have put it together and we just thought it needed a little bit of a fresher look.
“Since lockdown our student numbers have been up and down, but we have really good bunch this year and I’m super proud of them and the job they’ve done putting this magazine together.”
Stiofán Bruce, one of the current news editors, said the publication “aims to foster a community of readers and contributors who are passionate about the subjects they’re writing about”.
Sports editor Paul McIntyre added that it’s a magazine “for the students by the students”.
“This was a very exciting project to work on,” he continued.
“And I have to give credit to my fellow students for how quickly they took to their respective tasks - they should all be very proud of the high-quality content they’ve produced. It certainly made my job as an editor a lot easier.”
With stories on areas including news, culture, lifestyle and sport, the magazine gives students the opportunity to have their work published while also finding their niche within journalism.
“I sound old fashioned but seeing your name in print is always a buzz,” said student and sports journalist Rory Morrow.
“Things are becoming so digitalised now, so it’s nice to have something real and tangible.”
Similarly fellow student and budding motorsport reporter Yasmin Janahi said getting in involved in the magazine and seeing the finished result was “a good achievement”.
“We’ve only just started the course really so to have something printed and see people reading it really makes you feel more professional,” she said.
“It was a great to experience that rush of working towards a deadline and having to get our stories turned around quickly.”
After several months of planning and putting the publication together the students are looking forward to their Christmas break before returning in January to plan the next issue.
“We’re definitely thinking about Christmas and our time off,” laughs Yasmin.
“But we’re so excited to do the next addition of the magazine which will hopefully be slightly more relaxed now that we’ve got the first one out of the way and we know what we’re doing and what to expect.”
