The team making up Gazprom’s latest Football for Friendship International Children’s Social Programme have been hard at work learning what it takes to become mobile journalists.   

The Football for Friendship: Euro 2020 New Bureau began operations last month in conjunction with the UEFA EURO 2020 Championship. The programme aims to nurture young budding journalists from countries hosting the Championship.

The tournament has given the group of young journalists, girls and boys including children with disabilities, the opportunity to cover the events of the programme in the International Children’s Press Center.

The team of young journalists included 11 participants from Scotland, who took part in the program from 11 June to 11 July.

Glasgow Times: Ella Nisbet with Leila SpenceElla Nisbet with Leila Spence

Learning invaluable skills, the young group have been embracing new challenges and recognising the most important factors in reporting as a journalist.

Training at the School of Nine Values of the Football Friendship Programme, the group classes focus on current trends in sports journalism and, more recently, mobile journalism skills.

As a sports journalist learning how to utilise the benefits of mobile journalism is hugely helpful when reporting on a sporting event.

Glasgow Times: England Roman Khoroshaev MatchdayEngland Roman Khoroshaev Matchday

Keeping a news feed constantly up to date and live reporting are becoming frequently sought after in media outlets across the globe.

Mobile journalism has made it easier to broadcast direct from an event, whether through live videos, live tweets or live interviews, the possibilities to connect to your audience instantly are numerous.

In the current climate, reporting via smartphones has become essential for many. The Covid-19 pandemic has only further highlighted the need for increased training in this field as more journalists adapt to a purely digital age.

Glasgow Times: Maura O'Sullivan at UEFA Euro 2020 FinalMaura O'Sullivan at UEFA Euro 2020 Final

The Football for Friendship International Children’s Social Programme was established by Gazprom in 2013 and is aimed at popularizing universal values among young people through football.

During the coverage of the Euro 2020 matches, this year’s Young Journalists learned plenty of useful tips. Here they list some of the lifehacks of mobile journalism they have discovered through the programme:

 Alex Watson (12 yr.)

Voice Memos is one very helpful app I used. You can use it to record yourself speaking. It doesn’t use nearly as much memory as a video app, as it only records your voice. I used it to record how I was feeling as I entered the stadium and to record the answers given by the people I interviewed. I could then listen to them later when I was writing the article. Another good thing about Voice Memos is that it is quicker and more efficient than typing. That said, it was pretty much impossible to record anything during the match itself due to the sheer magnitude of the noise.

Ella Nisbet (12 yr.)

When you are at the stadium trying to do a video report it can be hard to hear yourself speak. My life hack makes it easier to hear yourself on camera and block out all the noisy chanting in the background. How this works is you plug headphones into your phone and put them in to report your journalism for the match; we tested it before the match to see the difference of noise level and you can hear yourself more clearly a surprising amount. You can also make your voice even louder and clearer by holding the microphone on the earphones next to your mouth when you speak.

Logan Craig

Clean your lens. Most people don’t and then wonder why their video isn’t clear. Follow the basic rules of news photography: wide, medium, tight. Shoot the motion, don’t move the camera. And zoom with your feet.

Leon Kirton (15 yr.)

I used my smartphone to take small video clips on my journey to the match and how adventurous my day was. I put all my clips on TikTok, edited it all together and then added additional sound which creates a more professional view of the video. I also used another person to video me getting off the train to get a different perspective of my journey. Another way I used my smartphone was using both portrait and landscape on the camera mode to get a variety of different angles. I recorded my day in my notes app so I could remember the day and so I could write a diary entry to finish my day off.

The Scottish participants who completed the training program were:

Ivan Artamonov (10 yr.)

Charlie Craig (10 yr.)

Logan Craig (14 yr.)

Leyla Altigul (12 yr.)

Daniel Fescenko (12 yr.)

Jamie Bradley (11 yr.)

Callum Savage (13 yr.)

Reece Mackie (13 yr.)

Caiden Mclaren (13 yr.)

Sylwia Bonkowska (9 yr.)

Efosa Sule (13 yr.)

 

The winner for the best Scottish journalist will be announced soon. They will go on to cover the upcoming Championship Goal Aware Ceremony, in August, and will become part of the ceremony for best goal which is to be presented to Patrick Schick of the Czech Republic team. 

This article was produced in partnership with Gazprom’s Football for Friendship.