Ambitious Alasdair strives for success at Scottish Sun
A Multimedia Journalism student is on the way to achieving his dream of working full time with a national newspaper, after landing a role with the Scottish Sun.
Third year student Alasdair Ferguson has been putting knowledge learned at GCU into practice as part of the newspaper’s social media team.
The opportunity presented itself after their Assistant Digital Editor - and GCU Graduate - Jack Aitchison reached out to lecturer Christina McIntyre looking for students to cover casual shifts.
Alasdair said: “When I first heard about it, I just thought ‘why not?’. The worst situation would be them saying ‘no’ and the best situation would be me getting a job – the pros definitely outweighed the cons!
“I was ambitious when I first came to university. I knew that when I finished my degree I wanted to be working full time at a big national newspaper – that was the goal and I’m now one step closer.”
Having previously worked at the Alloa Advertiser as a Sports Reporter, Alasdair was keen to gain further experience and is well aware the role social media will play in his future career.
He explained: “It’s just another string to my bow as a journalist. Industry experts are saying that everything is moving from print to digital now. Being quite tech-savvy across multimedia platforms is so important; even simple things like hyperlinking are giving me experience and qualities that some older journalists might not necessarily have.
“The course at GCU has set me up really well. From day one, you’re getting to use things like WordPress and that seems to be used across the industry, so it all sets you up for what’s to come.
Alasdair added: “So far, I’ve been involved in running the social channels and keeping an eye out for stories online before sending them off to our digital reporters.
"It’s a whole range of topics that I’ve been covering; I must admit I knew nothing about Love Island before I started, but I certainly do now!”
Sun-kissed tans and six-packs aside, Alasdair has also had the chance to build on his passion for sports journalism.
He said: “I’m really interested in sport and obviously I was initially doing social shifts but just from being in the office, the opportunity to work with the Sun Sport team came up and I had my first shift with them last week as a reporter.
“Everyone has been fantastic with me. I was keen to say that I wanted to learn more and get some experience with news and sports; fair play to all the editors, they just went and set it all up.”
Alasdair now hopes to continue picking up shifts across social and sport before he starts his fourth year at GCU in September.
He said: “I went into this role just looking for a foot in the door and it’s been the perfect environment for me within a big newsroom. It’s just about getting to know people, doing a bit of networking and proving that I’m hard-working and willing to learn.
“You’ve got to take these opportunities when they come up. Before I got my chance at local papers, I was sending off clips of my best bits from first year and didn’t hear anything back for a couple of months, until the editor from the Alloa Advertiser got me in. That’s now definitely opened the door to better things and I’m really excited for what’s to come.”
By Ross Clark
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