Journalism students embrace Commonwealth Games experience

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Journalism students embrace Commonwealth Games experience

Third-year RMIT journalism students Freya O'Donnell and Paddy Grindlay reflect on their experience working as social media producers as part of Channel 7's Commonwealth Games coverage.

Freya and Patrick were recently awarded the opportunity to work closely with Channel 7 for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Brimingham.

Here's what they had to say about their experience.

Freya O'Donnell

What are you studying at RMIT and what year of study are you in?

Bachelor of Communications (Journalism). I'm in my final year and semester.

How did the opportunity to work as a social media producer for Channel 7 come about?

Our awesome tutors in the comms stream set up a Facebook group where they would find and post up opportunities of all different styles that we as students could apply for.

Stef Markidis posted up the opportunity and I emailed in my resume.

After a few calls and an interview, I had the job!

How long was your experience? What did you do day to day/night to night?

The games went for roughly two weeks, so I had about nine days of work.

I was on the night shift, 12.30am – 9am each day, so my day consisted of a lot of failed attempts at sleep, but my night was filled with all sorts of sports.

A small team of us would watch the sports live and clip up the notable moments to post to all social channels including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Do you have a highlight from your experience?

My highlight moment was the netball final between Australia and Jamaica.

If we were to win, it would make Australia's 1000th Commonwealth gold medal, a huge moment for the games, and I got to cover it.

Everyone in the office was watching the last quarter and it made for an exciting last day.

Anything else you would like to add?

It was definitely an experience having to become nocturnal for a week, but well worth it!

group of people working inside broadcast room

Freya and Patrick enjoyed two weeks at Seven's headquarters during the games.

Patrick Grindlay

What are you studying at RMIT and what year of study are you in?

I’m a third-year Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) student.

How did the opportunity to work as a social media producer for Channel 7 come about?

Our careers coordinator, Stefanie Markidis, alerted students that Channel 7 was looking for social media producers for the Commonwealth Games.

There was an application process and an interview process with Tara Carlon, who was my manager for the event.

I was successful in application and was given the opportunity to participate in the coverage.

How long was your experience? What did you do day to day/night to night?

I worked all eleven days of sporting competition, working a 6pm – 12.30am shift from Seven’s Docklands headquarters.

My role was to follow particular sports and produce social media content from the events on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok.

For the most part, my work revolved around live Twitter posts.

The most frequent shift was following the athletics programs from go to whoa, including Australians Rohan Browning, Peter Bol and Ollie Hoare.

Do you have a highlight from your experience?

Ollie Hoare’s 1500m final win was a massive surprise, and I was lucky enough to be the man behind the keyboard.

Bruce McAvaney, a hero of mine, was commenting, and I felt a bit like an imposter packaging the race and Tweeting out to an audience on the 7Sport handle.

That tweet reflects my excitement pretty accurately!

Anything else you would like to add?

It’s fantastic that industry experiences such as this are offered to RMIT students.

I’ve been able to flesh out my resume and accrue valuable experience and some standing with Seven as a result.

06 September 2022

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