The Janno Media Award

It’s fair to say that there’s a natural affinity towards Nottingham Trent University (NTU) here at Janno Media. After all, it was the home of Janno Media Founder, Matt Wallace for many years whilst he studied and worked there.

When Matt was thinking about how we could play our part in supporting an innovative, new project, contributing to the learning experience of current students at Nottingham Trent was a no-brainer. And so, The Janno Media Award was born.

In conjunction with NTU’s Centre for Broadcasting & Journalism, we offered to commission a full podcast series to the best entry for the final year ‘Podcasting’ module, where students are asked to produce a one-off podcast episode on a subject of their choice.

The Fresher's Handbook

And we’re so excited to share that Harry Briggs and his Fresher’s Handbook made the cut.

With the help of fellow presenter, Robin Sargeson, Harry has devised and produced an eight-episode podcast guide to starting university in time for Freshers Week 2022.

With support and guidance from the established podcast team here at Janno Media, this exciting new podcast series has launched and is helping wide-eyed freshers across the UK. New episodes will be released every Monday.

We want to congratulate Harry on such a brilliant series and achievement and thank Senior Lecturer, John Collins for his role in making this happen. We look forward to supporting more talent at Nottingham Trent University.

The Fresher’s Handbook podcast, out every Monday

It's been an honour to be the recipient of the first 'Janno Media Award' and I’ve loved getting stuck in making 'The Fresher's Handbook'. I wish I knew about all the tips and tricks raised in the podcast when I was a fresher! Creating this with Janno Media has taught me that a podcast is nowhere near finished just because it's been recorded! Post-production and editing as well as a big marketing campaign is the key to success, and I'm delighted to be hearing the final output every Monday with each new episode.

Harry Briggs, The Fresher's Handbook

Listen to The Fresher’s Handbook

At NTU, we pride ourselves on being able to replicate industry within the classroom so when we had the chance to embed the Janno Media bursary within our newly-developed Podcasting module, it was a great fit. No matter how good your tutors, how cutting-edge your facilities and how innovative your teaching, teaching journalism in an academic environment often leaves you struggling to replicate two key parts of media production; an audience listening-in, and a consequence to the work being published. An arrangement like this where students' work is picked up by a production company and then further shaped into a fully-functional, widely-available podcast fills-in that missing link in the teaching process. Harry and Robin's work is based on a good idea and aims to spread what they feel is useful information to an existing, targeted audience. It does it with strong production standards, no shortage of creativity and by mixing expert contributors with personal insight. It's everything a good podcast should be.

John Collins, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Broadcasting & Journalism, Nottigham Trent University