My "Football" Kick

Most newspapers throughout the world contain a sports section. In the United States, the majority of stories that are sports related involve football, basketball and baseball. This makes total sense because these are the top 3 sports in the US right now. However, for soccer fans such as myself, having no dedicated section for just soccer news is a huge bummer.  I want to know the latest transfer rumors in the UK, the results from Manchester United game and which coach got sacked this week. Luckily for me, I am in the UK and soccer or football as they say here, is everywhere. Just flip to the back of most of the newspapers based in London and you’ll find stories about the recent saga of the European transfer market. Now I can finally feed my soccer addiction with print!

Soccer players in the UK are treated like A-list celebrities. Many kids dream about becoming professional “football” players and consider the ones on the pitch as heroes or idols to look up to. These professionals impact the community and know how valuable it means to be playing for their city or region. The tabloids in particular pay close attention to the behaviors of players off the pitch in order to see if they can come up with a juicy story. When the news broke about John Terry’s affair with former teammate Wayne Bridge’s wife, the media had a heyday.

In London alone, there are four soccer clubs, which are Arsenal (North London), Chelsea (South London), Tottenham (East London) and West Ham (West London). The rivalry amongst these teams is intense, especially during game day. This huge fan base for soccer can be seen not just in the media, but also at parks and shops. For the past three times I was on my way to Primrose Hill, I’ve seen many people kicking a soccer ball around. The Camden Market even had many original soccer balls that were used back in the early 1990’s on sale. It’s a city that loves football and that makes me love this place even more. 

The BBC

Last Wednesday, our class went to see one of the top media outlets in the world, the BBC. The anticipation was immense because I could not wait to see the workplace of those journalists, who are some of the best in the business. It took around 15 minutes to arrive to the massive headquarters of the BBC from Regents University. We all had to first undergo a security check-in similar to one at an airport, but a little less strict. Once all that was over, it was finally time to experience what would be one of the best tours I’ve ever done.

Now some of the highlights of the tour that I believe are worth mentioning are the newsrooms, tour guides and interactive activities. My favorite aspect of the tour is that we got to see the actual workplace where the news stories are written and broadcasted. It was absolutely amazing. Everyone in the newsroom has a desk with 4 monitors and can been seen super indulged in their work. People were all over the place. Some were either writing up a story, on the phone with a source or pacing across the room.

The next two parts of the tour that stood out positively were the two tour guides and the activities they got us involved in. Both guys seemed like cartoon characters with their interesting personalities. Throughout the tour, they would occasionally have their own conversation and leave the rest of us a little confused. I don’t know if it was staged or not, but I thought they were really comical. It made the tour even more entertaining with their dry British humor and sarcastic comments.  I also thought they did a good job in providing us activities that most of the class was able to participate in. The first one we did allowed two of my classmates to act as news anchors. It gave us a glimpse of what it’s like to be a TV anchor, especially with the real-live breaking news footage that introduced the two of them. The second activity showcased the radio aspect of the BBC where we performed a mock radio drama.

Overall, the experience at the BBC is one sure to remember. I definitely recommend the tour to anybody who has not experienced it.  

Jamaican Me Crazy

Last weekend I went to the Camden Market to have a taste (quite literally) of authentic cultures from around the world. The Camden Market is where people open up shop and sell different foods, accessories and even ancient artifacts. However, it was the food from around the world that caught my eyes the most. In the heart of the market near the canal, there were about 30 people from different nationalities serving authentic dishes from their native country. There was the bratwurst from Germany, the Portuguese samosa and the Spanish paella just to name a few.  Everything smelled so good.  

I decided to try the Jamaican jerk wrap, which is chicken seasoned with hot spices combined with a salad. It was like an explosion of flavors in my mouth. The Jamaican man that served me this delicious dish asked me if I was on vacation. I told him that I am student studying British media and international advertising at Regents University. We began to talk about the numerous media outlets in the UK, specifically his favorite newspaper The Voice. It is a weekly newspaper published in London that targets people specifically from the Caribbean.  He told me that there is a fairly abundant population of Jamaicans in the UK and said most of them preferred to read Caribbean targeted newspapers. This was really interesting because I have yet to see any of those publications around the city.

After researching online for a bit, I found out that The Voice is actually the only media outlet that focuses on the British African-Caribbean people in the UK. Looking at the website online, I saw a lot of anti-racism articles that you don’t see in national newspapers such The Times and The Guardian. The Voice has writers from different cultural backgrounds than any of the other newspapers and offers the community a fresh perspective on national and world issues. It’s nice to read about another side of the story.

Extra Extra! British People Read More Than Americans!

I picked up a copy of The Independent for the first time a couple days ago at a nearby convenience store in order to have a first glance at a UK newspaper. There are many aspects of the British media that I find very interesting and different in comparison to newspapers such as The New York Times in the United States. But before I get a head of myself, let’s talk about The Independent.

The daily newspaper was lunched on October 7, 1986, exactly 4 years before I was born. Other than it being the best day ever, it was also during a great change in British publication. The Wapping Dispute was a strike that occurred against Rubert Murdoch’s company, News International, by the National Union of Journalist because of a stall in negotiations. News International, which owns The Times, decided to move its printing plant to the British province of Wapping and alter the job conditions for journalist working under Murdoch’s newspapers. Angered by the poor offer, the NUJ went on strike in protest. However, the strike ended in failure as 6,000 employees were fired. This led two former employees to challenge The Times and other politically affiliated national newspapers, ergo The Independent was born.

Now that I’ve given you a brief history of how the newspaper started, let’s look at some of the basic characteristic of British newspapers. From what I can tell during my first week in London is that there seems to be many more readers here. You see people reading the news while waiting for the Tube, at a restaurant and at public parks. I decided to check the amount of circulation in the UK. It was astonishing to find out the circulation is much higher than the United States. This seems to be ridiculous when you consider the populations of both countries. Another interesting fact is that the newspapers here all tend to have a political bias. The Guardian is considered more left wing while The Times is moderately right.  The Independent is recently seen as leaning a little more to the left, but traditionally is considered a non-affiliated media outlet.

From what I observed so far, I think this bias in newspapers attracts people to read the news. People want to read what they like and I feel as if the media outlets give it to them, especially the tabloids. One final thought, I heard from someone on this trip that people know where you stand politically just by noticing the newspaper held in your hand. Now that’s something.

I'm Back, London.

It’s been five years since the last time I came to London. My father decided to take our family of four, which consisted of my ‘mum,’ brother and I, to the European continent, a place we haven’t been before. From what I can recall during the week we visited, I did not have the full experience. Although we saw the famous Big Ben, toured the gigantic British Museum and dined at exquisite English restaurants in London, I felt we were rushed constantly due to time constraints. Now that I have a little over a month here as a study abroad student, I can finally get the most out of this wonderful country.

As soon as I arrived at Regent’s University, I noticed the beautiful greenery surrounding the campus buildings. The people at reception kindly pointed me into the right direction to Reid Hall, the dorm I’ll be living at while I’m here.  The place was much more cozier than I expected from a typical dorm. The rooms have plenty of space to store our belongings while the beds felt very comfortable. The cafeteria or refectory food as they call it here, tasted great with the early breakfast of sausages and fried eggs being the highlight. To me, having a great breakfast means having a great day. I knew I could live here.

Although I was disoriented and exhausted from being fresh out of the plane, it only took a couple of days to adjust the clock in my head. This is was all thanks to our professors Peter and Tracy. Instead of just falling a sleep when we got to our dorms, we took a tour around campus and even went out for a walk in the city during the evening. The rest of the week was filled up with class time and activities around the city. We did a bus tour as well as a boat tour around and saw the British Museum and the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising. It felt like a lot to take in at first because of the heavy load of field trips, but I can definitely say I enjoyed every experience to the fullest. I’m ready for you, London.