My name is Jessica Mason and I am currently in the final year of my Broadcast Journalism degree at The University of Salford.

I remember the exact time I finally decided what I wanted to do as a career. I was in the garden, revising for my GCSES, listening to the radio thinking ‘I’d love to present my own radio show’. It wasn’t until my dad asked ‘well why can’t you?’ that made me realise you don’t just have to be an ex member of the Saturdays to host your own radio programme. You can be anyone as long as you put the work in. And have the charisma for the whole nation to fall in love with you that is…

That’s a lie. In reality I thought how can I get famous (maybe that’s a stretch, slightly well known) enough to go on strictly come dancing when I don’t have an ounce of talent.

Whichever one you want to believe, I started my own music podcast in summer 2018 and then signed up to my town’s local community radio station Sine FM in my first year of college to start getting some experience under my belt. And my love for being behind a microphone started there.

Fast forward to now, and the passion is still here arguably more than ever. There is genuinely nothing else I want to do other than journalism. I suppose if we are talking ABSOLUTE DREAM job, I would love to be the next Jack Saunders and host an 'Indie Show' on a radio station and introduce audiences to upcoming music, set up my own gigs and interview bands for social media content. Primarly, I got into journalism out of the sheer love of music and wanting to talk about it all the time.

However, and I'm not just saying this, I believe I would love any job in journalism whether that is a reporter for a radio bulletin, TV reporter, or even writing - when I am mainly a broadcast student. Also after experiencing the role of a producer at university I would love any job behind a camera, even if that is being a runner for an entertainment television programme opposed to news. I just love the buzz from either behind the autocue in the presenter's chair or in the gallery as part of the production team.

That goes for the subject matter of stories too. Although music will always be my first love, I enjoy doing general news stories too. In my time at university, I have covered many different stories on a range of mediums such as breast and prostate cancer awareness stories, homeless charities, LGBTQ+ rights, Ukraine and even a podcast all about veganism. However, I have also had some fun interviewing some of my favourite bands and artists such as Blossoms amid the release of their new album Ribbon Around The Bomb, Dylan Fraser and FEVER.

I still continue to present my first ever radio show 'Feels Like Friday' which I started three years ago, but now at my university's station Shock Radio. I also host a podcast for Shock Radio named 'The Undergrads' where some of my course mates and I talk about hot topics in the news and try and make this accessible for those who don't typically have an interest in checking the news.

I have done a social media placement creating content for Sounds From The Other City, a music festival in Salford, as social media content is something I am also passionate about (my YouTube channels dating back to 2012 also clearly show this). I have completed a law exam as part of my degree and take part in regular Newsdays accredited by BJTC in which you produce a radio or television programme in the same day to give you real life newsroom experience. I am experienced with using camera and audio equipment and can quickly edit audio-visual content to a professional standard.

I believe my next step in becoming a journalist is applying these skills into a real life newsroom, although the facilities at the Media City campus are relatively similar. This is something I am certainly looking forward to in the hopefully near future.