Two Journalism students have secured their first professional by-lines thanks to a partnership between the University and award-winning investigative website, The Ferret.
Kai Ford and Jennifer Alexander-Young have both had work published this week after being mentored by staff at The Ferret.
The collaboration allows post-graduate International Journalism students to produce a journalistic project under the supervision of the media title, instead of writing a dissertation, with reporters acting as mentors.
Kai, 23, wrote about his experience travelling to Ukraine with charity ‘Jeeps For Peace’, where he spent more than a week driving from Edinburgh to West Ukraine as part of a team delivering 15 jeeps to the military and wider aid effort.
Former Scotland rugby international Iwan Tukalo enjoys an emotional reunion with family members in Ukraine
Kai said: “The experience of going to Ukraine is one I’ll never forget. It was really eye-opening to see life continuing in the country despite the conflict. The people showed so much resolve, it was incredibly inspiring.
“Former Scotland rugby international Iwan Tukalo also happened to be on the trip – his father is Ukrainian, although Iwan had never visited the country before. We actually managed to go to his dad’s hometown, so that provided an extra, unexpected twist to the story.
“I’m really excited to see my work published.”
Jeeps4Peace deliver vehicles to Ukraine which are then used to deliver critical supplies of food and medicines, evacuate civilians in danger and retrieve wounded soldiers from the front-line.
In her report, Jennifer Alexander-Young, 23, investigated the rising trend for aesthetic treatments and the scrupulous tactics some providers are using to encourage young women to have botox and lip fillers.
MSc International Journalism
It's great to have a by-line but also the experience of working with The Ferret, pitching to the editor and learning from experienced investigative journalists on how to source, research and produce complex stories, including the problems you might face and how to navigate them, was so valuable.
Jennifer said: “I had noticed how prevalent advertising of these procedures was on social media and after delving deeper in to the industry, discovered it was pretty much unregulated with no mandatory education for practitioners. I tracked down case studies via TikTok and managed to secure interviews with medical professionals and the head of ‘Safe Face’ – the only government-approved register for medical aesthetic treatments in the UK.
“It's great to have a by-line but also the experience of working with The Ferret, pitching to the editor and learning from experienced investigative journalists on how to source, research and produce complex stories, including the problems you might face and how to navigate them, was so valuable.
“It was really challenging, but it meant I pushed myself and it was an incredible opportunity and taught me a lot.”
Billy Briggs, co-editor of The Ferret, said: “The Ferret is delighted to partner with the University of Stirling on this project, as teaching, and hopefully inspiring, younger investigative journalists is something we're committed to as an organisation.
“The Stirling students we mentored produced some excellent reports and we look forward to continuing the partnership."
James Morrison, Associate Professor in Journalism Studies and MSc International Journalism Programme Director at the University of Stirling, said: “The Ferret has a deserved reputation as one of Britain's – and certainly Scotland's – pre-eminent investigative journalism operations, so we could hardly ask for a more expert team of collaborators to steer our students as they battle to dig out stories that vested interests would prefer to remain buried.
“Within weeks of finalising the partnership, our students were benefiting from in-depth mentoring and supervision as they investigated a range of stories on topical issues of public concern for their summer investigative projects - from the vicissitudes of Scotland's private rental housing sector to the dangers posed by unregulated online cosmetic services and transport inequalities affecting rural populations in the Highlands and Islands.
“With the Ferret's input, we are also looking to extend the range of presentational approaches and platforms which students use to produce investigations, moving beyond conventional long-form written journalism to embrace podcasts, documentaries, data visualisations and immersive multimedia storytelling approaches.”
‘Women left physically and mentally scarred after dermal filler complications’ and ‘Iwan Tukalo and Ukraine’ can be read via The Ferret’s website.