Cillian Sherlock, a fourth year student of University of Limerick’s BA in Journalism and New Media programme was named the winner of this year’s UL/Live 95FM radio journalism competition. The winning entry was a radio package dealing with the issue of drug driving.
Head of News at Live 95FM, Gillian Devlin judged this year’s competition. “We had a wide range of entries this year from final year journalism students at UL. They dealt with a number of issues including drink driving, infant death and student gambling. The entries were of a high news value and were creatively produced,” she said.
According to lecturer in Journalism at University of Limerick, Audrey Galvin, “Cillian deals with an important issue in this production and it is a topic that needs to be brought to the wider populace. He deals with the subject from a broad range of perspectives, which in turn serves to inform the listener.”
Cilian's winning entry features a range of voices including members of the Gardaí citing the need for the introduction of drug driving tests as well as Professor Denis Cusack from the Road Safety Authority who speaks about the focus of drug driving legislation.
"I'm delighted to receive this award from Live 95fm. It's a fantastic way to finish up my degree in Journalism and New Media at UL. My radio modules at UL enabled me to create a piece that would both inform and educate the audience on an issue which is of growing concern," said Cillian, speaking at the award presentation at UL.
Live 95FM works closely with students of journalism at UL. The university's Head of Journalism Dr Fergal Quinn said: “Here at the journalism department in UL, we have strong links with industry across all platforms. Our relationship with Live 95FM has enabled students to go on work placements in one of the busiest newsrooms in the country and competitions such as this, serve to engage the students with the demands of working in radio. We are excited to continue to build upon our relationship with the station.”
As the first prize recipient, Cillian received €500 from Live 95FM. Cillian, from Claremorris, County Mayo, has just completed his final year at University of Limerick and is due to graduate with a BA in Journalism and New Media later this summer. He is currently working at Independent.ie on a Google fellowship.
UL journalism students secured three of the five fellowships offered to journalism students across Ireland in 2017.
