Journalism students at University of Limerick have launched the latest edition of the Limerick Voice newspaper.
Limerick Voice, which has won a number of National Student Media Awards including Newspaper of the Year, is distributed with this week’s Limerick Leader newspaper.
The multi-media news project involving 25 final year Journalism and New Media Students and the Masters class in UL had its most successful year to date despite students working remotely.
Over 300 stories were published across multimedia platforms, with 100 podcasts broadcast along with a number of TV and radio news bulletins.
The paper leads on the powerful hashtag campaign launched in the wake of a controversial Forbes article about Limerick, revealing that it reached a staggering 8.6m people in just seven days.
Data obtained by Limerick Voice Digital Editor Mike Finnerty revealed that over 3,600 posts with the #LimerickandProud hashtag were generated on Twitter, with 1,639 Twitter users using the hashtag and nearly 40,000 people directly interacting with the hashtag in the space of a week.
The Limerick Voice website was in the top five of the most linked websites according to a seven-day analysis of the hashtag commissioned by Limerick City and County Council.
The Limerick Voice’s social media platforms also contributed to the student project’s largest audience reach this year.
The Limerick Voice podcast series had over 90 episodes with a wide range of guests, individually gaining up to 16,000 Twitter impressions and reaching 4,600 Facebook users.
“Limerick Voice provided us with hands on experience of what it's like to work for a real-life news project. And doing it all remotely during a pandemic was even more demanding,” explained Christine Costello, Limerick Voice Editor 2021.
“This has been an extraordinary year for both Limerick Voice and the people of Limerick. It has been a privilege to give a platform to all of Limerick’s triumphs over the past seven months. Our team rose to the challenge in their kitchens and bedrooms across Ireland to produce a paper that is every bit as professional as its predecessors,” she added.
UL Lecturer in Journalism and New Media, Kathryn Hayes, who oversaw the project, said the experience of working on the Limerick Voice website and newspaper provides vital real life experience for students.
“Now in its thirteenth year, Limerick Voice is a multi-media news project which continues to grow,” she explained.
“It has become an integral part of journalism education in UL, which is very much rooted in experiential learning. We are extremely proud of what our students have achieved this exceptional year, when they rose to the challenge of online learning and remote working. These skills will really stand to them as they prepare to enter the highly competitive work force.”