Jasmine Norden

My first entry looks at the state of knife crime in Huddersfield and what’s being done by those in power to fix it, after the tragic death of 15-year-old Khayri Mclean. I ran the liveblog all day for our coverage the day of Khayri’s death, contacting police, speaking to parents online and publishing what we received from our reporters at the scene. Khayri’s death as he left school was a huge story for us that rocked a community, so the day after, I turned around a deep-dive in one day. I interviewed the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime for the piece, extracted knife crime statistics from the ONS and from the police, as well as combining an overview of knife crime in West Yorkshire with comments from official bodies.

The result was an agenda-setting piece that gave context to many of the people we spoke to in the community who were desperately asking how this was going to be stopped from happening again. This entry shows my ability to cover huge public interest stories that have resulted from big breaking news coverage. My second entry is the story of Linda, a pensioner who was one of the residents of a Leeds estate fighting back after being issued eviction notices by their landlord. The residents were mostly on low incomes or benefits, and were being evicted so their landlord could bulldoze and redevelop the estate into more lucrative housing. I reached out to several residents, and covered the estate’s story over many stories, including going down to the estate on eviction day to speak to residents and filming Facebook Lives. But Linda’s story was the most emotive - she moved to the estate using her benefits after a divorce, and rebuilt her life there - being evicted had left her so stressed her hair was falling out. I went and met Linda to hear her story, taking pictures of her and filming a video package. There was a big response from our audience to Linda’s story and other residents’ stories. This entry shows my prowess in multimedia journalism and effectively telling a human interest story that illustrates a wider public interest issue - the housing crisis many of lower incomes are facing country-wide. My final entry is a weekend feature investigating the coastal town of Runswick Bay after it was named one of the best places to live in the UK. I knew from visiting myself that barely anyone lived in the town full-time, so I went up to speak to residents, business owners and visitors about what it was actually like to live there. I also took pictures of the people I spoke to and the town. The result was a feature that explored the increasing prices of coastal properties due to second-home owners, and the feasibility of actually living somewhere so remote. It won the inaugural Reach Editorial Award for YorkshireLive with nearly 100,000 page views. It demonstrates my ability to find creative ways to investigate a big regional issue.