INSPIRED by her children and frustrated with media education, a former broadcast journalist set up a media academy that has, since its launch last year, trained over 200 people in various media skills.
Courtnay McLeod, director of the academy, worked as a presenter for Border Television before she moved into academia. But the former media lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University found herself increasingly frustrated by what she considered to be a gap between theoretical teaching and the practical demands of an ever-evolving media landscape.
This feeling was amplified when she watched her own children at home familiarising themselves with new technology. She tells The Scotsman newspaper today how her ten months-old daughter managed to unlock her iPhone and look at pictures of herself.
Together with Bauer Media Scotland – which operates several Scottish commercial radio stations such as Clyde 1 in Glasgow and Forth One in Edinburgh – she set up the Scottish Media Academy.
Writes Kristy Dorsey, tutors include well-established Scottish journalists such as presenter of STV’s Scotland Tonight programme, Rona Dougall, and freelancer Billy Briggs, whose work has been featured in, among others, The Observer and The Guardian.
McLeod blogs for allmediascotland.com.
