City St George’s Podcasting students launch series to celebrate journalism department’s 50th anniversary

Julie Béguin,37 and Jackie Imas,61, students of MA Podcasting come together to launch the Future of Journalism podcast, commemorating 50 years since the launch of the Department of Journalism at City St George’s, University of London.

Opposites in their perceptions of the journalism industry and in their professional backgrounds, Jackie worked all her life in print media while Julie studied business. At a time when everyone was reflecting on the journalism department’s achievements in the talks of the semicentennial celebration, they decided to discuss the future of journalism.

“I was thinking that it's interesting to look forward to the possibilities of journalism. And I suppose that's because I started in the industry a long time ago,” Jackie said.

For Julie, there was a different reason why the podcast came into existence:

I'm in my late 30s. I didn't study journalism, I studied business. I've always been interested in journalism. However, over the past two years, I've grown a real sense of unease. ‘What's going on here (the world)’ and ‘why am I feeling so concerned in a way that I wasn't before?’ And I think it's much beyond journalism in the end. It's the economy we live in. It's politics, it's everything, but I think journalism is obviously a victim of that among other areas.

According to them, journalism has always been in crisis. There is never enough money and it's always being threatened by new technologies like  AI. It's constantly transitioning. Navigating deep journalistic uncertainties requires asking the right questions to experts. “From different technologies, changing business models, to streaming platforms, there's so much going on. It just felt interesting to get perspectives from academics and practitioners to try and understand what's really happening,” said Jackie.

Julie has experimented a lot in her career before podcasting: “People of the previous generations have been flexible; that's one thing which is important in today's world. But what about young or existing journalists who don't have the privilege to change? Whatever topic you tackle, you need to look back at what happened over the 100 years before to reflect. If we were doing that more often, maybe we wouldn't be in the world we are in,” she said.

They interviewed people excelling in their chosen field. ‘When you're in an industry that's moving and changing so fast, what does that mean for the people who are training the journalists? How do they keep up with it?’ These are some of the questions they aim to answer by talking to people like Adam Tinworth, lecturer of journalism at City St George’s, who's been studying the rise of digital journalism and audience management. As the guest speaker of their first episode, he talked about the transition of the industry and building communities out of audiences.

Another guest was Dr Alaya Panievsky, a researcher specialising in media under attack, right-wing populism, and democratic backsliding. They dived deep into the attacks on the media and undermined trust in it.

Both Jackie and Julie balance each other's interests and ideologies. “Jackie is interested in the local area, the community and the press. And I'm more into the sociological, philosophical and psychological aspects,” said Julie. They use this strategy as they sit down to interview. Julie wants to use this platform as a means of bringing about some reform. “It is important to foster these conversations and to show that when people raise their voice at their own level, it can make changes. They should try to do something rather than accepting the momentum.

I think part of the Future of Journalism podcast is also trying to find out how the media evolving? How are we bridging all these worlds to make a business that is sustainable? What better way to start your business than with a podcast and then to build a community around your business?

Jackie wants to use the knowledge of audio and visual media to set up her own local news operation. “I'm an incurable optimist. There's a lot of awful things happening at lots of different levels, but also there's some exciting innovation and opportunities. People are looking at different ways of doing things. One of the people we've interviewed has set up a local news operation just outside Glasgow, where it's not all about reporting on the community, it's reporting with the community. I find it quite exciting.”

They both credit Sandy Warr, senior lecturer at the Department of Journalism for being the driving force of the MA Podcasting and helping them out with their mission. It was a chat with Sandy that led to the podcasting idea coming to fruition.

The podcasting course was life changing for them both. “It's taken me so far outside my comfort zone right from the very start because when I was in school, there was no such thing as group work. I managed to reach the age of nearly 60 without ever having done any public speaking,” said Jackie. “The course gives a good backbone of journalism knowledge because you have media and audience management, which are very important to be ethically prepared to produce good journalism,” she added.

Julie admired the diversity that came with the podcasting course:

That's the thing with journalism; we need more diversity because we need different people to tell our stories. We need to disagree, we need to have debates, and we cannot do that if everyone is from the same place.

Launched on Thursday 11 June 2026, The Future of Journalism is a regular podcast which seeks to make sense of the rapidly evolving media landscape. It offers answers to questions such as how will journalism survive and thrive in 2026 and beyond, should we rethink the very purpose of journalism and, importantly, where are the jobs? You can listen to here.