I was born in 1985 in Fife. My parents divorced when I was six and I moved to another part of the country.
At 12 I returned to Fife and attended Madras College in St Andrews, where I eventually gained Highers in German, Drama and English (A, B, B). From there I stumbled into a career in journalism.
Initially unconvinced of my abilities, I spent two years on an HND in Practical Journalism at Adam Smith College, Kirkcaldy. Here I learned to write in a coherent manner and I began to enjoy what I was doing.
After finishing my HND, I enrolled in the second year of the journalism degree at Edinburgh’s Napier University.
I am by no means an academic but through hard work, and sheer bloody mindedness, I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Journalism in June 2010. My dissertation subject was the representation of mental health in the media. As the title suggests, my specialist area of interest is the way in which issues of mental health are reported.
Over my brief career, I have had several articles published and have even had some short-listed for awards. I hope to continue for many years to come.
I have also worked as a press officer for the St Andrews Magic Circle.
I am a firm believer in freedom of the press and in March 2010 I took part in, and wrote about, the Journalgate protests at Edinburgh Napier University. The protests called for freedom of the press after the Students’ Association removed an independent student newspaper from campus following the publication of an article about the president of the NSA.
Currently I am working for an Edinburgh-based press agency on a temporary basis. I have previously worked on a local newspaper.
I have experience of writing both news and feature articles and have undertaken assignments in court reporting, tribunal and council reporting.
The nature of a press agency means I am used to working under pressure and to deadline, and sourcing story material myself.
I am conversant with the use of social media and micro-blogging to both source stories and to promote my own. My username is @antibarbie and my twitter feed can be found on this blog.
I have gained experience in a variety of different media platforms. I have experience of Quark Express layout packages as well as Audacity audio editing software and Final Cut Pro video editing software.
