This semester, some of my Journalism students – including those studying MA Journalism, BA Broadcast Journalism, Sports Journalism and Journalism – have hosted an international television programme. It goes to air on Monday 5 December and is called ‘And the Good News Is…’.

It has been a collaboration of eight universities in seven countries across 16 time zones. The programme takes a more positive look at life post-COVID, finding the good news stories in communities far and wide in the US, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Netherlands, as well as here in the UK.

This show is the latest in my foray into international student TV collaborations, which started back in 2019. For the last few years, different cohorts I teach have been involved in the Global News Relay – an annual programme which involves students from various universities co-hosting and producing newscasts on a particular topic – and Global Campus Studio Productions, of which ‘And the Good News Is…’ is the most recent edition.

Each time we embark on one of these projects, the students seem to get more and more out of the experience. Last April, our MA Journalism students hosted the programme ‘Mind Matters’, exploring the explosion of mental health issues partly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They worked hard on the show, coming in on weekends to write the script and giving up part of their Easter holidays to record the show because the timing for our partner universities worked better for them. They did all of this for no marks, instead, they wanted to do it to gain experience.

This year’s cohort was just as enthusiastic. Our student producers, MJ Binns and Mia Haggar (Broadcast Journalism), worked tirelessly replying to emails at all times of day and spending hours out of class time writing the script, reviewing the videos, and working on the postproduction part of completing the show. Our Media Services Senior Technician, Mark Willett, worked out a way to allow our student presenters to speak to their co-hosts in the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brazil and Canada, mastering a brand-new TV studio and gallery and making it all work seamlessly.

It is a huge amount of work and goes above and beyond normal teaching as it involves a great deal of coordination with other lecturers in other parts of the world, but for me, the reward is the students’ reaction. I see them grow in confidence and watch while they take their varied roles so seriously and react so professionally. Not only do they gain skills in TV news production and presentation, but they learn diplomacy, communication, organisation and cultural lessons from the experience.

Student producer Mia Haggar told me: “Working on an international programme has been a unique experience. Being able to work with all the universities internationally has been amazing and to create a show that we’re all proud of is an experience I wouldn’t change for the world.”

Fellow producer MJ Binns said: “It’s been good seeing the programme from start to finish and seeing stories from different countries and how we can link them to our own stories in the UK.”

I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for students. It makes the experience of producing a television programme a reality because of the international collaboration, and because their work is being seen by their peers across the globe. Working internationally brings a fresh understanding to television journalism and collaborating with so many other partners on such a complex programme means students are developing skills that go way beyond their usual classroom work.

‘And the Good News Is…’ will be available from Monday 5 December on the Leeds Trinity University YouTube channel. It will be split into Part One and Part Two. The programme will also be available on the Global Campus website, and the Yorkshire Voice Facebook and Twitter pages.

Katherine Blair is an Associate Professor and Programme Lead for Broadcast Journalism at Leeds Trinity University. Find out more about our Journalism courses on the Leeds Trinity website.