From working the checkouts to ITV news reporter: how Media Trust seeks out hidden new talent

Breakthroughs don’t get much more exciting than this. Josh Farrell lived in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, where, by his own admission, opportunities to break into the creative industries are few and far between. He had a part time job working in the local supermarket. Yet two crucial factors have already brought him further forward than he may have ever imagined: his knowledge of his own talent for writing and the unwavering support of his mother.

From checkout assistant to news reporter in one seamless step, Josh grabbed first prize in this year’s Breaking into News competition – a unique initiative devised and collaborated on between Media Trust and ITV. Encouraged by his mum to enter the contest and with his talent recognised and rewarded by a national TV channel, on 28 June 2017 Josh saw off strong competition from the nine other regional contestants.

Often the media industry looks no further than its immediate networks in order to identify new talent. This is why we created the Breaking into News initiative. Together with ITV, we wanted to challenge this very concept. Through this competition, we offer young people, who would not normally get the golden opportunity to work for a prestigious news channel, the chance to breakthrough. We know that in order to ensure the whole of society is accurately reflected in our media outlets, we need to search our communities extensively to access talent which may not be immediately apparent, leaving no stone unturned in the process.

Talent is everywhere. Our biggest opportunity here in Britain is our creativity. And our greatest asset as human beings is our diversity. Diversity leads to diverse concepts, diverse thoughts; it clarifies the information overload, and forces us to challenge and question all that we are presented with on a daily basis.

Diversity makes us visible as a nation. Collectively we begin to think differently, do things differently, create differently. In essence, we evolve.

As a champion for making young, diverse voices heard, I take my hat off to all of this year’s Breaking into News finalists and wish them all the best for the future. I know we will be seeing much more of them in the years to come.