On Wednesday 22nd February, I was one of 16 privileged enough to visit the Al Jazeera English studios in London with my school. Al Jazeera is a TV channel, which broadcasts all around the world. Based in Qatar, it prides itself in “telling stories that are different.”
To get into the news industry, we were told, “most people start in a radio station or newspaper, then work their way up to national, then international news.” During a big news story, according to someone who works there, “Everything blows up. Everyone is running around shouting.”
The studio that is on the 16th floor of The Shard, the tallest building in London, was built in Hamburg, Germany. It was then transported across Europe and put back together in The Shard, like an Ikea flat pack.
When we arrived we were shown around the studio, even getting to see the place where the live news is filmed, we couldn’t help but notice the newsreaders had a stash of tissues and hairspray behind the desk. We had a demonstration about the way cameras work. They can be set up anywhere to transmit live news, using similar technology to FaceTime or Skype. Then we were given talks about the studio from people who worked there. It takes a lot of people to create television. For example, the picture above is of a place called the Production Control Room, where the composition of the outgoing programme takes place – this is just one of the many rooms in the studio.
Although it may sound chaotic, everyone we met loved their job. “There’s no time to be bored.”
Susanna Whitlock, Charles Darwin School
