Category: Pop Up Newsroom

These interactive sessions delivered by journalists are designed to bring students behind the scenes of the journalism industry, explaining how news is sourced, fact checked, and delivered to audiences across multiple platforms including print newspapers, news websites, podcasts, and video.

Students will learn about the standards of responsible journalism, get advice and inspiration on their own writing, and discuss topics including misinformation, AI, social media issues, and the watchdog role of the press.

*Our Pop-Up Newsrooms are now fully booked for 2025/26*

Contact Lisa Buckley (lbuckley@newsbrands.ie) if you wish to be put on a waiting list for a workshop for your class.

The best way to ensure a successful visit that meets your learning objective for the day is to do some pre-visit planning with the journalist. Be sure to let the journalist know what news literacy topics your class is learning about and if your students are writing entries for the journalism competition. Please note waiting lists apply for this initiative but we do the best we can to arrange as many workshops as possible.

NewsBrands Ireland have commenced a new series of free interactive journalism workshops for Transition Year students.  The workshops complement their Press Pass School Journalism and News Literacy programme which has been running for the past 12 years.

The first workshop took place in Millstreet Community School, Co. Cork on March 30^th and featured Tom Fitzpatrick, Editor of the Irish Examiner, and Lisa Buckley, Communications and Programmes Director with NewsBrands Ireland.

Speaking to an assembled group of over 40 pupils and teachers, Tom brought his real life experience of working as a national newspaper editor to the group and answered questions in a Q&A with pupils on topics such as: How to Pick a Front Page Story; Fact Checking Information; Multi Platform News Publishing; Campaigning Journalism; How to Pitch a News Story; Journalism Ethics and Standards, and Journalism and AI.

The pupils then broke into groups and had a chance to pitch a news story of their choice to the Editor. The pitch had to be newsworthy and include ideas of who to interview and how the story could be presented, e.g. video journalism, photo journalism, feature, news story, or opinion piece. The pitches were then considered by Tom and he provided feedback on whether or not the story could be published.

NewsBrands Ireland’s Press Pass Student Journalism and News Literacy programme gives students the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the news media and how it works by learning to do journalism themselves. Along with encouraging the next generation of journalists, the main goal of the Press Pass TY Programme is to help students make informed judgments about the news they read and share online.

If you are teacher looking to arrange a journalsm workshop in your school, you can send a request to NewsBrands Ireland. For further details, contact lbuckley@newsbrands.ie

Our latest Pop-Up Newsroom took place in St. Mary’s College in Rathmines on March 13^th.  The workshop was led by Neil Leslie, Editor of the Irish Daily Star and Irish Daily Mirror newspapers and was attended by a class of TY students who are all currently taking part in the Student Journalism and News Literacy programme.

speaking to an assembled group of over 40 pupils and teachers, Neil brought his real life experience of working as a national newspaper editor to the group and answered questions in a Q&A with pupils on topics such as: How to Engage Readers; Fact Checking, Journalism Ethics and Standards, and Journalism and AI.

The pupils then broke into groups and had a chance to pitch a news story of their choice to the Editor. The pitch had to be newsworthy and include ideas of who to interview and how the story could be presented, e.g. video journalism, photo journalism, feature, news story, or opinion piece. The pitches were then considered by Neil and he provided feedback on whether or not the story could be published.

NewsBrands Ireland’s Press Pass Student Journalism and News Literacy programme gives students the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the news media and how it works by learning to do journalism themselves. Along with encouraging the next generation of journalists, the main goal of the Press Pass TY Programme is to help students make informed judgments about the news they read and share online.

If you are teacher looking to arrange a journalism workshop in your school, you can send a request to NewsBrands Ireland.