Mark Thompson gives 2021 Geddes Lecture

Geddes Student Journalism Prizes

The Trust and the Hall also award three annual Geddes Student Journalism Prizes to both recognise and support emerging journalistic talent. The prizes cover expenses on either a media project or internship, with previous prize winners going on to work for eminent newspapers, such as The Economist, The Times and The Guardian.

This year’s Geddes Trust prizes have been awarded to three very talented Oxford student journalists.

Lois Heslop (Lady Margaret Hall), who is in her second year studying physics, won the main Philip Geddes Prize for the most promising student journalist at the University of Oxford.

The portfolio of work she submitted included several exclusive news stories she broke for The Oxford Blue – Oxford’s first new student newspaper in 30 years, which she co-founded – that hit national headlines. These included reporting of the arrest of a Christ Church professor for stealing ancient papyrus from the Sackler, a Pembroke don pleading guilty to child pornography possession, and a long read on the Governing Body feud at Christ Church, laid bare in confidential documents she obtained.

She also submitted two interviews with prominent scientists: Nobel Prize Winner Professor Donna Strickland, and Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, and an opinion piece she wrote for the Telegraph on the treatment of students during lockdown.

The Oxford Blue is independent and run entirely by students. The Blue has had over half a million website views in the year since its founding, has published articles by 400+ authors, and has won a national student journalism award. The prize will go on a number of long-term projects for the paper, with a particular focus on science and technology journalism.  These will include the development of a science channel and outreach project, events, and an Oxford Blue app.

Eren Orbey (Magdalen College), who is a second year MPhil student in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, won the Clive Taylor Prize for sports journalism.

Eren submitted a portfolio of work published by The New Yorker, for which he has written since 2016.  Eren plans to use the prize money to report on American women’s gymnastics in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

Lauren Shirreff (Balliol College), who is in her third (and last) year studying Classical Archaeology, won the Ronnie Payne Prize for Foreign Reporting.

Lauren sent in articles about #MeToo, A Level results day, college responses to Covid-19 last term and an interview with a student LSD dealer who runs his ‘business’ out of his college room. Lauren is hoping to use the prize money to go to California and speak to Native American tribes about how cannabis legalisation is affecting their communities.