Kyriaki Karadelis

“Best Website” at BJTC Awards

kkaradelis — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:55:05 +0000

Here are some victorious pictures of myself, Simon Essex and Verena Vogt at the BJTC Awards on March 25. We all studied MA Multi-Media Journalism at Bournemouth and we’re proud that our course swept the board in the online categories.

I was awarded “best website” and Simon and Verena shared the top spot for “best multi-platform story” for our MA final projects. You can see mine, Why charity no longer begins at home, here

Simon, Phil MacGregor the course leader, Verena and I

Photographer gets a shot of Bournemouth's winning team

Delighted MAMMJ sudents beaming at the camera!

International women’s day protest

kkaradelis — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:22:57 +0000

While doing MA Multi-Media Journalism I often felt like I was spending every waking moment looking for a story, often to no avail. Funny then, that one should come and find me on the very day of our MAMMJ reunion in London on Saturday, March 7. I was milling around near Picadilly Circus when I met a real-life protest head-on.

Million Women Rise protest, London, Saturday, March 7.

According to the Independent, an estimated 5000 women marched on central London to campaign against domestic violence. The protest, called Million Women Rise, was organised by women’s groups to mark International Women’s Day.

It was the first major protest I’ve witnessed and I’m afraid I did the news geek/ tourist thing of taking a short video. I’ll post it on here just as soon as I’ve figured out how to “use a codec to convert 3gp files from my mobile phone for PC”. Hmm.

Strangely enough, a year to the day ago, I went to film an International Women’s Day event at Bournemouth FC for a MAMMJ tv exercise. That event, much like this protest, failed to get a lot of attention in the mainstream media. Even the Independent article above puts the protest in the context of another story. I’m really curious to know why. Is domestic violence still a taboo in a liberal country like the UK in the twenty-first century?

RIP Clarendon Arms

kkaradelis — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:44:36 +0000

Albeit the epicentre of my social circle as a teenager, the small town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire is usually a quiet place on the news front. Imagine my horror then, when during a day’s peaceful volunteering at KWN (that’s The Kenilworth Weekly News for the uninitiated) editor Lucia gets a call to say a local pub is burning down.

But not just any local pub. My favourite pub. The Clarendon Arms.

The beautiful Clarendon Arms which is overlooked by the stunning ruins of Kenilworth Castle.

The Clarendon Arms where 11E went for our final class meal to wave farewell to four amazing years as the best tutor group at Kenilworth School.

The Clarendon Arms where we had the leaving do for German Mirjam, the exchange student we missed so much after she left.

The Clarendon Arms where I had my eighteenth birthday party, sob.

The fire brigade said that the blaze was probably caused by a washing machine or tumble drier…

RIP Clarendon Arms. You will be sorely missed.

NB: Apparently, the fire was confined to the first floor which was “substantially damaged” according to the emergency services, but despite that and some water damage on the ground floor, the pub was open for business as usual that very same night. Long live the Clarendon Arms!

Proof of the credit crunch…

kkaradelis — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:42:16 +0000

The global economic catastrophe gets too much for the banking community

Let me be clear with you, this is no photoshopped miracle. I took this from inside a Jubilee line train on Sunday, March 8.

There are a number of reasons why this picture is hard to believe.

Firstly, this sign is on the rail-side (as opposed to platform-side) of Canary Wharf station. Therefore someone must have risked life and limb between on-coming trains in order to get the shoe on there.

Secondly, the platform at Canary Wharf station is cordoned off from the tracks by sliding doors which only open when a train stops. So someone must have prised the doors open, and then risked life and limb between on-coming trains in order to get the shoe on there.

Either a daredevil stunt artist is having a laugh, or this is the final macabre act of defiance by a member of the banking community made redundant as a result of the economic meltdown. Giving Canary Wharf “the boot” so to speak…