Video: Stela Taneva.
Alastair Stewart OBE came to the University of Sunderland last night (Tuesday, January 26) to speak to students, staff and the general public about the media industry.
Mr Stewart talked about independent media and the pressures facing it from within and without at the Murray Library, as part of the University of Sunderland Public Lecture Series.
The main focus of the talk was on broadcasting and impartiality and how the journalism should not move away from it, even though it is under pressure.
He also highlighted the partiality of newspapers and the potential political ideologies that drive them.
Th newscaster also discussed his hopes and fears for the industry. He said: “Newspapers have always gone their own sweet way – or that of their proprietors.
“But today, partisanship is creeping into broadcast media. Sprightly, new media pumps stuff out in an arena where all players were once assumed to play by the same rules. But Buzzfeed and Vice aren’t the BBC or ITV.”
Mr Stewart, who has 38 years of experience as a journalist and who is best known for his role as a presenter of the ITV News at Ten, also talked about how important it is for broadcast media to let individuals decide their opinion, without influencing their views.
Other notable achievements of his are covering the Gulf War in the 1990s and being the first British television reporter to broadcast live from the liberated Kuwait city during the War. He also presented many of ITN’s landmark programmes, and he is one of the few people who has presented all of ITN’s main news programmes.
Mr Stewart also moderated the first ever British live TV debate between the main party leaders ahead of the General Election in 2010.
And when he is not on ITV, he focuses on charity work. He is vice president of both Action for Children and Homestart.
He is also a Patron of the Lord Mayor Treloar College for disabled students, the charity Scope and the mental health charity, Sane.
This is the advice he had to give to aspiring journalists in an exclusive interview for SR News:
Video: Stela Taneva.