Dr Emma Hemmingway celebrates 25 years of Journalism Teaching and Research
Published on 23 February 2026
Emma Hemmingway joined The Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism at NTU after an illustrious broadcasting career with the BBC.
She was a Producer for BBC Panorama and Network News, TV Regional News Editor, and World Service Trainer in Ekaterinburg, Siberia. Initially a senior lecturer on CBJ’s undergraduate journalism programme, Emma then took charge of the MA in Broadcast Journalism and Multimedia, leading it successfully for more than 19 years.
Emma combines practical teaching with academic research and PhD supervision into news practices and technologies. Gaining her PhD in 2007, her first book, Into the Newsroom, was published the same year, exploring daily practices of BBC newsgathering.
Always maintaining close ties to the UK broadcast news industry, Emma has developed the MA course to mirror ever changing industry practices.
“My aim is to run the course just like an industry newsroom- and I’ve certainly had unrivalled experience of that!”
The UK’s leading news organisations, Sky News and the BBC now headhunt graduates directly from the MA course, creating one of the highest employability rates in the University.
During Covid Emma took the degree entirely online. Students produced award winning coverage from Slovakian quarantine centres, high rise flats in India, or cruise ships in the Caribbean. The success of this curriculum innovation impressed the UK’s Association of Journalism Education. It published her research into new hybrid working practices, and these have now been adopted by several other UK journalism schools.
The MA course is accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council. Their Chief Executive Jon Godel says: "We applaud this course for its exceptional industry connections. It is one of the leading exemplars of outstanding journalism training in the UK, reflecting the programme’s long-established reputation for producing highly capable, newsroom ready journalists."
Alumni from the MA Course gain top jobs in the BBC, Channel Four, Sky News, Reuters, Aljazeera, CNN, CBS and many more. They also win major awards such as last year’s BJTC Documentary of the Year Award won by Rini Ghosh for her documentary covering homelessness in Calcutta.
After receiving today’s award from NTU’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Dave Petley, Emma explained what’s kept her at the top of her game for all these years:
“It’s always been all about the students. And it’s never been more important to know how to communicate the truth to audiences. We need good broadcast journalists in this day and age more than ever. And I want to be able to say I’ve done my bit to help generations of broadcast journalists maintain the values of truthful and educative storytelling.”
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Emma for her extraordinary contribution to journalism education at NTU. Emma has helped to shape the future of generations of young journalists as they graduate from The Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism at NTU to forge their careers in the broadcast news industry.