ROMERO: DEEP, DRIVEN AND VULNERABLE?

Fascinating session today in which the Year 3 broadcast students were shown Rebecca Romero's Inside Sport interview. Before we started I asked them to write on a piece of paper three buzzwords they would immediately associate with Rebecca, and then collected in their papers. We watched the seven-minute interview. When it ended you could have heard a pin drop. Immediate responses included: "It was piece of art." And "It was a metaphor for Rebecca's own way of life."
We discussed the journalism on show. What had we learned that we didn't know before? How did we learn that? We also discussed the ethics of this piece. Was it ethically justified to expose her to such an unusual scenario?
At the end of it I asked the students to write on a piece of paper three buzzwords they would now associate with Rebecca Romero. We compared their new buzzwords with the originals. It was revealing. The originals had been purely factual: icon, winner, medal, Olympics, etc. The new ones were all about emotions and character: focused, ruthless, conflicted, deep, driven, complex. 'Vulnerable' was an interesting one.
In January the Sunday Times ran an article by Paul Kimmage in which Rebecca complained about the BBC programme. So, from the group of 12 students, I asked for a show of hands on the question: did Rebecca come out of this interview well? Verdict: Yes 11 No 1
Something to interest her management team, Octagon, perhaps!