He was wearing a woollen beanie, garish shirt, tracksuit bottoms and trainers.
His gold teeth and silver earrings glinted in the sunlight as he waited for
me by the Henry Moore statue on the green across from the Houses of
Parliament. This was Lee, and he was going to be my friend and colleague.
Lee McConville, who had just turned 22, had been picked for the ultimate
exercise in youth mentoring. He was to benefit from a scheme financed by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and run by the Media Trust to
help “at risk” youngsters escape from difficult circumstances in their home
areas and be given a chance in a completely different world – in this case
the press and broadcasting.
Newspapers and television organisations, anxious to put something of what they
get from the community back into it, offer up their professionals to take
part in the projects. Lee had impressed the trust when it went looking for a
candidate for its most ambitious design to date. Now the lad who hails from
the notoriously tough Lozells area of Birmingham (his gold teeth came after
the originals were knocked out in a fight) was in London to meet the
political editor of The Times, who was hoping to mentor him from a
standing start and eventually take him to the G8 summit in Germany – from
where he would send reports and videocasts back to the paper.
That was the idea. Did the journalist wonder, at that first meeting, what he
had let himself in for? And did Lee, suddenly thrust into a world of which
he knew nothing, harbour similar doubts? I will speak for us both: we did.
Lee was brought up in a two-bedroom house with his brother and two sisters. He
was in a hard part of the city, one where most youngsters are tempted or
virtually forced to join gangs for their own protection. Lee has no
convictions to his name, but he is no saint and may have got close. He
admits to having been in fights and is now on incapacity benefit as a result
of a knife wound. His brother David, 20, has gone into the Army. His sisters
live at home.
He did several jobs after leaving school at 16 after his GCSEs: forklift-truck
driver, warehouseman and plasterer. Desperate to escape from an area that
has a reputation for crime, gangs and racial tension, he chose to attend the
Fairbridge Centre, which works with young people at risk of antisocial
behaviour or in care to integrate them back into society.
He lives, for now, in a hostel in central Birmingham, and since attending
Fairbridge has been involved with several projects. These include making a
short film about life in his area, which won a Fairbridge award. Lee made a
speech at the presentation. He had shown a spark of the ambition to succeed,
and the Media Trust hoped that a spell of mentoring would develop.
Now he was in London, meeting the journalist whom he feared would be “posh”
and surrounded by workers from the Trust and a film crew making a
documentary of the events of the next few weeks as a way of promoting youth
mentoring. The adventure was under way.
Over the next few days Lee and I got to know each other and he got to know
something of the task he had taken on. He had never really thought about
politics. I tried to show him how the event that he had been chosen to
cover, and its hoped-for deal on global warming, was relevant to his life. I
took him to the Red Lion pub in Whitehall – he was not drinking alcohol – to
show him where journalists and politicians occasionally meet to do business.
“I don’t want to let you down,” Lee said when we said goodbye after that
first meeting. “Then don’t,” I replied.
I prepared him for his first big assignment: an interview with Tessa Jowell,
the Culture Secretary, at her office off Trafalgar Square. We drew up a list
of questions about the Government and young people; I told him how he should
address the minister and that he should be ready to go off script if fresh
ideas arose in his mind. Here I began to see the journalist in Lee.
He grew visibly in confidence as an understanding interviewee put him at ease.
Then out of nowhere came good topical questions about whether youngsters who
met up should be called “gangs”, an issue that had made the headlines that
morning.
As an exercise for the next few days, I asked him to transcribe the whole
interview, then write a story about it. It was a good effort, marred only by
the misspelling of the minister’s surname. It was time for the first rebuke.
How would you feel if your was name spelt wrongly in a paper, a penitent Lee
was asked.
The next stage was to see the newspaper in action. Lee came to The Times,
toured the office and ended up as a subject rather than a reporter when he
was interviewed at length for Times Online about gang warfare in the inner
cities. It was a fluent performance and Lee, often flashing the mischievous
smile that was to appear time and again over the next days, was starting to
show star quality.
On to the G8 summit. Lee, the film team and his project supporters flew to
Rostock in Germany. By the time I arrived a few hours later on the Prime
Minister’s aircraft they were accredited and ready for action. As I had
asked him to do, Lee had spent the preceding couple of weeks reading the
newspapers and finding out all that he could about the G8. Soon he was
asking me and others questions about climate change and the spat with Russia
that was dominating early coverage. It was working. Lee was now taking an
interest in subjects that before had barely entered his thinking.
When Lee had arrived in London that day only two weeks before he was wearing
just about everything he owned. Here in Heiligendamm he was a new man, with
trousers, smart shirt and shoes acquired for him by the Media Trust.
His moment had arrived. Tony Blair and George Bush were meeting for an early
“bilateral” at the main summit hotel. It was their last official meeting
together. Journalists in the “pool” covering it had to get up at 5.30 the
next morning. It was a good time to ask Lee to be my “leg man” and cover for
me at the postmeeting “doorstep”.
Persistence and cooperative officials got Lee into the scrum. The young man
from Birmingham found himself within feet of the Prime Minister and
President. While waiting he managed to secure a swift interview for Times
Online with Jon Snow, the Channel 4 news presenter, who played along
superbly.
An excited Lee called his “boss” back in the media centre to tell me that he
had made it into the press conference and secured some good “colour” for me.
Later he returned to fill me in with the details as I wrote about the farewell
encounter.
I told him that the story would appear under a joint byline and asked him to
read it on my computer screen. “It’s very good Phil,” he said. “But there
are a few mistakes.” He had spotted some literals and was delighted to
expose them. The impish smile flashed again. The story was sent back to
base, was subbed and appeared the next morning in the main summit coverage
in The Times. Lee had achieved the dream of all young journalists, a
byline in a national newspaper.
By now Lee had already sent a couple of videocasts to Times Online and was
being interviewed by other media outlets about the project on which he was
engaged. He was truly motivated – deeply upset when a production problem
delayed the sending back of some of his video footage. Colleagues in the
travelling British press pack took notice of him and encouraged him. He was
becoming hooked. By the time we gathered for a drink on that last evening,
it was obvious that Lee had changed. He was enthused about everything he had
seen. Subjects that had meant nothing to him he now talked about, such as
why was Putin being so difficult?
He also wanted to know: how could he start to become a journalist?
Lee had begun this enterprise thinking that he wanted to get out of the life
he was in. Now he was sure of it. He is one of hundreds of youngsters who
are being chosen for such programmes. The DCMS has alloted £2 million over
two years for three strands of mentoring in the media, sport and music.
For the mentor, it was an immensely rewarding experience. Lee had shown the
courage to go off to an alien world. In a few weeks all of us around him saw
his personality develop, and his interest in the outside world grow. His
potential had been tapped. But then it was all over. Lee had to go back. He
told me how depressed he was at first. But he immediately composed his first
CV as a start to looking for training and then a media career. We will help
him all we can, but now it is up to him. As we said our goodbyes, Lee told
me that I had not seen the last of him. I hope that proves to be true.
— The film of Lee and Phil’s mentoring experience, Summit about
the Boy, will be premiered on Community Channel’s new youth platform, Charge
this Saturday at 6pm and 10pm. Media Trust’s Youth Mentoring scheme links
disadvantaged young people with media professionals – visit: www.mediatrust.org/youth-mentoring
.
I want to be a journalist – I love it!
In the beginning I didn’t know what to expect. It was my first time in
Germany, so it took a while to sink in. Everything I had seen was no
different to England until we reached a small town called Heiligendamm. To
me it looked like something out of The Wizard of Oz: it was a beautiful
place with what looked like toy trains carrying tourists.
The media centre was nothing like I had imagined: there was sun, sea, sand,
free food, free champagne. Now I know why it’s every journalist’s dream to
go to the G8 summit. There were thousands of journalists from all over the
world. I was nervous the whole time; the whole journalism thing was new to
me. I had so much to take in.
I then met up with Philip Webster, my mentor. When I first heard that I would
be teaming up with the Political Editor of The Times, I was expecting a
posh, boring old fart, but Phil was not like that at all. As we come from
two different worlds, I didn’t think that we would have much to talk about,
but actually he’s really down to earth and I find him very interesting.
Phil sent me on my first assignment, which was to go to the Blair and Bush
press conference, then report back to him for the article that we were
writing together for The Times. I also got the chance to interview Jon
Snow, which was quite nerve-racking because I didn’t know what to say. But
he turned out to be quite the comedian.
While I was there I experienced the ups and downs of being a journalist. Every
day there were deadlines to be met, and some days I found it quite
stressful, especially if there were technical problems – which there were.
In the end, I did not want to come home, and have now decided to pursue a
career in journalism because I love it. LEE McCONVILLE
