JMU team work for FIFA during World Cup

Six JMU Journalism students have landed a dream opportunity to work for the world's football governing body, FIFA, for the duration of this summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

Members of the team will work from home moderating fan chat on the FIFA.com website, publishing comments during live matches throughout the tournament.

Their experience begins on the opening day, 11th June, and the team will continue to cover the tournament until the day after the final on 12th July.

The crew was chosen by Journalism lecturer John Mathews, who is in South Africa covering the World Cup for FIFA.com. The JMU Journalism group consists of: third-years Chris Shaw, Hugh O’Connell and Danny Masters; Level 2 student Jon Birchall; plus first-years Liam Deveney and Vegard Grott.

As well as the invaluable experience gained by working for football’s governing body, the team will be paid for their efforts.

A two-hour training session was given by Martin O’Boyle, Lead Editor of FIFA’s English website, at Liverpool Screen School in May. He explained what the team would be doing and introduced the students to FIFA’s content management system.

Fan chat is an important element of interaction for FIFA.com and the Journalism students will be responsible for ensuring that comments are acceptable.

The work will test their knowledge of football, their speed and ability to work under pressure, and their editorial sense of what can and cannot be published.

JMU Journalism’s Website Editor Chris Shaw and Chief Reporter Danny Masters have already started work for FIFA, having been asked to provide extra support in the busy run-up to the start of the World Cup.

As well as moderation, this has involved editing and publishing news stories received from external feeds, preparing player and team profiles, and testing FIFA.com applications.