The late, great, Bill Shankly once said “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” That quote has become part of football folklore, with naysayers and doubters of the beautiful game left with
It’s been a busy week at SPA towers, but we are pleased to announce that SPANC18 is going to be hosted at Cardiff! There was a lot to love about both bids, and it was an incredibly difficult decision. Both Lancaster and Cardiff put forward fantastic options for our annual conference but in the end
2017 Ahh 2017. It's been a year to remember for many reasons, some happier than others. From Donald Trump's inauguration in January, to the release of the MP 'sleaze' spreadsheet in October, via the surprise UK general election in June, the nation's mood when it came to politics was summed up by Brenda from Bristol. And things weren't
In 2012 the New York Times posted a story online that was different to anything that had been done before. They uploaded a long-read story that would inspire a whole new form of journalism and attract a new readership to their website. Now we’re asking: can student journalists do it too? It’s not exactly a
Whew.. deep breath. I don't mean to panic anyone, but I think it might be nearly Christmas?! Guys..? Guys! Seriously, where did November go? This month has absolutely flown by at SPA HQ (yes we do have a secret base, we're like the Avengers. And by base, I mean Google Hangouts.) So what have we been up
SPARC South, the final SPA Regional Conference & Awards of 2017, took place at the University of Exeter on Saturday 25th November. The conference, hosted by Exeposé, attracted more than 30 attendees. Talks given at the event included one on breaking into sports journalism, one on defamation from a law lecturer, one from SPA trustee
We've been busy at SPA HQ this week running through every detail of our two fantastic bids for #SPANC18 - and remember, its not too late to submit your feedback on Cardiff and Lancaster's submissions. Head over to our Facebook page for details! It's a short and sweet Splash Sunday this week, featuring picks from our
The Executive Committee are pleased to announce the winners for the first ever North of England and Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland regional awards. This year is the first year the SPA has organised regional awards and the committee would like to say a big thank you to everyone who entered. The aim of
It's been a strange week. I'm still in full denial that we're into the run-up to Christmas season, despite the plethora of TV adverts and amount of Black Friday bargains on offer. However, shoppers crowding Oxford Street on Saturday afternoon clearly disagreed - and the social media response to an incident that turned out to be little more
Last weekend saw another two successful SPARC events, this time taking place in London and Nottingham. The regional conferences sold more than 80 tickets between them and offered attendees talks from a wide variety of speakers. Among many other speakers, at the Midlands conference the former LA editor for the Mirror gave a talk on
