ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

I'm Ammar Ebrahim, I'm 28 years old and I'm a journalist at BBC News.

So what do you actually do?

I make short documentaries, write articles and do radio reports on Current Affairs issues that are impacting under-represented communities around the UK. So my journalism usually focuses on identity, race, LGBTQ+ issues, the impact of politics on ordinary people and mental health.

What has your career path been?

I did History for both undergrad and postgrad at Sheffield University, but alongside it I did a lot of student media, including hosting my own breakfast show. That helped convince a producer at ITV News to give me some work experience, which then led to a freelance job transcribing interviews for the Tonight programme. Even though transcribing interviews is quite mundane, I learnt a lot from that team and then got on a trainee scheme at the BBC in 2016 which was organised by Creative Access, a social enterprise who help recruit people from ethnic minority backgrounds into the media industry. Since then, I've spent the last five years at the BBC.

What is the best part of your job?

The freedom to find important and powerful stories around the UK and connect with communities who don't get much news coverage. Often my films focus on one or two powerful human stories and its real privilege to have someone trust you enough to tell their story.

My team focuses more on making short documentaries rather than traditional news packages, so I get to spend a lot of time with the communities who let me tell their stories.

What inspired you to do your job?

Growing up, I saw a lot of lazy coverage about British Muslims that played up to negative stereotypes, so I was really determined to get into journalism and tell different stories about the community I was from. I've done a few stories around the experiences of Muslims in the UK but I want to do a lot more, so it's still very much a work in progress.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

When you pitch a great idea, make sure you've got a realistic chance of making that story happen. Lots of people pitch great ideas when they start out but the people who really shine are the ones who turn those pitches into content regularly.

Final words?

Make sure you always get the right credit for your work, no matter how early stage you are in your career, always fight for the credit that you deserve. Don't let more senior people take the credit for your original journalism.

Check out Ammar’s socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

So my job can be divided up into three parts- producing, filming and editing.

The producing part is mainly done in the office and I'll spend a few days looking for an idea to pitch at an ideas meeting.

To find inspiration for ideas, I will usually go through local papers from around the UK, call up contacts and charities, or just think about conversations I've recently had with friends and family about issues that matter to them. I'll then take my idea to a weekly ideas meeting to see if my editor is happy for me to pursue it. These meetings are really helpful as I also get input on an idea from other colleagues. Often that advice helps take the story to another level.

Once my idea is commissioned, I’ll research it more and develop it for a few days to make sure I've got all the right voices. I'll then plan out the filming very carefully and think about how we can best do the story justice.

The filming part is the most fun but also the most stressful. In my team we are encouraged to be multi skilled, so we often produce, film and edit ourselves. A colleague will often come with you to operate a second camera, but if it's your story then responsibility to film, direct and produce is on you.

Setting up a shoot involves a lot of organisation, ordering the right kit, making sure travel and accommodation is all sorted. You have to be super organised on shoot because if you forget one little thing it can cause you a lot of problems. Once you start filming and connecting with your contributors then it becomes a really fun experience. My favourite shoot was a story I did for the World Service about goats preventing forest fires in Spain. I spent two days in the countryside trying to get lots of great shots of goats which was a lot harder than I anticipated.

Then comes the editing process. This is the longest but most creative bit of the process. Editing can be very tiresome but seeing your vision come to life as the days go by is a really special feeling. I usually edit my films on Final Cut Pro and every few days I’ll send a rough cut of the film to my executive producer. They come back with changes and then it’s a back and forth for a few days. I also have to make different versions for different platforms, so the film that goes on The BBC Website might be slightly longer than the version that goes on BBC News Instagram and Facebook

The most exciting bit of the process is the day the film goes out, most of my content goes out on the BBC News website just after midnight and then stays on the front page all day. I usually stay up quite late to watch the film go out and then I know I can go to bed fully relaxed knowing the story is out there. I then spend the day constantly checking to see how its doing on the different platforms. I'm not a lot of fun to be around on the day of broadcast, as I'm just glued to my phone checking all the comments and reaction to my film.