‘Bristol24/7 provides a platform for stories that otherwise wouldn’t get told’

Charlie Watts first came to work with Bristol24/7 in 2018 for a week’s work experience and is now our Community Reporters Editor.

He’s on a mission to shine a light on Knowle West and tell stories from across the city.

I chatted to him about what it means to report on your local area and what Bristol24/7 does to help young people in our city.

Meg: Hi, Charlie! Tell me about how you first became involved in Bristol24/7?

Charlie: When I was at uni studying journalism, Bristol24/7 was taking on interns. I applied for that and I didn’t get it, but they offered me a week’s work experience instead. During that week I wrote a story about a local snooker club that was under threat of closure and Martin, the Editor of Bristol24/7, said that story really stuck in his mind. So I must have made a good impression! Then a couple of years later the community reporter’s job came up and I applied for that. That’s what they say about journalism: you’ve got to keep trying.

What does community reporting mean to you and your community?

To me, it means giving a platform to these things going on in Knowle West that you don’t otherwise hear about. Knowle West has got a really strong sense of community. It’s those stories that don’t get told. Usually it’s all about crime, deaths etc. But you don’t hear about the activities that are going on, all the events. It’s just telling the stories that basically don’t get told anywhere else.

Charlie’s role with Bristol24/7 has seen him reporting on events around Knowle West.

What does your current role entail?

I’m still the Knowle West community reporter but now I’m also the Community Reporters Editor. There are five community reporters who will send through pitches for stories and I’ll tell them how to turn that into an article for Bristol24/7. I’ll edit their drafts and give them tips on how to improve it. They had not done journalism before at all, but most of them are trained in using WordPress now so they’re able to upload their own stories to the website.

In your opinion, why is community reporting important for Bristol? 

You often hear that Bristol is a divided city and there are lots of different communities all around Bristol. Some people wouldn’t ever go south of the river because they think they’ve got no reason to. Bristol24/7 is great for bringing Bristol together and telling stories from the communities that you don’t always hear about. It makes us all feel like we’re one city. Something that goes on in Knowle West is still very much in Bristol.

What impact has Bristol24/7 and community reporting had on your career?

It’s shown what I’m capable of. It helped me get my current role. My stories have been picked up by other platforms, such as the BBC. It shows that what I’m writing is worthwhile and it’s definitely led to other opportunities for me.

Charlie met the former Lord Mayor of Bristol at a lantern parade in Knowle West whilst reporting for Bristol24/7.

Are there other things that Bristol24/7 does to help young people?

Through the Better Bristol programme we do the Young Chefs project, I was fortunate enough to meet them recently at the Square Food Foundation in Knowle West. We’ve been running that programme for a few years now and it’s really nice when you talk to the young people and hear about what their passions are and how the programme is helping them get their foot in the door. Of course there’s also Bristol24/7’s award-winning work experience programme, which I started off doing.

What would the journey be like getting into journalism in Bristol if that work experience programme didn’t exist?

It would be a lot more difficult. You do so much in that week. I did a mix of everything: news stories, listings, previews of events. They send you out covering stories. I’ve done other work experience where I spent the whole week in the office adapting press releases – which is boring! It’s good to get as much work experience as you can but Bristol24/7 was the one that I enjoyed the most.

If we had more members supporting us, what would that mean for our social outreach projects?

We want to expand the community reporters scheme; there are so many more communities that we want to cover. Being able to offer more skills development to local people would be good, because when you’re hiring community reporters some people would be put off straight away because they assume that they’ve not got the skills to do it. We want to offer journalism training to the reporters and give them a mentor as well.

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Main photo: The Lantern Parade in Knowle West. Photo by Charlie Watts.

Read more: ‘Bristol24/7s journalism relies on the wonderful support of our members’