Staff Profiles

Murray is Convenor and Admissions Tutor for Brunel's BA (Hons) in Journalism.

Murray is a freelance technology journalist, and a consultant to the news industry in; online search, SEO, social media, data journalism and Computer Assisted Reporting. He is also a member of the editorial board of Journalism Practice, a leading peer-reviewed journal in journalism studies.

Before coming to Brunel, Murray was Information Officer at The Centre for Investigative Journalism, and prior to this he spent five years as a trainer and researcher at the BBC.

He is a keen contributor to the media in his specialisms, having previously contributed to national and local media, trades press and bloggers.

Murray has a BA (Hons) degree in English from the University of York, and an MSc in Information Science from City University, London.

Jacquie Hughes’s career in journalism and programme production spans print, radio and television, and includes more than a decade at the BBC (latterly as a Commissioning Editor) and spells in the Independent Sector as Head of Factual Programmes at two of the country’s biggest indie producers. She has over 700 screen credits to her name, as reporter, producer/director, Executive Producer and Editor across all broadcast formats and genre including live, documentaries, investigative current affairs and drama-documentaries.

More recently, she has worked on strategy and standards at the BBC Trust, and authored various reports on the state of British media practice. She is a keynote speaker at many industry events, a visiting lecturer in Strasbourg and Bournemouth and sits on the social media action group of a number of civic institutions. She keeps her creative skills up to date by continuing to practice as a freelance Executive Producer.

Jacquie began her career in print, in the newsroom before shifting to radio and then television – specifically the BBC as a reporter/producer. A move into investigative current affairs led to a long stint as a Producer /Director on ITV’s flagship weekly programme World In Action. After many years in the independent sector making factual programmes for all UK and US channels, she moved back to the BBC to head up Documentaries and History, and then to Commissioner.

Her on-going interests include standards and ethics of practice, the role of regulation and the dynamics of the public/private sector landscape.

Paul Lashmar has been on the journalism staff at Brunel since 2009 and teaches a number of modules. He is currently undertaking a PhD on the links between the intelligence services and the media. Part of the research team in journalism and teaches on Brunel University's MA and BA journalism courses, Paul is writing a text book on multimedia journalism with Steve Hill of Solent University for publication by Sage in 2013.

Paul is a highly regarded investigative journalist and has worked in television, radio and print. He has been on the staff of The Observer, Granada Television’s World in Action current affairs series and The Independent. He has also produced a number of TV programmes for BBC’s Timewatch and Channel 4’s Dispatches series and is the author of three books and a chapter in ‘Investigative Journalism: Context & Theory’ (2008).

He covered the ‘War on Terror’ for the Independent on Sunday from 2001-2008.

He was awarded ‘Reporter of The Year’ in the 1986 UK Press Awards. Paul has written about terrorism, intelligence, organised crime, offshore crime, business fraud and the Cold War and has broken many major domestic and international stories. He is an adviser to the Centre for Investigative Journalism. His full CV can be found at www.paullashmar.com

Sarah Niblock is a journalist and author whose scholarly research covers the intra/interdisciplinary discourses associated with journalism studies, media and cultural studies, visual culture and communication technologies. She began her journalism career on the Birkenhead News, where she studied for her NCTJ proficiency certificate before moving to the Liverpool Echo. While on Merseyside she covered stories that still resonate today including families affected by the Hillsborough disaster and the disappearance and murder of the toddler James Bulger. Sarah then combined lecturing with freelancing news for the national press and writing regular features for Cosmopolitan and Company magazines. Her Masters degree and PhD are in visual culture, the latter focussing on psychoanalytical theory and gender. Sarah continues to combine journalism with academic life, writing and commentating on media issues. In 2008, she was asked to write questions for the House of Lords Select Committee on Media Ownership based on her research on radio news values. 

Rachel Sharp is an experienced newspaper editor, and an accomplished journalist, in print, online, and video.

She began her journalistic career as a trainee reporter working for her local newspaper. After passing her senior qualifications Rachel became a chief reporter for a large newsroom in London, where she won an award as video journalist of the year, before being promoted to editor of three regional newspapers.

In 2006 she was appointed as group editor of seven weekly titles across north London.

She was responsible for being the first editor to take her newspapers 'web first' recognising the importance of breaking news online, and was the first editor across her company to implement a social media strategy.

Rachel has excellent contacts within the industry, and has received awards for community journalism, newspaper of the year, campaign of the year, and newspaper design.

Rachel also works for the NCTJ as a trainer and assessor for the senior examinations, and works with a panel at the NCTJ to agree accreditation for Universities and Colleges across the country.

She has also worked closely with the Journalism Diversity Fund, selecting deserving applicants for journalism training.