an award-winning broadcast journalist, international media trainer and consultant, and writer
Dr Julia Paul is an award-winning broadcast journalist, an international media trainer and consultant, and a writer.
You can find out more about my journalism and writing here, and follow my blog.
You can also contact me for media consultancy or teaching work.
I make award-winning media content. My experience in producing material for online, audio and visual broadcasts, podcasts and digital social media content means I can adapt content to the platform you use.
I’ve been a journalist for more than 30 years, starting in local newspapers in Britain, before moving to join BBC radio, and then television. I’m currently producing content on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service.
I’ve reported from around the world, including for the United Nations English Language service, based at UN HQ in New York, but I have particular expertise in reporting on Northern Ireland. I spent more than 15 years as a journalist in Belfast, mainly working for the BBC, but with some work for the Mirror.
I was the assistant producer and reporter for the political programme Hearts and Minds. In 2009 I was named ‘Journalist of the Year’ by the political website Slugger O’Toole.
I have advised visiting broadcasters such as Al Jazeera English, on coverage of Northern Ireland, and work as a commentator for others like UTV.
To watch a selection of my broadcasting work:
My research focuses on where broadcasting and journalism fit into post-conflict societies. My PhD examined the role of the BBC Northern Ireland politics programme Hearts and Minds in communicating the region’s move from conflict to devolution and the operation of that devolution.
I have taught communication and journalism at BA and MA levels at Queen’s University in Belfast. I helped devise a Broadcast Journalism Higher National Diploma course at Belfast Metropolitan College and taught the radio journalism module for the first two years.
I have also been involved in research into writing about conflict in Afghanistan through the Afghan Women Spread the Word project, which I set up in 2013. Working with the British Council I coached women from across Afghanistan to record women’s stories and use that material to write creative pieces.
The interviews and stories will be hosted by the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University http://acku.edu.af/ which has also supported the project.
You can hear the BBC Radio documentary I made about Afghanistan and Northern Ireland – Strangers in a strange land: how Afghanistan changed our lives — by going to the links on the Home Page.
I have extensive experience in training journalists, advising media organisations, and training staff in media awareness, specialising in coaching in broadcast interviews.
I have worked all over the world as a trainer and media consultant, specialising in working with reporters in conflict areas, with the BBC World Service Trust — now BBC Media Action. This included training the journalists who would set up Al Mirbad, the first independent radio station in Basra in Iraq, and working with others in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jordan, Yemen and Russia.
You can hear more about my varied career, in this interview with renowned Northern Ireland blogger Alan in Belfast:
I am currently working on my first novel. It’s called The Game and is set in Afghanistan. It examines the political interference in the country, through the stories of three characters – a western aid worker, a British security consultant and an Afghan translator.
Short stories of mine have been published in the literary journal The Open Ear.
You can also follow my current blog here on the website, reading about my recent work in Afghanistan, or look back at An Englishwoman in New York, the blog I wrote during my time working at the United Nations English language radio.
The Night-shift
I call “goodnight” to the security guard as I leave for home,
But outside, the night has all gone.
Instead the still, chill morning greets me.
The city, its Saturday night perfume evaporated, is subdued and dishevelled,
Hoping for a lie-in before the day begins properly.
Rubbish drifts lazily in the breeze,
Taxi drivers sit, waiting for their shifts to finish,
On a bench a couple lie,
their faces glued together with an exhausted intensity.
Tiredness drags at my eyes
I drive home on auto-pilot,
Home to my night, as the new day begins.