Elizabeth McLaughlin

I am a Senior Lecturer within the Creative Arts & Media Department of the Faculty of Creative Arts, Business & Social Sciences.

My work focuses on enhancing the student experience, developing student confidences and skills through creating opportunities for work experience and employment through enagaging with community and charity groups. I am committed to quality learning and teaching, developing authentic and dynamic assessments which engage with real-world industry, partners and stakeholders for both current students and graduates. 

Elizabeth has been a journalist for the past 40 years - spending the majority of this time as a local newspaper reporter and editor, working on various newspaper titles throughout the west of Scotland including the Glasgow Guardian and Irvine Times, and on national newspapers. She has covered numerous high-profile news stories and campaigns as well as running successful newsrooms during a period of major technological change within the industry.

She created and led on the award-winning St Mirren TV programme which has enabled students to gain broadcasting experience covering live football, and this has led to many of the students graduating into jobs in sports media including at club level at St Mirren, Celtic and Rangers Football Clubs and Celtic and Rangers Women's Football.

For the past 20 years she has successfully combined this career with lecturing in Journalism. She has also played an active role in the National Union of Journalists, and is a former chairwoman of the NUJ’s Scottish Council.

She completed an MSc in Political Communication at the University of Glasgow with a dissertation on the role of the Internet within the Scottish local newspaper sector and the rise of citizen journalism, two key areas in journalism research.

While Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Sports Journalism she has led students reporting on a number of sports events including the 2011 Children’s International Games in Lanarkshire, the Scottish Junior Cup Final 2011 and the Scottish Grand National in 2011 at Ayr Racecourse, the Olympic Torch Relay in 2012 and has worked with the Host Broadcaster during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

She is currently Programme Leader for the MA Broadcast Journalism degree and Media Lead for the Arts and Media Division of the School of Business and Creative Industries.