News inundates our daily lives—it greets us on television screens, accompanies our commutes and infiltrates our Instagram feeds. Yet amidst this constant stream of information, how often can we peek behind the headlines?

Grace, Rachel and Ben in the NBN newsroom

In a new collaboration, Media and Communication students have teamed up with NBN News to create the “Local Lens” podcast. In this two-part series, student journalists Ben Clifford, Grace Clegg and Rachel Lee explore some of the Hunter region’s biggest stories and the journalists who investigate them.

As a hands-on learning experience, students recorded, scripted, and mixed the podcast themselves, putting into practice skills from their degree.

Episode One – Missing Girls

If you’re a Newcastle local, chances are the name Jane Goldsmith rings a bell.

Since 2001, Jane has been a key member of the NBN team, working as a journalist, newsreader and producer.

For Novocastrians, she’s the comforting and familiar face that lights up their living rooms during NBN’s nightly bulletin.

Throughout her 20-year tenure, Jane has covered countless stories, but there’s one that holds a special place in her heart—the disappearances and suspected murders of Amanda Robinson, Robyn Hickie, and Gordana Kotevski.

In this episode of “Local Lens,” Ben, Grace, and Rachel revisit the unsolved cases of the three missing Lake Macquarie teenagers. They also sit down with Jane to discuss her reporting and the profound impact these disappearances have had on the families of the missing girls and the wider Newcastle community.

Episode Two – Disappearing Sands

NBN News reporter, producer, weather presenter and Yak Media alum Lauren Kempe has always had a passion for news.

Recently this passion has expanded to encompass a deep love for weather and environmental reporting.

Raised in the Hunter Valley, Lauren has first-hand experience with the weather’s impact and explores how even miniature shifts can have profound consequences on communities.

In the second episode of “Local Lens,” Ben, Grace, and Rachel speak with Lauren about our evolving environment, focusing on the issue of coastal erosion.

Together, they explore what it means for the vast majority of Australia’s coastal population, whose enduring beach culture might be hanging in the balance.

The “Local Lens” podcast was undertaken as part of the CIND3003 major project course.

News Media students will have the chance to further expand the series in semester two of this year.