COMMUNICATION MATTERS - Key Persons
Alison is a former BBC journalist, manager and news editor, with experience spanning local, regional and network radio and television, the print media and public relations. She joined BBC TV's flagship network "Nationwide" programme in 1972, moving two years later to BBC TV in Norwich as a presenter/reporter.
For ten years she worked as a freelance reporter, scriptwriter and producer, variously for BBC TV East, BBC 2 Network Documentaries, BBC Radio 4 Today programme, BBC World Service and BBS (independent) Productions in Bristol.
Since leaving the BBC in March 1997, Alison has worked as a media and PR consultant and trainer. She has contributed to assorted media textbooks including: Broadcast Journalism (Heinemann), What is News? (ELM Publications), How to Handle Media Interviews (Mercury), and Handling Publicity the Right Way (Elliot ‘Right Way; Publications).
Janet Cohen was a broadcaster and journalist for more than 30 years with BBC news and current affairs. Most recently she was senior reporter and occasional presenter for BBC Radio 4's influential nightly current affairs programme, The World Tonight.
She started her career at BBC Radio Brighton and worked over the years on Today, Newsbeat, and the PM programme, interviewing many leading public figures and developing special interests in health, education and cultural issues. She has received a prestigious Sony Bronze Award for her reporting.
Janet now specialises in media and communication training.
After training as a lawyer she began her career working as a current affairs producer at BBC World Service before rapidly moving on to present the BBC Radio 4 disabilities programme Does He take Sugar for nearly 10 years, report for BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme.
Kati has covered many overseas assignments including Aids in Uganda; multicultural education in Kosovo; disability in Armenia; landmines in Angola; youth gangs in Guatemala; the return of child solders in Northern Uganda and just recently the influx of Iraqi refugees to Jordan.
She has won several awards for her programme-making and journalism including the Medical Journalist Association award for a programme about gene therapy; a One World Award and a Sony nomination for a programme about Rwandan Widows; the Sandford St Martins Award for a BBC Radio 4 programme on spirituality and mental health, and the 2006 Educational Journalist of the Year award.
Job Titles:
- Journalist and Media Trainer
Michael Dodd's expertise as a media trainer is founded on his work as a London-based media commentator and freelance foreign correspondent. He is best known amongst British audiences for his weekly live paper reviews on Sky News. He also comments on national and international issues on BBC television and radio networks. He files TV, radio and internet reports for foreign broadcasters such as the ABC in his native Australia.
Michael been Berlin Correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and has covered stories in most major European countries and in the United States. He covered Eastern Europe before during and after the 1989 anti-communist revolutions for the ABC and the BBC World Service.
He has worked as a political correspondent in the Australian capital, Canberra.