People
Dr Kester Demmar
BA Journalism programme director
School/Department: Arts, Media and Communication, School of
Profile
Before entering academia, Kester was an award-winning television journalist with thirty years’ experience. He’s worked for ITV and the BBC on news and current affairs programmes. His last television role was as assistant editor at BBC East Midlands Today, where he was responsible for producing the main daily news programme. During his time at the BBC he led the regional introduction of multi-platform working across television, radio and online. He researched and produced special programmes about The Great War. These included live broadcasting from Belgium and France. He continues to have an interest in the reporting of Remembrance and live broadcasts generally. He is interested in all things to do with creative journalism, news production, especially crime, live broadcasting, story selection and storytelling and the growth and use of generative AI.
While at the BBC he began his PhD research into the reporting of incidents of murder on BBC regional news output. He was awarded his doctorate in 2021 for his thesis, 'Murder as news. An investigation into homicide as story content in BBC regional television news output.'
After leaving the BBC he taught Broadcast Journalism and Ethics at the University of Wolverhampton.