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The University of Southampton
Humanities

Caroline Wyatt BA English and German

BBC Defence Correspondant

Caroline Wyatt's Photo

Hi, I'm Caroline Wyatt and I studied BA English and German within Humanities at the University of Southampton.

The most important part of my degree was being taught how to learn and how to research thoroughly. This has been incredibly important. More practically, of course, my qualification in German helped me to get my first posting with the BBC to Berlin.

Defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt uses skills gained at Southampton every day. “The most important part of my degree was being taught how to learn and how
to research thoroughly," she says. "This has been incredibly important. More practically, of course, my qualification in German helped me to get my first posting with the BBC to Berlin.”

After graduation she enrolled at City University in London to do a postgraduate qualification in journalism and then went straight to the BBC in 1991. The first two years were spent as a news and current affairs trainee with three months with each section, gaining experience in TV and radio news. Her first overseas posting came in 1993, when she went to Germany for seven years, splitting her time between Berlin and Bonn. After that came Moscow for three years and then Paris from 2003 until 2007.

“It was all a fantastic experience and Berlin is my favourite city in the world but I decided that it was probably time to come home,” says Caroline.

“My official title now is BBC Defence Correspondent and my role is incredibly varied. I’m often stationed with British troops and join them on front line missions. The nature of the role means that we are often working in chaotic situations, on a tight deadline, trying to piece together a story that may be unfolding in several different places at the same time. Communications in the field are frequently difficult, so the challenge is working with the confirmed information you have and trying to analyse it and make a coherent story before broadcasting it."

The demands of 24-hour news can mean that, on a breaking news story such as the Russia/Georgia conflict, Caroline can provide up to 30 or so live broadcasts a day for the BBC website and interactive news as well as for TV and radio.

“The BBC is a great institution, recognised across the world and I am very proud to work for it. It’s amazing to go to a small village somewhere in Afghanistan and find that the people there listen to the BBC Pashtun service on their radios or watch BBC World TV,” she says.

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