Emma Oliver

Emma Oliver joined the University of Sheffield in January 2023 after spending five years as a senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Derby where she was Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Football Journalism.

From 2005 to 2017 Emma worked as a journalist for major UK regional media companies including Johnston Press, Northcliffe, and Reach plc. Emma started her career as a news reporter at the Mansfield Chad in Nottinghamshire, before moving on to become chief reporter, features writer, and then news editor at The Sentinel in Stoke-on-Trent and the Newcastle Chronicle. Emma was involved in reporting on and managing coverage of numerous stories of international interest, including the suicide of police officer David Rathband shot by fugitive Raoul Moat, the death of Welsh footballer and manager Gary Speed and the murder of Garry Newlove in Warrington.

In 2013 Emma was promoted to Digital Development Editor at the Newcastle Chronicle, The Journal and Sunday Sun in Newcastle for Reach plc's Newsroom 3.1 pilot. She was involved from the outset in the UK regional media’s switch to digital news journalism and was responsible for developing Newcastle's digital and social media content. She has significant experience of managing and measuring social media accounts and campaigns across channels as well as creating social media content strategy which organically extends reach and engagement. Emma's latest role in industry before moving into academia was at Teesside Live/The Gazette in Middlesbrough where she became Content Editor and was responsible for the digital news agenda where she developed a strategy to repackage content from print to online for the target audience.

Emma still operates as a freelance journalist producing news and features for a number of news and magazine websites in the East Midlands.