By 
Two online video journalists who captured uniquely honest footage of the fierce moods on the streets on the streets of Glasgow ahead of the 2014 Scottish Referendum, have been shortlisted for the XCity Award.
Adam Barr and Ryan Ramgobin (Broadcast, 2014), also known as the “Referendum Boys”, got over 185,000 Youtube hits for their 16 videos that captured the fierce moods on the streets of Glasgow, ahead of the 2014 Scottish Referendum. With this footage they were the first ever entrants to win the Hugh Cudlipp award with video journalism.
Ramgobin told XCity+ why viewers reacted so strongly to their videos, giving the example of an interview with a no voter: “This man was part of a group of EDL supporters, being provocateurs amid the yes campaigners. There was some bias in the mainstream media towards the no campaign, and they probably didn’t want to show this person who was letting the side down. You didn’t see those people on TV – not on Channel 4, ITV or the BBC.”
Ramgobin explained that while Barr and he were at City they produced a cultural podcast together: “We both realised what we wanted to do, and that’s telling stories which are not in the news, and going out and speaking directly to the source.”
This sentiment is reflected in the next online video project for Ramgobin and Barr. The pair will give a “zoomed-in view” on five constituencies for a month before the general election, following candidates and speaking to local people.
Ramgobin and Barr are one of five nominations to be shortlisted for the XCity Award, and the £500 prize, which recognises an outstanding contribution to journalism in the past year by a City alumnus or alumni.
Here one of the pair’s Scottish Referendum videos, of a yes-voting Glaswegian’s “defiant and passionate message to Westminster”:
By 
