Winners: Sussex graduate Joe Lord-Jones (left) with his fellow film-maker Spike Morris and BBC 'Breakfast' presenter Charlie Stayt (right)

A Sussex student’s film, described by TV newsreader Mark Austin as “a fantastic example of foreign reporting with great initiative”, triumphed last night (7 November) in the Guardian Student Media Awards.

In September 2011, just before the start of their third year, Sussex undergraduate Joe Lord-Jones and his friend Spike Morris (a student at the University of Leeds) went to the West Bank to make a film about Palestine's bid at that time to join the United Nations as a full member state.

The pair travelled around the West Bank for two weeks, visiting locations such as Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah and using social networking sites to find contacts and places to stay.

Joe, who was studying Politics and International Relations, recalls: “It was our first attempt at making a film this long [30 minutes] and our first proper experience in an Arabic country.

“We wanted to see how young Palestinians felt towards the UN bid and the Arab spring more generally.

“The film focuses on the idea that young Palestinians, although optimistic about the future, are still faced with the old hopelessness of their situation, reflected in the USA's promised veto of the bid.”

A year later, Palestine’s membership of the UN is still unresolved but Joe and Spike’s film (called Veto) has won them the joint title of Student Broadcast Journalist of the Year in the Guardian Student Media Awards. The awards, now in their 34th year, attracted more than 600 entrants.

The judges in the Student Broadcast Journalist category included Jon Snow, presenter of ‘Channel 4 News’, and Mark Austin, presenter of ITV’s ‘News at Ten’.

Mr Austin said: “The winning entry was a fantastic example of foreign reporting with great initiative. The trip was well organised and they got good access. They got excellent sound bites and above all, it was very well put together and very well edited.

“It left me wanting to watch more and I think that’s always a good indication of a compelling piece of TV journalism.”

Joe and Spike received their prize yesterday (7 November) from Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, in a ceremony at the Guardian’s London offices, hosted by BBC ‘Breakfast’ presenter Charlie Stayt.

They said: “We are ecstatic about our win, it completely blew our minds.

“Mark Austin was really complementary about our film, which made us really proud on the night. In terms of starting a career in journalism it couldn't be better.”

As a result of Joe’s win, in the new year he will get to spend two weeks at the Guardian - hopefully on the Middle East desk.

The experience will boost Joe’s efforts to pursue a career in broadcast journalism: he has already completed a three-week work placement at ‘Dispatches’ (Channel 4’s investigative current affairs series) and is applying for a place on a relevant trainee scheme or postgraduate degree.