In front of journalist, the old students shouted (6)
I believe the answer is:
yelled
'shouted' is the definition.
('yell' can be a synonym of 'shout')
'in front of journalist the old students' is the wordplay.
'in front of' means one lot of letters go next to another (some letters go in front of others).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'the old' becomes 'ye' (resembles a historical spelling of 'the').
'students' becomes 'LL' (two abbreviations for learner).
'ye'+'ll'='yell'
'ed' put after 'yell' is 'YELLED'.
(Other definitions for yelled that I've seen before include "Screamed" , "Shouted loudly as if to be heard" , "Uttered a sharp loud cry" , "Cried out, hollered" , "Uttered a sudden loud cry" .)