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Introduction to Newspaper Journalism in Hong Kong 1001


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The teaching syllabus in secondary school nowadays is very different form my time. More resources are put in general education. Schools are allowed to design custom-made courses according to the students’ interests and abilities. The transfer of knowledge is no longer based on text books only.

I was invited to give a speech about my life as a reporter for 90 F.6 students of Wa Ying College, my mother school. It was an easy task because I just needed to tell them what I felt and what I saw in the industry.

Everything I said was based on the reality. I started by telling the students my daily routine.

A Day’s Work (roughly)

0000 receive assignments for next day

1400 start working (at least 2 assignments a day, such as press conferences, panel meetings, interviews etc.)

1730 back to office (discuss news angle with boss, decide what to write, how much to write, call for respond/opinion, search for supplementary information); if there is time, think of new stories, call for interview and write follow stories etc.

2300 off

I also designed an activity for the students. I stole the real assignment sheets from my company and asked the students to be the bosses of the local news desk. They have to plan a day’s work during MC6 (to distribute work for everyone including themselves). It was a very interesting game because there were 3 pages of assignments; the students had to decide which an assignment was worth doing and which was not under limited resource.

Here are some hints for the students:

Reporters (specialize in different aspects) work under them

1. Security (1 senior + 1 junior)

2. Health issue (1 senior + 2 juniors)

3. Environmental (2 juniors)

4. Welfare (1 senior)

5. Housing (1 senior + 1 junior)

6. Tourism (1 junior)

7. Part-time (3) total: 14 reporters

Tips

1. The starting time of each assignment

2. Estimate how long the assignment would take

3. What to do and what not to do

4. The MC6 conference

I never expected the students to finish the task. The game was just an inspiration. It was very important for them to know every decision they made as bosses would be printed in newspaper the next day. First, it is essential to plan ahead, is there anything that can be done ahead (e.g. research/interview) before the news event? Second, a good boss should consider every possible factor when they assign work, such as each colleague’s strengths and weaknesses, sufficient back up in office, a good contingency plan etc. Third, during the hard day’s work, have you covered all angles and report different point of view?

Sadly, most bosses won’t keep these basics in minds.

Be a smart reader

The second part of my talk concerns the students themselves. I list four major problems a reporter face.

1. Too much information, too little space.

2. False information (including typing mistakes, false figures, the reporter misinterpreted the information; the editor misunderstood what the reporter meant).

3. Incomplete information.

4. Stand of the company (self-censorship).

It is clear that there is no way the reader can see the true picture from reading the newspaper. I used a recent example to explain how serious the problems are. A popular newspaper starts a new section about supermarkets. The reporters use a full page to compare prices, product qualities and pin point what’s the readers’ should buy. It seems that the new section is good for the consumers, but is it? If we take a deeper look, it is not hard to discover that the reporters have a specific target, i.e. the supermarkets that do not advertise in their newspaper. They would every possible mean to download these supermarkets until the supermarket finally give up and advertise in the newspaper.

If you just read, but not digest what you read. You can be easily fooled.

What can we do? Here are some useful tips:

1. Read at least 2 newspapers everyday (at least read the news section from both papers).

2. Choose the newspaper carefully.

3. Don’t believe everything you read, think more.

4. Discuss the topics you are interested with friends, parents.

5. Read the editorial and forums in papers as well.

I ended my talk by quoting Bob Woodward, a famous US journalist’s line, "Ultimately, I think journalism gets measured by the quality of information it presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics associated with us but whether it is good news -- quality information that defines who somebody is."

So true. But the reality in Hong Kong is quite the reverse. What a shame.


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About me

  • I'm EugeniaLo 羅宇正
  • From Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • I am a person with lots of crazy thoughts. I wanna share them with you guys.
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