Evidence to be a Journalist

I joined English Language Society since high school age and learnt vocabulary
extensively by subscribing dictionary.com, read daily English newspaper as well as
speaking with natives. By undergoing journalism training in tertiary college, I
managed to learn about journalistic writing, technical writing, accurate news sense,
media law and ethics, media and society, and many more. Having been a regular
subscriber of Asia Media newsletter published by University California of, Los
Angeles, I observed continuously on the trend and development of media across
Asia.

Upon being a Malaysian Chinese international exchange student to South Korea, I

visited Korea Press Club and get acquainted with foreign correspondence club.
Although I do not yet to achieve any journalistic experience such as having a news
story published or internship with a news agency, I was employed as a research
editor with Factiva.com, a now restructured company in the sole ownership of Dow
Jones Newswire; in which my job includes updating and maintaining database of
public figures and associations in East Asia and Southeast Asia that to be sold to
banking industries to prevent financial discrepancies. Through being a professional
apprentice, I have gotten hold of a copy of Reuters Journalism Handbook and am
reading it attentively. On personal effort, I have also done research on relevant
websites, internet archives and databases on Journalism including international
journalism institutions and associations, career guides, journalism journals, skill sets
training institutions for collection and reference purpose.

One of the main challenges by far is to balance language versatility and to take a
neutral stand between Asian media and foreign media. It is relatively difficult to
excel in one language without negligence of the others whilst I am learning five
languages at hand. The vast difference of new sense criteria between Asian media
and foreign media in terms of perspectives, ideological constitutions and political
strains that impact public views also entail hazard and conflict of interest in the
profession of mine. It does take great level of curiosity and human interest to be a
journalist whose job is to inform and to reveal knowledge and information for the
public good especially while the media landscape is not well defined, rules and
regulations are subject to interpretations, freedom of press and speech is stumpy
and safety of journalist is uncertain. (380 words)

Reason for applying to enter the Diploma of Journalism course offered by

Jschool

Having graduated from Murdoch University Australia and worked overseas in Asia, I
am attracted with the reputation of Jschool as being one of the best journalism
schools in Australia. In order to take on a professional journalist career, academic
reputation and work experience in Australia are the main reasons I am applying to
Jschool, Diploma of Journalism.
I would like to take on a pragmatic, hands-on approach to learn more about
Journalism. Although it is not yet a demanding nor prosperous profession in
Singapore and Malaysia, I believe it is fundamental to master the practical skills
specifically news writing, newspaper production, real time reporting and broadcast
operation to embrace a lifelong journalist career. I would also like to master skill
sets in the field of interactive media such as website/desktop publishing, short-hand
skills, photojournalism, visual/audio editing, and captions subediting. All of these
cannot be done without appropriate academic guidance through institution like
Jschool. Moreover, the opportunity and linkage to the media industry in Australia is
another engaging aspect that I am applying to enter the Diploma of Journalism
course offered by Jschool. The work experience I will be gaining with Jschool
employment endorsement gives me a career edge to be a foreign media
representative to render a fair and balanced view. I am absolutely intrigued with the
course subjects of being able to visit council meetings, parliamentary sittings, police
briefings, court cases in Australia; it adds on as an asset to my international outlook
in journalism. To appreciate and to become aware of different political and media
institution, social and economic systems would certainly be a challenging learning
experience in order to further investigate, analyze and implement in later stage of
journalistic career of mine.

To experience working with media professionals, commissioners, editors,

journalists, production crews in Australia is also one of the reason Jschool is of first
priority. Such exposure grounds me to familiar with exact duties and responsibilities
as a team member in media production to gauge professional work ethics, make
sound editorial judgment, deal with spontaneous moments and juggle time
management. The relative reasonably priced tuition fees and the location in
Brisbane fit in to my financial budget too. I envisage it is cost effective and
contextual efficient in career development to study Diploma of Journalism in Jschool.
(383 words)

Career ambitions

Starting from reporter or editor and work cross functionally as correspondence,

feature writer, I would ultimately want to become a news anchor/broadcast
journalist/TV presenter as a lifelong career goal to be responsible for investigating,
gathering and reporting on news and current affairs issues and to present
information in a fair, balanced and accurate way for the public.

What is the arrow in a quiver for a journalist who devotes their efforts in improving public interest? In
times of recession, how do we protect jobs such as self sacrificing journalist so that it does not become a
profession that is as much use as a chocolate teapot? How do we deal with media crisis? What are the
strategies for the future of organization of unions? How do we reinvigorate the core mission of
journalism?
The State of Journalism: Is it a business?

If we look into the profession of journalism from an economical point of view, the recession has resulted
advertising revenues, reporting and communicating to become superfluous. The grass roots are primarily
concerned with what make ends meet, corporate budget has been reduced especially in redundant job
areas such as public relations, editors, agents, fundraisers, Information technology technicians, trainers,
conference producers, conciliator, etc.

The effort of politicians in peace advocacy at the global scale has make the general public realized that
need of military, destructive technologies and weapons is merely an ideology of male chauvinism.
Despite the need of diplomat, security officer and police to run an effective presidential or political
election, journalism ought to find herself a sustainable surviving model.

Some of the meaningful suggestions are easing news agency to be a non-profit status, IPR protection, tax
relief, anti-trust revisit, global content development, micro-payment on online subscriptions, partnership
with educational and cultural institutions, and public broadcasting.

Although it is a conventional tale such as best of a bad bunch, it is a broad stroke in financial sense. After
all, the job nature of journalist and author are not a constitution of an ox with economical gains in mind.

The difficulty in making media technologies available is also widely recognized. It is due to the disparity
in technology class which determines how much information is distributed to the masses that most likely
do not have access ability. The readership and circulation of writing thereby becomes, in a general sense,
voluntary.

Above and beyond, many have resorted to online platforms such as www.associatedcontent.com,
www.helium.com, www.elance.com, www.suite101.com, www.triond.com and many more. Digital
platform is also imperative at the informative era. Notable self publishing companies are
www.iuniverse.com, www.trafford.com, www.lulu.com etc; it is gaining its popularity amongst the
writers who merely want to experience the fame of authorship. In a largely self fulfilling sense, it is just
as better as to collaborate with online payment system such as PayPal, www.amazon.com and
www.barnesandnoble.com

The impact of social media, which transform our daily communication model, is another engaging aspect.
For example, www.twitter.com and www.facebook.com are connecting friends and family on the internet
just like the way MySpace has done so. Moreover, there are digital journal such as www.wordpress.org
and www.livejournal.org too.

Journalism: the industrial perspective

The challenges which power are you serving?

In theory, the primary news values are scale of events, closeness, clarity, shot time scale, relevance,
consonance, personification, negativity, significance, drama and action. The form of knowledge in the
discipline of news reporting is therefore an important and essential property.

Many unreported events are likely a lack of technical collaboration such as news that is untimely,
systematic, imperishable, usual and expected, unlikely audience interested, lack of orientation and
attention-direction as well as unpredictable. Industry reality is, therefore, resulting inequalities we witness
today in the society. It could get worse in a highly commercialized country because media is structurally
accustomed to the belief of the rich, famous and powerful.

On a personal level, the vast difference of news sense criteria in international context, in terms of
perspective, ideological constitutions and political strains, which impact public views, also entails
hazardous area. It not only requires a journalist to be curious and humanistic, but also to be revealing
knowledge and information for the public good. It is, more than ever, difficult while the media landscape
in developing countries is not well defined, rules and regulations are subject to interpretations, freedom of
press and speech is stumpy and safety is uncertain.

No profession is easy peasy, as does journalism. The benefit of being in such profession is the
information power one would gain through the journey of being a journalist. For example, town council
meeting, parliamentary sitting, police briefing, court case, etc. Likewise, the downside ranges from
terrorism threat, cyber threat, affiliation in money laundering and narcotic trafficking actitivities,
suspicion of weapon proliferation, etc.

The saying goes, if you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows. There are consequences with
every actions and it is not about dissociation or matter of choice we could alienate ourselves from. For a
journalist to become aware and appreciative of different political and media institutions as well as social
and economical system, it further enhances the professionalism to investigate, analyze and implement
policy on an intergroup and national scale.
The opportunity what changes are you advocating?

Professional affiliations such as Mediabistro, Neiman Lab, Harvards Berkman Centre and Pew Research
Centre are changing their distribution methods too. The prizes from awards institutions such as British
literary awards The Warwick Prize for Writing, Nobel Laureate, Pulitzer Price, and Writers Digest are
ranging from USD 3-80k.

Other foundations that provide grants and opportunities are Knight Foundation
http://www.knightfoundation.org./, International Centre for Journalist www.icfj.org, Reuters
News Foundation www.ox.ac.uk, Global Journalism Network www.media21geneva.org, Asian American
Journalist Association www.aaja.org , Online News Association www.journalists.org, National Press
Club www.press.org, The Canadian Journalism Project www.jsource.ca and National Union of Journalist
in UK www.nug.org.uk.

Despite the fact that media and publishing industries are not reporting profits with flying colors; for
instance, the established brand names like News Corporation and Time Warner; University Presses such
as Cambridge, Oxford, Pearson, etc; book retailers such as Borders, Author House, Random House,
Kinokuniya, etc are having all hard time, the community is still in need of information and education.

In order to continue becoming conscious of their public service roles, a good splotch of set up could be
supportive; such as distribution of opinions survey, recognition of journalist, awards giving in ceremony,
lower subscription rate in educational materials, invitations to public events, etc.

The organizational or societal dynamics and outcome are relevant to the decision making, effectiveness,
cooperation, and/or intergroup function of a government. The respect of being a politician is just as
satisfying as being other professionals depending on how much contribution and responsibility one has
taken on.

Whilst government comprises of the general public, what forms public opinion is intriguing. It is then
cultural awareness comes into play -the forming of social integration and identity construction.