In the thick of the action
A group of teens get to experience life in the newsroom and what it takes to be reporters.
A group of teens get to experience life in the newsroom and what it takes to be reporters.
A RECENT one-month internship with The Star was where 10 teens were introduced to real-world journalism.
This was a reward for their active participation as stuff@ school writers last year.
The following are some of their reflections on what it was like to shadow senior journalists at various desks such as Newsdesk, Metro, R.AGE, Features and Education.
stuff@school is now part of BRATs, a Young Journalist Programme of The Star.
Articles written by BRATs participants will be featured in The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (NiE) pullout, published on Wednesdays and available only through school subscriptions.
To subscribe, call the toll free number 1-300-88-7827 (Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm).
For those who wish to join BRATs and get a chance to intern at The Star, please visit http://rage.com.my/bratsrecruitment/.
Journalism is all about “writing for the people”, at least in my view. That was what I was able to do throughout my internship. The stint may be brief but it has benefited me in so many ways.
I was interning at Newsdesk when Klang Valley residents were worried over dry taps nearing Christmas time.
That was big news and I got a chance to follow a senior reporter to a substation that caused the water shortage.
Even though dusk was falling, he wrote the article on-site. It was to be submitted for printing that evening.
Time was running short, but he managed to convey solid information.
Other than working closely with the reporters, another perk of being a journalist is that you are presented with opportunities to reach out and talk to people from all walks of life.
When the December holiday was coming to an end, I was assigned to find out how teenagers had spent their time.
I also contacted a few wellknown people to find out how the drop of the Ringgit value had affected our tourism industry.
If not for the internship, an introvert such as myself would have never developed the courage to approach strangers.
I am no longer petrified by it. In fact, I enjoy listening to what they have to say.
Some of their stories were inspiring, shocking and heartbreaking; some left me with deep thoughts.
All in all, I realised that being a journalist is not only about having good writing skills – there are so many who can write well and qualify as journalists. What matters most is passion. – By CHAN
SHU CHEN, 19, Methodist College Kuala Lumpur
Fiction can be so far from reality! During my internship, I expected to go on perpetual coffee runs for my seniors, or have the editors constantly breathing down my neck.
But these scenes from Hollywood movies never transpired. Instead, everybody I worked with had one thing in common: being approachable and professional.
I had no trouble getting out of bed to be among the first to arrive at the office every day. I relished every opportunity to shadow the senior reporters, be it at an event, interview or meeting.
There was a lot that I took away from this experience. For one, I picked up useful pointers on effective communication. Before that, if you had asked me to pick up the phone to make enquiries, I would have avoided it by texting.
But after a phone call with the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) president, my confidence soared by leaps and bounds.
I am also proud of my interview with the creative Legolads – a family who specialises in making Lego portraits.
I conducted it in a crowded mall at night – all on my own. Nevertheless, I soldiered on and managed to conduct the interview successfully.
It took me a whole night to write the 1,000-word article. So, imagine my euphoria when I was rewarded with a full-page feature in Star2!
I had the editor to thank for this. If it had not been for her invaluable trust, I would certainly not have achieved it.
I would also never forget the other interns, who became my band of brothers and sisters.
We were an inseparable pack. Lunchtime was when we shared stories of what we had been up to. I will always cherish the fun times, from engaging in intense pun-offs to chasing the bus together after work.
Alas, time went by like a flash of lightning. I handed in my temporary tag on my last day and walked out of the building, emotions flying all over the place.
My month-long journey as an intern at The Star makes me beam proudly whenever I pick up the newspaper.
I have developed greater appreciation for all the hard work and grit that goes into the production of every issue – from the reporters conducting interviews and writing the articles to the editors making important decisions.
As short-lived as it was, I was part of that team. And isn’t that incredible? – By NABEEL KAMARUL BAHREN, 18, formerly of SMK Aminuddin Baki, Kuala Lumpur
When I found out that I had gotten the internship, let’s just say I was “excited”, and leave it at that. You probably don’t need to hear about how my family’s eardrums were thoroughly tested.
In my extremely biased opinion, the most fun times of the internship would be going out on assignments with senior reporters.
On my trips out, I got to tag along with older reporters who seemed to have the world in the palm of their hand.
Even the topics we covered were interesting, ranging from Christmas plans to Star Wars
action figures!
However, the most enriching experience would probably be going out with the R.AGE team, to shoot a video of a bona fide World War II survivor!
I felt ready to kowtow, as I listened to the tale of how he blew up a Japanese military truck to avenge his father and grandfather, when he was only seven!
Not just that, I vividly remember how dramatically the newsroom’s atmosphere changed, following the attack at the Ohio State University in the United States.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, sending the reporters into a fevered frenzy.
I myself was sucked into it. As I unearthed as much information as I could about the attack, it dawned on me that this was what an actual newsroom was like.
At that point, a faint smile crossed my lips, despite the dark nature of what I was doing.
What could make my internship better than this? The answer to that rhetorical question is the people you work with.
Every time my fellow interns and I sat down for lunch together, we erupted in uncontrollable laughter. No matter the topic, from doughnuts and elevator etiquette to Game of Thrones, somehow it was rip-roaring fun.
Another experience that is etched in my mind are the Christmas parties! The most memorable one would probably be Star2’s Christmas party.
But the internship was definitely not all fun and parties. I learnt how to write under extreme pressure, among other things.
From compiling a complete list of all the animal cruelty cases that had happened in Malaysia in the past five years – in just an hour – to reaching out to nearly all of my contacts to ask for their opinions on online shopping, and writing an article on a topic I knew nuts about.
Those and other lessons will stay fond in my heart. They say journalism exposes, and that could not be more true.
During my time at The Star, the reporters would stay back in the office, until crazy hours, just to meet deadlines. They also trekked long deserted roads, just to get what they needed. And they would put themselves in the line of fire, just to obtain information for an article.
My eyes were really opened to the tough-as-nails world of journalism. However, this has only inspired and motivated me to explore it further.
Maybe it’s my amazing seniors, passionate editors, committed friends, or even my inner masochist, but somehow I am even more in love with journalism.
I now see the true story behind the words whenever I pick up a copy of The Star. And I think to myself, what a wonderful story it is. – By LEVIN LOW YUN YI, 16, SMK St. Mary, Kuala Lumpur
There comes a time in every teenager’s life where he or she gets to do whatever he or she wants to without parental guidance. My time came along as soon as my internship did.
For one month, my sister Sherilyn, who had also been chosen for the internship, and I lived at a rented apartment in Selangor on our own.
Admittedly, I felt somewhat homesick in the beginning, but it didn’t take long for me to settle down.
A life with no parents meant no scoldings, no curfews and best of all, no rules. Who wouldn’t love it? But of course, it is only right that with great power comes great responsibility.
Freedom meant that I was responsible for everything concerning myself, from the essential undertaking of how I spent my money to the trifling tasks of keeping tabs on my personal belongings.
Unluckily, I had to learn the hard way through an unfortunate incident where I lost my handphone.
That unhappy episode led to a nightmare of admonishments (from my parents), remorse (from my guilty conscience), and teasing (from my friends).
Through my internship, I have gained great insight into life as a journalist.
In particular, I learnt how fastpaced the world of news is, how thrilling it could be going out on assignments to cover events, how dull office life could be, and how, if written with a certain flair, even the most uninteresting piece of information could become a fascinating article.
I had the opportunity to befriend many wonderful people, including the reporters at The Star, the landladies of the apartment we rented and not forgetting the other interns who, when my internship coincided with my birthday, threw me a surprise celebration.
In a nutshell, my internship was very satisfying. It has opened my eyes to a world of endless excitement and discovery.
But sadly, every good thing must come to an end. It has concluded and now, it’s back to school for me. – By DARYL CHOO CHIA LER, 16, SMJK Sin Min, Sungai Petani, Kedah