2012年8月17日星期五

COMU 1152 Media Conference 2

In this week’s COMU 1152 lecture, our guest speaker was Frances Whiting, who is an author, journalist and public speaker. 

According to her, our generation is the lucky one as we are able to choose our own carrier and have many opportunities. Before she became a journalist, she used to teach in a primary school, and she think it was a wonderful experience while she don’t think “that’s what I want to do forever”. Therefore she started to write for a local newspaper called Sunshine Coast Extra, and this “small” job led her into the whole industry. The suggestion she gave to us is “Think about what you want to do”, “What you begin is not what you end with”.
The first column Frances got is about EKKA, she gave her best into it and had success. She said the high pressure give her chance to lean things and improve. Now she writes her own column for the Sunday Mail, she said it’s essential to know your readers; it helped her to adjust the writings. During the time she wrote columns, she received lots of mails from readers, who loved her writings and felt like know her personally.
She also writes for the Q weekend magazine, in that column it requires a totally different writing style as the readers want to be guided and feel. The advice she gave is to be flexible and versatile in writing for different audience.Don't copy another person's style.  Do it your own way, and if you do it with passion and enthusiasm, you will succeed." For the secret of her success, she said is “Find your own voice”.
In Frances’s following talk, she mentioned the basic rules in the PR filed is building contacts with any potential customers, and be professional in every form of communication you can. When getting into PR industry, first of all is having good relationship with the journalist. And it’s also important to find your own way as the industry is always changing with opportunities!

Summary
- Do something you love, and do it with passion
- Know the basics rules and do it your way
- Build good relationships with people
- the most important one, FIND YOUR OWN VOICE


I also found a website of Fraces's columns, here is the link:  http://www.couriermail.com.au/spike/columnists/frances-whiting

2012年8月10日星期五

COMU 1152 Media Conference 1

In the COMU 1152 lecture of week 3, we had our first media conference and our guest speak was Robert Mukombozi.
Based on my research before the lecture, Robert Mukombozi is an investigative Rwandan journalist, currently he study a master of journalism and mass communication at Griffith University, and he also writes for The African Executive.  A highlight in his career is to be the first journalist to interview war criminal, Joseph Kony, who is the head of a Ugandan guerrilla group and abducted 66,000 children to become salves or soldiers. (If you want to know more about Kony, watch the video below)
                                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
At the beginning of media conference, Robert showed us a 30 mins video clip on his experience as a journalist in Uganda. He has been arrested 15 times in Uganda and once kept inside the dark for 4 days. Because of his reporting, he received death threat from both the government and individuals.

After the video, he shared his ideas on Public Relations as a journalist. Robert said, as a PR you need to prepare enough news-worthy information for journalists who are curious and always want to know more. And the information for print media should be different from the one for television or radio media, as they have different ways on telling stories.
And in the conference where you present, you need to be well prepared for technical problems and complex questions. Once the cameras and recorders are turned on, no mistakes can be made. And when the presenting is in visual, it’s important to choose the best picture to present. As a journalist, Robert think there are always pressure to prevent the story-telling, but finding the truth is more important than anything for the journalist. His last advice is to have real practice, write more, listen more and read more.

In the Q&A part, several questions were raised. One question that leaved me profound impression is how he can control himself when he faced violent and death. He said he faced this situation so many times that it already became a part in his life. And he still has to go for counseling to deal with these bad experiences.

Robert gave himself to the carrier which he loves and willing to take risk for. I admired his brave and passion, and for me and other PR students, his talking was very inspiring!