The past 3 days have been tiring, I felt like I was working a 9 to 5 job. It must be worse for Nat and Mark, they looked tired and stressed the whole 3- day non-residential camp. Tha's cos they're interns at Straits Times( Here on will be said as ST).
media camp day 1, 22 Novembermet all the other IN crowders, Asyikin, Joanna, Krystal, Mark, Rajesh, Mervyn, Natalie, Pamela, Sarah-Ann, Nicolette and Tripta. They are all fun people, very fun. On the first day, we got 3 t-shirts- 2 white (ST media club) and 1 black (IM IN). I had wore the white one over my t-shirt. I also met the 2 other media clubbers from my school- Clara and An An, and Mrs Francis.
First we played icebreaker games- the Human Bingo. I got to know other students from other schools like TKGS, TKSS, BNSS, ACS(BR) and etc... Shucks, I never win at this kind of things. Then a talk by Mr Peter Khoo, Vice President and Head, Editorial Projects and Branding,
English & Malay Newspapers Division regarding the newspaper industry.
I loved the lunches that they gave us. It was SUPERB! And I found a solat room in the Berita Harian Department. Not exactly found, Shahrena showed me the way. She is one of the people in charge of/ working with/ guiding us. BTW, all of them are Mr Peter Khoo, Paul, Shahrena, Yenling, Elsie and Danial. The editor of IN is Serene and Bertha Henson (more on that l8r).
After that we had a talk by Ms Bertha Henson about what it takes to be a good reporter. She's the supervising editor of Home news at the ST. Her talk was most enjoyable. She kept cracking us up, making the auditorium filled with laughter.
After a round of icebreakers, Ms Serene Goh, IN editor came in and told us how IN is put together and what we can do to contribute to IN and the ST. I felt quite paiseh because she kept saying "These people in front of you have been putting IN together for the past year." or something to the likes of that and I certainly have not been doing that because i JUST joined.
Following teabreak (yummy cakes and fingerfoods) Mr Robin Ganguly (nice name right, just repeat it, Ganguly), who is a sub-editor told us what his work is. Sub-editors give headlines to articles, cut stories down to size and basically layouts everything. They work late in the night. That's what I found out about other journalists too- they work LATE into the night (think 1 AM). After feedback, I went home with Krystal and Sam.
media club camp day 2, 23 NovemberOn the second day, I had to come super earlier because we were going to the Print Center where all the newspapers were being printed. I was in group one with all schools from Ang Mo Kio Sec to Methodist Girls' Schools. The place was super NOISYYY. I couldn't hear the person talking and telling us what this and that was. But the plating part was cool. That's all i liked about that place.
When we came back, there was tea break followed by a session on Photojournalism by Mr Ong Kin Chai. He gave us some tips on how to take good pictures, putting emotion in, not just focusing on the main things and not always following the rules. There were pictures on the tsunami and earthquakes victims. Those were some really good stuff that he showed us. There was even one where ministers were looking at their medallions like little kids. That was funny.
After lunch and icebreakers, Ms Ong Sor Fern came and gave us all the juicy gossips about celebrities and her experience interviewing them. We had a good time laughing and what-nots. She even interviewed Danial Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Chris Columbus, Dakota Fanning and etc...AAgH. But she added that even though there were the plus sides of being a film correspondent of ST, Life! (i.e.celebs, posh hotels, all expenses paid flying and travelling atound the world esp, London , New York) there are the down sides of it (i.e. putting up with celebs' attitudes, waiting one whole day w/o any food for press conferences, waking up at 6 am to watch a preview of a movie [ journalists are not early morning people]) . So in order to tahan all this, one must be extremely thick skin, resourceful and kaypoh! ahahahah
Then Hossan Leong came in and we asked him questions. He was so funny lah. And there were queues of people wanting to ask him stuff. Paul had to limit one question per person.
Then, Hossan left and Mr Khoo came in and introduced the ChildAid concert where talented youths will perform for needy youths to the auditorium and Joanna talked wbout what it felt like the past year she was in IN. Then she introduced all of us and forgot what school Asyikin came from. :]] Her voice was like so shaky.
media club camp day 3, 24 NovemberWhee! The 3rd day wasn't so bad. I didn't have to come so ealy. Just imagine! Singapore Press Holdings is where the camp is held and it's at Braddell.
First, Shahrena took us on a tour of the News Room where the journalists' work but since it is early in the moning, there aren't a lot of them. We spotted Robin Ganguly and Bertha Henson. In the Life! part of the Newsroom, there were so many movie posters. It was definitely different from the more serious parts of the ST paper.
After that we had teabreak and icebreakers and a session by Ms Tanya Fong & Mr Ben Nadarajan on The thrills & spills of being a crime reporter. They talked about the Anthony Ler case, the Huang Na case and it was just gruesome to hear their facts.
Listening to their tips was good as it could definitely improve my english composition. Speaking about compos, we were asked to write a 100 word newspaper article after having a mock-up interview session with volunteers from RJC. It was a pretend thing- the RJCians were supposed to be the poeple involved in the case of the chopped up maid whose body parts were found near Orchard MRT and MacRitchie Reservoir seperately. My group was me, Rajesh, Mervyn, Nicolette, Sam and Asyikin. We were asked to come up w/ a layout of the article, a picture and two maps showing the location of the found body parts.
Our group won the best headline. We had help fro Ben so whaddya expect? haha
The group who won overall got a $50 Kinokuniya voucher. Haizzz...
After that both journalists talked about their experiences covering the natural disaster and the countries inflicted with earthquakes and tsunamis. Terrorism was not that widely covered.
Then we got our certificates for attending the camp and then....Home Sweet Home!
oh btw, I bought a new pair of shoes.
Welcoming Tea, IN crowd, 25 NovemberIn the morning, I went jalaning raya w/ 2/O , 2/M and 2/C ppl. This includes, me, Jannah, Atiqah, Husna, Dian, Hazwani, Fadilah, Sadelena and Yarasyima. We had to wait a looong time for Sade who had to wait for Yara. THat I was pissed at cos I had to leave at 1.45pm for the Tea which starts at 3. We went to my house, Maisarah's house and Yuslyana's house and that was it. I brought a change of clothes and went to SPH. I was late with Krystal. We were on the SAME train. But as we went in, Bertha and Serene was just behind us so Paul said "well...you're not technically late. Then we ate biscuits and drank tea and we looked at previous issues of IN and discussed what should be changed, why, what should be out, why. Then, the first anniversary of IN was discussed too. I can't wait. It should be fun...and posh. haha
Asyikin's parents drove me all the way to Masjid Darul Aman because I wanted to solat Asar. I was surprised lah...like ALL the way.? Then I went to Tok's house, waited for Mak and went to her friend's house. Long day? I know.
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