By Sarah Yusoff
GOMBAK, 1 January 2021: The launching of the IIUMenulis yesterday marked another milestone for the progress of IIUMToday, the portal’s editor Mr. Aznan Mat Piah said.
The student news portal IIUMToday that started off in April 2014, was intended as a platform to train Communication students or would be journalists to express and write well in English language in meeting the expectations of the industry. As such, he said, it has become a policy for IIUMToday to be written in English.
Over the six years of its existence, he added, the news portal has made significant progress in producing graduates who are skilful in writing in English who have proven themselves in the market.
Nonetheless, it was felt among Communication academics that graduates should be bilingual and acquire competency in writing in both English and Bahasa Melayu to face the new challenges of the industry as well as to ensure that graduates be more competitive.
Hence, Mr. Aznan described that it was timely for IIUMToday to have a column in Bahasa Melayu to provide students the opportunity to write in Malaysia’s national language.
IIUMenulis, a column in Bahasa Melayu, was launched on Thursday (31 December 2020) by Dr. Wan Norshira Wan Mohd Ghazali, the coordinator of IIUMToday, through Google Meet from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. It was attended by the newly appointed editor of IIUMenulis, Mr. Amran Baharum.
The event was also held to appreciate IIUMToday student journalists who made it to the high reach news list, and on top of that, to celebrate and thank graduating members of the portal’s mainboard for their contribution towards making IIUMToday a success. A total of 26 student journalists attended the event.
With the setting up of the IIUMenulis, Mr. Aznan hoped that this column would attract both students and academics to contribute articles in the form of feature stories, opinion pieces or commentaries on topics or issues that would interest readers within and outside the campus community.
œI hope that writers would be able to generate interesting topics that would capture the attention of the readers,” Aznan said in his opening remarks.
Meanwhile, newly appointed editor of IIUMenulis, Mr. Amran Baharum, expressed his happiness with the launching of IIUMenulis as he had wished to see future Communication graduates to be skilful in Bahasa Melayu. He said that “the column has been a long gone effort which has finally come true.”
He further stated, œThe suggestion was given by the supervisors in the industry who felt that the interns’ writing skills in Bahasa Melayu need a lot of improvement.
The coordinator of IIUMToday, Dr. Wan Norshira Wan Mohd Ghazali, shared her views on how IIUMToday has contributed in terms of student developments and has been an important student entity.
œWith the launching of the new column, it would give an opportunity to the students as well as staff to write in Bahasa Melayu as it is crucial for them to master writing in the national language.”
The event proceeded with the announcement on High Reach News Award in the month of November and December.
High Reach News in November:
- Elaina Sabirin – Valuable lessons from Spirited Away.
- Hazimah Shukri -How to relieve yourself from stress during pandemic.
- Hazimah Shukri – Latest IIUM official guidelines during conditional MCO.
- Nur Fatihah Irdina – Budget 2021: Combatting Covid-19 during most challenging time.
- Ameerah Angelina – Virtual Conference œWAPOR Asia Kuala Lumpur 2020 – 9 and 10 November.
- Aqilah Alya – Conference announces winner of WARPOR Asia Lifetime Achievement Awards.
- Ariani Mohd Nor – Public opinion a contributor to a stable nation- PM Muhyiddin Yassin.
- Hakim Mahari – Dining-in at food premises in Gombak campus allowed subject to SOP.
- Iylia Marsya Iskandar – Ipoh-Born œSuper Mom Syebvonne Nguyen nominated for Hello! Magazine star mum award.
- Iylia Marsya Iskandar – The value of public opinion reseach in elections.
- Iylia Marsya Iskandar – Budget 2021: youths aged 18 – 20 to receive RM50 credited through e-wallet.
High Reach News in December:
- Tuan Nurul Iffah Tuan Ismail – Online course registration for semester 2, 2020/2021 session opens 23 December.
- Elyana Sofia – Class of 2020: Graduating with uncertainty amidst covid-19.
- Marissa Nazeera – Learning Everything Including saying ˜no to sexual harassment.
- Nur Saadah Batrisyia – University students expected to be back on campus in early March 2021.
- Aqilah Bahar – Campus Return in March 2021: Will there be another u-turn ?
- Auni Zarifah – Ruangan bahasa melayu kini di IIUMToday
- Iylia Marsya Iskandar – Anas Hayyan – New unofficial president of the IRKHS students Society
- Hakim Mahari – Passion in writing starts with knowing your intention – Mohsin Abdullah
The event later continued with honouring of senior journalists who are graduating.
Graduating senior journalists are as follows:
- Siti Alya Nadiah Binti Ismail – Sub-Editor.
- Dayang Nurramizah Binti Awang Abdurahman – Secretary
- Nurina Farzana Zahra Binti Shahfulnizam – Public Relations
- Ainu Shafira Binti Rosli – Financial Controller
- Puteri Noor Balkish Binti Muhriz – Feature Coordinator
- Nur Fatihah Binti Zaini – Feature Coordinator
- Singgih Pramono – IT Director
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