By Haifa Farzaana Chek Zainon
GOMBAK, 12 May 2023: In conjunction with the Communication Festival 2023, the guest speaker from Sinar Daily, Tasnim Lokman, was invited to share her experience as a journalist and tips on finding ideas that are newsworthy on Tuesday (May 9).
Tasnim, who is an IIUM alumnus and currently working as Editor for Sinar Daily, shared how to find ideas for news writing including investigative types.
She noted that it is easier to find materials for news since the digital world produces an abundance of content online.
“Despite the accessibility of various contents, you should choose which materials are sensational as not all are important,” she advised.
To make the material gathered newsworthy, Tasnim emphasised the relevance of the issues to the community. “For an issue, consider this; how does it affect the community, how long will this issue last, and who is involved and impacted from,” she said.
She also mentioned that publishing news online requires “formatting and duration just like in a newspaper, you have to consider the news space [word count],” she said.
Considering the age of digital media, Tasnim encouraged optimising Instagram Reels to share content to gain traction from users, especially since many people consume digital content more than traditional media content.
She also shared her experience writing about certain topics such as stateless children, the logging sites in Frasers Hills, and the water pollution case in Selangor. For the logging site in Frasers Hills, she was inspired by a Facebook post by Puan Sri Shariffa Sabrina.
In her concluding remarks, Tasnim advised us to be smart in choosing the best materials to write about and be adaptable to digital news sharing. ***