By, Sabrina Mohd Noor and Tanasiya
GOMBAK, 28 May 2025: A riveting forum titled, “Between Passion and Career: Building a Career in Journalism” was held today at the Human Sciences Seminar Room, attracting students and aspiring journalists eager to gain insight into the demanding world of journalism on 27 May at IIUM Gombak. This forum was organized by COMET IIUM in conjunction with COMMFEST’25 and supported by a lineup of sponsorships including ReSkills, Baitulnur, and MyKori, the forum featured three distinguished media professionals who brought their diverse experiences to the stage.
Among the prominent speakers were the News Editor at New Straits Times Press and News Presenter for Media Prima, Muhammed Ahmad Hamdan, and Chief Reporter of Malaysiakini, Hariz Mohd. Both of them stressed how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the newsroom.
“Be a master of AI. Don’t let AI be your master,” Muhammed asserted. While AI can draft stories, summarize information, and edit content, it cannot replace human judgement, ethical considerations, and truth-verification that remain firmly human responsibilities.
Hariz also emphasized that AI could cause problems if people depend too much on it. He gave examples like the wrong Malaysian flag being shown and incorrect information in government education reports. This is all because people trust AI too much without checking.
Moreover, another panelist, a Communication Consultant with United Nation Agencies, Muhammad Razlan Rashid Ali, offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his career from journalism to high-stake governmental communication. He spoke of a pivotal moment when his appointment letter was signed by the Prime Minister himself. Having worked closely with the Prime Minister and high-level diplomats, Razlan has dealt with sensitive diplomatic communication and weekly reports that shaped cabinet decisions.
Background of these three speakers are Razlan an alumnus of IIUM, as well as a part-time lecturer at IIUM, reminded the students how lucky they were to be students of IIUM that gives them opportunities to practise their journalistic skills. Hariz also an alumnus of IIUM majored in BENL. Furthermore, Hamdan, a Business News Editor at NST, with 15 years of experience in journalism, hoped to help enlighten the students about the field of journalism.
Sharing their experiences with students, the speakers talked about their backgrounds and what inspired them to get into journalism. Razlan spoke about how it was fated that landed him in the field of journalism, like many other students he was sending resumes to companies he was interested in, and as “a stroke of luck” or fate, he was called in for an interview at Bernama, where not only his interview went well, but he also learned about his father’s roots in journalism from before he was born. According to him the essence of the interview was the memory of his late father as a journalist. He got the job and was straight away sent to cover the tsunami of 2004, which kick started his journey in journalism where he worked hard and started covering more and more events.
For Hariz, he had not ever imagined himself as a journalist before, as he was not from a communication background to begin with. After graduation, he began working for a humanitarian NGO, and then as a personal assistant, and finally did an interview for a news company in Shah Alam, where he started his career in journalism in 2009, and three months later he was offered a job at NSTP, where his degree in BENL gave him the edge. Hariz said that he tried a job in public relations but he came back to journalism as he fell in love with it. According to Hariz, journalism might not make you monetarily rich but it will make you rich with experiences which you will not get anywhere else. He said that journalism is a job where you can get a taste of everything from politics to crime scenes, there is nothing else like it, including visiting places no one else is allowed to like nuclear power stations.
This forum provided more than just career advice. It offered inspiration and a reminder of the power of the media. Attendees were given the opportunity to engage with speakers in a Question-and-Answer session.***
