By Aznan Mat Piah
If you think joining the mass media is to seek publicity and glamour, forget about it. It’s not just glamour seeking to be in the media or to be associated with the media industry. It’s not enough just to have a beautiful face or to be good looking to secure a position in the media industry.
The reality is that it is not as sweet as you would imagine it to be. It’s really going to be a rough and a tough journey ahead especially if you do not prepare your mind and soul for it from the beginning. Media is a creative and a competitive industry. It is always dynamic. It requires you to have both the passion and patience for the job, to be able to face the challenges. It means real hard work and commitment.
This is the view of those who have experienced working or been in the field, or are currently involved in the industry.
Working in the media is not only having the ability to smile in front of a camera or appearing cheerfully on television as anchorperson or to be reporting confidently on stand upper. There are more than that.
A media professional or practitioner is expected to be on his or her toes all the time to catch up with news and development. He or she should keep abreast with development of current affairs at the domestic and international fronts. They need to have good knowledge of the subjects or issues that they are reporting and skills on how to construct appropriate messages to reach the audience effectively.
Certainly there’s a lot of hard work where aspirants for the media job must learn to work under pressure of meeting deadlines. Communication students should make themselves exposed to the kind of job expectations if they want to be in the industry.
How can they learn to face the reality of the industry? The answer is they must have a lot of initiatives and drives and learn to pick up the discipline while still being students or undergraduates. They must start early and experience the stints of being in the profession. Do not wait to graduate before taking steps to improve on such skills and knowledge. Note the importance of soft skills like persuasion and the power of influencing, not only in writing but also in oral delivery of the message.
They cannot learn from textbooks alone or base their thoughts on theories and scholarly observation alone on how to do it. They must learn to put what they have studied into practice.
The industry practice requires aspirants to write interesting stories and articles for the media, prepare news for broadcast and print media, carry out interviews with personalities for certain media programmes, and write scripts for television programmes and documentaries.
They must have good knowledge about the subject by keeping up with current trend in the market and the ability to identify the technology to go about getting their messages effectively communicated to the audience. They must learn to be multitasking to handle the different media, including the social media and web page.
Above all, they need to be proactive so that they would be ahead of others in covering their news to the audience. They need to understand the working and operation of media organisations in getting their message appropriately interpreted by the audience. There’s credibility, accuracy and precision involved. There are also ethical questions to be considered.
Students should understand the tough nature of work in the media whereby they should not expect to work during the normal working hours. Being a journalist for print or electronic media or as public relations executives requires attending to certain events after the normal working hours or even at odd hours.
They should also brace themselves to work during crisis situations when the needs arise, for example, the recent Malaysia Airlines (MAS) crises which were both unexpected and unprecedented. Hence, there are a lot of challenges they are expected to face in their job. But the work is also a well rewarded and a recognised profession, and you can develop a good career in the industry.
The course that students undergo at undergraduate level for communication programme is designed for them to be able to join the industry upon graduation. But a lot would depend on the students themselves during their sojourn as students at the university.
Opportunities are created and made available by the Department of Communication for students to enhance their learning ability apart from the need to focus on classroom learning. The campus bulletin IIUMToday was created to provide a practical learning experience for communication students to learn to do news reporting, news gathering, interviewing, news and feature writing, as well as news editing. It is intended to give that kind of exposure.
IIUM.fm is another important in-campus practical learning vehicle, particularly for those intending to join the electronic media upon graduation. This would provide students the learning avenue for news gathering, news reporting and interviewing, producing programmes for broadcast, handling talk show, and writing scripts for broadcast.
It is compulsory for communication students to undergo one semester of practicum class for the different specialisations like public relations, journalism and electronic media, prior to being attached with the media and communication organisations for practical training or internship.
Those who are specialising in organisational communication too would soon be asked and be made compulsory to attend practicum and practical training.
As part of the learning process, the practicum students learn to organise suitable programmes by engaging the industry players in their activities or events held to put into practice their professional skills. Industry figures from communication field are also brought to the university campus for specific sessions with the graduating students. This is the opportunity of direct learning from the professionals to provide students with wide industry exposure.
There’s no doubt facilities and opportunities are consistently made available to enhance media learning in campus. And the lecturers, including those with industry experience, are readily available to guide the students. Therefore, students should avail themselves of the many opportunities to participate and excel in the programmes and activities to equip them to face the industry upon graduation.
They should join the news team at both the radio station (IIUM.fm) and campus bulletin (IIUMToday) to gain the necessary experience and exposure as well as to gain portfolio acknowledgement to help them secure jobs in the market.
When the going gets rough, the rough gets going, so brace for it! ***
Photo taken from CPL