Studying Digital Asset and Media Management MA in King’s College London, United Kingdom
Intern in Initium Media, Hong Kong
Had completed internships in the global division of Southern Weekly, as well as the international channel in GDTV
Before joining the International Journalism programme (or communication programme), I would like you to ask yourself a question: do you want to work in the news industry?
Just forget about all the scores and other influencing factors and find an answer from your inner heart. To be honest, I was saying “no” when I’ve been admitted to the programme. And all it because I have witnessed so many media students left their field, and instead, work in industries like PR or advertisement—if most of the graduates are leaving, why such a major is still promising?
The four years in UIC, however, changed my mind despite the growing sound questioning “fake news”. I was introduced to the ideal position of news as the “fourth estate” at the course named Introduction to Journalism, then cultivated my senses towards valuable news topics through continuous two-semester training of the foundation course. Then a serial practical course including the Reporting Lab as well as all the editing courses allowed me to have hands-on experience of daily reporting, and most importantly, the tolerant professors encouraged me to insist on my thoughts on tracking specific topics. The exchange experience was also inspiring, as you could dip into a completely different cultural environment, and gained insights into how different societies view China.
These subtle cumulations of understandings and professional skills have improved you consistently, but you could tell when doing internships in the industry. I was really lucky to work in Southern Weekly, one of the top in-depth news reporting agencies in China, for a whole summer; then shifted to the Initium Media, a famous awards winning independent media among the Chinese speaking region, for another six months. You could feel that your distinct international views and your open heart to different opinions are helping a lot when dealing with various news topics, and the superb efficiencies pushed by all the deadlines or assignments in UIC allows you to master multiple reporting tasks, which makes you stand out when comparing with other interns from some top universities.
It is quite difficult to sum up what you’ve learned from IJ. I would say that the major has left me with a unique critical thinking standpoint, which urges you not to stick to the usual convention and encouraged you to challenge the given answer. Any news angle that you are interested in worth investigating, for instance, I could lead my reporting group to spend a whole month going through all the lawsuits concerning a specific topic in the passing three years—and just for an answer—that’s the charm of investigative reporting.
In the last video assignment of Editing Lab II, I’ve interviewed a journalist from Hong Kong, his belief in journalism has touched me a lot. “Despite the social environment and all the critics over our job, we are still working firmly to inform the public—cuz that’s the duty that our society has given to journalism,” he said. Indeed there are more voices doubting our works, but please believe that there is still someone carrying the duty, and wish you could be with us.