By Koh Joh Ting, School of Film and Media Studies

Introduction

One thing a journalist has in common with a cook is the unquenchable thirst for colour.

Spice. Detail. Flavour. Call it what you will, but it’s what gives your curry that kick and your story that compelling life-like quality. And cooks and writers worth their salt spend hours slaving for the detail that separates them from mere mortals.

As a journalism lecturer, one of the qualities I like to look for in my students’ work is how much risk they take. It’s those who venture beyond the usual questions that get the edgier, the more unusual stories. And to sense that hunger in my students is a joy.

Sadly it is a rare privilege.

It seems that right before they entered poly, my Mass Communication students had been conditioned to avoid risky composition questions in the O level English composition exam.

These “risky” questions, so I hear from a colleague who used to teach Secondary 4, are often the last two of five questions that require students to discuss or argue with respect to a point of view. An example is “Money is the root of all evil. Discuss.”

Bob Chua of Sun Microsystems said at a recent talk given at Ngee Ann Polytechnic:

Learning to take a risk is an increasingly important skill that is expected of the super grad these days.

Super grads are expected to not just be tech-savvy, but have high EQ, have the ability to deal with ambiguity and be entrepreneurial. It is only so that they can be the idea generators for the workplace of the new millennium.

The trouble with news-writing is that engaging news stories can only be achieved if a writer adopts a ground-up approach rather than the top-down approach.

The top-down approach is to quote extensively from an official press release – which is very safe and controllable – while the other approach is to quote extensively from people who are affected by an action announced in the press release.

This is trickier because you are not sure what people are going to say and you need to work the ground more thoroughly to get a good feel. Obviously the top-down approach is the least risky.

Risk: Finding Interviewees

For an assignment in our news-writing class in the Diploma of Mass Communication within the School of Film and Media Studies, I asked all 172 students to cover one event among a list of 10 for Arts on the Move, the fringe programme of the 2008 Singapore Arts Festival.

Their task was to attend more than one event, choose what they find interesting, research the event and the performers, attend the event and describe the audience reaction to the event. They had to figure out the angle they wanted, who to talk to and what colour to put into a specific inverted-pyramid structure.

[The inverted-pyramid is a format used by journalists traditionally to write about breaking news in a concise and succinct manner, with the facts in a logical sequence. Typically, the pyramid starts with a news point, followed by a paragraph stating the context, background and quotes.]

Risk: Stories Outside of the Students’ Norm

Despite a range of performances covering a capella singing and a dusk-to-dawn Hindu epic, the events the students chose were “safe”. They were either a feisty flamenco dance, an experimental dance, an Indonesian drum performance, or an interactive performance featuring three overdressed tai-tais and surprised MRT commuters.

Students came back tending to complain about reluctant interviewees, or having to brave crowds of competing reporters from the class. They also complained they had to think very fast on their feet and be prepared with research or see their interviewees walk away impatiently.

One of the more successful news stories was by Samanthan Chui, who covered a rather sombre and experimental dance performance portraying a rebellious relationship between a teenage girl and her parents in Clarke Quay. It was a difficult story as few spectators connected with the show generally. But with the right interviewees, she brought an emotional centre to her story.

She wrote of the performance by Frontier Danceland, “The heart of Clarke Quay took a sombre note as diners and partygoers took a step slower and walked through a story of an unshakeable tie – family love.”

She interviewed a teenage girl and two mothers, one of whom said, “The message was loud and clear even though no words were spoken … it reminded me of my own daughters who are always fighting despite their unspoken love.”

The authentic news-gathering approach was not always smooth-sailing. As a lecturer, I had to manage the risks involved.

Risk: Acceptance by Community

For starters, the organiser complained that some students interviewed tourists during a performance in an MRT train, which was deemed disruptive to the performers. I was asked to “vet” all questions to be posed by the students.

I used the organiser’s critical email as a teaching tool to remind students that the media industry is looking at them with the same standards as it would regard any rookie, and how they want to be perceived is up to how they conduct themselves in interviews.

The complaints stopped.

In another instance, a few students called from Toa Payoh’s HDB Hub in a panic as a few security guards asked them to leave the area. I instructed my students to stay polite always and ask politely why they had to leave and to note the names of the guards. In the meantime, I rushed down to HDB Hub so I could respond to whoever was accosting them. The security guards never bothered them again.

It was an early lesson on how students tend to stand accused of ineptitude until proven otherwise. It also taught me that if I cared about what and how they wrote, I needed to engage the community to help the student transition between academic and professional requirements, especially if they were enterprising (read: innovative) in getting interviews.

In a later assignment students were tasked to source for the own news stories and present them in an eight-page community newspaper devoted to youths.

Risk: Expectations and Responsibilities

A student, Jason Lee, managed to get a five-minute interview with the Minister of Community, Youth and Sports at an emergency preparedness exercise in a Northwest district event. Unfortunately, he did not make clear if it would be published and the press secretary had to ask for help in locating the student for clarification. The enquiry email was routed to me.

I located the student and said he needed to be clear in his communication with any interviewee, including whether it would be published and when. I added that if he were a freelance reporter on the scene, he might have to depend on word-of-mouth to get jobs. His reputation mattered. On the phone, Jason’s voice suddenly seemed to have a more affirmative ring as he uttered “Yes, ma’am.”

Happily, not all interviewees were as openly skeptical of students. The public relations firm in charge of SINGFest was an exception to the norm.

Student Nur Aqilah was thrilled to get an email response from SINGFest publicist Debbie Loo. She had feared that she would be ignored as a student reporter because of the prior experience with the Arts Festival.

“But it turned out that the PR person was a very nice lady and she answered my questions willingly,” said Aqilah. “I feel that going out there and really experiencing what journalists or reporters do can teach us some life values. Basically, if you never try, then you will never know the outcome.”

It is an attitude the most resilient writing students will adopt.

Outcomes

Example Student Article: Chui Yong Cheng reports on one of the dramas performed during the arts festival:

One Table Three Chairs strikes a chord [MS Word document, .docx format]
(Includes a personal reflection on her experience of this authentic assessment task.)

Another student, Joshua Tan, shared in his reflections that he learned how to approach interviewees and to be subtle in guiding the interview in the desired direction. He added:

Finally, I learned that it is important to be able to think on one’s feet to alter a question as and when is required. This is essential as different people perceive things differently, and will give different answers if prompted in different ways. This also aids a reporter in getting different points of view from the various interviewees.

Andrew, another participant in the news-writing class, said after the experience of going out to interview audience members:

I have learned to understand people much better. Also, I have started to learn to ask the question ‘WHY’ more often. It is true that students do not ask this question often, but it is very important as this is a follow-up question and this type of questions are the ones to lead you to a good quote.

Conclusion

Forget the A-graders who toe the line like the O-level exams expected them to. They will forever be the ones waiting for pat answers. I tell my students never to look at me for answers. It’s the risk-takers with the right details that score.

It is by making students venture beyond their comfort zone that we can create an intensive stretch for their ability to engage their environment and benefit from their learning.

Author

By Koh Joh Ting, lecturer in the School of Film and Media Studies, Ngee Ann Polytechnic.