I attended the course named “Writing and Reporting News” organized by Thomson Reuters Foundation which was held between 10th and 14th of October this year. My instructors were Lisa Essex and Mathieu Robbins. Lisa and Mathieu are both excellent reporters who worked for Reuters before. I learned a lot from them like how to write company news and the ethics of being a journalist.
My work at the Apple Daily is to cover the news on medical issues. So, I am very unfamiliar in writing company news. During the course, Lisa and Mathieu taught us the structure of a news article first. Then, they taught us what questions we should ask in a press conference of a company which is suffering from a scandal.
For the ethics, the instructors reminded us the importance of accuracy in journalism and how to avoid any bias. Lisa carried out a little quiz with us by giving us some scenarios and we had a group discussion on how to tackle the problems in these scenarios. They were scenarios that had really happened to Reuters’ journalists in the past.
Although we needed to attend the course for around 7 to 8 hours per day, I never felt bored. I loved listening to what my instructors said and to share their experiences. Every morning they played ‘ice-breaking’ games.
I also liked discussing with my coursemates different news issues. My coursemates came from different parts of the world including Egypt, Uganda, Columbia, Brazil, Vietnam, Slovakia, Myanmar and China etc. Even though we all have different cultures and just met each other on the first day of the course, we still enjoyed sharing our experiences in the media industry and hanging out in the beautiful London city.
Besides attending the course, I visited Oxford and Brighton during my stay in the United Kingdom. I think I am in love with this country. Having a chance to go there and to join the course of Thomson Reuters Foundation is the nicest thing for me in 2011. Thanks Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Journalism Education Foundation Limited (Hong Kong) for offering me this valuable experience. I am looking forward to joining similar course in the future.
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