By Foo Ming Li
The establishment of the Media Team of Han University College of Communication’s (HCUC) led by Lee Xian Ying, a Diploma in Broadcast Journalism student Lee Xian Ying, received much attention from Ai FM Little Dream’s Big Sky programme. The radio station hence requested Lee and fellow team member Teh Kang Ze as the representatives of the Media Team to be interviewed on their ongoing activities.
Formed in October 2019, Lee informed that the Media Team includes all HCUC students who are passionate about news writing and creating online content for HCUC News.
Speaking about the origin of the Media Team, she mentioned that the news team’s advisor cum lecturer Kek Phaik Yong as the pillar behind it for encouraging the students to write news reports about the in-campus activities. They are even recommended to proactively pitch their preferred news topics instead of waiting for her instruction.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) by the Malaysian government, the student journalists of HCUC News were restricted from physical explorations to gather information from relevant sources. Upon Kek’s suggestion, the Media Team turned to the online platform hosting live stream interviews through HCUC News Facebook page which enabled new skills to be acquired,” she said.
Lee said the planning and hosting of the Facebook live stream is a trial-and-error process as the members of the Media Team are still learning the nuances of the platform. Hence, the team always tries to analyse and understand the audiences’ response towards the live stream every time they conclude a programme.
As for the future plan of HCUC News, Lee promised there will be a variety of programmes uploaded on HCUC News YouTube channel enabling the students and lecturers of HCUC to interact and play virtual games together.
Kang Ze who is a HCUC News student journalist and currently in Year 2 Semester 3 of Bachelor of Communication (New Media) said that his interest in news writing developed when he was still pursuing a Diploma in HCUC, but his busy academic schedule prevented him from contributing news articles for HCUC news.
Fortunately, the opportunity of joining the Media Team knocked on his door when Kek requested Kang Ze to host a Facebook live stream interview in March 2020 during the MCO which he happily accepted.
Some of the preparatory work, he outlined, to be done before the live stream is that he had to contact the interviewee, collect sufficient background information about them, think of an interview angle, design the Facebook live stream poster, and finally prepare the Facebook post captions.
“I need to ensure that my webcam’s angle is suitably placed, check the audio quality of my earphone, make sure the laptop is in a good working condition, and check if there is any echo present when I am speaking on the microphone before the Facebook live stream begins,” he shared.
Teh hopes he can use the lesson he learned in his studies and skills gained from the Facebook live stream to create a social media page to educate people on current issues and reduce cyber bullying.
For Teh, new media is an advanced technological version of journalism because all the journalistic elements can be operated on the internet and social media.
“The new media course does teach students the technical knowledge of video editing, online advertising and digital marketing, in addition to social media interaction with potential clients or customers”, Kang Ze said.
The Ai FM Little Dream’s Big Sky programme is a weekend programme segment broadcast on Saturdays from 11 am to 12 pm where the radio station announcer interviews high school or university students about their academic life or recent activities they have participated in to share their experiences with the radio listeners.
Leave a Reply