10th July 2007 - More than 200 students from various schools in the Klang Valley and Kajang participated in a special seminar, the Junior Journalist Programme in conjunction with SEGi College’s Open Day and Night recently. Among the aspiring journalists-to-be who attended the programme were students from S.M. USJ 12, Subang, S.M.K. SS17, Subang and S.M.K. Yu Hua, Kajang

The JJP is a joint collaboration between SEGi College and its media partners,  The Sun, Nanyang Siang Pau, Education Quarterly and Group GTI. The JJP programme is aimed at grooming secondary school students who have an interest in publishing and journalism. It is of no surprise that the majority who turned up at the event comprise of members of their own school magazine editorial board.

The workshop seeks to help students develop their abilities in gathering and reporting news, editing skills, copywriting, and proofreading and headlining techniques, among other things.

“This programme is basically a training session that we have put together to assist the school editorial boards with professional guidance to enhance their skills in producing quality school magazines. We aim to help students develop beats, conduct interviews, write and evaluate news stories, assign and manage editorial staff, deal with printers and manage advertising and public relations. All the important skills to make a good journalist,” said Lee Kok Cheng, Chief Operating Officer of SEG International Bhd and Principal of SEGi College, Malaysia.

Lee added, “The event is opened to the public and we do not collect any entrance fee. We believe that it is important for us to do our bit in educating the younger generation and to help assure the effectiveness of their school editorials by offering any programme, one such as this, that would be beneficial to encourage inculcate and nurture student skills from their young ages.”

The JJP, which started at 11.30AM introduced a series of talks in the areas of content planning, writing, editing, photography, design and layout and also the legal aspects of journalism such as plagiarism and copyrights. The programme structure is also aimed at developing the students’ abilities in gathering and reporting news, editing skills, copywriting, and proofreading, and headlining techniques.

In her talk speaker Lew Pik Quinn from Doctorjob said, “As a journalist or a designer, you give additional perspective and guide to the story reported. Today, it is vital that a journalist has the additional skills required to maintain the web page. Though it is not necessary that a good designer makes a good journalist, nonetheless designing is an important tool to enhance the writing.”

She added, “As I am from a designing background I want to stress that graphic design is in everything we see in life today such as the road signs, textbooks, T-Shirts, newspaper, email, food menu and even as you can see over the television advertisements and even music videos. Being from a web background, I am also compelled to tell you about another important element in reporting, which is web design. Nowadays, virtually everything is online. Information is disseminated immediately through the internet, all major publications and even companies have their own web extension.”

There were also separate sessions in English conducted by The Sun Executive Editor, Lee Boon Siew and Chinese conducted by Cheng Kee Chien, General Manager of Nanyang Siang Pau. Both sessions were focussed on the importance of planning for the types of contents in a publication. They also shed some light on the impact of effective writing and reporting. Both Lee and Cheng are from the local mainstream newspapers and they were able to enlighten the students by sharing their invaluable experiences of working in a publication house.

Kenny Sia, famous Malaysian blogger introduced and elaborated the role of blogs in the society of today. He continued to inform the students on the effectiveness of blogs and how many Malaysians currently have their own personal blogs as platforms to discuss on their perspective of life and issues. It is also a hub for friends to get together to chat and interact with each other.

He also reminded the students to be aware of the taboos in blogging. “Whatever you write, you must know what sensitive topics are and what is not. Never write upon hearsay and always avoid defamation. Whatever is illegal offline is also illegal online.”

When asked about the programme and how has she gained from her participation, Jia Ling, from S.M.K. SS17 said, “I think that the programme has taught me a lot. I did not know what to expect when I signed up for this programme. I found out that there are different perspective and methods to producing write-ups for our school magazine rather than the conventional approaches that we practise.”

Participating teacher, Shirley Tan from S.M.K. USJ12 commented, “The programme is very good overall. Maybe next time, as enhancement, the students can participate in hand-on activities. Instead of a full day talk, as a teacher I would suggest that maybe next JJP is conducted in a ‘workshop’, allowing students to have a go in the studios and labs.”

As part of the programme, the JJP will award schools and students with scholarships and prizes for various categories – Best School Magazine, Best Article, Best Photo and Best Blog. The Best School Magazine will receive RM50,000 Scholarship, Best Article – RM30,000 Scholarship, Best Photo – RM10,000 Scholarship and Best Blog to receive RM10,000 Scholarship.

“This is our way to encourage the students to practise effective writing skills. As incentive, the winners will receive scholarships from us as symbol our dedication and commitment to helping the students achieve greater heights and accomplishment. We believe that education is a life long experience. We will continue to play our role in motivating and encouraging secondary school students to obtain proper tertiary education after they finish their secondary school,” elaborated Lee.

To find out more about the Junior Journalist Programme, call the JJP Secretariat Ms. Michelle Ooi at 03-6145 3008, email to michelleooi@segi.edu.my or log on to www.segi.edu.my.