In my slightly over a decade period as a professional journalist, I see myself as lucky having gone through both the traditional and the new journalism era.
I also consider myself lucky to have gained experience in all forms of journalism media, from print to broadcast and also online.
And even luckier, to have been a part of large media organisations and also running as a one man freelance and entrepreneurial journalist.
All this definitely gives me (or at least I think it gives me) some weight when it comes to commenting on and even practicing journalism.
Before you all start dissing me about being self-gloating and self-righteous, just here me out. At the end of the day, I'm writing this column and not you! (I kid! I kid!)
Jokes aside, I feel very passionate about journalism and the media and want nothing more than to see it thrive and see more and more people get in to it in Malaysia.
So it really pains me when I see young journalists (and many old ones too) these days who don't want to give themselves a chance to experience and learn new things.
When I started out, I struggled to figure out which aspect of journalism I wanted to be in. Did I want to be a print journalist or a broadcast journalist?
I was annoyed that I had to choose. But there was no other way back then, and so I decided to experience it all one by one, slowly.
As soon as I graduated, I joined a newspaper for some time, and then I quit and joined a television station. Then the Internet started to explode and journalism found a new aspect.
This was when I became a freelance journalist (I prefer the term entrepreneurial journalist) so I could try and experiment with all three mediums and see if I could merge them together.
Fast forward ten years and in this day and age (in fact, it’s been like that for a while now actually), there is no such thing as a print or broadcast journalist anymore.
With newspapers doing web videos, television stations going online and news websites applying for publishing licenses, a journalist has to be multimedia to have any sort of worth.
If you join a newspaper, you are going to be expected to take photographs and shoot video. If you join a television station, you will be expected to write articles.
Look at it this way. As a journalist, you are really a story-teller. In the age of New Media, there are so many avenues to tell your story that you wouldn't want to restrict your story or your audience.
I'm sure your story is an important one that deserves to be told, right? Or else you wouldn't be going all out to gather the information and want to tell it.
Take me for example. I try to maximize my stories as best as I can by producing videos, taking photographs and writing articles. And I have done this for so many of my projects.
It is of great satisfaction to see your work reaching the widest audience it can through a television programme, an article online, and as a photo essay in a magazine or newspaper.
It really isn't that difficult to do. It just requires a little bit of planning and thinking. But if you're a true blue journalist, thinking about your story is already at the top of your mind, right?
And for those journalists who are adamant that you're strictly a print journalist who doesn't want to hold a camera, or a broadcast journalist who doesn't want to write...
You would fit right in with the rest of the journalism industry... if this was 15 years ago!
Times are a-changing and things are being done differently now. In fact, I feel a little bit silly even having to write an article such as this since this change actually started happening years ago.
And don't you dare tell me that it can't be done. I've done it and am still doing it. In fact, I'm starting to feel bored from doing it for so long that I'm thinking of even newer ways to do things.
For example, on a recent assignment to Afghanistan on my own, I managed to produce a dozen TV news reports, three documentary episodes, a ten-part feature article series for a website, a photo essay for a magazine, and a graphic novel which is currently in the works.
There are many journalists, young and old, who are also embracing multimedia and new journalism. And these are the ones that will move the industry in Malaysia forward.
As for those who are still in the backwaters, you better shape up or ship out. Here's a tip - I hear working in a bank offers good employee benefits!
Zan Azlee
Thu Mar 21 2013
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