1)
BIOGRAPHY
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Name : Munira binti Iskandar
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Age : 22 years old
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D.O.B : 25 October 1988
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Gender : Female
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Employment History :
2008: worked with SLEU as SLEU coordinator-
part time job
2010: worked as reporter with NST-Internship
Highest Education
Level :
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Field of Study : English Language and Literature
(Honours)
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Major : English Language and Literature
(Honours)
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Minor : Islamic Revealed Knowledge
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Institute/University : International Islamic
University Malaysia
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Graduation Date : April 2011
Second Highest Education
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Level : Matriculation/Pre-University
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Grade : A
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Major : English Language and Literature
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Institute/University : Matriculation Centre
of International Islamic University
Malaysia
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Graduation Date : 2007
Skills
1) writing
2) speaking
3) translating
4) computer skill
5) facilitating
Interests
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Name
of Club/Institute/Association
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Post
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Persatuan Mahasiswa Terengganu
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secretary
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COMRADE
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Sub-committee
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Maaruf Club
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Sub-committee
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Cycling club
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member
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|
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|
|
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2)
WHICH
ORGANIZATION DID YOU WORK FOR? (PROVIDE COMPANY BACKGROUND IN DETAILS)
News Straits Times
The company consists of three department; editorial,
circulation and advertisement. And I did work in editorial department. There
are also Berita Harian bureau and Harian Metro bureau under that department.
3)
EMPLOYER’S
EXPECTATIONS THROUGH OUT YOUR INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME.
My daily assignment was based on what was assigned by the
editor or my request to go to any function that was listed in the daily
schedule. Then I had to go to the assigned place and collect the data otherwise
I can take it from other reporters. But it is more reliable to get first hand
story. Then after went back to the office, I had to brief the editor about the
story. After that the he will decide how many paragraphs I had to write. After
composing the story in NST software I had to tell him the name of my ‘slug’.
Then he will check it via intranet and edit in front of me as well as making
the story clear coincided with teaching me.
4)
FROM WHERE
DID YOU GET THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY?
NST is an established company and everyone knows about it.
Just called the office and asked whether it is possible to do internship there
and they asked me to send them a resume.
5) EXPERIENCES
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CHALLENGES
I would comment more on the challenges for being a reporter
rather than being an intern. Because
there is not much challenges faced by interns, we would not get scolded if we
do not complete the task properly. Basically what you need to have while
working for the media company is a recorder and your own transport. However I
don’t have my own transport and what I could do is just followed another
reporter. In other words, I cannot just request to go somewhere without
‘surveying’ first who is other reporter that will go there and whether he/she
could bring me there.
a) Crime check:
Sometimes have to wait for the CID chief for a long time (i.e.
1-2hour) but then after all the reporters (including from other news media) got
to meet him, finally after checking the database he said ‘no story’. However as
an intern it is ‘lucky’ for me since I will end up with just ‘goyang kaki’ at
the office while my mentor have to call all the district police stations and
‘beg’ for a story.
b) General Function:
In a big function that involves important person like Tun
Mahathir, I had to be quick and rush forward immediately after the function
finished. If I was late then I could not hear what he said in the PC because so
many people surrounded him including people who just only ‘mengada2’ and just
want to take his picture and waiting to shake his hand.
Then after went back to the office, I had to transcribe
Mahathir’s speech. It really needs a superb recorder and sharp ears plus quick
typing skill to complete the task.
c) Court:
Need to arrive early at the court. Once I went there with my
boss at 930am and the court case was finished (not my fault!). Then, I need to
take the story from other reporters.
Another thing that I have heard is reporters cannot write anything
in the court. So they have to just remember all the points mentioned. (I’m not
sure whether recorder is allowed in the court or not.)
d) Emergency crisis
Reporters need to go immediately to the scene to interview the
witness and to the hospital to interview the patient. I had covered the light
aircraft emergency landing case. We had to interview the trainee pilot and his
instructor at the hospital. Both of them were not injured and the challenge is
reporters had to follow them to and fro since they were busy with the medical
check-up process. Another thing is the instructor is Burmese and he did not
speak English well, his pronunciation is also not clear.
e) Interview
The challenge is I had to deal with people with different
kinds of behavior. Once I was assigned to interview sundry shop owners and
consumers regarding boycotting of the selling of sugar and cooking oil. Some of
them refused to be interviewed and some of them did not want their photos to be
snapped. Nonetheless there were also consumers who volunteered to be
interviewed.
I also used to do assignment about sex and drug involving
school students. I did the interview via
instant messaging only and I found many respondents that appear to ask me with
nonsense questions (e.g. Do you want to write ‘dirty’ story?)
f) I also used to walk into an office which is LPPKN with many
questions in mind but the officer refused to be interviewed because of the
government policy. Then she asked me to email her the questionnaires.
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TASKS
I only wrote a single story a day or none.
a) Crime check is daily check at IPK (Ibu Pejabat Polis
Kontigen), usually at 12 pm or around 1-2pm. It is like informal meeting of
reporters and the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) chief.
b) General Function such as Melayu Bangkit, and there are
several person gave their speech including Tun Mahathir. The story that was
written is based on the speech and the PC held after the function.
c) Press Conference is usually held by NGO or police officer;
usually the press released sheet will be given but is written in Malay.
d) Court story usually will be covered and written by staff
(not a stringer or intern). So my name was not included when the editor submitted
the slug to the HQ. The editor only assigned this kind of assignment to me
once.
e) Exco meeting is held every Wednesday. There is usually a PC
with Menteri Besar after the meeting finished.
f) Emergency crisis such as accident would need the reporter
immediately to be at the scene and this is the only kind of report that is not
in the NST daily schedule.
g) Interview people to
ask their opinion and experience.
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WORKING
ENVIRONMENT
As an intern, I worked on weekdays only and need to arrive at
9 am and was allowed to go back at 5pm (the office hour is until 6pm actually
and reporters do work on weekend and public holiday too). But there is no punch
card, so I can be late since the boss also arrives late. There is no fix time
for a reporter to come to the office. They can come even at the afternoon. They
just have to make sure their assignment finish.
NSTP in state like Kuala Terengganu is only a small office.
There are only approximately 20 employees in editorial department including 3 editors,
3 assistant editors, staffs, stringers, 3 photographers and 2 clerks.
Usually at 9am there are only a few employees in the office.
Stringers always go to find the story first before coming to the office to
write it. In the afternoon, everyone is busy composing the story.
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SALARY
(IF AVAILABLE):
Intern: RM 15 per day, even if you do nothing
Stringer: depends on the article which gets published. RM2 for
every 1cm length, RM30 for each photo published with colour and RM15 for each
black and white photo.
Staff: basic salary for fresh graduated staff is RM2500. If
including overtime, mileage and others it would reach to RM4500. If the staff
has M.A., the salary would be much higher.
6)
HOW CAN
YOU RELATE YOUR WORKING EXPERIENCES TO YOUR FIELD OF STUDIES?
NST uses English language in writing, obviously. And I got to
learn on the vocabularies and discourse that are usually used in the different
type of story like about crime, emergency crisis, court story, and press
released. I could also learn about the format and what need to be included when
writing each type of story. I was also taught about sentence structure like
what need to be highlighted should be in the front of the sentence (for sure
already learned it in Discourse Analysis but did not really apply it
previously).
7)
ANY
SPECIFIC SKILLS THAT YOU HAVE GAINED FROM THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME?
Writing skill-including taking notes skill
Speaking skill- the editor speak English
Listening skill- transcribing the speech
Translating skill-all PCs and interview data are in Malay
