KUCHING, May 25 — The Sarawak zone ‘Jelajah Hawana 2024 Bersama Siswa’ programme provides real insights to university students into the journalism industry by addressing relevant topics in the digital era.
Organised for the first time in conjunction with the National Journalists’ Day (Hawana) 2024, the initiative featured sharing sessions with local media practitioners that delve into aspects synonymous with current journalism practices such as mobile journalism, fact check and the use of social media.
A Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) student, Mohamad Akmal Husin, 21, said that as a Faculty of Education, Language and Communication student, the programme allowed him to explore journalism from a different perspective.
“I enjoyed this programme and hope that more of such eye-opening programmes can be held in the future because the topics covered are relevant to the current journalistic landscape.
“Another topic that can be explored in the future is media literacy because many people lack awareness of the importance of ensuring accuracy of the information that they read,” he said.
The roadshow, which ran from 9am to 4pm, was held at Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, also piqued the interest of students from other courses.
A Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak student, Ng Ting Wei, 21, from the Faculty of Business, Art and Design, said his keenness in staying updated with the current issues motivated him to delve into the media world.
Aspiring to become a journalist one day, he said the programme allowed him to discuss fact-checking and artificial intelligence (AI) with media practitioners.
“I personally like current affairs and politics but I feel journalism have become a grey area that no one is willing to break into, but journalists are still required even in AI age as the human touch in spreading information, not just to do fact-checks but also make it engaging to the wider audience,” he said.
A senior journalist at the Digital Media Desk of the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), Syed Iylia Hariz Al-Qadri Syed Izman, said the mobile journalism session he conducted received a positive response from participants keen to explore the world of journalism.
“It was an interactive and lively session, indicating that they really wanted to learn about the challenges faced by a journalist, especially when reporting news on their own, using mobile journalism techniques from writing news to recording videos and images,” he said.
A total of 250 students from Unimas, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak and SEGi College Sarawak participated in the programme held to provide exposure to students in selected institutions of higher learning about the world of media through knowledge and experience-sharing sessions from media practitioners in addition to instilling an interest in journalism in students and applying it in the working world.
The programme is held in six zones: Sabah, Sarawak, northern, eastern, and southern, where six universities are selected to receive contributions that benefit their respective communication faculties. — Bernama
