It’s late Friday afternoon and the Bangkok Post editorial department is in full gear preparing the Saturday edition. After a week roaming the floor and talking to the journalists, Sarah Siripreechapong has a very good idea of what it takes to do the job. |
Editor’s note: Last month, Sarah Siripreechapong, a 17-year-old International School Bangkok student, spent a one week internship at the learning post.
Her ambition, she indicated in her application, was to become a journalist. "I feel by working at the Bangkok Post," she wrote, "I will find out if my goal is realistic and I will better understand what it takes to be a journalist."
During her week with us, we gave her a chance to do just that. What did she decide? Read on.
I’ve always been snooping into other people’s lives — but of course with the best intentions. Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if I could choose a career which would pay me to carry out my natural tendency to be nosy? That’s when I thought of journalism.
But would journalism really give me the license to pry? During my week at the Bangkok Post, I got the chance to find out and much more.
Why be a writer?
 Young writers, says Alan Dawson, need tough editors, "people who have no pity for you at all." (Editor’s note: We tried to accommodate.) |
So, why be a writer? There are countless reasons. Writing can give you an adrenaline rush. "It’s exciting," veteran Bangkok Post journalist Alan Dawson says. The adrenaline of getting the story and then the adrenaline of writing the story and having people read it," Dawson explains.
And writing does give you the opportunity to look into people’s lives. "You’re constantly learning, meeting people who are engaged with what they are doing says Kate Rope, a Luce fellowship scholar presently at the Post. "It makes you see the world, whereas if you were going to a bank, you’d have a similar experience every day."
 As a feature writer, Kate Pope explains to Sarah, you get to see the world. It’s not like working in a bank. |
Whether your subject is an American Nazi or the Prime Minister, as a journalist you get the opportunity to listen to and unravel the mysteries of people's lives. It can be really intriguing. For example, Rope went undercover with a lesbian and followed her for a week and wrote what it was like to be gay in high school.
By listening, learning and writing about the world around you, you are capable of bringing important issues to the public. "You make people think and sometimes make them change their minds about some things," Andrew Hiransomboon, an entertainment reporter says. You get to be influential.
There are also many perks to being a journalist. Because Andrew covers the entertainment scene, he gets to sample the food at fine restaurants and interview big artists like Bjork. He is treated like a god.
"There aren’t many parties I can’t go to if I want to go. A lot of people say it is cool, but it's easy to get caught up in it and believe you actually deserve it," he cautions.
Accepting challenges
 If you want to work for the news department, cautions assistant news editor Sonchai Nokeplub, you’d better be prepared for pressure and deadlines. |
It may sound like journalism is an ideal profession, but like any other line of work, there are both pros and cons. Journalism can be very hectic, especially if you are working in the news section like Bangkok Post assistant news editor Sonchai Nokeplub, "Our job is a daily thing. There is a lot of pressure. Deadline. Deadline. Deadline. Deadline," he says.
Work is somewhat less intense for Rope who writes for the Outlook section. When asked if journalism is an exhausting job, she says, "It depends. It’s sort of up to me. I could have three stories in a week and be running around like a chicken with my head cut off or I could be looking for story ideas and having a really slow week."
Rope has more options in managing her time because she writes features. Sonchai, on the other hand, is on day-to-day deadlines because he is a news editor. So, depending on what kind of journalist you are, your schedule could be chaotic or ultimately up to you.
Sansitsuda Ekachai, a well-known and very experienced journalist at the Post, looks at the question of time from a very different angle. "Journalism is a way of life, she says. You don’t think about how many hours. There isn’t a clear division between personal life and work."
Another challenge in journalism, quite apart from time management, is getting people to talk to you about personal issues. According to Rope, "Sometimes people treat you with suspicion, even though you know you’re a good person and your intentions are worthy and you’re not going to exploit them. People judge you before you can ever show them. You come in with a bias against you."
However, that is not the biggest obstacle journalists face. Every journalist, says Rope, must continually confront the same problem: "finding stories that haven’t been written about and finding stories people want to publish."
You need creative juices flowing in your body to come up with intriguing stories. This means constantly listening to the media, surfing the net, talking to people, keeping your ears perked up and eyes open.
Above all, says Sonchai, "it takes an inquisitive mind. You have to want to know what is going on and be on the lookout for enticing stories."
The writing process
Having good material is just part of the writing process. You also have to know how to write in a manner that captivates your audience.
You have to learn how to write an attention-grabbing headline and a good lead to lure the reader into your story. An enticing headline is especially important. For example, Dawson’s use of the term "witch hunt" in a headline caught my attention while reading the newspaper. He had used it as a metaphor for finding a scapegoat.
Andrew has a tip for coming up with headlines. For straightforward headlines, he says, you can use a reference to a book or a song – in other words, an allusion. This can be done with any kind of writing – from coming up with a good title for a class essay to composing an email to your friend.
Dawson strongly emphasises the importance of having "very tough editors" during the learning process. "You need people who have no pity for you at all. Who’ll bang you on the head and say that it is not good, go do it again. By having people being frank about your writing, you’ll get good at it…if you’ve got the talent," he says.
Not all the same
The kind of journalist you are makes all the difference in the world in the life your lead. For example, lifestyle for a journalist who writes for the news section would be much different from an entertainment journalist.
News is more factual, straightforward and simple. It’s objective. It portrays both sides of the story, whereas that is often not the case with someone who writes on entertainment. A movie reviewer, for example, can be very one-sided, giving his/her subjective view on a movie.
But there is more to journalism than writing. One of the key jobs is reporting. Often, reporters get the facts and someone else puts it into a story.
Sonchai recalls his reporting days as "a lot of excitement." He was able to report two plane hijackings.
"Reporters are like a working horse," Sonchai points out. They go out in the field and talk to people. They have their own ideas. They come back to us and propose (their ideas) to us.
"Being a news reporter is very demanding. You’re working around the clock. If something major happens at night, you need to go out to do the job. Sometimes you spend days in the provinces. And some people are not prepared."
Now that his reporting days are over, his lifestyle as a news editor is much different. "An editor is like a general manger, he explains. You have to listen to a lot of media. Read a lot. Talk to your reporters – reporters are the source of information. That is how we generate news."
Being responsible
An important key to being a good journalist, I learned, is simply to be a good one. Given your power to influence, you must use your position responsibly. Never, for example, step on someone just to get ahead and never exploit the people you interview.
Says Rope, "There are a lot of people who just want to get ahead. I won’t publish something if it is going to do damage to the person.
 How do you take raw interview transcripts and mod them into a story? Outlook writer Onsiri Pravattiyagul explains how it is done. |
"I put faith in my sources and try to treat them with respect and I think that is really important and people forget that and they just step on people or they approach everything with cynicism, I don’t think that is really productive," she adds.
What I learned
This is only a tiny fraction of what I learned during my internship at the Post. By the time I had finished listening to journalists working for the various sections of the paper, I had eliminated being a news reporter or writing for the Perspective section because they are known to be threatened by groups of people.
Why? For one thing, being threatened is not my cup of tea and someday I want to have a family and eight kids, therefore, I would need a lot of time off work and enough money to send them to college.
I was also told that journalism is not financially rewarding. That definitely conflicts with my desire to have a big family some day.
Nevertheless, the salary for a journalist is improving. "My salary has gone up to three times as much as it used to be," says Andrew who has worked at the Post for eight years. Yet, he cautions, it is not as much as it seems. So, at this point, I know being a newspaper journalist is probably not going to be part of my future plans.
By the end of the week, I had narrowed my path. I am now seriously considering being a magazine journalist. I haven’t decided if I want to be a freelance writer or not because one of my burning desires is also to be a full time psychiatrist.
This way I can listen to people and make a difference in their lives. Then by contributing articles to magazines on social and psychological issues, I can address my ideas to the general public.
Remember when I said I had a tendency to be nosy? Now, I feel I can put this to use in productive ways to help to alleviate problems in society.
Thanks
I want to thank everybody for making this memorable experience possible. I want to thank Terry Fredrickson for making my wish come true and for being the benevolent mentor he is. I want to thank the reporters for letting me interview them. Thank you, Onsiri Pravattiyagul, Supara Janchitfah, Kong Rithdee, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Sonchai Nokeplub, Kate Rope, and Andrew Hiransomboon. I also want to thank three wonderful ladies Judi, Sunee Canyook and Maureen Paetkau in the learning post department for helping me with my work and just being the lovely people they are. I also want to thank ISB and Dr Stroup for supporting me in this event. Anybody I didn’t mention, you know who you are and thank you for being the best.
terryfrd@ksc15.th.com |