The past few weeks have been crazy. University life has been hectic, hectic, hectic. I am amazed I even found time out of all that pandemonium to breathe. The common phrase I hear among Asian students is that the academic curriculum here is very relaxed. One even described it as a 'holiday'.
This is not true at all.
So, last week, we were sent out on a journalistic assignment, where we had to scour the city for story ideas. According to the tutor, stories are everywhere and you can find hundreds just by walking down the streets alone. Well, according to the students, some spent hours scouring the city and came back with zero ideas and zero inspiration.
Finally, my groupmates and I reached an exasperation point and we decided to look for story ideas in a...police station. So, we walked in and introduced ourselves as journalism students and said we were hard-up for story ideas, and would the police so kindly assist us by providing us with something interesting that was happening in the city?
Well, the police recommended the halt of the 2am lockout, which was the Victorian government's initiative to curb alcohol-fuelled violence and crimes. It was to end its run very soon, and the police officer suggested that we do a story on the likely death sentence to be passed on the highly-controversial lockout.
Meanwhile, while we were busy hunting for stories to submit to City Journal, we had to do another individual assignment hard news story.
And, hence, I embarked upon another brainstorming trip again, which frankly is consuming all my brain juices. I'm not a fan of walking around the city scouring for ideas on blind faith, and I decide to conduct my research in the same fashion as most new-age journalists today: research on the net.
So, I goggled the latest events happening in Melbourne, and came across Melbourne Citymission's Homelessness Campaign 2008. Held in conjunction with National Homeless Person's Week, they feature activities such as Winter Sleepout and PJ Day. As the names suggest, Winter Sleep-out is held on a particular day where Melburnians organize their own sleepout, just so they experience what homeless people have to endure having to go by without a roof over their heads. Whereas PJ Day is where companies and schools wear their pyjamas to work, a smart PR tactic to highlight the desperate plight of homeless people.
So, I reported back to my 'newsroom' with two story ideas in mind. First, I informed my tutor that I was doing my hard news story on homeless people, knowing very well that my tutor would have concerns over whether it was more of a feature piece. True enough, with furrowed eyebrows, the tutor expressed that she thought it was a tad too featurish. I replied that it wasn't a problem, and I would find a way to make it more of a hard-news piece. Blame it on my lack of concern on insipid stuff that involves city councils, meetings, transport issues, blah blah blah.
So, on the day of the Winter Sleepout itself, I was supposed to be scouring the streets looking for people who had organized their sleepouts in the city, but I ended up at Federation Square watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008 together with thousands of China people on that Friday night. (More on that in another blog entry, and also, not you get a rough idea of how backdated my blog entries are, given that Olympics has already ended!)
My second story (individual assignment) was similar to the story ideas of two other groups in the 'newsroom'. We all had the same idea of doing the same story. Which is, the exploitation of international students as 'cash cows' by Victorian universities. While a local student only has to pay $2,500 a semester for his or her school fees, international students have to pay $9,000 a semester. A petition was filed by the student union to the Federal Government, protesting on the unfair treatment of international students. The petition urged the government to abolish full fees and to give international students access to student concession cards.
So, when I proposed this story idea to the tutor, I choose to do it from a different angle from the other two groups. I remembered my tutor telling me that the most important thing was for me to talk to people. Which I did, friends, strangers, events coordinator, media and PR people. Because she said that is the origin of story ideas. Talking to people is your tap flow of story ideas. And, sometimes, even though you set out to do the story in a way, someone might tell you something interesting that makes you go, 'Hey, wait, that is something interesting. Maybe I shall do on that instead,' and end up switching the angle of your story altogether.
I would find out very quickly that very same afternoon that what my tutor said was right. After deciding to narrow the focus of my hard news story down to my university's student union who was holding its very own petition, I decided to pop down to the student union for a chat for the first time ever. While I was poking my head around, I came across a room, where there were two guys inside. I introduced myself as a journalism student, and then started asking them questions about the petition. They were very nice and polite, and one of the guys from Africa said that he had visited Singapore and liked it very much. Then he offered me drinks and donuts, which I politely declined. And, he said it was part of the Middle Eastern culture to offer their guests food, and he wasn't sure if it was Singapore's culture as well.
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Sidenote:
Why do everyone I meet tell me that...1. They have visited Singapore before.
2. They like Singapore very, very much.
3. Singapore is very clean.
4. They would like to visit again.
A Spanish girl even told me that she loved Sentosa so much she was planning to apply for PR status in Singapore! And, then halfway when the conversation drifted towards what languages she was hoping to study, she rattled off, 'Erm...French...Italian....and, of course, Singlish! I plan to learn Singlish one day!"
My jaws immediately dropped to the ground. I had no idea Singlish could even be considered a language of its own. And, even more so, that someone would be interested in learning the language made (in)famous by the Phua Chu Kang series.
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So, back to my story. And, the trip down to the Student Union was where I got my second idea from. Noticing a sign pasted on the front door, I queried about it, and found out that there was a Soup Kitchen held every Wednesday in my university! Soup Kitchen is where the volunteers of the student union gather together to cook for students who are in financial difficulties. I ask about the response. One guy said it was very good.
"Would there happen to be any homeless university students among the queue?" I asked, seeing a glaring interview opportunity for my second hard news story on homeless people in Victoria.
One guy looked at the other and started talking about this guy and before I knew it, he was telling me all about this homeless university student whose conversations rotated around the orbit of his homelessness situation.
I expressed my interest in interviewing him, but they told me that since he was homeless, he couldn't afford a phone and didn't have a number. So, they suggested for me to come down the next day instead to look for him. I agreed.
To be continued...
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