Toby Vue, a magazine journalist for FairFex in Yass and will relocate to Wagga Wagga, West of Canberra, said that, being a journalist is different everyday. Nowadays we rely very much on social media but we can also talk to friends, people and politicians for news, some time it is easy and some time it is very hard and this is a very fast pace jobs and also very stressful profession and you do a lot of things at once.
Vue said that he publishes news articles every day on social media first and then update later. We need to make sure that all the information is corrected, and if you do it too fast it is sure there will be mistakes, so you need to update every news story.
Besides, those who want to be a journalist has to be flexible to work at any time when there is big story coming up, for example if there is big accident on the main highway, or an important issue with your local government on the weekend, you need to cover the story, not just doing your nine to five roster. Because there is community expectation that news needed to be reported. At the same time, we also have deadline that need to meet as well.
So what does it take to really make someone an effective journalist?
"Toby said that we need to be a very good listener because we deal with many different people each day therefore problem are inevitable. So you need to understand about this and be patient and very clam in order to get a good story because some time people get angry with you for some reasons. I think these factors make you a good journalist. Even though you have graduated as a journalist but if you don't acquire these characters, you are not a good journalist. Besides, you also need to have confidence, attention to details, consistency, true to the story, know the story you present and patience."
When talking about challenges about this profession, Toby Vue said that the biggest one is news dateline before news go printing. But before the dateline, if there is a breaking news story, you may need to cover that as last minute update before the print.
But at present there are fierce competition from different media outlets to be the best news presenter, how can or what can we do to be the best and the outstanding one out there?
Toby Vue said that "from my experience we need to be patient, and we need to earn people's trust, and to get to know them well or if they know you, and when this happen, if there is new breaking story, people will come to you first or check your site if you have put up the story, because they trust and they know you."
So how should some one who want to be a journalist or some one who want to work in this field has to do in order to get them prepared?
'Vue said that with the advent of technology, If you have interests in journalism, you can create your online platform first and then build on that. After that do networking, just sent your resume to your local news networks, and ask them for work experience. He elaborated that when he is still in Brisbane, he has sent his to Courier Mail and Brisbane Times asking if they have work placement. Then eventually I have got work experience with them. So you need to have the courage to ask for work experience. Moreover, you will also need to make friends and get to know journalists and you need real experience in order to work in this profession. Jioning journalism unions, media organisations like the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) which you pay monthly member fees, but you will get news and job alert whenever there are vacancies available, you will be notified through email or you can subscribe job alerts with Australian media outlets i.e ABC, SBS or Fairfex to name a few. Or you can sign up to LinkedIn because they also have clubs and societies within this organisation.'
But Toby Vue would like to reiterate that the biggest and the most important of all is to have interests in this field which then will drive your motivation. Because if you have no interests, it is going to be very hard doing this job. But if you enjoy your job and have satisfaction doing it, you can do it really well. But if you just depend on external factors like money or that, it won't last very long. Because if you received all that you will quickly lose your motivation. Therefore if you don't enjoy it, it wont last very long.
Working in media also have other risk factors especially legal case which relate to defamation, fake news and some time people come to the office to complain and want you to report their ways but we have to be balance and neutral.
Toby said that at present not just Australia but worldwide, journalists are losing their jobs. However, he suggested that if you still have an interest in it, do it. It is not because people are losing their jobs shouldn't scare you off, but because you can transfer skills from journalism to other professions like publishing or editing. So do not look at journalism as a field that some people are losing their jobs but continue to have hope in it. Or probably you can harness your languages skills into related channels as well.
Toby further clarifies that in the future, long form of journalism will still thrive like long magazine article, not every day news.
But will robots take over journalist jobs as media reported?
Vue said that sports news or financial news which involve a lot with numbers could be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. So I believe that magazine journalism which require creative language and utilizing real life situation creative journalism will still have future.
When asking about prints and newspaper are shrinking, will they still have future?
Toby said that yes, if we compare two years ago when I started journalism to present, prints and newspapers are shrinking, our pages has been shrinking, not just the stories but the pages as well as the stories contents, the space for the contents too, and the proportion between news and advertisement is increasing and leaning towards more advertising. Now our company is focusing on digital contents or online first then prints, but a decade ago it was the opposite where people read prints then go online. But now people tend to go online first.
Toby think that traditional medias are catching up because it was the innovation by Google, social media like Apple are at the forefront whereas the traditional ones are still catching up.
When question about if there are no more grants to public media like ABC and SBS, will they still survive like commercial media?
Toby said that it is sad that over $80 million grants were cut to ABC, but hopefully Australian government will continue to support and so they don't have to perhaps merge or using advertising models.
The different between public and commercial medias is that commercial have other income generation streams not just advertising. For instance, Fairfax also have their own store which sell merchandises, News Corp also own other media products like shows and movies, so even News Corp do advertising they can still receive income from other sources. But if ABC and SBS do advertising only, it is going to be hard for them.
Public media like ABC and SBS have their own policies and charters which are independent how they run their organisations and the government have no influence on their editorial aspects, even though government has input into editing, it still has financial input, so that indirectly affect the editorial processes.
Toby Vue's final comments to Hmong youth who might be interest in this profession. He said that if they want to know more about journalism he can be contacted through social media Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and he is willing to discuss and help. Because journalism is a fast changing environment and if you enjoy working in that situation it will suit you.#
Listen more news in Hmong and English at SBS Radio Hmong Program on www.sbs.com.au/hmong Thursday at 6pm AEDT-Australian Eastern Standard Time and Sunday at 11 am AEDT.
You can download SBS Radio App from App Store at https://apple.co/2pLgvCX and from Google Play at http://bit.ly/2GuIRv or you can download podcasts news in Hmong and English from www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/yourlanguage/hmong.
Besides, you can follow us, click like, share and comments at #SBSHmong website at www.facebook.com/sbshmong.
Call to have a chat with SBS Radio Hmong Program on + 61 3 9949 2259 or sent your comments to comments@sbs.com.au.
