* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The passion, enthusiasm and curiosity most participants brought to the classroom bode well for the future of journalism in the region.
What a week it was for news. Planes crashed, navies skirmished, bird flu hit England, the economy swung from boom to bust and back while floods ravaged Rotterdam as Southeast Asian journalists cut their teeth on reporting and writing at the Vietnam TV and Thomson Reuters Foundation General Reporting Course in Hanoi.
Like their counterparts across the globe, journalists in Vietnam and Southeast Asia now have to compete with the Internet to make, and break, news. Throughout the week, participants had to decide on what was newsworthy, and why, honing their news judgment and interviewing skills by answering the questions “guess what” and “so what” while listening to speeches and sifting through press releases.
Using the Reuters breaking news drill, TRF trainers Nigel Stephenson and Miral Fahmy guided the participants through the basics of best-practice journalism, showing them the value of ACT – alert, confirm and tell the team. The thrills, and ills, of social media were also highlighted and a lively discussion ensued as participants aired their biggest challenges and tips for getting exclusives.
The passion, enthusiasm and curiosity most participants brought to the classroom bode well for the future of journalism in the region, where both reporters and audiences are hungry for accurate and unbiased news that tells the whole story. It was a privilege to play a small part in shaping the news agenda from the region and to meet these young journalists, who reminded us of the value of good journalism in this age of information overdose.
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