People might think journalists are all about reporting news, or making news seems more interesting, but it is not.There are more aspects in the journalism field than you think. It might become the most precious experience in your life.
Jiraporn Kuhakan, a former student of the Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication or BJM, she is the only one in BJM6 who works in the journalism field after graduating. She gains a lot of experiences from her internship at the Bangkok Post, and this internship also changes her life to a different path.
Jiraporn has never had a dream of being a photojournalist, but when she attended the BJM program and had taken the photo course. She fell in love with taking photos, and attend her internship at the Bangkok Post, which is the right path for her. After graduating, she continued to work as a photojournalist at the Bangkok Post for two years, she also has a part-time job as a news anchor at TNN24. These two jobs need completely different skills. There are also some difficulties in her work field, for example, being the only woman in the photojournalist crew. People might underestimate her and thinks that she can’t do a certain task like the other have to do, in this case, she will need to prove herself. Jiraporn also struggles with sexual harassment,
“When it is packed, the male takes advantage of me. I was scared, so I stayed quiet, but now I’m not afraid, and I always shout out for help,” said Jiraporn.
Because of all these problems Jiraporn needs to develop a lot of skills to be a professional in this field of work. After two years of working as a photojournalist, Jiraporn moves to BBC Thai and work as a video journalist. In this areaof work, she would need to do everything by herself, including writing scripts, shooting video, interviewing people, and editing video. Jiraporn needs to find a topic and pitched it to her editor, then she goes out and find her sources, interview them and shoot a lot of footage, after that she has to edit all the video. She needs various skills to do all these works. Nowadays, people have to be experts in many jobs to survive, since the company would choose the person who had more skill than a person who experts in only one job. These circumstances change Jiraporn life to developed these skills, and make use of what she had learned during university, she also got an anchor certificates that open more opportunities for her work and could change her life to a different path.
Not only skills that change Jiraporn life, but also working as a journalist had changed her perception of the world.
“When I started working, I was a kid. I began to look at the world and people more maturely,” Jiraporn answered.
Working as a video journalist makes Jiraporn look at the world through a different perspective. This kind of work may force you to do things that you’ll never think of in your life. Jiraporn have presented her work about Yoga Beer and Elder’s exercise which is unique and could lead her to know a lot more people. Knowing these people gives her more knowledge about the world, which will make her become more mature and had a lot of experience. She also has to be prepared every time she goes out on the field since she has to control the situation and make a decision if the interview is not going to the way she planned. These experiences forced her to think and plan her life like an adult.
In the end, if you found any career that matches your life it could inevitably change your life to a better path. As Jiraporn had already found video and photojournalist as her dream career, she put tons of effort into it; as a result, she gains a lot of experiences and meets a lot of people. Those experiences and individuals benefit her life to be headed to a different path, which is the better path for sure. Jiraporn is full of passion and doesn’t even think about the end of her job, which could have inspired us always to work hard and be passionate about our jobs.
“I couldn’t see the end of this career because news changes every day, and I’ll never get bored of it,” Jiraporn answer the question about the death of her career.
