I can't sit still today - firstly cause the new fans we got are freezing me to death, secondly cause the press kit on a technology event that I'm supposed to attend tomorrow has not arrived into my mailbox yet.
The press kit issue is the scarier part - no, not like Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam type of scare, it's more like oh-no-I-don't-have-professional-training kind of scare. So I might as well admit it - I'm the reporter who have been spoiled by press kits.
I learnt IT in college and U, I may know the technology, but reporting about it is a different ballgame. Granted, I did study some writing courses in MCC - hey, here's a shoutout: thanks Mr Mustafa for an interesting English 111 class.
Mr Mustafa gave me a B something for a paper I wrote - it was about how cancer spread - yeah, boring topic, but lots of materials available. I may have more interest in topics like Bermuda Triangle mystery or Malaysia-Singapore relationship post-1960's or something more motivating to research about, but I'm not the type that would go do something tough and enjoy it.
I'm the kind of person that likes to wear selipar jepun, you know, the type of shoes that you won't have to bend down and fuss with to wear. If you've been reading teen-mags/chic-mags, you'll know that people who wear slip-on shoes are said to have fear of commitments, hardship, and anything that's remeh (tedious).
And I am that. The worse part is, I went on to become an IT journalist.
Many IT journalists I've met have said this: IT journalists has got to be among the most pampered among the lot - we get invitations to events (99% at hotels, clubs etc), we show up (register at the separate media booth), get press kit (ooh, lovely photos too, no need to get photographers), attend the Q & A (what's new about this product?), eat and be merry (what? Popia itik? Can lah) and even get door gifts (weird, weird, weird stuff)as a motivation to quickly write and submit the stories.
So far writing stories has been like the English 111 class' assignments - betul, or I would not have survived! Formula: the who-what-where-when-how plus some insights (insight could be anything: trends, previous product comparison, lesson learnt, bla bla bla) equals to something you can submit to the Editor.
The hard part would be weaving up the story into a readable piece worth reading. Like a song arrangement, you want the story to have some "feel" in it, you want it to be appreciated and understood.
Another hard part would be the starting sentence - the attention grabber, the one that tells pretty much the whole story, the one that will affect the reader's knowledge, the one that give evidence to whether or not you're a good journalist.
So here's the point to all of my ramblings above: I've never done live reporting before. And I'm supposed to do one tomorrow from a place I've never been to before - sure there's a media centre, but what if it is full and by the time I get to a PC or a cable to connect my laptop time's running out and I end up sending a lousy piece for the Ed?
The PR girl said she'll send me a press kit on the event, but it has not arrived, so I'm a bit at a loss, and I got a feeling I might succumb to panic soon. It's not that I'm hoping to be so spoonfed that my whole story would be based on that press kit (no sir, we IT journalists don't do that!), but at least the press kit would give me some ideas for an angle for the story I'm supposed to submit at lunchtime tomorrow.
Ish suspen betul la...
Oich! It came! It came! Aiya, I must have been blogging too long not to notice the incoming mail icon appearing! OK lah, I got a story template to do, so ciao...
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