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Mass communication is one of the growing industries in Malaysia. Advertising is a multi-billion ringgit industry with steady annual growth. Journalism is also a flourishing industry. Mass communication includes subjects like journalism. advertising, public relations, broadcasting. film production and photography.JOURNALISM

Journalism covers a various of jobs in a variety of settings. Journalists may work on daily newspapers, local weeklies, tabloids, magazines, trade papers, television and radio.

Newspaper Journalism
In journalism, there are two main areas of work which are collecting and production of material and that of processing it for publication.The first area of work is done by a reporter, while the second area is covered by an editorial team. The organisation structure in a newspaper varies greatly. Titles, functions and division of labour are not consistent throughout the industry.

However in an established newspaper, there are the following job areas:

Reporter
Almost every journalist starts as trainee reporter. A reporters work is rather hectic, usually working at irregular hours. Reporters cover any kind of event, from political meetings to fire to press conferences for visiting film stars. Reporters compose a story by asking questions and listening to interviewees answers at press conferences. They may also conduct one-to-one interviews with individuals.

For such interviews, reporters have to do some homework. To interview a politicans or a famous novelist, for example, requires some background knowledge. Such background knowledge is obtained through personal contacts, library etc. The deadline dictates the amount of time a reporter can spend digging up information. A news story may have to be completed within 12 hours, a feature could take much longer

Reporters have to be able to compose stories quickly. Sometimes dictating them over the phone, sometimes typing them in a noisy office. They also have to be able to use a telex and computer terminals. Accuracy, brevity and speed are more important than writing perfect prose. Reporting is a fact-gathering and fact-disseminating rather than a creative job.

Specialist Reporter
The work of a specialist reporter is to interpret and explain news, and comment on events, trends. causes and news behind the news. The number of specialists varies according to the type and size of newspaper. Reporters with a special interest in a particular field may do specialist along with general reporting. The main specialisations are: Parliament and politics, industry: finance: education; foreign news; sports; fashion; women’s/home interests; theatre; films: broadcasting. Financial reporters tend to be economic graduates; science reporters are science graduates but education reporters are not normally teachers. There are no rules about how specialists acquire their specialist knowledge.

News Editor
This is an office job which involves no writing and is suitable for journalists with organising ability. News editor controls reporting staff, allocates stories to individual reporters and attend senior staff’s daily editorial conferences.

Sub-Editor
The sub-editor checks the copy submitted by the reporters for spelling and grammatical errors. He also devises headlines and consults other editors, designs the layout of newspapers and decides on how much space to allocate to each article. A good story may have to be rejected, or cut up by up to 50% because some world event has to be covered.

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