I believe everyone in our class has completed numbers of group projects before, but there is indeed something that makes this final project special and unforgettable. The first point worthy to be mentioned is the group atmosphere. At the beginning, I was concerned that group mates would not take this project that seriously because it is “just” a summer program. However, the group atmosphere was even better than that in my home university. Everyone worked hard and kept putting forward ideas actively. With the brainstorming, we decided to make statistics about the occurrence of different types of reports that the Guardian recovered and fun facts it contained. It is really amazing that every member was willing to share ideas and I think it is passion for journalism that gathers us together.

The project is also a meaningful thing to myself. One year ago, I was acting as a simulated delegate journalist of the Guardian in the G20 Simulated Summit host in my home university. Since then I had been attracted by the Guardian, curious about why it is such an objective and serious news outlet. This final project gave me the chance to find the answer. The financial incomes are from subscribers, making the Guardian always acts independently and responsibly to its readers. Also, based on the background information and history development of the Guardian, I came to know more about how a news outlet operates and runs. Therefore, I found me so lucky to have this chance to be assigned a final project task rather than an exam.

(Our group photo: Running Geese)   (Act as a simulated delegate journalist of the Guardian)

Apart from our own groups, I found many of my classmates did a much better job than us. Having paid close attention listening to them, I realised that there were so many things we could learn. Take the Washington Post group as an example, Matthew deeply analysed the situation of the two parties in USA so as to give the audience better and clearer background information about the news outlet. Also, for the South Morning Post group, they have shown the change of press freedom from 2002 to 2018, which was a very careful finding. My other classmates mentioned the innovation and technology used by the New York Times as well, because in this era, scientific technologies mean a lot in journalism. What also impressed me was that one group made a comparison between reports and editorials, in which way they gave a more comprehensive image to analyse the news outlet. Though it would be better for some groups to explain more about the terminologies which were not familiar to the audience, many classmates gave pretty accurate, deep and properly detailed and concise analysis than us.

(Class photo)

Everyone was so diligent to put lots of efforts into the project, which inspires me to reflect on improvement I could make. Firstly, I think we should spend more time to prepare for the whole project. Moreover, what my classmates did reminds me that we should think outside the box rather than restricted by the specific time limits, because what matters most are what we learnt, found, and things we would like to share. Last but not least, improving my English is of great importance, no matter from vocabulary to grammar or from written to oral English. I really appreciate the time I spent here, which provides such a pure English environment to get myself all immersed. No worries, stepping forward is always needed.

(CBC Visit Tour)

As Sharon said, that “being a journalist is a way for her to combine all her interests” really inspires me a lot. Because I am just in the same situation: having passion in many different fields of things, no matter from traveling to reading, from taking photos to writing articles, from psychology to language learning, or from sports to music. I also appreciate that I have opportunities to hear Dr. Saranaz Barforoush share so many colourful experiences, willingly and selflessly. This makes me firmly believe how cool, interesting and of course the most importantly—-meaningful that becoming a journalist could be.

(Photo with Dr. Saranaz Barforoush)                                 (Photo with Sharon)

(Farewell pizza event)

Time flies—-

(At the School of Journalism, Sin Tao Building)

But road just begins.

(Streetscape in front of the School of Journalism)

To me, the CBC Tour was a unique journey filled with lots of previously unimagined things. Not fit into my prediction, CBC Building is a very normal architecture, quietly standing on a normal street. What is more astonishing is the incredible scene inside the building. It was almost 9:30 AM when we arrived there, while there were very few people working in, with many working sets vacant.

As told by the guider, different news programs and 6 time-zones that Canada owns make staff work at different time slots of the day. Take National Newscast as an example, people related to this normally work in the latter part of a day. However, for some early morning newscast, some staff may start work at 5:00 AM. Though lots of the staff turn to work after lunch, I still noticed a group of people discussing in front of a big screen, which were the reporters in preparation for outside field reports.

As we stepped inside, it was getting much more capacious and there were various newsrooms located beside each other. This also surprised me that even just one floor could hold studios of different languages and functions. Now that I mention the structure of CBC, some numbers cannot be ignored. Compared to 3000 employees 30 years ago, CBC just has around 250 staff now. Thinking about this, I think it is really mentionable that people here definitely cooperate with each other in a high-efficiency atmosphere when facing so many various news programs.

Personally, I am also eager to become a photography journalist one day because I am so into taking photos as a record and observation of life. This is why I was excited and couldn’t wait to see a series of photography machines at the very beginning. Unlike the few people, there were quite a number of machines inside the building, which reminds me of the perfect combination of technology and journalism. Apart from this, at the end of the tour, there was a screen hanging on the wall, showing the official webpage of CBC. This also explains the important role that technology plays in journalism. Because it could not only update automatically every 20 seconds, but also show various data like number of visitors online, the most popular reports, number of people visiting the website at specific country around the globe and so on.

There are two small points arousing my interest as well. The first is that there are some specific staff in responsibility to check the CBC email-box from time to time, so as to gain some stories deserving to be reported as breaking news. There is even a fixed site for hosts to report the breaking news. This set of procedure made me have a better understanding of the timeliness of news. The second one is that in the studio for radio interviews, hosts are supposed to raise up valuable and inspiring questions towards guests rather than giving pure reports. In order to achieve this, the hosts are in need to learn some specialized knowledge from experts at as long as not the broadcasting time. I really think this is quite a good arrangement and requirement because this shows respect to both of the guests and audience, by making the newscast more professional.

Other interesting “secrets” I found were pedals and the “cough” button. The former one was set below the broadcasting desk. Owing to the strict time budget, if the hosts find they are running out of time, the pedal is used to be stepped down to speed up the rolling of the script. As for the “cough” button, it is prepared for speakers in radio studio whenever they need to have a rest. I think these two small facts are not only fun, but also shows the humanized concept.

The CBC tour is a really awesome and unforgettable journey. I had a photo with the broadcasting desk, pretending to be a host. Though looking a little bit nervous and shy, I believe with more experience accumulated in the future, I could be a good journalist no matter what post I am standing on.

I am Asteria Yuxin Ji, a mainland China student studying psychology in the Education University of Hong Kong. “Why would a psychology student be interested in journalism?” Not to mention others confuse, I even ask myself this question sometimes.

Gradually, I found the connection behind. Psychology is about observing people’s behaviour and figuring out why, so does journalism. Being a journalist means that it is required to have keen insight and ability of sharp observation. As a person loving photography, I think my passion for observing surroundings help with building up a bridge between psychology and journalism. Apart from observing life with the camera, I also keep record of life with words. I like keeping a diary and reading literature, which teaches me to observe and think in a placid way.

I think I am an optimistic but introvert, righteous but curious person. Journalists exactly need to be silent in some specific occasions in order to know more objective facts, and sometimes they need to speak out when necessary. My meet with journalism dates back to a G20 Simulation Summit held in my home university last year, in which I am one member of the journalist team, sitting beside to observe the summit, interviewing simulated heads of state and writing report as a simulated representative of the Guardian. Through this experience, I found that journalist is to search for the conflicts behind things, and to convey necessary messages to the public. Since then I have also been attracted by how the Guardian deliver stories in a very objective and sophisticated way, hoping to be a qualified journalist one day.

It is the truth that journalists chase, and this is the coolest and most worthy thing I could ever think of.

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