Ms. Cai-feng Chang’s explanation had enhanced my knowledge of interview methods, techniques and attitude. I’ve also learned that prior to an interview we must first prepare the questions. Even more importantly, prepare a pen to write down key points such as who, how, when, where, and what, to achieve the goal of the interview. After the seminar, our group members started to prepare our interview outline and also performed interview practices. Hopefully the interview with the holy palanquin master next week will be a complete success.

         Tuesday afternoon, our school invited Mandarin Daily News reporter Ms. Cai-feng Chang to teach us interview methods. After her explanation, I’ve come to realize that conducting an interview is not as easy as we had imagined. If you didn’t make an appointment ahead of time the interviewee would have been unprepared and feel that the interviewer was impolite. Also, when you realized that you’ve said something wrong you should be witty and cover up your mistake. This way the interviewee won’t be mad at you. During the interview when the interviewee stays on the same topic for too long, try to use your wit and cleverly move on to the next topic. This way the answering time for the other questions won’t be hindered.

        Tuesday afternoon, our school invited Mandarin Daily News reporter Ms. Cai-feng Chang to instruct us on how to become junior reporters. A good report must have resilient qualities and have the ability to react quickly. Ms. Chang said, “When you say something wrong, don’t be nervous, use humor to get you out of the jam.” “When looking for news, always find something fun and interesting, only in this way would the readers be interested in your article”. “Being a reporter is no easy job, we got to go out early in the morning till afternoon in search of interesting stories, and then we would have to write a two thousand words report. If the report doesn’t flow or if there were mistakes it would either be returned or thrown in the trash.” From this we can see that not only does a reporter have to have the nose for big news but he or she must also have good writing skills. This is definitely no easy job! A reporter must also have a sense of justice. If a politician promises something and changed his or her mind or if he or she buys votes, a reporter will have to report it. Those who they write about may get angry and want revenge. Therefore, a reporter may have to deal with special circumstances. If you want to conduct an interview, you better make an appointment with the interviewee. This way the interviewee wouldn’t be caught unprepared.

           Ms. Cai-feng Chang shared with us some interesting stories about being a reporter and she also taught us a lot of interview techniques. Through Ms. Cai-feng Chang’s careful explanation we gained a deeper yet different understanding of the concept of news and the role of a reporter.

          For the purpose of the Cyeberfair project, our school invited Mandarin Daily News reporter Ms. Cai-feng Chang to instruct us on how to be a reporter. Once in the Art Classroom, Ms. Chang gave a simple introduction of herself and then asked whether we had any questions before the class starts. At the time, the room seemed especially quiet. Nobody raised their hands.  It was at this moment that Ms. Chang said, “Why don’t we play a game!” First, each of us was given seven pieces of paper, and then we were told to write our names on each of the papers accordingly. What’s going on today? Something interesting? …waiting for an answer.  After we’ve finished writing our names on the papers we were told to put the papers into seven paper cups. After that we were told to take out seven pieces of papers from the seven cups and read its contents out loud according to the order they were drawn. After reading out loud, we were laughing so hard that our stomachs were going to burst. For example, Mr. X carrying a quilt plays the harmonica in the middle of the night. Immediately Ms. Chang explained to us the key points to reporting news. You must determine whether the news is interesting or not to decide whether you want to report it or not.