Do you know how much work it takes to report something?

Throughout my reporting course over the past 5-6 weeks, I guess I not only learned the basics of reporting in different situations, circumstances and news; I also learnt how one needs to be objective, resourceful, observant, analytical, inquisitive, street smart, knowledgeable and adaptable.

I learned that to be a journalist, you not only need to be able to write decently, but most importantly, you've gotta be thick-skinned, on-the-ball and partly intellectual. Oh, and you've gotta have integrity too.

This profession demands and commands probably almost every single thread of your intellect, your EQ, your IQ, your communication skills, your networking skills, computing skills, writing skills, analytical skills and what not.

Besides the physical demands of running around and being at the scene, the mental demands can also be taxing, i.e. background research, taking notes, observing people and situations, structuring your content, checking and balancing, verifying and validating, and THEN finally writing your story, re-writing, re-writing and re-writing. The worst that can happen afterwards is that your story gets spiked.

So much legwork, so much preparation and so much consideration goes into one story.

Oh and not to mention for those in print newspapers, the story needs to be checked, laid out, re-checked, colour-proofed and finally sent to the press.

Did you know how much sweat it is to churn out a copy daily?

Thank goodness I'm in new media. Ha.