Digging deep to find the truth

If you love to travel, crave new experiences and want to know first-hand what's going on in your city, then a job as a television reporter could be the one for you.

But to be a true journalist, you must be prepared to dig deep and do more than merely recount the most obvious facts.

 

Here are seven points raised by leading TV journalists:

1 "TV reporting is a fun job. But if you want to make a career out of it, you must be fearless," said Kitti Sighapat of Modernnine TV.

"It's not only about risking your life when reporting in sensitive areas like southern Thailand. It's also about daring to dwell on marginalised issues," Kitti said.

2 You have to dig hard to be an investigative reporter, said Alongkorn Muandao, TiTV's executive editor, an award-winning investigative reporter.

"When one boy is killed by another, it's not just a piece of crime news. What we should do is dig deeper and leave no stone unturned.

Maybe the real culprit is the environment where the child grew up," Alongkorn said.

Investigative reporters cover more than crime. Economic and business stories demand in-depth investigations. So do religious and cultural topics. For instance, if you see unusual economic figures or learn about monks who have breached temple rules, you should dig deeper into the stories, Alongkorn noted.

3 Ask yourself whether a story illustrates social problems, suggested Sama Komolsigh, one of the producers of "Tod Rahad".

"A good report shouldn't be sensational. It should reveal something about society," said Sama, whose university degree is in sociology.

He cites bribery cases involving highway police as an example. "Making scapegoats of low-ranking police officers is useless," he said, "because what you need to do is to identify the influential people behind them."

4 Try to see the many dimensions of a case, said Jom Phetpradab, another senior editor at TiTV.

"The better informed you are about current affairs, politics, economics, history and society, the more you are able to analyse events," said Jom, who broke the story about the missing Royal headgear from the Ayutthaya-period that was on exhibition in San Francisco.

5 Try to answer every question relating to the topics you're covering, said Chamroen Rattanatangtrakul of Modernnine TV. "You may think you've done a good job, but there are times when senior editors will ask unexpected questions. Do your homework and consider yourself a successful reporter when your senior editors don't have questions."

6 Be a team player and be bold, said news announcer Praveenamai Baikloi, news anchor of UBC 7. "I've learnt that you can't do a good job if you're too shy to tell your photographer what kind of pictures you'd like to have," Praveenamai said.

7 You don't need a journalism degree to be a reporter, but you must be a copious reader, said Montri Udompong, who has been praised for his reporting on the December tsunami and the social unrest in Thailand's southern provinces.

"Don't let it get you down if you aren't a journalism graduate. You can still be a good reporter,"said Montri. "It's about developing your skills." Montri graduated in Thai language studies from the Mahasarakam University.

By Aree Chaisatien

The Nation