ESL Blogs

Educating students on effective media

11 January, 2012

   A workshop under the theme of ‘Effective School Journalism & 21st Century Student’ was held at the premises of ‘Caring Hands’ – Puttalam office on Saturday the 07^th January, 2012 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm to educate students on mass media which was organized by ‘Caring Hands’ collaborated with Media Unit of Zahira National College, Puttalam.

   Prominent media personals of Puttalam were conducted the workshop. 20 numbers of students whom selected from Colleges in Puttalam were benefitted by the workshop coordinated by Mr. A.B.M. Fazil, teacher in charge of Media Unit of Zahira National College.

   First session was conducted by Mr. Hisham Hussain (the writer) on the topic of ‘How to write a news report?’ by providing examples from different print and electronic media, emphasizing the ethical attitudes which a media personal should obtain in a multi cultural, multi religious country like Sri Lanka.  The area of the discussion lecture widen from introduction on the difference between ‘story’ and ‘news’ to the basic grammar (principles) of a news report.

   Mr. Arshad Ali, an under graduate of Wayamba Campus of University of Sri Lanka conducted the second session on ‘Effective Presentation’ with group practical works. He covered a vast area on his topic from pre-presentation, on time presentation and post presentation and the importance of the presenter’s gesture and posture.

   After the lunch break, third session of the workshop was on ‘What is a good photo’. This has been an introduction on identifying photo which is having a story on the picture. Many photos were shown to the participants to have a basic idea on, ‘a photo speaks thousand words’. This session also conducted by Mr. Hisham Hussain.

   An unfortunate was followed by the power cut for necessary repairs by the Sri Lanka Electricity Board.  It compelled Mr. Zanhir, Project Coordinator in the Zonal Education Office, Puttalam to present only a vocal lecture on ‘Posting news blogs to www.puttalamonline.com ’ the official website of Puttalam city, without practical examples. He emphasized the importance of a social media network and the role Puttalamonline plays in Puttalam society.

   The objective of the workshop was achieved by the organisers was clearly noticed by the comments made by some of the participants. Participants were in thirst of gaining more knowledge on media.

   Educating students and public on media became a need of the era, which controls the mind and attitude of people.