A tough teacher gives me the first on-camera opportunity on my TV journalism path.
Morgan LIN
In August 2012, I was doing my internship in a local TV news channel. All the time, I assisted a female reporter to finish some news gathering. She was supervising my internship. Maybe because she was relatively junior compared with other reporters, all stories we were assigned to interview were relatively minor and monotonous.
As this weird feeling persisted, my enthusiasm for journalism was being worn down. I just became accustomed to the fast pace of work and constantly changing shifts, nothing more.
Dawn heralded the arrival of a new day – Aug. 17, 2012.
At 6: 30, I arrived at the office and searched the Internet to find some stories worth covering at the same time.
At 7:15, senior reporter Sang Ding rushed into the office. I greeted him. From his expression, I could detect there was something wrong. After a call, he turned to me and told me to come with him to Pengzhou to cover a disaster.
Hearing the order, I felt a little shocked and afraid. Even if I never cooperated with this experienced reporter, I had heard gossip about him from other reporters on how tough and unkind he was. Even other interns complained about him. So I did not know whether I could get along well with him. Besides, suffering from sleep deprivation, I would rather stay at the air-conditioned office to have a nap before my supervising teacher came. However, as a trainee, even though I was reluctant, I had to abide by the order.
At 7:30, we set off to Pengzhou. Stretching from last night into the early morning, more than nine inches of heavy rainfall caused widespread havoc in Pengzhou overnight, triggering flash flood and debris flow and causing traffic jams and houses to collapse.
At 9:00, we finally arrived at Xinxingchang Town, one of the worst-hit areas. At the scene, the road surface of a one-lane connecting Pengzhou with Baishuihe had been destroyed by the rush of the persistent rains, leaving a five-meter-deep hole covering at least 20 square meters of pavement. And impact force from flooding was continuing to tear away the remaining portions of the road, approaching the two-story building alongside the road.
After a short shoot, Sang told me to observe the situation carefully and prepare a one-minute on-camera report. And then he went on focusing on shooting pictures, leaving me standing still with astonishment.
Frankly speaking, I have imagined the moment of doing my first on-camera report for many times but never expected that it could happen in such a hasty situation.
Usually, this kind of work is conducted by experienced on-camera reporters rather than a rookie. Since I had no courage and no chance to refuse his order again, I immediately flung myself into preparation. From the ruined road to the raging river, from the reaction of victims to the work of the maintenance workers, I absorbed as much information as possible during a limited time and organized my words in a logical manner.
Nearly at 9:30, I had my first try. Only after merely two sentences, it was interrupted because once I forgot what I planned to say next, I could not continue my reporting. I could not escape from the state of reciting something prepared even though I repeatedly reminded myself to describe the situation naturally and fluently.
Taking a deep breath, I was asked for a second try. This time, I tried to exert some psychological suggestions on myself to overcome my persistent tension. I managed to clear away those annoying words hovering in my brain and expressed what I was observing instead of a set of fixed contents. Still, I could feel the gradual cold of my back and the irregular tremor of my vocal cords. Each word was squeezed out of my throat with difficulty. In a moment, the word got stuck. Accompanied with that silence, I failed again.
Even though Sang did not immediately comment on my performance, I could sense his impatience and felt a bit frustrated and disappointed. Nevertheless, it was not an appropriate occasion to explain to him that this was my first time on-camera report and I totally had no experience. What I could do was to calm myself down and summon up my courage to bite the bullet for the third time.
Now, I forget how I got through that one minute in detail just as I forgot anything that would disturb me on the scene. As if thrown into a vacuum state, I did not realize that I had made it until the last word popped out my mouth. The only imperfection was an unnoticeable pause when I introduced the size of the hole. Nevertheless, I was totally relieved to have got it through.
At 10:30, on our way back to Chengdu, Sang mentioned my on-camera performance and gave me some advice. When I told him this was my debut, he stared at me with surprise and appreciation. It is an expression that I will remember forever.
As the mission turned from impossible to possible, my enthusiasm for journalism was rekindled.
ON THE WAY 