Since I was little I always said that I wanted to be a news reporter. I never figured out what motivated me to be a news reporter until I turned 22. In 2011 Thailand faced terrible flooding. I was one of the flood victims. The level of water came up above my waist, surrounding my house, disconnecting my family and I from everything except the media. We spent most of our time getting updates about the water level and flood evacuation from the TV. The memory of the whole family getting together in our little living room and watching TV together reminds me of how much my life relates to the media.
I grew up in a family that always watched soap operas, commercials, news and even parliament debates on TV while having dessert after dinner. I was really impressed that TV could always get our attention and provide us with information. I thought that working in news reporting was a very cool job. I wanted to do this cool job too.
Fortunately, I was selected to be a news reporter for iTV channel and reported kids’ news on Children’s Day when I was twelve. Being a kids’ news reporter not only gave me a good experience, but also encouraged me to try other kinds of media.
When I was in high school, I volunteered to work as a DJ at a local radio station. They provided me with an hour from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Thursdays to entertain the audience with music and useful information. With guidance and advice from my teachers, I chose the topics and wrote the scripts every week. Mostly, my topics were about historical places and upcoming events in our community. Sometimes, listeners called in to the station to share their views on the topic.
After that, my interest expanded to the international level when I was an exchange student in Ohio, U.S. for a year. I met people from all over the world and I wanted to know more about them, so I officially introduced myself to a new kind of media that easily connected me to the world – the Internet.
I started surfing Net for news. I found out that it was the easiest way for me. Moreover, I decided to apply for a journalism class with my host father’s office, American Electric Power, on Take Your Child to Work Day in order to learn more about published media. A year later, I published my first article, ‘One Year in America’, in my high school magazine in Thailand. The article was about my great experience and what I gained from being an exchange student. In fact, I was the first student in my school to pass the selection test and receive the full scholarship to be a foreign exchange student; therefore, the article was meant to inspire other students in my high school to see the advantage of studying foreign language and culture.
About three months after the magazine was published, two students in the junior year received scholarships to be exchange students in Peru and Chile. They later told me that my article had inspired them to apply.
These days, I am volunteer on the Youth Advisory Panel with the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), working on the issues related to youth and UNFPA’s policy. I have to use the media as my source of information and communication. I also have the chance to help them produce some media in order to promote and advocate reproductive heath, human rights and gender equality.
Besides volunteering with UNFPA, I work for the American Embassy of Bangkok in the Commercial Service Unit. It is not related to my original dream of being a news reporter, but it is still related to the media. My job is about matching and providing trade information for American and Thai businesses in order to support U.S. exportation. I have to follow the news on TV and publish media every day to keep up with the international situation. I use online media as a tool to find the companies’ backgrounds and produce promotional materials like roll-up prints and announcement posters.
Today, the answer I give about my future career might not be the same as before due to job opportunity; however, my dream is still the same – ‘I want to be a news reporter’. All I can do so far is to practise reading critically, write efficiently and using media equipment dexterously. Whether my dream will comes true or not my purpose of working is still the same – to work for people with news, media, and truth.
