MY Project Description and Process:
The COMM297R project I have been working on for this semester is to prepare myself to become a professional news anchor in China when I graduate from BYU-Idaho.
I spent an average of 8.5 hours every week on this project. On normal weeks, I usually spend 2-3 hours reading and organizing news and reports from five main Chinese newspapers; 2 hours working on my own scripts; 1 hour reviewing tips given by my mentor, practicing my voice and pronunciation; 2.5 hours recording for multiple times; 1 hour of a weekly zoom visit with my mentor.
I trained myself to not only be professional on message delivery, but to be smart on writing. I would write several scripts in Chinese on the top news that happened in China throughout the week. Then send them to my mentor for suggestions. Lastly, I would record myself reporting my best script of the week on a weekly basis. By the end of the semester, I have four videos of eight news recordings. By organizing news articles, writing scripts, practicing tones and pronunciations, learning skills from a professional TV anchor, shooting, and editing videos each week gave me a feel of being a professional anchor.
I would like to give special thanks to my amazing mentor, Zhang. Zhang is from Beijing, China. He attended Nanjing University, one of the top universities in China, between 2000 and 2004. He majored in Chinese language and literature. After graduating from college, he joined China Central Television (CCTV) and later became an anchor on the CCTV’s sub-channel. Now, Zhang has been working as a professional anchor for HuNan Television for almost 12 years now.
The Project: News Recordings Week 6-11
I started to record from week six. I have a total of four news recordings of eight news reports in eight weeks.
Challenges and Experience:
This project is to prepare me to become a host and anchor when I graduate. The final completed project will be put into my portfolio.
The project is a lot harder than I thought. I had a difficult time during week 7-10, trying to change my tones and learn a new but more professional way to deliver. I had to give up pride to start everything over again. However, I am grateful for my mentor. Zhang is very patient with me when teaching new skills. I am also grateful that I got out of my comfort zone and got into the habit of practicing professional pronunciations and tones for almost four days a week every week.
Furthermore, I would spend extra time reviewing my videos and the feedbacks given from my mentor often. Later, I was able to see the difference. I noticed my progression each week when I go through this hard but rewarding process. I improved my skills on how to write; how to deliver the news; how to become confident; and how to edit the videos this semester.
Communication Skills and Takeaways:
Written Communication: Sort and summary different news throughout the week. Convey ideas and information through the use of written language.
Oral Communication: Convey ideas and information through the use of spoken language.
I have improved my news writing skills and speaking/conducting skills through this project. I also gained more confident via going through the process of sorting – writing – correcting – learning – recording – editing every week. I became more and more familiar with this process overweeks.
The work went well overall. I have to say that this project is indeed a learning process for me. I learned so much in these past eight weeks working with my mentor on this project and preparing me for my future career.
I enjoy my weekly visit with my mentor on every Thursdays/Fridays. He provide specific feedback and always have high expectations on me. I would send all my practice videos over to him (usually around eight videos) and he would provide feedback and tips he has for me on each one of them. For example: “The eye contact is good on the first video but you need more facial expressions on the second one.” I really appreciate his work. He is such a great mentor and an easy person to work with.
I have been working hard this semester with my tones and pronunciations in professional level mandarin, also focusing on reading long and hard paragraphs naturally. My mentor said I have made huge progress on speaking in professional tones as well as delivering the message with confidence. It has been rewarding to hear my mentor said that I am making progress in every visit.
Video About Me and My Project