Timeline
2010 — The Starting Point
2010~2013 — Learning the Basics
2013~2016 — Professional Training
News Writing and Reporting
Multimedia Storytelling
Data Journalism and Visualisation
Social Media Operation
2017 — The Turning Point
2018~Present — Still Writing
2010 — The starting point
In my personal statement applying to the journalism school, I mentioned my belief that no story can be more powerful than the real ones of the ordinary lives. This belief holds still until now. In my freshman year in high school, I came across the book “Nothing to Envy” about the lives of the North Korean, written by Barbara Demick. I have enjoyed reading novels since I was a child, but it was the very first time I felt so strongly about the power of stories. Since then, I became an aspirant journalist dreaming of influencing the society with words.
2010~2013 — Learning the Basics
Throughout my high school years, I was actively preparing myself to become a journalist. As a student in literature, I write more frequently than most of my fellows. My outstanding performance in the subject earned me a seat in the editorial committee of a school-published collection of students’ writings. Meanwhile, I started to learn using photo-editing and typesetting software. I put these skills into practice while I was in charge of publication in the student union. That time was also the year when social media started to boom. I did not know much, but I was keen to learn it by doing it — promote our content and interact with the readers on social media. Even my very last activity in high school was related — the chief editor of the graduation album. My efforts eventually got me a place in the top journalism school in Taiwan.
2013~2016 — Professional Training
In the National Chengchi University (NCCU) of Taiwan, I learnt those fundamental theories and practices of journalism. I took courses in news reporting and writing, information gathering and analysis, news translation, news ethics, multimedia storytelling, and digital marketing. My learning also spanned to other disciplines, including philosophy and international studies, which I believe would be helpful for my future career. In addition to the coursework, I continued to be active in different school media. From time to time, I volunteered or freelanced for event reporting for school departments and business.
News Writing and Reporting
From September 2014 to June 2015, I grew as a student journalist from knowing nothing to knowing something. I was a reporter-editor in the NCCU University News, an officially registered weekly newspaper founded in 1993, but which history can be traced back to the early 1930s. The University News is run entirely by students, from editorial meetings, news production to the final publication.
For the first half of the academic year, I was responsible for producing weekly reporting in the beat of ‘leisure life’ and ‘international’. As a team member, I also contributed to in-depth stories regarding college students’ lives. In the latter half of the year, my duties were to conduct the fact-checking, editing, and typesetting of the paper.
Given the nature of my beat, I could interview people all around the world of all different profession. My interviewees include students, general citizens, event organizers, school officials and faculty members, as well as government officials. Interviews were conducted in person when possible, phone or email otherwise.
List of reporting published under NCCU University News
2 October 2014，接待家庭迎國際生 體驗生活共遊台
2 October 2014，性感海報惹議 韓女大學生會下禁令
9 October 2014，烤豬獵羊 野獸慶典籌經費
17 October 2014，韓大校慶揪市民 動物園伸展台秀創意
24 October 2014，三校合辦體驗營 手作魚菜共生盆栽
30 October 2014，肯大狂歡聖誕趴 熱氣球飛慶嘉年華
30 October 2014，料理實作解偏見 昆蟲巧入家常菜
8 November 2014，國際美容大賽 婚紗靚髮襯新妝
13 November 2014，街頭示威引動盪 孟生被迫停課延考
21 November 2014，麥田圈現形 南榮生造玉米迷宮
21 November 2014，警入校防集會 希臘生丟石爆衝突
28 November 2014，升學恐負債 英生上街 萬人力爭免費教育
28 November 2014，50萬人湧印大學 萬隆慶典藝同遊
19 December 2014，耶誕集愛 美男槲寄生下啾一個
25 December 2014，逃出獵人魔掌 玩家勇闖希臘神殿
25 December 2014，短片詮釋盲人想像 「感受」聖誕溫情
6 January 2015，廢木重生 〈動物之家〉展田野趣
Multimedia Storytelling
Since the second half of the academic year, I had more time to experiment with multimedia. Apart from daily editorial tasks, my fellow editors and I took turns to produce video news on current affairs. My work is listed below.
List of video news published under NCCU University News
15 March 2015，307護幼大遊行 反幼教財團化
1 May 2015，保生文化祭開鑼 家姓戲粉墨登台打頭陣
My earliest attempt at multimedia storytelling also happened during this period. When my teammates and I were planning a digital project, we wanted to add some interactive elements to it to increase readers’ engagement. Nowadays, Flash is no longer supported in many browsers and becoming obsolete. But at that time, the Flash format fitted our publication platform and was one of the few tools we could handle. Thus, we generated some interactive content with Flash.
Our project was about journalists. In Taiwan, front-line journalists are often criticized as ‘brainless’ for the sensationalism seen on commercial media. Many readers do not know much about one possible cause could be the conundrum for media to sustain viewership. With our series of six stories, we would like to shed light on the stories of conscientious and devoting journalists. These stories were composed of images, videos, (interactive) graphs, and even illustrations, game, and mini e-book to be more appealing. Each time when a story was released, we launched a small social media campaign that offers prize quizzes to attract more readers.
For instance, we built a game that requires players to identify ten influential Taiwanese financial personalities correctly. The photographer we interviewed told us that it was crucial for him to remember those financial personalities’ faces so that he would not miss. What he mentioned was indeed a counterexample of journalists ‘using their brains’. In our game, the profile of each figure follows as the player succeeds in a stage. In this way, readers can acquire information while engaging in the game.
List of work on the journalists’ stories project produced under NCCU University News
12 April 2015，凌晨三點半（一）：記者，寫不進報導裡的心聲
26 April 2015，凌晨三點半（二）：外派記者「尤」印度 勇闖當地探全貌
16 May 2015，凌晨三點半（三）：資質大考驗！你也能成為攝影記者嗎？
17 May 2015，凌晨三點半（四）：臨場應變拍攝 關鍵畫面見證歷史
7 June 2015，凌晨三點半（五）：突破職場男性導向 女攝影入行添新視角
14 June 2015，凌晨三點半（六）：數位轉型非唯一出路 小雜誌做出「紙」感
On top of the above, I continued to familiarise myself with more storytelling tools. During this period, I became skilled at using software for illustration and video editing, as well as the HTML and CSS languages. Notably, I was a founder member of the NCCU News Lab. With autonomy to plan our curriculum, I learnt about animations and data journalism in the News Lab. I might not be able to get the internship offer from CommonWealth Magazine, a top business media in Taiwan, without all these skills I gained.
News animation produced under the CommonWealth Magazine
31 August 2016，零安樂死將上路，台灣準備好了嗎？
Data Journalism and Visualisation
I produced most of my data-driven reporting during my internship at CommonWealth Magazine. At this stage, the lack of a researcher mind and computational skills had hindered me from formulating a proper, worth-investigating question and collecting data for it. As a result, stories produced in this period were more of visualisations of existing data. However, the fun I found in data journalism also led me digging deep into the study of data.
Data-driven story produced under NCCU News Lab
June 2016，後金馬時代：中港台風起雲湧的電影之戰
List of data-driven work produced under CommonWealth Magazine
11 July 2016，過去1年什麼漲價漲最多？
18 July 2016，你想幾歲生小孩？ 「高齡媽媽」比十年前多一倍
28 July 2016，一輛遊覽車，一年只賺25萬
July 2016，數字告訴你，誰有資格上台大？
9 August 2016，數據告訴你：新竹如何追過台北，成為全台最富？
16 August 2016，數據告訴你：咖啡店和飲料店誰賣得好？
August 2016，獨家解密：新南向在地智慧
Social Media Operation
Being busy with my work at NCCU University News did not stop me from being active in other school media. I led a small team managing a webzine on social media. The webzine was an internal, uncared school press in the Hong Kong and Macau student society at NCCU. No one was in charge of its publication for years until I took up the responsibility. My team successfully turned it to a welcoming page that connects more Hong Kong and Macau students in Taiwan, and all those who are interested in our culture. Our Facebook page attracted more than 4000 likes within months.
As mentioned earlier, I was also a founder member of the NCCU News Lab. Not only did we need to plan the curriculum and the budget, but we also had to ensure the lab could be kept running. During my service, I was involved in the recruitment and training of junior members. Besides, I was in charge of the website and equipment management. I took part in the editing of the style guide as well. This experience trained me to be a better team player in an organisation.
2017 — The Turning Point
After years of endeavour, I graduated one year early from NCCU and gave myself a gap year. I needed a break for introspection. On the one hand, I was still fascinated by data and all those booming technologies, like storytelling with VR/AR and AI-driven reporting, and eager to learn them. UI/UX design was also an exciting topic to learn about to provide user-oriented news service.
On the other hand, I have developed interests in research after receiving philosophy training. I witnessed how commercial news media struggle to fulfil its aim to serve as the watchdog of governments and the defender of the freedom of speech. The rise of social media, which once brought the hope of realization of intersubjective communication, has resulted in a consolidation of the power of capitalism in information diffusion, through data business and digital marketing. I doubted if continuing learning those technologies could lead to a way out.
Hence, I spent the year to read, to learn, and to prepare. I read the literature on media studies, philosophy, and social science to broaden my mind. I enrolled in both online and offline courses to learn about research methods, statistics, programming languages, and 3D modelling to strengthen my skills. All prepared me to get into my current MS program in culture technology at KAIST.
My goal was to understand the mechanism and logic of those disruptive technologies. But these days I am enjoying my time more than ever. Through research, I could utilize the knowledge and tools of different principles to approach the problems of journalism. This is why I believe that the ideal position for me to contribute to journalism is to be a researcher.
2018~Present — Still Writing
Although I have gradually shifted my focus to research, I still write for media when I have time and the chance. Since 2018, I have written interviews, featured stories, and columns for fashion magazines. I have a column at Crossing CW, a web media under CommonWealth Magazine. I also do copywriting and English/Korean-to-Chinese/Cantonese translation as a freelancer.
List of work published under Crossing CW
26 October 2018，南北韓文化交流更進一步──「南韓化」的電視台主播與驚人的動畫實力
30 December 2018，韓國的心臟（上）：從大田藝術雙年展，看見南韓的科研實力
2 January 2019，韓國的心臟（下）：「亞洲矽谷」大田的崛起之路
20 February 2019，韓國影集《天空之城》背後的教育悲歌（上）：寫實描繪升學之苦
21 February 2019，韓國影集《天空之城》背後的教育悲歌（下）：通往地獄朝鮮之路