It was actually a privilege for me to be a participant in the 2015 APJC Fellowship. It is an exciting experience. I must say I was a bit nervous during the first few days as I didn’t know how I would react and respond to the new environment, the people and my fellow participants as well. But I appreciate the fact that the fellows were able to open up and share their experiences and knowledge even given the cultural and communication barriers.

I also appreciate the fact that our guests and facilitators were very patient and I very much appreciate the time they have to share with us their knowledge and experiences. Personally all the sessions were very enlightening. I’m glad I am a participant of this year’s fellowship.

I owe it to my bosses for having that confidence and trust in nominating me and of course, I’m personally grateful for the Australian government for funding such a programme.

I’m sure whatever I learnt during my 5 weeks here in Australia will go a long way with me as an individual, for the company I’m working for and for my country as a whole.

Thank you APJC for the experience!

Shirley during tour around Melbourne city first day after arrival for 2015 fellowship

Melbourne’s is a second big city in Australia and  population is made up of people from all over the world. Around 140 cultures are represented, from Victoria’s original Indigenous inhabitants to more recent migrants from Asia and Africa.

On may 2, 2015 I arrived in Melbourne for the first time.  I  came here to attend one month training here supported  by Asian  Pacific Journalism Center.

when arrived in Melbourne i live in Quest  apartment with two friends, one from Solomon Island and one from Papua new Guinea in one room.

The first day i was little confused, I didn’t know how to communicate which two friends because  my English was not so good,   but i try to spoke to made a good friends whit them.

even i have visit  another  country but very difficult for me when in Melbourne because everything  organized and also in Melbourne is a first time to me to came alone.

the weather in Melbourne also very very different from Timor-Leste because very very could every day.

The first   week here we learn about  Leadership, I think this lesson is very important for us to prepare for the feature if we become a leader.

Two instructor Dolores Cummins and Barbara Baike give us a lot of experience and skills about how to become a good leader.

Those eyes, fixed on the computer screens wanting to discover more in the cold weather of the Australia’s most livable city, Melbourne .

These are the members of a vibrant team of young journalist from Asia and the Pacific.

The participants are currently attending a five weeks course of Journalism Course in Australia. I am one of them. So much I have learnt , much more to discover.

Time flies very quickly here. Our two first week are over and you could feel the load of ‘information’ swirling in your head.

Coming from a small country with a small media, each day is educational.

I am looking forward to learn more in the next three weeks. I’ve had remind myself not to sleep a lot but enjoy Melbourne.

Participants of The APJC Training

Hi, I’m Mark Kayok and I’m one of the 17 journalists  participating in the Asia Pacific Journalism Center (APJC) Fellowship Program.

I’m glad to be participating in the group and I have actually absorbed a lot of information over the last couple of days.

APJC is basically about bringing together media personnel in particular journalists from the Asia Pacific Region together and teaching them new knowledge and skills on how to become drivers of change through their profession within their respective media organizations.

More in particular, APJC focus and emphasis on issues affecting women and how women can contribute as agents of change in the development of a country’s economy and through various other development aspects as well.

There are lots of things I Iearnt but the most important thing that inspires me the most is to really know what my values are and for others as well in order to create and strengthen a healthy relationship and to build a conducive working environment for all within my organization.

I also find that under leadership, the Components of Emotional Interlligence especially anger management is crucial in my organization and which is obviously missing from the work place.

I also realized that more needs to be done in terms of reporting about gender equality and empowering women to have a voice and stand up in societies and communities.

In fact back in PNG less prominence or little attention is being given to issues affecting women and frankly, there’s less reporting on issues affecting women.

Technology is another important tool I find is more applicable to my profession.

As a Televison and Radio Journalist, the different types of social media starting from tweeter to instergram, buzzfeed and facebook among others are very important to effectively deliver news and information to the audience.

However the major obsticle in using these apps is the accessibility to the use of internet back in my country.

Hence I’d like to see this is improved in my organization through improved reporting and more program content developed to empower women.

Apart from the APJC Fellowship, Melbourne is the most liveable city to live in but for me its just the cold weather that’s giving me a hard time.

But I hope to overcome the freezing nights and the coldness that’s been bothering me over the last couple of days.

BY GARY HATIGEVA

Melbourne a more far-reaching change from my city in my home country: Solomon Islands.

Me loving my experience here in Melbourne, Australia

The weirdest part of my trip to Australia is that I get to cook my own breakfast and dinner 🙂

Although it did feel like an adventure, coming from Solomon Islands to Australia was quite overwhelming and scary. I did feel homesick but with my busy schedule in training under the program I came, I come to fall in love with the culture and I’ve been enjoying all the differences. Although the sun is bright but not hot as it is in my home country, the clean air, reliable and efficient transportation system, friendly people, no rubbish and no holes on the streets, four seasons and cheap coffee everywhere, what more could I ask for? However, living without immediate family support could be hard at times, especially when laundry is mounting up, when its breakfast or dinner time because the very people whom we’d share cooking together or in most case cook and prepare meals are all back home in Solomon Islands.

Coming from very different backgrounds and cultures, but as a media family, with one goal, to learn…

Despite the tough though cold weather, I still think it is a great opportunity and privilege to come and do training in Australia, which is all thanks to the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre Fellowship where I get to learn a lot of new things in such a small period. As someone who has been accepted to train in a lot of media trainings, multimedia for that matter, but with the APJC Fellowship training, I also like the fact that they it equips me with more tools that I know for sure will help and enhance my knowledge of how I work around issues, using social media. It is also great making new friends with people from different backgrounds and trying my best to learn different languages.

One of our very helpful and active instructors on Social Media at the APJC Fellowship, Renee Barnes

I also love the fact that I’m in a place where different opinions are all heard and respected, where physical and verbal violence is not a way of disagreeing, and it’s awesome how all the possibilities and opportunities are just on the plate.  The funny thing is, I am not using all of the multimedia tools and social network avenues back in the Solomon Islands, particularly for the News Agency that I currently am working for, but I am hoping that I can go back and push to have all of what I have learnt put in to practice J

After all, I think we should really enjoy the experience of studying and training here in Melbourne, even though most of us are facing difficult times with the weather. As tough as they may be (parts of the fellowship training), ahead of us is knowledge and skills obtained, but all in all, being here in Melbourne has been a terrific experience for me 😉

A spectacular view of the Melbourne City from my room. Melbourne in my experience is a city that never sleeps…

And If I’m given an opportunity to come back and work in Australia, I will choose Melbourne City or at least somewhere closer to Melbourne City… 😀

This training not only encourages us journalists to overcome various challenges we face in the media field, it also shaped us with new skills and knowledge that really requires in the media especially with the modern technology.

The leadership training on the first week was an inspiring and a very powerful one. I’ve come to understand three leadership styles (democratic, autocratic, leizzes -fair) which are all applicable to media task depending on the situation and time and the importance to use the right words for the right people. Knowing your your value and understanding other people’s values and respect them will help you to continue communication with understanding of the message distributed in each news item published or broadcast on radio and television.

The public also need to have a better understanding of the government budget. Media role as toe inform and educate – should be able to clearly identify the where and why for example a large amount of money allocated to the health division while a reduction shows in the education department. If there’s an introduction of a new taxation system, media should be able to explain that taxation clearly. I found he economic and financial reporting part of the training very helpful. Its a good freshen up and fruitful training for all of us participants. It reminds us journalists, that we should be well equipped with methods of covering financial and economic issues in the country and make sure that we feed the people with factual and accurate information especially when it comes to government budget.

The above audio attached, is an interview of one participant from Timor Leste, Tonga and Indonesia about their experience of the training. It shows how much experience they have l so far on the first 2 weeks of the fellowship training.

The introduction of mobile journalism and social media symbolizes how APJC Fellowship takes us Pacific and Asian countries to modern technology as both regions need to keep up with the time.

It shows us different and fastest ways of telling a story and collecting information using the latest global technology BUT to get things right and to verify information and sources on social media is another big challenge that we, journalists should be taking into account as we walk in different paths of distributing information.

It is always good to be true, to be first one to break the news but at the same time, the emphasis of the mobile journalism session is to make sure that you VERIFY and get your facts RIGHT.

Thanks APJC for such fruitful, in fact very helpful training – it encourages us to improve our performance and make a change when we all return home to our respective countries for the betterment f our own people and our own country.

APJC fellowship 2015 participants

Participants of The APJC Training

It’s been two weeks since i have been in Melbourne Australia. With 16 Fellows from Indonesia, Timor Leste and Pasific; i am attending a journalism training about women, media and economy literacy at Asia Pasific Journalism Center (APJC). I’m so interested with every session of the training, particulary about  women’s views and opinions on the media. As journalist or audience, sometimes we didn’t look at the gender equality of what is in the media. In this training, we learned how to see the women’s views and opinions on the media in Australia and we find that man dominate the media. Most of the sources in media are men. It means that most of problem that appear on the media is men’s views even when it’s about women’s Issues or issues that are closer to women. As Journalist we have the power to change it by starting to give attention  to women’s views and opinions in our story and report for the media.

I’m not a journalist. I’m a writer and filmmaker. All of these knowledge help me to be a better writer and filmmaker particulary to involve women’s issue on my work.

In this training, we also learn how to empower ourselves and how to use social media for our work as a journalist.

My experience here in Melbourne, VIC, Australia has actually been very enjoyable and I have learnt so much from these few weeks of the fellowship so far.

The first week of the fellowship has been very interesting and I have enjoyed what leadership Experts Barbara Baikie and Dolores Cummins have shared with us.

I have also been so inspired by Barbara and Dolores and so much admiration of their skills on Leadership enhancing and the book they have written – ‘Altitude’.

Dolores Cummins (Right) and Barbara Baikie (Left)

The second week of has also been very interesting and I have learnt so much from sessions Nigel McCarthy a Senior Journalist (Business Journalism Instructor) has had with us. I now have a lot of understanding on how to go about Economic/Finance/Business News.

Nigel McCarthy (Second From LEFT)

I have also had so much fun with Lisa Gye, Renee Barnes and Tito Ambyo through our Digital Journalism sessions and I have gained so many ways of getting to use digital media as an essential tool as a Journalist.

Renee Barnes

Lisa Gye

Tito Ambyo

HERE ARE SOME OF THE FUN STUFF WE HAVE LEARNT through our Digital Journalism Sessions

• I have learnt how to use audio applications that let me edit and upload recordings to SoundCloud through Trials such as the one I have put up here.

• I have also learnt how to use an application called KineMaster that lets me take videos and overlays and editing them on a phone before uploading to YouTube.

I have learnt so much so far, and I very much appreciate all the amount of expertise and help that has been given to us, and i look forward to learning so much more toward enhancing my skills as a very young Journalist from a Developing country in the Pacific – Solomon Islands.

I have compiled many summaries of each daily session and will definitely use them as future references and take back what I have learnt back home as well.

We still have a couple of weeks to go and I am again very much looking forward to meeting more Experts and Instructors in the coming weeks.