The news makers meet - NIE

THE NEWS MAKERS MEET

Parth Tawde –Std. VII B

St. Joseph’s High School,

Wadala

14^th Jan 2013

                What is news? An editor once defined it as, "Anything that interests a large part of the community and has never been brought to its attention before." In other words, news is what people are talking about. News is new. To introduce us further into the nuances of news reporting, the Times of India group of newspapers, organized ‘the Newsmakers meet’ at Birla Mathoshri Sabhaghar, Fort on 8^th Jan 2013. Three students from St. Joseph’s High School, Wadala participated in this event that is an annual feature encouraging young budding journalists.

                Over 650 school students from all over Mumbai & Navi Mumbai were present for the event. We were asked to report at the venue by 9:00 am for the registration.  Once done, we were directed to the auditorium for the main event. We began with a quiz consisting of 25 questions that related mainly to the current events and issues published on NIE (students’ edition of TOI).  The questions were displayed on the screen, and we were to jot down the answers on the answer sheets provided to us.  The twenty fifth question in the form of picture of tennis ace Leander Paes as well as his upcoming movie poster initiated us into report – writing.  We were asked to write a report on Leander outlining his journey from sports to films.  The answers to the questions of the quiz, and the report would provide the criteria for the judges to select the top 30 students as the Star correspondents for the year.  These would also be provided the platform to cover the lead stories as well as interview some well known personalities. 

The honored chief guest for the day was the Chairman and Managing Director of Videocon company, Mr.  Venugopal Dhut.  All of us participants were excited to be in his company, and were thrilled to know that we would get an opportunity to ask him questions and interview him. Mr. Dhut was felicitated upon his arrival, and he addressed us students immediately thereafter.  It was then our turn to ask him questions, and though not all of us could interview him due to the time constraints – he was with us for about an hour – we were however inspired by his words.

It was time for all of us to leave too – not before we were treated to some refreshment and snacks – after having gathered loads of information in the field of journalism, report writing, and dissemination of news and information.