Something New.

In a recent interview on 93.3FM, Dong Shu Hua has enlightened me of her job as a news presenter. I always think that news presenter is very ATAS and their job is very tough, noble and prestigious. Indeed, it is. They are of no difference off-screen which I reckoned. However, comedy featuring news presenter wearing shorts is true! She said that they usually do not turn up full dressed like an OL during weekends. (But properly dressed on weekdays as there might be client visits) The guys could be wearing shorts and slippers but what you see on TV is the smartly dressed male presenter. I can imagine what I would see if the camera is to focus from far - Slippers and shorts under the table. Haha. It will be very amusing.

She also mentioned that news presenters were not allowed to endorse any products. The reason behind: If something happened to the product, like slim10, they would not be in an objective position to present that piece of news to the audience. That news presenter would lose the credibility.This is something really new, which I never knew. But they are losing money because of this. (I say this. LOL) It's true what, I think endorsing a product fetches big bucks!

Speaking about the criteria to become a news presenter, she said the main thing was of course to have a good grasp of the language. Looking pretty and pleasant would be a plus point. The way to step in to become a news presenter will be to take a mass communication degree and then wait for them to open up for recruitment. However, she went in with a major in maths. Then again, she added, in her days, it was less stringent when they recruited news presenters. However, she had to climb up the ladder by starting as a journalist whereas her seniors went in straight to become a news presenter.

Obviously for a news presenter, there were many challenges they faced. One of which was sudden circumstances which caught them by surprise. They wore a ear piece on the right ear to take instructions from the control room. In the event of any unforseen circumtances, she had to repeat line by line what the person at the other end said. And she said that the control room was very chaotic but she went on to emphasize that it was only sometimes chaotic. She said her boss might kill her had she failed to emphasize on it. Haha.

And when asked about how she dealt with funny piceces of news, she said she must be professional and always looked normal. She obviously did. That's because there was once when I was watching 狮城六点半, I heard her end off with, "谢谢收看， 我们是董淑华.” I was the one laughing, she sill looked very normal.