This has undoubtedly been the most exciting module of this course for me!
At the start of the semester, I was lucky to land myself with a Work Integrated Learning at RMIT Property Services as a Media and Communications Assistant. While I was enthusiastic about pursuing this, I had kept my windows open to more opportunities. While Patrick sent out an email to the entire class regarding a media internship in Suva, Fiji I sent in my application without having second thoughts. No sooner did I learn that I had been selected to take up this brilliant opportunity and jumped at it! Even though I accepted the offer, I was in a dilemma about how to turn down the WIL at RMIT Property Services as I did not want to burn bridges at the beginning of my career.
After much thinking, I informed my would be Supervisor at the WIL about my Fiji adventure and asked if i could join their team post my internship. She was more than happy for me to join their team and was delighted about my achievement. With a major load off my head, the other thing that worried me was that I would be able to deliver the responsibilities that the internship needed.
I packed my bags and took off to pursue my dream of filming in a foreign locale! Suva welcomed me with the warmest ‘Bula!’ I was lucky to work with the most hospitable people at Partners In Community Development Fiji (PCDF) a Non Profit Organisation that engaged in community development projects such as Education and Capacity Enhancement, Natural Resource Management, Health Improvement (HI), Institutional Development (ID). The NGO was in great need of a media producer who would help them showcase their work on the website. The existing website has photographs to showcase their community work but when it comes to approaching funding bodies, they didn’t have visual proof that would support their claims.
After working for the Indian television industry for two years, I realized that media doesn’t essentially have to take on a commercial aspect, one can apply their media skills for community development. It made me question the ‘reality’ in the reality shows that I had worked for.
In my two weeks of volunteering, I was assigned the task of interviewing and filming farmers benefitting from the Partnership in High Value Agriculture (PHVA) Project in the interiors of the Viti Levu island. Excited by this challenge, camera and tripod in tow, I set off for Nadarivatu, to experience and capture the ‘reality’. I boarded with a family of five, up in the mountains, with the closest town an hour away. I visited around 6 villages and settlements, some that were accessible only by horseback or foot. I interviewed farmers and asked them about their produce and the ways in which the PHVA scheme had benefited them. I was moved to meet a few women farmers who were the sole breadwinners of their family. Simple people with simple means of living, I had the most enriching experience interacting with them. They were happy to have been visited and spoken to, as none had even known about their existence. I was worried that I’d have issues in understanding their language, but Willie was a great support and translator who helped us engage in a fruitful conversation.
I returned to the PCDF office in Suva, enriched and happy with the footage and content filmed with the farmers in Nadarivatu. However, I had almost reached the end of my internship, and therefore didn’t have the appropriate time to create a video with the shot footage. However, I promised them that I would work on it during my holidays and help them upload the video on the world wide web.
When we think of Fiji, we think of crystal clear waters, sandy beaches and sun n tan. During my internship, I engaged with the soulful Fiji. I felt like a local, lived in a hostel with another girl Mary from Masters of Communications at RMIT who was also undertaking an internship but with a different organisation. The Indo – Fijians were delighted to meet a ‘real’ Indian from Mumbai and were curious about knowing about their native country. As I reached the end of my endeavour, I realised that I had grown too fond of the people I worked with, and the delicious food.
After accomplishing this media internship with PCDF, I indulged in retrospection about the fact of pursuing a career in media production for the purpose of community development or climate change. But the question of money arises when it comes to making these long term decisions. The satisfaction of work would be tremendous but that wouldn’t reflect in the money that I would earn.
And thus arises the question again – Why can’t we have it all?
Back in Melbourne, I re connected with my Supervisor, Alison at RMIT Property Services for the Work Integrated Learning and joined the team as a Media and Communications Assistant. I visit the office twice a week, and assist Alison in the formulation and delivery of the communications plan for RMIT Property Services. I have contributed my writing skills towards the e news bulletin and have contributed ideas towards sustainability projects that RMIT Property Services engages with.
I have also been assigned a project as my main area of focus for the rest of my WIL. I will have to come up with a communications plan for delivering an initiative on free tagging and testing electrical equipment i.e portable devices for student on campus during the Orientation Week coming up at the beginning of next semester. This is an interesting task as I will be coming with a concept, layout and deliverables plan for the initiative. Social media is going to play a significant role in promoting this project.
I’ve learnt quite an interesting mix of things from these two internships. While the Fiji internship gave me a hands on experience of working on field with video equipment, my WIL experience at RMIT has given me the chance to engage with a corporate setting and help me hone my writing and social media skills. These work placements have added to my pool of professional contacts.
I’d like to consider myself lucky, not forgetting the fact that I have been proactive in reaching to the opportunities offered to me and I’m thankful to RMIT to give me these chances of working towards being a media professional.
lalowe11 