Petaling Jaya:
Well there certainly was a feeling of anticipation in KDU College today for mass comm students who were in Rubin’s class.
Gathered this morning in a classroom they were waiting for a TV 3 news reporter for a mock interview. For those who tune into to the midnight news, Nightline
will know who Praevitriana Yuliawiratman is, a
newscaster for TV 3.
Triana wowed the crowd as she told the mass
comm. students that she was only in her early
thirties.Although she was not as tall as some of the
students in the class her accomplishments surpasses
her size ten fold. One would also never assume that
she would be a mother of a two year-old boy. For such
a petite figure one would seem to feel that she needed
to be held with care like a fragile box of breakable
glass. Truth be told she isn’t as fragile as glass nor
is she frail. She impresses the class further by
saying that she has done many television programmes
that involve business apart from her career in news reporting . Although she is a person of confidence, when she entered the classroom she had not
expected so many students to sit waiting eagerly to
meet and ask her questions about her job and
experiences. The humble but quiet news reporter
patiently answers each student one by one. She
politely laughs at certain questions where it involved
inquiries about whether she would change jobs if given
the chance.
It’s tough being a news reporter and mom at the same time. Despite her duties, which require a lot of attention and moving about, this does not stop her
from spending quality time with her child. She does
her jobs at night, which is about midnight when people
are, all cuddled in bed ,sitting in the living room
couch sipping tea or spending time with the family. It
seems as though she is some sort of super hero, news
reporter by night and mom by day. Now that’s one
family oriented woman. Aside from all the hustle and
bustle about in her daily routine, when she finds the
time to sit back and relax she likes nothing better
than to take her son out, window shopping, and
reading. She told the class rather sheepishly that if
she were to do another job it would have involved
being in a bookstore. It was very appropriate, as she
loves to read. Come what may she was comfortable with what she was doing. Mischievously she replies a
student that she wouldn’t mind “working for CNN or
BBC..” if given the chance to do so. She reports for
Bulletin Utama as well aside from Nightline. After
discovering that she covers these two news slots some
spoke about wanting to catch her on TV to see how she
presented. Rubin has told us that she is confident
and comfortable when she is in front of the camera.
Even if she sometimes prefer to produce instead of
being the presenter. “It’s a lot fun to produce
programs because it is more challenging.” In which in
addition her credibility pursues her to have hosted
business programmes like Money Matters, which is now being replaced with ‘ The Exchange.’
Although she has accomplished much, just like life
she faces problems just like any one else. She recalls
a time when she was doing a live crossover on TV and
did not realise she was on cue, or when she had to
interview a mother and instead spoke to someone else
because the guest had not made it. If that was all
think again, she has to interview people as well. “
The hardest part of interviewing people is the way
they answer. I remember when I had to ask this guest
in ‘Money Matters’ and I would get is ‘ maybe, yes or
no’s. She smiled and added that she had to keep
prompting the man to elaborate on his respond. In any
industry it is always wise to have good relationships
with the people inside the office.
Her education started off in Bukit Bintang girl
school, she took mass communications and graduated
from the University of Missouri USA. She has had the
opportunity of working with the likes of Kelvin Ong,
Suhaimi, Zalina Azman and Tengku Elida Bustaman who are well known news anchors of TV 3 a local Malaysian channel. She said that she has learned a lot from them. “I prefer to read in English than Malay”. She advices budding journalists “Always bring a dictionary whenever you go to the studio.” When asked why, she replied, “ You’ll never know when you have trouble pronouncing a particular word. Sometimes when you think you know how to say it, it’s wrong and you have to look it up to say it properly.”
There were no surprises here when she mentioned that she was a senior in the newsroom. Something the charming news reporter mentioned reminded a student of a Lat cartoon strip about a man who came into the newsroom wearing a sarong but wore a shirt and tie as a top attire. He sat on the desk and started to report his news. This was later proved true when Triana mentioned that most news host would come in what they wore but changed their tops because once they sat no one would be able to see if they were wearing khaki pants, shorts or Malay attire. “Some women news casters come in wearing ‘ baju Melayu’ and some would wear jeans. This was how it was, people come in with what they wear.” The dresser, Triana says does not let new comers walk all over them. But he gives way to the seniors when it comes to wardrobe selections.
Needless to say she advised students who were
interested in journalism that experience mattered as
well as qualifications. She also said ” that appearance
is a gamble when applying for the job , because if the
boss doesn’t like you then no matter how good you are,you still won’t get the job.” Not bad for the life of
a journalist. Though it is a challenging job, no doubt
she will remain strong and passionate about her job,
delivering news to people at her best.
cheese it! 