Adam Kuban: Reflection on the Fourth of July assignment

SUSI participants on the Fourth of July were tasked with a news report on Independence Day and this is a reflection of my experience. One of the worst things anyone can do with their work is to underestimate it. It was a mistake I unintentionally made and it had affected quality of work. Though I knew what I wanted my story to be on, I had to change it at the very last minute because of circumstances. This would not have been a problem if I had prepared a Plan B and had another angle with a different variety of questions. It is also important to gather more material than you think you need. That way, if anything goes wrong, there is always backup. Time management is something I learnt as well. We only arrived at Minnetrista around 8.30 pm and the sun was slowly setting. I made a mistake by choosing to gather audio before taking photos and this led to some grainy pictures.

I went and did the assignment without enough preparation but tried my best to use what I had. Interviewing strangers is still something that I have to be comfortable with and I realise that every assignment is a new assignment. Even though I have done some interviews before, I got nervous and found it challenging to approach potential interviewees. I managed to curb some of that fear by telling myself  "You gotta do what you gotta do." Overall, this was a humbling learning experience and the lessons learnt here will definitely be applicable to future assignments.