Reporters' day out on World Heritage Day

Can an email get the young reporters out in the Sun to capture the heritage of the city?

It does at YOCee. 

A few groups have planned heritage walks and bicycle rides in the city this week end to mark World Heritage Day. We thought the cub reporters would also love to do a round capturing images of places of interest and of those that have history behind them. And they picked up the idea and went around shooting places in their neighbouthood.

We have laid out all the photos we received in a photo gallery on the website.

It was good to see Dhurai A N, who writes often on sports came up with a panoramic image of the 400 year old Somanathaswamy temple in Kolathur this time.

A few reporters who are holidaying have also mailed pictures from wherever they are. Sandhya Varadharajan is now spending her vacation in Srirangam and she mailed a picture of the Chitra therottam (tem[ple car procession) at Srirangam.

Here is the photo gallery for you!

 

Student Reporter Programme for this year is now open

It was the Summer of 2007, YOCee launched its first Student Reporter Programme. But it was a big surprise for Team YOCee when we looked at our inbox and saw more than a hundred applications.

We had to restrict our focus on a small number to run the programme effectively. And we selected 25 students from various parts of the city, studying in different schools.

From then on, around three dozen children train in reporting and writing. The number now includes the new set of students applying for the programme every year and those who continue from the past years.

The exercise has been a very enjoyable experience for us. Along with the kids, we too learnt a lot in working in the field, especially when the reporters are young and still in schools.

We have just published the details and the online application form for this year's programme. As in the past, many query us if this is an ongoing or weekend course. And we repeat our answer, "No."
The programme encourages the young people to gather news and to come up with their own story ideas. We too sometimes, find and suggest news for them to report. We guide them on how to go about with these stories. When they file their reports, we try and get those unanswered questions and gaps in their reports by them. We do not want to just edit and publish.

One thing we are clear about is, we do not want to push and pressurise the children. Their interest in writing should not become a burden on them with too many things to do in their list.